of war shall forever be laid aside, and joy and profit shall be the perpetual lot of all."[1]
It is due to the Chinese government to say that this grant of trade to all nations upon equal terms was an inspiration of its own sense of justice, as neither the emperor nor his commissioner had any knowledge of the rule of international law,—"the most favored nation,"—at that day even imperfectly observed by the Christian governments. With this proclamation the monopoly of the co-hong and the old system ceased to exist, and modern commercial methods began to be practiced in the great empire.
It was not difficult to see that the results of the Anglo-Chinese war must result in benefit to the commerce of the world, and the government of the United States was not slow to take advantage of it at the proper time. The consul at Canton had at the outset of hostilities suggested that a favorable time to open negotiations for a commercial treaty was near at hand. The merchants of Boston interested in China about the same time transmitted a memorial to Congress asking that a strong naval force be sent to watch the progress of the war and protect American commerce, but they urged that no envoy be sent to China to negotiate until the war was concluded and its results made known. Dr. Peter Parker, who had spent some years in China as a medical missionary, was in Washington, and in April, 1841, he urged Secretary Webster to send
- ↑ S. Ex. Doc. 139, 29th Cong. 1st Sess. For Mr. Cushing's views, S. Ex. Doc. 67, p. 101, 28th Cong. 2d Sess.; 1 Montgomery Martin's China, 414; 12 Chinese Repository, 443.
