and Peking. Circumstances, however, prevented his reaching Tientsin and compelled him to rest satisfied with the forwarding of a dispatch to the Emperor's advisers by the hands of Mr. Medhurst. Although no tangible result was obtained, H.M. Government marked their sense of Sir G. Botham's discreet diplomacy by promoting him (November 22, 1850) from the third to the second rank of the Order of the Bath (K.C.B.) and bestowed on him at the same time a baronetcy.
Though highly thought of, Sir G. Bonham was not always victorious with his representations to the Foreign Office. Being, like most common-sense Europeans in China, of opinion that the close attention indispensable for a successful study of the Chinese language warps the mind and imbues it with a defective perception of the common things of real life, he systematically promoted men, having no knowledge of Chinese, over the heads of interpreters to the more responsible posts of Vice-Consul or Consul. But when he did this in the case of Mr. (subsequently Sir) Harry Parkes in Canton (autumn, 1853), there ensued what was thenceforth called 'the Battle of the Interpreters.' In this battle Sir George was worsted. Sir Harry Parkes' case was indeed an exceptional one. He had just gained special kudos as an uncommonly shrewd man by his prudent dealing with the fracas which occurred at Canton (March, 1853) between the European residents and the French Minister M. de Bourbillon over the erection of a French flagstaff in the garden of the factories. On appealing therefore against Sir G. Bonham's decision to Lord Clarendon, Sir Harry Parkes gained a complete victory by an immediate reversal of Sir George's system of withholding promotion from Consular interpreters.
In the sphere of British diplomacy in China, there was at this time specially good reason for the waiting policy which Sir G. Bonham initiated and which even Dr. Bowring, during his brief term as Acting Plenipotentiary in 1852, continued. The fact was, a serious rebellion, preceded by sporadic disturbances in several districts of the Canton province, broke out in 1850 in the adjoining province of Kwangsi, under the
