Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 21.djvu/798

Rh features of Chinese cities—dirt, closeness, and absence of all sanitary arrangements&thinsp;; while the want of any of architectural or antiquarian interest robs the city of any redeeming traits. On the eastern face of the city, between the walls and the river, stands the principal suburb, off which the  lies anchored. The town has thus nothing to recommend it except its geographical position. Situated in the extreme eastern portion of the province of, and possessing a good and commodious anchorage, as well as an easy access to the ocean, it forms the principal port of central. From the western wall of the city there stretches away a rich alluvial plain extending over 45,000 square miles, which is intersected by numerous waterways and great chains of lakes. The products of this fertile district, as well as the s and s of more distant regions, find their natural outlet at Shanghai. The looms of and the  s of, together with the  of this &ldquo;&thinsp;garden of China,&rdquo; have for many years before treaty days supplied the Shanghai s with their richest freight. But though thus favourably situated as an emporium of trade Shanghai did not attract the attention of foreign diplomatists until the outbreak of the, when the inhabitants purchased protection from the bombarding propensities of by the payment of a ransom of one million s. In the  treaty, which was signed in the following year, Shanghai was included among the four new ports which were thrown open to trade by the terms of that document. In 1843, then Captain Balfour, was appointed British , and it was on his motion that the site of the present English settlement, which is bounded on the north by the Soochow creek, on the south by the Yang-king canal, and on the east by the river, was chosen. The site, thus defined on its three sides (on the west no boundary was marked out), is three-fifths of a mile in length, and was separated from the native city by a narrow strip of land which was subsequently selected as the site of the settlement. Later again the established themselves on the other side of the Soochow creek, on a piece of land fronting on the river, which there makes a sharp turn in an easterly direction. At first merchants appeared disinclined to take advantage of the opportunities offered them at Shanghai. &ldquo;&thinsp;At the end of the first year of its history as an open port Shanghai could count only 23 foreign residents and families, 1 ar flag, 11 merchants' houses, and 2. Only forty-four foreign vessels had arrived during the same period.&rdquo; By degrees, however, the manifold advantages as a port of trade possessed by Shanghai attracted merchants of all nationalities&thinsp;; and from the banks of the arose lines of s and handsome dwelling-houses, which have converted a reed-covered swamp into one of the finest cities in the East.

The number of foreigners, other than, who took up their abode in the English settlement at Shanghai made it soon necessary to adopt some more catholic form of government than that supplied by an English who had control only over British subjects, and by common agreement a committee of residents, consisting of a chairman and six members, was elected by the renters of land for the purposes of general municipal administration. It was expected when the council was formed that the three settlements the British, French, and Americans would have been incorporated into one municipality, but international jealousy prevented the fulfilment of the scheme, and it was not until 1863 that the Americans threw in their lot with the British. In 1853 the prosperity of the settlements received a severe check in consequence of the capture of the native city by a band of insurgents, who held possession of the walls from September in that year to February 1855. This incident, though in many ways disastrous, was the exciting cause of the establishment of the foreign service, which has proved of such inestimable advantage to the. The confusion into which the customs system was thrown by the occupation of the city by the rebels induced the Chinese authorities to request the consuls of Great Britain, France, and the United States to nominate three officers to superintend the collection of the revenue. This arrangement was found to work so well that on the reoccupation of the city the native authorities proposed that it should be made permanent, and, of H.M.'s consular service, was in consequence appointed inspector of the Shanghai customs. The results of Mr Lay's administration proved so successful that when arranging the terms of the treaty of 1858 the Chinese willingly assented to the application of the same system to all the treaty ports, and Mr Lay was thereupon appointed inspector-general of maritime customs. On the retirement of Mr Lay in 1862 was appointed to the post, which he still (1886) occupies.

