The Chinese Then Hastened To
Complete The Work They Had Begun.
Chung How, like Surajah Dowlah, was not
to be disturbed, and the attack on the mission house and consulate
Proceeded, while the officials responsible for order remained inactive.
Twenty-one foreigners in all were brutally murdered under circumstances of
the greatest barbarity, while the number of native converts who fell at
the same time can never be ascertained.
The Tientsin massacre was followed by a wave of anti-foreign feeling over
the whole country; but although an official brought out a work - entitled
"Death-blow to Corrupt Doctrine" - which obtained more than a passing
notoriety, and notwithstanding that some members of the imperial family,
and notably, as it was stated, Prince Chun, regarded the movement with
favor, the arguments of Prince Kung and the more moderate ministers
carried the day, and it was resolved to make every concession in the power
of the government for the pacific settlement of the dispute that had
arisen with France. The outbreak of the war between France and Germany,
while it contributed to a peaceful settlement of the question, rendered
the process of diplomacy slow and dubious. The Tsungli Yamen, as soon as
it realized that nothing short of the dispatch of a mission of apology to
Europe would salve the injured honor of France, determined that none other
than Chung How himself should go to Paris to assure the French that the
government deplored the popular ebullition and had taken no part in it.
The untoward result of the great war for France embarrassed her action in
China.
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Page 599 of 704
Words from 162535 to 162800
of 191255
