47t 



CHINA. 



frigat* arrived, and Canton wa* declared in a state of blockade. In 

 October the Hyacinth joined the Volage, and the two frigate* wen 

 attacked by twenty-nine war-junks, which were beaten off with great 

 loss. In January 1840, an imperial edict directed all trade with 

 Great Britain to oeaw for ever; the fortification* of Canton wen 

 repaired and strengthened ; and repeated attack* were made on the 

 Brituh (hips, which were oonitantly receiving addition*, the command 

 being taken by Rear-Admiral Elliot in the Melville, 74. A small 

 force baring been left in the Canton Hirer to maintain the blockade, 

 the fleet Bailed northward along the coast of China. On July 2, 1840, 

 a boat lent into Auioy from the Blonde, 44 gun*, and bearing a flag 

 of truce, wa* fired upon. The Blonde baring poured in her broad- 

 side* with terrific effect on the batterie* and war-junta, sailed away 

 and rejoined the fleet. Tiug-hai, the capital of the island of Chusan, 

 wa* taken in July, after a alight resistance ; and on July 10, in con- 

 aequence of the refusal of the authorities at Ning-po to receive a letter 

 from Lord Palmenton to be transmitted to the Emperor of China at 

 Peking, a blockade wa* announced of the east coast of China, from 

 Ning-po to the mouth of the Yang-tse-kiang, the moat commercial part 

 of the whole seaboard of China. 



At the end of July 1840, the entire British force, including the 

 squadron which had sailed to the north together with the fleet assem- 

 bled in the Canton River, comprised three 74-gun ships, two of 44 

 gun*, three of 28 guns, five of 20 gun*, two of 18 gun*, "one of 10 guns, 

 a large troop-ship, four armed steamer*, and twenty-seven transport*, 

 having on board three regiments of soldiers, a body of Bengal volun- 

 teers, and a corps of Madras sappers and miners. 



On the llth of August, 1840, the Madagascar steamer, with Captain 

 Elliot on board, entered the Peiho, which flows past Peking on the 

 south and falls into the Qulf of Pe-tcbe-li, where the rest of the fleet 

 arrived a few days afterwards. Lord Palmeraton's communication 

 was now received, and forwarded to the emperor at Peking, and a. 

 conference took place near the town of Tien-tsing between Captain 

 Elliot and Keshen, the governor of the province. Some unavailing 

 negotiations took place, until in consequence of the violation of the 

 truoe, the forts of Chuenpee and Tae-cok-tow were stormed and 

 carried. These are the lowest forts in ascending the Canton Kiv.T. 

 On the same day the Chinese squadron of war-junks collected in 

 Anson's Bay, under Admiral Kwan, was destroyed, and eighty guns 

 taken. On the following morning, a boat bearing a Sag of truce was 

 sent off to the flag-ship by Admiral Kwan, with a communication to 

 Captain Elliot. Negotiations again commenced, the fleet retired to 

 Chuenpee, and on the 20th of January 1841, Captain Elliot announced 

 that a treaty of peace had been concluded with Keshen, by which the 

 island of Hong Kong wa* to be ceded to the British, six millions of 

 dollars were to be paid as indemnity, and trade was to be resumed at 

 Canton within ten days. 



The forts at Chuenpee were then given up, and the British took 

 formal possession of Hong Kong on January 26. No proclamation 

 however was issued for opening the trade at Canton, and there were 

 rumour* of warlike preparations going on up the river. Captain 

 Elliot waited till February 10 ; he then went up to Canton, and fresh 

 negotiation* commenced ; but on the 20th Kexhen published an edict 

 which he had received from the emperor, rejecting the treaty con- 

 cluded with the British, who then made immediate preparations for 

 resuming hostilities. All the Bogue forts were taken, and their 

 defender* killed or dispersed. The fleet proceeded up the river on 

 February 27, and found other defences prepared a little below the 

 island of Whampoa, consisting of mud forts, war-junks, and a great 

 raft across the river, very solid and Htrongly constructed. All these 

 defences were destroyed, and nothing remained but to attack Canton. 

 Sir Hugh Qough arrived from Madras, and assumed the chief command 

 of all the land forces. 



On March 18 the forti and all the other defences of Canton were 

 taken, the war-junk* and armed boat* all dispersed or destroyed, and 

 the city lay at the mercy of the British. Nothing further was done 

 on the ltb, and^ on the 20th a luspension of hostilities was agreed 

 upon between Captain Elliot and the new imperial commissioner, 

 Yang-Fang. Again a negotiation was entered into, but while it was 

 carried on, a plot wa* laid for destroying the fleet. On the night of 

 May SO, the sentries discovered several dark-looking masses dropping 

 down the river ; these proved to be fire-rafts, consisting of boats 

 chained together in twos and threes so an to hang across the bows of 

 a ship while the combustible* were burning. They were set on fire 

 by those who had the charge of them, when the Nemesis and boats 

 immediately daahed among than, and towed them out of the way of 

 the ships. Many of them drifted on shore, and *et fire to the suburbs 

 of the town, while masse* of fire were seen floating down the river on 

 all sides. 



On May 25 the height* which command the city of Canton were 

 carried by the British troops, when a flag of truoe was displayed, and 

 on the 27th the Chinese authorities agreed to pay *ix millions of 

 dollar* for the ransom of the city. Hostilities were consequently 

 suspended, five millions of dollars were paid, and security given for 

 the other million. The British forces then withdraw from Canton ; 

 early in June all the ship* of war and transport* were again at Hong 

 Kong, and in July the Canton trade was reopened. 



In August 1841, Sir Henry PotUnger arrived in Macao Roads, as 



sole plenipotentiary and chief superintendent of trade in China. A 

 large naval force was placed at hi* disposal, by which the large town* 

 of Amoy, Ting Lai, Chin-hai, Ning-po, Shang-hai, and several other 

 place* were taken possession of; and in July*1842, a portion of the 

 fleet ascended the Yang-tse-kiang in order to attack Nanking. At day- 

 light on August 14 the attack was ordered to be made, which the 

 commissioner* were informed nothing oonld impend except the pro- 

 duction of a document bearing the emperor'* ignaturr, and author- 

 ising them to treat definitively of peace. After midnight, and just 

 three hour* before the attack wa* to have commenced, the required 

 document was produced, a cessation of hostilities ensued, and on 

 August 29, 1842, the treaty of peace was signed by Sir Henry Pot- 

 tinger on the part of Great Britain, and by Keying, Elephoo, and 

 Neukien, on the part of the Emperor of China. The emperor's 

 entire assent to the treaty was received on September IS. 



The most important provisions of the treaty of 1 842 are a* follows : 

 Brituh subjects are allowed to reside at the ports of Canton, Amoy, 

 Foo-chow, Ning-po, and Shang-hai, and a consul is to be appointed to 

 reside at each of the five ports. The inland of Hong Kong is ceded in 

 perpetuity to Great Britain. The Emperor of China agrees to pay 

 twenty-one millions of dollars. The company of Hong merchants arc 

 dissolved, and British merchants are permitted to carry on their mer- 

 cantile transactions with any persons whatever. All British subjects, 

 whether natives of Europe or India, who may be in confinement in 

 any part of China, to be unconditionally released. Tables of tariff to 

 be entablished at each of the five ports. Correspondence between the 

 officers of both governments to be on terms of equality. 



A supplementary treaty was signed at Hoomun chae, October 8, 

 1843, to which is attached the tariff of export and import duties 

 which are to be paid at the five ports. The principal articles relate 

 chiefly to commercial arrangements, to the arrest and punishment of 

 offences committed by British and Chinese subject*, and to the sta- 

 tioning of a British cruiser at each of the five ports, for the enforce- 

 ment of good order among the crews of the merchant vessels, and to 

 support the authority of the British consuls. From this period the 

 intercourse bos always been peaceful and uninterrupted. 



Government. The government of China is in principle an absolute 

 despotism, and the succession depends on the will and nomination of 

 the reigning emperor. The authority of a father over his family i 

 well known to be the exemplar or type of political rule in the count ry. 

 It is the object of the first of the ' Four Book* ' of Confucius to incul- 

 cate that from the knowledge and government of oneself must pro- 

 ceed the proper economy and government of a family ; and from the 

 government of a family that of a province and of a kingdom. The 

 emperor is called the father of the empire ; the viceroy the father of 

 the province over which he preside*; and the mandarin, or magis- 

 trate, of the city which he governs ; and the father of every family i;; 

 the absolute ruler of his own household. " There is nothing more 

 remarkable," observes Sir J. F. Davis, " in their ritual and in their 

 criminal code than the exact parallel which is studiously kept u|> 

 between the relations in which every person stands to his own i 

 and to the emperor. For similar offences against both he suffer* 

 similar punishments ; and at the death of both he mourns the same 

 time and goes the same period unshaven ; and both possess nearly the 

 same power over his person." The emperor is head of the state reli- 

 gion, and, as high-priest of the empire, can alone, with his immediate 

 representatives, sacrifice in the government temples. No hierarchy 

 in maintained at the public expense, nor any priesthood attached to 

 the Confucian or state religion, as the sovereign and hi* great officers 

 perform that part The two separate religious orders of Fo (Budhu) 

 and Taou, which are only tolerated and not maintained by the 

 government, derive support entirely from their own funds, or from 

 voluntary private contributions. 



With respect to the machinery of civil government, the emperor's 

 principal ministers form the ' interior council chamber,' and the chief 

 councillors are four in number, two Tartars and two Chinese ; the 

 former always taking precedence. Below these ar a number of 

 assessors, who form the chief council of state. The body whence 

 these chief ministers are generally selected is the Han-liu, a sort of 

 imperial college, or National Institute. The detail* of government 

 busines* are distributed among six boards or tribunals, namely, 

 1. The board of civil appointment, which takes cognisance of Uie 

 conduct and acliiiinixtriitinu of all civil officers ; 2. The board of 

 revenues, which regulates all fiscal matters ; 8. The board of rites 

 and ceremonies ; 4. The military board ; 5. The supreme tribunal of 

 criminal jurisdiction ; 6. The board of public works. A very peculiar 

 feature of the government is observable in the Too-cht-yuen, or office 

 of censors, the members of which are generally styled Yushe. Then- 

 are two presidents, a Tartar and a Chinese, and the members consist 

 in all of about forty or fifty, several of whom are sent to various part* 

 of the empire as imperial inspector*, or perhaps, more properly 

 speaking, spies. By the ancient custom of the empire they are privi- 

 leged to present any remonstrance to the sovereign without danger of 

 loiing their lives; but they are frequently degraded if their advice is 

 unwelcome. The provinces are placed under the principal charge, 

 either singly, of a Foo-yuen, or governor ; or two provinces together 

 are made subject to a Tsoong-to, or general governor, who has a Foo- 

 yuen under him for each single province. Canton and it* adjoining 



