CHAPTER IX.

THE INDIAN MUTINY.

THE important advantages which she alone had derived from

THE

the Crimean war did not console England for the feeling of humiliation which weighed upon her. Her army's exploits had been glorious; the indomitable courage of her soldiers had been conspicuous in every engagement; the nation's strength and her liberality had been displayed before the eyes of Europe in all the phases of the struggle, but the broad daylight of free speech and a free press had revealed the faults of generals as well as the courage of the troops, the incapacity of the administration as well as the wealth of the country, which had, in the end, supplied all deficiencies, so that at the close of the war the English soldiers were better fed and better cared for than those of England's allies. The national pride still suffered keenly from those early failures in management which had revealed to England and to the entire world how serious was the disorganization into which the army of Great Britain had fallen during the long years of peace; the national pride was wounded by the last military episode of the war, terminating, as it did, immediately after a disaster suffered by the English troops. This jealous susceptibility soon showed itself in the dissensions which broke out at the close of the year 1856 between England and China, and it weighed heavily in the political balance of the home government.

A little boat-a lorcha, to use the local designation - had taken the name, the "Arrow," and sailed under the English flag.

Her crew was composed of Chinese, who occupied themselves in piracy. She was boarded in the river Canton by Chinese officers, and most of her sailors were arrested. The owners of the lorcha maintained that she was registered as an English vessel, and the English consul at Canton demanded that the sailors should be set at liberty. The Chinese governor, Yeh, formally refused. The registration of the "Arrow" had expired a few days before, and, in respect to the flag, the Chinese governor argued in this way: "A Chinese lorcha buys an English flag," he said; "does that make her an English vessel?" Upon this the English consul appealed to Sir John Bowring, the English plenipotentiary at Hong Kong, and the latter, with decision, supported the demand of the consul and the pirates' claims: "It is no matter whether the lorcha 'Arrow' had the right to fly the English flag or not; the Chinese government had not the right to board a vessel protected by the colors of Great Britain." Notwithstanding this haughty declaration, the Chinese authorities still declined to give up the prisoners, and Sir John Bowring ordered the bombardment of Canton by the English fleet. Upon this, Commissioner Yeh offered a reward for the head of every Englishman. From the 23d of October to the 13th of November the town was besieged; the suburbs were destroyed, the forts reduced, and many Chinese war vessels captured. The English plenipotentiary was believed to have been actuated by a childish desire to make a formal entry into Canton.

Upon the opening of the session of Parliament in February, 1857, the royal speech announced that war had existed for several months between Great Britain and China. Her Majesty informed the country that the insults offered to the British flag, and the infractions of treaties by the local authorities at Canton, had obliged her officers in China to have recourse to force in order to obtain the satisfaction which was refused them. On the 24th of February, Lord Derby brought forward in the

House of Lords a motion condemning the conduct of Sir John Bowring, and, two days later, Mr. Cobden moved in the House of Commons that "the papers which have been laid upon the table fail to establish satisfactory grounds for the violent measures resorted to at Canton," and also asked for the appointment of a committee to inquire into the state of the commercial relations of Great Britain with China. The aged Lord Lyndhurst condemned the violence which had been employed towards the Chinese, with all the weight of his eloquence and great legal attainments. "When we are talking of treaty transactions with Eastern nations," he said, "we have a kind of loose law and loose notion of morality in regard to them." In the House of Commons Mr. Cobden's motion was supported by men of all parties, convinced of the injustice of the proceedings and the principles that had been applied to the Chinese. The vote of censure in the House of Lords failed by a minority of thirty-six ; the measure proposed in the House of Commons was carried by two hundred and sixty-three votes against two hundred and forty-seven.

Mr. Disraeli challenged the government to appeal to the country. "I should like," he exclaimed, "to see the programme of the proud leaders of the liberal party, no reform, new taxes, Canton blazing, Pekin invaded." Lord Palmerston took at his words the bold spokesman of the Tories. He announced a dissolution, and his appeal to the electors of Tiverton proved that he well understood the temper of the English mind. The national excitability, smouldering since the Crimean war, blazed up at the prime minister's voice, against the "insolent barbarian," who had "violated the British flag, broken the engagements of treaties, offered rewards for the heads of British subjects and planned their destruction by murder, assassination and poison." This was enough for the voters, in vain did the advocates of peace maintain that the Chinese were not