10167
1


691
Nq4
THE
x 484
OPIUM QUESTION
AND
THE NORTHERN CAMPAIGNS.
A LECTURE IN TWO PARTS :
BEING THE THIRD OF
THE SERIES
DESIGNED TO PRESENT A VIEW OF
FORTY YEARS OF FOREIGN INTERCOURSE
WITH CHINA :
1833-1874.
ooooo
PART I.
THE OPIUM QUESTION.
READ BEFORE A PORTION OF THE
CANTON COMMUNITY JULY 1st 1874.





PREFACE.
It is in proper sequence that
I introduce here the criticisms of preceding
Lectures which required notice by me, with
my replies thereto, since a timely elucidation
of meaning is a gain to readers.
Moreover he who writes in a proper spirit
welcomes criticism that tends to educe truthful
illustrations of his text, as increasing the sum
of the knowledge it is his object to convey :-
For, as a great Prelate quotes to us from an
old and wise Poet :-
"The chiof use then in man of that he knowes,
Is his paines-taking for the good of all:
Not fleshly weeping for his own made woes,
Not laughing from a melancholy gall,
Not hating from a soul that overflowes
With bitterness breathed out from inward thrall.”





D5 757.
NO
SalieNT POINTS OF NARRATIVE AND COMMENT.
Part 1st.
1. Introductory : with replies to Reviewers of the 1st and 2nd
Lectures.
2. The Opium Question in its popular aspects, including an
attempted rationale of our view of history, in reply to crit-
icisms in the China Review.
Part 2d.
3. Introductory : The Emperor Trou Kwang declares the Eng-
lish rebellious against Iſeaven. The warning injunction
against contact with the Nations of the West by his great
ancestor Kang-bi only too mnch venerated ; but our sympathy
for him is legitimate. His calls for soldiers quite inadequately
and disproportionately responded to.
4. Narrative of occurrences in the interval before the arrival of
Sir Henry Pottinger and Sir William Parker to supersede
Sir Charles Elliot and Sir Gordon Bremer. First sale of
lots at Hongkong and public invitation to Chinese traders to
settle there.
5. Review of the arduous and useful career of Sir Charles Elliot :
who, like a pioneer in a strange land, opened the way for
others to reap the harvest of early re:10wn from his judicious,
patient aud heroic exertions. The Emperor's repudiation of
the conventior: with Keshen and sacrifice of that brilliant and
able man found its compleinent,--according to the system of
cross purposes so much pursued in Chinese affairs, but not as
a logical consequence certainly,-in the sacrifice of Elliot!
The new policy :-coercion in place of conciliation. In
view of this policy the withdrawal of Sir Charles Elíiot is ex-
plicable; but public recognition of his services was strangely
tardy and bryrudging.
7. Sir Henry Pottinger, the exponent of the new policy, found
the way cleared for its full application ; and was fain to avail
of the judicious system applied by his predecessor for the
continuance of the local trade.
8. Mr. Thom ; Coli. Malcolm ; H. E. Mr. Wade; and Sir
George Balfour.
241109


9. The terrific Typhoon of July 21st 1841.
10. The Northern Campaign of 1841: Forces left Hongkong
20th August: No "Lights”--the Beacons of Commerce and
advanced Towers of Science and civilization-on the coast,
yet the fleet reached positions off Amoy on the 25th : the most
strikiny features of the shores being the isolated groups of
granite boulders crowning the summits or filling the chasms
of the hills : resolute deſence led by Kiany-ki-Yung, who
drowned himself when all was lost! Kulungsu garrisoned ;
and forces proceeded on, recapturing Chusan and in succession
capturing Cbinhae and Ningpo; at which latter went into
Winter quarters, wherein they suffered formidable night
attacks.
11. Violations of the terms of the local Canton fruce ignored by
Sir. Henry Pottinger ; and the local prestige of England
I waned, as a consequence, as the winter wore-away.
12. Campaign of 1842 : The year made memorable in the annals
of history : begun by the capture of Chapu : advance upon
Shanghae : Sir Henry arrived there 20th June with General
Lord Saltoun who brought on large reinforcements :--Soon
was beheld the majestic spectacle of the advance of 70 large
ships, with masts, yards and decks filled with soldiers and
sailors, toward the gates of the Empire'.
13. Advance upon Nanking, the ancient and renowned capital,
rends the film of ages from Imperial eyes.
14. Treaty of Nanking and remarkable conversation there.
15. Return of Sir Henry to Hongkong : horrible barbarities in
Formosa. .
76. Mobs destroy British, Dutch and Creek Factories at Canton ;
narrow escape of the writer and some others. Sir Hugh Gough
opportunely arrives : Introduction to the renowned Hero
of Tarifa and Talavera, Barrossa and Vittoria, who was
subsequently made Lord Gough.
Mrs. Parker (who was a cousin of the great American
Senator Daniel Webster) and Mrs. Isaacson (a daughter of
the learned legal author Mr. Chitty of London) escaped to-
gether to Whampoa :
Ample experience of Canton mobs and Mandarin plots
indispose the writer to remain longer in China. --
17. Death of Sir Charles Elliot announced by the Mail.


NOTE.
Owing to delays of the printer, this
lecture has long been in the press; and
meantime the pamplet has been enlarged by
the Address at Concordia Hall and the Ap-
pendix, thus making 108 pages, inclusive of
pages 17 to 26 erroneously repeated in the
paging of the first and second parts.




SITATIS
C-CALIA
VNIVED
RNIEN
SIGILLV
CNSIS
LMDCC
YUV
no
EX LIBRIS


DS 757
NT
SALIENT POINTS OF NARRATIVE AND COMMENT.
Part 1st.
1. Introductory : with replies to Reviewers of the 1st and 2nd
Lectures.
2. The Opium Question in its popular aspects, including an
attempted rationale of our view of history, in reply to crit-
icisms in the China Review.
Part 2d.
3. Introductory: The Emperor Taou Kwang declares the Eng-
lish 'rebellious against Heaven.' The warning injunction
against contact with the Nations of the West by his great
ancestor Kang-li only too mnch venerated ; but our sympathy
for him is legitimate. His calls for soldiers quite inadequately
and disproportionately responded to.
4. Narrative of occurrences in the interval before the arrival of
Sir Ilenry Pottinger and Sir William Parker to supersede
Sir Charles Elliot and Sir Gordon Bremer. First sale of
lots at Hongkong and public invitation to Chinese traders to
settle there.
5. Review of the arduous and useful career of Sir Charles Elliot :
who, like a pioneer in a strange land, opened the way for
others to reap the harvest of early renown from his judicious,
patient aud heroic exertions. "The Emperor's repudiation of
the convention with Keshen and sacrifice of that brilliant and
able man found its compleinent,-according to the system of
cross purposes so much pursued in Chinese affairs, but not as
a logical consequence certainly, -in the sacrifice of Elliot!
6. The new policy :-coercion in place of conciliation. In
view of this policy the withdrawal of Sir Charles Elliot is ex-
plicable ; but public recognition of his services was strangely
tardy and brgrudging.
7. Sir Henry Pottinger, the exponent of the new policy, found
the way cleared for its full application ; and was fain to avail
of the judicious system applied by his predecessor for the
continuance of the local trade.
8. Mr. Thom ; Colm. Malcolm ; H. E. Mr. Wade; and Sir
George Balfour.
LECT
LU
241109


-
- ---
-
-
-
NOTE.
Owing to delays of the printer, this
lecture has long been in the press ; and
meantime the pamplet has been enlarged by
the Address at Concordia Hall and the Ap-
pendix, thus making 108 pages, inclusive of
pages 17 to 26 erroneously repeated in the
paging of the first and second parts.


PREFACE.
It is in proper sequence that
I introduce here the criticisms of preceding
Lectures which required notice by me, with
my replies thereto, since a timely elucidation
of meaning is a gain to readers.
Moreover he who writes in a proper spirit
welcomes criticism that tends to educe truthful
illustrations of his text, as increasing the sum
of the knowledge it is his object to convey :-
For, as a great Prelate quotes to us from an
old and wise Poet:-
“The chief use then in man of that he knowes,
Is his paines-taking for the good of all :
Not fleshly weeping for his own made woes,
Not laughing from a melancholy gall,
Not hating from a soul that overflowes
With bitterness breathed out from inward thrall.”


EDITORIAL NOTICE OF THE DAILY PRESS OF
THE SECOND LECTURE AND MY REPLY THERETO.
IN MY. GIDEON Nye's lecture on “ Peking the Goal, and Sole
Hope,” to which we briefly alluded a short time since, some very
interesting particulars are given of the first conception of the
Centralisation Policy at Pekin, which, since its inauguration, has
been the subject of so much discussion by residents of all classes
in China. After recounting the main incidents connected with
the first campaign Nr. Nye gives some particulars of the inception
of the idea of establish:ing relations with the Central Government
at Peking, which he designates as the key-stone of foreign policy
in China. It appears that the idea of coming into direct com-
munication with the Court at the Capitrl first received formal
enunciation by being embodied in a memorial to the United
States Congress drafted by Mr. Nye, and that as early as April,
1539, this document was the means of submitting to the con-
sideration of Congress the expediency of appointing a Minister
to the Court of Peking, empowered to establish equitable
relations, whereby his right of residence at the seat of Goveru-
ment would be secured as a preliminary ; when, the memo-
rialists believed, all reasonable propositions for the mutual
security of trade and intercourse would be entertained by the
Supreme Government. This view of the subject, however, went
farther than that entertained by Mr. REED, the American
Minister, and even Lord Elgin at the time ; and the ultimate
establishment of relations at the capital was the result of
circumstauces rather than of a deliberately conceived policy. The
treaties of 1858 were drawn up at Tientsin, and only the option
of Ministers residing at Peking was stipulated for; and to this
the writer of the lecture attributes chiefly the attack at the Taku
Forts, and the necessity for renewing the war. It may be
doubted, however, whether, at the moment, more could have
been obtained from the Chinese than was granted in the Tientsin
Treaty. They were bent upon keeping the foreigner away from
the capital, and doubtless hoped to evade the optionol stipulation
in the Treaty, as they have so often succeeded in evading stipula-
tions of a far more definite character. The treacherous attack


• With a molesty that was proper to my youth, I had vot shewn
it even to my cousin, Jr. llatharav, when the draft of another
gentleman, was brought in for signature, so that the community
never saw mine ; and it may be doubted that the point in question
would have been concurred in by the majority of my seniors,
although I remember that my cousin saill he preferred mine to
the other draft.
In reviewing the lecture, you have accidentally overlooked the
allusions I make to its immatue origin, as a somewhat ambitious
attempt of one of the youngest of the community, &c., on page
23. In fact, I first alluled to it as a renuiniscence of the iin-
prisonment, whose existence I had forgotten for 31 vears, when
(in 1870) I found it among old papers. It had been forgotten
because, in June 1810, after observing the attitude of the
mandarins, and temper of the people during the interval of 13
months, I had written the letter to the editor of the Nero York
Express, still more emphatically expressing the same idea of the
necessity to negotiate at Peking. This fresh act replaced the
less emphatic one in my memory, as I stated in the lecture ;
whereas, had my draft been submitted, and accepted by the com-
munity, a certain eclat would have attached to it, forbidiing
forgetfulness of it. It did not occur to me, therefore, that any
one would infer that the American community had adopted my
draft as its memorial to Congress; the less so that such adoption
would have precluded or made indelicate any claim on my part
to individual foresight.
But that there has appeared a very general concurrence of
opinion among the residents at Peking, that sure progress in the
amelioration of intercourse would have been impossible in
relations with the Manchu Dynasty had the Legations not been
established there, I should not have ventured to put the value I
have upon this early opinion of my own ; and I am glad of the
opportunity that you now afford me to shew that, whatever the
appearance of haltiny by Lord Elgin upon the point, at the period
of the Treaty of Tientsin, his real opinion was the same as my
own.
It was only on the 25th ulto. that the following important
“ Explanation of Lord Elgin ” was brought to my attention,
which will interest your readers as embodying several historical
points of great value. And for myself it is especially welcome


essential to vindicate my character and conduct, I shall meet
with your lordslıips' indui zence. I am aware of the great in-
convenience, and, as a general rule, of the great impropriety of
referring in this House to what passes in another place. At the
sainc time I cannot help thinking that my position as ex-Minister
to China, more especially in the present critical state of our
relations with that coutry, is one of a somewhat peculiar au:
anomalous character, and this may perhaps justify me in the
expectation of receiving something inore than an ordinary measure
of indulgence from your lordships. It does so happen that both
Adininistrations--the ole from which I received iny first official
instructions, and the other under which my important duties
were performed-have passed from their political state of exist.
ence. At the present moment, therefore, there is no person in
office who is personally cognizant of many of the transactions
which occurred during the greater part of my mission in China,
or who is able from his own knowledge to answer any inquiry
that may be made, or to remove any erroneonis impression that
those transactions may have produc d. (llear, hear.) Perhaps I
may be allowed to mention, in illustration of what I mean, that
a few days ago, when it was asked in the House of Commons, with
something like a taiunt and a jeer, why tlie nobile lord who
negotiated the treaty of Tientsin did not hiinself proceed to
Peking to exchange the ratifications, if there had been in the other
House any oficial person qualified as I have described, the
answer might have been given that, in point of fact, I was never
charged with the ratification of the treaty, that the treaty was
never placed in my possession, that I never had the option of
going to Peking. (lear, bear.) I do not mean in making that
statement to cast the slightest reflection upon y noble friends
opposite for the course they adopted in regard to the treaty of
Tientsin. On the contrary, I think they acted properly and
natwally in charging the minister who was to remain permanently
in China with the duty of exchanging the ratifications of the
treaty ; but I venture to say that, if the question to which I have
alluded implied any insinuation, if it implied--as I suspect from
the manner in which it was put it did iinply-any doubt as to
my willingness and readiness to discharge a difficult and dis-
agreeable portion of my missioni, its sting would have been
removed by such an answer as I have now stated. C'pon
another occasion, when some very serere reflections were cast


them, or that the monsoon or any other difficulty would prevent
hiin from supplying them, but on the contrary, stating most
distinctly that the subject had been under his consideration for a
lony time, that one of the yunboats had already starteil, and
that preparations were being made for others to follow.
(Hear, hear.) The best proof I could give of the entire con-
fidence wbich I reposed in the gallant admiral is the fact that I
went to the north, because it would have been an act of absolute
insanity to do so had I not been supported by hin when I
arrived there. The admiral arrived and informed me, on the
24th of April, that so far froin the gunboats being at hand, very
few of them had been ordered to leave Hongkong, and that those
few would not leave until a period long after that at which I had
been led to understand they were to arrive in the north. I
confess that information filled me with the greatest possible
disappointmer:t, and it is very probable that the despatches which
I wrote at that tiine bore the reflex of my feelings. My dis.
appointment arose from the fear which I entertained not ouly
that the policy I was engaged in carrying out in that quarter
would be compromised by the non-arrival of those gunboats, but
that the comincrcial interests, and even the lives of Europeans
in the different open ports of China would also be placed in
jeopardy ; because I apprehended that if we made an abortive
atteinpt of that kind in the no:th, the emperor would be very
likely to send down word to the authorities in the different
provinces to attack the Europeans in the open ports. Our ap-
prehensions on that head were entirely borne out by what
actually occurred. The emperor did send clown such a inessaye
as I anticipated to the provinces, but it took effect only at
Canton. There the war was revived, and in consequence we
were so urgently entreated to send back from the north
the forces we hod collected there, on our advauce to Tientsin,
that we were obliged, as soon as the treaty of Tientsin was
signed, to return to Canton. I had, therefore, to abandon the
intention I always entertaine l of proceeding to Peking myself, in
order to deliver to the emperor the letter of credence I was
charvel with. I believe that to that unfortunate omission the
whole of our present disasters are due, because I believe, if I had
been able to deliver that letter of credence to the emperor, I
should have been able to have made sich arrangements with the
imperial court as would have disposed of that delicate question


of the personal rec'ption of the Britis!, minister, and then noje
of the difficulties we are now involved in would have occureid.
There is another point I must refer to, because the misconstruc-
tion repeatedly put on it in various quarters has created, very
naturally, a strong prejudice against me. It has been observed
that the despatches to which I hare referred, which were written
home at the time, were not slown by me to the gallant allmiral.
That is perfectly true. I have been for 17 year's emploved in
the public service, and I do not think I ever showed a despatch
to any one but the Secretary of State. I am quite sure I never
saw any despatch written to the head of a department in which
my own conduct was commented upon. I have always regarded
a lespatch as a confidential communication which the Secretary
of State alone was at liberty to relieve from the condition of
Secrecy. But I must solemnly say that when Idiniral Seymour
made to me the communication I have referred to, I stated to
the gallant admiral that it was absolutely necessary, not only for
1!y own vindication, but also in order that her Majesty's Go-
vernment might be in possession of the facts of the case, that I
should report in the fullest manner to the Government the
extent to which, in my opinion our prospects in the north were
compromised by the failure on his part to furnish me with the
armanent on which I had relied. I added that if he had any
counter statement to make, if he thought anything in my
conduct, either in the way of omission or commission, was the
cause of his failure, I begged of him to make a corresponding
report to the Admiralty, in order that the whole case might be
before her Majesty's Governinent. My lords, I state this on my
lionour as a peer, and am quite ready to repeat it in any other
more solemn form in which an asseveration can be made. I
ought to add, and it is the only sentence in the whole of this
adeiress which I have any satisfaction in uttering, that, apart
from the unfortunate misunderstanding I have alludeil to, and
which the looseness and forgetfulness pertaining to verbal com-
munications may, perhaps, explain, nothing could be more loval,
more cordial, more generous, or more gallant than the support
which I received from the nary during the whole course of my
service in the East. I must say I think there were some per-
formances of the British davr during that period of a most
remarkable character. I think the manner in which we visited
many parts of the coast of Japan, and the expedition for 600


miles up an unknown river, without pilot or chart, accom-
plished both in going and returning with perfect safety and
good order, were transactions reflecting the highest credit
on the gallant officers who were engaged in them. In
alluding more particularly to these circumstances, I wish to
say at the same time that an equal degree of gallantry and
skill was shown by the whole fieet in all the operations which
occurred, whether belligerent or otherwise ; and I have only
to repeat what I have more than once said in private and
official communications, that to the happy audacity of my
gallant friend, Capt. Osborne, on board of whose ship I
was for 16 months, I was much indebted for the success of
my mission. (Hear, hear.)".
Notice of the China Review of September & October 1873.
Peking the Goal, the Sole Ilope of Peace. A lecture by,
G. Nye, Jr., Esq. Canton 1873.
“Carrying on the thread of his former lecture, Mr Nye in
this brings down his reminiscences from the time when Lin's
proceedings relative to Opium were made the pretext for the
long-pending war, to the time when the truly great Sir
Charles Elliot's moderation and forbearance towards the
infantile rulers of Canton provoked the loud and furious
wrath of all the buccaneer party in China.
The Opiurn-war (a term to which I note, but cannot allow,
Mr. Nye's objection) was the inevitable result of the accum-
ulation of explosive materials which had been allowed at
Canton ever since the lapse of the East India Company's
Monopoly in 1831, The Opium tjade at Lintin was carried
on, according to Captain Elliot, by “the desperate, the refuse,
and probably the convicted of all tbe countries connected
with China."* The shadow of authority maintained by the
Company had vanished, and nothing had been put in its
place. The sad Napier episode was an attempt to hurry and
drive prejudiced and conservative people at a pace dictated
by outsiders wholly without consideration of any kind for
Chinese views. It lost us infinitely more ground than it
gained--it certainly tended to establish our elementary
position of mere dominant brute force, but we have only to
* Opium-war Blue Book, p. 327.


THE OPIUM QUESTION.
Sibyls*, after being stained, and thus partake
of the mystic character of the Sibylline leaves
of old.
However that may be,-having
in my rude hands no novelty,—Í still hesitate
with a hackneyed themethat has become“a Drug
in the market”, lest you think I indulge in a
too continuous dream of the slumbering past,
or awaken echoes whose resonance is only wel-
come to the ears of a generation whose rem-
nants are mostly scattered on far-off shores.
And I hesitate the more, Ladies, although as-
sured of your sympathy, because in resuming
the thread dropped last year, I am in a pre-
dicament analogous to that of either of your
fair selves,—who, being intent upon a truthful
rendering of a scene from history on your Tam-
bor, receive a visit from a neighbor, in the
interval of your stitches, who blithely points
to a blemish in the combination of colors in
the woof!
So a courteous critic has pointed
to a fault' in color in my historical work of
last season ; but, though what he says reminds
me of the admission of a great Lawyer of
Massachusetts, the Honble Samuel Hubbard,
who was also one of the Deacons of the Pres-
* allusion to the joint editorship of the Journal bi-monthly,
by a Lady and a Gentleman chosen in succession, from the
members.


THE OPIUM QUESTION.
over an historian placed remote by time or
place ; and as to the question of his absolute
greater fitness, it remains chiefly that he shall
be cosmopolitan and impartial in spirit. How-
ever much or little I may seem to fail in that
prerequisite, I am deeply conscious that it be-
hoves a mere narrator of events to invoke the
serenity of the Muse of History. A true dis-
ciple or real devotee beholds her enthroned on
Truth,-sublime, serene,-with the lightof ages
in her eyes and the scales of justice in her hands.
He comes humbly to her footstool,-purged of
passion, of interested bias, of selfish egotism ;
and impelled solely by the generous ambition
to contribute to the amelioration of intercourse
among men and thus help to swell the great
tide of progress that is leading to the consum-
mation of all our hopes, in the ultimate unity
of the whole race of mankind.
As a mere novice it is my
humble privilege to emulate these qualities ;
and I trust it will at least appear that I have
disdained the allurements of personal interest,
however short I may fall of other requirements
in a narrator.
I have been impelled to pre-
face this address with these reflections out of
respect for a courteous critic of the China


THE OPIUJI QUESTION.
Review,* who, in notices of my two Lectures
of last season—while according me ample
praise in general-impeaches, not my good
faith in any particular, but my ethical sanity
in respect to the Opium question.
He is rightly impressed by
the momentous character of that question,
-alluding to it as ‘a never-to-be-ended-con-
troversy'; taking pointed exception to my
phrase of 1858—'a Statesmanlike view of
the Opium question’; and courteously adding
that, although he did not expect me to agree
with him, he hoped that difference of opinion
may not jar with literary brotherhood.
Responding cordially to
this welcome to a brotherhood that the great
statesman George Canning aptly denominated
“the freemasonry of liberal minds," I must
firmly claim for a former generation of my
contemporaries greater immunity from blame
than he is willing to accord ; and for the Go-
vernment of his own Country, that it evinced
a greater measure of forbearance toward
China than he seems cognizant of. It so
happens that I was better entitled to treat of
the subject as I did than almost any other
* I allude here to the Review of March & April 1873,
which was reproduced in the appendix of the 2nd lecture.
The notice in that of September & October 1873 is reproduced
at pages K. and L. of this pamphlet.


THE OPICM QUESTION.
11.
It need only be replied that the
Drug was almost wholly a product of British
India and its dependencies and a large portion,
as such, a monopoly of the East India Com-
pany..
Seeing, then, the governmental
influences on both sides, should we not restrain
a censorious impulse against the Merchants,
and consider the individual as standing-in a
public sense-absolved of blame ?-
As to the question between
the two Governments, it is true that I used
the phrase "a statesmanlike view of the Opium
question,” sixteen years ago, when our re-
lations with the Peking Government had be-
come completely dislocated and when it was
notorious that the insidious poison had pen-
etrated to the Imperial abode.
For several years before, the
pending question had been, — the Manchu
Dynasty or the Nan-Kiny party,—of the two
whose success will most surety renovate the
land?
Meantime, without due con-
sideration of the pregnant consequences of the
answer to that question, the Foreign Powers
had supported the tottering sick man'at
Peking against the popular spirit and latent
estrangement of the Chinese people; and it


12
THE OPIVU QUESTION.
remained, therefore, only to deal diplomatically
and politically with an existing state of facts
as presented by the lax administration of that
effete Dynasty: -
Such were the circumstances
when I used the inculpated phrase :-But, if
my critic means to insinuate or imply that at
any time a broad or statesmanlike view is not
the proper one in which to regard the conduct
of individuals or a community living in a
foreign country, he ignores-İ respectfully
submit--the paramount considerations which
govern Statesmen and the consequent in-
fluence of their fiscal or economical policy
upon individuals.
I meant and mean that no
narrower view than that of statesmen can be
applied to a question of such magnitude ; that
the scope of view reaches the foundations of
political economy, as well as the international
relations of great States; and that, therefore,
abstract sentimentalities cannot, in the nature
of things, rule the Administrators of Govern-
ment.
As an economic question
this has been of gradual derclopment until its
proportions inspire the utmost caution and so-
licitude ; wliilst, on the other hand, as a moral
question, the evils inflicted have attained such


16
THE OPIUM QUESTION.
understanding, forget that down to the treaty
of Nanking " the fundamental maxim of the
Chinese Authorities was that the foreigners
were like beasts and not to be ruled on the
same principles as citizens ; that to attempt to
control them by the great maxims of reason
would lead only to confusion ; that the ancient
Kings well understood this and accordingly
ruled them by misrule.”
It was according to this principle
that we were denied the benefits of Chinese
law; and that in consequence three innocent
persons, at least, were surrendered at different
periods by the British, Portuguese and Ameri-
cans and had been executed by the Chinese.
As to the period subsequent to the treaty of
Nanking, the Chinese, on their part, learnt
to separate the Opium trade from the general
political question.
I have thus, in reply to my
reviewer, simply sought to justify the tenor
of my reminiscences as conveying the sense of
the community generally as to the ethical re-
lations in which we stood toward the Chinese.
I should do penance for any,
the least departure from reason and from truth
in this matter. I have a firm conviction and
deep feeling upon the broad question that has
so long pressed and with ever-augmenting


•
13
SECOND PREEACE.
In view of a notice of my Lec-
ture delivered at Concordia Hall in 1874 and
recently published in the China Review, enti-
tled “An Introduction to a Retrospect of Forty
Years of Foreign Intercourse with China and
a Review of her Relations with Japan,” which
notice together with my reply* I hereto ap-
pend, I am fain to avail of a quaint caution
of the ancient worthy, Fuller, in deprecation
of hasty inference and imputation on the part
of my readers : And at the close of this preface
shall vindicate my impartiality, in treating of
the relations between Britain and China, with
a somewhat less measured reserve than usual.
“Those that are so quick in
searching, seldom searche to the quicke; and
those miraculous appreheusions who understand
more than alle, before the client hath told halfe,
runne without their errand and will return
without their answer.”
From The North China Herald
of March 30th 1876.
“Mr. Nye brings to its legitimate
conclusion his forty years of Foreign inter-
course with China,” by a comparison of China
with Japan. As an American, too, he cannot
* vide issue of North-China Herald of April 29th.


20
to the charge by a misrendering of the par-
agraph you quote from and by omitting to
notice the qualification of meaning afforded
by the context.
I appeal, therefore, to that
boasted “fair play” that accords the oppor-
tunity of defense to every one. It is the more
needful for me to do so because it so happens
that the third of the series of my Lectures,
(whereof the one you have thus noticed is the
introduction,) is about being published, and
that therein I had already in 1873) distinctly
claimed the merit of impartiality and a cos-
mopolitan spirit,--thus constituting a pledge
that I should disdain the impairing of. More-
over, in said third Lecture, while pursuing my
narrative in the impartial spirit tħus invoked,
it became my duty to present a remarkable
incident of the preliminaries of Peace at Nan-
king in the light which,-however fain I
might be to shun its revelations, —will uner-
ringly guide posterity to the truth in regard
to it.
I have need, therefore, to
bespeak a reciprocal spirit on the part of those
whose duty it is to criticise what, in good
faith, I publish as the result of conscientious
study.
Restricting myself on this


22
) W
and my motto has long been—as my friends
know—"conciliate and conserve”.
I am, Sir, very truly yours
GIVEOX NYE.
To The Editor “ North China Herald,”
· Shanghae.
My allusion in the above letter
to a remarkable incident at Nanking in 1812,
will be understood by a reference to pages 45
to 60 ; but I desire the reader to keep in
mind the tenor and sense of my preceding
Lectures, and of the introductory portion
of this one, as presenting the impartial and
logical course of reasoning by which my mind
had been disciplined, down to the period when
the repugnance of the Emperor Taou Kwang
to the Opium trade was authoritatively made
known and the pathetic appeal of his Com-
missioners fell on the ears, without touching
the heart, of Sir Henry Pottinger. Reaching
that distinct point in the relations of the two
Empires, I was confronted with its moral
significance and irresistibly impelled to the
record of my spontaneous thought, as especial-
ly the incumbent duty of a public writer who
had incurred the suspicion of English critics
as a palliator of the blame they cast on their
own Government and Merchants. *
* vidə pages K. and L.


forth such fundamental error on my part ;
while protesting my own conscientiousness.
I declare, at the same time,
my admiration of England's career in the East;
nay, I claim a right of inheritance in hier glory.
The inspiration of her mission of civilization
and commerce, inherited from Portugal, Spain
and IIolland, long ago became infused with
mobler purposes as the vista of extended Em-
pire unfolded to her people's gaze.
I love England with a pro-
founder aſſection than some of her presently-
zealous Sons have conception of :- I love her
for what is in her Great Heart as I interpret
it ; but which some of her own children of to-
day seem not in sympathy with :--I love her
for her mission,—for her future. I see her
in the zenith of her glory, leading the van of
Christianity;—the pole-star of a constellation
of States, -America, Australia, Africania,
bound to her and to each other by a common
beneficent purpose toward China, as well as
India and all other benighted lands, with
nothing but mutual good-will animating their
policy. Should any one distrust the spirit of
my comments in the second part of this Lec-
ture, therefore, I appeal to what I have said
in the first part and to various other public-


26
Not, however, in deprecation
of the most searching scrutiny and unsparing
criticism of what I say ; for, conscious that
nothing is permanently gained for any cause
by overstating it, I seek only to elicit the truth
in regard to the obligations of England toward
China.
"If I might give a short hint to an impartial writer, it
would be to tell him his fate. If he resolves to venture upon
the dangerous precipice of telling unbiassed truth, let him
proclaim war with mankind-neither to give nor to take quarter.
If he tells the crimes of great men they fall upon him with the
iron hands of the law; if he tells them of virtues, when they have
any, then the mob attacks him with slander. But if he regards
truth, let him expect martyrdom on both sides, and then he may
go on fearless; and this is the course I take myself.”—De FoE.


THE TREATY OF NANKING.
A
LL
the campaign of the north ; but first sickness
amongst the Troops, the result of exposure
at Canton,—at once his misfortune and his
justification,-rendered it necessary to await
reinforcements from India ; and subsequently
a terrific Tyfoong on the 21st of July, in
which both himself and Sir Gordon Bremer
(who had returned from India) were ship-
wrecked and nearly lost, detained them until
the 9th of August, when, just as they were
about leaving for the north, Sir Henry Pot-
tinger and Sir William Parker arrived to
supersede them both.
Before following these Chiefs
and their Colleague Sir Hugh Gough, into
whose hands fell Swords without scabbards, as
I have said, and whose way had been so well
cleared before them, politically and diplom-
atically, I pause to record my admiration of
Sir Charles Elliot, whose services were requited
by recall, and yet to impartial eyes were of high
desert if not brilliant. We saw him at once
intrepid and wise ; displaying great tact and
judgment in contending with the complicated
difficulties of the period of anomalous relations,
himself at the outset laboring under the dis-
advantage of being, as Chief Superintendent
of Trade, only recognized in the character of
"head Merchant” by the Imperial Authorities :


22
Tue NortherN CAMPAIGNS AND
We saw him, in despite of this, surmounting
the obstacles raised by the prejudices of
centuries, allaying the enmities engendered by
the excesses of the Opium trade ; and con-
vincing every Chinese mind with whom he
came in contact, at once, of the reasonableness
of his demands and the peril of a refusal of
them :-Thus leaving upon every transaction
with the Mandarins the impress of his genius.
Iallude to the sickness of the
Troops as at once his misfortune and his
justification,' in view of the unsparing cavils
at his moderation in accepting the ransem of
Canton ; whereby the innocent multitude of
people were spared the horrors of a seige and
the British forces an arduous service, not to
say a doubtful result.
Undoubtedly greater punishment
of the braves and northern soldiers would have
had a salutary effect upon our subsequent
relations with its people; but, in the first
place, it must be borne in mind that down to
that period the Imperial Court was solely
chargable with the bad faith and treachery
shewn toward foreigners : In the second place,
Canton was the sole port whence Tea could
be obtained, and it was part of the policy of
the Ministry of the day to avert from a needy
Treasury and loss of the Tea Duties: In the


The Treaty or XIXKING.
third place, it was highly important to begin
the campaign at the north without delay, on
account of the monsoon : And in the fourth
place, persistence in the measures of capturing
the City involved protrarted labor and fatigue
to a force whose effective strength was but
2,600 men and whose efficiency was impairel
by the effects of heat and wet; the cxigencies
of climate not having been provided against.
The disproportion of numbers is startling in-
deed : 2,000 and the vessels of War, against
a city of a million of prople; an Imperial
army of some 40,000 soldiers ; and 15,000
braves of the ‘able bodie:l' of the people of the
Province, beside.
To remain and follow up the
siege and capture of the City was, therefore,
to incur great sacrifices in mëny respects; nor
were there wanting clements of uncertainty
as to the result. I consider his moderation
in accepting the ransom highly creditable to
liim as a Christian Ollicer, therefore, whether
we give predominance to his well-known in-
stincts of benevolence or to those of prudence
and foresight. We have seen that so soon
as the basi-faith of the Imperial Court was no
longer dcubiful, his decision and energy be-
came conspicuous ; that on the wavering of
Keshen in December, le caused the seizure


THE TREATY OF NANKING..
25
first apparently met conciliatory remonstrances
and claims of redress in the spirit attributed
to the Emperor by His Excellency, suddenly
reversed its policy, disgraced its Minister, who
had just negotiated à Treaty of Peace, and
recommenced hostilities.
Keshen was thus sacrificed ;
but the sacrifice of Elliot was no logical con-
sequence, surely, of that !-Quite the contrary
was it; and yet no honorary recognition of
services so arduous, perplexing, -and, rightly
viewed, really successful, recompensed this
act,-in itself misconceivel as one of exigence
to the good of the State. True, he was
subsequently sent upon a difficult mission to
the new Republic of Texas; and a show of
public acknowledgment of his services was
made by the Tory leaders of the Lords and
Commons, in default of such by the Whig
Government, under which he had served here.
Since which he has been Governor of several
Colonies and has long been a Rear-Admiral;
and tardily, was about 20 years ago made a
K. C. B.
Reviewing his career in China
after the lapse of 32 years and as an observer
as well of it as of the subsequent course of
events, I recognize anew that intuitive grasp
of genius that fixed my admiration at the time;


26
THE NORTHERN CAMPAIGNS AND
and account for the lack of general sympathy
by his failing to conciliate opinion, in that he
did not stop to conduct slower minds step by
step to the point which his piercing glance
seized at once.
2. The new policy : coercion in place of con-
ciliation.
China having disgracel her
specially-deputed High Commissioner under
such circunstances, it was, no doubt, a proper
step of retaliation and of policy for England
to withdraw her eminently-conciliatory Picni-
potentiary and assume, as she then must, of
nccessiti, a now aititule forbidding miscon-
ception of lier s'en determination to obtain
reiress and provide for future security.
China bad lierself widened the
Dreach after due warning, friendly remonst-
lance, and the conviction of her trusted Min-
istor had resulted in the cession of Ilongkong.
The peril to permanent interests was greatly
increase), and a total change of policy was
femandeid. Sir Heary Poitinger was sent
cut as the exponent of this new policy; but
vlien he gotlere he found that his prelecessor
hii been pursuing this new line of policy ever
since the hostile purposes of the Emperor
became apparent, and with great effect, al-
though the forces at his command were inade-


THE TREATY OF NANKING.
277
quate even for protracted service at Canton.
And the only anomalouz circums'anee pre-
sented on the arrival of the new Plenipoten-
tiary was one that H. E. was ſain to avail of,-
albeit with a show of disregard,-as one of
great concern to the British Treasury. I
mean the continued exportation of Tea from
Canton; the genius of his pre decessor having
applied a lever whereby the trade could be
worked here while War should be relentlessly
proceeded with at the North.
Accordingly, Sir Henry's first
action after taking charge of diplomatic affairs
was to send his Secretary of Lezation, Coln.
Malcolm, to Canton, on the 10th of August,
· by Steamer“Nemesis”—.(ominously fit name!)
with Mr. Thom as Interpreter, to notify the
Authorities of the change of British Chiefs
and that the terms of the Convention made
at the ransom of the City must be scrupulously
conformed to.-I seem to hear still the sound
of the escaping steam of the “ Nemesis,” like
the hiss of a thousand Serpents,—as novel as
expressive at that day; and as welcome to us
foreigners in the Factories at it was vengefully
discordant in Mandarin ears.
The East India Company's
factories having been sacked by the mob'in
May; the magnificent Italian marble mantels


31
THE NORTHERN CAMPAIGNS AND
had, in his absence at the north, been flagrant
violations of the conditions of the truce in
respect to a refortification of the river, in
despite of the repeated visits of Captn. Nias
with his two vessels, of small power, to bom-
bard the barrier defences : And it was well
understood that the violations were persisted
in becanse of imperative orders from Peking ;
but those were perhaps issued in ignorance of
the conditions of the local truce. And as the
Trade here was not interrupted, Sir Henry
made no effectual attempt to prevent the
erection even of new fortifications.
Thus the year 1841 closed ;
and as the Winter wore away, we witnessed
the gradual waning of the local prestige of
the Foreigner and held our minds in pause
for the great Drama of the opening year.
4. The Campaign of 1842.
The year 1842 ranks as one
of the most memorable in the annals of China
and Britain not only, but in those of universal
history,—for it marks the establishment of
international relations between the mighty
Empire of the Pagan East and the leading
Christian Nation of the West and through
the latter with the whole of Christendom, as
well as with its own dependencies of India.


33
THE NORTHERN CAMPAIGNS AND
defenders had not less conspicuously illustrat-
ed the devotion of the ruling race to their
dynasty than had their fellows at Chapu two
months before ; and with the same accompa-
niments of insensate frenzy toward their wives
and children and finally themselves, -as if
to, at once, strike their enemies with horror
and appease the wrath of their Imperial Master
by a holocaust of victims of both sexes and
all ages!
Truly, those poor sheep of the
Nomad,-so docile in their native pastures,
-had acquitted themselves heroically in their
duty and again in their despair. *
* The Tartar General in Chief retired to his house, when
he saw that all was lost, made his servants set it on fire, and sat
in his chair till lie was burned to death.
The following graphic description by Captn. Loch, R. N.
of one of the touching episodes of the capture of Chinkiang,
presents a scene such as the Tragic Queen herself could have
allded little to the pathos of, with all the power of her incoin-
parable genius,
“We burst in the door of a large Tartar house, entered a
court strewed with rich stuffs and covered with clotted
blood; and upon the steps leading to the Hall of Ancestors saw
two bodies of youthful Tartars cold and stiff, much alike,
apparently brothers ; who having gained the threshold of their
home had fallen from loss of blood. Stepping over these bodies
we entered the hall and met face to face three Women seated, a
Mother and two daughters ; and at their feet two bodies of
elderly men with their throats cut froin ear to ear, their senseless
heads restiny upon the feet of their relations. To the right were
two young Girls, beantiful and delicate, crouching over and
endeavoring to conceal a living soldier.


THE TREATY OF NANKING.
39
· I stopped, horror-struck at what I saw. I must have
betrayed my feelings by my countenance as I stood bound to the
spot.
The expression of cold unutterable despair depicted on the
Mother's face changed to the violent workings of scorn and hate,
which at last burst forth in a paroxysm of invective, afterward
in floods of tears, which apparently—if any thing could—relieved
her.
She came close to me and seized me by the arms and with
clenched teeth and deadly frown pointed to the dead bodies—to
her danghters-to her yet splendid house and to herself ; then
stepped back a pace, and with firmly closed bands and in a
hoarse and husky voice, I could see by her gesture, spoke of her
misery-of her hate, and I doubt not, of revenge.
It was a scene that one could not bear long."
Happily, there was one episode
qualifying the rigors of War, when on a
detached force visiting Iching, on the opposite
shore, a leading citizen took the initiative of
friendliness and effected arrangements to
supply the vessels with fresh food, on the
understanding that no harm should be inflicted
upon the town: And this led to a further
amelioration of relations whereby a ransom of
half a million Dollars for the important city
of Yang Chow, on the grand canal, was
agreed upon.
Thence, with accruing prestige
the Expedition bore on toward Nanking.
Obvious as had been the
conception of the campaigns in an assumed
prestige and maritime supremacy,—a prestige
as we have seen that had been hitherto over-


40
THE NORTHERN CAMPAIGNS AND
rated or at least ineffective, the present de-
velopment of the policy of the British Chiefs
in a brilliant coup de main at the great arteries
of the Empire, –a stroke at once of political
and military strategy,—was suddenly to rend
the film of ages from Imperial eyes! Who
shall paint the scene in the Imperial Council
when the tidings of the fall of the stronghold
at the junction of the Yang-tsze with the
Grand Canal, -Chinkiang ;—the consequent
blockade of thousands of Junks;—the resistless
movement upon Napking and the impending
anarchy ;-reached the Emperor ;-and when
Wang Ting, the leader of the War party,
killed himself in despair !
Mortifying and alarming as
the inefficiency of his defensive force had
been to the Emperor the year before, he had
felt constrained to make a fresh appeal
to his people to defend his possessions and
their homes; and now, after summoning all his
resources, he the mightiest Pagan Sovereign,
—whose supremacy none had dared practically
to gainsay before,—suddenly feels the iron
grip of the 'barbarian' from beyond the Seas
upon the very clasp of his girdle !-
At first all seems lost ! —
The cherished principle of
supremacy, received as a sacred trust from a


48
THE NORTHERN CAMPAIGNS AND
intensify his loathing of it; and there was,
beside, a half-consciously-prophetic pang-we
may imagine—that foreshadowed the lapse in
this regard of his successor on the Throne.
Nor are we left in any doubt
of the constancy of his sentiments of repug-
nance to the trade and deep concern for his
family and people in this respect, for during
the preliminaries of Peace Sir Henry Pottinger
introduced the subject in a way to elicit the
exact truth, that the Emperor's repugnance
was empatically a moral loathing, and, as
such, quite inveterate, irrespective of any
question of economic or fiscal concern.
Thus regarded, the circumst-
ances and tenor of that conversation were of
a remarkable character and such as cast a
powerful light upon subsequent relations, as
the following account by Captain Loch, R. N.
will shew.
“When the articles of the Treaty
“were agreed upon, Şir Henry proposed to
“say a few words upon the great cause that
“ produced the disturbances which led to the
“ War, viz. the trade in Opium.”
. “When this was translated to
“them they unanimonsly declined to enter
“ upon the subject, until they were assured
“ that Sir Henry had introduced it merely as


52
THE NORTHERN CAMPAIGNS AND
And when we come to consider
the influence of this element of Peace with
the Foreigner, upon the internal adminis-
tration of the Empire and contrast with it the
harmful influences arising from the failure of
Taou Kwang to enforce his policy, we are ap-
palled by the magnitude of the error that was
committed. If a price could have been put
upon what was priceless, we might say that it
had been better for China. to pay into the
Kerenue of India the rearly income from
Qpium thrice over, down to this time, for the
two safeguards against domestic insurrection
and moral degradation, of Peace with the
Horeigner and exemption from the Opium
scourge.
Who shall gainsay this in the
light of to-day ?
Both the Taeping rebellion and
the second War averted, —who shall measure
the beneficent effects of a Peace of 32 years
in this Garden of the World, thronged with
its hundreds of millions of industrious and
happy people ?
What an appeal was this to
the great heart of Britain, conveyed in the
reply of the Imperial Commissioners to Sir
IIenry's suggestions!-He was deaf to it; and
there was then no Telegraph between the East


THE TREATY OF NANKING.
53
and the West :- The great artery through
which the World's heart now beats was then
hidden in the womb of time; else it had
evoked, perhaps, responses less regrettable
than his own from Sir Henry's superiors.-
True, the Premier then was
Sir Robert Peel, the practical and ecoro nic
statesman of the day par excellence, of whom
it was said by one of his acute contemporaries,
that “wanting imagination he lacked pre-
science”; and of whom we may add, in regard
to the great measure of experimental legis-
lation that is linked indissolubly with his
name, that he acknowledged his conversion to
that sweeping change of policy—the abolition
of the Corn Laws—to be due to the “unad-
orned eloquence” of Cobden ;-fitting to us
though it seems, that the son of one the earliest
of the “ Cotton Lords” should be the real
father of so sound and salutary a measure of
political economy
True, it wanted both the con-
ception and the prestige of an Edmund Burke,
a George Canning, or a James Mackintosh, to
initiate the humane and philosophical policy
desiderated here ; but who shall now say that
it would not have been as successful in practice
as beneficent in conception ?


60
THE NORTHERN CAMPAIGNS AND
eventual alliance cemented by the mutual good
will that is the fruit of a considerate regard
of the best interests of the two peoples; the
vital condition of friendship between Nations.
Resuming the narrative, I repeat
that the local popular protest against the
Treaty was without prompting from Peking;
and whatever the pretenses for the turbulent
spirit evinced by the gentry of Canton, still
more had Sir Henry Pottinger legitimate rea-
sons for grave dissatisfaction and indignation
on proceeding from his labors of peace at the
North to the Southern ports.
At Amoy he heard of the most
horrible incident of the War and all the
ghastly particulars of the cruelties inflicted
upon nearly three hundred British subjects
who were non-combattants and had been ship-
wie :ked on Formosa ; the most of the survivors
of whom after a long imprisonment, were ex-
ecuted within a short time previous : And
His Excellency issued proclamations in both
Chinese and English stating the ascertained
facts and in measured, but weighty, sentences
expressing the indignation that he so naturally
felt, closing that in Chinese as follows : "these
“ atrocious and appalling facts are not to be
“refuted or questioned, and that all may
“judge of them, and contrast with them the


THE TREATY OF NANKING.
protection was to be had; and as the fire spread
from the British Company's to the Dutch and
Creek Hongs, on the east, and consumed what
the mob had left, the question became more
and more imminent, both as to whether the
tide of rapine would surge over upon the
block in which I lived, imperilling the lives of
the few foreigners there, or whether the con-
flagration would sooner wrap all in a cloud of
fire and smoke.
Alone with my Comprador
and some coolies on the roof of my own and
the adjoining Hong (where there had been
only two or three Parsees) I kept the build-
ings by the side of the lane next the British
factory wetted; and by reasoning with the shop
keepers—(assisted, I must acknowledge, by the
thieves in the street, who violently seized upon
whatever the shopmen struve to carry away)
- I succeeded in inducing them to remain
on their premises, and throw the fire wood
and other combustibles from the tops of their
shops. Thus, first by my presence on the
roofs and next by these precautions, was the
safety of all the factories on the west mea-
surably assured, at least ; and I have since
had the satisfaction of reflecting that seeing
the point of greatest danger, I did not leave
it until the fire ceasel to imperil us :--when,


61
Tue NORTHERN CAMPAIGNS AND
in fact, the dawn was near and with it the
still more welcome assurance of protection
in a flotilla of armed boats from our shipping
at Whampoa, for which we had sent orders
during the afternoon.
I had left my Brother in the
lower part of the house to watch the mob and
report to me any changes in the aspect there,
whilst I kept the fire fiend at bay on the roof;
and as to the mob, I am now mindful that
our immunity from attack was largely due to
the fact that there was a large sum of Money
in the Company's Treasury, chiefly belonging
to a British Firm for whom Messrs. Augustine
Heard & Co. were Agents, and that Mr. Heard
with his Nephew and other assistants defended
the Treasury until their ammunition was ex-
hausted, when the ten thousand greedy wolves
all but devoured each other in contending for
the 300.000 dollars, which were scattered
wide in their struggles.
Thus the night was consumed
and the factories west of hog lane were saved
from both rapine and fire ; and whatever the
purposes of the Chinese were for the immedi-
ate future, the arrival of the “ Proserpine”
steamer with Sir Hugh Gough and suite on
board, soon after the flotilla of boats from
the Whampoa shipping, was so suggestive of


ADDRESS AT CONCORDIA HALL.
system changes which will so far develop a genius for war
and external affairs of state as shall suffice to rescue them
from coutinued or undue subjection. And herein lies the
problem whose solution some resolute and gifted Son of Han
should essay.
Reverting to the purposes of the founders of this Hall,
with the hope rather to suggest action and co-operation by
others than a pretence of saying anything new myself, I trust
I may be permitted to invite the several distinguished gentle-
men who contributed to the success of the Social Evenings of
last season, and others present, to lend their valuable aid for
this season's course of entertainments.
The idea of those Social Evenings of last season, if it
did not commend itsolf to the mind of every cultivated person,
had the warrant of various high anthorities--ancient as well a
as moderu--directly to the puiut. Citing those at hand,
without searching for others :
1.-Sir Arthur Helps' comprehensive maxim covers the
whole ground in “Syuridihy is the wiversal solvent.”
2.-Lord Stanley (10w Earl of Derby)-of whom I can-
not refrain from quoting an api passage in his Father's
translation of Humer :-
«llector's lovel Infint, fair as morning star,
Vhon Il cor called Srananarios, but the rest
Astavanax, in lionor of his sir,
The matchless chief the only prop of Troy:"-
He, wise in middle age as he was fair in youth, said of
the principle of mutuality: “The increase of mutual depen-
dence is synonymous with the increase of civilization.”
And the Times, commenting on this, said: “Lord
Stanley possesses the useful art of throwing an uncommon
interest over common sense and thus attracting due attention
to those brusl facts of life which are apt to be neglected in
the pursuit of novelty and sensation."
3.--The Times, itself, on another occasion, alluding to
modern tendencies in society, says :--
- Material progress disociates as much or more than it
associates. It helps to associate the sociable and to dissociate
the unsociable that is, it gires to all increased facilities for
following the bent of their own natures." And its Editor
IN
WALA


ADDRESS AT CONCORDIA HALL.
word "
then adds what is to the very point : “ It is the relations of
man with man, neighbour with neighbour that must call for
improvement in these days. We are placed in society for
mutual inprovement. Nay, withoat society we cease to be
men in the full sense of the word.”
4.–Next I cite the authority of the elegant scholar
the very Flower of his time-(plucked all too soon by grim-
visaged War, though fighting in a noble cause)-Sir Philip
Sidney, who wrote 300 years ago : “ To what purpose
should our thoughts be directed to various kinds of knowledge
unless room be afforded for putting it into practice, so that
public advantage may be the result.”
5.—And the renowned Philosopher and Statesman John
Selden said of self distrust as a fault detracting from useful-
ness in society :-“ If a man hath too mean an opinion of
himself,-'twill render him unserviceable both to God and
Man:"—or, as Shakspeare, better expressed it :-
“No man is lord of anything,
(Though in and of him there is much consisting)
'Till he communicates his parts to others.”
6.-William Von Humboldt :---the elder of the two
Brothers and in general scope and profundity quite the equal
of Alexander, in his inculcation of the need of thinking,-
that is, of fully digesting the knowledge acquired,-suggests
the greater degree of personal interchange, as furnishing
food for the mind, that is provided at this day by the Social
Science Congresses and the modern system of Lecturing,
than was practicable in his time. He says : “ Man should
seek knowledge for no other purpose than to enlarge his field
of thought; and the two should go on pari-passu. Knowledge
would else remain dead and unfruitful.” And a wise Chinese
Philosopher speaks to the same effect in advising students
“ to make the contents of one book their own in preference
to buying many."
Considerations such as these will no doubt induce Gen-
tlemen to come forward, each in his speciality, in aid of the
Committee in future ; and if the Ladies will continue,
graciously, to accord their approving smiles, a prosperous
season will be assured. I say “ each in his speciality;" but


APPENDIX.
P. S. Norember, 20th.
The following notice of the death of Sir Charles Elliot
has just arrived, after the foregoing was almost wholly in print;
and I cannot dissemble the regret that I feel at an event which
deprives me of the satisfaction that his perusal of my sketch of
his career iu China, inadequate though it is, would have afforded
me.
I may add to the notice that, his father was a brother of
first Earl of Minto and of the first Lady Auckland and held the
Governor-ship of Madras and other high offices.
Sir Charles' daughter married into a noble family of the
Russells.
From the Pall Mall Budget of September 17th 1875.
· Adiniral Sir Charles Elliot, K.C.B., died on Thur:dıy
last at Withycombe, Exmouth, in his seventy-fifth year. Sir
Charles, who was a son of the Right Hon. Hugh Elliot, was
born in 1801. In his fourteenth year Sir Charles entered the
Royal Navy, and within thirteen years he was gezetted captain.
He was present at the battle of Algiers, and also served with
distinction in India, on the Coast of Africa, and in the West
Indies. He was present on board the Nemesis during the prin-
cipal operations in which that vesscl was engaged. From 1830
to 1834 Captaiu Elliot was Protector of Slaves, and a member
of the Court of Policy in Guiana, and in the following year
he becaine Superintendent of British Trade in China. As her
Majesty's Plenipotentiary in China he was present during the
first Chinese war up to the ransom of Canton in 1841. In 1812
he became Chargé d'Affaires at Texas, an office from which he
retired in 1846, when he was offered the governorship of Bermuda.
This he held until 1854, in which vear he was transferred to
Trinidad, where he remained until 1856, in which year he was
created a K.C.B. (Civil Division), in recognition of his long
foreign service. In the previous year Sir Charles's name had
been placed on the list of Rear-Admirals, and in 1862 he became
Vice-Admiral. Once more returning to foreign service, Sir
Charles accepted, in 1863, the governorship of St. Helena, from
which he retired in 1869. Sir Charles married in 1828 Clara,
daughter of Mr. Robert Harley Windsor.


The derivation of the name of the great river Yang-tsze
or Yangtsi.
At page 36 I have accepted the significant poetical con-
ception “ The Child of the Ocean”; but a recent authority
questions that interpretation, alledying that Yang in this case
did not mean Ocean, although coincident in sound with l'any,
which does mean Ocean,--and that tsï in this case did not mean
child or son, but corresponds to the use of our suffix er in
extender--Yangtsï meaning, thus, "the extender”.
The London and China Express prefaces an extended
notice of the two first Lectures with the following gratifying
acknowledgment.
The Morning of My Life in China, and Peking the Goal-Sole
Hope of Peace. By GIDEON NYE, Jun. Canton : 1873.
Mr. Nye has published in a pamphlet form two lectures
which, under the above titles, he delivered before the foreign
conimunity of Canton, and we must compliment him on the
manner in which he has so successfully combined instruction
with amusement în treating of so interesting a period. To say
that these two little books are intensely interesting to all who
were actors in the scenes described is but a very mild platitude
indeed.
DAN



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