FICTITIOUS NARRATIVES. A second request from the Admiral induced the governor to promise the contingent required upon the 5th of November, because he considered "the urgent request of the Admiral, with his accom panying reasons, sufficient to outweigh his objections to the measure," which, nevertheless, he describes as "somewhat questionable." At the same time, a statement, "deploring the necessity for these hostile demonstrations," had been ad dressed by Consul Parkes to the Chinese, and issued. The Chinese coolies were not sent to Canton from Hongkong, but a number of Lascars were employed in the removal of the debris. Even the Chinese deputations, who, towards the middle of November, and after the fleet of Chinese war junks had been captured by Sir M. Seymour, waited upon the Admiral, admitted the reasonableness of the demands made by the British, and "threw the whole blame upon the personal policy of his Excellency, Yeh." The forgetfulness of the ninth commandment by some parties who concern themselves with this subject is a matter for deep regret on their account, because nothing in Scripture is plainer than the fate of "liars"-of "whosoever loveth or maketh a lie." Politicians who quote Scripture sometimes do that in the spirit of a personage whose name even it has become polite to leave in blank; but he was the "father" of that class of people who have attempted to lie down the character of their countrymen for years past, whenever disputes unfortunately arose between them and foreign nations. Pamphlets were issued and widely circulated during the London elections, apparently by the peace-at any-price gentlemen, who should begin at the beginning, and suppress the police. If we are to be subjected to the indiscriminate rule of vagabonds, it might not be inadvisable to try our "home villains" in the first place, and withdraw all opposition to the efforts of ticketof-leave men. The worst of them is more amiable than, or putting his character in a less questionable form, is not so bad as Commissioner Yeh. Very few specimens of human demonology have had the means of breaking the sixth commandment to the extent, and in the number of instances ascribed to that most unamiable personage. Still we find the opponents of capital punishments at home warm friends of the greatest executioner of modern times, the greatest, with a few exceptions, known in history. An armed force was never 197 probably employed under more unexceptionable officers than the late Secretary of the Peace Society, and an Admiral described by all who know him as a Christian man, and a model of humanity and generosity. An attempt was even made to separate their position, and to show that the Admiral was irresponsible, because attacks upon his character were found to be very inconvenient. It failed signally, for the papers in the blue books show that Sir Michael Seymour approved of the course adopted in every instance, and that he was consulted on every step. We do not believe that the leading members of the Peace Society, or perhaps any members of that body, are chargeable on account of the flagrant untruths printed and published, colourably in behalf of their principles, really for the advancement of the Gladstone and Graliam interests, of a party who would rather govern among ruins than serve a prosperous state; and no doubt at their expense. One pamphlet of eight pages gives an account of the Chinese affair, that would require three times the space to refute; and yet it was circulated freely over London during the elections. Myriads of lives, and incalculable property, were destroyed; one writer says, "a commercial city containing a population almost equal to London, was exposed to the horrors of bombardment," - and thus he runs over a series of calamities that exist only in his own imagination; and it must be one of a very bad character. The parliamentary papers show the reverse of these statements. The Commissioner and the deputation were told that the squadron could bombard the city, but this course was not taken. Commissioner Yeh's house was bombarded at the rate of four, and, for a time, six shots an hour. A number of houses in one position was destroyed for strategic purposes, but the people were warned, and during the previous night they removed their goods. One gate of the city wall was blown in, and shots were fired regularly to keep the entrance opeu, but all the Cantonese liable to injury or loss from this operation were also warned out of danger's way. After reading the despatches, the Earl of Clarendon on the 10th January last, acquainted the Lords of the Admi ralty that he approved entirely of Admiral Seymour's conduct "and the respect which he has shown for the lives and properties of the Chinese people." At that date a parliamentary collision on the subject was not expected. It was an afterthought. Admiral Seymour, in writing to Commissioner Yeh on the 30th October, says :— "Even yesterday, when entering the city, no blood was shed, save when my meu were assailed, and the property of the people was in every case respected." He adds "the lives and property of the entire city popula.. tion are at my mercy, and could be destroyed by me at any moment that any event might impose upon me so sad a necessity." The detractors of Admiral Seymour at home would not have dealt more leniently by any other Admiral, unless one could have been found to run away. Before fire was opened on the Chinese Commissioner's house, "due notice was given to the Consuls of the treaty powers, and as far as possible to the Chinese in the vicinity." When firing commenced on the 28th October," the people of the locality had previously removed," and Sir M. Seymour writes on the 29th of that month : I yesterday assumed offensive operations from the Dutch Folly, where I had placed two guns in position, having previously given the fullest warning to the inhabitants in the vicinity to remove their persons and property, an occupation they were engaged in during the whole of the previous night. We might multiply similar quotations, but those we have given abundantly show that, whether the operations were right or wrong, they were not conducted in a severe style, even at the time Commissioner Yeh published his tariff of blood, and urged the Cantonese "not therefore to give way to alarm, or think of removing (from the city), but of course to join with each other in measures of revenge." Sir John Bowring in the first volume of " Siam," p. 105, without any reference to his quarrel with the Chinese, says: My experience in China, and many other parts of the East, predisposes me to receive with doubt and distrust any statement of a native, when any the smallest interest would be possibly promoted by falsehood. Nay, I have often observed there is a fear of truth, as truth, lest its discovery should lead to consequences of which the inquirer never dreams, but which are present to the mind of the person under interrogation. Little moral disgrace attaches to insincerity and untruthfulness; their detection leads to a loss of reputation for sagacity and cunning, but goes no further. In Siam I was struck with the unusual frankness as to matters of fact. Sir John Bowring has reason to include certain parties in the British Parliament and press in those "parts of the East" where truth is not to be expected "when any the smallest interest would be possibly promoted by falsehood." In the pamphlet we have mentioned as adroitly circulated in London on the day previous to the polling for the city, "a respectable Chinese merchant" is mentioned as a sufferer by piracy. Com missioner Yeh on 10th October, in reference to the seizure of twelve men from the Arrow lorcha, is Le-ming-tæ; and another of the crew, by name Woo-a jen, deposed before Assistant Magistrate Heu, that Le-ming-tæ told him after an acquaintance of two days the particulars of these horrid murders in piracy. Consul Parkes in reference to this information says: With the allegations brought against Le-ming-tæ alias Leang-ming-tæ, it appears to me we have little to do. He may have committed the crimes imputed to him. Hwang-leenvral may have been as quick as he states himself to have been in discerning him on board the "Arrow." That he should have avowed his crime, and told (as stated by the Imperial Commissioner) the story to Woo ajen, a stranger to him, it would seem, only two days after he shipped on board the lorcha, seems improbable; but that also is beside the main question, which is, are British ships to be subject, whenever information happens to be laid against any of the men on board, to be boarded by the Chinese military, withtheir national flag hauled down, and their crews carried out any communication being made to the Consul, to have away as prisoners? This Hwang-leen-vral is the personage whom the pamphleteer, whose perversions were so freely scattered in London, styles, "a respectable merchant," not fearing to assume, and declare as true, a characteristic of a man respecting whom nobody, living in England at this moment, can give an opinion, for he says of himself, according to Commissioner Yeh, "I belong to the small town of Sin-hen, in the usual division of Chin-trun, in the district of Shun-tic;" and we rather believe that none of our China merchants have accounts open in the small town of Sin-hen, or can vouch for the respectability of Hwang-leen-vral, or Hwangleen-tae--for the final termination varies in these documents. We do not deny the respectability of this gentleman-because nothing can be known on the subject; we only deny the propriety of this class of fictions, and want to know how the morality of those who make them stands with the public who read them. Commissioner Yeh himself appears to have doubted the respectability of this Sin-hen merchant, or his veracity; for we find him offering to Consul Parkes restitution of nine out of the twelve men on the 14th of October; ten of them on the 21st of John Bowring that ten of the men were at the disOctober; and on the same day he writes to Sir posal of the British authorities; but "it was esLeang-keen-foo, were guilty"-namely of the aforetablished on the trial that Leang-ming-tæ, and said piracy. Next day the Commissioner decided, for once in his life, to pardon the "guilty," for he writes on the 24th of that month : writes that one "Hwang-leen-vral" deposes that his vessel had been attacked by pirates, and plundered of all its cargo; while a number of his crew were killed. This sad calamity occurred to Hwang leen-vral on the 8th September, in the district of Sinning. He escaped, and, on the 8th I find that the rules of propriety have hitherto been inOctober, in sailing up the Canton river, he recog-variably observed by your honourable country in your comnised on the Arrow one of the men who had attacked his ship; and he gave that information to the authorities which led to the seizure of the men on the Arrow. This story would knock our pretty tale of the patriotic young rebel on the head; but we must see if we cannot shield it from the stroke. The name of the person accused of piracy in this manner by Hwang-leen-vral mercial intercourse with China. Now, when the twelve men or criminals were seized on board the lorcha, on the 8th October, I at once deputed a special officer to conduct their examination. He found that nine of their number had committed no offence, and on the 10th instant they were returned by an officer to their lorcha; but you, the Consul, declined to receive them. Early on the morning of the 22nd instant, I forwarded to you, with a declaration, Leangming-tae and Leang-keen-foo, the two criminals concerned in the case, Woo-a-jen, the witness, and the abovementioned COLONIAL REGISTER. nise men; in all twelve. The same day, at 12 o'clock, I received a statement, in which you make no allusion to this circumstance. Commissioner Yeh may be correct; but a letter dated on that day, from Consul Parkes, to his Excellency appears in the blue-book, from which we make the following extract : As to the offer of your Excellency to send back ten of the "Arrow's" crew, it is my duty to represent to you that twelve men having been carried away, the same twelve men must be returned, and in the manner previously demanded; that is they should be taken by the Chinese officers to their vessel, and given over to me there. If but one of their number be missing, I cannot undertake to receive them. But it is very far from my intention to give these men, when thus surrendered to me, their liberty; I shall receive them, but only to detain them in safe custody until all the requirements of the treaty in their case shall have been fulfilled. 199 and China Association of London to the Earl of Clarendon, dated 6th of January last, we take the following extract :- We therefore hope, if Admiral Seymour should not have succeeded in effectually and permanently establishing our right of free ingress and egress into and out of the City of Canton, conformably with the treaty, Her Majesty's Govern ment will adopt prompt and effectual steps to secure that important condition, in order to preclude any future collision with the local government at Canton. The opinion of these gentlemen may be consi dered conclusive on the point, especially as they say that many of them have personal connexions, and a large amount of property at stake in the country. The legal right of the Executive Council at Hongkong to grant these licenses to lorchas has Those who understand the characteristics of it out of existence, or to show that it had been been denied, and many efforts were made to reason Oriental despotism, will acknowledge the wisdom of compelling Commissioner Yeh to restore the got up for the occasion, all in ignorance of the various papers on the subject. The shipping remen who had been abducted, with all those circumstances of publicity that attended their arrest, gulations of the Council at Hongkong were submitted to Her Majesty's Government. An alteraand not to have them privily thrust into the tion suggested by the Imperial authorities here was Arrow. In the extract we have copied, the Consul made, they were then approved, and next transabides by the treaty terms; and that was the propermitted to the colony. These rules were devised course for him to pursue. On the 3rd of November, Commissioner Yeh writes to Sir M. Seymour, * that the restoration of all the twelve men was offered to the Consul when the examination was over; and from all these matters it may be concluded the guilt of the presumed pirates was not established clearly, was not proved. The pamphlet in which "the respectable merchant" is brought on the carpet, was published by a respectable London firm, and the use of their names, for which publishers cannot be altogether responsible, contributed to its success among the Dissenting communities. The writer apparently believes everything that a Chinese may say or swear, and nothing in contradiction advanced by a British subject. That is the practice of greater men; yet it is strange that the merchants appear to have been joined by the missionaries in defending these proceedings, not surely because they also are concerned in the opium trade. Our authorities have been censured for insisting upon the complete fulfilment of the treaty at Canton, as in other open ports. Sir John Bowring, we were told by high authorities, in and out of Parliament, was a vain person, who had a monomania respecting admission to Canton. The Earl of Derby, we believe, based an argument on this assumption; but by the correspondence in this official publication, we find that Consul Parkes suggested the necessity of obtaining the observance of the treaty by remarking, that if he could have met Commissioner Yeh, the misunderstanding could have been prevented, along with the loss of life and of property-au opinion shared by those merchants who, having resided in China, are now at home; for, from the address of the East India Ward and Co. to check abuses of our flag, at a period when it might have been adopted by piratical vessels. Only Chinese residents of Hongkong, who had become land tenants of the Crown, could obtain these registers. To check irregularities, the register needs annual renewal. Two securities, in a very large amount, are also taken for the conduct of the owner of the ship, and its employment, according to the laws of the colony. During all the correspondence, Commissioner Yeh repeats his biography of the Arrow, which turns out to be false from stem to stern. He alleges that the owner paid one thousand dollars through a British house for his register, but that sum was the balance of the price of the lorcha, and had no connexion with the register. many Hongkong, like Singapore and other settlements, is a colony of our Crown. The trade is chiefly conducted by natives of the East. These persons tection of our flag. while they obey our laws are entitled to the proIf that rule is to be abandoned we must resign all settlements of this class that we possess on the continents, and in our islands of the seas. The same question may arise regarding Gibraltar, an Ionian island, or Malta. One small party in the country say that we should resign them all, blow up, or blow down Woolwich, dismantle Portsmouth, and sell "the Duke of Wellington" to an emigration company. We do not agree with them, but we need not argue the question here, for the country rejects their theories. A number of the persons who have advocated the cause of Commissioner Yeh, the great decapi tator of the nineteenth century, during the last month are friends of foreign and political refugees, who claim, and rightly claim, for them the shelter of our power in their distresses. Hitherto Britain has been the home of the friendless. The wrecks of revolutions have been drifted to our shore and welcomed. The discomfited and wandering patriot, whose land refused him help and sought his life, has with us found a rest. We have not critically or curiously examined the policy of his plans, or the wisdom of his purposes. It was sufficient that he was helpless, homeless, with no opportunity of ever living by industry elsewhere, to establish his claim for shelter here. This has been long the manner of our country. Some who heve fled here when they could nowhere else gain protection have not been thankful for our shield. That is their affair. It is our business to provide that in this respect the policy of our ancestors shall be continued to our descendants. What is Hongkong? A part of the British empire, like Guernsey, or the Isle of Man, and governed by the same great principles. It is near the mainland of China, where a great struggle to overthrow a despotism, by men perhaps equally despotic, has existed for years. Pitiless slaughters disgraced both parties. The patriots are all pirates in the language of Commissioner Yeh. Piracy with him and his party is one, and not the least com mon, term for rebellion. A very large number of the Chinese, resident in Hongkong, belong to the rebel party. They are entitled to the protection which we extend to M. Kossuth, Ledru Rollin, M. Mazzini, and their friends, while they obey our Jaws; but if these poor fellows are not to be allowed to work their small ships, in obedience to our very strict rules, without the fear of being dragged from under our flag, to the block, upon the evidence of some person whose name human being in this country ever heard before, but for whose respectability, as a merchant, people living and writing here are prepared to vouch on demand, or to order; they may be as well decapitated at once, for the furrows of Hongkong are not upon laud, but on the deep waters. The British authorities claim the privilege of sharing the investigation into charges made against those men whom Commissioner Yeh calls pirates, but whose crime may only be rebellion. This is the same power that civilised nations claim in the "extradition" of persons charged with crime. It is a blunder to assert that we claim any right against China that the United States do not assert against us. If a criminal officer from Paris sought the assistance of our authorities for the apprehension of M. Ledru Rollin, upon a charge of forgery-we trust the gentleman will excuse our use of his name in an A B C way he would not be given up, merely because the charge was made, without some investigation. We have no doubt that course would be adopted, as it has been pursued in a very troublesome way in the States, even in favour of notorious criminals, both of British and French origin. A great principle is involved in this matter-a hereditary principle; and we impose not upon China customs or laws uncommon, or without precedent among civilised nations, but an international law, recognised by constitutional aud free states, although in China also secured by special treaty. The Government could only be responsible for the acts of their representatives at a distance, either if they were doue in obedience to instructions, or had received their approval. The resolutions moved by Mr. Cobden in the Commons, on which the House divided on the 3rd ultimo, do not implicate the home Government, except so far as they, at that date, had supported, or then meant to vindicate, the policy adopted by their representatives. We copy them- for they have assumed more historical importance than any other resolutions of the session: That this House has heard with concern of the conflicts whien have occurred between the British and Chinese sn thorities in the Canton river, and without expressing an opinion as to the extent to which the Government of China may have afforded this country cause of complaint respecting the nonfulfilment of the treaty of 1842, this House considers that the papers which have been laid upon the table fail to establish satisfactory grounds for the violent measures resorted to at Canton in the late affair of the Arrow. But the Government assumed the responsibility. We honour Lord Palmerston for standing by an official who had no aristocratic connexions to defend him, whose character was maligued for fac tious purposes; whose ruin was projected to gain a division in the House, but whose conduct the Minister "in his heart," as he said, believed to have been proper and right. It is worse for a Cabinet to be dishonest than to fall. We honour the Prime Minister for standing by those poor refugees from China to a rock of our empire, who, unlike Kossuth, Mazzini, or Rollin, have not personal friends in London to plead their cause. It is better that a Government should perish than stand in shame. The Government, however, has not perished. The story of the elections will vindicate the truth of more than one of our proverbs. Virtue in this instance will be its own reward. A similar reward we trust, may be deserved by the domestic poliey of the Ministry; for politicians may be well assured that not among the classes whose enfranchisement is sought here lurks there much of that policy that would drag our flag to dishonour for the sake of a crotchet; and shiver the empire which in all lands is still the hope-if the forlorn hope-of bleeding, and crushed, and mangled liberty-upon a theory tricked out by meretricious romances. ory will be shivered on the empire. The the have a SIR JOHN BOWRING'S SIAM.* Two volumes contain an account of the ancient Laos Malays Cambodians Peguans... Kareens, Xongs, &c. ... 1,900,000 1,000,000 6,000,000 Sir John Bowring considers this estimate an exaggeration by from 23 to 25 per cent. ; yet this opinion is only founded upon the general propensity of the Orientals to exaggerate facts. Pallegoix is a Roman Catholic Bishop, who superintends the missions of his communion to Siam, and who has travelled over a considerable part of the kingdom. The population ascribed to a country naturally fertile, and comprising extensive regions, is very small, but the greater part of the land is covered with jungle; and until recently all business in Siam, or nearly all, was absorbed in the King's monopolies, farmed out to Chinese merchants. The prevalent religious tenets are a form of Bhuddism, and the present kings are considered reformers of that idolatry. In endeavouring to classify the works on the subject, they have ejected as non-canonical five hundred volumes in one batch, from which we infer that the number of volumes altogether must be considerable, although their contents are probably not long and tedious. Bhuddism keeps down population. It operates like Malthusianism. The number of its bonzes or priests, and the polygamy of the king and nobles, restrain the progress of population, and explain the occupation of a large country by few inhabitants. The first king of Siam maintains one chief wife, several inferior wives, and six hundred concubines, who are attended by nearly double that number of The Siamese are also rather kind to vermin, who do not reciprocate this tenderness. The French missionaries could not persuade their gardeners to kill the serpents who lurked among the bushes, although the viprous community had no objections, we presume, to kill either missionaries or servants. We understand that the island of Singapore, which is only disconnected by a narrow channel from a part of the Siamese empire, is afflicted and infested by tigers, which swim over and make themselves at home to dinner,-if they can meet a Chinese labourer, towards whom they offer neither more ceremony nor mercy than would be shown even by Commissiouer Yeh. These animals, and other beasts of prey, destroy large numbers of the inhabitants probably on land. The rivers abound with crocodiles, who as probably destroy their share of mankind in the water. Reptiles are a favoured race, and no doubt make the Siamese pay dearly for the superstitions indulged in by them on behalf of these creeping and lurking things. The lives lost in the Punjaub by wolves is said to be three to four hundred annually. The number of persons who die yearly of snakebites in Scinde is calculated at more than five hundred. One British commissioner, in a district of India, was alarmed recently at the number of accidents from serpents, and he offered eight annas -one shilling-for each serpent of one class, and twelve annas-one shilling and sixpence-for each of another class; but the price seemed too high, for the peasantry killed them in numbers, adequate nearly to ruin the Exchequer. A large portion of the Siamese territory is in forest and jungle, good for nothing more than the growth of wood, and the multiplication of noxious * "The Kingdom and People of Siam, with a Narrative of the Mission to that Country in 1855." By Sir John Bowring F.R.S. her Majesty's Plenipotentiary in China. 2 vols. London: John W. Parker and Son. |