[ { "id": 205795, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1969", "page_number": 101, "title": "RAS-1969", "content_text": "KING MONGKUT AND THE KINGDOM OF SIAM\n\n95\n\nSiamese were willing to have a treaty which would open up trade and increase Western influence. They had some anxiety, however, about what the Cochin-Chinese, the Vietnamese would think about the treaty. Would they conclude that the Siamese had surrendered to the British? King Mongkut asked Bowring time and again to go to Cochin-China to make a similar treaty. The King was also anxious about the kind of man who would be chosen as British Consul, if this article of the treaty were accepted. Would he be as much a gentleman as Sir John? Bowring assured him that only the best man would be appointed and that he hoped to go to Cochin-China.\n\nThe whole business for this momentous treaty was transacted in the most felicitous manner. King Mongkut and his equally intelligent Prime Minister, Praya Suriwongse, understood the issues at stake; these were not merely the details of imports and exports, the appointment of Consuls and the rights of foreigners, they were no less than the independence of Siam and the beginning of her modernization. It was much to Bowring's credit (and to Harry Parkes and young Bowring) that he was able to gain the confidence of the King, to allay his fears, and to assure the Siamese that the new policy that the treaty was launching was greatly to their own as well as to the British advantage.\n\nThe Treaty of Friendship and Commerce was signed on 18th April, 1855, less than a month after the arrival of the mission. Its first article pledged perpetual peace and friendship and the protection of the two nations' subjects in each other's countries. Article 2 provided for the appointment of a British Consul at Bangkok who would have jurisdiction over British subjects in Siam. The third article was an extension of the second, requiring that Siamese offenders should be given up to Siamese justice and British offenders to British justice, that is, the Consul. This was the system of extra-territorial rights which had recently been obtained from the Chinese after the Opium War. It was an infringement of Siam's sovereignty but it gave assurance to British subjects that they would not be exposed to the severity of Siamese justice and encouraged the setting up of business houses. This right was given up in 1909, long before its withdrawal in China, in return for the independence of Kedah and the other northern Malay States from Siam. The next three articles of the treaty were all concerned with the rights of British subjects. They could", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1969.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/9g553n20d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205798, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1969", "page_number": 104, "title": "RAS-1969", "content_text": "98\n\n: R. BRUCE 100\n\nR. BRUCE was delighted. But it was then, enjoying his astronomy, showing off his English, and gratifying his vanity in front of foreign dignitaries, that he contracted a fever from which he never recovered. He returned to Bangkok and was dead within a few weeks. The work which he had started was carried on by his Prime Minister, Praya Suriwongse, who acted as Regent of the country until the Crown Prince Chulalongkorn came of age. His reign was successful but the way had been opened by his father, King Mongkut.\n\nBIBLIOGRAPHY\n\nSir John Bowring, The Kingdom and People of Siam, London, Parker and Son, 1857.\n\nW. A. R. Wood, A History of Siam, Bangkok 1924.\n\nD. G. E. Hall, A History of South-east Asia, London, 2nd edn., 1964.\n\nA. L. Moffat, Mongkut, the King of Siam, Cornell U.P., 1961.\n\nA. B. Griswold, King Mongkut of Siam, New York, Asia Soc., 1961,\n\nWalter F. Vella, 'The Impact of the West on Government in Thailand' in Publications on Political Science, Vol. 4, No. 3, pp. 317-415, University of California Press, 1955.\n\nVarious Journals of the Siam Society, Bangkok.\n\nThe quoted passages listed 1-6 are from the following:-\n\n1.\n\n2.\n\n3. From 'Siam and Sir James Brooke' by Nicholas Tarling in the Journal of the Siam Society, vol. XLVII Part 2, November 1960.\n\n4. From The Kingdom and People of Siam by Sir John Bowring, London, 1857.\n\n5. From Mongkut, the King of Siam by Abbot Law Moffat, Cornell University Press, 1961.\n\n6. From 'English Correspondence of King Mongkut' in the Journal of the Siam Society, vol. XXII, July 1928.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1969.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/9g553n20d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205800, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1969", "page_number": 106, "title": "RAS-1969", "content_text": "100\n\nR. BRUCE\n\nwas delighted. But it was then, enjoying his astronomy, showing off his English, and gratifying his vanity in front of foreign dignitaries, that he contracted a fever from which he never recovered. He returned to Bangkok and was dead within a few weeks. The work which he had started was carried on by his Prime Minister, Praya Suriwongse, who acted as Regent of the country until the Crown Prince Chulalongkorn came of age. His reign was successful but the way had been opened by his father, King Mongkut.\n\nBIBLIOGRAPHY\n\nSir John Bowring, The Kingdom and People of Siam, London, Parker and Son, 1857.\n\nW. A. R. Wood, A History of Siam, Bangkok 1924.\n\nD. G. E. Hall, A History of South-east Asia, London, 2nd edn., 1964.\n\nA. L. Moffat, Mongkut, the King of Siam, Cornell U.P., 1961.\n\nA. B. Griswold, King Mongkut of Siam, New York, Asia Soc., 1961.\n\nWalter F. Vella, 'The Impact of the West on Government in Thailand' in Publications on Political Science, Vol. 4, No. 3, pp. 317-415, University of California Press, 1955.\n\nVarious Journals of the Siam Society, Bangkok.\n\nThe quoted passages listed 1-6 are from the following:-\n\n1.\n\n2.\n\n3.\n\nFrom 'Siam and Sir James Brooke' by Nicholas Tarling in the Journal of the Siam Society, vol. XLVII Part 2, November 1960.\n\n4. From The Kingdom and People of Siam by Sir John Bowring, London, 1857.\n\n5. From Mongkut, the King of Siam by Abbot Law Moffat, Cornell University Press, 1961.\n\n6. From 'English Correspondence of King Mongkut' in the Journal of the Siam Society, vol. XXII, July 1928.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1969.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/9g553n20d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206397, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1971", "page_number": 214, "title": "RAS-1971", "content_text": "188 \n\nREV. JAMES LEGGE\n\nthe Ta-koo forts; and there were expectations of a second expedition to secure the fulfilment of that treaty.\n\nSir John Bowring left his name in Bowrington, and the Bowring Praya. He was the most learned of our governors, and I had sincerely wished that he might prove himself as mighty in deeds as in words.\n\nSir Hercules Robinson was a different man, as slow to speak as the other was ready, though he could speak well enough when moved. He began his administration under favourable auspices. The treaty of Tëentsin had given a considerable impulse to trade, and soon the concentration in the Colony of the large force for the second expedition to the North produced a great circulation of money, and increased the demand for house accommodation. Building went on rapidly; the value of ground rose immensely; fortunes were realized by many. Most of this, however, was merely a temporary and factitious prosperity, though Sir Hercules seemed to think, as many others did, that it was real, and that tomorrow would be as this day and much more abundant.\n\nMany important measures were carried through in his time. In 1860, the Chinese schools, supported by Government throughout the island, were entirely re-arranged, and I may claim to myself the merit of having pressed on successive governors the adoption of the present system, which Sir Hercules was the first to take up heartily, and give effect to. We were very fortunate in obtaining such a master to inaugurate it, and carry it out with untiring devotion, as Mr. Stewart. He has been doing a great work of education with hundreds of pupils, the benefits of which will be increasingly felt by the Colony and by China itself.\n\nSir Hercules adopted another scheme, which I had in vain recommended to one governor and another. My idea from 1844 was that the administration of the Colony would not be thoroughly satisfactory, till many of the offices in it were filled by men having a practical knowledge of the Chinese language, and a sympathy with the people. To secure the former, I advised the bringing out of young gentlemen as student-cadets, hoping that they would gradually acquire the latter also. I venture to think that the idea was sound; and it has not been fruitless by any means.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1971.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/z029vt43g", "rank": 0 } ]