“Then the memorial of your merit will be seen in the palace, while the state stands secure in the greatness of its people, as in the golden days of Shun, and the elements genially combine to produce plenty, through the good rule universal in the land, as was seen in the halcyon days of Tsin.
“The other nations of the West must all reverently obey our heavenly dynasty, according to their laws and their administrators, for they will be amerced in the same crimes (as the English) if they venture to copy their conduct.
“Those native traitors who are serving these several tribes, by aiding their purposes, must be strictly watched after and judged, the worst of them by the extermination of their kindred, the lesser by the destruction of their own families.
“Those who are employed as servants to any of the foreigners are allowed twenty days to return to their own patrimonies, there to pursue their several occupations. If they linger along in the hope of gain, they will be treated and punished as traitors.
“Each one must tremblingly obey these orders without opposition.”
[13] The words of the treaty are: “If it shall be ascertained or suspected that lawless natives of China, having committed crimes or offences against their own government, have fled, a communication shall be made to the proper English officer, in order that the said criminals and offenders may be rigidly searched for, seized, and, on proof or admission of their guilt, delivered up” to the Chinese authorities.
[14] A thoroughly well-informed American gentleman, then on the spot, declares that the Cantonese prayed that some English ball might “make hit the Viceroy; he all same devil,” they said. “Yeh had no supporters among his own countrymen, except his immediate followers, natives of other provinces, and having no local interest. He ruled simply by terror, and all would have been glad to have seen him destroyed.”—A Foreigner’s Evidence on the China Question, p. 14.
[15] Yeh died in Calcutta. So great was the quantity of gas emitted by his body after death, that the leaden coffin burst twice. On its arrival at Canton the Chinese would not allow the body to be brought into the city.
[16] The following is the protest of the United States Commissioner, addressed to High Commissioner Yeh:—
“Legation of the U.S., Macao, Jan. 16, 1857.