Page:Twentieth Century Impressions of Hongkong, Shanghai, and other Treaty Ports of China.djvu/77

Rh nations have made fair dealing and good faith our rule of conduct, and thus for a length of time preserved entire our amicable relations. Familiarity or otherwise in social intercourse and all such trifles, are, in my opinion, to be decided by the laws of conventionality. As your Excellency cherishes such a dislike to discourteous treatment, you must doubtless be a most courteous man yourself—an inference which gives me sincerest pleasure, for we shall both be able to maintain Treaty stipulations, and continue in the practice of mutual goodwill to your Excellency's everlasting honour." Sir John Bowring let the matter sleep for the best part of a year and then (in June, 1855) prepared an explicit demand for the official reception either of himself or of Mr. Rutherford Alcock, who by this time had been transferred from Shanghai to Canton. Yeh, after taking a month to reply, sent a letter saying that the reception of a consul was out of the question, and that as the Governor himself had refused the meeting outside the city, there was an end of the matter. He added that though the rebel movement had been got well under, he was still largely occupied with military matters. In acknowledging this communication Sir John Bowring intimated that there was little likelihood of British and Chinese relations being put on anything like a satisfactory footing until the city question was satisfactorily settled. Here for the present the controversy ended. Mr. Alcock returned to his old post at Shanghai, and his place at Canton was filled by Mr. (afterwards Sir) Harry Parkes. The altitude of the Cantonese meanwhile, was such as to cause grave anxiety. Following upon a series of minor insults a gross and entirely unprovoked attack was made in 1856 in the outskirts of Canton upon Mr. Berkeley Johnson and Mr. Whittall, two of the leading British merchants. In spite of the indignant remonstrances of Mr. Parkes, the Chinese authorities took no action whatever to punish the offenders. The utmost that they could be induced to do was to secure the withdrawal of an inflammatory placard directed against Europeans.

The deadlock which had been reached might have continued indefinitely had not, as had often happened before, in the history of foreign trade in China, an event occurred which forced matters to an issue. Early in October, 1856, a lorcha, or fast sailing boat, named the Arrow, British owned and commanded, and flying the British flag, while lying at anchor in the Canton River was boarded by a party of Mandarins attended by a substantial escort. In spite of remonstrances the intruders hauled down the British flag and carried off the Chinese crew prisoners. On the circumstances of the incident becoming known to Mr. Parkes he demanded satisfaction for this "very grave insult," and as a preliminary requested that the captured crew should be released. Yeh sent a reply which was a vindication of the proceedings of the officials. His explanation was that one of the crew was a criminal, and that the others were required as witnesses against him. Moreover, he asserted that the Arrow was not a foreign lorcha—a contention which had colourable justification in the fact that through an oversight the boat was not at the time of the affair actually registered at Hongkong, though it was believed that she was so registered, and in any event she was most certainly under British protection. Beyond question the boarding of the boat and the carrying off of her crew was an unwarrantable proceeding, and one which could not possibly be overlooked without grave injury to British prestige.

Failing to obtain redress from Yeh the British authorities decided to institute reprisals. The first step taken was the seizure of a junk believed to be a Chinese Government vessel, by the British Naval Commodore at Canton. When this move had been carried out Mr. Parkes wrote to Yeh telling him what had been done, and reminding him that the question of the Arrow still remained unsettled. The Chinese Commissioner affected to be not in the least moved by the British action. The junk seized, he intimated, was not a Government vessel, and as for the matter in dispute it was where it was, the lorcha not being a British vessel the British had no right to interfere. After waiting a few days for an apology which was not forthcoming it was decided to give an additional turn to the screw with a view to bringing Yeh to a more reasonable frame of mind. To Sir Michael Seymour, the Admiral on the station, was entrusted the task of applying the pressure. This took the form of battering the Barrier forts and dismantling and spiking the guns. The operation was accomplished on the 23rd of October, with the accustomed facility. Proceeding up the river to Canton the British admiral delivered a communication in the nature of an ultimatum informing Yeh that unless he complied at once with every demand made, the British forces would "proceed with the destruction of all the defences and public buildings of this city and of the government vessels in the river." As no reply was vouchsafed to the message Sir Michael Seymour proceeded to dismantle the forts in the vicinity of Canton itself, and having landed a body of marines for the protection of the foreign factories manoeuvred his ships into such a position as to lead to the supposition that he meant to bombard the city. Yeh, so far from being intimidated by the naval menace was only aroused by it to greater fury. He sent a defiant message to the British telling them that the rage of the people who suffered by the operations undertaken would speedily retrieve the injuries that might be inflicted. Meanwhile, he placed a price on the head of every Englishman that might be brought to him. This uncompromising attitude made the adoption of further coercive measures indispensable. For two days the British ships, after due notice had been given to the inhabitants, bombarded those parts of the city in which the Government buildings were situated. Thereafter, a body of marines was landed, and when they had occupied Tsinghai gate, Sir Michael Seymour and Mr. Parkes proceeded to the Viceroy's yamen. This demonstration having been made the positions occupied in the city, which were not easily defensible, were evacuated, and the force was withdrawn either to the ships or to the positions occupied by the river. It was a well-planned and