personal enemies; also that the government arrogated its right to execute him after due process of Chinese law. The claim had to be denied as being directly contrary to treaty stipulations, and in this point the foreign envoys supported the American minister unanimously. The charges themselves were found upon investigation to be spurious, and the Yamên showed its willingness to quash them, but two of the most prominent provincial officials in the empire, Tsêng Kwo-fan and Li Hung-chang, were implicated in this plot to suppress an undesirable foreigner, and "the sum to do was to restore Burgevine without offending these local authorities." After protracted correspondence, which must have by its firmness surprised the Chinese statesmen who had counted upon Mr. Burlingame's good-nature, the accusations were withdrawn as based upon false evidence, and Burgevine was cleared. Unhappily he considered his grievances sufficient justification, a short time thereafter, to go over with a part of his regiment to the rebels at Soochow. Deserting these in turn, after Gordon's appointment to his old place, he actually, through the latter's good offices, secured pardon from Li and was reinstated in the Ever-Victorious Force. Then, apparently in sheer bravado, he openly declared his

4

hostility to the imperial cause and his intention to rejoin the Tai-pings when he could. For this the American consul at Shanghai promptly confined him, in order to prevent further complications, and compelled him to choose between an immediate departure from China or a trial in the consular court. He chose deportation, which the Chinese allowed with some pardonable reluctance. It was a galling case, in relation of which the Chinese were undoubtedly very deeply stirred. They were aware that no state in Christendom was so impotent as to be unable to punish a proved rebel and traitor when fairly apprehended; but Prince Kung writes (May 1, 1864) to Mr. Burlingame that "in consideration of our present amicable relations, and desirous to show more than ordinary regard, I will waive all further investigation in this matter if your excellency will deport him to his own country.'

1

In another matter, of considerable importance to this country, the American minister secured from the Chinese Government an order to the

1 "Diplomatic Correspondence," part I, 1864, pp. 864-875, and part III, 1866, pp. 421-5. Burgevine's end has really nothing to do with the subject in hand. He met his death rather mysteriously after returning to China about a year later (June, 1865), while a prisoner of Li Hungchang's troops, when the viceroy had no intention of letting his prey slip a second time through the meshes of diplomacy. His fate was palpably the result of his own imprudence; he was but one of an assortment of adventurers who infested the Far East inspired by hopes like his of making their fortunes in the disorders which assailed China during

governors of the maritime provinces forbidding the Alabama, "and every other vessel with similar designs, from entering our ports," or to approach the coast of China. "Such an order," declares General Foster, "enforced by the governments of Europe, would have saved the American commercial marine from destruction and shortened the Civil War. It was a striking evidence of the influence of the minister and of the friendship of the Chinese Government." 1 The dispatch, hitherto unpublished, advises the department of his action as follows:

(Confidential.) In my regular dispatch I have informed you of the action of the Chinese Government adverse to the rebel cruisers. I was led to act from the near approach of the steamer Alabama. My first step was to secure for my plan the good-will of my colleagues. Accordingly I carefully presented the whole question to them and, happily, with much success. Mr. Vlangaly, the Russian minister, proposed, if necessary, to aid me in urging my views upon the Chinese. Sir Frederick Bruce, the British minister, permitted his able interpreter, J. McLeavy Brown, Esq., to act with Dr. Williams in the later these parlous years. Prince Kung's comment on conveying the intelligence of his decease to Mr. Williams is characteristic: "Burgevine himself was a man who, by his frequent connection with the rebels, had, as you formerly remarked, acted so as to lose the countenance of his own country. It would have been right, therefore, to have regarded him as amenable to the laws of China; but as he has now met his death by the upsetting of the boat, there need be no further discussion about him." (Ibid., part I, 1867, pp. 462-478.)

1 "American Diplomacy in the Orient," p. 159.

discussions. Mr. Berthemy, the French minister, was equally friendly.

The next step was to bring the question before the Chinese in such a way as to succeed. This was first done by conversation; then by an elaborate unofficial memorandum containing reasons for action which might be used among themselves. Finally, it was agreed that I should address to the Prince a formal request which might become the basis of a proclamation. This I did, as you will learn from the enclosed. . . . The proclamation secures to us such aid as the Chinese may have. They have near Shanghai a few small steamers besides Ward's old force, now under Gordon, well supplied with artillery. Guns may be so placed at the mouths of the harbours as to prevent the cruisers from getting in to take our splendid steamers on the Yangtse or, if they once obtain entrance, from getting out again. If they should go into Whampoa to dock, or to Canton, a gun or two placed at the old Bogue forts would make it dangerous for them. The Chinese custom-house officers are intelligent Europeans who, in conjunction with the Americans at the ports, may be able to do something. I shall set all the machinery at work that I can against the privateers.1

A few examples of Mr. Burlingame's appreciation of Chinese interests and of his courtesy toward their public men may be adduced to explain the sincere regard for him which engendered their remarkable proposal at the end of his term of office. By temperament disposed

1 Burlingame to Seward. United States State Department, "China," vol. 21, March 17, 1864.

to augur well from even the smallest signs of progress, he was called fatuous by unkindly European critics, but there was justification at the time for a policy of optimism when China seemed willing to respond to more generous diplomatic relations. Soon after arriving at his post he reports the adoption by China of a national flag in a sentence which, to old residents weary of waiting for a real change of the Chinese heart, must have been little less than irritating. "Surely," he exclaims, "the words immovable Chinese civilisation have lost their significance. By this act the Imperial Government, casting down the last shred of its exclusiveness, confronts us with a symbol of its power and demands a place among the nations." Of course they were themselves unaware of any such intention, yet it is true that in consenting to this innovation the Chinese implied their desire to be ranked with other nations in at least one practice common to the rest of mankind. The appointment to a seat in the Tsung-li Yamên of Siu Ki-yu, a former provincial governor, who had been degraded in 1842 because of a favourable notice of America in a published book, suggested to Mr. Burlingame the gift of a portrait of Washington by the United States

1 Burlingame to Seward, October 27, 1862.