632 LOOT OF THE IMPERIAL SUMMER PALACE AT PEKIN. 



The sumuier palace was sacked for forty-eitrht hours. Now, I want, 

 in a philosophical parenthesis, to ask myself whether these acts, so 

 inn)ossi])lo to repress or prevent, were so extraordinary as to consti- 

 tute a novelt}'; were they consonant with international law; or were 

 they (iontrar}'^ to the laws of war ? 



When two workmen fio-ht with knives, when two gentlonion face 

 each other on the tield with their swords, when two nations put them- 

 selves in battle array, with cannon and bayonets, the Avorkmen, the 

 gentlemen, and the nations obey a common instinct which causes man 

 to destroy his enemy in any way he can. 



In the first case, however, the conqueror is inexorably condemned 

 as a murderer by the courts; in the second, he is scarcely punished, 

 and if he had refused the combat the same judg-es Avho would have 

 condemned him for having fought would Hud fault with him for shirk- 

 ing the encounter. In the third case the coni^uered is said to be an 

 unfortunate and estimable hero; the conqueror is crowned with laurel, 

 ap})luudcd l)y men, loved by women, and adored by the people. 



Human life is then onl}' to be respected in certain circimistances, 

 and its destruction is reproh<>nsiblo only in certiiin cases, determined 

 by the judgment of the world. 



The same rules apply to property. A man who takes a loaf of 

 bread from a baker's sho}) is a thief; the nation that take five thousand 

 million of francs from another country is a great nation. If 1, an 

 enthusiastic lover of objects of art, shoiUd take from the cabinets of 

 the Louvre a little Ijronze statuette, I should promptly be placed in 

 custody; l)ut if I should enter Italy at the head of an army and carry 

 otl' the treasures of the museums I would immediately be hailed 

 emperor of the French. 



Hence we see that public and private property is considered in two 

 ditt'erent wa3's. It follows that in China we had the incontestable 

 right to seize and to carry oil' all the articles of great value ])elonging 

 to the nation — that is to say, to the Emperor — with whom we were at 

 war, just as the Germans had the right to take from us our millions; 

 as Bonapai'te had the right to seize in conquered Italy the works of 

 art. Consequently, the pillage of the summer palace was lawful, as 

 lawful as could well be, because it was accomplished in time of war. 



The principle can not be disputed; the onl}' error committed was one 

 of detail; w^e did not simply pillage; we wasted and squandered, and 

 the latter is more blameworthy than the first. 



In my opinion, this is how the thing should have been carried out if 

 it had been possible to control our men: All the riches of the palace, 

 as well as those of the palace of Pekin, should have been taken out 

 and packed up and divided between the two victorious nations; all 

 things suitable for a museum should have been set aside, the rest 

 should have been sold, and the proceeds devoted to cpmpensating the 



