CHINESE DEFEAT.

97

the English, the Chinese troops, although always evincing a sort of courage, were quite ignorant of modern warfare, and incapable of directing with any precision even the artillery which they possessed. The 7th of January was the day selected for the attack, and early in the morning the troops were landed on the coast to operate on the flank and rear of the forts at Chuenpee. The advance squadron, under Captain, afterwards Sir Thomas, Herbert, was to engage the same forts in front, while the remainder of the fleet proceeded to attack the stockades on the adjoining island of Taikok. The land force, consisting of some 1400 men and 3 guns, had not proceeded far along the coast before it came across a strongly entrenched camp, in addition to the forts of Chuenpee, having in all several thousand soldiers and many field-pieces in position. The forts were, after a sharp cannonade, carried at a rush, and a formidable Chinese army was driven ignominiously out of its entrenchments, with hardly any loss to the assailants. The forts of Taikok were destroyed by the fire of the ships, and their guns were spiked and garrisons routed by storming parties. A large number of war-junks were also captured or blown up. The Chinese lost at the least 500 killed, including their commander, besides an untold number of wounded. Yet, although the loss of the English was only 38 wounded, it was generally allowed that the Chinese defence was "obstinate and honourable." A considerable proportion of the Chinese were slain in consequence of a treacherous attack on the English troops after they had given every token of surrender.

The consequences of the capture of the outer forts in the Bogue were immediate and important. The Chinese begged for a cessation of hostilities, and Keshen, although his reports to the Emperor were still full of his plans for circumventing and driving off the barbarians, accepted, as the preliminaries of a treaty, terms which conceded them everything they had demanded. A large indemnity, the cession of Hongkong, and direct official intercourse between the two Governments, seemed to cover every point on which the English Crown had either the right or the wish to make a claim. The one stipulation which was carried into immediate effect, was that

VOL. II.

H

relating to Hongkong. While the other provisoes remained the subject of future discussion, and, as it proved, disagreement, the troops were withdrawn from Chusan in order to occupy Hongkong, and Captain Elliot issued a proclamation, dated 29th January, 1841, announcing the fact that this island had henceforth become part of Her Majesty's dominions. The prevalent opinion at the time attached but little value to the acquisition, and most persons believed that Hongkong would never prove a possession of any great importance. Certainly no one was sufficiently far-seeing to realize the material prosperity and political importance that lay before that barren island.

That the concessions made by Keshen at Canton were due solely to his own embarrassments, and not to any intention on the part of the Imperial Government to admit the equal rights of foreign nations, was shown by an edict issued in Taoukwang's name two days before Captain Elliot's notice. In this order from the Vermilion pencil, it was said that no other course was left save "to destroy and wash the foreigners away without remorse;" and with the intention of carrying this bold decision into execution, troops were ordered from the interior, and even from Szchuen, to proceed with all despatch to Canton. Although Hongkong had been annexed to the possessions of the English Crown, the attitude of Taoukwang himself showed that the hope of a durable amicable settlement must still remain remote. The Chinese Emperor denounced the English by name as "staying themselves upon their pride of power and fierce strength," and called upon his officers to proceed with courage and energy, so that "the rebellious foreigners might give up their ringleaders to be sent encaged to Pekin to receive the utmost retribution of the laws." So long as the sovereign was swayed by such opinions as these, it was evident that no arrangement could endure. The Chinese did not admit the principle of equality in their dealings with the English, and this was the main point in contention between them, far more than any difference of opinion as to the evil of opium-smoking. So long as Taoukwang and his ministers held the opinions which they did not hesitate to express, a friendly intercourse

THE TWO ALTERNATIVES.

99

was quite impossible. There remained no practical alternative between withdrawing from the country altogether, leaving the Celestials to their own exclusiveness, and forcing their Government to recognize a common humanity, and an equality in national privileges.

Hostilities were, therefore, suspended only to be resumed. Fresh proclamations were issued offering an increased reward for the heads or persons of Englishmen, and, the period fixed for the ratification having expired, Sir Gordon Bremer felt compelled to resume the offensive, and to re-occupy those places from which he had retired. Keshen, who, with all his faults, saw from the commencement the impossibility of opposing the English forces, and who had had the courage to state his opinion in plain language to the Emperor, no longer possessed the direction of affairs even at Canton, where the Governor Eleang, another of Taoukwang's ministers, and for the time an ardent admirer of Lin, had assumed the chief power. On the 25th of February, therefore, five days after the date when the treaty should have been ratified, Sir Gordon Bremer made his arrangements for attacking on the following day the forts which guarded the inner approaches to Canton. Three howitzers and a small body of troops were landed at a spot which the Chinese had neglected to fortify, and whence the British were able to shell some of the principal batteries and forts on the adjacent islands and mainland. The Chinese position was not only strong, but exceedingly well arranged, the defences being covered with sand-bags, and, had their artillery been well served, they must have offered a protracted if unsuccessful resistance.

As it was, however, neither the advantages of position, nor the tardy advance of our men-of-war on a slack tide, enabled them to defend their forts. The English ships approached to within less than a quarter of a mile of the batteries with impunity, and then delivered their broadsides with terrible effect. In a short time the Chinese showed that they had had enough of this unequal cannonade, by abandoning their positions. This they did with comparatively little loss, as not more than 20 Chinese were killed, but they left the formidable lines of Anunghoy, with 200 pieces of artillery, in the hands of the

victors. Similar encounters, with like results, took place at the other forts on North Wangtong; and Captain Herbert, on the following day, attacked with great gallantry a force of 2000 men in an entrenched camp with 100 guns, and compelled them to flee ignominiously. The Chinese had erected masked batteries, and made other preparations for defence, the whole way up to Whampoa (the port of Canton eleven miles below the city), but none of these offered any strenuous defence. On the 1st of March the whole of the forts had been carried, and the English squadron drew up off Howqua's Folly in Whampoa Reach, at the very gateway of Canton. The day after this signal success the new English commander arrived at Hongkong. Sir Hugh Gough landed there on March 2, 1841.

In consequence of the entreaties of the local officers at Canton an armistice was granted for a few days, but this fact was not sufficient in itself to provide a remedy for the evil. The Emperor and the high ministers were still pronounced in their resolution to resist and exterminate the foreigners, and there was no official at Canton who would dare to take upon himself the responsibility of negotiating for a durable understanding with the English. The fears of the commercial community obtained a brief respite, but, that period having expired, the advance of the English to Canton was resumed. When there was every reason to no longer defer decisive measures, Sir Hugh Gough was certainly not the man to favour delay. The outer defences of Canton having been carried, it only remained to capture and occupy those which guarded the approach from Whampoa to the city. A proclamation was issued to the people of Canton informing them that their town would be spared, while the English expedition resolutely attacked and speedily captured the fort known as the Dutch Folly. Here again the official documents admit the constancy of the Chinese, although they were unable to inflict any serious loss on their opponents. The defences of Canton were carried with as much ease as those of the Bocca Tigris had been, and the navigation of the river from that city to the sea was at last under the complete control of the English.

The first English successes had cost Lin his offices and

KESHEN PUNISHED.

ΙΟΙ

reputation; the later effected the ruin of Keshen. Taoukwang, in his indignation, not merely ordered Keshen to return to Pekin forthwith, in order to suffer the extreme penalty of the law, but he sent a Tartar official with the strictest injunctions to drag him into his presence. In his misfortunes his colleagues turned upon him, and he was made responsible for the incompetence or ill-luck of the time. An indictment of eight charges was drawn up against him, and not the least grave of the offences laid to his fault was that he had held interviews and carried on a correspondence with Captain Elliot on terms of equality. Everything went to show that the Celestial Government had not learnt a single lesson from its latest experience, and that it still based its claims on an intolerant and unapproachable superiority. Keshen's trial was held at Pekin a few months later, when the court of inquiry decided that his policy was very bad, which signified that it had not been successful. His large property was sequestrated to the Crown, and he was himself sentenced to decapitation. It may be interesting to state that by an act of special favour this sentence was commuted, some months later, to one of banishment to Tibet, where he was appointed the Emperor's Resident at Lhasa.† His career was not yet run, if the result showed that he could not escape his allotted end.

*

But the settlement of the question of the hour was passing

The list of his treasures recalls his predecessor Hokwan, and shows that if he did not abuse he certainly did not neglect his opportunities. The inventory of his possessions reads as follows:-" Gold, 270,000 taels weight; sycee silver, 3,400,000 taels weight; foreign money, 2,000,000 taels weight; land cultivated, 39 king (a king equals about 30 acres); 4 pawnshops in the province of Pechihli; 2 pawnshops at Moukden; 84 banking-shops; large pearls, 94; strings of pearls, 14; pearl lamps, 8; arrow thumb-rings, made of the feathers of the fei tsuy bird, 34; deer horns, catties, 25; lengths of silk, 420; broad cloth and English camlet, 30 pieces; striking clocks, 18 in number; gold watches, 10; fur garments, 24; images of horses, made of precious stones, 2; images of lions, made of precious stones, 2; crystal wash-hand basins, 28; tortoise-shell bedstead, I; chariots, 4; female slaves 168."

In this capacity he amassed considerable wealth, and succeeded in making such powerful friends at Court that he was subsequently appointed Governor-General of Szchuen.