1850.
Journal of Occurrences.
461
an exorbitant price, nor the foreigners on the other unreasonably insisting to rent, but both must conduct with consideration und moderation." Now the Shin-kwáng monastery is the place where the graduates and students of this region continually meet to study and pass their examinations, and the people and literati are alike unwilling to lease it. You have therefore inconsiderately gone contrary to the Treaty, and committed the offense of taking forcible pos- session. The priest was only employed to attend to burning incense and candles, but he could not act as a landlord to rent the place. And though the district magistrate has already used his seal of office, and thus settled the contract, still he should have a regard to the popular feelings. In this district, the seal of the magistrate is daily used to certify papers relating to the revenue, and to suits which come up for decision, thousands of times, and it is impossible to wait for the magistrate to decide upon and point out each paper to be sealed. In the case of getting this lease stamped, it was evidently done by the local inter- preter in the court; for when your honorable consul sent it in, there was not the least delay so that the magistrate might be informed of it, but the seal was first stamped on, and then it was carried in for his inspection. Having subsequently received the public petition of the gentry, and apprehensive lest the affair might grow to something serious, he confessed his indiscreet haste before the assembly, and requested to be allowed to immediately rectify his error, and attend to the removal [of the tenants]. Thus the magistrate having spoken according to right reason, your excellency ought also to act thereto, and restore things as at first. Further, you have usually paid great regard to truth and equity. If, now, for the trifling matter of renting a house, you take what this treaty of peace, ori- ginally framed to last for ages, says, 'The feelings of the parties shall be regard ed, and [the foreigners shall not] unreasonably insist on renting,' and of your own will violently set it aside, where will be the truth and justice of such conduct? This shows how the second proposition-the reason of the thing, forbids it.
Though the Tsih-tsui monastery, standing as it does high on a hill, in a thick grove of trees, can still be defended and protected, even if vagabonds come and make trouble, yet the Shin-kwing monastery is lower down the hill, close to a thoroughfare, where fellows of the baser sort are very numerous, and its fallen wall offers a road, so that thieves can go in and out there from their lurking- places. Further, the men of your country wish to expound their sacred books there, and they will of course call people in to see and hear, whereby these miscreants will come together still more, and no one can tell what may arise at any moment.* If from doing this, it should happen that property be stolen or people wounded, neither scholars nor people would stir a step to rescue them, because of the dislike felt against thein, and the magistrates show no alacrity to arrive in time to help them. If they should then lay their complaints before the rulers, the offenders would certainly escape not to be retaken, and the property irrecoverably lost. Truly their regrets would then be useless. These re- marks show how the third proposition-the consequences of forcing it, forbids it. The right and wrong, the benefits and disadvantages, of these three proposi- tions can be easily seen and understood; and also that they are not the empty words of the scholars and people of this place used to intimnidate and prevent [from renting the place]. Soon after the missionaries first came, they engaged an officer (who is appointed to look after foreigners) to seek out a convenient and safe residence for them, cither in or out of the walls was immaterial, and their own desire at first was not to rent this monastery. There are inany tem. ples and dwellings outside of the walls far more desirable than this, and the
* The Black-rock hill is situated in the southwest corner of the city, and includes se- veral acres on a side hill, with two or three buildings, the principal one of which has been converted into a residence for the English Consul, and the others are appropri- ated to the use of the Consulate. The Shin-kwàng monastery lies east on the same side hill, separated from the Consulate a few hundred yards, the intermediate space being occupied by other public buildings and a few private residences. Its grounds are less spacious than the other, and its location not so convenient for a private residence. Only a portion on the rear and a part of the main building has been rented for Mr. Weltoň, The interpreter (now acting consul) rented the place from the priests, and thus H. M. Government has become interested in it