volume 30, page 27.) And in the meanwhile the trade which Lin

had intended to destroy went on at least as actively as ever. Lin's proceedings had, indeed, the effect of stimulating it to an unprecedented degree. The destruction of vast stores of opium led to a rise in the price of opium in China. The rise in price produced the natural consequence of an increased speculation; and, though British shipping was excluded from Chinese waters, and the contents of British vessels had to be transferred to American bottoms for conveyance into Chinese ports, British trade had never been so large or so advantageous as in the period which succeeded Lin's arbitrary proceedings. {423} Elliot was, of course, unable to prevent war either by the surrender of a British sailor to the Chinese, or by even assuming that a drowned man was the murderer; and war in consequence became daily more probable. In January, 1840, operations actually commenced. Elliot was instructed to make an armed demonstration on the northern coasts of China, to take possession of some island on the coast, and to obtain reparation and indemnity, if possible by a mere display of force, but otherwise to proceed with the squadron and thence send an ultimatum to Pekin. In accordance with these orders the Island of Chusan was occupied in July, and the fleet was sent to the mouth of the Peiho with orders to transmit a letter to Pekin. But the sea off the Peiho is shallow, the ships could not approach the coasts, and the Chinese naturally refused to yield to an empty demonstration. The expedition was forced to return to Chusan, where it found that the troops whom they had left behind were smitten by disease, that one out of every four men were dead, and that more than one-half of the survivors were invalided. Thus, throughout 1840, the Chinese war was only attended with disaster and distress. Things commenced a little more prosperously in 1841 by the capture of the Chinese position at the mouth of the Canton river. Elliot, after this success, was even able to conclude a preliminary treaty with the Chinese authorities. But this treaty did not prove satisfactory either to the British Government or to the Chinese. The British saw with dismay that the treaty made no mention of the trade in opium which had been the ostensible cause of the war. The Whig Government accordingly decided on superseding Elliot. He was recalled and replaced by Henry Pottinger. Before news of his recall reached him, however, the treaty which had led to his supersession had been disavowed by the Chinese authorities, and Elliot had commenced a fresh attack on the Chinese force which guarded the road to Canton. British sailors and British troops, under the command of Bremer and Gough, won a victory which placed Canton at their mercy. But Elliot, shrinking from exposing a great town to the horrors of an assault, stopped the advance of the troops and admitted the city to a ransom of £1,250,000. (Sir H. Taylor's Autobiography, volume 1, appendix, pages 353-363.) His moderation was naturally unacceptable to the troops and not entirely approved by the British Government. It constituted, however, Elliot's last action as agent in China. The subsequent operations were conducted under Pottinger's advice."

_S. Walpole, History of England from 1815, Note, volume 5, pages 287-291._

"Sir Henry Pottinger, who arrived as Plenipotentiary on the 10th of August, took the chief direction of the affairs. ... To the end of 1841 there were various successes achieved by the land and naval forces, which gave the British possession of many large fortified towns, amongst which were Amoy, Ting-hai, Chin-hai, Ning-po, and Shang-hai. The Chinese were nevertheless persevering in their resistance, and in most cases evinced a bravery which showed how mistaken were the views which regarded the subjection of this extraordinary people as an easy task. ... The British fleet on the 13th of June [1842] entered the great river Kiang, and on the 6th of July advanced up the river, and cut off its communication with the Grand Canal, by which Nanking, the ancient capital of China, was supplied with grain. The point where the river intersects the canal is the city of Chin-Kiang-foo. ... On the morning of the 21st the city was stormed by the British, in three brigades. The resistance of the Tartar troops was most desperate. Our troops fought under a burning sun, whose overpowering heat caused some to fall dead. The obstinate defence of the place prevented its being taken till six o'clock in the evening. When the streets were entered, the houses were found almost deserted. They were filled with ghastly corpses, many of the Tartar soldiers having destroyed their families and then committed suicide. The city, from the number of the dead, had become uninhabitable."

_C. Knight, Popular History of England., volume 8, chapter 25._

"The destruction of life was appalling. ... Every Manchu preferred resistance, death, suicide, or flight, to surrender. Out of a Manchu population of 4,000, it was estimated that not more than 500 survived, the greater part having perished by their own hands. ... Within twenty-four hours after the troops landed, the city and suburbs of Chinkiang were a mass of ruin and destruction. ... The total loss of the English was 37 killed and 131 wounded. ... Some of the large ships were towed up to Nanking, and the whole fleet reached it August 9th, at which time preparations had been made for the assault. ... Everything was ready for the assault by daylight of August 15th;" but on the night of the 14th the Chinese made overtures for the negotiation of peace, and the important Treaty of Nanking was soon afterwards concluded. Its terms were as follows: "1. Lasting peace between the two nations. 2. The ports of Canton, Amoy, Fuhchau, Ningpo, and Shanghai [known afterwards as the Treaty Ports] to be opened to British trade and residence, and trade conducted according to a well-understood tariff. 3. 'It being obviously necessary and desirable that British subjects should have some port whereat they may careen and refit their ships when required,' the island of Hongkong to be ceded to her Majesty. 4. Six millions of dollars to be paid as the value of the opium which was delivered up 'as a ransom for the lives of H. B. M. Superintendent and subjects,' in March, 1839. 5. Three millions of dollars to be paid for the debts due to British merchants. 6. Twelve millions to be paid for the expenses incurred in the expedition sent out 'to obtain redress for the violent and unjust proceedings of the Chinese high authorities.' 7. The entire amount of $21,000,000 to be paid before December 31, 1845. 8. All prisoners of war to be immediately released by the Chinese. 9. The Emperor to grant full and entire amnesty to those of his subjects who had aided the British." Articles 10 to 13 related to the tariff of export and import dues that should be levied at the open ports; to future terms of official correspondence, etc. The Treaty was signed by the Commissioners on the 29th of August, 1842, and the Emperor's ratification was received September 15th.

_S. W. Williams, The Middle Kingdom, chapter 22-23._

ALSO IN _D. C. Boulger, History of China, volume 3, chapter 5-7._

_E. H. Parker, Chinese Account of the Opium War._

{424}

CHINA: A. D. 1850-1864. The Taiping Rebellion.

"The phrase 'Taiping Rebellion is wholly of foreign manufacture; at Peking and everywhere among those loyal to the government the insurgents were styled 'Chang-mao tseh,' or 'Long-haired rebels,' while on their side, by a whimsical resemblance to English slang, the imperialists were dubbed 'imps.' When the chiefs assumed to be aiming at independence in 1850, in order to identify their followers with their cause they took the term 'Ping Chao,' or 'Peace Dynasty,' as the style of their sway, to distinguish it from the 'Tsing Chao,' or 'Pure Dynasty' of the Manchus. Each of them prefixed the adjective 'Ta' (or 'Tai,' in Cantonese), 'Great,' as is the Chinese custom with regard to dynasties and nations; thus the name Tai-ping became known to foreigners."

_S. W. Williams, The Middle Kingdom, chapter 24 (volume 2)._

"This remarkable movement, which at one time excited much interest in Western lands, originated with a man named Hung Sew-tseuen [or Hung Siu-tseuen], son of a humble peasant residing in a village near Canton. On the occasion of one of his visits to the provincial city, probably in the year 1833, he appears to have seen a foreign Protestant missionary addressing the populace in the streets, assisted by a native interpreter. Either then or on the following day he received from some tract-distributor a book entitled 'Good Words for Exhorting the Age,' which consisted of essays and sermons by Leang A-fah, a well-known convert and evangelist. Taking the volume home with him, he looked it over with some interest, but carelessly laid it aside in his book-case. A few years afterward he attended for the second time the competitive literary examination with high hopes of honor and distinction, having already passed with much credit the lower examination in the district city. His ambitious venture, however, met with severe disappointment, and he returned to his friends sick in mind and body. During this state of mental depression and physical infirmity, which continued for some forty days, he had certain strange visions, in which he received commands from heaven to destroy the idols. These fancied revelations seem to have produced a deep impression on his mind, and led to a certain gravity of demeanor after his recovery and return to his quiet occupation as a student and village schoolmaster. When the English war broke out, and foreigners swept up Canton River with their wonderful fire-ships, ... it is not surprising that Hung should have had his attention again attracted to the Christian publication which had lain so long neglected in his library. ... The writings of Leang A-fah contained chapters from the Old and New Testament Scriptures, which he found to correspond in a striking manner with the preternatural sights and voices of that memorable period in his history [during his sickness, six years before]; and this strange coincidence convinced him of their truth, and of his being divinely appointed to restore the world, that is China, to the worship of the true God. Hung Sew-tseuen accepted his mission and began the work of propagating the faith he had espoused. Among his first converts was one Fung Yun-san, who became a most ardent missionary and disinterested preacher. These two leaders of the movement traveled far and near through the country, teaching the people of all classes and forming a society of God-worshippers. All the converts renounced idolatry and gave up the worship of Confucius. Hung, at this time apparently a sincere and earnest seeker after truth, went to Canton and placed himself under the instructions of the Reverend Mr. Roberts, an American missionary, who for some cause fearing that his novitiate might be inspired by mercenary motives, denied him the rite of baptism. But, without being offended at this cold and suspicious treatment, he went home and taught his converts how to baptize themselves. The God-worshippers rapidly increased in numbers, and were known and feared as zealous iconoclasts. ... For a year after Hung Sew-tseuen had rejoined the God-worshippers that society retained its exclusively religious nature, but in the autumn of 1850 it was brought into direct collision with the civil magistrates, when the movement assumed a political character of the highest aims." It was soon a movement of declared rebellion, and allied with a rebel army of bandits and pirates which had taken arms against the government in south-eastern China.

_L. N. Wheeler, The Foreigner in China, chapter 13._

"The Hakka schoolmaster proclaimed his 'mission' in 1850. A vast horde gathered to him. He nominated five 'Wangs' or soldier sub-kings from out of his clan, and commenced his northward movement from Woosewen in January, 1851. Through the rich prosperous provinces his desultory march, interspersed with frequent halts, spread destruction and desolation. The peaceful fled shudderingly before this wave of fierce, stalwart ruffianhood, with its tatterdemalian tawdriness, its flaunting banners, its rusty naked weapons. Everywhere it gathered in the local scoundrelism. The pirates came from the coast; the robbers from the interior mountains rallied to an enterprise that promised so well for their trade. In the perturbed state of the Chinese population the horde grew like an avalanche as it rolled along. The Heavenly King [as Hung now styled himself] met with no opposition to speak of, and in 1853 his promenade ended under the shadow of the Porcelain Tower, in the city of Nanking, the second metropolis of the Chinese Empire, where, till the rebellion and his life ended simultaneously, he lived a life of licentiousness, darkened further by the grossest cruelties. The rebellion had lasted nearly ten years when the fates brought it into collision with the armed civilization of the West. The Imperialist forces had made sluggishly some head against it. Nanking had been invested after a fashion for years on end. 'The prospects of the Tai-pings,' says Commander Brine, 'in the early spring of 1860, had become very gloomy.' The Imperialist generals had hemmed Tai-pingdom within certain limits in the lower valley of the Yantsze, and the movement languished further 'from its destructive and exhausting nature, which for continued vitality constantly required new districts of country to exhaust and destroy.' But in 1859 China and the West came into collision. ... The rebellion had opportunity to recover lost ground. For the sixth time the 'Faithful King' relieved Nanking. The Imperialist generals fell back, and then the Tai-pings took the offensive, and as the result of sundry victories, the rebellion regained an active and flourishing condition. ... Shanghai, one of the treaty ports, was threatened."

_A. Forbes, Chinese Gordon, chapter 2._

{425}

"Europe ... has known evil days under the hands of fierce conquerors, plundering and destroying in religion's name; but its annals may be ransacked in vain, without finding any parallel to the miseries endured in those provinces of China over which 'The Heavenly King,' the Tai-ping prophet, extended his fell sway for ten sad years. Hung Sew-tsuen (better known in China by his assumed title, Tien Wang) ... had read Christian tracts, had learnt from a Christian missionary; and when he announced publicly three years afterwards that part of his mission was to destroy the temples and images, and showed in the jargon of his pretended visions some traces of his New Testament study, the conclusion was instantly seized by the sanguine minds of a section set upon evangelizing the East, that their efforts had produced a true prophet, fit for the work. Wedded to this fancy, they rejected as the inventions of the enemies of missions the tales of Taiping cruelty which soon reached Europe: and long after the details of the impostor's life at Nankin, with its medley of visions, executions, edicts, and harem indulgence, became notorious to the world, prayers were offered for his success by devotees in Great Britain as bigoted to his cause as the bloodiest commander, or 'Wang,' whom he had raised from the ranks of his followers to carry out his 'exterminating decrees.' The Taiping cause was lost in China before it was wholly abandoned by these fanatics in England, and their belief in its excellence so powerfully reacted on our policy, that it might have preserved us from active intervention down to the present time, had not certain Imperialist successes elsewhere, the diminishing means of their wasted possessions, and the rashness of their own chiefs, brought the Taiping arms into direct collision with us. And with the occasion there was happily raised up the man whose prowess was to scatter their blood-cemented empire to pieces far more speedily than it had been built up."

_C. C. Chesney, Essays in Military Biog., chapter 10_

"The Taiping rebellion was of so barbarous a nature that its suppression had become necessary in the interests of civilization. A force raised at the expense of the Shanghai merchants, and supported by the Chinese government, had been for some years struggling against its progress. This force, known as the 'Ever Victorious Army,' was commanded at first by Ward, an American, and, on his death, by Burgevine, also an American, who was summarily dismissed; for a short time the command was held by Holland, an English marine officer, but he was defeated at Taitsan 22 February, 1863, Li Hung Chang, governor-general of the Kiang provinces, then applied to the British commander-in-chief for the services of an English officer, and Gordon [Charles George, subsequently known as 'Chinese Gordon'] was authorised to accept the command. He arrived at Sung-Kiong and entered on his new duties as a mandarin and lieutenant-colonel in the Chinese service on 24 March 1863. His force was composed of some three to four thousand Chinese, officered by 150 Europeans of almost every nationality and often of doubtful character. By the indomitable will of its commander this heterogeneous body was moulded into a little army whose high-sounding title of 'ever-victorious' became a reality, and in less than two years, after 33 engagements, the power of the Taipings was completely broken and the rebellion stamped out. The theatre of operations was the district of Kiangsoo, lying between the Yang-tze-Kiang river in the north and the bay of Hang-chow in the south." Before the summer of 1863 was over, Gordon had raised the rebel siege of Chanzu, and taken from the Taipings the towns of Fushan, Taitsan, Quinsan, Kahpoo, Wokong, Patachiaow, Leeku, Wanti, and Fusaiqwan. Finally, in December, the great city of Soo-chow was surrendered to him, Gordon was always in front of all his storming parties, "carrying no other weapon than a little cane. His men called it his 'magic wand,' regarding it as a charm that protected his life and led them on to victory. When Soo-chow fell Gordon had stipulated with the Governor-general Li for the lives of the Wangs (rebel leaders). They were treacherously murdered by Li's orders. Indignant at this perfidy, Gordon refused to serve any longer with Governor Li, and when on 1 Jan, 1864 money anti rewards were heaped upon him by the Emperor, declined them all. ... After some [two] months of inaction it became evident that if Gordon did not again take the field the Taipings would regain the rescued country," and he was prevailed upon to resume his campaign, which, although badly wounded in one of the battles, he brought to an end in the following April (1864), by the capture of Chan-chu-fu, "This victory not only ended the campaign but completely destroyed the rebellion, and the Chinese regular forces were enabled to occupy Nankin in the July following. The large money present offered to Gordon by the emperor was again declined, although he had spent his pay in promoting the efficiency of his force, so that he wrote home: 'I shall leave China as poor as when I entered it.'"

_Colonel R. H. Veitch, Charles George Gordon (Dictionary of Nat. Biog.)_

ALSO IN: _A. E. Hake, The Story of Chinese Gordon, chapter 3-8._

_W. F. Butler, Charles George Gordon, chapter 2._

_S. Mossman, General Gordon in China._

_Private Diary of Gen. Gordon in China._

_Mm. Callery and Yvan, History of the Insurrection in China._

CHINA: A. D. 1856-1860, War with England and France. Bombardment and capture of Canton. The Allies in Pekin. Their destruction of the Summer Palace. Terms of peace.

The speech from the throne at the opening of the English Parliament, on February 3, 1857, "stated that acts of violence, insults to the British flag, and infractions of treaty rights, committed by the local authorities at Canton, and a pertinacious refusal of redress, had rendered it necessary for her Majesty's officers in China to have recourse to measures of force to obtain satisfaction. The alleged offences of the Chinese authorities at Canton had for their single victim the lorcha 'Arrow.' The lorcha 'Arrow' was a small boat built on the European model. The word 'Lorcha' is taken from the Portuguese settlement at Macao, at the mouth of the Canton river. It often occurs in treaties with the Chinese authorities. On October 8, 1856, a party of Chinese in charge of an officer boarded the 'Arrow,' in the Canton river. They took off twelve men on a charge of piracy, leaving two men in charge of the lorcha, The 'Arrow' was declared by its owners to be a British vessel. {426} Our consul at Canton, Mr. Parkes, demanded from Yeh, the Chinese Governor of Canton, the return of the men, basing his demand upon the Treaty of 1843, supplemental to the Treaty of 1842. This treaty did not give the Chinese authorities any right to seize Chinese offenders, or supposed offenders, on board an English vessel. It merely gave them a right to require the surrender of the offenders at the hands of the English. The Chinese Governor, Yeh, contended, however, that the lorcha was a Chinese pirate vessel, which had no right whatever to hoist the flag of England. It may be plainly stated at once that the 'Arrow' was not an English vessel, but only a Chinese vessel which had obtained by false pretences the temporary possession of a British flag. Mr. Consul Parkes, however, was fussy, and he demanded the instant restoration of the captured men, and he sent off to our Plenipotentiary at Hong Kong, Sir John Bowring, for authority and assistance in the business. Sir John Bowring ... ordered the Chinese authorities to surrender all the men taken from the 'Arrow,' and he insisted that an apology should be offered for their arrest, and a formal pledge given that no such act should ever be committed again. If this were not done within forty-eight hours, naval operations were to be begun against the Chinese. The Chinese Governor, Yeh, sent back all the men, and undertook to promise that for the future great care should be taken that no British ships should be visited improperly by Chinese officers. But he could not offer an apology for the particular case of the 'Arrow,' for he still maintained, as was indeed the fact, that the 'Arrow' was a Chinese vessel, and that the English had nothing to do with her. Accordingly Sir John Bowring carried out his threat, and had Canton bombarded by the fleet which Admiral Sir Michael Seymour commanded. From October 23 to November 13 naval and military operations were kept up continuously. Commissioner Yeh retaliated by foolishly offering a reward for the head of every Englishman. This news from China created a considerable sensation in England. On February 24, 1857, Lord Derby brought forward in the House of Lords a motion, comprehensively condemning the whole of the proceedings of the British authorities in China. The debate would have been memorable if only for the powerful speech in which the venerable Lord Lyndhurst supported the motion, and exposed the utter illegality of the course pursued by Sir John Bowring. The House of Lords rejected the motion of Lord Derby by a majority of 146 to 110. On February 26 Mr. Cobden brought forward a similar motion in the House of Commons. ... Mr. Cobden had probably never dreamed of the amount or the nature of the support his motion was destined to receive. The vote of censure was carried by 263 votes against 247--a majority of 16. Lord Palmerston announced two or three days after that the Government had resolved on a dissolution and an appeal to the country. Lord Palmerston understood his countrymen." In the ensuing elections his victory was complete. "Cobden, Bright, Milner Gibson, W. J. Fox, Layard, and many other leading opponents of the Chinese policy, were left without seats. Lord Palmerston came back to power with renewed and redoubled strength." He "had the satisfaction before he left office [in 1858] of being able to announce the capture of Canton. The operations against China had been virtually suspended ... when the Indian Mutiny broke out. England had now got the cooperation of France. France had a complaint of long standing against China on account of the murder of some missionaries, for which redress had been asked in vain. There was, therefore, an allied attack made upon Canton [December, 1857], and of course the city was easily captured. Commissioner Yeh himself was taken prisoner, not until he had been sought for and hunted out in most ignominious fashion. He was found at last hidden away in some obscure part of a house. He was known by his enormous fatness. ... He was put on board an English man-of-war, and afterwards sent to Calcutta, where he died early in the following year. Unless report greatly belied him he had been exceptionally cruel, even for a Chinese official. The English and French Envoys, Lord Elgin and Baron Gros, succeeded in making a treaty with China. By the conditions of the treaty, England and France were to have ministers at the Chinese Court, on certain special occasions at least, and China was to be represented in London and Paris; there was to be toleration of Christianity in China, and a certain freedom of access to Chinese rivers for English and French mercantile vessels, and to the interior of China for English and French subjects. China was to pay the expenses of the war. It was further agreed that the term 'barbarian' was no longer to be applied to Europeans in China. There was great congratulation in England over this treaty, and the prospect it afforded of a lasting peace with China. The peace thus procured lasted in fact exactly a year. ... The treaty of Tien-tsin, which had been arranged by Lord Elgin and Baron Gros, contained a clause providing for the exchange of the ratifications at Pekin within a year from the date of the signature, which took place in June 1858. Lord Elgin returned to England, and his brother, Mr. Frederick Bruce, was appointed in March 1859 Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to China. Mr. Bruce was directed to proceed by way of the Peiho to Tien-tsin, and thence to Pekin to exchange the ratifications of the treaty. Lord Malmesbury, who was then Foreign Secretary ... impressed upon Mr. Bruce that he was not to be put off from going to the capital. Instructions were sent out from England at the same time to Admiral Hope, the Naval Commander-in-Chief in China, to provide a sufficient force to accompany Mr. Bruce to the mouth of the Peiho. The Peiho river flows from the highlands on the west into the Gulf of Pecheli, at the north-cast corner of the Chinese dominions. The capital of the Empire is about 100 miles inland from the mouth of the Peiho. It does not stand on that river, which flows past it at some distance westward, but it is connected with the river by means of a canal. The town of Tien-tsin stands on the Peiho near its junction with one of the many rivers that flow into it, and about forty miles from the mouth. The entrance to the Peiho was defended by the Taku forts. On June 20, 1859, Mr. Bruce and the French Envoy reached the mouth of the Peiho with Admiral Hope's fleet, some nineteen vessels in all, to escort them. They found the forts defended; some negotiations and inter-communications took place, and a Chinese official from Tien-tsin came to Mr. Bruce and endeavoured to obtain some delay or compromise. {427} Mr. Bruce became convinced that the condition of things predicted by Lord Malmesbury was coming about, and that the Chinese authorities were only trying to defeat his purpose. He called on Admiral Hope to clear a passage for the vessels. When the Admiral brought up his gunboats the forts opened fire. The Chinese artillerymen showed unexpected skill and precision. Four of the gunboats were almost immediately disabled. All the attacking vessels got aground. Admiral Hope attempted to storm the forts. The attempt was a complete failure. Admiral Hope himself was wounded; so was the commander of the French vessel which had contributed a contingent to the storming party. The attempt to force a passage of the river was given up and the mission to Pekin was over for the present. It seems only fair to say that the Chinese at the mouth of the Peiho cannot be accused of perfidy. They had mounted the forts and barricaded the river openly and even ostentatiously. ... It will be easily imagined that the news created a deep sensation in England. People in general made up their minds at once that the matter could not be allowed to rest there, and that the mission to Pekin must be enforced. ... Before the whole question came to be discussed in Parliament the Conservatives had gone out and the Liberals had come in. The English and French Governments determined that the men who had made the treaty of Tien-tsin--Lord Elgin and Baron Gros--should be sent back to insist on its reinforcement. Sir Hope Grant was appointed to the military command of our land forces, and General Cousin de Montauban, afterwards Count Palikao, commanded the soldiers of France. The Chinese, to do them justice, fought very bravely, but of course they had no chance whatever against such forces as those commanded by the English and French generals. The allies captured the Taku forts [August, 1860], occupied Tien-tsin, and marched on Pekin. The Chinese Government endeavoured to negotiate for peace, and to interpose any manner of delay, diplomatic or otherwise, between the allies and their progress to the capital. Lord Elgin consented at last to enter into negotiations at Tungchow, a walled town ten or twelve miles nearer than Pekin. Before the negotiations took place, Lord Elgin's secretaries, Mr. Parkes and Mr. Loch, some English officers, Mr. Bowlby, the correspondent of the 'Times,' and some members of the staff of Baron Gros, were treacherously seized by the Chinese while under a flag of truce and dragged off to various prisons. Mr. Parkes and Mr. Loch, with eleven of their companions, were afterwards released, after having been treated with much cruelty and indignity, but thirteen of the prisoners died of the horrible ill-treatment they received. Lord Elgin refused to negotiate until the prisoners had been returned, and the allied armies were actually at one of the great gates of Pekin, and had their guns in position to blow the gate in, when the Chinese acceded to their terms. The gate was surrendered, the allies entered the city, and the English and French flags were hoisted side by side on the walls of Pekin. It was only after entering the city that Lord Elgin learned of the murder of the captives. He then determined that the Summer Palace should be burnt down as a means of impressing the mind of the Chinese authorities generally with some sense of the danger of treachery and foul play. Two days were occupied in the destruction of the palace. It covered an area of many miles. Gardens, temples, small lodges, and pagodas, groves, grottoes, lakes, bridges, terraces, artificial hills, diversified the vast space. All the artistic treasures, all the curiosities, archaeological and other, that Chinese wealth and Chinese taste, such as it was, could bring together, had been accumulated in this magnificent pleasaunce. The surrounding scenery was beautiful. The high mountains of Tartary ramparted one side of the enclosure. The buildings were set on fire; the whole place was given over to destruction. A monument was raised with an inscription in Chinese, setting forth that such was the reward of perfidy and cruelty. Very different opinions were held in England as to the destruction of the Imperial palace. To many it seemed an act of unintelligible and unpardonable vandalism. Lord Elgin explained, that if he did not demand the surrender of the actual perpetrators, it was because he knew full well that no difficulty would have been made about giving him a seeming satisfaction. The Chinese Government would have selected for vicarious punishment, in all probability, a crowd of mean and unfortunate wretches who had nothing to do with the murders. ... It is somewhat singular that so many persons should have been roused to indignation by the destruction of a building who took with perfect composure the unjust invasion of a country. The allied powers now of course had it all their own way. England established her right to have an envoy in Pekin, whether the Chinese liked it or not. China had to pay a war indemnity, and a large sum of money as compensation to the families of the murdered prisoners and to those who had suffered injuries, and to make an apology for the attack by the garrison of the Taku forts. Perhaps the most important gain to Europe from the war was the knowledge that Pekin was not by any means so large a city as we had all imagined it to be, and that it was on the whole rather a crumbling and tumble-down sort of place."

_J. McCarthy, Short History of our own Time, chapter 12, 15, 17 (chapters 30 and 42, volume 3, of larger work)._

ALSO IN: _L. Oliphant, Narrative of the Earl of Elgin's Mission,