A few years since, when the frightful system of torture in India 
was exposed in Parliament Sir James Hogg, one of the Directors 
of the Most Honorable East India Company, boldly asserted that 
the statements made were unfounded. Subsequent investigation, 
however, proved them to be based upon facts which should have 
been well known to the Directors, and Sir James had left him to 
admit either “willful ignorance” or “criminal knowledge” of the 
horrible charge laid at the Company’s doors. Lord Palmerston, the 
present Premier of England, and the Earl of Clarendon, the 
Minister of Foreign Affairs, seem just now to be placed in a 
similar unenviable position. At the late Lord Mayor’s* banquet, the 
Premier, said, in his speech, while attempting to justify the 
atrocities committed upon the Chinese’: 

“If the Government had, in this case, approved of unjustifiable proceedings, 
they had undoubtedly followed a course which deserved to incur the censure of 
Parliament and of the country. We were persuaded, however, on the contrary, that 
these proceedings were necessary and vital. We felt that a great wrong had been 
inflicted on our country. We felt that our fellow-countrymen in a distant part of 
the globe had been exposed to a series of insults, outrages and atrocities which 
could not be passed over in silence [Cheers]. We felt that the treaty rights of this 
country had been broken, and that those locally charged with the defense of our 
interests in that quarter of the world were not only justified, but obliged to resent 
those outrages, so far as the power in their hands would enable them to do so. We 
felt that we should be betraying the trust which the citizens of the country had 
reposed in us if we had not approved of the proceedings which we thought to be 
right, and which we, if placed in the same circumstances, should have deemed it 
our duty to have pursued [Cheers].” 

March 20, 1857, The Times, No. 22634, March 21, 1857.— Ed. 

Now, however much the people of England and the world at 
large mray be deceived by such plausible statements, his Lordship 
himself certainly does not believe them to be true, or if he does, 
he has betrayed a_ willful ignorance almost as unjustifiable as 

“criminal knowledge”. Ever since the first report reached us of 
English hostilities in China, the Government journals of England 
and a portion of the American Press have been heaping wholesale 
denunciations upon the Chinese—sweeping charges of violation of 
treaty obligations—insults to the English flag—-degradation of 
foreigners residing on their soil, and the like, yet not one single 
distinct charge has been made or a single fact instanced in support 
of these denunciations, save the case of the lorcha Arrow, and, 
with respect to this case, the circumstances have been so 
misrepresented and glossed over by Parliamentary rhetoric as 
utterly to mislead those who really desire to understand the merits 
of the question. 

_ The lorcha Arrow was a small Chinese vessel, manned by 

Chinese, but employed by some Englishmen. A license to carry the 
English flag had been temporarily granted to her, which license 
had expired prior to the alleged “insult”. She is said to have been 
used to smuggle salt, and had on board of her some very bad 
characters—Chinese pirates and smugglers—whom, being old 
offenders against the laws, the authorities had long been trying to 
arrest. While lying at anchor in front of Canton—with sails furled, 
and no flag whatever displayed—the police became aware of the 
presence on board of these offenders, and arrested them— 
precisely such an act as would have taken place here, had the 
police along our wharves known that river-thieves and smugglers 
were secreted in a native or foreign vessel near by. But, as this 
arrest interfered with the business of the owners, the captain went 
to the English Consul* and complained. The Consul, a young man 
recently appointed, and, as we are informed, a person of a quick 
and irritable disposition, rushes on board in propria persona, gets 
into an excited parley with the police, who have only discharged 
their simple duty, and consequently fails in obtaining satisfaction. 
Thence he rushes back to the Consulate, writes an imperative 
demand for restitution and apology to the Governor-General of 
the Quangtung Province, and a note to Sir John Bowring and 
Admiral Seymour at Hong-Kong, representing that he and _ his 
country’s flag have been insulted beyond endurance, and intimat- 

ing in pretty broad terms that now is the time for a demonstration 
against Canton, such as had long been waited for. 

Gov. Yeh politely and calmly responds to the arrogant demands 
of the excited young British Consul. He states the reason of the 
arrest, and regrets that there should have been any misunder- 
standing in the matter; at the same time he unqualifiedly denies 
the slightest intention of insulting the English flag, and sends back 
the men, whom, although lawfully arrested, he desired not to 
detain at the expense of so serious a misunderstanding. But this is 
not satisfactory to Mr. Consul Parkes—he must have an official 
apology, and a more formal restitution, or Gov. Yeh must abide 
the consequences. Next arrives Admiral Seymour with the British 
fleet, and then commences another correspondence, dogmatic and 
threatening, on the side of the Admiral; cool, unimpassioned, 
polite, on the side of the Chinese official. Admiral Seymour 
demands a_ personal interview within the walls of Canton. 
Gov. Yeh says this is contrary to all precedent, and that Sir George 
Bonham had agreed that it should not be required. He would 
readily consent to an interview, as usual, outside the walled town if 
necessary, or meet the Admiral’s wishes in any other way not 
contrary to Chinese usage and hereditary etiquette. But this did 
not suit the bellicose representative of British power in the East. 

Upon the grounds thus briefly stated—and the official accounts 
now before the people of England fully bear out the statement— 
this most unrighteous war has been waged. The unoffending 
citizens and peaceful tradesmen of Canton have been slaughtered, 
their habitations battered to the ground, and the claims of 
humanity violated, on the flimsy pretense that “English life and 
property are endangered by the aggressive acts of the Chinese!” 
The British Government and the British people—at least, those 
who have chosen to examine the question—know how false and 
hollow are such charges. An attempt has been made to divert 
investigation from the main issue, and to impress the public mind 
with the idea that a long series of injuries, preceding the case of 
the lorcha Arrow, form of themselves a sufficient casus belli. But 
these sweeping assertions are baseless. The Chinese have at least 
ninety nine injuries to complain of to one on the part of the 
English. 

How silent is the press of England upon the outrageous 
violations of the treaty daily practiced by foreigners living in China 
under British protection! We hear nothing of the illicit opium 
trade, which yearly feeds the British treasury at the expense of 
human life and morality. We hear nothing of the constant bribery 

of sub-officials, by means of which the Chinese Government is 
defrauded of its rightful revenue on incoming and outgoing 
merchandise. We hear nothing of the wrongs inflicted “even unto 
death” upon misguided and bonded emigrants sold to worse than 
Slavery on the coast of Peru and into Cuban bondage. We hear 
nothing of the bullying spirit often exercised against the timid 
nature of the Chinese, or of the vice introduced by foreigners at 
the ports open to their trade. We hear-nothing of all this and of 
much more, first, because the majority of people out of China 
care little about the social and moral condition of that country; 
and secondly, because it is the part of policy and prudence not to 
agitate topics where no pecuniary advantage would result. Thus, 
the English people at home, who look no farther than the grocer’s 
where they buy their tea, are prepared to swallow all the 
misrepresentations which the Ministry and the Press choose to 
thrust down the: public throat. 

Meanwhile, in China, the smothered fires of hatred kindled 
against the English during the opium war have burst into a flame 
of animosity, which no tenders of peace and friendship will be 
very likely to quench.*”