November 18, 9101.]
THE LATE LI HUNG-CHANG.
We take the following article from our con- temporary, the Shanghai Mercury:
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CHINA ÖVERLAND TRADE REPORT.
sums
were
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victims.
THE CHINESE CUSTOMS.
409
SPECIFIC. AD VALOREM DUTIES. The following memorandum has been com. municated to the China League by Mr. A, Michie :-
The unfortunate necessity for the Chinese Customs levying the general import dues upon an ud valorem tariff is so prejudical to honest trade that the utmost exertion ought to be made to establish a scale of specific duties at the earliest possible moment.
Within three weeks of the expulsion be merely a question at the furthest of a few weeks; when Gordon finally invested Soochow, of the Dowager's henchman followed the Palace thought it wisest to enter into negotiations revolution and the imprisonment of the boy with the object of surrendering the town Emperor who had dared to cross the path of It is but seldom, fortunately for humanity, and closing without further bloodshed the his too powerful subject. The last stage of this movement. They found a sympathetic listener tale of infamy is hardly necessary to repeat, so that it falls to the lot of the biographer to announce the death of one of whom it may be in Gordon, who consented to the surrender, short a time has elapsed But Li for all his truly said not one good deed is reported. The with the proviso that the lives of the Wangs subserviency to the Dowager, was not a Man- advice of the old Roman, "De mortuis nil nisi then in the city should be spared. No sooner | chu, and the more influential of the crowd that surrounded the usurping Dowager sought even, the last moment to cast discredit on bonum," here becomes a negative quality, for if had they surendered on the strength of this en- we were only to write the good of the subject gagement to an officer of Li's than he, in breach of at of our article, he must remain for ever without the terms of surrender, immediately ordered their him. Li, who had never been deterred from a notice in history. Yet in his day Li Hang- execution in cold blood. Gordon for a couple any treachery by the voice of the conscience, ohang was a remakable man, and played in of days actually carried about a revolver with the now thought he had the last means of revenge history a part out of all proportion to his merits intention of shooting the dastardly disgracer of within his power, which was nothing less than the sale of the Imperial Heritage itself to He has fortunately for his country or abilities. He was in fact the man of his his soldierly word, but the other in his inner con- time, and was as much moulded by the circum-science recognising his deserts, concealed himself. Russia.
What might have been the result had Gordon met at last with an opponent stronger than stances in which he found himself placed as was a Mirabeau or a Robespierre. As a states. had the opportunity of, carrying out his threat himself, and Death the great Avenger came might have beens" of history, just in time to prevent the fulfilment of his For the man it would be a libel on humanity at large is one of the " to say Li was an able man, and yet as the At all events Chins would have been spared last and deepest ignominy of all. minister of an empire in the last stage of many a disgrace brought about by her perjured moment China is spared extinction, but who decline he was a worthy exponent of all that minister. Li Hung-chang subsequently suc- seeing her headlong descent to annihilation The most charitable epitaph on his tomb is mean and contemptible. No one even of the ceeded Tseng, the great Viceroy of the Liang can foresee for how long is the respite?
Restat nisi quod oblivisci most zealous of Li's sycophants ever represented Kiang at Nanking. Of his administration, him as a man of his word, and, indeed, it was except that Li grew fat on it there is nothing stone would be
to say; for want of a better, not from auy oportet nihil.” one of the grossest examples of treachery ever perpetrated against a man who was as much a admiration of the man, he was subsequently man of honour, sans peur et sans réproche," promoted to Chihli, where his rule was marked with abuses of the worst description. Entering as Li was an example of everything that was base and degraded, that first brought the into a tacit league with Dowager Tsz Hi, then #hilom self-appointed representative of Chins the sole survivor of the Regency appointed on the death of Hieufeng to take charge during into a notorious prominence.
Li Hung-chang first came into notice in 1857, the minority of the Emperor Tungchi, his when as leader of a force sent against a body of administration was marked by a policy of self in Nientei insurgents he drew a cordon across aggrandisation, hitherto unknown even Shantung. Li had forgotten or never was able China. Nothing escaped the clutches of these to appreciate the primitive military rule that two ravenous vultures. Under the pretence of as the strength of a chain is only that of its military preparations enormous weakest link, by stretching out the chain he nominally devoted to the purchase of arms
It is obvious that under a system where im- exposed it to be broken at that weakest and the raising of a drilled army. The Japan- link. The insurgent leader, with a readier ese, who had been carefully preparing, and porters declare their own values, and pay these frauds, accordingly, there is great room for irregular. appreciation of the blunder, readily broke who were well informed of through the cordon, and Li's ill-planned scheme having themselves indeed been the purchasersities, and a decided temptation for one merchant or one group of merchants to endeavour to secure came to an abrupt end, Nevertheless we find of most of the imported guns, and stores, the him some time afterwards a Taotai on the staff proceeds of which went to swell the illicit gains advantages over rivals. In such a competition of the abler and higher-minded Ts'eng Kwofan, of the Regent Dowager and her henchman Li, the advantage would really fall to the "British on whose shoulders the conduct of the campaign were not slow to take advantage of the circum trader, not because he is more scrupulous than against the Taiping Rebels really rested. In stance, and forced on the Chinese Government his neighbour-a point which need not be argued --but for reasons connected with British Con- 1862 the British troops took possession of Kah- the disastrous war of 1894-93; the results are
too well known to need repetition. Suffice it sular administration. ding and an expedition against T'aitsan was planned by the then Taotaï of Kiangsu, Sieh. to say, Li's guns were found to be wooden Sieh was a bungler of the old Chinese type, and dummies. and Li's shells to be loaded with coal it being necessary to displace him the Taotai dust, so that when the decisive action of the Li Hung-chang was given the acting appoint- Yalu took place, the Chinese ships, unable to ment. Li had the facility common to second. return the fire of the Japanese fleet, were cap- class men of appropriating the brains of those tured in detail or forced to seek refuge in placed near him, and circumstances brought ignominious flight. Naturally the Japanese so
on the revenue are systematically him in contact with men like Ward and Gordon. contrived matters that Li, whose misdeeds were Ward, an American adventurer, but an able known to them better than to the world at large,
to the detriment of their honest neighbours. man, honourable and of gentleman Hike instincts, was sent over as China's representative to con practised by the less reputable class of traders But if the Customs staff is unable wholly to was unfortunately killed at the capture clude the most disgraceful peace that it had ever from the rebels of Tazeki near Ningpo, fallen to China's lot hitherto to sign. Li was and Gordon, then Captain of Engineers quite equal to the occasion, but again sought an prevent deception on the small scale, it is in the British expeditionary force, was ap- ignoble revenge. On the 1st November. 1894, obviously incompetent to deal with 1,200 or 1,3 0 articles composing the import trade of And to suppose that advantage will pointed to take his place as leader of the the Tsar Alexander III had died, and the new
Tsar issued invitations the next year to all China. Ever Victorious Army, a body of foreigners in Chinese pay. Gordon, a man whose chivalry the rulers of the world for his coronation. not be taken of the imperfect knowledge of was above fear and above reproach, was ill Amongst the others China was included in the the official examiners to enter many kinds of be to assume that one of the most constant calculated to act as coadjutor to the wily, but list, but it was understood that the Emperor merchandise much below their value would thoroughly unprincipled Li. While Li perfectly was to be represented by Li, who even thea had comprehended that to his lieutenant was due shown a considerable amount of complacency propensities of human nature were for the The profit of the merchant depends less on all the success of the campaign, his interest in his dealings with the Russian Minister. It occasion to be suspended.
the cost of his goods or on such fixed charges was mainly concerned in what personal profit is hardly necessary to recapitulate the rest. it could bring. The affair was exploited to the Russia and China have one thing in common; 'atmost limit to which Li's peculiar talent of in both, the Empire and its revenues are held freight, duty, and insurance in regard to self aggrandisement could reach, but when at to be the private appanage of the Em which he stands on an equality with his neigh- no occounts nor unpleasant bours, than it does upon the advantage which last Gordon found that difficulties were being peror, and raised about the payment of his troops, and wages balance-sheets are made out. Li went to St. he may gain over them on those charges in his own favour When such an important item were, more sinico, dropping into arrears, even Petersburg and Moscow, and was made the which he is able to establish an inequality in as import duty becomes a variable quantity it he, gentlest and least suspicious of men, had to guest of the day, whom the Tsar delighted, as interpose, and inform the Taotai that if such formerly fell to the lot of Mordecai, to honour.
Li was placed in a golden chariot and drawn is certain that merchants will go to great ex- practises were continued he would at once throw his commission and withdraw his round the city, and whatever else was done is tremes in the competition for minimising their
up men. Li, who had sufficient sense to know that perhaps to be found in the secret records of the individual payments, Fifty years ago smug. without Gordon the game was burst, submitted Russian Exchequer. At all events from that gling was a lucrative occupation in China- with sufficiently bad grace, but with a secret time forward Li made no secret of showing fortunes were realised from that source alone. determination to have his revenge at the first himself as the especial favourite of Russia, and During that period the British trader suffered opportunity that presented itself. That op- on all occasions was prepared to take the side severely through the greater audacity of com- portunity, thanks to Gordon's chivalry, was not of Russia in any international matter. In the petitors based on the laxity of their Consular long in coming and Li hnd the satisfaction of year 1898 the young Chinese Emperor, tired of anthorities, who were themselves engaged in repaying by an affront, in the way of all others the leading strings in which the Dowager Taz trade. The Maritime Customs was created to the check the hardest for Gordon to bear-Hi and her henchman Li had kept him bound, put an end to these inequalities, and, loyally in his word of honour as a soldier and a ignominiously kicked Li out of the Palace. It backed by Consuls and Ministers, it has was again Li's opportunity, and the crowning succeeded. It is a point, however, not to be man. The rebels foreseeing that they had met their master in the British Major of Engineers, one for his most darling passion, revenge. This ignored that the events of last year have locally in supreme command of the force, and time he struck for higher game, and the Em-probably given rise to some new ideas tending that the destruction of their arms had come to peror and the Empire itself were to be the to modify this loyalty of the foreign Powers
Under the existing tariff there is a small number of unclassified commodities on which duty has been levied ad valorem. It is assumed that as regards these few articles, the Customs staff has by long experience acquired expert knowledge and that undervaluations would not be allowed to pass. Nevertheless, it is certain that even in these few and familiar articles, frauds
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