The Great Chinese Warriors Dah-Bee and Cob-Den

Under the figures, left to right, are the names "Earl of D--rb--y." "C--bd--n." and "P--lm--rst--n." -- that is, Edward George Geoffrey Smith Stanley, 14th Earl of Derby (1799-1869), Henry John Temple, Viscount Palmerston (1784-1865), and Richard Cobden (1804-65). The cartoon mixes English reform politics with the insurrection in the area of Canton, China, against the French and British. [See additional commentary below]

Wood engraving

Punch (7 March 1857): 95

As the "great warriors" utter the battle cries of "Boh! Hea!" and "Pee! Koe!" (with an obvious pun on a favourite British tea, Orange Pekoe), Palmerston as a British tar has doffed his hat and is rolling up his sleeves in preparation for teaching them the lesson that he will not be so easily "turned out" of position in Parliament. The cartoonist identifies the reformers with the Chinese insurgents, and Palmerston with the British sailors sent to punish them for attempting to "turn" the members of the Belle Alliance out of coastal China.The Swiftian column "Cobdenisms on China" (page 103) satirizes Cobden by having him deliver an ironic defense of the "humane" Chinese and their system of justice: "The horror of the Chinese for bloodshed is such that most of them faint at the sight of anybody's nose bleeding; hence they labour under a peculiar disadvantage in warfare, their soldiers being disabled by beholding the effect of their own arms on the enemy." [Scanned image and text by Philip V. Allingham You may use this image without prior permission for any scholarly or educational purpose as long as you (1) credit the photographer and (2) link your document to this URL in a web document or cite the Victorian Web in a print one.]

Related material on the China situation

Last modified 7 April 2004