STATE OF AFFAIRS IN CHINA

Lyttelton Times, Volume XIII, Issue 750, 14 January 1860, Page 3

STATE OF AFFAIRS IN CHINA

A South Australian paper, jiaving nothing particular to write about, strings together the following " Chinese waifs and strays," forming a summary of tho state of'affairs at latest advices :—

Tho destruction of nearly frOO English at Peiho nppeavs to have excited the Cjunese to an extraordinuvy pitch of solf-assuran o, and which will spread liko wildtiro amongst hoso strange peoplo. There is now no alternative »otween tho Chineso driving out the English oh tie one hand, or the English, with their Europein allies, thoroughly vanquishing the Chinese on tl c other. Tho ' China Mail' of • Julj 8, in regard to tho affair at the mouth of tho P:iho, states that the forts were commanded in persnx by the Mongolian Prince Schu-Kolin-sin, "an energetic man, and much dreaded by the Emporo;." The ' Mail'says that the Chinese are unanimous in thinking that the Emperor was afraid of biding ousted from his capital by a large force of ftreign soldiers; and relying upon this fear, Senn t^olc the responsibility of the affair upon himself. jA hand-bill, with a lithograph of the fight, making the cannonballs nearly as big as the ships, his been largely purchased at Canton. The following is an accurate translation of tho account it gives, in Chinese, of the fight: i " The barbarians atavted from Shanghae on the 15th day of the sth moon, and on arrival communicated with Sonn Wang (Prince Senn), and allowed him three days to take away the wooded and iron obstacles in the river; and he answered that they must stay in the ottter until Commissioners, Kweilian and Hwashana, arrived at Peking. The barbarians were not willing to agree to these terms. The same day they tried to pull away ; the stakes, by, means of their gunboats and men-of-war. The forts fired upon them. The battle lasted from the 23rd to the morning of the 24th. Five or six hundred of the Sons of Devils (Kwei-chee) were killed, and one head officer (Ping-tau), with more than 30 of the officers (Pinge-hung). They (the foreigners) seeing the fire had slackened in the forts, called their sampans to land to attack the forts, but the slackening of the fire was a device (Kei) of the Chinese soldiers; and about 400 more of the Devil's soldiers (Ping-kwei) were killed. Their boats were knocked to ■ pieces. We have heard that the men-of-war are to rendezvous at Chusan, but do not know what will follow/

Europeans have long been accustomed to smile at the not very complimentary designations given them by the Celestials, but it is now acknowledged on all hands that " the Sons of Devils" must at least make themselves feared if they cannot make themselves respected in the Chinese Empire.

The great question is—How to treat the Chinese ? Themselves a mixture of savagedom and civilisation, it is no easy thing to determine whether we should treat them as Kaffirs^ or as a civilised community. At all events there is little doubt as to the light in which they regard Europeans. Lord Elgin has recently published a very interesting account of his mission to China, and amongst other documents is a long despatch from Commissioner Yeh, describing his negociations with the " barbarians." His despatch, which is addressed to the Emperor, contains a few morceaux that we cannot resist the temptation of quoting. It appears that European families had occasionally invited Yeh to dinner, and he thus appreciates the polite attentions shown him:— • .

" The meal which the barbarians eat together they call the ta tsan (dinner). It is a practice they delight in to assemble a number of people at: a great entertainment, at which they eat and drink together. When your slave has conferred a favour upon (has given a dinner to) the barbarians at the Bogue or Macao, their chiefs and leaders have come to the number of from 10 or 20 or 30; and when in the process of time your slave has chanced to go to barbarian residences or barbarian ships, they have, in their turn, seated themselves round in attendance upon him, striving who should be foremost in offering him meat and drink. To gain their goodwill he could not do otherwise than share their cup and spoon." His appreciation of hospitality is, however, quite equal to his gallantry, as witness the following :— " Another point is the wont of the barbarians to make much of their women. Whenever their visitor is a person of distinction, the wife is sure to come out to receive him. In the case of the American barbarian Parker, and the French barbarian Sargrene, for instance, both of these have brought their foreign wives with them, and when your slave has gone to their barbarian residences on business, these foreign women have suddenly appeared and saluted him. Your slave was confounded and ill at ease, while they on the contrary were greatly delighted at the honor done them. The truth is, as this shows, that it is not possible to regulate the customs of the Western States by the ceremonial of China; and to break out in rebuke, while it would do nothing to their enlightenment (to cleave their dullness) might chance give rise to suspicion and ill-feeling. Again, ever since the amicable relations with them commenced, the different barbarians have been received on something of a footing of equality • once such intercourse is no longer a novelty, it becomes more than ever a duty to keep them off and shut them out."

idiomatically the Commissioner Yeh is every inch a Chinese. He says:— " Their official designations are also different in the case of each nation. (To represent these) for the most part, they appropriate (filch) Chinese characters, boastfully affecting a style to which they have no claim, and assuming the airs of a great power. That they should conceive that they there-. by do honor to their rulers is no concern of ours, while, if the forms observed towards the dependencies (of China) were to be prescribed as the rule, in their case, they would certainly not consent, as they neither accept the Chinese computation of time, nor receive your Majesty's patent (of royalty) to fall back to the rank of Cochin China or Lewchew. And with people so uncivilised as they are, blindly unintelligent in styles and modes of address, a tenacity of forms in official correspondence, suchas would duly place the superior above and the inferior below, would be the cause of a fierce altercation (a rising of the tongue and a blistering of the lips); the only course in that case would be to affect to be deaf to it (to be as though the ear lappet stopped the ear); personal intercourse would then become impossible, and not only this, but an incompatibility of relations would immediately follow, of anything but advantage certainly, to the essential question of conciliation. Instead, therefore, of a contest about unsubstantial names which can produce no tangible result, it has been held better to disregard those minor details, in order to the success of an important policy. " Such are the expedients and modifications which after close attention to barbarian affairs, a calculation of the exigencies of the period, and a careful estimates of the merits of the question as beingtrivial or of importance, admitting of delay, or demanding despatch, it has been found unavoidable to adopt. "Your slave has not ventured to intrude them one by one upon the sacred intelligence, partly because they were in thomselves of small significance partly because there was no time (so to report them). The barbarian business being now on the whole (in the rough) concluded, as in duty bound, he states them detailedly, one and all, in this supplementary despatch, which he respectfully presents to your Majesty." To which the Emperor replies in the,' vermilion pencil'—"it was the only proper arrangement j we understand the whole question!" „ The Emperor " understands" the whole question

about as clearly as his Commissioner " understands" British affairs in India, concerning which ho thus enlightens the " sacred intelligence,"—"it appears that in the country of tho five Indies appropriated by the English barbarians, they have established four tribal divisions—three along the coast and ono in the interior. One of the coast divisions is Manga la (Bengal), the country in the extreme east ; one is Ma-ta-la-sa (Madras), southwest of Bengal; and one is Mang-mai (Bombay), on the western limit "of India. That in the interior is A-ka-la (Agra), lying midway between east and west. , About tho end of last summer, it is stated, twelve marts (or ports) in Bengal, which had revolted, were lost. Since tho Bth moon the marts in Bombay have been all retaken (i.e., from the English) by (Indian) chiefs ; and since Elgin's return, after his defeat, the leaders of the English barbarians have sustained a succession of serious defeats. The Indian chiefs drove a mine from bank to bank of a river, and by the introduction of infernal machines (water thunder) blew up seven large vessels of war, killing above 1000 men. On Bhore they enticed (the English) far into the country, and murdered above 7000 of them, killing a distinguished soldier named Puta-wei-ka-lut and many more. Elgin passes day after day at Hong Kong, stamping his foot and sighing, and his anxiety is increased by the non-arrival of despatches from his Government." We say again, this is highly amusing, and as good food for laughter as the best humorist of the day could produce; still, if such is really the view taken of European affairs by an empire numbering onethird or one-fourth of the population of the globe,— there is certainly heavy work to be done before Chinese insolence is effectually subdued. The mail from England informed us that Louis Napoleon and the British Government were about to combine in a grand expedition against China. Previous advices from India stated that the Com-mander-in-Chief had already sent 15,000 troops thither. We still lack positive information on both these points, but doubtless some demonstration on a large scale has been already made, or is now making. A late number of the 'Straits Times' says, that "as soon as Admiral Kigault de Genouilly was informed of the insult offered to the allied flags in the Peiho River, he directly sent several ships of war with troops to Canton to reinforce the allied troops occupying that city;" and adds—"We do not forget that the gallant Admiral has been fighting with us in the Crimean war, and now lately in the fort attack on the Peiho in company with the gallant Admiral Seymour." The following is the combined force which, according to the ' Straits Times' of August 27th, was on the Chinese station, and then available:—

" There are at present 39 British vessels of war on the Chinese station. Of these, 18 are gun-boats, 14 of them carry 2 guns each; 2, 3 guns; 1, 4 guns; and 1, 6 guns. There are 11 steamers—the smallest carrying 6 guns, and the largest 21 guns. There are 2 frigates, one of them (a surveying vessel) carrying 26 guns, the other 44 guns. There are 3 sloops, one carrying 6 guns, another: 12 guns, and another 16 guns. There are 3 used for special purposes—one as a military hospital, one as a seamen's hospital, and one as a store ship. There are 2 steamer despatch boats. The French have 25 vessels of war on the station. Amongst them there are 3 frigates, 2 carrying 40 guns each, and 1 carrying 50 guns. They have 16 steamers, the smallest carrying 6 guns, and the largest 12 guns^ They have 5 gun-boats, carrying generally 6 guns each. The United States have 5 vessels of war on the station—one of them (a surveying schooner) carrying 9 guns; 1 sloop, carrying 20 guns; and 3 steamers, carrying 6, 9, and 16 guns respectively. The Portuguese have 2 vessels of war, 1 carrying 6, the other 20 guns. The Dutch have 1 vessel of war—a steamer carrying 10 guns."

The 'North China Herald' of August 27 gives a long account of the visit to and return from Pekin of the American Minister and his suite. We read that" the Legation remained in Pekin fifteen days, during which time they Avere confined to their quarters. Not, however, as prisoners, for they were at liberty at any moment to walk out, but the Commissioners'refused the use of horses and guides, leaving it optional with Mr. Ward to grant permission to walk out or not, as he saw fit. They would doubtless, however, have closed the gates entirely had not the gentleman taken a firm stand at the very first interview, informing Kwei-Liang that as soon as his movements should be at all restricted he should close all intercourse and demand his return escort."

Mr. Ward was not, however, able to see the Emperor, because the former would not perform the adoration of Ko Tow. After fourteen days' stay he was therefore conveyed back to Pei-Tang, where the Chinese and American treaties were exchanged. Messrs. Purden and Co., of Hongkong, speak with much uneasiness of the present state of affairs in China. The recent successes of the Chinese have utterly annihilated their former fear of the British, on whoni they are now ready to inflict the treasured up vengeance of years. At Shangliae the Chinese have murdered several Europeans, destroyed two missionary chapels, and covered the walls of the city with exciting placards. In the out settlements, the native population have been so violent that only by sending strong parties from the ships of war could they be reduced to even moderate quietude. In short, all accounts agree in stating that the strength of China and the strength of the civilised powers will have before long to be measured, unless the latter will retrace the policy of past years, and once more allow the greatest empire in the world to be hermetically sealed to the rest of its inhabitants.