Part 137

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, chapters 12, 15, 17 (chapters 30 and 42, volume 3, of larger work)._

ALSO IN: _L. Oliphant, Narrative of the Earl of Elgin's Mission, volume 1._

_H. B. Loch, Personal Narrative._

_S. W. Williams, The Middle Kingdom, chapter 25 (volume 2)._

_Colonel Sir W. F. Butler, Charles George Gordon, chapter 3._

CHINA: A. D. 1857-1868. Treaty with the United States. The Burlingame Embassy and the Burlingame Treaties.

"The government of the United States viewed with anxiety the new breaking out of hostilities between Great Britain, supported by France as an ally, and China, in the year 1856. President Buchanan sent thither the Honorable William B. Reed to watch the course of events, and to act the part of a mediator and peacemaker when opportunity should offer. In this he was sustained by the influence of Russia. Mr. Reed arrived in Hong Kong, on the fine war steamer Minnesota, November 7, 1857. He at once set himself to remove the difficulties between the English and Chinese, and save if possible the future effusion of blood. He endeavored in vain to persuade the proud and obstinate governor Yeh to yield, and save Canton from bombardment. {428} He proceeded to the north, and made on behalf of his government a treaty of peace with China which was signed June 18. The first article of the treaty contains a significant reference to the posture of the United States in relation to the war then in progress, as well as to any which might thereafter arise. The article says: 'There shall be, as there have always been, peace and friendship between the United States of America and the Ta-Tsing Empire, and between their people respectively. They shall not insult or oppress each other for any trifling cause, so as to produce an estrangement between them; and if any other nation should act unjustly or oppressively, the United States will exert their good offices, on being informed of the case, to bring about an amicable arrangement of the question, thus showing their friendly feelings.' A subsequent article of this treaty is to be interpreted by keeping in view the bitter root of the difficulties between Great Britain and China which led to the previous war of 1839 to '42, and to this war. After stating the ports where Americans shall be permitted to reside and their vessels to trade, it continues in the following language: 'But said vessels shall not carry on a clandestine and fraudulent trade at other ports of China not declared to be legal, or along the coasts thereof; and any vessel under the American flag violating this provision shall, with her cargo, be subject to confiscation to the Chinese government; and any citizen of the United States who shall trade in any contraband article of merchandise shall be subject to be dealt with by the Chinese government, without being entitled to any countenance or protection from that of the United States; and the United States will take measures to prevent their flag from being abused by the subjects of other nations as a cover for the violation of the laws of the empire.'… The development of the foreign trade with China during the brief time which has passed [1870] since the last war has been very great. … The American government has been represented most of the time by the Honorable Anson Burlingame, who has taken the lead, with remarkable ability and success, in establishing the policy of peaceful co-operation between the chief treaty-powers, in encouraging the Chinese to adopt a more wise and progressive policy in their entercourse with foreign nations and in the introduction of the improvements of the age. … Mr. Burlingame, who had been in China six years, determined [in 1867] to resign his post and return to America. The news of it excited much regret among both Chinese and foreign diplomatists. The former endeavored in vain to dissuade him from his purpose. Failing to accomplish this, he was invited by Prince Kung to a farewell entertainment, at which were present many of the leading officers of the government. During it they expressed to him their gratitude for his offices to them as an intelligent and disinterested counselor and friend. And they seem to have conceived at this time the thought of putting the relations of the empire with foreign countries upon a more just and equal basis, by sending to them an imperial embassy of which he should be the head. They promptly consulted some of their more reliable friends among the foreign gentlemen at the capital, and in two days after they tendered to Mr. Burlingame, much to his surprise, the appointment of minister plenipotentiary of China to the Western powers. … Mr. Burlingame left the Chinese capital on the 25th of November, 1867. The embassy consisted, besides the principal, of Chih-kang and Sun Chia-ku, a Manchu and a Chinese officer, each wearing the red ball on his cap which indicates an official of a rank next to the highest in the empire; J. McLeary Brown, formerly of the British legation, and M. Deschamps, as secretaries; Teh Ming and Fung I as Chinese attachés, and several other persons in subordinate positions. … It went to Shanghai, thence to San Francisco, where it was most cordially welcomed by both the American and Chinese mercantile communities. It reached Washington in May, 1868. The embassy was treated with much distinction at the American capital. No American statesman was so capable and disposed to enter cordially into its objects as the Secretary of State at that time, the Honorable William H. Seward, whose mind had long apprehended the great features of the policy which American and foreign nations should pursue in relation to the Chinese empire. On the 16th of July the Senate of the United States ratified a treaty which he had made in behalf of this country with the representative of the Chinese government. The treaty defines and fixes the principles of the intercourse of Western nations with China, of the importance of which I have already spoken. It secures the territorial integrity of the empire, and concedes to China the rights which the civilized nations of the world, accord to each other as to eminent domain over land and waters, and jurisdiction over persons and property therein. It takes the first step toward the appointment of Chinese consuls in our seaports—a measure promotive of both Chinese and American interests. It secures exemption from all disability or persecution on account of religious faith in either country. It recognizes the right of voluntary emigration and makes penal the wrongs of the coolie traffic. It pledges privileges as to travel or residence in either country such as are enjoyed by the most favored nation. It grants to the Chinese permission to attend our schools and colleges, and allows us to freely establish and maintain schools in China. And while it acknowledges the right of the Chinese government to control its own whole interior arrangements, as to railroads, telegraphs and other internal improvements, it suggests the willingness of our government to afford aid toward their construction by designating and authorizing suitable engineers to perform the work, at the expense of the Chinese government. The treaty expressly leaves the question of naturalization in either country an open one. … It is not necessary to follow in detail the progress of this first imperial Chinese embassy. In England it was received at first very coldly, and it was some months before proper attention could be secured from the government to its objects. At length, however, on November 20, it was presented to the queen at Windsor Castle. … What heart is there that will not join in the cordial wish that the treaties made by the embassy with Great Britain, France, Prussia and other European powers may be the commencement of a new era in the diplomatic and national intercourse of China with those and all other lands of the West!"

_W. Speer, The Oldest and the Newest Empire, chapter 14._

ALSO IN: _Treaties and Conventions between the United States and other Powers (1889), page 159 and 179._

{429}

CHINA: A. D. 1884-1885. War with France.

See FRANCE: A. D. 1875-1889.

CHINA: A. D. 1892. Exclusion of Chinese from the United States.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1892.

CHINA: A. D. 1893. The future of the Chinese. A speculation.