388 Voijage of the Novara. 



of Tien-Tsin. Instead of rousing anew the passions of tlie 

 Chinese, and, by wringing such an open and public concession 

 fi'om that Government, weakening still more the hold of the 

 Emperor over his own people, and, whatever their profes- 

 sions of amity, rendering the authorities yet more hostile and 

 rancorous against the foreigners, the wily English ambassador 

 preferred quietly to include opium amongst the other articles 

 of import under the revised tariff, and thus convert it into a 

 common article of import. Accordingly, opium, like cotton, 

 hides, and stockfish, may now be imported at a fixed duty of 

 30 taels (£8 16s.) per picul of 100 catties (133^ lbs.). 



The events of which China was the scene shortly after the 

 signature of the treaty, the hostilities of the troops in the 

 Taku forts, the desperate resistance which was made to the 

 advance of the British ambassador, when the latter, agreeably 

 to the stipulations in the new treaty, was preparing to travel 

 to Pekin, all combine to prove that, in their professions of 

 peace and friendliness, the Chinese were not in earnest. 



Since that period an army of 20,000 Europeans has dic- 

 tated a peace to 400,000,000 Asiatics, and their till then 

 deemed impregnable capital; and on 24th October, 1860, 

 Lord Elgin countersigned a new treaty, which, together 

 with the clauses contained in the previous Treaty of Tien- 

 Tsin drawn up two years before, provides for the permanent 

 residence of a British ambassador in the capital of the 

 Chinese Empire, as also for a war indemnity of 8,000,000 

 taels (£2,333,333) ; tln-ows open the harbour of Tien-Tsin to 



