Page:Twentieth Century Impressions of Hongkong, Shanghai, and other Treaty Ports of China.djvu/79

Rh against the adoption of a course which would extend the area of operations. The contention was that the quarrel was with Yeh and that it should be dealt with at Canton. It was impossible to gainsay the force of these views, so Lord Elgin decided to drop his project for the time being and await the course of events with as much equanimity as he could. In order that he might be fully acquainted with the intentions of the Indian Government as regarded the troops diverted from China to the peninsula, he paid a flying visit to Calcutta. What he learned on the way about the gravity of the position induced him to take with him seventeen hundred additional troops which were on the way out to China. These reinforcements were of incalculable value to India, but their despatch destroyed any lingering expectations that the envoy entertained of being able immediately to prosecute a vigorous diplomacy in China. Returning to Hongkong in September, he found, however, that preparations were in active progress for the expedition to Canton, whenever it should be made. The time for action came with the close of the year. By that period the authorities had completed their military arrangements. Their position, furthermore, had been strengthened by the conclusion by the Home Government with the French authorities of a working agreement by which it was arranged that the two powers should jointly prosecute the demand for redress for outrages committed and for freedom of diplomatic intercourse. Altogether a force of six thousand, including nine hundred French, was available for the important business in hand.

The opening step of the war was the transmission on the 12th of December to Yeh of a communication from Lord Elgin informing him of the nature of his mission, and especially demanding the complete execution at Canton of all treaty engagements and compensation to British subjects for injuries and losses incurred in the recent disturbances. Yeh replied in a discursive letter, in which he sought to justify argumentatively the position he had taken up. He suggested, it would seem ironically, that trade relations should be renewed on the basis of each party paying for its own losses. It was obvious from the tenour of the communication that Yeh was still unrepentant. In the circumstances it was decided that Sir Michael Seymour should occupy that portion of the island of Honan which faces Canton. The move was expeditiously carried out on the 15th of December without opposition. Afterwards the main body of troops was brought up the river from Hongkong. By Christmas Day everything was in readiness for the assault. But a chance was given to Yeh to reconsider his position before a shot was fired. He was allowed forty-eight hours to think the matter over, or, if he intended to undertake hostilities, to provide time for the peaceable population to evacuate the city. Whether Yeh did give any serious attention to the ultimatum is not clear. Probably, having found himself in a most difficult position with certain ruin and probably death before him if he assented to the foreigners' demands, and possible defeat and disaster if he held out, he thought it better to leave the matter to the decision of fate. However that may be, he made no sort of reply to the joint British and French declaration. On the 28th of December, therefore, the bombardment commenced in earnest, the fire being directed to a position known as Lin's Fort, on the east side, which offered the most feasible line of advance. After half an hour's firing the Chinese gunners fled, and the fort was soon afterwards destroyed by the accidental firing of its magazine. Under cover of the guns the troops advanced to the walls of the city, which were assailed from three different points. They were met with a rather feeble resistance, and within an hour and a half of the commencement of the attack the city was in the possession of the allied forces. Meanwhile, another portion of the expeditionary force had captured the fort on Magazine Hill, which is a highly important strategic position as it commands the other eminences about the city. From this centre the Chinese were bombarded out of their positions in Gough Fort and the surrounding hills. In fact, within a very short period the attacking force were absolute masters of the situation. Yeh still was not conquered. Installed in his yamen, in the portion of the city which had not yet been occupied, he issued fiery edicts proscribing citizens who were supposed to have leanings towards the foreigners and made lavish promises of rewards to all who would bring him the heads of foreigners. His course, however, by this time was nearly run. On the 5th of January a move was made with the object of bearding the lion in his den. Some difficulty was at first experienced in discovering his lair. The official quarter, containing the residences of Yeh and Pihkwei, the Governor, was captured, and with it a considerable amount of treasure, but Yeh was unfortunately "not at home." By dint of assiduous inquiries Mr. (afterwards Sir Harry) Parkes obtained information as to the Commissioner's movements, and he was finally tracked down in a yamen in the south-west part of the city. He had made every arrangement tor flight, and was about to escape over a wall in the rear of the premises when the guard of sailors under Captain (afterwards Sir Astley Cooper) Key which had accompanied Mr. Parkes, seized him. Yeh, we are told by one of the British present, exhibited great self-possession, and remained perfectly quiet while his boxes, of which the room was full, were opened and examined for papers. The fact that he had been previously assured that his life was safe possibly accounted in some degree for his equanimity, but, even so, his bearing was markedly indifferent, having regard to all that his capture implied to him personally. The only time he seems to have lost his imperturbability was as he was being taken through the streets to the British ship, which was to be his prison.