his inexperienced military colleagues, and it is not too much to say that for nearly four years he was practically the governor of the city. Of the ability he displayed in this novel and difficult office there has been but one opinion. General Sir Charles van Straubenzee [q. v.], the commander-in-chief of the army in China, stated: ‘His energy is untiring, never sparing himself in any way; personal danger and personal comfort were never thought of when he could in any way advance the public service’ (Life of Parkes, i. 276). He had to carry on the administration through obstinate and treacherous Chinese officials, with a price of thirty thousand dollars on his head, and exposed to frequent attempts on his life. Yet he restored order in the city, induced the inhabitants and merchants to return to their homes, revived trade, administered strict justice, and punished oppression and cruelty; so that ‘a corporal with a switch kept order in the crowded streets without the slightest sign of resistance or animosity, where no foreigner could before pass the gates or even walk in the suburbs or outskirts without suffering insult and contumely from the very children’ (Sir R. Alcock, cited in Life of Parkes, i. 289). Besides restoring tranquillity and trade to Canton, Parkes induced the military commanders to take steps to suppress the bands of ‘braves’ who infested the countryside and even ventured to menace the city itself. He accompanied General Straubenzee in the expedition (January 1859) to Shektsing, which struck a decisive blow at the centre of disaffection; he rode through many villages with a small escort, tearing down hostile proclamations, reassuring the inhabitants, and issuing amnesties and manifestos of goodwill; and he ascended the West River with the allied commanders for nearly two hundred miles, half of which had never been explored by any foreign vessel, visiting numerous cities and villages, and everywhere endeavouring with marked success to conciliate the astonished officials and population. The opening of the West River to foreign trade should have followed this expedition; but to this day the necessary steps have not been taken. Parkes's services during this critical period were recognised by the decoration of a companion of the Bath.
The third war with China found him engaged in this peaceful work of reconstruction and conciliation at Canton. Lord Elgin had concluded the treaty of Tientsin in 1858, but had left the vital question of the reception of a resident British minister at Pekin unsettled, and had allowed the allied army to retire from Tientsin without waiting to see the treaty ratified and put in force. Parkes, who distrusted Lord Elgin's policy, foresaw that difficulties would ensue; and when Frederick Bruce [see Bruce, Sir Frederick William Adolphus], the first British minister to China, attempted to enter the Peiho, 20 June 1859, his gunboats were fired upon by the Taku forts and beaten back with heavy loss. A fresh army was forthwith despatched to China to enforce the treaty, and Lord Elgin and Baron Gros returned to remedy their former errors. Parkes's services were indispensable in the ensuing campaign, and he was temporarily called off from his duties at Canton, where he had secured the Shameen site for the rebuilding of the destroyed British settlement, and had also organised, at the suggestion and with the aid of J. G. Austin, an emigration house for Chinese coolies, whereby the evils of the existing system, with its crimps and cruelty, would be mitigated. His first act in relation to the renewed war was to suggest and carry out the plan of leasing the peninsula of Kowloon, opposite Hongkong, in the first instance as a convenient camping ground for the expected army, and thereafter permanently as a protection to the colony of Hongkong against the piracy which had long found shelter on the opposite coast. To any one unacquainted with the Chinese it would have appeared absurd to attempt to induce the Chinese governor-general to convey by lease a portion of the empire to be used as a depôt for hostile troops; it was done, however, and Kowloon is now permanently British territory. Going up to Shanghai in April, Parkes assisted General Sir James Hope Grant [q. v.] in the first act of the war—the occupation of the island of Chusan (20 April 1860); and, after putting affairs in order at Canton, in view of possible disturbances, he was summoned to the front to act on Lord Elgin's staff. He sailed north on 21 July, and took a prominent part as chief interpreter in the Peking campaign. He was the first to enter the Pehtang fort; he negotiated under flag of truce, but at considerable risk, the surrender of the remaining Taku forts after the successful assault of the first fort on 21 Aug.; arranged for the supplies and transport of the army; and conducted, in conjunction with Mr. (afterwards Sir) Thomas F. Wade, the negotiations for peace with the Chinese imperial commissioners at Tientsin, and subsequently at Tung-chow.
On returning from the latter town, after having apparently settled all the preliminaries of peace, Parkes was treacherously arrested on 18 Sept., in company with Mr.
