Imatges de pàgina
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they entailed, resulted in a great increase in the expenditure of the Government, and in 1834 the admission was made that there was a considerable deficit. The two Mahomedan risings and "the ugly monkey tricks," as they were officially termed, of the Miaotze, resulted in an excess of expenditure over revenue of not less than thirty million taels, or nearly ten millions sterling. Natural calamities had caused the decline of the revenue at the very moment that a full exchequer was most needed to meet the requirements of warlike operations in several distinct regions.

During these first fifteen years of Taoukwang's reign, the pretensions of the Emperor of China as the great sovereign of the world were preserved intact. During that period all diplomatic intercourse with the Western peoples was broken off; while the frequent embassies from the States of Asia confirmed the appearance of supremacy, and contributed to swell the pride of Taoukwang. Envoys from the tributary States of Burmah, Nepaul, Siam, and Cochin-China arrived in due succession, and resided for the stated period at the capital. The neighbouring potentates carried their grievances for settlement to the foot of the Dragon Throne, and the increasing intercourse with foreigners at Canton was a cause of anxiety within the Imperial Cabinet, rather than the sign of any waning power among the feudatory States. Riots in Szchuen and Kansuh, the revival of piratical efforts on the Canton river, were no more than ordinary occurrences in the life of a vast Empire; and although the introduction of highpriced and greatly prized European articles into the country had entailed the increase of smuggling, the evil was long nothing more than a local nuisance. Up to this point, China had remained undisturbed in a world of her own. The sense of superiority will remain much longer, but the time is now at hand when the Government and the people must be rudely awakened from several of their most cherished opinions. The great foreign question had long been approaching that crisis which has now to be described and considered, and on the settlement of which depended the right of foreign nations to trade and to hold diplomatic intercourse with the Chinese. Up to the year 1834 there was no sign that

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the end of the old order of things was approaching, and when Taoukwang chose, at the close of the year, a new wife to succeed the deceased Empress in her high station, there was no reason to suppose that he was not as lofty and as unapproachable a sovereign as the greatest of his predecessors.

CHAPTER IV.

THE GROWTH OF FOREIGN INTERCOURSE.

THE monopoly of the trade with China had been granted by royal charter to the East India Company, but the term (it expired in April, 1834) of its rights and privileges was approaching at the period which we have now reached, and the question of its renewal, in whole or in part, was the one matter under consideration in Leadenhall Street, as well as with the authorities of Calcutta and the merchants at Canton. But if the subject was of the greatest interest to the English community, it neither concerned nor received much attention from the Chinese; and were it not that the change in the manner of the relations between the two countries which ensued from it was followed by results of the greatest importance, the topic would not claim much notice here.

The views of Chinese officials were extremely simple. They had no objection to foreigners coming to Canton, and buying or selling articles of commerce, so long as they derived personal profit from the trade, and so long also as the laws of the Empire were not disputed or violated. The merchants of the East India Company were content to adapt themselves to this view, and they might have carried on relations with the Hong merchants for an indefinite period, and without any more serious collision than occasional interruptions. The renewal of the monopoly would have left things in exactly the same position as when intercourse was first established; and, although the English merchants were on a distinctly inferior footing, they would have been able to continue the trade in its actual restricted limits at Canton.

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If the Chinese thought very little in a political sense of the Company and its representatives, they thought a very great deal about the English sovereign, and they regarded with indignation, not unmixed with alarm, the pretensions of the latter to equal rights, and to a rank of dignity in no way short of that of the Celestial ruler himself. Their opinions on this point were strengthened by the proceedings in connection with the two embassies from the King of England, and by every visit of a British man-of-war to their ports. It became clear to the most obtuse mandarin mind that, although these foreigners might not be placed in the same scale of power and civilization as the favoured people of the Middle Kingdom, they did possess in their formidable warships a power of inflicting damage with which China had nothing to cope. The cardinal point in the foreign policy of the Pekin Government thus turned on the exclusion of the representatives of the English sovereign. The officials were not unwilling to hold intercourse with a body of traders; they would willingly have nothing whatever to do with an independent and exacting sovereign. The former could be kept at a respectful distance, and in a mood thankful for the smallest favours. The latter would have to be treated after a different fashion, and one for which the records of the Empire, at any period of its existence, afforded no precedent.

The surprise and the indignation of the Chinese authorities were great, therefore, when in the year 1834 they learnt that by the decree of a remote potentate the conditions of the barely tolerated intercourse with the principal of the outer peoples had undergone a complete and radical alteration. So far as Chinese affairs were concerned, the East India Company passed out of history, and the merchants of Canton became entitled to and received the direct protection of the English Government. The Chinese neither understood nor cared to understand the causes or the precise meaning of this change. They would have thought it rather an aggravation than a mitigation of the offence, that a foreign prince should make trade with China free instead of the monopoly of certain persons. They saw clearly enough that the alteration could not possibly redound to their national honour and

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security, and that it must be followed by the more frequent appearance of the formidable foreign war-vessels, and of officials intent on maintaining the dignity of their sovereign. The abolition of the Company's monopoly, and what is called the opening of the trade, were followed by a sharp revulsion of sentiment among Chinese officials. Their policy towards foreigners then became one of intensified and unqualified hostility.

In the animated discussions which were carried on in the Houses of Parliament during the years 1833-34, great stress was laid upon the probable increase that would take place in the trade with China, if free intercourse were proclaimed. In this speculation hope was allowed to get the better of reason, and these favourable anticipations were only to be realized after considerable delay, and when other and violent agencies had been enlisted in the work. High authority, however, was ranged in support of these opinions; but, speaking with all the advantage of later experience, it is only possible to have the opinion that, however necessary in itself, however beneficial to English commerce, and indirectly to China as quickening her political growth, the opening of the trade may have been, it at the same time not unreasonably irritated the Chinese, and inflamed their Government against Europeans.

The transfer of authority was demonstrated by an act which left the Chinese in no doubt as to what had happened. On the 10th of December, 1833, a Royal Commission appointed Lord Napier chief superintendent of trade with China, and two other officials as assistant-superintendents, of whom one was Sir John Davis. The arrival of Lord Napier in July of the following year brought matters to a head, and his instructions left him no choice in the execution of his duties save to perform them at Canton, or at such other place as the English sovereign might appoint. His arrival at Canton was promptly followed by difficulties with the Viceroy of the province, while the European merchants were threatened with the stoppage of the trade. Lord Napier's first act was to address a letter of courtesy announcing his appointment and safe arrival to the Viceroy. But the Chinese officials, perceiving that its tone was different from the petitions of the Company,

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