From Its Apartments The High Mandarins And The
Immediate Courtiers Of The Emperor Had Gloated Over And Enjoyed The
Spectacle Of Their Foreign Prisoners' Agony.
The whole of Pekin witnessed
in return the destruction wrought to the sovereign's abode by the
indignant English, and the clouds of smoke hung for days like a vast black
pall over the city.
That act of severe but just vengeance consummated, the negotiations for
the ratification of the treaty were resumed. The Hall of Ceremonies was
selected as the place in which the ratifying act should be performed,
while, as some punishment for the hostile part he had played, the palace
of Prince Tsai was appropriated as the temporary official residence of
Lord Elgin and Baron Gros. The formal act of ratification was performed in
this building on October 24. Lord Elgin proceeded in a chair of state,
accompanied by his suite, and also by Sir Hope Grant with an escort of 100
officers and 500 troops, through the streets from the Anting Gate to the
Hall of Ceremonies. Prince Kung, attended by a large body of civil and
military mandarins, was there in readiness to produce the imperial edict
authorizing him to attach the emperor's seal to the treaty, and to accept
the responsibility for his country of conforming with its terms and
carrying out its stipulations. Some further delay was caused by the
necessity of waiting until the edict should be received from the emperor
at Jehol authorizing the publication of the treaty, not the least
important point in connection with its conclusion if the millions of China
were to understand and perform what their rulers had promised for them.
That closing act was successfully achieved, and more rapidly than had been
expected. The Pekinese beheld English troops and officers in residence in
their midst for the first time, and when the army was withdrawn and the
plenipotentiary, Lord Elgin, transferred to his brother, Mr. Frederick
Bruce, the charge of affairs in China as Resident Minister, the ice had
been broken in the relations between the officials of the two countries,
and the greatest, if not the last, barrier of Chinese exclusiveness had
been removed. The last of the allied troops turned their backs upon Pekin
on November 9, and the greater portion of the expedition departed for
India and Europe just before the cold weather set in. A few days later the
rivers were frozen and navigation had become impossible, which showed how
narrow was the margin left for the completion of the operations of war.
The object which the more far-seeing of the English residents had from the
first hour of difficulty stated to be necessary for satisfactory
relations - direct intercourse with the Pekin government - was thus obtained
after a keen and bitter struggle of thirty years. Although vanquished, the
Chinese may be said to have come out of this war with an increased
military reputation. The war closed with a treaty enforcing all the
concessions made by its predecessor. The right to station an embassador in
Pekin signified that the greatest barrier of all had been broken down; the
old school of politicians were put completely out of court, and a young
and intelligent prince, closely connected with the emperor, assumed the
personal charge of the foreign relations of the country. As one who had
seen with his own eyes the misfortunes of his countrymen, Prince Kung was
the more disposed to adhere to what he had promised to perform. Under his
direction the ratified Treaty of Tientsin became a bond of union instead
of an element of discord between the cabinets of London and Pekin; and a
termination was put, by an arrangement carried at the point of the sword,
to the constant friction and recrimination which had been the prevailing
characteristics of the intercourse for a whole generation. The Chinese had
been subjected to a long and bitter lesson. They had at last learned the
virtue of submitting to necessity; but although they have profited to some
extent both in peace and war by their experience, it requires some
assurance to declare that they have even now accepted the inevitable. That
remains the problem of the future; but in 1860 Prince Kung came to the
sensible conclusion that for that period, and until China had recovered
from her internal confusion, there was nothing to be gained and much to be
lost by protracted resistance to the peoples of the West. Whatever could
be retained by tact and finesse were to form part of the natural rights of
China; but the privileges only to be asserted in face of Armstrong guns
and rifles were to be abandoned with as good a grace as the injured
feeling of a nation can ever display.
CHAPTER XX
THE TAEPING REBELLION
We left the Taepings supreme at Nankin, but maintaining themselves there
with some difficulty against two imperial armies raised by the loyal
efforts of the inhabitants of the central provinces. This was at the
beginning of 1857; and there is no doubt that if the government had
avoided a conflict with the Europeans, and concentrated its efforts and
power on the contest with the Taeping rebels, they would have speedily
annihilated the tottering fabric of Tien Wang's authority. But the respite
of four years secured by the attention of the central government being
monopolized by the foreign question enabled the Taepings to consolidate
their position, augment their fighting forces, and present a more
formidable front to the imperial authorities. When Prince Kung learned
from Lord Elgin the full extent of the success of the Taepings on the
Yangtse, of which the officials at Pekin seemed to possess a very
imperfect and inaccurate knowledge, the Manchu authorities realized that
it was a vital question for them to reassert their authority without
further delay, but on beginning to put their new resolve into practice
they soon experienced that the position of the Taepings in 1861 differed
materially from what it was in 1857.
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