Page:Twentieth Century Impressions of Hongkong, Shanghai, and other Treaty Ports of China.djvu/76

68 CHAPTER XII. Sir John Bowring's Administration—He demands an Interview with the Viceroy Yeh—Refusal to grant a Meeting in Canton—Outrage on the British Lorcha "Arrow"—Sir Michael Seymour bombards Canton—Continuance of Hostilities—Troops requisitioned from England—Lord Elgin appointed Special Envoy—Expeditionary Force sent out but diverted to India to deal with the Mutiny Crisis—Ultimate advance on Canton—Bombardment of the City—Capture and deportation of Yeh—Allied British and French Fleets capture the Taku Forts and enter the Peiho River—Conclusion of the Treaty of Tientsin.

(afterwards Sir John) in 1853 succeeded Sir George Bonham in the chief control of British interests in China. He was a man who had had a remarkable career. In 1832, when travelling in France, he was arrested as a spy. The intimate friend of Jeremy Bentham, and one of the earliest school of philosophical Radicals, he was the first joint editor of the Westminster Review, and wrote largely on political and economic questions. He was employed by the Governments of the day on many important commissions, and in 1841 entered Parliament as a Radical. Six years later he went as Consul to Canton. It was from this post that he was transferred to Hongkong. His instructions, on appointment, were to avoid all irritating discussions with China, and when a new Government came into power in England a short time later the instructions were repeated with emphasis. In strict conformity with them Sir John Bowring (as he became soon after his appointment) sought an early opportunity of entering into friendly communication with the Chinese authorities. The Viceroy Su, in acknowledging his communication, complimented him on his appointment, but begged to be excused a personal interview on the ground that his hands were full of the operations against the rebels. Nothing was done for some little time, Sir John Bowring deeming that he was precluded from pushing the matter by the strict injunctions given to him on appointment and several times repeated. When, however, in the early part of 1854, Lord Clarendon, who had succeeded to the office of Foreign Secretary, addressed him a despatch in which an admission was made of the desirability of securing free and unrestricted intercourse with the Chinese officials and "admission into some of the cities of China, especially Canton," he felt that he might appropriately venture to raise afresh the question of the opening of Canton to the British. The opportunity offered on the appointment of Yeh as Viceroy in succession to Su. Sir John Bowring addressed a communication to the new commissioner notifying his definitive appointment as Governor of Hongkong. Receiving no reply to this he sent a second communication requesting an interview but intimating that such could only take place within the city of Canton at the official residence of the Viceroy. Yeh sent an evasive reply, saying that though he would be pleased to see Sir John Bowring if possible his duties in connection with the management of the military arrangements in the province were such that he could not name a day. The British Governor, not to be put off in this way, sent Mr. Medhurst, his official secretary, to Canton, charged with the duty of fixing an interview with Yeh if such an arrangement could be made. Mr. Medhurst speedily found that his mission would be an abortive one. The Mandarins detailed to meet him were men of inferior rank, and he could get no satisfaction. He gathered, however, that the arrangement made by Keying for the opening of the gates of the city was repudiated by the Viceroy, and that the utmost concession that would be made was that a meeting should take place at the Jinsin Packhouse on the Canton River—a position outside the city limits. Sir John Bowring resolutely declined to entertain this proposal, and finding that Yeh was obdurate he left Hongkong for Shanghai with the view of getting into direct communication with the Peking authorities. On arrival at the northern settlement, he addressed a letter to Eleang, the Viceroy of the Two Kiang, making a complaint of Yeh's discourtesy to him and expressing a desire to negotiate either with him or some other high official of the Empire. Eleang replied in a letter which is a masterpiece of courtly irony. After saying that he could not interfere with Commissioner Yeh, who was a high official specially appointed by the Emperor to conduct the relations with foreigners, he wrote: "I have no means of knowing what kind of treatment your Excellency or your predecessors received at the hands of the Commissioner at Canton. It is, to my mind, a matter of more consequence that we of the central and other