That time seems to have arrived. It does not seem proper now to send it to Congress, inasmuch as the persons who projected and prepared it are some of them not in this country; the author of the paper, I have been informed, is dead, a victim to the use of opium; and the circumstances under which it was written are somewhat changed.

The author referred to was Mr. Pun Chi, a young merchant in San Francisco, a man of good Chinese education, and who had picked up some acquaintance with our people and their institutions in his trade with them and during his attendance at the mission-school under my care.

This remonstrance is thoroughly Chinese, and will aid our people to understand the views and feelings of that people. There is an acute perception of the strong points of their position, and of the arguments which will have most weight with the best class of the American people, that is characteristic of them. They appeal to us as a reasonable people. The Chinese look upon war and the argument of the sword only as a last necessity. This paper illustrates their national character. Such is the measure, or, if the expression be preferred, the style, of their civilization that they regard military men with much the same dislike that they do pugilists or butchers. Hence they resort to diplomacy in their management of neighboring nations, and their statesmen are often, it must be confessed, adepts at bragging, fibbing and tricks equal to those of Europe or America.

It is certainly something at which the governments of the West may be astonished, and from which they might learn a lesson of the first utility, that China governs

vast territories, which more than equal in extent her own surface, chiefly by moral suasion. Every kingdom on her borders pays her tribute, receives the writings of Confucius as the best compendium of what is reasonable and right, makes her language that of its polite classes of society and the medium of communication with strangers, and imitates her arts and her usages.

It will be noticed how, therefore, with something like amazement, the Chinese who have emigrated to America find themselves regarded with dislike, their language unknown to us, their philosophers despised, and insult and wrong heaped upon them like the vagabond tribes of Indians. And it is nothing but gold, the immense difference of remuneration for every sort of labor, and gain on all kinds of traffic, or the want of gold, in failing to realize what they have expected, and their consequent debts, which makes them endure the humiliation for one day. They writhe under it, and cannot comprehend it. If the reader can put himself in their position and in their frame of mind, he will be able to appreciate the document now offered for his perusal.

It will be a source of surprise to many of our people, but nevertheless it is in accordance with the national mind, that they should dwell so emphatically upon the moral and religious considerations of the case. There is

a quiet dignity, a deep sense of wrong, a freedom from a threatening or revengeful spirit, and a declaration of their entire submission to the action of our authorities in their case when deliberate and final, which must win for them the sincere respect, sympathy, and even admiration, of reflecting and honorable men.

There are, as they say, twelve topics which they de

sire the legislators of our nation to weigh in connection with the appeal made to them for their interference to rectify the abuses of provincial legislation, and for their decision of the questions connected with the permanent residence of the Chinese here. The first three are preliminary and general. (§ 1). They begin with an appeal to our religion. They say that there is a supreme and universal government which has constituted China the most ancient, great, favored and beneficent nation of the world. We have been granted the instructions of Jesus, the Western counterpart of Confucius. Then why do we not practice them? (§ 2). They then define the principles upon which good government should be founded-upon reference to moral, not mechanical power, upon education, and upon respect for virtue. (§ 3). They represent (with some truth, but too favorably) that the conduct of their own government should be an example to ours in its care of the lives and property of foreigners, and the justice rendered to them in its courts; and it is claimed that no other foreign immigrants more deserve to be justly dealt with in this country, since no others pay so large an amount of the public revenue, or are more submissive to our laws; and this will be more clearly seen the better we understand them. There are seven matters in respect to which they desire legislative interference; that is, (§ 4) the general annoyances inflicted upon the Chinese, beginning with the time they land, and from all kinds of people; (§ 5) the outrageous cruelties and crimes of which, from the want of legal protection, they are the subjects; (§ 6) the oppression and wrongs of the miners; (§ 7) the violations of law by the appointed collectors

of taxes; (§ 8) the unjust practices of the nominal courts of justice; (§ 9) the troubles arising from the importation of abandoned women; and (§ 10) the neglect to inflict the penalties of the laws against gambling. Finally, they make two special requests; first (§ 11), that their companies may be allowed, from their universal acquaintance with all the Chinese of the country, and their responsible representative character, to take cognizance of minor offences against the law committed by their own people and report them to our courts; and second (§ 12), that Congress would, as the highest legislative authority, decide the main and most anxious questions affecting Chinese interests in this country; that is, if the previous policy of encouraging trade and immigration is to be reversed, and if they are to be for ever liable to injustice and injury, they respectfully beg that it may be plainly stated by a declaration to that effect, and that effectual measures may be adopted to prevent our traders from enticing further immigration and, by fixing a limit as to time (three years), to enable and compel the present entire Chinese population to take its departure. They demand that in justice Congress shall settle these questions, and make laws which shall either banish them from the country or else give them security and peace.

Such is the tenor of this remonstrance to the authorities at Washington. It will be seen that it exhibits a fair conception of the powers of a supreme legislative assembly, and yet is defective of necessity in not discerning the lines which divide the authority of the Federal and State legislative bodies. Some of its expressions are peculiar. But, on the whole, the doubt may be ex

pressed whether a body of immigrants from any European nation, in some remote part of our country, who had been here but for a short time and were still ignorant of our language and constitution, would have prepared a plea more intelligent, more forcible and more reasonable.

A REMONSTRANCE

FROM THE CHINESE IN CALIFORNIA TO THE CONGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES.

The sincere and gracious attention of your honorable body is earnestly requested to the consideration of certain matters important to our peace as foreigners, the following statements of which may be relied upon as certainly true and correct:

We are natives of the empire of China, each following some employment or profession-literary men, farmers, mechanics or merchants. When your honorable government threw open the territory of California, the people of other lands were welcomed here to search for gold and to engage in trade. The ship-masters of your respected nation came over to our country, lauded the equality of your laws, extolled the beauty of your manners and customs, and made it known that your officers and people were extremely cordial toward the Chinese.

1 Such is the ability displayed in this appeal that I judged it best to prevent suspicion of its being either factitious or overwrought by submitting it with the translation to one of the most thorough and competent scholars in Chinese literature, the Rev. Dr. Nevius, author of the interesting volume entitled "China and the Chinese," recently published by Harper & Brothers, New York. He sent me, before leaving this country on his return to his labors in the North of China, the following note, with permission to publish it:

"I have examined carefully this appeal of the Chinese to Americans made through Dr. Speer, and find that this translation is a true and faithful rendering of the original.

"New York, October 31, 1868."

"JOHN L. NEVIUS.