lag torn down, and the crew carried away as prisoners. Such
was the English account. The Chinese denied that any flag was flying at the
time of the capture: the British ownership of the vessel, they maintained,
was never more than colourable, and had expired a month before: the crew
were all their own subjects, apprehended on a charge of piracy.

The English authorities refused to listen to this. They insisted on a
written apology for the insult to their flag, and the formal restitution of
the captured sailors. And when these demands were refused, or incompletely
fulfilled, they summoned the fleet, in the hope that a moderate amount of
pressure would lead to the required concessions. Shortly after, finding
arms in their hands, they thought it a good opportunity to enforce the
fulfilment of certain 'long-evaded treaty obligations,' including the right
for all foreign representatives of free access to the authorities and the
city of Canton. With this view, fort after fort, suburb after suburb, was
taken or demolished. But the Chinese, after their manner, would neither
yield nor fight; and contented themselves with offering large rewards for
the head of every Englishman.

When this state of matters was reported to England, it was brought before
the House of Commons on a motion by Mr. Cobden, condemnatory of 'the
violent measures resorted to at Canton in the late affair of the "Arrow."'
The motion, supported by Mr. Gladstone in one of his splendid bursts of
rhetoric, was carried against the Government by a majority of sixteen, in a
full and excited house, on the morning of February 26, 1857. But Lord
Palmerston refused to accept the adverse vote as expressing the will of the
people. He appealed to the constituencies, candidly telling the House that,
pending that appeal, 'there would be no change, and could be no change, in
the policy of the Government with respect to events in China.' At the same
time he intimated that a special Envoy would be sent out to supersede the
local authorities, armed with full powers to settle the relations between
England and China on a broad and solid basis.

[Sidenote: Appointment of Lord Elgin.]

But where was the man who, at a juncture so critical, in face of an adverse
vote of the House of Commons, on the chance of its being rescinded by the
country, could be trusted with so delicate a mission; who could be relied
on, in the conduct of such an expedition against a foe alike stubborn and
we