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allow them to reside there temporarily is already improper. If by any chance they are allowed to occupy it permanently and build additional houses it would be all the more improper.
We have repeatedly explained this to him tactfully. According to the barbarians' statement, if they are not to reside at Prince I's palace they must be given Duke Ch'ï's palace in Ch'ang-an Street in the eastern part of the city. He still wants to build additional houses. Furthermore, he states that each year they are willing to pay a rent of one thousand five hundred taels. At present we are still attempting to dissuade him, and not to let them reside in a nobleman's palace. Instead we are looking for another palace for them. Whether they will listen to us or not we will act as occasion demands.
In a memorial submitted in the second year of the reign of the Emperor Tung-chih (1863) Prince Kung wrote: "Prince Kung and others further memorialize that ever since England ratified the treaty in the tenth year of the Emperor Hsien-feng (1860) it has been using the palace of Duke I-liang as an official residence."
Also in a subsequent memorial about the French Legation buildings Prince Kung wrote: "Moreover the English envoy, before withdrawing his troops inside the An-ting gate occupied the Palace of Duke I-liang on his own initiative*" 自行” (i.e., without authorization from Chinese officials)."
* Chou-pan i-wu shih-mo ##** Hsien-feng, chüan 68, 2b-3a. Hereafter cited as IWSM.
4 IWSM, T'ung-chih, chüan 20, 36a. I-liang was the fourth son of Mien-ch'ing ✈, [a direct descendant of the Emperor K'ang-hsi]. In the eighteenth year of Tao-kuang's reign he was created a "general guarding the state" of the third rank. In the first year of Hsien-feng's reign (1851-2) he succeeded to the title of “duke guarding the state" # 2. In the eleventh year of T'ung-chih's reign he was granted the title of pei-tzu Я† (a Manchu title bestowed on the sons of imperial princes). He died in the thirteenth year of Kuang-hsü's reign (1887-8), Ch'ing-shih kao ***, Huang-tzu shih-piao 2 *** 'genealogies of the sons of the Emperors, 于世 piao 4, 9b.
IWSM, T'ung-chih, chüan 20, 37a, column 5. The An-ting Men gate of established peace', is the easterly of the two gates in the north wall of the Tartar City, and the starting point of the road to Jehol. It was occupied by the British in 1860 who dragged their guns up the ramp and positioned them on the wall in order to command the city.