Page:Brinkley - China - Volume 3.djvu/46

This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.

CHINA

seem likely to elevate the lie into an orthodox weapon of war, it appears that the Western critic is scarcely qualified to denounce Chinese duplicity with too much vehemence.

Canton had now secured exclusion from the range of warlike operations, and foreign trade recommenced there with fresh vigour. But Great Britain's objects were still unachieved. She had not obtained a point d'appui in China; nor yet the opening of additional ports; nor yet compensation for the destroyed opium; nor yet due recognition of her officials. Before describing the measures she subsequently took to accomplish these ends, it is interesting to note the comments made by the Chinese historian Wei Yüan in summing up this first chapter of the war:—

It was the closing of trade, and not the forced surrender of the opium, that brought on the Canton War, the events leading to which were the objections generally to sign away the lives of opium traders and specifically to deliver over the homicide (of a Chinese subject killed by an unidentified British sailor in Hongkong). … The Hoppo (superintendent of customs) and his men, whose irregular charges more than doubled the import duties, and who had been battening for years upon the Co-hong merchants, should have been compelled, instead of the latter, to pay for the war. It would have been better to sacrifice the customs' interests for a time; to devote full attention to measures of defence, and, by abolishing the Hoppo's extortions, to secure the good-will of the other foreigners. Just as the Astronomical Board avails itself of foreign astronomers' labours, so we might have got a few Americans, Dutchmen, and Por-

26

This article is issued from Wikisource. The text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 unless otherwise noted. Additional terms may apply for the media files.