ABSTRACT
The Franco-Vietnamese Treaty of March 1874, declaring Vietnam’s independence of all foreign powers was designed, in French eyes at any rate, to put an end to Chinese suzerainty, and the clauses stipulating that in return for French assistance against attack Vietnam would conform its foreign policy to that of France were intended to create a French protectorate. Like the British in the Margary affair, French in estimating their prospects in Tongking kept one eye cocked on Russia who of all the western powers was at the moment the most seriously embroiled in Chinese politics. Macartney accompanied Tseng to St Petersburg, where they remained from July 1880 to February 1881. The pair of them made a formidable combination, and there is no doubt that the Scotsman gave invaluable help to Chinese cause, drawing Tseng’s attention to scores of details which the Marquis, who had never before in his life been faced with an affair of such magnitude, would inevitably have overlooked.
