Page:Papers relating to the China war, 1856-58.pdf/319

13 I HAVE had the satisfaction to obtain, and I now inclose, a copy of an Imperial edict issued on the 27th December last, and which forms, as I learn, the latest instructions for the provincial authorities of Keang-soo, Che-keang, and Fuh-keen, relative to the recent hostilities between the British and Chinese at Canton. I shall not have leisure to translate this document in time for the "Bertha," which leaves for Hong Kong this day, and therefore inclose it in the original language; of its genuineness 1 have little or no doubt.

Your Excellency will perceive that the Emperor, basing on memorials of the Imperial Commissioner for Foreign Affairs, Yeh, states, that in consequence of the Canton marine force having seized certain pirates on board of a lorcha, the English barbarian leader, Parkes, availed himself of that circumstance as a pretence, in order to reopen the question of entering the city, and had fired on the walls, and burnt shops and houses; that on the 29th October and the 9th November, two engagements had taken place, in which upwards of 400 of the barbarian banditti had fallen, and a (or the) great naval leader had been killed; and that the Americans, French, and Portuguese, knowing the English to be in the wrong, had refused to assist them.

The Emperor then goes on to assume that the English having had their courage damped by their reverses, might, on finding themselves in this isolated position, be desirous of putting an end to hostilities. In such case the Commissioner Yeh is ordered not to push matters to extremities, but rather to avail himself of his experience and his knowledge of the barbarian nature, to take measures for the re-establishment of peace.

The Emperor next gives orders with reference to the provinces in which the four northern ports open to foreign trade are situated. The coasts of those provinces, viz., Keang-soo, Che-keang, and Fuh-keen, are, the Imperial edict remarks, familiar to the steamers of the said barbarians, and it is possible that when they find their objects unattainable in Kwang-tung, they may proceed to trouble the ports of the above provinces; it is therefore proper that precautionary measures of defence be taken, and the Governors-General and the Governors of the said provinces are accordingly commanded to give secret orders to their subordinate local officers quietly to make defensive preparations. In the event of the barbarian vessels coming to make representations on the subject of the hostilities at Canton, the authorities are commanded to meet them with reasoning and argument.

The edict closes with an injunction not to alarm the people by unnecessary parade in the defensive measures taken.

[The Chinese text was obtained by Mr. Thomas Meadows, Acting Vice-Consul at Ningpo. It does not appear by whom the letter is written, or to whom addressed, but two competent Chinese teachers give it as their opinion that there is nothing in the tone or wording of the document to make them doubt its genuineness. They assume it to have been written by one of the highest authorities of a province to an equal in the same, or an adjoining, jurisdiction, most probably the latter.

Its genuineness admitted, it is to my mind calculated to produce the same impression as the letters of Eleang and Chaou lately received. The quarrel is regarded as local, and it is the desire of the Court that it should continue so, not more for the sake of its dignity than for the security of the Government, which would be menaced by any circumstance seriously agitating the public mind. Yeh is in every way competent to the settlement of the question, but the barbarian must sue for peace, and then of course without any concession he will be allowed to resume his status quo ante bellum. The Imperial Decree, doubtless,