The Next Most Important Passage Was That Arranging For The
Dispatch Of An Embassy To London Bearing A Letter Of Regret For The Murder
Of The English Official.
The official selected for this duty was Kwo
Sungtao, a mandarin of high rank and unexceptionable character.
The letter
was submitted to Sir Thomas Wade in order that its terms should be exactly
in accordance with Chinese etiquette, and that no phrase should be used
showing that the Chinese government attached less importance to the
mission than the occasion demanded. The embassy proceeded to Europe, and,
whatever may be thought of its immediate effect, it must be allowed that
it established a precedent of friendly intercourse with this country,
which promises to prove an additional guarantee of peace. Kwo Sungtao was
accompanied by the present Sir Halliday Macartney, who had rendered such
good service to China, his adopted country, during the Taeping war and
afterward, and who, during the last sixteen years, has taught the Chinese
government how to make itself listened to by the most powerful States of
Europe.
A curious incident arising from the passion of gambling which is so
prevalent in China, and bearing incidentally upon the national character,
may be briefly referred to. The attention of the Pekin government was
attracted to this subject by a novel form of gambling, which not merely
attained enormous dimensions, but which threatened to bring the system of
public examination into disrepute. This latter fact created a profound
impression at Pekin, and roused the mandarins to take unusually prompt
measures. Canton was the headquarters of the gambling confederacy which
established the lotteries known as the Weising, but its ramifications
extended throughout the whole of the province of Kwantung. The Weising, or
examination sweepstakes, were based on the principle of drawing the names
of the successful candidates at the official examinations. They appealed,
therefore, to every poor villager, and every father of a family, as well
as to the aspirants themselves. The subscribers to the Weising lists were
numbered by hundreds of thousands. It became a matter of almost as much
importance to draw a successful number or name in the lottery as to take
the degree. The practice could not have been allowed to go on without
introducing serious abuses into the system of public examination. The
profits to the owners of the lottery were so enormous that they were able
to pay not less than eight hundred thousand dollars as hush-money to the
viceroy and the other high officials of Canton. In order to shield his own
participation in the profits, the viceroy declared that he devoted this
new source of revenue to the completion of the river defenses of Canton.
In 1874 the whole system was declared illegal, and severe penalties were
passed against those aiding, or participating in any way in, the Weising
Company. The local officers did not, however, enforce with any stringency
these new laws, and the Weising fraternity enjoyed a further but brief
period of increased activity under a different name.
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