- portant policy." He presents to the "sacred intelligence" this hasty outline
of the "rough settlement of the barbarian business."[1] On the general character of the official papers seized in Yeh's yamun, Mr. Wade reports:—
"The foreigner is represented as inferior in civilization, unreasonable, crafty, violent,
and in consequence dangerous. The instructions of the court are accordingly to
lecture him fraternally or magisterially, and by this means it is hoped to keep in hand
his perpetual tendency to encroach and intrude. A stern tone is to be adopted on
occasion, but always with due regard to the avoidance of an open rupture."
There were grave omissions in Sir Henry Pottinger's treaty of 1842. It
left the shipping and commercial relations of the British colony of Hong Kong
in a very unsatisfactory state, encumbering them with regulations to which
it was found impossible to give effect; and the trade emancipated itself by its
own irresistible energies to the common advantage of China and Great Britain.
The treaty contained no clause declaring the British text to be the true
reading, and the consequence was, various and embarrassing interpretations
of the intentions of the negotiators; the Chinese naturally enough contending
for the accuracy of their version, while, quite as naturally, our
merchants would abide only by the English reading.[2] There is no condition
providing for the revision of the treaty, and it is only under "the most
favoured nation" clause, which concedes to us everything conceded to other
powers, that we have a claim to a revision; but we cannot demand such
revision, unless and until it is granted to the French or the Americans.
But the most fatal mistake of all was that which fixed on Canton as the seat of our diplomatic relations with China. It removed our influence from the capital to the remotest part of the empire—to a province always looked upon with apprehension and distrust by the supreme authorities at Peking, and among a population remarkable alike for their unruly disposition and their intense and openly proclaimed hatred to foreigners. It had been Keying's calculation (and his assurances were most welcome to the court) that the emperor would thus get rid of all annoyance from Western "barbarians," who would be kept in order by the indomitable spirit of the Cantonese. No provision was made for personal access to the high commissioner charged with the conduct of "barbarian affairs," still less for communication, even by correspondence, with the capital. This was the first great triumph of Chinese policy, and has been fertile in producing fruits of mischief and misery.
Sir Henry Pottinger never visited Canton; he never examined the ground on which he placed the future representatives of Great Britain; he listened to the declarations of Keying, that the difficulties in the way of a becoming reception there were then insuperable; that they would be removed by time, which might render the turbulent Cantonese population more reasonable; he relied on the assurance that everything would be done to prepare the way for a happier state of things. No doubt there were difficulties;
