TSENG KWOFAN.

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of age, short, rather fat, with a very Chinese face, and with

black beard and moustache.

He dressed in the poorest clothes, and keeps no state. He is generous, fair, and honest, and may be said to be patriotic. He is greatly liked by all Chinese."

The suppression of the Taeping rebellion was a relief to the Empire, and a mercy to the wretched and long-suffering people of Central China. It ensured the permanent fame of Major Gordon and the Ever-Victorious Army. The more critically this campaign is considered, the more remarkable does Chinese Gordon's success appear. Had he been an unscrupulous adventurer bent on personal aggrandisement, whether in the cause of the Pekin ruler or of the Nankin rebel, his achievements would have been the less surprising, as he would have had the members of his force heartily with him, and as he could have easily recruited it from the rowdy European population of Shanghai. But his victories were obtained in the cause of order and for the sake of a suffering people. Each of them was a blow levelled at the realization of the scheme that had passed through the brains of Burgevine and the other idlers of the treaty-ports. He fought not for himself, nor for any love of empty fame or reputation. He only saw that the opportunity was afforded him of doing a great and sterling service to humanity and to his own Government. He also realized the innate selfrespect and many other virtues of the Chinese people. He perceived that their improvement must and would come from within, and not from without. His courage, his energy, his uprightness, all impressed the Chinese with a sense of the grandeur of his character, as they had never been impressed before by any other European, and as probably they never will be again. Even after his defeats at Waisso and Changchow their faith in him never wavered for an instant. Those defeats were accidents, which they never doubted would be promptly retrieved. Li Hung Chang had at first regarded him with suspicion. He saw in him a possible rival, a more capable executor of the policy which Burgevine had contemplated. Time was needed to reveal to him the consistent simplicity of a character which even to his own countrymen

was almost unintelligible. With much of the temper and energy of Cromwell, Gordon has given the brightest example, in the annals of either his own country or of China, of what, to use the words of one of his lieutenants, the Christian soldier ought to be.*

* The following is the Imperial decree issued on his receiving the Yellow Jacket-an order, said Li Hung Chang, instituted by Kanghi for victorious generals on the occasion of the suppression of Wou Sankwei's revolt :-"On the representation of the assistance rendered by Gordon, Temporary Tsungping of Kiangsu, in the recapture of Changchow, we decreed him the rank of Titu (Field Marshal), Standards of Honour, and a Decoration as especial marks of distinction, and directed that Li should memorialize again when he had arranged the affairs of the Force. We have now received a memorial from Li that he has done this in a most admirable manner and requesting some further mark of our favour. It appears that last spring Gordon, conjointly with Imperial Forces, recaptured Fushan and relieved Chanzu, that he subsequently recaptured the Chow city of Taitsung, the district cities of Quinsan and Wukiang, and the provincial city of Soochow; that this year he has recaptured Thsing and Piaoyang, driven back the rebels who had broken out from Yanchow, and recaptured the Fu city of Changchow, for which services we have at various times decreed him honours. He has now arranged the affairs of the Ever-Victorious Force in an admirable manner. His services are of long standing, and the benefits arising from them are abiding; he has throughout behaved as a gallant soldier, and shown himself to have duly appreciated the importance of friendly relations between Chinese and foreigners, and we therefore decree that in addition to his present honours he be honoured with the Yellow Jacket and peacock's feathers, and that four Titu's full-dress uniforms be presented him as a mark of the affection and honour with which he is regarded. Respect this." In a letter written home at the time the recipent of these honours said characteristically: "Some of the buttons on the mandarin hats are very valuable. I am sorry for it, as they cannot afford it over well. It is, at any rate, very civil of them." During the campaign Gordon carried only a cane, called by the Chinese his "wand of victory."

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CHAPTER XVI.

THE DEATH OF HIENFUNG AND THE ACCESSION OF

TUNGCHE.

THE Emperor Hienfung did not long survive the establishment of formal intercourse with the foreign Governments. While his brother, Prince Kung, was engaged in the delicate task of arranging the affairs of the Tsungli Yamen, and the still more difficult operation of showing that China had abandoned all intention of lagging behind the rest of the world, the Emperor himself continued to remain at Jehol, whither he had fled in the first moment of alarm on the approach of the foreign armies to Yuen Min Yuen. He refused to so much as return to Pekin, and to witness the presence of those Europeans who detracted, as he considered, from his dignity. Had it been possible, there is no question that he would have sought a remedy for the evil by commanding the removal of the capital; but the transfer of the Imperial residence to any city in the south was not only at that particular moment impossible on account of the rebellion, but always to be deprecated on dynastic grounds as tending to destroy the individual character of the Tartar regime. For a moment there seemed an inclination to entertain the idea that Jehol itself might be transformed into a capital, but this hope, if it was ever seriously cherished, had to be abandoned as chimerical. Hienfung's absence affected the prosperity of the Pekinese; it could not deprive their city of its natural position as the northern metropolis.

The following facts should be recollected in connection with the first diplomatic relations of China with foreign

Powers. The Tsungli Yamen, or board of foreign affairs, was formed in January, 1861. On the 22nd of March in the same year Mr. Bruce left Tientsin to take up his residence at Pekin with Mr. Thomas Wade as Secretary of Legation. The quarters of the English ministry had been fixed at the palace of the Duke of Leang, a scion of the Imperial family (Leangkung-foo). This building is let "in perpetuity to the English authorities for 1500 taels a year. Soon after their instalment a staff of six student interpreters was brought out from England.

Hienfung showed his personal dislike to the new arrangement in more ways than by absenting himself from the capital. He collected round his person the most bigoted men of his court and family. He preferred those who had learnt nothing from recent events, and who, without even the courage of resistance, wished to claim undiminished privilege and superiority. Prominent among his closest friends was Tsai, Prince of I, who had taken so discreditable a part in the incidents that had culminated at Tungchow and Chanchiawan. With him were associated several members of the Imperial family, men of passion and prejudice. They undoubtedly meditated the recovery, at the earliest possible moment, of what they considered to be their right. No respect of treaties would restrain them from reasserting, as soon as they believed they had the power, claims which the Emperor had by treaty surrendered. The hopeful anticipation of the arrival of that time formed the one source of solace at Jehol, and the still youthful ruler easily allowed himself to forget, in the midst of his sycophants, the brother who was making such laudable efforts to maintain the dignity of the Empire in the eyes of the foreigners, and at the same time to restore domestic peace to his distracted country. The protracted residence of the Emperor at Jehol was a circumstance that could not have been permanently tolerated. It was deprecated as much by the numerous members of the Imperial family as by the citizens of Pekin. These enjoyed a regular allowance from the Palace. The continued absence of the Emperor interfered with its receipt, and reduced them to great want. It meant practically an abnegation of authority.

The conduct of official intercourse went on in the most amicable manner between Mr. Bruce and the other foreign representatives on the one hand, and Prince Kung, assisted by his able coadjutor the Manchu Wansiang, on the other. The utmost that Hienfung himself would do was to listen to all the information he could procure about the English and their country, but the study was so far calculated to increase his fear and distrust, for he rose from it with the one conviction impressed on his mind that "the English were always at war, or preparing to go to war with some one." While the relations at the capital were becoming more and more cordial, the Chinese ruler himself was disposed to brood over his injuries and to allow his suspicions to become intensified. In this he was encouraged by men like Prince Tsai, who could only hope for prominence by alienating the Emperor from the cause of progress as represented by Prince Kung. Their success was by no means inconsiderable, but the ill-health of Hienfung interfered with and ultimately thwarted their plans.

The English Minister had not been installed in his residence more than a fortnight when there came rumours of the serious illness of the Emperor. It was given out in a curious document that his doctors had declared his case to be hopeless, and that, even if he promptly abandoned some pernicious habits which he had contracted, he could not hope to live beyond a period of six months. All the available evidence went to show that, having moreover such little inducement to do so, he did not change his mode of life, but the greatest reticence was observed with regard to all his movements and his state of health. The summer months passed away without any decisive intelligence as to what was happening at Jehol, although rumours as to the gravity of Hienfung's complaint became so plentiful that a statement was even circulated and believed that his death had actually taken place. A comet appeared in the sky and was visible for several weeks, strengthening the belief of the superstitious in a coming change, and inclining men to believe more readily the statement that the great Emperor was about to go the long journey.

"When beggars die there are no comets seen,

The heavens themselves blaze forth the death of princes." VOL. II.

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