his position forced him to buy peace on almost any terms. We have
exacted from him what is at variance with the fixed Chinese policy of
ages. The more he, by and by, reflects upon it, in the absence of our
awe-inspiring military and naval forces, the more galling and
intolerable will become the contemplation of what he has been compelled
to concede and sacrifice. Who knows what artful falsehoods may not be
perseveringly poured into his ear, day after day, month after month,
year after year, to our disadvantage and disparagement in his
estimation? He may not dare, perhaps, to resort to open hostility,
directly to provoke our tremendous vengeance; but those best acquainted
with China, know what countless facilities exist for his doing
indirectly what he dares not, or may choose not, to do openly. We are
not without fear, from our knowledge of the Chinese character, and of
their long-established mode of procedure, that every chicane and evasion
will be resorted to, in order to neutralize and nullify, as far as
possible, the commercial advantages which we have, at the cannon's
mouth, extorted from them. A great deal, at all events, will depend on
the skill, firmness, and vigilance, of the consuls to be appointed at
the five opened ports of China. We rely, also, greatly on the
unquestionable eagerness of the _Chinese_ people to enter into trading
relations with us. The Emperor, however, and those by whose counsels he
is guided, are Tartars, between whom and the Chinese there is a
long-cherished and bitter hostility, which may eventually operate in our
favour. Adverting, for a moment, to the proceedings of Sir Henry
Pottinger, we feel very great doubt, indeed, whether our forces should
not, either with or without the consent of the Chinese, have gone on to
Pekin, and insisted on the negotiations being carried on _there_. What a
prodigious effect would not thereby have been produced, not only on the
mind of the Emperor, but of the whole nation! The painful but salutary
truth of their own weakness, and our power, would have been thus