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The visit of
Choy-Chew and Sing-Man, the Chinese merchants from San Francisco,
who arrived here on the evening of August 11, will further the
influences of the recent visit of Mr. Burlingame and his diplomatic
party. It will even more directly promote the friendly commercial
relations which it was a main object of the Burlingame mission to
inaugurate. Choy-Chew, in his speech at Chicago on the 6th
of August, admirable expressed the sentiments of the more
enlightened among the great merchants in the Chinese empire when he
said: "China must brush away the dust of her antiquity, and,
looking across the Pacific, behold and profit by the lessons of the
New World." That she has already begun to do this is manifest
from the facts stated by him that "steamboat lines have been
established on our rivers, and the telegraph will soon connect us
with this wonderful sovereignty, where the people rule, and where
every thing proclaims peace and good-will to all." About
thirty-eight years ago the Edinburgh Review exposed the
falsity of the statements made by those interested in the monopoly
of the East India Company as to the anti-commercial character of the
Chinese. It proved that they were, on the contrary, a
highly-commercial people; that they were, as they still are, the
great traders of the Eastern Archipelago; that vast numbers of them
were settled at Batavia, Singapore, and other commercial emporia,
all actively engaged in trade or in some species of useful industry.
The Edinburgh Review predicted even then the growth of that
American trade with China which now promises to assume such
prodigious proportions, and the interests of which will be
materially helped by the visit of Choy-Chew and Sing-Man to our
metropolis as representatives of Chinese industry and commerce. |
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