ASIA 
 
CORNELL 
 
 UNIVERSITY 
 
 LIBRARY 
 
 THE 
 
 CHARLES WILLIAM WASON 
 
 COLLECTION ON CHINA 
 
 AND THE CHINESE 
 
[OME PAGES IN THE HISTORY 
 OF SHANGHAI, 1842-1856 
 
 BY 
 
 W. R. CARLES, C.M.G. 
 
 Paper read before the China Society on May 23, 1916 
 
 EAST AND WEST. LTD. 
 J. VICTORIA STREET. LONDON, S.W. 
 
SOME PAGES IN THE HISTORY OF 
 SHANGHAI, 1842-1856* 
 
 By W. R. Carles, c.m.g. 
 
 Thirty odd years ago, life at Shanghai was, perhaps, not 
 so strenuous as it has since become, and the British Vice- 
 Consulate was not so busy but that there were half-hours 
 in which other work than that of the day could be taken 
 in hand. As much of the ordinary work related to the 
 tenure of land within the Settlement, this subject naturally 
 excited my interest, especially owing to the existence of 
 two counter-forces, of which the one impelled natives to 
 acquire land within the Settlement intended for foreigners, 
 while the other drove foreigners to live outside their own 
 Settlement. In the one case, the cause was the desire 
 to secure the immunities and advantages which were to 
 be obtained by living in territory controlled and policed 
 by foreigners. In the other, the motive was to get away 
 from the bustle and stir of the busy port, and to enjoy a 
 country life outside of office hours. In both cases there 
 was added the excitement of the knowledge that the 
 purchase of property was anj extremely good speculation, 
 and that the tendency was towards a constant advancement 
 of values in spite of occasional waves of depression. 
 
 Of the men who came to the Vice-Consul's office on 
 
 * A paper read before the China Society at Caxton Hall, Westminster, 
 on May 23, 1916, Mr. A. M. Townsend in the chair. 
 
2 Some Pages in the History of Shanghai, 1842-1856 
 
 business, many were men who had known Shanghai in 
 its early days, and all were keenly interested in its pros- 
 perity and future. Of the latter class I think the late 
 Mr. G. J. Morrison was the most prominent, and I had 
 many a talk with him on the future which lay in store 
 for this city of which the like had never existed in any 
 part of the world, for where else were citizens of every 
 civilized country to be found who devoted their energies 
 and time to the development in a foreign country of a 
 steadily increasing area in which foreign ideas of liberty 
 and self-government were given free play, and the govern- 
 ment was administered by unpaid officers, elected in large 
 measure by absentees } 
 
 The gradual discovery of old plans of the Settlement 
 added to the interest which one felt in the early days of 
 Shanghai, but the material for full information was scanty 
 owing to the destruction of the Consulate by fire in 1870, 
 when its archives were burnt. Only a few volumes had 
 escaped, but one of these fortunately contained copies of 
 the correspondence which had passed between the Con- 
 sulate and the Committees of Land Renters and others, 
 together with sonie notes of occurrences relating to the 
 public life of the place. This I found so interesting that 
 I made extracts and copies of some of the papers, and I 
 propose to-day to try and string them together for your 
 benefit and my own pleasure, in the hope that the 
 prominent events in the early life of Shanghai, from its 
 public or municipal point of view, may excite in you the 
 same interest that it did in myself I am not proposing 
 to do more than refer to the gradual growth of self- 
 government. The late Mr. J. W. Maclellan and Mr. 
 W. S. Wetmore in 1889 and 1894, the Shanghai Mercury 
 in 1893, ^'^^ still more recently Mr. C. M. Dyce, have 
 told much of the stirring events which have taken place 
 in Shanghai since the opening of the port. Mr. Maclellan 
 devoted a whole chapter to the story of the government 
 of Shanghai in an article which is full of very interesting 
 
Some Pages in the History of Shanghai, 1842-1856 3 
 
 material, and which 1 propose to use as the frame on 
 which to construct my story to-night. 
 
 Shanghai, as we all know, was opened to trade by the 
 Treaty of Nanking, dated August 29, 1842. But it was 
 not until November 5 in the following year that Captain 
 George Balfour, R.E., our first Consul, arrived there, and 
 the port was not formally opened to trade until Novem- 
 ber 14, 1843. One of the first things to which the Consul 
 had to attend was the conclusion of arrangements with 
 the Taotai, under which British subjects might acquire and 
 hold land. Regulations on the subject were published in 
 November, 1845, ^""^ September, 1846, and November, 
 1848. 
 
 The first public meeting of which I have been able 
 to find a record was held on December 22, 1846, at 
 Richard's Hotel, a building on the river front which seems 
 soon to have disappeared, as it is not marked on plans 
 of the Concession of a few years later date, but it was 
 recollected by some of the older residents in Shanghai 
 thirty years ago. The meeting is described as a Meeting 
 of the Foreign Community, and a resolution was passed 
 ' that " a tax be levied upon the Foreign Community 
 renting land in Shanghai for the purpose of keeping the 
 roads in proper condition, constriicting bridges, erecting 
 public jetties, etc., and that the tax be a rateable payment, 
 according to the extent of land rented by each proprietor, 
 and that the Committee be hereafter appointed to consider 
 this mode as the one adopted by the Community ;/ and that 
 a Committee be appointed to carry throygh the objects 
 contemplated." 
 
 The difficulties of the hour were very great. The 
 necessity for public action was felt by all. It was impos- 
 sible to leave to individuals the maintenance of roads, 
 construction of jetties, and simple matters of health which 
 confront the first settlers in any part of the world. But 
 who was the authority to whom appeal could be made 
 to enforce what was required ? The Chinese expected 
 
4 Some Pages in the History of Shanghai, 1842-1856 
 
 foreigners to govern themselves, and to receive directions 
 from their Consuls in the matter. The foreign community 
 realized the advantage of uniting together without laying 
 much stress on the nationality of the one or the other 
 individual, and the Consuls, British, French and American, 
 worked well together, but had no power to enforce any 
 Regulation they made. They must have also had in their 
 memory the fate which befell the unfortunate Captain 
 Elliot in 1839 when, driven by the sneers and taunts of 
 the Cantonese to prove that he really was an officer of 
 the British Government, he issued Regulations to control 
 sailors in the port. Lord Palmerston was not a man 
 inclined to belittle his countrymen in the eyes of foreigners, 
 but on March 23, 1839, he wrote to Captain Elliot that 
 "the Law Officers of the Crown were of opinion that 
 the establishment of a system of ship's police at Whampoa, 
 within the dominions of the Emperor of China, would be 
 an interference with the absolute right of sovereignty 
 enjoyed by independent States which could only be 
 justified by positive treaty or by implied permission from 
 usage." Accordingly Captain Elliot was instructed to 
 obtain first of all the written approval of those Regulations 
 by the Governor of Canton {vide " Europe in Asia," 
 p. 64). 
 
 In Shanghai, it is true, such written approval was easier 
 to obtain than in Canton ; but there was also another 
 difficulty which had not existed in Canton. This lay in 
 the ill-defined position of the British Settlement. Captain 
 Balfour had worked in perfect harmony with his colleagues, 
 though apparently he strongly resented the action of the 
 United States Consul in flying the United States flag 
 within the British Settlement. 
 
 Then again there arose the difficulty of enforcing a 
 resolution which required payment of moneys from persons 
 of different nationalities who perhaps had not attended at 
 the meeting or were simply conscientious objectors to pay- 
 ing for anything. It is no small tribute to the tact, 
 
Some Pages in the History of Shanghai^ 1842-1856 5 
 
 common sense, and public feeling of Shanghai men that 
 these difficulties have eventually all disappearejd. 
 
 The Committee appointed in 1846 brought forward a 
 scheme which, on March 20, 1849, was laid before the 
 " Renters of Land " at a public meeting held at the British 
 Consulate, when it was resolved "that the Committee be 
 requested to take steps to raise $6,000 to $7,000 to defray 
 the estimated cost of five stone jetties of twelve feet in 
 width, upon which sum interest is to be paid at the rate 
 of 10 per cent, per annum, by the levy of a wharfage due 
 on goods landed and shipped, and that they levy an assess- 
 ment at the rate of \ {sic) per mow annually on Rent 
 Lands, in order to form a sinking fund to be appropriated 
 towards the payment of the above Loan." 
 
 This, so far as I could find, is the first reference to a 
 public loan or to Land Renters, a name which is a transla- 
 tion of tsu chu, and refers to the tenure of land from the 
 Chinese Government under a perpetual lease. 
 
 Objections were made to the payment of wharfage dues 
 by Messrs. Gibb Livingston, Holliday Wise, and other 
 firms on the score of their having private jetties (August 16, 
 1851). By consent, the question of this liability was re- 
 ferred to the Attorney- General at Hongkong, and con- 
 firmed by him. Gibb Livingston, in view of this decision, 
 realized that the payment of a handsome sum in cash for 
 such rights and property as they possessed was preferable 
 to the continuance of a dispute which entailed heavy legal 
 costs, and in 1852 their jetty was bought for $121.63. If 
 I recollect rightly, one or two other jetties were bought 
 about the same time at about the same price. 
 
 In 1846 Mr. Alcock had succeeded Captain Balfour in 
 the Consulate at Shanghai, and in 1848 won the confidence 
 and admiration of all there by the energetic action which 
 he took to enforce redress for an assault on three mission- 
 aries at Tsingpu, It is not often that the action of a 
 British Consul of a vigorous character is applauded by the 
 Foreign Office. But on the spot, the blockade and holding 
 
6 Some Pages in the History of Shanghai, 1842-1856 
 
 up of a fleet of 1,400 tribute junks for fifteen days by a ten- 
 gun brig (H.M.S. Childers, Captain Pitman) until justice 
 was done was recognized as the right thing done at the 
 right time and in the right way. Though the Taotai was 
 furious at the moment and sore at the rebuke he received 
 from Nanking, the relations between the Consulates and 
 the Chinese authorities seem to have been improved by 
 the occurrence. The story is admirably told by De 
 Quincey, but unfortunately is omitted in some editions of 
 his works. 
 
 It was fortunate that the relations between Mr. Alcock 
 and the foreign community were so cordial, and that his 
 character was at this time well understood by the Chinese 
 authorities, for the seizure of the city by the Triad Society 
 in 1854 and the operations by Imperial troops against the 
 rebels produced a very awkward position. The story of 
 the great battle of Muddy Flat and of the incidents which 
 led to it is told both by Mr. Wetmore and Mr. Maclella.n 
 and other writers, and need not be referred to, except in its 
 effect upon the question of the control gained by foreign 
 residents over the administration of the foreign Settlements. 
 But it is perhaps as well to mention that, as Mr. Wetmore 
 points out, the Settlement did not extend beyond the 
 Honan Road, and the Racecourse, which was near the 
 scene of the historic battle, lay between the Honan Road 
 and the Defence Creek. It is also noteworthy that the 
 Soochow Creek was at that time a big waterway, almost, 
 if not quite, as large and as deep as the Hwangpoo. And 
 in this connection a theory held by the late Mr. Nils Moller 
 as to the collapse of the first bridge which was built over 
 the entrance to the Soochow Creek is worth repeating as 
 told to me. 
 
 The enormous influx of refugees from the country round 
 during the period of the Taiping Rebellion had not only 
 severely taxed the housing powers of the Settlement, but 
 had also occasioned the accumulation of a huge mass of 
 native boats on the Soochow Creek and near its mouth. 
 
Some Pages in the History of Shanghai, 1842-1856 7 
 
 The boats formed almost a continuous platform far out 
 from the shore into the river, when a storm of great 
 violence sprang up and sank hundreds of the boats, 
 together with those on board. Mr. Holler's theory was 
 that one of the pillars of the bridge built in the seventies 
 rested on nothing else than a deep mass of wreckage of 
 boats and victims of the storm, and that, after a short time, 
 the weight of the bridge produced the inevitable collapse 
 of the whole structure, which rested upon piles driven into 
 the mud. 
 
 But to return to the British Settlement. The presence 
 of tens of thousands of Chinese within its area and the 
 erection of houses for their accommodation led to many 
 complaints from the Taotai after the recovery of the native 
 city from the Triads, and the assumption of arms in their 
 own defence against Imperial troops had awakened in the 
 foreign community the growth of a spirit of independence 
 which was perhaps hardly realized at the time. To meet 
 the new situation, new Regulations for the Settlement were 
 discussed and franied by the Consuls and the Taotai, and 
 on July II, 1854, these were presented to a meeting of 
 Land Renters by Mr. Alcock. The speech on the occasion 
 by Mr. Alcock, which was republished by the N. C. Herald 
 in 1904, celebrates a remarkable departure in the govern- 
 ment of the Settlements. 
 
 Mr. Alcock explained that the Regulations were designed 
 to give the cosmopolitan community of Shanghai *' a legal 
 status, an existence as a body capable of taking legal action 
 and of lending a legal sanction to measures required for 
 their defence ; there must be some organization to take 
 the power of a representative council with municipal 
 powers and authority. And one of the first acts of such a 
 municipality would be the legalization of many measures 
 hitherto forced by a stern necessity upon the naval and 
 civil authorities on the spot, which could not be justified on 
 any principle of legality." 
 
 From land and house rates and wharfage dues he 
 
8 Some Pages in the History oj Shanghai, 1842-1856 
 
 said "an income of $13,000 might be obtained without 
 serious difficulty or pressure, of which the Foreign Com- 
 munity should contribute one portion, the Chinese residents 
 another, and the Chinese Government whatever further 
 amount might be required to put the police force and defences 
 into an efficient state and to maintain them as long as 
 should be necessary." 
 
 The speech from which I have taken the above extracts 
 was a long speech of an invigorating character, and was 
 well received. Action was taken upon it the same day, and 
 the first Municipal Council was then elected. It consisted, 
 according to Mr. Maclellan, of Mr.W. Kay, Mr. E. Cunning- 
 ham, the Rev. D. Medhurst, Mr. D. O. King, Mr. C. A. 
 Fearon, Mr. J. Skinner, and Mr. W. S. Brown. Mr. 
 Cunningham, of Messrs. Russell and Company, was 
 appointed Chairman either then or soon afterwards. 
 
 Of the Regulations themselves there is little occasion to 
 speak. It is said that they were drawn up without consul- 
 tation with the mercantile representatives, as had presum- 
 ably been the case with the earlier editions also, but were 
 communicated to them before the meeting. In any case, 
 they gave satisfaction at the time and were an advance on 
 what had gone before. 
 
 The matter of the Regulations is not a subject on which 
 there is much occasion to dwell. Shanghai has been 
 famous for many things, and certainly can claim to be the 
 mother of a large family of Land Regulations, each larger 
 than the preceding set, and each an improvement in itself, 
 but capable of further improvement. The interesting point 
 in the Regulations of 1854 is that they are not merely a set 
 of Regulations drawn up by the Consuls in consultation with 
 the Taotai, as might have been gathered from the speech 
 which introduced them, nor, it would seem, is it quite exact 
 to speak of them, as in the minute which introduced the 
 Land Regulations of 1869, as "issued by the Consuls of 
 Great Britain, the United States of America and France, 
 acting under instructions from their respective Plenipoten- 
 
Some Pages in the History of Shanghai, 1842-1856 9 
 
 tiaries." They are something considerably more authorita- 
 tive, for the Chinese version shows that they were issued 
 by the Ministers of France and Great Britain and the 
 Commissioner of the United States, apparently in con- 
 junction with the Viceroy of the Province of Kuangtung. 
 The late Sir W. H. Medhurst described the deed which 
 embodied them as the Magna Charta of Shanghai, and it 
 seems strange that apparently no one, not even M. Cordier, 
 has paid attention to the striking feature which distinguishes 
 these Regulations from their predecessors. M, Cordier 
 mentions that the Consuls of the three Powers having 
 treaties with China — viz., Mr. Alcock, Mr. Murphy, and 
 M. Edan — approved of the Regulations (which, as he adds, 
 the French Government did not ratify), but he omits to 
 mention that M. Bourboulon, together with Sir John 
 Bowring and the U.S. Commissioner Mai [Co\one\ Marshall 
 or Mr. McLane), appear in the Chinese document as con- 
 firming the rules made by the Consuls and Taotai at 
 Shanghai, and requiring that any alterations proposed in 
 the future should be submitted to them and the Viceroy 
 of the Two Kuang for approval. M. Cordier's omission is 
 presumably due to the fact that Mr. Medhurst's translation 
 of the Regulations of 1845, 1846, and 1848 did not include 
 the Regulations of 1854. The character of the Regulations 
 is now, of course, only a matter of historical interest, but I 
 should not be surprised if it were owing to this character 
 that municipal government exists in Shanghai at the present 
 day. Since material is lacking on which to form a judg- 
 ment, this theory can, of course, be only a matter of 
 conjecture, but I think you will agree with me that the 
 theory is possible in view of the crisis in Shanghai's 
 municipal life to which I shall presently refer. 
 
 Mr. Cunningham, the Chairman of the Municipal 
 Council, was evidently a man of business as well as a 
 business man. In September, 1854, the Municipal Council 
 asked the Treaty Consuls to obtain from the Chinese 
 authorities a definite assurance that their proportion of the 
 
lo Some Pages in the History of Shanghai, 1842-1856 
 
 necessary expenses would be forthcoming, as the expenses 
 arising out of the scheme of municipal government were 
 much heavier than had been anticipated. The contributions 
 asked for by the Council were (i) a sum of " $15,000 towards 
 the erection of a barrack, the building to be the property of 
 the Chinese Government, for which the Council would pay 
 a rental of $1,500 per annum"; and (2) a yearly • subsidy 
 of $5,000 towards the current expenses "in view of the 
 Chinese Government being relieved from all expenses of a 
 native police within the bounds of the Settlement." 
 
 My notes on this period are very scanty, and I cannot 
 recollect whether any correspondence passed between the 
 Consulate and the Council in connection with those 
 proposals, but I find that the sum of $3,000 was paid by 
 the Chinese Government as a subsidy at the \rate of $500 
 per month for the half-year ending January 12, 1855. 
 
 The Chinese, in the experience of most of us, are liberal 
 in money matters, and the early difficulties which occurred 
 between the Council and the authorities were on a very 
 different subject. The Council desired the Consular body 
 to request that Chinese officials, when passing through the 
 Settlement, should not be accompanied by armed bodies 
 of soldiers, and the demand led to somewhat heated 
 correspondence. So far as I can recollect, the Council 
 stood to their guns, despite the lack of support from their 
 own authorities, and the whole affair was a striking instance 
 of what victories can be won by moral strength, even when 
 not backed by arms. I do not know what the strength of 
 the Municipal Police was in 1855, but in 1858 they 
 numbered only twenty-four men, divided into three parties, 
 who did eight hours on duty. 
 
 Mr. Wetmore told a story so apposite to the case that 
 I think it may well be quoted. If any inaccuracies are 
 detected, they are due to my defective memory. As far 
 as I can recollect, it ran somewhat as follows : 
 
 During the time that the Triad Society held the native 
 city, and while Imperial troops were in the neighbourhood, 
 
Some Pages in the History of Shanghai, 1842-1856 ii 
 
 he one day saw a body of soldiers with flags and all the 
 paraphernalia of war marching along the line of the, 
 Defence Creek until they reached the bridge. There a 
 long halt took place, soldiers and officers passed to and 
 fro apparently with messages, and after some time the 
 party moved away towards the Soochow Creek. Stirred 
 by curiosity, Mr, Wetmore went to see what was the 
 cause of the stoppage, and on the bridge he found an 
 English bluejacket with fixed bayonet, of whom he in- 
 quired why the Chinese soldiers had not crossed the 
 bridge, as seemed to be their intention. " I told them 
 I had orders not to allow anyone to pass," said the 
 sailor. Three cheers for the sailor ! 
 
 The Municipal Council, if they scored a victory on this 
 question, certainly scored a victory for the Chinese as well 
 as themselves, for acknowledgment of the international 
 character of the Settlement in matters such as that in this 
 dispute has been the foundation of the position which the 
 Settlement has since acquired through this recognition of 
 its neutrality during the war-like operations with France in 
 the eighties, and in the war with Japan in the nineties. 
 
 While Mr. Cunningham was fighting in the interest 
 of the future, a bolt fell from the blue which came near to 
 destroying the whole structure of self-government in the 
 foreign Settlements. Presumably, a report of the pro- 
 ceedings of the meeting of July ii, 1854, had been sent 
 through Sir J. Bowring to our Foreign Office, and for 
 some reason referred by Lord Clarendon to the Law 
 Officers of the Crown, and they, after due deliberation, 
 had decided that, as there was no precedent for such a 
 body as a Municipal Council being established in a 
 foreign country, the whole proceeding was very wrong. 
 Anyhow, in February, 1855, Mr. Alcock, in a letter 
 of some length to Mr. Cunningham, wrote : " A very 
 cogent reason existed in July last for making the attempt 
 to invest the representative committee specified in the 
 Land Regulations with a more distinctively municipal 
 
12 Some Pages tn the History of Shanghai, 1842-1856 
 
 character, which no longer prevails, in the urgency with 
 which the British naval Commander-in-Chief, Sir James 
 Stirling, insisted upon the constitution of a municipal 
 body as alone authorizing him to continue the protection 
 of his forces on shore. This could not at the time be 
 dispensed with, and whatever doubt there might be, 
 therefore, as to the practicability of giving municipal and 
 legal powers to any number of Foreign Renters selected 
 to represent the whole body for local objects, it seemed 
 advisable so far to concede the point as to make the 
 experiment. . . . 
 
 " The inexpediency of persevering in the experiment, 
 which we are led to believe is a very general opinion, 
 tending to render discussion superfluous, were it not 
 otherwise a work of supererogation from the fact that, as 
 regards the British and by far the larger section of the 
 community, the opinion of Her Majesty's Government 
 as to the legality precludes the British Consul in future 
 becoming a party to any exercise of authority by a 
 Municipal Council or to the maintenance in the name of 
 Her Majesty's Government of any Regulations which may 
 be laid down by such body." 
 
 The Municipal Council, in acknowledging the receipt 
 of this letter (February 20, 1855), noted that " Her 
 Majesty's Government consider the constitution of the 
 Municipal Council as contrary to the law of England," 
 a quotation, I think, from Mr. Alcock's letter. 
 
 On March i, 1855, the French Consul (M. Edan) 
 also retired from the position which he had occupied 
 vis-a-vis the Municipal Council. His withdrawal was, he 
 stated, because " I'experience des six mois qui viennent 
 de s'6couler, m'ayant demontrd Timpossibilit^ de concilier 
 les attributions officielles que les Consuls tiennent de 
 leurs gouvernements respectifs, ou m^me I'ind^pendance 
 du. souverain du pays, avec une magistrature exercde par 
 des Strangers, Elective, armee d'une police a elle et sans 
 autre contr61e qu'un scrutin annuel, vous comprendrez 
 
Some Pages in the History of Shanghai^ 1842-1856 13 
 
 que je me fasse un impdrieux [devoir] d'accorder me^ 
 actes avec mes convictions, et qu'en consequence je ne 
 fasse pas ddpendre du vote a intervenir le maintien ou 
 la suppression d'un pouvoir que je consid^re comma irr6- 
 gulier dans sa nature et compromettant par ses actes." 
 
 The vote to which he referred was that of a meeting 
 called by the Council for March 24 to consider : 
 
 " I. The continuance or not of a Municipal Council. 
 
 2. The continuance or not of a police force under the 
 control of the Council or otherwise. 
 
 3. The steps it may be necessary for the Council to 
 take upon the resolutions come to on the two previous 
 questions submitted to the meeting." 
 
 Of w^hat took place at that meeting there is no record, 
 as far as I could find. Mr. R. F. Thorburn, who must 
 have been in Shanghai at the time, and was afterwards 
 Secretary to the Council, made search in the municipal 
 archives, at the request of Mr. John Macgregor when 
 Chairman of the Council, but could find no reference to 
 it, and Mr. Alexander Michie, Sir Thomas Hanbury and 
 Mr. W. Keswick had no recollection of its having taken 
 place. Mr. Michie was so interested in the matter that 
 he said, had he known of it, he would have added a chapter 
 on the subject in his book, " The Englishman in China." 
 
 It is, therefore, matter for speculation whether the Land 
 Renters determined not to forgo the privileges which had 
 been conceded by the Chinese, no matter whether their 
 Legations and Consuls supported them or not, or whether 
 some device was adopted which might satisfy the scruples 
 of lawyers without in any way diminishing the essence of 
 the power which had been conferred in 1854. 
 
 A good many years ago a burning question existed 
 between our Legation and the Customs with regard to a 
 steamer which had not complied with a Customs Regulation. 
 The fact was beyond dispute. The difference of opinion 
 was as to the punishment to be inflicted. The Legation 
 held that a heavy fine would cover the case. The Chinese 
 
14 Some Pages in the History of Shanghai, 1842-1856 
 
 Government maintained that confiscation was the only- 
 punishment applicable according to the Regulations, and 
 announced that the next time the vessel visited the port 
 where she had committed the offence she would be seized. 
 Despatches, letters and telegrams of an urgent character 
 followed upon this announcement, and a big question with 
 many possibilities existed. The owners of the vessel were 
 naturally greatly perturbed, and may have consulted a 
 Chinese adviser as to what course to pursue. The solution 
 can hardly have suggested itself to an Englishman. The 
 solution was simple enough. The vessel's name, we will 
 say, was Armour, and the whole correspondence related 
 to the s.s. Arm-our. When the steamer Balmer appeared 
 in the port, there could be no question of punishing or 
 confiscating her. So the s.s. Armour died, and the 
 s.s. Balmer was born and duly christened by the Registrar 
 of Shipping, and all controversy ended. 
 
 So, I think, may have ended the dispute regarding the 
 illegal nature of the Municipal Council. The objection to 
 it as such existed only in the minds of foreigners, and no 
 objection could be raised even by lawyers to a Committee 
 of Land-holders. 
 
 For a time, it is true, all correspondence between the 
 Council and the Consulate ceased. Mr. Alcock, whose 
 popularity had been little, if at all, impaired by the rebuff 
 which had been dealt him on this and other occasions by 
 the Foreign Office, left for home, and a month or two later 
 Mr. Cunningham wrote to Mr. Brooke Robertson, who 
 had taken over charge of Her Majesty's Consulate, asking 
 him to request the Taotai to send his quota towards the 
 expenses of administration. After that, correspondence 
 was gradually resumed, and in 1869 Sir R.. Alcock had the 
 pleasure of signing, in company with the representatives 
 of Russia, France, the United States and Prussia, a 
 minute confirming a new code of Regulations for the 
 Settlements in whose welfare he had been so greatly 
 interested. 
 
Some Pages in the History oj Shanghai, 1842-1856 15 
 
 A very interesting fact in connection with the crisis of 
 1854 is that^the Chinese authorities did not complain of 
 the Municipal Council having exercised powers which had 
 not been conferred upon it, nor of having assumed a status 
 for which there was no authority. Much resentment, it 
 is true, was felt at the slight inflicted upon their officials 
 in the opposition to their retinue carrying arms when 
 passing through the Settlement. But what the Chinese 
 authorities had hoped for and still desired was that the 
 powers of the Council should be greater. The difficulty 
 of the hour for them was the presence within the Settle- 
 ment of sonje 50,000 Chinese, whose numbers were likely 
 to increase indefinitely. The Council had been expected 
 to take steps to stop the influx of Chinese and to expel 
 Chinese tenants from foreign-owned houses, but the 
 Council, when moved by the consular body to take action 
 in the matter, replied that it did not appear to them that 
 such matters fell within their control, but they undertook 
 to take immediate steps to suppress brothels and gambling 
 houses, and to see to the removal of such buildings 
 as obstructed the public way {vide " The Story of 
 Shanghai," p. "^9). 
 
 As to the objection raised by the Law Officers of the 
 Crown to the creation of a municipal body in a foreiga 
 country, the Chinese did not then, nor for many years 
 afterwards, hear nor know what the lawyers were talking 
 about. What particular name was assumed by the men 
 elected by the Land Renters mattered nothing to them. 
 Foreign devils were presumed to have a language of their 
 own, but Chinese officers certainly would not condescend 
 to ask what was the meaning of their words. 
 
 In conclusion, I would like to lay great stress on the 
 valuable work done by Mr. E. Cunningham in his position 
 as first Chairman of the Municipal Council. Perusal of the 
 records of that time brings out into strong relief his strength 
 of character, and the difficulties with which he was faced, 
 in the fact that he was an American citizen at the head 
 
i6 Some Pages in the History of Shanghai, 1842-1856 
 
 of a cosmopolitan body established in a British Settlement, 
 and in correspondence with a British Consul, through 
 whom alone dealings with the native authorities were 
 conducted. It is not easy to judge in how great a degree 
 the policy of his colleagues on the Council was affected by 
 him, or how far his action was the result of their advice, 
 but it seems certain that in Mr. ,E. Cunningham Shanghai 
 possessed a leader to whom the place still owes a great debt, 
 and that the semi-independence enjoyed by the foreign 
 community at the present day is due to the bold and clever 
 manner in which, in 1855, he steered the bark of self- 
 government through the storm which threatened its ruin 
 within twelve months of its being launched. 
 
 DISCUSSION 
 
 The Chairman (Mr. A. M. Townsend), opening the discussion, said 
 that Shanghai to-day was a magnificent city, but its narrow and tortuous 
 streets reminded one of its early difificulties. And if those narrow streets 
 could hardly do justice to the noble buildings which the city could now 
 boast, Shanghai yielded the palm to no other city in the East as a shipping, 
 commercial, and industrial port. Perhaps in the Western Hemisphere it 
 would always be a moot point whether Boston or New York was the hub 
 of the universe, and in the Eastern Hemisphere there might also be a 
 doubt as to whether Shanghai or Hongkong had the honour of being the 
 hub of that Hemisphere, but he was quite sure that a Shanghailander had 
 no doubts on that point. An interesting thing about Shanghai was its 
 political, or perhaps he should say its non-political, status. Foreign Powers 
 and institutions were fully established there, but at the same time, in their 
 midst, there was a republican government and a cosmopolitan republic, 
 which, as they had heard, was originally presided over by Mr. Cunningham, 
 who was so able a president and chairman. Although Mr. Carles had 
 introduced to them many points of interest, he had also interested them 
 by calling to their minds the names of many in whom they recognized old 
 and valued friends. Perhaps one of the chief attractions of Shanghai might 
 be said to be that republican character with which it had been invested, 
 and they had been very much interested in hearing of the growth and 
 somewhat precarious development of that system of government which the 
 Settlement now enjoyed. Before asking the meeting to pass a hearty vote 
 of thanks to Mr. Carles for his interesting lecture, the Chairman said they 
 
Some Pages in the History of Shanghai, 1842-1856 17 
 
 would all like to hear any remarks from friends present — and there were 
 many — who could speak with authority on the history of Shanghai. 
 
 Admiral Sir Edmund Fremantle remarked that he knew Shanghai 
 pretty well for one who had not regularly lived there. He was first there 
 in 1853, when it was very interesting because of the rebels' possession 
 of the native town, which the Imperialists, as they called them, were 
 besieging. Their business, in a small frigate, was to prevent the Im- 
 perialists from going into the Settlement, and they sometimes used to 
 turn out against them, and had several little scrimmages. He was not 
 there at the time when it was found necessary to storm the Imperialists' 
 capital. Shanghai in 1853 struck the speaker as a wonderfully advanced 
 place ; the Bund was apparently very flourishing, and there was a great 
 deal of civilization there, according to his ideas. A good many years 
 afterwards — in 1892 or 1893 — he was there as Commander-in-Chief of the 
 China Station, and a jubilee was then being celebrated. (Mr. Carles 
 interposed, at the request of the speaker, that this might have been the 
 jubilee of the opening of the port, which took place in 1842, or of the 
 opening of the port to trade in 1843.) Sir Edmund continued that he 
 recollected, in connection wfth that visit, that Shanghai was certainly the 
 most pleasant place in the Far East, if not the greatest. They^always had 
 very good provisions there — (laughter) — particularly good mutton. || There 
 was nothing in India that compared with the food they got in Shanghai. 
 There was, however, always a good deal of friction there, such as friction 
 with the Chinese authorities as to the rights possessed over Europeans, 
 and so on. He recollected that the China and Japan War was brought on 
 to a great extent by the question of a Chinaman or rather, a Korean, who 
 had been engaged in plots in Korea, who had been to Japan, then was 
 induced to go back to China, and who was murdered in the Shanghai 
 Settlement. He believed his name was Kim. They allowed the Chinese 
 Government to take the body of Kim back to Korea, where it was 
 promptly hung, drawn, and quartered, which gave great offence to the 
 Japanese. When he was last in China, Sir Edmund went on to say, 
 although Hongkong was our possession and our soldiers were there, yet it 
 struck him that there was something even more interesting about Shanghai, 
 in spite of the fact that it was only partially English. When he was there 
 in 1853 they not only had Mr. Alcock, but Sir Harry Parkes, Vice-Consul. 
 So there were two very distinguished men there whom he recollected in 
 his happy days, and whom he used to meet a great deal. They were all 
 extremely indebted to Mr. Carles for the most interesting paper he 
 had read. 
 
 Mr. George Jamieson said that Mr. Carles' paper contained a great 
 deal of information which he fancied had not hitherto been made public, 
 and which would be valuable for the future historian of Shanghai. But 
 where was that historian ? It was announced four or five years ago that 
 Mr, Lanning was engaged in the preparation of a history of the rise and 
 growth of the Municipality, but he had not heard any more about it. It 
 was a story that ought to be told, however. No doubt it had been told. 
 
i8 Some Pages in the History of Shanghai, 1842-1856 
 
 but in a scattered manner here and there. What was wanted was an 
 ofificial history of the growth of that very great institution, the Municipality 
 of Shanghai. It illustrated that sort of Empire building that had been 
 carried on by Britishers for the past 150 years. " Take a handful of 
 Britishers and ,dump them down on foreign soil ; the first thing they do is 
 to evolve some sort of home rule." It illustrated also, Mr. Jamieson 
 continued, how very little help the Home Government gives to those 
 pioneers in all parts of the world. Mr. Carles had explained how near 
 those Regulations of 1854 came to strangulation at the hands of the Law 
 Officers of the Crown. The history of Shanghai had still to be written, 
 and the speaker was sure that Mr. Carles' paper, which filled up many 
 blanks in the already known history of the Settlement, would be a valuable 
 contribution to the compilation of that work. He would like, if he might, 
 to second the vote of thanks which had been proposed by the Chairman. 
 
 Dr. Johnston observed that he fully endorsed all that Mr. Jamieson 
 had said about Shanghai. The development of the Settlement under the 
 aegis of foreigners was one of the most remarkable things that had ever 
 taken place. A small community of foreigners planted in a little village-r- 
 when Shanghai was opened it was a mere village — had built up the present 
 structure. They were given some idea of its growth when they heard of 
 taxes amounting to a couple of thousand dollars, while present taxation 
 ran into tens of thousands of dollars. But Shanghai was fortunate in 
 having a very able administrative staff of Consuls — they were very able 
 men indeed — a good British Minister at Peking, and very able men in the 
 Council. Mr. Cunningham, for instance, was one of the ablest men in 
 Shanghai amongst the merchants there, and he, of course, contributed 
 greatly to the administration of the Municipality. No doubt the Council 
 had had a chequered career ; but it was marvellous that, in spite of all the 
 troubles that had occurred in Shanghai, they had managed to administer 
 the Settlement so well. It certainly well deserved to be called a model 
 Settlement, and he knew of no other place that had prospered in the way 
 Shanghai had done, and where the government had been carried on in 
 such a satisfactory manner. There had been differences often with the 
 Chinese, but they had been amicably arranged. Moreover, the citizens 
 of Shanghai had been so patriotic. They had not only attended to their 
 own business relations, but had taken an interest in the welfare of the 
 Chinese. He spoke from personal knowledge of one part of the philan- 
 thropic work carried on there — the Chinese Hospital, which was founded 
 by Hobson and then carried on by Drs. Lockhart and Henderson. The 
 speaker had had the privilege of being in charge of that hospital for 
 twenty-one years. At the beginning it was a small Chinese building with 
 about eight or ten beds, but before he left the Settlement he had had the 
 pleasure of being able to get, with the assistance of the Taotai, the resi- 
 dents of Sha,nghai, and the Consul, a foreign building which was capable 
 of taking in seventy patients. Since that time the hospital had been very 
 much further enlarged. For instance, with regard to the vaccination of 
 the Chinese, there used to be from 200 to 300 cases a year, but when he 
 
Some Pages in the History of Shanghai, 1842-1856 19 
 
 left thirteen years ago there were 15,000 to 16,000 vaccinations every year. 
 He merely mentioned this to show that the foreigners in Shanghai took 
 the liveliest interest in the Chinese. In was a great matter that such 
 a large community as that, with such enormous interests, had gone on 
 quietly to this time without any serious catastrophe. There was, it was 
 true, one riot in the French Settlement which might have been serious. 
 There was a little bloodshed then, but that was settled. It was due, he was 
 afraid, to some little mismanagement. However, he thought that Shanghai 
 was one of the most interesting places he had ever seen or read about, and 
 the early history that Mr. Carles had given them ought to be published ; 
 he hoped it would be. They were very much indebted to Mr. Carles for 
 unearthing these facts, which, if he had not done so, they would probably 
 never have heard of. 
 
 Mr. LocKHART said he had been particularly interested in what Dr. 
 Johnston had said. He was inclined to think that he was the oldest 
 inhabitant of Shanghai present, for he could go back to 1850, although he 
 could not say that his recollection went back so far as that He was born 
 in the precincts of Dr. Lockhart's hospital. That hospital was really the 
 forerunner of the important work that was being carried on not only there, 
 but at Peking, in the Union Hospital He was in Shanghai in its early 
 days, as well as in his own — when he came away, as a matter of fact, he 
 was only fifteen months old — so he could not give very much information 
 about it. And he had only been there once since, for about a week, 
 although his connection with the East had been intimate, But if his late 
 ather were present he was quite sure he could have spoken very fully 
 about it, and could have given many facts that would be interesting. 
 Admiral Fremantle had mentioned his uncle. Sir Harry Parkes, who was 
 largely instrumental in the development of Shanghai, and who spent 
 a great deal of his early life there. He believed he went out there to the 
 speaker's father as a boy of sixteen ; he worked right through the Civil 
 Service and the Diplomatic Service until he became British Minister in 
 Japan and afterwards at Peking. It had been intensely interesting to the 
 speaker to attend the meeting. 
 
 Admiral Sir Edmund Fremantle remarked that he would like to add 
 that during the China and Japan War the Japanese wished to go up the 
 Yangtsze. It was suggested that they were going to destroy the Shanghai 
 arsenal, and that they would probably more or less destroy Shanghai. He 
 had orders, which were not then made public, to prevent the Japanese 
 fleet going up the Yangtsze — and he did prevent them. 
 
 Mr. Jamieson observed in that connection that he was in Shanghai at 
 the time when the Japanese War was at its height. He well remembered 
 a visit from the Taotai one Sunday afternoon, who came to say that he 
 had telegraphic instructions from the Viceroy at Nanking to get ready a 
 lot of junks filled with stones to be sunk on the Woosung Bar, as they 
 were afraid of a raid by the Japanese Navy. The sinking of the junks 
 would have barred the Japanese, no doubt, but it would have also blocked 
 access by merchant steamers and stopped the business of the port. The 
 
20 Some Pages in the History of Shanghai, 1842-1856 
 
 situation was serious, and a sort of council was held to see what could be 
 done. The suggestion was made that the alarm was iH founded, and that 
 possibly an undertaking might be got from the Japanese not to interfere 
 with the trade of Shanghai. Thereupon a telegram was sent to the 
 Foreign Office, who immediately wired to Tokio. On the Monday after- 
 noon they had a wire from the British Minister there to say, " I have an 
 undertaking in writing from the Japanese Government to refrain from 
 hostile action against Shanghai and its approaches." This was com- 
 municated to the Chinese. The junks were never sunk, and the trade 
 of the port was not interrupted. 
 
 The Lecturer said he might recall one little incident in connection 
 with Sir Harry Parkes. When that blockade took place at Shanghai — 
 when 1,400 sail were held up by one ten-gun brig, H.M.S. Childe^s — 
 Mr. Alcock had reduced the naval strength in port by despatching 
 H.M.S. Espiegle, with Mr. Parkes on board, to Nanking to obtain redress 
 for the outrage on Messrs. Medhurst, Lockhart, and Muirhead ; and Mr. 
 Parkes came back with the right answer.; 
 
 The vote of thanks to the lecturer was passed, and the meeting then 
 terminated. 
 
Cornell University Library 
 DS 796.S52C27 
 
 Some pages in the history of Shanghai, 1 
 
 3 1924 023 217 809