A FRENCH philosopher has endeavoured to account for the small interest we used to take in Chinese affairs, by the fact that the population was so portentously ugly. A certain amount of departure from the Grecian model, he said, is compatible with our esteem. Nay, positive bad looks, if they rise to the frightful, have attractions of their own; but the fate of a people with figures and faces only to be equalled by the grotesque masks at a pantomime is merely to be laughed at, whatever woes befall them. Perhaps this to a certain extent is true. Nobody could hear with the same equanimity of the destruction of a village of Circassians as of the engulfing by earthquake of half the city of Pekin. We should certainly feel more for the miseries they are exposed to, the butcheries that depopulate a province, and the total disregard of the poor fellows' lives visible in the treatment bestowed on them by their rulers, if they had a little closer resemblance to the human face divine. But the sight of that ideal Chinaman, low-browed, broad-mouthed,

twinkling-eyed, cunning, sneaking, and altogether fantastical in his divergence from the ordinary workmanship even of nature's journeyman, separates him from our sympathies, and we look on him as if he were a native of Lilliput or Brobdignag. And it was not merely in externals they differed so much from the rest of mankind. They put themselves beyond the sphere of European brotherhood by peculiarities of thought and policy, which seemed expressly designed to exclude those touches of Nature which make the whole world kin. They professed to shut themselves up in their own territory-to erect a system of exclusion by laws and regulations as complete as their famous wall. Within this sacred boundary lay the Flowery Land.

Beyond it were dark and unknown nations, not worthy of contact with the celestial soil.

Now, whether a nation has a right to seclude itself from the rest of the world, and interrupt by its pride and isolation the golden chain of commerce and humanity which ought to go round the globe, we need not

VOL. LXXXVII.-NO. DXXXIII.

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stop to inquire. We can take our stand on the fact that this exclusiveness was broken through; they invited the visits of foreigners to their shores, and enriched themselves with our merchandise and money. The next question that arose was, How is a commercial people bound to treat its customers? May they condemn the purchasers of their goods to ignominious services, call them insulting names, receive them with insolent disdain, and threaten them with pains and penalties if they depart from the course of behaviour prescribed? All these questions were answered in the affirmative by some of the baser sort of adventurers whom the sacred hunger of gold had carried to Canton; and by a great number of cotton-souled, slave-hearted tradesmen at home, who thought that coin was coin, even if accompanied by a kick for every dollar. They were indignant, therefore, when Lord Macartney in 1793 declined the degrading ceremony of the Ko-tow in presence of the Emperor, and felt no thrill of shame when the result of that embassy was summed up in the following remarkable words: "We entered Pekin like beggars, we lived there like prisoners, and we were drummed out of it like thieves."

No amount of ludicrousness of visage could make the British nation take this treatment as a joke. Buckstone himself would cease to be funny if he pelted his pit with brickbats; and a very well-defined spirit of hatred and distrust mingled with all our succeeding intercourses with the absurd-looking but treacherous denizens of the central realm. Other embassies were little more successful than Lord Macartney's, except that they secured certain privileges and exemptions which delivered our people from some of the inconveniences of their position. They occupied a miserable strip of land on the bank of a muddy creek; but they built factories and houses, appointed their own police, and traded, to the great increase of their banker's account, and consoled themselves for the daily insults they were still exposed to by hearing the chink of their money-boxes at home. The smouldering enmity broke out occa

sionally, and on every occasion the improved national spirit was shown in the firmer demonstration of our self-respect. We stood not only on our treaty stipulations, but on the higher ground of our natural right to good treatment at the hands of people whose wares we took and paid for. We looked on China as a shop which we had a right to enter, and resented any insolence shown us in our dealings as we should call a grocer's foreman to order if he told us to pay for our sugar upon our knees, or only allowed us to stand on one plank, and that a very dirty and unsafe one, in the outer passage. Failing to obtain reparation from the underlings, we determined to carry our complaint (and oak cudgel) into the private parlours of the fig-dealer himself, make him dismiss his impudent apprentices, give us a written permission to go into any of the rooms where his goods are displayed without being hustled by the porters, and, to make matters safe for the future, to admit a confidential clerk of ours at all times into his business office, or, if need were, to his private villa at Balham, and have any misunderstanding rectified without the trouble of correspondence. If he declined, we should certainly horsewhip his junior partners, and very likely pull his own nose. Thence the capture of Canton, Amoy, Ningpo, Ching-kian, and Nankin, in 1842, where we thrashed the shopmen in a very satisfactory manner, and hence the attempt to bring the head of the firm to reason, which is so excellently described in Lord Elgin's Embassy to China in 1857.

We need not rake up the ashes of the extinct controversy about the seizure of the Arrow. Many wise and good men were of opinion that the casus belli was not sufficient, and that hostilities founded on that quarrel were cruel and unnecessary. But the whole nation rallied to the cause of self-vindication, when it was found that that outrage was but a symptom of the hidden hate and the resolution to insult. Greater interests came into play. It was indispensible to show that we had might as well as right upon our side, and the discussion was transferred from paper to the broad

sides of our men-of-war. Commissioner Yeh was the incarnation of Chinese insolence and stubborn pride. He opposed a passive resistance, even to the 36-pounders that tore holes in the walls of his residence; and all the time we were seizing his forts and firing on the government buildings, he persisted in treating us with contempt. The only compliment he paid us was in sending fire-vessels down the stream to burn our ships, and offering a reward of thirty dollars for every English head. But our force was insufficient to make a proper impression on the vast extent of a town with a million inhabitants, and on the fears or reasoning powers of a brutally ignorant and blindly-obstinate barbarian like Yeh. Chinese incendiaries succeeded in burning down the foreign factories, and Admiral Seymour contented himself with attacking the Factory Garden, and holding it with three hundred Sir John Bowring could not find words in all the languages he has mastered to express his amazement at the conduct of the Commissioner; and that conduct got beyond the descriptive powers even of higher linguists than Sir John, for he kidnapped our countrymen if they strayed a yard into the country seized our steamers by stratagem, and decapitated the crew and passengers; sank junks in the river, and nearly blew up one of our ships with an explosive machine. On the 12th of

men.

January 1857, our position in the Factory Garden having been threatened, and a party of the 59th Regiment being repulsed on their advance to the city walls, the Admiral withdrew to the Macao Fort, and sent pressing demands to the GovernorGeneral of India for a reinforcement of five thousand men. This was the position we held in February 1857, after having begun with threatening to seize the defences of Canton, and insisting on the full extent of our right to free access to the city under the treaty. We were cooped up in a small fortress, and Yeh, feeding fat the grudge he bore us, wrote to the Brother of the Sun and Moon that he was punishing the barbarian rebels with the utmost severity of the law.

There was one conviction," says Mr Oliphant, "arising out of all this, which irresistibly impressed itself upon the mind of every new-comer, and which was-that a continuance of this state of matters would not only injure our colony, impair our prestige, embarrass us in our relations with neutral powers, and imperil our commerce at all the other ports of the empire, but enhance materially the difficulties in the way of any negotiations which might be attempted directly with the Court of Pekin. It could hardly be expected or hoped that, while Yeh was waging a successful war with us in the Canton river, we could be treating on favourable terms in the Peiho."

England was no little astonished at the reports which reached her of these unexpected events. France, Russia, and America were no less alive to the crisis probably at hand, and determined to send plenipotentiaries to China. Five thousand English troops were sent out, with a staff equipment for a much larger army, and on the 9th of May our special envoy and high commissioner, Lord Elgin, and his secretary, attachés, and private secretary (Mr Oliphant), were rushing across the Desert in the first train which had ever carried passengers to the central station, enveloped in clouds of dust, and indulging in the most sanguine anticipations of the future.

The first independent act of Lord Elgin showed of what fine metal he was made. Red-tape has no more power over the limbs of a true man than green withes upon the arms of Samson. When they reached Galle, they heard from General Ashburnham, who was on his way from Bombay for the chief command in China, the first intimation of the disaffection of the sepoy troops, which darkened into the tragedies of Delhi and Meerut, and Lord Elgin's mind was quickly made up. Let China wait till Hindostan is safe; and he waited at Singapore for the arrival of the Shannon, a name not more famous under the gallant Broke, than beneath the flag of Captain William Peel; and having made arrangements for the diversion of the Chinese ex

peditionary force to the assistance of the English, now enveloped in the full horrors of the Indian mutiny, he set sail for Hong-Kong, to form his judgment in accordance with the altered position of affairs. Baron Gros, the French ambassador, with whom he was instructed to act in common, was not expected for three months. The troops sent to India had diminished our force so as to render the capture and occupation of Canton impossible in the opinion of the commanders-in-chief. A residence, involving total inaction at Hong-Kong would have injured the prestige of the mission, and in thirtysix hours after the arrival of fresh reports confirming the alarming nature of the Indian outbreak, the Shannon, with the Ambassador on board, was ploughing her way over the China Sea, and Lord Elgin telegraphed from Diamond Harbour to Lord Canning that he was close at hand with seventeen hundred men, blue-jackets included.

"As we swept past Garden Reach, on the afternoon of the 8th August, the excitement on board was increased by early

indications of the satisfaction with which our appearance was hailed on shore. First our stately ship suddenly burst upon the astonished gaze of two European gentlemen taking their evening walk, who, seeing her crowded with the eager faces of men ready for the fray, took off their hats and cheered wildly; then the respectable skipper of a merchantman worked himself into a state of frenzy, and made us a long speech, which we could not hear, but the violence of his gesticulations left us in little doubt as to its import; then his crew took up the cheer, which was passed on at intervals until the thunder of our 68-pounders drowned every other sound; shattered the windows of sundry of the 'Palaces;' attracted a crowd of spectators to the Maidan, and brought the contents of Fort William on to the glacis.

"As soon as the smoke cleared away, the soldiers of the garrison collected there sent up a series of hearty cheers; a moment more and our men were clustered like ants upon the rigging, and, in the energy which they threw into their ringing response, they pledged themselves to the achievement of those deeds of valour which have since covered the Naval Brigade with glory. After the fort had saluted, Lord Elgin landed amid

the cheers of the crowd assembled at the Ghaut to receive him, and proceeded to Government House, gratified to learn, not merely from the popular demonstrations, but from Lord Canning himself, that though happily the physical force he had brought with him was not required to act in defence of the city, still that the presence of a man-of-war larger than any former ship that had ever anchored abreast of the Maidan, and whose guns commanded the city, was calculated to produce upon both the European and native population a most wholesome moral effect, more especially at a time when the near approach of the Mohurrum had created in men's minds an unusual degree of apprehension and excitement."

The wondrous state of quiet selfreliance in the great city, where the British inhabitants showed the same apparent indifference to the dailyincreasing reports of disaffection and disaster, as if their lives and fortunes did not hang upon the result, belongs more, perhaps, to the history of India than to the Chinese mission. The account of it, however, is worth quoting, for the sake of the philosophic explanation given of that otherwise unaccountable calm.

"Those who are removed to a great distance from the scene of thrilling events, and experience at the receipt of periodical intelligence from it an intense degree of excitement, forget that if those on the spot were to be subjected to a similar strain upon the nervous system, continued over a length of time, it would give way altogether. Providentially the very proximity of the danger, and constant familiarity with those horrible details, which, arriving by instalments in England, acted on society like a series of electric shocks, produced a calmness almost amounting to apathy in India.

So

far as the outward aspect of society was concerned, Calcutta was just as I had left it seven years before. The Maidan was just as crowded by its beauty and fashion now as it used to be then; burracannas were nearly as numerous, considering it was the height of the hot weather; and there was even a wretched attempt at an opera, which, however, was very thinly attended. The only differences I observed were, that constant reviews took place of volunteer corps; that the Governor-General's body-guard mounted sentry without swords; and that dining in Fort William involved the risk of being bayoneted by a series of Irish sen

tries, who would not admit your pronunciation of the parole to be correct, and were haunted by the suspicion that you were the King of Oude in disguise escaping in a buggy."

This was in August 1857, and the storm had reached its gloomiest point. The siege of Delhi was going feebly on; Agra was invested by the mutineers; Lucknow was surrounded by its infuriated foes. At Dinapore our troops had been defeated, and Havelock himself retired to Cawnpore with his gallant little army unreinforced, decimated by cholera, and worn out with battles and fatigue. Not a moment was lost. The Shannon was dismantled, and her sailors formed into the famous Naval Brigade which rendered Sir William Peel immortal. Sir Colin Campbell unexpectedly arrived to assume the chief command. Native regiments were invited to volunteer for service in China, and one accepted the invitation. A reinforcement of fifteen hundred marines was promised from home, to replace the troops so opportunely and magnanimously diverted to Hindostan; and after a month of activity and consultation, Lord Elgin embarked on board the Peninsular and Oriental steamer the Ava, and found his way once more to HongKong.

But in no better position to achieve the objects of his mission than when he was there two months before. Baron Gros had not yet arrived. Troops from England could not be expected till November. Without their aid a visit to the Peiho was impossible. Residence at HongKong had no great attraction, and exposed us to the ridicule of the Chinese. But patience is only courage in repose. Lord Elgin waited. Baron Gros arrived in the middle of October, and on the 28th the Imperador, with the first batch of English marines on board, cast anchor under Point Victoria. "It was the first faint glimmering of day-light after the long night of despondency and inaction."

A very interesting voyage to Manilla, with an account of the manners and customs of that very peculiar island, forms an episode of Mr Oliphant's book, which leaves time for

all the preparations to be made behind the scenes for the first act of the Chinese drama. While Lord Elgin was concerting measures at HongKong, his secretary obtained permission to take a trip with Captain Sherard Osborn on board the Furious; and with such a captain, and having as his companion on this occasion Mr Wingrove Cooke, whose correspondence in the Times rendered us more acquainted with Commissioner Yeh than if he had been churchwarden of our native parish, we may believe that the excursion was of the pleasantest. The results of it here detailed are a capital view of the manners and customs of the Spanish settlement, and a description of its capabilities as a place of trade. These, however, are but the amusements of the pit before the curtain draws up. The seats were now filled, the musicians were tuning their instruments, and the voyagers got back to Hong-Kong just in time for the first crash of the overture. The American minister, Mr Reed, had arrived. Count Poutiatine, the Russian envoy, had also made his appearance in very crestfallen condition, for he had petitioned for admission to Pekin by way of Kiahkta, and been refused. He had gone to the mouth of the Peiho, and been told that no communication from that point would be attended to; and when the Chinese yielded so far as to promise an answer if he would leave the place and return to receive it, he had gone back expecting a favourable reply, but found it was a refusal to see him at Pekin, with an intimation that under no circumstances could the performance of the Ko-tow be dispensed with. This to the personal representative of the Emperor of all the Russias ! Poutiatine came to the same conclusion as Lord Elgin, that no impression could be made on the self-sufficient potentate and his pig-headed mandarins, except by appearing in great force at the mouth of the Peiho, with flat-bottomed boats to navigate the shallow waters leading towards the capital.

When a considerable fleet was assembled, and the marines had arrived from England, the island of Honan