It Will Be Recollected
That When The Allied Forces Approached That City In 1860, The Emperor
Hienfung Fled To Jehol, And Kept Himself Aloof From All The Peace
Negotiations Which Were Conducted To A Successful Conclusion By His
Brother, Prince Kung.
After the signature of the convention in Pekin,
ratifying the Treaty of Tientsin, he refused to return to his
Capital; and
he even seems to have hoped that he might, by asserting his imperial
prerogative, transfer the capital from Pekin to Jehol, and thus evade one
of the principal concessions to the foreigners. But if this was
impossible, he was quite determined, for himself, to have nothing to do
with them, and during the short remainder of his life he kept his court at
Jehol. While his brother was engaged in meeting the difficulties of
diplomacy, and in arranging the conditions of a novel situation, Hienfung,
by collecting round his person the most bigoted men of his family, showed
that he preferred those counselors who had learned nothing from recent
events, and who would support him in his claims to undiminished
superiority and inaccessibility. Prominent among the men in his confidence
was Prince Tsai, who had taken so discreditable a part in the arrest of
Parkes and his companions at Tungchow, and among his other advisers were
several inexperienced and impetuous members of the Manchu family. They
were all agreed in the policy of recovering, at the earliest possible
moment, what they considered to be the natural and prescriptive right of
the occupant of the Dragon Throne to treat all other potentates as in no
degree equal to himself. No respect for treaties would have deterred them
from reasserting what had solemnly been signed away, and the permanent
success of the faction at Jehol would have entailed, within a
comparatively short period, the outbreak of another foreign war. But the
continued residence of the emperor at Jehol was not popular, with either
his own family or the inhabitants of Pekin. The members of the Manchu
clan, who received a regular allowance during the emperor's residence at
Pekin, were reduced to the greatest straits, and even to the verge of
starvation, while the Chinese naturally resented the attempt to remove the
capital to any other place. This abnegation of authority by Hienfung, for
his absence meant nothing short of that, could not have been prolonged
indefinitely, for a Chinese emperor has many religious and secular duties
to perform which no one else can discharge, and which, if not discharged,
would reduce the office of emperor to a nonentity. Prince Tsai and his
associates had no difficulty in working upon the fears of this prince, who
held the most exalted idea of his own majesty, at the same time that he
had not the power or knowledge to vindicate it.
While such were the views prevailing in the imperial circle at Jehol,
arrangements were in progress for the taking up of his residence at Pekin
of the British minister. After Lord Elgin's departure, his brother, Sir
Frederick Bruce, who was knighted for his share in the negotiations, was
appointed first occupant of the post of minister in the Chinese capital,
and on March 22, 1861, he left Tientsin for Pekin.
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