THE CHINESE HAVE NOT REFUSED TO RECEIVE IT.
But it cannot be disguised, that, when the two Secretaries of State concurred in the idea of appropriating this fund to the erection of buildings, also when Mr. Burlingame made his earnest effort for its appropriation to a college at Peking, and when two successive Presidents invited Congress to consider what should be done with it, there was an impression not only that the Chinese would not allow the surplus to be returned, but that they had peremptorily declined to entertain the proposition. Such was the impression when the attention of the Committee was first called to this fund, now many years ago. And it cannot be doubted that this impression has exercised an influence in preventing frank and explicit action on the question, according to the obvious requirement of justice.
The Committee have endeavored to ascertain the ground for the statement that the Chinese had refused to receive the surplus. It seems, on inquiry, to be a report or rumor started nobody knows precisely how or when. Thus we find Mr. Seward saying, in his Report of February 18, 1868:—
“It appears, that, when it was ascertained that this surplus would remain, the return of it to the Chinese Government was proposed, but that they declined to accept it.”[132]
And Mr. Fish, in a similar Report, under date of March 10, 1870, says likewise:—
“The Secretary of State is informed, that, after the awards were completed, and it was definitely known that there would be a surplus, Mr. Burlingame informally proposed to return whatever should be left. The Chinese, however, did not seem disposed to accept it.”[133]
But these distinguished Secretaries do not adduce any authority for their assertion; nor does careful search at the State Department disclose any dispatch or record sustaining or justifying it. On this point the Committee are confident. No instruction was ever given to any Minister authorizing him to tender a return of the surplus, or even to sound the Chinese Government on the question of receiving it, if tendered. In fact, no power exists in the State Department to authorize such a tender. Such an act could proceed only from Congress, which has never acted on the subject.
The Committee, therefore, dismiss the assumption that there has been any tender to the Chinese, or any refusal on their part, whether formal or informal, and they approach the question simply on its merits.
DUTY TO CHINA.
Had this question arisen in our relations with a European power, it would be only according to an important precedent, if we forbore to open the transaction. By two separate conventions, one in 1815 and the other in 1818, France paid to England a large sum, amounting to one hundred and thirty million francs, on account of English claimants, and the English Government undertook to dispose of all their claims, as the United States undertook to dispose of all the claims of American citizens in China. In 1852 Lord Lyndhurst brought the subject before the House of Lords, when he stated that there was “an unapplied balance of upwards of £200,000”;[134] and in 1861 Mr. Denman did the same in the House of Commons, when he said, that, “after all claims had been satisfied, there still remained a sum of £200,000 not in any way to be considered due under the convention.”[135] Nothing was said of returning this surplus to France. The Baron de Bode, a renowned litigant, made an ineffectual attempt to obtain something out of it on account of losses in France, although his case was argued with consummate ability in the English courts, and awakened the eloquence of Lord Lyndhurst in the House of Lords. In an appeal for justice, the Baron declares that out of the amount received by England, only 67,071,301 francs had been paid to claimants, and he insists that the Crown should account to the claimants, or to France, for the unexpended surplus,—thus recognizing an eventual proprietorship in France, after the satisfaction of the claims.[136] What has been done with this surplus since is not known.