CHAPTER XI.
FIRST MISSION TO CHINA. THE YANGTZE KIANG.
DELAYS—SUBTERFUGES DEFEATED BY FIRMNESS—REVISED TARIFF—OPIUM TRADE—UP THE YANGTZE KIANG—SILVER ISLAND—NANKIN—REBEL WARFARE—THE HEN-BARRIER— UNKNOWN WATERS—DIFFICULT NAVIGATION—HANKOW—THE GOVERNOR-GENERAL—RETURN— TAKING TO THE GUNBOATS—NGANCHING—NANKIN—RETROSPECT—MORE DELAYS— TROUBLES AT CANTON—RETURN TO HONG-KONG. MISSION COMPLETED—HOMEWARD VOYAGE.
[Sidenote: Delays.]
Arriving at Shanghae on the 2nd of September, Lord Elgin found that the Imperial Commissioners whom he came to meet had not yet appeared, and were not expected for four or five weeks. All this time, therefore, he was obliged to remain idle at Shanghae, hearing from time to time news from Canton which made his presence there desirable, but unable to proceed thither till the arrangements respecting the Treaty were completed.
Shanghae.—Sunday, September 5th.—I wish to be off for England: but I dread leaving my mission unfinished…. I feel, therefore, that I am doomed to a month or six weeks more of China.
September 6th.—It is very weary work staying here really doing for the moment little. But what is to be done? It will not do to swallow the cow and worry at the tail. I have been looking over the files of newspapers, and those of Hong-Kong teem with abuse;—this, notwithstanding the fact that I have made a Treaty which exceeds everything the most imaginative ever hoped for. The truth is, they do not really like the opening of China. They fear that their monopoly will be interfered with.
September 11th.—I am amused with the confident way in which the ladies here talk of going home after five years with fortunes made. They live in the greatest luxury,—in a tolerable climate, and think it very hard if they are not rich enough to retire in five years…. I do not know of any business in any part of the world that yields returns like this. No wonder they dislike the opening of China, which may interfere with them.
[Sidenote: Arrival of Commissioners.]
It was not till the 4th of October that the arrival was announced of the Imperial Commissioners, including among their number his old friends Kweiliang and Hwashana. While they were on the road, circumstances had come to Lord Elgin's knowledge which gave him reason to fear that they might be disposed to call in question some of the privileges conceded under the Treaty, and that they might found on the still unsettled state of affairs in the South a hope of succeeding in this attempt. He thought it better to dispel all such illusions at once, by taking a high and peremptory tone upon the latter subject. Accordingly, when his formal complaint against Hwang, the Governor-General of the Two Kiang, for keeping up hostilities in spite of the Treaty, was met by a promise to stop this for the future by proclamation, he refused to accept this promise, and demanded the removal of Hwang and the suppression of a Committee which had been formed for the enrolment of volunteers; intimating at the same time, through a private channel, that unless he obtained full satisfaction on the Canton question, it was by no means improbable that he might return to Tientsin, and from that point, or at Pekin itself, require the Emperor to keep his engagements. This had the desired effect. The Commissioners at once undertook, not only to issue a pacific proclamation couched in becoming terms, but also to memorialise the Emperor for the recall of the Governor- General, and the withdrawal of all powers from the Committee of Braves. It may be added, that the immediate success which attended the proclamation afforded striking confirmation of what Lord Elgin had always said, that the best way of suppressing provincial disturbances was by bringing pressure to bear on the Imperial power.