factory in its results,[1] and returned to the United States to receive new honors at home and to hold later the missions to Mexico and Paris.
Dr. Parker conducted the affairs of the legation for several months under very perplexing conditions. The Taiping rebels were threatening Canton and the other treaty ports. In the impotent state of the imperial government, pirates multiplied, infested the coasts, and imperiled foreign commerce in the treaty ports. In the consequent disorganization of trade, smuggling greatly increased, and a ready market was found for warlike supplies. Both Ministers Marshall and McLane had issued proclamations enjoining strict neutrality upon Americans, and Dr. Parker exerted himself to enforce these orders. He found that the American flag was being abused through the negligence or bad faith of consuls by its illegal transfer to Chinese or other foreign vessels. The shipping and registry regulations of Great Britain made easy the transfer of its flag to such vessels, which was forbidden under American law; and except through the connivance of consuls in authorizing registry, American shipping was placed at a disadvantage in these times of disorder. Claims by Americans for injury to their property or business or for non-observance of their treaty rights, were also accumulating, and the authorities were badly situated or indisposed to give them satisfaction.
Twenty years' residence in China and the onerous labors of his position so impaired his health that Dr.
- ↑ For details of McLane's mission, S. Ex. Doc. 22, 35th Cong. 2d Sess.; S. Ex. Doc. 39, 36th Cong. 1st Sess.; N. A. Review, Oct. 1859, pp. 487-504.
