Imatges de pàgina
PDF
EPUB

VASSAL STATES.

503

undoubtedly a vassal state of China, for it was the dependency of the Annam ruler who sought investiture at the hands of the occupant of the Dragon Throne. It was also in close proximity to the thickly populated region of China dependent on Canton, whereas, on the other hand, Kuldja, although for a century an actual possession of the Empire, was situated by a distance of nearly two thousand miles from any centre of population in China. There was far more ground for China to stand firm in the matter of Tonquin than there was in that of Kuldja, and the excellent defence made by the Black Flags should have encouraged the Chinese to cooperate with them in holding what was known to be an avenue of approach to south-west China. But from the very beginning of the difficulty the authorities at Pekin and Li Hung Chang in particular, had let it be seen that they attached no value to the suzerain claim over Tonquin, and that they had no intention of fighting for it. The Marquis Tseng took, indeed, a higher tone, and would have struggled to achieve in France a similar diplomatic victory to that he had won in Russia, but his Government would not support him. The consequence was that, at the very moment when the view was beginning to prevail, through the complete recovery of Central Asia, that the Chinese were firm in their intentions, the clearest evidence was furnished by their own acts that they had no definite policy, and that their shadowy claims in many parts of Asia were not likely to be invested with substance by the timid and irresolute rulers at Pekin. What had happened with regard to Tonquin was obviously inevitable in the case of the other tributaries, as soon as they became objects coveted by other Powers.

CHAPTER XXI.

THE REIGN OF KWANGSU.

A FEW months after the signature of the treaty of St. Petersburg one of the two Regent Empresses died. This was the Empress Tsi Thsi, the principal widow of the Emperor Hienfung, and the nominal senior of the two ladies carrying on the government. Her illness was short and sudden, being due to heart disease; and when she died, on the 18th of April, 1881, she was only forty-five years of age. Her more capable and ambitious colleague, the Empress Tsi An, who was, however, only the concubine of the Emperor Hienfung, survived to carry on the administration; and she has been throughout, and still remains, the most powerful personage in China. Of her it will be simplest hereafter to speak as the Empress Dowager, and her form passes continually across the stage of Chinese affairs, even if shrouded in darkness, since the formal assumption of reigning authority by Kwangsu.

Closely associated with the Empresses since the death of Hienfung, and also more especially in the events following the nomination of Kwangsu, was Prince Kung, brother of the one and uncle of the other. He was a man of good sense and considerable ability, and of a patriotism beyond challenge. He was generally supposed to be the most powerful member of the administration, but how erroneous this supposition was was shown in a public and unmistakable manner by the following occurrence. Reference has already been made to a warning administered by the two Empresses to Prince Kung, in an early stage of their partnership; but on that occasion the reinstatement of the Prince within a very short period

THE EMPRESS DOWAGER.

505

of his fall had pointed to the conclusion that he was the most powerful of the partners. This supposition was erroneous, and the mishap that befell the prince in July, 1884, furnished clear proof as to where the centre of power really lay. At the very moment of his greatest security, when, as President of the Tsungli Yamen, he posed as the virtual director of China's foreign policy, an imperial edict appeared, dismissing him from all his offices, and consigning him to a position of obscurity, in which he remained for eleven years. The causes of his fall were simply that he opposed the wishes of an autocratic lady who was determined to leave no one in doubt as to who was the ruler of the realm. He yielded the more rapidly, perhaps, because his more energetic brother Prince Chun, the father of the young Emperor, was ready and eager even to take his place. The Empress Dowager found in him and in Li Hung Chang allies willing and able to second her objects.

Prince Chun, whose name was mentioned at the time of the accession of Tungche, was a prince of considerable ardour and energy, anxious to play a great part, and not content with the ornamental position of father to the Emperor. He was also the recognized leader of the Chauvinist party; and, notwithstanding that it is forbidden by the fundamental laws of China for a father to serve under a son, he took an active part in the government, as President of the Board of National Defence, and as commander of the Pekin Field Force. There is no saying to what heights his ambition. might not have led him, if his career had not been cut short by a sudden death in January, 1891. He possessed one rare quality among the directors of Chinese policy, a high courage, and in that way alone he might on important occasions have stiffened the purpose of his government.

The loss of Prince Chun was not the only one that befell China at this time. A few months earlier the Marquis Tseng, whose birth and European experience gave him an unique position among Chinese officials, died in the prime of his life, and at a moment when he seemed destined to be the regenerator of his country. He was closely allied with Prince Chun, and their combined influence would have been superior to

that of Li Hung Chang, whose timidity deprived his counsel of most of its value. As the eldest son of Tseng Kwofan, the satrap who had triumphed over the Taepings, and who might have set up a new dynasty if he had been so disposed, the Marquis Tseng enjoyed an exceptional position in China. It was said at one time that all the viceroys and provincial governors of China were nominees of Tseng Kwofan, and among these were the well-known Li Hung Chang, Tso Tsung Tang, and his own brother Tseng Kwo Tsiuen. The Marquis had also seen with his own eyes the marvels of Europe, and he had made a considerable reputation as a diplomatist. He was specially impressed with the importance of a navy, and on his return to China he took a prominent part in the work of the Navy Board. Unfortunately for his country, his career was prematurely cut short in April, 1890. The death of these men did not produce the recall of Prince Kung, and facilitated the retention of supreme power by the Empress Dowager. It is said that there is a secret and sinister history for these events, and for the strangely accommodating manner in which one obstacle after another was removed from the path of this emulator of the Empresses Liuchi of the Hans and Kiachi of the Later Tsins.

The mention of the diplomatic services of the Marquis Tseng justifies the insertion here of the most important negotiation concluded in his time between England and China. We refer to the new arrangement on the subject of opium, with regard to the collection of lekin, made in 1885, while Lord Salisbury was in office. The levy of the lekin, or barrier tax, on opium had led to many exactions in the interior which were equally injurious to the foreign trade, and also to the Chinese Government, in that it never received the dues to which it was entitled. Its effective control over the customs dues did not go beyond the ports, and the local authorities pocketed or wasted the large sums they appropriated at the entrance of their respective jurisdictions. After the subject had been thoroughly discussed in all its bearings, a Convention was signed in London on the 19th of July, 1885, by which the lekin was fixed at eighty taels a chest, in addition to the customs duty of thirty taels; and also arranging that

SIR ROBERT HART.

507 the whole of this sum should be paid in the Treaty Port before the opium was taken out of bond. The arrangement was greatly to the advantage of the Chinese Government, which came into possession of a large money revenue that had previously been frittered away in the provinces, and much of which had gone into the pockets of the officials. In connection with the customs of China it is impossible to pass on without a tribute to the services which Sir Robert Hart has rendered China during a period of forty years as InspectorGeneral. To his efforts the Pekin Government owes the large and increasing cash revenue which by more skilful management would have sufficed to firmly re-establish its power. The services Sir Robert Hart has rendered his own country during this long period have been scarcely less striking, and on the premature death of Sir Henry Parkes he was gazetted his successor in the post of British Minister Plenipotentiary at Pekin. For weighty reasons not unconnected with the development of Russian policy in China, he at once gave up his new post of Minister, and reverted to the old office of Inspector-General, which he still retains.

As the London Convention related to opium, it may be as well to make a parting reference to that much-debated article. This Convention, the text of which was drawn with such special care that it serves as a model for all Chinese drafts at the Foreign Office, was a further and final blow at the old theory that opium was forced upon the Chinese. Even Li Hung Chang, a master in the art of dissimulation, could no longer assert his old view that the opium traffic was iniquitous and the sole cause of disagreement between China and England. But the Convention did not stand alone as a piece of evidence on the subject of the true views of the Chinese Government about opium. In 1890 the Emperor of China issued an Edict legalizing the cultivation of opium in China, which, although practically carried on, and to such an extent in some provinces that it was the staple crop, was none the less an illegal practice punishable by severe penalties, including mutilation. The immediate consequence of this step was that the area under poppy cultivation in China largely increased. The great province or region of Manchuria

« AnteriorContinua »