Page:Brinkley - China - Volume 3.djvu/308
CHINA
lutely declined to ask pardon for having treated as Chinese a Chinese-owned ship in a Chinese port.
Here was the opportunity for which British officials had been so long waiting, the opportunity to force open the gates of Canton. Mr. Parkes repaired to Hongkong and—to use his own words—"advocated active measures, for it appeared to me that the insolence of the commissioner had been carried too far." Active measures were accordingly taken in the form of a series of attacks upon the riverine forts, upon the outworks of Canton, and, finally, upon Canton itself. These doings lasted three weeks. It was like flogging a school boy to make him confess his fault. At intervals the chastisement was suspended in order to inquire whether repentance had come to the Viceroy, and on ascertaining that he remained obdurate, the process of beating recommenced. When Yeh found that his forts had fallen and that shells were dropping at set intervals into his own official residence, he issued a proclamation calling upon the people to expel the invaders and promising a reward of thirty dollars for every English head. After that the game of war went on more briskly than ever, until finally, a breach having been effected in the wall, the British Admiral and the British consul had the satisfaction of entering the Viceroy's yamên and treading on the forbidden ground. To batter a hole in the wall of a man's house and leave one's card in his
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