Bullies to the Weak, Cowards to the Strong
Now, if I know anything of my countrymen, or of this House of Commons, that is not the natural quality of Englishmen. It never was our ancient reputation. We have had the character of being sometimes a little arrogant, a little overbearing, and of having a tendency to pick a quarrel; but we never yet acquired the character of being bullies to the weak and cowards to the strong.
Let us consider this case precisely as if we were dealing with America instead of China. We have a treaty with China, which, in our international relations with that country, puts us on a footing of perfect equality.* It is not one of the old conventions, such as existed between Turkey and the other European States, in which certain concessions were made without binding clauses on both sides. Our treaty with China binds us to a reciprocal policy, just as our treaty with America does; and what I say is, let us, in our dealings with that country, observe towards them that justice which we observe towards the United States, or France, or Russia.
* This was the Treaty of Nanking, signed at the end of The First Opium War in 1842, which ceded Hong Kong to Britain and opened up five ports to European merchants and their ships. That was not enough for the English industrialists, however. During his speech, Cobden brandished a resolution adopted by the East India and China Association of Liverpool, in which they declared that “The British Government should insist on the right of opening to foreign trade any port on the coast of China, or on the banks of any navigable river, at any time they may think fit, and of placing Consuls at such ports; that our ships of war should have the free navigation of and access to all the rivers and ports of China.” Imagine, said Cobden, demanding such a right on the Potomac, the Volga or the Seine!
* Cobden’s oratory was not without effect. The motion before the house that day, February 26th, 1857, was carried by 263 votes to 249; but soon afterwards Lord Palmerston, the Prime Minister, dissolved Parliament and nothing was done. The motion ran: “That this House has heard with concern of the conflicts which have occurred between the British and Chinese authorities on the Canton River; and, without expressing an opinion as to the extent to which the Government of China may have afforded this country cause of complaint respecting the non-fulfilment of the Treaty of 1842, this House considers that the papers which have been laid on the table fail to establish satisfactory grounds for the violent measures resorted to at Canton in the late affair of the Arrow, and that a Select Committee be appointed to inquire into the state of our commercial relations with China.”