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Rh essential incompatibility of British and Chinese aims in the Far East.

On the return of Sir G. Bonham, Dr. Bowring, instead of resuming his duties at Canton, went on furlough (February 16, 1853) and returned by way of Java to England. There he secured for himself the long coveted appointment to the double office of H.M. Plenipotentiary in China and Governor of Hongkong. On December 24, 1853, he was created by Her Majesty a Knight Bachelor and a warrant issued which, while making provision for the eventual separation of the office of Chief-Superintendent of Trade from the Governorship of Hongkong, appointed Sir John Bowring to be H.M. Plenipotentiary and Chief -Superintendent of Trade, as well as Governor of Hongkong and its Dependencies and Commander-in-Chief and Vice-Admiral of the same. When Sir John received (February 13, 1854) his instructions under this warrant, and found himself also authorized to arrange for a commercial treaty with Siam, he felt his greatness overpowering him. 'To China I went,' says Sir John, 'as the representative of the Queen, and was accredited not to Peking alone but to Japan, Siam, China and Corea, I believe to a greater number of beings (indeed no less than a third of the race of man) than any individual had been accredited before.' Thus, bearing his blushing honours thick upon him, he sailed to China with the sound of glory ringing in his ears.

When he arrived in Hongkong (April 13, 1854), where he had Colonel W. Caine for his Lieutenant-Governor and the Hon. W. T. Mercer for his Colonial Secretary, he found the community contented and the Civil Service still free from any dissension. The residents were certainly not enamoured with their new Governor but, though they attributed to him an inordinate anxiety for self-glorification, humorously saying that he had come back big with the fate of China and himself, there was no ill-will against him. Stirring times were certainly approaching.

Within a fortnight of his arrival in Hongkong, Sir John received the news of the declaration of war (March 28, 1854)