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0320 Tibet and Turkestan : vol.1
Tibet and Turkestan : vol.1 / Page 320 (Grayscale High Resolution Image)

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doi: 10.20676/00000231
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customary when the lion is negotiating with the
lamb. The agent claimed duress and the treaty
was disallowed by the Governor-General, who then
resorted to the more familiar and convincing argu-
ments applicable to such cases.
An army was sent in, and of course modern rifles
always enforce justice against matchlocks. Bhutan
was taught that an envoy could be overridden in
Calcutta and that the "prestige" of Great Britain
demands that the arguments of its representatives
shall always prevail. I think the doctrine true. It
often applied to dealings between the United States
and various Indian tribes, but the prestige in ques-
tion is one for power—not always for justice, as
understood between individuals. It cannot be sup-
posed that the lesson of such an incident would be
lost upon the Tibetans, whose relations with the
Nepalese, Sikkimites, and Bhutanese have imme-
morially been closer than with any other peoples
save the Chinese.
Followed next (1865 et seq.) many internal troubles,
rising to the dignity of revolution. This serious dis-
turbance throve while China was herself rent by the
Taiping rebellion, which, in turn, was itself caused
(in large part) by popular wrath against a dynasty
that had failed to repel the aggressive European.
It was about this time that the Abbé Desgodins,
French missionary, was forced to abandon an at-
tempt to maintain mission work in Tibet. He has
left a most uncharitable series of letters to immor-
talise his disappointment. He denies the pleasant
description of the Tibetans given by Huc, who calls
them "frank and loyal," and is hard pressed to find