100 



CHINA. 



under the sanction of his consul and the local author- 

 ities no idle or improper persons are allowed to enter 

 or create a disturbance. Offenders will be arrested 

 and punished. Obey with trembling ! 



A proclamation was issued by the highest 

 officials of the province, which has^ been 

 printed and widely circulated, a translation of 

 which is as follows : 



Ma, Governor-General of the two Kiang Provinces, 

 imperial commissioner, etc.; Tseng-quo-fan, late 

 Governor-General of the two Kiang Provinces, im- 

 perial commissioner, etc. ; Ting, Governor of Kiang 

 Su, hereby issue a proclamation for general inlorma- 

 tion : Whereas, the preaching of religion is sanctioned 

 by treaty, and all persons are at liberty to become prose- 

 lytes thereto as it suits their convenience, without 

 compulsion either for or against ; we therefore issue 

 this proclamation to give the population, civil and 

 military, of these districts to know that it is required 

 of them that they carefully observe the treaty which 

 has been concluded by our most gracious sovereign 

 the Emperor, and that they must not annoy religious 

 establishments, nor raise pretexts j nor must they 

 treat foreign travelers with wanton disrespect. Every 

 wilful offender will certainly be visited with heavy 

 punishment, without hope of pardon. Obey with 

 trembling ! A special proclamation, 27th day, 9th 

 month, 7th year of the Emperor T'ung-Che. 



Earl Clarendon took occasion to define the 

 views of the English Government concerning 

 its relation to China, in a letter to Mr. Burlin- 

 game, in which it is declared that 



Her Majesty's Government fully admitted that 

 the Chinese Government were entitled to count upon 

 the forbearance of foreign nations, and I assured you 

 that, as far as their country was concerned, there was 

 neither a desire nor intention to apply unfriendly 

 pressure to China to induce her Government to 

 advance more rapidly in her intercourse with foreign 

 nations than was consistent with safety, and with 

 due and reasonable regard for the feelings of her 

 subjects. But her Majesty's Government expected 

 from China a faithful observance of the stipulations 

 of existing treaties, and reserved to themselves the 

 right of employing friendly representations to induce 

 the Chinese Government to advance in the course 

 opened up by those treaties, and to afford greater 

 facilities, and encouragement, and protection, to the 

 subjects of foreign powers seeking to extend com- 

 mercial intercourse with the Chinese people. Her 

 Majesty's Government feel that they may fairly ap- 

 peal to the Chinese Government, though always in 

 terms of friendship, to act in this spirit toward them- 

 selves and other foreign nations ; and they would do 

 so with the more confidence because they may be 

 excused for believing that the interests of China will 

 be advanced in a far greater degree than those of 

 foreign nations, by steadily availing herself of the 

 opportunities within her reach for applying to her 

 empire the skill and experience of the nations of 

 Europe. _ But her Majesty's Government are, more- 

 over, entitled to expect from China as an indispensa- 

 ble condition of their good-will, the fullest amount 

 of protection to British subjects resorting to her do- 

 minions. They are aware that the provincial gov- 

 ernors are too often in the habit of disregarding the 

 rights of foreigners, trusting to impunity as regards 

 the^Central Government ot Peking, and to the un- 

 willingness of foreign powers to assert the rights of 

 their subjects by local pressure. Her Majesty's Gov- 

 ernment feel that they are acting in the interest of 

 the Chinese Empire, when they announce their 

 preference for an appeal rather to the Central Govern- 

 ment than to local authorities for the redress of 

 wrongs done to British subjects. It is with the Cen- 

 tral Government and not with the provincial author- 

 ities that foreign powers have entered into treaties, 



and it is for the interest of the Central Government 

 that foreign powers should recognize its supreme au- 

 thority over its provincial governors, and that the 

 Central Government should assume, and, on all oc- 

 casions when appealed to ^for the redress of local 

 wrongs, be prepared to exercise that authority. These 

 observations will, I trust, enable you to reassure the 

 Government of Peking as to the friendly feelings en- 

 tertained toward it by the British Government. It 

 rests with the Central Government so to order its in- 

 tercourse with Great Britain and the Queen's subjects 

 as to avoid cause of difference, and to preserve unim- 

 paired the friendship of this country. I have only 

 to add, that all her Majesty's agents in China have 

 been instructed to act in the spirit and with the ob- 

 jects which I have thus explained to you ; and gen- 

 erally to caution British subjects to pay due respect 

 not only to the laws of the empire, but, as far as may 

 be, to the usages and feelings of the Chinese people. 



Lord Stanley also declared, in January, 1869, 

 to the English ambassador, Alcock, in still 

 more emphatic terms, the desire of the Gov- 

 ernment for fair dealing with the Chinese, and 

 censured the arbitrary measures taken by the 

 English officers in China, saying : 



I have to instruct you to explain to her Majesty's 

 consuls that the special purposes for which her Ma- 

 jesty's ships-of-war are stationed in the ports of 

 China, and employed on the coasts, are to protect the 

 floating commerce of British subjects against pi- 

 ratical attacks in Chinese waters, to support her Ma- 

 jesty's consuls in maintaining order and discipline 

 among the crews of British vessels, in the respective 

 ports, and, in cases of great emergency, to protect the 

 lives and properties of British subjects, if placed in 

 peril by wanton attacks directed against them either 

 on the part of local authorities or by an uncontrolled 

 popular movement. As regards this last point, her 

 Majesty's consuls must constantly bear hi mind that 

 the interference of naval force, either on their repre- 

 sentation, or on the part of naval officers acting on 

 their own estimation of facts before them, will alone 

 receive the subsequent approval of her Majesty's 

 Government, when it is clearly shown that without 

 such interference the lives and properties of British 

 subjects would, in all probability, nave been sacri- 

 ficed; and, even in such, a case, ner Majesty's Gov- 

 ernment will expect to learn that the alternative of 

 receiving them on board ship, and so extricating 

 them from threatened danger, was not available. 

 Beyond this, the circumstances of the case must be 

 of a very peculiar nature which would be held by her 

 Majesty's Government to justify a recourse to force. 

 Her Majesty's Government cannot leave with her 

 Majesty's consuls or naval officers to determine for 

 themselves what redress or reparation for wrong done 

 to British, subjects is due, or by what means it should 

 be enforced. They cannot allow them to determine 

 whether coercion is to be applied by blockade, by re- 

 prisals, by landing armed parties, or by acts of even a 

 more hostile character. All such, proceedings bear 

 more or less the character of acts of war, and her 

 Majesty's Government cannot delegate to her Majes- 

 ty's servants in foreign countries the power of involv- 

 ing their own country in war. My dispatches to 

 which I have referred will have enabled you to point 

 out in unmistakable terms to her Majesty's consuls 

 the course they are to pursue when an emergency 

 calling for immediate action as the sole means of pro- 

 tecting British life and property has passed away. 

 They must appeal to her Majesty's minister at 

 Peking, to obtain redress through the action of the 

 Central Government ; and he, on his part, if he fails 

 to obtain it, will gubmit the case for the judgment of 

 her Majesty's Government, with whom alone it rests 

 to decide as to the course to be thereupon pursued. I 

 shall furnish the Board of Admiralty with a copy of 

 this dispatch, in order that they may send corre- 



