The Press.
London, England, 1857-02-28 00:00:00

THE PRESS.

is neither justified by the fact nor consistent with
courtesy due to a foreign power. (Loud cheers.)

Tho conduct of Sir J. Bowring bad been governed
by one absorbing idea—viz., his own official recep-
tion into Canton, in which the original cause of com
plaint respecting the Arrow was speedily lost. And
it was singular that at the very time the admiral was
assuring the Chinese authorities that his demands
were unconnected with any previous demands Sir J.
Bowring, with equal perseverance and confidence,
thought those demands were only the legal and
necessary consequence of previous demands never
abandoned, and which were now positively insisted
upon :

From one part of this disastrous history we proceed to
another. From the destruction of the junks, the capture
of the forts, the storming of a city without defence beyond
an unfortitied wall, we come to the throwing shot and
shell into the Commissioner's residence, the capture and
destruction of the I tnperial fleet of junks, effected with a
loss of one man killed and tour wounded. In all there
miserable proceeding; we find the same thing—forts
mounting 200 guns destroyed, another mounting 'AO gui.s
destroyed, a hot fire kept up for an hour, and the total b.ss
is one killed and four wounded. Some of these exploits
were achieved without any loss, and thus it is that her
Majesty's naval forces have been prosecutine the.P in.
glorious operations—;Hear, hear)—and y we have SirJ.
llowring writing to the admiral most fulsome and unigust-
ing letters, congratulating him upon the brilliant achieve-
ment and the glorious successes, upon the union of mili-
tary skill and sagacity he had displayed, the unparalleled
valour of the forces, and other fulsome phrases applying to
operations in which so little resistance had been off.red—
the destruction of undefended forts and the capture of
unfought ship. There is one passage in this book to
which I must advert for a moment. This is the way Sir
J. Ilowring, immediately after the capture of the city,
speaks of that lamentable event. One would have thought
that the Chief Superintendent would at least have ex•
pressed regret at the necessary bloodshed which, although
small, had accompanied the event. Not so. It appeared,
that so prevalent in his mind was one idea, that every
calamity, however grievous, was regarded from a single
point of view,—as to how it affected his reception into
Canton :

Since writing the above I have received your despatch dated
yesterday, containing the gratifying intelligence that the city hen
been entered by her Majesty's marine f aces, the yamuu of the
Imperial Commissioner visited by the admiral and yourself, and
our great object of hostile action thus satisfactorily acoom•
Wished. I feel every confidence iu the continued exercise of
those admirable qualities, mingled sagacity and valour, which
have been hitherto so remarkably displayed.
The noble earl, in conclusion, quoted the memorial
from the inhabitants of Canton as illustrating the
peaceable disposition of the Chinese, who, after all
the sufferings inflicted upon them by our bombard-
ments, demanded no reparation, but offered to return
to peace, goodw-11, and commercial intercourse, if
our authorities would only cease operations. The
Americans, it was true, ha I also taken an active part
in some of the proceedings, but then their flag had
been fired upon ; yet they were satisfied with the
destruction of one fort, and after that act of repara-
tion resumed friendly relations. Bat we, on the other
hand, taking the question of reparation into our
hands, went on from one act of cruelty to another,
until we committed an amount of barbarism which
would have been wholly unjustifiable under any cir-
cumstances whatever, which has produced feelings
among tl to people of Canton against our country• which
centuries would scarcely eradicate, and in consideration
of which we shall have to deplore the day when such an
important business was intrusted to hands so unwortl y.
The noble earl then, in an eloquent peroratico,,
addressed a solemn appeal to the bench of bishops
t- come forward on this occasion and vindicate t!.e
cause of religion, humanity, and civilisation front
the outrage inflicted upon it by the British repre-
sentatives at Canton. He should be disappointed
indeed it' the right rev. bench did not respond to
this appeal ; but in any case he turned with undi-
minished confidence to the hereditary peers, and
called upon them not to tolerate the usurpation by
authorities abroad of that most awful prerogative of
the Crown, the right of declaring war—not to tole-
rate upon light and trivial grounds the capture of
commercial vessels, the destruction of forts belong-
ing to a friendly country, the bombardment of an
undefended city, and the shedding of the blood of
uuwarlike and innocent people without warrant of
law and without moral justification. The noide earl
concluded by moving the condemnatory vote of
which he had given notice, and resumed his seat
amidst loud and prolonged cheers
The Earl of CLARENDoN, premising that our rela-
tions with the Chinese authorities previous to
hostilities were of a most unsatisfactory and intoler-
able nature, said that with regard to the case of the
Arrow a principle was involved in it, and the British
authorities in Canton could not have acted other.
wise. The ordinance under• which the Arrow bad
hoisted the British flag was not the ordinance to
which Lord Derby had referred, and it contravened
no existing British law. The Arrow bad not forfeited
tier licence, because, although the term had expired,
the vessel was still at sea, and therefore still
entitled under the terms of the ordinance to bear the
British flag. As to the outrage which had been

199

committed by the' hinese, which was well authen-
ticated, if Mr. Parkes, whose discretion and modera-
tion deserved all praise, had shrunk from demanding
redress, he would have failed in his duty, and have
given the Chinese reason to believe that they might
proceed to still greater insult. He believed that the
supposed feeling of the people of Canton against the
admisaion of foreigners was a mere bugbear; but,
even were it not, that was no reason why we should
not call upon the authorities to maintain order and
he responsible for British life and property. The
noble earl declared that her Majesty's Government
would have permitted the question to remain in the
position in which it was left by their predecssors if
the affair of the Arrow had been satisfactorily
arranged. At the same time they fully recognised
the importance of the entry into Canton, and be-
lieved that the Queen's officers were justified in
taking advantage of the dispute about the Arrow to
endeavour to procure a partial fulfilment of the
treaty. So fur from being an unfavourable moment,
all parties were well aware it would never be ob-
tained unless the people of Canton were made to feel
our power. With regard to the motion, he asserted
that the third resolution, as it now stood, could only
be considered by her Majesty officers throughout the
world as a positive prohibition against engaging in
offensive operations ; and declared that such a pro-
hibition would endanger the lives and property of all
British subjects in China, would cast dishonour upon
our name and our flag, and would bring ruin upon
our trade with that country.
. _

Lord LYNDHURST had carefully perused the papers
upon the table, and had come to the conclusion that
the proceedings out of which this unfortunate dis-
pute arose could not be justified upon any principles
either of law or of reason. As it could not be pre-
tended that the Chinese were to inform the British
authorities before seizing a culprit on board a
Chinese ship, the whole point turned on the ques-
tion—Was the Arrow a British ship ?
I assert—and 1 assert it in the very language of the
Chinese Government—that in no respect whatever was
the Arrow an English ship. (Cheers.) This is the very
essence and foundation of the whole question.
The noble and learned lord demonstrated this poict
by the illustration of certificates of naturalisation
not being accepted in the original country of the
person naturalised, so that the .trrow, even if
clothed with the privileges of a British ship, as
against ourselves, no law, ordinance, or register
of ours could give her those privileges as against
the Chinese authorities. Lord Lyndhurst then
came to the question of the legality of the Colonial
Ordinance:—
What is the instrument under which it is contended
there was a transfer of the character of the vessel, a
transfer of ownership which converted this Chinese vessel
into en English vessel? It is an ordinance of the Colonial
Government. By that ordinance a Chinese why has
entered into the colony, who holds land under the Crown,
and is the owner of a Chinese ship or any other vessel,
may apply for a register, and upon giving certain security
the registry gives him a right to use an English flag. A
register was granted to a man admitted to be a Chinese.
There is no dispute abcut the facts that the owner was a
Chinese, and the vessel a Chinese-built vessel. Now, by
a law of the Colonial Legislature, a Chinese vessel cannot
be converted into an English ship. I will not pretend to
say rights may not be given by this colonial instrument,
but I say you cannot make a vessel an English vessel by
that means independently of the general principle I have
stated ; you cannot make it an English ship ; you cannot
give the right to hoist an English flag. That is so clear,
so indisputable, that I am quite sure no lawyer will con-
trovert it. An Act of the Colonial Legislature can have
no effect whatever against an Act of the Imperial Parlia•
meat. The Act of Parliament to which my noble friend
has referred says in the most precise terms that nothing
but what is there set down shall be deemed a British ship.
The act is not confined to England ; it is not confined to
these islands; it applies to all our possessions, and it says
no vessel can be deemed a British ship, or have the
character of a British ship, unless it is owned by an Eng-
lishman, by • natural-born subject, by a naturalised sub-
ject, or by a person who has obtained letters of ?moralise-
t on— [The Earl of DERBY : And has taken the oath of
allegiance)—and has taken the oath of allegiance. In the
face of this Act of Parliament the ordinance of the
Colonial Legislature is absolutely nothing, and altogether
void as far as it relates to the point in question. You
cannot by a law of the Colonial Legislature convert this
vessel into a British ship. it is said, " True, it may nut
be a British ship, but she had a British flax' and sonic
insult has been offered to the British flag." Why' Under
the Act of Parliament no vessel can by law use the British
flag but a British ship, and any one who attempts to use a
British flag, except on board a British ship, is by the
133rd section subject to a very grievous penalty. There-
fore, both on general principles, and on the particular
point of this ordinance, the justification in this case en-
tirely fails. (Cheers.)

Lord Lyndhurst then contended that even assuming
the register granted to have been legal in itself, yet
it was incontestably proved that the register had ex-
pired eleven days before the seizure took place, so
that the lorcha's legal protection had ceased:—

Sir J. Bowring, who is a distinguished humanitarian
as well as plenipotentiary—(a laugh )—himself admits the
register is void, an 4 that the vessel was not entitled to hoist