. The awakening of China . nations were atpeace. Strange to say, the governor did not declinethe task. That he did not was due to the fact that hedisapproved the policy of the viceroy, and that he putfaith in the assurance that Great Britain harbouredno design against the reigning house or its territorialdomain. To the surprise of the Chinese, who in their nativehistories find that an Asiatic conqueror always takespossession of as much territory as he is able to hold,it soon became evident that the Queen of Englanddid not make war in the spirit of conquest. Herpremier, Lord Palmerston, invited
. The awakening of China . nations were atpeace. Strange to say, the governor did not declinethe task. That he did not was due to the fact that hedisapproved the policy of the viceroy, and that he putfaith in the assurance that Great Britain harbouredno design against the reigning house or its territorialdomain. To the surprise of the Chinese, who in their nativehistories find that an Asiatic conqueror always takespossession of as much territory as he is able to hold,it soon became evident that the Queen of Englanddid not make war in the spirit of conquest. Herpremier, Lord Palmerston, invited the cooperation ofFrance, Russia, and the United States, in a movementwhich was expected to issup advantageously to all,especially to China. France, at that time under anambitious successor of the great Napoleon, seizedthe opportunity to contribute a strong contingent,with the view of checkmating England and of obtain-ing for herself a free hand in Indo-China, possiblyin China Proper also. For assuming a hostile attitude. THE ARROW WAR 165 towards China, she found a pretext m the judicialmurder of a missionary in Kwang^i, just as Germanyfound two of her missionaries similarly useful as anexcuse for the occupation of Kiao-Chao in. Nowonder the Chinese have grown cautious how theymolest a missionary; but they needed practical teach-ing before they learned the lesson. Unable to take a morsel of China as long as hispowerful ally abstained from territorial aggrandise-ment, Louis Napoleon subsequently employed histroops to enlarge the borders of a small state whichthe French claimed in Annam, laying the foundationof a dominion which goes far to console them for theloss of India. America and Russia, having no wrongsto redress, declined to send troops, but consented togive moral support to a movement for placing foreignrelations with China on a satisfactory basis. In the spring of 1858, the Tepresentatives of thefour powers met at the mouth of the Peiho, cooperatingin a loose s
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