Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 04.djvu/753

* CHINESE EMPIRE. 655 CHINESE EMPIKE. the edicts had never been enforced. Chinese officials connived at the trade, the homj mer- chants found it proiitablc. and the English Gov- ernment refused to suppress it. In 1837 the Chinese (Jovemment decided to carry out its decrees, and a governor. Lin. was sent to Canton in lSo9 for that purpose. Lin called upon the hoiui merchants and others to surrender the opium in their possession. KUiott. the British superintendent of trade, secured all the opium in the hands of British subjects and turned it over to the Chinese (iovcrnor; but he refused to sign a bond which would have made all vessels thereafter engaging in the traffic subje<>t to con- fiscation, and persons connected therewith pun- ishable with death. The reluctance of the Brit- ish Ciovernnu'nt to interfere with a trade that was worth from .$5,000,000 to $8,000,000 annu- ally to the Government of British India made all efforts to avoid war unavailing, and hostilities were opened at the beginning of 1840. .iter the British had captured several ports, taken Ching- kiang in a bloody assault, and threatened Nan- king, a treaty was made at the latter city by which the five ports. Canton. Amoy. Fu-ehow, Ning-po, and Shanghai, were opened to British trade; a war indemnity of .$21,000,000 was ex- acted; the island of Hong Kong was ceded to England; a regular customs tariff was estab- lished at the open ports; and in consideration of a transit duty to l)e levied in addition, goods were given free conveyance to all places in China. The opium question was not touched upon. This first commercial treaty entered into officially by China aroused great interest in Europe and America. An embassy from the United States, headed by Caleb Cushing, negotiated a similar treaty in 1844, and a treaty with France was concluded the same j'ear. British trade grew rapidly after the treaty, the terms of which China persistently sought to evade. In 1856 a Chinese lorcha, the Arroic, was seized by Chi- nese officials for alleged piracy, whereupon the owTiers ran up the English tlag and claimed that the Arrou- was an English boat. Thereupon England's representative in China, Sir .John Bow- ring, made an imperative demand upon China for restitution and an apology to the British Government. His demands, though unwarranted by the facts in the case, were all met by China, except that for an apology. This the Chinese officials refused to make, and the complications arising from the incident brought on a new war in the autumn of 1856. France had an old com- plaint against China for the murder of some missionaries, and joined England in 1857. The war closed temporarily in 1858, with the Treaty of Tientsin. England and France were to have ministers at the Chinese Court, at least on spe- cial occasions, and China was to be represented at London and Paris. Christianity was to be tolerated in China. A certain measure of free- dom of access to Chinese rivers for English and French merchant vessels, and to the interior of China for subjects of the contracting powers, was guaranteed. China was to pay the expenses of the war, and the term 'barbarian' was no longer to !«.• applied to Europeans in China. Two years later it became necessary to renew the war to secure a ratification of the treaty by the Imperial Government, and this was only obtained when the allied armies held Peking at their mercy. At the time of the conclusion of the Treaty of Tien-tsin with England and France, China signed a treaty with llussia, in which she ceded the .Vmur territory to that power. Meanwhile, in 1850, there had broken out in southern China a formidable insurrection, which did not fail to affect the foreign relations of the ccuintry. This was the Tai-ping Uebellion, as it w:us known outside. My the Chinese it was called the 'War of the Long-haired Rebels.' A school- master named liungsiu-tseuen had become i)OS- sessed of a religious enthusiasm through the writings of some Protestant converts, and had set up a propaganda to overthrow Confucianism and bring China to the worship of the true God. His followers were knowii as 'God-worshipers.' They soon allied themselves with lawless bands of rebels against the Government. Their leader assumed the title of Tien Wang, or 'Heavenly King,' ;ind established himself as a ruler in Nan- king, where he lived a life of cruelty, license, and tvraniiy. The dvnasty which he intended to found was named the Ping Chao, or 'peace dynasty,' which, with the prefix Tai ('great'), gave the popular foreign name to the rebellion. In the early part of 1853 the rebels had become masters of Wu-chang and Nanking, which latter place became their capital. In 1800 the treaty port of Shanghai was threatened by the Tai-pings, who thus came into collision with the Western powers. A small army, raised at the expense of the Shanghai merchants and maintained by the imperial Government, was created. It was named the Ever-Victorious Army, and was organ- ized and led by an American, Ward, who showed great ability, but died before much had been ac- complished. His successor, Burgevine. also an American, was promptly dismissed, and the army remained under the command of an Englishman, Holland, until he was defeated at Tai-tsan, Feb- ruary 22, 1803. Li Hung Chang, then Governor- General of the Kiang Provinces, applied for an English officer, and Charles George Gordon was authorized to enter the Chinese service. He brought the little army of 3000 or 4000 men to a discipline and steadiness that enabled him to jicrform wonders with it. At the same time the French forces gave effective aid to the Imperial- ists. In July, 1804. the Imperialists took Nan- king, and the rebellion was practicall}' stamped out, although desultory warfare still continued for a time. Bad faith shown by Li in dealing with the defeated rebels led Gordon to refuse to serve longer in connection with him ; he refused all rewards from the Emperor, but completed the overthrow of the rebels. See Gobdon, Ch.^rles Georoe. The United States had watched with deep in- terest the progress of the second Anglo-Chi- nese War. and President Buchanan sent Wil- liam B. Reed to follow the course of events and to mediate on behalf of this Govern- ment if that should he possible. In its friendly attitude this country was supported by Russia. The efforts of Mr. Reed resulted in a new treaty between the United States and China, negotiated on June 18. 1858. Tliis was a treaty of amity and commerce under which the United States Government guaranteed that no American ves- sels should engage in contraband trade with r'hina. The T^nited States Minister to China from 18(11 to 18fl7. Anson Burlingame. was so successful in winning the confidence of the Chi- nese administration, then in progressive hands.