attributed to the evil effects of the weather-vane. The feeling became so intense that the consulate was threatened by a mob, and in order to quell the excitement the weather-vane had to be removed. The native gentry, appreciating the conciliatory action of the consul, issued a proclamation to the people to quiet their animosity, in which they described the vane "which shot towards all quarters, thereby causing serious impediment to the felicity and good fortunes of the land." Commending the conduct of the consul and his countrymen, the proclamation closes thus: "Having shown themselves obliging, we ought to excuse them. Henceforth, we sincerely pray that all may be at peace, and thus looking up we may participate in our emperor's earnest desire to regard people from afar with compassion."
While the negotiations for the treaty were in progress at Macao a mob assaulted the foreign settlement, and in self-defense a party of Americans fired upon the assailants and a Chinaman was killed. The authorities demanded the delivery of the party firing the fatal shot, and a correspondence ensued between Mr. Cushing and Tsiyeng. A jury of Americans, impaneled by the consul, examined the affair and decided that it was clearly an act of self-defense, and Mr. Cushing induced the authorities to accept this investigation as a satisfactory form of trial. It is noted as the first criminal case in China after the negotiation of the treaties in which the practice of exterritoriality was recognized.[1]
- ↑ 13 Chinese Repository, 276; S. Ex. Doc. 67, p. 62, cited; 1 Montgomery Martin's China, 413.
