Arnold Wright

“ It remained for the cataclysm of the Russo-Japanese War to drive home at last the moral taught, if China could only have realised it by the first European ship that visited her shores, that China was not the world and that if she would preserve her independence and her self-respect she must avail herself of the advantages of Western civilisation, not the least of which are those which pertain to an uninterrupted commerce. ”

“ For a time there was merely vague discontent, but gradually there came into existence a movement which gave vent to the popular feeling in a prolonged orgy of riot and outrage which was destined, before its end, to bring the Chinese dynasty to the verge of ruin, and to involve China itself in incalculable damage. A factor which lent strength to the movement—if it was not in intimate relation with it, was a coup d'état which in 1898 led to the relegation of the young Emperor Kwangsu to retirement, and the placing of supreme power once more in the hands of his aunt, the Dowager Empress. ”

“ Official policy, too, is taking to itself more and more of the progressive views which dominate the best systems of Western government, while the machinery of government is being in many respects improved by the mere elimination of old abuses. In time there is hope for China—hope that she may yet rise to the full height of her greatness and take her position in the world as one of its mightiest forces. ”

“ But there is that vile English nation! its ruler is now a woman and then a man, and then, perhaps, a woman again; its people are at one time like birds, and then they are like wild beasts, with dispositions more fierce and furious than the tiger or wolf and hearts more greedy than the great snake or the hog. These people have ever stealthily devoured all the western barbarians and like the demon of the night they now suddenly exalt themselves. ”

“ The arrogant official, without entering into any explanation, ordered the removal of the rubbish composing the embankment. The excavated material was loaded into boats and conveyed by them to a point about fifty yards below the factory where it was thrown into the river, as if to show that the desire was not to remove a public obstruction but to offer a public insult to the Company's representatives. These measures created much indignation amongst the British community, and they were regarded even by the Chinese mercantile community as outrageous and improper in the highest degree. ”

“ Sir Hercules Robinson, who succeeded Sir John Bowring in the office of Governor on September 9, 1859, and administered the affairs of the Colony for nearly six years, was an official in every respect qualified for the difficult post which he had to fill. A man of strong character, shrewd, tactful, and with more than a common share of intellectual attainments, he was precisely the type of administrator to unravel the discreditable tangle into which affairs in the Colony had got under the rule of his predecessor. ”

“ A culminating feature of the occurrences was the murder of the Chancellor of the Japanese Legation in the streets of Tientsin. The seriousness of the situation had by this time impressed itself upon the foreign Governments, and soon a strong fleet—the largest ever seen in Chinese waters—assembled at Taku. But the crisis had now got beyond the point when any naval demonstration, however imposing, could ameliorate it. The Boxers caught up in their movement all classes of the population. In some places the officials openly identified themselves with it; in others they were powerless to resist it. ”

“ In tracing the history of Anglo-Chinese relations in the important period which concluded with the ratification of the Treaty of Peking, we have necessarily had to overlook the development of the great colonial experiment which was entered upon with the occupation of Hongkong. Our last glimpse of the Colony was a sombre one. A small community was maintaining an arduous struggle against heavy odds with only a faint prospect of ultimate success. ”

“ In the first instance the smuggling transactions were carried through at Macao, but the rapacity of the Portuguese drove the trade to the island of Lintin. There the drug was stored in armed ships and delivered to the Chinese runners on written orders from the Canton merchants to whom the money for the drug had previously been paid. Such was the perfection of the arrangements that the trade was prosecuted with the utmost smoothness, and as the nineteenth century advanced it underwent a marvellous expansion. ”

“ In his autobiographical recollections Sir John Bowring thus refers to his period of service in Hongkong:—"My career in China belongs so much to history that I do not feel it needful to record its vicissitudes. I have been severely blamed for the policy I pursued, yet that policy has been most beneficial to my country and to mankind at large. It is not fair or just to suppose that a course of action, which may be practicable or prudent at home will always succeed abroad." ”

“ Let us all rise, arm, unite and go against them. Yes, we here bind ourselves to vengeance and express these our sincere intentions in order to exhibit our high principles and patriotism! The gods from on high clearly behold us: let us not lose our first and firm resolution! ”

“ His determination not to survive his discomfiture was in keeping with high Chinese traditions, which regard suicide as a legitimate means of escape from the dishonour of defeat. It is not improbable, however, that a fear of falling into the hands of the British had some influence in bringing about his decision, for he had put himself beyond the pale by his ferocious brutality towards two foreign prisoners who by his orders had been done to death, one by flaying and the other by burning alive. ”

“ Looking, however, at the depth and intensity of the popular desire for changes designed to be a buckler against the assaults from without, which aforetime have brought such lamentable humiliation upon the empire, it would appear that China has at last really reached the parting of the ways. The telegraphs, the posts, and the railways, which are covering the vast dominions with a network of civilised organisation, are infusing new blood into the outworn arteries, and the rapidly growing native press is educating the inhabitants to new conceptions of life. ”

“ In another direction at this juncture was demonstrated in a striking way the determination of the Chinese to stay the march of foreign encroachment. In December, 1872, was formed in Shanghai, by a number of leading residents, a small private company, under the title of the Woosung Road Company. It seemed an innocent, non-committal kind of venture, but its simple title covered a project of deep significance, the real object of the promoters being nothing more nor less than the introduction of railways into China. ”

“ In 1627 the Presidency at Batavia sent home a long despatch strongly urging the desirability of making another attempt to open up trade with China. They wrote:—
"Concerning the trade of China three things are especially made known to the world."
"The one is the abundant trade it affordeth; the second is that they admit no stranger into their country; the third is that trade is as life unto the vulgar, which in remote parts they will seek and accommodate with hazard of all they have." ”

“ The merchants and ships of the English nation proceed to Macao and Whampoa, because the gracious commands of the Emperor for their protection are set at nought; because the truth is concealed from His Imperial Majesty's knowledge; because there is no safety for a handful of defenceless men in the grasp of the Government of Canton ”

“ Simultaneously with the publication of the British proclamation a formal announcement was made by Keying, the Chinese commissioner, who had conducted the elaborate negotiations with Sir Henry Pottinger, that henceforth trade at the five ports named in the Treaty was open to "the men from afar" without distinction, and the hope was expressed that "the weapons of war being for ever laid aside, joy and profit shall be the perpetual lot of all." ”

“ The course of the rebellion had been watched with intense interest by foreigners in China and by none more closely than by the British community. As a rule sympathy was strongly enlisted on the side of the rebels. In them Britons saw a people struggling for freedom against a desolating despotism, and they attributed to them patriotic virtues which it is to be feared they never possessed. ”

“ War is disastrous, but peace rich in blessings. If we henceforth on both sides control our merchants and people, we shall ensure a lasting peace and the trade will daily become more flourishing." The Governor of Hongkong, while endorsing these sentiments very heartily, took occasion to refer to the exaggerated statements which had been sent home concerning the position of affairs at Canton by the British merchants resident there. His letter adds another to the many examples which the history of foreign trade with China affords of the danger of optimism. ”

“ Amongst the thousands of Chinese who flocked across the channel from the mainland as soon as the British flag was hoisted was a large proportion of bad characters. They came attracted by the hope of gain or plunder, and they were so protected by secret compact as to defy the ordinary regulations of police for detection or prevention. The respectable shopkeepers who did migrate left the bulk of their property and their families behind, and so, while working in Hongkong, they were almost as much under the control of the Mandarins as if they were in China. ”

“ Upon goodness and piety we put a great value; friendship and love we reckon of great moment: what regard can we have to pearls and rich silks, if honesty and respect be wanting? But seeing you are very expert in sea and military affairs we are confident you will exert your teeth and hoofs against our enemies; and on this account you will do a considerable piece of service and worthy of you; and so long as you stay and trade in that island we freely forgive you the Customs of the goods and the tribute of the land although the old inhabitants pay both... ”

“ No Imperial Commissioner ever conducts business at Shanghai. There being a particular sphere of duty allotted to every official on the establishment of the Celestial Empire, and the principle that between them and the foreigner there is no intercourse being one ever religiously adhered to by the servants of our Government of China, it would not be proper for me to reply in person to the letter of the English Minister. ”

“ There was no desire on the part of the British to carry matters to extremes, and when the Emperor's decree arrived expressing his opposition to any attempt to force the populace to receive foreigners into the city against their will, it was deemed expedient to acquiesce in the imperial decision. After this there was a brief lull, but the atrocious murder of the Portuguese Governor of Macao in 1850 proved that the Chinese spirit of antagonism to foreigners was as potent for evil as ever. ”

“ Canton gave access to the great markets of Southern China; Amoy was an historic commercial centre with important connections with an extended populous area in the province of Fokien; Foochow, the capital of the province of Fokien, and that seated on the Min, one of the great rivers of China, was well placed for the tea industry; and Shanghai was a centre from which the vast Yangtse trade could be tapped. The openings thus afforded were calculated to extend enormously the operations of foreign trade provided only that the Chinese Government had accepted the new situation in good faith. ”

“ Ward, an American subject, was the leader of the organisation, and he had as his chief lieutenant and quartermaster a fellow countryman named Burgevine. Ward was a swashbuckler of a pronounced type—unscrupulous, rapacious, and cruel. He had been a mate on an American sailing vessel trading to China, and had served on a flotilla fitted out some time previously by the Taoutai to operate against the rebels on the Yangtse. In that capacity he had attracted the attention of the wealthy Chinese merchants, and his selection to command the foreign legion was the result. ”

“ The advantage gained did not have the expected effect of reducing the population to submission. On the contrary their fanatical hatred of the barbarian was aroused to fever pitch by the spectacle of British troops occupying positions near the city. Ferocious proclamations were issued, calling upon the people to attack the insolent strangers and denouncing Keying, the Imperial Commissioner, as a traitor. The Chinese authorities on their part, while probably sympathising with the mob, realised that if graver trouble was to be averted they must make peace. ”

“ With respect to the points which are not highly obnoxious we should grant them if asked; it is only as to railroads, steamers, salt, and residence in the interior for trade, as destructive to our people's interest, that a strenuous fight should be made." Here we have the guiding spirit of the most enlightened Chinese policy at this period. The foreigner was to be tolerated where it was thought he would do no mischief, but he was to be kept at arm's length where the means of communication and residence in the interior were concerned. ”

“ New laws were clearly needed for the regulation of the Chinese, whose gambling habits were filling the streets with riot and honeycombing the police force with corruption. Crime was rampant, and the gaols overflowing with prisoners. ”

“ Several years elapsed, however, before the expectations that had been formed of a prosperous commerce at Shanghai were fulfilled. Foreign merchants were slow to remove to so great a distance from their establishments then centred at Canton and Hongkong; whilst the dull apathetic character of the natives of the place disqualified them from the bustle and energy inseparable from European commerce. At the end of the first year of its history as an open port Shanghai could count only 23 foreign residents and families, the consular flag, 11 merchants' houses and 2 Protestant missionaries. ”

“ The acquisition of this island gave Great Britain what no other Western nation, save the Portuguese, had in China, a national pied à terre—a station which would supply a rallying centre for her trade, and a strategic point for her navy. The desirability of forming a settlement of this kind had long been contemplated. The occupation of an island off the coast was, as we have seen in the earlier chapters, suggested by Chinese traders as a means of overcoming the difficulties which in the eighteenth century attended the conduct of the trade. ”