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No 495. Sept. 17, 18590 THE LEADEB. 1057
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SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 17,1859. ¦
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. . »> There Is nothing- so revolutionar...
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THE GREAT EASTERN EXPLOSION. Size has al...
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Transcript
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
No 495. Sept. 17, 18590 The Leadeb. 1057
No 495 . Sept . 17 , 18590 THE LEADEB . 1057
Ad01307
SUBSCRIPTION TO " THE LEADER . " ONE GUINEA PER YEAR , UNSTAMPED , PREPAID . ' •••'• ¦ ( Delivered Gratis . ) NOTICES TO CORRESPONDENTS . No notice can be taken of anonymous correspondence . Whatever is intended for insertion must be authenticated by the name and address of the writer ; not necessarily for publication , but as a guarantee of his good faith . It is impossible to acknowledge the mass of letters we receive Their insertion is often delayed , owing- to a press of matter ; and when omitted , It is frequently from reasons quite independent of the merits of the communication . We cannot undertake to return rejected communications . OFFICE , NO . , CATHERINE-STREET , STRAND , W . C .
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Saturday, September 17,1859. ¦
SATURDAY , SEPTEMBER 17 , 1859 . ¦
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. . »> There Is nothing- so revolutionary , because there is nothing so unnatural arid convulsive , as the strain to keep things fixed when all the world is by the very law of its creation in eternal progress . —Dk . Abno £ d . ' ¦ ¦ ¦ — - —? - ¦ ¦ ¦
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war , but unless some person of reasonable common sense is sent out from this country we had better , beg them to lend lis an admiral and an engineer before we venture into another contention with their braves . The diploma tic naval and military part of the business , so far as our " devising heads " were concerned , 'niay- be summed up in three words—presumption , ignorance , and disgrace ; but the statesmanship of these Chinese quarrels is worth more than passing attention . We have not behaved as if we were " half horse , half aligator , " but as if we were a mixture of Quaker with Sir Lucius O'Trigger . Such conduct is never to be commended ,
and towards an oriental people is more than usually foolish . There were two courses before us—either to submit to the insolence and trade restrictions which the Chinese , thought proper to apply to us , and to hold the doctrine that we had no right to intercourse with them except on their own terms , or to insist upon receiving from them the courtesies and facilities that are necessary to pleasant international relations . Few sane persons will believe that the peace-at-any-price plan would have permanently succeeded , and when force became necessary it would have been more humane and judicious to have persevered until the
conceit was fairly knocked out of them than to have arrived only at treaties which there was no sufficient reason to believe they intended to observe . It will be remembered that when Lord Napier went out in 1834 as Chief Superintendent of British Commerce the governor of Canton refused to receive his letter certify ing his appointment because it was not superscribed as a petition , and the Chinese authorities would not even touch it . In 1837 Captain Elliot suffered similar impertinence , and complained that all the communications from ' . the-, officials were contained in notes . Chinese merchants , in which they spoke of him ,
not to him . At the close of this year the British Government directed the cessation of the petition form of address , and the Chinese in consequence ordered that all communication should cease . After this , squabbling and fighting went on until 1841 , when Keshen agreed to a treaty , which within a few weeks was disavowed at Pekin , and the war began again . As the main object of this war was an improvement of Chinese manners by practically convincing the most obstinate of people that the English would and could force them to a respectful line of conduct , it was an egregious act of folly , when Canton was in our power , to permit 000 dollars
it to be ransomed for 6 , 000 , —a proceeding that maintained among the turbulent citizens of that place the delusion that we were an inferior race and dared not go within their sacred walls . In 1842 our forces reached Nanking , and there Sfr Henry Pottinger negotiated the treaty of that name , but the impression made upon the Chinese was known to be so slight that no one expected they would keep the treaty entirely and in good faith . From that time till 1856 , when London was startled with the news of the bombardment of Canton , our relations with the Celestials were far from satisfactory , and Lord Elgin ' s * treaty ought _ * A - _ T __^__ 1 _ — — u __ A — ^ b— * -l a ** 1 «* . n r % rti 1 ^ 1 ¦ w \ rttt ^ V 11 % » ^» 1 ^ V 1 * 4 * r 4 ^ noii to uuuii um i »^ nu
nave jruguruvu ua ocmu ^ wu go to Pckin , because we were a long way from aving convinced either the people or the Court that submission to what we considered reasonable requirements was their only safe course . To attempt to visit their capital against their wish , with a force sufficient to irritate and insufficient to compel , was no paH of wisdom ; and we hope when Parliament reassembles that the responsibility of this insane scheme will hn fixed upon the right shoulders . We should also like to know whether Mr . Bruce or Admiral Hope or anybody , else in China was authorised to recommence war if the , Pekin journey was opposed . If tho Chinese had admitted Poiho with of
our ships into tho an appearance friendship and then opened their guns upon them , tho English Admiral would have had no alternative but to fight . This , however , wqs not the case , and although wo admit the non-fulfilment of tho treaty justified a fresh appeal to arms , wo are of opinion that it ought only to have been made after negotiation had been exhausted and a well-defined plan of operations had boon arranged . Tho higgledy-piggledy method of tumbling into war just as Admiral Hope tumbled tho marines into the mud is a national disgrace ; and the triumph very naturally and appropriately won by tho Chinese will only be reversed and compensated by a largo expenditure of life and money . Wo notioo some of our contemporaries perfectly rampant for
war and conquest , and if the dashing school of writers represented British opinion there would be no stop or stay until Queen Victoria added to her titles the wonderful appellations of the Monarch of Pekin !¦ John Bull is not , however , such an asinine biped as these would-be traffickers upon his susceptibilities suppose He would much rather collect tea at Chinese ports than gather glory in Chinese fields , and has quite sense enough to prefer the steam of Souchong to the smoke of
gunpowder . - ' ' ¦ But while abjuring the mere desire for vengeance or the thirst for military conquest and fame , it is impossible to entertain the idea of pocketing defeat ; and we find ourselves in the unhappy necessity of having to prepare to win victories we had much rather be without . Under these circumstances let us demand of the Government some application of intelligence to our affairs , and that our display of power may be sufficient to obtain our ends quickly , and justify the Chinese Court in the eyes of its subjects in making those reparations shall be compelled to
and concessions that we now demand . Above all , let us have done with the notion that the Chinese learn nothing , and must be despised because they had not the advantage of being born within the sound of Bow bells . Each successive encounter we have with them pi-oves that they do learn a great deal ; Then * artillery is better made and better served than it used to be , their fortifications better constructed and more scientifically defended ; and there can be no excuse for assailing them without the employment of our best materials and our ablest skill .
It is some satisfaction to find that our French neighbours are quite willing to join in sending naval and military schoolmasters to the Chinese , and it is to be hoped that the union of the two nations in another great enterprize , will strengthen the links of friendship and diminish the mutual irritation , that evil disposed persons take such pains to keep up .
THE CHINA DISASTER . fTlHE Chinese war which overturned an English - *• Parliament and furnished Lord Palmerston with , a signal triumph , was supposed to have ended prosperously in- the treaty negotiated by Lord Elgin , who returned to this country either in the conviction that his work was done , or that the re-r mainder of it was . sufficiently dubious and unpleasant to be most comfortably left to other hands . But all pleasing delusions of happy diplomatic relations with the " Central Flowery Land" have been rudely dispelled by the news of the recommencement of hostilities and of severe defeat
inflicted upon British arms . . The conduct of the Chinese , although not in good faith , cannot fairly be described as treacherous . Under compulsion insufficient to break their traditional pride , and against which they protested , they agreed to receive our ambassador at Pekin , and when the time came for his advance up the Peiho river towards the Celestial capital , instead of amicable preparations to facilitate his journey , and the presence of obsequious officials to welcome his arrival , old fortincati his had been repaired , new forts had been erected , and the mouth of the river strongly
boomed and staked across . Under these circumstances , and acting under the advice of Mr . Bruce , Admiral Hope immediately determined to proceed to war without any consideration of the difficulties before him or the moans at his disposal . He thought proper to assume that the batteries were of no consequence . He may have condescended to look at them through a spygl ass , but he took no pains to ascertain the number of guns they mounted or the strength of the forces engaged in their defence . It was enough for him to thrust his ships forward in bull-dog arrogance , and worse than bull-dog ignorance as to the probable result .
He found himself assailed by a tremendous fire , hut having blundered in , he tried to blunder out . Marines and sailors were landed in thick mud , in which they struggled as ineffectually as flies in a gluo-pot , and were shot down by the artillery , gmgals , and arrows of the Chinese . Tho men , of course , behaved bravely , as British seamen and soldiers always do , and the admiral exposed his person as freely as his imbeoility . Men were Killed by the hundred , vessels shattered and sunk , ana the unhappy detachments , so injudiciously , stuck in the mud , were informed that , as no reinwrcemonts could be sent , they had bettor struggle ft ^ d tumble out as well as they could . Wo have hitherto despised tho tactics of the Uuneae , and ridiculed their profioienoy in the art of
The Great Eastern Explosion. Size Has Al...
THE GREAT EASTERN EXPLOSION . Size has always been reckoned / an element of the sublime , and when the Great Eastern , af ter long delay and misfortune , was pronounced complete , and floated majestically down the T hames , dwarfing the river by her size , every eye that beheld the vessel destined to be rather an ocean city than a ship , beamed with a proud feeling of satisfaction at so great a triumph of human skill . Eager brain 3 were busy calculating the services she would render to civilisation , and how she might be the forerunner of a race of marine giants , striding between distant lands as firmly as of old the Colossus did across the entrance to the harbour of Rhodes ; and the universal exclamation was , in the words of
Longfellow— Our hearts , our hopca Our faith , triumphant o'er our ienrs , Arc all with theu . " As she passed the thickly-inhabited banks of the river , where human habitations are crowded in quaint confusion , old and young came out to rend the air with their acclamations ; the sailors in the stream hailed her as the grandest craft that was ever set afloat , and the Essex rustic in his lonely swamps stared , gaped and fancied old Captain Noah had reappeared and begun a now voyage to histrange haven on the top of Ararat
s Column after column in the daily journals chronicled each movement as though detailing the incidents of a royal p rogress ; and as one quality after another was displayed in full P ^ ? ' "' doubts vanished , and public confidence ^« tatod not to declare the . triumphant and symmetrical monster to be a huge success . Litto thought those ashore , and still less those floaUnir withm her iron walls , that gross and inexcusable carecssness had prepared " a mortal catastrop he that was soon to fii her decks with terror and ruin , and involvo brave men in hideous wounds and death .
Few knew that she was provided with an apparatus for economising tho heat of her hugefunnels , and preventing its . Biflusion among tho habitable parts of tho ship , of a dangerous construction which had bee n fatal to former vessels , and none suspected that tho safety of this apparatus was destroyed by shutting oflf access to tho vent by winch the super , fluous power so likely to bo generated might make an innocent escape . The contrivance may 'be described as a sort of boiler round the lower ond of tho funnel , tho water of whioh , when heated , was to bo passed into the boilers of the engine , and
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Sept. 17, 1859, page 13, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_17091859/page/13/
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