ex-Commissioner Yeh has been better understood, even those most forward to censure Sir John Bowring, for refusing to deliver over to that savage and sanguinary personage men who at all events believed themselves to be entitled to the protection of British authority,[1] cannot but have felt that they ought to have been more indulgent to his hesitation. That he carried with him the sympathy of the representatives of the treaty powers,—that Yeh's policy was condemned by his colleagues and by the people in general,[2]—and that Yeh himself was finally degraded and disgraced by his own sovereign for his proceedings, are matters of historical record. Yeh, there is little doubt, would have been publicly executed, had he returned to China, notwithstanding the
- [Footnote: like wolves and jackals in disposition, who make no distinction in the human relations,
and are destitute of propriety or manners * * * * * who act as they list, have the tempers of wild beasts, and go here and there in wild recklessness, regardless of human rights or order.
"These are they who have presumed, like flocks of ravens issuing from out their coverts, to cast contemptuous looks on celestial awe-inspiring dignity, and seeing that our troops were unprepared, suddenly have taken possession of our forts, and following the bent of their lawless wickedness have burned the shops and dwellings of our people. Gods and men are indignant, heaven and earth can no longer endure them, and well will it be for your people if you unite in particular, and with vigorous arm exterminate them altogether. Let soldiers and gentry exhibit their loyalty, and with the braves, known to be in every place, swear, as they exhibit a force and union like the driving tempest, that they will revenge the honour of their country. Let full obedience be given to his majesty's rescript, and with firm purpose and stout arm sweep them off without remainder, burning their lairs, and exterminating their whole kith and kin.
"Then the memorial of your merit will be seen in the palace, while the state stands secure in the greatness of its people, as in the golden days of Shun, and the elements genially combine to produce plenty, through the good rule universal in the land, as was seen in the halcyon days of Tsin.
"The other nations of the West must all reverently obey our heavenly dynasty, according to their laws and their administrators, for they will be amerced in the same crimes (as the English) if they venture to copy their conduct.
"Those native traitors who are serving these several tribes, by aiding their purposes, must be strictly watched after and judged, the worst of them by the extermination of their kindred, the lesser by the destruction of their own families.
"Those who are employed as servants to any of the foreigners are allowed twenty days to return to their own patrimonies, there to pursue their several occupations. If they linger along in the hope of gain, they will be treated and punished as traitors.
"Each one must tremblingly obey these orders without opposition."]
- ↑ The words of the treaty are: "If it shall be ascertained or suspected that lawless natives of China, having committed crimes or offences against their own government, have fled, a communication shall be made to the proper English officer, in order that the said criminals and offenders may be rigidly searched for, seized, and, on proof or admission of their guilt, delivered up" to the Chinese authorities.
- ↑ A thoroughly well-informed American gentleman, then on the spot, declares that the Cantonese prayed that some English ball might "make hit the Viceroy; he all same devil," they said. "Yeh had no supporters among his own countrymen, except his immediate followers, natives of other provinces, and having no local interest. He ruled simply by terror, and all would have been glad to have seen him destroyed."—A Foreigner's Evidence on the China Question, p. 14.
