Even this was insufficient to effect the desired object, namely, to drive the Ti-pings to defiance, and force them to acts of retaliation. When, therefore, it became apparent that, notwithstanding all the aid afforded to the Imperialists, they could not succeed, and that eventually Shanghae must be given up to the revolutionists, or become annexed to France or England, the British Government threw off the mask, and prepared for open hostilities.
Consul Medhurst, in a despatch to Admiral Hope, dated "Shanghae, February 19, 1862," states the grounds upon which the good faith and honour of England were to be openly violated.
"Granting, of course, that a strictly neutral policy is at present the only correct one, and that whatever is done in the protection of this city and settlement must be undertaken with careful regard to that important axiom, it follows, I think, that there are two points to be considered as bearing materially on the present crisis. The first is, what resources we have in the way of supplies for the city and settlement; and the second, how far the present action of the Taepings so endangers those supplies as to make it necessary for us to interfere with them in our own defence."
The falsity of this shallow pretence for war becomes at once apparent. In the first place, it was simply necessary to allow the Chinese city to revert peaceably to the Ti-pings, when the inhabitants as well as they would have had ample supplies. In the second place, the vast river and sea communication of Shanghae was entirely open (excepting the Wong-poo branch), while a fleet of some two hundred European steamers and ships and several thousand large native junks crowded the anchorage, and could easily have furnished a line of communication for any amount of supplies. Evidence is abundant to prove what a mere pretence this casus belli was, but two reasons will be sufficient justification for so designating it. First. If the Ti-pings, by surrounding Shanghae, endangered its supplies, when they came with the most friendly feeling for Europeans, they would certainly, if driven to become enemies and to use the justifiable retaliation of enemies, have it in their power to utterly destroy those supplies by devastating the whole neighbouring country; therefore, in all human probability, an attack upon them would render imminent the very crisis to avoid which it was thought justifiable to violate a nation's pledges. Secondly. The following extract from Admiral Hope's despatch shows that he conceived that Consul Medhurst had not made a sufficient case. Upon the 21st of February, 1862, the Admiral struck the first blow. Upon the evening of the same day, in his despatch to the Admiralty, he gave this reason for his open violation of his own and his Government's faith:—
"These proceedings" (movements of the Ti-pings) "have been conducted at a distance much too close to be consistent with the respect due to the occupation of the town by French and English forces, or to leave its supplies of provisions and native trade unaffected."
Is it to be supposed that any city could be captured or placed in a state of siege without native trade or supplies being affected, or is it to be argued that the Ti-pings should be crushed in consequence of the natural results of their patriotic struggle?
The presence of the Ti-pings only "affected" the trade and supplies it seems; when, had they been so disposed, they might have stopped the entire, excepting what could have been obtained by water.
The only thing that affected the supplies of Shanghae so far as Europeans and citizens were concerned, was the increase in the price, which was quickly raised by the provision-dealers, who are always ready to seize the smallest opportunity to make a little extra profit. Probably Admiral Hope saw this, and its damaging bearing upon his alleged casus belli; at all events, he thought fit to add another, though equally flimsy.
"The tract of country enclosed within the line BC, which this village, with others in their" (Ti-pings) "possession, entirely commanded, is that from which the supplies of Shanghae are chiefly drawn, and its proximity to the Woo-sung river was such as to afford the PROSPECT of the Chinese traffic, also material to the support of the town, being seriously impeded, if not altogether stopped; and for these reasons I considered the case to be one calling for my interference."