A NAVAL FIGHT.

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in a few days, only, however, to give place to vigorous measures for the seizure of supplies whenever necessary.

Several encounters took place between the two English men-of-war at last placed on the station, and the small forts situated at Hongkong and on the adjoining peninsula. But nothing serious happened until the 3rd of November, 1839, when a naval engagement was fought off Chuenpee. A Chinese fleet of twenty-nine junks, under the command of a high admiral named Kwang, ventured to menace the two English frigates, when they were attacked and dispersed with the loss of four of their number. Although this encounter arrested the hostile measures of the Chinese, it further embittered the conflict, and it was no longer doubtful that the solution of the question would have to be accomplished by force of arms. The capture and imprisonment of an English subject, Mr. Gribble, in the last days of the year 1839, showed that no improvement was likely to take place by means of an amicable agreement; and the arrival of the English warships outside the Bogue, to demand the surrender of the English captive, brought the one effectual remedy still more clearly into view.

When Taoukwang received news of the fight at Chuenpee, described to him as an engagement reflecting the highest credit on the valour of his sailors, if not as an absolute victory, he issued a special edict rewarding the admiral with a high Tartar title for his courage, and commanding his officers at Canton "to put a stop at once to the trade of the English nation." In consequence of this decree from the Vermilion pencil, the Canton authorities published an edict calling upon all English subjects to quit Chinese territory for ever. They were peremptorily commanded to leave even Macao. At this juncture the news that an expedition was about to be despatched with the view of asserting the dignity of the English crown, and of affording protection to English commerce, exercised a tranquillising effect. A lull ensued, and although the English were placed outside the pale of the law, and although the whole motive of their presence was removed by the suspension of the trade, Mr. Gribble was released from his confinement, and the merchants with their families

continued to reside partly at Macao, and partly on board ship at the anchorage of Tungkoo near Hongkong.

Considering the events of this troubled period-the seven years following the removal of the monopoly-it cannot be contended from an impartial review of the facts, and divesting our minds as far as possible from the prejudice of accepted political opinion, and of conviction as to the hurtful or innocent character of opium in the mixture smoked, that the course pursued by Captain Elliot was either prudent in itself, or calculated to promote the advantage and reputation of England. Captain Elliot's proceedings were marked by the inconsistency that springs from ignorance. The more influential English merchants, touched by the appeal to their moral sentiment, or impressed by the depravity of large classes of the Canton population, of which the practice of opium-smoking was rather the mark than the cause, set their faces against the traffic in this article, and repudiated all sympathy and participation in it. The various foreign publications, whether they received their inspiration from M. Gutzlaff or not, matters little, differed on most points, but were agreed on this, that the trade in opium was morally indefensible, and that we were bound not only by our own interests, but in virtue of the common obligations of humanity, to cease to hold all connection with it. Those who had surrendered their stores of opium, at the request of Captain Elliot, held that their claim for compensation was valid in the first place against the English Government alone. They had given them up for the service of the country at the request of the Queen's representative, and, considering the line which Captain Elliot had taken, many believed that it would be quite impossible for the English Government to put forward any demand upon the Government of China. The two millions sterling, according to these large-hearted and unreflecting moralists, would have to be sacrificed by the people of England in the cause of humanity, to which they had already given so much, and the revenue of India should for the future be poorer by the amount that used to pay the dividend of the great Company!

The Chinese authorities could not help being encouraged

in their opinions and course of proceeding by the attitude of the English. Their most sweeping denunciations of the iniquity of the opium traffic elicited a murmur of approval from the most influential among the foreigners. No European stood up to say that their allegations as to the evil of using opium were baseless and absurd. What is more, no one then thought it. Had the Chinese made sufficient use of this identity of views, and showed a desire to facilitate trade in the so-called innocent and legitimate articles, there is little doubt that the opium traffic would have been reduced to very small dimensions, because there would have been no rupture. But the action of Commissioner Lin revealed the truth that the Chinese were not to be satisfied with a single triumph. The more easily they obtained their objects in the opium matter, the more anxious did they become to impress the foreigners with a sense of their inferiority, and to force them to accept the most onerous and unjust conditions for the sake of a continuance of the trade. None the less, Captain Elliot went out of his way to tie his own hands, and to bind his Government, so far as he could, to co-operate with the Emperor's officials in the suppression of the opium traffic.*

That this is no random assertion may be judged from the following official notice issued several months after the surrender of the stores of opium. Captain Elliot announced, "Her Majesty's flag does not fly in the protection of a traffic declared illegal by the Emperor; and, therefore, whenever a vessel is suspected of having opium on board, Captain Elliot will take care that the officers of his establishment shall accompany the Chinese officers in their search, and that if, after strict investigation, opium shall be found, he will offer no objection to the seizure and confiscation of the cargo."-" Chinese Repository," vol. viii. p. 322.

CHAPTER VI.

THE FIRST FOREIGN WAR.

THE inevitable crisis long foreseen, had, therefore, at last arrived, and the English Government, forced to send an armed expedition as the only way of preventing the expulsion of its subjects, could not expect to overawe a proud and powerful empire such as China was, without using the means which it had been reluctantly compelled to invoke for the occasion. The humility of the representatives of the East India Company, and the absence of that naval and military power upon which the Europeans placed implicit reliance, had encouraged the Chinese to proceed to extreme lengths in their attacks upon foreigners, and, although there is not room to doubt the sincerity of the opposition to the opium traffic on fiscal grounds, the main object with Taoukwang and his ministers became to limit the extent of the intercourse with foreigners, if not to put a stop to it altogether. More than one cause contributed to the result, but in 1840 the question had been reduced to the simplest proportions. The Chinese did not wish the foreigners to remain even at Canton, except in the most subservient capacity. Did the English possess the power and the resolution to compel what the stronger race ever calls proper treatment, and, as it was a contest of wits as well as of armaments, would they show themselves sufficiently diplomatic to obtain from the astutest people in Asia some valid guarantee for the security of their persons and property, and for respect towards their Government, when the naval and military forces that obtained these

THE ENGLISH EXPEDITION.

concessions had been withdrawn?

questions that had to be decided.

91

Those were the two

From the outset it was plain that no mere demonstration would suffice. The presence of a few men-of-war carried no sense of terror to the hearts of the mandarins. The arrival of English soldiers, after many months' delay, seemed only to prove, from the smallness of their numbers, that the Chinese had little to fear from an invasion, and that the victory must incline to the countless myriads of the Celestial armies. Nor are these opinions to be wondered at. The Chinese have never admitted the vaunted superiority of the European. At this time they had had no experience of the advantages he possessed from better weapons and an improved system of warfare. The prestige of the Empire was undiminished, and not a Chinese patriot doubted that, as he inherited from his forefathers a position of pre-eminence among the nations, so did the great Emperor wield the power and dispose of the resources necessary to support and maintain this indefeasible birthright of a son of the Middle Kingdom. It is nothing to the point that these assumptions were untenable, and, it may be, absurd. They must be realized as constituting the public opinion of China at the time, if the events of a critical period are to be followed and appreciated. Not even now do the Chinese, with all their increased experience, not free, as it has been, from bitter and painful incidents, see in our persons and civilization the proofs of the superiority that is the first article of our faith. In 1840, without their subsequent knowledge, they believed implicitly in themselves, and reposed unshaken faith in the majesty of the great Emperor.

Yet if the precedent of other Asiatic countries might be applied to China, the English expedition was sufficiently formidable to make Taoukwang tremble on the Dragon Throne. A less formidable force than that Sir Gordon Bremer disposed of had before decided the fate of famous dynasties and effected the conquest of flourishing kingdoms on the plains of India. Fifteen ships-of-war, four steamvessels, and twenty-five transports with 4000 soldiers on board arrived at the mouth of the river in June 1840, and