Shanghai in November, 1856, he found that British patience with the Chinese authorities had been exhausted, and that a state of flagrant war existed. The forts which guarded the city of Canton had been captured, and the city itself had been bombarded and entered by the British forces.
The immediate event which brought on this second war of Great Britain against China was the boarding of the lorcha[1] Arrow in front of Canton by marines from a Chinese war vessel, the seizing and carrying away of the crew on charge of piracy, and hauling down the British flag. The vessel was built and owned by a Chinese, but had been registered as British and was carrying the British flag. The term of registry had, however, expired several days before the seizure and had not been renewed.
Sir John Bowring,[2] the governor of Hongkong and diplomatic representative of Great Britain, made a demand for the return of the seized sailors, an apology for the act, and an assurance that the British flag should be respected in future. Yeh ordered the release of the sailors, although he stated that an investigation proved nine of them to be guilty of piracy, but he declined to make the apology demanded because he claimed the
- ↑ Lorcha—a Portuguese term for a fast-sailing schooner.
- ↑ Sir John Bowring, who was the active agent in bringing on the war, was a noted man of his time, possessed of various accomplishments. He was of peaceful inclinations, but of an impulsive temperament; a pupil and the literary executor of Jeremy Bentham; for several years a member of Parliament and an authority on commercial subjects; of literary tastes, a linguist having a mastery of more than forty languages; and a poet and hymnologist, best known as the author of the hymns "In the Cross of Christ I glory," and "Watchman, tell us of the Night."
