Page:Eminent Chinese Of The Ch’ing Period - Hummel - 1943 - Vol. 1.pdf/441

Rh commissioners pleaded with the Russian and American ministers to help alleviate the rigor of the demands, but without success. Those ministers, however, acted with more moderation and courtesy than did the British and French, probably because they were in a position to obtain without force what the latter won by arms. The treaty with Russia in twelve articles was signed on June 13; the American treaty of thirty articles, on the 18th—the two interpreters who assisted Mr. Reed being S. Wells Williams and W. A. P. Martin (for both see under ).

Two of the British demands interposed obstacles to continued negotiation, namely, the residence of foreign envoys at Peking and the opening of the Yangtze River to foreign trade. On June 26, the day set for the signing of the British treaty of 56 articles, Kuei-liang and Hua-sha-na were instructed by edict to refuse to concede the demands then under dispute. But as the British threatened to march on Peking they forced the intimidated negotiators to sign the treaty on the evening of the same day (26th). The French treaty of 42 articles was signed on June 27.

The clause in the treaties to which the Peking Court raised the most serious objection was that which granted residence to foreign envoys in the capital on a basis of diplomatic equality. The Court was ignorant of international practices and felt humiliated at the idea of future audiences in which envoys of foreign states would not perform the ceremony of kotow which for centuries had been the Chinese practice. But that by some of the articles China lost much of her national sovereignty, no one in the Court s eemed to realize. After the foreign envoys left, Kuei-liang and Hua-sha-na were sent to Shanghai to make agreements with representatives of the powers about the rate of tariff on various commodities. In the meantime T'an T'ing-hsiang and other officials who had charge of the defenses of Tientsin were punished for their failure to stop the "invaders" from landing. The Mongol prince,, was entrusted with the fortifying of the Taku area and the training of troops sufficient to guard it. The emperor, still vexed at the idea of opening the Yangtze to foreign trade and at having to meet foreign envoys in Peking, instructed Kueiliang and the other commissioners to seek the annulment of those articles. In return China would abolish the tariff on all foreign goods. But finding the envoys unyielding, Kuei-liang sought to forestall any possible audiences by asking that the texts of the treaties be ratified, not in the capital, but at Shanghai. He warned Frederick Bruce (see under ), the British minister, that the Taku area was fortified and that since Tientsin was not a treaty port, China had the right to resist any attempt to force a passage. However, Bruce belittled the warning and with a fleet of British and French ships sailed to Taku. When told to land at Pei-t'ang, a smaller port north of Taku, he refused and attacked the Taku forts (June 25, 1859). After being repulsed (see under ), the British and French envoys returned to Shanghai to prepare for further military action.

After this repulse the American minister, John ElliotElliott [sic] Ward 華若翰 (1814–1902), and his retinue, including S. Wells Williams and W. A. P. Martin, landed at Pei-t'ang. They were conducted to the capital by and were quartered in a residence which had previously belonged to Sai-shang-a (see under ). On July 30 Ward had his first interview with Kuei-liang who had by that time returned from Shanghai. Eleven days later Kuei-liang received the letter from President Buchanan to the emperor and transmitted it to the throne. On August 16 the texts of the American treaty of 1858 were exchanged at Pei-t'ang, whereupon the Americans returned to Shanghai.

On August 1, 1860 the British and French allies again landed at Pei-t'ang and twenty days later took the Taku forts. As the allies reached Tientsin Kuei-liang was again sent there as negotiator. He was joined by the governor-general, Hêng-fu 恆福 (posthumous name 恭勤 d. 1862), and the director of Imperial Armory, Hêng-ch'i (see under ), to open negotiations. They consented to every demand of the allies, and yet those allies refused for a long time to recognize them on the pretext that there had been no edict giving the Chinese commissioners plenipotentiary powers. The emperor, too, reprimanded them for being too timorous. As the British advanced northward, Kuei-liang returned to Tungchow and then to Peking. The task of negotiating with the foreigners was first entrusted to Tsai-yüan (see under ) and later to I-hsin. After the emperor had fled to Jehol, Kuei-liang was named one of the commissioners to conduct national affairs at Peking. He and assisted I-hsin in the negotiations with the victorious allies—finally concluding the treaties of Peking (see under 429