Grosvenor, Davenport And Colborne Baber, Did Not
Set Out From The Same Place Before The Commencement Of October.
The
intervening months had been employed by Mr. Wade in delicate and
fluctuating negotiation with Li Hung Chang (who
Had succeeded Tseng Kwofan
as Viceroy of Pechihli and who had now come to the front as the chief
official in the Chinese service) at Tientsin and with the Tsungli Yamen at
Pekin. It was not till the end of the year that the commission to
ascertain the fate of Mr. Margary began its active work on the spot. The
result was unexpectedly disappointing. The mandarins supported one
another. The responsibility was thrown on several minor officials, and on
the border-tribes or savages. Several of the latter were seized, and their
lives were offered as atonement for an offense they had not committed. The
furthest act of concession which the Chinese commissioner gave was to
temporarily suspend Tsen Yuying the Futai for remissness; but even this
measure was never enforced with rigor. The English officers soon found
that it was impossible to obtain any proper reparation on the spot.
Sir Thomas Wade, who was knighted during the negotiations, refused to
accept the lives of the men offered, whose complicity in the offense was
known to be none at all, while its real instigators escaped without any
punishment. When the new year, 1876, opened, the question was still
unsettled, and it was clear that no solution could be discovered on the
spot. Sir Thomas Wade again called upon the Chinese in the most emphatic
language allowed by diplomacy to conform with the spirit and letter of
their engagements, and he informed the Tsungli Yamen that unless they
proffered full redress for Mr. Margary's murder it would be impossible to
continue diplomatic relations.
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Words from 166846 to 167144
of 191255
