348

SUCCESS OF LORD ELGIN'S POLICY.

It will thus appear, from the above narrative of events, that the allied Plenipotentiaries had every reason to be satisfied with the results of the policy they had persevered in hitherto, in spite of the many obstacles which had been interposed. It was evident that the Imperial Cabinet was thoroughly alarmed, and that the Plenipotentiary Commissioners sent down to treat were prepared to make an extensive sacrifice of national prejudices, in order to relieve the Government from the standing menace which was presented by our appearance at Tientsin, and naval occupation of the Peiho to that point.

The opinion recorded by Lord Elgin on the occasion of his first arrival in China, that the only solution of the problem, as it then stood, was in the exercise of a moral pressure of this description in the neighbourhood of the capital, was now in process of justification. By these means alone he conceived that, without in any way interfering with the flourishing trade which, in spite of our misunderstanding with the Imperial authorities in the south, was being carried on at the ports, and any interruption to which would have been most disastrous to our commercial interests, the great object of the mission he had undertaken to China might be gained, and a lasting and satisfactory treaty effected. But it had seemed almost hopeless that, with the limited force at that early period at his disposal, any such measure could ever be successfully undertaken. Baron Gros not having arrived, the French support was hypothetical.

ITS BEARING ON AFFAIRS AT CANTON.

349

An army of scarce 2500 men, still on their way from England, and the naval force then on the station, composed the entire resources upon which the Ambassador could depend, in the attempt he was about to make to obtain satisfaction from the Imperial Government, and extort from it a treaty of a more extensive scope than that which was granted to Sir Henry Pottinger only after two-thirds of the seaboard had been ravaged, the Imperial troops repeatedly vanquished, and the principal cities of the Empire stormed and captured. The expenditure of men alone upon that occasion, from sickness and other causes, was numerically as large as the whole force with which greater results were now to be achieved. But even then Lord Elgin might have adhered to his original intention of proceeding to the north as soon as the season permitted and the troops arrived, had not the conduct of affairs at Canton produced complications of so anomalous and intricate a nature that, upon his arrival at Hong-Kong in September, he found himself compelled to abandon his idea of a northern expedition, and to devote to the capture and occupation of Canton the force which he had designed for Pekin.

He still clung to the hope, however, that a portion of it might yet prove available for this purpose, and the object of his visit to Calcutta was so far gained, that he succeeded in obtaining a valuable reinforcement of native regiments. He further believed that a form of government might be established at Canton, which would facilitate the task of its military occu

350

BRIGHTER PROSPECTS.

pation, and enable the General to spare some of his troops for service in the north. In this expectation he was not disappointed: by the Sampson, which brought up the engineers, he received an intimation from General Straubenzee, that, if more troops were required, they could be spared; and on the 4th of June, on the very day of the first interview with the Commissioners above described, the Fury left the Gulf of Pechelee, for the purpose of bringing to the scene of negotiations the 59th regiment. There can be little doubt that the timely arrival of this regiment removed from the Imperial mind the last shadow of doubt as to the necessity of concluding the treaty. In a word, then, the policy of the allied Plenipotentiaries, as so far developed, had in effect placed the Emperor in their grasp, and the dynasty itself at their mercy, without in any way endangering the European communities at the ports, or even disturbing their trade. It was, indeed, matter for congratulation that they had at last succeeded in placing themselves in this favourable attitude, with a force so limited and hampered, and under such adverse influences generally. It may be readily imagined that the five weeks we passed at Tientsin formed a most cheerful contrast to the same period spent in the Gulf of Pechelee. There we had more than once utterly despaired of ultimate success; now we felt that, though disappointed in our hopes of reaching Pekin, the doubts and anxieties we had experienced would probably be more than compensated for by a diplomatic triumph.

CHAPTER XVII.

THE CHANCES OF A CHINESE POLITICAL

CAREER- ARRIVAL OF

KEYING-INTERVIEW WITH HIM-ADVERSE POLICY OF KEYING HIS HOSTILITY ΤΟ THE COMMISSIONERS-PROOFS OF HIS INSINCERITY-SECOND INTERVIEW OF MESSRS WADE AND LAY -KEYING'S MEMORIAL KEYING'S TREATMENT OF BARBARIANSA DISAGREEABLE EXPOSÉ-CONSEQUENCES OF HIS OFFENCE-A LENIENT SENTENCE THE EMPEROR'S DECREE-KEYING'S SUICIDE.

A FEW days after the incidents recounted in the last chapter, an episode occurred singularly illustrative of the vicissitudes of Chinese official life, and of the dangers to which those are exposed in the Celestial Empire, who are either "born to greatness, or have greatness thrust upon them." The account which has been already given of the fortunes of Tan exhibits, in a striking manner, the dilemma in which the Imperial Government places its high functionaries, when it forces them under the severest penalties to accept positions from which it is morally impossible for them to escape, without incurring failure. There can be little doubt that the Imperial Government often appoints a man to an office with the express intention that he should serve as a scape-goat, and be sacrificed to its own folly or incompetency. The

352 THE CHANCES OF A POLITICAL CAREER.

system of unscrupulously immolating innocent subordinates, to screen guilty superiors, extends through the whole of Chinese official life; and so well recognised is this principle amongst them, that, in the numerous misunderstandings our authorities have had with the Chinese, the latter have invariably sought to lay the blame on one of our own inferior officers, with a view of enabling the superior to retreat with honour from a false position, should he desire to do so. If, however, the British official maintains his ground, as is commonly the case, the Chinese gets out of the scrape by a similar process.

When a high official position is attended with these inconveniences, it will readily be understood that intrigue amongst Imperial officers often takes a precisely opposite direction to that which it commonly assumes in Europe, and that, so far from attempting the ruin of your greatest enemy by opposing his advancement, there are circumstances under which a Chinese politician can most surely gratify his revenge by procuring his nomination to an important and hazardous service, the refusal of which would entail the same extreme penalty which will be the result of his inevitable failure. Not only in the Chinese world of fact, but in their realms of fiction, is this practice used to point the moral and adorn the tale; and in many of their romances the interest of the plot is made to turn upon some crisis in which the virtuous hero is made the victim of a fatal promotion.