Narrative of the Circumnavigation of the Globe by the Austrian Frigate Novara, Volume II / (Commodore B. Von Wullerstorf-Urbair,) Undertaken by Order of the Imperial Government in the Years 1857, 1858, & 1859, Under the Immediate Auspices of His I. and R. Highness the Archduke Ferdinand Maximilian, Commander-In-Chief of the / Austrian Navy.

by Ritter von Karl Scherzer

While we were lying at anchor in Hong-kong, an extra sheet of the "North China Herald," published at Shanghai, brought intelligence of a treaty of peace having been signed at Tien-Tsin, by Lord Elgin, on the part of England, and the Imperial Commissioners, and that it had been dispatched to Pekin for the purpose of being ratified by the imperial autograph. This treaty, which contained 56 clauses, invested England with far more extensive rights than she had hitherto possessed. Especially it was stipulated that an English ambassador should reside in a palace at Pekin, and be accorded all the honours due to his rank, and that the Christian religion should be professed and taught without any restrictions. British subjects, provided with passes from their own consuls, to be countersigned by the local Chinese authorities, were to be permitted to traverse the empire in every direction on business or pleasure; the navigation of the Yang-tse-Kiang, or Blue River, was also declared free; and in addition to the five harbours already opened to foreign commerce by the treaty of Nankin, the English were now to be at liberty to trade with New-Chwang, Tang-Char, Tai-Wan (on the island of Formosa), Chau-Chow, and Kiung-Chow

(in Hainan), to settle in any of these, to buy and sell house property, as also to erect churches and hospitals, and lay out cemeteries. Chinese subjects guilty of crimes or offences against the English, to be punished by the native authorities in conformity with the law of the land. English subjects, on the other hand, to be subject to the jurisdiction of the British authorities, in similar circumstances, and treated according to British law. All official communications on the part of the English authorities to be drawn up in English for presentation to the Chinese Government, and although, for the present, accompanied by a translation, shall in the event of uncertainty be construed according to the text of the English original. Article L provides that the symbol

(Barbarian) shall be discontinued in all official documents, whether in the capital or the provinces, and the term "English" or "English Government" be substituted. On the other hand, the Treaty of Tien-Tsin is silent on the subject of the opium trade, the main point in dispute, the prime cause of the various wars hitherto broken out! There was mention made of a revision of the tariff only. Obviously the British plenipotentiaries thought they would more readily attain their object if they endeavoured to get this difficult question solved in some less conspicuous manner. The opium merchants, as well as their antagonists the London philanthropists, seemed equally dissatisfied that the opium matter was still left a "pending question." On the whole, however, this was one of the most marked diplomatic peculiarities of the Treaty

of Tien-Tsin. Instead of rousing anew the passions of the Chinese, and, by wringing such an open and public concession from that Government, weakening still more the hold of the Emperor over his own people, and, whatever their professions of amity, rendering the authorities yet more hostile and rancorous against the foreigners, the wily English ambassador preferred quietly to include opium amongst the other articles of import under the revised tariff, and thus convert it into a common article of import. Accordingly, opium, like cotton, hides, and stockfish, may now be imported at a fixed duty of 30 taels (£8 15s.) per picul of 100 catties (133 ¹⁄₂ lbs.).

The events of which China was the scene shortly after the signature of the treaty, the hostilities of the troops in the Taku forts, the desperate resistance which was made to the advance of the British ambassador, when the latter, agreeably to the stipulations in the new treaty, was preparing to travel to Pekin, all combine to prove that, in their professions of peace and friendliness, the Chinese were not in earnest.

Since that period an army of 20,000 Europeans has dictated a peace to 400,000,000 Asiatics, and their till then deemed impregnable capital; and on 24th October, 1860, Lord Elgin countersigned a new treaty, which, together with the clauses contained in the previous Treaty of Tien-Tsin drawn up two years before, provides for the permanent residence of a British ambassador in the capital of the Chinese Empire, as also for a war indemnity of 8,000,000 taels (£2,333,333); throws open the harbour of Tien-Tsin to

foreign commerce, permits Chinese subjects to emigrate, without any restrictions, to any part of the British colonies, and to take service there; assigns to Great Britain a portion of the district of Kow-loang or Cow-loon on the mainland opposite Hong-kong; and, finally, ordains that the original treaty, and all the various additional articles, shall be published by placard in every part of the Empire. Never before had the Middle Kingdom sustained such a humiliation. True, during the rule of the former dynasty, Tao-Kwang (Light of Reason), an end was put to a system that had endured for a thousand years, but conditions such as those that had been imposed by the western nations in the treaties of Tien-Tsin and Pekin, were altogether unheard of in the history of China, and afford convincing proof of its weakness and approaching downfal, the more so, as the late Emperor Hien-fung was a jealous upholder of the old Asiatic doctrines and state craft. Only the utmost necessity and unceasing pressure could have induced him to lower his arms before the barbarians of the west, and to endure that an enemy should have dictated conditions of peace in his own capital, hitherto inaccessible to foreign nations. English, French, and American ships of war hold possession of the most important forts of China. In several provinces of the interior, a rebel emperor has set up his camp, while on the banks of the Amoor, on the north of the Empire, Russia is building fortresses, and acting as if she were quite at home in that region. But all these phenomena, however divergent the interests, may at

present point to one stupendous result,—rousing the immense Chinese Empire from its thousand years' lethargy, and forcing the natives who populate it to follow in the great onward career of civilization, which in our days is rushing with the rapidity of a tempest through the world!

While the Commodore and some of his staff were proceeding to Canton in the gun-boat, the naturalists made an excursion to the Portuguese settlement of Macao, about 35 miles distant from Hong-kong, with which there is bi-weekly communication by an English steamer. Usually this voyage occupies from four to five hours, but the Sir Charles Forbes was a small slow-going tub, and as our departure was delayed several hours in consequence of a large shipment of chests of opium, for which it was hoped a better price would be obtained at Macao, and as we had on our way thither to contend with rain, squalls, and contrary winds, it was dark ere we reached Macao.