prevailing agency rather than to the more limited instrumentality of Municipal Law. It is the province of Municipal Law to determine rights at home, how a foreign-born person may be naturalized in our country, how he may be admitted to all the transcendent privileges of American citizenship; but it belongs to another system of law to determine what shall be his privileges, should he return to the country which gave him birth. We may, by our declarations, by our diplomacy, by our power, do much; but it is by our treaties that we shall fix all these rights in adamant. The Senator seems to have no higher idea than to write them in the fleeting passions of party. My vote will never be wanting to elevate them above all such fitful condition, and to place them under the perpetual sanction of International Law, - the only law which can bind two different powers. Sir, the Senator from California shall not go before me; he shall not be more swift than I; he shall not take one single step in advance of me. Be the person Irish or German or African or Chinese, he shall have from me the same equal protection. Can the Senator say as much?

THE CHINESE EMBASSY, AND OUR RELATIONS

WITH CHINA.

SPEECH AT THE BANQUET BY THE CITY OF BOSTON TO THE CHINESE EMBASSY, AUGUST 21, 1868.

THE year 1868 was memorable for the Chinese Embassy, with Hon. Anson Burlingame at its head, which, arriving first at Washington by the way of San Francisco, negotiated a treaty with the United States, and then visited Europe. The abundant hospitality with which it was received throughout the United States was marked at Boston by a distinguished reception and entertainment on the part of the municipal authorities. August 20th, the Embassy was received by Hon. Nathaniel B. Shurtleff, Mayor, and escorted in public procession through the principal streets, and with the customary diplomatic salutes, to the Parker House, where they were lodged as the guests of the city. The next day at noon they were publicly received at Faneuil Hall, which was decorated for the occasion. In the evening they were entertained at a banquet at the St. James Hotel, where were present about two hundred and twenty-five gentlemen, including the City Government. The company is thus described in the official report :

"Hon. Nathaniel B. Shurtleff, Mayor, presided. On his right were seated Hon. Anson Burlingame, Chief of the Embassy; His Excellency Alexander H. Bullock, Governor of the Commonwealth; Teh Lao-yeh, English Interpreter attached to the Embassy; Hon. Charles Sumner, Chairman of the Committee on Foreign Relations of the United States Senate; Hon. Caleb Cushing; Major-General Irwin McDowell, U. S. A.; Commodore John Rodgers, U. S. N.; Charles G. Nazro, Esq., President of the Board of Trade. On the left of the Mayor were seated Chih Ta-jin, Associate Minister; Mr. McLeavy Brown, Secretary to the Embassy; Sun Ta-jin, Associate Minister; M. Émile Dechamps, Secretary to the Embassy; Fung Lao-yeh, English Interpreter; Ralph Waldo Emerson, LL.D.; Rev. George Putnam, D. D.; Mr. Edwin P. Whipple.

"Among the other distinguished guests present were: Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes; Hon. Nathaniel P. Banks, Hon. George S. Boutwell, and Hon.

Ginery Twichell, Members of Congress; Rev. Thomas Hill, D. D., President of Harvard College; Hon. George S. Hillard, United States District Attorney; Hon. George O. Brastow, President of the Senate; Hon. Harvey Jewell, Speaker of the House of Representatives; Brevet Major-General H. W. Benham, and Brevet Major-General J. G. Foster, U. S. Engineer Corps; Major-General James H. Carleton, U. S. A.; Brevet Brigadier-General Henry H. Prince, Paymaster U. S. A.; Major-General James A. Cunningham, Adjutant-General; Hon. Henry J. Gardner, Ex-Governor of the Commonwealth; Hon. Josiah Quincy; Hon. Frederic W. Lincoln, Jr.; Dr. Peter Parker, formerly Commissioner to China; Hon. Isaac Livermore; Sr. Frederico Granados, Spanish Consul; Mr. G. M. Finotti, Italian Consul; Mr. Joseph Iasigi, Turkish Consul; Hon. Marshall P. Wilder, President of the Board of Agriculture; Rev. N. G. Clark, D. D., Secretary of the Board of Foreign Missions; and many of the leading merchants and professional men of Boston."

At the banquet speeches were made by the Mayor, Mr. Burlingame, Governor Bullock, Mr. Sumner, Mr. Cushing, Mr. Emerson, General Banks, Mr. Nazro, and Mr. Whipple.

The Mayor announced as the fifth regular toast, "The Supplementary Treaty with China," and called upon Mr. Sumner to respond. Mr. Burlingame had already said in his speech, while declining any elaborate exposition of the Treaty: "No, Sir, I leave the exposition of that treaty to the distinguished Senator on my right, who was its champion in the Senate, and who procured for it a unanimous vote." Mr. Sumner said:

R. MAYOR,-I cannot speak on this interesting. occasion without first declaring the happiness I enjoy at meeting my friend of many years in the exalted position he now holds. Besides this personal relation, he was also an honored associate in representing the good people of this community, and in advancing a great cause, which he championed with memorable eloquence and fidelity. Such are no common ties.

The splendid welcome now offered by the municipal authorities of Boston is only a natural expression of prevailing sentiments. Here his labors and triumphs began. In your early applause and approving voices he first tasted of that honor which is now his in such

ample measure. He is one of us, who, going forth into a strange country, has come back with its highest trusts and dignities. Once the representative of a single Congressional district, he now represents the most populous nation of the globe. Once the representative of little more than a third part of Boston, he is now the representative of more than a third part of the human race. The population of the globe is estimated at twelve hundred millions; that of China at more than four hundred and sometimes even at five hundred millions.

If in this position there be much to excite wonder, there is still more for gratitude in the unparalleled opportunity it affords. What we all ask is opportunity. Here is opportunity on a surpassing scale, -employed, I am sure, to advance the best interests of the human family; and if these are advanced, no nation can suffer. Each is contained in all. With justice and generosity as the reciprocal rule,— and nothing else can be the aim of this great Embassy, there can be no limits to the immeasurable consequences. Nor can I hesitate to say that concessions and privileges are of less consequence than that spirit of friendship and good neighborhood, embracing alike the distant and the near, which, once established, renders all else easy.

The necessary result of the present experiment in diplomacy will be to make the countries it visits better known to the Chinese, and also to make the Chinese better known to them. Each will know the other better, and better comprehend that condition of mutual dependence which is the law of humanity. In relations among nations, as in common life, this is of infinite. value. Thus far, I fear the Chinese are poorly informed with regard to us. I am sure we are poorly informed

with regard to them. porcelain on our tables, with its lawless perspective, and the tea-chest, with its unintelligible hieroglyphics. There are two pictures of them in the literature of our language, which cannot fail to leave an impression. The first is in "Paradise Lost," where Milton, always learned, even in his poetry, represents Satan descending in his flight

We know them through the

"on the barren plains

Of Sericana, where Chineses drive

With sails and wind their cany wagons light." 1

The other is in that admirable "Discourse on the Study of the Law of Nature and Nations," where Sir James Mackintosh, in words of singular felicity, points to "the tame, but ancient and immovable civilization of China." 2 It is for us at last to enlarge these pictures, and to fill the canvas with life.

I do not know if it has occurred to our honored guest that he is not the first stranger who, after sojourning in this distant, unknown land, has come back loaded with its honors, and with messages to the Christian powers. He is not without a predecessor in his mission. There is another career as marvellous as his own. I refer to the Venetian Marco Polo, whose reports, once discredited as the fables of a traveller, are now recognized among the sources of history, and especially of geographical knowledge. Nobody can read them without feeling their verity. It was in the latter part of the faraway thirteenth century that this enterprising Venetian, with his father and uncle, all merchants, journeyed from Venice, by the way of Constantinople, Trebizond on the