16
» perpetrators of which, it_ impracticable to aseertain.
The considerations
was im
10.
on the other side, however, appeared to me to be the stronger. In the Chinese
view the concerted cessation
from work of some thousands
of bout-labourers and the
of the
withdrawal
eargo-
boats constituted a distin
distinetly
oireiv coercive measure and a
menace to the Government:
To give way
under such.
Circumstances.
eircumstances would, by
529
an
ignorant population, be regarded as a concession rather to pressure than to the demands of justice, and such a display of apparent weakness would probably _: have indefinitely far-reaching ill-effects being certain to be remembered in future when
any Government measure; however necessary
to the-
welfare of the Chinese, was
in any
way
offensive to
Their