;-NRLF
hfi SDM
PEKING
THE GOAL,-THE SOLE HOPE
OF
PEACE.
COMPRISING AN INQUIRY INTO THE
ORIGIN OF THE PRETENSION OF
UNIVERSAL SUPREMACY
CHINA
ANT) INTO THE CAUSES OF THE
FIRST WAE :
WlTH INCIDENTS OF THE IMPRISONMENT
OF THE FOREIGN C? -IMMUNITY AND OF
THE FIRST CAMPAIGN OF CANTON,
1841.
BY
GIDEON NYE, JR.
CORRESPONDING "MEMBER OF THE
AMERICAN GEOGRAPHICAL AND STATISTICAL SOCIETY :
AUTHOR OF RATIONALE OF THE CHINA QUESTION ;
THE MEMORABLE YEAR, &c, &c.
CANTON.
1873.
i
PEKING THE GOAL,-
THE SOLE HOPE OF PEACE.
A LECTURE DELIVERED BEFORE THE CANTON
COMMUNITY ON THE EVENING OF APRIL 14th, 1873.
by MR. NYE : IN CONTINUATION OF THAT OF
JANUARY 31st,
HONORABLE R. G. W. JEWELL,
CONSUL OF THE UNITED STATES, IN THE CHAIR.
JUDGE JEWELL :
LADIES AND GENTLEMEN :
Following my tracing of
the course of events, as you honored me by do-
ing on a former occasion, with an indulgent
attention that claims all my gratitude, you
had not failed to perceive that we had reached
the point when, for the first time in History,
the Sovereigns of Britain and China were
brought face to face in political relations ;
the point where plain "yes" and "no" was to
549790
PEKING THE GOAL,
expound the text of tlie future between them,
without the intervention of Chiefs of Company
or Co-Hong.
And the immediate steps by
which the cause of the West had been brought
to this desiderated point ; and attained, as it
were by one bound, to 'the height of this high
argument, ' had not escaped your notice.
You observed that at the most critical mo-
ment, when, as Dr. Bridgman afterward
wrote, "had there been only a little more
"excitement, Canton might have become an-
"other Black Hole or the scene of indiscrimin-
"ate slaughter,"- Sir Charles Elliot suddenly
appeared upon the scene of our imprisonment
and wrought an immediate change in the
whole character of the attitude in which the
community stood toward the Chinese.
Rarely have a community so
narrowly escaped a great disaster ; and, res-
cued as we all felt we were from a sad fate, by
his gallantry and consummate tact, no one
failed to admire, also, the brilliant address by
which he irrevocably fixed the responsibility of
the Imperial Government ; and thus made the
high-handed acts of the renowned "queller of
the barbarian spirit,"- High Commissioner
Lin, the initial point of the new relations be-
tween the Christian Nations and China.
THE SOLE IIOP73 02 PEACE.
Quelled, as the 'barbarian
spirit' was assumed to be by its imprisonment
under guard of the "able-bodied of the peo-
ple," it had not lost its diplomatic dexterity $
and it turned the fables so completely that a
new code of relations was at once revealed,
without the aid of other "spirits" than those
invoked by the redoubtable Queller himself.
We may now expend a joke
upon the great Yum-Chae ; but he was terribly
in earnest tJien, and his inflammatory appeals
to the people were fraught with peril for us
prisoners.
The gravest of realities, short
of a wholesale immolation or general slaughter,
rendered longer temporising but a temptation
and a snare for Imperial weakness and credu-
lity ; and imposed upon England, as con-
scious of her own strength as of the rectitude
of her attitude toward China, the duty, as
well to China as to civilization, of proceeding
to Peking to disabuse the Emperor, at once,
of the untenable nature of the pretension of
Supremacy and of the imputations of his
Vice Ptoys.
It was then that the question
between the Christian West and the Pagan
East expanded to its grand proportions ; and
certain as it had been years before, as I have
PEKIXG THE GOAL,
that its solution would only be found in
some overt act of China, so now it appeared
to the most attentive observers that no effec-
tual settlement could be attained except at
the seat of Government. Peking, then, was
the Goal, the Spes Unica Sole hope of
Peace. And this shall be the burden of our
theme to-night.
The practical difficulty had
been to reach the Emperor with any truthful
representations of the state of our relations,
so that neither redress of injuries or pre-
caution for future exigencies, had been possi-
ble. But, in point of fact, the question was
not a mere matter of incidents or details,
evolved from existing relations : It teas the
fundamental political question at the very base
of intercourse, to which all else was subor-
dinate. Dominating all others, there was in-
volved in this political question the claim of
universal supremacy by the Emperors of China.
As Vicelloy Loo had told us,
in 1834, of the universal sway of the Celestial
Empire : " Under its shelter are the four
" Seas : Subject to its soothing care are ten
" thousand Kingdoms ! ^ELow flaming bright
" are its great laws and ordinances. More
" terrible than the awful thunderbolt ! Under
" this whole bright Heaven, none dare to dis-
" obey them."
THE SOLE HOP74 OT PEACE.
"We have also seen that the
pertinacity of Loo's successor, the ViceRoy
Tang, in arrogantly asserting preeminence
for the Authorities of China, compelled Sir
Charles Elliot to haul down the British Flag-
in 1837, and retire again to Macao ; after his
well-intended efforts to ameliorate relations
by conciliatory declarations : Tang having
insisted in exacting the use of the form of
" Pin" or Petition, in all Sir Charles' com-
munications with the local Authorities.
And the significance of these assumptions of
the Vice-Boys must be borne in mind as ex-
ponents of the Imperial Will.
It may to-day seem to some a
mere puerility to stand on so small a point of
etiquette as a Pin ; but, though ice may not
regard such formalities, yet the essential point
was that the Authorities of China pinned their
whole faith upon these observances, rightly
regarding the principle of obedience as at
stake. We may say that in this they shewed
more regard for J??Y<?s-than for Rights ; but
from their own point of view, they were quite
logical and consistent : And if we regard the
preceding facts of History, shewing as they
do the maintenance of this attitude of supre-
macy toward other Nations, and substantially
the acquiescence of most other Nations,
(\ PEKING THE GOAL,-
for several centuries and clown to recent times,
we shall find no reason to impeach the
good-faith of the then Emperor, Taou Kwang,
in holding to the conservatism of his Ancestors.
(TV e must look to a later period
for Imperial bad-faith and upon a very differ-
ent issue ; although the Provincial Officers had
shewn it in several notable instances and even
when life was at stake.)
China's egotism was legitimately
derived : She had emancipated herself from
the feudal system many centuries whilst yet
Europe wore us shackles, down to the dawn
of commercial enjlerprize heralded by the birth
of Don Henry ol Portugal : TV horn a gilt eel
Poet has celebrated in ilie following stanza ;
and in whose imperishable renown all of Eng-
lish descent may claim a share, as his Mother
was of English blood :
"When, from the ancient gloom einerg'd
The using World oi Trade : the Genius then
Of Navigation, that in hopeless sloth
Had siumber'd on the vast Atlantic deep
1 or idle ages, starting, heard at last
The Lusitanian Prince, who, Heaven-iiispir'd,
To love oi useiul glory roused mankind ;
Ana in unbounded Commerce mixt the World."
Long after this auspicious era
began, and after de-Gama's prow clove the
charmed circle of the Eastern Cape, and his
THE SOLE HOPE OP PEACE.
'bold and happy bowsprit bore against the ris-
ing morn;' clown to when in Camoefcs* stately
numbers ran the homage of the West :
"From Ainani bay | begins the ancient reign
Of China's beauteous art-adorn'd domain ;
Wide, from the burning to the frozen skies-
O'er flow'd with wealth, the potent Empire lies."
down to those and to later times, the pre-
eminence of China was unchallenged in the
East.
And when the tide of "Western
commerce began to beat along her shores,
she opposed a resolute front to the foreigner
as a constituted and compacted Empire, self-
sustained and self-sufficient ; and has since
offered but one instance of successful revolu-
tion, when the present dynasty achieved the
conquest of the Empire.
And I may instance the direct
testimony of a very accomplished Gentleman,
as to the general opinion and impression ex-
isting in Europe and amongst Europeans here,
nearly a century ago.
Major Shaw, a distinguished
Officer under Washington in the War of the
Revolution, the first American Consular
Agent here, who enjoyed the distinguished
consideration of the East India Company's
Chief and other Foreigners WTiting in 1784,
says :
t The Gulf of Tonquin.
8 PEKING THE GOAL,
"All we know with certainty respecting the
"Empire of China is, that it has long existed
"a striking evidence of the wisdom of its Gov-
"ernment, and still continues, the admira-
tion of the World."
Such was the estimation in
which China was regarded by all the World,
90 years ago, nor was it lessened by the
results of Lord Macartney's Embassy a few
years after. That beiig the case, if w r e con-
sider that not only were the two systems of
England and China co-working in the spirit of
monopoly and restriction, but that, practical-
ly, the whole Foreign trade and intercourse
was of the same character, we must admit that
the Court of Peking could not, in logical fair-
ness, be reproached with unreasoning egotism
or bigotry when, in 1834, it shrank from
authorizing any radical change of relations,
such as a recognition of Lord Napier, in a
political or diplomatic capacity, w T ould have
been.
It was unreasonable to expect
the spirit of Eree Trade and much less the
"Spirit of the Age," however reinforced by
domestic events in England and a consequent
change in the relations of British subjects to
their own Government in its control of the
China Trade, to penetrate to the inaccessible
THE SOLE HOP7<: OF PEACE.
Court of the Emperor at the very moment of
the first knocking* at the portal.
And it were unphilosophical not to recall,
as forming ample justification of the reserved
attitude of China at that period, the fact,
that a powerful party in England, as in other
States of the West, were still reluctant spfec-
tators of, rather than willing participators, iri
the new-born zeal for Eree Trade and unre-
stricted intercourse. Such was no doubt the
feeling that actuated the more enlightened
statesmen of England, in abstaining from pre-
mature pressure upon the Government of
China, notwithstanding that the circumst-
ances of Lord Napier's death formed in them-
selves, ostensibly, a legitimate grievance.
If, then, we exclude all
consideration of the graver motives suggested
to thougtful statesmen of China, by the ho-
stilities between European Nations, which so-
metimes, and even so late as 1814, had reached
their own shores, and ignore the fact that they
had also traditions of the days of Elizabeth,
"when there was no Peace beyond the Line,"
as imposing caution and deliberation, we
cannot attribute to them the fault of being
laggards in Eree Trade, when we consider
further, that there had been long established
here, as the sole medium of interchange be*
H) PEKING THE GOAL,
Iween their respective Countries and China,-
the British East-India Company, the Dutch
East-India Company, the Swedish East-India
Company, the Imperial (Austrian) East-
India Company, and Merchants from other
Countries upon a similar footing, thus com-
prising the principal Nations of the World.
With this formidable array of monopoly on
the part of those Nations, we may ask, was
China to come forward voluntarily and open
her gates to a deluge of change ? Or was it
reasonable to expect her to listen to the voice
of the first charmer ?
It was not, therefore, that
China was wanting in logical reasoning, der-
ived from her past experience, that a rupture
was inevitable : It was that a state of relations
precluding a frank interchange between the
respective Governments, was no longer toler-
able or even safe, after the changes imposed
in other Countries by the expanding spirit of
the age and especially those effected by leg-
islation in England, which, transferred from
the hands of the Agents of monopoly, the
whole control of the relations with China, to the
liberalized executive Government of England.
Then, and thus, arose the imperative necessity
for England's Ambassadors to reach Peking.
The rupture was precipitated
by the act of China and in despite of distinct
THE SOLE HOPE OF PEACE.
11
overtures by Sir Charles Elliot months before',
to the Vice-Roy Tang, offering to cooperate
with the Chinese Authorities in the suppress-
ion of the excesses in the Opium Trade.
That high-minded Representative of England
thenceforward stood blameless before China,
as before the World, if, indeed, his conciliatory
approaches of a year before had not entitled
him to be so regarded ; and having on that
occasion maintained his own and his Sover-
eign's dignity, he was able, upon reappearing
upon the scene here, to assert the rights of
his countrymen becomingly and resolutely.
He came, in fact, as the Retriever of the For-
eign position, hitherto more seriously com-
promised from hour to hour.
At once all interest converged
upon him ; and his demand for Passports for
his countrymen, was answered by a closer im-
prisonment of all Foreigners and the command
to deliver all the Opium in ships wherever they
might be, with the threats of extreme penalties
and the release of himself and the community
made conditional upon the faithful delivery
of it.
Thus, it was an incident of
the hitherto-restricted intercourse that carried
the appeal to Peking, whose origin was the
default of China, as essentially as the rupture
1 2 PEKING THE GOAL,
itself was her own act, in that she imposed
Hie restrictions which precluded an amicable
understanding. Hence, although the Opium
Trade was the proximate cause of the rupture,
the origin of the War was much more remote
and long anterior to any complaints about
Opium ; its germ having always existed in
the restrictive system founded upon the as-
sumption of supremacy.-
Thus, then, to denominate
that War "The Opium TFar'-by way of re-
proach, is a gratuitous reflection upon Eng-
land, as the enlightened American Statesman
Ex-President John Quincy Adams, declared at
the time; and thus, in demanding from the Em-
peror international relations, assuring future
security, England was but discharging her
duty to China and to Civilization, and there-
in representing all the Western Nations.
It is well that I was thus
emphatic upon this point in the draft of this
Lecture, as I notice that a Reviewer of my
1st Eecture. in the Daily-Press of the 10th
inst, erroneously assumed that I had character-
ized the rupture as "the first Opium War''
Turning from this attempted
rationale of the relative positions of the parties
in controversy, attained down to the moment
when Sir Charles Elliot, with all other For-
THE SOLE HOPE Otf EACE.
eigners,-- being held a close prisoner in the
Factories, issued the public Notice of the
3rd. April 1839, which I read to you, 1 now
resume the thread of narrative'.
Upon feeing apprised by Sir
Charles that he held no control over other
than British Subjects and could not, therefore,
compel the delivery as he, the Imperial Com-
missioner, had enjoined upon him to do, of
any Opium held by other persons, Lin, after
issuing an Edict to the Chamber of Commerce,
requiring a clear statement of the names and
surnames of all the Consuls of other Powers,
then issued one to each of them demanding
such Opium : When Mr. Snow the American
Consul replied that already 1.540 Chests,
being the property of British subjects consign-
ed to American Merchants, had been surren-
dered through H. B. M's. Representative to
him, (the Commissioner), he shewed as much
ignorance as distrust, by insisting in another
Edict addressed to Mr. Wetmore, Chairman
of the Chamber of Commerce, that Consul
Snow should surrender a quantity of Opium
not less than the 20.000 and odd Chests given
up by Sir Charles Elliot. And a somewhat
similar Edict was addressed to Mr. Senn van
Basel the Dutch Consul.
Mr. Yan Loffelt, representing France at the
PEKING THE GOAL,
lime, being at Macao, escaped similar applicat-
ions.
From the 24th of March, when
every Chinese was driven from the Factories
and no Food or even a bucket of water allowed
vis, until about the 3rd of April, all minds
were in painful suspense ; and various con-
jectures as to what might be our fate were
hazarded, some taking the more gloomy view
at first and suggesting, as the most cheerful
hypothesis, our having to force our way across
Honam to the shipping at Whampoa, with
the loss of half our number : But as there
were not known to be a dozen pistols or other
fire arms in the Factories and these were single
barrelled, Revolvers or the like not having
been invented, it seemed hopeless to oppose
200 unarmed Europeans to hundreds of thous-
ands of matchlock and spearmen.
And when it was rumored that the Chinese
had heard of the arrival off Macao of an Ameri-
can frigate, and some person suggested the
advisability of her forcing the passage of the
Bogue, my friend Mr. Hunter sensibly re-
plied, that in the existing temper of the Yum-
Chae, such an act would impel him to pre-
cipitate the mob upon us with sanguinary
slaughter, when the ruins of the Bogue forts
would not be viewed by our kindred as worthy
THE SOLE HOPE OF PEACE.
13
monuments to our memory or sufficing com-
pensation for our lives ; however conspicuous-
ly they might mark the gallantly of the Naval
Officers.
A little later Mr Hunter was sufficiently re-
assured to expend a joke upon a novice in
Chinese symbols, who suddenly descrying one
of the large blue Flags of Military Mandarins,
which bear a character or symbol such as im-
aginary terrors might picture as the ominous
Crossed Bones, flying in front of the Honam
Temple, sought an explanation of Mr Hunter,
who saw his opportunity ; and I am afraid,
left the timid Gentleman in considerable doubt,
if not in great trepidation : The truth being
that the Temple was used as the head quarters
of one of the Chiefs, posted there to prevent
our escape toward Whampoa.
Gradually we all regained
composure ; and for variety's sake sometimes
went to dine with Parsee friends, whose ser-
vants being natives of India got access to
the small market at the top of China Street and
bought capons and chickens for curries. In
the Lung-Shim or Old-English Hong, where
I lived with my Cousin, the residents profited
by the misfortune of the Supercargoes, Captain
and boat's crew of a Philadelphia Ship, whose
departure for home was cut off, just as they
1 fl TEKIXG THE GOAL,
had gotten into their boat with the Grand
Chop (Port Clearance) in their hands, the
Captain and his sailors undertaking the Cook-
ing of dinners for the whole Hong ; each re-
sident of the several Factories furnishing such
Hams and other food for the general table as he
happened to have : But we each got Breakfast
at home ; and I remember that my Cousin
and myself used to agree upon a division of
labor in boiling the Eggs and Rice, opening
the tins of Sardines, sweeping floors, &c. &c :
Our stock being just exhausted when an
old Coolie made his appearance and by stealth
began to bring us chickens under his jacket,
at the risk of his own neck. That coolie was
not forgotten in after years ; and his Widow
received a pension for 10 to 15 years after his
death. The Supercargoes thus imprisoned
with us were the Messrs Tiers, of whom I have
before spoken as the first to bring to Canton
some of the Negro melodies, then recently in-
troduced into the Middle and Northern States
of America from the South, one of these Gen-
tlemen performing on the Guitar and the other
on the Mute, or singing by turns : And in the
ennui of our long imprisonment, even the older
members of the community did not disdain
participation in those early "Social Evenings,"
enlivened by their melodious, although some-
what comical strains.
THE SOLE HOPTj] OF PEACE.
17
The most venerable Gen-
tleman of the Community was Mr. Snow,
the American Consul, who being subject to
rheumatism, had previously shewn little in-
clination to leave his seat at any time and in
whom, consequently, the change from a sin-
gularly dignified and reserved official, habit-
ually seated in state, as it were, to a sweeper
of floors and similarly humble domestic duties,
was ludicrous to behold. And I arn here re-
minded of an amusing incident of the some-
what serious riot of the 3rd of December, when
I sought shelter in Mr Snow's factory, with
Sir James Matheson and others ; where, as
the glass of the windows crashed under their
showers of stones, the mob roared like thous-
ands of wild beasts at bay ; and my venerable
friend, at each successive howl, nervously
grasped his left arm with his right hand, pit-
eously groaning "oh my pains" ; his young
friend, to cheer him, responding- "ah, yes, I
see your window panes are suffering a little".
-But, I suspect that although when well Mr
Snow was a resolute man, he then thought
his young friend's joking was akin to Nero's
fiddling when Home was burning ; and a few
month's later, after Lin's insidious and in-
flammatory flattery of the masses, that young
friend appreciated the gravity of the situation
himself.
18 PEKIXG THE GOAL,
At the reunions in our Hong
there were almost as many English Gentle-
men as Americans, as we invited some from
other Hongs frequently ; so that in reality our
"Social Evenings" of that period more than
vied in sociability, as between Gentlemen,
with these in whose more refined geniality I
have now the honor to bear a part ; but there
was always the disability imposed by the he-
artless Mandarins, in the interdiction of all of
Womankind, so that we were unanimous in
denouncing their pertinacity in this already-
stigmatised example of
"Mans inhumanity to man ;
and as unanimous in pronouncing as impossi-
ble their being classed among the ordinary
race of man-to^, they obviously being quite
another kind of man.
In the actual circumstances,
we were fain to "manage 'gainst despairing
thought" as best we might ; and consoled each
other with .Songs and pleasantries of some-
what varied character,- verging upon the con-
vivial as the evening wore away.
And pent up in our Cage, as in very truth
we were, like the animals in the
Zoological Gardens,
you will excuse our gambols when a bone was
thrown to us by omr Keepers, or the hope of
THE SOLE HOPE OF PEACE.
19
release elated us; and accept the few trivialities
that I recall as not unseeming illustrations of
the natural rebound from grave to gay,
The eldest person of our reunions was Mr
Samuel B. Rawle, who afterward resided many
years at Hongkong and Macao, at which last
port he died, when American Consul there ;
and whose name was made the burden of one
of the refrains in the social Song of "Viva la
Companie" led by Mr Tiers with his Guitar,
following which I was appealed to with :
And there's another man who fights very shy,
Viva la Companie ;
But 'spite of his dodging I'm sure 'ts Mr Nye ;
Viva la Companie :
To which the response was :
There's no hedging or dodging as you say appears,
Viva la Companie ;
Since after Rawle von have moved me with Tiers ;
Viva la Companie.
But it was not with this puerility that I
intended to link his name, genial as gen-
tlemanly though he was ; but rather, with the
name of another of my Countrymen, whose
pure fame has become the proud heritage of
two kindred peoples :
I need scarcely pronounce the nairie of
George Peabody.
Mr Rawle told us of a young Lady who cross-
ed the Atlantic with his Wife and Daughter,
who had just refused Mr Peabody 's offer of
20 PEKING THE GOAL,
marriage, which was considered as scmcwhat
strange, as he was then already classed among
the wealthy ; but whether she was then con-
scious or not of his worth or wealth in general
estimation, neither she or he could then mea-
sure the influence that her refusal may have
had upon his subsequent career, nor anticipate
the moral splendor of its close :
When, after inscribing his name in letters
of Gold, high up on the roll of the Worthies
w r ho have been the benefactors of mankind,
he sank peacefully to rest, assured that those
letters of Gold were to become letters of Light,
beneficent guiding Stars, to future gen-
erations of the favorites of fortune.
Such was the unfading glory of his Sunset ;
nor should we forget that he had been one of
that small, but resolute band of Men who, in
its darkest days, contributed to the final success
of the Atlantic Telegraph ; the great Artery
that is reuniting the kindred Hood of Albion
and Columbia and throbbing through the pro-
found depths of the Ocean to every pulsation
of Christendom.
Among other English Gen-
tlemen, there was the excellent Mr Holliday,
who had recently come from Manila to establish
the House of Eobert Wise Holliday & Co.
and whose appearance amongst us always
THE SOLE HOPE OF PEACE.
21
heralded more than "a jollyday" in the refrain
of our Song.
There was also Mr Samuel
Fearon since Professor of Chinese in the
University of London, who not only spoke
with fluency the language of the people, but
sang their songs in admirably-characteristic
falsetto and with as characteristic a toss of the
head.
Among other humorous
conceits, we had a rehearsal of an imaginary
debate in Parliament upon the question of our
imprisonment ; each of the leading celebrities
of the House of Commons coming to the front
with his pro or con, Mr Eearon with admir-
able aplomb, making speeches very attractive
in form, if not profound in matter ; and the
debate ending with applause : to be succeed-
ed by a conundrum that was accepted as fore-
shadowing the displeasure of the Emperor at
the excesses of Lin, which afterward led to
his public disgrace.
The conundrum being propounded thus :
"When valiant Mars from the West arrives
on the shores of China, what will be the Em-
peror's first question ?"-
He will inquire his birth and /meage.
Between Mr Fearott and the
Messrs Tiers a somewhat ambitious musical
22 PEKING THE GOAL,
effort resulted in the composition of a Song,
that we may characterize as international or
fraternal in motive, if not classical in diction ;
and which being set to the air of "Here's a
health to thee Tom Breese"
("Tom Breese of the bounding billow")
became very taking with the accompaniment
of clashing glasses filled with amber or ruby
Wine, as enjoined by the words of the chorus ;
and from which the sentiment forbad any one
to refrain. Being then debarred the presence
of the Graces, we shall stand excused, I trust,
by their fair Representatives here this evening,
if from this example they find that we wooed
the Muses with more ardor than discrimination.
Having failed to find a copy
of the Song, I can only attempt to recall one
stanza from memory, which, happily, embodies
its spirit :
"Here's a health to hallowed Albion, the Jewel of the Sea,
And her daughter fair, Columbia, *the happy and the free ;
Long may their Sons their praises sing in friendship's jovial
strains,
And drain the Cup of fellowship whilst yet a drop remains."
The Refrain : "And drain the Cup of fellow-
ship whilst yet a drop remains;"
produced a chorus from musical glasses as the
last drop was drained.
Late at night on the 9th of
April a meeting was held at the Consoo-house
of the Co-Hong, whereat were present several
THE SOLE HOPIS OT PEACE.
23
Mandarins, with Hong Merchants and Ling-
uists, on the part of the Chinese ; and the
Dutch and American Consuls and several
Merchants : The object being the obtaining
of the Bond of all Foreigners not to deal in
Opium.
On the lOth the Imperial
Commissioner and other Mandarins started for
the Bogue, to witness in person the delivery
of the Opium.
Frequently, at night, some
of the high Officers visited the squares in front
of the Factories to see whether a faithful
watch and ward was kept over their sleeping
prisoners.
About the middle of April a
paper which appeared to be a letter addressed
to the Queen of England by the High Com-
missioner and several other Officers, requiring
the interdiction of Opium, was circulated a-
mong the Chinese. About the same time the
grave matter of memorializing home Govern-
ments engaged the attention of the residents
of the respective Countries, one of the young-
est, your humble servant, making a some-
what ambitious attempt in drafting one to the
Congress of the United States, dated April
23rd 1839, a copy of which I found in 1870.
It is at least a very wordy document ; of con-
PEKING THE GOAL,
siderable interest to its author^after~having
been out of sight for 31 years : And leaving
to another occasion its most essential sugges-
tive point, I may hereat claim for it the merit
of containing the germ of the cooperative
policy if meritorious that is in the last of
the following paragraphs.
"Moved by these considerations" (alluding to
the context) "we beg leave to submit to your
decision, the expediency of appointing a Min-
ister to the Court of Peking, empowered to
establish equitable relations ; whereby his right
of residence at the seat of Government would
be secured as a preliminary; when, as we
believe, all reasonable propositions for the
mutual security of Trade and intercourse would
be entertained by the Supreme Government.
"We have stated our belief that
Great Britain will view the pressing grievances
herein set forth, with others of older infliction,
as sufficient ground of intervention ; and will
accordingly equip a sufficient force to accom-
plish the purposes in view ; or, at least, to
powerfully coerce the Chinese Government.
And we beg leave to submit, that in such an
event our Commerce will be rendered still
more precarious 4 and the necessity for the
presence of a sufficient Naval force to protect
the interests involved, thereby become quite
THE SOLE HOPIS OE PEACE.
25
imperative : In case it is not deemed advisable
by your Honorable Bodies to combine with
that or other Powers, for the same objects.
"To urge this last step there
appear to your Memorialists some powerful
considerations ; arising from the jealous fear
of the Chinese Government that England
designs encroachment upon its territory, and
from other causes which originate in the ignor-
ance incident to their unyielding exclusive
policy. This fear would be calmed by the
union of America with England, as she is free
of such suspicion ; whilst the unanimity of
several powerful Nations would be still more
influential upon this peculiar, and in some
respects admirable, but really feeble Govern-
ment."
On the 14th May a joint
Edict of the Commissioner and Vice lloy was
issued, whose tenor shews the stringency of
the rules by which the community had been
held prisoners the previous six weeks; and that,
although they were quite disposed to encourage
the reopening of the legal trade, they would
not yet relax their grip upon the sixteen per-
sons whom they specially indicated as host-
ages for the completion of the delivery of the
Opium.
On the 5th the triple cordon
28 PEKING THE GOAL,
of soldiers and boats was removed ; and on the
6tti the first passage boat left for Macao with
about 50 passengers.
On the 8th, a joint Edict of
the Commissioner and Vice Roy was address-
ed to the English Superintendent, the Ameri-
can Consul Snow and the Dutch Consul Van
Basel, replying to the several original demands
of those Officers, for Passports permitting their
return to their respective countries at the head
of their people :
"These addresses coming before us and being
"duly authenticated, we reply, China has
"indeed no need of commercial intercourse
"with outer barbarians. But because you have
"come from afar over the Seas, it cannot bear
"to push you utterly away : After, then, the
"full completion of the present deliveries, let
'it be even as requested. It shall be left to
"you entirely to return to your Countries.
"You will not be allowed to make pretexts for
"procrastination and delay. And after you
"have thus returned, you will not be allowed
"to come back. Let there be no turning
"backwards and forwards, no inconstancy,
"wherby investigations and proceedings will
"be involved. All you Foreigners of every
"Nation, should you not come hither, there
"the matter rests ; but should you come to the
'"territory of the Celestial Court, be you fore-
THE SOLE HOPE Of JNUAGH.
27
"igners of any Country whatsoever, so often
"as Opium is brought, in all cases, in accord-
"ance with the new Law, the parties shall be
"capitally executed, and their property entire-
ly confiscated. Say not that it was not told
"you beforehand."
Whereupon Sir Charles Elliot
issued a brief Public Notice to British Subjects
by way of reply, which I beg now to read
because it points out the grave errors of the
Chinese Officials as affecting the safety of the
lives of innocent persons.
Public Notice to British Subjects.
"The Chief Superintendent yesterday receiv-
ed an Edict of which the annexed is a copy,
to the joint address of the Consul of the King
of Holland, the Consul of the United States,
and himself. By this Law the ships and crews
of all Nations, henceforward arriving in China,
are liable to the penalties, the first, of confis-
cation, and the last, of death, upon the deter-
mination of this government that they have
introduced Opium. The danger of confiding
to this government the administration of any
judicial process concerning Foreigners, can
scarcely be more strikingly manifested than in
the list of names lately proscribed by the High
Commissioner. Evidence that has been good
to satisfy His Excellency that these sixteen
28 PEKING THE GOAL,
persons are principal parties concerned in in-
troducing Opium, and therefore to justify their
detention as hostages, would of course be
equally good for other convictions of the like
nature. It may be taken to be certain, how-
ever, that the list contains the names of per-
sons who have never been engaged in such
pursuits, or, let it be added, in any other con-
traband practice. In investigation upon such
subjects, the Chinese Authorities would pro-
bably be guiltless of any deliberate intention
to commit acts of juridical spoliation and mur-
der ; but it is plain, that in the present state
of intercourse, there would be excessive risk
of such consequences, and therefore the pre-
sent law is incompatible with safe or honorable
continuance at Canton, if nothing else had
happened to establish the same conclusion.
It places, in point of fact, the lives, liberty and
property of the whole foreign community here
at the mercy of any reckless Foreigners out-
side and more immediately at the disposal of
the Hong Merchants, linguists, compradors,
and their retainers. The Chief Superinten-
dent by no means ascribes general wickedness
to those parties, but their situation and liabil-
ities make them very unsafe reporters, and
yet it is mainly upon their reports that the
judgment of the government will be taken.
THE SOLE HOPE OP PEACE.
29
It will be particularly observed that persons
remaining are understood by the Government
to assent to the reasonableness of the Law."
On the 14th of May orders
were given to remove the terraces from the
tops of houses ; fill up the creek or inlet in
front ; permanently close every passage to the
Factories except Old China Street; and re-
inclose the square since called the American
Garden ; and forbidding tlae shop keepers to
put up signs with names in English upon
them ; and those in buildings abutting on the
Factories were ordered to teave their premises
within ten days.
On the 19th May Sir Charles
Elliot issued a brief Notice to British subjects
as follows :
Public Notice*
"The Chief Superintendent of the trade <of British subjects
in China gives notice and enjoins all H. M.'s subjects, either
actually in China, or hereafter arriving, Merchants, super-
cargoes, commanders, commanding Officers of ships, seamen,
or others, having control over, or serving on board of British
ships or vessels, bound to the port of 'Canton, not to be re-
quiring, aiding, or assisting in any way in the bringing into
the said port of Canton any such British ship or vessel, to
the great danger of British life, liberty and property, and the
prejudice of the interest and just claims of the Crown, till a
declaration shall be published under his hand and seal of of-
fice to the effect that such bringing in of British shipping, or
of British property in foreign shipping, is safe in the premises.
And the Chief superintendent makiug these solemn injunct-
ions for the safety of British life, liberty and property, and
->0 PEKING THE GOAL,
in the protection of the interests and just claims of the British
frown, reserves to H. M.'s goveinment in the most complete
manner the power to cancel and disregard all future
claims whatever, on the part of H. M.'s suhjects or others,
preferring such claims on account of British property, either
left behind, or to be brought in, if any such Biitish subjects
or others preferring such claims shall disregard these injunct-
ions now put forward, respecting the keeping out of British
shipping and property, till the declaration aforesaid shall be
duly published. May 19th 1889."-
Tbus the purpose of H. B.
M.'sBepresentative to prevent the continuance
of British trade afle? the departure of the
imprisoned and the detained ships at "Wham-
poa, was declared ; and but one or two vessels
succeeded during the next 22 months in evad-
ing the injunction.
About the same time the
Hoppoo refused the usual pei mission for the
larger ships to go below the second bar to
complete their lading, which appeared to shew
a disposition still to detain the shipping : And
soon after an order was sent to Macao to me-
asure the 40 to 50 ships lying in Macao roads,
the idea being that smuggling could thus be
detected; whereas, as is well known, ships lie
deeper in the fresh water of rivers than in an
open roadstead where the water partakes of
the buoyancy of the Sea.
On the 22nd of May Sir Charles
Elliot notified H. B. M. subjects, in more
distinct and comprehensive terms, to prepare
THE SOLE HOPE OF PEACE.
31
to leave Canton with Her Majesty's Establish-
maiit ; warning and enjoining upon those then
in China and those who might thereafter arrive,
not to aid in the bringing into the port any
British Vessel or property, until he should
publish a declaration permitting such entry
that such sudden and strong measures as might
be found necessary on the part of H. M.^Go-
vermnent, could not be prejudiced by their
violation of these warnings and injunctions.
On the 23rd he issued a
brief notice of his intended departure the next
day, requesting the persons lately detained by
command of the Chinese Government, to be
ready to accompany him, and further request-
ing that no general assemblage of H. M.
Subjects should then take place.
Accordingly he left at 5 P. M. of the 24th ;
and immediately after, the guards were remov-
ed, when the populace rushed into the open
spaces, eager to observe the changes of the
two months of our probation.
Before leaving Canton the most
of the British Firms signed a memorial address-
ed to H. M. Government, briefly representing
their grievances and stating their opinion that
"some serious alterations in the relations with this Empire
were indispensably necessary."
They added the following just tribute to the
meritorious conduct of Sir Charles Elliot.
32 PEKING THE GOAL,
"We feel at tour duty to express our deep sense of the public
"spirit which induced this Officer, at no inconsiderable risk,
"to rescue British life and property from a position of fearful
"jeopardy-; -and w-e may assure your Lordship that but one
"feeling existed of the extreme peril of the whole community
"at the period when he succeeded in forcing his way to Can-
"ton and took charge of all responsibility in the negotiations
"with the Chinese Oovernment.
On the 29th the Authorities
published the mandate of the Emperor to the
following effect, and in words plainly betray-
ing the consciousness of the August Sovereign
that his Officers had not been faithful before :
'On the present occasion the investigation and procedure re-
'specting the foreign Opium at "Canton, has been most faith-
'ful and true ; we certaluly do not entertain the slightest
'suspicion of deception. Moreover, as the distance for it to
'be transported (if sent to Peking) is very great let it be
'destroyed on the^Coast in the presence of Lin and the others."
The sanre day H. M. Sloop
"Larne" and the chartered Clipper "Ariel"
sailed for the Bed Sea with the despatches of
H. M. Representative and Mails for all parts
of India, Europe and America.
By the 1st of June the
number of Foreigners remaining in Canton
was less than 30, and soon after reduced still
lower.
On the 9th of June the Commissioner
and the Vice Boy issued another joint Edict
enjoining upon those controlling British ships
to enter port ; the financial shoe beginning
to pinch, notwithstanding the professed dis-
regard of Foreign Commerce a month before :
THE SOLE HOP74 OP PEACE.
33
They, therefore, strove insidiously to counter-
act the warnings of Sir Charles Elliot, saying
'as to what Elliot says, that the ships must wait till they
'can get a reply from the Sovereign of their Country, this is
'clearly an evasive excuse he ought, from first to last, to
'secure and protect the foreign merchant and think how he
'may enjoy his blithesome profits ; let him not set about
'producing thorns and briars, which will choke up business
'and prick himself. "-
The last British vessel, the
"Ann Jane", of those previously within the
port, left the river on the 16th of June. About
the same time another and still more insidious
joint Edict of the Commissioner and the Vice
Hoy was addressed to the British Merchants
and ship Masters at Macao urging them to
disregard the injunctions of Sir Charles and
come into port, which was translated and
printed for circulation at Macao and on board
the shipping : Whereupon, Sir Charles issued
the following Notice, dated Macao June 21st,
which is so important as an exposition of the
principles upon which he had acted and as a
recital of what had been done by the Com-
missioner also, that I shall reproduce it printed,
though too lengthy to read.
Public Notice to Her Majesty's Subjects:
"The Officer deputed by the Commissioner and the
Keunmin-foo, having caused certain notices to be publicly
placarded at Macao, inciting British Merchants, Commanders
and seamen to disregard the lawful injunctions of the under-
signed, he has this day transmitted to those Authorities the
34:
PEKING THE GOAL,
accompanying declaration. A Copy
submitted to the Commissioner."
Macao, June 21st, 1839.
of the same will be
(signed) CHABLES ELLIOT
Chief Superintendent, &c.
"Elliot, &c. &c. learns that official notices have been
publicly placarded, and sent to the ships of his Nation, incit-
ing the English Merchants, Commanders and seamen to
disregard his lawful injunctions issued in the name of his
most gracious Sovereign. But wherefore are these notices
silent upon the causes which have produced the conclusion
of trade and intercourse at Canton ? The high Commissioner
has published his own communications to Elliot, but where
are the replies ? These proceedings are highly inconsistent
with the principles of peace and dignity : And Elliot must
LOW declare the motives which have compelled him to require
the merchants of his Nation to leave Canton, and the Ships
no longer to return within the Bocca Tigris. "-
"On the 24th of March last, Elliot repaired
to Canton and immediately proposed to put an end to the
t j ate of difficulty and anxiety then existent, by the faithful
fulfilment of the Emperor 'H will : And he respectfully asked
that he and the rest of the foreign Community might be set
at liberty, in order that he might calmly consider and suggest
adequate remedies for the evils so justly denounced by His
Imperial Majecty. He was answered by a close imprison-
ment of more than seven weeks, with armed men day and
night before his gates, under threats of privation of food,
water and life. 1 Was this becoming treatment to the Officer
of a friendly nation, recognized by the Emperor, and who
had always performed his duty peacefully and irreproachably,
striving in all things to afford satisfaction to the provincial
Government ? When it thus became plain that the Commiss-
ioner was resolved to cast away all moderation, Elliot knew
that it was incumbent upon him to save the Imperial dignity,
and porvent some shocking catastrophe on the persons of an
imprisoned foreign Officer and two hundred defenseless Mer-
chants. For these reasons of prevailing force he demanded
from the people of his nation all the English Opium in their
hands, in the name of his Sovereign, and delivered it over to
THE SOLE HOPE OF PEACE. 35
the Commissioner, amounting to 20.283 chests. That matter
remains to be settled between the two Courts."
''But how will it be possible to answer the
Emperor for this violation of his gracious will, that these
difficult affairs should be managed with thoughtful wisdom,
and with tenderness to the men from afar ? What will be the
feelings of the most just Prince of his illustrious dynasty,
when it is made manifest to him by the command of Her
Britannic Majesty, that the traffic in Opium has been chiefly
encouraged and protected by the highest Officers in the
Empiie, and that no portion of the foreign trade to China has
paid its fees to the Officers with so much regularity as this
of Opium ? Terrible indeed will be His Imperial Majesty's
indignation when he learns that the obligations into which
the high Commissioner entered, under his seal, to the Officers
of a foreign Nation were all violated ! The servants were not
faithfully restored when one fourth of the opium was deliver-
ed ; the boats were not permitted to run when one half was
delivered ; the trade was not really opened when three
fourths were delivered, and the last pledge, that things should
go on as usual when the whole was delivered, has been
falsified by the reduction of the factories to a prison with
one outlet, the expulsion of sixteen persons, some of them
who never dealt in opium at all, some clerks, one a lad, and
the proposal of novel and intolerable regulations.
"Can a great moral and political reformation be
effected at the sacrifice of all the principles of truth, moder-
ation and justice ? Or is it believed that these spoliatory
proceedings will extinguish the traffic in opium ? Such hopes
are futile, and the Emperor has been deceived. But it is
asked, on the other hand, whether the wise and just purposes
of the Emperor cannot and should not be fulfilled? Most
assuredly they can, and they ought. It is certain, however,
that the late measures of the Commissioner have retarded
this accomplishment of the Imperial pleasure, given an im-
mense impulse to the traffic in Opium, which was stagnant
for several months before he arrived, and shaken the pros-
perity of these flourishing provinces. It is probable that
they will disturb the whole coasts of the Empire, ruin thous-
ands of families, foreign and native, and interrupt the p-eace
PEKING THE GOAL,
between the Celestial Court and England, which has endured
for nearly two hundred years. "-
"The Merchants and ships of the English
Nation do not proceed to Canton and Whampoa, because the
gracious ccn.mands of the Emperor for their protection are set
at nought ; because the truth is concealed from His Imperial
Majesty's knowledge ; because there is no safety for a hand-
ful of defenseless men in the grasp of the Government at
Can! on ; because it would be derogatory from the dignity of
their Sovereign and Nation to forget all the insults and
wrongs which have been perpetrated, till full justice be done,
and till the whole trade and intercourse be placed upon a
footing honorable and secure to this Empire, and to England.
The time is at hand ; the gracious Sovereign of the English
Nation will cause the truth to be made known to the wise
and august prince on the throne of this Empire, and all
things will be adjusted agreeably to the principles of the
purest reason. "-
"Elliot and the men of his Nation in China
submit the expressions of their deepest veneration for the
great Emperor.
(signed) CHARLES ELLIOT.
Chief Superintendent. &c.
THE SOLE HOPE OF PEACE.
37
Meantime, on the 15th, Mr
Charles W. King embarked from Macao in his
Firm's ship, the "Morrison," taking Mrs. King
with him and inviting the Revd. Dr. Bridgman
to accompany them, for the scene of the destru-
ction of the Opium near the Bogue, where
anchoring he was, the day after, invited by the
Imperial Commissioner to land and pay him a
visit. After observing the mode of destroying
the Opium and holding a lengthy discussion,
Dr. Bridgman was asked by the Commissioner
if he would take charge of a letter for Her
Majesty the Queen of England : which he
declined. The bearing of the Commissioner
made a very favorable impression upon both
Dr. Bridgman and Mr King : They said that,
"throughout, he was bland and vivacious, and
exhibited nothing that was barbarous or savage.
His countenance indicated a mind habituated
to care and thoughtfulness. Once only he smil-
ed almost laughed as Mr King declined to
characterize the members of the Co-Hong :
-The question being who of them are good ?
Which was not answered. The accounts given
him of British Naval power especially of
Steam vessels raisen a frown upon his brow."
He was a man of literary pretensions as well
as a great Magistrate and statesman, and one
of his Works was "An illustrated notice of
Countries beyond the Sea."-
38 PEKING THE GOAL,
On the 23rd of Jane the
Authorities ordered the Hong Merchants to
become security for the two American ships
recently arrived ; the Bond exacted being a
modified form of that which all Foreigners
had refused to sanction before.
On the 15th of July Sir Charles,
replying to a Committee of the British Firms
at Macao, gave his views as to the questions
of demurrage, &c. &c. arising in the outside
anchorages.
Previously, the principal
British Firms had held public Meetings where-
at resolutions were passed deprecating any
attempt of British Subjects to thwart the pur-
poses of the Superintendent, by proceeding
in person or with their ships into the Port of
Canton.
In the absence of vessels of
War, it was impossible to forcibly restrain all
persons ; but such was the general unanimity
that but two vessels got into port : One Gen-
tleman attempting to come to Canton was
seized by the Chinese and held for a while ;
another came up on a visit of observation in
an American ship, being a new arrival at
Macao, - - by ingeniously changing his real
name of Silverlock to Whitehead.
By the 15th of July the Foreign
THE SOLE HOPE OP PEACE.
39
Community here was reduced to a few Ameri-
cans, of which I was one, and two or three per-
sons of other nationalities. Several Ameri-
cans left China during the previous six weeks,
my Cousin, Mr Hathaway, among them ; and
henceforward I was to feel the loss of the
society and counsel of one of the most estim-
able of men, whilst assuming sole charge of
the business of my Kinsmen, soon to be en-
larged by that of several of the leading British
Houses.
As our Factory No. 4 Lung
Shun Hong needed repairs, I then went to
the Owner of the whole Hong, the celebrated
Chief of the Co-Hong, Ilowqua, to apply for
Factory No. 2, then vacant ; as most other
Factories were. His first salutation was the
characteristic gesture of holding out his left
hand with Snuff upon it, (Snuff so potent
that the recollection of it almost compels me to
sneeze now 34 years after), and after thus
titillating my nose, he asked me 'what news'?
I then asked him for No. 2, to which he
replied with a peremptory "No can Elliot
liky that house": "But," said I, not suspecting
his purpose to offer me a still more eligible
one, "you no thinky Elliot come Canton this
year ?" to which he replied with great an-
imation and evident confidence "yes he come
40 PEKING THE GOAL,
back few moon and must wantye No. 2."
adding the question "you no liky N. 1 ?"
I said with as much alacrity "yes, I liky No.
1, but my so young man no thinky use so
large house" "Ah maskee you young man,
my liky you go No. 1." And thus it was that
No. 1 Lung Shun Hong became my Canton
home for 17 years, down to its destruction
in December 1856 by the orders of the second
"queller of the barbarian spirit," the redoubta-
ble Yeh.-
Howqua was a remarkable
man; and as Chief of the Co-Hong in the gain-
ful days of monopoly, may be said to have been
the "right man in the right place." Few men
could have held that position through the long
period that he did, without fatally involving
themselves and families, a period of transit-
ion during which there were repeated political
collisions with Foreigners even before the
Opium question arose, through all which he
had to bear the brunt, and exhibited consum-
mate tact.
He was a firm friend to
those whom he fancied ; and on one occasion,
at least, shewed a princely generosity, when
an American Merchant who had lost his pro-
perty in trade here, being unable to repay
him, liowqua returned him the Promissory
THE SOLE HOPE OP PEACE.
Notes he held for nearly One hundred thous-
and Dollars, as a free gift.
And I have another inter-
esting anecdote of him to relate that you will
like, I think, as a most pointed illustration of
the remarkable difference in the appreciation
of sound between the ears of the Chinese and
our own, a difference so marked that it sug-
gests if it does not justify the assertion, that
their's are attuned to discord and ours to
harmony. What is true is, that their ears seem
set to the falsetto in alto ; and hence that
what is a Gong of dissonance in our ears de-
lights theirs as though it were the welcome
sound of friendly greeting on arrivals and de-
partures, whether ashore or afloat. But to
come to the point of my anecdote of Howqua :
On one occasion when, as was the custom of
those days, he had accompanied one of the
Mandarins to Whampoa to pay a compliment-
ary visit to an American Commodore, the
party being at dinner and the Band began the
usual adjustment of their instruments to the
Music, it was observed that as these prelimin-
ary sounds were drawn from the Violins long
drawn out, Howqua and the Mandarins were
in ecstacies ; but when the full Band struck
up in "Hail Columbia," the "Star spangled
Banner" and the like airs, the celestial guests
42 PEKING THE GOAL,-
were simply quiescent or acquiescent.
Whereupon the Commodore asked Howqua
which of the airs had pleased them most? From
his reply it was thought that one of those
mentioned was alluded to, and that was accord-
ingly repeated ; but Howqua said that was not
the one and the Commodore inferred from his
attempt to indicate it by a more rapid motion,
. that the Yankee Doodle Quick step was the
favorite : That evidently suited the Chinese
better ; but after its conclusion Howqua be-
thought him how to get again what they really
preferred and so said : "My Chin Chin you
that first teem" meaning the sounds first
emitted by the instruments in the process of
tuning !
I have at this point to make
a statement which it is quite time should form
a part of the history of the period, since other-
wise, the occasional slur flung out by ill-in-
formed writers, founded upon the assumption
that we Americans were simply self-seeking
in remaining at Canton, heedless that our
so doing was prejudicial to British interests,
may be taken as expressing the views of the
leading British Merchants : Whereas, as I am
in a position to state, it was felt that the tenure
of Foreign relations as a whole had become
so precarious, that it was the part of wisdom
THE SOLE HOPE OP PEACE.
for the few Americans to remain at Canton,
to maintain a hold upon the Trade and thus
conserve the vast commercial interests of Eng-
land, then at stake : Such was the well-known
wish of the principal British Merchants at an
early period; and the fact soon become an
open secret by their employment of Americans
as Agents at Canton. And it was very soon
seen that it suited all parties in interest, ex-
cept the Imperial Commissioner, who issued
an Edict denouncingfive of us for dealing with,
aiding and abetting the English Barbarians ;
and threatening such extreme penalties that
I had, thereafter, to buy the Imports from my
English friends and charter the American
ships for Manila and back to Whampoa,
instead of running them, as before, from the
British anchorages at Castle-Peak or Hong-
kong Bay direct to Whampoa, getting fresh
Invoices and Bills of Lading of the Goods as
American property from Messrs Russell and
Sturgis, Manila.
Thus the British Merchants
found a profitable sale for the cargoes of Im-
ports accumulated at the outside anchorages
and incurring heavy demurrage and other
charges ; and got Tea and other Chinese pro-
duce, which then brought high prices in En-
gland and Australia : The Hong and Tea
44 PEKING THE GOAL,
Merchants resumed their large business : The
Chinese Officials got the Duties on Imports
and Exports : And the British Government
got its revenue from Tea Duties : Whilst we
Canton Agents were making rapid fortunes
from the Commissions. All parties but the
pertinacious political High Commissioner were
well pleased and, by degrees, combined to
neutralize his previously dreaded power.
But there were few if any
among the Chinese who did not confide in the
Emperor's puissance ; and I remember that
Lin Chong, one of the Hong Merchants, who
had all his life been intimate with Foreigners
and was always ranked by us as one of the
most intelligent and sagacious of his Country-
men, so late as the Autumn of 1839, in a
conversation with Mr. Delano and myself,
maintained that the British forces could not
capture the then recently strengthened
Bogue Forts ; and said that the Emperor had
an immense reserved force of Tartar horse-
men, which could speedily gallop to Canton
and overwhelm any Foreign force.
Being disappointed in his
attempts to entice the British ships and Mer-
chants into port, the Commissioner undertook
hostile measures against them, compelling all
to leave Macao, and afterward attacking the
THE SOLE HOPE OT PEACE.
45
ships in Castle Peak and Hongkong bays ; the
Portuguese being unable to afford protection.
About the 30th of August,
H. M. ships "Volage" and "Hyacinth" arrived,
and in October Sir Charles Elliot went with
them to the Bogue to demand the discontinu-
ance of hostile measures against the shipping
and unmolested residence at Macao for British
subjects, pending an arrangement of difficul-
ties between the two Governments; but finding
a large fleet of War Junks in Anson's bay
moving down menacingly to attack, an eng-
agement ensued and out of the 16 Junks, three
were sunk, one was blown up, and the the rest
scattered.
This was the first naval battle*;
and I remember the ominous sound of that
cannonade, though 45 miles distant, which
might be the knell of myself and the other
abettors of the English : But in some way or
other our friends the Hong Merchants, took
care to shield us as the keepers of the Goose
laying the Golden Eggs.
The Commissioner, indeed,
began to shew misgivings as to the relative
power of the two Nations on the waters outside
* Although there had previously been hostile collisions
in Hongkong and Cap Sing Moon Bays, in one of which Sir
Charles Elliot's hat was perforated by a Gingall ball.
46 PEKING THE GOAL,
the Bogue, and relaxed the stringency of his
measures at Macao, whilst using his resources
to fortify the Bogue and other approaches to
Canton : Meantime, however, declaring the
British Trade closed forever.
So closely watched were
the shipping at the outside anchorages during
most of the season of 1839, that to induce
Chinese to bring me letters when any import-
ant matter required prompt communication,
Messrs Dent & Co. sometimes paid $ 120. to
get a brief letter to me, which would be hidden
in the bamboo of the boatman ; and I was
repeatedly called out of bed at one to three
o'clock of a morning in order to read a letter
and then send an answer by the same man :
His head being very insecure upon his shoul-
ders.
Whatever the perils were to
ourselves or the natives we thus employed,
such was the volume of business that we were
favored with, that we had little time for thought
of them and too little for sleep.
Thus the months from June
1839 to April 1840 sped by ; marked by a few
dinner parties during the holydays and a fare-
well one that I gave my friend Mr A. A. Low,
who retired from the House of Messrs Russell
& Co. at the end of 1839 and left for home.
THE SOLE HOPIi OF PEACE.
The other two notable changes
of the opening of the new year in Pifms being,
on the one hand, the redaction of the number
by one, by the merging of the interests of
Messrs Russell, Sturgis & Co. with Messrs
Russell & Co, Mr. Delano of the former
House entering the latter as a partner ; which
suggested the remark that their act was em-
phatically to coalesce, since thus there was
one "Co:" the less : The second change was,
on the other hand, an addition, being the
establishment by Mr Joseph Coolidge, (late a
partner of Messrs Russell & Co,) of the Firm
of Messrs Augustine Heard & Co, which has
since attained to a proud position among the
great Houses of the World. Mr Coolidge was
an accomplished Gentleman, who on his youth-
ful continental tour, as the son of a distinguish-
ed Citizen of Boston, had made the acquaint-
ance of Lord Byron in Italy ; and who, on
returning to America, married Miss Randolph,
a Grand Daughter of President Jefferson, who
came to Macao with her Husband : And who,
in virtue of their social position, had been
presented to Queen Victoria by the American
Minister and his Lady.
Mr. Coolidge was gifted with
remarkable conversational powers ; and I re-
member his once holding a party, which in-
48 PEKING THE GOAL,
eluded the only Lady at Canton at the time,
enthralled by his description of the then newly-
risen star of the Ballet, Taglioni, as eclipsing
all ever seen before ; an Enchantress whose
spells, wrought by the very poetry of motion,
appealed to all in the sense of Shakspeare's
strangely-apt words :
"Start not ; her actions shall be holy ;
You hear, my spell is lawful."
And held the most refined assemblies of Lon-
don, with the Queen at their head, captive to
her refined natural grace and real genius.
In April the clipper "Ariel"
got back from the Bed Sea, with the announce-
ment that the British Government had deter-
mined to demand redress : She having left
Macao on the of 29th May 1839. a period of
nearly eleven months had been required to
deliver to Sir Charles Elliot the reply of H.
M. Government. This strikingly exhibits the
difference between the two periods in respect
to intercommunication ; but I may instance
other occasions which mark it more distinctly
as what was general rather than exceptional
in that Era of Sails : Thus, I remember
that on the 29th of January 1838 the "Orixa"
arrived from Liverpool with advices of the
6th September 1837, after the great financial
crisis of 1837 had passed, being 145 days ;
and bringing the latest and very important
THE SOLE HOPE OF PEACE.
49
news favoring Tea shipments, which soon
advanced prices for the leaf 30 to 50 per cent
and freights from 4. to 8. On another
occasion the period was longer, the latest dates
from England and America having come by a
ship from Bombay that was 109 days thence.
And, strange as it will now appear when in
1841 the Trade of Canton was forced open, the
first advices of the reopening of it reached
London via New York,- the Ship **Akbar"
having arrived at the latter port in 110 days
passage from Canton.
From the receipt of the
welcome tidings in April, that England had
determined to exact redress and thus end in
one form or another the painful incertitude
of our position, we were thenceforward con-
stantly on the very 'tiptoe of expectancy" and
hope : assured that to a favorable solution of
the intricate question with China, all the re-
sources of Britain would be devoted.
Impressed by the momentous
character of the issue and mindful of the in-
terest it was exciting in America, as well as
Europe, I wrote a letter to the Editor of the
"New York Express" on the 5th of June, of
which, as somewhat animated with the spirit
of the hour and foreshadowing subsequent
events, and especially as pointing to Peking
50
PEKING THE GOAL,
as the Goal of successful diplomacy, I ven-
ture to quote the salient portions.
"To the Editor of the New York Express.
"Canton, June 5th 1840.
"It is no longer a question if England purposes
u the exercise of power upon this Empire, for the sounds of
"preparation are wafted to us by every breeze from the Bay
"of Bengal. "-
"Whilst nothing is allowed to transpire in
"England as to the intention of Government, orders have
"been received at the seat of Government in India to equip
"a powerful Land and Sea armament, which is being done
"with great activity. All doubt as to the Force being an
"efficient one is at an end ; it is to be sufficient to power-
fully coerce the Empire."
"And the object of England being the reesta-
"blishment of the legal Trade, upon a definite and sure basis,
"the question arises how far she can use coercion without
"sacrificing her permanent interests, or involving herself in
"a struggle of long continuance, or in a War of conquest."
"Without a knowledge of the riature of the
"demands to be made of the Emperor, it is very difficult
"for those on the spot, even, to predict the reception of the
"Ambassadors, who come as never before Ambassadors
"approached the Throne of the "Son of Heaven" comman-
"ding a powerful Force. "-
"It is still doubtful whether the Earl of Auckland,
"Governor General of India, will be relieved of that Office
"and come on in person ; but the general belief seems to be
"that he will delegate the full power held by him to the
"Admiral of the Fleet and the General of the Army ; the
"latter of whom is said to be Lieutenant General the Ho-
"norable Sir Robert Arbuthnot, Commander-in-chief at Ceylon.
"The appointment of this Officer to the command of the land
"forces is one of the indications, among the many, which Go-
"verament, with the greatest secrecy possible, cannot prevent
"th publicity of, of the intention to send a Force that it will
"be dangerous for the Emperor to trifle with.
THE SOLE HOPE OF PEACE.
51
"And when we reflect upon the transfer of
"the Foreign Relations from the hands of Merchants, in
"which they have been for centuries, to those of Soldiers
"and Sailors, whose profession is that of arms and who
"reckon Treasure as nothing in comparison with National
"honour, dignity and glory ; and remember, too, the haughty
"character of this people, their deeprooted prejudices and
"erroneous ideas of their own greatness and strength
"fostered as they have been for centuries by the submission
"of Merchants interested directly in the comtinuance of the
"Trade, joined with the many circumstances affecting the
"question with England; when I reflect upon all these points,
"I cannot bat believe that blood must and will flow ere the
"Emperor will listen merely. Suppose an apology for the
"insult done England in the Person of her Representative
"and subjects is demanded at Peking, as sure it will be,
"irhere only it can be demanded snceess fully or properly, why,
"the assumption of superiority and universal Empire by China
"for so many centuries must be relinquished must fall at
"the feet of the invaders and in its fall the integrity of the
"Empire receive a shock that shall reach from beyond the
"Great Wall to the Southern Sea, and from Formosa to the
"confines of British India, undermining the Throne itself !
"But suppose the demands should be what
"rumour says they will be: For the full value of the Opium
"confiscated ; the Hong debts ; the Expenses of this Expedit-
ion ; say Twenty Millions of Dollars !! beside full repar-
ation for injured honour : What would not China dare do
"before she submits to such degradation such disgrace in
"the eyes of her own people ? Why, she could only fight
"till she finds fighting fraught with greater peril than abject
"submission, when she would use gold a Weapon that she
"has often found more potent than her sword."
"But the necessity must be very pressing to
"extract such an immense sum of Treasure from this country ;
" not that it is poor, it is very rich, but that such a degree
"of submission would be too heavy a disgrace before its own
"subjects, moreover, it would be obtained by forced con-
tributions from those subjects themselves, for the Oovern-
"merit itself is poor ; and I believe that a considerable period
"of time will be required to inflict it."
52
PEKING THE GOAL,
"But what England will demand we know not ;
"nor what tone she will assume in other respects : Whether
' 'she will be ready to propose a compromise touching the
"Opium question. It must be confessed, however, that the
"vesting of the power for the settlement of the question in
"Lord Auckland Governor General of those Colonies where
"the drug is now daily sold by Government for the China
"Market, afford grounds for the general belief that the demands
"will embrace all that I have named ; but the manner of
"liquidating the pecuniary claims maybe compromised by
"the grant of Commercial privileges and full security for the
"future,- provided the apology for the insult offeied England
"is -full and satisfactory."-
"On the other hand, England does not come
"in her might to sacrifice her Revenue of 4.000.000 stg,
"Four Millions of Pounds sterling, Duties on Tea per annum,
"but, if possible, to make its receipt more certain and to
"augment it :- But, again $ on the other, England is at this
"moment occupying a more elevated position than ever before
"in Western India, and Persia is at her feet. Victoria would
"be an Elizabeth too ! Lord Auckland is just made an Earl
"and is flushed with success in Western India and Persia.
"Mark ! England lulls suspicion in Europe by
"sending out but half a dozen Frigates,- while in India she
"makes great preparations!- What is the meaning? A new
"settlement it is said is to be founded :- Where ! On the
"mainland of China ?
"Indeed j this struggle between the "oldest
"Nation of the Earth" and the most powerful Naval Power
"in the World, is fraught with consequences of the most
"momentous nature ; such as but few in the World properly
"comprehend and appreciate. "-
"Heaven grant that in its results it be be-
"ueficial, as it may, to both to the whole world."
I am, Sir, Your obedient Servant.
(signed) "An American."
There were two miscon-
ceptions in this letter : One that the force
intended was to be much more powerful ; the
THE SOLE HOP.E OE PEACE.
53
other that the preparations, being chiefly in
India, were kept private in Europe and Ameri-
ca ; whereas the British Government, in the
sense that the movements of England con-
cerned the other Western Nations, had com-
municated its purpose of redress to the Ameri-
can Government ; and disclaiming more than
such redress and security for the future, had
restricted its force so far within a requisite one
for conquest, that it was quite inadequate to
the real requirements of the occasion. Thus
England shewed her reluctance to relinquish
the policy of conciliation ; and instead of des-
troying the Bogue Ports as Sir Charles Elliot
expected, ^as a suitable blow of redress for
the local insult of inipfisonment, her forces
proceeded to seize Chusan, avowedly only as
a temporary port for concentration and safety,
pending representations to the Emperor.
The long waited-for day,
whose dawn was to usher in redress, if not
retribution, at length arrived; and on the 22nd
of June 1840, more than 15 months after our
imprisonment, the British Fleet of more than
20 vessels led by the "Wellesley" 74, with
Admiral Elliot's Flag flying, sailed into the
outer roads of Macao, "like a tall Admiral
towering in his pride"; a goodly sight to see,
as a friend then there pictured it to
PEKING THE GOAL,
Immediately after, Commodore Sir Gordon
Bremer declared a Blockade of Canton river,
to take effect in July ; and soon after a second
fleet came into Macao.-
Admiral Elliot and Sir Charles,
his Nephew, were appointed joint-Plenipo-
tentiaries, and before proceeding North, Sir
Charles issued a Manifesto to the Chinese peo-
ple, setting forth the grievances of the English;
and stating that no harm would be done those
who pursued their peaceful occupations, as the
difficulty was wholly between the two Govern-
ments and the Queen of England had sent
high Officers to make the truth known to the
Emperor. The movements to Chusan and the
Peiho I have already alluded to.
So tardy was the concentration
of the forces in those days of sails (there
being but three steamers of small power in the
whole fleet) that a conference could not be
obtained at or near Tientsin until the 31st of
August. The promises of the Imperial Com-
missioner were unexceptionable; but had they
not been so, the season was too late to move
forces into the Gulf of Pechelee, if indeed
H. M. Government ever intended so moderate
a force to attempt a movement of the kind.
Upon informing the Com-
missioner of the declaration of Blockade and
THE SOLE HOPE OF PEACE.
55
representing the consequent necessity to allow
all American ships, arriving before the date
indicated, to sail directly into the Eiver with-
out waiting for Permits to each, he replied
that it was an egregious mistake or audacious
falsehood that the English intended to inst-
itute a Blockade.
It was not until a month
after the Blockade was laid on the river that,
in August, I went to Macao in a Chop Boat
by the inner passage, passing through Shun-
tuck and Hearng Shan Districts ; taking with
me two lacks, or lacs of two kinds, as fruits of a
labor of more than 16 months since the impri-
sonment began, one a lac of Dollars, the
other a lack of health, : from sheer exhaustion:
But the latter was assuaged by the written
testimonials that my English friends generous-
ly added to my pecuniary fortune.
Lin offered large rewards
for the capture of British ships and people ;
and succeeding, thus, in getting the Revd.
Vincent Stanton into his hands, (who was seiz-
ed whenbathing atCarcillasbay just beyond the
walls of Macao and quite within the Barrier,)
and was near making a Martyr of him ; he,
the celestially -enlightened High Commis-
sioner, having thought at one time of immo-
lating Mr Stanton as a sacrifice to the God
56 PEKIXG THE GOAL,
of War ! Later on, we heard of the Emperor's
gathering alarm and consequent dissatisfaction
with Lin, an Edict having come from the
Throne ordering him to return ''with the speed
of flames" to Peking ; adding
'you have not only proved yourself unable to cut oft 1 their
'trade, but you have also proved yourself unable to seize
'perverse Natives. You have but dissembled with empty
'words* and so far from having been any help in the affair,
'you have caused the waves of confusion to arise, and a
'thousand interminable disorders are sprouting it ap-
'pears then you are no better than a wooden image : I am
'filled with anger and melancholy."
After the capture of Mr.
Stanton, Captain, afterward Sir Harry Smith
of H. M. S. "Volage" came to the house that
I occupied with Mr Bull, accompanied by the
celebrated and then venerable Thomas Beale,
former head of the House of Messrs Beale
& Magniac, the predecessors of Messrs Jardine
Matheson & Co. (and Father of the late Mr.
Thos. Chay Beale of Shanghae), to introduce
him, with a request to be permitted to recon-
noitre the Chinese postion at the Barrier,
where Lin's forces were fortifying themselves
preparatory to again driving the English away
from Macao. There were two rooms surmo-
unting the roof of our house, reached by a
flight of winding stairs, from whence a very
comprehensive view was had ; and I remember
that as we conducted the gallant Officer, who
THE SOLE HOPE OF PEACE.
57
had a slight impediment in his speech, up the
stairs, he exclaimed "Why ! you have here
perfect coo-r-k screw stairs."- -The next day
the "Volage" and "Hyacinth," with one only
Steamer he had were sent as near the beach
of the Barrier as they could lie to bombard
the sand batteries of the Chinese ; landed a
small force of Marines, driving the native forces
away toward Caza branca ; the Junks by which
they came from Canton mostly escaping up
the inner harbour, where the "Hyacinth" was
sent to chase them.
Acting strictly in terms of
the Manifesto to the people, the only coercive
measure taken locally, pending the appeal to
the Emperor, was the Blockade of Canton
river ; the movement at Macao being strictly
within the limits of self-defence.
It was Sir Charles Elliot's
opinion, as I have intimated, that the Bogue
Forts should be blown up as a proper local
blow of redress, whose echoes would reach the
Emperor's ears ; it being obvious that the fact
of a Blockade, if at all, would only reach Pe-
king stripped of its significance : But the
British Government were still bent upon pur-
suing a course of moderation, whether from
a well-considered line of policy or not, I can
only conjecture. In that light, its sending
58 PEKING THE GOAL,
an inadequate force is comprehensible ; but
otherwise, the withholding of a wholesome
local blow of redress was a real lapse in states-
manship, as was the inability to reach Peking
a still more glaring one.
Whatever the reasons for
this course of action, may have been, the result
was that the Plenipotentiaries returned from
the North the last of November, leaving the
most of the Fleet and Troops at Chusan to
await the promised investigation and redress
by Ke Shen, whom the Emperor deputed to
Canton for the purpose.
Upon sending a steamer to
the Bogue with a letter from Ilipu to Kes-
hen, she was fired upon by the forts ; but
Keshen promptly apologised. Soon after this,
Admiral Elliot returned to England, leaving
Sir Charles sole Plenipotentiary ; and he pro-
ceeded with negotiations in December at the
Bogue : But returned to Macao before the 1st
of January 1841, on which day I remember
meeting him in Mrs Coolidge's drawing room
just as he came in to pay her "the Compli-
ments of the Season" as he expressed himself.
Immediately after, he returned to the Bogue
and on Keshen's refusing the terms he had
submitted to him in December, Sir Gordon
Bremer moved some of the farces to the attack
THE SOLE HOPE OF PEACE.
59
of the forts on the 7th of January and captured
those of Chunepee anclTae-Kok-Tow: When
Keshen proposed an armistice ; and resuming
negotiations, reported to the Emperor the in-
adequacy of the defensive preparations. On
the 20th, Sir Charles issued a Notice to the
eifect that Hongkong was ceded (he having
first demanded Chunepee by right of capture);
$ 6.000.000. were to be paid as indemnity
in six annual instalments; direct Official inter-
course on a footing of equality ; and the Eng-
lish Trade to be resumed at Canton on the
1st of February. These were the best terms to
be had at that day.- Meantime Lin and his
friends had memorialized the Emperor against
peaceful measures ; and it soon became ap-
parent that the stipulations of the Treaty
would not be obseved : And it was afterward
known that the Emperor had issued orders on
the 27th of January to resume the War.
Here, then, we found ourselves
in a state of War by the clearly expressed
will of the Emperor ; all Foreigners being
practically involved, as we Neutrals soon learnt
to our cost, though none but British subjects
were active participants in it
War makes all the relations
of life incisive ; it sharpens wits, tongues
and eyes, as well as swords.
(50 PEKING THE GOAL,
And though it may be thought
that War with the Chinese was then War
'with a difference'; yet if we admit that sang-
uinary warfare guerra al cnchillo, War to
the knife, that implies great heat of blood,
is repugnant to their civilization, as it is to
ours, we must at the same time aver, that
there is a countervailing coldness of heart,
spiced with a relentless cruelty and superstit-
ion that wreaks a slower vengeance upon their
prisoners or immolates them as a propitiation
to their Gods. And War by the will of the
sacred Emperor against the "outer Barbarians"
aroused a zeal among gentry and people gen-
erally, more dangerous at that day than the
hireling spirit of the professional soldier.
That the Emperor was then
in dread earnest his Edict disgracing Keshen
and confiscating his large Estate left no doubt,
as these brief extracts shew : His Majesty
said :
'I am aroused to the deepest and most wrathful indignation.
We know not what kind of nerve he must really
'possess to be thus easily alarmed. Thus our favors he
'renders nugatory and betrays his Country, having lost every
'spark of the principle implanted in him by Heaven ! Let
'him be, therefore, disgraced from Office and put in irons ;
'and we appoint Officers to escort him to the Capital, that
'rigorous investigation may be instituted : And let all his
'property be immediately seized and confiscated,"
Keshen had been convinced
by the diplomacy of Sir Charles Elliot and the
THE SOLE HOPE OP PEACE.
61
results of the attacks upon the outer defences
of the Bogue, that a contest with England
was hazardous for the Imperial prestige, if not
hopeless ; but the unchastened spirit of the
Canton people, inflated, as its hereditary con-
ceit of supremacy had been, by the appeals
and acts of Lin, responded to, nay, anticipa-
ted the call of the Emperor ; thus confirming
the opinion of Sir Charles Elliot that a local
blow of redress should have been struck on
the first arrival of the forces, by the destruction
of the Bogue forts. This admirable national
spirit in the Canton people has always shewn
great elasticity, an elastic tenacity"; and
in contradistinction to the more passive nature
of the people of the Northern Provinces, formed
the nucleus of patriotism through all succeed-
ing periods, down to the serious chastening
of the capture and occupation of the City by
the Allied forces of England and France in
the time of Commissioner Yeh : And un-
doubtedly still forms the invigorating element
of independence that is the surest promise of
national advancement.
The Emperor's mandate order-
ing the concentration of Troops upon Canton
under four Generalissimoes, one being his own
Nephew, was of the most rigorous tenor,
disclosing an uncompromising spirit ; and
62 PEKING THE GOAL,
denouncing the English as rebellious against
Heaven. Rewards of Fifty thousand Dollars
for each the heads of Elliot, Bremer, Morrison,
and other Chiefs, and lesser sums for their
subordinates, were offered in placards all over
the Country ; and every device to make the
river inaccessible was used : But by the 26th
of February all the Bcgue forts, 8 in number,
had been captured, Admiral Kwan, the first
Chinese Hero who came to the front, after his
fleet was destroyed, landing to fight on shore
and falling in that of Anunghoy; a day or
tw r o after a strong position at the First bar,
defended by several thousand men was cap-
tured, some of the Tartar and other Northern
Soldiers shewing great bravery along with ex-
traordinary evolutions, including somersaults in
the air, when the British Marines and Soldiers
shot them as it were "on the wing."
Early in March the forces
were within four or five miles of Canton ; and
a Flag of truce was sent to Sir Charles Elliot :
But it was not until he had astounded the
Chinese by his vengeful daring, in forcing his
way in the "Nemesis" by the inner passage
from Macao to Canton, and the other vessels
of War also moved upon the City from the
other branch of the river, the British Troops
reaching the Factories, that he was enabled
THE SOLE HOPE OF PEACE.
63
to announce a local suspension of hostilities
and a reopening of the trade, as follows :
"A suspension of hostilities at Canton in this province has
"been this day agreed upon between the Imperial Comniis-
"sioner Yang and the undersigned."
"It has further been publicly proclaimed to the people
"under the seals of the Commissioner and of the acting
"Governor of the Province, that the trade of the port of
"Canton is open, and that British and other foreign Merchants
"who may see fit to proceed there for the purpose of lawful
"commerce shall be duly protected."
"No bond will be required by the provincial Governor,
"but there will be no objection on the part of the British
"Authorities to the like liabilities for the introduction of
"prohibited merchandise, or for smuggling (duly proved),
"which would follow such offences in England, detention of
"person or penal consequences of all kinds excepted. Pending
"the final settlement of affiairs between the two Countries,
"the undersigned has consented to the payment of the usual
"charges and other established duties. Ships of war will
"remain in the near neighborhood of the factories, for the
"better protection of H. M.'s subjects engaged in the trade
"of Canton.
(signed) CHARLES ELLIOT."
"Notice is hereby given that British and foreign Mer-
"chant vessels have permission to proceed to Whampoa, all
"consequences arising from the possible and sudden resum-
ption of hostilities of course remaining at the risk of the
"parties.
"Given on board the "Wellesley" off Wangtung 21st
"March 1841.
(signed) J. J. GORDON BREMER.
"Commodore 1st Class and Commander-in-chief."
We Merchants then make
the most of the precarious footing we had
again gotten here, unloading and loading our
ships as quickly as possible ; -and none too
diligently, as the result proved : For by the
PEKING THE GOAL,
middle of MET it became evident that the
Chinese Authorities purposed treachery ; and
it soon appeared that they had the spontaneous
loyalty of the whole people to aid, if not incite
them : The actual peril to every Foreigner
was quietly whispered around the community,
so that the attack should not be precipitated ;
and the extensive secret preparations were
watched as they hourly assumed more threa-
tening proportions. Many fire boats and rafts
were being prepared up river ; masked batteries
erected along the river front on both the Can-
ton and Honam sides ; heavy Guns planted in
the streets ; and the Temples filled with troops :
Observing that Foreigners were beginning to
leave, the Mandarins placarded proclamations
on the 20th, declaring that no one need be
alarmed and commanding all Chinese to attend
each to his own business. Eut neither For-
eigners or Natives were deceived by the per-
fidious document; and on the next day Sir
Charles Elliot issued a Notice to all Foreigners
warning them to go on board their shipping/
The warning had been too
late, but that the danger had been generally
felt a week or more before, for that very
night the attack came by both land and water.
Having sent my Brother
Thomas to Macao in advance, with my most
THE SOLE HOPE OF PEACE.
65
movable valuables, I wrote, on the evening
of the 20th, to the Captain of my own ship
"Hygeia", lying at Whampoa, requesting him
to send the Chief-Officer in the ship's boat
well-manned, the next morning, sending my
letter by a chop boat with Tea ; and I was
attending to the shipment of Teas to her and
the "Narragansett", during the whole of the
21st, while hourly expecting the arrival of the
Chief Officer in the boat, as requested. At
length at about sunset, just after I had given
a Linguist particulars of several chops of Tea
for shipment, standing at the door of my
Factory in the summer dress of that day
thin white linen jacket and trousers, I was
accosted by Mr William A. Lawrence of New
York, as he was passing in great haste out of
the Hong :
"Why ! IS ye are you still here ! I thought you had left ; you
"are the last man iu the place, come, come with me ; the last
"boat is starting from Jardine's, there's not a moment to lose,
"they are merely waiting for me to return ; it is your only
"chance come."
It was evident that there
was no time for parley, so I left my door steps
as I stood, scarcely realizing until that moment
that, not only all foreigners, but all our native
servants had disappeared from the Hong.
Hurrying to the Bombay ship's barge, in which
were Mr Andrew Jardine and several other
H6 PEKING THE GOAL,
Gentleinen, I found her down to the water's
edge with passengers and crew : but was wel-
comed by Mr Jardine and off we started ;
inyself keeping an anxious watch to intercept
the "Hygeia's" boat en route. I shall never
forget the tedious pull of many hours by the
lascar crew, whose usual monotonous song was
hushed to prevent calling the attention of the
Chinese to the boat ; and the reaction from
the heat and excitement of the day was so
great that with nothing but thin linen on, I
was shaking with chills until one of the Gen-
tlemen lent me a heavy woollen overcoat. It
was, I think, eleven at night before we got to
the shipping and We had not slept more than
two or three hours before we heard the roar of
cannon at Canton and then felt how narrow our
escape had been ; and at daylight we saw that
the City was on fire in five places ; the British
ships then bombarding it in retaliation for the
treacherous night attack : And we all thought
the knell of Canton was then sounding in our
ears. Not meeting the ' 'Hygeia's" boat, I
concluded that my request to send one had not
reached or had arrived so late on the 21st that
it had been read as meaning the next morning,
and I hurried to that ship, just in time to
save the mate and crew from pulling into the
very jaws of the Dragon, as they did not know
of the imminence of danger, though they had
THE SOLE HOPE OF PEACE.
67
heard the cannonade, and, in fact, felt bound
to obey my orders.
That you may realize more
vividly than by my feeble accents, the perils of
the situation and at the same time appreciate
the general sense, if indeed, I may not say,
the universal opinion of the treachery of the
Chinese, I beg to read to you an original letter
from Mr Bull, an old American resident, who
was afterward my Partner in our Shanghae
House, as follows :
"Macao, Sunday 23 May 1841.
Dear Nye. 1 P. M.
"Your Brother arrived here safe
this morning & has landed all his traps and
Hunter and myself arrived safe yesterday
We are very happy to learn that all the foreign
Community had got away from Canton in
safety. From the accounts your Brother gives
we think the City was attacked on Friday
night and I think the City and Mandarins
richly deserve what they will get. Those Hong
Merchants and Linguists must have known
what was to happen when they told us there
was no fear or danger in remaining in Canton.
I hope your balance of account is on the right
side, for I think there is not much safety for
what was left behind. Yours truly,
G. Nye Jr. Esq.
Whampoa Isaac M. Bull.
68 PEKING THE GOAL,
Mr Bull had then been mis-
informed as to all the Foreign Community
having gotten away from Canton in safety,
nor did he and others at Macao know of my
own or the other numerous narrow escapes ;
-but when a little later in the day their
anxiety was aroused for myself, he and Mr.
Gillespie and iny Brother started in my Brig,
the "Jane," for Whampoa, and met me the
day after just below Whampoa on board an-
other Yessel bound down the River. Mean-
time, Mr Dent and many others had escaped
from the Factories on board the British vessels
of War and their tenders, lying along the river
front and in the Macao passage ; but when the
attack came, were in perilous danger still,
there being but two steamers and the sailing
Vessels being unmanageable in the darkness
of the night, assailed on all sides by Cannon,
Jingalls, fire rafts and armed Junks. And
still others were in greater jeopardy : Mr.
Coolidge of whom I have before spoken
and Mr. Morss (the latter of the House of
Olyphant & Co.) with two Clerks and a boat's
crew of the American ship "Morrison", were
intercepted by the attack and compelled to
hide in their Hong until day light, when all
but Mr. Coolidge attempted to escape in the
boat, but were attacked when near Dutch Polly
THE SOLE HOPE OF PEACE.
69
and carried Prisoners into the City, the young-
est of the boat's crew, son of Mr. Sherry pf
New York, being missing and supposed to be
killed or drowned. Mr: CoolidgCj who was
left behind, was near being torn in pieces by
the mob, when happily he espied a red-button
Mandarin and making gestures attracted his
attention, who saved his life by giving per-
emptory orders to his subordinates to take him
to prison.
I must not forget one incident
more of this treacherous attack^ personal to
myself and family, that awakened in my Mo-
ther's heart a painful sensation when, shortly
after, my Brother took home with him to show
her, as it were a trophy, a 12fts or 18fts shot
that had been fired from the little Bed fort
(then a Mandarin station) that is near my
present Hong at Honain, and which had passed
through the room that five or six hours before
I had been in and where also my Brother had
been with me within a day or two before,
it being used as my Office. Prom the direct-
ion the ball took, it would have been fatal to
both of us had we been at our desks at the
time ; and as my Brother, I fear somewhat
mischievously, expatiated upon the narrowness
of our escape, my Mother's sensibility was
awakened to past or future dangers ; and a
70 PEKING THE GOAL,
Maternal Mandate was sent to command my
return, from a Country of imprisonments and
constant personal hazard, to the bosom of my
yearning family. In fact, my Cousin Mr.
Hathaway was appealed to in such a reproach-
ful strain by my Mother as induced him to write
me how disturbing it was to have my continued
stay in China imputed to him.
On the 24th Sir Hugh Goff
of the Army and the Naval Chief for the time
being, Sir Fleming Senhouse, arrived from
Hongkong and made preparations to invest
the City ; landing troops to take possession of
the Factories and demanding the release of
all prisoners ; so that Mr. Coolidge, Mr. Morss
and the others were set free after two or three
days of imprisonment and fearful suffering
and apprehension ; poor young Sherry never
being heard of afterward.
Then was seen the strange
thing that has in the second War been repeated
by the enrollment of the aptly-called "Bamboo
Rifles" at Hongkong, to assist in hostilities
against their own Country: Sir Charles Elliot
having induced the chop-boat men by dint of
power, of course, as well as persuasion, to re-
ceive the troops and assist in working the
boats up to Lee Ming Koon, *where the most
* the charming spot where we w T ere recently so delight-
fully entertained by Mr. and Mrs. Sampson.
THE SOLE HOPE OT PEACE.
71
of tliem landed to beleaguer the City; the
Chop-boats offering good shelter from Sun
and rain at that most squally season of the
year. On the 25th the forces landed and
marched to the attack of the rear forts and on
the 26th preparations were made to capture
or destroy the City, when a parley was requested
from the walls in order to agree upon terms
of surrender. Night came before the Officers
arrived ; and the attack was deferred until
morning, when, just as every thing was ready
for opening fire, a message came from Sir
Charles Elliot to Sir Hugh Goif requesting
delay for him to complete negotiations. These
were brought to a close on the 27th, resulting
in the conditions which H. E. made public on
the 5th of June.
"Macao, 5th June 1841.
"Tl e perfidy of the Imperial Commissioners having
"induced a course of brilliant operations, by land and water,
"placing H. M.'s forces in commanding positions over the
"walls of Canton, the Authorities, on the 27th ulto., made
"overtures for prevention of further hostilities, upon which
"the following terms were granted to them.
"1st "It is required that the three Imperial Commissioners
"and all the troops other than those of the province quit the
"City within six days, and proceed a distance of upwards of
"sixty miles.
"2nd "Six millions of dollars to be paid in one week, for the
"use of the Crown of England, counting from the 27th May.
" One million payable before sunset of the 27th May.
"3rd "For the present the British troops to remain in actual
"positions. No additional preparation on either side. If
"the whole sum agreed upon be not paid within seven days,
"it shall be increased to 7 millions ; if not within fourteen
PEKING THE GOAL,
"days, to 8 millions ; if not within twenty days, to 9 millions.
"When the whole be paid all the British forces to return
"without the Bocca Tigris, and Wangtong and all fortified
"places within the river to be re-stored but not to be remanned
"or armed till affairs are settled between the two Nations.
"4th ""Losses occasioned b.y the destruction of the Factories
"and of the Spanish brig "Bilbaino" to be paid within one
"week.
"5th "It is required that the Kwang Chow foo shall produce
"full power to 'conclude these arrangements on the part of
"the three commrfeskmers, tiie Ooveriior-'General, the General
"of the garrison, and the Fooyuen, having their Excellencies'
"seals.
[ ] Seal of the Kwang Chow foo.
. "An extensive evacuation of troops having taken
"place from the City, with their -arms, but without display of
"banners, a ransom of five millions o'f dollars being paid up, and
"security taken for the remainder, Her Majesty's forces have
"retired from their positions over the City. The places to
"be restored to^e delivered up as soon as the departure of
"the -two Chief Imperial Commissioners has been ascertained,
"and officially reported by the Officer left in command before
"Canton.
"In the brief campaign of less than 10 days a re-
"solute night attempt to destroy the ships of War by fire and
"other means has been repelled ; a flotilla of upwards of 100
"sail of armed and fire vessels have been destroyed : a line
"of works, mounting upwards of 60 pieces of artillery, has
*'been carried ; and by an unsurpassable combination of
"masterly disposition, ardour and constancy, a small British
"force ( moved through a Country possessing excessive
'difficulties, in the face of a numerous army), wrested from
'the enemy in the short space of ten hours, a line of fortsified
'and isfreep heights *protected by a well sustained fire from
'Jhe City walls ; and dislodged a hea\y and menacing mass
'of troops from a strong encampment on the left of their
'position,
"The whole course and results of these most re-
"markable and admirably- executed operations will reflect
"lasting honour upon the distinguished Officers under whose
"command they have been achieved, and upon all arms of
''the force taking part in the success."
THE SOLE HOPIS OF PEACE.
73
Meantime, whilst the British
forces held their positions, a force of 15.000
village braves made an attack : and as in the
rain some of the Indian troops got separated
from the main body and their muskets got
wet, there was an appearance of panic that
encouraged the Chinese and led to a deal of
self-glorification, that was to do harm in future.
There was also intense heat and afterward a
tremendous tempest of thunder, lighting and
rain.
On the 29th a still larger
force of braves assumed a more menacing at-
titude, when Sir Hugh Gough declared to the
Mandarins that if the Chinese did not retire,
he should open fire upon the City ; whereupon
the braves were persuaded to disperse.
This incident furnished an
instructive chapter of the local war and used
to crop up on all subsequent occasions of
difficulty, until the effectual chastening of the
Campaign of Peking : For the Canton braves
always boasted that but for the persuasion of
their Mandarins, on that occasion, they could
have destroyed the whole British force ; and
it soon appeared that at Peking this version
of the ransom of Canton was believed : In-
deed, Yih shan, the Emperor's Nephew, with
audacity and falsehood corresponding with his
74 PEKING THE GOAL, -
previous treachery to Foreigners, reported a
victory to his Uncle and bestowed medals upon
the troops which he was compelled to disband ;
declaring that in the terrible Tempest the
Genii of the City of Earns *were seen hovering
in the air and so affrighted the Foreigners that
they begged for mercy and besought the Man-
darins to prevent the braves from exterminat-
ing them. Unhappily, too, a Commissary-
Officer of rank, who was a stout person, suffer-
ed a sun-stroke ; and his head being severed
from his body, that, w r ith his sword, fell into
the hands of a veritable Chinese Falstaff, who,
himself "with fat Capons lined," with all
the bombast, had more than the cunning, but
none of the redeeming humor, of his renown-
ed prototype, whereby to shine in "borrowed
plumes" after a dastardly act, as I shall relate.
The Son of a Hong-Mer-
chant, he had been petted by some of the
Company's Officers as a handsome young man
and acquired more readiness in English than
any other Chinese of his day, which with a
marked suavity of manner, enabled him to
ingratiate himself with one Foreigner after an-
other, whom he in turn deceived, until he
became quite notorious for changing Chops
of Tea, mixing, &c. &c. and ending with per-
sonal quarrels ; one of which with the Chief
* alluded to at page 5 of 1st Lecture.
THE SOLE HOPE OF PEACE.
75
of a British House of great respectability that
has an Establishment here now, spread the
bad fame of this Palstaff abroad, as he called
his two Chair Coolies to the rescue when the
Gentleman attempted to chastise him for his
insolence.
Neither my Cousin or myself
had ever dealt with him ; but when, during
the summer (of 1841) I returned here, he came
to see me and with most elaborate blandish-
ments explained to me that he wanted to get
up a sort of masquerade to amuse the Ladies
of his family, and would be greatly obliged if
I would lend him some European garment for
the occasion, wherein to envelop himself. I
happened to have a Spanish Cloak with tassels
and corded borders from South America and
lent it to him without hesitation. Time wore
on, and at length when wintry weather came
and I was about to return to Macao, I be-
thought me of my Cloak and sent for it,
getting the reply that the borrower was not at
home. Repeatedly afterward the same reply
came, until, at length, I went once myself,
and as I entered the Hong, saw Falstaff dodg-
ing me behind the curtain when he, not su-
specting that I saw him, sent his servant to
say "have go out". Disgusted, I went back
to my house ; and some time after an Imperial
76 PEKING THE GOAL,
Edict, bestowing rewards upon the Braves
and the leaders of the people, for driving the
British forces away from Caw ton, was called
to my attention : When lo ! the trutbflashed
ll pon my benighted mind, on reading that this
Ealstaffian Hero had been reported by the
military Chiefs as having slain an English
Officer of rank, and sent the head, sword and
cloak of the Barbarian to Peking, accordingly.
-Whereupon Imperial favor was shewn by
the bestowal of special commendations and the
order that this Bombastes should be decorated
with a Peacock's feather!
Thus in a double sense he
shone at Peking in 'borrowed plumes', and
was here rewarded with real ones.
I did not quarrel with him, for
my indignation was swallowed up in admirat-
ion and wonder at the audacity and adroitness
by which he had purloined a Cloak from me
and a Peacock's feather from his venerated
Emperor, save the mark !
And of those, who, dazzled
by this Falstaffs' Peacock's feather, have
admired his strutting, portly, gait, few have
suspected that he shone in plumage filched
from the Emperor, and fattened upon Capons
the spoil of the State.
The incident is of utility in
THE SOLE HOPE OF PEACE. 77
my narration, as illustrating the facility with
which deception was then practiced upon the
Emperor and the consequent imperative neces-
sity to reach Peking.
Aptly true as strange the
Ealstaffian parallel does not end with this,
for there was here, also, a Prince of the blood,
the Emperor's Nephew Yih-shan the Gen-
eralissimo infamous for treachery and faith-
lessness, as we have seen; and wanting the no-
bly-redeeming traits of Shakspeare's flenry
of England.
And as to this grandiloquent
recounter of fabulous victories over the foreign
Barbarians, fit Chief of our local Ealstaif,
he must be recognized, in the history of our
intercourse, as the most shiningBlade-(though
false was the glitter) of his Race and Cou-
ntry, until we reach the ne phis ultra in per-
fidy and cowardly cruelty in the capture and
torture of Sir Harry Parkes and his Compan-
ions, near Peking, by that Prince of Nomads,
or Allmads, tJie creme-de-la-creme 0' Tartar,
SANG-KO-LIN-TSIN.
78 PEKING THE GOAL,
Thus the Campaign of Can-
ton ended with no marked effect upon the
relations with the Court of Peking ; but its
inception and conclusion alike reflected the
diplomatic ability of Sir Charles Elliot, whilst
the forced trade had enabled the Merchants
to effect a mutually advantagous interchange
of Imports and Exports and had brought cor-
relative gain also to both the British and
Chinese Government Exchequers.
But before even its inception
was known in England, two Chiefs into whose
hands fell Swords without scabbards,-- Sir
Henry Pottinger and Sir William Parker,
came out to supersede Sir Charles Elliot and
Sir Gordon Bremer and, in conjunction with
Sir Hugh Gough, carry the war to the North.
Reviewing this Eirst Campaign in China, as
we may call it, we detect at once the funda-
mental error of Her Majesty's Government
in the inadequacy of the force provided,
namely, the worst of all errors in War, the
underrating, not to say despising of the enemy;
and the ignoring of the potent fact that, in
tropical Countries especially, the elements of-
ten seem, as it were, to conspire to war for
those who will not defend themselves.
THE SOLE HOP74 OF PEACE.
79
The result of the visit of
Admiral and Sir Charles Elliot to the Peiho
was what I had virtually foretold, a fresh
rupture ; and as Sir Heury Pottinger, eighteen
months later, detected the error and saw that
even his augmented force was insufficient for
a campaign to Peking, the essential point to
assure peaceful future relations was not reached
during the first War.
Hence, continued repellence and
impracticability and the inevitable incidents of
complete dead-locks leading to fresh ruptures ;
the characteristics of an armed truce or
quasi War.
I have now reached the point
whereat to touch what I considered the very
Key -Note of policy ; and where I fear you will
see cause to accuse me of undue egotism in
now r sounding it, as it were, in my own praise,
although I claim only to have written at former
periods, as I now speak, with perfect sincerity.
Aiming to reflect the spirit of the time, so
far as I am instinct with it, whether in the ap-
preciation of political events and their origin,
or in the lighter incidents of social life, I have
invited you to accompany me through the
halls of memory, whose walls are peopled
with the images of those who trode yonder
streets, to thus convey to your mind's eye,
80
PEKING THE GOAL,
as it were, not only a visible picture of the
reality, but to faithfully present, also, a
measured conception,- at least, of the latent
cruses and impelling motives of the actions
of the ruling minds of those days.
I fin, nevertheless, mindful
that however truthfully I may thus present the
record, and however successfully I may have
probed to latent principles of action, there are
also counteracting and impelling causes and
motives- of an accidental or fortuitous char-
acter which powerfully influence or control
the course of events.
It is in this spirit that I
recur to the intimation I gave, when reading
extracts of the Memorial to the Congress of
the United States which I drafted, that I re-
served its essential suggestive point for future
notice. That point is made in these words :
"We beg to submit to your decision, the expediency of ap-
pointing a Minister to the Court of Peking, empowered to
"establish equitable relations ; whereby his right of residence
"at the Seat o/ Government ii'ould be secured as a preliminary ;
" when as we believe, all reasonable propositions for the
"mutual security of Trade and intercourse would be entertain -
"ed by the Supreme Government."
Thus it was that, so early as
April 23rd 1839, a month before the British
Memorial was drawn up, I enunciated what
at every stage of future relations proved to be
the first condition of a good understanding;
THE SOLE HOPIS OF PEACK
81
that is to say, the Minister s right of residence
at Peking, which I said ivould be secured as a
preliminary.
The British Memorial
not only makes no distinct point of this kind,
it does not even allude to the Seat of Go-
vernment ; but in the most generalized form
suggests attempts to modify existing relations :
Thus, the only allusions to a change are in
the following paragraph :
"We therefore think your Lordship will be
"convinced that some serious alterations in our relations
"with this Empire are indispensably necessary ; and that
"British Commerce can never safely be carried on, and
"certainly can never flourish in a Country where our persons
"and property are alike at the mercy of a capricious and
"corrupt Government.
I had lost sight of the memorial
that I drafted, for 31 years ; but as in the
meantime this sine qua non of friendly relat-
ions had been constantly ignored by our Go-
vernments, I had at various periods recalled
my emphatic Denunciation of it in the letter
of June 5th 1840 already quoted : and when,
in November 1856, the local hostilities com-
menced with High Commissioner Yeh, I em-
bodied the some opinion in the " Rationale
of the China Question" in various forms ; but
will cite only two or three instances.
Thus, I then wrote :
"We have taken the liberty to reproduce the letter of June
PEKING THE GOAL,
"1840 because we find a retrospective view vivified by a
"contemporaneous expose of tbe situation ; but chiefly,
"also, because the opinions we thus expressed sixteen years
"ago, have now the test of time and experience justifying a
"reiteration of the most important of them, which has now,
"even more than then, a comprehensiveness of meaning,
"namely: The indispensable necessity to proceed to Peking for
"redress of past wrongs and security of future rights.'" And I
"added :- l( this is the voice of the past that we venture to
"ecJio to-day, not our oicn feeble wail for opportunities lost."
Again, in alluding to the claim of universal
supremacy by the Emperor, I said : "Longer
"toleration of such absurd claims, or a course evading the
"issue that they involve, will be fktal to all hope of real
"progress ; whereas, by plucking up the roots of the prime
"evil at Peking, we cause the branches all over the Country
"to wither at once."- - Again : "If the late Emperor, as
"we see by his own words, thought the English destitute of
"any high purpose, in 1849, what will the present one
"think now, if the rights of equality are not claimed where,
"only, they can be, becomingly or effectively at Peking ?"
Again : "A suitable reception at Peking is now, surely, the
"only admissible preliminary proof of amity and the sole
"touch-stone of good faith." "Refusal of suitable re-
"ception at Peking and residence of Agent there imposes the
"exaction of material guaranties by possession of the Islands
"of Chusan and Formosa."
Such are some of the iterat-
ions to which I felt impelled in those more
exciting times.
And I well remember that,
after His Excellency Mr Eeed, the American
Minister had just finished the reading of the
whole of my "Rationale of the China Quest-
ion" at one sitting, in December 1857, and
thereupon invited me to a walk with him, to
THE SOLE HOPE OF PEACE.
83-
talk the subject oven, he said "you tnke an
extreme view, Mr. Nye, you go further than
Lord Elgin,".
"Well Sir," I said, "then Your Excellency will find
'that Lord Elgin stops short of the needs of the time : I
'write in the interest of the Chinese people, not of their
'Rulers ; and whether the latter are weak or strong, there's
'not less a necessity to go to Peking : The future cannot
'be assured short of that."-
But what, on the other hand,
wns the course of the Foreign Ministers upon
that vital point of reaching Peking? Neither
of them went there ; but made Treaties at
Tientsin, the Ambassadors of England and
France alone stipulating for the mere option
of residence of their Ministers at Peking ;
the same right accruing to Russia and America
under the favored-Nation clause.
And what was the result of
this halting policy ?-Why!-upon the approach
of Sir Frederick Bruce to the mouth of the
Peiho, proceeding toward Peking with the
ratified Treaty, -the Gunboats escorting him
were fired upon by the Taku forts and the
Forces then brought up to aid the fleet were
defeated with great slaughter.
And thus it was, also, that
Lord Elgin and Baron Gros were compelled
to come the second time from Europe to China,
and, with a large force, proceed step by
step to the Capture of Peking ; ivith what
84 PEKING THE GOAL,
further loss of valuable lives and what piteous
suffering, the painful and heroic record tells !
It is to confirmations such
as these, repeated as the very logic of events,
at every new phase of our relations, that I
appeal, for the value of my original opinions
of 1839-40 : And which embolden me to
approach the point whereat I have aimed, in
now calling your attention to this incident in
my historical studies and personal experience.
It has been recently said of
a distinguished Historian of England*, by
the most acute of modern thinkers f, that
"he has shewn two eminent faculties of an
Historian, the faculty of seeing wholes and
the faculty of seeing and saying particulars :
The one makes History valuable, and the
other makes it readible interesting."
Now, far be it from me to
claim recognition in the dignified walk of
History ; but if I had discerned from the first,
- in this necessity to reach Peking and end,
once for all. the assumption of supremacy, that
one of the several wholes, which the History
of Foreign intercourse with China has since
presented as the very Key-stone of the arch of
the superstructure of peaceful relations, I
am sure you will indulge my pointing to it :
* Mr. Froude. f Mr. Emerson.
THE SOLE HOPE OF PEACE.
AVhilst my ambition is, simply to so narrate
particulars that you shall feel repaid the at-
tention that you so generously accord ine ;
and my hope, that the fidelity of my sketch
may so far atone for its fragmentary character
as to lead you to accept it as part of the ma-
terials of History.
APPENDIX.
87
THE EAST INDIA COMPANY.
Note referring topagesQto 25 of the\st Lecture.
As it appears that although
I was quite unaware of it when I delivered my
first Lecture my eulogium of the Honorable
Company was singularly fitting in point of
time, I may be permitted to here recall atten-
tion to what I said and to reproduce what so-
unds almost like an echo of it ; the coincidence
being the more remarkable because of the
correspondence in point of time, although of
course that was quite accidental.
I allude to the following
editorial of the London Times of April 8th,
which was 67 days after the delivery of my
Lecture, and I am glad to enrich my sketch
of the Company's brilliant and useful nay
majestic and beneficent career, with a his-
torical notice at once as comprehensive as it
is succinct and essentially confirmatory of my
own appreciation of it.
"THE EAST INDIA COMPANY."
The Birth and Growth of England's Rule in Asia.
From the London Times, April 8.
"Not many days ago the House of Commons passed a
resolution which at one time would have had profound
political significance, but which now possesses merely an
antiquarian or historical interest. Notice was given to the
East India Company that its accounts are to be finally wound
up and arrangement made for the redemption of the dividend
88
APPENDIX.
upon its stock by the end of April, 1874. A bill for effecting
those objects is being carried through Parliament by Mr.
Grant Duff and Mr. Ayrton. The commutation proposed by
the bill is favorable both to the finances of the Indian Govern-
ment and to the pecuniary interest of the proprietors of East
India stock. If any of the latter class think fit to refuse the
terms of commutation* their claims will 'be paid off by the
30th of April, 1874, at the rate of 200 sterling for every
100 of stock. In these fiscal arrangements there is nothing
that calls particularly ior remark. But another clause of the
bill provides for the dissolution of the Company itself, and
the final extinction of all its powers, on the 1st of June, 1874.
This is an event which brings to mind reflections not unlike
those aroused by the news that a Royal or Imperial exile has
passed away at Claremont or Chiselhurst. The dissolution
contemplated by the bill formally closes a chapter in our
national history and in the record of civilized progress which
the world will not let die ; and though the doom of "John
Company" was irrevocably pronounced more than fourteen
years ago, an historical figure so unique and so imposing
cannot be permitted to pass without a last w T ord,to the oblivion
of the sepulchre.
In its day and its day was a century crowded with
great events the Company showed itself the equal of the
mightiest Monarchs, and of the proudest of conquering
dynasties. We have compared it in its last moments with
exiled and deposed royalty ; but what line of emperors or
kings could point to a domain so splendid, so marvelously
won ? When Leipsic and Waterloo overthrew the fabric of
Napoleon's Empire, the World wondered at first how the
catastrophe came to pass, but afterward wondered more why
in so hollow and unnatural a structure it had been so long
delayed. But in India "John Company" sprang full armed
and a predestined conqueror into political life not much more
than a century ago. After 150 years of slow and discourag-
ing development as a trading association, the "Merchants
Adventurers," despised before by their native customers and
their European rivals as a sleepy, groveling, and cold-blooded
set of second-rate shop-keepers, gave proof on a sudden of the
qualities of their race, subjugated an Empire, founded a
APPENDIX.
89
polity, and gave England for all time a foremost place as an
Asiatic Power. Little did the London traders who, in the
first year of the seventeenth century, set up in business under
a charter from Queen Elizabeth, dream of conquest and Im-
perial power in the distant East. With difficulty, after
various incitements to national and commercial rivalry afford-
ed by the success of the Portuguese and the Dutch, the
capital of 30.000 was subscribed, and during the first cen-
tury of the Company's existence the tardiness of its progress
as a commercial organization seemed to justify the distrust
with which its foundation was received. It was at the epoch
of the Revolution that the prospects of our "Merchants Adven-
turers" began to brighten and expand. The daring spirit of
the Childs the able brothers who ruled the Company during the
last quarter of the seventeenth century; counted for some-
thing in the growth of its trade and, wealth, but the corner-
stone of its rising greatness was Tea. Indeed, for more
than 150 years later the Cnina trade, in which Tea was the
principal item, was financially the mainstay of the Company. *
But, however the trade might have been extended, political
power would never have come within the reach of the "Mer-
chants Adventurers" if they had not been wise enough to
appease, early in the reign of Anne, the rivalry which its
successes had created in the Eastern trade. In 1702 the
"Interlopers" and the Scotch East India Company, who held
a separate charter from James I., were amalgamated with
the original body of "Merchants Adventurers," as the "United
* Yes Tea of which, by its Charter, it
was bound to keep a full year's consumption
always in stock in England was long the
very staff of life, pecuniarily, to the Company.
It was in 1668 that the Company's Agent
at Bantam (in Java) was desired to send home
lOOfos of Tea, the best to be had, as the order
ran : Such was the beginning, about two
centuries ago, of the great Trade that was en-
APPENDIX.
East India Company." This last association was established
by Royal charter, and, in spite of many and most vital changes,
it has continued to exist, under different prolongations find
transfonnations of its authority, down to the piesent time.
This, in fact, is the Company which the bill now before
Parliament is intended to dissolve.
With the eighteenth century a new r career opened in
India for the English, now comparatively free from internal
divisions, though as yet they failed to perceive the scope of
their destinies. But the rivalry of the French, who had
succeeded to the. Dutch, as the Dutch had succeeded to the
Portuguese, in the hegemony of European civilization in the
East, whetted the ardor of our countiymen. To Dupleix we
owe Cliv-e, and to Olive we owe our Empire in India. It is
fair to confess that the French weie before us in that art by
which we won our Eastern dominions. It was with Sepoy
armies, led by Englishmen, that all our great Indian triumphs
before the shattering of mutual faith in 1857, were obtained.
The defense of Arcot, the victory of Plassy, the apparent
ease with which the English rulers of India trampled down
both the moldering pride of the Moguls and the fierce young
strength of the Mahrattas, impressed the imagination of the
Hindoos with an undefined but overwhelming sense of the
greatness of "Kompani Bahaudur," and this superstitious
reverence remained untouched by temporary disasters until
the mutiny. Then all at onc^ it passed away. The spell of
the Company's power was broken ; and if the Crown had not
assumed supreme authority in India, the result of attempting
to govern through the old forms under the new conditions
would probably have been disastrous. Yet the interval
ormously gainful to the Company ; and the
question has been suggested, as to what would
be British relations with India at this time, if
Tea had not become a necessity in Europe
and America and thus sustained the Company
financially during the critical periods of its
existence. G. N. Jr.
APPENDIX.
between the battle of Plassey and the mutiny, which is cov-
ered by the period of true political dominion administered by
the Company, is one of the most honorable in the annals of
the civilized World. Never did ary Government resting its
title merely upon conquest, rule so ably, so humanely, and
yet so firmly for an equal space of time. The steady progress
of Military success, of political power, and of improved
administration scarcely finds a check at any single period
between the return of Clive to India in 1765, and the Queen's
proclamation of 1858. This is not the language of mere
panegyric. The East India Company came to an end years
ago, and to-day we only celebrate its obsequies and write its
epitaph. We acknowledge its errors and shortcomings: they
were many, and sometimes they seemed to counterbalance
the advantages of its government. But when we take con-
siderable periods of time, and thus review the progress of
English power and of civilized Government in India, w r e are
constrained to acknowledge the admirable results of the
Company's despotism. Yet these benevolent despots were
no philosophers, no philanthropists, no Antonines. They
were simply speculators in East India stock."
Nay Ithis is stinted, halting
praise that both the Times and myself accord
the Company : - For, in addition to the
civilizing and beneficent effects of its stable
rule upon the people of India and the correl-
ative recompense to the people of England,
we must remember that it was through its
patronage and instrumentality that the Wes-
tern Nations became enriched by a great acces-
sion to their knowledge of Oriental literature ;
and the magnitude of the debt to the Company
for this may best be measured by the language
of one of Germany's most profound philosop-
hers :
1)2
APPENDIX.
'For the knowledge of tLe Sanscrit tongues and literature
'an event in literary importance inferior only to the revival
'of Greek learning, and in a religious and philosophic point
'of view, pregnant, perhaps, with greater results, mankind
'have been indebted to the influence of British commerce ;
'and it is not one of the least services which that commerce
'has rendered to the cause of civilization. In the promotion
'of Sanscrit learning, the Merchant Princes of Britain emu-
'lated the noble zeal displayed four centuries before by the
'Merchant Princes of Florence, in the encouragement and
'diffusion of Hellenic literature"
G. N. Jr.
With reference to the close of the 1st Lecture, I beg
to recall what I wrote in September 1864, desiderating the
construction of a Railway hence to the Tea Districts of
Hunan.
Extract of a Circular of the writer dated
Canton, 8th September, 1864.
" If in the meantime English and French capitalists
would devote a portion of their surplus means to the one
measure which of all others would most promote the welfare
of the Chinese people while yielding a prolific return to the
promoters of it and conserving the beneficent purposes of
Government, security, peace, plenty and progress, by
commencing the Railway from Canton toward Hankow,
projected by Sir Macdonald Stephenson, the reprehensible
errors and short-comings of the past may be measurably
compensated.
By thus increasing the volume of business the newly-
formed Instruments of it, the Banking Companies so
frequently announced, based upon the surplus means of the
prosperous people of England and France, Holland and
Germany and the large gains of the older Banks, may most
surely promote their own prosperity.
The most pressing want of the Railway is between
Canton and Siangtan the great Tea Mart on the Siang River
about midway of the Hunan Province, whereat the "Oopack"
APPENDIX.
93
and "Moning" as well as the "Qonain" Teas are packed and
sold ; and as that river is navigable for steamers some distance
this side of Siangtan, the general traffic might commence
soon after the Railway reaches that Province.
From rather precise information from several Gentle-
men who passed over the route a few years since, we are
confident that there is no considerable elevation to overcome
and that altogether the construction would prove cheaper
than any Railway known to British Contractors."
NYE & Co.
September 23d 1864.
"Reverting to the subject of the proposed Railway
from Canton to Hankow, as the measure of all others available
most fraught with blessings both moral and material to the
Chinese people, as reaching in this double sense and most
directly the heart of the Empire, we cannot but allude
again to the compensation due to them as passive sufferers
in the destructive collisions of the two civilizations, out of
which the obvious gain has chiefly been to our own, to
point out that in taking the initiative of forcible inculcation,
we committed ourselves to the correlative obligation to con-
tribute the beneficent results of Western civilization, as
embodied in Railways and other means of intercommunic-
ation and hence of moral and social culture prelusive of those
of a spiritual nature. But we have no need to appeal to a
sense of duty for incentive to this undertaking, since the
volume of trade alone and irrespective of the passenger traffic
of this populous Country, will suffice for its ample produc-
tiveness to the Shareholders.
And since its utility to the Government, as a means
of preserving order, is susceptible of clear demonstration to
the Court of Peking, we may hope that the present cordial
accord of the four Great Powers in presence there Iby their
able Representatives, England, France, Russia and America,
may be effective in obtaining, not only the permissive
sanction of the Imperial Government but its assurance of
pecuniary support of this undertaking."
NYE & Co.
APPENDIX.
COMMENDATORY NOTICES OF THE FIRST LECTURE.
(from the China Review, North-China Herald, Shanghae
Courier, Daily Press, China Mail, &c.)
REVIEW.
The Morning of my Life in China, by G. Nye, Esq.
"THE author of this interesting work is an American Gentle-
man who has resided in China in a mercantile capacity, with
slight intervals of travels to his home and to Europe, for
forty years. Literary pursuits are like greatness some are
born authors and some have authorship thrust upon them.
Mr. Nye seems to belong to the latter category, and the his-
tory of the small volume under review is as follows : At
Canton the Venerable Archdeacon Gray, with two merchants,
one an Englishman and the other a German in an American
house, formed themselves into a Committee for providing the
Community with entertainments of an amusing and instructive
nature during the winter of 1872-1873, and among many
gentlemen who favored them with their literary and musical
talents, Mr. Nye was, as an old and respected resident,
applied to for aid, which with his usual good nature he at
once promised. He chose for his subject* the "Morning of
his life in China," and gave his audience an account of the
political and commercial events in Canton from 1838 to 1839,
which was probably one of the most important periods in- the
history of the intercourse between the eastern and western
portions of the world. Mr. Nye treated the subject in so
masterly a manner, his remarks were so thoughtful and his
descriptions were so graphic that many of his auditors,
composed of missionaries, officials and merchants, were
anxious to peruse in print what had interested them so much
in delivery, and requested Mr. Nye to publish his lecture.
The result of this request is now before us ; and by its hand-
some type and beautiful paper, does justice alike to the im-
portant period described and to the able manner in whch it
'w r as treated.
To Occidentals of all classes, who, like ourselves, are apt
to be despondent at the slow and almost imperceptible
* the subject was suggested by the initiator
of the course of Lectures.
APPENDIX. 95
progress China herself and our relations with China, whether
political, religious or commercial, seem to make, we would
recommend the perusal of Mr. Nye's work ; that they may
from perceiving how all things have advanced in the past in
the memory of a man still in the vigor of life, form brighter
hopes for the future. Progress itself may be likened to some
heavy locomotive which requires enormous efforts before it
is set in motion at all, and which moves slowly at first, but
gathers speed the further it advances, until, at last, its course
is irresistible. And though it would be doing a great injustice
to the many merits of Mr. Nye's lecture, to suppose that this
is the only merit it possesses, we shall be forced by want of
space and the multifarious interests Mr. Nye has expatiated
on, to confine our attention to this one point. Compare, for
instance, the secret way Mr. Nye had to be smuggled into
Canton with the freedom with which we now travel in the
interior, and surely we may find in the contrast some ground
for hope that the restrictions which now fetter our trade and
intercourse to a few spots, may soon be entirely removed ;
that merchants may shortly be permitted to open houses
wherever they can find trade, and that Mr. Burlingame's
saying of the flaming cross being set up on a myriad of hills
may turn out to have been a prophecy, though it was at the
time of its utterance a gross exaggeration. Compare too the
time when the "outer waters had as yet never been vexed
"with the incisive prow of a steamer" to the present time,
when steam Companies are so numerous and so successful,
that last year a steam Company entirely owned by Chinese
was started. Surely it cannot be a long interval before that
which is found so profitable on the sea, shall not only be in-
troduced into the rivers and creeks, but that Mr. Nye's wish
will soon be fulfilled and "our native friends will learn to
"welcome the neighing of the iron-horse as he careers from
town to town exultingly." Compare too the law that no
"foreign lady or other contraband" might be admitted at
Canton and the refusal of the authorities to see our Minister,
with the present delightful society we have at all the ports
of China and the civility accorded in general by all classes to
us ; as well as with the pleasing fact that Chinese ladies have
been known, though rarely, to visit their European and
APPENDIX.
American sisters. Is it too sanguine to expect that the
Audience Question will be soon satisfactorily and definitely
settled ; and that our countrymen, in which term we include
French, Germans, Spaniards, Americans, Portuguese, &c.,
will soon be welcomed in Chinese Society with the respect
their knowledge, civilization and gentlemanly bearing entitle
them to. 1833 to 1873, 40 yearsthe larger half of a
man's lifetime, is but a short period in the history of nations ;
and large as our trade may seem when we compare it with
the past, it will seem as nothing to what we may expeet it to
become in the near future. Settled on a few distant points
on the edge of the Empire, our intercourse with China is
still in its infancy and it will require much care and exper-
ienced nursing, as well as much abstention from unwise
interference, to allow it to grow to full vigor. As our inter-
course increases the world's history must become modified.
A third of the human race, composed too of industrious,
talented and kindly individuals, has had its intellect and
power abnormally cramped by an unnatural seclusion. As
the proper conditions of free intercourse are gradually restor-
ed, China may rise to be worthy to take her part in the
comity of nations, and a blessing will result to those countries
who have most energetically urged her to enter on that course
of world-wide intercourse and commerce, in which alone, as
the world now stands, her dream of universal supremacy has
any chance of being realised." SHANGHAE COURIER
REVIEW.
The Morning of My Life in China ; by G. Nye, Esq.
"This interesting brochure contains a vivid and faithful
description of events in Canton during the momentous period
from 1833 to 1839 Canton being then, it is needless to say,
the only point of contact between the then secluded land of
China and the commerce and learning of the West. Mr. Nye's
work might well have been entitled Early Intercourse with
Cathay ; but he by no means confines himself to dry history.
The persons, occupations and even jokes of his associates are
dUly recorded ; so that the reader has, as it were, a tableau-
vivant of the band of adventurous and able men who were
the pioneers of trade in these remote regions, and who were
the establithers of the princely houses whose magnificent
APPENDIX.
97
palaces are now the admiration of new arrivals in Hongkong
and Shanghai. If the saying be true, and we certainly think
it is, that the man who makes two blades of com grow
where only one had grown before, is a greater hero than a
general who has taken a hundred cities ; then surely these
first residents in Canton, to whom the poor owe their com-
forting tea and the rich their magnificent silks, must have
had qualities which render their lives, their temperaments and
doings of the deepest interest to students who view history
in the light that Hallam and our modern historians have ;
and who do not confine their attention to the dry details of
Court doings or still dryer details of dates of battlefields.
But even if the period had been unmarked by great events,
and the men described merely ordinary men, Mr. Nye wields
his pen so well that he could have roused our interest in
them by the same sort of alchemy that George Eliot keeps
us spell-bound on the daily life, doings and sayings of a
village like Middlemarch. But of the dates between 1833 to
1839, it may truly be said there were giants in those days ;
and in China events were maturing that have affected and
will still affect the history of the world. To quote Mr. Nye's
own words :
"The Canton of that day presented to the foreigner in
general a very circumscribed geographical idea, and indeed
to the statesman a circumscribed political idea, it being still
the period of close monopoly, the regime of the British East
India Company on the one hand, and of the Co-hong on the
other ; yet to the merchant it was already an expansive com-
mercial idea. It was the sole mart of the Foreign trade of
China, and known the world over as par excellence the great
mart of the East ; and destined soon to become the theatre
of a course of memorable events which, in their inception,
were to inflate, and in their close to humble, the mandarin
pride in the dust.
"The period was indeed of the highest political and
commercial interest. For it was when the echoes of the din
of preparation for the impending final struggle in the House
of Commons, between the upholders of monopoly and the
champions of free trade, reached us by every vessel from the
shores of England. It was the very eve ef the expiration of
VJH
APPENDIX.
the East India Company's charter, and the question of the
renewal of its exclusive trading privilege^ associated as it
had been in the mind of the time with the great contest for
reform in parliamentary representation, deeply moved the
passions of the respective champions, and attracted the atten-
tion of the world ; and it foims to this day the most memo-
rable assertion of the principles of free trade ever witnessed,
with the exception of the struggle for the abolition of the
Corn laws in 1846. ******* T,, t h e
contest of 1834 in the House of Commons, upon the question
of the renewal of the Company 's charter, was involved the whole
question of intercourse with China ; it was the momentous
question whether the Representatives of England should hence-
forward continue to be supercargoes or whether they should be
ambassadors. You will perceive at a glance that here was one
af the greatest questions of the age, a question involving not
only the relations of the great Empiies arid peoples of Britain and
of China, but the relations of the world at large with China."
For descriptions of the persons by whom, and for detailed
accounts of the events by which, this great question was solved,
so far as up to the present time it is solved, we must refer our
readers to the woik under review, and believe that they will agree
with us in hoping that the author will continue the labor he has
commenced. "North-China Herald and Supreme Court and
Consular Gazette."
*The Morning of My Life in China, by G. Nye, Junr., Esq.
A Lecture delivered at Canton.
"We are glad to see that old residents in China are beginnning
to give us the history of their experiences. China is every day
exciting more and more attention in the winds of European
students of history and philosophy: and any addition to our
knowledge of the circumstances attending our first intercourse
with her are peculiarly interesting. Mr. Kye's lecture treats of
the period between 1833 to 1839, and not only notes the im-
portant events that happened during that period, but also gives
* This notice of the first Lecture reached
me after I delivered the Second one, so that
my allusion to the Opium question was
uninfluenced by this review. G. N. Jr.
APPENDIX.
99
a vivid description of tha actors in the scene, tlieir feelings and
characters. Mr Nye possesses a combination of zeal and good sense
that enables him to be at once an ardent advocate of progress and
free trade, and at the same time to be exceedingly considerate to
the feelings of those who differ from him. A firm believer in the
superiority of western civilization, no man has a keener eye to
the defects of the Chinese character and Government ; on the
other hand, no one is more quick to perceive the good points
this hitherto isolated people possesses. To those who wish to
form an estimate of the extent to which China has progressed,
or who desire to have personal details of the first founders of the
foreign commercial Houses, and finally to those who desire simply
an hour's amusement, we can recommend Mr. Nye's little work.
Readers of all tastes will be gratified ; the philosophical will find
something to interest them in the way ideas have spread from
west to east and the romantic will be contented by the recitals of
dangers and perils endured.
The main portion of the lecture consists of a chain of interest-
ing reminiscences of times which are looked back to in China
with more affection, we suspect, than they deserve. It is true
that, besides the golden halo which the past always wins from
its mere distance, there was a tangible silvern glory about those
days which is now said to be fled for ever ; but the silver edging
was connected with so much extreme discomfort and privation
that it may be questioned whether it is not almost better to have
fallen on less lucrative but more happy times. It is well that
several of the fathers of Anglo-Chinese Society have been moved,
before their finally quitting China, to revive the memories of
these byegone days for the benefit of us, a younger generation,
who have not known what it was to stand with our backs to the
wall and fight fiercely for that which we now^a-days look upon
as the obvious rights of every man anywhere. Mr. Nye's book
does not contain much in the way of history that, might not be
learnt from blue-books, but no blue-book would enable us to
realise what the imprisonment in the old factories was one tenth
part so vividly as his passing reminiscence of the gentleman who
never set foot out of the house for seven years, aud then discover-
ed that he hadn't a hat in the world! Apropos of blue-books,
Mr. Nye, in telling the sad story of Lord Napier, uses over again
the translations of the Chinese Kepositorv. It is high time that
these respectable and somewhat musty old documents were
UK)
APPENDIX.
retranslated into English, winch they are certainly not expressed
in at present. "Barbarian eye" an expression the translator,
whoever he was, seeins positively to have revelled in, is neither
English nor sense. The Chinese original most probably had an
intelligible meaning, if the translator would but have rendered
it into decently readable equivalents.
Like most old residents in China, Mr. Kye takes a very lenient
view of the Opium question as far as the responsibility of fore-
igners is concerned. "We have no wish to provoke or revive a
never-to-be-ended controversy, but we cannot quite agree with the
co-uleur de rose view set forth in this interesting paper of the
general foreign community in China just before the Opium War
for we suppose Mr. Nye means to include Whampoa and
Lintin. Nobody could have handled those infamous times more
delicately than Sir John Davis, who has said every good word
for Opium and left unsaid every bad one that he possibly could.
But nevertheless it is clear as day light, on his shewing alone, to
take no other authority, that a violent and nefarious traffic was
then attracting to China about as great and choice a collection
Of scoundrels unhanged as can well be imagined. That the
mercantile community of Canton, in the more limited sense in
which we at first thought Mr. Nye meant to speak of it, deserv-
ed all the praise he gives it, nobody doubts for an instant, but
even there, as at present in a certain other business carried on
not far from this colony an indifference as to it was exhibited,
taken, by some persons, to be a great sign of a statesman-like
and liberal inind. There was an utter absence of a fixedly
honest intention. Nobody cared to know or enquire into the
harm he was doing. "Please don't tell us," was the cry, virtu-
ally if not actually. What the eye didn't see the heart didn't
grieve for the trade paid far too well to be asking questions
about it.
However, on these points we certainly do not expect Mr. Nye
to agree with us. and can only hope that difference of opinion
may not jar with literary brotherhood. We thank Mr. Nye for
an amount of trouble that has been by no means thrown away."
China Review.
APPENDIX.
101
CANTON SOCIAL EVENINGS.
G. NYE, Esq.'s lecture, entitled, " The Morning of ray Life in
China" (Dailv Press.)
"Kaces, Balls, and other festivities for a time broke tne
continuous chain of our social evenings ; business, and an
indisposition on the part of the secretary, at one time threatened
a total discontinuance ; but as the mantle of the prophet when
transferred gave threefold vigor, so the new secretary of the Can-
ton Social Evenings seemed endued with three times the activity
ot his predecessor, and a general improvement in the arrange-
ments for the comfort of lecturer and auditors was very apparent.
Consequently, when Mr. Nye gave us his lecture the other
night, there was a larger attendance than had been seen on any
previous occasion, and the lecture was greeted with the appre-
ciation and applause it merited.
After a graceful allusion to previous evenings Mr. Nye
commenced by telling us, with an amusing and fanciful play of
words, of the attraction which made him come to the " City of
the Genii" (G. Nye) at Canton, as Canton is commonly called.
When he arrived it was the time of the East India Company's
monopoly, and Mr. Nye thus speaks of it : "The Company's
system gave confidence to the Chinese government and people ;
on the other hand also it lent more or less protection to all
foreign trade, at a period else of complete incertitude in the re-
lations with China. We rnnst not regard these merchants as
only the pampered lords of monopoly. Far from it : they had
not been simply the pioneers of intercourse ; they had become
great political personages ; swaying the destinies of a hundred
millions ; the veritable Kings of the East. And while in India
they governed with wisdom ; in China they furnished the element
of order and peace for a long period of time. Their policy in
China as in India was tentative ; they could impose no other at
that time. Their recognised position was simply that of mer-
chants ; they could not rightly aspire to be political or moral
reformers. Their steps were measured by the necessities of the
hour ; and surely in the eyes of the student of history, if not in
those of superficial observers, it ceases to be a reproach that in
India the genius of a Clive grasped the else-precarious sceptre
of empire, and wrought order from chaos ; as at a later period,
with like intrepidity and a kindred stroke of genius, an Elliot
sped to the rescue of the foreign community here ; and inextricably
102
APPENDIX.
established the responsibility of the Court of Peking, thus
breaching the ponderous Wall of exclusiveness behind which
China had hidden her weakness for centuries. But now the
Company's mission in China was fulfilled, for the spirit of the
age was bursting the fetters of monopoly and prescription, and
England's power was too well assured on the ocean by her Navy
to longer require an armed merchant fleet capable of self protec-
tion, as to a great extent the Company's fleet had been."
Instead of the supercargoes appointed by the Company, the go-
vernment of William IV. appointed Superintendents of Trade,
Lord Napier, Mr. Plowden and Mr. Davis. These the Chinese
refused to acknowledge. Lord and Lady Napier arrived at
Macao in July, 1834, and after some months spent in fruitless
endeavours to open communications with the Chinese Authorities,
proclamations and counter proclamations, Lord Napier died of
Vexation on October llth, and the foreigners were held disdain-
fully at arms' length by the Chinese for several years. In 1836
and 1837 the Chinese pretended to find a new subject of com-
plaint with regard to the opium trade the complaint was not
on the moral but the fiscal evils of the drug, as the authoritiss
who knew, and still know very little of political economy, fancied
their country was injured by being drained of silver. In 1837
the trade in opium was interdicted by Imperial edict, and in the
same year Sir Charles Elliot, who had opened communication
with the authorities, was forced by the arrogance of the high
officials to haul down his flag and retire to Macao . In 1838
commenced the hostility and aggravations on the part of the
Chinese which led to the first opium war.* Dealers in opium
were executed outside the foreigners' doors. Some of the hong
men were brought in chains to the factories. The settlement w r as
invested by Chinese soldiers. All the Chinese servants were
forced to leave their masters, and the position was such that the
least mistake might have led to a general massacre. Meanwhile,
Sir Charles "Elliot had heard at Macao of the demands of the
Commissioner, and issuing a public notice there, started in H.
M.'s sloop Larne for the Bogue, and thence came in a cutter to
a fort below the city ; whence he took a boat and sword in hand
passed through a cordon of mandarin boats, jnst as it was clos-
* I used no such expression as "Opium
War/ 5 G. N. Jr.
APPENDIX.
103
ing in to cut off his approach, and reached the British Factory.
For the able measures Sir Charles took to avert calamity ; and
for the further eventful moments, for a general description of
former life in China; for witty descriptions of the first founders
of our present houses in China, we must refer the reader to the
eloquent pages of Mr. Nye's lectnre, but we cannot forego the
pleasure of quoting the magnificent peroration :
"Let us hope that this great mart 6f other days will
never descend to the social or commercial degradations of a little
Peddliugton, but that, on the contrary, the rights of its
geographical position and safe navigation may be restored, and
its true destiny, of more than pristine greatness, may soon be
found in the prosperity that the science of the age opens to it ;
that the civilizing forces of steam and electricity may soon be
applied to the opening-up of the waste places of the broad 'inner
land,' and in the quickening of that mutual interchange that
fructifies every interest of man, and surely leads to a moral and
material harvest. Let us hope that our native friends will soon
learn to welcome the neighing of the Iron Horse as he careers
from town to town exultingly, seeming to say, in the con-
sciousness of his strength, in words that iny young friends will
remember :
"Harness me down with your iron bands,
Make sure of your Curb and Kein ;
For I scorn the power of your puny hands
As the Tempest scorns a chain ! "
NOTICE OF THE CHINA MAIL.
"Mr Nye introduced his subject by paying a few well-worded
compliments to the gentlemen who had preceded him at the lec-
turer's desk and informed us in a humorous manner of the at-
traction that had brought him to Cathay
That vast shore
Washed by the farthest sea.
Mr Nye then gave us the origin of the name of Canton.
"Mr Nye has now had his lecture published, and it is, we
believe, for sale. It occupies 73 pages of print, the type and
paper both being admirable. We have confined our remarks to
the first nine pages, but the whole is so good we have difficulty
104
APPENDIX.
in choosing passages, and we conclude by earnestly recommend-
ing the book to those who love terse and vigorous English, as
well as to those who wish to be informed as to our early inter-
course with the vast Empire of China."
An old resident who used to visit China
periodically wrote the Author, after reading
the first Lecture, as follows.
"I cannot resist the pleasure of writing to you to say how
"much I have enjoyed the perusal of your Canton Lecture, Tiie
"Morning of my Life in China : so exact and graphic in all
"the details : I have been deeply interested in it from having
"been in China at the time and remembering so clearly many of
"the circumstances you have related."
Another old resident also wrote the anthor
as follows.
"I sincerely hope you will be able to get your book out,
"for if any one can give an interr sting story of China you can ;
"and I dare say the book itself will prove a great success."
f
UNIVI
B
This be
TTITC i
RETURN TO the circulation desk of any
University of California Library
or to the
NORTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FACILITY
Bldg. 400, Richmond Field Station
University of California
Richmond, CA 94804-4698
**AlO J
JAN 22 OP
N>0ec'52f_ ^
tlECl;
Z
O
Hpr'5!-=L-_-
ALL BOOKS MAY BE RECALLED AFTER 7 DA'
2-month loans may be renewed by calling
(510)642-6753
1-year loans may be recharged by bringing boo
to NRLF
Renewals and recharges may be made 4 da
prior to due date
s. oE
JL S2
OEV**1 <? W
DUE AS STAMPED BELOW
Kfc.c* 1^5
^ CV3
A Dn 1 * O3
JUN01 1994
APR lu uj
if
ii IKI on WQ8
H
UUN f, U '33U
Ki n 1 1 *
REC__JvOv^T
MAY
OTBSC FE!
LD 21-10
YL ooouo
U.C. BERKELEY LIBRARIES
549790
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY