The War Closed With A Treaty Enforcing All The
Concessions Made By Its Predecessor.
The right to station an embassador in
Pekin signified that the greatest barrier of all had been broken down;
The
old school of politicians were put completely out of court, and a young
and intelligent prince, closely connected with the emperor, assumed the
personal charge of the foreign relations of the country. As one who had
seen with his own eyes the misfortunes of his countrymen, Prince Kung was
the more disposed to adhere to what he had promised to perform. Under his
direction the ratified Treaty of Tientsin became a bond of union instead
of an element of discord between the cabinets of London and Pekin; and a
termination was put, by an arrangement carried at the point of the sword,
to the constant friction and recrimination which had been the prevailing
characteristics of the intercourse for a whole generation. The Chinese had
been subjected to a long and bitter lesson. They had at last learned the
virtue of submitting to necessity; but although they have profited to some
extent both in peace and war by their experience, it requires some
assurance to declare that they have even now accepted the inevitable. That
remains the problem of the future; but in 1860 Prince Kung came to the
sensible conclusion that for that period, and until China had recovered
from her internal confusion, there was nothing to be gained and much to be
lost by protracted resistance to the peoples of the West.
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Words from 137137 to 137393
of 191255
