It Was Arranged That The Treaty Should Be Signed On Board A British Man-
Of-War, And The Chinese Commissioners Were Invited To Pay A Visit For The
Purpose To The "Cornwallis," The Flagship Of The Admiral.
The event came
off on the 20th of August, 1842, and the scene was sufficiently
interesting, if not imposing.
The long line of English warships and
transports, drawn up opposite to and within short range of the lofty walls
of Nankin; the land forces so disposed on the raised causeways on shore as
to give them every facility of approach to the city gates, while leaving
it doubtful to the last which gate would be the real object of attack; and
then the six small Chinese boats, gayly decorated with flags, bearing the
imperial commissioners and their attendants, to sign for the first time in
history a treaty of defeat with a foreign power. The commissioners were
dressed in their plainest clothes, as they explained, because imperial
commissioners are supposed to proceed in haste about their business, and
have no time to waste on their persons, but there is reason to believe
that they thought such clothing best consorted with the inauspicious
character for China of the occasion. The ceremony passed off without a
hitch, and four days later Sir Henry Pottinger paid the Chinese officers a
return visit, when he was received by them in a temple outside the city
walls. A third and more formal reception was held on the 26th of August in
the College Hall, in the center of Nankin, when Sir Henry Pottinger,
twenty officers, and an escort of native cavalry rode through the streets
of one of the most famous cities of China.
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