鸦片战争前英国对中国司法主权的破坏——以“伶仃岛事件”为中心的研究

British Sabotage to China's Judicial Sovereignty Before the Opium War——Research on the Lin-tin Island Affair

1821年12月14-15日,英国皇家战船"土巴资号"上的水手与内伶仃岛村民发生激烈武装冲突,酿成有2名中国人死亡的"伶仃岛事件"。英国东印度公司广州商馆特选委员会以军事实力为后盾,以英国水手提供的虚假事实为基础,借口无权管辖英国政府船只以及中国司法不公,拒绝协助中国政府缉拿凶手。他们还抓住广东官员害怕节外生枝的心理,以退出中国贸易相要挟,终至英国犯罪嫌疑人逃脱了中国法律的制裁。东印度公司的抵制主要有两层用意,其一是谋求在华治外法权,其二是想借此摆脱长期以来所受的来自中国政府的种种"欺压"。因"伶仃岛事件"引发的中英交涉是鸦片战争前英国蓄意破坏中国司法主权的典型案例,刺激了后来的殖民者进一步谋求在华治外法权的欲望。

On December 14 and 15,1821,a fierce armed conflict broke out between a party of seamen from the English frigate Topaz and the Chinese inhabitants of Lin-tin Island,which was called the Lin-tin Island Affair in which two Chinese were killed.The British East India Company,backed by British military strength,refused to help the Chinese government arrest murderers on the basis of the false fact provided by English seamen,excusing that the Company was not entitled to administrate British ships and Chinese justice was not just.Making use of the Chinese officers’fear of unforeseen consequence,the Select Committee of the East India Company threatened to quit trade in China,so that English murders escaped from being punished by Chinese law.Their boycotting aimed to strive for extraterritoriality in China and to get rid of all kinds of bully and oppression from the Chinese government of which they complained for a long time.The Sino-British negotiation for the Lin-tin Island Affair not only set an example that the British deliberately sabotaged China’s judicial sovereignty before the Opium War,but also provoked the desire of subsequent colonists who would pursue the extraterritoriality in China.