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CH'UNG-K'ING.

conducted the reader to the important treaty port of Ch'ung-k'ing, let me now give him in brief outline a sketch of the remarkable series of negotiations which led up to the opening of the port to trade. A perusal of them will be found to provide much instruction and some little entertainment. When the Chifu Agreement of 1876, arising out of the murder of a consular officer, Mr Augustus Raymond Margary, was drawn up between Great Britain and China, it was decided among other things that while the British Government might send officers to reside at Ch'ung-k'ing to watch the condition of British trade, the port should not be open to British merchants