On October 18 The
Threat Was Carried Into Execution.
The Summer Palace was destroyed by
fire, and the sum of $500,000 was demanded and obtained from the Chinese
as some compensation for the families of the murdered men.
The palace of
Yuen Min Yuen had been the scene of some of the worst sufferings of the
English prisoners. 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.
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