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 THE WASON 
 
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 Cornell University Library 
 DS 796.S52M16 
 
 The story of Shanahai from the opening o 
 
 3 1924 023 489 598 
 
The original of tiiis book is in 
 the Cornell University Library. 
 
 There are no known copyright restrictions in 
 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
 http://www.archive.org/cletails/cu31924023489598 
 
1?- - - -^ 
 
 THE 
 
 STGEY OF SHANGHAI 
 
 FROM THE OPfeNmc 
 OF THE PORT TO FO^REIGN oTMDE, 
 
 ."■■«n. 
 
 BY 
 
 h W. MACLEELAN\ 
 
 ■J • SHANGHAI i ;. . 
 
 PRINTED iND PUBLISHED AT THE "NORTH-CHINA HERALD" OfFICE. 
 
 » 8:8,9. ' 
 
 '■' ;".-':' . ■ ■ - ' " I 
 
THE STORY OF SHANGHAI. 
 
THE 
 
 STOET OP SHANGHAI 
 
 FROM THE OPENING 
 OF THE PORT TO FOREIGN TRADE. 
 
 / BY 
 
 J. W. MACLELLAN. 
 
 SHANGHAI : 
 PRINTED AND PUBLISHED AT THE "NORTH-CHINA HERALD" OFFICE. 
 
 1889. 
 
SS2 ni6 
 
 W'cP j^i i 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 There is not much in the way of history to be written of small 
 Foreign Settlements in China which are not yet fifty years old; 
 but during the short time events have happened in Shanghai 
 which imperilled the existence of the place and the times and 
 fortunes of the inhabitants. And a system of Municipal or 
 self-government has been instituted, which is so well adapted 
 to the community, formed of almost all nationalities, and to 
 its relations to the Chinese Government, that it only requires 
 expansion to meet the wants of an increasing population. 
 
 Since the port of Shanghai was opened to foreign trade in 
 1843, a British Consul has virtually blockaded the port with a 
 ten-gun sailing brig of war, notwithstanding that his country was 
 at peace with China ; the native City has been in the hands of 
 one set of insurgents; and other and more powerful armies of 
 rebels were twice repulsed in their attempts to capture the City 
 and the Settlements. 
 
 The records of these and less important events are scattered 
 through newspapers, a few books and parliamentary papers, none 
 of which are easily accessible to the general reader. During the 
 last few years I have frequently heard it said that an account of 
 the Foreign Settements of Shanghai would be very acceptable to 
 the public, and I have endeavoured to supply one. 
 
ii Preface. 
 
 I have fortunately received assistance from old residents, 
 whose memories go back almost to the foundation of the Settle- 
 ments, and I have made use of every book and other publication 
 which was available to me ; as well as of the private advices of 
 firms, to their correspondents at home, before there was a news- 
 paper published in the place, in which public events are recorded. 
 I have to thank all those friends for their kindness, and particularly 
 Pfere Chevalier for the information about the Roman Catholic 
 churches in Shanghai. 
 
 I shall be away from Shanghai when this little book is 
 published; and I am under great obligations to Mr. R. W. Little 
 and Mr. Henry O'Shea for having promised to see it through 
 the press. 
 
 J. W. M. 
 Shanghai, April i88<p. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 PAQE, 
 
 Introductory Chapter i 
 
 Chapter I. — The Capture of Woosung and Shanghai... 8 
 
 Chapter II. — :The First Years of the Settlement ... 14 
 
 Chapter III. — The Tsing-pu Affair — Early Municipal 
 
 Work 22 
 
 Chapter IV. — The Triads in the City 34 
 
 Chapter V. — The Taiping Times and After Disasters . 46 
 
 Chapter VI.^The New AND Present Shanghai 63 
 
 Chapter VII. — Retrospective 80 
 
 Chapter VIII. — The Government of the Settlement... 93 
 
THE 
 
 STORY OF SHANGHAI. 
 
 INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER. 
 
 The name Shanghai means "Upper Sea."* But although the 
 whole of the immense plain which has been formed by the alluvial 
 deposit of the Yangtze has been won from the sea, it is a little 
 more than doubtful whether the City of Shanghai was built on the 
 sea-aide. At the same time there are indications that the sea 
 covered the land near the F6ng-wan-shan hills, which are twenty 
 miles to the south-west of Shanghai as the remains of old landing 
 places have been found there. And near Soochow there are ridges 
 in which are large quantities of shells, and tradition says that 
 these were thrown up by the waves of the sea in ojd times. It is 
 said, also, that Sungkiang, twenty-seven miles to the south-west of 
 Shanghai, and also Taitsang, which is some thirty miles to the west 
 of it, were at one time seaports, and for the matter of that 
 Shanghai now bears the same designation. But it is very likely 
 that in all these instances the communication with the sea was by 
 rivers or canals, just as at London and Liverpool. The river 
 which flowed past Shanghai, when the hamlet which received that 
 name was formed, may have been very wide, or it may have 
 spread itself over a considerable tract of low lying country, as it is 
 said to have done down to the eleventh or twelfth century, near 
 where the Loong-wha pagoda stands. This may have obtained 
 for it the appellation of the "Upper Sea" to distinguish it fromthe 
 
 * Another translation has been given, "Coming up from the sea, 
 because large junks with cargoes for Soochow could get no further, on 
 account of the shallowness of the creek." 
 
2 ' The Story of Shanghai. 
 
 " Lower Sea," another hamlet about three miles to the north-east 
 of the Settlement, and which may have been formed by the waters 
 of the Woosung River, or Sooohow Creek, which seems at one 
 time to have formed a lagoon that stretched five miles towards 
 Woosung. 
 
 I am told that old histories shew that Shanghai obtained its 
 name long before it became a port, and at a time when it was 
 occupied by fishermen and cultivators of the soil. At that period 
 there were two hamlets, one called in the dialect Zong-he, " Upper 
 Sea,'' or in mandarin "Shanghai," and the other Au-he-pii, "Village 
 of the lower sea," which is still standing* and inhabited by eight 
 families. In the latter instance the word pit, shop, would be 
 appended when shops began to be opened there ; the original 
 antithesis would be only Au-he and Zong-he. 
 
 Shanghai became of some importance as a place of trade near 
 the close of the eleventh century, when it was made a Customs 
 station and is first mentioned in history, but a native account 
 of the place begins in 249 B.C.f Previously, an ancient town 
 called Tsung-ling, about twenty miles up the Soochow Creek, or 
 Woosung River as it was then called, was the port of Soochow. 
 But the depth of the creek decreasing about that time, the Customs 
 station was removed to Shanghai, which was then in the Prefecture 
 of Hwating. And in the course of the next century and a half the 
 town and neighbourhood of Shanghai so increased in prosperity 
 and population, that in 1366 the town was constituted a district 
 of the same name. Between forty and fifty years after that, a 
 still greater advance took place in its fortunes. 
 
 From ancient times the Woosung River had been tlie highway 
 from the ocean to Soochow, and is shewn by old maps to have 
 been five miles broad in A.D. 780, and three miles wide about two 
 centuries later, but it afterwards greatly contracted and shallowed. 
 In those times the HuangpuJ was a much smaller river than the 
 Woosung, and after reaching the neighbourhood of the Loong-hwa 
 pagoda it flowed in two streams through Pootung into the river 
 
 * It is known to foreigners as Yangtze-poo. 
 
 t Chinese Repository. 
 
 t In 1300 it was a bow shot across, opposite to the city. 
 
Introductory Chapter. 
 
 Woosung, some two to three miles from the village of that name.* 
 But it is probable that a part of the waters of the Huangpu were 
 lost ia a marsh near Loong-hwa. About 1402 a small and ancient 
 canal, called the Van-ka-pang, which had been the only water 
 communication between the two rivers, was enlarged. The effect 
 of this was to draw the Huangpu northwards ; it opened out 
 a sufficient channel for itself while it reduced the importance of 
 the Woosung or Soochow Creek. An old map of Shanghai, which 
 is said to have been made in A.D. lOlO, shows the disparity between 
 the ancient and present rivers, and also the Van-ka-pang canal to 
 the east of the city of Shanghai. All traces of the canal have 
 disappeared long ago, but it is supposed to have joined the Woosung 
 about where the British Consulate now is. The same map and ' 
 other records of old times show that there were then large and 
 fortified towns near Shanghai which have disappeared, some of 
 them having been swept into the rivers. 
 
 ^ The position of Shanghai made it an admirable entrepot for 
 the commerce of the northern, southern and central provinces of 
 the Empire. It was the seaport of rich Kiangnan, and the 
 principal emporium for the trade on the Yangtze and with 
 Eastern Asia. But for centuries its people have had the danger 
 to its existence, from the silting up of the river, always before 
 them. Dredging of some kind has been carried on until recent 
 years, when, the place having become a hundred times more 
 important than it ever was in former days, the authorities have 
 allowed the bar at Woosung to increase, tiie banks of the Huangpu 
 to contract, and the Soochow Creek to dwindle to some ninety 
 yards in breadth, with a very shallow and uncertain channel. 
 
 Besides tlie importance which its position gained for Shanghai, 
 the district around it became celebrated as the seat of a cotton 
 industry after the introduction of that textile in the third century 
 B.C. In the collection of papers on China which bears his name, 
 Du Halde says that two hundred thousand people' \( ere engaged ia 
 cotton manufacturing in the Shanghai district, and that Sungkiang 
 
 * Traces of the old channel of the Huangpu were forty years ago found 
 at Tung-kow-shi in Pootung, about seven miles E. and N.E. from Shanghai 
 city. — Chinese Miseellany. 
 
The Story of Shanghai. 
 
 furuished the Empire, as well as foreign countries, with quantities 
 of cotton goods of all sorts, and that those goods were so fine that 
 when dyed they were taken as the finest serge.* The cottoa 
 goods made near Shanghai still maintain their excellence, and 
 are exported to other parts of the Empire in considerable quantities. 
 It is stated in one account of Shanghai that the extension of the 
 industry- in and about Shanghai was materially aided by the good 
 work of two ladies, one of whom taught the peasant women how 
 to spin, and the other how to embroider. And at the present time 
 one of the pleasantest sights to be seen, in a district where there 
 is almost nothing to delight the eye or taste, is the cotton fields 
 in bloom or the women and children gathering the pods. And 
 what tends to prove that .before, and for some centuries after the 
 Christian era, the plain upon which Shanghai stands was only 
 partially reclaimed, that it was greatly composed of marshland, is 
 the statement made by an old writer that previous to the intro- 
 duction of cotton growing the people found it dif&oult to live upon 
 the other crops. 
 
 Shanghai suifered from 1361 to the middle of the sixteenth 
 century from the raids of Japanese pirates who, during that time, 
 frequently harried great parts of Kiangsu and Chgkiang. They 
 laid waste the district of Shanghai in 1543, and in 1552 the walls 
 of the city were build as a defence against them. Tfee Japanese 
 came again in 1560, and according to a Chinese account, when 
 they invaded the country and distressed the villages the manners 
 of the townspeople became light and vain, and a pretty general 
 demoralisation took place. Previously, although the manners of 
 the Shanghai folk had been rude and simple, the district had been 
 well supplied with musicians and poets ; talented and experienced 
 persons collected in crowds ; and the region was famous for its 
 eminent men, so that it became one of the most celebrated spots 
 in the south. But another writer says the people of Shanghai 
 were then fond of emulation, strife and boasting. 
 
 * The statements of old travellers that all Chinese were formerly 
 dressed in silk, rather staggers those who know China and something of her 
 history. But according to Ibn Batuta, who was in China in the first half 
 of the 14th century a cotton dress would purchase many silk ones. He 
 , says that were it not for the merchants silk would bring no price whatever. 
 
IntrodMctory Chapter. 
 
 The city and district continued to prosper, unknown to 
 Europeans, esoept the few who read the accounts sent home by 
 the Roman Catholic missionaries, until shortly before the termina- 
 tion of the East India Company's monopoly in China.* The 
 Company's factors at Canton were just before then more than 
 usually troubled by the faithlessness and exactions of the 
 mandarins, and one consequence was the despatch of the Lord 
 Amhent, in February 1832, from Canton to the northern ports to 
 endeavour to open up trade. Mr. Hugh Hamilton Lindsay, at 
 that time one of the Cotnpany's super-cargoes, and afterwards head 
 of the firm in China bearing his surname, and the Rev. Charles 
 Gutzlaff were the mission. The latter gentleman had visited 
 Shanghai ia the previous year in a junk, which voyaged from 
 Canton to Tientsin and thence to Shanghai. He had given a 
 glowing description of the commerce of the port, and this led to 
 the despatch of the Lord Amherst, which, after visiting Amoy, 
 Foochow and Ningpo, was within a few miles of the entrance 
 of the Woosung on the 20th June, when Mr. Lindsay and Mr. 
 Gutzlaff took boat for Shanghai. They arrived at their destination 
 at half-past four in the afternoon, although the mandarins at 
 Woosung had attempted to stop them. 
 
 The account which Mr. Lindsay gives of his reception by the 
 Che-hsien and the Taotai, of their bluster and hauteur, of his 
 pressing on them his petition to be allowed to trade, and his 
 determination that he should be received as an equal by the 
 Taotai, and carrying his point, is very interesting. But the 
 mandarins prevented his trading, although the people showed 
 considerable anxiety to do so. Mr. Lindsay and Mr. Gutzlaff 
 went about the city distributing tracts on England and trade and 
 were everywhere well received by the people. 
 
 * I have not found many references to Shanghai in the old books of 
 voyages or reports on China. But Mr. Frederick Pigou, of the East India 
 Coy.'s faetory at Canton, in a memorandum drawn up in 1756 drew atten- 
 tion to Shanghai as a place suitable to trade. Sir Jas. Urmstou, however, 
 who was Resident of the Company's factory at Canton in 1833, while urging 
 the formation of an establishment at Chusan makes no reference to the 
 advantages of Shanghai as a site for such a purpose. , Chusan and Ningpo 
 were the places at which adventurers, including the East India Co. , sought 
 to *^rade in the North of China. 
 
6 The Story of Shanghc 
 
 The defences of Woosung were then in a very poor condition. 
 While the Lord Amherst lay at Woosung, troops were being drilled, 
 armed with swords, wicker shields and rusted muskets ; and 
 guns were laid on the river bank without tracks or carriages. 
 And if these preparations should not wholly intimidate the barba- 
 rians, their discomfiture was to be completed by a peculiarly 
 Chinese artifice, for at some distance from the river the mandarins 
 had caused mud heaps to be thrown up and white-washed, so as 
 to resemble soldiers' tents. The forts and batteries were crumbl- 
 ing away, the guns rusting and their carriages broken down. 
 
 But the trade delighted Mr. Lindsay who counted upwards 
 of four hundred junks of from 100 to 400 tons passing Woosung 
 inwards every day for seven days. These were chiefly northern 
 junks with four masts, but later the southern junks came in at 
 the rate of thirty to forty a day. Cantonese seem to have had a 
 good share of the trade, and I find it stated a few years afterwards 
 that the profits were two to three hundred per cent, in a voyage 
 or a year. Mr. Lindsay found commodious wharves and large 
 warehouses at Shanghai. 
 
 Three years later the Rev. Dr. Medhurst visited the port on 
 his return from a missionary voyage to Shantung. His account 
 of the place, the officials and the people agrees with that of Mr. 
 Lindsay. The mandarins did everything to get quit of the 
 missionary as they had tried to rid themselves of the merchant, 
 but Dr. Medhurst met them with dignified firmness. Both 
 gentlemen were struck with the knowledge which the officials in 
 Shanghai possessed of their proceedings elsewhere, and ef what 
 had recently occurred in Canton. From this it was evident that 
 the doings of the English in China were rapidly communicated to 
 the officials on the seaboard, and probably in other quarters of 
 the Empire. One incident, which occurred during Mr. Lindsay's 
 visit, shews how greatly the Taotai of Shanghai stood in fear of 
 the Viceroy of the Liang-kiang. The Taotai after receiving Mr. 
 Lindsay's petition issued an Edict ordering him away and " throw- 
 ing back" the petition contemptuously. Mr. Lindsay refused to 
 suifer this affront in silence, and requested that his petition should 
 be forwarded to the Viceroy, The Taotai was alarmed at this and 
 
Introduotory Chapter. 
 
 sent officers to request that his harsh Edict should be returned to 
 him, and he apologised for the expressions in it. The Taotai of course 
 knew that his superior at Nanking would treat the irrepressible 
 foreigner as he himself had done, but it is to be supposed that 
 he was afraid of Mr. Lindsay proceeding up the Yangtze and 
 bearding the Viceroy in his yamen. 
 
 After many delays Mr. Lindsay was permitted to visit Shang. 
 hai a second time before he left Woosung, but he was only allowed 
 to purchase a few hundred dollars' worth of silks and gauzes ; and 
 these were the first transactions which a foreign merchant entered 
 into in Shanghai. 
 
The Story of ShangM 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 THE CAPTURE OP WOOSUNG AND SHANGHAI. 
 
 The Britisli fleet under Vice-Admiral Sir William Parker, with 
 a military force of some 4,000 men, under Sir Henry Gough, 
 arrived at the Ruggeds on the 29th May, 1842. This expedi- 
 tion had captured the batteries in Amoy harbour, destroyed 
 forts in Sheipoo, taken possession of Tinghai, and therefore 
 virtually of Chasan, bombarded and held Ohinhai, Ningpo and 
 Chapoo. On the 4th of June ^he fleet proceeded towards 
 Woosung ; it anchored at Amherst Island on the 8th, when the 
 Modeste, Pluto and Nemesis were sent to intercept communica- 
 tion inshore. Some days were spent in sounding the channel, 
 and by the 13th a large part of the fleet and twelve transports 
 had reached the mouth of the river safely. 
 
 This was the force that was destined to capture Shanghai, 
 and afterwards Ohinkiang and Nanking ; and it was hoped that 
 these operations would bring about peft,ce between Great Britain 
 and China, and open the port of Shanghai, with others farther 
 south, to foreign trade. 
 
 The western side of the Huangpn was found to be lined 
 with batteries, mounting 134 guns, between Woosung and Pao- 
 shun. 
 
 The capture of Woosung was an easy affair. The batteries 
 were silenced in less than two hours, but it was not till haK-past 
 twelve o'clock that the troops could be landed. As soon as they 
 were on shore Sir Hugh Gough advanced on Paoshun, towards 
 which the Governor of the province and a large number of 
 troops were understood to have fled. Major-General Schoedde 
 was at the same time ordered to move to the rear of that town, so 
 as to cut off the retreat of the Chinese. When Sir Hugh Gough 
 reached Paoshun he found it already in possession of General 
 
The Capture of Woosung and Shanghai. 
 
 Sctoedde, and tlie inhabitants flying in great consternation. 
 The Chinese had made immense preparations for the defence of 
 Woosnng, and believed they had rendered it impregnable. They 
 had mounted 175 gnns on the different forts, and the defences 
 were generally in excellent order. A large number of armed 
 junks were in the river, and five craft of that kind, newly built 
 and in imitation of steamers, were each propelled by wooden 
 paddle wheels. These vessels when captured were found to be 
 fitted with two paddle wheels on each side, their shafts were of 
 wood, with a number of strong wooden cogs upon them, and 
 they were turned by means of a capstan, also fitted with cogs 
 and worked by men. All the machinery was below, on the 
 'tween decks. These vessels carried some two, some three newly 
 cast brass or bronze guns, besides a number of large gingals, 
 matchlocks, spears, etc., and great things had evidently been 
 expected of them, as they were all commanded by mandarins of. 
 rank. But unfortunately the commanders of the naval forces 
 at Woosung preferred running away to fighting ; at the first 
 approach of the British war steamers the Chinese Admiral 
 fled, followed by the others ; the officers and crews crowded into 
 sampans and when these were filled fiang themselves into the 
 river. Some of the Tartar soldiery shewed great courage, 
 sometimes crossing their spears with the British bayonets, but the 
 Chinese generally ran away when the invaders advanced towards 
 them. According to Sir Hugh Gongh, the Chinese had between 
 four and five thousand troops at Woosung. Their losses were 
 comparatively small, and did not exceed 200 men, while the 
 British only lost one officer and one seaman killed and three 
 officers and twenty-two seamen and marines wounded. Seven 
 of Her Majesty's ships of war, and six steamers of the East 
 India Company formed the attacking naval force. 
 
 A survey of part of the Hnangpu was made by the steamers 
 Nemesis 'and Med/usa, on the 17th. About seven miles from 
 Woosung they came in sight of two forts, on either side of the 
 river, one of which fired all its guns at the steamers, but the 
 shot fell short. Soon afterwards, both forts were set on fire by 
 the Chinese and abandoned. The commanders of the steamers 
 
10 TJie Stnry of Shanglmi. 
 
 had been ordered by the Admiral not to proceed above this 
 point, and they therefore returned to Woosung. They reported 
 that the deepest channel ran along the left side of the river for 
 about two miles, and then crossed over to the right bank, by 
 keeping which on board there was water enough for a frigate 
 at half flood.* 
 
 On the morning of the 19th a column of about a thousand 
 men of the 18fch and 49th Regiments, with detachment of the 
 Madras and Horse Artillery, and sappers and miners were 
 despatched overland to Shanghai, under the command of 
 Lieutenant-Colonel Montgomerie, Madras Artillery. At eight 
 o'clock on the same morning the rest of the troops were 
 embarked in the steamers Tenasserim,- Nemesis, Phlegethon and 
 Pluto which towed the North Star, Modeste, OolumUne and Olio, 
 while Sir William Parker, Sir Hugh Gough, Captain Keppel — 
 who arrived after the capture of Woosung — and other ofi&eers 
 were conveyed in the Medusa. This force met with no opposition 
 until it arrived within sight of the city, when a long well- 
 constructed battery, standing where the British Consulate now is, 
 opened fire on the ships, but at such a distance that no harm 
 was done. Sir Harry Parkes, who accompanied the expedition, 
 said at the dinner which the community gave him in 1865, that a 
 Tipao had afterwards boasted to him that it was he who had fired 
 the guns in this fort, but that he had not stayed to reload them. 
 
 Meanwhile Colonel Montgomerie, hearing this firing, pushed 
 rapidly on and unexpectedly found himself under the walls of 
 the city. He advanced to the North Gate, sent some men over 
 the wall to open it, and entered. He found the place almost 
 deserted; the authorities had fled on the previous evening. As 
 soon as the steamers reached the city, the 55th Hegiment was 
 landed at a small jetty near the Temple of Heaven, and imme- 
 diate measures was taken to prevent looting in which the Chinese 
 thieves were very active. The troops behaved excellently, and 
 their conduct did much to restore confidence among the timid 
 
 * A pilot has furnished me with the following information as to the 
 present channels of the river. Steer by the right bank from Woosung to 
 the Point, then cross over. There i» seventeen to eighteen feet at half 
 flood in spring tides. 
 
The Capture nf Woosung and Shanghai. 11 
 
 natives. The public granaries were opened and their contents 
 distribnted, which pleased the people. 
 
 On the day on which Shanghai was takeii, the river above 
 the city is described as being almost covered with boats full of 
 fugitives, furniture and goods. In order to check this flight two 
 steamers were sent up the river and their captains were also 
 instructed to search for war junks and reconnoitre the country, 
 but no signs of hostile preparations were seen. In a short time 
 the people returned to the city, shops were opened, business 
 went on as before, and the inhabitants only shewed a natural 
 curiosity about the hair, the colour of the eyes and the ways 
 generally of foreigners. 
 
 So great had been the preparations for the defence of 
 Shanghai and Woosung that 406 pieces of cannon, 100 being 
 of brass,* were taken at these places, besides the large number 
 which were destroyed with the war junks. Many of the copper 
 or brass guns were of great weight. One was a curious iron 
 gun of Chinese casting, being very small at the muzzle and very 
 large from the middle to the breach. An inscription on it shewed 
 that it was three hundred years old. 
 
 On the day after the taking of Shanghai, two steamers, 
 towing two boats, went about thirty miles up the river, and next 
 day the Admiral and some officers reached Snngkiang. There 
 they took the westerly branch of the river, their object being to 
 get to Soochow, but the water shoaled so much that they could 
 only get some eight miles further in the little Medusa. Con- 
 sidering what the British forces had been doing in the provinces 
 of Kiangsu and Chekiang for several months past, and that 
 the soldiers who had been defeated at Woosung, with the dis- 
 comfited officials of Shanghai were at Soochow, or near it, this 
 expedition in a small steamer was something more than bold. 
 
 It became known afterwards that the smoke of the steamer 
 was seen from the walls of Soochow, and that at a trifling 
 distance beyond where she stopped there were then some junks 
 or boats, laden with silver from the treasury in Shanghai, 
 pressing on to get within shelter of the city walls. 
 * Sir H. Gough's dispatch. 
 
12 TJie Story of Shanghai. 
 
 Sir Henry Pottinger, wko was sole Britisli Plenipotentiary 
 to China, had arrived at Shanghai before this little np-river 
 reconnaisance returned. An immediate naval and military 
 expedition to Nanking was then resolved upon. The site for the 
 British Settlement at Shanghai was selected by Sir Henry 
 Pottinger, the Admiral and the General commanding the troops ; 
 and Shanghai was evacuated on the 23rd of June, having been 
 in possession of the British four days. It does not seem that 
 there was any bloodshed in the taking of the city. 
 
 Daring the occupation between three thousand and three 
 thousand five hundred troops were quartered in the Tea Gardens, 
 and the remainder in private houses. An account of what took 
 place then says that the soldiers lighted their fires with the 
 handsome wooden ornaments of the Temple in the Gardens, 
 wrapped in satin and silk cloaks lined with costly furs, and' 
 waving embroidered fans. In June fans would be more agree- 
 able than fires or furs, so that we may assume that no great 
 harm was done to the Temple or the pawn-shops from which 
 the cloaks had been taken. 
 
 Admiral Sir William Parker, whose career in China shews 
 him to have been of the highest merit, took between seventy 
 and eighty sail, including two line of battle ships, up a river 
 whose navigation was almost unknown. The expedition cap- 
 tured Chinkiang, which was defended by the flower of the Tartar 
 troops, who offered a determined resistance, and when they saw 
 that defeat was inevitable, destroyed their women and children 
 in thousands, as their kindred had done at Chapoo, and after- 
 wards committed suicide. The Tartar General, when he saw 
 the day was lost, burnt himself and his family in his house. 
 The city was a Tartar stronghold ; the officers and soldiers were 
 on their mettle, while the Chinese do not seem to have done 
 anything beyond looting the Tartar town, when the fighting 
 was over, as they had done the tenements of their own country- 
 men at Shanghai. 
 
 ^ The capture of Chinkiang alarmed the Emperor and his 
 advisers. Ke-ying, a great official, was harried to Nanking, 
 towards which city the British force proceeded. All their 
 
Tfie Vapture of Woosung and Shanghai. 13 
 
 aconstomed acts of- diplomatic procrastination were resorted to 
 byKe-ying and Ilipu, a special commissioner and newly-appointed 
 Governor- General of the Liang-kiang, to avoid coming to terms 
 with Sir Henry Pottinger. It was not until three hoars of the 
 time when the bombardment, which the British Plenipotentiary 
 had ordered, would have began, that the Imperial Commissioners 
 offered to meet him. 
 
 The treaty was forthwith arranged and subseqaently signed 
 on board the Oornwallis and after it was ratified by the Emperor, 
 the ports of Shanghai, Ningpo, Fooohow, Amoy and Swatow , 
 were opened to foreign trade. 
 
14 The Story of Shanghai: 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 THE FIRST YEARS Or THE SETTLEMENT. 
 
 On the 14th November, 1843, Captain Balfoar,* who had 
 been ■appointed British Consul at Shanghai, issued a notification 
 that the port would be opened to trade on the 17th of the same 
 month. He defined the limits of the port to be within the 
 lines formed by Paoshun Point, bearing West, and the battery 
 on the right bank at the mouth of the river below Woosung, 
 bearing S.S.W. The place of anchorage was to be between the 
 Soochow Creek and below the walls of the native city. Mr. 
 Walter Medhurst arrived in Shanghai on the 6th November, 
 with a party of officials, including the Consul, and others, and 
 he has described the city and their reception in it. He says, that 
 the masts of the crowd of junks in the river concealed the city 
 from their view. Bat it would appear from the observations 
 of others that there had been some falling off in the prosperity 
 of the port, previous to it capture in 1842, at which time ware- 
 houses were found empty, jetties falling into disrepair, besides 
 other signs of decadence. The operations of the English in the 
 South, and the certainty of the fleet coming to the North, had 
 probably injured the trade of the port for the time. 
 
 On landing, the Consul proceeded to the Yam6n of the 
 Taotai, where he asked for a house which he could make his 
 official residence. Such a thing, the Taotai declared, was not 
 to be had in the city, either for love or money. Possibly, a 
 building might be found outside the walls, and enquiry should 
 be made about one, but, at present, they were not, really, aware 
 of any being vacant. The Taotai was so convinced of this, that 
 the Consul was obliged to dismiss the subject, and said that he 
 
 * Of the Madras Artillery, and subsequently for many years M.P. for 
 Kincardineshire. 
 
Tlie First Years of the Settlement. 15 
 
 would look for a house for himself, and that, if he failed, he 
 should probably pitch his own tent in one of the city temple 
 courts, or perhaps quarter himself on one of the mandarins. 
 The object of the Taotai was to make Shanghai another Canton, 
 by compelling the foreign officials to find accommodation for 
 themselves outside the city, where they would be under sur- 
 veillance. 
 
 Captain Balfour had sciarcely left the TamSn, when a re- 
 spectably dressed Chiuese accosted his party and offered them 
 a house, which he was sure would suit them. He conducted. them 
 to an excellent residence, which they rented at once. The 
 Consul and his friends were rather puzzled to account for the 
 conduct of this obliging Chinese, but they soon discovered that 
 he was merely the agent of an enterprising merchant in Hong- 
 kong, who hoped to secure in this way the British Consul's 
 influence, and thus obtain a monopoly of the trade. The offi- 
 cials were in collusion with him, for they saw it would be 
 impossible for them to exclude the Consulate from the city. 
 Captain Balfour immediately and somewhat radely awakened 
 the Chinese from their breams of monopoly ; he informed the 
 landlord that he required privacy, and obliged him to turn a 
 mob of people out of the house, many of whom had doubtless 
 paid for the privilege of seeing the White Barbarians in their 
 every day life. After some difficulty this was done, but the 
 landlord refused to go. He established himself in a small room 
 where he carried on a sort of police office, from which every- 
 thing that was done in the Consulate was reported to the native 
 officials. He was soon compelled to follow his friends, and the 
 crowd he had admitted to see the doings of the foreigners. 
 
 The first difficulties of the new-comers were for food and 
 other supplies, but these were gradually overcome ; and their 
 servants were after a tibie made to understand that it was not 
 necessary for them to "hee haw," as they carried dishes from 
 the table and trifles about the house ; and some filthy habits of 
 theirs were also rectified. Then land had to be acquired for the 
 residences and godowns of merchants, who soon began to arrive. 
 The Consul's first duty was to have the limits of the Settlement 
 
16 The Story of Shanghai. 
 
 defined. He claimed as boundaries "lines of conntry creek and 
 river, which might, if necessary, be rendered easily defensible." 
 These limits were the river on the East, theTa)ng-king-pang Greek 
 on the South, the present Peking Road, the creek there being 
 known as Lea-kee-chang, on the North, and what is now Fokien 
 Road on the West. The latter remained the limit of the Settle- 
 ment in that direction until the Taipings came near, and the 
 capture of Soochow, Ningpo and other important places flooded 
 Shanghai with refugees. Then the Settlement went further 
 West. Fokien Road, as the Stone or Barrier Road of the old 
 times is now called, was intended to have the Defence Creek 
 in the West side of it. There was a considerable ditch to the 
 West of the property of the London Mission, and on the other 
 side of this a road which led South to the city and North to the 
 Maloo, forming the line which is now a continuation of the 
 Fokien Road as far as to Lonza bridge. 
 
 It had been originally proposed that the British Government 
 should acquire all the ground within this site, but, instead of 
 this, it was resolved to allow British subjects to purchase such 
 lands as they required, from the Chinese owners. As soon as 
 these proprietors became aware that their properties were wanted 
 by the British, they either refused to sell them, or raised the 
 price enormously. Theoretically all land in China belongs to 
 the Emperor, and some difiB.culty was at first made by officials 
 about the alienation of the Imperial rights. This was met by 
 the Taotai issuing title deeds which were leases ^n perpetuity, 
 and compounding for the Land Tax by a settled annual payment, 
 at the rate of about twenty-eight shillings per English acre. 
 On these terms, says Mr. Medhurst, land was then rented, that 
 is virtually bought, from the native proprietors, at rates varying 
 from 50,0G0 to 60,000 copper cash the mow, the actual market 
 value among the Chinese being from 15,000 to 3S,000 cash, or 
 fifteen to thirty-five dollars, the wiow. The lands thus purchased 
 are the finest sites iu Shanghai, on the river bank or near it, 
 and some of them have since been sold at from 8,000 to 12,000 
 taels a mow. Even higher prices have been gifen for land in 
 the most fashionable part of the Chinese quarter. 
 
The First Tears of the Settlement. 17 
 
 At that time the site of the Settlement was a morass, or 
 marsh, with firm ground here and there, and intersected every- 
 where hy creeks and ditches. The irregular line of the iN'anking 
 Road is due to its following the course of a large creek, which 
 ran from the Yang-king-pang along the present Kiangse Boad 
 down Nanking Boad to the river. So tenacious was the mud of 
 the place that people who did not take care would leave their 
 boots and shoes in it. A considerable time elapsed before the 
 ground was put in order, drained, the creeks and ponds filled 
 np, and the building yards by the river cleared away. Mean- 
 while the British Consulate was within the city, and merchants 
 lived in houses by the river side, close by Namtao. This situa- 
 tion was very convenient ; it was close to the quarter where the 
 principal native merchants lived, and lighters could come to the 
 river doors of the houses. Life in the city or at Namtao cannot 
 have been pleasant, at all events in winter, if the following 
 experience was a general one. Mr. Fortune says that in 1843 he 
 lived there in a bank or Government shrofE office ; the bedrooms 
 were miserably cold: "often in the mornings we would find 
 ourselves drenched with rain ; and if snow fell, it W-as blown 
 through the windows and formed ' wreaths ' on the floor." 
 Such a condition of afEairs would startle modern dwellers in the 
 comfortable houses in the Settlement, but old residents, who 
 had lived in Namtao, used to affect to look back with regret on 
 the days they had spent there. In 1845 one visitor said that 
 some houses were building; and two years later another saw the 
 outlines of a European town in Shanghai. All or nearly all the 
 residents must have come to live in the Settlement by 1849, for 
 on the 6th of April of that year a meeting was held to consider 
 the means by which a church could be erected. Before then 
 public worship had been conducted in the British Consulate, in 
 the city, generally by the Rev. W. H. Medhnrst, d.d. This 
 meeting resolved to build' a church, which was not to cost more 
 than six thousand dollars ; the ground, which is the present 
 Cathedral compound, having been sold to the btjilding committee 
 of the Church, at a nominal price by Mr. T. C. Beale, then a 
 partner in Messrs. Dent, Beale & Co. On the completion 
 
18 The Story of Shanghai. 
 
 of the Church fifty pews were to be offered for sale at two 
 hundred dollars each, and the buyer of each pew was to pay 
 fifty dollars a year, to form a fund for the maintenance of a 
 clergyman, The pew-holders were to elect six vestrymen, to 
 whom, and their successors, the Church was to be conveyed in 
 trust for ever "to be used for the worship of Almighty God 
 according to the forms and discipline of the Church of England." 
 The vestrymen were to procure the conveyance to themselves of 
 the Church lot and the parsonage, and the clergyman was to be 
 obtained through the Church Missionary Society. The building 
 of the Church was soon proceeded with. The foreign population 
 of the Settlement was then something over a hundred, of whom 
 seven were ladies, and twenty-five mercantile firms were in 
 business in the Settlement. . 
 
 Several Missionary societies had established themselves 
 here by that time. Dr. Lockhart appears to have transferred 
 the London Mission from Chusan to the Settlement before the 
 port was formally opened. He arrived on the 5th of November, 
 1843, ^nd Dr. Medhnrst followed on the 23rd December, while 
 further accessions came in the next year. Until 1846 the 
 Missionaries lived in the city, but in that year Dr. Medhurst 
 purchased the present site of the London Mission for the sum of 
 one thousand and eighty dollars. A chapel, residences, a hospital, 
 and a printing house were built there ; the Mission continuing 
 to use the chapel in the city. The Church Missionary Society 
 and the Episcopal Church of the United States opened in 1845 ; 
 the Seventh Day Baptist and the Southern Baptist Convention 
 of the United States, represented by the Rev. Dr. Yates and 
 his wife, in 1848. 
 
 Foreign missionary bodies were not alone in endeavouring 
 to do good in Shanghai, for in 1846 a hospital for Chinese was 
 established, by funds contributed in Shanghai and at home. 
 
 Other churches were soon built, for on the 21st November, 
 1849, the Roman Catholic Bishop of Nankin, De Besi, laid the 
 foundation stone of the Cathedral at Tung-ka-doo, and though 
 it will anticipate some events in connection with the church 
 
The First Years of the Settlement. 19 
 
 l^ere, I think it as well to give here a short sketch of its progress 
 and extension within, and near, the Settlement. Father Lemaitre, 
 of the Society of Jesus, arrived here from Europe while Captain 
 Balfour was Consul, and Bishop De Besi employed him to 
 negotiate with the mandarins for the restitution of a church 
 and houses within the city, which the Catholic Church had 
 formerly possessed. There was no French Consul as yet in 
 Shanghai — the treaty with France having only recently been 
 concluded in 1844^ — but Captain Balfour and the Danish Consular 
 Agent, Mr. Calder, gave the Father every assistance in their 
 power. They accompanied him to. the Taotai, and presented to 
 that official a definite demand for the restitution of the properties 
 in the city. The Taotai at first positively refused this; the 
 church he said had been changed into a pagoda more than a 
 hundred years before, and it could not therefore be restored. 
 Negotiations went on for several months, until at last, the Taotai 
 gave the Bishop as a compensation for the old church three lots 
 of ground. One is at Tung-ka-doo, and second is outside the 
 North gate, and the- third within the city, and is called by the 
 people Sa-pi-long. These have been very valuable compensation 
 for the church that was turned into a pagoda, a century and a 
 half before. 
 
 Bishop De Besi then resolved to build a Cathedral for his 
 diocese, and after some consideration chose Tung-ka-doo as the 
 site for it, close to the pagoda of Ta-pe-ko. 
 
 The plans of the Cathedral were made by Father Nicholas 
 Massa, in the Ionic style, but it was completed under the 
 superintendence of Father L. Helot, S.J. The building was to 
 have been very high arid to have many windows, but the original 
 design could not be carried out from want of funds. The 
 foundation stone was laid by Bishop De Besi, on the 21st 
 November, 1847, just before he left for Europe, with great 
 ceremony in the presence of an enormous crowd of Chinese. St.- 
 Xavier is the patron Saint of the Cathedral. 
 
 On Palm Sunday, 1863 — falling that year on the 20th 
 March — the Cathedral was blessed with great solemnity by 
 
20 The Story of Shanghai. 
 
 Bishop F. Xavier Maresca, snccesspr to Bishop De Besi,* 
 Besides the missionaries, M. De Montigny, the French Consul, 
 Connt Kleczkowski, the interpreter, and a nnmher of Europeans 
 and Chinese, Christian and pagan, were present. It was feared 
 that some disorder would take place, and therefore Captain de 
 Plas, of the French man-of-war Gassini, landed some men to 
 preserve order. Bat everything passed off quietly. There were 
 very few Christians living near the Cathedral when it was 
 building ; but now — 1889 — there are 2,916 of them in the 
 district. 
 
 On the 20th July, 1848, the acting magistrate of Shanghai 
 issued a proclamation informing the people that land at Sic-ka- 
 wei had been sold to the Roman Catholic Bishop, on which it 
 was intended to erect a church and other buildings. And, as the 
 Bishop was then collecting artisans and materials, the people 
 ■were cautioned against interfering with the work or workmen. 
 Sic-ka-wei derives its name from having been the family 
 residence of Sni-kwang-ki who was converted to Christianity 
 by Matthew Ricci ; assisted that Father in translating mathema- 
 tical works into Chinese; was prime minister, or what is the 
 nearest equivalent thereto in China, during the Ming dynasty; 
 and is buried at Sic-ka-wei.f His grand-daughter Candida is 
 one of the glories of the Roman Catholic Church in China. She 
 converted her husband ; built thirty churches ; enabled the 
 missionaries to build ninety more and forty-five oratories ; she 
 founded four brotherhoods ; had above a hundred and thirty 
 religions works trapslated, and maintained a large number of 
 children. 
 
 The foundation stone of the Church at Sic-ka-wei, which 
 is dedicated to St. Ignatius, was laid on the 23rd March, 1851, 
 and four months later Bishop Maresca, assisted by his coadjutor, 
 Bishop Celestine Spelloi and two other Bishops, dedicated the 
 building, on the feast day of the saint. Close to this church 
 
 * Its length is given in the North-China Herald of 19th March, 1853, 
 as 210 feet, and its breadth 100 feet, and it is said that its cost was $30,000, 
 less than it would have been in Europe. On the altar was a very fine 
 earring of Christ in the Tomb, the work of one the Tathers at Sic-ka-wei. 
 
 + The house of Siu in the local dialect. 
 
The First Years of the Settlement. 21 
 
 there are three others; one is the boys' orphanage, another is 
 the convent of the nuns, of the "Helpers of Souls in Purgatory," 
 and the third belongs to the Carmelite nuns. 
 
 In 1850 a small chapel was built near the North Gate of 
 the city, for the native converts, of whom there were a good 
 number living in the Settlement, and foreign Catholics. After 
 a while, the number of Catholics increased, and this chapel 
 became too small and otherwise insufficient for the congregation 
 which met in it. The foundations of the present Charch of St. 
 Joseph were laid in the latter part of 1859, and the building 
 was completed and blessed at the feast of the Assumption in 
 1862. The Church is "the finest in the Mission in this part of 
 the world. A good number of Protestants, both Foreigners and 
 Chinese, sabscribed to the fund for the erection of St. Joseph's. 
 
 A Church was established in Hongkew some years ago, 
 chiefly for the accommodation of the Portngaese, who live 
 in considerable numbers in that part of the Settlement. At first 
 a godown was fitted up for the public worship, but a year' or so 
 afterwards ground was purchased and the erection of a Church 
 was commenced on the 12th June, 1874, which was dedicated 
 to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, and blessed, on its completion on 
 the 23rd June, 1876. 
 
 The Catholics have also a large Church in Pootnng and 
 another, with a monastery, at the Hills, about twenty miles 
 away. 
 
22 The Story of Shanghai. 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 THE TSING-PU AFFAIR— EARLY MUNICIPAL AVORK. 
 
 In March 1848, Dr. Medhnrst, Dr. Lockhart and Mr. Mnirhead 
 were attacked and ill-treaied by a mob of grain jnnkmen at 
 Tsing-pn, some thirty miles from Shanghai. These gentlemen 
 were distributing tracts when the junkmen endeavoured to 
 take more than their fair allowance of the books. The mission- 
 aries retreated from this mob, and continued their work , in 
 another part of the town. But as they were passing out of its 
 East Gate they met another and very excited crowd of the same 
 kind of men. One of the ringleaders carried a, heavy iron 
 chain, with which he severely beat Dr. Lockhart as he lay upon 
 the ground, on which he had been thrown ; others had swords, 
 poles, bars and other weapons. Dr. Lockhart was rescued by 
 his two friends, and they all ran towards their boat, which was 
 moored five miles away, but they were overtaken when they had 
 run about a mile, and were severely beaten with hoes, and clubs 
 and hacked at with blnnt swords, " until all power of resistance 
 was subdued."* They were also robbed of their spectacles, 
 watches and everything the mob could lay hands upon. 
 
 This outrage was entirely the work of the Shantung grain- 
 junk crews, who at that time annually visited this and neigh- 
 bouring provinces in great numbers and were rough and 
 turbulent. It was reported that there were 20,000 to 40,000 of 
 these men in Kiangsn when this attack on foreigners took place, 
 and that from 12,000 to 15,000 of them were out of employment, 
 because the government were going to send a large quantity of 
 the tribute rice to Tientsin by the sea route. These unemployed 
 junk crews had been committing piracy and robbery about 
 Tsing-pu and the officials thereabouts had been feeding hundreds 
 
 * Blue Book, Insults iu China. 
 
The Tdng-pu Affair — Early Mwiiirlpol Worh. 23 
 
 of them in the hope of keeping them quiet. The inhabitants of 
 Tsing-pa and the authorities there behaved very well and showed 
 great sympathy with the missionaries. 
 
 Mr. Alcock heard of this outrage on the following morning, 
 and at once despatched Mr. Harry S. Parkes to Tsing-pn. There 
 was then no British man-of-war in port, and consequently the 
 Consul did nothing for a few days. But when the brigs Chiltern 
 of 16 and the Espiegle of 12 guns arrived, he officially informed 
 British subjects that as he could get no redress for this affair, 
 by the surrender of the worst offenders, he had given the Taotai 
 forty-eight hours in which to produce ten of the worst of the 
 mob. And nntil that was done no Customs duties would be 
 paid on British ships. On the same day he made a personal 
 and similar communication to the Taotai who said he had done 
 everything in his power. Mr. Alcock having communicated 
 his action to the other Consuls, these gentlemen approved of it, 
 and remonstrated with the Taotai, who made use of their good 
 services to obtain an extension of time from Mr. Alcock, in which 
 to produce the Tsing-pu ringleaders. 
 
 On the following day Mr. Alcock notified all British ship- 
 masters then in port that they must be prepared to leave their 
 anchorage for the protection of national interests, and all British 
 residents that they must be ready to meet all contingencies. 
 There were then eleven hundred seagoing jnnks in Shanghai, 
 laden with tribute rice, and the Taotai ordered their captains to 
 drop down the river past the gun brigs by twos and threes, but 
 a notification from the British Consul followed, forbidding the* 
 owners of the junks, or their captains, from moving them from 
 their anchorage off the city. Mr. Parkes carried this notification 
 on board the junks. Mr. Alcock said in his despatch on the subject 
 that the bad faith of the Taotai had obliged him to take this 
 step. Some jnnks did endeavour to get past the Chiltern and 
 Espiegle, but a shot across their bows brought them to, while a 
 midshipman was rowed to others that were dropping down 
 stream and ordered them to stop, which they did. 
 
 On the 19th it was found that the Eapiegle had left the 
 port, and excitement rose to a high point. It was not known 
 
24 The Story of Shanghai. 
 
 till some days afterwards that she was bound for Nanking with 
 despatches for the Viceroy, under the charge of Vice-Consul 
 Bobertson with Mr. Parkes as interpreter. 
 
 Mr. Alcock was then blockading the port of Shanghai with 
 a 16-ton sailing gun brig, and his Oonsnlate was within the walls 
 of a city where there were probably three or four thousand 
 Chinese soldiers, and, what would have been a much more serious 
 force to meet, the crews of the sea-going junks. There were 
 also large numbers of turbulent Fukien men always living near 
 Shanghai at that time, who would have poured in upon the little 
 Settlement on the first signs of disorder. But doubtless the 
 Taotai was much more afraid of the junkmen and the Fukienese 
 than the English Consul was. 
 
 The officials then produced two men who they said were 
 leaders of the Tsing-pu mob, but they were not identified as 
 having been leaders of it. 
 
 The Espiegle took ten days to sail to Nanking where the 
 Viceroy received the bearers of the despatches with every 
 courtesy. He at once replaced the Taotai of Shanghai by Wn — 
 better known to foreigners as Sam-qua, formerly one of the 
 hong merchants at Canton — and joined with him in the 
 investigation of the affair, the acting judge of Kiangsn. The 
 Viceroy censured the Shanghai Taotai for having " erred and 
 failed in the discharge of his duties." 
 
 As soon as the despatch of the Espiegle to Nanking was 
 known at Soochow, the provincial judge was despatched to 
 Tsing-pu, with peremptory orders to seize the offending junk- 
 men, and he soon appeared in Shanghai with ten of them. Two 
 of these men were identified by the gentlemen who had been 
 assaulted as having been among the worst of the mob, and the 
 whole ten were sentenced to one month's cangue, " prior to any 
 proceedings that might be taken against them." But as the 
 criminals were plentifully fed with dainties while on exhibition, 
 it is not likely that any further proceedings were contemplated 
 or taken against them. 
 
 Matters being so satisfactorily arranged, Mr. Alcock 
 withdrew his blockade and the Chinese Commissioners proceeded 
 
Tlie Tsing-pu Affair — ^arhj Municipal Work. 25 
 
 to make themselves pleasant on board E.M.S. Ghiltern and at 
 the London Mission, both of which they visited. Bnt the judge 
 characteristically attempted to report the Tsing-pa a:ffair as "a 
 quarrel between foreigners and grain junkmen," a designation 
 he was promptly obliged to alter. 
 
 The sails of the immense fleet of junks were spread as soon 
 as it was known they were free to go to sea, but in a few minutes 
 they were all aback. It turned out that the crews refused to 
 sail, because they were not allowed to carry cargo on their own 
 account and to land it free of duty at Tientsin, as former sea-going 
 grain loaded jnnks had been allowed to do. The men had not 
 stipulated for this, but, taking it as a matter of course, they had 
 chartered their vessels at low rates of freight in anticipation of 
 the gains on their private duty free cargo; but the officials had 
 at the last moment intimated that all Cnstoms dues would be 
 exacted at Tientsin ; which meant either the loss or the con- 
 fiscation of the crews' ventures. On hearing of this second 
 detention of the grain fleet, the Grovernor came with all speed 
 from Soochow and arranged matters, when the junks proceeded 
 on their voyages. 
 
 Mr. Alcock was blamed by Mr. Bonham, who succeeded Sir 
 John Davis as Superintendent of Trade just after the first 
 advices of what was being done here reached Hongkong. He 
 considered' that a Consul went beyond his powers in acting as 
 Mr. Alcock had done without reference to him. Mr. Bonham 
 was a weak person, even for a Colonial Governor, and besides, 
 his predecessor had just received a despatch from Earl Grey, 
 then Secretary of State for the Colonies, peremptorily forbidding 
 any ofEensive operations being taken against the Chinese without 
 the previous sanction of Her Majesty's Government. The 
 audacity of Mr. Alcock's action secured its success. As he said 
 in one of his despatches, in the boldness and decision lay the 
 safety of his measures. He had to deal with a Taotai who was 
 incompetent, who trusted to the usual chicanery of his class 
 and who was probably afraid to use vigorous measures against 
 the junkmen at Tsing-pu. 
 
26 The Story of Shangliai. 
 
 Mr. Bonham changed his mind about Mr. Alcock's policy 
 when it was completely successful. He praised it to Lord 
 Palmerston and that lusty statesman approved it. Mr. Alcock 
 acknowledged, in a despatch to the Superintendent of Trade,, 
 that he had departed from his instructions as a Consul, but in 
 so doing had acted up to their spirit. 
 
 Mr. Alcock's colleagues, the Consuls of France, the United 
 States and Belgium heartily supported him, and, when every- 
 thing was over, addressed a letter to him complimenting him on 
 his brilliant success. And the majority of foreign residents, by 
 letters and in public meeting, expressed the same feelings. 
 
 Two hundred dollars were paid to the three missionaries, 
 
 as compensation for the articles of which they had been robbed. 
 
 Some restrictions were placed on British and American 
 
 subjects going trips into the country in consequence of the 
 
 Tsing-pn affair, but only for a time. 
 
 M. de Montigny opened the French Consulate in the course 
 of 1848, and before long he had secured the so-called Concession 
 for his countrymen. 
 
 For in June 1849, Luh, the military Intendant of Soochow, 
 Snngkiang and Taitsing, issued a proclamation in which he 
 constituted the French Concession of Shanghai. It stated that 
 he had received a communication from M. de Montigny, the 
 French Consul, informing him that Ki-ying, the Imperial Com- 
 missioner and Governor-General of the two Kuang, and Lagrene 
 Imperial Commissioner {sic, in French copy of the treaty) had, 
 after due deliberation, agreed that all Frenchmen coming to 
 reside at the five, open ports should be permitted to rent houses 
 and factories, and also ground on which they could build 
 houses, churches, hospitals, almshouses, colleges, and set apart 
 cemeteries. This had been reported to the Emperor, who had 
 been pleased to confirm those privileges by Edict. 
 
 After receipt of this communication from the French 
 Consul, the Intendant met M. de Montigny and agreed upon a 
 site for a Concession br Settlement. It was to be between the 
 city and the Yang-king-pang; bounded on the west by the 
 Temple to the God of War and the Canton Assembly Rooms, 
 
The Tsiiig-pw Affair— JE ad y Municipal Work. 27 
 
 and from the Ynen-ho to the east of the Yang-king-pang. It 
 was also stated that if this ground should be found insufficient 
 further deliberations might be held to provide for such exigencies 
 as might arise from time to time. 
 
 Immediately on this Concession becoming known, Mr. 
 Griswold, the United States Vice-Consnl, who had offended the 
 British Consuls and the Taotai by hoisting his national flag within 
 the British Settlement, protested against the French getting 
 separate ground for a Concession, on the principle that the 
 grant of exclusive rights and privileges was one of the very 
 worst features of Chinese policy. Nothing came of this protest, 
 which was referred to the respective plenipotentiaries. 
 
 This was the beginning of the so-called French Concession 
 in Shanghai ; but little use seems to have been made of it during 
 the next two or three years. 
 
 The only noticeable event which occurred in 1850 was the 
 falling in of the roof of the newly built Trinity Church, on the 
 morning of the 24th of June. There had been a storm of 
 thunder, lightning and rain on the previous day, during which 
 a water spout was said to have broken over the roof, just in the 
 centre of the beam, the span of which was very wide, and so 
 injured it that the deluge of rain caused the walls of the Church 
 to bulge out and give way. The repairs, which cost more than 
 the original building, were undertaken at once, and the Church 
 was re-opened for public worship on the 4th of May, 1851. 
 
 Trade was then increasing so much that a meeting of 
 merchants was called this year to devise means to place a tug 
 steamer on the river. The North-China Herald was established 
 in 1850, the first number being issued on the 3rd August, under 
 the Editorship of Mr. Henry Shearman. I note also that an 
 attempt to open direct communications with the Emperor of 
 China was made by the Hongkong Government in the Autumn. 
 
 It became necessary to frame some sort of Municipal body 
 very early in the existence of the Settlement, and it is stated, 
 somewhat vaguely as to date, that soon after 1843 a Committee 
 of Boads and Jetties was formed, and a tax levied, on Imports 
 and Exports, to pay expenses. The Committee had only to deal 
 
28 The Story of Shanghii. 
 
 ■with the making of roads and jetties. It is aaid that Consal 
 
 Balfour insisted that the roads of the Settlement should be 25 
 
 feet wide, and that that breadth was mentioned in the original 
 
 leases. But the first Committee of the Roads and Jetties, or 
 
 those who elected them, thought 25 feet much too wide. What 
 
 do we want more than a road, they asked, broad enough to ship 
 
 a bale of silk by ? But after a hard fight, a compromise of 22 
 
 feet was agreed to. How many hundreds of thousands of taels 
 
 would a more liberal spirit have saved succeeding generations ? 
 
 It is said that down to 1850 the annual revenue of the Committee 
 
 of the Boads and Jetties did not exceed twelve hundred dollars, 
 
 but this is I think under the mark, as in 1852 it amounted to 
 
 nearly five thousand dollars.* Taxation was very light in the 
 
 early days of the Settlement, and it is probable that until refugees 
 
 flocked in, after the capture of the city by the Triads, it was only 
 
 a small levy on goods and exports, and that afterwards and down 
 
 to nearly the Taiping times, it was one per cent, on houses and a 
 
 quarter per cent, on land.f Whether this be true or not, there 
 
 is no doubt that taxation was extremely light in the early days 
 
 of- the Settlement. The only expenditure incurred by the 
 
 Committee of the Roads and Jetties was on these objects, and 
 
 drainage, for which they borrowed $3,000 at ten per cent, per 
 
 annum. The drainage scheme of the Committee was a very modest 
 
 affair. They proposed to make a main sewer of 2,891 feet, or 
 
 263 c7»awgr, which would cost $17 -per chang or $4,471, and a 
 
 branch sewer of 6,121 feet, or 556 chang, at $7 per chang or 
 
 $3,891, the whole cost of the scheme being estimated at $8,363. J 
 
 The report says that the debt of the Settlement for this, 
 
 and previous drainage operations, and the purchase or building 
 
 of jetties, would amount at the beginning of the year to $11,000^ 
 
 and a carefully prepared plan for the repayment of this sum was. 
 
 appended to the proposals of the Committee. From this it seems 
 
 * $2,184.21 from an assessment of $1 per mow on land and $2,739.49 
 from wharfage dues. In this year Gibb, Livingston & Co.'s jetty was 
 purchased for $121.63. 
 
 t Report Landrenters' Meeting, 1866. 
 
 t The dollar was then the currency of the place, and its exchange 
 value about that time was 4/9 to 5/1 or so. 
 
The Tsing-pu. Affair — Early Munidpal Work, 29 
 
 thafc the annaal excess of the assessment for roads and jetties, 
 over the expenditure, would be $2,750, which would be applied 
 to-the reduction of the debt, so as to extinguish it by the 1st of 
 January, 1858; It appears that in 1852, which was a year of 
 great prosperity, " when* new buildings, of a private or com- 
 mercial character, were springing up on every side ;" that the 
 revenue of the Committee of Roads and' Jetties was taken at 
 $5,000, and their expenditure at $8,000, including a repayment 
 of debt of $2,000. The balance in hand was $3,000. These 
 Municipal operations were undertaken at the end of nine years' 
 trading here, when the commerce of the port had reached 
 $4,299,192 in imports, and $10,402,760 in exports. But to the 
 imports the value of the opium and treasure has to be added. 
 
 There are no means of ascertaining the value of these 
 articles, but as exchange was irregular and occasionally high 
 during this and the previous year — ranging from about 4/6 to 
 5/1 5 per dollar — we may infer that they were insufficient to 
 balance the trade of the port. Barter of various imports against 
 tea and silk was much resorted to then and afterwards. The 
 dollar referred to was the old Carolns or pillar dollar, and 
 sycee silver was then, and for years subsequently, only an article 
 of import' or export, and formed no part of the currency. 
 
 It may be accepted as evidence of the healthy and active 
 state of affairs this year, that it was necessary to postpone the 
 autumn races ; people were too busy, and would not enter 
 ponies ; a condition of matters which has not again occurred in 
 Shanghai. But at that time mercantile establishments were on 
 a small scale, and, when a pressure of business came, principals 
 and clerks had to work very hard. This was a great earthquake 
 ye|ar in Shanghai. The first occurred at 10 p.m. on the 16th 
 December, when bells rang, lamps swung, clocks stopped, pictures 
 were detached from walls, and some cornices came down. 
 Blesidonts fled from their houses for a few minutes, and the city 
 •vijas greatly alarmed. The shock lasted 46 seconds, passing from 
 Sj.W. to N.E.,t but nothing serious happened. Two other, and 
 
 * North-China Herald. 
 
 t The earthquake of the 16th was felt at Ningpo. 
 
.,Q ijie Story of Shanghai. 
 
 slighter, shocks took t^ace on the 27th and 29th of the same 
 
 """""The Settlement requPed additional drainage in 1862, and 
 the Committee of Roads a^d Jetties which was elected m that 
 year prepared a scheme f>r t^e purpose. Bat at a special 
 meeting of Landholders-astW are called in the Herald-this 
 scheme was shelved, by an amendment which stated that Land- 
 owners were not prepared t^ sanction any expenditure m a 
 scheme of drainage, which would not be carried out by competent 
 persons. The Committee theiP^?°^ resigned; but at another 
 special meeting, held a week 11*f . ^^^ amendment of the pre- 
 vious meeting was ordered to be^^^g^d from the minutes, 
 and the Committee were requested to wJ^draw their resignations, 
 which they did. It appears that xnany^t^« ™°^* ™P°^^^"t 
 Landowners were not present or represented^!;* *^^ *''^* meeting, 
 and that the Committee resigned in a pet, becS^^®' *^ *^®y ^^^^> 
 the meeting " had affirmed their incompetency *<» conduct a 
 system of drainage either with or withotft professional 
 
 assistance." Xiocn i, • 
 
 The Bund lots were pretty well built upon by Vf "' "^* ^'* 
 appearance has been much changed in the meaniP'®' ^^^ 
 Bund itself was then only twenty-five feet broad ; it be^^n about 
 Russell & Co.'s property, beyond which, to the South w^^ ^^^^ * 
 small native village, next to which and close to the V^'i*™ 
 Road, was a large Chinese hong and godowns, after that al '^"'"'^ 
 yard, where the Club now stands. Between that and the Y^'^S' 
 king-pang was a space in which was a low wooden buil(S°S> 
 where Mr. Hiram Pogg carried on a ship-chandlery and gent'"*' 
 mercantile business. The end of these premises jutted over V^^ 
 river, and their front was supported on long piles, and steps, li*^ 
 a ship's gangway ladder reached down to the water, for t"® 
 convenience of those who went and came in boats. On t^^ 
 southern end of the Bund the house now occupied by Messr 
 Brand was built in 1850 or before, farther North was the Oustoi 
 House, and beyond it Messrs. Dent's house and on the corner ( 
 
 * I have been told that it was soon after these earthquakes that the la 
 dwellers at Namtao came into the Settlement. 
 
The Tsing-pu Affair — Early Municipal Worh. 31 
 
 what is now Peking Koad the first E-wo hong was then standing. 
 It was taken down in the following year and the present house 
 erected in its place. There are therefore only two houses and 
 the Custom House now on the Bund which were in existence 
 thirty-nine years ago. Bat the Custom House of those days 
 wanted the two wings which the building now has ; these were 
 built about 1857. The British Consulate was building towards 
 the close of 1851, when its foundation were just beginning to 
 appear above the ground.* There was no bridge then, or for 
 four or five years afterwards, over the Sooehow Creek, passengers 
 being ferried across. Bat this would not much matter, as there 
 was only one bungalow in Hongkew,t and a small building 
 -which Mr. Dewsnap, who was making the Old Dock, put up for 
 his own accommodation. There was a small and wretched 
 village between the creek and where the American Mission 
 houses were afterwards built. Broadway was a narrow path, on 
 which it was possible to walk when the tide was not too high. 
 There was for some years after 1850 a bamboo copse, wherein 
 woodcock were to be found in their season, just on the North side 
 of the Hongkew creek. 
 
 Two years later there was no French Concession between 
 the city wall and the Tang-king-pang, or " foreign boundary 
 creek," as that space was all, from the North Gate to the river^ 
 a Chinese suburb.. In this, and within the grounds of the present 
 Consulate, M. de Montigny, the French Consul, resided in 1852 
 in a house somewhat like a modified Chinese house, but sur- 
 rounded by a compound of some extent. At that time there was 
 no Bund bridge over the Tang-king-pang, but there was one 
 near the line of Szechuen Road — thence once called Bridge 
 Street — another was at Honan Boad, and a third at Fokien Road. 
 The last-named was always known as Taylor's Bridge, because 
 an American missionary built a small church there, on the French 
 side, which is still standing, behind the French Municipal 
 Buildings. 
 
 * Built by Mr. Hethrington, an American gentleman, in 1846. He 
 died in 1848, and is said to have, been the first foreign resident who died in 
 Shanghai. 
 
 + Address by the Rev. Dr. Nelson, Shanghai 1870. 
 
32 TTie Story of Shanghai. 
 
 The mails arrived at that time in opiam clippers, and 
 probably other sailing vessels, at irregular intervals, and the 
 speed with which they were carried may be guessed from a 
 statement in one of Sir Rutherford Alcock's despatches, in which 
 he congratulates himself on having received a reply from Hong- 
 kong in the unusually short time of six weeks. 
 
 For several years after that time, indeed, until the Elgin 
 treaty allowed steamers with opium on board to bring it into 
 port, the mails for mercantile firms were taken charge of by the 
 captains of the receiving-ships at Woosung, to whom they were 
 addressed, and who sent them by pony express to Shanghai. 
 Perhaps twenty ponies were sent off with letter bags for the 
 firms in Shanghai who employed their captains to receive their 
 mails. The boys who rode them took things easily till they 
 neared the bridge over the Soochow Creek, when that had 
 been built, but when they got across it they came yelling 
 and shouting at headlong speed along the Bund, and other 
 streets, throwing off their letter bags at the doors of the houses 
 to which they were addressed. The arrival of the maU, the 
 news that the flags were up on the receiving-ships at Woosung, 
 furnished the strongest excitement in the ordinary life of the first 
 sixteen or seventeen years of foreign residence in Shanghai, 
 And every mail at that time and almost until the introduc- 
 tion of telegraphs, Messrs. Dent and Jardine, and occasionally 
 other firms, sent away their own steamers from Hongkong, 
 which anticipated the arrival of the mail in Shanghai. These 
 steamers anchored in Yang-tsze bay, a messenger with their 
 owners' mail and Hongkong letters was despatched overland and 
 the firm had from one to two days in which to operate before 
 the community received its despatches by the P. & 0. steamers. 
 
 Residents led, perforce, very quiet lives in these early days. 
 In 1852 there were few wives of foreign merchants, and some 
 few years afterwards a ball at which thirty gentlemen and nine 
 ladies were present were described in almost ecstastic terms. 
 In those times ladies gave a half, a third and sometimes a 
 quarter of a waltz to each partner. Marriage was as a rule 
 discouraged by the " heads of houses," and it was known to be 
 
The Tsing-pu Affair — Ewrly Municipal Work. 33 
 
 " common " if not " statute " law* that no member of such 
 firms. should marry during his connection with it. In a com- 
 munity in which young bachelors formed the majority, there 
 was a good deal of humour and independence of character dis- 
 played, and none of that deference to the two " big houses," 
 which characterised Hongkong, was shown in Shanghai. It was 
 rather the other way. 
 
 The Government of China was in sore straits in the year 
 1862. The Taipings ■ were threatening the great cities in the 
 valley of the Tang-tsze, and were approaching the tea and silk 
 districts which supply Shanghai with its chief exports. Amoy 
 was captured by the Triad Secret Society in May ; bands of 
 robbers were at the same time ravaging the northern parts of 
 Kuang-tnng ; and the city of Canton was environed by large 
 bodies of insurgents in August. Yeh-niing-chen, the Viceroy 
 who was afterwards taken to Calcutta, first shewed his blood, 
 thirstiness in Canton then, and so great was his alarm, and poor 
 his means of defence, that he applied for help to the British 
 authorities in Hongkong. The condition of the Empire, every- 
 where, was so bad that the fall of the Manchu dynasty was 
 sinticipated by foreigners generally. 
 
 * Dr. Nelson's address. 
 
34 The Story of Shanghai. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 THE TRIADS IN THE CITY. 
 
 Early in 1853 a rnmonr spread in the city that Hankow had 
 been taken by the Taipings, and although Hankow is far from 
 Shanghai, a panic ensaed. In March business was suspended, 
 Nanking was then besieged by the rebels, who were also reported 
 to have a large fleet near Woosnng. When Nanking and 
 Chinkiang fell, the native tea and silk men fled from Shanghai, 
 taking goods or anything they could get in payment of the sum 
 which foreigners owed them. The native bankers at the same 
 time refused to give the ordinary facilities to their customers, 
 and therefore duties could not be paid or ships cleared. 
 
 Mr. Alcock then took on himself the collection of the 
 Customs' duties, and to receive in place of the money due for 
 them various securities. The arrangement had only lasted one 
 month, when it was terminated by its author. 
 
 Matters were so bad in the province of Kiangsu that the 
 Grovernor twice entreated the foreign Consuls that their men- 
 of-war in Shanghai should be sent to Nanking to help him. 
 Nevertheless the fortifications of Shanghai were almost totally 
 neglected. 
 
 Sir George Bonham, Her Majesty's Plenipotentiary to 
 China, arrived in Shanghai at the end of March, and was followed 
 a few days later by Colonel Marshall, United States Commis- 
 sioner, in the frigate Susquehanna. This ship was of 2,500 tons, 
 and the largest steamer that had entered the port up to then. 
 Both these gentlemen went to Nanking in pursuit of information 
 about the rebels. 
 
 Matters appeared so threatening in the province, and the 
 authorities in the city so incapable, that Sir George Bonham 
 authorised the formation of a Volunteer Corps for the defence of 
 
The Triads in the City. 35 
 
 the Settlement. The Americans appointed a committee, con- 
 sisting of Messrs. B. Canningham, W. S. Wetmore, and H. H. 
 Warden, who were to consider matters. But a safficient number 
 of Volunteers not coming forward, a " Committee of Co-opera- 
 tion " was formed, consisting of British and Americans. A 
 meeting of all the Consuls and residents of every nationality 
 was afterwards held at the British Consulate, at which it was 
 stated that temporary measures of defence had already been 
 taken in the shape of earthworks. One speaker suggested that 
 the Settlement should be surrounded by a " ring fence," from 
 Taylor's Bridge, at the end of Fokien Road, on the Tang-king- 
 pang to near Louza village on the Soochow Creek. The 
 Volunteers forthwith began drilling morning and evening under 
 the command of Captain Tronson, of the 2nd Bengal Fusiliers. 
 
 The peace of the Settlement remained undisturbed for some 
 months, but the city and its neighbourhood were infested by 
 bands of thieves, Taotai Wu, or Sam-qna, who had purchased his 
 rank, doing nothing. And on Easter Day during this period 
 the American Church of Our Saviour in Hongkew was opened 
 for pnblic worship. 
 
 Apparently to the surprise of foreigners, as well as official 
 and other Chinese, the city of Shanghai was on the 7th 
 September, 1863, captured, or quietly taken possession of, by the 
 Triad Society, aided by Canton, Fokien, Ningpo and other 
 disaffected and disorderly people. Sam-qua, Taotai, remained 
 unmolested in his house for some days, protected by his fellow 
 provincialists, the Cantonese, but Mr. Caldecott Smith and Dr. 
 Hall visited him and persuaded him to leave the city. Bat when 
 they proposed that he should be lowered from the walls in a 
 basket, he would not, until one of them had preceded him in that 
 way. 
 
 Wu, or Sam-qua, took refuge in Messrs. Russell & Co.'s 
 house, then the American Consulate, which greatly exasperated 
 the Pukienese against all foreigners, and he remained there for 
 several weeks. The Chi-hien and a few soldiers were killed by the 
 insurgents, and the Custom House on the Bund was plundered 
 and demolished. The day after they took possession of the 
 
36 The Story of Shanghai. 
 
 city the insurgents fought fiercely among themselvea aboat the 
 division of their booty, and fights were afterwards of constant 
 occurrence, all the time they were in the city. Paoshnn and 
 Kahding were captured by bands of the same insurgents, soon 
 after Shanghai was taken by them. As soon as they were in 
 possession of the city, the insurgents opened communications 
 with the rebels in Nanking, desiring to join forces, but the 
 Taipings would have nothing to do with them ; on theological 
 grounds and because of the use of opium, it was said. 
 
 Captain Fishbourne, of the Sermes, took prompt measures 
 for the defence of the Settlement, and thus prevented any attack 
 on it by the insurgents. 
 
 Mr. Alcock, and the United States Vice-Consul,* now 
 notified their merchants that duties must be paid to them, or 
 promissory notes for them and securities given, or they would 
 not clear British or American ships. But the majority of 
 merchants were of opinion that as the Chinese Governnjent 
 could not fulfil its part of the treaty obligations, and could not give 
 the slightest protection to anyone in Shanghai, they were not 
 bound to pay duties to it. Mr. Alcock replied to this, that the 
 capture of a seaport on the coast of a vast empire could in no 
 sense abrogate a solemn treaty entered upon between the sover- 
 eigns of Great Britain and China. " It therefore remained to 
 him to see tjiat the rights of the Chinese Government did not 
 suffer." The United States Vice-Consul took his stand on 
 Article II. of the treaty with his country : — " That citizens must 
 pay duties according to tariff." Sir George Bonham and Colonel 
 Marshall supported the opinions of their Consuls. 
 
 But the Consuls of other nations informed Messrs. Alcock 
 and Cunningham that they had no information of a Custom 
 House being in existence in Shanghai, and would not recognise 
 the expedient of paying duties to foreign officials. The French 
 Consul intimated that he would clear ships of his nationality 
 without calling on them to pay duties, and the Consuls of other 
 nations, who were all merchants, took the same line. 
 
 * Mr. E. Cunningham was an American merchant in Shanghai, and 
 was acting as Consul, against his own interest. 
 
The Triads in the Oity. 37 
 
 The Taotai made two attempts to take away the reproach 
 of their being no Ctistom House at the port. In the first, he 
 sent a mandarin to establish himself among the ruins of the old 
 Custom Honse, bat this officer was driven away by the guard 
 from H.M.S. Spartan, which was stationed there. In the second, 
 he intimated that duties would be received on board a junk 
 moored in the river, and Mr. Cunningham told his coantrymen 
 to pay their duties on board that junk ; but they replied that 
 they could not find her. 
 
 In January 1854 the United States Vice-Oonsul notified 
 that he would allow ships of his nationality to sail without 
 requiring payment of their duties, so long as ships of other 
 nations were allowed to do so. But Mr. Alcock was made of 
 more obstinate stuff, and held out until the Taotai, being pressed 
 for money, allowed a Bremen ship to clear on payment of only 
 part of duties. Then Mr. Alcock permitted the John Wood to 
 sail, without requiring her duties. But previous to this the 
 Taotai established a Custom House on the north side of the 
 Soochow Creek. The merchants were, however, too much for 
 him, and the Consuls ; all the American and some of the British 
 firms sent their tea and silk to Woosung to be shipped there. 
 That was illegal, but nevertheless two American vessels carried 
 away full cargoes of tea on which no duties had been paid.* 
 
 Sir John Bowring, who succeeded Sir George Bonham in 
 1854, upheld Mr. Alcock, but Lord Clarendon, Secretary of State 
 for Foreign Affairs, instructed him to return all the promissory 
 notes and securities for duties which British merchants had 
 given. Sir John did not do this; he directed Mr. Alcock to 
 return only the notes which had been given between the 7th 
 September, 1853, when the city was taken by the insurgents, 
 and the 9th February, 1854, when a Custom House was tempo- 
 rarily established on the north side of the Soochow Creek. The 
 promissory notes given after the last date were retained until 
 February 1865, and the notes of American merchants were 
 returned to them during that year, when Mr. Marphy had 
 become Consul. 
 
 * Messrs. G. C. Schwabe & Co.'s Circular, 13th March, 1854. 
 
38 T%e Story of Shanghai. 
 
 Everything connected with this dispute exhibited a curious 
 state of affairs. Mr. Alcock and the United States Vice-Consnl 
 attempting to coerce their countrymen, other Consuls fighting 
 for their own hands, and Sam-qna, Taotai, taking anything he 
 could get in the way of duties, and Sir John Bowring disregarded 
 the positive orders of Lord Clarendon. 
 
 The position of the Chinese officials at Shanghai led the 
 Consuls of Great Britain, France and the United States to 
 propose that the Custom House of Shanghai should be placed 
 under foreign management, and this was done in July 1854. 
 An Inspector was chosen by each of the Treaty Powers ; Mr. 
 Thomas Francis Wade, resigning the Vice-Consulship at Shang- 
 hai, to represent Great Britain ; M. Arthur Smith, of the French 
 service, France ; and Mr. Lewis Carr, of the United States 
 Consular service, represented his countrymen. Mr. Wade only 
 held his post for about a year, when his place was taken by Mr. 
 H. N. Lay, of the British Consular Service. This was the 
 beginning of the Imperial Foreign Customs Department, for the 
 plan worked so well in Shanghai that it was soon extended to 
 the other open ports. 
 
 To return to affairs in the city and neighbourhood. The 
 Triads, and their allies, some of whom called themselves The 
 Small Sword Society, and who appear to have been all nick- 
 named Red Caps by the Imperialists, held Shanghai for seventeen 
 months. Their chief leader was Lew, a Cantonese who had been 
 a sugar broker, and who had established the Triad Society in 
 Shanghai a few years before. He was an emaciiated opium 
 smoker, but was reported to be a man of capacity and resolution 
 but the most active spirit among the insurgents, if not their 
 actual leader, was Chin A-lin, who had been horse-boy to Mr. 
 Skinner, a partner in the firm of Messrs. Gibb, Livingston & 
 Co. Another leader had been a green-tea broker in Shanghai. 
 Their principles, or, if they had none of these and they certainly 
 shewed none, the bond of union among them, was hatred of the 
 Manchu dynasty. So far they agreed with the Taipings, but 
 the captors of Shanghai had apparently no desire to interfere 
 with the prevailing forms of religion, which the Taipings were 
 
The Triads in the City. 39 
 
 sworn to overthrow. The movement against the Manchus seems 
 at first to have been regarded by foreigners in Shanghai as a 
 patriotic outbreak among the Chinese. 
 
 As soon as Shanghai was in possession of the insurgents, 
 all the inhabitants fled, who could do so. Lew visited the 
 Settlement in state next day, and called on the Consuls, but was 
 not officially received by them. A fleet of the Imperial junks 
 came down -from Sungkiang on the 10th and bombarded the 
 eastern part of the city, but without doing much harm to the 
 insurgents. The crews were landed and set fire to the eastern 
 suburb, burning twelve hundred houses and carrying off an 
 immense deal of plunder. The Soochow Creek was crowded 
 with these junks for a mUe or more ; the Imperial camp was 
 on the old race course, within the Defence Creek, and the 
 lawlessness of the rabble which was congregated there soon 
 brought about trouble with the foreign residents. For instance, 
 a large number of them stole into the Settlement at dusk one 
 evening, in single file, and attempted to carry off some guns 
 which coolies were taking from Messrs. Gilman, Bowman & Co.'s, 
 in Kiukiang Boad. A few Volunteers prevented this and saved 
 the guns, while the half dozen marines and sailors, who formed 
 a gnard at the Church, drove the main body of the invaders 
 out of the Settlement. Sam-qua, ex Taotai, applied soon after 
 to Mr. Alcock for the names of all Chinese in his employment, 
 and that of British residents, that he might know the traitorous 
 among them — a reqnest that was contemptuously refused. He 
 stated at the same time that the city was to be attacked 
 immediately. Accordingly, on the 6th December a steamer 
 which he had purchased, and a large fleet of war junks, full of 
 soldiers, made a great demonstration against a mud fort, which 
 the insurgents had erected above the city. Many guns were 
 fired, flags waved, stiok-pots thrown, and gongs beaten, but 
 all this did but little damage to the insurgents. The Imperialists, 
 however, succeeded in burning the south-eastern suburb. 
 
 But though the insurgents had on this occasion proved 
 themselves better fighting men than the Imperialists, they were 
 soon to encounter a much more powerful opponent. 
 
40 The Story of Shcmghai. 
 
 Some Pokienese insurgents arrested two oatechists near 
 the South-east Gate, and it was said subjected them to some 
 torture, besides detaining, them. The Catholic Bishop sent a 
 priest to demand their surrender, bat this was refused, whereupon 
 the insurgents said they were threatened with an attack of a 
 French fleet. M. Edan, then French Consul, thereupon 
 intimated to his colleagues that he had demanded reparation 
 from the insurgents for the seizure of the catechists, and that 
 he might be obliged to take hostile measures. The excitement 
 which this caused in the Settlement was allayed when it became 
 known that the French demands had been complied with, at 
 the instance, it was said, of some Englishmen who visited the 
 insurgent chief in the city. In order to satisfy the honour of 
 France, M. Edan required that the chief of the Fokien insurgents 
 should come to the French Consulate, and be punished with 
 fifty blows at the foot of the flag-staff. 
 
 On an early day the Fokien leader, accompanied by a dozen 
 of his officers, and guarded by French soldiers, to prevent their 
 being captured by the Imperialists, appeared at the Consulate. 
 The Consul received them at the foot of the flag staff, Admiral 
 Lagnerre being present, where the Fokienese leader expressed 
 his readiness to be punished. The flogging was remitted, and 
 the insurgent struck his head nine times on the ground, while 
 the Consul told him that any insult to the French nation would 
 be immediately resented. 
 
 About this time Sir John Bowring and Admiral Stirling, the 
 French authorities and the Imperialists tried to get the insur- 
 gents to give up the city and offered them an lasylum elsewhere. 
 But these negotiations, which were separately carried on, came 
 to nothing. 
 
 The Imperialists put their chief trust in mining the city 
 walls, the insurgents were more dashing. But it was suspected 
 at the time that the fights between the two hosts which took 
 place in the open country were pre-arranged affairs, for the 
 Imperialists would tell friendly foreigners when they were 
 coming off and whether it would be worth while to go and see 
 them. The Imperialists mined under the city moat on one 
 
The Triads in the Gity. 41 
 
 ocoasioa and blew down a large part of the wall, only to find that 
 an inner wall had been constructed,- which barred their way 
 When one breach was made in the wall a writer, who witnessed 
 the scene,* said that by the explosion of these a wall of fire 
 occupied the place of the demolished wall of brick and earth. 
 Fire arms were dispensed with ; both sides fought with the 
 weapons which pirates used, that wound and kill by burning. 
 The Imperialists suffered greatly, as they were crowded together, 
 and were at last driven away into a fort which the insurgents 
 took, held for a little, and then evacuated. Upon this the 
 Imperialists gallantly charged the dismantled place and captured 
 it. On another occasion the Imperialists mined under the moat 
 to the city wall, a great part of which was blown down by the 
 explosion of their mine. But as the insurgents had been aware 
 of what was going on, they had constructed an inner wall which 
 confronted the attacking force, as it rushed into the breach. 
 Another day the Imperialists placed sufficient gunpowder in a 
 mine to blow up the whole city, but the insurgents came out, 
 drove them away, and carried off the powder of which they were 
 much in want at the time. 
 
 The Imperialists suffered punishment for their repeated 
 attacks on foreigners and outrages in the Settlement, when, on 
 the 4th of April, 1854, the Shanghai Volunteers, accompanied 
 by men from H.M.S. Encounter and Grecian, and the U.S. 
 sloop-of-war Plymouth, marched out and attacked their camp 
 on the old race course. The whole force amounted to about 
 300 men, and a field piece from the Encounter, while the Taotai 
 had stated that there were 10,000 soldiers in the camps. The 
 Captains of the ships-of-war led their men, and the Volunteers 
 were commanded by T. F. Wade, then H.M.'s Vice-Consnl in 
 Shanghai. The British and American Consuls accompanied 
 their columns. The American seamen took the left part of the 
 ground and were first exposed to a fire from the camps, which 
 in return were shelled by the Encounter's field piece. The main 
 body of the British, meanwhile, moved forward to attack the 
 camps, bat were obliged to made a detour, and while they were 
 * Dr. Yates, in the North-China Herald. 
 
42 J The Story of Shanghai. 
 
 doing this the shelling began to drive the Imperialists out of 
 their quarters. A large liumber of them, however, gathered 
 behind the most northerly camp, and these, as the attacking 
 force came into view, discharged a cannon at them, which killed 
 a sailor of the Encounter and wounded several others. As the 
 Volunteers and sailors rushed forward, the Imperialists fired a 
 volley of musketry at them, but they crossed the ditch and 
 captured the camp. The Americans were unable to cross the 
 creek, from want of ladders, and, when the camps were in the 
 hands of the British forces, they fell back to defend the river, 
 when the Imperialists where assembling in great numbers.- The 
 march back to the Settlement, after firing the camps, was 
 accomplished without loss, as the fire from the field piece 
 checked the Imperialists. 
 
 This affair, known to history as the battle of Muddy Flat, 
 occupied only two hours in all ; it was successful in the object 
 which Mr. Alcook had in view ; but was unfortunately attended 
 with some casualties to the foreign forces. The Volunteers had 
 three men wounded, two of whom died a few days afterwards 
 and the other lost a leg ; the Encounter and Grecian had each 
 five men wounded and the Americans one killed and four 
 wounded, most of them seriously. The foreign community of 
 Shanghai thanked Captains O'Oallaghan of the Encounter, . 
 Keane of the Orecian, and Captain Kelly of the Plymouth, for 
 the prompt and decisive measures which they took for the 
 defence of the Settlement, and the British community presented 
 a service of plate to Captain O'Callaghan. 
 
 The British Government approved of Mr. Alcock's action, 
 but it has been impugned, on the one hand by those who saw 
 in it only his " unreasonable haste and imperiousness,"* and on 
 the other hand by a few who had debilitated their judgment by 
 long admiration of everything Chinese. Such action as Mr. 
 Alcock took was absolutely necessary if the Settlement was to 
 be preserved, not only from outrage, but very possibly from 
 
 * Autobiography of Mr. R. B. Forbes, formerly a partner in Messrs. 
 Russell & Co., who forgets that the U.S. Consul concurred with Mr. 
 Alcock. 
 
The Triads in the City. 43 
 
 destruction. The mandarins had no authority over the rabble 
 which filled the camps, and which was composed of the worst 
 specimens of cruel, vicious, cowardly and utterly lawless men. 
 
 By the end of autumn the state of the city had become 
 very gloomy ; nine-tenths of the inhabitants had fled, and the 
 policy of taking the place and handing it over to the Imperialists 
 was discussed. If this was done the insurgents were to be 
 deported to Formosa. The insurgent chiefs were said to be 
 quite willing to surrender the city to the Treaty Powers. 
 
 But the French now interfered. A few months after the 
 occupation of the city by the insurgents, the Imperialists 
 erected a wall between the ' city and the" French Concession. 
 This was done to prevent the insurgents coming on the Con- 
 cession to sell their plunder and purchase supplies. A sort of 
 market had been established on both sides of the Yang-king- 
 pang, where a lively business was carried on by the insurgents, 
 and of this the Imperialists bitterly complained. , The building 
 of that wall was approved by the Consuls of Great Britain and 
 the United States ; indeed, the Minister of the latter Power 
 extended it on the north side of the Tang-king-pang, but the 
 British authorities would have nothing to do with continuing it 
 further, whereupon the Imperialists did so. 
 
 The French Admiral Laguerre had evidently been watching 
 his opportunity to 'interfere with arms on the side of the 
 Imperialists. I think also that Mr. Alcock was willing that 
 this should be done, as the insurgents were now utterly 
 demoralised. The French Admiral found his opportunity when 
 ■the insurgents erected a mud fort or battery between the city 
 and the wall which I have mentioned, somewhere near what is 
 now the Rue Touranne. He immediately ordered its removal, 
 threatening, if this were not done by its builders, to do it 
 himself. The insurgents treated these orders with contempt, and 
 the Admiral sent a party of sailors to destroy the fort. A colli- 
 sion ensued ; shots were exchanged ; some rebels were killed and 
 one Frenchman mortally woun^ded. Admiral Laguerre at once 
 declared the city in a state of siege, and on the 9th December, 
 H.I.F.M.'s ship Colbert, of 6 guns, opened fire on it. The 
 
44 The Story of Shanghai. 
 
 bombardment continued for two hours ; the insurgents did not 
 return the fire. On the following day the frigate La Jeanne 
 D'Are, of 44 guns, anchored near the Oolbert, but the bombard- 
 ment was not renewed. The next step taken was the despatch 
 of a vapouring letter from the French Consul to Mr. Alcock in 
 which complaint was made that insurgents went to and from 
 the British Concession and the city. Mr. Alcock immediately 
 called a meeting of British Land-renters and impressed the duty 
 of absolute neutrality on them. But when he proposed that 
 the Land-renters should erect a wall round the whole Settlement, 
 they unanimously resolved that such measures should be under- 
 taken by the representatives of the Treaty Powers. At this 
 meeting a letter was read from Sir James Stirling, the British 
 naval commander-in-chief on the station, in which he informed 
 the community that the time was limited in which he would 
 allow a guard from Her Majesty's ships to protect the Settlement, 
 which he thought should be done by the Chinese ! Thus the 
 meeting had the British civil authority recommending it to 
 build a wall to keep out the Chinese mandarins and their men, 
 and the naval commander-in-chief saying that to these same 
 Chinese the protection of the Settlement should be entrusted. 
 Sir James Stirling's letter gave great dissatisfaction to the 
 British community, and in replying to a remonstrance which 
 was addressed to him, he endeavoured to explain it away. 
 
 It would appear that the efforts of the British and American 
 Consuls restrained the French Admiral from further operations 
 against the insurgents, until the 6th of January. About half-past 
 six on the morning of that day a cannonade was commenced from 
 a battery in front of the French Consulate, and within an hour 
 a practicable breach was made in the city walls. Two hundred 
 and -fifty French sailors and marines were landed and ascended 
 the breach, "supported" by fifteen " hundred Imperialists, and 
 covered by the fire of the two men-of-war in the river. A 
 desperate struggle took place in the breach ; the French behaved 
 with great bravery and coolness, and the Imperialists with their 
 usual cowardice. Finally, the Imperialists were driven back 
 and the French, finding themselves unsupported, were compelled 
 
The Triads in the City. 45 
 
 to retire within their lines, with a loss of forty-five officers and 
 men killed and wounded.* The insurgents then came oat of 
 the city and drove away the Imperialists. Mr. Aloock seems to 
 have approved the action of the French as he followed the 
 storming party into the breach. . 
 
 On" the night of the 17th, or the morning of the 18th 
 February, 1855, the insurgents . stole away from the city, which 
 they had previously fired. Their flight was in the direction of 
 Sic-ka-wei, and they were pursued as soon as the Imperialists 
 heard of their escape. Those who were taken were of course 
 beheaded, and the Imperialists occupied Shanghai on the 18th. 
 They at once began to butcher all the people they found in the 
 city, and even opened coffins and beheaded the dead. Immense 
 mounds of heads and headless bodies were everywhere about the 
 city and suburbs, and the unfortunate people who were found 
 alive were ruthlessly pillaged. One unlucky wealthy man had 
 been compelled to pay three hundred thousand taels to the 
 insurgents, and the Imperialists now made him pay two hundred 
 thousand more for having complied with these demands. 
 
 Many of the insurgents were sheltered in the British Settle- 
 ment until means were found to send them away to other places, 
 but three hundred of them, who had surrendered to Admiral 
 Laguerre, were given up by him to the Imperialists.^ Many 
 captives were beheaded in the belief that they were Lew and 
 Chia-a-Hn, but both escaped, and the ex horse-boy was afterwards 
 a prosperous merchant in Siam. 
 
 * The killed were at first buried at Timg-ka-doo, then in the French 
 cemetery, and were transferred in 1888 to the cemetery on the English side. 
 + Scarth's Twelve Years in China. 
 
46 The Story of Shanghai. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 THE TAIPING TIMES AND AFTER DISASTERS. 
 
 During the occupation of the city by the Triads, some ten to 
 twenty thousand Chinese, mostly bad characters, had come to 
 live in the Settlement. This made the first change in the quiet- 
 going place. Chinese, except those who were original owners 
 of land, were not allowed to hold real property or houses within 
 the limits, or indeed to reside within them except as employes 
 of foreigners. But those who had come within the Settlement 
 were allowed to remain, and their numbers do not seem to have 
 decreased down to the time when the presence of the Taipings 
 near at hand greatly augmented them. 
 
 The growth of the Settlement necessitated an extension of 
 the Municipal institutions, which had hitherto been represented 
 by the Committee of E/oads and Jetties, and for a temporary 
 purpose, the Committee of Co-operation, both consisting of 
 three members. Therefore, at a meeting of Landrenters held 
 on the 22nd July, 1854, a Committee of seven members was 
 chosen, which was shortly afterwards named the Municipal 
 Council. 
 
 Affairs were quiet in Shanghai during the next few years, 
 but the commercial disasters of 1857 checked its prosperity, for 
 a time, and the war with China affected business for a few 
 months. ,Lord Elgin, Her Majesty's Special Envoy to China, 
 arrived in Shanghai on the 26th March, 1858, and received an 
 address from British merchants on the 29th, and left in the 
 Furious for the Peiho on the 10th April. Succeeding in hia 
 mission to the north, he returned to Shanghai and left for Japan 
 on the 31st July, and after concluding a Treaty with the Tycoon 
 he revisited Shanghai and spent some weeks, arranging the 
 
The Taiplng Tiwies and After Disasters. 47- 
 
 tariff of the new Treaty with China. Mr. Lawrence Oliphant* 
 gives some pleasant vignettes of Shanghai in those old quiet 
 days, while abasing its maladorons fields, hot snn by day and 
 chilly nights in unwholesome September. He describes people 
 "riding or gyrating daily on the race coarse, as though they 
 were being lounged. Those who prefer gossip to exercise 
 frequent the Bund, a broad quay which extends the whole length 
 of the Settlement, and which is crowded with Chiaese porters 
 all the morning, and sprinkled with European ladies and 
 gentlemen in the afternoon. The harmony and- hospitality of 
 Shanghai make it infinitely the most agreeable place of residence 
 in China to the mission." 
 
 There was a slight outbreak among the coolies on the 2nd 
 September, 1859. These disturbances were caused by rumours 
 that foreigners were kidnapping Chinese and sending them on 
 board a French ship, which was lying at Woosung, taking in 
 coolies for the West Indies. Some of the Chinese on board this 
 ship had risen, and some were shot while attempting to escape. 
 A large mob of excited coolies set upon a man, whom they 
 supposed to be a kidnapper, and nearly beat him to death with 
 bamboos; and on the Reverend Mr. Hobson and Mr. H. N. Lay 
 interfering, the latter was stabbed and his companion obliged to 
 seek refuge in a carpenter's shop, till the police came. The 
 opening of Japan to foreign trade, in this year, gave a consider- 
 able impulse to the commerce of Shanghai, as for some few years 
 supplies of goods for that kingdom were chiefiy obtained from 
 Shanghai. 
 
 But the approach of the Taipings in 1860, their capture of 
 important cities and towns in this province and Chekiang, made 
 Shanghai a place of refuge for thousands of terrified Chinese. 
 The rich city of Soochow was taken, after scarcely any resistance, 
 on the 29th June of that year, and refugees poured into 
 Shanghai, the Creek being crowded with craft of all descriptions, 
 among which were many large and handsome family boats full 
 of men, women and children with their servants, and such things 
 as they had been able to carry away from their houses. 
 
 * In his narrative of Lord Elgin's Mission. 
 
48 The Story of Shanghai. 
 
 Preparations for the defence of the Settlement were com- 
 menced soon after Soochow'had been captured. A Volunteer 
 force was enrolled — the tfld corps which had done so well some 
 years before had been disbanded; — barricades were erected at all 
 the streets which crossed Honan Boad, and the Volnnteers kept 
 guard at them day and night, while the Taipings were near. 
 There was not only danger to the Settlement from the rebels 
 without, but there was danger from within, as the place swarmed 
 with bad and desperate characters, both foreign and native. 
 
 July passed without any rebels being seen near Shanghai, 
 but on the 18th of August many. fires were blazing to the 
 westward. The Kestrel, H.M. gunboat, and the IVench steamer 
 Hongleong were sent with communications for the rebels at 
 Sungkiang, but before they got to Ming-hong, twenty miles up 
 the river, the Taipings had occupied the buildings of the Jesuits 
 at Sic-ka-wei, which they made their head-quarters. From 
 thence they advanced on the city, and endeavoured to enter the 
 West Gate. They received a warm reception from the English 
 and Indian soldiers who were posted there, and at the South 
 Gate. Until evening the Taipings swarmed about the country 
 near the city, hiding behind graves, beds of rushes, and topes 
 of trees. That night all the houses outside the walls, which 
 would have given shelter to the rebels, were burned down. 
 
 Next morning a bombastic proclamation from the Taipings 
 was found posted in the city, calling on the people to join them. 
 They had worked their way round almost to the French quarter. 
 The French then fired the houses and warehouses between their 
 Concession and the city walls, burning an immense quantity of 
 valuable property in the most wanton and useless manner. This 
 conflagration burned for several days and until after the Tai- 
 pings had retired from the neighbourhood of Shanghai. While 
 the rebels were near the city a heavy fire was kept up on them 
 from the walls, and soldiers and marines fired on them from 
 several out-looks which had been erected thereabouts, and 
 towards the Settlement. 
 
 On Monday the rebels advanced in great force along the 
 paths which ran parallel with the city walls ; each soldier 
 
The Taiping Times and After Disasters. 49 
 
 carrying a flag. They eontinned their march to the English 
 Settlement, and actually placed some flags within two hundred 
 yards of the old race coarse. Bat a few shots and shells made 
 them retreat. During the previous night the despatch-boat 
 Pioneer had gone up the river to above the city, from whence 
 she threw 13-inoh shell among bands of the rebels who were 
 between Sic-ka-wei and Shanghai. And about one o'clock H.M. 
 gunboat Nim/rod begun to fire shells from off the Bund, at 
 parties of them which were advancing towards the Settlement 
 in a line with the present Babbling Well Road. She continued 
 this for two hours, when these rebels retired, but the Pioneer 
 fired until evening, when the rebels returned to Sic-ka-wei. 
 
 That was the last time the Taipings troubled Shanghai 
 during that year ; on Tuesday they kept quiet, and on the 
 following day Mr. Forrest, then interpreter to the Consulate, 
 rode to their camp, accompanied by an orderly named Phillips. 
 Mr. Forrest was the bearer of a letter to the rebel chiefs, in 
 which they were told that the city of Shanghai was under the 
 protection of the British and French, and that they could not 
 be permitted to enter it. He was civilly received a short 
 distance from the Taiping head-quarters, and invited to visit 
 the leaders; but he declined to do this, and leaving his despatches 
 with the officers at this out-post, rode back to the Settlement. 
 This was a plucky ride, considering the treatment the rebels had 
 received from foreigners daring the previous few days. 
 
 On the next day Mr. Forrest, accompanied by his officers, 
 returned for the answer to the letter. They found only a few 
 ill-clad soldiers at the rebel camp ; and later in the afternoon 
 some gentlemen riding that way discovered that the rebel host 
 was represented by a few straw staffed figures. The Taipings 
 had retreated into a safer districts, but their reply to the letter 
 which Mr. Forrest had caused to them was received by the 
 foreign authorities shortly afterwards. It was in their usual 
 high flown style, and it asserted that they had been invited to 
 come to Shanghai by foreigners, who assured them they would 
 be welcomed. This may have been the case, as there were many 
 hot-headed, unwise, bat honest supporters of the Taiping cause 
 
60 The Story of Shanghai. 
 
 in the Settlement besides a large nnmber of utterly unscrupulous 
 men who were interested in the illicit trade in arms. 
 
 There was some anxiety, but little excitement- in the 
 Settlement during the time when the Taipings were near. 
 Some merchants and foreign banks and wealthy Chinese placed 
 their treasure and valuables on board steamers, tug-boats and 
 the opium receiving-hulks, and others who did not do this hired 
 guards of seamen and others to protect their premises. The 
 difEerent ways in which occasions that were presumed to be 
 alarming were met by foreigners and Chinese was significant of 
 their national characters. Once, after it had been arranged that 
 a certain signal would be made in case of seeming danger, so 
 that the women and children might be taken on board the 
 men-of-war, a great disturbance — firing of gin gals, beating of 
 gongs, and shouting — was heard in the direction of the city, just 
 after dinner. The residents who were unmarried hastened to 
 the Bund, armed with every conceivable weapon ; married men 
 brought their families there, and all calmly awaited the result. 
 It was soon found that the clamour arose from a fight between 
 some of the junk men, and as soon as this was known, people 
 returned to their houses. 
 
 Bat the frequent panics among the natives were fearful 
 things. As an instance of them : one day an alarm was given 
 in the Maloo that the rebels were at the Bubbling Well, and 
 almost in an instant, crowds of Chinese in that quarter, and the 
 adjacent alleys, fled towards the Bund. Women and children 
 were trampled to death in the mad flight ; men who were 
 carrying oS silver and other valuable left them in their chairs 
 and joined the shrieking, terrified flood of fugitives. Many 
 when they reached the Band rushed into the river and several 
 were drowned. 
 
 While the British and French were defending Shanghai 
 against the Taipings, their allied forces were attafcking the forts 
 of the Imperial Government on the Peiho, which were taken on 
 the 21st of August. 
 
 The year 1861 saw a great increase to the commerce of 
 Shanghai from the opening of the Yangtze to foreign trade, as 
 
The Taiping Times and After Disasters. 51 
 
 far as Hankow. Teas were bought cheaply at that port and at 
 Kiakiang ; imports were sold at all the newly opened ports in 
 large quantities and at favourable prices ; new articles of trade 
 were also discovered. Both foreigners and Chinese entered 
 largely into the new field of business and a demand for steam 
 tonnage on a very large scale soon sprung up. To meet it, all 
 kinds of vessels — some of the earliest types of paddle wheels — 
 were bought and placed on the river. Chinese merchants in 
 many cases became joint owners with the foreigners who managed 
 these crafts, and, as many of the steamers were nearly useless^ 
 the results were in most cases unsatisfactory. Other mercantile 
 firms ordered suitable steamers in Great Britain and America, 
 and in a short time travelling on the river and coast could be 
 accomplished with as much comfort as in any part of the world. 
 And so promising did this branch of the business of the port 
 seem that Messrs. Russell & Co. were able to found the Shanghai 
 Steam Navigation Company in 1862 with a capital of a million 
 of taels, which was subsequently increased to a million and a 
 qaarter, and ultimately to a million eight hundred and seventy- 
 five thousand, although it was an unregistered Company and 
 the liability was unlimited. This was the first great shipping 
 enterprise in which foreigners and Chinese were associated. It 
 built in America many fine steamers to ply on the Yangtze and 
 on the coast. It had a very checquerdd career, was unfortunate 
 in many ways, and, as we shall see, was finally purchased by the 
 Chinese. 
 
 In this year the Inspector Generalship of Customs was 
 established, Mr. H. N. Lay being appointed to the office by a 
 Decree of Prince Kung, dated the 21st of January. 
 
 For more than a year the Taipings did not reappear in the 
 neighbourhood of Shanghai. It was rumoured from time to 
 time that they were near at hand and considerable disquiet was 
 felt in the Settlement in autumn. This was increased when 
 Ningpo was taken early in December, almost without a struggle, 
 Hangchow attacked and Chefoo 'taken. At length the rebels 
 made their appearance unexpectedly at Woosung on the 11th of 
 January, 1862. 
 
52 The Story of Shanghai, 
 
 On the capture of Ningpo becoming known in Shanghai 
 the Volunteers met and formed a corps of Mounted Bangers to 
 act as scouts in the country districts. In a few days a good 
 number of Bangers were enrolled, and Mr. Panmnre Gordon, 
 with whom the suggestion of forming the corps originated, was 
 actively engaged drilling the recruits and their horses, who were 
 soon afterwards changed for the more useful native ponies. 
 This corps, which now numbered some twenty men, was of great 
 service to Sir James Hope in his expedition against the Taipings 
 in 1S62 and the following year. 
 
 Very alarming rumours became current in the Settlement 
 soon after the rebels appeared at Woosung. The terrified Taotai 
 reported to the Consuls that eighty thousand " long haired men" 
 ^-as the Taipings were called — were coming from Soochow and 
 other cities in that direction. This horde was, he said, to be 
 transported by boats ; another large body was on the march 
 from Hangchow, and a third was approaching iiid Woosung. 
 The artillery of the rebels was soon heard firing at the Pootung 
 side, apparently four or five miles away. Another band, 
 advancing towards the Settlement, captured two towns between 
 Woosung and Shanghai, and at night the skies to the north and 
 west were red with conflagrations. 
 
 On the 13th January four mounted rebel scouts appeared 
 at the Stone Bridge and murdered two women, and a day or 
 two afterwards a considerable force of them were at the same 
 place. The Settlement was already full of refugees from 
 Ningpo, Soochow and other cities, but it was obliged to receive 
 the stream of fugitives which now poured in. So great was the 
 influx of strangers into Shanghai, that the cost of living had 
 increased about 400 per cent, in 1862. 
 
 Sir James Hope arrived in Shanghai on the 15th January 
 and at once took the defences of the Settlement in hand, in 
 which he was assisted by a Committee of residents. There were 
 only 860* men of the Pnnjaub N.I.,t 1,000 French troops, and a 
 
 * Inthe course of the Spring H.M.'s 67th, 99th and 5th Bomhay 
 N.I. BeglmentB arrived, and the fleet was also reinforced. 
 
 + TThe graves of many of these Indian soldiers and men from other 
 English regiments lie under the East side of the City Wall. 
 
The Taiping Tv^ee and After Disasters. 63 
 
 small force of Volunteers in Shanghai. The naval force was 
 also small, and consisted of H.M.S. Iimperieuae, the iSag-ship, 
 one steam-sloop of war and two gnn-boats. 
 
 The rebels were prevented taking the field by a heavy fall 
 of snow, early in January, which lasted fifty-eight hours and 
 covered the Settlement and country to the depth of three feet 
 in many places. Their reinforcements which was coming by the 
 creeks, and those which were marching by land, were delayed, 
 and the force at Woosnng was ordered to fall back on Nanking. 
 
 The Admiral and the residents took advantage of this delay ; 
 the ordinary vocations of almost all foreigners were suspended 
 for a time, and by the end of January the defences were complete. 
 
 There were two lines of defence to the westward. On the 
 inner, the Honan Road, wooden barricades strengthened by 
 earthworks, were erected as in 1860 ; and a stronger and new 
 one was placed in the Maloo, with smaller ones at the lanes 
 leading from the lines, while a half battery of artillery was 
 stationed on the cefltre of this line of defence. The outer line 
 was from the Sooohow Creek to the City, and on it the Defence 
 Creek was made or greatly deepened and widened. On that 
 linfi large ear^ohen mounds were constructed at short distances 
 from each other ; the first of them being near the Soochow 
 Creek, and 4 rota it there ran southward a parapet of mnd seven 
 feet high, six feet wide at the top, and seven feet at the bottom, 
 and guns.' were planted on it at every favourable spot. The 
 entire length of this parapet was three-quarters of a mile, and it 
 was considered that six hundred men, with a cannon, could hold 
 it agamst any force the Taipings could bring. 
 
 the Taotai offered to defray the cost of the defences, bat 
 his cj&er was refused, from dislike on the part of the community 
 to a/llow him to have anything to do with the Settlement, beyond 
 coljJecting his dnes in it ; and a similar offer from the principal 
 Ghtinese bankers was also declined. 
 
 The snow had disappeared from the country by the middle 
 of! February, and the Taipings took the field again, and the 
 coJmmanders of the foreign forces at once began active operations 
 ag^ainst them. I may mention a few of these. 
 
54 
 
 The Story of Skh^^^j^^i^ 
 
 One time the French cleared L^^^ ^-^^^ ^^^^ ^^g^ 3l^gU^ ^ 
 large body of rebels who had attached a village opposite the 
 city, with the object of seizing a nil j^^i^g^ ^f j^jj]j.g ^j^jcj^ ^gj.e 
 lying there and making a bridge of Lga^tg ^f them, over which 
 they ooald march to the attack of V gj^g^^jg^jg^i On another 
 occasion a party of British and Frcnchl ^^^^.-^gg ^^^ blne-jaokets 
 supported Ward,* with sis hundred oft; ^^^ disciplined Chinese 
 in an attack on a large intrenched villaL^ -^^ Pootung, and some 
 four or five miles down the river. FlnsCg^ ^-^^^ ^-^ese successes, 
 the Taotai at once began executing bam jg ^^ Taiping prisoners 
 in the city. The next important enter ^^^^^^ ^^^ against a large 
 village inland, and opposite to Ming-1 [^^^^ ^^^^^-^ 37Q British 
 and French sailors and marines captui ^.^^ During March and 
 April the allied forces and Ward's men , ^^^^ actively engaged,: 
 and the Mounted Rangers did good sert^igg_ rp^^, ^^^^^ ^^^^^ 
 of stockades were taken early in Apri.;j ^^ Wong-ka-dza and 
 Lu-ka-dong— places between Chepoo and\ yg,]^.^.^^^^^ . ^^^ j^ 
 these operations, besides 842 British and Wgnch sailors and 
 marines, 991 soldiers of British and Indian Vg^j^g^tg mider 
 Stavely, were engaged. In the first of theY engagements 
 Admiral Hope was wounded in the leg. Chao-jj^ Kah-dinff 
 Tseng-pn, Nan-jao and Cho-lin, all fortified pl^cesX -ij^- „},„_(. 
 distances of Shanghai, were taken in rapid succession., UofQ-g j.i,. 
 end of April; and in May Captain Roderick Dew, \f -g- tit g 
 Encounter, with his sailors and some of Ward's force, r^ 
 the city of Ningpo for the Imperialists. 
 
 Admiral Protet fell at Nan-jao ; while directing the^ „*■(■„„]£ 
 he was shot through the breast and died at half -past six L. ii 
 same evening, the 17th May. His remains were I'l'O'igli^'Vbaek 
 to Shanghai and lay in state for a few days in a Ghwpelle «*'^7g«*g 
 in the hospital, previous to being interred in a tomb in Vij^ 
 grounds of the French Consulate. The obsequies took place\ 
 the 26th May, when the ships of war in port fired minute guL 
 
 * Ward was an American soldier of fortune who had led a roving 1 
 He had apparently some idea of founding an Empire in the East, when L 
 came to China, but in the meantime he had drilled, and commanded,!''* 
 force of Chinese. They were known after this as "The Ever VictoribSi?', 
 Army." l'" 
 
 bcaptured 
 
The Tailing Times and After Disasters. 55 
 
 in the morning. ,The Consals, the officers of the British, 
 French and Russian men-of-war and the officers of the English 
 Regiments, all in fall nniform, with many foreign residents, 
 assembled at the French Naval Hospital at half-past seven a.m. 
 From thence the body was born to St. Joseph's Chnrch, where 
 the Taotai and many mandarins were present while a grand 
 martial mass was performed. Admiral Prntet's services to 
 China were recognised in the Feldng Gazette of the 11th Jane, 
 1862, in which Li Hung-chang, then Fatal or Governor of this 
 province, was commanded to appoint a Taotai and a Prefect to 
 present the Emperor's " sacrifice to the manes of the departed 
 officer." Therefore, on the morning of the 7th of Augnst, the 
 Taotai, and some fifteen officials, of good rank, went to the 
 French Chnrch and there listened to a mass, similar to that 
 which had been performed at the obsequies of the Admiral. 
 A large number of French officials and H.M.'s Consul and Vioe- 
 Consal were present. The Edict having been read aloud by the 
 "District Magistrate of Chang-chow, Reader of the Imperial 
 Will,'' an oblation, or sacrifice, was performed. What the nature 
 of the sacrifice was is not stated.* A statue of the Admiral was 
 placed in the grounds of the Municipal Hall, and unveiled on 
 6th December, 1870. 
 
 The successes of the allies roused the Taipings to greater 
 exertions. A large force was sent from Nanking, under the 
 command of one of their boldest and most successful leaders, the 
 Chung-wang , or Faithful King. Kahding was abandoned by 
 the allies; the troops, which bad been holding it, falling back 
 on Shanghai; and Tsing-pu was destroyed by Ward before he 
 left it. These events canse^ great alarm again among the 
 Chinese in the district near Shanghai, and immense crowds 
 hurried into the Settlement. 
 
 The rebels again appeared within sight of the Settlement 
 in Angust, and the smoke by day and illumination of the sky by 
 night proclaimed their ruthless progress. The condition of 
 afEairs in Shanghai during autumn may be imagined from the 
 fact, that, besides hundreds of thousands who were housed in 
 * North-CUiM Herald, 9th April, 1862. 
 
66 The Story of Shanghai. 
 
 some way or other, there were then ten thousand refugees living 
 in the old race course. And one writer affirms that in an 
 afternoon stroU he saw from forty to fifty thousand men, women 
 and children, encamped in that neighbourhood and adjacent to 
 it.* The change which the events between 1860 and the time 
 I am writing of had inade in the Settlement is well shewn by 
 the following. In 1859 there were some 20,000 Chinese in the 
 Settlement, but this number had grown to at least 500,000,t 
 and one speaker at a meetiug of Landrenters pat them at 
 700,000, which is probably an exaggeration. It is no wonder 
 that cholera, fever, dysentery and other diseases afflicted the 
 Settlement in 1862, killing large numbers of the residents; 
 decimating the naval and military forces and committing terrible 
 ravages among the Chinese. J 
 
 A great expedition of 4,000 English, Trench and disciplined 
 Chinese, with twenty guns and ten mortars re-captured Kahding 
 at the end of October, after a brave resistence by the Taipings. 
 In this affair Admiral Hope and General Staveley commanded 
 the British, and Greneral Burgevine,§ the disciplined Chinese or 
 Ever Victorious Army, in place of Ward, who had been recently 
 killed at Tzu-chee, about twenty-five miles from Ningpo. Li 
 Hung-chang and Burgevine continued to be very active in the 
 field after this, the former with conspicuous success ; while a 
 large force of Chinese, under two French officers, recaptured 
 many important places in Chekiang from the rebels. 
 
 So far as Shanghai was concerned there was henceforth no 
 ground for anxiety on account of the rebels, whose power was 
 being broken everywhere. But it required the military genius 
 of Colonel Gordon, to compel the rebels to take refuge in their 
 last stronghold at Nanking. 
 
 * North-China Herald, 30th August, 1862. 
 
 f Speech of the Chairman of the Municipal Council at the meeting of 
 Landrenters on 15th April, 1865. 
 
 t The heat was so great in 1862 that hostilities were suspended for 
 some months. 
 
 § In Ward's time the disciplined Chinese force was a mere rabble 
 officered for the most part by rowdies. Burgevine was a, man of better 
 class than Ward, having studied for the Artillery at West Point. 
 
The Tat]}ing Times and After Diiasters, 67 
 
 When Admiral Hope went home, at the expiry of his 
 command, in November, the leading merchants in Shanghai 
 presented him with a letter expressing their thanks for his 
 exertions in restoring tranquility to this province. It was 
 mainly by his policy that the thirty miles radius, round, 
 Shanghai, within which the rebels were prohibited from coming, 
 was established, and the excellent roads into the country were 
 made. 
 
 Early in 1863 General Bnrgevine, after a quarrel with the 
 Governmeut banker in Shanghai, who would not furnish the 
 pay of the Ever Victorious Army, marched with a small body- 
 gaard through the Settlement and obtained the money. This 
 high-handed action caused a good deal of excitement at the time 
 and Bnrgevine was shortly afterwards dismissed. After an 
 interval Colonel Gordon, R.B., was appointed to the command. 
 The mandarins had tried to plnce a certain Li-ai-dong — a good 
 soldier — and our old friend Wa Sam-qua, in command of the 
 force, but the officers and men refused to obey them. 
 
 The Lay-Osborne fleet arrived in China this year, and for 
 having exceeded his instructions, Mr. Lay was dismissed from 
 the Chinese service, and Mr. Robert, now Sir Robert Hart, was 
 appointed to succeed him. 
 
 The Mixed Court was established about the middle of this 
 year, in premises within the British Consulate grounds. 
 
 It shewd how the number of firms not British had increased, 
 that the style and title of the Chamber of Commerce was changed 
 in 1863 from the Shanghai British to the Shanghai General 
 Chamber of Commerce. 
 
 In 1863 a memorial to the Governor of Kiangsu was pre- 
 sented by a large number of merchants, requesting authority to 
 construct a line of railway from Shanghai to Soochow, which 
 was at once refused. Another proposal for the line to Woosung 
 was negatived about the same time. A London Company after- 
 wards proposed to make a line from the neighbourhood of the 
 bridge over the Soochow Creek, thence, following the driving 
 road, to Woosung, thence by Kahding, Taitsan and Quinsan to 
 the east gate of Soochow. This was to be at- first a single line. 
 
58 The Story of Shanghai. 
 
 The cost was estimated at Tls. 1,760,000 for the 62 miles, to 
 ■which Tls. 380,000 was to be added for termini, iron bridges, 
 &c., making a total of Tls. 2,140,300; and receipts were put 
 down at Tls. 282,510 a year; expenses at Tls. 108,400, leaving 
 net profits of Tls. 174,110, or 7f per cent, per annum. 
 
 The inflated prosperity of Shanghai received its deathblow 
 when Colonel Gordon captured Soochow on the 27th November, 
 1863. Bat no one seems to have seen that that event would 
 have any efiect in the fortunes of the Settlements. Their 
 residents believed that the Chinese who had taken refuge 
 among them, so thoroughly appreciated foreign ways, and the 
 safety and protection they had received, that they would not 
 return to their own cities. It was not until the houses in almost 
 whole streets were empty, and rents had fallen fifty per cent., 
 that foreigners saw the fallacy of the hopes with which they 
 had deluded themselves. The Chinese who returned to Soochow 
 soon showed how little foreigners understood them. There were 
 rumours afloat among the natives in that city, in 1864, that 
 foreigners were to be allowed to live and trade in it, and a 
 petition was presented to Li Hung-chang against this. It was 
 therein stated that the Chinese who had lived in Shanghai had 
 been subjected to the annoyance of being obliged to attend to 
 sanitary regalations, such as keeping the purlieus of their houses 
 free from filth, and clean enough to satisfy the police inspector s 
 Other innovations on the ancient unclean habits of the Chinese 
 people were referred to, and fears were expressed that if 
 foreigners came among them they would give trouble in these 
 matters. So mach for Chinese appreciation of Western comforts 
 and sanitation. 
 
 The French troops, which had taken part in the operation 
 against the rebels, were withdrawn early in the year, owing to 
 disturbances in Saigon. 
 
 At the beginning of 1864 we find the residents of the 
 Settlement congratulating themselves on the improvement in 
 the conditions of the place, compared with what it had been in 
 the winter of 1861-62. At the latter time the streets were 
 crowded with people, many of whom lay down at night with the 
 
The Tavping Times and After Disasters. 59 
 
 certainty of death before the momiag. Since then hpnses had 
 been built to accommodate all the refugees, and means had been 
 found to ameliorate the conditions of the poorer people. Suffer- 
 ing and starvation did not now intrude themselves on notice. 
 
 The Budget of the Municipal Council for 1864-65 was 
 passed on the most extravagant scale. It is sujficient to say that 
 it was proposed to expend Tls. 457,000, as against Tls. 239,000 
 in the previous year. The Council, and the community, still 
 believed that the exceptional prosperity of the place would not 
 only continue but increase. Recklessness had now culminated 
 in Shanghai. 
 
 The proposals of the Council alarmed the great land- 
 owners ; and Sir Harry Parkes informed the Landrenters that 
 the new taxes which had been proposed could not be raised 
 without the consent of the Taotai, who had already objected to 
 two of them. Ultimately the estimate of the Council for Police 
 purposes was cut down one half, and to enable it to defray its 
 liabilities a loan of Tls. 90,000 was allowed; to be guaranteed 
 by, several mercantile firms; the Manicipality having no credit 
 at the time. 
 
 Trade was unsatisfactory, on the whole, in 1864,* but the 
 speculative mania contiaued. The condition of the Settlement 
 had become scandalous ; Sir Harry Parkes stated, at a meeting 
 of Landrenters, that out of 10,000 Chinese houses on it there 
 were 668 houses of ill-fame — that is one in sixteen — not 
 including opium shops, , while of tea houses and other places of 
 entertainment, there was abundance of vice, which he said, was 
 quite unrestrained. The Settlements continued to be infested 
 by foreign and Chinese scoundrels, who committed all kinds of 
 outrages. 
 
 It was when all prudent persons foresaw evil days, for 
 Shanghai, and that these were near at hand, that the HXmes 
 published a leading article in which it gave a glowing picture 
 of the trade of the port and the prosperity of the Settlement. It 
 said that the present El Dorado of commercial men seemed to 
 
 * The Customs duties paid at Shanghai in 1864 were 20 per cent, less 
 than in 1863. 
 
60 The Story of Shanghai. 
 
 be China. And of Shanghiai it stated that some years before 
 there was " an undeveloped Settlement caiUed ShaJnghai, the 
 land whereof was of such minute value that a merchant could 
 easily attach a deer park to his house." An exaggeralted descrip- 
 tion of one or two spacious compounds which then existed. 
 And, following this, was an account of the port in 1864: "Sir 
 Frederick Bruce 'has just reported that in three years the import 
 'trade of Shanghai had risen from 'thirteen to tWenty-seven 
 millions ; * * • the decks of the steamers are now crowded with 
 Chinese passengers, and their holds are filled with 'prodnbe, 
 destined, not for foreign export, but for Chinese consumption. 
 Surely Shanghai was an Elysium to the imagination of penni- 
 less young plodders who have mastered the art of book-keeping 
 and learned to calculate exchange." A grea;t nrtmber of adven- 
 turers, and seekers for fortune, came to Shanghai in the autumn 
 of that year, only to be bitterly disappointed. 
 
 The Shanghai Club and the G-eneral Hospitail were opened 
 in this year. The Club had be^n along time building, its design 
 and furniture were extravagant and it was destined to misfor- 
 tune, before it attained its present safe position. Its airchitectnre 
 has been described as "the true debased and carpenteresque 
 style." The Royal Asiatic Society was resuscitated in 1864, after 
 three years dormancy, and the first Debating Society was 
 established. 
 
 The effects of the speculatrre trading tii the previous two op 
 three years were shewn by the failure of some large firms in the 
 spring of 1866. The Volnnteeirs found themselves in difficulties 
 in the autumn, owing to a large demand being 'made upon them 
 for the cost of rifles, guns, uniforms and general equipment 
 which their former commandant had purchased. Also the men 
 did not attend drill, and the numbers on the roll had fallen off, 
 but, instead of disbanding, the corps elected Sir Edmund 
 Hornby, the Chief Justice, to the command, and resolved to 
 maintain the force. 
 
 One good thing, at least, was done this year by the Muni- 
 cipal Councils of the Settlement and theErenoh Concession, i.e., 
 the closing of the gambling houses, which had been doing so 
 
The Taijpingx Times an6L After Disasters. 6L 
 
 much harm. The; Chinese ap-thorities had long urged that this 
 step shoald be taken, and: early in the year the Mnnicipal 
 Council for the Settlement drove the proprietors of the houses 
 away. These men took refuge in the French Concession ; the 
 Council of which was ultimately, but only in deference to public 
 opinion, obliged to close the gambling dens. 
 
 H.B.M.'s Court for China and Japan was established this 
 year. The foundation stone of the Masonic Hall, on the Bund, 
 was laid, with great ceremony, on the 3rd March. Towards the 
 close of this year a well meant, but premature, undertaking was 
 perforce, abandoned. Mr. E. A. Keynolds had erected a telegraph 
 to the Kintoan beacon with which he proposed to make known 
 the movements of shipping at the mouth of the river. The 
 country folk tore down the posts, and petitioned the Taotai that 
 they should not be erected again, as they spoiled the Fing-iJmi. 
 One man had already sickened and died, they said, without any 
 apparent cause. These views were adopted by the Taotai in a 
 letter to the British Consul, in which he said that no compensa- 
 tion would be claimed, nor would the posts be allowed to be put 
 np again. 
 
 Much attention was given in 1866 to Municipal affairs 
 which were improving, to the taxation of the Chinese who lived 
 within the Settlement, and new or modified Land Begnlations 
 were framed and sent to Peking. 
 
 It was the general opinion in the Settlement early in this 
 year that Shanghai, and the China trade generally, had sur- 
 mounted the depression oiE 1865, but unfortunately these hopes 
 were not realised. " Black Friday," and other as ominous days, 
 occurred in London, and in a short time six out of the eleven 
 foreign banks which had branches in Shanghai suspended pay- 
 ment, and others were crippled. 
 
 Most of the Joint Stock Companies which had been formed 
 in Shanghai since 1862 disappeared into liquidation or changed 
 owners in these gloomy times. And the depression from which 
 trade, and all enterprise, suffered was increased when the 
 house of Dent & Co. found itself unable to meet its engagements. 
 It had occupied a foremost position since the opening of the 
 
62 Th6 Story of Shanghai. 
 
 China trade to private mercliants, and its partners had been 
 identified with.' some of the most stirring events in Canton, 
 before the war of 1841. ' 
 
The New and Present Shanghai. 63 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 THE NEW AND PRESENT SHANGHAI. 
 
 Affaies in tlie Settlement improved in 1867, and we are told 
 that life in it was pleasanter, as the residents cheerfully met the 
 altered times and sought their pleasure and recreation in quieter 
 ways than formerly. Gardening and floriculture became a 
 pretty general passion, and there would have been a flower 
 show if the ladies' committee could have agreed upon where 
 it should be held. 
 
 The Public Gardens, on what was then called the Consular 
 mud-flat,* were making this year and were handed over to the 
 Municipal Council on the 8th of August, 1868. People began to 
 build houses on the Bubbling Well Road, and to live there. 
 Considerable additions were made to the public buildings in the 
 Settlement ; a new Theatre, a Mixed Court, a Seaman's Chapel 
 at Pootnng were built, and the Masonic Hall was opened. Gas 
 had been introduced into the Settlements and the French side 
 late on the previous year, and its use was increasing, and the 
 better lighting of the streets, the greater efficiency of the police, 
 and the diminution in the size of compounds led to the dis- 
 appearance of the watchmen who perambulated round the houses 
 and other premises at night, looking for thieves with a lantern 
 and striking a piece of large bamboo loudly at intervals, as they 
 still do in Chinese towns and cities. These were all signs of 
 vigour ; but, on the other hand, the Volunteers at last succumbed 
 to the indifference which had been weakening the spirit and 
 
 * The mud-flat was originally caused by the sinking of a small brig . 
 or other vessel there, in the early days of the Settlement. The wreck was 
 not rai sed and mud rapidly accumulated. An old resident told me that 
 he has often rowed between the wreck and the then line of the Bund. 
 
64 The Story of Shanghai. 
 
 nnmbers of the corps, since the close of the great rebellion.* 
 Bat it cannot be said to have completely died oat, as a Rifle 
 Corps sprang from it. Again, the Shanghai Clab, which, with 
 the Charch, was the most striking example of the extravagant 
 ideas that prevailed among the community a few years before, 
 now fell into such serious difiBcnltiea that it was closed in 
 August, and only reopened' on the 1st October, on a new basis. 
 
 In 1867 the buildings for the Arsenal at Kau Chang Mian 
 — the Elevated Effulgent Temple, which is known to us as the 
 Kiangnan Arsenal — were commenced. A few years before, 
 just after the close of- the rebellion, Li Hnng-chang ordered the 
 establishment of an arms factory, or foundry, in Shanghai, and 
 a machine shop in Hongkew was purchased for the purpose. 
 These premises had become too small, and therefore some six 
 acres of ground, about three miles above the city, were acquired) 
 and the fittings and other material' removed' to the new premises 
 as soon as they were completed. 
 
 Prom a little factory for repairing rifles and casting guns, 
 shot and shell, this establishment has grown into an immense 
 arsenal and dockyard; capable, if worked to its utmost capacity, 
 of supplying ships and war material of every description. It 
 has a yard for wooden ship-baildings where two frigates and 
 half-a-dozen gunboats, large and small, were built and fitted oat ; 
 an iron ship-yard with costly and ponderous machinery capable 
 of building modern ironclads of large size, but from -which only 
 a miniature ironclad; nicknamed by foreigners the Terror of 
 Western Nations, and two iron gunboats, have as yet been 
 launched. There is a Marine Engine Department, which has 
 already supplied the engines of. the ships that have been built at 
 the Arsenal and repaired the engines of many others. There is 
 a large dry dock which can take in ships of nearly 400 feet in 
 length, and which has already done most efficient service for the 
 Chinese navy. Sometimes there have been four or five steamers 
 waiting their turn ta be docked. Going back from the river 
 
 * The corps owed Tls. 300, and the members resolved to sell as many 
 rifles as would m?,ke up this sum, and to call for more subscriptions. The 
 corps was to remain in abeyance. 
 
The New and P-rese.nt Shanghai. ^5. 
 
 front there are various shops, for general work. The rifle 
 factory, which has hitherto only tamed out Bremiugtpn rifles, of, 
 American pattern, is a large building with every applia,nce. for 
 producing rifles at the rate of several dozen per day easily, and; 
 many more under pressure. Much work is being done by hand; 
 in this department, for wliich costly machines are standing idle, 
 though specially purchased for the worl?. It is some years since 
 any foreigner was connected with this branch. There is also a 
 general foundry where all the large and, small casting in iron, 
 brass and copper are made ; a, torpedo factory, with beautiful, 
 and delicate , machinery, was hastily established when, trouble 
 with France was looming in the distance, but it has never done 
 much work. 
 
 Leaving the main body of the Arsenal, there are two large, 
 departments, on the eastern side. One is a gun faqtory, where 
 will be found as large and complete a plant for the manufapture, 
 of heavy rifled ordnance as anywhere in the world. The; 
 enormous lathes, boring and; rifling maphines, coiling machine^, 
 steam hammer, of seven tons, etc., must be seen in active, 
 operation to be understood. This department is now making 
 " disappearing guns," one of which was successfully tried a. 
 few weeks ago, under the superintendence of Mr. W. E. Cornish, 
 who was many years at the Els wick faqtory. A. large proqf; 
 xuound and the other accompaniments of a proof range for heavy 
 ordnance have been in use for many years, by the side qf the 
 river. The other department on the eastern side is fpr, shot and, 
 shell ; here one may see missiles of all sorts and sjzes, ranging, 
 up to 750-lb. weight, in various stages of making. A certain, 
 weight of metal is cast every day, which might perhaps, easily) 
 be trebled in amount. 
 
 On the western side, ahout three miles distant, and near the 
 Loong-wha pagoda, stands the cartridge factory. This, in itself,, 
 is as large as the factories for similar purposes, in England, 
 There is machinery for making all kinds of rifle cartridges at 
 the rate of tens of thousands per day, but only that portion which 
 makes the Eemington cartridges is in use. Thp copper or metal 
 sheaths of the percussion caps are all ma^e and filled on the 
 
66 The Story of Shanghai. 
 
 premises, as well as tke ballets. There are also elaborate 
 macbines for making Gatling and other large cartridges. The 
 gunpowder works are well laid out, after the most approved 
 foreign methods. There are twelve incorporating mills, with all 
 the necessary plant accompanying them, capable of turning out 
 an almost incredible amount of gunpowder, if worked night and 
 day. The materials used are mostly imported from. Europe. 
 
 One interesting feature at the Arsenal is the Educational 
 Department. The schools for interpreters, one for English, 
 now taught by Dr. Suvoong, and the other for French under 
 Professor Alphonse Bottu, have been in existence for nearly 
 twenty years, and have sent out various students to the Peking 
 College, and to different official positions. The department for 
 the translation of scientific books has been at work since the 
 establishment of the Arsenal. Mr. John Fryer has had charge 
 since the commencement, and he, with others, have been engaged 
 for more than twenty years in the laborious task of preparing 
 an Encyclopssdia of standard treatises in the China language. 
 There is a stafE of writers, block-cutters and printers who are 
 able to publish the various works in the best Chinese fashion, 
 and the books are sold in considerable numbers at cost price. 
 Mr. Fryer has been awarded the third brevet degree of civil rank 
 in recognition of his services. 
 
 The expenses attending the establishment and maintenance 
 of the Kiangnan Arsenal have, of course, been enormous. A 
 portion of the receipts of the Imperial Maritime Customs at 
 Shanghai is regularly set aside for its use. Many. foreigners — 
 at one time as many as twelve — have been employed from time 
 to time in the various engineering and mechanical departments, 
 but three are now found sufficient. The management is in the 
 hands of a native director, two sub-directors, and a number of 
 petty officials. To stand and watch the crowd of workmen pass 
 out of the gates of the different departments^ when the signal is 
 given to stop work, will give one an idea of the magnitude of 
 the place. 
 
 Everything is now on a peace footing; only enough is spent 
 to keep the plant and workmen in working order ready for any 
 
The New and Present Shanghai. 67 
 
 emergency. In case of war the nnmber of men employed would 
 Boon be trebled or quadrupled, and tlie weekly out-pat would be 
 greatly increased. The native workmen shew a wonderful 
 aptitude in picking up foreign ideas and using foreign machines 
 and tools. It is even said that the work turned out in some 
 parts of this Arsenal, even under disadvantageous circumstances, 
 compares favourably, both as to the quality and cost, with what 
 is done in arsenals in foreign countries. The Kiangnan Arsenal 
 seems to be a sort of stepping-stone to higher posts, for three of 
 its Directors have been sent as Ministers to foreign countries, 
 while those in lower position have been drafted to many 
 important positions in the home and foreign services. There 
 are other arsenals in China. That at Foochow covers more 
 ground, but has not done so much effective work ; those at 
 Canton, Hangchow, Tientsin, Tsinan-fu and Ching-tu are 
 growing but slowly, as they are not in such favourable localities 
 as Shanghai and Foochow. 
 
 The first English Church erected in Shanghai had become so 
 delapidated by 1862 that the rain often came in through chinks 
 of the roof, the wind frequently blew away tiles and portions of 
 the roof fell into the pews. It was taken down in that year, 
 and a temporary place of worship erected in the compound. 
 Many of the ragged and tattered books which were afterwards 
 transferred to the Cathedral are still drifting about its desks. 
 And, as a writer at the time when the Cathedral was opened 
 said, no one can read some of the inscriptions without a thrill. 
 "No marble monuments, blazoned with escutcheons and graven 
 with inscriptions are half so full of deep and pathetic interest 
 as these bibles, with a mother's blessing on the page, or the 
 record of sisterly regard in ink long since paled and faded." 
 And old residents are occasionally reminded of friends dead and 
 gone or passed out of memory by the appearance of a name on 
 one of these books. 
 
 In 1864 plans for a new Church were obtained from Sir 
 Gilbert Scott, R.A., which were modified by Mr. Wm. Kidner, 
 a. local architect, partly on account of the expense which they 
 would have involved, and partly for climatical reasons. Bat, 
 
6S The Story of Shanghai. 
 
 notwithstanding ttis prudential care, the Charch waiS perhaps^ 
 the moat signal instance of the extravagant ideas ■whicli pre- 
 vailed in the community at the time when the plans of the 
 architects were adopted. The foundation^ stone of the new 
 edifice was laid on the 16th May, 1866, with great Masonic 
 ceremonies, but the want of sufficient funds hindered the; pro- 
 gress of the building. Indeed, it was completed with great 
 difficulty, and at one time it seemed likely that work on it would 
 be altogether suspended for want of money, or that if it; was 
 finished it would be held by the contractors* until their debt 
 was discharged. But a yigorous efBort was made and; liberal 
 subscriptions were obtained ; part of the compound was let on 
 lease, the rents of it np to 1884i were advanced: by the lessee 
 and the Charch was opened for public worship on the let of 
 August,. 1869.t 
 
 The style of, the Cathedral, for snoh it became on Trinity' 
 Sunday 1876, is Gothic of the early partof the thirteenth century; 
 the.buildipg.is cruciform. ^r^d, consists of a nave, north and. south 
 aisljes, tr^^ng^pts, chancel, with apsidal sanctuary, and two small 
 chapels for an organ chamber and vestry. The total length 
 of the interior is 162 feet, and the width across nave and aisleai 
 68 feet 6 inches, while theheight from the floor to the apexj of 
 the nave roof is, 54 feet* The aisles are entirely surrounded by 
 an open arcade,, carried on granite shafts, with brick piers and 
 buttresses between the bays. A tower, for the erection of which 
 sufficient funds have not yet been raised, forms part of Sir 
 Crilbert Scott's plans. 
 
 Early in 1875 the subscribers to Trinity Church, who have 
 the management of its affairs, through trustees, of whom they, 
 elect two, while H.M.'s Consul-General is ex officio another, 
 passed a resolution authorising the trustees to communicate, 
 with the newly-appointed Bishop of North-China, the Rev. W. 
 A. Russell, as to the erection of the Church into his Cathedral, 
 
 * Messrs. C. S. Farnham & Co. 
 
 t The cost of the former and present organ was defrayed by public 
 subscription ; the first was presented by Sir Rutherford and Lady Alcocfc, 
 and the lectern by Sir Edmund Hornby. The altar clbth, pulpit and' 
 books for the reading desk were gifts of members of the Church. 
 
The New and Present Shanghai. 69 
 
 afld empowered them to take the steps which might be necessary 
 'to that end. .The Bishop " selected and assigned " the Ohnroh 
 as the Cathedral for his diocess of North-China, and the 
 ceremony of ^nthroriing him took place as already mentioned. 
 The pablie inatrnment of record of the transactions is in a 
 declaration made before the Chief Jastice of the Sapreme Court 
 on the 23rd May, 18/6.* On his installation the Bishop 
 appointed the Rev. Canon Batoheif Dean of the 0&.thedral and 
 the Rev. Mr. McOlatohie Canon, which were admirable and 
 J)opnlar appointments. 
 
 Trinity Church received from its first erection, or frota 
 soon afterwards, an annual grant from the British Government 
 of five hundred pounds, but in 1858 its funds were in so 
 flourishing a condition tliat nearly nine hundred pounds had 
 accumulated, which it was intended should form the nucleus of 
 a building fund for a new church. H.M.'s Government then 
 withdrew the grant, but at the same time intimated their 
 willingness to subscribe towards the cost of a new church, and 
 this they did by contributing two thousand pounds, and it is be- 
 cause of this and its previous annual grant that H.B.M.'s Consul 
 is one of the trustees. When the trustees were greatly in Want 
 of money to complete the new church, they addressed the 
 Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, through the Consul and 
 the Minister at Peking, requesting him .to obtain for them a 
 donation of fifteen hundred pounds. But Lord Clarendon enrtly 
 replied that ''H.M.'s Government could not grant further assist- 
 ance towards the expense of the erection of a church or the 
 maintenance of a church establishment for the benefit of a 
 'wealthy British community like that at Shanghai." The 
 reference to the maintenance of a church establishment in 
 Shanghai was to the Government grants to chapels and 
 chaplains at Consular ports in China, which the Secretary of 
 State had a short time before directed Sir Rutherford Alcock 
 
 * The anccessor of Bishop Russell would not take the Cathedral on 
 the same terms, that is, that he should have the building as his Cathedral 
 during his term of office in life ; he required that it should be vested in 
 him and his successors, which the Trustees would not listen to. 
 
70 The Story of Shanghai. 
 
 to look into, and to report on the circamstances of each chapel. 
 Sir Rutherford Alcock supported the appeal of, the Shanghai 
 trasteea. 
 
 In the course of 1869 the Shanghai Chamber of Commerce 
 was in almost constant correspondence with Sir Rutherford 
 Alcock on the proposed revision of the Treaty with China, which 
 has not yet taken place. It also despatched a mission of 
 Messrs. Francis and Mitchie to examine into the trade of the 
 Upper Yangtze, and, on their return, these gentlemen pre- 
 sented a very interesting report. Baron Riohtofen was assisted 
 in his exploration both by the Chamber and the community,* 
 and a few years before some merchants of Shanghai defrayed 
 Mr. T. T. Cooper's expenses in his attempt to reach India 
 through Tibet. 
 
 His Royal Highness the Duke of Edinbnrghf arrived outside 
 Woosung on the 21st October, in command of H.M.S. Galatea, 
 and came up to Shanghai next day in the steamer Moyune. He 
 received an address signed by 350 residents of all nationalities, 
 attended the regatta, took part in other amusements, and was 
 present at a ball given in his honour at the Club, and left on the 
 26th for the South. 
 
 It was in 1869 that the Duke of Somerset applied the 
 epithet of " a sink of iniquity " to Shanghai. The iniquity was 
 commercial, and the authorities on whom His Grace relied were 
 naval ofiBcers, who could scarcely have known anything about 
 the merchants of Shanghai, except as recipients of their hospi- 
 tality. The Chamber of Commerce referred the question of 
 ofiBcially noticing the Duke's language to its committee, some 
 of the community proposed to memorialise the Foreign Secretary 
 on the subject, but common sense prevailed, and the matter was 
 allowed to drop. Sir Edmund Hornby, in delivering judgment 
 in a case bore emphatic testimony to the morality of Shanghai. 
 
 There were several missionary troubles in various parts of 
 China in 1868 and 1869. Those at Tangchow occurred in the 
 
 * The Chamber subscribed Tls. 500 and the community Tls. 5,000. 
 t H.R.H. had previously visited Peking, where the officials had com- 
 pletely ignored his presence. 
 
The New and Present Shanghai, 71 
 
 former year, and reparation was obtained by tbe vigour of Mr. 
 Consul Medburst, who went to Nanking in tbe Binaldo and 
 ultimately attained redress from the Viceroy Tseng Kno-fan. 
 About the same time a somewhat similar afEair occurred at Tai- 
 wan, which was settled by gunboat intervention ; in 1869 
 missionaries in Foochow, Shantung, Szeohuan and Anhui were 
 molested and injured, and some of the French priests were 
 murdered in Szechnan, and the Eev. J. Williamson was murdered 
 in his boat in the Grand Canal near Tientsin. In addition to 
 this outrages on missionaries other foreigners were attacked 
 near Shanghai, for early in March a party of five gentlemen 
 who were walking in Pootung were set upon by a large number 
 of villagers and severely handled. It was elicited during the 
 examination of these villagers that a fortune-teller from Tang- 
 chow was in the village at the time, and it is probable he had 
 incited the attack. Also a French gentleman and his wife were 
 assaulted when returning from the hills. 
 
 All these things pointed to a widespread animosity to 
 foreigners, but the most atrocious one occurred at Tientsin 
 in 1870. 
 
 Before that occurred M. Rochechonart, the French Charge 
 d'AfPaires at Peking, went up the Yangtze with a squadron and 
 exacted compensation for most of the outrages on Catholic mis- 
 sionaries which had pccurred in 1869. It was supposed that what 
 Mr. Medhnrst had done at Yangchow and M. Rochechonart in 
 the Yangtze provinces would insure good treatment to the mis- 
 mionaries, but the literati and gentry — the dangerous classes in 
 China — continued to excite the people with all the old stories of 
 kidnapping and killing and mutilating children to make 
 medicine with their eyes and hearts, or, as Sir Thomas Wade 
 curiously and concisely put it, for unholy purposes. There was 
 great excitement against the Catholic missionaries in Nanking 
 in June, but Ma Sin-i, the Viceroy, suppressed it. At Yang- 
 chow also and other places the same feeling was shewn. 
 
 On the 2l8t of June a mob, led or directed by Chinese 
 officers, burned the French Consulate, the Cathedral and the 
 hospital of the Sisters, all within the city of Tientsin. The 
 
72 The Story of Shanghai. 
 
 Prenoli Consul was killed — literally cut to pieces near the 
 Governor's house, — so was his Secretary, whose remains were 
 scarcely recognisable, and nineteen other foreigners, including 
 ten Sisters of Mercy, three Roman Catholic priests and a Russian 
 merchant and his wife, who were apparently mistaken for French 
 people, and several children were smothered in the home. The 
 barbarities committeid on the Sisters excited the horror of the 
 civilised world. The mob was chiefly composed of, soldiers, 
 who were incited and directed by a General Ching Kuo-jui who 
 escaped all punishment for his doings that day.* The Governor 
 Chung Ho* could have prevented these atrocities, but he was 
 afraid to take action against the mob. I do not think, as many 
 did at the time, that the authorities encouraged the rioters, but 
 they were accessories before the murder. The stories about 
 kidnapped children were the apparent means of exciting the 
 mob, but the people were further influenced by hearing what 
 had been done at Tangchow by the French, while the secrecy 
 "with which the Sisters of Mercy conducted their institution, 
 their habit of paying the parents of children to bring them for 
 baptism, sometimes when the infants were in the article of 
 death, had made them thoroughly unpopular among the populace 
 who hated and feared them.f The war with Germany prevented 
 France from acting as she would no doubt have done under 
 other circumstances, and eventually she was content to accept a 
 considerable sum of money and to receive Chung How as a 
 special apologetic envoy. 
 
 The news of the Tientsin massacre excited horror among 
 all foreigners in China, but, it is to be feared, it gave general 
 satisfaction to the natives. Intelligence of it spread like wild 
 fire all over the empire. In Shanghai Volunteers were enrolled 
 at once, the Fire Brigade joined them, and within a month five 
 hundred men were drilling. Fortunately the anti-foreign party 
 
 * Thia man had been dismissed from a military command in Szechuan 
 at the instance of M. Kochechouart, hence his leading the rioters against 
 the French. 
 
 t It was acknowledged in an Imperial Edict that the charge against 
 the Sisters of buying children and making away with them had been found 
 to be false. 
 
The New and Present Shanghai. 73 
 
 contented itself with posting up a few hostile and threatening 
 placards, and as the authorities ranged themselves on the side of 
 order the excitement soon died away. Bat the Volunteers have 
 not been allowed to decay ; they are still maintained in an 
 effective state. 
 
 There has only been one occasion, since 1870, when it was 
 necessary to call on the Volunteers, and they were then of great 
 service. ■ A riot occurred in the French Concession on Sunday, 
 the ,3rd of May, 1874 ; one of those affairs which our neighbours 
 in Shanghai have had the ill-fortune to provoke in China. On 
 the morning of that day a large number of Chinese attacked the 
 French Inspector of Roads and his family, near the Ningpo 
 Temple, broke into the neighbouring house, the dwelling of Miss 
 Maclean, a missionary lady, when they threw down stairs, but 
 on her calling out in Chinese that she was not French the rioters 
 desisted from maltreating her. The mob then proceeded to 
 burn down some stables and Chinese houses near by., Eight 
 natives were killed in the riot in the morning, and matters 
 looked so serious in the evening that men were landed from the 
 French gun-vessel Couleuvre, and from the United States 
 despatch steamer Ashuelot ; the Volunteers were called out, 
 foreigners received arms in the Municipal hall, which were 
 served out to them by the Council, and a hundred and fifty 
 Chinese soldiers were sent from the city. Everything was quiet 
 by midnight. 
 
 These riots were ostensibly caused by the French Municipal 
 Council beginning to lay out two roads which ran past the 
 temple. The Chinese objected that the roads would desecrate an 
 old graveyard, the graves in which had been levelled when the 
 French burned the suburb, thirteen years before. But the 
 Chinese argued that the tradition of the place had not been lost, 
 that it was still sacred. It is, however, very likely that the 
 memory of the destruction of their property in the conflagration 
 of 1860 still rankled in the minds of the Chinese, and was the 
 real cause of the outbreak. 
 
 The French Consul-General showed great imbicility, he 
 promptly betook himself to a place of safety, leaving his 
 
74 The Story of Shanghai. 
 
 compafcriots and others to look after themselves and the security 
 of the Concession. And on the day after the rioting he issued a 
 notification which virtually conceded everything the Chines© 
 demamded^ The Municipal Council refused to reconsider the 
 question of the roads, till the tendency to rioting had disappeared 
 and compensation had been made. Further, it expressed its 
 opinion that the riots might have been avoided if the Consul-" 
 General had taken a more energetic attitude. Nearly all the 
 unofficial Frenchmen and Swiss protested against his conduct, 
 on which he petulantly withdrew his consular protection from 
 the latter. 
 
 The changes which had taken place in the Settlement, and 
 on its relations to the outer world, since 1870, have been consi- 
 derable, but they have been quietly e:Sected. The place was 
 put in telegraphic communication with all parts of the globe to 
 which there are cables and lines in 1871 ; telephones and electric 
 lights liave been introduced, and other improvements carried 
 Out. The business of the port has undergone considerable 
 change. For instance, the year 1872 saw the commencement of 
 the China Merchants' Steam Navigation Company, by the 
 purchase of the Aden, which was the first steamer to leave 
 Shanghai under the Chinese flag. This company had been 
 formed shortly before, by the favour of Li Hung-chang, Viceroy 
 of Chihli. One of his objects in founding it was to train sailors 
 for the fleet he intended to build ; another was to obtain the 
 freight which was paid on the tribute rice ; another to shew the 
 world that Chinese merchants were able to manage such com- 
 panies as well as foreigners could, and might therefore obtain 
 possession in a short time of the carrying trade of their country. 
 It might also help nearer the day for which nearly all Chinese 
 hope, when foreigners will leave, or be expelled from China. 
 
 Chinese merchants would have little to do with the com- 
 pany, but some natives who had been brokers and compradorea 
 to foreign houses joined it, and with a few officials became its 
 management. Large loans were obtained from the Government 
 and native bankers, to take the place of the capital which was 
 not forthcoming, wealthy Chinese shewing on this, as on several 
 
The New and Present Shanghai, 75 
 
 subsequent occasions, that they will not trust their officials. 
 The company purchased many steamers, bat its affairs were 
 corruptly and ignorantly managed. It received freights for the 
 Government rice far above the market rates ; duties were modi- 
 fied in favour of Chinese who shipped by the line ; but it was 
 unsuccessful for many years. However, in 1877 it purchased 
 the steamers, wharves, etc. of the Shanghai Steam Navigation 
 Company, for two millions of taels, but that did not improve its 
 position, and in a few years it was on the verge of ruin. The 
 official element in its management was reduced in 18S1, and 
 this saved the company. At the beginning of the troubles with 
 France, in 1884, its steamers were transferred to the American 
 flag, and placed under the management of Messrs. Bassetl & 
 Co.; but they returned to Chinese hands in the following year. 
 
 A long standing source of irritation was got rid of in 1873 
 when the Municipal Council purchased the bridge over the 
 Soochow Creek from its proprietors. These persons had been 
 exacting tolls for many years, from foreigners and natives alike, 
 although they had no right to make any such charge. They 
 claimed that a charter, which the Taotai had given in 1854, 
 gave them the right, but it only conferred on them the monopoly 
 of building bridges over the creek for twenty-five years. The 
 increase in the population of the Settlements had made the bridge 
 so profitable that the shareholders refused to sell for many 
 years, and until the Municipal Council established a free bridge 
 beside it. This was a bold step for the Council to take, but the 
 Bridge Company was so detested that it is probable the com- 
 munity would have supported the Coancil in any steps it had 
 seen fit to take to get rid of the tolls. 
 
 The new British Consulate, which replaced the original 
 building that was burned at the end of 1870, was opened in 
 1873. The design was the same as that of the previous building 
 — one- of the handsomest in China, — but its effect was consider* 
 ably spoiled by the elevation being lowered a few feet. 
 
 Much excitement, and some amusement, was caused in 1875 
 by the publication of a memorandum on the Woosung Bar from 
 the pen of Mr. Eobert, now Sir Robert Hart, the Inspector 
 
76 The Story of Shanghai. 
 
 General of Castoma. It doomed Shanghai to commercial 
 destruction. The Settlements, he said, would have certainly 
 ten, perhaps twenty or thirty years of snfi&cient commercial 
 status to make it worth, while to prevent the river being blocked 
 np. "In twenty years time Chinkiang will have taken the place 
 of Shanghai as a semi-terminns and transhipment port. In ten 
 or twenty years tbe competition of Chinese steamers will have 
 swept the foreign flags from the coasting trade, and displayed 
 the Chinese colours in London and Liverpool docks." These 
 excilting prophecies of evil to his countrymen are as yet un- 
 fulfilled, except that one steamer with Chinese flag sailed from 
 Shanghai for London some years ago, a costly experiment which, 
 has not been repeated, and that another went to Newcastle with 
 the crews of some gunboats which were built on tlie Tyne. 
 
 In 1874 a number of residents combined for the purpose of 
 constructing a small railway, an experimental line between 
 Shanghai and Woosung, and on the 30th June, 1876, the little 
 railway* was opened as far as Kong-wan, a distance of four and 
 a-half miles, which it accomplished in seventeen minutes. The 
 train conveyed a hundred and sixty passengers, who drank 
 prosperity to the enterprise at the terminus, to Mr. Gr. J. Morrison, 
 the Engineer of the line, and Messrs. Jardine, Matheson & Co., 
 who had become connected with it. The toast, and the cheers 
 which followed them, were, the newspaper said, " the only 
 ceremonial observed on a day that certainly marks the com- 
 mencement of a new era in China." The era was smothered in 
 its infancy. 
 
 During the few months this railway was open, the Chinese 
 of the district, and others from considerable distances, flocked to 
 ride oh it, in excited and pleased crowds. But the animosity of 
 the officials to it as an innovation, which would have been active 
 in any case, was increased by the manner in which the land on 
 which it was built had been obtained. The permission of the 
 Viceroy to make the line had not been asked, and the Taotai's 
 sanction to the making of a driving road was, he contended, not 
 meant to cover the construction and running of a railway. 
 * Its gauge was 2 feet 6 mohes, and its total length about 9 miles. 
 
The New and Present Shafighai. 77 
 
 The line was soon closed, and was not reopened until tlie 
 1st December, by which time Mr. Mayers, Chinese Secretary to 
 the British Legation, acting under orders of Sir Thomas Wade, 
 had negotiated its sale to the Chinese. The terms were that it 
 was to be run for a year from, the 1st October, 1876, at the 
 expiry of which time it was to be taken over by the Chinese 
 authorities, its value being ascertained by the investigation of 
 the accounts. Compensation for a soldier who had committed 
 suicide by placing himself between the metals before an ap- 
 proaching train, was to he paid by the company. All the 
 stipulations were duly carried out, and the shareholders finally 
 received Tls. 285,000, which is said to have barely covered their 
 outlay. 
 
 When the close day arrived, immense crowds of Chinese 
 assembled at the stations, and at different points on the line, to 
 see the last train run, and if possible get a ride on it. At some 
 places it seemed as if the whole population had turned out, and, 
 as the train passed, the people maintained a dead silence. The 
 railway was handed over to the Mixed Coart Magistrate Chen, 
 an expectant Taotai, and twelve mandarins of high grade. And 
 these dolts, unlike the common folk, shewed their contempt for 
 the railway by refusing to make use of it on their inspection of 
 the line. They travelled over it in their rickety, shabby sedaa 
 chairs. When the officials obtained possession of the line, they 
 tore up the rails, took the engines and carriages to pieces, and 
 obliterated, as far as was possible, all traces of the railway.* The 
 plant was sent to Formosa, where it lay on a sea beach until 
 1883 when at least part of it was brought back here and 
 transhipped to the north. 
 
 The trains ran for about twelve months altogether and 
 carried 187,87(9 passengers, who paid fares, besides many who 
 availed of the free days, and the receipts were $42,014.02, or 5 
 per cent, over a dollar per train mile. To shew the difference 
 
 * It is only fair to say that the roadway was allowed to remain as a 
 public carriage road, and the bridges have been kept up by the Ta«tai, 
 mainly, no doubt, for the convenience of communication with the forts at 
 VVoosuug, 
 
78 The Story of Shanghai. 
 
 between China and Japan at that time and, to a large extent, 
 even now, the railway to Woosnng was taken up by the Chinese 
 a few months after the Emperor of Japan had opened the Kioto 
 railway. 
 
 As far as Shanghai is concerned, railways remain an nnfnl- 
 filled hope ; like many an abortive scheme of former residents, 
 snoh as an exchange — a prospectus of which was drawn np in 
 1852 — proper Mnnicipal-buildings, a sanitarium on one of the 
 islands at the month of the Yangtze, a swimming bath, tram- 
 ways, manufactories and mining. 
 
 The two sons of the Prince of Wales, Princes Albert Victor 
 and George visited the Settlement in December, 1881. 
 
 Twice during the last ten years the commerce of Shanghai 
 has suffered from political causes. The first time was in 1880, 
 during the dispute with Russia about Hi and Kuldja, and the 
 second in 1883 to 1885 when the French fleet was on the coast. 
 On the latter period large numbers of Chinese left the Settle- 
 ments, and trade was much restricted. But when peace was 
 made, the natives regained confidence, trade revived, and gra- 
 dually the Chinese came back, accompanied by many others. 
 A great benefit was bestowed on the public by the establishment 
 of the Water Works, which was authorised by the ratepayers in 
 1881. His Excellency Li Hung.-chang, who was in the Settle- 
 ment in 1883, endeavouring to negotiate on Tongking affairs 
 with M. Patrenotre, the French Minister to China, turned on the 
 first water at the Company's works, and showed great interest 
 in the enterprise. He also drove to Messrs. Russell & Co.'s 
 filatures and to the Country Club, where he saw ladies and 
 gentlemen amusing themselves. In that and the following year 
 the Viceroy of the Liang-kiang and H.E. Tso Tsuiig-tang visited 
 the Settlement, the former making another attempt to negotiate 
 peace with the French Minister. 
 
 During the troubles With France the Chinese authorities 
 and people did not interfere with the French residents, and the 
 neutrality of the port was insured by a proclamation from the 
 French Admiral that their fleet would not attack Woosung. 
 Bat the Taotai, acting under instructions from the Viceroy, 
 
The New and Present Shanghai. 79 
 
 caused a wooden corvette and several old janks and lorchas to 
 be towed to Woosung, and loaded with stones, with the intention 
 of having them sank in the narrowest part of the channel. At 
 the argent remonstrances of the Consuls for the Treaty Powers 
 these orders were rescinded. 
 
 Since the close of these troubles the Settlements have re- 
 covered their former prosperity and have been considerably 
 enlarged. The only event worth noting, which has occurred in 
 these years, is the celebration of the Jubilee of Her Majesty 
 Queen Victoria, which was held on the 21st June, 1887. But 
 the weather was so rainy that the illuminations, fire works' and 
 procession were postponed till the following Saturday. 
 
80 The Story of Shangliai. 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 RETROSPECTIVE. 
 
 The events wkict occtiri'ed between the middle of 1860 and the 
 end of 1863 had completely changed, not only the appearance of 
 the Settlements bat to a large extent the character of their 
 commercial life and their residents. A large China town had 
 been built roand and among the houses of the old quiet 
 Settlement ; the river banks, beside the city on Hongkew and on 
 Pootung, bad been lined with wharves, alongside of which 
 Bteamers from the river, the coast, Japan and Europe loaded and 
 discharged their cargoes. The leisurely air which the old 
 Settlement wore had been succeeded by feverish bustle in 
 business, and extravagance in private life. , 
 
 There was a great deai of speculation in Shanghai as there 
 was almost everywhere in these years. The civil war in America 
 fed its flame when speculation in land began to languish. A 
 large trade in Chinese cotton to Europe sprang up suddenly in 
 Shanghai and the northern ports, and soon attained large 
 figures.* The condition of this and neighbouring provinces, 
 where agricaltnre was suspended while the rebels were in them, 
 necessitated the importation of large quantities of rice, and the 
 operations against the rebels stimulated honest trade in some 
 directions, but at the same time a great deal of money was 
 dishonestly made by those who supplied the enemy with arms 
 and munitions of war. 
 
 A few notes on the shipping trade of the port will show 
 very clearly how great the expansion of business was in 1862. 
 At the beginning of the year there were only seventy square- 
 rigged ships in port; in September there were two hundred and 
 
 * The value of the cotton exported from Shanghai to Europe in 1863 
 ■was about £3,200,000, 
 
Betrospecti've, 81 
 
 ninety — many of them of large size-^at one time, bat this 
 number gradually fell to a hundred and seventy-eight at the end 
 of the year. And as the great increase in shipping trade took 
 place between Jane and September it proves the suddenness with 
 which commerce expanded. Again, the Castoms' daties collected 
 at the port in 1861 wereTls. 2,490,819 and in 1862 Tls. 3,370,114,* 
 an increase of Tls. 879,295 or, in round numbers, 30 per cent., 
 but some of this improvement may have been due to the 
 enhanced price of cotton manufactures. The number of ships 
 entered inwards was 2,206, their tonnage being 891,352, and 
 outwards 2,370 vessels of 923,070 tons. 
 
 Many of the ships trading to China at that time and until 
 after the opening of the Suez Canal were clippers buih to make 
 swift passages, the competitors in the ocean tea contests. It is 
 not likely that sach fine vessels will ever again give to the 
 Hiiang-pu the animated appearance it had in those days. 
 
 To provide for the sudden expansion of trade, new capital 
 was introdaced, and the foreign banks were in 1860 asked to 
 make loans and discount bills for the first time in the existence 
 of the Settlement. There had no doubt been borrowing from 
 native banks long before this, but that was quite in accordance 
 with Canton custom, whereas such transactions with foreign 
 bankers would have been considered infra dignitatem. The profits 
 on this new business were so large — ^twelve per cent, being the 
 rate charged on the best securities, such as Mexican dollars — ■ 
 that the banks already in existence extended their business, and 
 others hastened to establish themselves in this golden Settlement. 
 And as it was not always possible to employ large sums at interest, 
 in the ordinary business of the place, no matter at what high 
 pressure the coach might be driven, the banks soon began to 
 encourage wild business, and even to suggest it to their 
 customers. 
 
 But the wildest speculation was in land. When the country 
 people poured into the Settlement in 1860, there was a 
 considerable rise in the value of all land, but when another and 
 
 *The total revenue of Shanghai in 1888 was Tls. 6,169,738.— 
 
 Ciisivms Biturns of Track ISSS, 
 
82 The Story of Shangliai. 
 
 •mncli larger influx occarred in 1862, enormons prices were given 
 for lots and ontlying fields, which, were at once covered with 
 flimsy Chinese houses, that were occupied as soon as they were, 
 roofed. The Chinese proprietors of these lands were practically 
 unprotected by their own authorities, who were either trembling 
 in the city, or too busy in extracting money from their wealthy 
 countrymen to care for the complaints of poor men. Thus, when 
 an unscrupulous foreigner desired to possess himself of the 
 land of a native, he employed a corrupt minor official, who 
 bullied the proprietor into selling. When one lot had been 
 secured in this way, the right of pre-emption was exercised and 
 more land acquired. And in this way speculators, who were 
 not scrupulous, made themselves rich men in a few months, for 
 rentals of Chinese houses were then very high. Some idea will 
 be obtained of the results of the speculation of 1862 from the 
 following sentences taken from the North-China Merald : — " All 
 ispeculations, it said, had turned out well ; 100, 1,000, in 
 some cases 10^000 fold had been made, and it liad been the 
 exception to enter on a speculation that had not ;paid. Nor had 
 profit been confined to a few." When we remember this it will 
 not be thought surprising that extravagance of living became a 
 ■characteristic of the large majority of the residents. And not 
 only had merchants, land-owners and speculators been suddenly 
 enriched, but hundreds of other people with good incomes were 
 added to the population, either permanently or for a time. 
 Money was abundant ; it was easily made and lightly spent in 
 many cases. 
 
 Chinese followed the times with as much zest as foreigners. 
 Many of the rich refugees entered on various ventures and 
 speculations. But there was one form of gambling which, more 
 than any other, approved itself to the Chinese, and that was 
 buying and selling Mexican dollars, on time. There was a 
 ■regular dollar exchange held several times during the day and 
 evening until late at night. There a large, noisy and excited 
 crowd of bankers, merchants, shrofEs, and others bought and 
 sold " clean" — -that is, coin without a scratch, stamp or any flaw 
 on it, and bright in appearance — Mexican dollars to any extent. 
 
Hetrospectiiie. 83 
 
 At certain periods tHere were settlements, jnst as npon the 
 stock exchanges in Enrope and America, and as mnch ingennity 
 was shewn in Shanghai to raise or lower the price as is displayed 
 by the balls and bears of other conntries. All classes of Chinese 
 took part in this specnlative mania, and millions of dollars, on 
 paper, were bought and sold every day, and sometimes many 
 times a day. Althongh only Chinese attended the dollar exchage, 
 which for several reasons was not an agreeable place to western 
 people, many foreigners, ladies and gentlemen, participated in 
 the speculations on it. Almost everyone was " in dollars" or 
 " bearing" them. 
 
 All kinds of places of amusement and pleasure sprang np 
 and flourished ; at least one rouge et noir table was opened, while 
 generally high gambling took the place of the modest stakes 
 that had hitherto been the rule among foreigners. Plunging at 
 the races became common, with disastrous effects in many 
 instances. The cost of living was enormously increased because 
 of the reckless extravagance which prevailed, high rents, and 
 the exorbitant wages demanded by servants, who were in great 
 demand for the ontports. The morale of society generally was 
 decidedly injured by all this, but there were always counteracting 
 elements that kept the ship of the community and social life 
 safe. 
 
 Sanitation had to be attended to, and the drainage scheme 
 of 1862 cost a lar^ge sum and was a failure ; a police force was 
 necessary, but the materials out of which one could be formed 
 were either bad or indifierent; new streets had be hurriedly laid 
 out and the old ones in the business part of the Settlement were 
 at that time in a condition almost inconceivable to residents of 
 the present day. After a few hours' rain they became ordinary 
 Shanghai mud. Those people whose business obliged them to 
 go about wore boots which reached half way up the thighs, as 
 ordinary boots and shoes would have been dragged off the feet 
 by the sticky tenacious mud. The streets were lit by little oil 
 lamps far apart ; the river, which supplied all the drinking 
 water of the Settlement, often bore corpses from the districts 
 where fighting or beheading was -going on. Therefore the 
 
Tlie Story of Shanghai. 
 
 establishment of a Waterworks Company was talked off, and 
 samples of the river and creek water, taken, from different places, 
 were sent to England and Bombay for analysis. But Shanghai 
 was to be withoat a Waterworks Co. for nearly twenty years 
 longer, for some things come slowly in China. So bad were 
 things Manicipal in and about 1862 that I find the Model 
 Settlement, as some one had called it, described in the news- 
 papers as a hotbed of every conceivable abomination, a large 
 portion of it being unfit for human habitation. The machinery 
 of Municipal government had broken down; the Council had 
 not sufficient power to deal with the large and overcrowded 
 districts. Their endeavours to obtain this power are related in 
 another chapter ; while the growth of the new Shanghai, that 
 followed on the excited period which ended in 1866, has also been 
 traced. 
 
 While Shanghai has been growing in importance, its institu- 
 tions and amusements have had their feeble share of attention, 
 and an account of some of these will be interesting. But in 
 several cases the early records have been lost op destroyed by 
 fire. 
 
 We saw the arrival of some Protestant missionaries soon 
 after the port was opened for foreign residence and trade. They 
 were few, but they have largely increased both in numbers and 
 influence in the intervening years. It appears from statistics, 
 which were published in 1887, that there were then nineteen 
 missionary chapels — there are now twenty, at least, — in the 
 Settlement, the city, and neighbourhood ; there are twenty 
 schools for boys and girls, and four hospitals. All these are 
 carried on by English and American missions. Besides these 
 twenty schools there are five others where a higher edncation 
 and board is given to Chinese boys and girls, and there is St. 
 John's College, Jessfield, where Chinese youths are educated for 
 the Protestant ministry or receive a sound secular education, 
 while the latter can also be had at the University. In almost 
 all these institutions instruction is given in English and Chinese, 
 and in all of them the Christian religion is taught. The London 
 Mission and the American Episcopal Missioa do much work in 
 
Retrospective. 85 
 
 the country districts, and two other Societies have branch 
 missions at Snngkiang and Nanziang, while weekly classes for 
 women are held at five places in the city and Settlement. 
 
 The Roman Catholic Missions maintain thirty -three schools 
 for boys and thirty-nine for girls in the Settlement and neigh- 
 boarhood. These are nine at St. Joseph's, on the French 
 Concession, where there were, on the 30th June last year, 91 boys 
 and 371 girls ; four of the Sacred Heart, in Hoiigkew, with 250 
 boys and 26 girls ; four in the city with 311 boys and 57 girls ; 
 twenty-one at Tong-ka-doo with 221 boys and 189 girls, and 34 
 at Siokawei with 409 boys and 328 girls ; or, in all, seventy-two 
 schools where 1,282 boys and 971 girls were being educated last 
 summer. 
 
 There are also some private schools for the children of 
 foreigners ; an Eurasian School and the French Orphanage, 
 where children of mixed parentage are brought up and educated. 
 Both these receive grants from the Municipality, and a Children's 
 Home, for the orphans of foreigners and others, has been opened 
 this year under Protestant supervision. The French Municipal 
 Council established a school a few years since where Chinese are 
 tanght the French and their own language. Until recent years 
 there were serious deficiences in the education provided for 
 foreign children, but these have now been very greatly remedied. 
 
 The Shanghai Library was instituted in 1846. The collec- 
 tion of books in it is the most numerous and best in China, but 
 it has rivals in the Settlement and has several times been in diffi- 
 culties. The Municipal Council gives it a small annual grant, 
 in consideration of the reading-roooi being open to the pnblic. 
 Probably the theatre is as old an institution as the Library, 
 bat I am unable to say when the first Amateur Company 
 performed in Shanghai, as tae records of the A.D.C. were 
 burned some years since. But in 1850 the " new" theatre was 
 opened, probably in some godown that happened to be available. 
 For many years afterwards, until, indeed, the opening of another 
 new theatre, and this time a real one, in 1867, the performances 
 were given in godowns. That Lyceum was burned in 1871, and 
 the building of the present Lyceum was commenced as soon as 
 
86 The Story of Shanghai. 
 
 safficienfc fands were collected. It was opened on the 25tli 
 January, 1874, with the farce of " Incompatibility of Temper" 
 and the comedy of " Masks and Faces." The Clnb Concordia 
 and a dramatic society of French ladies and gentlemen have 
 also given representations from time to time. And the Shanghai 
 Rangers gave several theatrical performances when the force 
 was in its youth. 
 
 When the Royal Asiatic Society had been established in 
 Hongkong a few gentlemen formed here the Shanghai Literary 
 and Scientific Society. This was in 1857, and in the following 
 year it was aflGlliated with the Royal Asiatic Society, a step which 
 the Editorial Committee say in their introduction to the report 
 for 1859 was always contemplated. The Royal Asiatic does not 
 seem to have been very prosperous at first, for we learn that it 
 was resuscitated in 1864, after having been dormant for some 
 three years. About the same time when the Royal Asiatic was 
 brought back to life, the first Debating Society was formed, but 
 it only lasted for two or three years, probably expiring in the 
 gloom which set in in 1866. But a vigorous successor took the 
 field some years ago, under the title of the Shanghai Literary 
 and Debating Society, which has added readings and concerts 
 to its scheme, and these have been very successful. There is 
 also a Museum attached to the Royal Asiatic Society and a 
 Polytechnic for Chinese. 
 
 A great deal has been done for many institutions in the 
 Settlement by the trustees of the Recreation Fund. But for 
 the too liberal loans which they gave to the Shanghai Clurb, that 
 institution would either have died in its infancy or been com- 
 pleted with some regard to common sense. But these loans 
 were made in the wild days, and since then the Recreation Fund 
 has done good service. For a time, however, its affairs were 
 in great disorder and there were considerable doubts in the 
 public mind as to whether the Fund had a real existence, and 
 if it had, who were its trustees, or were there any trustees at 
 all. Gradually its affairs were arranged, and the yearly accounts 
 which have been published shew that it has been doing much 
 good. 
 
Eetrosjpective. 87 
 
 The Ftind was created in ] 862, when some land within the 
 old Bace Coarse was sold. This land had been purchased at 
 the end of I860,* and laid out as a Recreation Ground at a cost, 
 including the purchase money of Taels 4,421.34. This money 
 and a few hundred taels more had been provided by the issue of 
 shares, which were subscribed for by some fifty residents. The 
 Talue of the land haying enormously increased in 1861 and 
 1862, it was considered advisable to sell it, and this was done, 
 with the unanimous consent of the shareholders, for Tls. 49,425' 
 on the 19th February, 1863. This sum constituted the Recrea- 
 tion Fund. With part of it 430 mow of land, in the middle of 
 the Race Course, abont ten times the size of the original Recrea- 
 tion Ground, were purchased for Tls. 12,500. This land has 
 since been devoted to the formation of a Cricket and an Athletic 
 Ground and several other out-door amusements.t The Fund has 
 also assisted with loans the Lyceum Theatre, the Museum, the 
 Shanghai Library, the Cricket and the Rowing Club, and last 
 but not least, the Shanghai Club. To the last-named institution 
 a large loan was given early in the existence of the Recreation 
 Fund, which is still outstanding. 
 
 The Recreation Fund was a free gift to the community of 
 the Tls. 49,000 which the land purchased in 1860 sold for. It 
 was a very generous gift and has been highly esteemed. 
 
 There were races in Shanghai from the early days of the 
 Settlement ; the first course comprised the Cathedral compound, 
 and some adjacent land, the second was on the east side of 
 Muddy-flat, and the third between Thibet Road to the south and 
 the Sinza Road to the north and from the Defence Creek to 
 some distance down the present Maloo. In the early days the 
 afternoon's sport lasted a couple of hours, and consisted of pony 
 races, in some cases in heats. After that time Arab and Australian 
 
 * It was 34 mow, 5 fun, 5 lee, originally, but was afterwards increased 
 to over 40 mow, in the centre of the Race Course, and the first cost was 
 $2,245.75 The gentlemen who bought the .land for public purposes were 
 R. C. Antrobus, Jas. Whittall, A. F. Heard and H. W. Dent, and they 
 executed a Trust Deed in 1861, in which they undertook to hold the 
 ground for the shareholders who took it over from them. 
 
 t The whole land within the Race Course is now the property of the 
 Fund. 
 
Tlie Story of Shanghai. 
 
 horses, and Manila and Indian ponies were raced. In 1862 
 English-bred horses appeared on the scene, and daring the next 
 two years several of them took part in the races. Professional 
 jookies were then allowed to ride. The extravagance of that 
 period, to which I have adverted, was not confined to Shanghai, 
 other places in China being affected by it, though not to the 
 same extent. The Settlement and the Colony were then mach 
 more closely connected in business than they have been for some 
 years past, many firms trading in both places. Hence, when 
 the partners in Shanghai made large profits in 1860 to 1862, 
 the partners in Hongkong received their share of them. For 
 some years before this time the challenge cup — to be won by 
 the same stable two years in succession — had been raced for in 
 Hongkong, the partners in the two largest English firms in 
 China being the chief competitors. As soon as one of these 
 stables won the cup, the other sent to England for a better horse 
 to save the cup next year, and sometimes both did so. This 
 bronght really good thorough-bred English horses to Hongkong, 
 and as neither stable won twice running, a great deal of money 
 was spent on the race. Some, indeed most, of these horses, and 
 several high class Australians and Arabs, came to Shanghai in 
 1863 and 1864, and as other people ran less expensive horses, 
 and as there were several regiments in Shanghai at that time, the 
 race meetings were very good. A challenge cup for all horses 
 was instituted here, the race having the same conditions as in 
 Hongkong. It was won in 1862 and 1863 by the Pao-shan 
 stable, and the cup was not renewed. Racing was carried on 
 with great spirit in Shanghai, and was at its beight in 1864 
 when, not only were the fields good but the riding was better 
 and almost everyone turned out to see the sports. The grand 
 stand was then gay with ladies' dresses ; large private luncheons 
 were given within the enclosure ; a general gaiety was abroad, 
 while the road was enlivened by many four-in-hands and almost 
 every other kind of carriage. Some of the English and Colonial 
 horses which came to China early in the sixties were racing in 
 Shanghai at the autumn meeting of 1868, since which time, I 
 think that only China ponies have competed. 
 
lietrospective. 89 
 
 Papei'-hunting is not sncli an -old sport in Shanghai as 
 racing. But not long after the Triads were suppressed in 1856, 
 small parties of men used to ride across country from one point 
 to another, as in the first form of steeplechasing. And after the 
 Taiping rebels were driven away from the neigbourhood of the 
 Settlement, some of the residents and ofiS.cers of the regiments 
 which were stationed in Shanghai began to go paper-hunting, 
 as had been done in the Crimea — where it was made a snbsti- 
 tute for fox hunting — and in India. They rode out on Saturday 
 afternoons, and sent away one of their number as fox, who laid 
 the paper, and after a certain start had been given him the 
 others made after the fox and chased him until they caught him, 
 there being no finishing place, as at present. After a year or 
 two the foxes wore red or scarlet cowls on their heads and 
 shoulders, so that they might be distinguished at a greater 
 distance. For some seasons the fields were not large, but in later 
 years there have been a great number of riders, and the finish, 
 especially at favourite places, attracts large crowds of specta- 
 tors. The first paper hunt was run in December 1863, after the 
 rebels had been driven away, and was won by Mr. Augustus 
 Broom on Mud, and the second by Mr. R. H. Gore-Booth on 
 Bogtrotter, who won the Griffins' Plate at the next spring meeting. 
 This pony was raced here down to the end of 1868, and pulled 
 a carriage for some years longer. I have been unable to 
 ascertain when the change was made to the present system of 
 finishes at certain places, as the records of the Club have been 
 lost. But it was so flourishing in 1867 that Mr. Markham, the 
 Master, said at a hunt dinner that he hoped a pack of drag 
 hounds would be under way by next year. Some years elapsed 
 before a pack of drag hounds arrived here from the Dnmfrie- 
 shire kennels, but not in connection with the Paper Hunt. The 
 hunt meets during the winter months. Some twenty-five years 
 ago Mr. R. C. Antrobus brought out a pack of beagles, which 
 were hunted, on foot, once a week and their markings can still 
 be seen on dogs here. 
 
 A Foot Paper Hunt fiourisbed for a year or two, but was 
 disbanded in 1868, when it was resolved to purchase a cup with 
 
90 Hie Story of Shanghai. 
 
 the funds on band and have a final run for it ; bat I cannot 
 find any record of the ran. The members generally ran from 
 seven to ten miles across country and a favourite finish was over 
 the big grand stand jump which was then wider than it is 
 now, and was said to be sixteen feet. It was taken from the 
 lower to the higher side. One famous run was from the old 
 race coarse, across the Defence Creek, swimming, at the rear 
 of the Horse Bazaar, away to Batt's bungalow, and thence to 
 the Hermitage, where some forty members dined together. 
 
 The first Cricket Club was started either in 1860 or 1861, 
 and played on the ground within the old race course which was 
 sold in February 1863. In that year there was probably no 
 ground on which the game could be played and the Club seems 
 to have become dormant. For on the 9th September, 1863, a 
 meeting of gentlemen, who were probably members of it, passed 
 a resolution : " That the old Club may be considered to have 
 died out." A new Club was then formed, which had eighty 
 members by the end of 1864, and the new ground was reported 
 to the annual meeting in February 1865 to be in very good 
 order. But members of more clubs than the Cricket had a way 
 of not paying their subscriptions in those days, and from this, 
 as well as other causes, the Club was in difficulties before the 
 autumn of that year and applied for assistance to the Recreation 
 Fund. The Committee of that Fund had advanced over six 
 thousand six hundred taels to make the cricket ground and put 
 up the railings which surround it. The right of the Recreation 
 Fund to charge rent for the Cricket ground was disputed for 
 some years, but the claim has since been admitted. A lawn 
 tennis ground has been added to the Cricket Club's attractions, 
 and the open situation of the ground, and its rich grass make it 
 in snmmer and autumn one of the pleasantest i-esorts in the 
 neighbourhood. 
 
 Rowing seems to have been about the earliest outdoor 
 amusement introduced into the Settlement as might be expected, 
 seeing that the first comers were mostly Canton men, to whom 
 the river had been almost their sole outdoor amusement. A 
 regatta was held in one of the early years, and again in 1859, 
 
BetrospectivB. 91 
 
 bafc the present Rowiug Oliib was not formed until about 
 twenty-five years ago. Some of the contests for the inter- 
 national eight have been very good — such as the Scots 
 against the English, the Germans against the English, and the 
 Americans against the same, but the favour in which lawn 
 tennis is held has diminished alike the numbers of rowing men 
 and the public interest in the regattas. Besides these clubs or 
 associations for outdoor sports and recreations there are a Yacht, 
 a Rifle and a Racquet Club and it may be others. Of social 
 clubs there are the Shanghai, the Country, the Concordia — the 
 German Club which was opened in 1866 with a supper to which 
 many foreigners of other nationalities were invited, — the 
 Portuguese, the Masonic, the Customs, and the Parsee. There 
 are a few charitable societies, notably the St. Andrew's, the 
 Ladies' Benevolent, and St. Vincent de Paul, a General Hospital 
 for foreigners, two for Chinese, and the Margaret Williamson 
 Hospital for women. 
 
 Although the Fire Brigade was not esta;blished for recrea- 
 tive or social purposes, it has been conducted since its establish-^ 
 ment twenty-two years ago with all the spirit and friendliness 
 which are supposed to animate clubs. Its efficiency has been 
 always very great and highly appreciated by the community, 
 both foreigners and Chinese. In this department the Settlement 
 and the French Concession work together in friendly rivalry 
 and with the best effect. 
 
 The story of Shanghai would not be complete without 
 some account being given of its newspapers, past and pre- 
 sent. The first number of the North-OMna Herald was published 
 on the 3rd of August, 1850, and it has appeared weekly ever 
 since. The North-China Daily News was originally the Daily 
 Shipping List, which was published every morning and was 
 in size something less than one-half of a page of the present 
 morning paper. The List became the Nmih-Ohina Daily 
 News on the 1st July, 1864, but before then the Shanghai 
 Daily Times had run a short career. It began on the 15th 
 September, 1861, and closed in April of the following year. 
 The Shanghai Becorder was another morning paper which 
 
92 The Story of Shdnghcn. 
 
 appeared for a few years ; its stock was sold by auction on the 
 19th January, 1867. The Shanghai Courier was published in 
 the morning as well as in the evening in 1879, and continued 
 its early issue for a yea? or so ; L'JEcho de Shanghai, a French 
 paper, was published in the morning for a few months in 1886, 
 and 1886 ; and the Der Ostasiatisohe Lloyd has been issued in 
 German, at first as a separate sheet in the morning, but latterly 
 as a part of the Shanghai Courier in the evening. There have 
 been several evening papers started in the Settlement. The 
 first seems to have been the Evening Hxpress, which began in 
 October, 1867, and ended exactly six months afterwards, to be 
 succeeded by the Shanghai Courier which was founded by several 
 gentlemen who did not share the Conservative . politics of the 
 Daily News. It still exists, and has for competitor the Shang- 
 hai Mercury. The Temperance Union represents the party to 
 which it owes its name. Several other papers have had a brief 
 life as dailies and weeklies, and in English and French. One 
 satirical paper called Pv^Tc flourished about fifteen years ago, 
 and its irregular appearances were very much enjoyed. 
 
The Government of the Settlement. 93 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 THE GOVERNMENT OF THE SETTLEMENT. 
 
 The first Land Regulations were dated the 29th November, 1845, 
 two years after the formal opening of the port to foreign trade, 
 and when only Great Britain had a Consalate in Shanghai. 
 They were agreed upon by Captain Balfour, the Consul, and 
 Kang Moo-kee, Imperially appointed Intendant of Circuit of 
 Soochow-fu, Sung-kiang-f u, and Tae-tsang-chow, and Superin- 
 tendent of Customs in the Province of Kiangsu. They provide 
 for the manner in which land may be acquired by British 
 merchants, within the limits set apart for them, which are said 
 to be the ground between the north of the Yang-king-pang 
 and south of Le-kea-chang, which was the lot of land bounded 
 on the south by the present Peking Road. The Regulations 
 said that a large road had at one time run along the bank 
 of the river from the Tang-king-pang northwards, which 
 was a towing path for the grain junks, but " which subsequently 
 could not be kept in repair from the sinking away of the banks." 
 But " as that portion is now rented out all the renters must 
 repair and replace the road," of a width of 2 chang 5 chih, 
 Canton Customs measurement, so that people may pass along at 
 without crowding. The ofl&oers and men who urge on the grain 
 junks and respectable tradesmen may use it, but not idlers and 
 vagrants. Jetties may be erected to which merchants' boats 
 may come, but private craft will not be allowed to anchor at 
 them. 
 
 Four large roads were to be made in the Settlement : one 
 North of the Custom House, one upon the Old Rope-walk, 
 one South of the Four Lot Ground, one South of the Consular 
 Lot. 
 
94 The Story of Shanghai. 
 
 The first of these is Hankow Road, the second Einkiang 
 Road, the third Nanking Road, and the last the Peking Road of 
 the present time. A road running north and sonth was also to 
 be reserved, " on the west of the former Ningpo Warehouse," the 
 site of which I have not ascertained. With the exception of Rope- 
 walk Road, which was to be 2 chang 5 chih, or twenty-five feet, 
 these roads were to be 2 chang Customs measurement in width, 
 and jetties were to be constructed on the beach where they go 
 out to the river. There was also to be a reserve for two roads 
 sonth of the Custom House, when land shall have been • rented 
 there, and we may remark in passing that ground by the river 
 in that direction was then more valuable than in the northward 
 part of the river side. 
 
 Very careful provision was made for the protection of 
 Chinese graves, which were thickly placed all over the Settlement. 
 These, when in land rented by foreigners, must not to trampled 
 on or destroyed ; the established terms for sacrificing and 
 sweeping at the tombs being seven days before and eight days 
 after (total 15) at the Tsing Ming term, about April 5th ; at the 
 summer solstice one day ; five days before and after the first of 
 the 10th month, and five days before and after the winter 
 solstice. "On these occasions, the renters must not offer tlie natives 
 any hindrance which would offend their feelings.'' A list of the 
 graves in each lot was to be made out, thenceforth the Chinese 
 must not bury in the said lots. After foreign merchants shall 
 have rented ground, they may build residences for their families 
 and dependents, and warehouses for lawful merchandise ; they 
 may erect churches, hospitals, charitable institutions, schools and 
 houses of concourse,* and they may likewise cultivate flowers, 
 plant trees and make places of amusement. These provisions, 
 some of them rather amusing, gave ample liberty to the little 
 community which lived on the Settlement then, and for several 
 years afterwards. Renters were also required to keep up 
 bridges, maintain clean streets, which can scarcely have been a 
 suggestion of the Intendant's, and do other specified things, all 
 tending to the welfare of the community. And if any foreigner, 
 * Theatres or Halls are probably meant. 
 
The Government of the Settlement. 95 
 
 other than British, desired to rent groand he must first make 
 " distinct application to the British Consul, to know whether 
 such can be acceded to, so as to prevent misunderstanding. 
 Natives in the Settlements were prohibited from " renting to 
 each other, nor may they again build houses there for the 
 purpose of renting to Chinese merchants." There were 
 restrictions in the acquisition of land and on speculation in it, 
 which might have been retained with advantage. No one was 
 to have more than tea mow of land,* and if any one purchased 
 land and did not build a residence and houses for the storage of 
 goods, it will then be proper for the local authorities and Consul, 
 in communication together, to examine into the matter and 
 take such land and allot it to some other party to rent. And 
 there was a clause intended to prevent speculation in land. 
 
 It will be observed that only the limits North, South and 
 East were defined in these Regulations, but it was Captain 
 Balfour's intention that a cross creek which ran on the line of 
 Kiukiang Boad should be the western limit of the Settlement. 
 And he also meant from the first that the corner lands lying 
 between the present Peking Boad and the Soochow Creek to 
 the north-east and the second road running south from the 
 creek should be the site of the British Consulate. These lands 
 were however then occupied by some government docks, about 
 whei'e the Lyceum Theatre now is, a battery where the Consulate 
 stands, and docks belonging to a family named Le — hence the 
 name Le-kea-chong, or work-sheds of the Le family. The 
 Taotai resisted the inclusion of the government land and the 
 Le family would not sell their property and therefore the 
 limits of the Settlement were defined in the first Land Begulationa 
 as bounded on the north by Le-kea-chong. In 1846 and 
 1848 Mr. Alcock entered into negotiations with the Chinese 
 authorities, and in the latter year he obtained the extension of 
 the Settlement northward to the Soochow Creek, part of it, at 
 least, by purchase ; f and at the same time the other limits were 
 defined as : the Yang-king-pang bridge, the S.E. eornei- ; the 
 
 * This had been abrogated before 1854. 
 
 t The Consular lot was known for many years as Le-kea-chong. 
 
96 The Story of Shanghai. 
 
 first ferry on the Soochow Creek, the N.E. corner ; the mouth, 
 of the Chow-king Creek, the S.W. corner ; the portion of the 
 baak of the Soochow Creek, where the dwelling houses of the 
 Sens are, the N.W. corner. 
 
 These limits, which may be taken as all ground between the 
 river and the present Defence Creek and the Tang-king-pang 
 and the Soochow Creeks,* were notified by Wa Sam-qua, Taotai 
 in 1851, no previous intimation of them having been made, nor 
 was anything disclosed about Mr. Alcook's negotiations in 1846, 
 beyond a reference to them in the Land Regulations of 1854. 
 There were maps attached to the agreement, but they were 
 never published, and the originals were burned in the city, 
 when it was taken by the rebels in 1853. In this proclamation, 
 it is said that merchants of all We.stern nations may build 
 houses within these limits, under the express sanction of the 
 Emperor, which is very different from the language of the first 
 Land Regulations, in which the Settlement is said to be wholly 
 British. It was the intention of Captain Balfour that the 
 Settlement should be British, his irritation when the United 
 States fl,ag was hoisted in it proves this, but Mr. Alcock stated 
 in his speech tp the Landrenters in 1854 that the British 
 Government never considered the concession of the ground on 
 which the Settlement was bailt, or the rights and privileges in it, 
 as a means of exclasion directed against other foreigners, but as the 
 readiest means of solving a difficulty by anticipation. Before 1854, 
 citizens of the United States had been elected on the Committee 
 of Roads and Jetties, although there were then only eight or ten 
 Landrenters of that nationality, all the others being British. 
 
 Soon after the capture of the city by the Triads and other 
 insurgents in 1853, considerable numbers of Chinese came to 
 reside in the British Settlement. They squatted on the north 
 bank of the Yang-king-pang, on the lands which had been 
 cleared for roads, then in the course of construction, and also 
 on plots in various parts of the Settlement. These squatters 
 were mostly people of bad character, who opened brothels and 
 gambling houses, and the hats in which they lived were chiefly 
 * North-China Herald 29th March of that year. 
 
The Government of the Settlement. 97 
 
 constructed of matting and other inflammable materials. The 
 Consals of the three Treaty Powers therefore addressed a 
 despatch to Taotai Wa Sam-qna, early in 1854, pointing out 
 to him that the presence of these people, and of some respectable 
 Chinese, in the Settlement, made it necessary that new Land 
 Regulations should be framed. The Taotai replied that there 
 was no clause in the existing Land Regulations granting power 
 to foreigners to build houses for Chinese, and that Chinese were 
 prohibited from locating themselves within the Settlement. He 
 went on to say that the whole neighbourhood of the Tang-king- 
 pang was then crowded with Chinese, in which there was 
 danger to merchants, as the good and bad were mixed up 
 together. 
 
 The Consuls agreed with the Taotai, and offered to co-operate 
 with the Chinese authorities, in order to give effect to the 
 Treaties, by applying a legal remedy to the evils which existed. 
 They sought to obtain power to do this by framing new Land 
 Regulations, which were issued in July 1854, with the approval 
 of the Taotai, and they were presented to a meeting of Land- 
 renters on the 11th July. Mr. Alcock explained, in a long 
 speech, that " they were designed to give that cosmopolitan 
 community 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 organisation 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 legalisation 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." He further explained that under Art. X. 
 of the new Regulations the Foreign Landrenters were to 
 have power to make provision for all Municipal purposes, such 
 as taxation, the administration of funds, police, etc., through an 
 elective Municipal Council. 
 
 The first article of the Land Regulations referred to ground 
 held by the Chinese Government and the British Government 
 within the Settlement, which was to be exempt from Municipal 
 
98 The Story of Shanghai. 
 
 control, but tte latter would pay all assessments. Land which 
 might afterwards be acquired by the Governments of France and 
 the United States were to be excepted from Municipal control. 
 The mode of acquiring land from the Chinese proprietors ; of 
 sellingit and of procuring title deeds; deeds of agreement or sale ; 
 of surrendering land for public use ; that boundary stones were 
 to be set up ; the payment of land tax ; the transfer of lots, the 
 extent of lots, and the uses to which they might be applied 
 were all provided ior. The Consuls were to call a meeting at 
 the beginning of each year, when assessments would be made 
 and other Municipal business transacted and when a Council, of 
 not less than three Landrenters would be chosen, which would 
 levy the assessments, and conduct the affairs of the Settlement. 
 The Council was to have power to sue in their Consular Court 
 all who did not pay their rates, and when such defaulters had no 
 Consul, the Intendant of Circuit " shall upon application of the 
 Road Committee, transmitted through the Foreign Consuls, 
 recover from such defaulters the amounts due from them, for 
 Land Assessment or Wharfage Dues, and pay the same to the 
 said Committee." It was evidently the intention of the Consuls 
 who agreed upon the Land Regulations that the new Council 
 should have full power to deal with all mattei's affecting the 
 public interests, and the health and good order of the Settlements. 
 For Mr. Alcock said that " it should take peremptory st-eps to 
 stop the influx of Chinese, to remove all the houses blocking 
 np (the road by) the Tang-king-pang, and other thoroughfares ; 
 or that are otherwise objectionable, for situation or the uses to 
 which they are applied : brothels, opium and gambling shops, 
 and such like, could have no pretension to fixity of tenure." 
 
 It soon appeared that the Consuls had not given the power 
 to the Council* which the Landrenters, at a meeting held soon 
 after the above, called the Municipal Council, which they 
 intended. For matters grew worse ; more Chinese flocked into 
 the Settlement and opened disreputable houses. 
 
 * The first Municipal Council consisted of Mr. W. Kay, Mr. E. 
 Cunningham, the Rev. Dr. Medhurst, Mr. D. 0. King, Mr. C. A. 
 Fearo'n, Mr. J. Skinner, and Mr. W. S. Brown. 
 
The Government of the Settlement. 99 
 
 "Wa, or Satn-qaa, Taotai, had by the end of 1854 disap- 
 peared from the scene, in official disgrace, and Lan held the 
 acting appointment. When the Consuls addressed a despatch to 
 him on the 25th Febraary, 1855, in which they quoted the 
 substance of what they had said to his predecessors and his answer 
 to them. Acting Taotai Lan replied, agreeing with everything 
 the Consuls said and enclpsing a copy of a proclamation he had 
 issued prohibiting Chinese from living in the Settlement ; pro- 
 posing that new houses which had been bnilt for Chinese, and 
 which were considered objectionable, be removed, the difference 
 between their cost and the sum received from the sale of their 
 materials being repaid to the owners. Further, the acting 
 Taotai said that Chinese tenants of foreign-owned houses could 
 not be allowed to remain, and requested that the Consuls would 
 give directions to the Municipal Council to see to the immediate 
 removal of them. The Consuls, thereupon, forwarded copies of 
 the correspondence and of the proclamation to the Municipal 
 Council, which body replied a few days afterwards that it did 
 not appear to them that such matters fell within the limits of 
 their control, but the Council engaged "to take immediate steps 
 to suppress brothels and gambling honses, and to see to the 
 removal of such buildings and parts of building as obstruct the 
 public way." 
 
 Subsequently, on the 21st September, the Municipal Council 
 intimated to the Consuls that they considered that even the 
 limited action which they had promised to take exceeded their 
 powers. Nothing was done, either by the Mnnicipal Council or 
 the Chinese, to i-emove the objectionable natives and their 
 houses. As the Consuls said : — "Chinese authorities, Foreign Con- 
 suls and the Municipal Council were all agreed as to the existence 
 of evils of great magnitude," and as to what should be done to 
 abate them and prevent them increasing, but the Council would 
 do nothing, nor did the Chinese who had received notice to remove, 
 from " the proper authorities," show any disposition to stir, and 
 foreigners continued to build houses for Chinese, of whom it is 
 stated there were 20,000 or so in the Settlement, towards the 
 close of 1854 — two years before there were not 500 of them. 
 
100 The Story of Shanghai. 
 
 Tke Consuls thereupon concerted measures with the Governor 
 of the Province, and other Chinese authorities, and obtaining 
 authority from the Chi-hien, ejected most of the objectionable 
 natives, and opened out the main thoroughfares by the removal 
 of the buildings which obstructed them. The Consuls asked 
 the permission of the acting Taotai to sell the whole of the 
 vacant lots — nineteen in number — by public auction, to foreign 
 renters, and to apply the proceeds of the sale to compensate the 
 dispossessed Chinese. They also asked the acting Taotai to 
 legalise by proolam.ation the residence of respectable Chinese 
 within the Settlement. 
 
 The acting Taotai agreed to all this, and his "conditions 
 for the residence of Chinese within the foreign limits " were 
 published. These conditions set out by saying " that no Chinese 
 subject can acquire land or rent or erect buildings within the 
 Foreign Settlement, without having first obtained an authority 
 under official seal from the local authority, sanctioned by the 
 Consuls of the three Treaty Powers," and "it has therefore 
 been decided that a certain course shall be observed by any 
 Chinese desiring to rent ground or houses within the said 
 liniits." These conditions refer only to the building of houses 
 by a Chinese, the uses to which he intends to put them, to the 
 giving, security that he will keep duly registered at the office of 
 the local authority,, and upon a board, to be hung up over the 
 door of the honge, the name and age of every inmate, under a 
 penalty of $50 for the first oSence and the cancellation of his 
 license on a repetition of it ; " and further that he will conform 
 strictly to the Land Regulations, and contribute his share to any 
 general assessments." The date of this was early in February 
 1855, as it was covered by a despatch from the Taotai of the 
 day. 
 
 The Land Regulations had, in fact, completely failed as the 
 means of purging the Settlement of the disreputable Chinese, 
 and it had become necessary to call in the Chinese authorities. 
 All this occurred while the city was in the hand of insurgents, 
 while the British were driving the Imperialists from their camps 
 on the race course, and the French were bombarding the 
 
The Government of the Settlement. 101 
 
 insargents in tlie city. No wonder there were mistakes made, 
 or that the new Municipal Council should complain in their first 
 annual report of the changing policy of the Consuls. 
 
 The authority of the Municipal Council, under the Land 
 Regulations of 1854, was impaired by the opinion of Her 
 Majesty's legal officers in Hongkong, to whom they were 
 submitted. These learned gentlemen denied the legal status of 
 the Council, as it had been created by Consuls, who had no 
 power in themselves to do anything of the kind, apparently 
 considering the consent of the Chinese authorities as of no 
 effect. The Manioipal Council henceforth only took legal action 
 through its creators, the Consuls, until its status and authority 
 was clearly defined twenty -one years afterwards. 
 
 The Landrenters, at their meeting, unanimously instructed 
 the Council to communicate with the Consuls as to incorporating 
 Hongkew with the British Settlement, a matter which was 
 deferred until 1863. They also authorised the taxation of 
 Chinese within the Settlement, with the consent of their 
 authorities, which was given by the Taotai a few months 
 afterwards. They also decided that all new roads should be 
 forty feet wide. 
 
 The autumn of 1854 was a time of great political activity in 
 Shanghai. The Landrenters met again on the 11th November, 
 and called on the Council to report their proceedings since 
 their election — only four months before — and requested the 
 Consuls of the three Treaty Powers to ask the Chinese authori- 
 ties to fulfil their promise to contribute out of duties to the expenses 
 of the Manicipality, as Mr. Alcock had said they would do ; and 
 they passed a resolution altering the franchise, so as to give any 
 foreign resident a vote who paid fifty dollars or upwards of 
 annual assessment, but not in addition to his vote under the. 
 existing qualification. Another meeting held seven days later 
 set these resolutions aside, and desired the Municipal Council to 
 continue the duties of their office for the time for which they 
 ■<vere elected, governed solely by the resolutions passed at the 
 meetings of the 11th July and the 17th October. The latter 
 had only empowered the Council to raise $12,000, with which 
 
I02 The Story of Shanghai. 
 
 to baild Police barracks, which, was a burning question at that 
 time. We hear nothing more for several years of any proposal 
 to admit Ratepayers to the sufirage, although the resolution was 
 brought forward under the auspices of Messrs. Jardine, Matheson 
 & Co. and carried unanimously. 
 
 The doubts of the legality of the Land Regulatiohs were 
 so generally entertained that in 1861 the Renters passed a 
 resolution recommending the Consuls to apply to their respective 
 governments for a proper legalisation of the Regulations. The 
 British Foreign Office had then ordered the legalisation of the 
 Regulations of 1854 ; but it does not appear that the other Con- 
 suls did anything in the matter. 
 
 When the Taiping rebels appeared in the neighbourhood of 
 Shanghai, early in 1862, a Defence Committee of five residents 
 was formed. These gentlemen addressed a letter to the Municipal 
 Council on the 20th June, after they had performed the special 
 duties to which they had been appointed. In this letter they 
 said tliat the Municipal Government of the Settlement was 
 insufficient in every way, and that the Municipal regulations 
 required extension. What they suggested is sketched in the 
 following paragraph of their letter : " The plan of a free city, 
 under the protectorate of the four* great Powers, whose intei-ests 
 brin'g them into close connection with this country, but exercising 
 its own government through its own chosen officers, elected 
 nnder a system of suffrage that shall give tlie controlling power 
 to the owners of property — Chinese and Foreign — is that which 
 is most consonant with public sentiment. A strong government 
 could thus be formed, incorporating the city, its suburbs and the 
 tract of conntry immediately surrounding into one, and a 
 revenue could be raised and an authority exercised which would 
 ensure order and safety, and make this the chief city of the 
 empire." t 
 
 * There were the five Powers having Trefities with China : Great 
 Britain, France, the United States, Prussia and jiussia. 
 
 + North-China Herald No. 627, 7th August, 1862. The Defence 
 Committee, all of whom signed the letter, consisted of Edward Cunningham, 
 James VVhittall, Edward Webb, J. Priestly Tate, and James Hogg. 
 
The Oovernment of the Settlement. 103 
 
 From this it appears that pnblic sentiment in Shanghai 
 wished, I might say demanded, that not only the Settlements 
 bat the city and a district — which would probably have been 
 defined as the thirty miles radius — should be taken from China 
 and placed under the protection of the four Great Powers. That 
 such a suggestion expressed the views of the majority of 
 residents is undoubted. It originated in the helpless condition of 
 what then appeared to be the doomed government and dynasty, and 
 in the feverish state of mind into which successful speculations 
 and the most sanguine expectations for the future of the place, 
 had thrown almost the entire community. A filibustering spirit 
 was abroad and possessed even cool-headed men of business, 
 preventing them from seeing how immoral and foolish was the 
 sentiment of the community to which the Defence Committee 
 gave shape and voice. 
 
 The scheme of a free city, on such terms, was impracticable; 
 but the necessity for a large measure of Municipal reform gave 
 rise to a considerable correspondence in the newspapers. The 
 "Better Government of Shanghai" became the question of the 
 day. The Free City proposal was attacked and defended. One 
 writer asked the pertinent question : If Shanghai is made a free 
 city how can the Customs dues be collected ? a point which the 
 prevailing sentiment of the Settlement had not taken into 
 consideration, or, if it had done so, had probably dismissed it as 
 having no weight, because the Government of China was unable to 
 fulfil one and the most essential part of its Treaty engagements 
 — the protection of foreigners. It is scarcely too much to say 
 that in 1862 the Imperial Government had no power in that 
 part of the province of Kiangsu in which Shanghai lies, and 
 that the power, or the semblance of it, which it had in some 
 places, it entirely owed to foreign arms. And as the majority 
 of residents in Shanghai were in an excited mental condition 
 during this year, it is not surprising that the plunder of the 
 Empire bf China found favour. 
 
 The Municipal Council lost no time in calling a meeting, of 
 Landrenters. On the 8th September the Chairman of the 
 Council read a statement of the Municipal affairs, and the 
 
104 The Story of Shanghai. 
 
 proposal for the better government of Shanghai to a not very 
 numerous meeting. The Council acknowledged that very grave 
 defects existed in Municipal matters, and to remove the 
 existing evils, they proposed to increase the stafi, by engaging a 
 competent Civil Engineer, a European Interpreter, and an of&cer 
 to attend at the Custom House, to take note of all goods 
 shipped or landed, so that the Wharfage Dues would be better 
 collected. They hoped to remedy the defective condition of the 
 roads and sanitation, and the want of jetties, and proposed to take 
 the Harbour Master's department in hand. The Council informed 
 tlie meeting that new Land Regulations, a modification of those 
 of 1854, had been drawn up by the Treaty Consuls and sent to 
 Peking. It does not appear that the Council or the Land- 
 renters were in any way consulted as to the changes which 
 were proposed in the constitution of the Settlement. The 
 Council had, however, seen these modifications and recom. 
 mended them to the favourable consideration of the Land- 
 renters. After describing how the Municipal Council were to 
 make assessments, the Council referred to the failure of the 
 Chinese Government to exercise its right of jurisdiction over 
 foreigners of nationalities which had no Consul in Shanghai 
 and over Chinese offenders. It had no hope of the Chinese 
 officials undertaking these profitless duties, and did not consider 
 it advisable to encourage their interference in the internal 
 economy of the Settlement ; thus blaming them for not doing 
 what the Council did not want them to do. The only satis- 
 factory solution of this question, the Council said, would be for 
 the Emperor of China to delegate his authority in such matters 
 to the Municipal Council, under certain restrictions as to the 
 penalties to be inforced. If this authority were obtained the 
 Council; would appoint a Magistrate and Interpreter, and 
 it also thought it might be found necessary to appoint a 
 permanent Chairman, or President, and a Treasurer, with 
 good salaries, who would give all their time to the duties 
 of their offices. And to provide for the extra charges which 
 the proposed improvements would entail, the Council modestly 
 considered that the Chinese Government should make an annual 
 
The Government of the Settlement. 105 
 
 contribution of not less than fifty thonsand taela oat of the 
 Customs duties. 
 
 Mr. Medhurst, then British Consul in Shanghai, who pre- 
 sided at the meeting, read an extract from a letter he had sent 
 to the Hon. F. W. A. Bruce, H.M.'s Minister at Peking, in 
 support of the request of the Laudrenters to have the Land 
 Regulations revised.' In this letter he referred to the whole streets 
 of houses, fitted for native use, which had been run up on the 
 Settlement, in spite of the prohibition in the Land Regulations 
 of 1854, and said that the western district was fast becoming 
 a Chinese city, whose extent and population was taxing to the 
 uttermost the time and powers of the Municipal Council to pre- 
 serve law and order. He thought that, before a Municipal 
 breakdown occurred, the Land Regulations should be modified. 
 The first modification proposed in the Land Regulations 
 accepted the position taken up by the French, who had lately 
 withdrawn their Concession from the application of the Regula- 
 tions, without reference to the Settlement, and had established 
 Land Regulations of their own. Nevertheless, the French 
 Consul had taken part in the consultations on the modifications. 
 The second modification did away with the system of pre-emptions 
 which had hitherto prevailed, and by means of which 
 unprincipled foreigners had enriched themselves, when land 
 began to rise in value, at the expense of the unprotected Chinese 
 proprietors. The eight modifications which followed referred 
 to matters affecting or pertaining to land, and were succeeded 
 by one which was intended to place a check on the acquirement 
 of land in the Settlement by Chinese. It ran : " Chinese 
 subjects shall only be allowed to rent or acquire land or buildings 
 within the limits on the terms laid down in the official form 
 of title now in use." 
 
 The alterations in the Regulations were merely supplementary 
 to those of 1854, as the Consuls did not think it expedient to 
 touch the Regulations themselves, for however defective in 
 themselves " they were actually the basis on which our rights 
 of property and security were rested." 
 
106 The Story of Shanghai. 
 
 The meeting appointed a committee to consider the pro- 
 posed changes in the regnlations, bat, before tliis body had 
 made its report, Mr. Medhurat called a special meeting of Land- 
 renters, and published Mr. Brnce's replies to his letters. Mr. 
 Brnce said that " the British Concession at Shanghai was neither 
 a transfer nor a lease to the British Crown. It was simply an 
 agreement that British subjects should be allowed to acquire 
 land for their personal accommodation within a certain space, 
 in order that they might have the advantage of living together. 
 The land so acquired remains Chinese territory, it is subject to 
 the Land Tax, and if the jurisdiction of the Chinese GoverUi- 
 ment over it is denied, it is denied because, in China, it was 
 deemed essential for the security of British trade that the person 
 and establishment of the trader should be secured from molesta- 
 tion." The acta of foreigners themselves had entirely altered 
 the character of the concession, they have made it a Chinese 
 city by building on it. It is now proposed to extra-territorialise 
 the Chinese in the Settlement, to tax them for Municipal pur- 
 poses, and the Taotai is to be deprived of his power of judging and 
 punishing, " except in cases in which the foreign head of the 
 nation to which the owner of the property occupied belongs, 
 permits to be brought before his tribunal." He reminded the 
 community that the Chinese had never formally abandoned its 
 "right over its own subjects, nor had H.M. Government ever 
 expressed any desire to exercise a protectorate over them. 
 
 He did not understand what interest H.M. Government had 
 in lending itself to a system which ia unjustifiable in principle, 
 and would be attended with endless embarassment and respon- 
 sibility, and which the Chinese Government would never submit 
 to willingly. He impressed on Mr. Medhurat not to lend himself 
 to any proposal which would lead however indirectly to such 
 serioua alterations in our poaition in China, as are evidently 
 contemplated by some of the residents in Shanghai. He was 
 convinced H.M. Government would wish to see the limits of the 
 so-called Concession reduced, so as to exclude the Chinese, 
 rather than extended so as to embrace a larger number of 
 them. 
 
The Government of the Settlement. 107 
 
 On the 22nd January, 1863, he wrote again to Mr. Medhnrst 
 that we had no right by treaty to interfere between the Chinese 
 people and their authorities ; that the words " Sanctity of the 
 British Oonoession" have no meaning, and that we have no 
 power to compel the Chinese who live within the so-termed 
 Concession to pay any tax for local purposes, except with the 
 consent of their own authorities. 
 
 He was inclined to think the whole system in Shanghai a 
 mistake and our management both extravagant and oppressive. 
 Mr. Bruce also said that the expense of defending the Settlement 
 should be paid to H.M, Government before any local improve- 
 ments were undertaken, which under other circumstances might 
 be desirable. And "if the assistance given by Great Britain at 
 Shanghai entitles us to a voice in the matter of taxes, no distinc- 
 tion ought to be made between the people in the Settlement and 
 those in the city. There ought to be no diSerence in favour of 
 the Settlement ; in fact, the accumulation of Chinese there is a 
 great misfortune, and would make neutrality impossible, should 
 the Government wish to leave Shanghai to take its chance." 
 
 These letters created a great sensation in Shanghai, and we 
 heat no more of a Free City, surrounded by territory of its own 
 and under the protection of the Great Powers. Mr. Brnce's 
 contention was that any taxes which the authorities placed upon 
 natives in the city might also be imposed by them on those in 
 the Settlement. 
 
 It would appear from -the speech of the British Consul to 
 the Landrenters, when he read these letters from Mr. Bruce, 
 that a great many residents in Shanghai had supposed that the 
 Settlement was a British Concession. These people took it for 
 granted that it was subject to British law, and that all Chinese 
 who lived ii i* were amenable to British jurisdiction. The 
 letters bound British residents down to the provisions in the 
 treaty, and they did away, said the Consul, with the Land 
 Regulations as at present constituted. The renters appointed 
 a committee to confer with the Consuls and endeavour to recast 
 the Regulations in such a form as would receive the support of 
 the foreign and Chinese authorities. 
 
108 The Story of Shanghai. 
 
 In December of 1863 the Hongkew, or American, Settlement 
 was formally incorporated with the so-called British Settlement. 
 Its residents were to pay half the cost of policing it, that 
 being considered a fair proportion, as much of the., expenditure 
 under that head was owing to the large number of sailors who 
 lived in the district. 
 
 It does not appear that the United States ever received any 
 concession of what was called the American Settlement, or 
 that it was specially set apart for citizens of that country. No 
 negotiations about the Settlement or lands in Hongkew ever 
 took place between the representatives of the United States and 
 the Chinese authorities. The treaty between China and the 
 United States gave citizens of the latter the same right to 
 acquire lands for residences and other purposes as was given 
 under the British and French treaties, and this was made use 
 of, probably about 1850. Some years afterwards, the United 
 States Consulate was established in Hongkew, and an American 
 church and mission houses were built there, and hence the 
 district became generally known as the American Settlement. 
 
 The boundaries of Hongkew were settled in 1 862, by Mr. 
 Seward, U.S. Consul, and Hwang, Taotai of Soo, Sung and Tae, 
 as follows : — The Soochow Creek from a point opposite the 
 entrance of the Defence Canal to the Huangpu river, thence at 
 low water mark to the mouth of .the Creek entering the 
 Huangpu near the lower limit of the anchorage called the 
 Yangtze-pu, westward three li along the line of that creek, 
 thence in a straight line to the point of beginning. 
 
 Although what is called the French Concession was deli- 
 mited by the Chinese authorities in 1849, no form of Municipal 
 Government was instituted until 1862. Its affairs were adminis- 
 tered during the interval by the Consuls-General. Bat the 
 increase of the population, foreign and native, during 1860 and 
 1861, and the extension of the Concession in these years made it 
 necessary to create a municipality. Accordingly, M. Edan, then 
 Consul-General, called a meeting of Landrenters^ in the Con- 
 cession on the 30th April, 1862, at which he appointed five 
 members of the Conseil d'Administration Municipale de la 
 
The Qovernment of the Settlement. 109 
 
 Concession Frangaise. These gentlemen accepted office, as from 
 the 1st of May, and held their first meeting on the 9th of that 
 month. The Landrenters met annually after that time. 
 
 What Tsas the position of the Oonsnl-General to the 
 Municipal Council before Land Regulations were drawn up, will 
 be seen from what occurred in 1866. In October of that year a 
 conflict took place between the Consul-General and the Council, 
 which resulted in the resignation of all the members of the latter, 
 some of whom held that they were elected by the Landrenters, 
 independently of Consular authority. The Consul-General, on 
 the contrary, held that they were nominated by him, and merely 
 approved by the Landrenters. The first time the authority 
 exercised by the Council came into collision with the powers 
 ■with which the Consul-General was en vested, affairs came to a 
 crisis. The Consul-General then dissolved the Council* and 
 appointed a commission of Landrenters, to carry on affairs until 
 a new election could be held. 
 
 The grounds on which the Vicomte Brenier de Montmorand, 
 yrho was then Consul-General, based his action were: I. — That 
 the Council having been appointed by the Consular authority 
 was dissoluble by the same : II. — That the Council hjid 
 usurped the Consular power : III. — That it had convened a 
 meeting of Landrenters in another building than the Consulate- 
 General: and IV — That it had been guilty of maladminis- 
 tration of affairs. It is stated with regard to the last charge, 
 that the Council had made serious mistakes ; it had arrested 
 the Che-hien at an inquest, and had commenced the building of 
 a bund on a plan which had been condemned by the English 
 surveyor. This bund had fallen in. Most people thought that 
 the quarrel was more an affair of temper on both sides than a 
 matter of principle. It is said, however, that the community 
 in the Settlement generally supported the Consul-General, and 
 this is to some extent borne out by the fact that at the meeting 
 held on the 19th October, for the election of a Council, it was 
 proposed by an English renter that the Consul-General sliould 
 
 * The Council was composed of E. Buissonet, H. Meynard, B. 
 S chmidt, J. S. Baron and C. Lemaire. 
 
110 The Story of Shanghai. 
 
 exercise his power of nominating the new Coancil; and no 
 opposition was offered to this. The Vicomte Brenier de Mont- 
 morand had, in nominating the Council which he afterwards 
 dissolved, only followed the example of his two pnedecessors in 
 office, and none of the Councillors so nominated had objected to 
 the process. The Council considered they had the right to 
 convene a meeting of Landrenters, without reference to the 
 Consul-General, but the latter declared this to be contrary to the 
 law of March, 1781, by which French subjects residing in the 
 seaports of the Levant and Barbary were only allowed to assem- 
 ble by permission of the Ambassador at Constantinople, or the 
 Consuls or Vice-Consuls at the other seaports ; which he applied 
 — somewhat doubtfully — to China in 1865. 
 
 The proceedings of both parties to this dispute illustrate 
 the disadvantage of attempting to administer the affairs of, the 
 French Concession by a Council, whose rights were ill-defined, 
 if defined at all, above whom was the Consul-General, who could 
 dissolve them almost- at pleasure. To make the position of the 
 Conijcil clearer was, no doubt, the object which the Consul- 
 General had in view in framing the Regulations of 1866. 
 
 These Regulations were revised in 1868 and are still in 
 force. The alterations made in the first Regulations were in 
 the qualifications of the electors, and in the Article relating to 
 arrests within the Concession of people other than Frenchmen, 
 under warrants issued by the representatives of other powers, 
 without the countersignature of the Consul-General, or without 
 the presence of his police. This was amplified in the Regulations 
 of the 14th April, 1868. 
 
 The functions of the Councillors of the French Concession 
 differ considerably from those of the Municipal Council of the 
 Settlement. They are only a deliberative body ; none of their 
 resolutions becoming operative until approved by the Consul- 
 G-eneral, who may also, postpone for eight days the execution of 
 resolutions of the Council relative to the first six subjects on 
 which it may deliberate. These are :— 1, The Budget, Receipts 
 and Expenditure ; 2, The collection of the Municipal Revenue ; 
 3, Assessment of taxes ; 4, Applications for redaction of 
 
The Government of the Settlement. Ill 
 
 assessments ; 6, The manner in which taxes shall be recovered 
 from defaulters ; 6, Purchasing, selling, exchanging and letting 
 the Municipal properties. 
 
 The pons al- General may withhold his approval of the 
 resolutions of the Council, until he has submitted them. to the 
 French Minister at Peking, on the remaining five subjects, on 
 which the Council may deliberate, viz., 7, The construction of 
 roads, public places, quays, jetties and public works generally ; 
 8, Works affecting health, and country roads ; 9, Appropriations 
 for the public service ; 10, The regulation of sewers and health ; 
 11, Every other subject on which the Oonsul-General asks the 
 Gauncil to deliberate. 
 
 The Council has, however, the control of the employes in the 
 different departments, indoor and outdoor, of the municipality, 
 except the police,, which is in the hands of the Consul-General 
 who is responsible for the good drder of the Concession. The 
 Council also appoints' its' own Secretary. 
 
 The Consul-General may suspend the Council, but tiot for a 
 longer period than three month's, and he must at once report 
 bis action in this respect to the Minister for Foreign Affairs, 
 and to the Representative of France at Peking, who may, if he 
 thinks ft necessary, pronouncei pending the approval of the 
 Government of Paris, the dissolution of that body. During 
 such suspension, the Municipal Couneil would be replaced by a 
 provisional commission appointed by the Consul-General. 
 
 The electors mu'st be twenty-one years of age and possess 
 land in the Concession of any value ; or, renters paying an 
 annual rent of at least a thousand francs ; or having lived in the 
 Concession for at lea^t three months and possessing an income 
 of four thousand francs a year. These franchises are lower than 
 those in this Settlement. The Municipal Council is composed of 
 the Consul-General of jFrance, who is alwaysPresident,* and eight 
 members, four of whom must be Frenchmen, and the remainder 
 of other nationalities, all chosen by ballot. They are elected for 
 . — . — . _ — _ — . ■ ^ ' ^ 1— 
 
 * For several years past the Consul-Gener^ has delegated the Pre- 
 sidency of the Council to the Councillor, who has been designated to the 
 office by his colleagues. 
 
112 The Story of Shanghai. 
 
 two years, but one half retires each year, and when the number 
 of Councillors has fallen below one half of the full number, 
 the Council chooses members sufficient to fill up the vacancies. 
 The Councillors must be twenty-five years of age. One of the 
 Articles of the Regulations gives the Consul-General, acting in 
 concert with the Taotai, and if the Council shall approve, the 
 power to admit one or more Chinese of position, or chiefs of 
 corporations,* to the deliberations of the Council. I do not 
 know that this power has ever been exercised by the Consul- 
 General ; there is nothing like it in the Regulations of this 
 Settlement. 
 
 The Landrenters of the English and American Settlements 
 met on the 9th March, .1866, to consider the Revised Land 
 Regulations as drawn up by the Committee appointed at the 
 meeting in the preceding April. The first thing brought before 
 the meeting was a letter from the Consul-General of France, in 
 which he took exception to the description of the. limits of the 
 French Concession, given in the draft of the amended Land 
 Regulations. The limits therein stated were those stated in the 
 original proclamation of 1849, which the Consul-General said 
 were not correct, the Concession extending further south. By 
 this, I suppose he meant that the limits in 1866 comprised the 
 land which was acquired after the burning by the French of the 
 eastern suburb in 1860. He denied the right of the Landrenters 
 of the English and American Settlements to make Regulations 
 for the French Concession, and complained of not having been 
 consulted as to the new Regulations, as he said he should have 
 been under the Regulations of 1864, Article XIV. He intended, 
 he said, to propose to his colleagues, "whose respective govern- 
 ments have treaties with China, and concurrently with the 
 Intendant of Circuit, — the Taotai, — to appoint a committee that 
 will draw up a draft of Laud Regulations having force on the 
 French Concession. This draft will be submitted for approval 
 to all having a right to vote on the French Concession," and he 
 wqjild afterwards propose their adoption to his colleagues, under 
 the reserve of their government's approbation; "as, also, I shall 
 * Guilds may be meant. 
 
The Government of the Settlement. 113 
 
 be ready under the same- reserve to sign the Land Regulations 
 agreed to on the neighbouring Concessions.'' 
 
 At the next meeting of Landrenters on the French Conces- 
 sion, held on the following day, the Consul- General stated that 
 he did not recognise the Land. Regulations of 1854, in the 
 Concession. He said, "they were not binding ;" having been 
 signed under reservation, that the consent of the French 
 Government should be accorded. This has been refused. 
 Being questioned as to whether there were any Regulations 
 then binding on Renters of Land in the French Concession, the 
 Consnl-General replied that " he was not there to discuss the 
 point. It was better to vote on the proposition before them," 
 ■which was about erecting jetties. Being again pressed, he said 
 that he could give no further explanations as to whether there 
 wera or were not Land Regulations in existence. " He had 
 merely heard that they had been rejected in Paris." 
 
 The Consul-General appears to have been in complete 
 ignorance of the affairs of his Concession, and his position, as 
 regards the Settlement, was somewhat peculiar. He claimed, 
 and rightly, that he should, as representing one of the Treaty 
 Powers, have been consulted in any changes which it was 
 proposed to make in the Land Regulations. The other Consuls 
 had however thought it unnecessary to invite him to take part 
 in the preliminary meeting, at which the scope of the changes 
 which were necessary in the Regulations was considered. And 
 he informed the other Consuls, that he did not recognise that 
 the Regulations, of the Settlements, were operative in the 
 Concession, or as binding on Frenchmen, as he "had heard 
 that they had been rejected in Paris." 
 
 Since that time, the Settlements and the French Concession 
 have been under separate Land Regulations; and the action of 
 the Consul-General was no doubt intended to bring this about. 
 There have been indications several times since then that the 
 general public in both districts would welcome a reunion which 
 would in- many respects be beneficial. A large part of the 
 Concession belongs to Englishmen and others, not Frenchmen 
 
114 The Story of Shanghai. 
 
 while moat of the business firms of the latter nationality have 
 found it convenient to reside in this Settlement. 
 
 Several meetings of the Landrenters of the Settlements 
 ■were held in 1866, to discuss the proposed amendments to the 
 Regulations. These were for the first time in the existence of 
 the place framed by the Landrenters ; on former occasions the 
 Consuls had drawn up the Regulations, and with tlie Taotai, had 
 made the laws, but, now, they considered them after they.had 
 debated by many meetings of the electorate. When the 
 amendments in the Regulations came before the Consuls that 
 body made several alterations in them. One was the insertion 
 of a clause somewhat similar to the one in the Regulations of 
 the French Concession — which had just appeared, giving the 
 Senior Consul power to ask the Taotai to nominate three 
 Chinese delegates every year whose functions should be wholly 
 consultative. And no resolution of the Council's, relating to 
 police or sanitary regulations, and no new tax affecting the 
 Chinese residing in the Settlement, were to take effect until 
 the Chinese delegates had been consulted thereon. 'This was 
 snbsequently approved by the then existing Municipal Council. 
 But it was not incorporated by the Foreign Ministers at 
 Peking, in the Regulations of 1869, perhaps because th^ saw that 
 the opinions of Chinese on the snbjectswhich were to be submitted 
 to the Delegates, were not likely to be either useful or valuable. 
 Even at the present time, when intelligent Chinese should 
 know the benefits, of sanitation, few people would give them 
 any power on that subject. The Consuls also proposed to reduce 
 the Municipal franchise which the Landrenters had agreed 
 npon, but the Ministers ultimately fixed upon qualifications, for 
 the electors, lower than those of the Landrenters and higher 
 than those of the Consuls. The object of the Landrenters in 
 proposing a somewbat high franchise, was to exclude what they 
 called the " rowdy " classes. The Ministers added to the clause 
 in the Regulations, arranged by the Landrenters, words giving 
 absent Ratepayers the right of voting by proxy in the election of 
 Councillors, and at public meetings, which they had not possessed 
 before ; bat in the early days of the Settlement Landrenters 
 
. The Government of the Settlement. 115 
 
 were allowed to vote in that way, whether absent or present. 
 The French Consnl-General gave his adhesion to the amended 
 Regulations, but he claimed " the right to reserve his vote 
 generally on the English Land Eegnlations, till he received the 
 authority of his department, or till his colleagnes intimated 
 their concurrence in those established by the French Government 
 for the French Concession." The concurrence of the representa- 
 tives of other Powers in the French Regulations of 1868 was 
 apparently given before the latter were made public. For these 
 are said to be revised, in consequence of an arrangement entered 
 into between the Consnl-General of France and the Consuls of 
 the Powers represented at Peking. They are also recognised in 
 the Joint Minute of 24th September,' 1^69, signed by all the 
 Foreign Ministers at Peking. 
 
 In November of the same year Sir Rutherford Aloock, who 
 had become H!M.'s Minister at Peking, intimated to the Land- 
 renters that he would send the amended Regulations to the 
 Foreign Office, in concord with the Ministers of the United 
 States, "Prussia, and Russia. And in 1869 the Representatives 
 of these Powers, and of France, issued a Joint Minute with the 
 Regulations, which gave them force in the Settlements. 
 
 In that Minute there is no reference to the Chinese autho- 
 rities, such as appeared with the Regulations of 1845 and 1854, 
 which are stated to have been agreed upon by the Consuls and 
 the Intendant of Circuit. The omission is somewhat strange, 
 after Mr. Bruce's care for the rights of the Chinese Govern- 
 ment, within the Settlement. Since 1869 the Municipal Council 
 has received annually large assessments from Chinese residents ; 
 for the first few years with the consent of the Taotai, but for a 
 considerable time even that formality has been dispensed with. 
 The revenue is now collected from Chinese by virtue of Regula- 
 tions to which their Government has never assented ; a strange 
 way of dealing with the natives in a place where Mr. Bruce and 
 his school held that foreigners had no right to tax Chinese, 
 except by the consent of the Mandarins, who now seem to be 
 quite indifferent in the matter. It is very likely, however, that 
 it will engage their attention before long. 
 
116 The Story of Shanghai. 
 
 The Regulations of 1869 were found to be insufiB.cient about 
 four years afterwards, and a Committee was appointed at the 
 meeting of Ratepayers in 1873 and again in 1874 to draw up 
 extended Regulations. This was done, and the proposed new 
 Municipal Charter was laid before the Ratepayers in 1875, but 
 did not receive much attention. The Committee proposed 
 to place the basis of government in the Regulations, leaving all 
 details to be dealt with in Bye-Laws, which should be enacted 
 locally. This would have saved the inconvenience and delay 
 of every Bye-Law, no matter how unimportant, having to be 
 sanctioned by all the. Legations in Peking. The Committee 
 also proposed to lojver the franchise considerably, but this was 
 not received with much favour. It was objected that the 
 electors are also legislators holding annual and special public 
 meetings at which the afEairs of the Settlement and the policy 
 of the Municipal Council are determined on, the Xyouncil being 
 merely the executive which has no power to act except under 
 the Land Regulations and the resolutions passed by the Rate- 
 payers in ppblic meeting. 
 
 The Ratepayers in 1879 again appointed a Committee to 
 draw up amended Land Regulations and these were submitted 
 to the Municipal Council, who laid them before the meeting of 
 Ratepayers in 1880. They proposed to simplify and extend the 
 Municipal franchise, so as to increase the constituency from 255 
 to 360, and to make changes in the qualifications for Municipal • 
 Councillors which would have increased the number of persons 
 eligible to sit in that body from 112 to 157, or aboiit the same 
 proportion as the addition to the electorate. The committee 
 stated in their report that they had sought rather to formulate 
 the existing Municipal system than to propose any important ■ 
 change. 
 
 The new or extended Land Regulations were sent to the 
 Foreign Ministers in Peking in 1881. These diplomatists made 
 several alterations in them, which found no favour with the com- 
 munity when they were published in 1882. The clause refer- • 
 ring to the Volunteers had been struck out, as the Ministers would 
 not give official recognition to them ; the powers of the Municipal 
 
The Government of the. Settlement. 117 
 
 Council to arrest evil doers within the Settlement were seriously 
 and dangerously curtailed, while the powers of the Consuls were 
 considerably extended. The objects which the Ministers seem 
 chiefly to have had in view, are to lessen the authority of the Muni- 
 cipal Council and of the Ratepayers, who will not be allowed to 
 impose new modes of taxation in the Settlement without the 
 consent of the Consuls. Many of the Consuls represent Powers 
 which have scarcely any interests or subjects in Shanghai, and 
 giving to such officials the same weight and vote as the 
 Consuls of Great Britain, the United States, and Germany is 
 an extension of democratic principles into official life that is 
 dangerous to the Settlement of Shanghai, To extend the 
 functions of the Consuls, and at the same time to diminish and 
 restrict those of the Municipal Council would be a mistake. 
 The history of the Settlement shows that the foreigners who 
 have conducted its affairs have been careful to preserve the 
 just rights of the Chinese, and that they were so successful in 
 doing this that the Consular body left the Landrenters in 1866 
 to frame their own Land Regulations, instead of ap formerly 
 drawing them up and announcing them to the community. 
 
 The Land Regulations of 1879-80 have been in the hands 
 of the Foreign Ministers since 1881, and all that is known of 
 them are the the alterations, amendments and revisions just 
 referred to. 
 
 The scheme of a Court in which Chinese offenders, and 
 foreigners who had no Consuls here, could be tried, had been 
 talked of for some years before 1863. But in that year the 
 Mixed Court was instituted. The necessity for such a tribunal 
 arose from the increase in the Chinese population of the 
 Settlement. In the early days of the place, when the community 
 was numerically small, the cases between foreigners and 
 Chinese were so few in number that it was easy for the Consuls 
 to watch the proceedings, whenever it became necessary to 
 appeal to the native Courts, while cases between Chinese and 
 Chinese were left entirely to their natural authorities. But as 
 the community gradually increased the cases in which foreign 
 interests were involved became so numerous, that it was 
 
118 The Story of 8ham,ghai. 
 
 impossible for proper tattention to be given to each. In the 
 more important cases the Oonsnl could still maintain a 
 correspondence with the authorities ; but minor offenders were 
 simply sent in to the City with a note detailing the charge 
 against them ; and, with the reply which was received some 
 fortnight later, that they had been bambooed or released, 
 information or interest concerning them generally ceased.* 
 In the great majority of cases, the city Magistrate had only 
 the charge to work on, and unless the prisoner confessed, or 
 could be compelled to give evidence against himself, conviction 
 was practically impossible. And, as the powers of the Municipality 
 increased, and the action of its police extended, " the Chinese 
 police were by degrees driven out of the Settlement, and the 
 Chinese supervision over the native population was gradually 
 withdrawn." An attempt was made to meet the evils which sprang 
 from this state of things by the Vice-Consul, or the Interpreter 
 of the British Consulate, investigating all charges against 
 Chinese, and only sending those for trial which seemed to have 
 some foundation for the charge ; but this broke down. Sir 
 Harry Parkes, who was then Consul in Shanghai, obtained, the 
 establishment of the Mixed Court — " a tribunal for the decision 
 of cases in which foreigners were either directly or indirectly 
 interested .... in which due atteation to foreigners' interests 
 might be secured by the presence of their representatives, while 
 the jurisdiction of the native authorities was left untouched."t 
 
 The constitution of the Court was to have beent : — 
 
 A Police Court for the trial of Chinese police cases occurring 
 within the Settlement. 
 
 A Criminal Court for the trial of Chinese charged criminally 
 by foreigners, and for the trial of foreigners having no Consular 
 representatives. 
 
 A' Civil Court for the adjudication of claims brought by 
 foreigners against Chinese, or by foreigners or Chinese against 
 foreigners unrepresented by Consuls. 
 
 * Memorandum on the Mixed Court by Chaloner Alabaster, Esq. 
 + Idem. 
 ± Idem. 
 
The Government of the Settlement. 119 
 
 A Court of Appeal in' Oriminal or Civil matters. 
 
 As a Police Court it was to consist of a Chinese officer, 
 sitting alone, for the decision of purely native cases, brought 
 before him by the Municipal Police, and in fact it was to be a 
 branch of the City Magistrate's Office ; bat it was intended that 
 he should ultimately be vested with independent powers, " as 
 the possible revision "of his decisions, by his superior sitting in 
 the city, would lead to the defeat of one of the objects for which 
 the Court was established." The City Magistrate, however, 
 arrogated, from the first, the power of interfering, and the 
 complaints of the Consals were " unavailing to convince him 
 that he has no right to do so away from the Court." 
 
 In investigating criminal charges brought by foreigners 
 against Chinese, theMagistrate was to have been assisted by aCon- 
 salar Assessor. The Chinese officer was alone to deliver judgment, 
 but the interests of foreigners were to be secured, by the Assessor 
 having the right of staying proceedings, and referring the case to 
 the higher Court — that is to the City Magistrate — should he differ 
 with the presiding judge. The Assessors were to be deputed by 
 the Consuls, and it was at first intended that they should be of 
 the nationality of "the foreigners interested in the cases. But 
 this being found inconvenient, it became the custom for an 
 officer from the British Consulate to sit four times, and one from 
 the United States Consulate twice a week.* In cases where a 
 foreigner whose nationality was unrepresented by a Consulate 
 was interested, it was necessary that two Assessors should sit. 
 In more important criminal cases the place of the Chinese 
 deputy Magistrate was occasionally taken by one of the local 
 Magistrates of higher rank — the District Magistrate, or the 
 Sub-Prefect,^— an arrangement, I may remark in passing, which 
 played into the hands of the City Magistrate ; and it sprang from 
 what was from the first the chief weakness of the Mixed Court 
 — the insufficient rank of its Magistrate. 
 
 * The present practice is for Officials from the British, and United 
 States Consulates to sit twice a week, ' and from the German Consulate 
 once a week ; but if a subject of any other power is interested in a case 
 before the Court a representative of his nationality attends. 
 
120 The Story of Shanghai. 
 
 In civil cases the powers of the Magistrate and the rights 
 of the Assessors were much the same as in criminal cases, in 
 which foreigners were concerned. " But the first cases which 
 came before the Court were of sach magnitude, that the 
 Magistrate became alarmed and represented his insufficiency to 
 the Taotai, and the Sab-Prefect has, therefore, been directed to 
 sit in civil cases, the Deputy sitting occasionally in trifling cases 
 only." The Court of Appeal or reference has been a failure 
 from the first. It has consisted of the Taotai. 
 
 The working of the Court gave the greatest dissatisfaction 
 to foreigners for many years. When they brought criminal 
 accusations against Chinese the punishments inflicted were often 
 ludicrously inadequate. Sometimes the Magistrate benevolently 
 paid the fines of notorious rascals, or he could not be induced to 
 punish offenders against the Municipal Begnlations or Bye-laws 
 at all. All this did a great deal of harm and prevented the 
 effective policing of the Settlement, but nothing could be done 
 with a kindly looking old gentleman except for the Assessors 
 to try and make him see that he should not be the friend of 
 rogues and offenders. It was still worse on the civil side, for 
 when foreigners established their claims against Chinese it was 
 impossible to get a just verdict. This was to be expected when 
 the Magistrate was of such low official standing that Chinese 
 merchants, and others, against whom foreigners brought actions, 
 were able to flout and intimidate him in his own Court, because 
 they had purchased rank which was superior to his. And when 
 the Magistrate gave a decision in a civil case against one of his 
 own countrymen it was of no avail to the foreigner, who could 
 not recover his claims under it, and the Magistrate, because of 
 his inferior rank, could not enforce his judgments. . This being 
 the case, foreigners who had claims against Chinese suffered 
 grievous losses, and for many years little was gained by bringing 
 civil actions in the Mixed Court against natives, and the Court 
 was, in consequence, tie best abused institution in the Settlement, 
 and rightly so. 
 
 Of late years, and under abler Magistrates, the character 
 of the Court has greatly improved. Cases, both civil and 
 
The Ooverwmmt of the Settlement. 121 
 
 criminal, are tried in it, ■which in the first decade or so of its 
 existence would not have been brought before it, or if they had 
 would have been unsatisfactorily dealt with. Sometimes civil 
 actions of great importance are now tried by the Magistrate, 
 and are more fairly adjudged than might be expected in a 
 native Court. Appeals from its decisions are rarely made to 
 the Taotai, and that official only appears in the Court when 
 special cases are before it. The Magistrate has still insufficient 
 rank, and it is still open to Chinese holding literary or 
 purchased rank, to interfere with his procedure. But as 
 the influence of the Court has extended, Chinese of supe- 
 rior rank to the Magistrate have shewn less disposition to 
 disregard its mandates. Its influence would be placed on a surer 
 basis if the Magistrate were made equal in rank to a Prefect, 
 as should have been the case from tlie establishment of the 
 Court. There is one good thing about the Mixed Court, 
 no fees are levied in it on foreigners, so that they may bring an 
 action in it to any amount, without having to pay anything. 
 Chinese, however, do pay fees, which are probably a matter of 
 arrangement with the officials of the Coart, even when they 
 defend themselves by petition. 
 
 Foreign lawyers have been occasionally engaged in suits in 
 the Court and are said to be nsef al in placing evidence clearly 
 before it, but there is no necessity to employ them, as the 
 Assessor is bound to help foreigners, as far as he can, in putting 
 their case before Court. No Chinese lawyers have ever practised 
 in it. Most of the criminal cases which are tried are unim- 
 portant, and the sentences are generally light. But what is 
 most satisfactory in the procedure of the Mixed Court, is that 
 no torture is ever employed to obtain evidence. 
 
 There is a Mixed Court in the French Concession, the 
 existence of which is a proof that tiiere is really no difference 
 between the relation in which the land there and in the 
 Settlement, stands to the Emperor of China. If the Concession 
 were French territory the Court would be a French Court; 
 as it is the Court is a Mixed Court and the Magistrate a 
 Chinese. 
 
122 ' The Story of Shanghai. 
 
 The establishment of the Supreme Coart of China and 
 Japan in Shanghai took place in September 1865, under an 
 Order in Council dated the 9th of March of that year. This 
 order recapitulates the powers conferred on Her Majesty by 
 Parliament, the first of which, passed in the 6th and 7th years 
 of her reign, made it lawful for her, with the advice of the Privy 
 Council, to ordain any law or ordinance for the government of 
 her subjects within the dominions of the Emperor of China, or 
 in any ship or vessel within the distance of a hundred miles of 
 the coast of China. Another Act passed in the same year, 
 known as the Foreign Jurisdiction Act, said " it shall be lawful 
 for Her Majesty to hold, exercise and enjoy any power or 
 jurisdiction which Her Majesty has or may have in any country 
 or place out of Her Majesty's dominions, in as ample a manner 
 as if Her Majesty had acquired such power by the cession or 
 conquest of territory." 
 
 These powers and jurisdictions had been already exercised 
 by Her Majesty in China and Japan, but the Orders in Council 
 under which they existed were now revised and extended. 
 
 The British Government were led to frame this Order in 
 Council, and to establish the Supreme Court undeir it, to a very 
 great extent by the outrages and lawless acts committed by 
 Englishmen in China and Japan, whose conduct often went 
 unpunished. These people were of the lowest class of adven- 
 turers who had been attracted to China by the rebellion. The 
 extension of trade also did not permit of difficulties or disputes 
 being amicably disposed of as formerly by arbitration, often con- 
 ducted at the dinner or tiffin table. The affairs of the merchant 
 and the land owner had become more complicated, and often 
 required to be submitted to those who knew more about law than 
 brother merchants or a very imperfectly trained Consul. 
 
 Sir Edmund Hornby was the first Chief Justice, Mr. 
 C. W. Goodwin the assistant Judge, and Mr. John Fraser the Law 
 Secretary. Shanghai- is the head-quarters of the Court, and all 
 the judicial functions previously exercised by H.M. Consul in 
 Shanghai were transferred to the Supreme Court. At the 
 other ports the Consuls retain their judicial authority, but when 
 
The Government of the Settlement. 123 
 
 cases of great importance occur in them the Chief Justice or 
 Assistant Judge goes, as it were, on circuit and tries them. 
 
 Very soon after the opening of the Supreme Court Sir 
 Edmund Hornby decided two actions' of importance to the 
 public. In the first* he laid it down that the defendants had 
 no right to construct a jetty or other erection which would 
 interfere with or change or convert the space between the high 
 and low water mark by raising it into dry land at high water 
 mark. This action was brought by the British Consul, at the 
 instance of the Harbour-master of the Huangpn and Conservator 
 of the Yangtze river. 
 
 The second case was brought before the Court by the 
 Municipal Council, suing in the names of its members, against 
 two Trustees and Executors of Charles Wills for the recovery of 
 the assessment on some lots of land in Hongkew.f The defend- 
 ants pleaded that the Shanghai Land Regulations were not 
 binding on them, and they denied the right of the Council to 
 levy a rate or assessment on the land which was registered in 
 the name of the deceased Wilis. Chief Justice Hornby, in a 
 long and conclusive judgment, held that as Her Majesty had the 
 power conferred on her by Act of Parliament to provide for the 
 peace, good order and government of her subjects in China, and 
 as she had given power to her Chief Superintendent of Trade in 
 China to make such provision as he thought fit and necessary to 
 attain the object in view, and as the Chief Superintendent of 
 Trade had sanctioned the Land Regulations, they were binding 
 on the British Landowners. This established the legal status 
 of the Laud Regulations, which had always been doubted, so far 
 as British residents were concerned, and as the powers of the 
 Representatives of other nations were as full as those of the 
 Chief Saperintendent of Trade, the question was set at rest, it is 
 probable, for ever. 
 
 The judicial machinery for the government of the Settle- 
 ments was further increased by the establishment of the Court 
 
 * Regina versus Reynolds & Holtz, Supreme Court, 28th Sept., 1865. 
 t W. Keswick, J. Hogg, T. Hanbury, J. C. Coutts, C. D. Nye, and 
 W. Probst V. G. Wills and S. Wills, Supreme Court, 15th Nov., 1865. 
 
1,24 The Story of Shanghais 
 
 i,i Foreign Consuls in 1869. This was done by a Memorandum 
 signed by the Ministers of Great Bi-itain, Prussia, Francej 
 Russia and the United States at Peking, and published with the 
 revised Land Regulations which came into force that year. Its 
 only function is to enable individuals to sue the Municipal 
 Council, before it, and it has on one or two occasions tried cases 
 in which that body was defendant. The Memorandum expressly 
 states that to be the reason for founding the Court, which is to 
 " be established at the beginning of each year by the whole body 
 of Treaty Consuls." 
 
 In addition to these Courts each Consul — except the 
 British — tries the subjects or citizens of his nationality and 
 hears civil cases which may generally be appealed. There is 
 therefore one may say an abundance of judicial authority in 
 Shanghai, where serious crime is extremely rare and most 
 offences are of a light character.