A civil action had meanwhile been brought against Ah-lum by the editor of the Friend of China (W. Tarrant) who obtained (June 24, 1857) $1,000 damages for specific injuries, that resulted from eating the poisoned bread sold to him by Ah-lum. The latter was, however, by this time reduced from affluence to bankruptcy. He may have been innocent of any direct complicity, but the community, which unanimously attributed the crime to the instigations of Cantonese Mandarins, would not believe otherwise but that Ah-lum had, in some measure, connived at the diabolical attempt to poison the whole of the foreign residents of Hongkong.
When the news of the outbreak of hostilities at Canton reached England, the several political parties in opposition formed a coalition with a view to censure the Ministry. Lord Derby, supported by Lord Lyndhurst in the House of Lords (February 24, 1857), and Mr. Cobden, supported by Mr. Gladstone and Mr. Disraeli in the House of Commons (February 26, 1857), heroically espoused the cause of that innocent lamb-like Yeh and condemned the proceedings initiated by Sir John Bowring in the most unsparing terms. It was said that the Government had one rule for the weak and another for the strong, and that the conduct of Sir John Bowring had been characterized by overbearing insolence towards the Chinese authorities. Lord Palmerston warmly defended the action of Sir John but, as the debate proceeded, it soon became evident that the question involved was not merely the proposed appointment of a Committee to investigate British relations with China, nor even the recall of Sir John, but the fate of the Ministry. However, when Mr. Cobden's vote of censure was carried in the Commons by a majority of 16 votes, the Ministers, instead of resigning, announced (March 5, 1857) that, after passing certain urgent measures, they would dissolve Parliament in order to appeal, on the Chinese question, to the nation. They added that meanwhile the policy of the Government with regard to China would continue to be what it always had been, viz. a policy for the protection of British commercial interests, and that the question of the continuance or recall of Sir John Bowring was one that
