"Unless, therefore, the most ample apology should be promptly made and the other demands specified in my previous dispatch complied with, you are instructed to state that a large pecuniary indemnity will be demanded by her Majesty's Government from that of China."
By altering a few words, how like the ultimatum of a highwayman this would read. Lord John Russell evidently did all he could to justify the anecdote of Alexander the Great and the robber.
The Chinese indemnity plot thickened rapidly. Lord Russell's next dispatch to Mr. Bruce, dated January 3rd, 1860, contained the following:—
"We go to seek redress for these wrongs" (the resistance offered by the Manchoo troops to the destruction of their barriers, defences, &c., at the Taku forts, by Admiral Hope), "and to require that the word of the emperor should be observed, and that an indemnity should be paid for the loss of men" (killed trying to kill the Chinese troops who very correctly opposed their unjustifiable attempt to force the fortified entrance of the Pei-ho river), "and the heavy expense of obtaining redress" (for their own fault).
Lord John Russell arrived at the superlative degree of the "China indemnity" upon February 8th, 1860, when he penned the following to Mr. Bruce:—
"It has been decided between her Majesty's Government and that of the Emperor of the French that the amount of indemnity-money to be demanded of the Chinese Government shall be in each case a sum of 60,000,000 francs," "towards the expense of the joint expedition now on its way to the China seas."
Here was decisive action following promptly upon threats and intimidation; who can say but that the finale to the Danish question might have been different had the Foreign Secretary possessed equal facilities for arranging the indemnity to be paid by Germany?
Upon the part of the British representatives it is denied that the Chinese Government proposed Peh-tang as the route our plenipotentiary should proceed by to Pekin; it is, however, admitted in the blue book upon affairs in China, 1859-60, at page 43, that Mr. Bruce was requested not to pass the river barriers:—
"They" (the Imperial Chinese commissioners) "would wish that on his arrival at the mouth of the river he would anchor his vessels of war outside the bar."
As this was disregarded by Mr. Bruce, it may naturally be inferred that the request so constantly reiterated throughout the Chinese dispatches, "that he (Mr. Bruce) must go by way of Peh-tang," was really made, but was treated by the British plenipotentiary with the same contempt and want of courtesy.