Ti-Ping Tien-Kwoh Part 11

While these armies are marching along their several routes, we will digress for a little and notice two subjects particularly favourable to the moral aspect of the Ti-ping revolution, though one of them has excited no little hostility to the great movement.

The justice courts of Ti-pingdom form the theme of our first eulogy.

These are invariably conducted with the strictest and most simple equity. The disgusting scenes, the inseparable concomitants of the Manchoo magisterial dwelling, or _yamun_,--such as the torture of litigants, criminals, and prisoners,--are entirely abolished. Defendant, plaintiff, and witness, are fairly confronted; but under the sway of the Tartar despotism either the one or the other is tortured if any party chooses to bribe the presiding mandarin; or, if none have the sense and means to sooth the majesty of justice with lumps of virgin sycee, the _whole_ are tortured by that impartial functionary. The infamous system of bribery is entirely unknown in a Ti-ping court of justice; _not one_ form of torture is permitted by law,[24] and prisoners or litigants are afforded every facility to defend themselves consistent with justice. In no way can a rich and superior adversary obtain any unfair advantage over a poor man, none being convicted or punished but upon the clearest and most decisive proof of guilt.

Ti-pingdom is one of the last places in the world likely to please a lawyer; plaintiff, defendant, and prisoner having to plead their own cases, which are then decided upon according to their respective merits by the presiding chief and his a.s.sistant officers. All trials are conducted more by the dictates of right and justice than the trammels of law, so that the glaring injustice frequently caused by European legal technicalities and quibbles is seldom committed.

The Ti-pings have one very singular custom in connection with their "Judgment Halls." Two large drums are always kept hanging just inside the porch of the outer gate, and are at the use of any person who may consider himself aggrieved, or may wish to present a complaint, when he is at liberty to strike upon the drums and demand justice from the chief. A Ti-ping court of justice is generally a very imposing affair.

The gorgeous dress of the chiefs, their numerous attendants and body guard, the many beautiful silken banners around the walls, and especially the brilliancy of colour, strongly impress the observer's imagination with an idea of what Europe must have been during its earlier career, when it delighted in the same barbaric splendour and feudal display.

The second subject of our digression is the abolition of opium-smoking by the Ti-pings, which is almost the princ.i.p.al cause of the hostility the British Government and nearly all merchants who trade in the drug have hitherto entertained against the revolutionists. Although the arguments to prove the utterly health-destroying and mind-pervading effect of opium are many and incontrovertible, we may dispense with them and give a few facts to establish the value of the prohibition by the Ti-pings. In India, as well as in China, the unfortunate natives are thereby utterly destroyed. In a communication forwarded by General Alexander to Earl Shaftesbury (then Lord Ashley), from Mr. A. Sym, dated the 13th of March, 1840, the following pa.s.sages occur:--

"The health and morals of the people suffer from the production of opium. We are demoralizing our own subjects in India; one half of the crime in the opium districts--murders, rapes, and affrays--have their origin in opium-eating.... One opium cultivator demoralizes a whole village. Thus thousands of our fellow-subjects in India are oppressed, and their health and morals destroyed, for the sake of this infernal opium trade. So completely is the production of opium in the hands of the East India Company[25] that not a single poppy can be grown in the extent of their vast territories without either the permission of the Government or an infraction of its laws. The grower of the poppy derives only a bare subsistence for its cultivation, and the difference between 250 rupees and 1,200 to 1,600 rupees a chest goes to the Government, which exchanges the drug for silver at the auction mart."

This sort of thing has been continually on the increase since the above statements were written, and the opium trade has now reached an enormous extent, being fully equal to if not greater in value than either the silk or tea trade. While the price of opium has been steadily maintained or increased, that of western manufactures has gradually fallen off to one-third the former rates, although the latter trade has not largely increased, and that in opium has been more than doubled. The vast amount of specie drawn from China in payment of this deleterious drug is diverted from a more beneficial and righteous trade in British manufactures, or in the cultivation of cotton, which the East Indian districts now devoted to the poppy are so well adapted to produce. If Lancas.h.i.+re would only look abroad it might see a mode of easily increasing the British exports to China, till the eight or nine millions annually paid in cash for the produce of China were replaced by them, and the abolition of the opium trade had enabled the Chinese to barter for English manufactures to a greater extent. The amount of clear profit realized by the Indian Government upon the sale of opium is considerably upwards of 5,000,000 per annum,[26] being the difference between 25 a chest they give for it, and 115 they sell it at. The opium, upon reaching China, extracts from that country the vast amount of specie above mentioned, which would otherwise be expended on British produce.

Only a few years ago the following evidence was adduced before the Select Committee of the House of Commons, on our commercial relations with China, by Mr. Montgomery Martin, who was Her Majesty's treasurer in India:--

"I inquired of the Taou-tae of Shanghae what would be the best means of increasing our commerce with China, and his first answer, in the presence of Captain Balfour, was:--'_Cease to send us so much opium, and we shall be able to take your manufactures._'... The true remedy for our deficient trade with China is not to be found in the reduction of 1,000,000 to 2,000,000 sterling of tea duties, but in perfect freedom of intercourse with China; in facilities of access to the interior of that vast country; and in the abolition of the pernicious opium traffic, which absorbs 4,000,000 per annum, which would be devoted to the purchase of British manufactures."

Proofs of the immense injury the opium traffic inflicts upon British export trade to China might be multiplied _ad infinitum_. The drug not only destroys the moral and physical principles of those who connect themselves with it in any way, but it has been the direct cause of every war England has had with China. The following statement by Mr. Martin is so identical with what I would say myself that I cannot do better than quote it with the appreciation it so well deserves. It was adduced before the Committee of the House of Commons already referred to:--

"Minute 3491. In what respect do you think the trade injurious to us in our relations with China?

"3492. Politically, with reference to our position with the Government of China, had France, or America, or Russia, granted us an island on their coast as a commercial station,[27] had they prohibited the use of opium, believing it to be injurious, we dare not, in that case, have made it a smoking-shop for the empire; and I would not act to the Chinese Government in a different manner than I would act to a Government in Europe.

Then, socially speaking, I believe it is the duty of this Government to uphold moral principles and to disseminate religious truth, and she cannot do that with one hand, while on the other she is introducing into China an amount of opium which furnishes 17 grains a day to each of 3,000,000 of people, and which, in the language of Mr. Lay, Her Majesty's late consul at Amoy, 'is ham-stringing the nation.' I think it is desolating China, corrupting its Government, and bringing the fabric of that extraordinary empire to a state of rapid dissolution.

Commercially speaking, it is injurious to us, because it prevents the extension of our manufactures in China. Four or five mercantile houses are engaged in the traffic, and derive a large amount of revenue from it; _but the trade of England is materially cramped by the extension of its consumption in China to the extent of at least four million sterling a year_."

Now, this truthful statement was made in the year 1857, since when the evils mentioned have increased to more than double their extent at that period. We will also examine the opinion of the Chinese themselves with regard to the introduction of opium into their country. Kinshan, one of the most celebrated of the _literati_ of China, has written on the subject, and how correctly all can affirm who know anything of opium-smoking in that empire. The following is his statement:--

[Ill.u.s.tration: London. Published March 15^{th} 1866 by Day & Son, Limited Lithog^{rs} Gate Str. Lincoln's Inn Fields. Day & Son, Limited, Lith.

INTERIOR OF AN OPIUM SMOKING SALOON.]

"Opium is a poisonous drug brought from foreign countries. At first the smokers of it merely strive to follow the fas.h.i.+on of the day, but in the sequel the poison takes effect, and the habit becomes fixed. The sleeping smokers are like corpses--lean and haggard as demons; such are the injuries it does to life; it throws whole families into ruin, dissipates every kind of property, and destroys man himself. There cannot be a greater evil than this. 1st. It exhausts the animal spirits; hence the youth who smoke will hasten the termination of their years. 2nd.

It wastes the flesh and blood; the faces of the weak who smoke become black and cadaverous. 3rd. It dissipates every kind of property. 4th. It renders the person ill-favoured--mucus flows from his nostrils, and tears from his eyes. 5th. It promotes obscenity. 6th. It discovers secrets. 7th. It violates laws.

8th. It attacks the vitals. 9th. It destroys life. When the smoker has p.a.w.ned everything in his possession, he will p.a.w.n his wife and sell his daughters; such are the inevitable consequences."

To every word of the above statement, from my own personal experience, I can give the most unqualified a.s.sent. The following extract from a manifesto addressed by the distinguished Imperial Commissioner Lin to the Queen of England, with regard to the _forcible_ introduction of opium by British subjects, places the wrongly despised Chinaman in pleasing contrast with the opium trafficking European. Commissioner Lin said:--

"That in the ways of Heaven no partiality exists, and no sanction is allowed to the injury of others for the advantage of one's self--that there is not any great diversity (for where is he who does not abhor death and seek life?), these are acknowledged principles. Though not using opium one's self, to venture, nevertheless, on the manufacture and sale of it, and with it to seduce the simple folk of this land, is to seek one's own livelihood by the exposure of others to death--to seek one's own advantage by other men's injury; and such acts are utterly abhorrent to the nature of men, and are utterly opposed to the ways of Heaven."

No wonder the Rev. Dr. Medhurst, one of the most experienced missionaries in China, has said: "Opium is demoralizing China, and become the greatest barrier to the introduction of Christianity which can be conceived of." And to prove this he states that almost the first reply of a native, when urged to believe in Christ, is, "Why do Christians bring us opium, and bring it directly in defiance of our laws? The evil drug has poisoned my son, has ruined my brother, and well nigh led me to barter my wife and children. Surely those who import such a deleterious substance, and injure me for the sake of gain, cannot wish me well or be in possession of a religion better than my own. Go first and persuade your own countrymen to relinquish this nefarious traffic, _and give me a prescription to correct this vile habit_,[28]

and then I will listen to your exhortations on the subject of Christianity."

Never has there been a viler or more utterly debasing inst.i.tution upon earth than that of the opium-smoking dens in China. "Truly," as the Rev.

E. B. Squire, formerly a missionary to that empire, once said, "it is an engine in Satan's hands, and a powerful one." It is necessary to remember that this same engine of wickedness and abomination has been systematically, and by the medium of several wars, forced upon China by the English nation and the produce of her Indian possessions.

The very day that the monopoly of the China trade by the East India Company ceased, the British Government commenced forcing the opium traffic, by which means they brought about the first opium war. Although the drug destroyed by Commissioner Lin was surrendered up _according to agreement_ by H. B. Majesty's representative, Captain Elliot, yet its destruction was afterwards perverted into a _casus belli_. From that event may be dated a course of policy that all posterity will a.s.suredly condemn, terminating as it did in the Chinese Government being compelled to legalize this nefarious trade.

Opium has ever been made contraband by the Ti-ping law, its use being forbidden under penalty of death, and all cases of infraction being strictly visited with the punishment of decapitation. As opium has in every case been the primary cause of each war with China, and as it was universally known that the success of the Ti-pings would have utterly abolished the trade, it is by no means unfair or unreasonable to ascribe a great proportion of the hostility the revolutionists have experienced (from those bound by every other motive to be their warmest friends) to the same cause. It is indisputable that nearly all who became acquainted with the Ti-pings during the early part of their career, and even many who did not, entertained for them the most friendly feelings; but no sooner was it thoroughly understood that they were determined not to submit to the introduction of opium, when, in spite of their Christianity, &c., a strong party arose against them.

In China it is quite notorious that one of the princ.i.p.al mercantile houses (Dent & Co.), after vainly endeavouring to establish an opium trade with the Ti-pings at Wuhu (a city some fifty miles above Nankin, on the Yang-tze River), by the means of their opium-s.h.i.+p _Nimrod_, which was stationed there for six months, and where I have myself seen her, did, after the failure of the attempt, become their most signal revilers, and use all the interest they possessed against them.

Too many merchants, and, unfortunately, their national representatives interested in maintaining the great opium revenue, have, in China, by the blind pursuit of profit, sacrificed principle to lucre, heedless of the grievous consequences. It is no less unfortunate that many of those who are now designated "merchant princes" some years before made their capital by opium smuggling; equally deplorable is it that still their largest profits result from what by fire and sword has become the legalized trade. Such, however, is the case, and princ.i.p.ally for this reason has it become popular to stifle the birth of freedom and Christianity in the opium-ruined Chinese nation.

FOOTNOTES:

[19] The t.i.tle (Tien-ping) of the Ti-ping soldiery.

[20] The Manchoo.

[21] Perfectly true.

[22] The French General in command during the Pekin campaign, who received this t.i.tle from his emperor.

[23] The proceedings to raise the "Vampyre" fleet in England were then nearly concluded, and were known to the Ti-pings.

[24] The different methods of legal torture are numerated in the Imperialist code by hundreds.

[25] The power has, of course, reverted to the Home Government since the Sepoy revolt.

[26] By the last official return (1863-4) the export of opium from India to China is given as 42,621 chests, and the gross revenue derived therefrom, Rupees, 52,072,358.

[27] Alluding to Hong-Kong.

[28] These very words have frequently been addressed to myself by Chinese opium-smokers, and I fancy scarcely any European has been in China without having experienced the same.

CHAPTER XX.

Ti-ping Disasters.--The Vampyre Fleet.--Important Letters.--Mr.

Roberts's Case.--Mr. Consul Harvey.--Letters continued.--Misrepresentations.--Anti-Ti-ping Meeting.--The Sherrard Osborne Theory.--The Fleet Afloat.--The "Lay" and "Osborne" Agreement.--The Fleet repudiated.--Pecuniary Loss to England.--A Resume.--General Burgevine.--Lieutenant Ridge.--Act of Piracy.--A Tartar caught.--Exit of the Anglo-Chinese Flotilla.--General Ward's Proceedings.--Progress of the War.--Death of General Ward.--Captain Dew's Disgrace.--How caused.--His Mode of Proceeding.--Its Effect upon Trade.--Operations before Kah-ding.--"Wong-e-poo."--General Burgevine dismissed from his Command.--Major Gordon takes Command.--Sir F. Bruce's Despatches.--His Objections to Gordon's Appointment.--Also to General Brown's Interference.

During the absence of the Chung-w.a.n.g on his campaign to the north, and while I was still confined by illness in Nankin, important events disastrous to the Ti-ping cause were occurring elsewhere. These events, which must be described before continuing my personal narrative, consisted of the organization of that extraordinary flotilla known in England as the _Anglo-Chinese_, but princ.i.p.ally as the _Vampyre_ fleet in China; the resumption of hostilities against the Ti-pings by General Staveley and his colleagues; and the conversion of Ward's old mercenaries into a British contingent, besides the formation of several other similar legions both at Shanghae and Ningpo.

The origin of the _Vampyre_ scheme to regenerate China by exterminating the Ti-pings, is as yet uncertain, although Mr. Lay (late Inspector General of Chinese Customs) in his pamphlet int.i.tuled "Our Interests in China," thus describes its first practical adoption:--"Threatened by Sir F. Bruce, 'that Her Majesty's Government will not go on protecting Shanghae for ever,' ... [Blue Book, 1863, pp. 13 and 67], and alarmed by the news of the loss of Ningpo, and of the advance of the Ti-pings upon Shanghae ... they (the Manchoo Government) saw that they must comply,[29] or perish.... The Prince Regent (Kung) accordingly declared himself ready to adopt any measure that Sir F. Bruce might advise. What was his bidding? 'Get foreign s.h.i.+ps and engage foreign officers.'[30]

'Procure us the s.h.i.+ps and the officers,' was the rejoinder."

Accordingly some one whom Mr. Lay terms "my _loc.u.m tenens_, Mr. Hart,"

received from the Manchoo Government "a certain sum of money for transmission to England for the purchase of a steam fleet." Meanwhile arrangements were made between Mr. Lay and Captain Sherrard Osborne, R.N., by which that officer agreed to receive the _elevation_ to a Manchoo Admirals.h.i.+p. The British Government suspended the Foreign Enlistment Act, ignored the pledges of neutrality, and "at the Court at Windsor, the 30th day of August, 1862," pa.s.sed an "Order in Council authorising the enlistment of officers and men, and the equipment and fitting-out of vessels of war for the service of the Emperor of China."

Although fearing I may tire my readers, I cannot resist quoting from a small book of official letters under my hand in order to prove by most conclusive authoritative testimony the _false pretences_ upon which the raising of the flotilla and the enlistment of British subjects in the service of the barbarous Manchoo despotism was permitted in England. The letters have been lent to me by a distinguished Member of Parliament, and are written by one of the first Shanghae merchants to his brother, a member of the present Government. These letters have, I am informed, been submitted to various ministers; therefore, it may be concluded that in addition to the despatches of Consul Meadows, &c., the Government had ample means of becoming acquainted with the favourable characteristics of the unfortunate Ti-pings they have devoted to destruction.

The letter I now propose quoting is written in reference to Earl Russell's speech in the debate upon China in the House of Lords on the 2nd of July, 1862, and commences by stating "Earl Grey's view is far sounder than that of the Government." Pa.s.sing over Earl Russell's preamble the letter states:--

"II. Earl Russell next propounds two questions:--