Page:The Cornhill magazine (Volume 1).djvu/41

 hesitation in affirming. But the importance of the concession then made was little understood, except by the Chinese, and to it may be attributed the embarrassments which have since entangled our negotiations with China. As the British Government determined to leave the Canton question in a state of abeyance, Sir George Bonham prohibited the Queen's subjects from attempting to enter the city—a prohibition which was taken immediate advantage of by the mandarins, who proclaimed that our right to enter the city had been finally and for ever withdrawn. By the orders of the emperor, who wrote to the high commissioner that he had read "with tears of joy" the report, which showed with what sagacity and courage he had, without the employment of force, thwarted "the seditious demands of the barbarians," six triumphal arches were erected at the various entrances of the city of Canton, to celebrate the wisdom and valour of the authorities; and the names of all the distinguished Cantonese who had contributed to so glorious a consummation were ordered to be inscribed upon the monuments for immortal commemoration, while dignities and honours were showered down upon the principal actors. A grand religious ceremonial, in which all the high authorities took part, was also ordered to be celebrated in the Temple of Potoo, which is dedicated to a foreign deified idol, who is supposed to control the affairs of "Western barbarians." These triumphal arches—magnificently built of granite—were blown up by the Allies after the capture of the city.

It had indeed been long evident that it was the fixed purpose of the Chinese authorities to escape from treaty obligations as soon as they fancied that they were menaced by nothing more than a remote and uncertain danger; the bow returned to its original bent as the tightness of the string was relaxed. It was only while the pressure of our presence was felt that any disposition was shown to respect imperial engagements. The consuls of the United States and of France had at first been received becomingly in Canton, by the viceroy; but, in 1849, on the arrival of Consul Bowring, very subordinate mandarins were appointed to visit him: the imperial commissioner altogether refused any interview at any place. No official reception was therefore given by the high mandarins to the British consular authorities, who were utterly excluded from personal intercourse with them. The stipulation of the treaty that the mandarins should, in conjunction with the foreign authorities, assist in the arrangement of differences between Chinese and British subjects, was absolutely a dead letter; and the obligation on the part of the mandarins to aid officially in the recovery of debts due to foreigners was utterly disregarded, when the Chinese debtor was in a condition to bribe the native functionaries.

The alienation and repulsion which had become the system and the rule of the Chinese authorities, had been productive of consequences most detrimental to their amicable relations with foreigners. Personal intercourse affords the greatest facilities for the arrangement of difficulties; and, even had the correspondence with the mandarins been of the most frank and friendly character, the settlement of all questions would have been