THE HONGKONG WEEKLY PRESS AND
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[March 16, 1901. was at once boarded by the Customs officer | firm was held to be sufficient proof of its exist-qualified to judge, and to ignore the facts of in charge and her “cargo” duly taken account ance; the native was trusted with large sums of past failures. The treaty he made had been of. The course of trade was meanwhile chang- money to expend over which the depositor had previously drafted by the Foreign Offices in ing; in the old days when tea was almost the sole absolutely no control beyond the good faith of London and Paris. So little had he to say to it article of export the drain of silver, as we have his agent; and it is to the credit of both sides that on its signature he characteristically seen, raised serious doubts as to the possibility that never on one side or the other was any observed: “ Anyone could have made the tresty, of the country being able to stand the continual further enquiry found necessary. So matters Of him Mr. Michie pertinently saya: drain. The failure for a series of years of the continued till the old sore about the conduct of "It was his fate, much against his will ap- silk crop in Europe now brought about a rever- a new Commissioner sent down to Canton to parently, to wage war on China in order to sal of the picture. Europe was in turn being restrain the "barbarian" again aroused the de- revindicate a right which had lapsed through drained of her available silver for remittance to clining dogs of strife; and a new war led to a the weakness and wrong-headedness of certain China to pay for silk, and the Shanghai tael, at new chapter in the ever recurring drams of British representatives; yet in the closing not the time intrinsically worth 5s. 10d., was in ex- Eastern exclusiveness against Western advance. of a perfectly successful war he commita the change transactions sold for no less than 78. Trade had become impossible in those arte- veniently apply to the war of which the capture entailing on
The Arrow War, which name we may con- self-same error on a more comprehensive scale, some future Government and steamer and ante-telegraph days, unless some countervailing import to balance the export of be said to have commenced in December, 1856, another war on China to recover what he was of the lorcha Arrow was but an incident, may plenipotentiary the necessity of making yet silk could be arrived at. As practical men it by the burning of the "Foreign Factories" at giving away. What is the explanation of this was found that any interference with the natur- Canton, and the issue of a proclamation by continuous repetition of the same mistake? It al flow of trade would be disastrous for every Viceroy Yeh, offering rewards for English heads. would seem that, knowing nothing of the Chi- one-England, China, as well as the merchants Yeh marked the close of an era which had been nese, yet imagining they knew something, the of both countries. Alcock, who at first was a initiated by Commissioner Lin, and it may be representative of Great Britain and of other steadfast opponent of the opium traffic, had, as said to have finally ended in the peace concluded Powers, notably the United States, have been a man charged with large international issues, in Tientsin on the 27th June, 1858. Of the in the habit of evolving from their own con to fall in with the necessities of the case; and war Mr. Michie's work gives a condensed, sciousness and keeping by them a subjective except with a few irresponsible faddists, we heard though useful account; Wingrove Cooke, Law. Chinaman with whom they play dummy,' little of the supposed iniquities of the trade.
rence Oliphant, Stanley Lane-Poole, De Moges and of course score horribly,' as the most In many other respects Consul Alcock took and others give full details. During the final recent diplomatic slang has it. Their despatches much interest in promoting trade, and Mr. negotiations at Tientsia, an ominous figure are full of this game-of reckoning without Michie more particularly draws attention to momentarily appeared on the scene; that was a their host, who, when brought to book, his endeavours to create an interest in the reappearance of old Kiying, who, after a long turns out to be a wholly different person from Great Exhibition of 1851, which, probably for period of disgrace, consequent on his association the int lligent automaton kept for Cabinet use. the reason that the value of exports was already with the "barbarian" in the occupation of
To this kind of illusion Lord Elgin in excess of imports, did not meet with much Hongkong, was as a last resource sent down to was by temperament more predisposed than response from a community whose sims were join the Chinese peace commissioners in the hope any of his predecessers, save Captain Elliot. directed rather to increasing the body of im- that his previous successes in the colony might Though convinced by his first encounter that ports.
prove of advantage in softening the demands of Chinese statesmen were fools and tricksters, Of the traders themselves, who at the time the British and French plenipotentiaries. Ki- the simulacrum soon asserted supremacy over were engaged against many difficulties in build-ying began the old tactics on his arrival: the actuality of experience, and to the honour ing up a great trade between China and the Admiral Seymour was insalted, several English of the very persons so stigmatised he commit- west, Mr. Michie gives a most interesting officers were stoned, and every attempt made ted the interests of his country, abandoning all account. The men to whose lot fell this diff in the approved manner to get up a row; the securities which he held in his hand.” cult and often thankless task, both native and the old Canton policy was being tri-d on, and Alluding to the spirit in which he under- foreign, well deserve consideration. 'It was
the populace were invoked as the instigators. I took the task entrusted to him, our author quotes they," as he reminds us, "who created the Unfortunately old Kiying had in a confidential his own words :- subject matter of all foreign relations, and report to the Emperor disclosed in so many I have seen more to disgust me with my stood in the breach in all struggles between words the game he had been playing, and own countrymen than I saw during the whole foreign and native officials. It was their per- amongst the papers found in Yoh's yamen on course of my previous life.
I have an sons and their fortunes which were at stake; his capture was the original memorial. Kiying instinct in me which loves righteousness and it was they who first felt the shock of distur. was sent for, and in the most polite manner hates iniquity, and all this keeps me in a per- bance, and were the first to reap the fruits of shown his own document; the old diplomatist petual boil.
The tone of the two of was caught in his own trap, and disappeared. three men connected with mercantile houses in He was not forgotten by his Emperor, who sent China whom I find on board is all for blood and him an equally polite message that he had lived massacre on a great scale.” sufficiently long. Kiying had no option but to accept; Yeh, too, overcome by chagrin, shuffled off his mortal coil in imprisonment at Calcutta, They had no successors; the vulgar bully-- type well displayed in Dr. Smith's Village Life in China-is for the future represented by the village sneak, of which order Li Hung-chang may be accepted as a typical example. The characters in the drama of history in China are as distinctly marked as their 'representatives on the Chinese stage, and given the previous scene we may safely predicate the chief actors and the part to be played by each. The disturb ing element is here the European, and the part in controlling the piece to be taken by the Great
pesice."
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The relation of the foreign mercantile com. munity to their official representatives was not always free from friction, because the same high authority which enjoined on the officials the protection of the persons and the promo- tion of the interests of the lay community, em. powered them also to rule over their protegés, and to apply to them an arbitrary discipline in accordance with what they conceived to be the exigencies of the time. As for the merchants, it had become a genial task to lecture them on what certain people conceived to be their moral duty; they were, too, often admonished of some presumed obligation on their part to sacrifice individual advantage to the (presumed) greater good of the greater number. However this may have been, as a body there has seldom been brought together a finer body of men than those who in those pioneer days constituted the great bulk of the British merchants in China. They were eminently picked men from the very necessity of the position, as travel was difficult, and personal reponsibility was great. Often against the prejudices of English exporters and the direct orders of half-informed merchants at home, as well as in the face of a public opinion at home warped by some tem- porary fad, they had to hold their own. The Government was always indifferent, often hostile, and its agents in Chins too faithfully obeyed its behests in actually throwing obstacles in the path of legitimate trade. Against all these trying circumstances the British merchant in China had to present a steady front, and not only to do so, but to continue to keep on terms with his native coadjutor. The latter, too, ob tains from Mr. Michie & well earned tribute of praise. If the British merchant of old in China were man of resource and probity, he had taught his Chinese fellow in many respects to follow in his footsteps; con- fidence in one begot panfidence in the other. The Chinese merchant held his word in all business transactions good as his bond. The mere entry of a transaction in the books of a
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Powers.
It was unfortunate that the choice of the British Government fell upon a man of senti- ment rather than of action. Lord Elgin was a man of ability, but had conceived a strange aversion towards Hongkong, and more espe- cially towards its Governor, Sir John Bow- ring, who united in his own person the somewhat incongruous posts of Governor of the colony and Superintendent of Trade and Plenipotentiary. Sir John belonged to the order of philosophic Radicals, with whom the world seemed capable of reduction to geometric rules. It was a belief not uncommon in the mid century, but the Governor found the calculations in his island territory so entangled that to his credit he gave them up and acted like any ordinary man. He came to be accused of favouring the mercantile interest, and Lord Elgin, who hated trade and despised traders, determined that he would throw overbeard all three. The wise man, without moving, under- stands; without observing, comprehends; with out action, achieves." So said the Chinese sago; and Lord Elgin, a steadfast though unconscious disciple of the "Doctrine” made it his rule în his subsequent negotiations to despise the opinions of those who from experience were
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Believing this, and acting according to their consciences, most men of honour would have resigned the task imposed on them. Lord Elgin's conscience was not so straight-laced. Believing he was doing wrong, as we have his own words for stating, he yet characteristically for a consideration accepted the task; and tried to square it with his conscience by deliberatedly spoiling the work. This is the dilemma in which we are placed by his own confession in passinr judgment on the man. Probably he thought that there was more honour with less ! trouble to be gained from being the first to con olude a treaty with Japan; and this is the most lenient view we are permitted to take of his
undeniable failure in China.
Be this as it may, having made the treaty according to his instructions, instead of waiting to see its ratification, which only entailed journey of some eighty miles, he without waiting a moment showed his disregard of the whole spirit of his instructions, and sentiled off to Japan. The Chinese who had taken the measure of their man, on his return approached him and by cajolery induced him to rescind the most important stipulation-that of residence in Peking. There were no telegraphs in those days, and Lord Elgin, who felt that the game had been thrown away, and seeing that the lapsed condition could not be regained with- out another war which he had not the re- quisite courage to undertake, slipped ignomin- ionsly out of China. So ingloriously ended the second (hina war. Before he left Chins he himself pronounced his own condemnation; his despatches remain to bear witness against him. **A variety of circumstances lead me to the conclusion that the fourt at Peking is about to play us false" was the burden of his last despatch.
What all Lord Elgin's colleagues had warned him at the time would assuredly happen cam- the next year to pass. His brother, Mr. Fred-
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