Letters and Journals of James, Eighth Earl of Elgin Part 20

[Sidenote: American missionaries.]

At Foochow, I saw one of the American missionaries, a very worthy man I should think, but not of the stamp of Mr. Burns. He had been about eight years at Foochow, and he computed the converts made by himself and his brother missionaries at fifteen. He said that they were particular as to the conduct of their converts; but I cannot affirm that he satisfied me that they accepted in any very earnest way the peculiar doctrines of Christianity. However, I daresay that these missionaries do good, for the Chinese are not fanatics, and it must do them a benefit to see among them some foreigners who are not engaged exclusively in money-making.

[Sidenote: Chinhae.]

_March 16th._--We are at anchor off Chinhae at the mouth of the river which leads to Ningpo. We have just returned from a walk on sh.o.r.e. We pa.s.sed through a small walled town, and climbed up a hill to a temple on the summit, from which we had a magnificent prospect. On the east and north, the sea studded with the islands of the Chusan group; on the west, a rich plain, through which the river meanders on its way from Ningpo; on the north, a succession of mountain ranges. We were accompanied by some curious but good-natured Chinamen, who seemed anxious to give us information. A very dirty lad, without a tail, proved to be the priest. After looking about us for some time, we entered the building; which contained a sort of central shrine, in which were some gilt figures of large size, besides rows of smaller gilt figures round the walls. I observed a number of slips of paper with Chinese characters upon them; and being told that they were used for divination purposes, I asked how it was done: upon which one of the Chinamen took from before the shrine a thing like a match-holder, full of bits of stick like matches, and kneeling down on a ha.s.sock, began to shake this case till one of the bits of stick fell out. He picked it up, and finding a single notch upon it, selected from the slips of paper which I had noticed the one which had a corresponding mark. We carried it away, and I intend to get Mr. Wade to translate it that I may send it to you. The other Chinamen present seemed very much amused at what was going on. They do not appear to have a particle of reverence for their religion, and yet they spend a good deal of money on their temples.

Wade's teacher (so the Chinaman who aids him in the work of interpretation is styled) has told him that the lot which fell to me at the Buddhist temple is the No. 1 lot, the most fortunate of all.

Their system of divination is rather complicated, but, as I understand it, it appears to be that Noah, or some one who lived about his time, discovered eight symbols on the back of a tortoise. These, multiplied into themselves, make sixty-four, which const.i.tuted the Book of Fate.

It appears that my lot is the first of the eight, and therefore the best that can be got!

[Sidenote: Ningpo.]

_Ningpo.--March 18th._--We arrived here yesterday, and I have been walking both days about the town with Mr. Meadows, the author, who is vice-consul here. I am disappointed with the city, of which I had heard a great deal. But the people are even more amiable than at any other place I have visited. Oliphant has rejoined us in high spirits, after his visit to Soochow. I cross-examined a Church of England clergyman about his converts. When pressed, he could only name one who seemed to be conscious of the want which we believe to be supplied by the Atonement. About 100, however, including children, attend churches in Ningpo, of whom thirty have been baptized.

Ningpo was one of the places which had been treated with more than ordinary severity in the last war. It was also one of the places in which the natives showed the most friendly disposition towards foreigners. To the resident traders the inference was obvious: the severity was the cause of the friendly disposition, and it had only to be applied elsewhere to produce the like results. With evident satisfaction Lord Elgin sets himself, in an official despatch, to refute this reasoning. After observing that the natives showed rather an exaggeration than a defect of the desire to live peaceably with foreigners, he proceeds:--

The state of Ningpo in this respect furnishes their favourite and, perhaps, most plausible argument, to that cla.s.s of persons who advocate what is styled a vigorous policy in China; in other words, a policy which consists in resorting to the most violent measures of coercion and repression on the slenderest provocations. They say, 'Remember what happened at Ningpo during the last war, and observe the consideration and respect which is evinced towards you there. Treat other towns in China likewise, and the result will be the same.' I question the soundness of this inference. Ningpo is situated on the south-eastern verge of the mighty valley of the Yang-tze-kiang, which is inhabited by a population the most inoffensive, perhaps, both by disposition and habit, of any on the surface of the earth. Their amenity towards the foreigner is due, I apprehend, to temperament, as much, at least, as to the recollection of the violence which they may have sustained at his hands.

I have made it a point, whenever I have met missionaries or others who have penetrated into the interior from Ningpo and Shanghae, to ask them what treatment they experienced on those expeditions, and the answer has almost invariably been that, at points remote from those to which foreigners have access, there was no diminution, but on the contrary rather an enhancement, of the courtesy exhibited towards them by the natives.

[Sidenote: Missionary schools.]

_H.M.S. 'Furious.'--March 20th._--Yesterday, I called on a clergyman to see Miss Aldersey,--a remarkable lady, who came out here immediately after the last war, and has been devoting herself and her fortune to the education and Christianisation of the Chinese at Ningpo. She seems a nice person, but I could not get as much conversation with her as I wished, because the Bishop, &c., were present all the time. She has to pay the girls a trifle, as an equivalent for what their labour is worth, for coming to her school, or to board them and keep them, as it is not at all in the ideas of the Chinese that women should be educated. She does not seem to have got the _entree_ into Chinese houses of the richer cla.s.s. Mrs. Russell (wife of the English clergyman), who speaks the language, has obtained it a little. I cannot make out that, when she visits them, they ever talk of anything except where she got her dress, &c.; but on great occasions, when they a.s.semble for ceremonies in the temples, they seem very devout. In private they treat these matters with great indifference. I had some of the missionaries to dinner. They put the converts at a larger number than I understood Mr. Russell to do, but otherwise their report did not differ materially from his.

[Sidenote: Chusan.]

[Sidenote: French missionary.]

_Chusan.--March 21st._--This is a most charming island. How any people, in their senses, could have preferred Hong-Kong to it, seems incredible. The people too, that is to say, the lower orders, seem really to like us. We walked through the town of Tinghae, and asked at the shop of a seller of perfumed sticks for the 'Mosquito tobacco,'

but in vain. We then pa.s.sed through the further gate of the city into the country beyond, and seeing something like a chapel, made towards it. A man, dressed as a Chinaman, came out to meet us. He addressed us in French, and proved to be a Roman Catholic priest. He was very civil, and asked us into his house, where he gave us some tea, grown on his own farm. He has been here two years quite alone, and he was ten years before in the province of Kiangsu. He says that he has some 200 converts. Some twenty boys, deserted children, he brings up, and works on his farm. I saw them, and I must say I never beheld a more happy and well-conditioned set of boys. In the town was an establishment for younger children, chiefly girls, under the charge of a Chinese female convert. After he had given us tea, the missionary accompanied us in our walk. He first took us to a sort of cottage- villa, belonging to one of the rich inhabitants, consisting of about a couple of acres of ground, covered by kiosks and grottos and dwarf- trees, and ups and downs and zigzags,--all in the most approved Chinese fashion. From thence we clambered up a mountain of, I should think, some 1,200 feet in height, from which we had a very extensive view, and beheld ranges of hills, separated by cosy valleys, on one side; on the other, the walled city of Tinghae, surrounded by rice- fields; beyond, the sea studded with islands of the Chusan group. It was a beautiful view, and we returned to the ship very much pleased with our scramble.

[Sidenote: Scenery.]

_March 22nd._--I have just returned from a walk to the top of a hill, on the opposite side of the flat on which the town is situated from that which we mounted yesterday. The day is charming, clear, with a fanning, bracing air. We had a finer view almost than yesterday. The same character of scenery all round the island. s.p.a.cious flats on the sea-board under irrigation; about one-half of the fields covered (now) with water, and the other half in crop, chiefly beans, wheat, and rape, which, with its yellow flower, gives warmth to the colouring of the landscape; these flats, fringed by hills of a goodly height--say from 600 to 1,200 feet,--which cl.u.s.ter together as they recede from the sea-board, compressing the flats into narrow valleys, and finally extinguishing them altogether. The hills themselves barren, with patches here and there of Chinese cultivation and fir plantations, the first I have seen in China. Turn your eyes to the sea, and you have before you innumerable islands dotting its surface, the same in character, though smaller in size, than that on which you are standing. I have seldom seen a more delightful spot. In going on our walk, we pa.s.sed by the burying-ground of the British who died while we occupied the island, and we did something to put order among their neglected graves. On our return, we pa.s.sed by a cottage where an old lady was seated at her spinning-wheel. I entered. She received us most courteously, placed chairs for us, and immediately set to work to prepare tea. When she found that one of the party was a doctor, a son (grown up) was produced who was suffering from ague. We brought him on board, and gave him some quinine. He showed us the medicine he was taking. It appeared to be a sort of mash of bits of bamboo and all sorts of vegetable ingredients. The doctor who tried it said it had no taste. I should mention that at the landing-place we met some of the French, missionary's boys, who brought me a present of eggs and fowls and salad from the farm, in return for a dollar which I gave them yesterday to buy cakes withal.

[Sidenote: Potou.]

[Sidenote: Bonzes.]

_March 23rd._--We set off this morning to visit Potou.[4] After lauding on the beach, we proceeded along a s.p.a.cious paved path to a monastery, in a very picturesque spot under the grey granite hills. We entered the buildings, which were like all other Buddhistic temples --the same images, &c.--and were soon surrounded by crowds of the most filthy and miserable-looking bonzes, some clad in grey and some in yellow. All were very civil, however, and on the invitation of the superior--who had a much more intelligent look than the rest--we went into an apartment at the side of the temple and had some tea. After a short rest we proceeded on our way, and mounted a hill about 1,500 feet in height, pa.s.sing by some more temples on the way. I never saw human beings apparently in a lower condition than these bonzes, though some of the temples were under repair, and on the whole tolerably cared for. The view from the top of the hill was magnificent, and there was glorious music here and there, from the sea rolling in upon the sandy beach. We met some women (not young ones) going up the hill in chairs to worship at the temples, and found, in some, individuals at their devotions. In one there was a monk, hidden behind a great drum, repeating in a plaintive tone, over and over again, the name of Buddha, 'ameta fo,' or something like that sound. I observed some with lumps on the forehead, evidently produced by knocking it against the ground. The utter want of respect of these people for their temples, coupled with this asceticism and apparent self-sacrifice in their religion, is a combination which I cannot at present understand. It has one bad effect, that in the plundering expeditions which we Christians dignify with the name of war in these countries, idols are ripped up in the hope of finding treasure in them, temple ornaments seized, and in short no sort of consideration is shown for the religious feelings of the natives.

The following notice of the same sacred island occurs in one of his despatches:--

I trust that I may be permitted to offer one remark in reference to Potou, an islet adjoining Chusan, which I touched at on my way from the latter place to Chapoo. Little information, of course, was to be gathered there on questions directly affecting trade or politics, for it is a holy spot, exclusively appropriated to temples in tinsel and bonzes in rags; but it was impossible to wander over it as I did, visiting with entire impunity its most sacred recesses, without being forcibly reminded of the fact that one, at least, of the obstacles to intercourse between nations, which operates most powerfully in many parts, especially of the East, can hardly be said to exist in China.

The Buddhistic faith does not seem to excite in the popular mind any bigoted antipathy to the professors of other creeds. The owner of the humblest dwelling almost invariably offers to the foreigner who enters it the hospitable tea-cup, without any apparent apprehension that his guest, by using, will defile it; and priests and worshippers attach no idea of profanation to the presence of the stranger in the joss-house.

This is a fact, as I humbly conceive, not without its significance, when we come to consider what prospect there may be of our being able to extend and multiply relations of commerce and amity with this industrious portion of the human race.

The private journal proceeds:--

_March 24th._--We are gliding through a perfectly smooth sea, with islands on both sides of us, on a beautifully calm and clear day, warmer than of late, but still tart enough to feel healthy. We pa.s.sed a fleet of some hundreds of junks, proceeding northward under convoy of some lorchas of the 'Arrow' cla.s.s, carrying flags which they probably have no right to. These lorchas exact a sort of black mail from the junks, and plunder them whenever it is more profitable to do so than to protect them. They often have Europeans on board. Poor Yeh has suffered severely for our sins in respect to this description of craft. We are on our way to Chapoo now, a port not opened to trade, but one which I am ordered by the Government to induce the Chinese to open. As it is very little out of the way to Shanghae, I wish to look at it in pa.s.sing.

[Sidenote: Chapoo.]

_March 25th._--We reached Chapoo at about 5 P.M. I did not land, but some of the party did, and mounted a hill from whence they looked down upon a walled town of no great size, and a plain, perfectly flat, stretching for any number of miles beyond it. The people, as usual, were civil, and made no difficulties, although we have no right to land there. The bay in which we anch.o.r.ed is open, and not in any particular way interesting. At about three this morning we started, and have been favoured with as good a day as yesterday. We have had nothing of the bold coasts of previous days, and pa.s.sed occasionally islands flatter than those seen before. We are now in the mouth of the Yang-tze-kiang, with a perfectly flat and low sh.o.r.e on one side, and an equally flat one just discoverable with the aid of the telescope on the other. A good many junks are sailing about us, their dark sails filled with a lively breeze. Before us is a large man-of-war, which I am just told is the American 'Minnesota.' So our cruise is coming to an end, which I regret, as it has been a very pleasant break, and at least for the time has kept me out of reach of the bothers of my mission. We have reason too to be most thankful for the weather with which we have been favoured, and if Mr. Reed is before me he cannot complain, as I am here on the very day on which I said I should reach Shanghae. This is a very strange coast. The sea seems to be filling up with the deposits of the rivers. We have an island (inhabited) beside us, which did not exist a few years ago. We have not during all yesterday and to-day had ever more than eight fathoms of water.

[Sidenote: Shanghae.]

Shanghae had been named as the rendezvous for the Allied Powers. There, as he had written to the Emperor's Prime Minister, 'the Plenipotentiaries of England and France would be prepared to enter into negotiations for the settlement of all differences existing between their respective Governments and that of China with any Plenipotentiary, duly accredited by the Emperor, who might present himself at that port before the end of the month of March.' There he still fondly hoped to find his Hercules' Pillar. 'If I can only conclude a treaty at Shanghae,' so he wrote when starting from Canton, 'and hasten home afterwards!'

The place was well chosen for the purpose; not only as the most northerly of the Treaty ports, and therefore nearest to the capital, but also as the most flourishing stronghold of European influence and civilisation then existing in China. 'I was struck,' wrote Lord Elgin in one of his despatches, 'by the thoroughly European appearance of the place; the foreign settlement, with its goodly array of foreign vessels, occupying the foreground of the picture; the junks and native town lying up the river, and dimly perceptible among the shadows of the background; s.p.a.cious houses, always well, and often sumptuously, furnished; Europeans, ladies and gentlemen, strolling along the quays; English policemen habited as the London police; and a climate very much resembling that which I had experienced in London exactly twelve months before, created illusions which were of course very promptly dissipated.'

[Sidenote: Message from Pekin.]

Dissipated too was the hope in which he had indulged, of a speedy termination to his labours; for he was met by a _message_ from the Prime Minister, that 'no Imperial Commissioner ever conducted business at Shanghae; that a new Commissioner had been sent to Canton to replace Yeh; and that it behoved the English Minister to wait in Canton, and there make his arrangements.' This, of course, was not to be thought of; and nothing remained but to move onwards towards Pekin, and apply some more direct pressure to the Emperor and his capital.

_March 29th.--Shanghae._--Here I am in the Consul's house, a very s.p.a.cious mansion. The climate, character of the rooms, &c., all make me feel in Europe again. I reached this harbour on the 26th, but only landed to-day. Mr. Reed and Count Putiatine arrived before me, but Baron Gros has not yet made his appearance. The Prime Minister of the Emperor says that he cannot write to me himself, but sends me a message through the Governor-General of the province to say that a Commissioner has been sent to Canton by the Emperor to replace Yeh, and that I must go there and settle matters with him. This will never do, so I must move on to the mouth of the Peiho. I am only waiting for Gros and the Admiral before I start. The Shanghae merchants presented an address to me to-day, and as I was obliged to say something in reply, I thought that I might as well take advantage of the opportunity to let the Chinese (who are sure to get a translation of my answer) know, that there is no chance of my going back to Canton. I also endeavoured to give the British manufacturers a hint that they must exert themselves and not trust to cannon if they intend to get a market in China.

The views to which he here refers were expressed in his reply in the following forcible language:--

[Sidenote: Reply to merchants' address.]

In my communication with the functionaries of the Chinese Government, I have been guided by two simple rules of action: I have never preferred a demand which I did not believe to be both moderate and just, and from a demand so preferred I have never receded. These principles dictated the policy which resulted in the capture and occupation of Canton. The same principles will be followed by me, with the same determination, to their results, if it should be necessary to repeat the experiment in the vicinity of the capital of the Emperor of China.

The expectations held out to British manufacturers at the close of the last war between Great Britain and China, when they were told 'that a new world was opened to their trade so 'vast that all the mills in Lancashire could not make stocking-stuff sufficient for one of its provinces,' have not been realised; and I am of opinion that when force and diplomacy shall have done all that they can legitimately effect, the work which has to be accomplished in China will be but at its commencement.

When the barriers which prevent free access to the interior of the country shall have been removed, the Christian civilisation of the West will find itself face to face, not with barbarism, but with an ancient civilisation in many respects effete and imperfect, but in others not without claims on our sympathy and respect. In the rivalry which will then ensue, Christian civilisation will have to win its way among a sceptical and ingenious people, by making it manifest that a faith which reaches to Heaven furnishes better guarantees for public and private morality than one which does not rise above the earth.

At the same time the machina-facturing West will be in presence of a population the most universally and laboriously manufacturing of any on the earth. It can achieve victories in the contest in which it will have to engage only by proving that physical knowledge and mechanical skill, applied to the arts of production, are more than a match for the most persevering efforts of unscientific industry.

The journal proceeds as follows, under date of the 29th of March:--

I shall be a little curious to see my next letters. The truth is, that the whole world just now are raving mad with a pa.s.sion for killing and slaying, and it is difficult for a person in his sober senses like myself to keep his own among them. However I shall be glad to see what Parliament says about Canton.

[Sidenote: Baths for the million.]

[Sidenote: Malevolence towards Chinese.]

_March 30th._--Baron Gros arrived to-day. I forgot to mention that I visited the town of Shanghae yesterday, and among other things went into a bathing establishment, where coolies were getting steamed rather than bathed at rather less than a penny a head, which penny includes, moreover, a cup of tea. So that these despised Chinamen have bathing-houses for the million. With us they are a recent invention: they have had them, I believe, for centuries. I am told that they are much used by the labouring cla.s.s. I was struck by an instance of the malevolence towards the Chinese, which I met with to-day. Baron Gros told me that a boat with some unarmed French officers and seamen got adrift at a place called the Cape of Good Hope, as he was coming up from Hong-Kong. They found themselves off an island, on the sh.o.r.e of which a crowd of armed Chinese collected. Their situation was disagreeable enough. Next day, however, the body of the Chinese dispersed, and a few who remained came forward in the kindest manner offering them food, &c. They stated that they came down in arms to defend themselves, fearing that they were pirates, but that as they were peaceful people they were glad to serve them. I have heard the first part of this story from two other quarters, _but the latter part was in both cases omitted._

[Sidenote: Burial practices.]

_April 3rd._--I took another walk yesterday into the country, and saw a kind of tower where dead children, whom the parents are too poor to bury, are deposited. It is a kind of pigeonhouse about twenty feet high, and the babies are dropped through the pigeon-holes. After that I walked into a s.p.a.cious building where coffins containing dead bodies are stored, awaiting a lucky day for the burial, or for some other reason. The coffins are so substantial and the place so well ventilated that there was nothing at all disagreeable in it. There is something touching in the familiarity with which the Chinese treat the dead.

[Sidenote: Roman Catholic mission.]

_Shanghae.--Easter Sunday._--I have been at church.... In the afternoon I walked to the Roman Catholic cathedral, which is about three miles from the Consulate. I found a really handsome, or at any rate s.p.a.cious, building, well decorated. The priests were very civil.

They count 80,000 converts (a considerable portion, I take it, descendants of the Christian converts made by the missionaries ages ago) in this province. It is impossible to help contrasting their proceedings with those of the Protestants. They come out here to pa.s.s the whole of their lives in evangelising the heathen, never think of home, live on the same fare and dress in the same attire as the natives. The Protestants (generally) hardly leave the ports, where they have excellent houses, wives, families, go home whenever self or wife is unwell, &c. I pa.s.sed an American missionary's house yesterday.

It was a great square building, situated in a garden, and at the entrance gate there was a modest barn-like edifice, large enough to hold about twenty sitters, which on inquiry I found to be the church.

These people have excellent situations, good salaries, so much for every child, allowances for sickness, &c. They make hardly any converts, but then they console themselves by saying, that the Roman Catholics who make all these sacrifices do it from a bad motive, teach idolatry, &c. I cannot say, but I must admit that the priests whom I met to-day talked like very sensible men, and that the appearance of the young Chinamen (_seminaristes_) whom I saw was most satisfactory.

They had an intelligent, cheerful look, greatly superior to that of the Roman Catholic seminarists generally in Europe. The priests bear testimony to their apt.i.tude in learning, their docility and good conduct. They have an organ in the cathedral, the pipes of which are all made of bamboo. It seems to have an excellent tone.