Wanting
that, it would be like a windmill without wind, merely a fine object
in the landscape.
As an illustration of the actual procedure take the case in which
Chang first achieved a national reputation. Chunghau, a Manchu of
noble family and high in favour at court, had been sent to Russia
in 1880 to demand the restoration of Ili, a province of Chinese
Turkestan, which the Russians had occupied on pretext of quelling
its chronic disorders. Scarcely had he reported the success of
his mission, which had
[Page 224]
resulted in recovering two-thirds of the disputed territory, when
Chang came forward and denounced it as worse than a failure. He
had, as Chang proved, permitted the Russians to retain certain
strategic points, and had given them fertile districts in exchange
for rugged mountains or arid plains. To such a settlement no envoy
could be induced to consent, unless chargeable with corruption
or incompetence.
The unlucky envoy was thrown into prison and condemned to death
(but reprieved), and his accuser rose in the official scale as
rapidly as if he had won a great battle on land or sea. His victory
was not unlike that of those British orators who made a reputation
out of the impeachment of Lord Clive or Warren Hastings, save that
with him a trenchant pen took the place of an eloquent tongue. I
knew Chunghau both before and after his disgrace. In 1859, when
an American embassy for the first time entered the gates of Peking,
it was Chunghau who was appointed to escort the minister to the
capital and back again to the seacoast--a pretty long journey in
those days when there was neither steamboat nor railway.
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