UC-NRLF ^B'S'^M TO? Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2007 with funding from Microsoft Corporation http://www.archive.org/details/chinachinaOOdequrich CHINA. BY THOMAS jD^E QUINCET. A REVISED REPRINT OF ARTICLES FROM "TITAN:" WITH PREFACE AND ADDITIONS. EDINBURGH: JAMES HOGG. LONDON: R. GROOMBRIDGE & SONS. MDCCCLVII. L , .-. K " "^ PRELIMINARY NOTE, What is the justifying purpose of this pamphlet at this moment ? Its purpose is to diffuse amongst those of the middle classes, whose daily occupations leave them small leisure for direct personal inquiries, some sufficient materials for appreciating the jus- tice of our British pretensions and attitude in our coming war with China. It is a ques- tion frequently raised amongst public jour- nalists, whether we British are entitled to that exalted distinction which sometimes we claim for ourselves, and which sometimes is claimed on our behalf, by neutral observers, in the national practice of morality. There is no call in this place for so large a discussion ; but, most undoubtedly, in one feature of so grand a distinction, in one reasonable pre- sumption for inferring a profounder national conscientiousness, as diffused among the Bri- tish people, stands upon record, in the pages M527531 11 of history, this memorable fact, that always at the opening (and at intervals throughout the progress) of any war, there has been much and angry discussion amongst us British as to the equity of its origin, and the moral reason- ableness of its objects. Whereas, on the Con- tinent, no man ever heard of a question being raised, or a faction being embattled, upon any demur (great or small) as to the moral grounds of a war. To be able to face the trials of a war — that was its justification; and to win victories — that was its ratification for the con- science. The dispute at Shanghai, in 1848, equally as regards the origin of that dispute, and as re- gards the Chinese mode of conducting it, will give the reader a key to the Chinese character and the Chinese policy. To begin by making the most arrogant resistance to the simplest demands of justice, to end by cringing in the lowliest fashion before the guns of a little war- brig, there we have, in a representative ab- stract, the Chinese system of law and gospel. The equities of the present war are briefly sum- med up in this one question : What is it that our brutal enemy wants from us ? Is it some concession in a point of international law, or of commercial rights, or of local privilege, or Ill of traditional usage, that the Chinese would exact ? Nothing of the kind. It is simply a license, guaranteed by ourselves, to call us in all proclamations by scurrilous names ; and, se- condly, with"our own consent, to inflict upon us, in the face of universal China, one signal humiliation. Amongst the total household of Christians, who is he that is most pointedly insulted and trampled under foot ? It is the Cagot of the Pyrenees. Amongst Christian nations, again, which is the most fanatically arrogant ? It is the Spanish. Yet this fanatic Spaniard does not inflict upon this down- trodden Cagot an insult so deep as that which is insisted on by the Chinese towards us. The Spaniard never disputed the Cagot's participa- tion in Christian hopes ; never meditated the exclusion of the poor outcast from his parish church ; he contented himself with framing a separate door for the Cagot, so low that he could not pass underneath its architrave, unless by assuming a cringing and supplicating atti- tude. But us — ^the freemen of the earth by emphatic precedency — us, the leaders of civi- lisation, would this putrescent * tribe of hole- * ^^ Putrescent:'^ — See the recorded opinions of Lord Amherst's suite upon the personal cleanliness of the Chinese. T\ and-corner assassins take upon themselves, not to force into entering Canton by an ignoble gate, but to exclude from it altogether, and for ever. Briefly, then, for this licensed scurrility, in the first place ; and, in the second, for this foul indignity of a spiteful exclusion from a right four times secured by treaty, it is that the Chinese are facing the unhappy issues of war. And if any apologist for the Chinese, such as Mr Cobden, denies this view of the case, let him be challenged to name that Chi- nese object which has been here overlooked. Simply this one statement, if it cannot be con- tradicted, settles all questions as to the justice (on our side) of the coming war. PREFACE. The Chinese question is that which, at this moment [April 5, 1857], possesses the public mind, almost to the exclusion of all others, and is likely to do so for the next six months.* * " For the next six months : " — Naturally the public anxiety cannot intermit or decay until the two capital interests are se- cured — first, of security for our countrymen threatened by a government universally capable of murder, even when not ac- tively engaged in stimulating murder; secondly, of our indis- pensable commerce in tea. As regards the first point, let it be remembered — that in 1842 the present Emperor's father, with the approbation of his son, bestowed large rewards and titular honours upon a man who pleaded no other merit than that, in the island of Chusan, during our long occupation of it, he had, by poisoning the waters, caused the agonising death of a thou- sand British subjects — chiefly soldiers. The exaggeration of his success does not alter the character of his claim, or the animus of the Emperor and his council in recognising that claim as a ground for public distinction. Here — namely, on the point of personal security — lies, for the moment, our most pressing inte- rest. On the other — namely, our commercial interest — I will say a word or two in the text. But, taking the two interests together, in less time than six months — allowing for the over- land journey, voyage, &c., of the Supreme Commissioner, who has not yet left England; secondly, for the martial negotiation and adjustment of the dispute; thirdly, for the homeward de- spatch of the results — we cannot anticipate any secure settle- ment of the case. This paramount importance of the two-headed Chinese question is now speaking through or- gans that, in the most eminent sense, are na- tionally representative : China it is that has moulded, with a decision liable to no misin- terpretation, the character of the new Parlia- ment. Suddenly, summarily, without notice or warning, five leading members of the last Parliament, Messrs Cobden, Bright, Gibson, Miall, and Fox, all charmed against any ordi- nary assault by the strength of their personal claims, having not only great services to plead, but talents of the quality peculiarly fitted for senatorial duties, have been thrown out and rejected, with the force of a volcanic explo- sion, by distinguished electoral bodies, on the sole ground of their ruinous and unpatriotic votes with respect to China. Not one of these gentlemen would seem to have at all expected his doom. And this strengthens the inference, which other indi- cations favour, that they have not. studied Chinese politics, or in any reasonable degree \/ acquainted themselves with the Chinese cha- racter : blind to these main elements in the question, Messrs Cobden, &c., were unavoid- ably blind also to the value likely to be put upon those elements by constituents who were not blind. This ignorance about China manifests itself everywhere. In the Upper House of Parliament the most eminent statesmen, Lords Derby, Gi^y, Malmesbury, and others, betrayed inexcusable ignorance. Not that China is naturally entitled to any very large proportion of attention from our public men — the questions raised by China being generally too few and simple to require it — but in the agitation of a sudden crisis, throwing deep shadows of uncertainty over the immediate prospects of our far-distant bre- thren, and calling for strong measures on our part, most undoubtedly no man should have come forward to advise without earnest study of the case ; much less to flatter with encou- ragement, from the bosom of our Senate, the infamous policy of our Cantonese enemies. Even profounder ignorance of everything Chinese is exhibited by Mr Roebuck. Vf ould it have been credible, one month back, that an upright, high-minded, public servant like Mr Roebuck, sometimes giving way to an irri- I table temperament too much for his own dig- Pnity, but always under the control of just in- tentions, would, upon any possible temptation from partisanship, have allowed himself to! speak in a complimentary tone of the ruffian, 6 larciuous, poisoning Canton. Mr Roebuck, by way of describing and appraising this Chinese city, tells the manly and honourable people of Sheffield that it is very much like their own town ; that its main characteristic is, to have a strong will of its own, and to be bold in expressing it. And he leaves it altogether doubtful whether the compliment, in this com- parison of the two cities, is meant for Canton or for Sheffield. Sheffield, like many towns whose population is chiefly composod of inge- nious and self-dependent artisans, I have long known and admired as a stubborn, headstrong, sometimes, perhaps, turbulent community, but always moving under the impulse of noble ob- jects. The Sheffield that /have known never had its streets incrusted with layers of blood from unoffending foreigners, never offered bribes for wholesale murder, never gave occa- sion to its chief magistrate for alleging that, in tempting men to poison unknown strangers, he had simply yielded to the coercion of the town mob. j Canton has risen on foundations laid by British money. As a city distin- guished from its port. Canton was nothing until reared and cherished by English gold. And the vile population of the place, which has furnished a by-word of horror to all Euro- / pean residents in the Chinese seas, has been fed and supported in every stage of its growth by our British demand for tea. The sorters, the packers, the porters, the boatmen, and multitudes beside in ministerial trades, live and flourish upon what virtually are English w^ages. And it is these English, above all other foreigners, but else in default of English any foreigners whatsoever, that the indigenous murderer of Canton cuts to pieces as often as he finds him alone in the lanes of Canton, or feebly accompanied. Such a roll-call of mur- ders as pollutes the annals of Canton is not matched by any other city, ancient or modern. And yet Mr Roebuck assured Shefiield, from the hustings, that she was favourably distin- guished among cities by her resemblance to Canton. And in the midst of all this, whilst ignoring the testimony of our able and expe- rienced countrymen resident on the spot, and locally familiar with every foot of the ground, and with every popular rumour that blows, never once had Mr Roebuck the candour to acknowledge, for the arrest of judgment among his auditors, that every Frenchman, Belgian, American, and men of most other European nations, had abetted us, had joined us in war- fare, when the circumstances had allowed (as 8 the Americans,* for instance, though not with all the success that might have been expect- ed); and finally, whether joining our arms or not (which, in fact, until equally insulted with ourselves, they could not do), all the ofii- cial representatives of France — consul, super- intendent, andnaval officer — had subscribed the most cordial certificates of our intolerable pro- vocations, of our forbearance in calling for repa- ration, and of our continued moderation in ex- acting that reparation when it could no longer be hoped for'from the off*enders. Is Mr Roe- buck himself aware that the two great leaders of civilisation in Western Christendom have joined in justifying our conduct in the Can- ton waters ? If he is, how came it that, in fair dealing, he did not mention this at Shef- field? If not aware of it, how came he to think himself qualified for discussing this Chinese question? * The Americans did quite enough for committing them- selves to the same policy as ourselves, but also (i fear) not enough to satisfy the claims of their national honour, as it is likely to be interpreted at Washington by Congress and by the President's Council. For, as is remarked, with an evanescent sneer, by a British naval officer, although battering to rags a goodly number of forts, &c., they compromised matters obscurely with Yeh, after failing to obtain those indemnities, and, above all, those guarantees, which they had originally proclaimed as their objects. 9 It is but a trifle, after this flagrant body of ^ misrepresentation, to cite the errors of Lord Dalkeith, when speaking from the county hus- tings in Edinburgh (Tuesday, March 31). It does honour to his conscientiousness that, whilst erroneously supposing the Arrow to be confessedly no British vessel, from the pre- mature letter of Sir John Bo wring to Consul Parkes, he gave his vote in that way which seemed best to mark his sense of what then appeared to be our British injustice ; and it does honour to his candour that, on having since seen reason to distrust the impression which originally governed him, he now de- clares from the hustings that the case is doubt- ful. " I will not give my opinion," says the Earl, *' as to whether we were right or wrong in the question of the lorcha : it was argued both ways by the most eminent lawyers in both Houses of Parliament." Yes; but being argued, with whatever legal skill, upon a false report of the facts, thus far the whole debate goes for nothing. But Lord Dalkeith adds a sentence (I quote frcm the " Scotsman's " re- port) which must have perplexed his hearers and readers: " It was argued," he says, "that^ in dealing with a barbarous people like the Chinese — for, though they are a people learned 10 in mathematics, and in some of the erudite / sciences, they yet are a barbarous people — we ought/' &c. As to the barbarism, nobody will contradict his lordship there ; but as to the mathematics and erudite sciences, this is the first time they were ever heard of ; and I cannot but suppose that the error may be owing to some equivocal phrases in the " Let- tres Edifiantes," or other works of that early date. No native Chinese, educated at a na- / tive school, ever advanced, I have good rea- son for believing, to the Fourth Book of " Eu- clid." When the Roman Catholic Mission- aries, about 1640, and especially the Jesuits, to whom all Europe is so much indebted for the diffusion of education, and above all of mathematics (for by Jesuits it was that the " Principia " of the heretic Newton were first popularised by a commentary), the Chinese were in too abject a state to calculate a lunar eclipse, and many times the astrono- mer-royal was bambooed in punishment of his miscalculations. But what did these hor- rid savages want with mathematics ? It is perfectly impossible that any insulated love of speculative truth can ever arise. One mode ^ of abstract truth leads into another, and col- lectively they flourish from reciprocal sup- 11 port. Mathematics ! — how could those men have, who had no navigation, no science of pro- jectiles, no engineering, no land-surveying, no natural philosophy, nor any practical discipline that depends upon mathematics ? To deter- mine " the fortunate hour " * for any inaugural act, that was the ultimate object of "science" contemplated in China, Anything more than this was left to the Jesuits. In fact, a lively picture of the temporary light spread by the Jesuits might be drawn from the relations of Prospero to Caliban. The mighty wizard first taught the carnal dog to disting-uish the x/ I greater and the lesser light, in fact, to un- ^ derstand the cause of day and night. But beyond a certain point he could not go — all teaching was thrown away upon one who could not be taught to love knowledge. Cali- ban, however, was at least made tractable to * It is asserted by philosopliic travellers more than one, that not any great city throughout the greater part of the East is placed where naturally it ought to have been; and why 1 Sim- ply out of deference to the sister folly of seeking fortunate sties. Good sense pointed out one site; but divination and magical tricks stepped in to prescribe some other. Even our ambassador in Persia has been stopped, sometimes at the gates of Teheran, &c., that his horse's feet might be timed into perfect coincidence with the suggestions of astrology. 12 discipline — he understood the meaning of a kick. But the Chinese Caliban, " Abhorred slave, That any print of goodness would not take," was visited by successions of Prosperos, and persecuted them all whenever the casual ca- price that protected them for the hour had burned itself out. Erroneous praise given to such vile burlesques of intellectual humanity forces a man to lodge his protest. Had the Chinese ever been inoculated with any true science, they would have learned to appreciate those who have more. Once let them, in any one pursuit, manifest a sense or a love of anything really intellectual, and we shall then have a hank over them — then first they will rise out of that monkey tribe, capable of mi- ^J micry, but of no original creative act, to which they now belong. Impressed with this general want of know- ledge as to China and its habits of feeling, which is due to mere want of study applied v/ to that subject, I have allowed myself to sup- pose that it might be serviceable to abstract, and to make accessible for the mass of readers, the Parliamentary Blue Books, which are con- I y stantly filled with instructive details, but are seldom effectually published so as to reach readers not wealthy, nor having much time to seek after works lying out of the ordinary track. As one mode of doing this, I have here reprinted a paper of my own from Titan, which embodies a good deal of cir- , cumstantial knowledge originally drawn, in great part, from Blue-books of several years back. To this I have prefixed what will be found a seasonable account of an angry dispute with China in the year 1848, drawn from the ample report made officially to Government. At a moment when the subject of China is ^ sure to be universally discussed, no case can possibly present more instructive features ; for it was conducted, from first to last, by a man of unrivalled energy and resolution, the Con- sul Rutherford Alcock ; and it serves, in every stage, for a representative picture of the Chi- ^ nese policy in dealing with foreigners. It has ! also this separate value, that it rehearses and anticipates, as in a mirror, the main features of our present dispute, some nine years younger, with Yeh and the " literati " (as we absurdly call the poisoning knaves) of Canton. Here we find the same insolent disposition to offer insults, the same extravagant obstinacy in re- y 14 fusing all real redress, and the same silly at- tempt to cheat us with a sham redress. Here, also, we find anticipated the late monstrous doc- trine put forward in Parliament — namely, that no retaliatory measures must be undertaken by the delegated officers — consul or plenipo- tentiary — until the whole case has been sub- mitted to the Home Government. On such extravagant terms, no outrage, however atro- cious, could be redressed ; the opportunity would have lapsed ; the sense of injury would have faded away, and the sense of justice in the reprisals would be blunted, long before. Lord Dalkeith, indeed, most aristocratically suggests, that the disqualification of Sir J. Bowring for instant retaliation arose out of his station — he was not of ranh sufficient to undertake hostilities. War demanded a baron at the least. If that were so, then govern- ment had been greatly to blame in not origi- nally appointing a man of adequate rank to fill the situation. The public service suffers, danger is allowed to ripen, the reparable be- comes irreparable, under such a doctrine as this. To what excess would our interests have been damaged in Burmah, in Scinde, in Affghanistan, and many other places, had such a doctrine operated ! Let us hear, on 15 this subject, two men of the most appropriate experience. First, in 1848, on March 31, thus writes Consul Alcock on the supposed propriety of his seeking instructions from Hong-Kong (^ thousand miles off) before he was at liberty to move : — " Too distant to refer for in- structions, I have been compelled, without delay or hesitation, to do all that seemed pos- sible with the means at my disposal. If fear of responsibility had deterred me, I conscien- tiously believe that, long before your Excel- lency's better judgment could have been brought to bear upon the circumstances^ our position would have been materially deteriorated, and our security would have been seriously endan- gered.'''' And this, he adds, is the opinion also of all the foreigners, of the naval officer on the station, and all other men of any expe- rience. Secondly, on March 29, 1848, thus write the consular representatives of foreign powers, addressing our admirable British Consul, Mr Eutherford Alcock : — " II est certain que si vous eussiez tarde d^un seul jour a exiger et obtenir la punition exemplaire des miserables qui s'etoient rendus coupables &c., la vie et les proprietes de tons les etrangers etoient serie- 16 usement compromises." A single day's delay would, it seems, have been dangerous, might have been ruinous ; and yet people would have life-and-death arrangements to wait for com- munication between Shanghai and London ! Shanghai, as is well known to those few persons who have made themselves acquainted with our Chinese Treaties, is one of the five ports laid open to our commercial shipping — that is, extorted from the terrors of China by ^ our 10,000 expostulating bayonets ; and next after Canton it is the most important. Here we British had, upon the whole, lived very much unmolested. For a thousand miles, laid between us and the murdering ruffians of Can- ton, had availed to cleanse the air from the reeking fumes of human shambles. Early, however, in the spring of 1848, six years after our drums and trumpets were heard no more, this happy calm was interrupted by a ferocious outrage, which is of the last importance for reasons of permanent diplomatic value. The reader must not understand that, in its imme- diate features of violence and wantonness, this case transcended many others in or near Can- ton : on the contrary, by an accident no life was lost on this occasion ; whereas in Canton as many as six of our countrymen have been 17 murdered outright in one and the same mi- nute. But the Shanghai case moved regularly through all the stages of judicial inquest under the most resolute, vigilant, and prudent of pub- lic officers. The Consul at Shanghai, Mr Eu- therford Alcock, fortunately for the interests of justice on this particular occasion — yet that was a trifle by comparison with the interests of our general position in China — followed up the criminal inquest, hunted back upon the traces of the ruffians with the energy of some Hebrew avenger of blood. On Wednesday the 8th of March, 1848, three British missionaries — Medhurst, Lock- hart, and Muirhead — made an excursion into the country from Shanghai, for the purpose of distributing Protestant tracts — a purpose quite unintelligible to the Celestial intellect. The furthest point of their journey was Tsing-poo, distant about ninety-six le p. ^., according to the usual valuation, |' English miles],* The exact distance became a question of import- ance, since naturally it must everywhere be * But Sir J. Davis, or else Mr Fortune it is, who remarks — that instead of counting a le as one-third of an English mile, more often it would be fair to regard it as a fourth, or sometimes even as a fifth of a mile. However, in this case, thirty miles is the Consul's own valuation. B 18 desirable for sustaining a complaint against wrongdoers — that the plaintiff should not himself be found trespassing upon any regula- tion of law. Now, the Treaty limited our journeys to a day's extent. But on this point there seems to be no room for demur, since the Consul (whose authority is here unimpeach- able) exonerates the Missionaries from having at all exceeded the privileged distance. On leav- ing Tsing-poo, the Missionaries were hustled by a mob — not, perhaps, ill disposed in any serious extent, but rough and violent. Yet this mode- ration might be merely politic ; for thus far the mob was under the eye of the town and its police. But, on leaving the town, another mob was seen coming after them — apparently, by its angry and menacing gestures, of a more dangerous character. Two of the mission- aries, Medhurst and Lockhart, being able to converse fluently in Chinese, thought it best to expostulate with this mob; and, accord- ingly, to await their coming up. Any expres- sion of courage was likely to do service, but in this case it failed. It is not necessary to repeat minutely the / circumstances of the outrage. The mission- aries were knocked down, trampled on, robbed of their watches and all other personal effects, I 19 and then dragged back to Tsing-poo, with the avo\Yed intention of either forcing them seve- rally to pay a ransom of one thousand dollars, or else (which, on the whole, they preferred) of striking off their heads on reaching the other side of the city. Who were these wretches, thus capable of meditating the last violence against a party of inoffensive strangers, that had come to Tsing- poo on a mission unintelligible, it is true, to > them^ but still wearing on its face a purpose of disinterested kindness? A few words will explain their position with regard to the Go- vernment, and the danger which attached to their enmity. The tributes of rice, sent to Peking by the southern provinces, had usually been conveyed to Peking by way of the grand canal. This method, as compared with the conveyance by sea, was costly, but had been forced upon the Government as the one sole resource in their hands for employing a turbu- lent body of junk-men. At this crisis, how- ever, an extraordinary shallowness* affected * The natural hydraulics of the river system in China threatens a vast section of this country with ruin; and the ruin is drawing nearer every year. One main cause lies in the constitution of the Yellow River (the second in rank among the Chinese rivers), which brings down continually vast bodies of mud, much of which is not carried out to sea, but forms constant layers of de- 20 the grand canal, and the grain was put on board ships. The boatmen, amounting to 13,000, but by some accounts to 20,000, were thus thrown out of employ. How were they to live, or to support their families? The wicked Government (which Mr Roebuck treats as specially paternal) allowed them to under- stand that they must live at free quarters, as privileged marauders, upon the surrounding district ; to which district they had accord- ingly become a terrific abomination. On March 9, the day immediately following the outrage, the proper steps were taken for obtaining satisfaction by the Consul resident at Shanghai. A demand was instantly lodged with the Ta-oo-tae, or sheriff, for the arrest of the persons criminally implicated in the attack, for their trial, for their punishment, and for the restoration of the stolen property. Very soon it became evident that the Magistrate had not the remotest intention of attending to any one of these demands. " With a singular in- aptitude," says the Consul, '' he wasted time position, which have already raised the body of the water to such a lieight, that it is in a permanent condition of overflow, and at some seasons ruinously so. Shallows, on the other hand, arise in / the artificial waters, from causes to which European science could apply remedies. 21 so precious to him in mere subterfuges, and miserable attempts at trick and evasion. And the arrests, which were prevented at first only by his want of will, would soon pass out of his power." Once convinced that nothing was to be hoped for from the voluntary aid of the Ta-oo-tae, the Consul sat down to calculate his means of compulsion. These lay chiefly in such coercion or restraint as might be found applicable to a vast fleet of junks "on the eve of departure for Peking, and at that moment lying ready laden in the anchorage above H.M.S. Childers. Of these junks there were more than a thousand. Of all that vast number, not one," said the Consul, "shall pass the Childers," until satisfaction shall have been given as to the arrest of the Tsing-poo cri- minals. This embargo had been maintained for se- veral days, when the Ta-oo-tae attempted to intimidate the Consul by suborning two deputy oflicers to suggest the probability of an attack from a Shanghai mob. This suggestion was made by way of letter, and the men asked for a personal interview, at which they would have'attempted to enforce their alarms more effectually. But the Consul contemptuously refused to see them. '' I have," said he, " a 22 wife and family living in the very centre of Shanghai : they and I am at your mercy ; but that will not frighten me from my duty." On March 12, the Consul writes to say — " That, up to yesterday evening, three days since the outrage had elapsed without result. All the parties implicated had been seen by hundreds, must be known to the policemen who assisted in the release of the British so cruelly maltreated ; and, finally, that all the junk-men are in the employ of the Chinese Government. The Consul is bound to inform the Ta-oo-tae that, under these circumstances, any hesitation or any delay amounts to a denial of justice. On the day following, namely, March 13, the Consul writes again : — " The ringleaders in the late m^urderous attack upon British sub- jects have not yet been seized. It is now, therefore, the Consul's duty to inform the Chief Magistrate, that between nation and nation, in all countries not thoroughly barba- rous, it is a recognised law, when an injury is inflicted for which reparation is refused, the nation aggrieved may do itself ]\x.^i\CQ^ when justice cannot otherwise be obtained." — The Consul then shows, that for him the dilemma has arisen — either to see the highest interests 23 of his nation sacrificed by the impunity granted y^ to these criminals ; or And then he states distinctly the other horn of the dilemma in these following terms : — " If, within forty-eight hours reckoned from noon of this present day, ten of the ringlead- ers are not in Shanghai for trial and punish- ment, the Consul will, in that case, take other steps to obtain that reparation which the ho- nourable Ta-oo-tae must then be understood solemnly to have refused." But was justice to linger through these forty-eight hours ? By no means : provisional steps were to be taken instantly — namely, these two : — First, "no duties for British ships can be paid over to the custom-house ; " Secondly, " nor can it be permitted that the grain junks now in the river shall leave the port; and I trust that you, the honourable Ta-oo-tae, may see the prudence of forbidding them to make the attempt." The Consul then wisely reminds the Ma- gistrate — whose doing it is virtually that these resolute measures are adopted : let Mm — let the dispenser of justice — cease to cherish mur- derers, and all will return to its natural chan- nels. Indispensable is this continued moral 24 memento ; for else the knave would too surely forget that anybody was accountable for the pressure on the Chinese finances except Her Britannic Majesty's representative. The Consul winds up by these two para- graphs, that must have carried with them the poison of scorpions : — First, with regard to the evasion attempted of late more and more by the Chinese authori- ties, and which, with their usual silliness, they fancy to be a knockdown blow to the British, such as cannot be parried — namely, that they, the Chinese, find themselves in a mere inabi- lity to control their own mob, and that nobody can justly be summoned to the performance of impossibilities — the Consul simply requests the Ta-oo-tae to observe that in that case the Treaty lapses, and becomes so much waste paper. It had then, confessedly, been the crime of the Peking Government, in an earlier stage of the intercourse with Britain, to un- dertake that which, if noro aware, then and always it must have been aware, of inability to perform. If this inability is not to be re- garded as a sharper's trick, then the British re-enter upon those rights of self-indemnifica- tion which, upon mendacious pretences, they had consented to withdraw ; and the Chinese 25 re-enter upon those evils from which, under a fraudulent represen^ttion, we consented to deliver them. Nothing was exacted from Peking, except the withdrawal of patronage from murder. The closing paragraph, ominous in Chinese ears as the bell of St Sepulchre in past times to the poor Newgate convict, ran thus : — " I entreat you, whilst it is yet time, to put an end to this imtoward state of aifairs by pro- ducing THE criminals:" [there lay the sum of our demand :] '^ but, if this be not done, it remains for me to announce my determination to redress the injury inflicted." The Consul then announces the arrival of H.M.S. Chil- ders, and the immediate approach of her com- rade, the Espiegle. " And should further insult, molestation, or injury be offered to British subjects, I will summon every British ship within reach to the anchorage ; and the consequences will rest on your Excellency's head, whose acts will have been the cause of all that may follow." Let us pause a moment to review the case so far as it has even yet travelled. I have noticed in another part of this pamphlet the / 26 inhuman obstinacy of the Chinese, quite un- paralleled in human annals, agreeably to which experience it is a common remark of Euro- peans in China, that no good ever comes of reasoning with a Chinaman ; for what he says at first, though by mere accident, that he fan- cies it a point of nobility to insist on at the last. But at what price ? Let this be judged by the present case. This dog, now playing his antics before us in a style to make the angels weep, is pretending to think it a meri- torious distinction in his public history, that he has screened, and will continue to screen, from justice a gang of bloody criminals. Why? On what allegation? Allow him even the benefit of what is essential to the comfort of a Chinese — namely, f alsehood — upon what mendacious pretence does he build his patron- age of these thieves ? Is it that he takes some separate and eccentric view of their murder- ous acts ? Is it as a hair-splitting casuist that he comes forward ? Not at all : he admits the very worst of what is alleged against them by ourselves. Is it then simply that he shrinks from the trouble that may chance to be con- nected with the arrest of the accused ? But as yet he has not made an attempt to arrest them ; and already, even at this early stage of 27 the case, it has become evident enough that trouble incalculably greater will attend the i refusal to arrest. Is it then that he has been b bribed by, or on behalf of, the wrong-doers ? Neither case is possible : there is nobody who takes any interest in the ruffians ; and they, in- dividually, are paupers. The sole reason which governs the Ta-oo-tae, is derived from the im- pulse of demoniac obstinacy. From the first he had sworn to himself — that the Consul should not obtain his demand. And, in fact, it will not be obtained through this officer, though it is daily becoming clearer that it will be obtained in spite of this officer, to the sig- nal injury of this officer, and (unless he should have the fiend's luck as well as his own), pro- bably, to his ruin. Yet all this plain summons of common sense is overthrown by the single impulse of Chinese currish restiveness. Considered as a morbid phenomenon in the history of human nature, the case [^. ^., not the individual case, but the Chinese case gene- y rally] is interesting; and it is worth while arraying before the reader that series of mor- tifications which had already followed out of the Ta-oo-taed obstinacy, and was likely every week to thicken its gloomy shadows : — First, he had been baffled — and, which was 28 still more mortifying, he had been exposed as a baffled agent — in a little intrigue for under- mining the official rights and dignity of the Consul — Rutherford Alcock. The Ta-oo-tae had written privately to Mr Medhurst, with ^ 'view to some secret hole-and-corner settle- ment of the case, such as might evade the call for the criminals, and supersede, as a res judi- cata^ the official interference of the Consul. With summary decision, the Consul showed him that his manoeuvres were known to him, and were too frivolous (as being founded in total ignorance of international diplomacy) to cause him any serious concern. Secondly, he had hoped that this refusal of the Tsing-poo delinquents would operate most prejudicially to the British interests, in so far as they depended upon public opinion. And this result really would have followed, but for the powerful counteraction effected by the Consul. He was fully aware of the intense interest in this affair taken by the whole po- pulation between Shanghai and Tsing-poo. The Chinese in this province, previously per- plexed in extremity by the counter indications of British ch aracter, had been impressed pro- foundly by reports to the disadvantage of our power and credit from Canton; they were 29 generally in a state of suspense upon the true tendencies of our influence and weight with the supreme government; and this contest with the local government, tending (as appa- rently it did) to an open rupture, was natu- rally watched by the whole population over an area* of a thousand square miles (/. ^., over all the interjacent country connecting Shang- hai and Tsing-poo, and round each of these neighbouring cities as a centre). But this vigilant interest was trained into currents fa- vourable to the British name by placards (in the Chinese language for the native popula- tion, in the English language for the European population), emanating from the judicious pen of the Consul. These placards were, in one ^ special feature, most skilfully framed — that so far from arrogantly or ostentatiously ar- raying before their readers the vast British resources, on the contrary, they sought to apologise for the painful necessity of employ- ing them. Nevertheless, in the very act of thus apologising, unavoidably they rehearsed and marshalled those terrors which they de- * ^^Area-^'' — Not of a thousand miles square, which else the reader might be predisposed to think from the vast extent of China, but of a thousand square miles. / 30 precated. How painful to summon this eighty- four-gun ship ! How disagreeable to call up that dreadful Nemesis steamer, which revives so many angry memorials ! Yet in deprecat- ing he records them. It was not that the Consul really felt the confidence, or not all the confidence, which pa- triotically he simulated. But he knew that it would be ruinous to manifest any fears ; upon the least encouragement in that way a Chinese populace becomes unmanageable; for the Chi- nese is a natural connoisseur in cowardice ; by sympathetic instinct he understands and appre- ciates every movement of fear. The Consul, therefore, sufi'ered the ladies of his family to traverse the city every day at high noon, and in every direction : not hiding from himself or them^ meantime, that upon any hostile demonstration from the mob of Shanghai, he and they were lost ; for their dwelling was in the very centre of the city, from which no escape was possible. Let the reader, mean- time, in estimating this attempt to work upon the Consul's fears for his family, transfer the situation in his imagination to London, and figure to himself our own sheriffs of London and Middlesex, under instructions from the Foreign Ofiice, and from the Privy Council, 31 striving to terrify a Chinese envoy from his duty, by suggesting dangerous mobs. m This dodge having failed, the Ta-oo-tae (whom, for the sake of brevity, permit me ' henceforward to call* by the well-known name of Mr Toots) tried another. He had pledged his word at 10 a.m., that in return for notorious forbearances on the part of the Con- sul, he would himself abstain from all under- hand intrigues with the rice-junks. At 11 A.M. on the same day he issued secret orders that these junks should drop down, and try to slip out by threes and fours, hoping thus to mc^ distract the little Childers. This ritse, also, ^""^ having failed, next he practised others more ^^^nh and more childish. He caused, for instance, "" bricks to be piled elaborately above the rice. But Jack, on board the Childers, found prime larking in watching and baffling all these wiles. The little Childers proved herself " a brick " in maintaining the Consul's embargo ; and upon the whole it was certain that the merest trifle, if any at all, of the rice had slipped through. * " To call:'' — But begging pardon of the English Mr Toots, whom we all know to be a kind-hearted and honourable man, for taking such a liberty with his respected name, even for a moment. 32 An interdict having simultaneously been put upon the payment of the usual British dues to the custom-house, those who sate at the receipt of custom began to hold a sinecure oflSice. Fine holiday times there were now in Shanghai, which made the Chinese Mr Toots very popular at that port ; but on the other hand, at Peking, and all around the Im - perial Exchequer, which showed all the symp- toms of galloping consumption, he would have been cursed by bell, book, and candle, had it been known distinctly who caused the stop-^ page. Toots, therefore, fancied that he would try his hand at a new swindle, which could cost him only two dollars and a lie. So, one fine morning he said to the Consul—. What is it you want? — Cons, What is it? Why, I should think, you knew pretty well by this time : what I want is — the Tsing-poo knaves. — Toots. Well, I've got 'em. — Com,, How many? — Toots, Two ; but, as they were the ringleaders, that ought to do. — Cons, No : it's too little, by eight. However, as a pay- , ment to account, I'll take it: We'll call it a first instalment. But let's have a look at I. the men ; are you sure they are genuine ? — Toots, Oh, quite. Cons, Well, I'll send for the Missionaries. These, on arriving, were intro-' f 33 duced, together with the Consul, to the sup- posed ruffians; but the whole pretence was instantaneously detected as a hoax . Neither of the men could be recognised by any of the Missionaries ; and by an ingenious artifice of the Consul, they were conclusively exposed as swindlers. Concerting his plan with the Mis- sionaries, the Consul challenged both the knaves to answer him this question : one most rememberable incident in the course of the outrage — Had it happened at the east (other- wise the Shanghai) gate, or at the north gate ? After an embarrassed pause, both men said — At the north gate. Now, in fact, it had happened at neither, but in the very centre of the town, two miles removed from any gate. This dodge, therefore, would not work, any more than the brick-masked rice. The two scoundrels were exploded from the stage with peals of laughter,* whilst Mr Toots walked * This is amongst the commonest tricks of the Chinese Go- vernment. When any European has been injured too deeply to admit of a blank denial, half-a-dollar is paid to some Chinese vagabond for personating the delinquent; having been shown once or twice in a public place, he is then withdrawn to some distant station, for the assumed purpose of brigading him with other convicts working out their penal sentences, but in reality to fulfil the bargain by discharging him in a place where the transaction will escape all public notice. This infamous trick suggested the prudence of nominating, in cases affecting our own C n/ 34 off re infecta, saying, Ifs of no consequence, not of the very least consequence, not the slightest in the world. But nobody could say that of the next move in the game. The Consul had by this time become weary of the fool's play, which, be- cause it was childish and girlish beyond all belief to European minds, was not on that ac- count the less knavish or the less dangerous. He was therefore now prepared to play his last and capital card : neither the rice embargo nor the customs' interdict was of a nature to be long continued — the pressure, growing every hour more severe, would have found a vent in riots, such as neither prudence nor conscience, on our British side, was likely to contemplate steadfastly. The last resource, therefore, in a case where the subordinate magistrates showed no signs of yielding, must be an armed appeal to the higher. This was tried : it was tried instantly ; instantly it met with the amplest acquiescence; instantly satisfaction was award- ed on each several article of our complaint ; interests, some inspector to watch the infliction of the sentence. But to this there are various objections; and Lord Palmerston suggested one additional objection, which is painfully insur- mountable — namely, that under a cruel government we should be called on to witness (inferentially to sanction) torture. 35 and to all appearance (though such appearances / are hard to spell in trick-trick-tricking China) the celestial pig-tail curled up wrathfully against Mr Toots, and frowns mantled on the celestial countenance, though Mr Toots per- sisted in saying that it was of no consequence — not the least ; no, I assure you, not of the slightest conceivable consequence. The arch little gipsy, the saucy Espiegle, thought other- wise. She and Mr Toots differed in opinion. For she it was that worked the whole revolu- tion. She it was that carried a certain letter from the Consul, and also the Consul's compli- ments, into the great river Yang-tse-Keang ; and from pure forgetfulness (which I can allow for, being myself subject to frequent absence of mind), she carried at the same time her whole armament of guns. This little ship, finding herself in this huge river, danced a few cotillons up and down ; but, at last, "night coming on, she settled down to business ; ran up to Nanking; asked if the Viceroy lived there ; and, finding he did. Jack handed in his papers, saying that the Viceroy would find a writ inside for himself. It is inconceivable what a fright and what a termashaw were caused by this little Espiegle. For hundreds of miles on both banks of the river were seen men peer- 36 ing into honeycombed guns, like magpies into a marrow-bone, cleaning muskets, sharpening swords, drying damp gunpowder. Some reason there w^as for all this alarm, since the Espi6gle had her guns with her ; she showed her teeth ; and the last time that the " Son of the Ocean" * or any of his children could have seen such teeth had been sixteen years ago : at which date results had followed never to be forgotten by China ; for, beyond all doubt, the great social swell, the restlessness, and the billowy state of insurrectionary uproars, that have agitated ^ China ever since their war with us, owe their origin to that war. They trace not only their time origin, but their causal origin to that war. That war pierced as with Ithuriel's spear the great bloated carcase of China, and what fol- lowed ? The old Miltonic Ithuriel dislodged the mighty form of a leading warrior an- gel from what had seemed to be a bloated toad ; but Great Britain, the Ithuriel of 1842, simply reversed this process ; and that which, under old traditional superstitions, had mas- queraded as a warrior angel, collapsed, at one touch of the mighty spear, into a bloat- * Tang tse-Keang: — Such is the native designation of this mighty river, nearly 3000 miles long. 37 ^ ed toad. The Mndbess^of ^Cliiua prompted her to come (and needlessly to come) into collision with a power the mightiest upon earth; or, under any estimate, mightiest of those that speak from a double centre of land and sea. The title of leader among terraque- ous potentates, no rival (however jealous) will refuse to Great Britain ; and exactly such a power it was that China should have shun- ned : because the great nations that are strong only in armies cannot, from the cost and other causes, transfer one-fortieth part of their forces to regions so remote as China. Even St Petersburg is above six thousand miles distant (and therefore Moscow not five hundred miles less) from the very nearest (that is, the northernmost) of the Chinese ca- pitals — namely, Peking; consequently much more from the southern capitals of China; and, meantime, all the populous and most available part of Eussia is divided from China by vast (often fountainless) deserts, and by vast (often pathless) steppes. No potentate, therefore, on whom the sun looks down was more to be feared by China as her evil ge- nius than Great Britain : none ever showed so much forbearance ; none so much forgot her own majesty in desire to conciliate this 38 brutal megatherium. Yet upon folly that is doomed all advantages are thrown away. And Britain — that asked nothing from China, but — 1. not to swindle by means of a Com- missioner Lin ; 2. not to patronise murder ; 3. to keep a better tongue in her head — could ^ not obtain these most reasonable demands in return for vast commercial benefits. At length that Britain, which China so insolently rejected as a friend, was made the instrument of her chastisement. Not meaning to do more than to repress her insolence, which at length had become an active and contagious nuisance, we probed and exposed her military weakness to an extent that is now irrevocable. Seeking only to defend our own interests, unavoidably we laid bare to the whole w^orld, and therefore to her own mutinous children, the condition of helpless wreck in which China had long- been lying prostrate. The great secret (whis- / pered no doubt in Asia for some generations) \ms broadly exposed. As some parliamentary candidate rightly expressed it, China is now" in a general state of disintegration — rotten in one part, she is hollow in another. On this quarter you detect cancer ; on that quarter you find no- thing on w^hich cancer could prey. Neither is there any principle of self-restoration. Vital 39 stamina there are none ; and amongst the chil- dren of the state, cruel subjects of a cruel and / wicked government, it is vain to count upon any filial tenderness or reverential mercy to- wards their dying mother. Mercy there is (to use Shakspere's language) about " as much as there is milk in a male tiger ; " and as to prin- ciples that might do the work of alienated af- fections, who has ever witnessed such springs r of action amongst the Chinese ? Gone, there- fore — burned out — • in China, is any one principle of cohesion to which you can look for the restoration of a government. Since our war, there has been no general govern- ment — none but a local and fractured one : and what has disguised, or partially masked, this state of anarchy, is simply the vast ex- tent of China; secondly, the comatose con- dition of what are called the literati; and thirdly, the discontinuous currency of all public movements, from the want of any real Press ; and the want of any such patriotic interests as could ever create a Press. We therefore having been the organs by which this fatal revolution was effected in China, and our triumph in 1842 having been sealed by the martial events that occurred in the Yang-tse-Keang, naturally enough our re- 40 appearance upon that stage awakened memories and fears accounting for a great body of agita- tion. A generation partly new was growing up, that had heard of us, and read of us, as terrific water-monsters, sharks, or crocodiles, but many of whom had not seen us. In those circumstances, naturally, the rush was great to see our jolly tars of the Espiegle; and disappointed were many that our heads did not grow beneath our shoulders. The pre- sents, and gages d'amitie, which we received from the mob, were painfully monotonous — too generally assuming the shape of paving- stones. However, it was pleasant to find that in the distribution of these favours their own countrymen, the mandarins, went along with us — share and share alike : indeed, some thought that thei/ got seven to our six, which was inhospitable. Such was our reception from the mob; but from the Viceroy, and what elsewhere we call the literati, distin- guished was our welcome, and oily the cour- tesies at our service. But the great result of the trip to Nanking was, that we gained all the objects contem- plated by the Consul in a degree, and with a facility, that no man could have counted on ; so that no act of vigour ever perhaps so fully f 41 justified itself by the results as did this of the Consul. The fact was, they were all alarmed at our presence. Vainly we spoke words of friendship and assurance. The Emperor him- self was not very far off, and was agitated by the visit of the little Espiegle ; which the crew could not understand, saying, " Bless your heart, the little pet w^ouldn't harm a fly ; she's as quiet as a lamb." She might be so, but the literati were all anxious that the lamb should seek her pastures in some other river. This uneasiness was our greatest auxiliary : aided by this, we obtained almost instant de- spatch; and, that the lamb might have no pretence for coming back to attack the wolves, everything asked for was conceded. Had we asked for Toots's head, we should probably have got it. Within three days, those ten ringleaders, whom Toots had found it so dire an impossibility to produce for trial, were paraded with the cangue (or portable pillory) about their necks in the centre of Shanghai ; and subsequently provided with chambers suited to their various walks of study, in select dungeons: the thousand junks, in number, roominess, and elegance of accommodation, probably well representing the thousand "black ships " that followed x^dmiral Agamemnon to 42 the Troad, were all in one minute suffered to unmoor by the little Childers, whose wrath exhaled as suddenly as that of Diana at Aulis. Consequently rice was suddenly " looking down" to a horrible extent in Peking. The customs, which had seemed frozen up, now thawedfreelyintothe celestial breeches-pocket, though sadly intercepted by ravenous manda- rins on the way. Concerning all which, though everybody else was pleased. Toots remarked that it wasn't of much consequence ; in fact, speaking confidentially, wasn't of any, not the least in the world, of no consequence what- ever. So terminated, in such triumphant style, and with reparation so ample, this affair of Shanghai, which, left to itself, or confided to any other hands than those of Rutherford Alcock, naturally and rapidly tended to a new war : that tendency it was which so much alarmed the Viceroy. Of all diplomatists, this masterly Rutherford Alcock is least open to the charge of having operated by means of war ; since, of all men in China, he happens to be the one who prospered exclusively by preventing a war. An anonymous writer in the " Scots- man " of April 7 (having, however, no sanc- tion * whatever to plead from the Editor * I do not know whether his very long (and not uninteresting) 43 of the " Scotsman") is most bitter in his re- flections on Consul Alcock ; so bitter, that all readers will suspect a personal feud as under- lying such intemperate language. This I will not repeat ; but will content myself with sum- ming up, as a suitable close to the Shanghai narrative. Nine years have now passed since the drama (at one time looking very like a tragedy) closed in a joyous and triumph- ant catastrophe. There was an anagnorisis (ai/a/Jwp/o'/$) just sucli as the Stagirite approves : the Tsing-poo ruffians were all recognised and identified to the satisfaction of a crowded audience by the three Missionaries ; they were punished to the extent of what the Chinese law allows, except that death (which that law awards in the case of robbery) was remitted with the cordial assent of the injured parties. And, finally, the Consul, who may be regarded as the hero of this drama, was crowned with communication of three columns, in small type, may not even be an advertisement. But, assuredly, it is in no harmony with the de- cisive opinions of that journal. The writer adopts the signature of "Cathay:" now, this (an old name for the northern section of China, China to the north of the Great River, constantly used by writers of our Henry VIIT. period, as, for example, Ariosto, who always speaks of Angelica as daughter to the Emperor of Cathay) may properly enough express antiquated doctrines on the subject of China: a superannuated name may appropriately symbolise a superannuated policy — the policy of submission on our part. 44 universal praise, and by none more than his official superiors, Sir George Bonham and Lord Palmerston, who had blamed or doubted his policy at first, but had now the candour to allow that its headlong boldness had consti- V tuted its main ground of success. 'rrc.fi^ .' Meantime, no dealing of ours with men born in China could ever pass without a cha- racteristic kick from some Chinese hoof. In this particular case, indeed, all things told so ill for the flowery people, whether gentle or simple, master or man, that the whole might have been e:^pected for once to pass in solemn silence. But this was not to be. The Vice^- roy had been too thoroughly frightened by Her Majesty's brig Espiegie, not to take out his vengeance in a private letter [marked con- fidential] to the Emperor. How this letter transpired, is no business of mine : it did ; and well it exemplifies the scoundrelism of the / Chinese nature in high quarters equally as in lowest.,^^^;, ^4^ ;. io^The Viceroy describes the Tsing-poo rob- bery iand meditated murder as a brawl between the JMissionaries and some boatmen, leaving it to be collected that all the parties were per- haps drunk together, and got to what in West- mbrelatia is called scraffling. And next lie in- 45 sinuates that the wounds of the Missionaries were mere romances for colouring the pecu- niary claim.* It is probable that few of us who read this chapter of Chinese spoliation altogether go along with these Missionaries in their proselytising views upon a people so un- spiritual as our brutal friends the Chinese. But we all know the self-denying character of Missionaries as a class, who risk their lives in lands such as China. Poor Mr Medhurst did not live to recover the blessings of English society ; for he died immediately after landing in England : but his book speaks for itself. He is wrong, in my opinion, upon various Chinese questions, as particularly in his ela- borate chapters upon the probable population of China; and he too much palliates the Chi- * This honourable viceregal gentleman was here coining a double calumny — first, in pretending to have ground for repre- senting the bodily wounds as fictions; secondly, as fictions meant to sustain a pecuniary claim for indemnity: whereas, no charge at all, great or small, was made for anything whatever, except for the watches, &c., violently torn from the persons of the Mis- sionaries: and by looking to the Blue-book ("Reports respect- ing Insults in China "), it will be seen that this charge was ex* ceedingly moderate. In fact, it was important to let the mob know that they could not gain by robbery. Meantime, whilst circulating these calumnies in a quarter where he could not be met and contradicted, the Viceroy was perfectly aware that the very same falsehood, calling the affair a hrawl and an affray, had been already attempted and repelled in a lower region. 46 nese follies, when he apologises for our own English faith in Francis Moore. Only the low- est of the low in England ever do make pro- fession of believing in Moore. Whilst buying his almanack, which (in the common pirated editions of Belfast) was cheap, and met the ordinary purposes of an almanack, the rustic purchaser generally laughed. But, whether wrong or right in trifles, Medhurst was a most generous and a pious man : and the affair at Tsing-poo shows him to have been as brave a man as ever existed ; for all the accounts show that, when Mr Lockhart, by dropping behind, had fallen into great peril, Mr Med- hurst did not hesitate an instant in turning back and meeting an infuriated mob for the purpose of aiding his friend. But now, dismissing the past, let us come to our immediate British prospects in China. Gloomy, indeed, are these ; and it might seem greatly to lighten this burden, if I should say (which with great truth I can say) that we owe our difficulties to our own deplorable / want of energy ; and by one act of resolution, might eff'ect an instantaneous conquest of the two great obstacles to such a settlement as, under the social disorganisation of China, can now be had. What two obstacles are 47 those which I speak of? They are — the Em- peror : the most stolid of all known princes, and by force of very impotence an obstructive power ; secondly, the city of Canton. I will take this last-mentioned nuisance first. Mr Roebuck puts forward five separate ministers as having urged upon us the policy of forbear- ing to press our treaty-rights with regard to Canton. One only of the five is really an- swerable for such counsels — namely. Lord Aberdeen. He held very dangerous and un- patriotic language. The other four may be well represented by Lord Palmerston, whose real language was this — he advised us to keep up our right of free entrance into this city ; separately for itself, he thought the right of real importance ; and also distinctly so, as a treaty concession to us. What he said in the other direction amounted simply to this — that no harm would perhaps arise from consenting to suspend our claim during a period of re- fractoriness in the Canton mob. More than this Lord Palmerston could not consistently have said, since he had himself counselled earnestly that the claim should never be dropped, or even intermitted, but only with- drawn to the rear for a short period. But now, listen, reader, to the arguments upon wliicli it is, past all doubting, tliat the ^oble viscount would at present hold an altered tone. When he counselled delay, he did so under the impression (as openly he avowed) that no immediate benefit was lost through such a momentary suspension of the claim. But now, first of all, as regards both America and ourselves, there have, .arisen special and intolerable grievances, froni the want of build- ing ground in the interior of Canton.. The United States agents ar6 domplainiiig^Tfiore and more upon this head. But what is that by comparison with thB in6M effect from the growing diffusion over all China of our exclu- ^ §ion%r the express purpose of degrading us? ^ol have reported circumstantially the be- haViburiiof the Chinese ' magistracy, ordinary and extraordinary, on occasion of the Tsing- poo outrage, in order that it may be seen what sort of new treaties we need for the security of our British brethren in China^^ltHad Mr Consul Alcock failed in his last measure, the lives and property of all our countrymen at Shanghai would not have been worth a year's purchase. Now, lastly, -knowing what is wanted, let itW4tiqtrtM A^hk^ ^f 5^fe(?t^ W^^S^- is gf, obtaining it in face^ ,of the existing olifti stacles. What obstaclesiiocHfThose two which li y 49 I have already mentioned — the wicked city of Canton, and the wicked Emperor; both wicked, both wholesale dealers in murder, but, unfor- tunately, both stolid and ignorant in an excess, which makes them unmanageable, except by war, or bv menaces of war* uijiiJiiii^u I will begin with the first obstacle — namely, Canton — which, without a personal experience^ of the evil, is hardly appreciable. To tolerate a notorious and systematic de- gradation to any body of men, cannot be wise ' anywhere, but least of all in a nation so . ignorant as the Chinese, having no historic knowledge by which to correct any false im- pressions derived from accident; > e Crowds of men from Canton flock incessantly to Amoy and Shanghai, where they diffuse the most de- grading opinions of the British, and, to some extent, confirm them by the undeniable fact of our stern exclusion from their city.* <» tros^ Secondly, amongst a people that cannot be thought to have reached a higher stage of in- . — ^j / j'l:.h i;.i \ iSl ir * Lieutenant Holman, the blind travellef^ rcfports an infamous trick of the authorities at Canton on this subject. In order to justify the exclusion of the British, they circulated at Peking (where no contradiction was possible) the vilest calumnies as to the habits of the British, charging them with indecencies in public of a character too shocking for public mention. D 50 tellectual development than that which corre- sponds to childhood, it is not prudent to suffer any one article of a treaty to be habitually broken. Such infractions are contagious : the / knavish counsellor of the Emperor, finding that we submit coolly to one infraction, that aims at nothing confessedly beyond a bitter insult to us, this only, and no dream of any further advantage being proposed, are tempted into trying another infraction, and so onwards. For fourteen years we have allowed ourselves to tolerate this burning scandal ; and all the while the successive governors of Canton have been amusing us with moonshine visions that " the time may come " when they'can think of fulfilling their engagements.* Canton, there- fore, has two values — first, on its own account, separately ; secondly, on account of its rela- ^^, . , , . « lo npiliilHii/a^jj ii; • * The writer under the signature of " Cathay seems to re- hearse with sympathy the furious reitei'ations of hatred to us by the Cantonese, and to fancy that the very blindness of this fury furnishes an argument for treating it with deference. But a just man, though occupying a neutral position, would find in this one feature of the murderous frenzy an adequate argument for re- sisting it. Had the people of Canton pleaded any reasons for / their hatred, drawn from a real experience, they would have found some countenance, more or less, from the disinterested observer. But all men of good feeling recoil with disgust from a headlong monomania that glories in its own groundlessness. I 51 I tion to the treaty. Upon this latter point I ' MVe spoken. But, as to the other, it is not t possible to find words strong enough for the occasion. Mr Consul Alcock, when review- ing the circumstances which, on the one side, constitute, or which, on the other, tend to control, the danger attaching to the British position in China, where a little household, counted by hundreds, is scattered amongst hostile millions, thus brings the weight of his ofiicial experience to bear upon the question. He is speaking at the moment .gf- Shanghai ; but what he says applies to any and every English station alike i-nr" Our position is so deeply compromised, and our security from molestation so slight, that Shanghai wiU,^^jio better than Canton in an incredibly short pe- But what, then, was it that caused this gra- dual assimilation of a port, previously reputed safe, to that one which had always been a city of violence and danger ? Simply the example (published over all China) of Canton. The example of itself kindled evil thoughts — with- out, however, concealing the accompanying dangers of public chastisement or of private retaliation. But the record of its impunity whispered to the malignity of all China, en- ^^'^^ ^^ couraging thoughts of a possible gratification, liberated from the pursuing Nemesis©i{;^What this experienced Consul thought upon th'esub- ject, even Lord Palmerston, in the midst of his overwhelming labours, may find time to read. It is this-*^" Too many incidental cir- cumstances have been generally observed in the demeanour and acts of the. people and authorities, since the last catastrophe of Canton, lor those who have them daily under their eyes, to avoid the eynvibti on that our positioli kit that port has exercised a most prejudicial int- ftttenc^ 'i3|>(?n "the ' minds of both people 'an^ authorities. I have long been fully convinced, ff^m th6 Ve^tilt "^Df my observations at all the three ports where I have resided, that Canto% \x7id our relations there, have the 7nost serious effect upon our position at all the other ports, and our standing (with the authorities, at least) 'throughout the empire,"^ '^^a "' ^^'^V^^*' "' ""''^ ^"^"^^^ ,ijmia slix in jUwoj onj "^rinsjao no ^i^di stbws ei haa ,*ioi9i ^ * Is the reader aware of the insufferable affronts whick>{6(ik' countrymen have had to face daily at Canton ? How would any of ourselves like this which follows — to be under a necessity, often %nc6 a- day, of passing outside of a city, and at the gate of this city '^o be taunted with our exclusion, in spite of the treaty — " Yoii red-haired devil dare not for your life enter herel ". Then conre derisive grimaces, and, at the same time, a peculiariiChirping sound, which these fools' suppose to be the characteristic utter- ance of demons. And, at the same time, the British man or 53 ^n6Wm need a solid arrangement for_,jsecuring Iroffl'^the safetj2^aind the respectability of the British ; for at present we hold equally the unsafe position, and "the degraded position, of Jews in the middle ages, „Strange it seems, that '^at^fftis day any man' shduld have it in his power to expose a new feature in the administration of th©)jChinese Government ; and yef, apparently, it was never noticed by either of our two ambassadors ; most certainly it never entered practically into any chapter of their remedial provisions, that a mysterious darkness surrounds the Emperor, fatal to our- selves. uuIn^AfFghanistan^ we found ourselves in this hopeless embarrassment — that no organ .existed in the state with, which it was possible to form a treaty. He that for the moment ,had pow^r was the mandthat could locally giyp woman, who is obliged to pass the gate, can make no effectual retort, and is aware that, on entering the town, at all times, whether in public peace or not, a frantic murderous assault will follow. Such insolence it may require no great philosophy to «ndure once or twice; but how, if you were summoned to the tBame scene of furious indignity through twenty-five years? — and Bummonedito_this by the basest of poltroons, who never stood ^ Sot ten minutes before our troops, but fled like hare^^^ ^^^ injuries do the Cantonese reproach us with? They can mention ;|jione: the real injury is, that we British are that nation who have dissipated for ever the chimera, worshipped as an idol by China, ▼ that she is the supreme nation, upon this Q^^^^^aom^h '^ 'joa/? 54 effect to a treaty, but only for his own district ; and even there, possibly, only for a few weeks. This terrible defect proclaimed ruin to any party whose hopes lay' iti' negotiatingT'^^Now, a similar defect exists in China. The Em- peror, for most purposes, i^^S-feyphei^JWd' Van- not give effect to his own Mashes, though oc-* casionally they seem just. In 1836, and on some other occasions, he issued an edict, evi- dently founded on his own dim suspicions that the authorities at Canton were misleading him, and perhaps were themselves causing the turbulent movements which they charged upon the English, by their own attempts to pillage these foreigners.'''^ It is plain, from what transpires at long intervals, that an in- distinct glimmering of the truth reaches him at times. But too generally no truth eyer pe- netrates to the imperial cabinet.*" ""^* tB«i^«>i -^ * The great mystery in the Chinese administration is, how it can happen that, amongst a variable body like the high manda- rins, liable to sudden degradation and exile, with none of the stability attaching to hereditary nobles, any permanent conspi- racy for the intercepting of light can prosper. And yet, mani- festly, it does. Every event of our war with China was concealed from the Emperor. As one gross instance, in 1841, when we had so posted our troops that Canton lay completely at our mercy, the Governor, aware that the capture of Canton would resound through all China, was anxious to buy off this fate by a payment of six million dollars for the opium confiscated by Lin. This It is therefore our sad necessity in China, aa things stand at present, that we cannot in any satisfactory or binding sense negotiate. In order to figure adequately our embarrass- ment in this respect, we have only to remem- ber that the particular perplexity which ruined a detachment of our army at Cabul, and cost us 4000 Sepoys, together with nearly 500 Bri- tish infantry — namely, the absence of any re- presentatwe authority capable of guaranteeing the execution of a treaty — exists virtually in China, under a far less remediable form. It is a misery attaching to all barbarous lands that are under no control from the fraternal responsibilities acknowledged by nations un- der a system of international law. But the r nifi >>iJ')>]':>i jij;'-: ' - was accepted by us; but so reported to the poor foolish prince at Peking, that he published an exulting proclamation, saying that at length chastisement had overtaken us, and we had reaped the just reward of our enormous crimes. Thiry-six hours later he received a little despatch informing him of the ransom, which it was impossible to conceal, since it was to be paid out of His Majesty's poor exhausted treasury. Strange to say, the Emperor detected no contradiction in these two despatches, and continued to believe himself victorious througliout the war, until he found us to be within a few marches of Peking, and another bill, even- tually to be paid, of fourteen million dollars. So profound a delusion assuredly never before rested on a ruler, that in most respects is an unlimited despot, even in respect to those who are thus inexplicably combining successfully to deceive him. >/ 56 evil which at Cabul oppressed us for a few weeks, in China exists for ever; nor will it be at all mitigated until the present convulsions, consequent upon our sharp handling of China in 1842, have accomplished their secret mis^f 4i9BS disorganising the hulk, which must be shattered into fragments before it can be use+i fjitoiL%9.Mt*i5OTg 8il;t ;trjd " , idil^to'iS ^m \iiH '' An American merchant (so he describes himi^r self on the title-page) wrote a pamphlet on^ British relations with China in 1834. As a" neutral ob^er.v^r., |ia. obtained some attentioir in England, und otie Remark of his deserves to be quoted; it is thisrrMwe havese^n that the Emperor of China cannot be approached bjn embassies." *irr^^This is_ true ; Jm Qmmt, and he will not^,,^JxL reality; thcTrf^'h c"on§piracies against the person of the Emperor are unao4 ^ountably rare, it is probable that, if he did not receive ambassadors brutally and supercili4 ^^sly— i^jjjg ponsente4to regard them As^eJ presenting potentates standing on an equality iatkly.i^seI£-^l^^j^Quld aot ireign very lorigj oi riierMinfifffioo ^not - . — — vuio oyj^iI I liw -p * This American goes on to say, with great -trutl^^ftfc>¥^d embassies is only to confirm him in a false superiority, and to give another precedent of refusal to be cited by his successor." So far the writer is reasonable; otherwise, his views are vicious ^?i'^^) How, then, does our government propose ta^ proceed ? I will briefly ait ay before the reader the only .three modes of action which lie within* our choie62i ^jUnder any'One of the three it is to be presumed that we shall open the drama / by taking biilitarypO^sb^Wdf CantofiT'" To- ward this object, it is fortunate that partial re4 inf orcements from the Persian Gulf and India will have enabled the present commanders to have made some c^'ffSiderablG^fflartial adf jiffces before any trader in " moderation^^ and pacific ipeasures, wluj5ji>.;ihave sO' continually proved / ruinous when operating upon oriental tempers, 58 can have arrived to prejudge the question. Any man who tries the effect of opposite mea- sures will find his surest punishment in gene- ral defeat, and in the necessity of soon abruptly changing his policy. After the occupation of Canton, and the summary expulsion of Yeh, whose degradation and signal punishment it is to be hoped will be instantly demanded from the Emperor, we might proceed with a fleet of steam-frigates, and smaller craft, to the mouth of the river Peiho, from which the dis- tance is but small to Peking. Steam trans- ports will carry some land forces ; hoio many will depend upon the particular scheme of tac- tics, one out of three, which our government may elect for its policy. _ni ^ ^^^ ^^ri- m[ f>Tff First, although it is true, in the words of the American merchant, that the Emperor of China cannot be approached by embassies- understanding by that term pacific and cere- monial agents prepared to discuss and to ar- range international concerns — that is no reason for his declining to receive an armed embassy. Our naval force at the mouth of the Peiho will need in that case to be strengthened; and we shall carry in the transports perhaps 7000 picked land troops. With these we shall probably occupy Peking ; in which case 59 the Emperor would be found to have fled to his Tartar hunting, seat. From him person- ally we should gain nothing. But his flight would by itself publish his defeat, and go far to stamp a character of emptiness upon all his subsequent gasconades. He could, however^, as little be dispensed with for any continued period, as the queen-bee from a hive. To stay away, would be to interrupt the whole cur- rency of the national administration. Yet, sometimes, it will be alleged, he does stay away for six or eight weeks, doing wdiat he conceives to be " hunting," for the Russian charge d'affaires had the honour to behold His Majesty, when belted with 14,000 men, bravely fire his rifle at a tiger. But in these hunting expeditions, it must be remembered, the inter- course with Peking was kept open by couriers continually on the road ; whereas, under our occupation of the capital, the only available road would be interdicted by a British mili- tary post at the Wall, through which lies, of necessity, the sole avenue of communication with Mantchoo Tartary. An Emperor who was so effectually frightened by the little saucy Espi6gle would be brought upon his knees, / and himself " knock head," at the summons of such an expedition as this. k 60 *bfBut this policy requires m oney an d energy, more, I fear, than we are yet prepared to spend upon our Chinese interest, until a great mas- sacre of our British brethren at Amoy'^br Shanghai shall have abolished for ever all po- licies suggested by the sons of the feebl^if^npis -lijSecondly, the next policy is that which works by bribery. This .method, in times when the East India Company domineered avfir^the China trade, was employed largely, but unfortunately under Chinese compulsion, so that it availed us only in a negative way— that is, vfe were not kicked oiit of China'} but had no jDo^e^mf returns fervour £150,000* Little gratitude or service" wa& conceived 'tb be due for money given protestingly, and under the screwiuiuHere was the very gall and . wormwood of robbery — that nothing was (Sarned apparently by submitting ^fciift diBut the Chinese robber thought otherwise, and parried our complaints in the spirit of ^sop's wolf, when replying to the crane's complaint that she had received no fee for her surgical service in extracting a bone from his throat— " How ? No fee ? Ea.you count it. luone to have withdrawn that long bill of yours in safety from my iaquth?!'_ The. pretence was, that a toleration 'of this dommerce had' • bcBii "^^Ift-l 61 chased at court by bribes judiciously planted. MrMMatheson (of the Canton firm, Jardine & Matheson) showed in a very valuable pam- phlet, published in 1836, that the whole sum I distributed amongst the Emperor's mother, and a quadrille of other old ladies, &c., amounted aifi nually to £150,000. Think, therefore, arith- metical reader, wliat sad hypocrisy 4t was in the imperial court, that reaped so largely here it had not sown, to talk in its grandiloquent strain about the infinite pettiness of this com- merce in celestial eyes. No single person's family in China, where all splendour is an unkiiowja^thing, and the imperial gifts are sel-^ dom worth separately as much as three lialfi- crQwp§,„ .could spend ^a^omuch as £3000 ^yedf*. Such a sum, th^?efore, as £150,000 per agnum must mine its way through the .0ourt i^nks lik^'so 'many miners' blastings; and, if it has been discontinued since the war; ther€Fis'^^n6' need to wonder that Yehs,*'l^i3d such cattle, are employed. Little doubt but Keh was sehtrds'^' mischief-maker, to remind us, by rough practice, of the need w^e stand in of a protector at Peking. ^ eel oVL ^ woH '' vt^his bribery system, however, as shown by Mt Mathesoa.in his excellent pamphlet of 1836, has always ruinously recoiled upon our / 62 own interests. In one chief instance,* the Canton knaves who pocketed the bribes actu- ally employed those very bribes — how ? Let the reader guess. Actually in purchasing at Peking, by re-bribery, the license to coerce and limit our commerce in modes never before attempted. \-oA t^iij io aou u ^mFinally, there is a third course — namely, y ^gain to attempt a pacific embassy, such as Lord Macartney's and Lord Amherst's; but • — and prudence even on his own behalf will now speak loudly to any man undertaking such an embassy — with great modifications. 'The two lords of past times had this excuse : they did not know the government to which they were accredited, as we of this generation know them; and the British Government, — _ — — _ — , , . \ f . * The bribery was '|)ftactised under the orders of the East India Company. That great Company have, in their vast Indian Empire, been the benefactors of the human race. In China, on the other hand, they it is — they chiefly — who have ruined us. Not by acts only, and the whole stream of their policy, but by direct written injunctions, and general orders, and by special opposition to nobler counsels, they have authorised a cringing mode of tactics. Blind as bats even to their own instant pecu- niary interests, they have resisted the employment, in any Chi- nese case, of a King's officer, because he (said the Company), must support the national honour, which we (as commercial men) may disregard. That one fact shows the policy of the East India Directors. , juujuj;.. ^ii^ia* 63 ignorant, even as these lords were ignorant, upon the true condition of China, sent them out most inadequately furnished and instructed for the mission before them. In this mise^ rable perplexity, it should never be forgotten, to their praise, that both resisted the killing degradation of the ho-tou; and Lord Amherst, in particular, dealing with a more savage Em- peror, under a sense of personal danger. If this plea may palliate their conduct for having 'submitted to be carted about like commercial J)ales ; and at first to be conveyed in junks, bearing banners, inscribed " The English tri- bute-bearers,^^ we must have no more of such passive acquiescences, in studied insults offered to our national honour. Sir G. Staunton* * It is remarkable that Sir George Staunton, the very man to whose bold remonstrance, in 1816, we owe it that Lord Amherst refused the ko-tou, twenty years afterwards published a pamphlet against the admirable pamphlets of Messrs Lindsay and Matheson, treating the idea of a military opposition to China, " with her countless millions," as " wild and desperate," and as mere " in- fatuation." Unfortunately for Sir George's reputation as a Chi- nese counsellor, the infatuated plan was actually tried four years later, and succeeded in the amplest extent. But would it not have seemed impossible beforehand that a man of sense should •have gathered so little knowledge in fifty years of life, as to fancy mere brute numbers, without arms, without training, with- out discipline, and, above all, without food, at all formidable to the select soldiers of the earth ? In this pamphlet, which really cancelled most of Sir George's earlier merits, he attempted 64 attempts to palliate this compliance on the ground that Lords Macartney and Amherst stood firm upon greater questions. There is none greater. It is through these unthinking concessions that we are now reduced to mise- rable straits. Most truly does Mr Matheson say (pp. 8, 9), " It is humiliating to reflect even to varnish the monstrous arrogances of the Chinese Em- peror. He asserted (what he of all men should best have known to be untrue) that at least the Emperor had never pretended to any rights over the island of Great Britain; whereas one of the official persons authorised by the court of Peking to accompany Lord Amherst's return by land to Canton, had gravely reminded our people that the Emperor was as truly lord of the British Isles as of Peking; and in this expostulation did not evidently suppose himself advancing any new truth, but simply recalling to our minds an old one, which we were forgetting. Sir George farther insists, that, even at the worst, the Emperor went no further than our own kings, who, until the last alteration of the royal title, in the days of George III., always called themselves Kings of France. But how different the case ! We meant only Kings of France de jure, not de facto. And our original title rested upon a twofold real ground — namely, upon overwhelming victories, which enabled us to crown an infant prince as King of France; and secondly, upon plausible genealogical grounds. Besides that, we used the claim as only a peacock's feather of pomp, but never in the slightest instance attempted to assert any power over a French subject upon this basis. But the Chi- nese Emperor never cited his pretended claim over Great Britain as less than a solid argument for demanding obedience to him- self. And, in the meantime, China, having confessedly never sent any expedition whatever to Europe, could not even in a romance plead such a title. 65 tfeSit' Mil' present degradatidfl^'^!b'^'^^^^5FW<)if China are self-imposed A'^ ^i^^'J- J^UJ muMpy hi ^^^i%He thorns whicli we liave'rea^'d are oi the tree ' -' 'QVLl^UlWe planted: they have torn us, and we bleed.''' Uiiuii ^ The Memorials addressed to Grovernment in the year 1836, first bx.*^)^j Manchester Chamber of (?omm4r(5e,^soon after By the Glas- gow East India Association, next by the Li- v^i-poollEdfef India A ss'ddi^ti6n;'alt spak the same determined, lano;ua2;e: strictly appliQable to this time. ut I quote by preference from the " Canton Memorial." This excellent pa- jp^f J' after Iniislirfg indignantly upon tne orutal Chinese treatment of Lord Napier,* which persecuted him int(3^^ W^Ofldition ef'^ misery that terminated in his aeath, and urging that Okj' ■ 'iK''i iK\} ample reparation should b^ exacted for this outrage, and also " for the arrogant and degrad- r^ language igs^d tft^ards your Majesty, ^^p,4 our country, in edicts of the local authorities,.^ 1o ^ai/[ 8^'i fton'ff - .iwo-i"! f>t p.Ff h^U\?,n'^ ,R^iTo1:'>?T ,t^tfoM^rdN^er^'-^'lhQ inife'^didf^'^ikTis^l'bf the wrath shot^^if ftj>E&4J4' Napier are still made the subject of dispute amongst alf apologists for China, as though there had been an original irr'd- gularity in the commission of that ill-used nobleman. But, otf comparing all the documents, it is plain, that the true and sole ground of the brutality was the deadly fear that this change" would lead to a transfer of all our commercial affairs, from thd^ hands of corrupt and irresponsible local officers, to others of ^ higher class in immediate communication with Peking. £ 66 wherein your Majesty was represented as the ' reverently submissive tributary of the Emperor of China,' and your Majesty's subjects as pro- fligate barbarians,^' goes on to suggest that with a small naval force — namely, one ship of the line, two frigates, and four armed ves- sels of light draught, together with a steam vessel, all fully manned — there would be found no difficulty in putting a stop to the greater part of the external and internal commerce of the Chinese Empire, of intercepting its reve- nues in their progress to the capital, and in taking possession of all the armed vessels of the country. And such measures, so far from being likely to lead to a more serious collision, would be the surest course for avoiding it. The Memorial then goes on to this wise counsel : — " We would further urgently sub- mit — that, as we cannot but trace the disabi- lities under which our commerce labours, to a long acquiescence in the arrogant assumption of supremacy over the monarchs and people of other countries, claimed by the Emperor of China for himself and his subjects, we are forced to conclude that no beneficial result can be expected to arise from negotiations in which such pretensions are not decidedly re- pelled.^^ Finally, I will quote a passage more 67 closely and ominously applicable to any incon- siderate undertaker of this arduous ofSce : — "We would therefore beseech your Ma- jesty not to leave it to the discretion of any future representative of your Majesty, as was permitted in the case of Lord Amherst, to swerve in the smallest degree from a calm and dispassionate, but determined, maintenance of the true rank of your Majesty's empire in the scale of nations." And the Memorial concludes with this em- phatic sentence, just as wise now as it was then: — Our counsel is — "not to permit any future commissioner to set his foot on the shores of China, until ample assurance is afforded of a reception and treatment suitable to the dignity of a minister of your Majesty, and to the honour of an empire that acknow- ledges no superior on earth." Who is to go out as our ambassador has not, I believe, as yet been officially ipade known. But whoever he may be, it is pretty certain that he will fail. Were there no other reason for saying so, how is the following di- lemma to be met ? A man of rank must be appointed, or the Chinese Emperor will hold himself affronted. Yet, on the other hand, all the Englishmen who speak Chinese are 68 • not men of rank, but are either supercargoes (some actually serving as such, some emeriti), or else Missionaries. There is no time to learn Chinese; and interpreters are perfectly use- less, except on a mere mission of ceremony. How is that fix to be treated? CEdipus and the Sphinx combined could not solve it. iU^ Uiit CHINA. In the days of Grecian Paganism, when morals (whether social or domestic) had no connection whatever with the National Reli- gion — it followed that there could be no organ corresponding to our modern Pulpit (Chris- tian or Mahometan) for teaching and illustrat- ing the principles of morality. Those prin- ciples, it was supposed, taught and explained themselves. Every man's understanding, heart, and conscience, furnished him surely with light enough for his guidance on a path so plain, within a field so limited, as the daily life of a citizen — Spartan, Theban, or Athenian. In reality, this field was even more limited than at first sight appeared. Suppose the case of a Jew. living in pre-Christian Judea, under the legal code of Deuteronomy and Leviticus — or suppose a Mussulman at this day, living under the control of Mahometan laws, he finds him- self left to his own moral discretion hardly in one action out of fifty ; so thoroughly has the municipal law of his country (the Pentateuch in the one case, the Koran in the other) super- seded and swallowed up the freedom of indi- vidual movement. Very much of the same legal restraint tied up the fancied autonomy of the Grecian citizen. Not the moral censor, but the constable was at his heels, if he allowed himself too large a license. In fact, so small a portion of his actions was really resigned to his own discretion, that the very humblest in- tellect was equal to the call upon its energies. Under these circumstances, what need for any public and official lecturer upon distinctions so few, so plain, so little open to casuistic doubts ? To abstain from assault and battery ; not to run away from battle relicta non bene parmula; not to ignore the deposit confided to his care — these made up the sum of cases that life brought with it as possibilities in any ordinary experience. As an oflice, therefore, the task of teaching morality was amongst the ancients wholly superfluous. Pulpit there was none, nor any public teacher of morality. As regard- ed his own moral responsibility, every man walked in broad daylight, needed no guide, and found none. But Athens, the marvellous city that in all things ran ahead of her envious and sullen 71 contemporaries, here also made known her su- premacy. Civilisation, not as a word, not as an idea, but as a thing, but as a power, was known in Athens. She only through all the world had a Theatre ; and in the service of this theatre she retained the mightiest by far of her creative intellects. Teach she could not in those fields where no man was un- learned; light was impossible where there could be no darkness; and to guide was a hope- less pretension when all aberrations must be wilful. But, if it were a vain and arrogant assumption to illuminate, as regarded those primal truths which, like the stars, are hung aloft, and shine for all alike,* neither vain nor arrogant was it to fly her falcons at game al- most as high. If not light, yet life; if not absolute birth, yet moral regeneration, and fructifying warmth — these were quickening forces which abundantly she was able to en- graft upon truths else slumbering and inert. Not affecting to teich the new, she could yet vivify the old. Those moral echoes, so solemn and pathetic, that lingered in the ear from her stately tragedies, all spoke with the authority * I quote a sentiment of Wordsworth's in " The Excursion," but cannot remember its expression. n/ 72 of voices from the grave. The great phan- toms that crossed her stage, all pointed with shadowy fingers to shattered dynasties and the ruins of once-regal houses, Pelopidse or Lab- dacidse, as monuments of sufferings in expiation of violated morals, or sometimes — which even more thrillingly spoke to human sensibilities — of guilt too awful to be expiated. And in the midst of these appalling records, what is their ultimate solution ? From what keynote does Athenian Tragedy trace the expansion of its own dark impassioned music ? '^^^'s {hyhris) — the spirit of outrage and arrogant self-asser- tion — in that temper lurks the original impulse towards wrong; and to that temper the Greek drama adapts its monitory legends. The doc- trine of the Hebrew Scriptures as to vicarious retribution is at times discovered secretly mov- ing through the scenic poetry of Athens. His own crime is seen hunting a man through five generations, and finding him finally in the persons of his innocent descendants. " Curses, like young fowls, come home in the evening to roost." This warning doctrine, adopted by Southey as a motto to his " Kehama," is dimly to be read moving in shadows through the Greek legends and semi-historic traditions. In other words, atrocious crime of any man 73 towards others in his stages of power comes round upon him with vengeance in the dark- ening twilight of his evening. And, accord- ingly, upon no one feature of moral temper is the Greek Tragedy more frequent or earnest in its denunciations, than upon all expressions of self-glorification, or of arrogant disparage- ment applied to others. What nation is it, beyond all that ever have played a part on this stage of Earth, which ought, supposing its vision cleansed for the better appreciation of things and persons, to feel itself primarily interested in these Grecian denunciations ? What other than China ? When Coleridge, in lyric fury, apostrophised his mother-country in terms of hyperbolic wrath, almost of frenzy, " The nations hate thee ! " every person who knew him was aware that in this savage denunciation he was simply obeying the blind impulse of momentary par- tisanship ; and nobody laughed more heartily than Coleridge himself, some few moons later, at his own violence. But in the case of China, this apostrophe — The nations hate thee! — would pass by acclamation, without needing the formality of a vote. Such has been the y 74 inhuman insolence of this vilest and silliest y amongst nations towards the whole house- hold of man, that (upon the same principle as governs our sympathy with the persons and incidents of a novel or a drama) we are pledged to a moral detestation of all who can be sup- posed to have participated in the constant explosions of unprovoked contumely to our- selves. A man who should profess esteem for Shakspere's lago, would himself become an object of disgust and suspicion. Yet lago is but a fabulous agent ; it was but a dream in which he played so diabolic a part. But the offending Chinese not only supported that flesh-and-blood existence which lago had not, but also are likely (which lago is not, in any man's dreams) to repeat their atrocious inso- lencies as often as opportunities offer. Our business at present with the Chinese is — to speculate a little upon the Future immediately before us, so far as it is sure to be coloured by the known dispositions of that people, and so far as it ought to be coloured by changes in our inter-relations, dictated by our improved knowledge of the case, and by that larger / experience of Chinese character which has been acquired since our last treaty with their treacherous executive. Meantime, for one mo- n/ 75 ment let us fix our attention upon a remark- able verification of the old saying adopted by Soutliey, that '' Curses come home to roost." Two centuries have elapsed, and something more, since our national expansion brought us into a painful necessity of connecting ourselves with the conceited and most ignorant inhabi- ^ tants of China. From the very first, our con- nection had its foundations laid in malignity; so far as the Chinese were concerned, in aff^ect- ed disdain, and in continual outbreaks of brutal inhospitality. That we should have reconciled ourselves to such treatment, formed, indeed, one-half of that apology which might have been pleaded on behalf of the Chinese. But why, then, did we reconcile ourselves? Simply for a reason which oflFers the other half of the apology, — namely, that no thoroughly respect- able section of the English nation ever pre- sented itself at Canton in those early days as candidates for any share in so humiliating a commerce. On reviewing that memorable fact, we must acknowledge that it offers some inadequate excuse on behalf of the Chinese. They had seen nothing whatever of our na- tional grandeur ; nothing of our power ; of our enlightened and steadfast constitutional system; of our good faith; of our magnificent 76 and ancient literature ; of our colossal charities and provision for every form of human cala- mity; of our insurance system, vrhich so vastly enlarged our moneyed power ; of our facili- ties for combining, and using the powers of all (as in our banks the money of all) common purposes ; of our mighty shipping interest ; of our docks, arsenals, light-houses, manufac- tories, private or national. Much beside there was that they could not have understood, so that not to have seen it was of small moment; but these material and palpable indications of power and antiquity, even Chinamen, even Changs and Fangs, Chungs and Fungs, could have appreciated ; yet all these noble monu- ments of wisdom and persevering energy they had seen absolutely not at all. And the men of our nation who had resorted to Canton were too few at any time to suggest an impression of national greatness. Numerically, we must have seemed a mere vagrant tribe ; and, as the Chinese even in 1851, and in the council- chamber of the Emperor, settled it as the most plausible hypothesis that the English people had no territorial home, but made a shift (like some birds) to float upon the sea in fine wea- ther, and in rougher seasons to run for " holes," upon the whole, we English are worse oiF than 77 are the naked natures that affront the ele- ments : — fv/ privilege. But the difficulty as regards the people of the two nations promises to be a trifle by comparison with that w^hich besets the relations between the two crowns. We came to know something more circumstan- tially about this question during the second decennium of this nineteenth century. The unsatisfactoriness of our social position had suggested the necessity of a second embassy. Probably it was simply an accidental difference in the temper of those forming at that time the Imperial Council, which caused the cere- monial ko-tou of court presentation to be de- bated with so much more of rancorous bigotry. Lord Amherst was now the ambassador, a man of spirit and dignity, to whom the honour of his country might have been safely confided, had he stood in a natural and intelligible posi- 87 tion; but it was the inevitable curse of an ambassador to Peking, that his official station had contradictory aspects, and threw him upon incompatible duties. His first duty was to his country ; and nobody, in so many words, denied that. But this patriotic duty, though a conditio sine qua non for his diplomatic func- tions, and a perpetual restraint upon their exercise, was not the true and efficient cause of his mission. That lay in the commercial interests of a great company. This secondary duty was clearly his paramount duty, as re- garded the good sense of the situation. Yet the other was the paramount duty, as regarded the sanctity of its obligation, and the impos- sibility of compromising it by so much as the shadow of a doubt or the tremor of a hesita- tion. Nevertheless, Lord Amherst was plied with secret whispers (more importunate than the British public knew) from the East India Company, suggesting that it was childish to lay too much stress on a pure ceremonial usage, of no more weight than a bow or a curtsey, and which pledged neither himself nor his country to any consequences. But in its own nature the homage was that of a slave. Genuflections, prostrations, and knockings of the ground nine times with the forehead, were 88 not modes of homage to be asked from the citizen (\i,Mt> free state, far less from that citizenrl when acting as the acknowledged representa'*:[ tjye of that state. . ,. r od^ mo'il ^v>A^ For one moment, let us pause to reviewi this hideous degradation of human natural which has always disgraced the East. That ap Asiatic state has ever deharbarised itself^f i^^i^vident from the condition of Woman a|L this hour all over Asia, and from this very ab-h ject form of homage, which already in the days^ of Darius and Xerxes we find established, and3 extorted from the compatriots of Miltiades ancj^ Themistocles.* giflj ^ ' uiJiiyy yi>ooiu ,* We may see by the recorded stratagem of an individual-^ Greek, cunning enough, but, on the other hand, not at all less base than that which he sought to escape, that these prostrations (to which Euripides alludes with such lyrical and impassionecti scorn, in a chorus of his " Orestes," as fitted only for Phrygiai^ slaves) must have been exacted from all Greeks alike, as the . ft sine qua non for admission to the royal presence. Some Spartan it was, already slavish enough by his training, who tried the ar- tifice of dropping a ring, and affecting to pass off his prostra-^a tions as simply so many efforts to search for and to recover hiss ring. But to the feelings of any honourable man, this stratageiiio would not avail him. One baseness cannot be evaded by an-«d other. The anecdote is useful, however; for this picturesque case, combined with others, satisfactorily proves that the sons o£a Greece could and did submit to the ko-tou for the furtherance of '^ what seemed to them an adequate purpose. Had newspapers - existed in those days, this self-degradation would have purchased- '^ 89' V There cannot be any doubt that the ko-tou had descended to the court of Susa and Perse-* polis from the elder court of Babylon, and to that from the yet elder court of Nineveh. Man^ in his native grandeur, standing erect, and with his countenance raised to the heavens / uj.»ii JL [Os homini sublime dedit, coelumque tuerf\, presents a more awfnl contrast to man when^ passing through the shadow of this particular degradation, than under any or ail of the other' symbols at any time devised for the' sensuous expression of a servile condition — scourges,'^ ergastuMy innbulati6h7 W'tll^ neck-cliains and ankle-chains of the Roman atriensis. " The bloody writing" is far more legible in this than any other language by which the slavish condition is* or can be published to the world, because in this only the sufferer of the degra- / datiori%' himself a party to it, ^'accomplice in his own dishonour. All else may have been - more infamy' in Greece than benefit in Persia. The attempted evasion by this miserable Greek, who sought to have the benefits of the ko-tou without paying its price, thinking, in fact, that honour could be saved by swindling, seems on a level with that baseness ascribed (untruly, it may be hoped) to Galileo, whom''-' some persons represent as seeking to evade his own formal re- cantation of the doctrine as to the earth's motion, by muttering inaudibly, " But it does move, for all that." This would have been the trick of the Grecian ring-dropper. />;! I ^, ''in S "if Ll-llPjJ 90 the stern doom of calamitous necessity. Here only we recognise, without an opening for dis- guise or equivocation, the man's own deliberate act. He has not been branded passively (per- sonal resistance being vain) with the record of a master's ownership, like a sheep, a mule, or any other chattel, but has solemnly branded / himself. Wearing, therefore, so peculiar and differential a character, to whom is it in modern days that this bestial yoke of servitude as re- gards Christendom owes its revival ? Without hope, the Chinese despot would not have at- tempted to enforce such a Moloch vassalage upon the western world. Through whom, therefore, and through whose facile compliance with the insolent exaction, did he first con- ceive this hope ? >i euj <5J It has not been observed, so far as we know, that it was Peter I. of Eussia, vulgarly called Peter the Great, who prepared for us that fierce necessity of conflict, past and yet to come, through which we British, standing alone — but henceforth, we may hope, ener- getically supported by the United States, if not by France — have, on behalf of the whole western nations, victoriously resisted the ar- rogant pretensions of the East. About four years after the death of our Queen Anne, Peter 91 despatched from St Petersburg (his new capi- tal, yet raw and unfinished) a very elaborate embassy to Peking, by a route which measured at least ten thousand versts ; or, in English miles, about two-thirds of that distance. It was, in fact, a vast caravan, or train of cara- vans, moving so slowly, that it occupied six- teen calendar months in the journey. Peter was by natural disposition a bully: offering outrages of every kind upon the slightest im- pulse, no man was so easily frightened into a retreat and abject concessions as this drunken prince. He had at the very time of this em- bassy submitted tamely to a most atrocious in- jury from the eastern side of the Caspian. The Khan of Khiva — a place since made known to us all as the foulest of murdering dens — had seduced by perfidy the credulous little army despatched by Peter into quarters so widely scattered, that with little difficulty he had there massacred nearlv the whole force: about three or four hundreds out of so many thousands being all that had recovered their vessels on the Caspian. This atrocity Peter had pocket- ed, and apparently found his esteem for the Khan greatly increased by such an instance of energy. He was now meditating by this great Peking embassy two objects — first, the ordi- 92 nary objects of a trading mission, together with the adjustment of several disputes affecting the Russian frontier towards Chinese Tartary and Thibet ; but, secondly, and more earnestly, the privilege of having a resident minister at the capital of the Chinese Emperor. This last purpose was connected with an evil result for all the rest of Christendom. It is well known to all who have taken any pains in studying the Chinese temper and character, ihat obsti-? nacy — obstinacy like that of mulists— is one of its foremost features. And it is also known^ by a multiplied experience, that the^v^ery great-j est importance attaches in Chinese estimate to the initial movement. Once having conceded a point, you need not hope to recover your lost ground. i j.Zrhe Chinese are, as may easiljf* be read in their official papers and acts, inteW lectually a very imbecile people ; and their pe^ culiar style of obstinacy is often found in coni nection with a feeble brain, and also (though it may seem paradoxical) with a feeble moral eguergy. Apparently, a secret feeling of their own irresolution throws them for a vicarious support upon a mechanic resource of artificial obstinacy. This peculiar constitution of cha^ racter it was on the part of the Chinese which gave such vast importance to what might noW be done by the Russian ambassadonrdcWho was he ? He was called M. Do IsmaelofF, an^ officer in the Russian guards, and somewhat of a favourite with the Czar. What impressed so deep a value upon this gentleman's acts at this special moment was, that a great crisis had now arisen for the' appraisal of the Christian nations. None hitherto had put forward any- large or ostentatious display of their national pretensions. Generally for the scale of rank as amongst the Chinese, who know nothing of Europe, they stood much upon the casual pro J portions of their commerce, and in a small de- gree upon old concessions of some past Chi- nese ruler, or upon occasional encroachments that had become settled through lapse of time^ But in the East all things masqueraded and y belied their home character. Popish peoples were, at times, the firmest allies of bigoted Protestants ; and the Dutch, that in Europe had played the noblest of parts as the feeble (yet eventually the triumphant) asserters of national rights, everywhere in Asia, through mean jealousy of England, had become but a representative word for hellish patrons of sla- vefv and torture. All was confusion between the two scales of appreciation, domestic and foreign, European and Asiatic. But now was 94 coming one that would settle all this in a tran- scendent way : for Russia would carry in her train, and compromise by her decision, most of the other Christian states. The very fron- tier line of Russia, often conterminous with that of China, and the sixteen months' journey; furnished in themselves exponents of the Rus- sian grandeur. China needed no interpreter for that. She herself was great in pure virtue of her bigness. But here was a brother bigger than herself. We have known and witnessed the case where a bully, whom it was found desirable to eject from a coftee-room, upon opening the window for that purpose, was found too big to pass, and also nearly too heavy to raise, unless by machinery ; so that in the issue the bully maintained his ground by virtue of his tonnage. That was really the case oftem times of China. Russia seemed to stand upon the same basis of right as to aggression. China, therefore, understood her, and admired her; but for all that meant to make a handle of her. She judged that Russia, in coming with so much pomp, had something to ask. So had China. China, during that long period when M. De Ismaeloff was painfully making way across the steppes of Asia, had leisure to think what it was that she would ask, and through 95 what temptation she would ask it. There was little room for doubting. Russia being in- comparably the biggest potentate in Christen- dom (for as yet the United States had no ex- istence), seemed, therefore, to the Chinese mind the greatest, and virtually to include all the rest. What Russia did, the rest would do. M. De IsmaelofF meant doubtless to ask for something. No matter what it might be, he should have it. At length the ambassador arrived. All his trunks were unpacked ; and then M. De Ismaeloff unpacked to the last wrapper his own little request. The feeble- minded are generally cunning ; and therefore it was that the Chinese Council did not at once say ijes^ but pretended to find great difficulties in the request — which was simply to arrange some disorders on the frontier, but chiefly to allow of a permanent ambassador from the Czar taking up his residence at Peking. At last this demand was granted — but granted conditionally. And what now might be the little condition ? '' Oh, my dear fellow — be- tween you and me, such old friends," said the Chinese minister, " a bauble not worth speak- ing of ; would you oblige me, when presented to the Emperor, by knocking that handsome head of yours nine times — i. e., you know. 96 three times three — asainst.tjie floor ? I would take it very kindly of you ; and the floor is padded to prevent contusions." -.Ismaeloff pon- dered till the next day ; but on that next day he said, " I will do it," — " Do what, my friend ?" — '' I will knock my forehead nine times against the padded floor." Mr Bell, of Anter- mony (which, at times, he writes Auchter- mony), accompanied the Russian ambassador, as a leading person in his suite. A consider- able section of his travels is occupied with this embassy. But, perhaps from private regard to the ambassador, whose character suffers so much by this transaction, Ay.ejlaiRot recollect that he tells us in so many words of this Rus-» sian conces4p% ^^^ ^- ^^ Lange, a Swedish officer, subsequently employed by the Czar Peter., do^s.^, A solemn court-day was held,, M. De Ismaeloff* attended. Thither came the allegada. or Chinese prime minister; thither came the ambassador's friends and acquaint-\ ances ; thither came, as having the official en- tree, the ambassador's friend Hum-Hum, and also his friend Bug-Bug ; and when all is said and done, this truth j^^-undeniablQ^^tJ^atthere and then (namely, in the imperial city of Peking, and iii.jAnnq JOpmini ,1720), M. De IsmaelofF did knock his forehead nine times 97 against the floor of the Tartar Khan's palace. M. De Lange's report on this matter has been published separately ; neither has the fact of the prostration and the forehead knockings to the amount of nine ever been called in question. Now, it will be asked, did Ismaeloff* abso- lutely consent to elongate himself on the floor, as if preparing to take a swim, and then knock his forehead repeatedly, as if weary of life — somebody counting all the while with a stop watch. No: I7N0. 2, No. 3, and so on ? Did he do all this without capitulating — ^. e,^ stipu- lating for some ceremonial return upon the part of the Chinese ? Oh no ; the Russian ambassa- dor, at the beginning of the eighteenth cen- tury, and our own at the end of it, both bar- gained for equal returns ; and here are the terms: — The Russian had, with good faith, and through all its nine sections, executed the' ko-iou; and he stipulated, before he did this, that any Chinese seeking a presentation to the Czar shoiild,'^ in coming to St Petersburg, go through exactly the same ceremony. The' Chinese present all replied with good faith, though doubtless stifling a little laughter, that^ when they or any of them should come to St Petersburg, the ko-tou should be religiously / 98 performed. The English lords, on the other hand — Lord Macartney, and subsequently Lord Amherst — declined the Jco-toii, but were willing to make profound obeisances to the Emperor, provided these obeisances were si- multaneously addressed by a high mandarin to the portrait of George III. In both cases a man is shocked : by the perfidy of the Chi- nese in offering, by the folly of the Christian envoys in accepting, a mockery so unmeaning. Certainly the English case is better ; our en- voy escaped the degradation of the ko-tou, and obtained a shadow ; he paid less, and he got in exchange what many would think more. Homage paid to a picture, when counted against homage paid to a living man, is but a shadow ; yet a shadow wears some semblance of a reality. But, on the other hand, for the Russian who submitted to an abject degrada- tion, under no hope of any equivalent, except in a contingency that was notoriously impos- sible, the mockery was full of insult. The Chinese do not travel ; by the laws of China they cannot leave the country. None but starving and desperate men ever do leave the country. All the Chinese emigrants now in Australia, and the great body at this time quitting California in order to evade the pres- 99 sure of American laws against them, are liable to very severe punishment (probably to decapi- tation) on re-entering China. Had Ismaeloff . known what a scornful jest the Emperor and his council were enacting at his expense, pro- bably he would have bambooed some of these honourable gentlemen, on catching them with- in the enclosed court of his private residence.* * There seems to have been a strange blunder at the bottom of all our diplomatic approaches to the Court of China, if we are to believe what the lexicographers tell us — namely, that the very word in Chinese which we translate ambassador, means tri- bute-bearer. If this should be true, it will follow that we have all along been supposed to approach the Emperor in a character of which the meaning and obligations were well known to us, but which we had haughtily resolved to violate. There is, be- sides, another consideration which calls upon us to investigate this subject. It would certainly be a ludicrous discovery if it should be found that we and the Chinese have been at cross- purposes for so long a time. Yet such things have occurred, and in the East are peculiarly likely to occur, so radically incompa- . tible is our high civilisation with their rude barbarism; and pre- ^ cisely out of this barbarism grows the very consideration we have adverted to as laying an arrest upon all that else we should ^ have a right to think. It is this: so mean and unrefined are the notions of oriental nations, that, according to those, it is very doubtful indeed whether an eastern potentate would be able to understand or figure to himself any business, or office, belonging to an ambassador, except that of declaring war and defiance; or, secondly, of humbly bringing tribute ! Hence, we presume, arises the Chinese rigour in demanding to know the substance of any letter before admitting the bearer of it to the imperial presence; since, if it should happen to contain a defiance, in that i 100 However, in a very circuitous way, Ismae- loff has had his revenge ; for the first step in that retribution which we described as over- taking the Chinese was certainly taken by him. Russia, according to Chinese ideas of greatness, is the greatest {i. e.^ broadest and longest) of Christian states. Yet, being such, she has taken her dose of ko-tou. It followed, then, a fortiori, that Great Britain should take hers. Into this logic China was misled by Ismaeloff. Tljie^ English were waited for.r Slowly the occasions arrived ; audit was found by the Chinese, first doubtfully, secondly be- yond all doubt, that the ho-tou would not do. The game was up. Out of this catastrophe, and the wrath which followed it, grew ulti- y mately the opium- frenzy of Lin, the mad Commissioner of Canton ; then the vengeancoj which followed ; next the war, and the mise- , rable defeats of the Chinese. All this fol- lowed out of the attempt to enforce the ho-tou^ case they presume that the messenger might indulge himself in insolence; and this it might not be safe to punish in any nation ^ where the sanctity of heralds still lingers, and a faith in the ' mysterious perils overtaking all who violate that sanctity. Wher- ever there are but two categories — war and tributary submis- sion — into which the idea of ambassador subdivides, then it must be difficult for the Chinese to understand in which it is that we mean to present ourselves at Peking. rf4' f m which attempt never would have been made ^ but for the encouragement derived from Ismae- loff, the ambassador of so great a power as Russia. But finally, to complete the great re- tribution, the war has left behind, amongst other dreadful consequences, the ruin of their army. In the official correspondence of a great officer with the present Emperor, report- ing the events of the Tae-ping rebellion, it is repeatedly declared that the royal troops will not fight, run away upon the slightest pretext, and in fact have been left bankrupt in hope and spirit by the results ef their battles witH the British. Concurrently with this ruin of the army, the avowed object of this griSat'^e- bellion is to exterminate the reigning dynasty ;'' and if that event Should be accomplished, theii the whole of this ruin will have been due ex- clusively to its Mdin^MlJie' insolence (the de- moniac hyhris of Greek Tragedy) towards our- selves:'^ "^idttldl on tll(3 other hand, the Tae- ping rebellion, which has now stood its ground for five years, be finally crushed, not the less an enormous revolution — possibly a greater revolution — will then have been accomplished in China, virtually our own work ; and fortu- nately it will not be in our power to retreat, as hitherto, in a false spirit of forbearance, 102 from the great duties which will await us. The Tae-ping faction, however, though deadly and tiger-like in the spirit of its designs, offers but one element amongst many that are now v/ fermenting in the bosom of Chinese society. We British, as Mr Meadows informs us (p. 137 of " The Chinese and their Eebellions"), were regarded by the late Emperor — by him who conducted the war against us — as the in- struments employed " by Heaven" for execut- ing judgment on his house. He was in the right to think so ; and our hope is, that in a very few years we shall proclaim ourselves through Southern Asia as even more absolutely the destroyers of the wicked government which dared to promote and otherwise to reward that child of hell who actualh^ flayed alive the un- happy Mr Stead. That same government passed over without displeasure the similar atrocity of the man who decapitated nearly 200 persons — white, brown, and black, but all subjects of Great Britain, and all confess- edly and necessarily unoffending, as being simply shipwrecked passengers thrown on the shore of China from the Nerbudda Indiaman, That same government gave titles, money, and decorations, to a most cowardly officer, on the sole assumption (whether simply false, or only 103 exaggerated) that he had secretly poisoned 1000 British troops stationed in the island of Chusan.* Hardly a few weeks have passed since our initial notice of China, before already a new interest has gathered round the subject : a fo- reign interest, and a domestic interest ; an in- terest derived from atrocities that are accom- plished ; an interest derived from perils that are impending ; an interest such as the intelli- gent counted upon from the known perfidy of the Chinese ; an interest more embittered than any of us expected from the factious violence of our own Senate. Let not this expression be taxed with disrespect. Critical cases have a privilege ; and we do but echo the clamour of the nation in its main centres of wealth and population, in London, Manchester, Liverpool, >/ when we denounce the recent intrusions of our Legislature upon our old Chinese policy, by * In the 26th Eegiment alone 800 men died. This, it is true, was chiefly at Hong-Kong; but the disease was mysterious; for the stationary inhabitants of Hong-Kong did not die. Is it not therefore open to reasonable conjecture that the men had swal- lowed a slow poison? 104 means of a tumultuary cabal, as tending, too palpably, to a collusion with the vilest pur- poses of our vilest oriental enemy. Have we; forgot our experience ? Fifteen years ago it cost Great Britain an average of three pitched battles for the unrooting from the Chinese in- tellect of each separate childish conceit or traditional fraud, that risked, that fettered, or that degraded (according to the caprice of the hour) one great commercial interest of the civilised earth. -^^pij^OYise a treaty with China, to correct the text even of a solitary paragraph, or to*, introduce a supplementary clause, you must- make your estimate for so many cannon-shot, rpQkets, and shells, one or two campaigns, general actions counted by the dozen, and suicides by the thousand.* In a land, there- y u * "Suicides hy the thousand:" — The Chinese, amongst our an- tagonists, did not commit suicide when routed; the Tartars did. But it is a point still unsettled, whether this act were regarded by them as a measure of unavoidable desperation, under their anticipation of a death possibly cruel, but if not, a degrading vassalage at the hands of their conquerors; or whether, even if made aware of our merciful usages, they would not still have held their sacramentum militare — the faith which they had pledged to their wicked emperor — paramount in obligation to any re- lease, howsoever framed or worded by us, from the penalties of their condition as captives. There is, however, ground for a 105 fore, where the most reasonable alterations are not effected otherwise than at the point of the bayonet, too painfully we are reminded that any encouragement to the aggressors from^ ourselves, as arguing internal feuds in our own camp, will tend to perpetuate the disputeJ'^'^^*^'^ •roOn the 8th day of October, 1856, about eight o'clock in the morning, a very complex^ outrage was perpetrated near Canton by Chi-^' nese agents, some of them mandarins, wearing their official costume, upon a commercial ves- sel apparently, and according to all legal pre- sumption, Bkitish. In that word lay the mrMs of the offence. What the Chinese Go^ verriLor of Canton hungered and thirsted to ptit Qa lecqrd was, his hatred and contempt of our national flag— hatred 'that was re^l; contempt that was affected. In this branch of the of^ fence merged all the rest, as by comparison trivial misdemeanours that might have been redeemed by ,,i^o> money payment; else the iy ^ y. ' -— - — j ' )it aiiii i^jiijf^jiiw reasonable presumption that the Tartars generally, whom as brave men our army universally respected, would not have refused quarter if it had been fully explained to them, nor would, in thatf case, have felt suicide a duty; because those among them whoni' wounds and helplessness had disabled from attempting suicide, were deeply and pathetically impressed by the tenderness of their treatment in our hospitals, and even more so by the parting marks of respect which they received on their discharge. 106 wrong was not trivial suffered by the crew — L ^., by twelve men out of fourteen — arrested upon a doubt (probably simulated), affecting, at most, one man of the whole dozen ; * se- condly, the injury was not trivial suffered by the master in command of the ship, Thomas Kennedy, a British subject of good repute, born at Belfast; thirdly, the injury was not trivial suffered by some owner (as yet not clearly indicated) from an indefinite interrup- tion to the commercial uses of his ship and cargo. These were wrongs, infamous when viewed as the promptings of one solitary of- ficial man, placed by his sovereign at the head of a great province for the maintenance of order and for the distribution of justice.; but yet trifles, when ranked against other acts of the same ruler, and against the unprovoked insult which he had offered to our national flag. This insult being accomplished, next came the judicial investigation, on our part, into its * " Affectirig at most two men, perhaps one:'' — And this " one" challenged upon these two worshipful grounds — first, that he had something "red" in a part of his dress — so much went for little even in China: but then, secondly, he had lost one (orby'r lady it might be two) of his front teeth, but whether in the up- per jaw or in the lower, the witness did not specify. 107 circumstances ; after which began the punish- ment inflicted by Admiral Seymour ; and that^ though exemplary, is far indeed from having yet reached its consummation. In both chap- ters of the avenging work which ran so fast upon the heels of the abominable outrage, there occurred circumstances which merit notice. Let me cite two. The particular vessel which furnished the arena for Governor Yeh's atro- city was locally classed as a lorcha, and known by the name of the Arrow. It is immaterial to pause for a description or definition of a " lorcha," since no allegation whatever, on one side or on the other, is at all affected by the classification of the ship. But any fair and upright reviewer of the case, who wishes ear- nestly to hold the scales even between the parties, is likely enough to find himself per- plexed by the contradictory statements as to the past history of the particular lorcha con- cerned. He will find in the Blue-book * re- cently laid before Parliament on this Canton explosion, a letter from Sir J. Bowring him- self, in which he seems to admit that all was not sound in the pretensions of the Arrow ; and, at first sight, the English reader is met * " Proceedings of Her Majesty's Naval Forces at Canton." 108 by a most painful impression that Sir John is confidentially confessing to Mr Consul Parkes something or other which he describes as un- known to the Chinese, but which (the natural inference is) would have bettered the case of Yeh, had it been known to him. Precisely at this point it is that one of two fatal blun-' ders committed by Lord Derby, in abstracting the sum of the Canton reports, has misled all who relied on hi^ 'fethorfty.' ' M |^ of the Blue-book, Sir John Bowring says : [Hong-' Koiig^October 11.] — "It app^Ar^; 'bfi'ei^mi-'' nation, that the Arrow had no right to hoist the British flag; the license to do so expired, j on the 27th of September" — [thirteen days before the Chinese outrage] . And Sir Johri'^ then goes on to say : — " But the Chinese had no hnowledge of the expiry of the license, ^^* Im- * " Expiry of the License:'''' — It is remarkable enough that Lord Clarendon, whose long practice in the art of reading state-papers must have qualified him so eminently for moving with rapidity and with steadiness amongst the accumulated documents of Hong-Kong, might almost seem to have foreseen the blunder of"^ Lord Derby. Writing from the Foreign Office on December ''^ 10, 1856, and reviewing all the papers connected with the Arrow that could then have reached him by the overland mail, coming down to October 15, Lord Clarendon says, that he has consulted the law-officer of the Crown, and has come to the conclusion that this act of the Chinese authorities constitutes an infraction * of Art. IX. of the Supplementary Treaty. Yet, whilst saying 109 mediately, with rash haste, Lord Derby pre-r sumes the logic of the case to stand thus : — ^ " Between ourselves," he supposes Sir John to say, " you and I, Mr Consul Earkes, are quite in the wrong box. If the Chinese knewf all, we shouldn't have a leg to stand on. But luckily they donH know all. So let us keep our own counsel." Strange that Lord Derby could have ascribed such a meaning to anyt man in his senses that was not personating the character of a stage- villain. What Sir John wishes to say is this — that, as a matter of fact,^ there really was an irregularity (as it hap- this, he adds, as part of the very same despatch, pretty nearly that very identical remark of Sir J. Bowring, which Lord Derby fancies to be nothing less than a confidential retractation of the whole charge against the Chinese. Here are Lord Clarendon's v words: — "The expiration of the Arrow's sailing license on Sep- tember 27, previous to her seizure, does not appear to have been known to the Chinese authorities." What then ? Does he mean that this might ultimately weaken our claim for reparation, as giving us a present and momentary advantage which wouldj melt away as the truth became gradually more apparent ? Not;^ at all. So far from this, he means to say that Yeh does not ap- pear to have known the one sole fact, which, if known, might, under an erroneous construction, have seemed to authorise, or colourably to palliate his outrage; and Lord Clarendon, it must "^ be remembered, is not giving this opinion under any suspicion of partisanship, as would have been the case had he been speak-^]^ ing in the House of Lords, but under the most solemn seal of , public duty, as a minister of state writing confidentially to re- sponsible agents. 110 pened) in the case of the Arrow; but that this irregularity could be of no avail to Yeh as an excuse for the outrage, since it was en- tirely unknown to Yeh. Being unknown, therefore, it was immaterial whether the sup- posed irregularity had existed or not. How- ever, Sir John had scarcely written his letter before he became aware that there had really been no irregularity at all. The sailing license had indeed lapsed, but under circumstances which legally sustained its continued validity until the vessel should reach the port at which the license could be renewed. Sir John had made a mistake ; but such a mistake as could lend no countenance to Yeh. The brief logic of the case, as understood by Lord Derby, is — " Yeh does not know the truths therefore let us keep him in the dark,'''' But the true logic, in Sir John's meaning, was — " Yeh does not know the truths therefore let him not presume to plead it as the ground of his violence,^^ Suppose that the Arrow had been, by over- sight, stripped in part of her particular pri- vileges, was it from this unguarded point — was it from this heel of Achilles — that the villain Yeh would have sought to steal his advantage ? Not at all. In such a case, by moving under the sanction of a treaty, he would Ill altogether have missed his triumph. Those persons totally misconceive the governor's pur- pose who impute to him a special pleader's subtlety in construing severely the terms on which we grant indulgences and dispensations. Yeh was not in search of a case where he really might find us trespassing a little to the right or left; on the contrary — and in the very broadest sense on the contrary — he sought for a case in which our right was clear and un- equivocal. Else, if our right had been doubt- ful, his triumph would have been doubtful in trampling on it. But how, then, did Yeh purpose to give any even colourable or mo- mentary air of equity to his outrage ? Simply by drawing upon the old infamous times for precedents of violence, which the Treaty of 1842, and the Supplementary Treaty, had for ever abolished. Before the war of 1841 and 1842, the unlimited despot who sat in Canton arrested whom, and when and how, he pleased. In this affair of the Arrow, the old obsolete system was suddenly revived. The pretence was, that amongst the crew of the Arrow were two men who had once been pirates. But such a pretence, whether true or false, was no longer valid. Neither we nor the Chinese were left at liberty in future to 112 right ourselves. Had we complaints to urge? had we criminals to apprehend ? For all such purposes the treaty opened to us both a regular and pacific course. It was not alleged that we, on our part, had at all obstructed the fluent movement of public justice. The sole motive to Yeh's manoeuvre was a determination on ^ his part to humble us, and, as preliminary step, to degrade our national honour. The late de- bates in both Houses betrayed a state of ig- norance as to our relations with China, and v^ as to the temper and profligacy of the Chinese people, which few were aware of. The subject was first treated in the Upper House; conse- quently, in the natural course of things, it was a lord, and really a brilliant lord, that first launched upon the public stage of politics the following almost inconceivable blunder. The noble orator was insisting upon the stupendous crop of wickedness which we British had re- cently grown in the neighbourhood of Can- ton; and the proof which he cited was this — namely, that the " rebels," by which unex- plained term he meant evidently the Tae-pings, had actually joined their forces and made com- mon cause with the imperial army. Anything more desperately extravagant was never heard of amongst men. All who know anything of •J 113 the soi-disant Christian rebels, commonly called the Tae-pings, are well aware that the one sole object of their political existence is the violent and bloody extermination of the reigning dy- nasty — ^. 6., the family of Mantchoo Tartars, now, and since 1644, insecurely seated on the Peking throne. Not a proclamation have these rebels ever published, which has not fiercely proclaimed a twofold mission upon earth — namely, 1. to establish a monstrous form of corrupt Christianity upon the ruins of the several idolatries (often Fetish wor- ships) in China; 2. to exterminate — [note well, not to expel into their native regions of Eastern Tartary, but to decollate, to deca- pitate, to strangle, or more commonly to ex- terminate] the Tartar race, root and branch ; and having accomplished that mission (in which there really is some flavour of a religious pur- pose), to restore the old Ming or native Chinese dynasty. The very principle by which the Tae-ping rebellion exists (not merely acts and legislates, but actually has its being) is the unsparing destruction of the reigning house. And yet between that reigning house it is, and these rebels who have sworn its destruction, that Lord Derby supposes a coalition. It is true that a body of pirates calling themselves H 114 rebels did immediately take advantage of the troubles at Canton — not in any form of hos- tility to the British ; on the contrary, in the very humblest attitude of suppliants. They pretended to connect themselves with the Tae-pings, simply on the conceit that we, being at feud with the imperial authority, must na- turally seek alliance with all people in the same predicament. But we had some years ago, in the time of Sir George Bonham, had very unsatisfactory interviews with the Tae- pings, and the pretended brother of Jesus Christ. We had found them weak, cruel, without systematic policy, and altogether as incomprehensibly arrogant as the reigning fa- mily. These new pretenders, however, were not even Tae-pings. Even as " rebels " they were spurious. Nor was there any appearance that they were at all better than a swell-mob. The ludicrous position of these pretended " rebels," whom Lord Derby represents as hav- ing suddenly joined the Imperialists against us^ is, that, on being questioned with regard to the grounds and objects of their rebellion, they could not even assign the person against whom, or in support of whom, they were rebelling. Where, in our English slang, " these leaders hung out," or in what camps they proposed 115 to establish head- quarters, were insoluble ques- tions. Generally, it was collected, that wher- ever a man could be indicated as having pro- bably ten dollars in his purse, against that man they were prepared to " rebel." ^ Although the absurdity and drollery of the case, and the extreme disproportion between * "Prepared to rebel :'^ — It deserves notice, however, that in China there is a permanent opening for rebels — both word and thing — in the condition of society. Besides the " Christian " rebels — the formidable Tae-pings — who have kept open for half- a-dozen years the cause of insurrection in the interior (some- times in the very centre) of the empire, there has always been a smouldering rebellion — first, amongst the triads; secondly, amongst the eastern maritime populations, tainted with the leaven of piracy, and scornfully disaffected to the supreme government, as too notoriously not able to protect them; thirdly, amongst an old indigenous race of mountaineers, called the Meaoutsee (whether Chinese originally by blood is unknown), who having long since found out the trick of cudgelling the Chinese, are not likely to unlearn it amongst the advantageous positions of their native hills and mountain-passes. John Chinaman from the plains below is continually opening a new chapter of the eternal row with these people; which being reported to Peking, in the old mendacious fashion, and discounted accordingly by the Em- peror, do not leave any large balance of victory to receive at the end of the year: no burden arises for the Peking memory. Dur- ing our own war with the Chinese of 1841-2, a very natural fancy occurred to the Cabinet of Peking — namely, to hire these old enemies in the stage character of new friends. Fighting so well as nuisances, why not as allies ? But unhappily the plan failed. Ranged against the British, the stout mountaineers " went the way of all flesh." 116 the grave realities of our official experience at Canton, and the romantic legends of Her Ma- jesty's Opposition, have the effect of drawing off the lightning of the national displeasure from the House of Lords, yet not the less it cannot be disguised that the accrediting of such nursery fables by dignified leaders and accom- plished statesmen must operate, through many channels, injuriously upon the character of our Senate, and would, were not such a result in- tercepted by the savage duncery of Chinese mandarins, make us a by-word for credulity in the councils of Canton. To be objects of derision and banter to a nation of what, in old • English, would have been styled Half-wits ! — Heavens ! what a destiny! In a memorable little poem of Donne's, entitled the " Curse," which perhaps offers the most absolute chef- d^wuvre extant of condensation as to thinking and expression, one massy line is this : — " May he be scorn'd by one whom all else scorn ! " Such an imprecation would assuredly be rea- lised for any of our senators whom Hansard might transfer in a comprehensible form to the ^ make-believe literati of China. It should be remembered by our senators that " Nescit vox missa reverti ; " or else centuries hence the 117 mortified descendants of distinguished leaders may read with astonishment the monstrous memorials of ancestral credulity. At p. 118 of the Blue-book occurs the first notice of the pretended rebels. In Sir J. Bow- ring's letter, printed partially on this page, and dated November 25, 1856, it is first of all noticed that Yeh, amongst his other hateful falsehoods, was " industriously circulating" that . we, the British, are *' in league with the rebel forces." At p. 119 occurs the second notice : — On December 12, 1856, Sir J. Bowring makes the following entry into his journal meant for Lord Clarendon: — " I have received from Mr Secretary Wade a report (dated yesterday) to the efffect that, in consequence of the withdrawal " (meaning by Mr Governor Yeh) " of the troops from the open country * for the defence of Canton, — crowds of bandits, calling themselves rebels, have devastated large districts, committing every sort of vio- lence and excess." Itisindeed moststrange that the Imperial Commissioner should not have * His Excellency in his hurry is excusably unprecise : what Sir John means, is the withdrawal into the city of Canton, so as to be available against the British, of the troops ap- pointed to the general defence of the vast province bearing the same name. 118 foreseen how certainly his rash quarrel with the treaty-powers would encourage move- ments such as those now described, and im- peril the imperial authority, probably beyond redemption. These were counterfeit rebels^ and others on the sea, of the same lawless character, who made advances to us, seeking shelter under our power, and the benefit of our countenance, aided by their most ambiguous name of rebels. Had these rebels been less de- terminately cruel, and had they been willing to renounce their mysterious pretensions to some ridiculous superiority, which Sir G. Bonham, in his sole conference with their chiefs, treated, as usual, with nothing of the requisite disdain, it was at one time (say four years ago) really becoming a question whether it might not be advisable to form a provisional alliance with them^ rather than continue our support to the mouldering family at present on the throne. In the wickedness of wholesale murder the two factions are exactly on a level ; and with our aid either party would be sure of a triumph. It happens, however, that, in fact, we never did make any overture of alliance. Never once, by the slightest expression of approval or collusion, have we given countenance or ground of hope to the Tae-pings ; far less to 119 the sham rebels, and, no doubt, as we had made a treaty with the reigning house, this line of policy (due to no merits of that house) is, upon the whole, the most becoming to our po- sition. At this moment we see the extraordinary spectacle in the English capital of a large party, composed of distinguished Englishmen, labour- ing to establish a charge of murder and multi- plied incendiarism against their own compa- triots in the East; and for no other purpose than that of reaching one obnoxious leader, Sir John Bowring, we see them involving in the charge a gallant sailor, whose reputation, if tainted by shadows of doubt, touches the interests of the British navy. On the other side, ranged against Sir John and the admiral, we behold a real and undoubted murderer, the Governor of Canton, whom any coroner's inquest in England would assuredly find guilty of mur- der; not as having by military means killed an English subject acting against him in open combat, but as having by two separate bribes* * "Two separate bribes:" — Yeh, the governor, first of all, offered by proclamation, upon the 27th of October, the sum of thirty dollars for the head of every Englishman; and subse- quently a private association of persons in Canton, whom we dignify with the titles of " gentry " and " literati/' offered a se- »/ 120 encouraged and suborned murderers. Three* men have already been assailed under this in- citement. One, a Portuguese in the English naval service, was saved (though wounded) by the aid which answered critically to his call. But early in the quarrel two others, both Englishmen, perished. Charles Bennet was seized suddenly by a crowd, whom he had approached without distrust, and was in- stantly decapitated. The other, too sure of the fate awaiting him, leaped into the sea, as a gentler and nobler enemy that neither tempted nor betrayed, and he died in soli- tary quiet. Now, let us pause for a moment and con- sider. There have been cases, past all num- bering, of men individually or in factions set- ting prices on the heads of their rivals, whom they chose or had reason to denounce as their enemies. History rings with such cases. But cond bribe, larger by more than one-lialf — namely, thirty-three taels. A tael is precisely the old English noble, or 6s. 8d.j whence comes our ordinary law-solicitor's fee. Three taels, therefore, at the ordinary exchange, make one pound sterling. Consequently, Yeh's price for an English head is about six pounds or guineas; but the literati are more liberal, and ofifer pretty nearly to a fraction ten guineas. * Since then the crew and passengers of the Thistle steamer, eleven in number, and others. 121 these were always the cases — or if excused, it was because tliey were presumed to be the cases — of men contending for some great prize, generally a crown, whose existence and secu- rity had become reciprocally incompatible. One or other, it was felt, must perish; and it was the supreme authority of self-preservation which conferred the right of inflicting death upon the baffled competitor. Even these were viewed oftentimes by all parties as afflicting necessities, which under that name only could be reconciled to human feelings. Turn from such conflicts, so natural and so deeply pal- liated, to the hellish atrocity of this inhuman murderer at Canton. What, let us ask briefly, had been his provocation? And supposing that he might, in his meagre faculty of judg- ment, have misconceived his own rights and position, or read in a false sense the steps taken by Sir J. Bowring and the British admiral, what men are those whom he has selected for the victims of his vengeance ! He could scarcely hope that his pretended retaliation should alight upon the leaders of the British ; and for all the rest, they were poor men with- out power, the very humblest in kind or in degree for disputing the orders of their supe- riors. But what was the provocation ? It is / 122 worth the reader's while to follow the expla- nation as it unfolds itself to any one who re- views the whole connection and relations be- tween the Governor of Canton and the con- trollers of the British interests. Let us briefly sketch it. The war in 1841-2, which followed close upon the heels of the abominable oppres- sions exercised by Commissioner Lin, and of his lawless confiscations, did not unseal the eyes of the Chinese Government — nothing on this side the grave could do that — but it left the whole aristocratic part of the nation lost in horror, astonishment, and confusion. y/ For us also it brought strange light and revo- lutionary views upon the true available re- sources of China. The wretched Government of Peking had neither men nor money, and s/ entirely through its own vices of administra- tion. We ourselves never brought above 9000 infantry into the field, no cavalry (which, in some instances, would have been worth its weight in gold), and at the utmost 3000 mis- cellaneous reserves, artillery, marines, sailors, &c. The Chinese, by a great eff'ort, some- times brought five men to our two ; though never in one instance were they able to make good their ground, although often aided by the advantage of lofty walls, which our men had 123 to scale. Pretty nearly the greatest number that they were able to manoeuvre on one field against us ran up to 17,000 or 18,000. Think, reader, with astonishment (but with horror, when you consider the cause) of this awful disproportion to the reputed population of this vast empire. Grant, as readily one may grant, that this population is hyperbolically exag- gerated, still there is gTOund for assuming 80,000,000, or one-fifth part of the ridiculous 400,000,000, which some writers assume ; and even on this diminished scale you have a po- pulation larger perhaps by 14,000,000, cer- tainly by 10,000,000, than that of martial Russia. It is a fact in the highest degree probable, that neither Circassia nor Algerine Arabia has brought into the field forces nu- merically smaller than this monstrous China, whose area is hard upon 1,300,000 square English miles — ^. e., about eleven times larger* than the Britannic Isles. Inconceiv- able, therefore, is the martial poverty of China ; and even yet the worst has not been said. Of the ridiculously small armies produced by * " Eleven times larger:^* — Confining the estimate, of course, to China Proper; else China beyond the Wall counts a total of 3,000,000 square English miles. 124 China, only the Tartar section displayed any true martial qualities ; and one fact which de- monstrates the paucity of this meritorious sec- tion is, that on the approach of the final panic* it was found necessary to summon 5000 of these Tartars from Thibet, and other extra- mural regions, as we learn from the French * This panic was in itself a most memorable and scenical dis- play; perhaps the finest as a poetic vision that homely China has ever witnessed; for in China there is no magnificence of any sort. Since the siege of Jerusalem, there has been nothing like the terror-stricken packing up of the court at Peking, after it became known that the English army occupied the head of the imf)erial canal. Had our horse-guards been present at head- quarters, we should have caught and amputated more bushels of pigtails than Hannibal of equestrian gold rings at Cannae. But the comedy of the case really rises to the sublime, when the fact transpires, that what between the knavery and the panic of the court, there disappeared from the treasure-chests of the Emperor, during the headlong process of packing up, 3,000,000 of money; not taels observe, 3,000,000 of which would unhappily make only 1,000,000 of sovereigns; but three downright sterling millions. What was to be done 1 Horror turned the Emperor's head grass- green in one night. But what good would that do? Verdant hair would not bring back the departed money. Nothing would bring it back. Hitherto there had been no national debt in China: but from this night forward there was. Taoukwang, first and last, ordained that the 3,000,000 should be funded, and stand as a debt against the names to the thousandth generation of those who should have guarded the money, but certainly did not, and probably stole it. Meantime the Emperor could not cash a bill for £10; and in his journey to Mantchoo Tartary, had it held, he must have gone upon tick with his postilions: which might have brought his green hair with sorrow to the grave. 125 missionaries, MM. Hue and Gabet. For the very last reinforcement, on which the Mant- choo throne was likely to depend, a summons was requisite to regions beyond the Wall at distances of one, two, and even three thousand miles ! In 1842 the war had come to an end, through the absolute exhaustion of the Chi- nese in every possible resource. Men, money, munitions of war, even provisions locally, all were drained. Three great aggravations of the case had arisen almost simultaneously: the Emperor had incautiously suffered himself, in a sudden paroxysm of rabid fury against the British, to say, " Spare no cost in exter- minating^^ (such was his uniform word) " the profligate barbarians ;" upon which the two maritime provinces of Chekeang and Fokien took him at his word, in a few months had run up an account of 11,000,000 taels (three taels to £1), which in the spring of 1842 called for instant liquidation ; and, meantime (which was the most dismal feature of the case), no- thing whatever had the provinces to show in return for such a fearful expenditure, except indeed a few shameless romances of Bobadil victories, which even the stolid Emperor now began to see through as mockeries; whilst 126 daily it became more certain that four-fifths of the 11,000,000 had been embezzled by the mandarins. Here was one exasperation of the public calamity. A second was — that whilst the English at Chusan and Koolangsoo lived generally on the very best terms with the in- habitants, never pillaged them, and never im- posed fines or pecuniary contributions upon them, the pauper part of the native population (a very numerous part in many provinces of China) followed our army like carrion crows, blackening the whole face of the land as they settled upon the derelict property, to which unavoidably our victorious troops had laid open the road. Always the pillagers of China were the Chinese. A third aggravation of the ruin was, that vast floods were abroad, in many cases destroying the crops. In our own coun- try, comparatively so limited, at a certain cri- tical part of the autumn, it is often said that unseasonable weather makes a diff'erence to the nation of £1,000,000 sterling in each suc- cessive period of twenty-four hours ; in China, where there is so much less of vicarious de- pendence upon animal diet, it may be guessed in how vast an excess of range must operate any derangement of the cereal crops. Such was the misery which, amidst infinite gnash- 127 ing of teeth, compelled the Emperor to make a hasty and humiliating peace. The misery of this period might be received as a solemn foretaste of deeper woes awaiting this wicked prince and nation in coming times. It needs no spirit of prophecy to denounce this: such tempers as govern those who are here con- cerned carry with them to a certainty their own fearful chastisements, when brought (as now at last they are) upon a wider stage of action, and forced into daylight. Peace, then, was made ; and peace, to the deadly mortification of the Chinese Court, was followed by a treaty. We were not going to let the impression of our victories exhale ; we insisted, therefore, on such results from our martial successes as our experience had then taught us to be requisite ; but unhappily, such is our general spirit of moderation in dealing with those who cannot appreciate moderation, we demanded far too little, as now we find. And even of that little we have allowed the Chinese fraudulently to keep back all that dis- pleased the mobs in great cities. The peace, therefore, and the treaty were finished ; and things should have settled back, it was fancied, into their old grooves at Can- ton. Heavens ! what a mistake ! Not until 128 all parties resumed their old habits at the south- ernmost point of China, did any of them rea- lise experimentally the prodigious revolution. There — where heretofore the haughty ruler of Canton issued his superb ukase, " Go, and he goeth — do this, and he doeth it," — now walk- ed, in conscious independence and admitted equality, a British plenipotentiary, having rights of his own, and knowing how to main- tain them. Instead of flying for a few hours' shelter from Chinese wrath to poor trembling Macao, this plenipotentiary had now a home aiid a flag that nobody could violate with im- punity. Hong-Kong was, for itself, little better than a rock ; but, which was a point of more importance to us, the harbour attached to that rock was worthy of England. In a map of China what a pin's-point is Hong- Kong! And yet, through all that vast em- pire, there is not one refuge so impregnable to the whole embattled Orient. Now, then, exactly in proportion as we had become almost as invulnerable as the air to the idle weapons of the governor, more frantic grew his morbid craving for wounding us. But how? Nothing was left to him but a crime. To violate our flag — that was the only way in which he could sting. But it was a way in 129 which he could not sting twice. Measures of repression and measures of chastisement fol- lowed instantly. It was felt most justly by all the official people on the spot that the spirit of aggression was nursed by the submission, on our part, to exclusion from free access to Canton — this being at once a traditional insult to ourselves, and a flagrant violation of four separate treaties. All the defences, therefore, of Canton, one after another, were destroyed ; and not merely in their fittings and immediate capacity for service, as had too often been to- lerated before : they were now mined and blown up, so as to leave them heaps of ruins. It had been a trial of strength between our- y selves and Yeh. He had declared that we should not enter Canton : we had replied that we would. Accordingly, Admiral Seymour and the plenipotentiary not only walked over the ruined defences into that city, but into the residence (Yamun) of Yeh, sat down on Yeh's sofas, and redeemed their vow. Mere frenzy seems then to have taken possession of Yeh ; he looked round for some weapon of retalia- tion, but could find none — none that was tole- rated by the usages of any nation raised above savagery. Then it was — and in an evil hour for himself, if we prove faithful to our duty 130 — that Yeh dispersed everywhere his oiFers of blood-money to murderers. Yet, in Mr Cob- den's eyes, Yeh is an injured man. Now, on the other side, hear Admiral Seymour's vigi- lant interposition on behalf of the Cantonese. In the very midst of the excitement at the moment of storming the breach in the Canton wall, on the morning of November 29, the admiral took the following precautions : — " Before the landing took place, I assembled the officers, and urgently impressed upon them (as I had previously done by written orders) the necessity of restraining the men from mo- lesting the persons and property of the inhabi- tants, confining warlike operations against the troops only ; and I have pleasure in bearing testimony to the forbearance of the seamen and marines." Again, on the capture of the Bogue and Anunghoy Forts, mounting jointly 410 guns, the dastardly mandarins in command had se- cured boats for their own escape, but had left their followers unprovided for. Upon this the several Chinese garrisons had rushed into the water, as their sole resource against our victorious stormers. What course, in these circumstances, did the admiral adopt? He declined even to make prisoners of the men (a 131 generosity perhaps indiscreet, considering the pressure everywhere upon the Chinese Govern- ment for troops) ; and, without even amputat- ing the tails of the men, a measure sometimes adopted by us in 1842 to braver men than the ^ Chinese — namely, to the Tartar troops — the admiral most kindly took them all on board, and put them ashore uninjured. In many other cases, the anxious care of this admiral — whom Mr Cobden involves in the same re- proaches as the plenipotentiary — was to stand between the Chinese and all injury that it was possible to avoid, though many of these Chi- nese were those very Cantonese who had con- verted their city into a den of murder. And the return for this forbearance is, that secret murderers are hired by Yeh, not merely against soldiers and marines, indicated by their uniforms, but against non-combatants utterly disconnected from the diplomatic interests at issue, or the warlike service ministerial to those interests. Mr Cobden will probably find rea- son hereafter to repent of his motion as the worst day's work he ever accomplished ; and the more so because, first, in order to protect the very existence of the British in China, it will be indispensable to pursue the same vir- tual policy as that of Sir J. Bo wring, what- 132 ever change may be made in names or forms ; secondly, because our supreme Government at home is abeady committed to this policy, by the formal approbation given to the whole of the w^arlike proceedings* against Canton, under the official seal of Lord Clarendon (see his Letter to the Lords of the Admiralty in re- ference to Sir M. Seymour). Now let us come to the practical sugges- tions which the past, in connection with the known knavery of the Chinese administration through all its ranks and local subdivisions, imperatively prescribes. First, as to an appeal, which is talked of generally, to the Emperor at Peking. Nothing will come of this — nothing but evil, if it is managed as hitherto it has been. Here it is, * " Warlike proceedings :"" — But not, therefore, to any bombard- ment of Canton, meaning the dwelling-houses and shops of that city, which is a pure fiction of the Cobdenites. No bombard- ment has yet taken place, but one directed against the cincture of walls around Canton — walls which are surmounted or sur- mountable with guns. But assume even that a general bom- bardment of the city had been found necessary, for the master- ing of its foolish governor's obstinacy, what more would that have been than we have many times adopted against far more me- ritorious places, or than we had actually made final preparations to carry out against this very Canton in the year 1841, as the one sole available resource for extorting a most equitable indem- nity to our injured merchants. 133 and perhaps here only, that Sir J. Bowring has failed in his duty. We make a treaty with this Emperor, or at least with his father. Finding it insufficient, we make four treaties —one in 1842, one in 1843, a third in 1846, and a final one in 1847. Every one of these in succession has recognised our right to move freely in and out of Canton. But always we have permitted the governor for the time to set aside this right, upon an assurance that the obstacle lay in the irritable temper of the mob; that this mob could not be controlled for the present; but that, in some mysterious way (never explained), at an indefinite period in futurity, the requisite subordination would probably be developed. Upon this, at various times, appeals have been presented to the Emperor (not the Emperor under whom the treaties were extorted, but the present Em- peror, his son); and uniformly these appeals have taken the form of petitions, to which uni- formly the Peking reply has been by one in- solent No, sans phrase. Now what child's play is this ! We make a treaty ; we begin by permitting the public officers to evade the fulfilment of it, without so much as a plausible pretext. The mob is not satisfied : that is the curt diplomatic reply; and mighty thrones / 134 are instructed to await the pleasure (now through fourteen years) of a vile murdering populace for the concession of their primary rights. A treaty has been obtained, at the cost of a war, and therefore of many thousand lives ; and then we send a humble petition to the beaten prince that he will graciously fulfil the terms of this treaty. Sir J. Bowring has been blameable in this ; but in the very oppo- site direction to that indicated by Mr Cobden. Briefly, then, the national voice cries loudly, " No more petitions to Peking ! " Once for all, a stern summons to the fulfilment of the Chinese undertakings. Every year the smart- ing of the wounds inflicted by the war is cool- ing down, the terror is departing ; and a new war will become necessary, which would have been made unnecessary by the simple course of building on the terrors of the first war. It cannot be denied by the whole body of our oflBicial people — consuls, plenipotentiaries, &c. — that they have in this point acted foolishly — namely, that whenever the swindling com- missioners of the Quantung province or city have been called on to assign the plea under which they claim further indulgence, they have always replied, " OA, the mob ! " without fur- ther comment, neither showing through what 135 channel the mob exercised any present influ- ence, nor by what unspeakable agency it was pretended that the friends of this mob looked reasonably for its amendment. We have, in short, allowed ourselves to be trifled with, and y to furnish a standing jest to all the diplomatic people of China. Secondly, next as to a resident ambassador of high rank in Peking. We know not what we ask. The thing has been amply tried. As great a power as ourselves, though moulded on a difl'erent model — the mighty Court of St Petersburg — tried this scheme with much pa- tience, and swallowed aff*ronts that would have injured the prestige of the Czar, had they been reported through Europe. But all came to nothing, through the insurmountable chicanery ' of the highest Chinese officers, and through the inhuman insolence of the court. It is true the Russian envoy was not of the very highest rank ; and that was a dismal oversight of the Czar. But possibly the Czar shrank from compromising his own grandeur in the person of a higher representative. However, the en- voy was high enough to be held presentable at court, and was invited to hunting-par- ties. But the mortifications and aff'ronts put upon him passed all count and valuation. 136 Soldiers were quartered in his house, and sta- tioned at his gate, to examine, by inquisitorial (often tormenting) modes, what might be the business of every visiter. Sometimes they horsewhipped these visiters for presuming to come at all, on any errand whatever. Sometimes they hustled the visiter violently. Sometimes (indeed always, as regarded their true purposes) they insisted on large money bribes. In short, they made the envoy weary of his existence. The same infamous trick so ignoble and scoundrelish, was prac- tised upon the Russian as upon the British ambassador. The Emperor, through pure insolence, insisted on feeding the embassy. Well, this was brutal; but, if the embassy really were fed, the main end was answered. But oftentimes the supply of provisions was utterly neglected. On the one hand, it was construed into an affront to the Emperor if his guests purchased provisions — it was even dan- gerous to do so under so capricious a despotism; and yet, on the other hand, if provisions were not purchased, frequently the servants suffered absolute starvation. In the Russian case the Chinese agent laid down the imperial allow- ance on the ground of the courtyard ; nor was the service ever much improved. And in the 137 case of Lord Amherst, after a fatiguing day's travel, the embassy was introduced to a court, in which was fixed a table bearing a dish of broken meat, such as in England, would be offered to itinerant beggars ; and for all the beverage that waited upon this sumptuous repast, the gentlemen were referred to a number of horse-buckets filled with water. On remonstrating — for it was too evident that an indignity was designed — the mandarin in attendance wilfully heightened the affront by pleading, with mock humility, that the horse- buckets were introduced on the special assur- ance that such was the usage of our country. The main object, meantime, of this puerile in- sult was altogether baffled, since nobody, but a Chinese servant or two, condescended to touch anything. It was a most unfortunate arrangement for the Russian envoy that he was too closely connected with the commercial business of his countrymen. Upon this the Chinese, as usual, took occasion to build every form of insult. They did not condescend to matters of trade ; and really, if the Russians wanted to be protected, they must not apply on such trifles to great men. A most seasonable opening occurred for a retort to the Russian minister ; and, perilous as it was to play with 138 such sneers, the temptation to do so was too strong for human patience. It happened that, at the very moment when the poor Russian dealers began to bring forward for sale a vast mass of Siberian furs, the Emperor suddenly forestalled and ruined their trade by coming down upon the market with a matter of 20,000 similar furs from the region of the river Amour. Upon this the envoy observed, with bitter irony, that it made him truly happy — oh, it was delightful ! — to find that his Chinese Ma- jesty had seen the error of his opinions, and was at length going to consecrate commerce by entering "into business himself " in the whole- sale line as a furrier. The great mandarins were all taken aback; they coloured, looked very angry, and then very foolish. "It wasn't to be imagined," they said, "that his Celestial Majesty cared about making gain; oh no! He only wanted to " "Make a little profit," said the Russian, filling up the blank. Thirdly, it is probable, therefore, that our Government, if they were to read and muse a little on the journal of the Russian envoy,* the * M. De Lange. He was left by M. De Ismaeloff", and was personally known to the Scottish traveller, Bell of Antermony. Bell was a favourite and an agent of the Czar Peter the Great; and after the Czar's death he reprinted De Lange's Record as a 139 one solitary memorial of diplomatic residence amongst this odious people, will think twice before they propose to any British nobleman a service at once so degrading and so perilous. There is no exaggeration in saying perilous. Our own experience furnishes sufficient vouch- ers. Lord Amherst in 1816, although dis- posed individually to make far too serious con- cessions to the ridiculous claims of this savage court, although he submitted (which surely was almost a criminal act) t(^ be advertised on the outside of the boats conveying himself and suite, as " the English tribute-bearer," and was even inclined to perform the ko-tou, had he not been recalled to nobler sentiments by Sir George Staunton (one of his two associates in the legatine functions), yet could not, by all his obsequious overtures, so long as he retained any reserve of manly self-respect, secure the decencies of civility from a court which he had visited at the cost of a 25,000-mile voyage.* He was driven back with contumely and vio- supplement to his own Travels. But it had been printed pre- viously in a separate form, and somewhat differently in parts, at the Hague, if not at Stockholm. Some seventy years after this abortive residence of De Lange, the Russians made another ef- fort, of which no memorial has been printed. * 25,000-mile voyage: — i. e., outward and homeward. 140 lence on the very morning of reaching the Emperor's palace ; no resting time allowed after an exhausting j ourney, pursued most un- necessarily the whole night long; mobs of ruffians were allowed to rush into the room where he was seeking a moment's repose, and to treat him^ the representative of the British Majesty, together with his suite, as a show of wild beasts. With such headlong fury waS: Lord Amherst ordered off, that he himself and his experienced assessors, knowing the ca- pricious violence of this besotted despotism, did seriously regard it as no impossible catastrophe, that the whole embassy might be summarily put to death. Lord Amherst's courage in persist- ing, unterrified, redeems his error as to the ko'tou. It is probable enough that, but for one refrigerating suggestion (namely, the close proximity of our vast Indian Empire), Lord Amherst and his train would really have been sacrificed to the brute arrogance of China. England was far off, but Hindostan was near ; and it appears, by the ridiculous collections of Lin, in 50 vols. 4to, that circuitously through Thibet some nursery tales had reached Peking of our Indian conquests, and in particular of our conflict with Nepaul. But so preposte- rously were the relations and proportions of 141 all objects distorted, that Lin (who may pass / for a fair representative of the Chinese literati) conceived our main Indian Empire to be called London, and lying somewhere near to the Himalayas. Such was the vrrath of Taoukwang and his council ; and so was it probably averted. Fear of the phantom London on the Ganges was too probably what saved Lord Amherst's head. Now, when men came to read of this danger threatened, and of these indignities suffered, murmurs arose amongst the intelli- gent that the Government at home should have exposed a band of faithful servants and the honour of the national name to such useless humiliations. Nothing at all was gained by the mission : at no time was there a prospect of gaining anything; but there was a very serious risk, through many weeks, of a tragedy that would have cost us an extra war. Let us keep that in mind — ^that a war stands as the issue and arbitrement of future negotiations ^ with China not wisely managed ; and wisely means above all other things so managed as to allow no effect whatever to these pretensions of China which all men of sense or feeling no longer mention without disgust. One or two of these hateful pretensions shall be noticed 142 immediately ; but meantime let us pause for a moment to remark upon the new form which our negotiations are going to assume. Lord Granville has announced that France and the United States will now join us in our new diplomacy, and give weight to our demands. Even this arrangement marks on the part of our Government a non-acquaintance with the Chinese nature and condition of culture. These two advantages we have a chance of drawing from the association of the two nations in our overtures, that, by lightening the cost, they will improve the quality of our interventions, and that each of them is more irritably jealous of even shadows that may sully the bright disk of their national honour than we are ; and it is to their credit, in Shakspere's words, " Greatly to find quarrel in a straw," wherever a hostile purpose is on the watch to found future assumptions and insolent advan- tages upon what seemed to be accident, and was therefore neglected as such. In this di- rection we shall find useful allies in these great nations, that will not so lightly make rash con- cessions as we have done. But this is the least part of what our Government is expecting. They fancy that the great authority, the au- 143 / m thentic prestige, of two leading peoples in ■ Christendom will have its natural weight I even with a silly oriental nation. There are, perhaps, one or two oriental nations — for in- stance, the Burmese — who seem to have a natural aptitude for conforming their appre- hensions to the new social phenomena intro- duced to them by European civilisation ; but in the Chinese this power is stifled in its ear- I liest stages by the enormity of their self-con- I ceit. In any case they would allow no weight L to foreign nations, even if made acquainted I with their high pretensions. But they are not acquainted with the elements of those preten- sions. Having no knowledge of geography, none of history, and, above all, none of civili- sation and its marvels, how or when should "^ they learn, for instance, to respect the splen- dour of France? All that they know of France is, that two centuries ago some unin- telligible missionaries introduced an obscure doctrine into China, at one time protected by the caprice of this or that prince, at another persecuted by the cruelty of his successor. At the time of our war with China, some of the provincial governors, from pure childish- ness, were in hopes that by a mere request they could induce some of the barbarian na- 144 tions to attack the British.* One of these governors undertook to coax the French by flattery into this beUigerent humour. But how? The point on which he opened his flattery was, that his sovereigns, the Kings of France, were truly meritorious ; for that in all generations they had been '' submissive " and " obedient " to the great Emperor of China, and had never swerved from their " duty." This was the highest form of merit which his Chinese imagination could admit, and the sole bait with which the poor fool angled for a French alliance. Recurring, then, to those hateful pretensions of superiority, surely the nation may expect that, if the new negotiators are sent to Peking, they will not (as heretofore) be consigned in travelling to the insolent authority of the Chinese, ordered to stop at this point or that, furnished with insulting supplies on one day, with none at all on the next, and forbidden to purchase provisions for themselves out of deli- cacy to a prince who finds no indelicacy in suffering his guests to starve. But this is a trifle * A ludicrous incident occurred under this blunder at Amoy: an American frigate, on coming into the harbour, saluted our shipping; on which the Chinese notified by expresses that the barbarians were now hard at work against each other. 145 by comparison with other arrogances of the Chinese ; and these ought surely to bo met by a preliminary letter from the associated na- tions, and not left as subjects for a mere re- monstrance from the ambassadors. In sub- stance something like this should surely be sent forward beforehand : — That whilst the Three Powers allied for the purposes of this negotiation approach his Chinese Majesty with respect for the station which he occupies, at the same time they feel bound to protest against the offensive terms in which his Chinese Majesty has always claimed some imaginary superiority. More especially they must notice with displeasure the secret pretension which his Chinese Majesty seems to assume of levying some paramount allegiance from their subjects. This pretension will no longer be endured. It will not be tolerated in future that his majesty should describe the British, French, or American? as ''rebels,^' or as " repenting," and " returning to their duty," when making peace with him. Even as re- gards his more general claim of superiority, the Allied Powers are unable to understand on what his majesty builds. If on population, as regards the amount numerically, China has not established her pretensions ; whilst, as re- gards its quality^ it is sufficient to refer his K 146 Chinese Majesty to the result of his past mili- tary experience. It is possible that his Chinese Majesty founds upon extent of dominions ; and in that case he is likely to remain under his delusion, so long as he is guided by the maps and geographical works of his own subjects. It is enough to say that the American United States possess a territory larger than the Chinese, even counting China beyond the Wall. This total area of China may amount to 3,000,600 of square English miles. But the Queen of Great Britain possesses a territory of 7,000,000, if her American and Australian states are included, and without counting the vast British territory in Hindostan; whilst, as regards China within the Wall, it is pretty nearly on a level with the British possessions in India — close neighbours to his Chinese Majesty — each counting nearly 1,300,000 square English miles. The Three Powers an- nounce, finally, that they will no longer tole- rate the practice of setting prices upon the heads of their subjects by Chinese governors, but will, after this notice, hang all such savage / traffickers in blood whenever they may happen to be captured. if. if ^^ i^ if. A dreadful echo lingers on the air from our past dealings with the Chinese, an echo from 147 the cry of innocent blood shed many years ago by us British adulterating wickedly with Chinese wickedness. Not Chinese blood it is that cries from the earth for vengeance, but blood of our own dependant, a poor humble serving man, whom we British were bound to have protected, but whom, in a spirit of timid and sordid servility to Cantonese insolence, we, trembling for our factory menaced by that same wicked mob that even now is too likely to win a triumph over us, and coerced by the agents of the East India Company (always up- right and noble in its Indian — always timid and cringing in its Chinese policy), surren- dered to the Moloch that demanded him. The case was this : — Always, as against aliens, the Chinese have held the infamous doctrine that the intention, the motive, signifies nothing.* If you, being a foreigner, should, by the bursting of your rifle, most unwillingly cause the death * Rokh Mirza, a splendid prince, presented to one of the for- mer Chinese Emperors a splendid horse. In China there are no horses that an English farmer's wife, carrying poultry to market, would condescend to mount. Consequently, in China there are no horsemen. The Emperor was no better in this accomplish- ment than the rest of his subjects. Upon mounting, he was in- stantly thrown. No anger burns so fiercely as that which is kindled by panic. The Emperor, therefore, I believe, regarded the horse as an assassin, but certainly the ambassadors who brought him; and with great difficulty was prevailed on to spare their lives. 148 of a Chinese, you must die. Luckily we have since 1841 cudgelled them out of this hellish doctrine ; but such was the doctrine up to 1840. Whilst this law prevailed — namely, in 1784 — an elderly Portuguese gunner, on board a Chinaman of ours lying close to Whampoa, was ordered to fire a salute in honour of the day, which happened to be June 4, the birth- day of George III. The case was an extreme one : for the gunner was not firing a musket or a pistol for his own amusement, but a ship's gun under positive orders. It happened, how- y ever, that some wretched Chinese was killed. Immediately followed the usual insolent de- mand for the unfortunate gunner. Some re- sistance was made ; some disputing and wrang- ling followed : the Mephistopheles governor looking on with a smile of deadly derision : a life was what he wanted, blood was what he howled for : whose life, whose blood, was nothing to him. Settle it amongst yourselves, said he to the gentlemen of the Factory. They did settle it : the poor passive gunner, who had been obliged to obey, was foully surrendered ; was murdered bv the Chinese, under British connivance ; and things appeared to fall back into their old track. Since then our commerce has leaped for- ward by memorable expansions. I that write 149 these words am not superstitious ; but this one superstition has ever haunted me — that foundations laid in the blood of innocent men are not likely to prosper. POSTSCRIPT. [Written subsequently to the British Government's latest pub- lication of despatches from Hong-Kong, and subsequently to the Chinese intelligence received by way of France.] First in order of interest is the French de- spatch published in the" Moniteurde la Flotte." This French news reached England on the 15th of April, between the evening of which day, and the morning of the 16th, it was dis- persed all over the island. The amount of the news is this — that the river Peiho (North River), which communicates directly between Peking and the Yellow Sea, had been sacri- ficed for the present to the fears prevailing in the capital. A river as broad as the Clyde, and having the same commercial value, had been ruined by twenty-two stone dams, leav- ing a passage to the water, but destroying the navigation. Now, firsts as to the truth of this intelligence ; secondly^ as to its value. As to its truth, the main reasons for doubting it, if reported of any wise nation, are wanting in / 150 the case of the Chinese. It is a suicidal act : but all modes of suicide are regarded with / honour in China and in Japan. Self-homicide, self-murder, and the sacrifice of all remote in- terests to a momentary pique, or to the spiteful counteraction of a rival, all these are admired, have been practised by the government, and are practised at this moment. When the vast line of maritime territory was ravaged in for- mer generations by piratical invaders, the Emperor, instead of making prudent treaties with the aggressors, simply compelled the po- pulation, at the cost of infinite distress, to move inland, so as to leave a zone ten miles broad swept clean of all population. And, at this moment. Admiral Seymour reports a si- milar attempt to operate upon the waters of Canton, by the submersion of stone-laden junks. Here, indeed, lies the admiral's most cruel anxiety : he is working night and day to keep open the main current with his present narrow means, until reinforcements arrive. Will he succeed ? It is too plain that he him- self has deep anxieties lest he should not. Returning for one moment to the Peiho, the first question (as to the truth of the news) there can, as we see, be no reason for doubt- ing. But, secondly, as to its value : what harm will it do ? None at all. The French 151 journal, the nautical " Moniteur," speaks of Peking as thus placed out of all danger. By no means. Our own advances upon Peking in 1842 were not made by that approach. The great river, the Yang-tse-Keang, laughs at dams. It is on that quarter — ^. e.^ from the south, and not chiefly from the northern river Peiho — that we can famish Peking into sub- mission. But, secondly^ there are other and richer cities than Peking : richer in tributes (generally paid in kind). Thirdly^ the entire imports into the northern half of China from the southern can be swept at one haul into the nets of our cruisers on the Yellow Sea ; the Peiho signifying little, except as to a shorter passage to the capital for him that commands the sea. But for us, who know the road to Peking by two routes, this Peiho news is a bagatelle ; it ruins a Chinese interest, without much affecting any that is British. But now, having dismissed the French news, lastly for our own: — I confess that it is gloomy. It is always the best policy, as it is peculiarly our British policy, not to deceive y ourselves, but to tell the worst. The worst in the present case is this : the Governor of Singapore, it was well known, had, in last November, ofifered a reinforcement of 500 good troops. This, because the case was not con- 152 sidered urgent, had been then declined. But now — namely, in January of this year — that same aid has been pressingly applied for by the admiral and the plenipotentiary. Secondly, they have written to Calcutta for an immediate reinforcement of 5000 troops. Thirdly, they are most anxiously waiting for gun-boats, with which they can do nothing in pursuing the Chinese junks into shallow creeks. It is the old misery of the Crusaders : their heavy cavalry could not pursue the light J Arabian horsemen, by whom they were teased all day long, and had no effectual means of retort. Fourthly, but the worst feature of the case is this : seventy per cent, of the Hong-Kong population are domestic servants ; and chiefly from one sole district. The '' elders" in this district (^. ^., the heads of families) have been coerced by Yeh into ordering home all these servants, who have at the same time been warned, that, to win a welcome from the go- vernment, there is but one acceptable offering which they can bring — namely, the heads of their masters. In a colony already distressed and agitated, we may guess the effect of such a notification. EDINBURGH: PRINTED BY J. HOCMJ. ^ TRIP AY" MAT Ig. 185? THE OPIUM JSATER ON CHINA, « " Oh, wad somo power the gifiie gia ub To see oursels as ithers sea us." - A FAMPHLBT has been published, entiUed. V China, by Thomas Db Qctincby." We are ^lK5eptical as to the composition of the pamphlet being that of the well-known writer De Qcincbt, the opium-eater and economiBt, because the style is vicious, and the reasoning incoherent ; still it may possibly be his production. At page 72 we read tliese words : — ' ' '*' From what key note does Athenian tragedy ** trace the expansion of its own dark impassioned t ** music ? The spirit of outrage and arrogant self- " assaytion — in that temper lurks the original im- " pulse towards wrong ; and to that temper the ** Greek drama adapts its monitory legends. His ** own crime is seen hunting a man through five " generations, and finding him finally in the peraons *' of his innocent descendants. * Curses, like young ** fowls, come home in the evening to roost.' In " other words, atrocious crime of any man towards " others in his stages of power comes round upon " him with vengeance in the darkening twilight of *' his evening. And, accordingly, upon no one *' feature of moral temper is the Greek Tragedy " more frequent or earnest in its denunciations, **' than upon all expressions of self-glorification, or "of arrogant disparagement applied to others." i '^his is the text of the pamphiet'Writer'a preach- ing. Now for his practice. On the first page of the preliminary note are these words : — " One reasonable presumption for inferring a " profounder national conscientiousness, as difi'used " among the British people, stands upon record, in " the pages of history, in this memorable fact, " that always at the opening (and at intervals *' throughout the progress) of any war, there has ** been much and angry discussion amongst ua " British as to the equity of its origin, and the " moral reasonableness of its objects. Whereas, " on the Continent, no man ever heard of a ques- '' tion being raised, or a faction being embattled, " upon any demur (great or small) as to the moral I** grounds of a war." ' At page iii of this preliminary note the writer speaks of the British people as — "Us — the freemen of the earth by emphatic i"- precedency- us, the leaders of civilisation ;" ; ' "Always moving under the impulse of noble ".objects ;" page Q — which, it will be admitted, exhausts, apparently, every "expression of self-glorification," and of {"^arrogant self-assertion." : j Of ** arrogant disparagement applied to others," the writer of the pamphlet ia full to overflowiDg. Let us see. We cull the epithets, without any^ trouble, from the first thirty or forty pages of thw j curious production. 'I The Chinese nation, wft sftftr tda," 1S' a- "UilltSt "enemy" — a "monkey tribe"— a "bloated toad" — a "brutal megatherium." Its ruler is a " wicked emperor," and its government a " govern-; ' * ment universally capable of murder. " The Man- darins are "wholesale dealers in murder." Thfrr Cantonese are a "ruffian, larcinous, poisoning^ * * vile population"—* ' scoundrels" — " bloody crimi- " nals" — " basest of poltroons." Canton itself is a " human shambles." Finally — for we fear these choice flowers of speech are rather disgusting to the taste — the Chinese people generally show * ' inhuman obstinacy," are "arrogant in proclaiming resist- ance, and of lowliest cringing, " are * * scurrilous and^ " insulting," are " poisoning knaves," "murdermg I ^* knaves," "indigenous murderers," "Calibans I ^'—carnal dogs," and, as a climax, a " putrescent '* tribe of hole-and-corner assaesinH." The Queen of England's Prime Minister pub- jlicly reviled Commissioner Yeh recently as an' !*' insolent barbarian," and we think we have pretty well "traced the expansion of that key " note" in the swelling torrent of. arrogant dis- paragementexemplified in the preceding paragraph. Are the Chinese barbariana "scurrilous ?" Then it is dearly a case of Pot and Kettle. Calin observers, perhaps, will conclude that in thisjraa; in other things, civilisation asserts her superiority, and that the barbarians have found their masters in the elegant art of vituperation. Thomas Db Q0ll?ciry, Englith litterateur , may safely be backed for that polite accomplishment against Chinese Commissioner Yeh, and " such cattle" as he calls the Mandarins. Bat this by the way. Our object is simply ta point out what seems to us an exceedingly striking illustration of that curious and very general psycho- logical fact— that weakness of human nature sati- rised by the Scotch poet in the two ILp^s which head t^ese observations. DbQuibcay i% of course, uor- conscious of the extent to which he disregards the monitory teaching of his favourite Oreek- drama, even while quoting it. He is, without doubt,. serenely blind to the fact that in this pamphlet he appears the very embodiment of th© spirit 6f outrage and arrogant self-assertion which that teaching warns ua against. And we fpar it is the truth, that this gentleman exhi^bits only an exagr geratioh of a spirit now rife among cei;taih classes of the British people, and of a deplorable national- weakness, which, ,most assuredly, as the old' moralists teach, will some time had their avenging I^Tembsis. RETURN TO' ^/