sailed for the Pei ho, where they anchored, August 11th, and Captain Elliot went ashore to deliver the letter. It was immediately taken to Taku, where Kishen, the governor-general of the province was waiting, by an aid, known to the English as Captain White (this being a translation of Shaupi Peh), who returned with a request for ten days' delay to lay it before the emperor. During this interval, the ships dispersed to visit the coast of Liautung to procure provisions, which they obtained with some difficulty, and returned on the 27th. No message coming off, a strong boat-force was sent ashore next day with a menacing letter to Kishen, when it was ascertained that a reply had gone off, and no ships were at the anchorage to receive it. A meeting was now arranged at Taku between Kishen and Captain Elliot, which took place on Sunday, the 30th of August, in a large tent; the number of attendants on both sides was large, but the interview was nearly a personal one. Kishen argued his side of the question with great tact and ability, bringing forward in the sincerest manner the argument that his master had the most unquestionable right to treat the English as he had done, for they were, and had enrolled themselves, his tributary subjects. He could not treat definitely on all the points in dispute, and after a second meeting requested a further delay of six days in order to refer again to Peking, which was granted. The conclusion of the negotiations was the reasonable arrangement that Kishen should meet the English plenipotentiaries at Canton, where the truth of the treatment their countrymen had received could be better examined; the season was too far advanced, moreover, to admit much longer tarrying in the Gulf, and on the 15th of September the squadron returned to Chusan.

While these things were going on at Taku, a few skirmishes had taken place elsewhere. Several prisoners had fallen into the hands of the Chinese at Ningpo, among whom were the surviving crew of the Kite transport, lost on the quicksands off the mouth of the Tsientang river. The prisoners, among whom was Mrs. Noble, the captain's widow, were carried to Ningpo in small cages, according to the usual practice of the Chinese; and although this was both cruel and unnecessary, there was no peculiar hardship exercised towards them more than to common prisoners. Two or three captures were also made at Tinghai; and a foraging party from the Conway on Tsungming I. was roughly handled.

INTERVIEW BETWEEN ELLIOT AND KÍSHEN.

531

At Amoy, an attack was made upon one of the blockading ships, and every effort made to increase the efficiency of the forts and defences.

Large rewards were early offered by Lin for the capture of English ships and people, which incited some heroes among his followers to attempt to take such defenceless persons as they could seize, and one Englishman, Mr. Stanton, was carried off by a party from Macao. A force of about 1200 men was at this time stationed in and around the Barrier, and several sand batteries thrown up near it. Accordingly Captain Smith, the senior naval officer, moved two sloops and a steamer near their position, and soon drove the soldiers away, and silenced the guns; a detachment then landed and set fire to the buildings used as barracks. This service was attended with little loss of life to the Chinese troops, and rid the settlement of a grievous nuisance to both natives and foreigners.

Mr. Stanton was carried prisoner to Canton; and the commissioner had it in his mind at one time to immolate him as a sacrifice to the god of War, to insure the success of the imperial troops, but learning that he had never been engaged in the opium trade, he wisely delayed. Lin was busy during the summer in enlisting volunteers and preparing the defences of Canton, but he was soon after ordered to return "with the speed of flames" to Peking. His majesty, judging his measures by their results, was unnecessarily severe upon his servant : "You have not only proved yourself unable to cut off their trade," he says, "but you have also proved yourself unable to seize perverse natives. You have but dissembled with empty words, and so far from having been any help in the affair, you have caused the waves of confusion to arise, and a thousand interminable disorders are sprouting; in fact you have been as if your arms were tied, without knowing what to do: it appears, then, you are no better than a wooden image. When I think to myself on all these things, I am filled with anger and melancholy." Trade was carried on notwithstanding the blockade, by sending tea and goods through Macao; and many ships loaded for England and the United States.

Admiral Elliot entered into a truce with flípu, governor-general of Chehkiang, by which each party agreed to observe certain boundaries. Sickness and death had made sad inroads into the health and numbers of the troops stationed at Tinghai, more than

400 out of the 4000 landed in July having died, and three times that number being in the hospitals; the European regiments suffered much more than the Indian troops. This mortality was ascribed to malaria, heat, and improper provisions. The people did not recover their confidence sufficiently to reopen their shops till after the truce, when the intercourse was more frank, and provisions more abundant. Doct. Lockhart's missionary hospital was resorted to by hundreds; and the visits paid to various parts of the island better informed the inhabitants of the personal character of their temporary rulers, and a profitable trade in provisions encouraged them to still farther acquaintance.

The two plenipotentiaries arrived off Macao, Nov. 20th, and immediately sent a steamer to the Bogue with a dispatch from flípu to Kishen, which was fired upon; an apology was immediately made by Kishen, and there was reason for believing the act to have been done by an officer unacquainted with the meaning of a white flag, whose intent and privileges were after this understood. Admiral Elliot resigned his office at this time in consequence of ill health, and returned home, leaving the management of affairs to Captain Elliot. Negotiations were resumed during the month of December, but the determination of the Chinese to resist rather than grant full indemnity and security was more and more apparent. Kishen probably found more zeal among the people for a fight than he had supposed, but his own desires were to settle the matter "more soon, more better." What demands were made as a last alternative are not known, but one of them, the cession of the island of Hongkong, he refused to grant, and broke off the discussion. Commodore Bremer thereupon moved his forces up the bay, and on the 7th of January attacked and took the forts at Chuenpí and Taikoktau. Further progress was stayed by the Chinese proposing an armistice, for Kishen, who was present, saw enough to convince him of the folly of resistance, resumed the negotiations, and memorialized his master, stating the ineffectiveness of the defences.

On the 20th of January they had proceeded so far that Captain Elliot issued a notice to British subjects announcing the conclusion of preliminary arrangements upon four points. These were the cession of the island and harbor of Hongkong to the British crown, an indemnity of six millions of dollars in annual instalments, direct official intercourse upon an equal footing, and the

FAILURE OF NEGOTIATIONS AT THE BOGUE.

533

English trade at Canton resumed. He also adverted to the "scrupulous good faith" of Kíshen in this negotiation, and there had been nothing at this date to show a change of policy or sentiment in him, though the Chinese must have been well aware that strong influences were at work at court against him, and he did wrong in not intimating them to Captain Elliot. By these arrangements Chusan and Chuenpí were to be immediately restored to the Chinese, the prisoners at Ningpo released, and the English to occupy Hongkong. One evidence of Kíshen's sincerity is the edict he put up on Hongkong, telling the inhabitants they were now under English authority. Two interviews took place near the Second Bar pagoda, at the last of which, on Feb. 13th, it was plain that some stipulations of the treaty, viz., the first instalment of a mil. lion of dollars, and opening of trade by Feb. 1st, would not be fulfilled. It is probable, in fact, that the intimations of the designs of the court were so evident that the treaty was never even presented to the emperor for ratification.

Kishen carried his negotiations as far as he could, with the hope perhaps that an adjustment of the difficulties on such terms would be accepted by his imperial master. On the other hand, Lin and his colleagues memorialized the emperor as soon as Kishen came to Canton against the peaceful measures of that statesman, and their recommendations as to the necessity of resistance were strongly backed by the mortifying loss of Chusan. The approach of a large force to the Pei ho alarmed his majesty, and conciliatory measures were taken, and a reference to Canton proposed before settling the dispute; when the men of war left, he was inclined for peace, and issued orders not to attack the foreign ships while the discussions were going on. On arriving at Canton, Kíshen liberated Mr. Stanton, and proceeded with his negotiations; but the memorials had already changed the emperor's mind, and war was by this time determined on. It is highly probable, if instead of seizing Chusan, which had given no cause of provocation, the English had gone up the Yangtsz' kiang and Pei ho, and stationed themselves there until their demands were granted, peace would have been soon made. But, in that case, would the vain notion of their supremacy have left the Chinese? It must not be forgotten that the whole field was new and untried, and the object being to press upon the government enough to compel it to treat other nations with civility, rather than conquest, no

safe decision could be made, a priori, of the effect which a dozen modes of action would produce.

A higher Hand should be recognized in the failure of this treaty. The great desire of Christian people, who believed that China was finally to receive the gospel, was that she might be opened to their benevolent efforts, but this treaty confined the trade to Canton, and left the country as closed as ever to all good influences, commercial, political, social and religious, while the evils of smuggling, law-breaking, and opium-smoking along the coast were unmolested. The crisis which had brought an expedition to the country was not likely soon to recur, if this failed to break down its seclusiveness; and no other nation would attempt it if England retired. The opening of the empire was not contemplated in this treaty, and that this should be one result of the quarrel, was ardently desired by every well wisher of China. Captain Elliot appreciated the unfortunate dilemma the emperor had been brought into by the violent acts of Lin, and knew that ignorance was much more the misfortune than the fault of both; he acted humanely, therefore, in pursuing a mild course at first, until the points at issue had been fairly brought before the people as well as the cabinet. Some parts of his conduct are open to criticism, but this great feature of it is praiseworthy, though few men ever received such a torrent of abuse for taking it. His countrymen would have had him burn, kill, and destroy, as soon as the expedition reached the coast, before even stating his demands at court; and during his negotiations with Kishen, and when Chusan was restored, a general smile of contempt at his supposed gullibility was everywhere seen. The treaty of the Bogue, though formed in good faith by both commissioners, did not open China, nor accomplish this great end of the war, and was rejected by both sovereigns, though for opposite reasons; by Victoria, be cause it did not grant enough, by Taukwang, because it granted too much.

On the 27th of January, the emperor issued orders to resume the war, collect troops from the provinces upon Canton and Tinghai, in order to "destroy and wipe clean away, to exterminate and root out the rebellious barbarians," and encouraged the people to regard them with the same bitterness they did their personal enemies. His mandate is couched in the strongest terms, saying that his enemies have been rebellious against heaven, opposing