The Uncollected Writings of Thomas de Quincey, Vol. 2 | Page 5

as so many trained
bull-dogs, for the purpose of venting that insolence to Europeans which
the mandarins could no longer utter personally without coming into
collision with the treaty, became gradually unmanageable even by their
masters. In 1847 Lord Palmerston, then Foreign Secretary, was reduced
to the necessity of fulminating this passage against the executive
government of the murdering city--'You' (Lord Palmerston was
addressing Sir John Davis, at that time H. M. Plenipotentiary in China)
'will inform the Chinese authorities, in plain and distinct terms, that the
British Government will not tolerate that a Chinese mob shall with
impunity maltreat British subjects in China, whenever they get them
into their power; and that if the Chinese authorities will not punish and
prevent such outrages, the British Government will be obliged to take
the matter into their own hands; and it will not be their fault if, in such
case, the innocent are involved in the punishment sought to be inflicted
on the guilty.'
This commanding tone was worthy of Lord Palmerston, and in
harmony with his public acts in all cases where he has understood the
ground which he occupied. Unhappily he did not understand the case of
Canton. The British were admitted by each successive treaty, their right
of entry was solemnly acknowledged by the emperor. Satisfied with
this, Lord Palmerston said, 'Enough: the principle is secured; the mere
details, locally intelligible no doubt, I do not pretend to understand. But
all this will come in time. In time you will be admitted into Canton.
And for the present rest satisfied with having your right admitted, if not
as yet your persons.' Ay, but unfortunately nothing short of plenary
admission to British flesh and blood ever will satisfy the organised
ruffians of Canton, that they have not achieved a triumph over the
British; which triumph, as a point still open to doubt amongst

mischief-makers, they seek to strengthen by savage renewal as often as
they find a British subject unprotected by armed guardians within their
streets. In those streets murder walks undisguised. And the only
measure for grappling with it is summarily to introduce the British
resident, to prostrate all resistance, and to punish it by the gallows[4]
where it proceeds to acts of murder. It is sad consideration for those,
either in England or China, who were nearly or indirectly connected
with Canton (amongst whom must be counted the British Government),
that beyond a doubt the murders of our countrymen, which occurred in
that city, would have been intercepted by such a mastery over the local
ruffians as could not be effected so long as the Treaty of Nanking was
not carried into effect with respect to free entrance and residence of
British subjects. As things stood, all that Sir J. Davis could do, in
obedience to the directions from the Home Government, was to order a
combined naval and military attack upon all the Chinese forts which
belt the approaches to Canton. These were all captured; and the
immense number of eight hundred and twenty-seven heavy guns were
in a few hours made unserviceable, either by knocking off their
trunnions, or by spiking them, or in both ways. The Imperial
Commissioner, Keying, previously known so favourably to the English
by his good sense and discretion, had on this occasion thought it his
best policy to ignore Lord Palmerston's letter: a copy had been
communicated to him; but he took not the least notice of it. If this were
intended for insolence, it was signally punished within a few hours. It
happened that on our English list of grievances there remained a
shocking outrage offered to Colonel Chesney, a distinguished officer of
the engineers,[5] and which to a certainty would have terminated in his
murder, but for the coming up at the critical moment of a Chinese in
high authority. The villains concerned in this outrage were known,
were arrested, and (according to an agreement with our plenipotentiary)
were to be punished in our presence. But in contempt of all his
engagements, and out of pure sycophantic concession to the Canton
mob, Keying notified that we the injured party were to be excluded. In
that case no punishment at all would have been inflicted. Luckily, our
troops and our shipping had not yet dispersed. Sir J. Davis, therefore,
wrote to Keying, openly taxing him with his breach of honour. 'I was
going' [these were Sir John's words] 'to Hong-Kong to-morrow; but

since you behave with evasion and bad faith, in not punishing the
offenders in the presence of deputed officers, I shall keep the troops at
Canton, and proceed to-morrow in the steamer to Foshan, where, if I
meet with insult, I will burn the town.' Foshan is a town in the
neighbourhood of Canton, and happened to be the