Mr. Burlingame to Mr. Seward
Sir: I am happy to inform you that his excellency Colonel Raasloff will today, at one o’clock, sign a most favorable treaty, which, after three months of earnest negotiation, he has succeeded in concluding with the Chinese government. It is due Colonel Raasloff to say, that he owes this treaty largely to his personal influence with the foreign legations, which all warmly supported him. It was decided by the Chinese that the treaty recently concluded with the Belgians should be tendered to him on the coast, or at Tientsin, and that he should have nothing more. The colonel, penetrating this design, determined to come at once to Peking.
The treaty is substantially the British treaty, with this advantage for us all—that those changes which have been yielded to our solicitations from time to time, since that treaty was signed, have been placed in this, and are therefore not liable to be changed.
Mr. Wade, of the British legation, acted for the colonel, and was much assisted by Mr. Hart, of the foreign customs, to whom the Chinese left the arrangement of the new clauses.
Article XI mentions sixteen ports as being open, and among them Nanking, Kinkiang-Chinkiang and Hankow, on the river Yangtsye, although the first named city is in the hands of the rebels. For the present the trade is carried on at these ports under river regulations, to which the foreign legations have agreed.
[Page 959]Articles XXVII and XLV contain stipulations for transit dues and the issue of drawback certificates in case of re-exportation of foreign or Chinese merchandise, coastwise or to foreign countries.
Article XLIV declares the coasting trade of China open to foreign nations. No other treaty contains any such stipulation.
In the tariff, the clause prohibiting the exportation of beans, peas, and bean cakes from New Chwang and from Pang-chow (Chefoo) is omitted, and foreign nations are thus, by right, to participate in this important branch of the coasting trade.
It will appear from these changes how important the treaty is for us all. I addressed a letter to Mr. Wood, our minister resident at Copenhagen, in which I gave the colonel such credit as I thought was his due; and I now write to you that I am sure, but for his patience, tact, and ability, there would have been no success. I hope you will impress upon the representative of Denmark the importance of sending, at once, an agent to look after the interests of Denmark, as well as to strengthen our hands against the lawless of all nations.
I have the honor to be, sir, your obedient servant,
Hon. William H. Seward, Secretary of State.