A stout old Scotch lady when asked
about her health, replied that she was “weel
i’ pairts, but ower muckle to be a’ weel
at ane time.” If the old lady was too large
to be perfectly well all over at the same time, may
it not be said that in this respect China resembled
her in 1860? The largest empire in the world
was suffering from external as well as internal troubles.
A great portion of the country was given up to all
the horrors of civil war conducted on an enormous scale,
while the united armies of England and France were
assaulting it from without.
Space does not permit a detailed account
of the causes which led England to declare war on
China. This war was but a phase in a dispute
that had been going on since 1837 between the two countries.
In 1842, to our shame it must be said, by force of
arms we compelled the Chinese to receive opium from
India, and thenceforward a very sore feeling existed
against us. Just before the Indian Mutiny this
feeling was awakened by a trifling event, and war
was again declared, though, owing to the outbreak
of the Mutiny, we did not press matters for a time.
As soon as our hands were free in India, operations
in China were actively pushed forward, the French
troops joining us on account of the murder of some
French missionaries. The war was practically a
walk-over, for the Chinese army was quite incapable
of meeting trained forces; and a treaty having been
agreed upon, the representatives of the English and
French returned home.
In March 1859 Mr. Frederick Bruce,
brother to Lord Elgin, was sent out as Minister Plenipotentiary
to China, and instructed to proceed to Pekin to exchange
the ratifications of the treaty. He was to be
accompanied by Admiral Hope, the English admiral commanding
in China. Pekin lies inland about a hundred miles,
being connected with the sea by the river Peiho, the
entrance to which was commanded by the Taku Forts.
For some reason, the Chinese did not want Mr. Bruce
to proceed to Pekin, or at all events they objected
to his proceeding by the river route, as he proposed.
Obstacles to the progress of our ships were put in
the way, and the Chinese refused to remove them.
Mr. Bruce thereupon called upon the Admiral to take
steps for their removal, and on his attempting to
do so, the Chinese fired on the English ships with
such telling effect that four gunboats were placed
hors de combat. Nor was the Admiral more
successful when he attempted to storm the forts.
The result of that day’s work was that out of
1100 men in the English force nearly 450 were killed
or wounded. The feeling in England was, that
though Mr. Bruce had acted very hastily in thus committing
England to another war without definite instructions
from home, the matter could not be allowed to rest.
The French again joined us, and Sir Hope Grant, who
had distinguished himself in the Indian Mutiny, was
appointed to the command. This General, it may
be remarked, was an earnest Christian no less than
an eminent soldier. The Taku Forts were captured
and the troops were marching on Pekin, when the Chinese
sought to open negotiations, in order to prevent our
army from entering their capital. Our representatives
consented to enter into negotiations at Tungchow, a
place about a dozen miles from Pekin. Some English
officers, accompanied by a few of the staff of the
English and French envoys, went forward to Tungchow,
to make the necessary arrangements for the interview
of the envoys with the Chinese commissioners.
A misunderstanding arose, and twenty-six British and
twelve French subjects were seized, in spite of the
flag of truce, and hurried off to different prisons.
Their sufferings as prisoners were frightful, the
result being that half of them died, while the remainder,
when released, bore evident signs of the ill-treatment
they had undergone. The allied armies at once
marched on Pekin, and Lord Elgin refused to treat
with the Chinese till the prisoners were restored,
which did not take place till the gates of the city
were about to be blown in. The Chinese were compelled
to pay L10,000 for each European and L500 for each
native soldier captured, in addition to having their
famous Summer Palace, valued by some at the almost
fabulous sum of L4,000,000, destroyed.
Gordon at this time was adjutant of
engineers at Chatham, a post a good deal esteemed
by officers of his rank. He had lost the opportunity
of seeing active service in India, but he was determined
that it should be no fault of his if he were not sent
out to China. He resigned his appointment at
Chatham, an act which greatly annoyed his father and
many of his friends. Even a high official in the
War Office considered that he was damaging his prospects
for life; whereas it turned out that by going to China
he got that opportunity of exercising his talents and
displaying his abilities which he might otherwise never
have met with. Not leaving England till the 22nd
of July 1860, he was too late to take part in the
principal action, the taking of the Taku Forts, which
were assaulted on the 21st August. He writes
to his mother from Hong-Kong, “I am rather late
for the amusement, which will not vex you.”
He arrived at Tientsin on September 26th, and marched
with Sir Hope Grant’s force to Pekin. The
following is his description of the only part he was
allowed to take before the Chinese surrendered:
“We were sent down in a great
hurry to throw up works and batteries against
the town, as the Chinese refused to give up the gate
we required them to surrender before we would
treat with them. The Chinese were given until
noon on October 13 to give up the Anting gate.
We made a lot of batteries, and everything was ready
for the assault of the wall, which is battlemented
and forty feet high, but of inferior masonry.
At 11.30 P.M. on the 12th, however, the gate was
opened, and we took possession; so our work was of
no avail.”
The English and French armies left
Pekin on November 8th, a little over three weeks after
the fall of the city, and returned to Tientsin, to
take up their quarters for the ensuing cold weather.
Captain Gordon was the senior engineer officer left
behind, and he remained till the spring of 1862, performing
the ordinary engineer duties of providing accommodation
for men and horses. During his stay at Tientsin
there is little of any interest to record. He
wisely relieved the monotony of camp life by making
a journey to the Great Wall of China, which has been
visited by very few of our countrymen. He was
doubtless prompted by curiosity to undertake this
expedition, but other motives were also at work.
He was a born soldier, he was good at surveying, and
doubtless he was anxious to ascertain by personal
observation if any other route existed than the well-known
one by which a Russian army could march on Pekin;
but he was unsuccessful in finding one. During
the journey the cold was very severe; in one place,
he says, “the raw eggs were frozen hard as if
they had been boiled.”
It has been already mentioned that
China was troubled by an extensive civil war, which
had been going on for many years. It appears to
have commenced in the province of Quang-Tung, and
to have been headed by a schoolmaster, Hung-tsue-schuen.
That there must have been good cause for the dissatisfaction
which caused the outbreak is clear from the fact that
not only did thousands join the rising, but that among
the rebels were men of great ability. The leader
seems to have been a strange mixture of good and evil,
and at one time appears to have had an inclination
towards Christianity. Unfortunately the evil part
of his nature predominated, and his head was turned
by his success. During the time the Chinese troops
were engaged in war with the English, the rebels had
it pretty well their own way, and large tracts of the
country were devastated. Intoxicated with success,
the rebels threatened to attack Shanghai, and the
merchants there, seeing how incapable the Government
was to protect them, subscribed to form a small army
to protect their interests. The command of this
force was given to an American named Ward, who appears
to have been a born soldier. His career was short,
but he was engaged in seventy actions and never lost
one. So successful was he, that the Pekin authorities
conferred on his troops the pretentious title of “Ever-Victorious
Army.” Unfortunately for that army, it soon
lost its able commander, for in September 1862 he
was killed when assaulting a city near Ningpo.
He was succeeded by an American adventurer named Burgevine,
who turned out a complete failure, being one of that
type of unprincipled men who do so much harm in non-Christian
countries. When he was dismissed, application
was made to the English General to appoint an English
officer to take command. Major Gordon had been
ordered to Shanghai from Pekin at the beginning of
May 1862, and consequently had come under the command
of General Staveley, with whom, it will be remembered,
he was acquainted in the Crimea. General Staveley’s
duty was to clear the country for thirty miles round
Shanghai of the rebels, and in the performance of
this task Major Gordon had been employed. The
opinion that General Staveley had formed of Gordon’s
courage and ability in the Crimea was confirmed in
the operations around Shanghai, and the following
account is given by that General of Gordon’s
plucky conduct:
“Captain Gordon was of the greatest
use to me when the task of clearing the rebels
from out of the country within a radius of thirty
miles from Shanghai had to be undertaken. He reconnoitred
the enemy’s defences, and arranged for the
ladder-parties to cross the moats, and for the
escalading of the works; for we had to attack
and carry by storm several towns fortified with high
walls and deep wet ditches. He was, however,
at the same time a source of much anxiety to me
from the daring manner in which he approached the
enemy’s works to acquire information. Previous
to our attack upon Singpo, and when with me in
a boat reconnoitring the place, he begged to be
allowed to land, in order better to see the nature
of the defences. Presently, to my dismay,
I saw him gradually going nearer and nearer, by
rushes from cover to cover, until he got behind
a small outlying pagoda within a hundred yards of the
wall, and here he was quietly making a sketch
and taking notes. I, in the meantime, was
shouting myself hoarse in trying to get him back; for
not only were the rebels firing at him from the
walls, but I saw a party stealing round to cut
him off.”
There is not much more of interest
to record of Gordon’s doings at this period.
The rebels having been cleared out of the thirty-miles
radius, Gordon was deputed to commence a complete
survey of the whole district, and in December we find
him so engaged. This occupation gave him a thorough
insight into the ways of the people and the nature
of the country. In this month he writes as follows:
“The people on the confines are
suffering greatly and dying of starvation.
This state of affairs is most sad, and the rebellion
ought to be put down. Words cannot express
the horrors these people suffer from the rebels,
or the utter desert they have made of this rich
province. It is all very well to talk of non-intervention,
and I am not particularly sensitive, nor are our
soldiers generally so; but certainly we are all
impressed with the utter misery and wretchedness
of these poor people.”
When General Staveley was applied
to for an officer to take command of the so-called
Ever-Victorious Army, his thoughts not unnaturally
turned to Gordon, who, by the way, had received the
brevet rank of major at the end of 1862. Gordon,
having seen the failings and shortcomings of our generals
in the Crimea, longed for an opportunity to exercise
the gifts of which he felt conscious. General
Staveley, however, shrank from recommending him for
such a dangerous post. He knew well the plucky,
chivalrous nature of the young engineer, and not unnaturally
feared that he would expose himself too much to danger.
His affection for Major Gordon made him at first refuse
to recommend him for the command, and it was not till
Gordon repeatedly urged him to yield, and promised
not to expose himself more than necessary, that he
consented to submit his name to the authorities at
home. A temporary commander being urgently required,
he appointed the chief of his staff, Captain Holland,
of the Royal Marines, to the post, pending the decision
of the War Office with regard to Gordon. Before
the reply arrived from England two expeditions took
place, one against Fushan, under Major Brennan, and
one against the city of Taitsan, in which Captain Holland
commanded in person. Both were disastrous to
the reputation of the Ever-Victorious Army. In
the attack on Taitsan some 7500 men were engaged,
about one-third belonging to the Ever-Victorious Army,
while the remainder were Chinese Imperial troops.
Unfortunately, Captain Holland took it for granted
that the Mandarins were correct when they informed
him that the moat around the city contained no water,
whereas it proved to be at least thirty feet deep.
This was not discovered till the assaulting party
arrived without bridges, and with nothing but escalading
ladders, which they attempted to use as bridges.
The ladders were of course not strong enough to bear
the weight of the men, and broke down. The assault
was very soon turned into a rout, and the “Ever-Victorious
Army” not only lost several hundred men, but
allowed two guns to fall into the hands of the enemy.
Such a disaster clearly indicated
that an abler man was required at the head of the
Ever-Victorious Army, and forthwith Major Gordon was
appointed. A letter written home at the time shows
that he was conscious that his father would not be
pleased at the step he had taken:
“I am afraid that you will be
much vexed at my having taken the command of the
Sung-kiang force, and that I am now a Mandarin.
I have taken the step on consideration. I
think that any one who contributes to putting
down this rebellion fulfils a humane task, and
I also think tends a great deal to open China to civilisation.
I will not act rashly, and I trust to be able soon
to return to England; at the same time, I will
remember your and my father’s wishes, and
endeavour to remain as short a time as possible.
I can say that if I had not accepted the command,
I believe the force would have broken up, and
the rebellion gone on in its misery for years.
I trust this will not now be the case, and that I may
soon be able to comfort you on the subject.
You must not fret over the matter. I think
I am doing a good service.... I keep your likeness
before me, and can assure you and my father that
I will not be rash, and that as soon as I can
conveniently, and with due regard to the object
I have in view, I will return home.”
Gordon’s father has been much
misrepresented by some biographers. It has been
practically said that he was not able to appreciate
his son’s nobility of character; but there is
not a word of truth in this. The old man saw
that the post accepted by his son was one of great
danger, made all the more dangerous by that son’s
daring, and the fact that he did not understand the
language of the people and was not cognisant of their
manner of conducting warfare. He also was of opinion
that the Chinese Government ought to be able to deal
with their own internal affairs, and put down any
rebellions that might occur without making a cat’s-paw
of his son. One cannot blame the father, who only
looked at the matter in a natural way, judging the
circumstances from his own standpoint. It is
impossible to consider the whole facts, and to read
the letters concerning them, without feeling that neither
father nor son had anything of which to be ashamed.
One of the most painful things in
life is for a man who is fond of his parents to have
to take a step which he feels will not meet with their
approval, and we may be quite sure that Major Gordon
gave this subject his earnest and prayerful consideration.
The path of duty seemed to him to be clear, and the
call was distinct. The whole country was practically
deluged in blood, and not only strong men, but hapless
women and children, were suffering. Could Gordon,
knowing what he did, and feeling conscious of his
power to put down the rebellion, have declined to
enter the path so unexpectedly opened to him?
Some would have done so. But opportunities such
as this, not seized, are seldom repeated. His
ability, his energies, and his powers might never have
found full scope, and might have proved a curse to
him rather than a blessing. How often one sees
in life men with marked ability who are not only unhappy
themselves, but make every one around them equally
so. They seem to have missed the object for which
they were created, and instead of doing their duty
in a large sphere, as they might have done, their
stunted energies prevent them from properly filling
even a smaller and humbler sphere. They have
missed the opportunity of being really great, and
yet their abilities prevent them from being satisfied
with anything short of this. The call came to
Gordon to take his share in the battle of life, and
to do his best to mitigate the sufferings caused by
a horrible civil war, and doubtless he pondered those
words, “He that loveth father or mother more
than Me is not worthy of Me.” He decided
to take the path which appeared to him the one of duty;
nor need we be surprised when we know that he was
a thorough Englishman of the highest type, of whom
the words are true
“There’s a heart
that leaps with burning glow
The wronged and
the weak to defend;
It strikes as soon for a trampled
foe
As it does for
a soul-bound friend.”