Prince Kung to Anson Burlingame, United States, October 16, 1863

Prince Kung to Mr. Burlingame

Prince Kung, chief secretary of state for foreign affairs, herewith sends a communication.

On the 2d instant I received your excellency’s reply to my previous despatch respecting the common practice of American merchants presenting false manifests, and my request that instructions might be sent to the United States consuls to carry out the provisions of the XIVth article of the treaty respecting smuggling, in which you say that as no names are mentioned, or the time or sort of goods indicated, there are no data to act on, and it is difficult to send specific orders to remedy it. In this reply a letter from the consul is copied, and particulars are given respecting the violation by the firms of Frazar & Co. and Leighton & Co. of the limit allowed for returning a permit, and of the fine imposed on them, all of which I fully understand.

I have ascertained that the injurious practice of rendering false manifests is not confined to one port or one nation. If an English ship does it her master is fined five hundred taels, according to the XXXVIIth article of the English treaty; but if the offender be an American the provisions of article XIV of his treaty must apply to the case, and the Chinese officers be allowed to deal with it without his being entitled to any protection from the officers of the United States. Therefore, in all such cases, when the offender is an American, the penalty is not one of a fine at all, and yet it is an offence deserving of punishment. If, however, it is only lightly fined, it will be dealt with differently from what the English treaty requires, and the merchants of the two nations will not then be treated alike. Furthermore, the laws of China are strict, and if an American merchant merely smuggles, and no other crime is involved in the act, there is no mode of arriving at an equitable decision in the case, while the penalty [of his own treaty] seems to be too severe.

While I desire to observe all the provisions of the treaty most carefully, I still think that a more equitable law respecting this matter might be settled, so that the American merchants be not fined too heavily, and it is for this purpose that I now address another communication to your excellency upon this matter.

I propose the question for you to consider, when tie American merchants present false manifests of cargo they shall be punished according to article XIV of their own treaty, and be dealt with by the Chinese officers alone, or be fined five hundred taels, according to the provision of the English treaty, and thus all parties be placed upon the same footing. I hope that you will examine this proposal and decide on the point, so that orders may be sent to the several consuls directing them how to act in such cases.

As to the cases of Messrs. Frazar & Co. and H. Leighton & Co., let them be punished by fine, according to the Yangtsze regulations, as their vessels and property may have been valued.