opposition to Steam 285 



It was not long after penning these words that I en- 

 deavoured to back my views and translate them into action. 

 I succeeded in getting a few well-wishers to subscribe the 

 necessary capital to build an experimental steamer. The 

 Kuling, a stern-wheeler of about five hundred tons burthen, 

 was built on the Clyde, put together in Shanghai, and taken 

 to Ichang in 1889 with the view of ascending to Chung- 

 king, and so getting the place opened to foreign trade as a 

 treaty port ; but I reckoned without my host in the shape of 

 the British Government and their then representative in 

 China, Sir John Walsham. These refused to coerce the 

 Chinese Government in any way, and so the Kuling was 

 eventually sold and the scheme abandoned. The prime 

 mover in the opposition was the then Viceroy of Szechuan, 

 backed by his father-in-law, Li Hung Chang, whom the 

 Japanese war had then not yet unmasked. The Chinese 

 palmed off the most frivolous objections on good Sir John, 

 whose home instructions apparently compelled him to let 

 the Chinese interpret the Chefoo Convention in their own 

 way, and so postpone the opening of Chung-king sine die. 

 Nothing could be more fatuous, in the opinion of British 

 residents in China, than the conduct of our Government 

 towards the Chinese since their defeat in i860. Our 

 Foreign Office officials seem to be untaught by history, and 

 so seldom profit by past experience in their dealings with 

 China. It is interesting to read how, more than a century 

 and a half ago. Commodore Anson, in his famous voyage 

 round the world with one ship, the Ceiiturion, succeeded by 

 firmness in gaining his point with the Chinese of his day. 

 The Canton Viceroy put him off by endless delays and 

 excuses, Anson wanting only to refit and revictual. At 

 last Anson went up alone to Canton city, and insisted upon 



