1-150-314 - The Cartoon Collector/Heritage-Images

'New Elgin Marbles', 1860. Lord Elgin (of the Elgin Marbles fame), holds a marble the size and weight of the cannonballs with which Peking had been threatened. China, forced to submit, is left in no doubt of the fate of Peking should it renege again on the terms of the Treaty of Tientsin. In 1858, China had been brought to sign the Treaty of Tientsin which allowed France and Britain a number of commercial concessions, and renewed the terms of the Treaty of Nanking between Britain and China, originally signed in 1842 to end the Opium War. A year later it was clear that China was not going to honour its commitments of commercial concessions, and war became inevitable. When Peking was threatened with bombardment, it surrendered to the Allies. The Summer Palace was plundered and burnt. The Convention of Tientsin, to confirm the details previously agreed, was signed in October 1860. From Punch, or the London Charivari, November 24, 1860.