Page:Tseng Kuo Fan and the Taiping Rebellion.djvu/328

Rh that the gentry of the city were the real movers of the riot. In the settlement of the case the local officials did not seem disposed to take action, possibly for fear of the consequences to them. Tsêng appointed the provincial treasurer, Li Ts'ung-i, and two lower officers to settle the matter. In Peking the central government promised to make proper reparations, but the progress of the negotiations proving too slow, gunboats were sent up to Nanking and an ultimatum was served on Tsêng Kuo-fan and one of his steamers was seized — possibly the T'ienchi — whereupon the viceroy made immediate settlement of the case to the satisfaction of the British representative. But Tsêng's reputation was lowered in foreign eyes. Unfortunately the dispatches sent by Tsêng on the matter of the Yangchow riot are not among those published, and only casual references to the negotiations appear in his letters. We are therefore compelled to rely chiefly on unfriendly or at least ex parte foreign sources. In view of Tsêng's attitude towards the settlement of the greater T'ientsin massacre two years later, it is probable that he was simply going cautiously and carefully forward with the case when the ultimatum came, and that he would have done justice here because the wrong was so apparent.