Diplomacy
His murder was reported by the head of the French missions in Hong Kong on July 12. The chargé d'affaires, de Courcy, in Macao learned of the murder on July 17 and filed a vigorous protest on July 25 to the Chinese Imperial Viceroy Ye Mingchen.
La captivite de M. Chapdelaine, les tortures qu'il a subies, sa mort cruelle, les violences qu'on a faites a son cadavre, constituent, noble Commissaire Imperial, une flagrante et odieuse violation des engagements solennels qu'il a consacres. "Votre Gouvernement doit donc une eclatante reparation a la France . vous n'hesiterez pas a me l'accorder pleine et entiere. C'est a V. E. qu'il appartient naturalle- ment d'en proposer les termes; j'aurai a decider ensuite si l'honneur, la dignite et les interets du Gouvernement de mon grand Empereur me permettent de les accepter. " Mon desir serait d'ailleurs de me rendre a Canton et d'en conferer de vive voix avec V. E. Elle n'ignore pas qu'une heure de conversations amicales avance plus quelquefois la solution des affaires importantes qu'un mois des correspondances ecrites
On July 30 he sent a report to the French foreign office of the murder:
si, en un mot, le Representant de S. M. Imperiale ne manquerait pas a ses devoirs en ne profitant pas de l'occasion qui lui est offerte, pour reparer d'un seul coup, les erreurs ou les fautes du passe, et pour faire sortir du martyre d'un missionnaire le complet affranchissement du Christianisme
The viceroy responded to de Courcy by pointing out that Father Chapdelaine had already violated Chinese law by preaching Christianity in the interior (the 1844 treaty signed with France only permitted for the propagation of Christianity in the 5 treaty ports opened to the French), he also claimed that the priest was in a rebel territory and that many of his converts had already been arrested for acts of treason, and the viceroy further claimed that Father Chapdelaine's mission had nothing in common with the propagation of religion.
Under French diplomatic pressure, the mandarin who ordered his death was later demoted. When Britain went to war with China in the same year (commencing the Second Opium War (1856–1860)), France initially declared its neutrality but de Courcy made it known that French sympathy was with the English due to the Chapdelaine incident.
In 1857, de Bourboulon, the French plenipotentiary arrived in Hong Kong and attempted to negotiate reparations for the murder of Father Chapdelaine and to revise the treaty. He failed to reach an agreement with Yeh.
Talks continued into December of that year. Viceroy Yeh on the 14th of December stated that he had received a report that the person who was killed was a member of the Triad society with a similar Chinese name to Father Chapdelaine was executed as a rebel in March, and that this was not the same person as Father Chapdelaine. He also complained that in the past many French citizens had gone into the interior to preach, and he cited the case of six missionaries who had been arrested and were handed over to French custody.
The French embassy found Yeh's reply to be evasive, derisory and a formal refusal of French demands. French military action began soon afterwards.
Read more about this topic: Auguste Chapdelaine
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