174 



CHINA. 



roy was said to have been guilty of, was that 

 of compelling Mohammedans to sacrifice pigs 

 to the God of War and to eat their flesh. From 

 Kegul he proceeded to Yarkand, where several 

 thousand insurgents gathered around his ban- 

 ner. The Dungan revolt was not suppressed 

 until April, when the rebels were defeated 

 and dispersed near Shiho. 



Foreign Policy. The effect of the unofficial 

 war with France, though neither power could 

 record a positive success, was to produce in 

 China a sense of national coherence and 

 strength that was lacking before. China pre- 

 pared herself for a resistance that could be 

 kept up indefinitely, and the French could ex- 

 haust all their resources in winning local ad- 

 vantages without vitally injuring an empire so 

 large and rich and populous. The English and 

 other foreign residents of the open ports, who 

 have frequently found their advantage in the 

 arrogant and bullying policy of European 

 governments, were anxious that the Chinese 

 should be kept cowed and intimidated, and 

 that the French should therefore be victori- 

 ous. The effect of the war on China, was to 

 lead her to seek the aid of European knowl- 

 edge in developing her material resources and 

 no longer to shun contact with Western civili- 

 zation. On other nations the effect was to 

 alter materially their estimation of the power 

 of China. Great Britain, when involved in her 

 difficulty with Russia, courted an alliance with 

 China. According to rumor, an offensive and 

 defensive alliance has actually been formed 

 against Russia. From France China expects 

 no further trouble. Li-Hung-Chang has been 

 commissioned to construct a line of fortifica- 

 tions along the southern frontier. Russian en- 

 croachments, however, must be guarded against 

 along the entire 3,000 miles of common frontier. 

 The sons of Yakoob Khan menaced Kashgaria ; 

 the Kuldja difficulties were renewed in a seri- 

 ous form by a recent outbreak on the Hi front- 

 ier ; on the side of Manchuria the Russians were 

 preparing to create a complication out of the 

 border troubles that arose from the discovery 

 of gold on the banks of the Tieumen river. 

 The troubles fomented by the Russians in 

 Kashgaria impelled the Imperial Government 

 to accede readily to the appointment of a Brit- 

 ish consul to reside in Kashgar. In Corea the 

 danger of a virtual Russian protectorate had 

 only been averted by the vigilance and decis- 

 ion of Chinese officials. Mollendorf, the Ger- 

 man who guided the foreign policy of Corea, 

 supported a Russian diplomatist in a proposal 

 for a treaty placing the gendarmerie, which is 

 to be established in accordance with the treaty 

 with Japan, under the command of Russian 

 officers, and giving the Russians authority to 

 construct telegraph lines and post-roads in cer- 

 tain parts of the peninsula that were important 

 to them. This treaty the King at the last mo- 

 ment refused to sign. The occupation of Port 

 Hamilton by Great Britain was effected before 

 Sir Henry Parkes broached the subject of an 



anti-Russian alliance. The occupation was in- 

 tended to be definite. All the entrances to the 

 harbor, except one, were closed by permanent 

 obstructions; forts were erected, and other 

 measures of defense carried out; and in the 

 summer a large force of marines left Hong- 

 Kong to garrison the place. The establishment 

 of another British naval station off their coast 

 was an unpleasant fact to the Chinese. But, 

 fearing that Russia would take possession, its 

 occupation by Great Britain was, under the 

 circumstances, not unwelcome. The Anglo- 

 Chinese understanding, for which Sir Henry 

 Parkes labored, is said to have been arranged 

 after his death. In the event of an Anglo- 

 Russian war China would render England as- 

 sistance and facilities, and would strike a simul- 

 taneous blow at Russia in the north, with the 

 object of recovering the rich districts east of 

 the Amoor, between the Ussuri and the sea, 

 while in case of fresh Russian aggression upon 

 Chinese territory England would give China in 

 certain ways material aid in a war of defense. 

 In settling the Corean difficulty with Japan, 

 and arranging a definite peace with her east- 

 ern neighbor, China prepared the way for a 

 more frank and vigorous policy toward Euro- 

 pean powers. The Russians, to further their 

 own designs in Corea and the China seas, tried 

 to sow strife between the sister powers, and 

 to stir up Japanese pride and ambition. The 

 counsels of Li-Hung-Cbang finally prevailed, 

 and the Imperial Government embraced the 

 chance of concluding an honorable peace with 

 France, and composed the differences with Ja- 

 pan, in order to enter upon the work of prepa- 

 ration, to organize the military resources and 

 defenses of China, so as to enable her to assert 

 herself as one of the great powers of Asia. 



The Opium Convention. The rapprochement 

 between England and China cleared away a 

 controversy between the two governments, 

 which the Chinese have looked upon as one of 

 their chief foreign difficulties. The conditions 

 imposed upon China by Great Britain in re- 

 spect to the importation and taxation of Indian 

 opium prevented the Chinese Government from 

 adopting police measures for the restriction of 

 the use of opium, and diverted to the Indian 

 Government a large part of the revenue that 

 might be collected from the drug. After the 

 murder of Margary in Yunnan in 1876, Sir 

 Thomas Wade drew up the Chefoo convention, 

 in which the area of the treaty ports in which 

 foreign merchandise could circulate without 

 paying li-kin, or transit dues, was greatly ex- 

 tended. Great Britain could not obtain the 

 consent of the other powers to any particular 

 limits, and for that reason, and because the 

 provisions with regapd to opium were found to 

 be impracticable, the Chefoo convention, signed 

 by Sir Thomas Wade and Li-Hung- Chang, in 

 September, 1876, was never ratified. A new 

 instrument was signed by the Marquis of Sa- 

 lisbury and the Marquis Tseng on July 19, in 

 which all the provisions of the Chefoo conven- 



