ridiculous to condescend to
negotiation with so inferior a power as Britain: he had given his
orders; these must be obeyed; and his minister had himself written a
letter to Queen Victoria, that she might not plead ignorance of the
high behests of his Celestial majesty. It was not till the fleet
appeared at the mouth of the Pei-Ho, and the capital was in danger,
that Taou-Kwang deigned to seek an accommodation by means of his
smooth-tongued minister Keshen, who negotiated an armistice, promising
that all wrongs would be redressed by a commission appointed to meet
the British representatives at Canton. But as soon as the fleet turned
southward, the danger was considered visionary; and again the cry
arose to punish the insolence of the Western barbarians, as the
English were politely designated. The empress-dowager, who was never
before known to meddle with state affairs, told her son that 'the
English and Chinese could not co-exist under the canopy of heaven;
that the Celestial Empire must assert its superiority over these
barbarian robbers; and that unless he waged war to their utter
extermination, his ancestors would never acknowledge him in Hades.'
Keshen was now denounced as a traitor to his country for having come
to any terms; he was sentenced to death; and though his execution was
deferred, yet his whole property, amounting in silver alone to the
value of three millions sterling, was confiscated; his very wives were
sold by auction; and he who had been one of the richest men in the
empire, had not the means of buying himself a jacket.

Elepoo, the imperial commissioner at Ning-poo, opposite Chusan, was
also denounced. His crime was, that he had, according to the terms of
the truce, surrendered the English prisoners, notwithstanding the
counter-orders he had received to send them to Peking as trophies of
victory, to be cut to pieces according to custom. Among them was a
captain's wife, who had been wrecked, and had thus fallen into his
power. A happy thought struck some of the mandarins--that she might be
passed off as the sister of the barbarian Queen. She was accordingly
put into a cage, and carried about for exhibition; but Elepoo
delivered her from the excruciating death she would have suffered as
Queen Victoria's sister, and restored her to her countrymen. The whole
cabinet was indignant; he was summoned to appear immediately before
his exasperated sovereign, and sentenced to transportation to the
deserts of