China And the Far East

n the two nations has been conducted under the guarantee of a series of treaties beginning with that of 1844, which contains the following declaration: " Citizens of the United States resorting to China for the purposes of commerce shall in no case be subject to other or higher duties than are or shall be required of the people of any other nation whatever . . . and if additional advantages and privileges of whatever description be conceded hereafter by China to any other nation, the United States and the citizens thereof shall be entitled to a complete, equal and impartial participation in the same." Under the treaty of 1858, concluded at Tientsin, the most favored nation clause is still more emphatically stated, as follows: " The contracting parties hereby agree that should at any time Ta-Tsing Empire (the phrase used in the treaties to describe China) grant to any nation, or the merchants or citizens of any nation, any right, privilege or favor connected either with navigation, commerce, political or other intercourse which is not conferred by this treaty, such right, privilege and favor shall at once freely inure to the benefit of the United States, its public officers, merchants and citizens." It was in the later sixties that William H.Seward made his celebrated prophecy that " the Pacific Ocean, its shores, its islands and the vast regions beyond, will become the chief theater of events in the world's great hereafter." The ancient world grew around the Medit... --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.