Narrative of the Voyages and Services of the Nemesis from 1840 to 1843. Bernard William Dallas

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      The attempts of Captain Elliot, when he afterwards took upon himself the duties of chief superintendent, to carry out the same instructions, were scarcely less unfortunate. And finding, as he publicly stated, that "the governor had declined to accede to the conditions involved in the instructions which he had received from her majesty's government, concerning the manner of his intercourse with his Excellency," the British flag was struck at the factories at Canton, on the 2nd of December, 1837, and her majesty's principal superintendent retired to Macao.

      During the year 1838, very serious and determined measures began to be adopted by the Chinese authorities, directed generally against the trade in opium; and imperial edicts threatened death as the punishment, for both the dealers in, and the smokers of the drug. Several unfortunate Chinese were executed in consequence. Attempts were now made to execute the criminals in front of the foreign factories along the river side, contrary to all former usage and public right. A remonstrance followed, addressed to the governor, who, in reply, gave them a sort of moral lecture, instead of a political lesson, and, then, condescendingly admitted, that "foreigners, though born and brought up beyond the pale of civilization, must yet have human hearts."

      Nevertheless, in the following December, 1838, the insulting attempt was again repeated, close under the American flag-staff, which was not then placed, as it has since been, in an enclosure, surrounded with a brick wall, and high paling. The flag was immediately hauled down by the consul, in consequence of the preparations which were going on, for the erection of the cross upon which the criminal was to be strangled.

      At first, a few foreigners interfered, and, without violence, induced the officers to desist from their proceedings. But, gradually, the crowd increased, and, a Chinese mob, when excited, is fully as unruly as an English one; and, thus, each imprudent act, as usual, led to another. No Chinese authorities were at hand to control the disturbance; stones began to fly in all directions; and the foreigners, who, by this time, had come forward, to the aid of their brethren, were at length, through the increasing numbers of the mob, fairly driven to take refuge in the neighbouring factories. Here they were obliged to barricade the doors and windows, many of which, were, nevertheless, destroyed, and the buildings endangered, before a sufficient force of Chinese soldiers had arrived to disperse the mob. In the evening, however, quiet was perfectly restored.

      In the meantime, the alarm had spread to Whampoa, whence Captain Elliot set out, accompanied by about one hundred and twenty armed men, for Canton, and arrived at the British factory late in the evening. Both parties were now clearly placed in a false position, yet one which it would have been very difficult to have avoided. During many preceding months, the unfortunate Hong merchants had been in constant collision with their own government on the one hand, and with the foreign merchants, on the other. There was scarcely any species of indignity, to which they were not exposed, and they were even threatened with death itself. The Chinese government had daily become more overbearing towards all foreigners; and its habitual cold and haughty tone had grown into undisguised contempt and unqualified contumely. Their treatment of Lord Napier had been considered on their part as a victory; and their successful repulse of all Captain Elliot's advances, was viewed by them as an evidence of their own power, and of Great Britain's weakness.

      It has been already stated in the first chapter, that Sir Frederick Maitland, who had a short time previously paid a visit to China, in a line of battle ship, had left those seas altogether, just before the collision took place; and, in proportion as the foreigners were left unprotected, so did the Chinese become more overbearing.

      At the same time, it cannot be denied, that their determination to put a stop, as far as possible, to the opium-trade, was for the time sincere; though their measures might have been hasty and unwarrantable. A few days after the preceding disturbance, Captain Elliot distinctly ordered, that "all British owned schooners, or other vessels, habitually, or occasionally engaged in the illicit opium traffic, within the Bocca Tigris, should remove before the expiration of three days, and not again return within the Bocca Tigris, being so engaged." And they were, at the same time, distinctly warned, that if "any British subjects were feloniously to cause the death of any Chinaman, in consequence of persisting in the trade within the Bocca Tigris, he would be liable to capital punishment; that no owners of such vessels, so engaged, would receive any assistance or interposition from the British government, in case the Chinese government should seize any of them; and, that all British subjects, employed in these vessels, would be held responsible for any consequences which might arise from forcible resistance offered to the Chinese government, in the same manner as if such resistance were offered to their own or any other government, in their own or in any foreign country."

      So far Captain Elliot evinced considerable energy and determination; but he, probably, had scarcely foreseen that the shrewd and wily government of China would very soon put the question to him, "if you can order the discontinuance of the traffic within the Bocca Tigris, why can you not also put an end to it in the outer waters beyond the Bogue?"

      As it seems scarcely possible to avoid all direct allusion to the difficult question of the traffic in opium, I shall take this opportunity of saying a few words upon this important subject. A detailed account of its remarkable history, and of the vicissitudes which attended it, both within and without the Chinese empire, would afford matter of the greatest interest, but could hardly find a place in this work.

      In former times, as is well known, opium was admitted into China as a drug, upon payment of duty; and, even the prohibition which was ultimately laid upon it, was regarded by the Chinese themselves as a mere dead letter. Indeed, precisely in proportion to the difficulty of obtaining the drug, did the longing for it increase.

      The great events which sprang out of this appetite of a whole nation for "forbidden fruit," on the one hand, and of the temptations held out to foreigners to furnish it to them, on the other, may be considered as one of those momentous crises in a nation's history, which seem almost pre-ordained, as stages or epochs to mark the world's progress.

      It is curious enough, that, at the very time when a mercantile crisis was growing up at Canton, a political intrigue, or, as it might be called, a cabinet crisis, was breaking out at Pekin. In fact, strange as it may appear, it is believed in China, upon tolerably good authority, that there was actually a reform party struggling to shew its head at Pekin, and, that the question of more extended intercourse with foreigners, was quite as warmly discussed as that of the prohibition of the import of opium, or of the export of silver.

      Memorials were presented to the emperor on both sides of the question; and his Majesty Taou-kwang, being old, and personally of feeble character, halted for a time "between two opinions," alternately yielding both to the one and to the other, until he at length settled down into his old bigotry against change, and felt all the native prejudices of a true son of Han, revive more strongly than ever within his bosom.

      But the question of the Opium-trade, or Opium laws, which for some time had been almost a party matter, like the corn laws in our own country, became at length a question of interest and importance to the whole nation, and was magnified in its relations by the very discussion of the points which it involved.

      It is said that the head of the reform party (if it can so be called) in China was a Tartar lady, belonging to the emperor's court, remarkable for her abilities no less than her personal attractions, and possessed of certain very strong points of character, which made her as much feared by some as she was loved by others. She was soon raised even to the throne itself, as the emperor's wife, but lived only a few years to enjoy her power. Her influence soon came to be felt throughout the whole of that vast empire; it was the means of rewarding talent, and of detecting inability. She seemed to possess, in a marked degree, that intuitive discernment which sometimes bursts upon the female mind as if by inspiration. The tone and energy of her character were in advance of her age and of her country. She had many grateful friends, but she had raised up for herself many bitter enemies; party feeling ran high, and became at length too СКАЧАТЬ