The Chinese Themselves Did Not
Attach As Much Importance As They Might Have Done To His Efforts, And Mr.
Burlinghame's
Mission will be remembered more as an educational process
for foreigners than as signifying any decided change in Chinese policy.
His death at St. Petersburg, in March, 1870, put a sudden and unexpected
close to his tour, but it cannot be said that he could have done more
toward the elucidation of Chinese questions than he had already
accomplished, while his bold and optimistic statements, after awakening
public attention, had already begun to produce the inevitable reaction.
In 1869 Sir Rutherford Alcock retired, and was succeeded in the difficult
post of English representative in China by Mr. Thomas Wade, whose services
have been more than once referred to. In the very first year of his
holding the post an event occurred which cast all the minor aggressive
acts that had preceded it into the shade. It may perhaps be surmised that
this was the Tientsin massacre - an event which threatened to re-open the
whole of the China question, and which brought France and China to the
verge of war. It was in June, 1870, on the eve of the outbreak of the
Franco-Prussian War, that the foreign settlements were startled by the
report of a great popular outbreak against foreigners in the important
town of Tientsin. At that city there was a large and energetic colony of
Roman Catholic priests, and their success in the task of conversion, small
as it might be held, was still sufficient to excite the ire and fears of
the literary and official classes. The origin of mob violence is ever
difficult to discover, for a trifle suffices to set it in motion. But at
Tientsin specific charges of the most horrible and, it need not be said,
the most baseless character were spread about as to the cruelties and evil
practices of those devoted to the service of religion. These rumors were
diligently circulated, and it need not cause wonder if, when the mere cry
of "Fanquai" - Foreign Devil - sufficed to raise a disturbance, these
allegations resulted in a vigorous agitation against the missionaries, who
were already the mark of popular execration. It was well known beforehand
that an attack on the missionaries would take place unless the authorities
adopted very efficient measures of protection. The foreign residents and
the consulates were warned of the coming outburst, and a very heavy
responsibility will always rest on those who might, by the display of
greater vigor, have prevented the unfortunate occurrences that ensued. At
the same time, allowing for the prejudices of the Chinese, it must be
allowed that not only must the efforts of all foreign missionaries be
attended with the gravest peril, but that the acts of the French priests
and nuns at Tientsin were, if not indiscreet, at least peculiarly
calculated to arouse the anger and offend the superstitious predilections
of the Chinese. That the wrong was not altogether on the side of the
Chinese may be gathered from an official dispatch of the United States
Minister, describing the originating causes of the outrage:
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