Directory_and_Chronicle_1842 — Page 359

18.12

Journal of Deenegeners

311

Art. VIII. Journal of Occurrences: progress of the war; recap- ture of Ningpo; reinforcements for Hángchau; garrison of Chinhái; attack on Chúpú: Chusan: British_reinforcements; tenure of Hongkong; sir Henry Pottinger's departure for the north; indemnity for opium; the emperor's finances; investiture of a new king of Cochinchina.

No wonder the statesmen of the west are in great doubt regarding the past and the future courses of events in China, since the best informed even here, and those too most interested in these matters, find themselves possessed of very imperfect information. Facts, prin- ciples, deductions, and opinions, by being transferred from oue per- son to another, often come to assume new forms and coloring, as diversi- fied and as fanciful as those of the kaleidoscope occasioned by its slightest change. So far as the future is concerned, we are at pre- sent without any data to enable us to form an opinion, either satis- factory to ourselves, or worthy of being received by others. We can imagine H. B. M.'s combined forces scouring the plains of Kiang- nán; all communication by the Grand canal intercepted; advanced squadrons far up into the interior of the empire on the waters of the two great rivers and their tributaries; and hundreds of towns and cities along their banks attacked and ransomed or deserted. While by these measures, occupying only a few days, the inhabitants of all the central provinces are thrown into consternation, it is easy further to fancy all the defenses between the sea and Peking swept away at a stroke; the capital entered; and the monarch deposed! However, something quite the opposite of all this might be conjured up by an excited imagination, or (as soine would have it) must clearly be fore- seen by every unbiassed judgment. Still what is to be the actual order of events, resulting from the present course of operations-how commerce is to be effected at Canton and elsewhere--how the war is to be carried on and brought to a termination-and how negotiations are to be opened and conducted-are topics about which we must leave our readers for the present to their own musings. Did we not know that a Power, far above all human authority, is guiding all these events we should despair of soon seeing any improvement in the moral and political condition of the Chinese. When her H. B. M.'s forces proceeded northward, two years ago, in the summer of 1840, the whole coast was defenseless, and not even a gun was mounted on the forts at the mouth of the Pei hồ. A speedy termination of all difficulties was expected by every body. The results of that expedi- tion, and of another, are on record. For those of a third, all eyes are now anxiously watching.

The British demand, according to a rumor from Peking, Hong- kong: the ports of Amoy, Tinghái, Ningpò, and Shanghái, opened; $20,000,000, expenses of the war, paid; a minister to reside at Pe- king: ministers to reside at foreign courts: with equality and reci- procity generally