. The historians' history of the world; a comprehensive narrative of the rise and development of nations as recorded by over two thousand of the great writers of all ages: . England and America owed to the trouble tworesults, one of which proved of incalculable benefit to China herself, as well as THE HISTORY OF CHINA 551 [1853-1854 ] to every nation trading with her, and without the other Shanghai would havelacked the autonomic sentiment which has contributed materially to its well-being. A tentative scheme of municipal govermnent had been drafted in1845, but it proved quite inadequate to
. The historians' history of the world; a comprehensive narrative of the rise and development of nations as recorded by over two thousand of the great writers of all ages: . England and America owed to the trouble tworesults, one of which proved of incalculable benefit to China herself, as well as THE HISTORY OF CHINA 551 [1853-1854 ] to every nation trading with her, and without the other Shanghai would havelacked the autonomic sentiment which has contributed materially to its well-being. A tentative scheme of municipal govermnent had been drafted in1845, but it proved quite inadequate to meet the requirements of the dis-turbed time in 1853, when tens of thousands of Chinese refugees sought shelterand security within the limits of the foreign settlement. The system wastherefore largely extended, and, at the same time, the small foreign conununityimdertook the duty of self-defence by forming a volmiteer corps, which then andon many subsequent occasions contributed much to the security of the settle-ment. But the signal outcome of the crisis was the organisation of a customsservice under foreign supervision. No one could have clearly foreseen that the. Chinese Thadino-ship customs officials would ultimately become Chinas diplomatic agents, fiscal andfinancial advisers, scientific assistants, and public advocates; that they would,in .short, be far more to her than all the Jesuits had been. That remarkabledevelopment of functions was not a natural outcome of the system, but rathera most improbable conseciucnce of the ability of the men attracted to itsranks. From the moment when a number of Europeans and Americans werepermitted to become servants of China and to collect for her a principal partof her revenues under an arrangement conceived and proposed by foreigngovernments, from that moment her Manchu rulers might consider themselvestaken under foreign guardianship. If the Peking statesmen themselves didnot understand something of the incalculable advantages thus
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