Some Of The Leaders Were Executed,
The Others Swore To Keep The Peace, And A Glowing Account Of The
Pacification Of The Miaotze Region Was Sent To Pekin.
Some severe critics
suggested that the whole arrangement was a farce, and that Hengan's
triumph was only on paper;
But the lapse of time has shown this skepticism
to be unjustified, as the Miaotze have remained tranquil ever since, and
the formidable Yaoujin, or Wolfmen, as they are called, have observed the
promises given to Hengan, which would not have been the case unless they
had been enforced by military success. Should they ever break out again,
the government would possess the means, from their command of money and
modern arms, of repressing their lawlessness with unprecedented
thoroughness, and of absolutely subjecting their hitherto inaccessible
districts.
If the first ten or twelve years of the reign of the Emperor Taoukwang
were marked by these troubles on a minor scale, an undue importance should
not be attached to them, for they did not seriously affect the stability
of the government or the authority of the emperor. It is true that they
caused a decline in the revenue and an increase in the expenditure, which
resulted in the year 1834 in an admitted deficit of fifty million dollars,
and no state could be considered in a flourishing condition with the
public exchequer in such a condition. But this large deficit must be
regarded rather as a floating debt than an annual occurrence.
The Chinese authorities continued to hinder and protest against the
foreign trade and intercourse between their subjects and the merchants of
Europe as much as ever; but their opposition was mainly confined to edicts
and proclamations. When Commissioner Lin resorted to force and violence
some years later the auspicious moment for expelling all foreigners had
passed away, and the weakness of the government contributed in no small
degree to this result. Taoukwang, although his claims as occupant of the
Dragon Throne were unabated, could not pretend to the power of a great
ruler like Keen Lung, who would have known how to enforce his will. For
was it possible after 1834 to continue the policy of uncompromising
hostility to all foreign nations whose governments had become directly
interested in, and to a certain extent responsible to, their respective
peoples, for the opening of the Chinese empire to civilized intercourse
and commerce. Up to this point Taoukwang's only experience of the
pretensions of the foreign powers had been the Amherst mission, in the
time of his father, which had ended so ignominiously, and the Russian
mission which arrived at Pekin every ten years to recruit the Russian
college there, and to pay the descendants of the garrison of Albazin the
sum allotted by the czar for their support. But from these trifling
matters Taoukwang's attention was suddenly and completely distracted to
the important situation at Canton and on the coast, the settlement of the
questions arising out of which filled the remainder of his reign.
CHAPTER XVII
THE FIRST FOREIGN WAR
AT the very time that the Emperor Taoukwang, by the dismissal of the
Portuguese astronomers at Pekin and by his general indifference to the
foreign question, was showing that no concessions were to be expected from
him, an unknown legislature at a remote distance from his capital was
decreeing, in complete indifference to the susceptibilities of the
occupant of the Dragon Throne, that trade with China might be pursued by
any English subject. Up to the year 1834 trade with China had, by the
royal charter, remained the monopoly of the East India Company; but when
the charter was renewed in that year for a further period of twenty years,
it was shorn of the last of its commercial privileges, and an immediate
change became perceptible in the situation at Canton, which was the
principal seat of the foreign trade. The withdrawal of the monopoly was
dictated solely by English, and not Chinese, considerations. Far from
facilitating trade with the Chinese, it tended to hinder and prevent its
developing; for the Chinese officials had no objection to foreigners
coming to Canton, and buying or selling articles of commerce, so long as
they derived personal profit from the trade, and so long as the laws of
the empire were not disputed or violated. The servants of the East India
Company were content to adapt themselves to this view, and they might have
carried on relations with the Hong merchants for an indefinite period, and
without any more serious collision than occasional interruptions. Had the
monopoly been renewed things would have been left in precisely the same
position as when intercourse was first established, and trade might have
continued within its old restricted limits. But the abolition of the
monopoly and the opening of the trade created quite a new situation, and
by intensifying the opposition of the Chinese government, paved the way to
the only practicable solution of the question of foreign intercourse with
China, which was that, however reluctantly she should consent to take her
place in the family of nations.
The Chinese were not left long in doubt as to the significance of this
change. In December, 1833, a royal commission was issued appointing Lord
Napier chief superintendent of trade with China, and two assistants under
him, of whom one was Sir John Davis. The Chinese had to some extent
contributed to this appointment, the Hoppo at Canton having written that
"in case of the dissolution of the Company it was incumbent on the British
government to appoint a chief to come to Canton for the general management
of commercial dealings, and to prevent affairs from going to confusion."
But in this message the Hoppo seems to have expressed his own view rather
than that of the Pekin government or the Canton viceroy; and certainly
none of the Chinese were prepared to find substituted for "a chief of
commercial dealings" an important commissioner clothed with all the
authority of the British ruler.
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