SIR RUTHERFORD ALCOCK IN PEKING, 1865-1869.
I. THE BRITISH LEGATION.
Contrast between Peking and Yedo--Finds old comrade Wade--The
Manchu statesmen, Kung and Wênsiang--Material progress pressed
upon them--Their failure to appreciate foreign advice.
Sir Rutherford Alcock had spent only a few months in England when he was
appointed to succeed Sir Frederick Bruce as Minister to China, he himself
being succeeded in Japan by Sir Harry Parkes. Sir Rutherford reached
his post in Peking at the close of 1865. The change of scene from Japan
back to China was even more striking than that from China to Japan had
been in 1859. The excitement of shooting the rapids was succeeded by the
weariness of meandering among mud-shoals--the same medium to work in,
only under different conditions. Fundamentally the international problem
was identical in Japan and China--the conflict between aggression and
resistance. Rational dread of, and natural repulsion to, foreigners,
inspired alike the policies of both countries. Where they differed was
in the manner of meeting the invasion. Japan braced herself nervously
to the effort, and, distinguishing between what was feasible and what
was not, organised a counter-invasion unsuspected by foreign nations,
whom she subdued by their own strength. China, on the other hand,
opposed a fatalistic and unreasoning resistance, making no intelligent
counter-stroke and showing no true anticipation of the issues of the
struggle. The energy of ambitious youth on the one side; on the other mere
inertia, irresponsive to the stimulus of pride, shame, patriotism, or even
material interest. Bearing this contrast in mind, we may partly understand
the prosaic _rôle_ which foreign representatives were doomed in China to
play from the time the capital was forced open by Anglo-French arms in
1860.
The position of the new British Minister was different from that which he
had occupied in Japan, where, being first in the field, he had to make
precedents, whereas in China he had to follow the course which had been
marked out during the previous four years. In judging of the wisdom of
that course, it is fair to apply the same retrospective criterion that we
proposed in the case of Japan--namely, to consider the situation so far as
it was known and could be realised at the time. Notwithstanding all that
had gone before, China in general, and Peking in particular, remained as
great mysteries to foreigners as Japan itself. The pioneer diplomatists
had to create their diplomacy out of their own consciousness, working upon
an idea which they imported, and not on the objective facts, which were
mere chaos to them.
Sir Rutherford Alcock had the happiness to find the Peking Legation
in charge of his old vice-consul, Thomas Wade, from whom he had been
officially separated for ten years. Mr Wade was Chinese secretary and
secretary of Legation, offices which were some years later separated, to
the infinite detriment of both. For the secretary of Legation, drawn from
the ranks of the diplomatic service, had neither knowledge of nor interest
in Chinese affairs, nor aught to do but wait idly for the contingency
which might make him _chargé d'affaires_, reckoning every month spent
in the country as a penance entitling him to swift promotion to a more
congenial sphere. And the Chinese secretaryship, by itself, offered no
attraction to an ambitious man. But in 1865 the combination of offices was
most important, especially in the hands of a man of so much distinction
as Mr Wade. As the custodian of the Bruce tradition, if indeed he had not
a large share in its evolution, he bridged the gulf between the outgoing
and the incoming Minister, much as the Permanent Under-Secretary does at
the Foreign Office.
As Mr (afterwards Sir Thomas) Wade, in the capacity of secretary, _chargé
d'affaires_, and Minister Plenipotentiary, represented Great Britain at
the Chinese Court for the best part of a quarter of a century, a term
equal to that of the other six Ministers put together, a brief reference
to his personality seems necessary to a just comprehension of the course
of affairs during his long residence in Peking.
Mr Wade began life as a soldier. He had been in the "Black Watch," but,
being the only officer who could not speak Gaelic, found it congenial to
exchange into the 98th Regiment, with which he served in China during the
first war. He was adjutant of the regiment, which was commanded by Colonel
Campbell, afterwards Lord Clyde. When peace was made in 1842, he resigned
his commission and betook himself to the study of Chinese and of Chinese
subjects. After qualifying as interpreter he became Chinese secretary to
the Superintendency of Trade, which until 1858 was domiciled in Hongkong.
Transferred to the consular service, he was for some years interpreter and
vice-consul at Shanghai, where it fell to his lot to command the local
volunteers in the attack on the Chinese Imperial camps in 1854. He was
the first executive head of the Maritime Customs, established in the same
year, his services being lent by his chief to start the new institution.
Attached to Lord Elgin in his two missions to China, he was appointed
secretary of Legation and Chinese secretary under Sir Frederick Bruce when
the Legation was installed in Peking.
Wheresoever Mr Wade's lot was cast he was beloved for his Irish geniality,
open-mindedness, and sincerity. He was the soul of honour, and was
possessed by the spirit of chivalry much beyond the common measure. His
best friends would never wish to forget his endearing infirmities of
temper, associated as they were with the generous _amende_ which never
failed to follow an over-hasty word. A well-read man, with a memory like
Macaulay's, a brilliant _raconteur_ and inimitable mimic, he was the
delight of every society. The services which he was enabled, by many
years of arduous labour, to render to succeeding generations of students
of Chinese are incalculable, and if his work begins now to be superseded
by that of others, this is but the common fate of pioneers in every
department of research.
Sir Thomas Wade's character may thus be fitly and fairly summed up in
the hackneyed epithet, "a scholar and a gentleman,"--but not therefore
a statesman. His mind was cast in another and a finer mould than befits
the political arena; and, unnatural as the inference may seem, it is
open to question whether his extensive knowledge of China was the best
qualification for dealing at first hand with current affairs, even in
that country. Profound researches into Chinese literature and philosophy
tend to overshadow and induce a distaste for the jarring questions of
the day. Seen through the luminous haze of its classic history, China
presents to the contemplative mind an object of reverence unlike any
other existing State, for the thread of its continuity since the time
before Abraham is unbroken. Grander than hewn stone or graven bronze, the
monuments of China are written books, and a living race, the heirs of all
her ages, to be conversed with and interrogated. The burden of such vast
homogeneous antiquity may well oppress the mere man of politics: he needs
a certain alloy of Philistinism and a limitation of view to enable him to
concentrate his attention on the exigencies of the passing hour.
[Illustration: PRINCE KUNG.]
Relations which might be called intimate had been established between
the two Manchu statesmen, Prince Kung and Wênsiang, and the foreign
representatives. When these high personages were forced to assume
responsibility for international relations, they were not only unversed
in foreign affairs but untrained to any kind of business. The work of the
six Boards was carried on by expert secretaries, and the presidency of
one of them would have been no qualification for the new duty thrust upon
the emperor's Ministers of transacting business with foreign officials
standing on an equality with themselves. Their older colleague, Hangki,
had gained a little foreign knowledge by observation and hearsay while
filling the lucrative office of _hoppo_ at Canton; but the two younger men
mistrusted him, perhaps with reason, possibly from the suspicion naturally
aroused by his possession of superior knowledge. Prince Kung and Wênsiang
recognised that they had everything to learn, and they were apt and eager
scholars. Considering all the circumstances, it is indeed marvellous how
they adjusted themselves by innate tact to the novel position, and how
quickly they assimilated new knowledge. Many illuminating discussions were
carried on between them and the foreign representatives, who on their part
were no less desirous of imparting than the Chinese were of acquiring
information respecting the outer world. In these interesting symposia
Mr Wade naturally played the prominent part. On the enchanted ground of
Chinese history and literature, also, the interlocutors made endless
excursions together; and Chinese philosophy being directed to conduct
rather than speculation, it was possible to deduce from the teaching of
the sages authority for the adoption of almost any useful measure. Between
the modern innovator, therefore, though in foreign garb, and the ancient
moralists there was no such intellectual disagreement as sympathetic
explanations could not resolve.
It might have been justifiable to conclude that the Chinese were being
influenced for good by the well-meant counsels so copiously addressed to
them, were it not that the tutorial being so entirely incompatible with
the diplomatic function, no useful result could be expected from their
strained combination. It was as if one were to teach a novice the moves
in a game which the two were at the same time playing for serious stakes.
These interminable interviews and voluminous memoranda were wholly
unproductive, owing, no doubt, to the fact that the ideas of the parties
ran on parallel lines destined never to come to any point of fertile
contact. The burden of the cry of the Western people was "progress," a
word without equivalent in the language, and expressing an idea which
had no place in the conception of the Chinese. Incessant repetition
with varying illustrations were to the Chinese as flowers of rhetoric
wasted on a deaf man, and that simply because the basis of the Chinese
political thought lay at the opposite pole from that of the European.
On one occasion a distinguished American promoter was expatiating to the
governor of Formosa on the advantages of railway communication, his most
telling example being his own experience in being rushed along after an
early breakfast from his house in Albany to New York, where he spent the
day transacting important business and got wheeled back again to Albany
for dinner. The governor stopped him, and asked what in the name of
sanity possessed him to lead such a wearing life, as the last thing he
(the governor) would dream of doing would be to live a hundred miles from
his work. Though the earliest public advocate of railroads in China, the
governor regarded their utility from a far different point of view.
[Illustration: WÊNSIANG.
_From a photo by J. Thomson, Grosvenor Street, W._]
So eager were the foreigners for progress, which in their mind included
the regeneration of the Chinese empire and the development of its full
capacity for self-defence, that they were wont to rejoice over the
slightest indications of a beginning being made. Thus the mission of a man
of no standing as a secretary of the Tsungli-Yamên, who was sent to Europe
in 1866 to take observations, was hailed as the beginning of the new era,
and commended so warmly by the foreign Ministers to their Governments
that the emissary was received like the Queen of Sheba by King Solomon,
and shown--at least in Great Britain--everything that was admirable from
the Western point of view. He was as far, however, from appreciating the
triumph of science as was Cetewayo, the Zulu, whose admiration of England
focussed itself on the elephant "Jumbo" at the Zoological Gardens, or the
Scotswoman who, after being shown over the British Museum, had carried
away from it one impression, and that of the "graund mat" at the door.
The Chinese Government's appreciation of Western progress was by no means
increased by the mission of Pin, which rather indeed produced a contrary
effect. China soon began to put forth fresh claims to go her own way, her
own way being directly opposed to the kind of progress which was being
pressed upon her.
The Chinese in following the doctrines of the sages felt they were under
the guidance of Heaven, so that innovations appeared to them tainted with
impiety. So deeply did the worship of the past pervade their field of
thought, that when high officials ventured to introduce something new,
they usually endeavoured to disarm opposition by gilding their proposals
with well-selected texts from the classics.
II. FOREIGN LIFE IN PEKING.
Social influence of the Alcock family--Sir Rutherford's relations
with his staff--No social relations with natives--Manchu
courtesy to English ladies--Community of foreigners sociable yet
non-cohesive--Description of city--Foreign residency--Objects
of interest--The streets--Mules--Camels--Mongol market--Fur
sales--Absence of regulations--Street anecdotes--Summer
residences.
By the end of 1865 the foreign life in Peking, official, social, and
private, had already settled into the grooves prescribed by local
conditions, within which it has, more or less, run ever since.
[Illustration: MANCHU (TARTAR) WOMEN.]
Nevertheless, the advent of Sir Rutherford and Lady Alcock, with their
daughter, now Lady Pelly, introduced an element into the social atmosphere
of Peking which has afforded the happiest reminiscences to those who came
under its influence. We have seen that Sir Rutherford Alcock, by force of
character, conviction, and sense of duty, naturally assumed the lead among
his peers wherever he happened to be placed. A German resident in Peking
at the time we are speaking of says, "I remember very well that fine
English gentleman, who was conscious of representing the greatest country
of the world, and did it well." The official personality of the British
Minister could not be more truly depicted than in these simple words; but
this natural pre-eminence extended far beyond the official sphere, and
made itself felt for the general good in the common relations of life.
His dealings with subordinates were marked by thoroughgoing loyalty; his
rule was to give his confidence without reserve to those who merited
it, to support and defend them in the discharge of their duty. He was
accessible, always ready to listen to the opinions even of his juniors,
and though exacting as regards work, he never spared himself, but set an
example of industry to those who served under him. He possessed that rare
faculty of appreciation which enables a man to command services which no
money could buy. The survivors of his staff to this day speak of him in
affectionate terms as the best of chiefs. In business he was strictly,
perhaps even rigidly, formal, and his manner was intolerant of laxity in
others. When the official crust was put off like a suit of armour, the
genial depths of his nature were reached, but the number of those who
enjoyed this experience seems never to have been large. Select, but few,
were the friends of his bosom.
The foreign residents in Peking did not number many, and, with the
exception of the Legations, were rather widely scattered over a city of
vast distances. The original community consisted of about sixty persons,
distributed over the four Legations, the customs' staff, and missionary
establishments. It was a community of young men "about twenty-four years
of age," eminently social, no member being a stranger to the rest, and all
living in friendly intercourse. The Legations may almost be said to have
sat with open doors, so easy were their interchanges of informal visits.
During the time of Sir Rutherford and Lady Alcock their hospitalities
rendered the British Legation the chief centre of social interest, while
the unaffected kindness which inspired these courtesies endeared its
inmates to all their fellow-residents. That, indeed, was the golden age of
the British Legation, and, it may be added, of the general social life of
the Chinese capital, a period when life-long friendships were formed. The
time had not yet come for international rivalries to mar the cordiality
of personal intercourse. Indeed in the convivialities of Peking national
distinctions were absolutely lost, and so to a great extent were the
distinctions of rank. On the racecourse, which was early instituted, as
in the billiard-room, picnic excursions, and the like, all were free and
all were equal.
[Illustration: MANCHU WOMEN.]
When we speak of the "social" life of Peking, it must be understood as
referring exclusively to that of the foreign residents among themselves,
for between them and the natives there was no such intimacy. But in those
early days the high Chinese officials seemed to have been more genial than
those of a later epoch. In the winter of 1860-61, for example, Hangki,
formerly _hoppo_ of Canton, was in the habit of receiving Mr Adkins
familiarly at his private residence,--a practice which was afterwards
gradually discontinued. The arrival of the two ladies at the British
Legation was the signal for a display of courtesy by the Manchu Ministers,
who from time to time sent them seasonable presents of plants, flowers,
and other things, thus establishing agreeable personal relations with the
Minister. That the advent of ladies to the Legations should have evoked
the natural politeness of the high officials need not be a matter for
wonder if it be remembered that the Chinese contempt for women is not
shared by the Manchus. It is well known that their women are free from
most of the trammels which contract the lives of their Chinese sisters.
Their unbound feet symbolise liberty of locomotion generally, and they
show themselves unveiled and unabashed in public thoroughfares. They have
the coquetries common to the sex, among which may be reckoned a passion
for floral decoration of the head, and the universal practice of painting
the face and lips. This is done in a thoroughgoing manner, and as if the
paint were "laid on with a trowel," leaving a sharply defined margin on
cheek and neck between the pink and white and the sallow ground on which
the colour is overlaid, giving it the appearance of a mask which might
be easily removed. Even young children are subjected to the cosmetic
treatment; and the very aged do not discard the artificial flowers in the
remnant of their hair. As the fairest Chinese have no such natural colour
as is thus imitated, it is rather difficult to divine whence they derived
the notion of an ideal human skin.
It is not to be wondered at that the first European girls who appeared in
Peking should have excited some curiosity. One young lady, probably the
first arrival, whose fresh and fair complexion suggested the acme of the
cosmetic art, excited intense interest among the Mongol and Manchu ladies.
On one occasion she was met in the street by a great princess, who was
so struck by her appearance that she stopped her _cortège_, alighted from
her cart, and stood before the English girl and gently rubbed her cheeks
to find out, as she naively said, how the colour was put on!
The foreign residents at Peking, happy as their circumstances were,
lacked some of the principal elements of a community properly so called.
They had, in fact, little in common besides their æsthetic culture and
their Christian civilisation, the literature, philosophy, and the social
tenets of the West. They had no head, no centre, no neutral meeting-ground
even except the racecourse and the open fields, and were thus always
either hosts or guests to each other. The assumed identity of their high
political interests gave an appearance of solidarity to the diplomatic
section; but the fusion of the other elements in the society was far
from complete, and, in short, outside of the region of recreation and
conviviality the residents could not be said to be animated by any
unifying purpose, nor to have any communal existence. Individual isolation
prevented the aggregate from attaining collective force.
[Illustration: CHINESE WOMEN.]
These sterilising conditions were aggravated by another feature of
the situation which had an important bearing on social life. Peking
was one of the most inaccessible capitals in the world. The great
tourist-stream passed it by. It stirred no human emotion unless it
were languid aversion or inarticulate curiosity. The dilettante element
which has ventilated Japan so well and kept her in constant touch with
cosmopolitan life-currents has been absent in Northern China. Peking with
its particular concerns has been thus permitted to lie secluded from the
world, neither generating fruitful ideas nor inviting or profiting by
their importation from without; nor, in short, making itself intelligible
or interesting to mankind other than as an archaic curiosity. China, with
its immense wealth and resources, weighed less in the consideration of the
nations than the petty kingdom of Greece or the deadly swamps of Africa.
Considerations of that kind help to explain the bewilderment with which
the action of these neglected forces has been received during the past few
years, and the disarray of the organs of European opinion when suddenly
called on to deal with the phenomenon of Peking as a daily "headline."
* * * * *
Of the city itself it may be noted that it is magnificently laid out
within high and massive walls, the gates and corners surmounted by
bastions and imposing towers pierced with three tiers of gun-ports. The
main streets are straight and extravagantly wide. Spaciousness is the
dominant expression of the whole--the back-yard is a feature of the
meanest one-storeyed hovels. It has not occurred to the Pekingese to
economise earth-space by vertical architecture ground-ward or sky-ward.
Viewed from an elevation, the city has the appearance of a vast park:
the tree-foliage seen in perspective seems to cover the whole area, only
picked out by yellow and green roofs of imperial and other conspicuous
buildings. The palace, a city in itself of 10,000 inhabitants, occupies
an immense _enclave_ symmetrically placed in the centre of the whole.
From such a coign of vantage as the high wall affords, Peking presents
at once an impressive and a pleasing spectacle. It gives the distance
necessary to lend enchantment to the view. The soothing hum of a great
population; the sweetness of an atmosphere untainted, if it be summer,
or spiced by the aromatic herbs which grow promiscuously between the
interstices of the bricks, if it be autumn,--enfolds the scene in that
kind of soft drapery which memory throws over common things long past. One
lingers, loth to renew a closer acquaintance with the crowd below, which
no longer hums but utters wild discordant cries,--with the horrors of the
streets, which are of the earth, earthy. The area contained between the
rectilinear arteries of the city is dismally laid out on the plan of the
rabbit-warren. These wide streets are alternately deep mire and deep dust
at the best, but at the worst, receptacles of indescribable abominations.
The witty and wise Bishop Favier, when describing these to a friend in
France, was asked, How could a population living in such insanitary
conditions resist a visitation of cholera. "Cholera!" exclaimed the
Father; "it could never enter. It would be asphyxiated at the gate!"[12]
The dust is acrid to nose and eyes, from the dessicated refuse of
generations, for the streets are watered by long scoops from standing
pools of sewage which overflow in the summer rains and obliterate the
roadway, so that animals harnessed between shafts not unfrequently meet
with a cruel death by drowning in these fœtid thoroughfares.
[Illustration: CHINESE STREET SCENE DURING RAINY SEASON.]
Such hints as these will be sufficient to suggest to the least imaginative
that peculiar unattractiveness of the Peking streets which has been
a determining factor in the habits of the foreign residents. Life
would be intolerable to Western folks if it were not removed from the
sights, noises, and odours of the streets; and fortunately the ruling
local principle of spaciousness lends itself to the solution without
running counter to any native practice or prejudice. The Legations, the
customs, and the missionaries are in their various degrees established
in "compounds" large enough to accommodate the members of their staffs
in separate buildings with ample elbow-room, as in an Indian cantonment,
interspaced with trees and sometimes gardens, the whole surrounded by a
high wall and capable of defence. These seductive oases in a wilderness of
garbage, in a city of great distances, naturally conduce to stay-at-home
habits and to segregation, which it requires some energy to overcome.
Nor is Peking life wanting in more mundane compensations. The city itself
contains many "objects of interest," which in the earlier years of foreign
intercourse were open to the curious. The well-known "Lama temple,"
reputed to contain 2000 inmates, which has for many years been dangerous
to enter, was in those days a much-frequented resort, where the stranger
was welcome to go over the establishment and listen to the Buddhist
litanies: a certain bass voice, or perhaps a succession of bass voices, in
the choir, indeed, attained celebrity among foreigners. In the refectory
of that monastery one was obliged, out of respect, to eat, or feign to
eat, the unmitigated fat of the sheep's tail, fished from out the broth,
not with a hook, as was the custom in the Jewish Church, but by the deft
fingers of the chief lama. Now, on the contrary, the foreigner who enters
the gate is hustled, robbed, and stoned. This great change in the attitude
of the lamas has never been satisfactorily explained, but it is presumed
that the manners and customs of some of the visitors to the temple may
have had something to do with it. There have been visitors who, with the
keen acquisitiveness of the world-tourist, have slipped small "josses"
into their pockets out of what, perhaps, appeared to them the superfluous
number of molten images ranged round the shelves of the great Buddha's
sanctuary.
The Temple of Heaven, too, that grand altar to the Living God, standing
in an immense park enclosed by a lofty wall, was then, and for many
years remained, open to all comers. This was perhaps due less to any
intentional liberality of the authorities than to the negligence of the
gatekeepers and the Board of Works. For a long time access was gained
over a broken part of the outer wall left unrepaired. At one period
English residents played cricket within the vast enclosure; at another
Billingsgate and brickbats were the ordinary salutations which greeted
the would-be visitor--the change being probably due to the slow awakening
of the officials. So with many other places within and without the city,
for in some cases where direct request was made for extension of the
accommodation, the effect of drawing official attention to the subject
was to restrict the privileges which had actually been enjoyed.
Notwithstanding the occasional rudeness of which Dr Rennie has given us so
faithful a picture, the most unartistic of men could hardly fail to take
pleasure in the daily traffic of the streets, provided only his nerves,
visual and olfactory, were not too delicate. The true lord of the roads
is apt from his commonplaceness to be overlooked by those who owe him
most--that universal conveyancer, the sagacious, tireless mule. He does
not belong to the "five great families"--the fox, weasel, hedgehog, snake,
and rat--which the Chinese hold in mystic awe because they have learned
the secret of immortality; but if utility to man were a criterion of
merit, they would surely fall down and worship this indispensable hybrid.
Hot or cold, wet or dry, the mule never fails to respond to the severest
call upon his strength and courage.
With the approach of winter an antediluvian rival is introduced upon
the scene, in the shape of the well-known two-humped camel, which is
then shaggy, dignified, and in really grand form. Intolerant of heat,
but impervious to cold, the camels, after passing the summer on the
grass-lands of the Mongolian plateau, are brought down in droves to
the great fair held on a large open space outside the Northern Wall.
The coming of the camels with their bronzed and heavily booted riders
is like a whiff of the free air of the desert. The Pekingese use this
patient but surly beast of burden chiefly for carrying coal from the
mines in the Western Hills to the city; but immense numbers are employed
in transporting tea from the navigable limit of the Peiho to Siberia and
Russia, not entering Peking city at all.
A roomy encampment between the British and Russian Legations is allotted
to the Mongols, and serves as a market-place where the products of the
desert are exchanged for the utensils and gewgaws of civilisation. The
staple of the Mongol trade is frozen meat--mutton, venison, furred and
feathered game; and without refrigerator or other appliance the carcasses
remain fresh in their skins till the end of the three winter months.
These simple-minded herdsmen, chaffering with shrewd Chinese hucksters,
or sitting, where they seem to have been born, between the high humps of
their slow-moving beasts, form picturesque groups in the imperial city,
the more interesting that their appearance is pathetically suggestive
of an order which is passing away. The Grand Khan, dispensing favours to
his loyal tributaries, has come ominously near to being a mere tradition.
These very sheepskin-coated camel-drivers are the only buffer remaining
between the receding empire and the advancing tide of foreign encroachment
from the north.
Other evidences of that imperial grandeur which lent some justification to
the title "Middle Kingdom" were still occasionally to be met with. Though
Siam, and even Burma, had fallen indefinitely into arrears, dust-begrimed
embassies from Korea or Nepaul, with their trains of pack-mules bearing
tribute and merchandise (duty free for the benefit of the officials),
might still be seen defiling through the massive gates of the city,
preserving to our day a living picture of the Asiatic mission of the
antique type. For what were they but interesting survivals, shadows of
departed greatness?
Peking is not a commercial city, but essentially an imperial camp. Trade
proper is confined to an outer or Chinese city, which is but a walled-in
suburb sparsely built over. Through traffic, for obvious fiscal reasons,
shuns the capital; but there is sufficient local commerce, of which
gold and silver smelting forms a not unimportant part, to support many
bankers and merchants who are domiciled in the outer city. It has been
remarked that Chinese trade may be seen at its best in the settlement of
Maimaichên, which faces Kiachta on the Russo-Chinese frontier, or in the
Straits Settlements or Rangoon, where nothing hinders the merchants from
accumulating and displaying their wealth. Even Peking, however, affords
some glimpses of the far-reaching enterprise of the Chinese traders.
What a suggestive display, for instance, is the fur-market, also of
necessity a "winter exhibition"! Acres and acres of ground are covered
with skins of every conceivable species of quadruped, spread out from dawn
till near noon. Here are daily laid out for sale under the blue sky (and
what a light to make purchases in!) the commonest and the most precious
furs from Manchuria, the Amur, and even Kamtschatka, the total value of
which must be enormous. Let us learn from the history of the Hudson's
Bay Company what organisation of energy, what confidence, what variety of
enterprise and skill, are required to bring these costly commodities from
such vast distances to this great sale-room, and we shall not make light
of the vitality of the Chinese.
* * * * *
The amenities of the street traffic, though not of special importance,
call for mention as illustrating certain phases of foreign contact
with the Chinese. If we may take Japan for comparison, in nothing is
the contrast between the two systems more apparent than in municipal
administration. The antithesis may be expressed in one word,--in Japan,
excessive regulation; in China, absence of regulation. Whether there be
any rule of the road in China is of little interest, seeing that, like
other rules, it might be disregarded and there would be no one to enforce
it. The traffic adjusts itself with little friction. China employs no
police,--things arrange themselves by their own interaction, as the
pebbles do on the sea-shore; and for most of the purposes of life the
people are their own law-makers and their own executive. The Chinese
system of government is to govern as little as possible--to let the
country rule itself. So when a strange element demanded accommodation
in the busy streets and congested gateways of Peking, without rules
or supervision, it had to find its level among the rest by friction
and concussion. It would have been an interesting process to watch in
its initial stages. Amid a good deal of clamour and language of a racy
description applied to man and beast and their respective ancestors, there
is rarely a serious road quarrel among the Chinese. One excellent custom
of polite society tends to restrict the area of disputes on the highway,
leaving collisions to be fought out by grooms, carters, chair-bearers, or
boatmen, as the case may be, while the masters maintain an imperturbable
reserve.
Mr Colborne Baber, who had a way of his own of solving the minor problems
of Chinese intercourse, was once in a cart, sitting well back and
unobserved, in a narrow street that admitted neither of turning nor of
passing another vehicle, when a cart was met about half way. The drivers
began to vociferate, each calling on the other to give way. The opposition
carter claimed the precedence on the ground that his vehicle carried
women, and it looked as if he would gain his point when Baber himself,
becoming impatient, thrust out his head and called out that in his cart
there was a foreign devil, and without further discussion the rival jehu
backed out.
Those who ride do not recognise each other on the road, even though they
be friends; for if they did so, etiquette would require both to stop and
dismount and go through formal salutations on foot. Foreigners, ignoring
this rule, and their servants not unwilling to profit by the prestige
of their masters in accosting bystanders from the saddle, are sometimes
grievously misdirected when not lectured on their bad manners. The
natives on their part are seldom averse from presuming on the foreigner's
ignorance of what is due to him. Between the one and the other, or as a
result of the mere chapter of accidents, collisions were inevitable in
the streets. How were they to be dealt with in the absence of constituted
authority? If aggression towards a foreigner on the part of a great man's
servants were submitted to, there would be no end to it, they being 500 to
1. On the other hand, insolence promptly resented and vigorously punished
never failed to elicit the approval not only of the spectators, but even
of the great man himself, who perhaps had secret grievances of his own
against his lackeys, which he was not sorry to see partially paid off
by proxy. In all cases the sympathy of the Chinese goes with the side
that successfully asserts itself. Of this hundreds of examples could be
given--perhaps not one on the converse side.
A writer in the 'Whitehall Review' some years ago, among interesting
reminiscences of the 'Sixties, relates some incidents to show the
primitive means by which equilibrium was established between natives and
foreigners in the Peking streets. _Place aux dames._ The experience of the
first foreign female who had been seen is thus amusingly told. Mr Bruce's
housekeeper, an old family retainer who had followed the fortunes of her
master all over the world,
saw no particular reasons for not acting in Peking as she had
done in Cairo or Constantinople, and the first morning after her
arrival sallied forth, basket on arm, to do her marketing for the
day. When I add that she knew not a word of Chinese, that none of
the natives spoke English, that she was about five feet high and
ten feet round the crinoline, and was the first female European
ever seen by the Pekingese, her enterprise will be judged to have
been braver than she knew. However, nothing daunted, she entered
a butcher's shop, closely pressed upon by an inquisitive and
delighted crowd. Before she could even look at a joint or chop
she was hemmed in, and one waggish native, bolder than the rest,
gave her a substantial dig in the crinoline, shouting in Chinese,
"Let's see if she's solid." But the laugh was not for long on his
side. Seizing a chopper from the block, Mrs A. made a mighty blow
at his head, which he happily evaded. In less than a second the
shop was clear, the terrified natives tumbling over each other
in their haste to get away. A European who came upon the scene
at the moment beheld the startling sight of some 500 Chinese
rushing up the principal street pursued by an infuriated old woman
armed with a chopper. With some difficulty she was persuaded to
abandon the chase and resume her basket, which she had dropped
in her excitement. But it is on record that for a good two years
thereafter Mrs A. was allowed to shop in peace, and became a
"Black Douglas" to troublesome Chinese children in the vicinity
of the Legation.
In later years she talked in what she called "broken China."
Another "adjustment to environment" is thus described:--
A curious little industry sprang up in the environs of the city,
consequent on the horsey proclivities of the Europeans. This was
getting run over, which was generally accomplished by rushing in
front of the horses and throwing the hands up. One of two things
always happened. Either the horse shied and the rider came off, to
the huge delight of the Chinese mob, or the gesticulating party
was knocked down. In this latter event, cautioned as we all were
to give no offence, if possible, to the natives, a dollar was
generally handed as salve to the artful victim, whose screams and
yells that he had been killed never failed to draw a large and
sympathising crowd of friends, who regarded the "foreign devil"
with most unfriendly looks. In one village at last it became
intolerable, and we decided if any further attempt was made we
would run down the culprits intentionally. As usual, on our next
visit three or four young _gamins_ essayed the usual dodge. Being
fully prepared for it, nobody was unseated, and we turned our
horses back at full gallop, three or four Chinese being hurled
into the hedge by our horses. We did not stop to offer dollars,
but were never afterwards stopped.
Following the same train of reflection, he gives examples of the drastic
manner in which the Russians asserted their prerogatives on the road,
which we do not quote, as they were probably exceptional cases.
The never-failing courtesy of the Manchus rises superior to such
unpleasant encounters. An example of this was related to the writer by a
member of the British Legation. In riding through a narrow place, narrowed
probably by the cesspool occupying more than its fair share of the street,
he met the _cortège_ of a grandee at a spot where it seemed impossible
to pass, and it looked as if the solitary horseman must turn back. As
he thought of doing so he observed the occupant of the sedan call a halt
and direct his bearers to make room for the stranger. Observing closely
the features of him who showed so much consideration for a foreigner, the
Englishman was pleased, some time afterwards, to recognise in him Prince
Ch'ing, who succeeded Prince Kung as President of the Tsungli-Yamên in
1884.
The lives of the foreign residents were by no means confined within the
four walls of the city. The environs without fences or trespass notices
make charming excursion-grounds for riding-parties. For longer expeditions
there are the never-failing attractions of the Ming Tombs, the Great
Wall, the passes into Mongolia, and various other distant points. The
city is beautifully situated in the centre of a mountain crescent, whose
nearest point is thirteen miles distant. The first object of quest when
the Legations had been established was a sanatorium or summer retreat--for
the thermometer reaches 100 Fahr. in June--and the Western Hills were
explored. Some of the most beautiful spots there are occupied by Buddhist
temples or monasteries, whose builders have shown as nice a taste in
the selection of their sites as their brethren the monks of the West
have always done. These religious houses, laid out with a view to the
accommodation of pilgrims and strangers, are regularly used by Chinese
grandees as health-resorts or shelters from political storms. The Russian
mission, while it was alone in Peking, had set the example twenty years
before of resorting to the hill temples in the dog-days. Arrangements
with the priests for the occupation of certain portions of one of the
temples were soon made by Mr Parkes, who was on a visit to the capital,
and ever since 1861 official Peking, with one notable exception, has on
the approach of summer migrated bodily from the oppressive atmosphere of
the great city to the exhilarating air of the Western Hills. The social
life of the city was reproduced at the temples, but in a less conventional
form, every one residing there being considered on a holiday. The country
round offered many temptations to excursions, and amateurs of geology,
botany, and natural history were never at a loss for something to interest
them in their rambles among the hills. Residence so far from town brought
the foreigners into friendly contact also with their rustic neighbours,
whose innate good qualities, moderation, contentment, and kindliness were
displayed in a very favourable light.
But the sojourn at the hills also brought the foreigner into occasional
contact with Chinese of high rank, who welcomed such opportunities of
showing civility to the strangers. At other times disagreeable collisions
with the retainers of a great personage were experienced. So popular were
the temples of the Western Hills as a summer resort that they were always
full, and consequently disputes about accommodation were liable to occur,
especially when some grasping priest would let the same premises to two
different occupants, leaving them, or rather their servants, to fight for
the possession.
III. THE FOREIGN CUSTOMS UNDER THE PEKING CONVENTION.
Centralised in Peking--Encouraged by British Ministers--Assumed
imperial form after the treaties of 1858--Extension to all the
ports--Original international basis becomes purely Chinese--Shows
capacity for larger functions than collection of duties--Becomes
a diplomatic auxiliary--British Government leans upon it--The
Chinese faithfully served by it--Interpreter of the intentions
of the foreign Governments--Inspector-General gains influence
over British Minister--Pleases Board of Trade--And maintains
confidential relations with British Government--While remaining
faithful to China--Services rendered by the Customs to all
commercial nations.
It was a source of unmixed satisfaction to Sir Rutherford Alcock, on
assuming office in Peking, to find the maritime customs, the bantling of
Shanghai, firmly established in the capital and gathering strength and
influence. As its functions pertained exclusively to trade, Sir Frederick
Bruce had been originally of opinion that the inspector-general should be
located in the commercial centre, Shanghai, and he took exception to the
institution being domiciled in Peking, where trade was expressly excluded
by treaty. Sir Frederick, however, soon saw reason to modify his views.
When it began to appear to him that the customs might prove a convenient
auxiliary to the diplomacy of the treaty Powers, he cultivated the
institution and encouraged it to occult activity in the political sphere.
Sir Frederick Bruce's interests in the fortunes of the customs, however,
could never be so ardent as that of its parent, Sir Rutherford Alcock,
and its monthly nurse, Mr Wade. The presence of these two in the British
Legation afforded a fresh guarantee of the prosperity of the customs,
which they were both well satisfied to see in the competent hands of Mr
Hart. For as the institution was a creation without precedent, the form
of its development must be largely influenced by the personal qualities
of its head. Whatever character it might have assumed under its original
inspector-general, Lay, it could hardly have been the same service that
has grown and spread under the directing hand of Sir Robert Hart. It
is impossible to dissociate the Chinese customs as it stands from the
vigorous self-sustained intellect that has moulded and still controls it,
for it is assuredly not such a going concern as can be made over to any
new head without the risk of changes more or less organic.
The story of the first decade of the maritime customs was told clearly,
briefly, and modestly in a monograph which Mr Hart prepared for Mr Bruce
in 1864, published as a Blue Book of thirteen pages (No. 1, 1865). Up
to the date of the Tientsin treaty of 1858 the operations of the foreign
collectorate were confined to the single port of Shanghai, the inspectors
holding the appointment from the governor-general at Nanking, who was
Imperial Commissioner for Foreign Trade. The new treaty gave the foreign
Powers an interest in the Chinese customs which they did not possess
before, because the war indemnities were to be paid by instalments out
of the collections of duty, so that during the time when these payments
were being made the maintenance of the machinery for collecting the duties
was a matter of international concern. The new treaty also provided for a
uniform system of duty collection for all the trading-ports; and then the
institution assumed an imperial and dropped its provincial character, the
inspector-general receiving his commission from the Central Government.
Considering that the mission of the foreign customs was to subvert
time-honoured native systems, it was received with surprising graciousness
at most of the trading centres. The first port to which the new system was
extended was Canton, the leader in welcoming its advent there being the
_hoppo_, the one functionary in the empire whose privileges seemed to be
most directly threatened by the new-comer. By one of those anomalies which
are so common and yet so inexplicable in Chinese affairs, arrangements for
opening the office in Canton were carried on without interruption during
the hostilities of 1859. Patience, tact, and resolution were nevertheless
required to overcome the innumerable difficulties of detail incidental to
substituting rigorous inspection and remorseless collection for the chaos
of unaccountability which had previously reigned unchallenged. A very few
years, however, served to reduce all obstruction, and to bring trader and
official, foreigner and Chinese, into working harmony.
For the first time in history a true account was rendered to the Imperial
Government, accompanied by a substantial revenue on which it could depend.
Naturally the agency, though foreign, which yielded such tangible fruit,
commended itself to the statesmen of the capital, who frankly recognised,
as did the provincial authorities themselves, that the result obtained
was wholly beyond the competence of any native organisation. Though,
therefore, the customs service was essentially of a provisional, stop-gap
character, it had on that very account a surer guarantee of permanence
than could have been derived from any paper covenant by which the Chinese
Government could have been bound, for that would have provoked disputation
and evasion. The spasmodic attempt to formalise the service on a basis
of international obligation which was made in 1898 was perhaps the first
thing that really imperilled its constitution. In its origin, indeed,
the foreign customs had been international, the three treaty Powers being
each represented on the inspectorate; but with the expansion in 1858 this
character was abandoned, and the customs became a purely Chinese concern
operated by foreign employees, the staff being selected from among all
nations indiscriminately, according to personal merit.
Almost from the time of the transference of the inspectorate to the
capital the customs showed capacities of wider range than are comprised
within the routine of a custom-house. Profoundly impressed as were the
imperial statesmen with the value of the new revenue-producer, they soon
began to perceive that the institution might be put to other and greater
uses. Plurality of function in itself was no stumbling-block to them,
for it is the system on which Chinese administration is carried on. In
the very first year they had intrusted the inspector-general and his
deputy with the organisation of a navy, with the evident approval of the
British Minister. That functionary, indeed, seemed as little disposed as
the Chinese themselves to see incongruity in the various forms of customs
activity, especially when he regarded its extra official services as
rendered to himself; and he really stood much in need of services of that
kind.
Her Majesty's first representative in Peking, helpless and despairing,
was, in fact, fain to throw himself on the support of the first
inspector-general, Mr Lay, and then of his successor, Mr Hart, as
having knowledge and influence with the Chinese Government which was
not possessed by the British Legation. It did not apparently occur to Mr
Bruce that such knowledge was strictly limited, and that the influence
could be of very little use to him, and might be too dearly purchased.
Having no other resource, however, he was perhaps not unwilling to
shut his eyes to the false position in which he was placing himself in
leaning upon the paid servants of the Chinese Government to assist him in
carrying out a policy which was totally repugnant to that Government. The
fidelity of both Mr Lay and Mr Hart to the master whom they served being
beyond question, the diplomatic prestige conferred on them by the British
Minister, as well as the knowledge and influence derived from the other
side, must, in all matters of controversy, be thrown into the Chinese
scale.
As this interesting truth dawned upon the minds of the Tsungli-Yamên, they
saw in their English employee a providential instrument for drawing the
sting from the threatening language which was sometimes applied to them
by the foreign representatives. Of these, the only one who had as yet any
serious matter to discuss with the Chinese was the representative of Great
Britain. It was assumed on the British side that nothing proposed by that
Power was contrary to the interests of China: so far, indeed, did this
theory inspire their action, that the welfare of the Chinese seemed at
times to overshadow that of their own empire in the minds of the British
representatives. No doubt there was an ideal point of view from which
the interests of China and her Western neighbours might seem ultimately
to blend, but Chinese statesmen were in nowise able to take in such a
large perspective. They continued to regard the foreign invasion, with
all its pretences of goodwill, as an unmitigated calamity to be opposed
wherever possible. No man can pronounce a certain judgment as to whether,
with their imperfect knowledge, they were more right or more wrong in
following their obstructive instincts. Reforms, progress, and the opening
up of the country to foreigners, were being persistently pressed upon
them; they fully expected these concessions to be demanded of them when
the time came--and it was already drawing near--when the treaties should
be revised. Admitting, moreover, that some one, or more, of the Powers
might have been considerate enough to forego, or indefinitely postpone,
advantages for themselves rather than imperil the wellbeing of the Chinese
State, there were already six instead of the original three treaty Powers
to be reckoned with; nor was there any limit to the further increase of
their numbers. Supposing, then, that, relying on the benignant intentions
of the English, they should, in the revision of their treaty, admit such
innovations as inland steam navigation, inland residence, railways,
and so forth, would not these successes stimulate the other Powers,
when their turn for revision came,--France in 1870, Germany in 1871,
and others later,--to advance still farther the outposts of the foreign
invasion, each, in a spirit of generous emulation, striving to surpass the
achievements of his predecessor; and all with the complacent consciousness
that they were doing good to China? These endless contingencies were more
than Chinese statesmen could cope with, and the apprehension of them had
no other effect than to consolidate their resistance in small as well
as in great things. They were learning to mistrust the efficacy of their
ancient imperial policy of dividing and ruling, and with good reason had
lost confidence in their capacity to distinguish in embryo between what
was trivial and what was laden with deep consequences.
Resistance, therefore, tempered by the fear of force, seemed their only
refuge. Some of the dangers ahead, of which they had glimpses, might have
been obviated by a bolder policy; but being unable to formulate such
a policy for themselves, and unwilling to accept it cut and dried from
others, there was nothing left them but indiscriminate resistance. Under
such conditions no harmony was possible between the Chinese and Western
Governments; and not knowing how far they might with safety evade the
pressure put upon them, the Chinese had recourse to the Inspector-General
of Customs, as Louis XI. had recourse to his astrologer whenever he felt
himself in a difficult crisis.
The Tsungli-Yamên, accustomed to act on hand-to-mouth views of policy,
would do anything to relieve the pressure of the moment, but nothing to
prevent a recurrence of it. Indisposed to follow up the sequences of cause
and effect, they would in emergencies become impatient of ratiocination
and attempt to reach the foregone conclusion by a shorter cut. Common
gossip in China thus fairly summarised their attitude in certain crises
of this kind. If discussion with the British Legation ran high, the Yamên
would send for the inspector-general and ask simply, "Does this mean
war?" The answer being "No," the question ceased to trouble the Yamên,
and the foreign Minister would be allowed to rage at his pleasure. Their
Excellencies would even help him out with the opprobrious terms he was
searching for, and then listen placidly to the remainder of the tirade.
Great Britain having not only the preponderating interest, but being still
the leading Power in the Far East, it was obviously a great advantage for
the Chinese that it should be that Power which came particularly under
the influence of the inspector-general. To tie the hands of the British
Government for a whole generation was, indeed, an achievement worthy of a
master of policy; but it was by no means the only service which might be
rendered to China even by an Inspector-General of Customs.
The same agency was destined in later days to unravel many tangled skeins
in China's international relations. It brought Gordon to her rescue in
1880; by sheer innate ability in the use of the most unpromising means, it
brought about peace with France in 1885; and, though with less success, it
procured the attempted intervention of Great Britain with Japan in 1894.
How far these great potentialities were foreseen in the earlier years
of the Customs service is doubtful. Even in their parental complacency
Sir Rutherford Alcock and Mr Wade may well have failed to realise, as an
uninterested outsider might have done, the nature of the power that was
being nursed in their infant Hercules. Certain it is that they reckoned
it as a factor on their own side. It is clear that Sir Rutherford Alcock,
so far from regarding the inspector-general as an opponent, commended him
to the Foreign Office as a valuable auxiliary. Mr Wade clung to the same
belief for a good many years longer.
The first to perceive the tendency of the new relationship which events
were bringing about was, no doubt, the inspector-general himself.
China, he saw, could be best served by a virtual control of the British
Legation. The nascent power was, however, too precious to be trusted to
personal accidents, and the inspector-general wisely availed himself
of circumstances as they arose to widen his basis of influence by
establishing such relations with the Home Government as might save
him from being wholly dependent on the life or the caprice of the
representative for the time being at Peking. Such to an ordinary man
might have appeared a hopeless ambition, considering the circumstance
of distance and other adverse conditions. Yet by gradual steps this too
was accomplished. A well-directed stroke or a happy accident established
the inspector-general in high favour with the Board of Trade when under
the presidency of Mr John Bright. He had summed up the results of the
treaty revision[13] negotiations in 1868 in a congratulatory letter to
the British Minister which has been many times published. As a masterly
exposition of the State of China in its relation to foreign Powers it was
warmly indorsed by Sir Rutherford Alcock, and is well worth perusal even
at this day. The Board of Trade was much impressed by a presentment of
the Chinese case so much in sympathy with the views often expressed by Mr
Cobden and Mr Bright, and which are traditional in the Board of Trade.
Their policy was noninterference in the affairs of China, based largely
on their disparagement of the value of British interests in that country.
In commenting on this closely reasoned State Paper, the Board of Trade
specially selected for illustration of its merit the following passage:
"Of course, force will wrest anything from China: but wherever there is
action there is reaction; and as sure as natural laws continue to act,
so sure it is that appeals to force in one age will give to the men of
a later day a heritage of vengeance,--the Europeans of some future day
may wish that their forefathers had not sown the seeds of hatred in the
bayonet-ploughed soil of Cathay."
Nor was this the only result of the happy success of the new customs
diplomacy, for, as the connecting link between commerce and politics, the
Board of Trade was a potent agency in determining the political action of
the Government, more especially when there was a strong man at the head
of it and a weak one at the Foreign Office.
The rising power in China did not seek fresh conquests, but was adroit in
seizing on such as came in its way, and circumstances having brought it
in direct touch with the Foreign Office, that department was drawn into
close relation with the Chinese customs.
The result of all this, briefly stated, was the partial effacement of
the Legation and the gradual promotion of Sir Robert Hart to the first
place in the confidence of the British Government. As the Foreign Office
had, since the suppression of the Taiping rebellion and the death of
Lord Palmerston, been most reluctant either to busy itself or to inform
itself respecting affairs in China, and was, moreover, anxious to minimise
the cost of the Legation in Peking, it was rather predisposed to accept
volunteer assistance in the management of British interests in China. The
Legation was then, as now, without any intelligence department, the cost
of which was saved under the vague belief that all needful information
might be obtained from the customs. Thus relegated to a secondary place,
the Legation was more and more neglected by Her Majesty's Government,
until at last representatives were selected at random and sent out
without instructions, in blind reliance on the good offices of the
Inspector-General of Customs.
Before this final stage had been reached, however, such an opportunity
occurred, through the death of Sir Harry Parkes, of legitimising
the irregular connection, as a death sometimes provides in certain
relations of domestic life, and Sir Robert Hart was himself appointed
British Minister. This step was recognised as so far appropriate to the
circumstances that it conjoined responsibility with power, which had
been too long divorced from each other. But just as the new Minister
was about to assume his duties a hitch occurred with the Tsungli-Yamên,
whose views as to the succession to the post of head of the customs not
coinciding with Sir Robert Hart's, he thereupon resigned the office of
British Minister and resumed his Chinese service. The incident made no
difference in the confidence which Sir Robert Hart inspired in the Foreign
Office, which had, in fact, drifted into a position of dependence on the
inspector-general. This close relationship continued until the Japanese
war in 1894, when the British Government, the victim of many illusions,
found itself in a condition of bewilderment, like King Lear on the heath,
quite unfurnished with the means of coping with the superior intelligence
of the other European Powers.
Throughout all these years the attitude of the inspector-general towards
his Chinese employers was absolutely above suspicion. He served them
loyally throughout, and if the British Government imagined he was using
his highly paid position under the Chinese Government in any way to
promote other than Chinese interests, that was a gratuitous assumption on
their part for which they alone were responsible, and for which, as for
all false strategy, the inevitable penalty must be paid.
Among the important international services rendered by the foreign
customs, the effective lighting of the coast deserves the first place.
Next to that may be reckoned the compilation of accurate statistics of
foreign trade with China, more complete perhaps than exists in any other
country. The reports of the commissioners of customs at the various
ports are also replete with varied and useful information concerning the
commerce, industry, and agriculture, with other conditions of the life
of the Chinese. Special subjects assigned to individual men are treated
as exhaustively as if investigated by a Royal Commission. These valuable
papers constitute a modern Chinese Repository to which there is but one
drawback--its inaccessibility.
IV. EMIGRATION.
Extensive emigration of Chinese labourers in consequence of
gold discoveries--Great abuses--Attempt to diminish same by
international action--Tripartite treaty concluded in Peking--Not
ratified by France and England--Who send out amended treaty,
but negotiations never resumed by Chinese--Opposition of British
colonies and the United States to Chinese emigration.
The first public question with which Sir Rutherford Alcock was called upon
to deal was that of the emigration or exportation of Chinese coolies.
Among the consequences of the gold discoveries of the middle of the
century was a demand for human labour, which China of all countries was
best able to supply. Voluntary emigration to California and Australia
(the "Old" and the "New Gold Mountain") was considerable; but it did not
meet the requirements of those enterprises in tropical and subtropical
countries which, if not originated, were at least stirred into activity
by the impulse radiating from the gold mines. The contractor was called
into requisition, and Chinese were carried off in shiploads to Cuba,
Peru, Chili, "where they were sold into virtual slavery" under agreements
over which there was no legal supervision. Terrible abuses characterised
the traffic; mutiny and massacre on the high seas were among the natural
consequences. "Another coolie tragedy" was as common a newspaper heading
in the 'Fifties as "another missionary outrage" in the subsequent decades
of the nineteenth century.
Hongkong being the most convenient shipping port, it was natural
that thence should emanate the first efforts to suppress the abuses
of the traffic. The "Chinese Passengers Act" passed by the Colonial
Legislature in 1855 was a well-considered step in that direction, and
the establishment of responsible emigration agencies was another. Such
efforts, however, could only be partially successful; for while they
cleared the colony from participation in a nefarious trade, they made
no impression on the trade itself. Indeed, by throwing it into the least
reputable channels, the fate of the victims may even have been rendered
less endurable by the restrictive measures conceived for their benefit.
The Portuguese settlement of Macao remained open, and there the coolie
traffic flourished exceedingly, to the pecuniary advantage of that colony
and of the maternal Government, which levies an annual tribute from its
Far Eastern offspring. The trade was also carried on in a more or less
clandestine and irregular manner at Canton, Swatow, and other Chinese
ports, under non-British flags.
For years the colonial press was filled with the horrors of the traffic.
Such paragraphs as the following were continually appearing in the
Hongkong newspapers:--
At Macao the coolie trade is still rampant, with all its
abominations. The inquiries instituted, or said to have been
instituted, by Governor Amaral, have ended in smoke. Day after day
some additional iniquity comes to light in connection with this
horrible traffic. Coolies kidnapped, imprisoned in barracoons,
flogged to make them consent to sign the iniquitous contract that
binds them to a life of slavery, marched with a strong guard to
testify at the Government offices to their signature as given
voluntarily and freely, half-starved, exposed to blindness and
disease on board ship in transit to the place of their exile,
tossed overboard, or left on some barren isle to die, if loss of
sight or sickness renders them useless to their masters. Such
are the grand features of the Macao coolie trade, supported by
the governor in his official acts, and the semi-official paper he
edits. Such are the horrors of a slave-trade worse than that of
the poor African negro, which all nations ought to unite to put
an end to.
Foreigners could of course have had no success whatever in such
man-hunting schemes without the interested co-operation of the natives.
How this was obtained may be gathered from such reports as that of Mr W.
M. Cooper, acting consul at Swatow, one of the principal entrepots.
Nowhere [he says] is population more dense than in the plains
of the Han. There is a constant tendency, where the struggle
for existence is so keen, and no drain exists as that caused by
recruiting for an army, towards the formation of a scum of bad
characters, whom their idleness or ill-deeds drive to prey on the
more industrious. These, frequently discarded by their families,
are seen by the official and the village elder on their way to
the coolie-house with a sense of relief and satisfaction; and
not seldom is the coolie-broker aided in his object of obtaining
men by persons of this class, and frequently by the relations of
the men themselves. Thus the trade is allowed to take root with
the concurrence of the heads of the people, who not only rid
themselves by means of it of a nuisance and a burden, but make
money by the transaction; and a connection is formed which the
broker, in his thirst for dollars, becoming gradually hardened and
more ruthless, is not slow to avail himself of in carrying out,
with greater boldness, evil designs on his victim.
But if the atrocities incident to the capture and embarkation cried aloud
for a remedy, the brutalities of the middle passage were no less heinous;
and though the light could not easily penetrate the scenes enacted in the
distant mines and plantations which were the ultimate destination of the
coolies, enough was known to show that their lot in Spanish-American and
other countries and colonies was far from enviable.
To efface this blot on civilisation was the first object which engaged
the attention of Sir Rutherford Alcock in Peking. The Chinese Government
itself had remained for many years callous to the cruelties perpetrated
on its subjects; but this was in keeping with its tolerant habit, its
blindness to things disagreeable, and its constitutional aversion to
overt action of any kind. The Peking authorities seem, however, to have
been at last aroused by the interest in the question evinced by foreign
Governments, and in 1866 the Chinese Ministers were induced to join
the foreign Powers in devising means to ameliorate the condition of the
emigrants. The suggestions of Prince Kung were practical and well directed
towards a solution of the problem.
The problem, however, was by no means simple; for to be effective,
regulations must be of universal obligation, and receive the sanction of
all the interested Powers. There was no desire in any quarter to arrest
the stream of honest and free emigration; on the contrary, it was welcomed
as an outlet for destitute Chinese. To impose restrictions on Hongkong
while the neighbouring colony was lawless and free; to place obstacles
in the way of emigration to Demerara and Trinidad, where the coolies
were happy and contented, thereby driving them in greater numbers to
territories where they were enslaved,--was obviously no gain to humanity.
The question, however, was as urgent as it was difficult.
Yet there were circumstances in the situation favourable to a satisfactory
issue. Chief among these was the fact that France and England were
still working loyally together in matters of cosmopolitan concern. Sir
Rutherford Alcock found his French colleagues in Peking as amenable as he
had found those in Yedo. The consequence was that, as the result of the
winter's labours, a tripartite convention for the regulation of coolie
emigration was signed in March 1866 by the British and French Ministers
and Prince Kung. The convention was approved by the Ministers of Russia,
the United States, and Prussia, though they were not parties to it.
But the French Government took exception to certain of its provisions,
and deferred ratification until these should be modified. The British
Colonial Office and Emigration Board fell in with the views of the French
Government. The settlement of the question was thereupon shifted from
Peking to Paris and London, when voluminous correspondence ensued between
the two Foreign Offices, extending through the years 1866, 1867, and
into 1868. The co-operation between the two Governments was hearty and
complete; and the amount of patient labour devoted to the task, especially
by the French Foreign Office, which had not the auxiliary machinery at its
disposal which existed in the Government departments in England, was in
the highest degree creditable to both. It may suffice to say that after
eighteen months of earnest work a "Projet de Règlement International
d'Emigration" was completed in twenty-three articles with subsidiary
forms, and was despatched to Peking at the end of 1867, the discussions
having resulted in the retention of almost the entire text of the original
convention--a fact which reflected no small credit on the Ministers in
Peking who had drawn it up.
But when the time came for resuming negotiations in the Chinese capital,
the Government there had relapsed into its habitual apathy respecting
the welfare of its people. Possibly, also, the zeal of the resident
Ministers of France and England may have cooled during the interval
which had elapsed since their previous efforts. Their attention was
becoming engrossed with other subjects. Effective co-operation between
the three parties was evidently no longer feasible. The attempt to
regulate emigration by a comprehensive international agreement was tacitly
abandoned, and the evils of the coolie trade were left to be dealt with
sporadically.
Free emigration from Hongkong--that is to say, of emigrants who paid
their own passage--proceeded all the while on an extensive scale. But
the laws of the colony did not permit contract emigration except to
British colonies, and under elaborate supervision both at embarkation and
after arrival at the field of labour. Although coolie ships could not be
despatched from Hongkong, a certain amount of indirect participation in
the traffic was maintained for some years by residents in the colony who
supplied fittings for the coolie ships preparatory to their proceeding
to the port of embarkation. Colonial legislation, however, gradually put
an end to this, and successive ordinances so narrowed the field of the
contractors' operations that the trade, both direct and indirect, was
practically extinguished so far as Hongkong was concerned. A declaration
by the Chief Justice in 1873 summed up the various prohibitory laws by
enacting that the coolie trade would be treated as a slave trade, aiding
or abetting which would be felony. In the year following, the Portuguese
Government, yielding to the friendly pressure that had been for a long
time put upon them, passed a law prohibiting the coolie trade at Macao.
While the emigrants were so anxiously protected at the outset of their
voyage, the immigration of Chinese into the United States and the
Australian colonies was exciting interest of a different kind in those
countries. Legislation was continuously directed against the influx
of Chinese, and not legislation only, but barbarous ill-treatment and
outrages on a par with those perpetrated against foreigners in China. Mr
Secretary Seward on his round-the-world tour in 1871 expressed himself
highly favourable to Chinese labour in the United States, and his views
afforded great encouragement to emigration to California for some years
after. The treaty concluded at Washington in 1868 by Mr Burlingame
accorded full privileges to Chinese in the United States. But a sharp
reaction occurred in the views of American statesmen, and in 1880 the
Chinese Government, by treaty made in Peking, consented to a modification
of the Washington treaty of 1868, which would allow the United States to
limit or suspend, though not absolutely to prohibit, Chinese immigration.
This step towards prohibition was completed in another convention signed
at Washington in 1894. Why the Chinese Government should have gratuitously
consented to attach a stigma to their country and people is one of those
inexplicable matters which abound in the history of China's foreign
relations.
V. KOREA.
Comes into the sphere of international relations in 1866--Illegal
propagandism followed by persecutions--France adopts the
cause of the missions--Calls upon China as suzerain to punish
Koreans--Which failing, French Minister proclaims annexation
of Korea--Naval expedition repulsed--American naval expedition
repulsed in 1871.
It was in the year 1866 that foreign aggression first complicated the
relations between China and her tributaries. The kingdom of Korea had with
more consistency and more success than either China or Japan secluded
itself absolutely from foreign intrusion. Nevertheless, the ubiquitous
Jesuit had found his way there, under desperate subterfuges; for if
the foreigner in general was proscribed, the foreign religionist was
anathema to the rulers of Korea. The laws of the country were draconic
in their severity against all priests or pretenders to supernatural
authority; but the zeal of the Catholic propaganda defied the laws,
though not always with impunity. "Persecutions," in fact, occasionally
broke out, and "massacres" was a not inappropriate description of the
repressive measures adopted by the Government in vindication of what it
considered the law of the State. The French Government, or at least its
representative in Peking, resolved to espouse the cause of the persecuted
missionaries in 1866, and to make reprisals on the King of Korea. But
that country being a vassal state, the demand was first made formally on
the suzerain, that he should cause the Korean persecutors to be punished
and the missionaries avenged. This was not only prejudging the particular
case, but was yet another instance of foreigners forcing a formula on
China, and making her answerable to a tribunal of whose jurisdiction
she had no cognisance. The relations of China to the surrounding States
which acknowledged her suzerainty were vague and various, imperfectly
understood by Western States, as was sufficiently proved in the Burma
Convention concluded between Great Britain and China in 1886. But the
French _chargé d'affaires_ recognised no debatable ground such as even
in the international comity of the West differentiates one dependent
State from another, and one suzerain Power from another. In the British
system alone the diversity in the relations of the members to the head
is sufficient to exclude the application of any general rule. While the
touchstone of war would no doubt reduce all to one level, yet in the
matter of administrative responsibility what single rule could embrace,
for example, India, Malta, the self-governing colonies, the Transvaal, and
the African Protectorates? M. de Bellonet, however, was not embarrassed
by any dubitations about the clean-cut rule to be enforced on China and
Korea. He simply demanded that the suzerain should punish the vassal,
failing which, he would take the affair into his own hands. Logical, no
doubt, and not unreasonable, assuming the quarrel to be just. But the
French _chargé_ went a step further in adjudging the actual dissolution
of the family compact and sequestration of the inferior kingdom. On
Prince Kung's declining responsibility for the Korean persecutions, M.
de Bellonet, without further ado, annexed Korea to the empire of France,
dethroned the king, and posted placards about the streets of Peking
promulgating the fact. To Prince Kung he addressed a weighty despatch, in
which he said, "The same day on which the King of Korea laid his hands on
my unhappy countrymen was the last of his reign. He himself declared its
end, which I, in my turn, solemnly declare to-day."[14]
This was carrying the question beyond the scope of international law.
Taking an analogy from common life, a father may neglect to correct a
mischievous son, and thus leave his neighbours free to take the law into
their own hands, but their right to chastise or prosecute does not include
that of annulling the parental relationship, and of making a bondman
of the offender. Force, of course, may effect such a rupture in the
connection between nations, but in this case the force had not yet been
applied. Admiral Roze proceeded with a squadron to the mouth of the Han,
the waterway to the Korean capital, bombarded forts, and left his name to
an island which faces the port of Chemulpo. The incident was then at an
end.
But not the effects of it. It was to Chinese and Koreans a flash of the
Röntgen rays that revealed the innermost hearts of the foreigners with
a vividness not to be forgotten; it was the whole missionary question,
from the Eastern point of view, in a nutshell. To violate the laws and
teach the natives to do so, and then appeal to foreign Governments to
back them in this insidious form of rebellion--that was the function of
the missionaries. The foreign Government thereupon lays claim to the
territory, and so the conspiracy is crowned. In the face of such an
unveiling of motives the chance of the Chinese statesmen being led by
the friendly counsel poured constantly into their ears by the foreign
Ministers in Peking must have been small indeed.
About the same time a small American vessel called the General Sherman,
with a cargo of notions and some passengers, including one English
missionary, made her way through the archipelago which fringes the coast
into the inner waters of Korea. She was never again heard of, and the
fate of crew and passengers was for long a matter of report and surmise.
At last, in 1868, a United States ship of war, the Shenandoah, was
sent to the Korean coast to get information about the General Sherman.
Nothing whatever was learned. Then Mr George F. Seward, consul-general in
Shanghai, advocated a mission to Korea with a sufficient force to ensure
respect. His persevering recommendations prevailed with the Government at
Washington, and a squadron was equipped in 1871 to proceed to Korea and
attempt to open the country, the admiral being furnished with copies of
the Japan treaties of 1854 and 1858 as models. The Americans at once came
into collision with the Korean troops, bombarded their forts, and defeated
with considerable loss a military force marshalled to resist them. But
no negotiations were possible. The Korean Government remained impervious
to remonstrance and uncompromising in its refusal of intercourse. The
following characteristic letter, addressed by the Korean authorities to
Admiral Rogers, tersely expresses their attitude of resolute isolation:--
In the year 1868 a man of your nation, whose name was Febiger,
came here and communicated and went away; why cannot you do the
same? In 1866 a people called the French came here, and we refer
you to them for what happened. This people has lived 4000 years
in the enjoyment of its own civilisation, and we want no other.
We trouble no other nation--why do you trouble us? Our country
is in the extreme east, and yours in the extreme west; for what
purpose do you come so many thousand miles across the sea? Is it
to inquire about the ship destroyed [the General Sherman]? Her men
committed piracy and murder, and they were punished with death.
Do you want our land? That cannot be. Do you want intercourse with
us? That cannot be either.
The American ships withdrew, as the French had done, leaving the peninsula
once more to its fate.
Previously to this a piratical expedition was attempted by a German in
a North-German steamer, instigated and piloted by a French priest. Its
purpose was to desecrate the tombs of the kings, with a view to carrying
off the golden treasures with which they were believed to be buried.
The three fiascos left no outward trace in the current of affairs in
China, and diplomatic intercourse proceeded in the capital as if the
Korean peninsula did not exist. Let it not be supposed, however, that
the statesmen of Peking failed to take these exhibitions to heart,
although they maintained the strictest reserve on the subject. Christian
proselytism and foreign domination were once more discovered in active
alliance, justifying all the suspicions of the Asiatic nations.
FOOTNOTES:
[12] There is more truth than may appear in the bishop's paradox.
Peking is singularly free from epidemics, except occasionally
of smallpox. When Shanghai suffered so severely from cholera in
1862, there were two British regiments quartered there--one, the
67th, within the native city, amid filth and stagnant water; the
other, the 31st, in the foreign settlement, in quarters carefully
selected by the surgeon, Dr Rennie. The 31st lost a third of its
strength; the 67th suffered very little. Writing in August 1860
from Peitang, a town 500 yards square in the midst of a great
swamp, into which 17,000 men were huddled, Sir Hope Grant says:
"Notwithstanding the pestilential nature of the place, our troops,
wonderful to say, never enjoyed better health."
[13] See _infra_, "Revision of the Treaty," pp. 210-222.
[14] _Vide_ 'U.S. Diplomatic Corresp.,' vol. ii. for 1867, p. 424.