officers who have presided in the court have been deputed by the provincial authorities, and whatever may have been their grade they have not possessed the authority which an imperial commission and seal would have conferred.

Your Imperial Highness and your excellencies will be able to determine with greater certainty than ourselves the extent of the disability thus imposed upon the magistrate of the foreign settlements court. It is represented to us, however, that the magistrate is sometimes unable, in consequence of this disability, to secure the arrest of offenders and to enforce the attendance of defendants in civil matters and of witnesses. It is said even that sometimes the magistrate is unable or afraid to enforce the execution of his own judgments.

Your Imperial Highness and your excellencies will doubtless agree with the undersigned that the failures of the court so indicated are very grave indeed, that they are in fact of fundamental importance, and that the remedy should be applied as soon as possible.

The undersigned are aware that there may be administrative difficulties in the way of granting an imperial commission to the magistrate, but they are confident that your government will be disposed to remove these when you remember the vast importance of the international interests which center at Shanghai, and the annoyances which result when complaints and reclamations are made here.

The undersigned are informed further that the magistrate is not well provided for, that the support of the establishment is a direct charge upon an allowance made to him in gross, and that in particular the prison attached to the court is insufficient in size and otherwise defective.

The undersigned are prepared to believe that the matter of the manner in which the given officer is compensated and his necessary outlays met, is one upon which there may possibly exist some misconceptions, and to admit that they concern more immediately your own system of administration. It seems unnecessary for them to go further in this connection, then, than to say that they are strongly of opinion that the magistrate should receive a stated stipend; that the clerks and bailifts attached to the office should receive their pay in the same way, but independently of the magistrate, and that allowances for the other expenses of the Yamên, including the prison, should be determined in view of actual necessities and paid upon accounts rendered.

The defects of the prison call, however, for further remark. It results naturally from its insufficient size that it is defective from a sanitary point of view. It is true, moreover, that it is not well devised, and that even when there are but a few prisoners to be cared for, their condition is such that many fall ill and have to be released. It happens in this way that some persons escape due punishment, while others suffer consequences from their imprisonment far more grave than their offenses would call

for.

Imprisonment, again, is frequently used to force the payment of judgments given by the court. The defective condition of the prison makes a further hardship then, not only as respects prisoners, but also as respects creditors. For it happens very often that judgment-debtors fall ill, whether as a result of the badness of the prison or of drugs taken, and are released; thus securing at one and the same time freedom from arrest and the opportunity to still further avoid their just obligations.

There is, moreover, no perfect segregation of prisoners, and they can be communicated with at all times by persons not connected with the Yamên, and for any purpose, The third matter which calls for attention is the provision of the rules under which graver criminal cases are referred to the district magistrate. It is not understood why such reference would be necessary or desirable if the magistrate of the foreign settlements court should be clothed with the proper authority of a sub-prefect, for his rank would then be superior to that of the district magistrate. But, however this may be, great inconvenience has been found to attend such references. The Yamên of the district magistrate is in the native city at a considerable distance from the settlements.

The incumbents of that office have many important duties and functions of their own; they are changed frequently in the usual course of official employment, and they are not often acquainted with the peculiar matters which arise in foreign intercourse. It happens, moreover, for whatever reasons, that the district magistrates assume to judge cases in which foreigners are concerned in their absence, in the absence of their witnesses, and without communication with the consular officer concerned. The result is the miscarriage of justice and the encouragement of crime.

The undersigned desire, then, to express the hope that the rules will be so amended as to do away with such references to the district magistrate, or, if there be administrative difficulties of such a sort as to render this impossible, that the magistrate be directed to hear all cases in which foreigners are concerned in concert with his colleague, the magistrate of the foreign settlements court, at the Yamên of the latter, and in the manner prescribed by the rules for the trial of cases when the latter sits alone.

In submitting their views to Your Imperial Highness and your excellencies the undersigned desire to remark further that they recognize fully the difficulties which attend the administration of justice in all countries, and the necessary divergencies

between systems adopted by each in view of peculiar wants and circumstances. It is the earnest hope that further consideration of the whole question of judicial relief. as between foreigners and natives will lead to results mutually satisfactory to China and to foreign states, and to that more perfect harmony in the progress of relations which all desire.

The present communication has reference only to the foreign settlements court at Shanghai. There are other questions relating to judicial relief and embracing all the ports to which the undersigned may hereafter call your attention.

The undersigned avail of this opportunity to renew to Your Imperial Highness and your excellencies the expression of their high consideration.

No. 510.]

No. 134.

Mr. Seward to Mr. Evarts.

LEGATION OF THE UNITED STATES,

Peking, November 21, 1879. (Received January 7.) SIR: Recurring to my dispatches numbers 482 and 499, I have now the honor to transmit to you certain papers, as follows, which exhibit the action of the foreign representatives at this capital, in conference assembled, in regard to commercial grievances:

1st. A note verbal submitted to the conference by the German minister.

2d. A protocol signed by all the representatives.

3d. The statement of grievances referred to in the protocol.

4th. A note to the foreign office transmitting the statement of griev

ances.

In this connection I hand to you, also:

5th. A general introductory note mentioning the fact that the foreign representatives had been in conference, and their intention to address themselves to the foreign office in regard to the three questions, trade, justice, and intercourse, which they have had under consideration.

In reporting to you, regarding trading questions, I cannot do better than to state, at the outset, the interpretation of the treaties to which the greater number of representatives adhere; the provisions of the Chefoo Convention, showing an adjustment of certain difficulties arising in the course of trade, proposed by the British minister, but not ratified as yet by his government; and, lastly, the views of the Chinese Government as set forth in a circular letter addressed to Chinese ministers abroad in March of last year.

1st. The intent of the treaties as generally read.

After the Chefoo Convention was made in the summer of 1876, the foreign representatives then present here, the English minister of course excepted, concluded to address their several governments setting forth the unsatisfactory nature of the adjustment of trading questions proposed in the convention. My own advices on the subject will be found more particularly in my dispatch No. 177, dated December 5, 1876. With that dispatch I transmitted to the Department a protocol signed by my colleagues of Russia, Germany, Spain, and France, and myself, a large part of which is devoted to the subject now in hand. I quote from the protocol, to indicate the views held by the representatives named, as follows:

The stipulations of the treaties, regarding of course the most favorable stipulations of the several treaties as applying to all of the foreign powers, may be summarized thus: Imports, on which the import duty has been paid, can be sent inland without being

subjected to any other tax than the transit duties, which may be levied according to the tariff in force at the conclusion of the given treaty (practically the earliest treaty), and may not be raised in future.

On native produce, transported from the interior to an open port, or on imports sent inland, these transit duties may be discharged by one payment.

The amount of such payment has been fixed, for imports sent inland and for produce bought in the interior by a foreigner for exportation, at one-half the import or export tariff duty.

In the case of imports the rights and privileges granted by the treaties attached to the goods themselves, and not to the person of the proprietor, whose nationality is of no importance.

All other taxes, lekin included, must be considered illegal.

2d. The proposals of the Chefoo Convention.

These are contained in Section III of the convention, and are as follows:

I. With reference to the area within which, according to the treaties in force, lekin ought not to be collected on foreign goods at the open ports, Sir Thomas Wade agrees to move his government to allow the ground rented by foreigners (the so-called concessions) at the different ports to be regarded as the area of exemption from lekin; and the Government of China will thereupon allow I Chăng in the province of HuPei Wu-Hu, in Au Hui, Wen-chow in Che Kiang, and Pei-Hai (Pah-hoi) in Kwangtung to be added to the number of ports open to trade, and to become consular stations. The British Government will further be free to send officers to reside at Chung King to watch the condition of British trade in Sze-Chuen. British merchants will not bə allowed to reside at Chung King, or to open establishments or warehouses there, so long as po steamers have access to the port; when steamers have succeeded in ascending the river so far, further arrangements can be taken into consideration.

It is further proposed as a measure of compromise that at certain points on the shore of the great river, namely, Ta Tung and Ngan-Ching in the province of Au Hui; HuKouw in Kiang-Si; Wu-sueh, Lu-chi-kow, and Sha-shih in Hu-Kuang, these being all places of trade in the interior, at which, as they are not open ports, foreign merchants are not legally authorized to land or ship goods, steamers shall be allowed to touch for the purpose of landing or shipping passengers or goods; but in all instances by. means of native boats only, and subject to the regulations in force affecting native trade.

Produce accompanied by a half-duty certificate may be shipped at such points by the steamers, but may not be landed by them for sale, and at all such points, except in the case of imports accompanied by a transit-duty certificate, or exports similarly certified, which will be severally passed free of lekin on 'exhibition of such certificates, lekin will be collected on all goods whatever by the native authorities. Foreign merchants will not be authorized to reside or open houses of business or warehouses at the places enumerated as ports of call.

II. At all ports open to trade, whether by earlier or later agreement, at which no settlement area has been previously defined, it will be the duty of the British consul, acting in concert with his collegues the consuls of other powers, to come to an understanding with the local authorities regarding the definition of the foreign settlement

area.

III. On opium Sir Thomas Wade will move his government to sanction an arrangement different from that affecting other imports. British merchants when opium is brought into port will be obliged to have it taken cognizance of by the customs, and deposited in bond, either in a warehouse or a receiving hulk, until such time as there is a sale for it. The importer will then pay the tariff duty upon it, and the purchasers the lekin, in order to the prevention of the evasion of the duty. The amount of lekin to be collected will be decided by the different provincial governments according to the circumstances of each.

IV. The Chinese Government agrees that transit-duty certificates shall be framed under one rule at all ports, no difference being made in the conditions set forth therein, and that so far as imports are concerned the nationality of the person possessing and carrying these is immaterial. Native produce carried from an inland center to a port of shipment, if bona fide intended for shipment to a foreign port, may be by treaty certificated by the British subject interested, and exempted by payment of the halfduty from all charges demanded upon it en route. If produce be not the property of a British subject, or is being carried to a port not for exportation, it is not entitled to the exemption that would be secured it by the exhibition of a transit-duty certificate. The British minister is prepared to agree with the Tsung-li Yamên upon rules that will secure the Chinese Government against abuse of the privilege as affecting produce. The word nei ti, “inland,” in the clause of Article VII of the rules appended to the tariff regarding carriage of imports inland and of native produe purchased inland apply as much to places on the sea-coast and river shores as to places in the interio

not open to foreign trade, the Chinese Government having the right to make arrangements for the prevention of abuses thereat.

Upon these proposals the foreign representatives of 1876 remarked, in the protocol already quoted from, as follows:

The right of the Chinese Government to levy lekin taxes is thus formally recognized. From the operation of the rule, are to be excepted only the so-called foreign concessions, i. e. (with the exception of that of Shanghai, within which a certain number of Chinese live, and which may be considered as possessing a local consumption of its own), the small area ocenpied exclusively by foreigners, and, for certain ports, hardly more than the houses inhabited by them.

The transit-pass system, moreover, is rendered less secure. This will be understood when it is remembered that the transit charge (half-tariff charge) is properly a commutation of the transit dues, and that the treaties expressly denounce as illegal the collection of any other dues on foreign goods or foreign-owned native produce. If the right to buy lekin taxes is admitted, they may be imposed on goods and produce without regard to transit passes (that is to say, on goods and produce which have already paid the commutation charges as well as upon those which have not).

While no advantage has been obtained by the Chefoo convention with respect to the complaints against the levy of illegal taxes, an approval of its stipulations would prove injurious to trade, and would deprive foreign powers of the right to protest against unfair taxation; by such approval they would, on the contrary, bind themselves to recognize the unlimited imposition of lekin by the Chinese Government.

3d. The position of the Chinese Government.

This is given in the circular of 1878, a copy of which was transmitted to the Department from Shanghai a few weeks since, and an additional copy of which will be found herewith.

We hold that by the treaties foreigners—

a. May import foreign goods into China on payment of the tariff duty.

b. May convey duty-paid foreign goods into the interior, and either, as Chinese merchants do, pay duties at each custom-house, and taxes at each barrier passed, or by payment of the tariff transit due, may free their goods from such duties and taxes, en route to any places, however distant, named by them, and entered in their transit certificates.

c. May purchase native produce in the interior, and, if intended for foreign export, and supplied with transit certificates, may bring it to a treaty port exempt along the route from all duties and taxes, it being merely charged the commutation half-tariff transit due at the barrier nearest the port. If not provided with transit certificates, such produce has to pay all duties to which it is liable when in the hands of native merchants.

You will observe that radical differences in the construction of the treaties are thus exhibited

1st. As to lekin taxes.

Foreign representatives generally claim that no taxes or dues whatever may be levied upon our imports, excepting tariff import duties and transit duties, and that these latter may be commuted by a single payment, the rate of commutation being one-half the tariff import duty.

The Chinese assert, on the contrary, the right to levy any taxes which they see fit on imported goods, after the import duty has been paid, excepting only goods covered by transit passes while so covered. On foreign-owned produce for exportation they make the same claim. 2d. As to ownership.

They admit the right of foreigners to take out inward transit passes, but do not admit that natives may. They thus make the privilege of the treaties personal to the foreigner and deny that it attaches to the goods.

It must be acknowledged that if the Chinese view is accepted, the efforts heretofore made to secure by treaty stipulations foreign imports and foreign-owned native produce from undue and irregular taxation have proven more or less futile. For if imports may be taxed either at once after they have been landed and passed the customs proper,

or after they have reached an inland center, being so far protected by transit passes, then the government may really levy what duties it pleases before allowing such goods to reach the consumer. And similarly, if native produce can be taxed before the transit begins, or at any time, if not covered by passes, then it is subject to such levies as may be den anded up to the moment when the foreigner takes it into his actual possession under certificate or exports it.

That the framers of the treaties did not intend such an abortive system will be seen at once upon reading the treaties. The French text is especially clear. I quote from it as follows:

ART. XXIII. Toutes marchandises françaises, après avoir acquitté dans l'un des ports de la Chine les droits de douane liquidés d'après le tarif, pourront être transportées dans l'intérieur sans avoir à subir aucune autre charge supplémentaire que le paiement des droits de transit suivant le taux modéré actuellement en vigeur, lesquels droits ne seront susceptibles d'aucune augmentation future.

Si des agents de la douane chinoise, contrairement à la teneur du présent traité, exigeaient des rétributions illégales, ou prélevaient des droits plus élevés, ils seraient punis suivant les lois de l'empire.

This article refers, of course, to imports only. In regard to exports, it may be said that there is no express provision against the levy of duties upon native produce before it passes into foreign hands (or thereafter, unless it is covered by certificates), but that we may clearly, upon the broadest grounds, demand that no duties shall be levied upon such produce in excess of the tariff and transit duties, differentially, that is to say, which are not levied irrespective of the purpose to export the goods, and uniformly.

It is my impression that I sent to the Department from Shanghai a printed transcript of the articles of all the treaties which refer to the transit-pass system, duties, &c.

At any rate, a compilation of the treaties themselves, edited by Mr. W. F. Mayers, and published at Shanghai in 1877, was transmitted to the Department from Shanghai in that year, at my request, and, referring to it, I may, without further discussion, 'call your attention to the following stipulations:

It will be evident to you, from what has preceded, that the attitude of the English legation has occasioned much anxiety to the representatives of other powers. The fact that the English minister felt able to enter upon a general discussion of the business, or, at least, was prepared to take part in the recent conference, was not altogether conclusive that his government had abandoned the Chefoo convention, for it