Page:Twentieth Century Impressions of Hongkong, Shanghai, and other Treaty Ports of China.djvu/74

66 similar character was perpetrated at Tsingpu, a town about 30 miles distant from Shanghai. A party of missionaries, three in number, left the British settlement one day in March, 1848, with the intention of conducting their proselytising work at the town. On arrival they commenced to distribute their tracts when they were molested by a party of rowdies. Soon the attack developed into a serious one and the missionaries thought it wise to take to flight. They did so, but were pursued and captured, and were then subjected to severe maltreatment. The officials and respectable classes finally rescued them from their dangerous position and they were helped back to Shanghai, sorely wounded and with the loss of all their possessions. Mr. Alcock on hearing of the occurrence sent a war vessel with the Vice-Consul, and Mr. Harry Parkes as interpreter on board, to Nanking to demand satisfaction. Meanwhile, an embargo was laid upon the sailing of the rice boats. Li, the Viceroy, on being interviewed, proved most anxious to settle the matter amicably. He gave orders for the removal of the Intendant of Soochow, and appointed another official with special instructions to inquire into the incident. Later, ten men implicated in the outrage were punished with flogging, the cangue and banishment. In this way what had threatened to be a very tiresome and protracted business was concluded to the complete satisfaction of the British community.

If the spirit shown by the officials on this occasion had been manifested in the south no further rupture would probably have occurred, at all events for a good many years. But Canton would not have been Canton if it did not do its best to embitter the relations between the native and the foreign elements. It will be recalled that one of the conditions wrung from Keying by Sir John Davis in 1847, was that the gates of Canton should be opened to British subjects on April 6, 1849. As the day approached for the carrying out of this clause in the agreement it became evident that the population were bitterly opposed to any concession of the kind. There was no desire on the part of the British to carry matters to extremes, and when the Emperor's decree arrived expressing his opposition to any attempt to force the populace to receive foreigners into the city against their will, it was deemed expedient to acquiesce in the imperial decision. After this there was a brief lull, but the atrocious murder of the Portuguese Governor of Macao in 1850 proved that the Chinese spirit of antagonism to foreigners was as potent for evil as ever. The outrage was a peculiarly dastardly one, and it was committed under circumstances which left little doubt as to the complicity of the Chinese officials. M. Amaral, the unfortunate victim, desirous of restoring the prestige of his country, had introduced several changes in the administration. He did nothing that was not in keeping with the spirit of the recently concluded agreement, but the Canton authorities were greatly incensed at his action and made up their minds to compass his death. Placards at their instigation were issued, inflaming the native populace against him, and in other ways the path was prepared for the crime. The blow was struck swiftly and remorselessly. M. Amaral when riding out one day, accompanied only by one officer, was attacked, on the outskirts of the town, by a party of ruffians who lay in ambush. He was dragged from his horse and put to death with great cruelty. Afterwards his head was cut off and sent to Canton as a trophy. There it was received with every manifestation of delight. Su, the Governor-General of the province, in communicating the fact of the assassination to the Emperor, said that the barbarian's crimes merited public punishment of the most fearful kind, but that it had pleased the gods to interfere and make an example of him, by allowing his death at the hands of some men who had private injuries to avenge. To throw dust in the eyes of the Portuguese, the same official caused a criminal to be decapitated, and sent his head, with that of the Portuguese Governor, to Macao, with an intimation that the crime had been avenged by the execution of the principal murderer. The Portuguese declined to accept this as adequate reparation, and reinforcements were summoned from Lisbon, to impress upon the Canton officials a sense of the infamy of the outrage that had been committed. After months of negotiation several of the real criminals were captured and executed. A number of other men implicated in the crime had met their deserts previously at the hands of British forces engaged in suppressing piracy in the Canton Estuary.

The death of the Emperor Taoukwang on February 12, 1850, gave a new turn to the course of events in China. The old despot's declining days were dogged with misfortune, and he left to his successor, Hienfung, a legacy of internal trouble and international complications which was to shake the imperial power to its foundations. Hienfung was only a young man of nineteen when he ascended the throne, and his impressionable mind seems to have fallen under the spell of those of the imperial counsellors who were inimical to foreigners. One of his first acts was to disgrace Keying and another Mandarin who had shown in their official career some leaning towards the British. Whether intended as an indication of hostile policy or not the action taken was interpreted in that sense by the great majority of Chinese officials, and indications were soon forthcoming of the change in sentiment. At Foochow difficulties were raised against the British residing in the city, on the ground previously taken up that the concession of trading facilities referred not to the city but to the landing place at the mouth of the river. Lin, the old enemy of the British, was in residence at this time in the vicinity of Foochow, and it was suspected, not probably without reason, that he had a hand in fomenting the agitation which arose on this question. Whatever the truth may have been on that point, the ebullition was thoroughly in keeping with the sentiments which had always inspired him. Moreover, the selection of ground for the dispute showed the mark of his cunning hand; for the British were undoubtedly in the wrong in their interpretation of the terms of the concession. The Treaty conferred permission to the British to reside in the Kiang-Kan, or mart at the mouth of the river, but not in the ching or town. Upon this fact being borne in upon them the British officials withdrew their pretensions, leaving the question open for adjustment afterwards as opportunity might offer.

Hienfung's antagonism to foreigners was peculiarly ill-timed in the circumstances in which he commenced his reign. Throughout the vast limits of his empire there was discontent and unrest. The formidable secret organisation known as the Triads had raised the standard of rebellion in alarming fashion in Kwangsi. In vast bands they ravaged the country, laid siege to towns, and fought pitched battles with imperial troops. The imperial authorities were powerless to make any real headway against the movement. The small advantages gained were more than counterbalanced by crushing defeats. At length the rebels had the audacity to put forward their chief, Tien Wang, as a rival for the imperial throne itself. Tien Wang was a man of low birth and inferior educational attainments, but he had unquestionable genius as a leader, and the common people, impressed by his successes, pinned their faith in his destiny with remarkable devotion. He justified the popular confidence reposed in him after his assumption of royal rank by carrying in the early part of the year 1851