not been in the waters of the colony since the 1st September last, that timely application had not been made for its renewal. He states that on the day named he sailed in her for Canton, and proceeded thence to Macao, where he lay a fortnight painting and refitting; then loaded again outside Macao, re-entered that port, discharged a portion of his cargo there, and brought the remainder, consisting of rice, on to Canton; after delivery of which he was to have left, on the day on which his crew were seized, in ballast for Hong-Kong, prior to proceeding, as he believes, in charter to Ningpo.

I have, &c.

I HAVE the honour to state to your Excellency, that on the receipt at noon, on the 10th instant, of your Excellency's "Declaration," relative to the seizure by Chinese Naval Officers of twelve of the crew of the British lorcha Arrow," I at once forwarded it to his Excellency Her Majesty's Plenipotentiary, and requested his instruction in the case.

66

These instructions, which I have now received, are to this effect :

That as it is clear that the Chinese authorities have violated the 9th Article of the Supplementary Treaty, which requires that all Chinese malfaisants in British ships shall be claimed through British authorities, I am to inform your Excellency that Her Majesty's Plenipotentiary requires you to furnish me with an apology for what has taken place, and an assurance that the British flag shall in future be respected; that if forty-eight hours are allowed to pass without compliance on your Excellency's part with this demand, I am then to concert with the naval authorities the measures necessary for enforcing redress.

I am also to add that on any sufficient evidence being given that British ships or British subjects have been engaged in piratical practices, they will be proceeded against without hesitation, and that on application to the proper authority, Chinese offenders will not be harboured on board British vessels, but that all proceedings mnst take place according to the conditions of the Treaty. I have, &c. (Signed)

HARRY S. PARKES.

Sir,

Inclosure 17 in No. 1.

Sir J. Bowring to Consul Parkes.

Hong Kong, October 13, 1856. IN reply to your despatch of 12th instant, it is undoubtedly my intention that the apology of the Imperial Commissioner shall be in writing; and the requirement that the conditions of the Treaty be strictly fulfilled, necessarily implies the return of the arrested Chinamen to the ship, and their delivery to the authorities (if delivered) by and through you. As to the modus faciendi, I shall leave that to be arranged by the Commodore and yourself.

I will consider the regranting the register of the "Arrow," if applied for; but there can be no doubt, that after the expiry of the licence, protection could not be legally granted.

I have, &c.

No. 2.

Sir John Bowring to the Earl of Clarendon.—(Received December 1.)

My Lord,

Hong Kong, October 15, 1856. JUST in time to enable me to communicate the correspondence before the departure of the mail, I receive from Mr. Consul Parkes a despatch with inclosures, dated Canton, 14th instant, by the copies of which your Lordship will observe that his Excellency the Imperial Commissioner has refused the redress demanded for the violation of Treaty in the case of the "Arrow."

I wait the development of events and further conferences with the Admiral, whose co-operation has been as satisfactory to me as zealous for the public service, in order to decide on a future course of proceeding.

Sir,

Inclosure 1 in No. 2.

Consul Parkes to Sir J. Bowring..

Canton, October 14, 1856. IN continuation of my previous despatches relative to the seizure by the Chinese authorities of the crew of the British lorcha "Arrow," I have the honour to inform your Excellency that yesterday passed without any notice being taken by the Imperial Commissioner of the demand for satisfaction which, by your Excellency's instructions, I was directed to make, and allow him two days to consider.

I therefore addressed him at 7 o'clock this morning the letter I have the honour to inclose, and by this means heard, through the inquiries of my messenger, that the Imperial Commissioner would shortly send a reply to my letter of the 12th. It was eventually delivered to me at 10 o'clock, and from the translation of it which I beg at once to submit, your Excellency will perceive that it is altogether unsatisfactory, no indication being therein given by the Commissioner of his readiness to comply with the Treaty, by claiming the men now seized through me, no apology or expression of regret being offered for what has occurred, nor any reliable assurance afforded that Chinese officers will not again act in the same unwarrantable manner.

On receipt of this reply from the Imperial Commissioner, I at once communicated it to Commodore Elliot, who being equally dissatisfied with its terms, determined to give effect without delay to his instructions, by enforcing the redress which has thus been twice refused. He accordingly left at 12 o'clock in the "Coromandel" for Whampoa, to bring up from Her Majesty's ship"Sybille" a force sufficient to take possession of an Imperial war-junk, moored in front of the Custom-house, unless he may happen to find one in a more convenient situation further down the river. It is a significant circumstance, that every one of the war-junks, which during the last few days have been at anchor before the city, have now left the neighbourhood, and an examination of the river, made this morning by Commodore Elliot and myself, for some distance on both sides of the factories, disclosed the above junk as the only one remaining.

I have, &c.

Sir,

Inclosure 2 in No. 2.

Consul Parkes to Commissioner Yeh.

Canton, October 14, 1856, 7 A.M.

AT noon on the 12th instant, I had the honour to communicate to your Excellency the instructions I had received from his Excellency Her Majesty's Plenipotentiary, relative to the seizure of the lorcha "Arrow," by a Chinese naval force, and I requested your Excellency to reply to me in the terms which you would see by my letter I had been instructed to demand. I now again beg to address your Excellency, to remind you that at noon to-day the two days given for your Excellency's reply will have elapsed, and I trust that your Excellency will see fit to signify to me within the time appointed your readiness to redress the wrong which has been committed by your non-compliance with the provisions of the Treaty in the manner indicated in my letters of the 8th and 12th

instant.

YEH, Imperial High Commissioner, Governor-General, &c., addresses this declaration to Mr. Parkes, the British Consul at Canton.

At the hour of Wei (from 1 to 3, P.M.) on the 14th day of the 9th month (12th October) I received the statement addressed me by the Consul, which I have well considered.

I find in reference to the twelve men, Le-ming-tae and others, who were seized on board the lorcha, that by my direction the Prefect of Canton examined them clearly and thoroughly, and duly submitted to me in his report copies of the truthful depositions he had taken; whereupon the three men, Woo-a-jen, Le-ming-tae, and Leang-keen-foo, were reserved for further and more strict examination, and the Assistant Magistrate Hew was directed to take the remaining nine, Leang-a-paon and others, and return them to their own vessel. These particulars were also distinctly communicated to the Consul in the declaration which, as the records show, I then addressed him.

But he has now forwarded to me another "statement" on this subject, on which I have to remark that it is stated in the deposition of Woo-a-jen that "this lorcha belongs to Soo-a-Ching, who began to build her on the 14th day of the 7th month of the 4th year of Heen-fung (7th August, 1854), and on the day on which she was completed he bought for her from the foreign firm of Polo (Block), a register, for which he paid 1000 dollars, and he also engaged the foreigner Aloo (Arrow?) to take care of the vessel, paying him 30 dollars a month as wages."

Thus it had been ascertained by the previous examination, that this lorcha is not the property of a foreigner; and at the time when the naval officers seized the twelve men, and brought them to my ya-mun, I directed that they also should be examined as to the matter; and they stated that when they went to the lorcha to seize the men, they saw no foreigner on board, that at that time no flag had yet been hoisted on board the lorcha, that they heard that the flag was stowed away below, but they themselves saw nothing of it; therefore they seized the men and brought them away.

Hereafter, Chinese officers will on no account without reason seize and take into custody the people belonging to foreign lorchas; but when Chinese subjects build for themselves vessels, foreigners should not sell registers to them, for if this be done, it will occasion confusion between native and foreign ships, and render it difficult to distinguish between them. Thus may all parties conform their proceeding to the condition of the 9th Article of the Treaty.

Heen-fung, 6th year, 9th month, 16th day.

Sir,

No. 3.

The Earl of Clarendon to Sir J. Bowring.

Foreign Office, December 10, 1856.

I HAVE received your despatches of the 13th and 15th of October, reporting what had passed in regard to the seizure, by the Chinese authorities at Canton, of the crew of the lorcha "Arrow," sailing under British colours.

I have consulted the law officer of the Crown on this matter, and I have now to state to you, that I am of opinion that this act of the Chinese authorities constitutes an infraction of Article IX of the Supplementary Treaty.

The only possible defence open to them appears to be, that the "Arrow" was not an English merchant ship" within the true intent and meaning of the Treaty; but Article XVII, Rule I, in Supplementary Treaty, recognizes and includes this particular class of vessel; she had a British master, British colours and papers, and even if her licence had been improperly granted in August 1854, this was a matter of British internal regulation, and to be dealt with by the British authorities. This point is evidently an after-thought on the part of the Chinese, and the only evidence of it is the uncorroborated assertion of one of the crew whilst in custody. No British lorcha would be safe if her crew were liable to seizure on such grounds.

I have further to observe, that there do not seem to have been any such circumstances of urgency in this case as would afford any justification or excuse for the arbitrary conduct of the Chinese authorities, who were, probably, emboldened by the absence of any Her Majesty's ships from Canton. The "Arrow" was bound to Hong Kong, and if any of her crew could be identified as having been guilty of piracy, or were even suspected of it, there would have been no difficulty in securing their apprehension and delivery, had the Chinese authorities taken the course indicated by Article IX, viz., communicating with the British Consul. Only two of her crew were charged with piracy, viz., Le-ming-tae, and Liang-kien-foo, the third detained (Woo-a-jen) is apparently only wanted as a witness; and there was not the slightest pretext for seizing the other nine, who were afterwards released.

The accidental and temporary absence of the British master on board a neighbouring vessel, could not affect the question. The British flag is clearly proved (by the deposition of Kennedy and Leach) to have been hauled down by the Chinese Mandarin crew, notwithstanding the denial of this fact by the Imperial Commissioner; but even if the flag had not been actually flying at the moment, it is obvious that the national character of the lorcha was well known to the authorities.

The expiration of the "Arrow's" sailing licence on September 27, previous to her seizure, does not appear to have been known to the Chinese authorities; and this, again, is a matter of British regulation which would not justify seizure by the Chinese.

The principle involved in this case is most important, and the demands made by Mr. Consul Parkes appear to me to be very moderate under the circumstances. I consider that the re-delivery of the three men still detained, and a subsequent formal demand for their extradition before they are given up again, should be insisted on as a sine qua non. They must be considered as having been forcibly taken in breach of Treaty, and without any justification or excuse, from on board a British vessel, and illegally detained in custody by the

orders of the Imperial Commissioner, with full knowledge of all the circumstances and in defiance of a formal demand by the British Consul.

Under all the circumstances of the case, I approve of the intention to seize and hold one of the Imperial junks as security for the redress which the High Commissioner has been called upon to afford in this case.

I have only to add, that I conclude you will have caused a strict inquiry to be made into the circumstances connected with the grant of the licence to the lorcha in the year 1854.

No. 4.

I am, &c.

(Signed)

CLARENDON.

Sir J. Bowring to the Earl of Clarendon-(Received December 16.)

My Lord,

Hong Kong, October 16, 1856.

AS it is possible that the steamer which departs to-day may arrive in time for the last mail via Galle, I take the opportunity of sending to your Lordship copies of the correspondence which has been received and dispatched to-day in reference to the seizure of an Imperial junk at Canton, in conformity with the instructions given, as stated in my despatch dated yesterday, and I am happy to report the very satisfactory manner in which the service has been performed, and trust the result will ensure not only becoming reparation for the violation of Treaty in the case of the "Arrow," but a guarantee against the repetition of such irregularities.

BY an early boat I have an opportunity of reporting to your Excellency that the measures adopted yesterday by Commodore Elliot, for enforcing the redress refused by the Imperial Commissioner in the matter of the "Arrow," has been attended with complete success, so far as the contemplated seizure of an Imperial junk was concerned.

Having been joined at Whampoa by Her Majesty's ship "Barracouta," Commodore Elliot directed that vessel to proceed to and anchor above the barrier, and came on in Her Majesty's ship " Coromandel," with the boats of the "Sybille" in tow. Anchoring opposite a fleet of armed vessels which the Canton Government have been lately collecting below the Dutch Folly, Commodore Elliot selected from among them a large junk flying Government ensigns, and mounting ten or twelve guns, hauled her out into the channel, and took possession of her. Prior to his doing so, I had accompanied the Commodore on board the junk, and had advertised the crew, and so far as I could do so the people in the surrounding vessels, that no harm should happen to them, if they offered no resistance. Owing to the difficulty of moving a heavy craft in a swift tideway, time was necessarily occupied in these proceeding, and though they occasioned considerable excitement, and not a little uproar, among the Chinese fleet, which must have been heard in the Governor-General's residence, distant in a direct line not more than 200 yards, I am glad to add