pride and suspicion more clearly than the tone adopted by the enlightened Elepoo, in one of his last despatches to Sir Henry Pottinger with regard to the English Sovereign, and which evoked from the English Plenipotentiary the indignant sentence that "his royal mistress, the Queen of England, acknowledges no superior or governor but God; and that the dignity, the power, and the universal benevolence of Her Majesty are known to be second to none on earth, and are only equalled by Her Majesty's good faith and studious anxiety to fulfil her royal promises and engagements.' There can, therefore, be no kind of doubt, and the evidence lies before us in accumulated piles from both sides, from those engaged in the fray, as well as from the critical and disinterested spectator, that not one questionable branch of trade brought England and China into hostile collision, but the grand incompatibility of Chinese pretensions with universal right. Unless we are prepared to cancel all the obligations of international relations, to deny the claims of a common humanity, to maintain that the deficiencies of one region are not to be supplied by the abundance of another, and to hand down to future generations a legacy of closed frontiers, public suspicion and interminable strife-unless we are to agree in denying every common principle of probity since the founders of nations went forth in every direction from the Tower of Babel, then we must come to the conclusion that the Chinese brought the humiliations of the first foreign war upon themselves, and that they, however blindly, were the erring side in what was, regarded by its consequences, a momentous struggle.

It is more gratifying to be able to leave the scene of contest, to turn from the record of an unequal and inglorious war, with the reflection that the results of this struggle were to be good. However inadequately the work of far-seeing statesmanship may have been performed in 1842, enough was done to make present friendship possible, and a better understanding between two great governing peoples a matter of hope, and not desponding expectancy. The Treaty of Nankin did not place the English representatives on that footing of dignity which the equality of their sovereign with the Chinese Emperor demanded. The commercial arrangements at Canton ignored the opium trade-according to some, the teterrima causa belli. The Chinese Government made not the smallest overture, and showed no desire to establish relations with the European capitals, even with the view of learning something about the kingdoms which had sent strong fleets and brave armies to the seas and lands of the Far East. So long as this was the case, it was impossible to feel any belief in the cordiality of the friendship. The English Government had obtained a material guarantee in the cession of Hongkong; the English merchant fresh opportunities of trade by the opening of four additional ports, and by the abolition of the Hong monopoly; and Englishmen generally increased security, if not perfect safety, by the vindication of the majesty of British law and citizenship. That was all. If it was not everything, if it was not even enough to stifle the pride and dissipate all the pretensions of China, it was still no small result for an expedition which had not approached the capital,

and which could only be conducted under extreme difficulties, from considerations of distance, pre-occupation, and, it must be added, of ignorance of Chinese matters. That the war accomplished what it did is sufficiently creditable to its conductors, and explains the reason why English residents in China have always held dear, as one of the principal charters of their presence in that country, the memory of the Treaty of Nankin.

CHAPTER VIII.

THE LAST YEARS OF TAOUKWANG'S REIGN.

A Great Concession of Principle.-Trade and Policy.-England and the other Powers.-Foreign Consulates.-The Consuls.The Acquisition of Land.-Envoys from America and France. -Departure of Sir Henry Pottinger.-Sir John Davis Succeeds him.-Internal Dangers.-A defeated Government.Robbers.-The Pekin Police.-Riot at Canton.-A Chinese subject killed. Keying's Moderation.-Succeeds in allaying Disturbance. Treaty with France.-M. de Lagrenée." France does not think of Trade."-Edict of Religious Toleration.Payment of the Indemnity.-The Punctuality of the Chinese. -The Occupation of Chusan.-Dangers at Canton.-Collisions. Ex-territorial Rights.-Chinese Authority.-Antiforeign Placards.-The Evil English.-The Right of Entry into Canton.-Evacuation of Chusan.-Agreeable Courtesies. -Colin Campbell's Rule.-Increase of Trade.-Mr. Rutherford Alcock.-Taoukwang's Difficulties.--" My servants do not know what truth is."-Proclamation against the Triads.The Green Water-lily.-Pirates.-Ships at Amoy.—Twenty-' thousand Robbers.-Events in Kashgar.-Chinese Rule there.- Removal of Mahomedan Inhabitants.-The Tarantchis.-Relations with Khokand.-A Policy of Concession.Zuhuruddin, a Mahomedan Governor.-The New Citadels. -The Invasion of 1846.-The Seven Khojas.-Siege of Kashgar.-The Forts hold out.-Defeat of the Khojas.— Their Flight.-Ex-Commissioner Lin.-Unsatisfactory Condition of the Foreign Question.-The Real Peril of the Hour. -The Demeanour of the Consuls.-The Increase of Opium.

-Reaction setting in against its alleged Evil.-Sir Henry Pottinger's Opinion.-The Right of Travel.-The Attack at Fatshan.-A Courageous Mandarin.-Reprehensible Conduct. -Views at Hongkong.-An impossible Demand.-Davis resolves to force Events.-Military Expedition.-Seizure of Bogue Forts.-Foreign Force at Canton.-The English Demands.-Popular Excitement.-Reflections on these Proceedings. Disapproved of by Home Government.-Lord Grey's Letter. The Risk involved.-Mr. Alcock's Conduct at Shanghai.-The unemployed Boatmen of the Canal.Missionaries ill-treated at Tsingpu.-Mission to Nankin.Mr. Parkes's Tact.-Principle of Twenty-four Hours' Absence. -Mr. Alcock's Proclamation.-Changes among Foreign Representatives.-The Gates of Canton.-Abandonment of the Claim.-Wise Moderation of English.-The Question one of Time. The Progress of Friendly Relations.-Piracy.-Need of repressing it.-Its Attractions as a Career.—Shapuntsai. -English Vessels.-Defeats of Piratical Fleets.—Great Fight in Gulf of Tonquin.-Co-operation of Chinese.-Murder of Governor Amaral.-Long Correspondence.-Eventual Execution of the Murderers.-Progress of Intercourse.-Loo Choo. -Death of Emperor's Mother.-Taoukwang's Grief.- His own Illness--and Death.-Superstitious Act.-Selection of his Heir.-Prince Yihchoo.-Taoukwang's Character and Appearance.-His Will.

THE years immediately following the signature of the Treaty of Nankin were occupied with the adjustment of the numerous matters that claimed attention from those employed in the difficult task of harmonising the relations of two lately conflicting races. Consuls had to be appointed at the treaty ports, and a staff of interpreters provided. The undue expectations of the foreign merchants had to be checked at the same time that the mandarins were not encouraged to believe that the Queen's representatives were disposed to look down upon trade and to cultivate relations on a kind