Dr. Medhurst also describes a scene which took place in Shanghae, where he was preaching in the chapel of the London Missionary Society, on the folly of idolatry and the duty of worshipping the one true God.  A man arose in the middle of the congregation and said:  “That is true! that is true! the idols must perish.  I am a Ti-Ping; we all worship one God and believe in Jesus, and we everywhere destroy the idols.  Two years ago when we began we were only three thousand; now we have marched across the Empire, because God was on our side.”  He then exhorted the people to abandon idolatry and to believe in Jesus, and said:  “We are happy in our religion, and look on the day of our death as the happiest moment of life.  When any of our number dies, we do not weep, but congratulate each other because he has gone to the joy of the heavenly world.”

The mission of Mr. Burlingame indicated a sincere desire on the part of the sagacious men who then governed China, especially of Prince Kung, to enter into relations with modern civilization and modern thought.  From the official papers of this mission,[28] it appears that Mr. Burlingame was authorized “to transact all business with the Treaty Powers in which those countries and China had a common interest,” (communication of Prince Kung, December 31, 1867).  The Chinese government expressly states that this step is intended as adopting the customs of diplomatic intercourse peculiar to the West, and that in so doing the Chinese Empire means to conform to the law of nations, as understood among the European states.  It therefore adopted “Wheaton’s International Law” as the text-book and authority to be used in its Foreign Office, and had it carefully translated into Chinese for the use of its mandarins.  This movement was the result, says Mr. Burlingame, of the “co-operative policy” adopted by the representatives in China of the Treaty Powers, in which they agreed to act together on all important questions, to take no cession of territory, and never to menace the autonomy of the Empire.  They agreed “to leave her perfectly free to develop herself according to her own form of civilization, not to interfere with her interior affairs, to make her waters neutral, and her land safe” (Burlingame’s speech at San Francisco).  There is no doubt that if the states known as the “Treaty Powers,” namely, the United States, Belgium, Denmark, France, Great Britain, Holland, Italy, North Germany, Russia, Spain, and Sweden, will loyally abstain from aggression and interference in China and respect her independence, that this great Empire will step forth from her seclusion of fifty centuries, and enter the commonwealth of nations.

The treaty between the United States and China of July 28, 1868, includes provisions for the neutrality of the Chinese waters; for freedom of worship for United States citizens in China, and for the Chinese in the United States; for allowing voluntary emigration, and prohibiting the compulsory coolie trade; for freedom to travel in China and the United States by the citizens of either country; and for freedom to establish and attend schools in both countries.