Imatges de pàgina
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CONTENTS OF VOL. II.

CHAPTER

I. THE REIGN OF KIAKING

II. THE EMPEROR TAOUKWANG

III.

INTERNAL DISSENSIONS

IV. THE GROWTH OF FOREIGN INTERCOURSE

V. THE BEGINNING OF FOREIGN COMPLICATIONS

VI. THE FIRST FOREIGN WAR VII. THE TREATY OF NANKIN

...

VIII. THE LAST YEARS OF TAOUKWANG'S REIGN
IX. THE EARLY YEARS OF HIENFUNG'S REIGN ...

X. THE BEGINNING OF THE TAEPING REBELLION
XI. COMPLICATIONS WITH ENGLAND

XII. THE SECOND ENGLISH WAR

PAGE

I

37

49

64

78

90 134

161

199

211

247

276

XIII. THE PEKIN CAMPAIGN

XIV. THE PROGRESS OF THE TAEPING REBELLION

XV.

CHINESE GORDON'S CAMPAIGNS

TUNGCHE

311

353

383

XVI. THE DEATH OF HIENFUNG AND THE ACCESSION OF

XVII. THE TWO MAHOMEDAN REBELLIONS

XVIII. THE REIGN OF TUNGCHE

415

431

451

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APPENDIX (Treaties of Nankin, Tientsin, St. Petersburg,

Shimonoseki, Chefoo Convention, etc.)...

INDEX OF SUBJECTS

...

549

555

611

203038

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WHEN the aged Keen Lung passed from the hall of audience into the inner chamber of the palace, there were no symptoms that the power of the executive was on the wane, or that his successor would fail to maintain intact the legacy of Manchu authority which he had inherited from three vigorous predecessors. So far as external appearances went, China at the commencement of the present century was at the very height of her prosperity and renown. Never before had her Empire been recognized over a wider surface or by a greater number of subjects; and at no previous period had her Exchequer been so well replenished, or her commerce in a more flourishing condition. The dangers of national prejudice and hostility, which had long threatened to hurl the Tartar dynasty from its seat, were obliterated, or at least thrust out of sight; and to the most critical examination the Celestial Empire presented the appearance of complete unanimity between the ruler and the ruled. Never before, and certainly never since, did the Chinese appear a greater and more powerful people in the eyes of the European traveller than they did when the present century, big with the destiny of mighty things, began to dawn. As Mr. Henry Ellis, one of the commissioners sent under Lord Amherst to China in the year 1816, wrote: "However absurd the pretensions of the Emperor of China may be to universal supremacy, it is impossible to travel through his dominions without feeling

VOL. II.

B

that he has the finest country within an Imperial ring-fence in the world."

The transfer of sovereign power from the hands of one ruler to those of another is always a matter of moment to the tranquillity of the realm as well as to the sentiment of the people. Its importance is immeasurably enhanced when the reign has been one of the exceptional length of the Emperor Keen Lung's; and men who had grown up accustomed to the ways of a staid and virtuous court feared lest his successor might depart from the search of wisdom and pursue that of folly. It is impossible to say how far the new Emperor had shown tastes or habits to give weight to the apprehension, but it does appear as if Keen Lung's favourable opinion of his chosen heir was not shared by some of his most trusted advisers. The prospect of a change in the practices of the court, and in the mode of administration, awakened some mistrust throughout the country, while it excited open dread at the capital. Even under the iron rule of Keen Lung the ambition of individuals, the aggressiveness of neighbours, and the disaffection of subject peoples had not been altogether repressed, and each in its turn had proved a source of trouble and anxiety. The appearance of a new and untried man in the place of power seemed to many to furnish the opportunity of renewing enterprises that had failed under different auspices. The mutable decrees of Fortune might well be expected to show some sign of wavering after a complete cycle of consistent favour.

To these causes, rather than to any gross incapacity on the part of the new Emperor, or to the progress of decay in the system, must be attributed the various disturbances which broke out among the people shortly after Keen Lung's death, and which were aggravated by the dissensions within the reigning house itself. None of these attained any large dimensions or threatened very serious danger, but in China the incentives to insurrection inevitable in any vast country are indefinitely increased by the difficulty of moving troops at any distance from the postal roads and water routes, as well as by the little value placed upon human life. The most prosperous and glorious reigns have not been free from these

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jarring elements; and Kiaking, without his capacity, could not expect to escape the troubles that had beset his father. What wonder, then, that the accession of the new sovereign was followed by outbreaks of disturbance and sedition; although we must refuse to attribute them to any process of natural decay in the Empire, but rather incline to the supposition that they had no distinct meaning, or at the most that they were tentative schemes to test the real power of the executive? The objects at which these disturbers of the general peace aimed were as diverse as the motives of their conduct; and the following incident, which was the originating cause of much of Kiaking's misfortune, will serve to show that the apprehension of personal loss and indignity was not the least important factor in introducing the distractions of civil strife within the borders of his dominions.

Among the ministers of Keen Lung's later years, none had enjoyed the same pre-eminence as Hokwan, or Ho Chung Tong. The favour of his master secured for him a position of such importance that he was not merely the dispenser of his bounty and the director of his political affairs, but he also held the key of his exchequer. The esteem of this Emperor was so great that his confidence in his minister knew no bounds; while the age of the monarch prevented the close supervision of Hokwan's doings that might have been beneficial in his own interests. So long as Keen Lung lived Hokwan was above suspicion and secure against the animad versions of his enemies. But when that monarch died in the last year of the eighteenth century, Hokwan fell upon evil days, and had to bear without support the attack of his numerous enemies. He succumbed to the onset made upon him; but his fall has been too lightly attributed to the greed of Kiaking. If the statement is true that he had amassed eighty millions of taels or twenty-five millions sterling, there scarcely needed clearer testimony of his guilt; and Kiaking, in signing the order for his execution, did nothing more than his duty for so signal a breach of trust. It is true that the Emperor, sorely pressed for money, benefited by this prize; but there seems no reason to question the substantial truth of the official account. There is too general a fancy that the Chinese write their

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