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 will trade, there shall be rules, so that they shall not break your laws or our laws. Our Minister Caleb Cushing is authorized to make a treaty to regulate trade. Let it be just. Let there be no unfair advantage on either side. Let the people trade not only at Canton, but also at Amoy, Ningpo, Shanghai, Foochow, and all other such places as may offer profitable exchanges both to China and the United States, provided they do not break your laws or our laws. We shall not take the part of evil-doers, We shall not uphold them that break your laws, Therefore, we doubt not that you will be pleased that our messenger of peace with this letter in his hand shall come to Peking and there deliver it; and that your great officers will by your order make a treaty with him not to disturb the peace between China and America. Let the treaty be signed by your own imperial hand, It shall be signed by mine, and by the authorities of our great council, the Senate.

'And so may your health be good, and may peace reign. Written at Washington, this twelfth day of July, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and forty-three. Your good friend, [Seal].'

Among subordinate traits and qualities we may especially mention irony—a dangerous weapon in politics, whether we think of it as the ironical rudeness of a Bismarck in his Circular