211
believers was also one of the explicit conditions mentioned in the new treaty. Here was a prime test case for compliance to the new treaty, one which would force both Qing and British bureaucracies to express public support for the most recent treaty regulations. On this score Legge felt he and the London Missionary Society were on solid legal ground. But Legge also felt obliged to move because it was probably told him by colonial officials he knew in Hong Kong that the regiments currently residing in Canton would soon be leaving." Once they left, there would be no easy recourse to a militarily supported British official in the region, and so Legge sought to resolve the case before it became essentially a matter of working directly with the Qing provincial authorities. Expecting that those authorities would be less responsive, Legge probably felt he had no real option but to make a personal and immediate appeal to the British authorities in Canton.
After an initial interview over the problem in Canton, Legge was recalled to the British Governor-General's office there and offered an unexpected compromise. A British military escort would be sent to oversee the proper transaction only if Legge himself would go. In the accounts published for the British public nothing is explained about Legge's response except that he decided to go. Having offered to try to resolve the issue by going to Poklo himself and using “a blended firmness and conciliatoriness to get over our difficulties," Legge was asked if he could leave immediately to pursue this approach. Reflecting first about his family and then on his sense of religious duty to Christ and to the Chinese Christians in Poklo, he confirmed his willingness to go under escort while still in the office. What he did not tell others is the content of a message he left with John Chalmers, who had come with him to the Governor-General's office.77 It read as follows:
It is possible that I may be beheaded at Pok-lo. If news comes that I have been murdered, go at once to the English consul and tell him that it was my wish that no English gun-boat should be sent up the river to punish the people for my death.
Nothing could have been more risky or bold, Legge trusting that
211
believers was also one of the explicit conditions mentioned in the new treaty. Here was a prime test case for compliance to the new treaty, one which would force both Qing and British bureaucracies to express public support for the most recent treaty regulations. On this score Legge felt he and the London Missionary Society were on solid legal ground. But Legge also felt obliged to move because it was probably told him by colonial officials he knew in Hong Kong that the regiments currently residing in Canton would soon be leaving." Once they left, there would be no easy recourse to a militarily supported British official in the region, and so Legge sought to resolve the case before it became essentially a matter of working directly with the Qing provincial authorities. Expecting that those authorities would be less responsive, Legge probably felt he had no real option but to make a personal and immediate appeal to the British authorities in Canton.
After an initial interview over the problem in Canton, Legge was recalled to the British Governor-General's office there and offered an unexpected compromise. A British military escort would be sent to oversee the proper transaction only if Legge himself would go. In the accounts published for the British public nothing is explained about Legge's response except that he decided to go. Having offered to try to resolve the issue by going to Poklo himself and using “a blended firmness and conciliatoriness to get over our difficulties," Legge was asked if he could leave immediately to pursue this approach. Reflecting first about his family and then on his sense of religious duty to Christ and to the Chinese Christians in Poklo, he confirmed his willingness to go under escort while still in the office. What he did not tell others is the content of a message he left with John Chalmers, who had come with him to the Governer- General's office.77 It read as follows:
It is possible that I may be beheaded at Pok-lo. If news comes that I have been murdered, go at once to the English consul and tell him that it was my wish that no English gun-boat should be sent up the river to punish the people for my death.
Nothing could have been more risky or bold, Legge trusting that
No comments yet.
Private notes are available after approval.