UC-NRLF 
 
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GIFT or 
 'RCFESS3R C.A. KOFDID 
 
"A^ 
 
 JIEVIEW 
 
 MANAGEMENT OE OUR AFFAIRS 
 
 IN 
 
 CHINA, 
 
 SINCE THE OPENING OF THE TRADE IN 1834; 
 
 WITH 
 OF THE 
 
 GOVERNMENT DESPATCHES 
 
 FROU 
 
 THE ASSUMPTION OF OFFICE BY CAPT. ELLIOT, 
 On the Wth December, 1836, ~~ 
 
 TO THE 22d OF MARCH, 1839. 
 
 / 
 
 LONDON : 
 SMITH, ELDER, AND CO. 66, CORNHILL. 
 
 1840. 
 
vsmo 
 
 GIPT OF 
 
 PROFESSOR C.A. KdFJIO 
 
 PRINTED BY WILSON AND OGILVY, 
 
 Skinner Street, Snowhill. 
 
2fi\&- 
 
 REVIEW, 
 
 \A. " little" war has been described as highly in- 
 expedient for a great nation like ourselves to 
 engage in, and every one must bov^ to the authority 
 that has pronounced such an opinion. There is not 
 much fear of our internal discords attracting the 
 interference of our powerful neighbours, however 
 alluring at first sight to them, and perhaps pleasant 
 to their feelings, to see their great rival battling with 
 itself; but it is very different with regard to our 
 colonies or foreign dependencies. Our acquisitions 
 of territory cannot be looked upon with entire com- 
 placency by other nations, any more than we regard 
 with satisfaction such extensions or encroachments 
 on their part ; which renders it the more necessary 
 for us, when employing any force on a distant ser- 
 vice, to look well to all our other outposts, and so 
 to strengthen them as to be prepared to meet any 
 sudden and unexpected attack. If, therefore, we 
 commence a war on a small scale, we should always 
 augment our forces, both naval and military, that 
 we may not be taken by surprise, in any quarter, by 
 
the incipiency of war in a more formidable shape. 
 A single spark may raise a great fire. 
 
 But if ever a little war could have been undertaken 
 without any apparent inconvenience or cause for 
 doubt, and that too against a great nation, China, 
 a few years ago, was the locality for it. A vulgar 
 adage was never more applicable than at this 
 moment to express a meaning. The tearing and 
 rending, and botching and patching, that has been 
 going on for some years, bring it to mind. Let the 
 parties whom it concerns ruminate upon the pithy 
 conclusion that " a stitch in time saves nine," and 
 look at the arrears of work that their negligence has 
 left on their shop-board. Our trade with China has 
 been placed in imminent danger of being lost for 
 ever, through the want of timely protection, or 
 laying our minds at close quarters with the subject. 
 In fact it is at this moment clean gone out of our 
 hands. 
 
 We might go back further in search of some 
 occasion for the interference of government, but 
 will stop at the more recent event of the death of 
 Lord Napier, accelerated or caused by the treatment 
 he met with from a people to whom he carried a 
 friendly communication. Although indiscreetly 
 ordered to proceed at once to Canton, and hold no 
 intercourse with the Hong merchants, under a false 
 reliance upon a desire expressed by the Chinese to 
 have some functionary sent there in the room of the 
 East India Company's Chief Supercargo — which 
 any one conversant with them would have pro- 
 nounced to be a mere commercial substitute, with 
 power to control his fellow subjects — still, as he 
 went peaceably to his destination, and although 
 
without a passport, in a way practised by every 
 resident in the place, there could be no justification 
 for the violent proceedings they instituted against 
 him, and unnecessarily persevered in until they 
 brought him to the last extremity. It is true that 
 he came to them in a '^ questionable shape," being 
 introduced by two ships of war, and insuring a bad 
 reception by requiring to be allowed a direct com- 
 munication with the Viceroy, and other high authori- 
 ties; all which looked very much like a desire to 
 force on them political relations, to which the genius 
 of their government is so decidedly opposed. What 
 they w^anted was what we could not send them. 
 They had inflicted many a wound upon us through 
 the sides of the Company, which served as a break- 
 water between our wrath and their insolence. Call 
 the anomaly they required by whatever name, and 
 limit his power of interfering with the Chinese to 
 the utmost extent, still what could such a person be 
 but an officer of our government, upon whom we 
 could suffer neither insult nor injury to alight with 
 impunity? The only way to have met the emer- 
 gency would have been to have left the whole 
 management of our interests in China to the mer- 
 chants themselves, who might have chosen a com- 
 mittee and chairman, exercising a certain influence 
 and control by common consent, and to whom all 
 matters of dispute might have been referred. The 
 Chinese would have called the Chairman " Taepan," 
 and would have been satisfied with such an arrange- 
 ment. The ordinary powers possessed by the com- 
 manders of merchantmen must have been relied on 
 in such case for preserving peace with the natives. 
 The articles, however, signed by the seamen, might 
 
6 
 
 have been rendered more stringent, or, if necessary, 
 a short Act have been passed, investing the masters 
 of ships, while in China, with the requisite authority, 
 and no more. Any such arrangement as this is now 
 too late. 
 
 Having advanced so far we cannot recede. There 
 are only two ways of proceeding with the Chinese — 
 either to submit altogether to their terms, or oblige 
 them to accept ours. They refused Lord Napier 
 with his limited powers ; they must now receive 
 another more fully invested. We have planted 
 residents in India, and must now fix one in China. 
 A " taepan" will serve our turn no longer. Who- 
 ever may be sent, and whatever his title — Commis- 
 sioner, Charge d'affaires, or Ambassador — the widest 
 discretion should be left him consistent with pru- 
 dence, and the point of his destination be Peking, 
 After the demonstration about to be made on their 
 coast, we may safely reckon upon his being cour- 
 teously received. Lord Amherst had not so many 
 runners before or followers in his train, and had no 
 fixed line of policy in view. If they will not receive 
 him, let him remain at some eligible station taken 
 possession of for that or other purposes, until our 
 presence on their shores may become inconvenient to 
 them, and induce them to make this primary con- 
 cession to a foreign power. Every thing has a 
 beginning, and the time appears to have arrived for 
 the first step towards breaking up the exclusive 
 system they have adopted towards the rest of the 
 world. The people themselves are in no way inte- 
 rested in preserving this line of demarcation, for they 
 have no hostile feeling towards foreigners, if left to 
 their own impulses, and no objection to visit other 
 
countries, as is proved by the many thousands that 
 find their way annually to Borneo, Java, and the 
 British settlements in the Straits of Malacca. They 
 are highly commercial, and require only encourage- 
 ment to make them enterprising. They may become 
 too much so perhaps for the neighbouring countries, 
 for, looking down the vista of futurity, who knows 
 but that from this first fillip they are getting from 
 us, and the knowledge they may acquire at our 
 hands in science and military tactics, they may some 
 day send out their overgrown masses in quest of 
 settlement and conquests to the extreme west of 
 Asia ? That, however, is no consideration for us to 
 pause upon at present. We often talk of Russian 
 influence and extension in Asia, but think little of 
 the Chinese, who, if fairly set agoing, would sweep 
 them before them. They might press on through 
 the broad belt inhabited by the Tartar race, into 
 which the outposts of their empire already extends. 
 Skirting India to the East and North, as she now 
 does, nothing would save our dominion there from 
 her grasp, excepting the density of its population, 
 and its well-disciplined armies. The natural defences 
 found on those sides, in the Himalaya and other 
 ranges of high mountains, though formidable ob- 
 stacles in themselves, would otherwise present no 
 insuperable hindrance to their march upon the fertile 
 plains of India. Where was there ever such another 
 officina gentium, such a manufactory of men ? There 
 they are, spread over an almost boundless region, 
 with their teeming numbers resting in calm quies- 
 cence — a mighty engine in the hand of Providence 
 to work some future change in the destinies 
 and races of other divisions of the great family of 
 man. 
 
8 
 
 No real cause of provocation was given them by 
 Lord Napier, and although some angry declarations 
 were made on both sides, it was only after his de- 
 privation of food and attendance that the two frigates 
 forced their way up the river. That outrage against 
 an amiable individual and accredited officer of our 
 government was passed over without one single 
 remonstrance, much less any chastisement for so 
 flagrant an act of insult to the nation. Had a few 
 ships of war been then sent to China, with a handful 
 of marines on board, and possessed themselves of 
 the Bogue and Tiger Islands, the supreme govern- 
 ment would have ordered the Canton authorities to 
 make every apology and satisfaction in their power, 
 and, not unlikely, would have degraded the Viceroy 
 under whose orders Lord Napier had been so treated. 
 The trade would have been suspended by them on the 
 appearance and hostile movements of our ships, but 
 two or three months would have seen the whole 
 matter adjusted. On so remarkable an occurrence 
 as the capture of the forts commanding the entrance 
 of the port, no time would have been lost in com- 
 municating the event to the Emperor. Six weeks 
 was the period they used to speak of for receiving 
 an answer from Peking, but on extraordinary emer- 
 gencies it could doubtless be done in less time: 
 Captain Elliot says a month. A despatch from the 
 Viceroy left Canton for Peking on the 1 5th of Sept., 
 1834, to which an answer was received on the 19th 
 of October, — thirty-four days. The latter was 
 ordered to be delivered by express, " travelling 600 
 lee daily." Their policy having been to avoid col- 
 lisions with foreigners, there could have existed no 
 reasonable doubt of their ready compliance with our 
 demand for redress. 
 
9 
 
 To that omission may be attributed the steady 
 and persevering course the Chinese have since 
 adopted. The connivance of all ranks at the opium 
 trade has been clearly established : that, therefore, 
 vras not the real ground of their dissatisfaction. No 
 people whatever can be fonder of money than they 
 are. The chink of it is the finest music in their 
 ears. To part with their dollars, therefore, cuts 
 them to the core. With so great a circulation, what 
 iuconvenience can the exportation of silver to the 
 amount they complained of really be to such a 
 population ? In less than twelve months — in fact, 
 from August 1838 up to May 1839 — we had to sub- 
 mit to a drain of seven millions sterling, to be borne 
 by a people only one-fourteenth of their number ; 
 yet we have not given way to complaint, nor suf- 
 fered much inconvenience from it. They state that 
 in fifteen years fifty or sixty millions of dollars had 
 been taken from them, giving an average of about 
 £700,000 a year ; so that in one year as much was 
 abducted from us as in ten from them, and, in pro- 
 portion to our respective numbers, fourteen times as 
 much! Their only coin is of a base metal, and 
 called " cash ;" not their own name for it, but one it 
 has acquired among foreigners. Its value is about 
 the fourth part of a farthing, taking 800 cash as 
 equivalent to one Spanish dollar, or 4s. 2d. of our 
 money. It has a square hole in the centre, through 
 which is run a string, and they are thus threaded 
 together, in convenient numbers for paying away. 
 The great circulation of the people is carried on by 
 this medium, which being of a low denomination 
 is extremely suitable to the price of the necessaries 
 of life in that country. A silver currency is not 
 
10 
 
 therefore so needful there for such purposes as it is 
 here, where provisions are so much dearer. But for 
 larger exchanges silver is indispensable, and as 
 there is a great traffic carried on among them, the 
 amount of it in circulation must be immense. They 
 are all vi^ell clothed, the middle classes expensively 
 so ; and for costly luxuries or conveniences money 
 is never wanting. Had the receiving ships at Lin- 
 tin been full of our manufactures, and no other 
 medium of payment available, the same thing 
 might have happened as befel the opium. The 
 immorality of the one trade has been held out as 
 their justification to salve over the violence of that 
 proceeding, and the great interference with native 
 industry, and the provision for native mouths, would 
 have been alleged against the other. The result to 
 us would have been the same. They forget the 
 many, many years, that they were the receivers in- 
 stead of the payers ; when nearly the whole of what 
 was taken from them by foreigners was paid for in 
 dollars, rolling in upon them faster and more 
 plentifully than they say they are now oozing out. 
 The balance remaining in their hands must be im- 
 mense, even allov/ing for the silver wearing away to 
 a certain extent, like other things, by constant fric- 
 tion. This drain of their currency is not a new 
 discovery. They must have been aware of it for 
 the last twenty years. Why, then, did they put up 
 with it so long ? Their predilection for the seduc- 
 tive drug was one reason, and their fear of offending 
 us another. Both these influences kept them in- 
 active. Have they, then, for the sake of the money, 
 determined to forego the indulgence, or, in a fit of 
 caprice, cast the drug from them,, as a man would 
 
11 
 
 throw aside his snuff-box to day, to take it again 
 to-morrow ? Or may they not have a substitute in 
 view, in opium of their own growth? to bring 
 which into use, and preserve their money, they 
 might think it necessary to inflict a signal chastise- 
 ment upon us, that would ensure them, as they 
 might suppose, against any further importation of 
 the drug. But how came they to delay such a 
 step for two years after they had pronounced the 
 trade to be bringing them daily into a state of bank- 
 ruptcy ? No doubt from the fear, still operating 
 upon them, of interfering with a traffic that they 
 knew was a most valuable one to us, and also with 
 the prejudices of their own people, whose taste for 
 the drug they know to be indomitable. They, 
 therefore, contented themselves with fulminating 
 some proclam.ations against the use of the drug, 
 while at the same time their own authorities were 
 aiding in the disposal of it in much larger quantities 
 and more openly than before. 
 
 The Canton functionaries had been deriving a 
 profit from the opium in the shape of fees, rateable 
 upon each chest, to the amount of nearly £300,000 
 per annum, besides a per centage upon the Sycee 
 silver, all shipped by the opium smugglers ; but their 
 avarice prevailing, a boat with some of the latter was 
 seized after having paid the regular gratuity. Dis- 
 gusted at this breach of faith, and no longer confiding 
 in any contract that could be made, the principal 
 guarantee for those concerned in the trade withdrew 
 his engagement to the authorities, and the thirty or 
 forty fine boats that had been used for carrying it on 
 were destroyed. This happened early in 1837. The 
 Viceroy, chagrined at such a reduction of his income. 
 
u 
 
 and at his wits' ends for the means of renewing so 
 profitable a business, caused four of the largest sized 
 boats to be built, and employing his own son as his 
 agent, carried on the trade, with his own flag flying 
 at their taffrails ! The great reduction of the means 
 for taking away the opium, consequent upon the 
 destruction of the boats, would appear to have forced 
 the foreign merchants some time after to employ 
 European craft for the purpose of transporting it 
 to Whampoa and Canton, there to be delivered to 
 the Chinese, who conveyed it ashore. These in time 
 became very numerous, amounting to near thirty, all 
 decked boats, and generally rigged as schooners, 
 being manned with a few Lascars. It is impossible 
 that such a traffic, carried on during a great part of 
 1838 in broad daylight, under the very noses of the 
 officers of government, could have been unknown to 
 the higher authorities of the place ; and it is quite as 
 sure they would have interfered with it, if they had 
 not received their fees, under that new arrangement, 
 as punctually, and perhaps to a greater amount, than 
 under the old one. It may be supposed they were 
 not particularly thankful to Captain Elliot when he 
 offered his services to put an end to the trade so 
 carried on. In fact, they expressed no great readi- 
 ness to interfere with the boats ; but as he had 
 brought the subject under their notice, laid their 
 commands upon him to see it done. The Viceroy 
 said — *' I, the Governor, having under my sway 
 the whole land of Yue, and having on occasions to 
 make most vigorous exercise of power, it may well 
 be conceived that these boats trouble me not one 
 iota." The trade was exceedingly slack at that time, 
 or they would probably have wished him at Old 
 
13 
 
 Nick, as another Mar-plot, for making, as they would 
 say in Chinese-English, " a spoilum pigeon." The 
 great spoiler, Commissioner Lin, had not then been 
 heard of, although shortly afterwards his coming 
 was announced. 
 
 In consequence of the dishonest delays of the 
 Viceroy and the Hong merchants, in coming to any 
 thing like a fair settlement with the creditors of the 
 Hing-tae Hong, which had been made bankrupt, as 
 well as the threatening proclamations against the 
 merchants engaged in the opium trade, orders were 
 sent by the home government to the Admiral on the 
 Indian station to proceed to China, that his presence 
 might be some support and protection to British 
 subjects. He arrived there on the 12th July, 1838, 
 in the Wellesley, 72, accompanied by the Algerine, a 
 10-gun brig, and was soon after joined by iheLarne. 
 They remained until the 5th October, v^hen the 
 squadron departed for Singapore. During that time 
 not a word was said about Lord Napier. The 
 Admiral had no instructions on that important point. 
 It was then, perhaps, considered too old an affair to 
 be taken up, but the Chinese probably expected to 
 hear something about it. 
 
 The presence of our men-of-war had, perhaps, a 
 salutary effect during the time they remained, al- 
 though lying quietly at anchor at Tong Koo. The 
 only demonstration made was occasioned by an 
 incident that happened shortly after their arrival. On 
 the 28th July, a passage boat, having on board the 
 Commander of the English ship lying at Hong 
 Kong, and some other persons, was fired at and 
 brought to, first by the Bogue fort, and afterwards 
 by that on Tiger island. An inquiry was made at 
 
14 
 
 both places whether " Admiral Maitlaiid, or any of 
 his soldiers, women, or man-of-war's men, were on 
 board ? If so, they would not be allowed to pass up 
 the river." These inquiries being answered in the 
 negative, the boat was allowed to proceed. One of 
 the passengers asked the officer at the Bogue whe- 
 ther he would seize opium, if any were on board ? 
 To which he answered No ! ! Captain Elliot repre- 
 sented this offensive proceeding to the Viceroy, 
 through the medium of the Hong merchants. They 
 declared that no insult was intended, but as they did 
 not produce a formal disavowal to that effect on the 
 part of the Viceroy, he proceeded immediately to 
 communicate with the Admiral at Tong Koo, who, 
 however, determined to avoid a violation of the 
 feelings of the government or people, thought this 
 an insult to the honour of the flag intrusted to his 
 protection that could not be passed over by him. 
 The ships were accordingly moved up to the anchorage 
 off Chumpee, on the morning of the 4th of August. 
 In the course of that day the following communi- 
 cation was received from the Chinese Admiral 
 "Kwan." " Kwan Tienpei, General (or Admiral) 
 of the Celestial Empire, the Potent and Fear-inspir- 
 ing, writes, for the information of Maitland, the chief 
 commander of vessels of war of the English nation, — 
 We, of the Celestial Empire, and you of the English 
 nation, have had a common market at Canton for 
 two hundred years past ; on both sides there has 
 been the fullest harmony, without the slightest in- 
 terruption thereof. During the continuance here of 
 your nation's superintending officer, Elliot, all too 
 has been quiet. Recently, Elliot went to Carfton, 
 
15 
 
 and told the Hong merchants that, in consequence 
 of the unwillmgness of the merchants of the various 
 nations to submit to restraint, he had represented to 
 his Sovereign a wish that another should be sent 
 hither in his place : that now his Sovereign had sent 
 from hence the noble Maitland, and it was desired 
 that both should repair together to Canton, humbly 
 and plainly to address his Excellency the Governor, 
 in reference to the continuance here of Elliot, as 
 Superintendent. To these public arrangements of 
 your nation, his Excellency, our Governor, would 
 of course consent, were it not that the prohibitory 
 enactments of the Celestial Empire have hitherto 
 withheld from Commanders-General of vessels of 
 war permission to enter the port ; and of this Elliot 
 is well aware. On a recent visit of Elliot to Canton, 
 he sought to effect a sudden change in the ancient 
 rules, by using, in place of the words ' Humble 
 address,' (Pin,) the words ' Letter of intelligence,* 
 (Shusin). Hence his Excellency our Governor 
 declined to receive, in disobedience of the regulations, 
 his documents. Perhaps Elliot may have failed to 
 inform you, the honourable Commander General, of 
 this circumstance of not using the words ' Humble 
 address.' What may be the motives for your pre- 
 sent step of moving these three vessels to the an- 
 chorage of Lung-keet ? When I consider that your 
 Sovereign has sent you hither, a distance of tens of 
 thousands of miles to conduct affairs, I feel that you 
 must be a man of capacity at home. Should you 
 now neglect to distinguish clearly right from wrong, 
 and act upon the spur of the moment, will not the 
 blame rest on you — how will you be able to answer 
 it to your Sovereign? These things I specially put 
 
16 
 
 before you ; and, while quietly awaiting your reply, 
 I wish you unallayed enjoyment of repose " 
 
 To this the following answer was returned by Sir 
 Frederick Maitland : — "Her Majesty's ship Wei- 
 Lesley, off Chumpee, Aug. 5, 1838. In reply to the 
 AdmiraFs note of yesterday, I have shortly to observe, 
 that the cause of my coming to this anchorage of 
 Lung Keet is distinct from the affairs of Elliot, and 
 is to demand explanation for an insult offered to the 
 Sovereign of my country in the person of myself, by 
 firing at and boarding a British vessel, under the 
 pretext that I might be on board. I have now to 
 request that the Admiral will send me officers, in 
 order that I may fully explain my meaning; and 
 having fulfilled my object in coming to this an- 
 chorage, sail away to more convenient places below. 
 Thus will all chance of an interruption of the peace 
 that has so long subsisted between the two countries 
 be happily removed. With compliments, I have to 
 remain, &c. — (Signed) "F. L. Maitland." 
 
 In consequence of this request two officers sent by 
 the Chinese Admiral arrived on board the Wellesley 
 on the same day that it was made, to wait upon the 
 Rear-Admiral ; one of them of equal rank with Capt. 
 Maitland, and another inferior. Expressions of dis- 
 avowal of an intention to insult were written at the 
 dictation of the superior officer by the hand of the 
 other, in the presence of the Admiral, Captains 
 Maitland, Blake, Kingcome, the Superintendent, and 
 Mr. Morrison, the interpreter. The declaration was 
 in the following terms ; — " On the 8th day of the 
 6th moon (28th July), an English boat was entering 
 the Bogue, when certain natives spoke wrongly of 
 
17 
 
 of your honourable Admiral, his family and subor- 
 dinates, inquiring whether they were on board or 
 not ; and adding that, if they were on board, the boat 
 must return, but if not, she might proceed through 
 the Bogue. This has been inquired into. It was 
 not done in consequence of any official order ; the 
 wrong language was that of the natives aforesaid 
 themselves. Should any such-like language be used 
 hereafter, the circumstance shall be at once inves- 
 tigated and punished. Their thus offending your 
 honourable Admiral is one and the same as offending 
 our own Admiral. (The above was written by Ze, 
 a Plietai or Ttsantseang, and another officer, of the 
 rank of Shaupei. It is in the handwriting of the 
 last, whose rank is analogous to that of Lieutenant- 
 Commander ; the rank of the former analogous to 
 that of Post-Captain.) True translation. — (Signed) 
 J. R. Morrison, 5th August, 1838." After this 
 disavowal by the officer of any intention to convey 
 an insult on the part of the government or the 
 Chinese Admiral, Sir Frederick Mai tland observed — 
 " That irregularities will happen, but, as they may 
 lead to serious misunderstandings between the two 
 nations, they require to be noticed and checked. 
 That the Tetuh had expressed a determination to 
 punish the person who had committed this offence, 
 but that, since every intention of insulting the Bri- 
 tish flag had now been disavowed, he hoped the 
 Tetuh would consider it an accident, and forgive the 
 offender." To this the officer replied, " that it was 
 an insult to the Tetuh himself, as well as to Sir Fre- 
 derick Maitland, and that the offence would not be 
 passed over, but must of necessity be punished." 
 The Admiral then said, " that having satisfactorily 
 
18 
 
 settled the business that had brought him up to 
 Lung Keet, he meant to take the earliest opportunity 
 of wind and tide to return to Lung Koo (Tong 
 Koo) ; that the monsoon being now against his 
 return southward, he would probably remain some 
 weeks longer in that neighbourhood." He added, 
 " that since the trade had ceased to be in the hands 
 of the Company, frequent visits of British vessels of 
 war may be expected, it being in accordance with 
 the genius of the English nation to look after 
 its subjects in foreign countries, to see they 
 are subjected to no insults, and that disturb- 
 ances do not take place among them. That 
 they might be assured, however, that these ves- 
 sels would come always with a peaceful purpose." 
 The officers requested, in the name of the Tetuh, 
 " that orders should be given to put a stop to the 
 irregularities of British subjects, such as had been 
 alluded to in the second conference (not inserted in 
 the China correspondence) between the Tetuh 
 and Captain Maitland." The Admiral informed 
 them " that merchant vessels are not under the 
 martial discipline of the navy, but are subject to the 
 civil authority;" and referred them to Captain 
 Elliot, who was present. Captain Elliot assured 
 them " that his constant wish has been to preserve 
 peace and good order." He added " a desire that 
 the Governor might be informed that the late nego- 
 tiations on his part were carried on by him in 
 obedience to the orders of his government, and 
 were not owing to any want of respect towards his 
 Excellency." So terminated that particular affair, 
 the only occurrence worth notice, and that appears 
 to have been recorded in the Superintendent's des- 
 
19 
 
 patches during the three months that the Admiral 
 remained in China. When our men-of-war were 
 leaving the country some parting compliments took 
 place between the two Admirals, and excepting the 
 little incident at the Bogue, that visit of our ships 
 would appear to have been altogether a passing 
 show ; for it left no lasting impression, as was very 
 soon seen. 
 
 The Hong merchants had so long back as March 
 in the some year (183S) offered to pay the debts of 
 the Hing-tae-Hong in nine years, without interest, by 
 yearly instalments, commencing from the beginning 
 of 1839. The failure of the Hong took place late 
 in 1836. A petition to the Viceroy for the payment 
 of the debt was presented in April 1837. On the 
 26th of November, 1838, it was announced that a 
 settlement had been made to pay the whole, 
 amounting to Spanish dollars 2,261,438^, as ad- 
 justed by a joint committee, in eight years and a half, 
 commencing from the 30th of November, 1837, 
 about a year after the failure, being still a gain of 
 1 year, 7 months, upon the Hong merchants' pro- 
 posal in March. At 12 per cent., the customary rate 
 of interest in Canton, money doubles itself, at com- 
 pound interest, in about 6 years. The creditors had 
 demanded that their claims should be paid by yearly 
 and equal instalments in a similar period, sacrificing 
 the interest ; which was met in the first instance by 
 the Hong merchants proposing to pay them in 20 
 years, then 15, 12, and 9. A large claim had long 
 existed against Kingqua's hong, the creditors for- 
 bearing to press it during the lifetime of old 
 Kingqua; but he having died early in 1838, it was 
 now brought forward, and the debts, amounting to 
 
20 
 
 above 1,000,000 of dollars, agreed to be paid by 
 the Co-hong in ten years, beginning with the first 
 instalment from the 1st of July 1838, and with 
 simple interest at the rate of 6 per cent, to be paid 
 after the entire liquidation of the principal. The 
 latter arrangement was equally under the sanction 
 of the Viceroy, although the business of the hong, 
 by consent of all parties, was allowed to go on, it 
 not having been judged expedient to declare it 
 bankrupt, as in the case of Hingtae. It does not 
 appear that the visit of the Admiral had any parti- 
 cular influence in bringing these claims to a settle- 
 ment. He had left China almost two monthe before 
 it was effected. The Hong merchants, with the 
 consent of the government, had long been in the 
 practice of laying an extra duty upon the leading 
 articles of import and export, styled the Hong-yung 
 tax, in aid of the Consoo-fund, established originally 
 to meet all claims upon the Co-hong, whether requi- 
 sitions of the government, or debts incurred by 
 their broken brethren to foreign merchants. No call 
 upon the fund having been made since the com- 
 mencement of the free trade in 1834, until the 
 failure of Hing-tae, the proceeds of that particular 
 duty had grown to the amount of 1,500,000 dollars: 
 that should in all fairness have been set off against 
 the debt, had it not been misapplied by a juggle 
 between the Hong merchants and the government. 
 Under the allegation of their incapacity to pay the 
 foreigners and the duties owing to the government, 
 a new impost was immediately laid upon most arti- 
 cles of import and export. The Superintendent 
 furnishes a statement in his despatch of the 21st of 
 
21 
 
 February, 1839, showing the probable produce of 
 the additional duties. For the basis of his calcula- 
 tion he selects the year commencing 1st of July, 
 1836, and ending 30th of June, 1837, as one of a 
 fair average amount of the trade, and upon the 
 leading articles alone the result is the enormous sum 
 of 1,833,680 dollars, more than enough to pay the 
 foreign debt in the space of two years ! Where is 
 the honesty of these people ? They plead poverty 
 only to extort money. They grind us down to take 
 payment in 8 and a half and 10 years, and then, by 
 a heavy burthen upon the trade, raise the requisite 
 funds in two ! They may say, in such a case, that 
 the consumers bear the onus of the new duties. But 
 more than one half of them are levied upon tea and 
 raw silk, amounting to 983,849 dollars, and there- 
 fore fall upon us, and not unlikely the greater part 
 of the remainder, by a reduction of the profits, or a 
 loss on the invoice of our exports to China, the 
 native purchasers reducing the price to the extent of 
 the increased charge upon them : so that, in fact, 
 such a payment, so far as the public is concerned, is 
 a mere mockery — robbing Peter to pay Paul, and 
 leaving the Chinese as deep in our debt as before 
 any settlement was made. Are we to suffer such a 
 charge to continue, after they have raised sufficient 
 from it to pay off those debts? And had not the 
 trade been so interrupted as it now is, should we 
 not have been perfectly justified in telling them 
 they had cheated us in the bargain they had made, 
 and that after the first two years' receipts of the 
 duties so charged, they should pay up all the 
 remaining instalments, and abolish the duties ? This 
 
22 
 
 subject ought to be enforced upon them at once, and 
 has not, it is to be hoped, been overlooked among 
 our other demands. 
 
 Since the Andromache and Imogene battered away 
 at the forts of the Bogue and Tiger Island on the 
 8th of Sept., 1834, with the exception of the visit 
 of the Wellesley, there had never been one ship there 
 larger than a sloop-of-war, up to the time of the 
 opium seizure, and generally speaking none at all. 
 The only vessel there at that critical period was the 
 Larne,oi 18 guns, whose commander was constrained 
 to withdraw her in the face of the earnest entreaties 
 of the British merchants. Some of them were still 
 at Canton, and near fifty sail of valuable ships were 
 lying in the river or at its entrance, without any 
 protection but what they could derive from their 
 own small resources. The whole of their appliances, 
 if brought into a small compass, so as to have armed 
 two or three of them, might have presented some- 
 thing like strength. But as the ships that go to 
 China in these peaceable times, excepting it may be 
 some of the Company's old ships, carry very few 
 great guns, and not more than a dozen or two of 
 muskets, some pistols, and a few pikes and cutlasses, 
 they are not separately in a state to resist attack, 
 even from Chinese junks, if they got alongside with 
 their two or three hundred men, and especially the 
 country ships manned only with Lascars. 
 
 A strange infatuation appears to have hung over 
 our rulers with regard to that valuable trade, and the 
 safety of those engaged in it. The Chinese horizon, 
 for some time lowering, in November 1838 showed 
 indubitable signs of a coming storm, which was sure 
 to break with more than usual violence over the 
 
23 
 
 heads of our countrymen, as soon as the greater part 
 of the large ships, manned with Europeans, had left. 
 It was impossible to conjecture what measure of 
 violence they were going to adopt, but it was clear 
 that something sinister was about to happen. 
 Government had previously read many forebodings 
 of the Superintendent respecting the opium trade, 
 and afterwards his despatches of the 8th and 9th of 
 December, which reached them on the 18th of April. 
 He communicated the novel circumstance of the 
 authorities having threatened to destroy the house of 
 a British subject, implicated in the introduction of 
 opium, provided he did not leave Canton in three 
 days ; afterwards extended to ten. The opium had 
 been brought up on the 4th from Whampoa in a 
 Chinese boat, in charge of his two native servants, 
 packed in twenty-two dollar boxes, and when seized 
 was in the act of being landed in front of the Fac- 
 tories, within a few steps of a chop-house, where an 
 officer of the Custorns is always stationed with the 
 usual assistants, and whom nothing could pass 
 without being seen. It was said that information 
 had been given of the contents of the boxes, but the 
 probability is, that they were not accompanied by 
 the proper person to satisfy the officer that the usual 
 fees had been paid, and therefore he stopped the 
 opium. If any evasion were intended it certainly 
 was very ill judged, for unless the Chinese received 
 the usual bribe, detection was certain. Such a prac- 
 tice as the introduction of opium into the foreign 
 factories was never known during the time of the 
 more regular trade at Lintin and other outer anchor- 
 ages. It was quite contrary to the rigid circumspec- 
 tion and principles of the leading houses in the trade, 
 
24 
 
 and could only have originated under the much 
 greater laxity of the administration of the law, and 
 the almost total want of other adequate means of 
 transport, in consequence of the destruction of the 
 smuggling boats. The foreign trade was suspended 
 on that occasion, not by any public notice, but by 
 refusing to grant the usual chops for loading or 
 discharging cargo. 
 
 Immediately after this, an event took place still 
 more demonstrative of the new spirit of opposition 
 to the opium trade, and their ill humour towards 
 foreigners. It is detailed in Captain Elliot's des- 
 patch of the 13th of December, received here on the 
 13th of April. On the 12th, a Chinese accused of hav- 
 ing kept an opium shop was brought by the officers 
 of justice to the area in front of the Factories, and 
 preparations made for his immediate execution. 
 Nearly the whole body of the foreign residents 
 rushed to the spot, determined not to allow so dis- 
 gusting an exhibition, and the officer in charge was 
 induced to remove the execution to a greater dis- 
 tance and more out of sight, the unfortunate man, 
 Hoyew-kung, having been strangled at the water's 
 edge, a little below the Factories. It appears that 
 this victim to Chinese oppression had formerly kept 
 a smoking-shop, but had relinquished the trade for 
 seven or eight years. Reported to have money, he 
 became, under the new law, a mark for the informer, 
 and a fitting subject for persecution to the greedy 
 authorities. His capture was resisted by his friends 
 and neighbours, and in the scuffle a mandarin of 
 some rank was killed. For tJds he suffered ; for the 
 opium offence would have been passed over so soon 
 as he had paid the stipulated price of his ransom 
 
25 
 
 from the hands of the gaoler. Having succeeded 
 in removing from under their v^indov^s a spectacle 
 so revolting to their feelings, the Europeans sepa- 
 rated into groups to talk over a matter so full of 
 meaning. The Chinese collected round them, as 
 they usually do when a few strangers stop to con- 
 verse together, without any object to gratify, except- 
 ing curiosity, but on this occasion, immediately 
 after the excitement of the scene they had witnessed, 
 the probability is, that they were more intrusive 
 and rude, which drew upon them the resentment of 
 the foreigners, one of whom was said to have made 
 use of a cane. A conflict ensued, and the crowd 
 increased, when Mowqua, the Hong merchant, 
 made his appearance, and waved to them to retire to 
 their Factories. Hard pressed by sticks and stones, 
 one large party entered the Imperial Hong, with a 
 crush such as has sometimes been witnessed at 
 the pit entrance of Drury Lane and Covent Garden 
 Theatres, when a favourite actor was to perform. 
 The large folding door of the Hong was shut with 
 some difficulty. The Chinese tried to batter it 
 down, and made daring attempts to enter by the 
 verandah above, as well as at several of the other 
 hongs, but were driven back. At length a strong 
 military force was sent to their assistance, and in 
 ten minutes the whole space in front was completely 
 cleared. Thus fortunately ended a collision that 
 had threatened such serious consequences. One 
 hundred and twenty armed sailors were ordered up 
 from Whampoa by the Superintendent, but on his 
 own arrival at six in the evening, finding every 
 thing at rest, they were countermanded, and re- 
 turned to the ships. The Chinese intended that 
 
26 
 
 departure from common decency and usual practice 
 as a prelude to what they had made up their minds 
 to enact. There are certain places in Canton ap- 
 pointed for the execution of malefactors, and the 
 authorities knew that their selecting the front of 
 our Factories was a gross act of indelicacy to us, 
 and insulting in the highest degree. It is a ques- 
 tion whether even the native inhabitants of any 
 respectable street in Canton would have allowed 
 such an indignity to be put upon them. Supposing 
 our civil authorities, in former times, in their pro- 
 gress towards Tyburn, to have stopped at the house 
 of the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs of that 
 day, and the sheriff to have there erected the gallows, 
 and hung up the offender just below his drawing- 
 room windows : would he have liked it ? Or could 
 he have considered it any thing but an outrage 
 upon his feelings, and an insult to himself per- 
 sonally ? And yet we have a minister of the crown 
 at the present day asking why so much opposition 
 should have been made to the Chinese on the occa- 
 sion commented on, and desiring to know if all the 
 foreigners were concerned in it, or only the British ? 
 just as if he wished to read them a lecture upon the 
 subj ect, or do something worse. " I wish to be informed 
 whether the foreigners, to whom you allude in your 
 despatch (13th December) as having resisted the 
 intention of the Chinese authorities to put a criminal 
 to death in the immediate front of the Factories, 
 were British subjects only, or subjects and citizens 
 of other countries also. I also wish to know upon 
 what alleged ground of right these persons con- 
 sidered themselves entitled to interfere with the ar- 
 rangements made by the Chinese officers of justice, 
 
27 
 
 for carrying into effect, in a Chinese town, the 
 orders of their superior authorities." Captain 
 Elliot, who, to his credit it must be acknowledged, 
 appears to have been ever ready to assist his country- 
 men upon a pinch, saw this proceeding of the 
 Chinese in its proper light, and made what prepara- 
 tions he could for their protection, when they were 
 in such imminent danger from an infuriated mob. 
 
 On the 26th of February the Chinese authorities, 
 accompanied by a considerable number of troops, 
 again brought down a native to the front of the Fac- 
 tories, and there strangled him. Not satisfied with 
 the execution attempted on the 12th of December, 
 on the same spot, but frustrated by the interference of 
 the foreigners, they were determined we should not 
 escape the indignity they had then intended to fix 
 upon us. This second outrage was a great exag- 
 geration of the first, for having been made fully 
 sensible of the disgust it had given us, it demon- 
 strates most clearly the contemptuous feeling of the 
 government towards foreigners, and what little reason 
 there is to expect any indulgence at its hands. 
 Captain Elliot was then at Macao. The British 
 residents immediately addressed the following note 
 to the Deputy Superintendent : — " Canton, 26th of 
 February, 1839. Sir, a gross and shocking outrage 
 against the foreign community having been perpe- 
 trated by the Chinese authorities, in causing a man 
 to be strangled this afternoon in front of the Factories, 
 we, the undersigned British subjects, most earnestly 
 request that the British flag may not again be hoisted 
 until reference has been made to Her Majesty's Chief 
 Superintendent. (Signed) by all." Mr. Johnson 
 forwarded the letter to the Superintendent, who, 
 
28 
 
 after his return to Canton, addressed the following 
 communication in reply : — " Canton, 2d of March, 
 1839. Gentlemen, I have had the honour to receive 
 your letter of the 26th ult., to the address of the 
 Deputy Superintendent, and I beg to acquaint you 
 that it is not my intention to hoist the British flag 
 at Canton in the present position of circumstances. 
 I am sensible, gentlemen, of the extreme hazard to 
 which the lives and pi'operty of the whole foreign 
 community are exposed, by the recurrence of so 
 dismal and exciting an event as that which forms the 
 subject of the letter and it will be my duty to make 
 an early communication to Her Majesty's subjects, 
 in explanation of the proceedings I propose to take, 
 for leading the governor to refrain from measures 
 that cannot fail to burthen his Excellency with 
 the responsibility of some terrible catastrophe. 
 (Signed) Charles Elliot, Chief Superintendent." — 
 The following notice was circulated on the 4th of 
 March : — " The execution of a criminal in this square 
 on the 26th ultimo, renders it the duty of the under- 
 signed to submit a few remarks to Her Majesty's 
 subjects. In his own judgment the purpose of this 
 most humiliating event was not only to intimidate, 
 but to degrade, and render hateful, the whole foreign 
 community in the sight of the native population. 
 Neither can he doubt that its tacit admission would lead 
 to still graver outrages. Her Majesty's subjects may 
 be assured that he will not fail to lay these convic- 
 tions before the Right Honourable the Secretary of 
 State for Foreign Affairs. Impressed by the per- 
 suasion, however, that the recurrence of such an 
 outrage would lead to some sudden and deplorable 
 catastrophe, he finds it necessary to make an imme- 
 
29 
 
 diate communication to the Governor : but he has 
 been careful to leave the treatment of the late event 
 to the unembarrassed disposal of his own and the 
 other w^estern governments, whose flags have been 
 subsequently lowered. He considers it due to his 
 countrymen to promulgate a copy of his address to 
 the governor on this occasion. — (Signed) Charles 
 Elliot, Chief Superintendent." Then follows his 
 address to the Viceroy or Governor : — " Canton, 
 March 4th, 1839. The undersigned, &c. &c., pre- 
 suming to offer no objection to the right of this 
 government to execute native criminals wheresoever 
 it may think fit, within the limits of the empire, 
 desires only to observe, that no such circumstances 
 have ever had place in the immediate vicinity of the 
 foreign dwellings until the 26th ultimo, during an 
 interval of nearly two hundred years, and has now 
 to request, in behalf of the government of his nation, 
 that his Excellency will be pleased to order their 
 future discontinuance in this situation. As a native 
 of the western countries, your Excellency will hold 
 the undersigned excused for observing that, agreeably 
 to the genius of these people, nothing could be more 
 harassing to them than the execution of a criminal 
 before their doors. He does not conceal from your 
 Excellency a very general impression, upon the part 
 of the foreign community, that the considerate pro- 
 tection of this government is in a great degree with- 
 drawn from them. The effect of such feeling need 
 not to be pressed upon the atttention of a high 
 officer, versed in the government of men. It deprives 
 the wise and the thoughtful of their just and restrain- 
 ing influence, and renders the case desperate. The 
 undersigned is afraid, therefore, that it would be 
 
30 
 
 impossible to stay the hands of every excited indi- 
 vidual, in such a crisis of intense agitation as another 
 execution before their Factories would produce ; and 
 one fatal blow might lead to death, destruction of 
 property, and disturbance of the lower orders of the 
 native population, which the most anxious efforts of 
 the honourable officers could not prevent. These 
 are the profound sentiments of his heart 3 and claim- 
 ing, as the officer of his nation, the protection of the 
 great Emperor, the undersigned must, once more, 
 request of your Excellency to signify to him the 
 calming declaration that it is not the purpose of 
 this wise and just government to leave the whole 
 foreign community exposed to the most imminent 
 risk of disaster. The undersigned avails himself of 
 this occasion to offer to your Excellency the renewed 
 expressions of his highest consideration. (Signed) 
 Chakles Elliot." Another notice was circulated as 
 follows : — "Canton, March 9, 1839. With reference 
 to his circular of the 4th instant, the undersigned 
 has now the honour to promulgate a copy of his 
 address to the governor concerning the late execution 
 before the Factories. And having this day ascertained 
 by a formal message from his Excellency, that he 
 does not propose to reply to him in a direct shape, 
 it only remains with the undersigned to announce to 
 Her Majesty's subjects his own intention to report 
 the circumstance to Her Majesty's government by 
 the earliest opportunity. To this representation he 
 will join his own strong opinion, that the lives and 
 properties of the whole foreign community would 
 be exposed to perilous jeopardy on every repeated 
 occasion of an execution in the same situation. 
 Pending further instructions from his Government, 
 
31 
 
 his own address has served the purpose of a protest, 
 which was the main object of its transmission. 
 (Signed) Charles Elliot, Chief Superintendent." — 
 Under date of the 12th of March from Macao, Captain 
 Elliot again addressed the Governor in these terms : — 
 *' The undersigned, &c. &c., being on the point of 
 communicating with the government of his nation, 
 and the high officers of the government of India, 
 and the Chief in command of the naval forces, and 
 having his mind agitated by many doubts and fears, 
 has once more to address your Excellency upon the 
 subject of his address of the 4th instant. It is his duty 
 to lay before your Excellency his strong conviction 
 that the government of his nation will regard the un- 
 precedented execution of a criminal before the foreign 
 dwelling houses, to be an outrage upon the feelings 
 and dignity of all the western governments, whose 
 flags were recently flying at Canton. And for 
 the sake of that peace and good will which has sub- 
 sisted one hundred and several tens of years, the 
 undersigned has again respectfully and anxiously to 
 request, that your Excellency will be pleased to for- 
 ward him a calming declaration through the ho- 
 nourable officers, in order that he may report to the 
 high officers of his own nation the needlessness of 
 immediate and direct appeals to the great Emperor 
 for protection. The cruiser of his nation (the Lame) 
 is detained for your Excellency's reply, and the 
 undersigned, having the same, will immediately 
 make the necessary statement, and she will then 
 sail away. (Signed) Charles Elliot." Thus ended 
 the correspondence on that ominous proceeding 
 
32 
 
 No answer was returned by the Viceroy, who well 
 knew that what had passed was a mere trifle to 
 what was presently to come. " Then," said he to 
 those about him, " we will make one account of it, 
 and shove it altogether down their throats. The 
 dose may be bitter, but they shall swallow it all. 
 These foreign dogs, wdth this barking cur at the 
 head of the pack ! Why do they come here to bay 
 the lion in his den, and rouse his slumbering wrath ? 
 What are their pigmy populations to our colossal 
 and flowery nation, surrounded by the four seas, 
 the central kingdom of the earth, to which all 
 others send tribute ! What are their kings, that 
 they speak of, compared with our celestial dynasty ? 
 And of what avail is the power of the few opposed 
 to that of the many ?" 
 
 With all the information before them, why did 
 not our government then order -Captain Maitland to 
 proceed at once to China with as many of his ships 
 as he could muster, and remain there until affairs 
 wore a more favourable appearance, or in case of 
 need to interfere vigorously for the protection of 
 the British residents. Their instructions, sent via 
 Suez and Bombay, would have reached him at 
 Trincomalee by the 1st of July. He might have 
 arrived at Macao by the 1st of August. The account 
 of the opium seizure, or more properly speaking, 
 the persons of our countrymen, must have been 
 known to the Governor-General of India, then 1000 
 miles up the country, by the 10th of June. The 
 Good Success, that carried the first intelligence, ar- 
 rived at Calcutta on the 27th of May. Why, then, 
 did not Lord Auckland at once order the Admiral 
 to China ? It was not done, and for the plain reason. 
 
33 
 
 that he had no authority to do it. How absurd it 
 appears, that, holding a control for the protection of 
 the lives and fortunes of nearly one hundred millions 
 of people, he should not have been entrusted with the 
 power of disposing of a few poor ships, when he 
 saw occasion to employ them in such an emergency ? 
 His orders might have been with the Admiral, 
 still at Trincomalee or Madras, by the middle of 
 July. 
 
 The fact is, that we should always have had two 
 squadrons to the eastward of the Cape ; one for ser- 
 vices in India, and the other under a distinct com- 
 mand, with a discretionary power to act as cir- 
 cumstances might require, for the protection of our 
 China trade ; to which its attention should have 
 been solely directed. With an officer selected for 
 the purpose, and in communication with the coun- 
 try's representative there, or the British merchants, 
 what chance could there have been of his committing 
 us unnecessarily in hostilities with the Chinese ? Is 
 there any one who was present, and a sufferer under 
 the late outrage, who would not declare his firm 
 conviction, that had there then been four or five 
 of our ships of war at the mouth of the river, 
 nothing of the kind would have happened ? Misera- 
 ble economy! Penny -wise wisdom! Pounds, 
 shillings, and pence, arrayed against the best in- 
 terests of the country, and thrown in the balance 
 to gratify pitiful calculators, until national honour 
 and security vault into the air like straws ! Look 
 at the result of such improvidence. Mark the ruin 
 it has brought upon us in that quarter. By a sur- 
 passing act of tyranny, near two hundred of our 
 fellow-subjects were placed for seven weeks under 
 
 D 
 
34 
 
 restraint, their lives threatened, and at one time, in the 
 opinion of our Superintendent, not worth an hour's 
 reversion ! They were forced to surrender property 
 to the amount of two millions, four hundred thou- 
 sand pounds sterling, and to leave behind them one 
 million in debts due to them by the Chinese ! The 
 outward-bound ships, with their cargoes, worth 
 three millions and a half more, accumulating at the 
 entrance of the port, and finding no admittance. 
 A pretty summary of individual aud commercial 
 distress ! The China trade has in fact slipped 
 through our fingers, in the face of many warnings. 
 The government has been often told of the folly of 
 trying such experiments with so indispensable a 
 branch of our commerce. Their conduct, recals to 
 mind a story told of an ancient and helpless philo- 
 sopher, whose leg a foolish fellow, for his own sport, 
 had been trying to hend, in spite of the cautions of 
 the sufferer. The leg broke at last ; but the calm and 
 patient philosopher only rebuked his tormentor by 
 saying, " did I not tell you that you would break 
 it?" Have the triflers with the China trade any 
 reason to look for so gentle a reproof from a nation 
 not always inclined to be stoics ? 
 
 There they lay, fifty or sixty large ships, for three 
 months, without any aid whatever that they could 
 look to except their own scanty resources. But for 
 the guns of the Kellie Castle, 22 eighteen pounders, 
 saved from her wreck, and carried on from Singa- 
 pore by the patriotic Captain Douglas, even the 
 Cambridge could not have been put in any state of 
 equipment to fit her as a protection to the rest of 
 the fleet. There were men enough, but every thing 
 else deficient. The first indication of support was in 
 
35 
 
 the appearance of Her Majesty's sliip, Volage, which 
 arrived about the end of August ; and in three 
 weeks after came the Hyacinth. From the anxiety 
 evinced in the Superintendent's despatches, it is 
 clear that he did not consider those two ships a force 
 at all adequate to the protection of the merchantmen. 
 The defeat of the war-junks near the Bogue appears 
 to have done but little to remove his apprehensions. 
 To their great joy, on the 24th March, arrived the 
 Druid, of 44 guns, from Sj^dney. Twelve months 
 had then nearly elapsed, and brought them close 
 upon the anniversary of that memorable day, when 
 our countrymen were, perhaps, only saved from tor- 
 ture or from death, by the sacrifice of their property. 
 What an interval to pass before any sufficient force 
 had arrived to reassure them of their safety against 
 any new and formidable attack ! Where is our navy, 
 that we were once so proud of? and where now fiies 
 our flag that once spread itself to the breeze over so 
 many waters, carrying assurance to British subjects 
 in every quarter of the globe? Our men-of-war 
 have been left to rot in our dock-yards, and our 
 best seamen driven from the service by oppressive 
 duties and scanty wages. All that our friends in 
 China wanted was immediate protection, and no 
 aggressive measure, until every thing was ripe to 
 carry it into effectual execution. That surely might 
 have been afforded them under different manage- 
 ment. 
 
 The expulsion of the British from Macao, and the 
 cutting off the supply of provisions from the ships, 
 was done more in a hostile spirit against us, than on 
 account of the homicide at Hong Kong. When a 
 native had been killed by accident at Whampoa, 
 
36 
 
 they stopped the trade until some excuse was made 
 to justify them in relinquishing their demand for the 
 man-slayer. The Hong merchants were the parties 
 more immediately interested in these compromises, 
 although it is very easy to conceive that the Hoppo, 
 and other functionaries, whose profits depended 
 greatly upon the foreign trade, were not quite at ease 
 under its suspension. Subterfuge has sometimes 
 been resorted to, to meet their unjust demands in this 
 respect. On an occasion of one of the Company's 
 ships having been implicated by the accidental death 
 of a Chinese, and no man given up, the trade was in 
 great danger of being inconveniently stopped. A 
 melancholy occurrence got the Supercargoes out of 
 the difficulty. The butcher of the ship, labouring 
 under temporary derangement, cut his throat. It 
 was reported to the Hong merchant who had secured 
 the ship, and by him to the Co-Hong and au- 
 thorities, who probably saved the commander of the 
 ship from the alternative of telling something like a 
 falsehood. They immediately assumed the unfor- 
 tunate butcher to have been the inurderer, " Hi-yah," 
 said they, "he too much sorry inside, and have 
 killam he-self." A corpse and a lie would have 
 satisfied them at any time, and almost the lie alone, 
 if any one would have told it. They would pro- 
 bably have compromised the death of Lin-wei-hee, 
 if Captain Elliot would have stated it to be his 
 opinion that the young man found drowned at 
 Hong Kong had been his slayer. He was solicited 
 by the mandarins to make such a declaration ; but, 
 however anxious to accommodate matters with them, 
 he could not lend himself to such a subterfuge, being 
 quite in the dark as to who had committed the homicide. 
 
O I 
 
 The other proposition, which is here detailed in his 
 own words, conveys a disgusting picture of Chinese 
 humanity and sense of justice, even in the person of 
 Howqua, the senior Hong merchant and principal 
 organ of the government — an educated man, and 
 most intelligent trader, courteous in his manner, but 
 wily and circumspect. Much better might have 
 been expected from him, if he had not been the slave 
 of such cruel masters. Captain Elliot says — " If 
 the merchants and ships had indeed been within the 
 river, a stoppage of trade would no doubt have 
 ensued. But it would have been of brief duration, 
 and imposed only until the Hong merchants had 
 succeeded in purchasing a slave at Macao, or inveig- 
 ling some wretched Lascar, and delivering him as 
 the murderer of Lin-wei-hee. I say this, because such 
 means of settling the difficulty were repeatedly 
 suggested to me by the Chinese during the course 
 of the late negotiations at Macao." These were the 
 negotiations for opening a trade outside the Bocca 
 Tigris ; and although Howqua's name is not men- 
 tioned, they were carried on through the Hong 
 merchants, who never acted on important occasions 
 without him : indeed, the most trifling matters were 
 referred to him at Canton. Captain Elliot says, 
 when they had any thing to gain they dropped this 
 matter of Lin-wei-hee ; when nothing to lose they 
 took it up. The Commissioner, and Canton autho- 
 rities, were doubtless greatly mortified at the com- 
 plete retirement of our countrymen from the seat of 
 business, and took hold of any thing as a vent for 
 their ill-humour. The murderous affair of the Black 
 Joke should surely have been compensation enough 
 to satisfy these seekers for blood, without carrying 
 
38 
 
 their revenge any farther. The Chinese linguist, 
 Alenzare, made the same observation to some gen- 
 tlemen at Macao. But the Commissioner would 
 deny any participation in that act of barbarity. The 
 same linguist, how^ever, has distinctly stated, that the 
 mandarin who commanded the three row-boats was 
 rewarded by the Commissioner with a present of 
 200 taels weight of silver ; thus making himself an 
 accessory after the fact, if it was not done by his ex- 
 press order. Captain Elliot appears to consider him 
 implicated in the commission of the outrage. In 
 his despatch of the 6th of December, he says : " It 
 has lately transpired, through a variety of native 
 channels of information, that the outrage upon the 
 British passage boat. Black Joke, was perpetrated by 
 his Excellency's express command, and that he re- 
 warded the mandarin by whom it was committed. 
 I am bound to admit that the evidence before me in 
 the case of the Bilbaino has diminished my unwilling- 
 ness to credit this statement ; but it should be said 
 that the testimony of a linguist, upon whom it 
 chiefly depends, is entitled to little consideration. 
 The probability, or otherwise, of all allegations rest- 
 ing upon Chinese statements, must be estimated by 
 a consideration of other circumstances within our 
 certain knowledge.*' As it was very rarely indeed 
 that a Chinese was found to calumniate his own 
 government or its officers, but, on the contrary, up- 
 held them in all their acts, the evidence of the lin- 
 guist, Menzare, on this occasion, cannot be consi- 
 dered undeserving of credit. That the linguists are 
 perverters of the truth, in their representations re- 
 specting foreigners, no one can doubt ; but, on this 
 occasion, feeling for the loss of his fees, by the cessa- 
 
39 
 
 tion of our trade, and probably blaming in his own mind 
 the Commissioner for it, the truth involuntarily and 
 unguardedly escaped his lips. He naturally thought, 
 why make such a pother about one man's life, when 
 you have taken five ? It is a lamentable fact, that a 
 disregard for veracity is so common among the lower 
 orders of Chinese, and those a little above them, 
 with whom our dealings lay, that their testimony 
 was always shut out by us in disputes about matters 
 of business, when otherwise it would have been 
 most convenient to avail ourselves of their evidence 
 regarding facts known only to themselves. No one 
 would believe them when their own interests were 
 at stake, for the Chinese prevaricator thought more 
 of his dollars than he did of speaking the truth. It 
 was remarkable how well they managed to fence 
 themselves in against discovery on those occasions, 
 for although we ourselves might be quite certain 
 there was a lie somewhere, it was most difficult, or 
 rather impossible, in most cases, to bring it home to 
 any of them. 
 
 The Chinese are a shrewd people, and not impo- 
 litic in their desire to preserve the integrity of their 
 empire, which has made them impose such restrictions 
 upon foreigners. If they knew how to defend them- 
 selves like other nations more advanced in civiliza- 
 tion and knowledge, they could have no ground for 
 objecting to foreigners settling among them for 
 commercial purposes, although they might be in 
 much greater numbers than at present. With their 
 three hundred and fifty millions, and the many 
 nervous arms among them, they might defy any 
 force that could be sent against them. Their inat- 
 tention, however, to what is going forward among 
 
40 
 
 other nations, and their aversion to receive slny in- 
 struction from abroad — considering their own 
 resources as all-sufficient for every emergency — 
 have probably led them to a crisis that never entered 
 within the range of their conception. Making out 
 an exaggerated, if not groundless, charge against us, 
 they have proceeded to cut off a trade that had been 
 long carried on with their free consent and with ad- 
 vantage to both. It was virtually, if not formally, 
 conceded to us, and the lapse of many years had 
 given us a presumptive claim to its continuance. 
 Much capital has been devoted to its successful pro- 
 secution, and many interests, both individual and 
 national, are wrapped up in it. Can she, then, 
 justly put an end to such intercourse ? Is she not 
 bound, except on great provocation, to continue it ? 
 Political writers assume that the possessors of such 
 a trade and communication have a prescriptive right 
 to retain it, and that they cannot arbitrarily be shut 
 out from the country that has held out such encou- 
 ragement. They would decide such an act of the 
 Chinese to be a justification of hostilities on our 
 part, supposing even that it had been unattended by 
 violence. Under all the circumstances, they have 
 given us a just ground of quarrel, and we cannot 
 avoid making them sensible of it. They will find 
 that there is a power, hitherto kept in the back- 
 ground, which will neither temporize nor recede, 
 when we insist upon their establishing our inter- 
 course upon a footing that will afford full security 
 for our property and respect for our persons, such 
 as civilized nations shew to strangers who visit 
 them. 
 
 Their country being so far removed from any 
 
41 
 
 powerful nation, whose population might be suffi- 
 ciently concentrated to be dangerous to them, the 
 Chinese, under their present Tartar government, 
 have hitherto had no foreign enemy to disturb them. 
 But their internal tranquillity is frequently inter- 
 rupted by partial risings of the people, to resist the 
 extortions and unjust practices of the inferior officers 
 of the government. A serious insurrection took 
 place in 1826, in Chinese Tartary, headed by a 
 noted leader named Jehangir. Several of the Maho- 
 medan cities w^ere leagued in it, and it cost the go- 
 vernment more than one campaign to put it down ; 
 which was at length effected by the capture and 
 execution of that formidable rebel in 1828. The 
 frequent references made to it by the Peking Gazette, 
 and the great exultation of the court when the 
 danger was over, showed that it had pressed hard 
 upon their resources. Some outbreaks occurred 
 afterwards in the same quarter, but which were 
 more easily quelled. During the viceroy alty of 
 Le, (the predecessor of Loo, who was in office when 
 Lord Napier arrived) a revolt happened in Kwang-se, 
 one of the two provinces under his government. 
 The Emperor's forces sustained several defeats from 
 their opponents, a hardy and active race of men, 
 occupying a hilly tract of country; and in 1833 
 Le had to make extraordinary efforts, but failed to 
 bring them under subjection. He was in conse- 
 quence degraded, and dismissed from his government. 
 His successor Loo put an end to the insurrection by 
 paying a large bribe to the leaders of the rebels, 
 being the easiest way of settling the affair, although 
 not the most creditable to the government or himself. 
 With these exceptions, where discontent appears to 
 
42 
 
 have been caused by the maladministration of the 
 local authorities, there is no country whatever w^here 
 the people are more satisfied with their condition* 
 One general feeling of respect and attachment is 
 entertained for the Emperor, whom they look on as 
 their common father, ready to provide for all their 
 wants, and redress all their grievances. This senti- 
 ment renders them obedient to the government, of 
 which he is the head and soul, and constitutes them 
 the most united people in the world. Although the 
 protection of the government is extended to all, its 
 terrors reach the wrong-doer in the remotest part of 
 the empire. Their criminal law is bitingly severe, 
 and perhaps necessarily so, to coerce such a multi- 
 tude of men into the state of order in which we 
 find them. To its stringent provisions, and inflexi- 
 ble execution, may be attributed the extraordinary 
 security to life and property that foreigners are so 
 much struck with. Where paganism is so rampant, 
 moral inducements alone would be too weak to 
 produce such an effect. 
 
 Inexperienced as the Chinese are in the art of 
 modern warfare — so that twenty thousand men 
 might march where they pleased — we should pro- 
 bably find it impossible to subdue them and keep pos- 
 session of the country. The means that established 
 our power in India would fail us there. We could 
 avail ourselves of no extensive dissensions among 
 the people, find no native princes to assist in their 
 quarrels with their neighbours, and no such cipher 
 at the head of the government as the Great Mogul — 
 now dwindled down to the pensioned king of Delhi. 
 At the outset their undisciplined masses would aid 
 in their own discomfiture; confusion would spread 
 
43 
 
 in their ranks, and man bear clown man, until the 
 battle ended in a general rout. But every successive 
 defeat would be a lesson of instruction; and in 
 course of time their numbers, at first the cause of 
 their destruction, would become the means of their 
 salvation. There are secret societies in China, some 
 of which hold their meetings by night ; the exten- 
 sive tracts covered by the tomb-stones of their 
 ancestors being sometimes chosen for that purpose. 
 Whether their objects are political, or what they 
 really are, it is impossible to divine. A native, 
 speaking of one of these societies, said it accorded 
 with what we called freemasonry. There are said 
 to be great numbers favourable to the restoration of 
 the old dynasties of native sovereigns, whose 
 descendants of the Ming line are still in existence, 
 living unpersecuted and in retirement. The present 
 Tartar possessors of power cannot be ignorant of 
 this, and the very circumstance of their not adopting 
 measures to rid themselves of such competitors, 
 shows that they apprehend no danger from that 
 quarter. These are the disaffected people, whom, 
 we are told, we might find ready allies in any 
 attempt to invade the country from the side of India, 
 and drive the reigning family from the throne. It 
 is not unnatural to suppose that many of the 
 Chinese look back with interest to the time when 
 they were ruled by their native princes, and consider 
 their Tartar government as an usurpation. But 
 when they remember that their conquerors have 
 adopted their manners, maintained all their insti- 
 tutions, and in fact assimilated themselves in every 
 respect to native tastes and prejudices, their hostility 
 must be greatly disarmed, and their repugnance 
 
44 
 
 softened down into acquiescence. They must have 
 read with dismay the blood-stained pages of their 
 own history, recording the fearful struggles for pre- 
 eminence amongst themselves, in which perfidy and 
 cruelty strove for the mastery ; all which was ended 
 by the inroads and conquests of the Mantchow 
 Tartar prince, Tae-tsung, who placed his son 
 Shun-she on the throne in 1644; since which time, 
 and under whose descendants, China has enjoyed 
 profound peace and security. They may naturally 
 feel jealous of the rule adopted by the government, 
 of filling all situations of importance with their own 
 race; thus providing for their friends at court, and 
 their own staunch adherents. 
 
 Conquest is not, and should not be, our object; 
 but an opinion has been advanced in India, that the 
 people of China are very generally disposed to rise 
 against their present rulers, of which we might take 
 advantage if necessary. But we ought not to rely 
 upon any such expectation, having very little means 
 indeed of gaining information on that point, or any 
 other connected with the domestic arrangements and 
 statistics of that country. That the attempt of the 
 government to put down the use of opium has raised 
 up much discontent among the influential classes, 
 particularly the civil and military orders, there can 
 be no doubt, and that it has probably led to the 
 late disturbances at Peking and Monkden. It is 
 likely also that such resistance will spread among 
 large populations on the coast, where it has been 
 mostly used; but it will all end whenever the 
 government may see fit to relax in these violent 
 measures to enforce a sumptuary law. 
 
 The naval action off Chum-pee, on the 3d of 
 
45 
 
 November, which is said to have been witnessed by 
 the High Commissioner, appears to have convinced 
 him of the great inferiority of their marine appliances. 
 From that resulted the effort they made to fit out 
 four or five of the largest foreign ships then within 
 their power, and the pretences they set up to get 
 possession of them. That their object failed was 
 only through the impossibility of procuring crews 
 capable of conducting them — an oversight not un- 
 natural to men who set about any thing upon a 
 sudden and overbearing impulse. They probably 
 reckoned upon obtaining volunteers from the ships 
 of their friends the Americans, who had remained at 
 Canton, and perhaps from the Thomas Coutts and 
 Royal Saxon ! Although some may have looked on 
 this desire to fight us with our ow^n weapons, with a 
 certain degree of uneasiness, is there not to be found 
 in it a strong encouragement to hope that, from this 
 first discovery of their inferiority, they may be led 
 to adopt other improvements from abroad, and in 
 time set a higher value on those who introduce 
 them ? Necessity is the mother of invention, and in 
 this case it has been father to this first acknowledg- 
 ment of our superiority. Their vassals and near-of- 
 kin, the Cochin-Chinese, have lately sent a vessel to 
 Calcutta armed with thirty guns, but carrying mer- 
 chandize. Their object in making the voyage was to 
 purchase a 5/ea/wer,— another encouraging symptom 
 of a new train of ideas in that quarter. They have suc- 
 ceeded in buying one for 70,000 rupees. Whether 
 it will be of any use to them is another thing. If 
 they wanted it as a model to copy from, they will 
 be disappointed, for the machinery cannot be made 
 by their own artificers. 
 
46 
 
 The quantity of Indian opium stated to have been 
 sold in China in 1836-7, was 27,111 chests, of which 
 21,509 chests were delivered at Lintin, and the 
 remaining 5,602 chests along the coast. That year 
 is selected as being one of large consumption, if not 
 the largest, in preference to 1837-8, the last before 
 the opium seizure, of which no accurate statement 
 has been made public. The largest deliveries from 
 Lintin were in 1832-3, when they amounted to 
 
 23.670 chests of Indian opium. That was equiva- 
 lent, at sixty catties the chest, of the extract for 
 smoking, to 2,168,880 lbs. avoirdupois, which, di- 
 vided among a population of 350,000,000, gave 
 44fo grains for each. In the United Kingdom 
 
 41.671 lbs. avoirdupois of opium were entered for 
 home consumption in 1839, which, divided among 
 a population of 25,000,000, gave llfo for each, or 
 one-fourth of the quantity used in China. Five 
 candarines, or 292o grains, was considered to be the 
 average weight of the quantity smoked daily by one 
 individual, making up in one year 1 lb. 8 oz. 5 drs. 
 4 grs. or 10,640 grains. The total weight intro- 
 duced for the consumption of 1836-7, divided by 
 the quantity used annually by one person, shows 
 that 1,426,113 consumers of five candarines a day 
 would require the whole, leaving nothing for the 
 rest of the population of 350,000,000. In this 
 country we cannot arrive at any data to ground the 
 calculation upon, near enough to show what propor- 
 tion of our population are opium-eaters, and what 
 not. We may, however, try an approximation. In 
 China the 245th part of the people are made out to 
 have been the consumers. Taking that proportion 
 of our own people, we have 102,040 to consume the 
 
47 
 
 41,671 lbs., which would give for each 6 oz. 8 drs. 
 15 grs. in the year, or grs. 7^^ per day. It required 
 320 grains daily to make a celebrated opium-eater 
 in this country superlatively happy, and therefore 
 the smaller dose brought out by this calculation 
 would be very ill adapted to produce any effect at 
 all approaching such a climax, upon the sensibilities 
 of an old and inveterate consumer, although it might 
 kill a beginner. We will, therefore, discard that 
 mode of arriving at some estimate, and try another. 
 In 1820, the quantity passed into consumption was 
 16,169 lbs.; in 1821, it was 18,080 lbs.; in 1822, 
 18,391 lbs. ; and in 1823, 20,985 lbs. That sudden 
 increase in the demand in the course of three years, 
 of 4816 lbs., could not have been for medical pur- 
 poses. Opium must have been used as a stimulant, 
 in some considerable quantity, before 1820, and 
 therefore, making all due allowance for the 
 increase of the population since that time, we 
 may safely assume one-half only of the quantity 
 entered for consumption in 1839 as having been 
 employed as a medicine, and that the rest, or 
 20,835 lbs., was used by the opium-eaters. Let 
 us allow them the smallest quantity that would 
 make them, one with another, tolerably contented 
 with themselves, one grain a day, equal to 25 drops 
 of laudanum, we then discover that we have among 
 us 399,575 persons, openly or stealthily using 
 opium, merely as a stimulus to their spirits — or to 
 get up the steam, as some of them may say. Where 
 they are, or who they are, cannot be well ascer- 
 tained, but the probability is that they are every 
 where, and every body, upon whom the usual sti- 
 mulants have lost their effect, or those who have ab- 
 stained from them altogether and require a substitute. 
 
48 
 
 By this estimate we have the 62nd part of our 
 population indulging in the noxious drug — or one 
 person in 62. " Think of that, Master Brook !" We 
 are worse than the Chinese in that respect, for only 
 one in 245 of them has taken to it, although their 
 allowance is certainly large, and such a one as the 
 eaters here could not well dispose of. Twenty-five 
 drops of laudanum, however, are as nothing to some 
 of us here, for we hear of people who, from long 
 custom, are able to swallow a glassful; but there 
 are many, perhaps, who only take their 12 or 15 
 drops, just to relieve a little flurry, or to prime 
 themselves a bit, when they want to show off with 
 more confidence than is natural to them. Your 
 confirmed and regular eater is not satisfied without 
 his four or five grains. In 1820-21 the consumption 
 in China was only 4770 chests, equal to 381,600 lbs., 
 supplying 250,915 smokers of 5 candarines, or 29^ 
 grains each per diem, or a 1395th part of their popu- 
 lation. In 1820, therefore, with a mass of beings 
 14 times greater than ours, their importation was 
 only 9 times as much as ours in 1839. Our 
 consumption last year, compaiing our j^espective 
 numbers, was consequently greater than theirs in 
 1820, by five-fourteenths, or more than one- third. 
 In sixteen years theirs had increased, in the 
 face of a severe prohibition, from 381,600 lbs. to 
 2,168,880 lbs. : what may not ours rise to, in a 
 similar period, without any thing to oppose it but 
 the duty? In 1836-7 their consumption was 52 
 times more than ours in 1839 ; but, comparing the 
 two populations, 3j| as much. All these calcula- 
 tions are made in reference to foreign opium intro- 
 duced there. We know that they grow opium in 
 spite of their own government, but as to the 
 
49 
 
 quantity, we are just as ignorant as we are with 
 most other Chinese details. They may have smoked 
 it in large quantities long before ours was introduced. 
 The probability is, that finding it better prepared, 
 and of a superior flavour, it has thrown the greater 
 proportion of their own out of consumption. Here 
 the use of it is in its infancy, and other stimulants 
 congenial to the tastes of the people being more 
 plentiful and various than they are in China, its 
 extension to any great excess may be checked. Let 
 opinion once place a stigma upon these enjoyments, 
 the other indulgence will get on apace. Once set 
 fairly agoing, it will run its course in spite of every 
 impediment. The total quantity entered for home 
 consumption, and upon which daty was paid, 
 during twenty years, from 1820 to 1839 inclusive, 
 was 529,714 lbs., averaging 26,485 lbs. annually. 
 Until 1827 the duty was 9s. per lb., and after that 
 4s. per lb. In each five years, consecutively, the 
 quantities so entered were 96,277 lbs., 110,883 lbs., 
 142,737 lbs., and 179,717 lbs. 
 
 However long the practice of using opium as a 
 mere stimulus may have existed in China, here it is 
 a new and perhaps growing vice, not unlikely con- 
 sequent upon the well-intentioned, but ill-judged 
 exertions, now so prevalent, to put down entirely the 
 use of spirits and fermented liquors. The teetotalist 
 and temperance societies may take all the credit of it, 
 or dispraise, if a more applicable term, for it is their 
 own offspring — born, bred, and nourished among 
 them ; the scion of an unreasonable attempt to lop 
 off, at once, indulgences become constitutional. At 
 present we hear no strong complaint of the demora- 
 lizing or destructive effects of the drug, although its 
 
 E 
 
50- 
 
 use is said to be so extensive in some manufacturing 
 districts. But the outcry is, with more decided 
 reason, raised against the more prevalent and inordi- 
 nate use of strong liquors. Amongst the greatest 
 offenders in that way are the worshippers of the gin 
 and whiskey bottle, administered by the decorated 
 persons who act as priests and priestesses in those 
 places of debauch, with which the metropolis and 
 other large towns now so unfortunately abound. 
 There they stand, the typical officials of Bacchus and 
 Ariadne (but luckily not yet divested of their dra- 
 peries), dealing out the intoxicating draught to their 
 crowding votaries, with smirks and smiles, that 
 render the Cream of the valley or the Mountain Dew 
 still more bewitching. 
 
 But how are these excesses, either in opium or 
 ardent spirits, to be put down ? Laws cannot effect 
 it, for wherever there are laws there are law-breakers, 
 and in this case they would be found so numerous 
 that the statute would be trampled under their feet. 
 Good example may do much, but it must be indivi- 
 dual, and work its way quietly and stealthily upon 
 the inclinations of the people. Unless a reform be 
 effected gradually it will not be lasting. All societies, 
 such as we have just spoken of, are invidious and 
 exclusive, and the degree of importance they assume 
 to themselves is probably the attraction that swells 
 their numbers. Those who can aspire to no other 
 distinction, feel a sort of pride in being possessed of 
 their medals, if such things are deserving of such a 
 name. They assume to themselves a superiority 
 over those who do not join their ranks, and look 
 down upon others who use these indulgences even 
 in moderation. They already parade the streets by 
 
51 
 
 thousands, making themselves a spectacle to the 
 multitude, and by their numbers almost breaking 
 the peace. They will have their day, like many other 
 foolish experiments. Those who join these societies 
 without reflection, and bolt the pledge, are likely to 
 return to their old habits whenever their stipulated 
 time of abstinence is over, if not before. It is an in- 
 sult to ask a respectable or well-educated man to join 
 such an association, and the application is probably 
 very seldom made. Can any one doubt, knowing 
 how susceptible we are all of strong impulses, and 
 the power of fanaticism in any cause, that if the 
 teetotalers, now a harmless, and perhaps for the most 
 part a well-meaning set of people, were to become 
 much more numerous, that they might not make 
 short work of it, and introduce intimidation instead 
 of persuasion ? There is some religious feeling mixed 
 up in their proceedings, and they might by and by 
 think they were doing God's work by breaking 
 into every one's cellar, and emptying its contents 
 into the gutter. It is the nature of strong propen- 
 sities to pass the limits of moderation and justice. 
 It is not the use of these articles, whether wine, beer, 
 spirits, or opium, that is hurtful either to the mind 
 or body, but the abuse of them, the quantity more 
 than the quality, and every man should be left to his 
 own discretion where to draw the line. If he takes 
 too much the loss is m ore to himself than to the 
 public. If, because some of his customers chose to 
 drink more than was good for them, could a wine- 
 merchant refuse to supply them ? Could he afford 
 it ? Would he not be laughed at for making such a 
 distinction, and have his trade taken from him by 
 others who were not so scrupulous or foolish? 
 
62 
 
 Could he venture, on that ground, to insult his best 
 friends in business, by telling them they drank too 
 much ? And might he not expect to meet with 
 some unpleasant demonstration of their anger ? Al- 
 though sumptuary laws must be borne with in China, 
 under a despotic government, they would not be 
 tolerated here, or in any European state. If our own 
 government were at present to enact a law to put 
 down the use of spirits, could they stand before the 
 tempest it would raise ? The magical effects of 
 Prosperous wand would be as nothing to such a 
 hurly-burly. If we saw a friend so prone to indul- 
 gence as to drink daily his half-pint, pint, or even a 
 bottle of brandy, we might implore him to lessen the 
 quantity, or remonstrate with him upon a practice 
 that was rapidly carrying him to his grave; but 
 could we be justified, almost in any case, in de- 
 priving him of it by force ? We might slily dilute 
 it for him, if he did not detect it ; but it is not 
 easy to see what more could be done with him. If 
 people are determined to commit suicide in that 
 way, it is difficult indeed to prevent them. 
 
 It is ridiculous to observe the apparent satisfac- 
 tion of the anti-opiumists here at the measures taken 
 by the Chinese government to put down the use of 
 the drug. Can it be cause of congratulation to any 
 one, that men should be torn from their families, 
 cast into dungeons, tortured and put to death, be- 
 cause some of the Imperial kindred have besotted 
 themselves with it ? Can a difference of race or 
 climate make tyranny and cruelty more endurable ? 
 Has not man the same feeling every where? Bring 
 it home to yourselves. Suppose, for instance, that 
 dunkenness were punished in the same way here. 
 
53 
 
 under a new regimen, by racks and thumb-screws, or 
 death itself, according to the degrees of intemperance 
 proved against the wretched delinquent ; what name 
 would we find for such a practice ? Would it not 
 be horrible cruelty ? And would not the tyrants 
 who inflicted it be glad to flee from your wrath ? 
 Where, then, is the difference between the two cases ; 
 between what it would be considered here, and 
 what it actually now is in China ? Tyranny is the 
 same every where, in whatever shape inflicted, or by 
 whatever hand administered. What other proof, 
 then, need we look for, to establish the despotic and 
 cruel character of the rulers now entrusted with the 
 government of one-third of the human race, — for ap- 
 plying to a trivial indulgence punishments awarded 
 to the blackest of crimes ! 
 
 Although the British merchants who sell opium 
 in China have been stigmatized here as " smugglers," 
 by some persons too violent or coarse in their lan- 
 guage to be of service to any cause, no one there 
 ever thought of applying such a designation to them. 
 When the term '' smugglers" was used in China, it 
 was always understood to mean the Chinese boat- 
 men who took the drug from the ships. Those 
 who had large consignments of opium were thought 
 exceedingly fortunate, and were looked upon with 
 respect, if not a little envy, by those who had none. 
 It was the only article of trade upon which could 
 be founded any speculation on the spot, and every 
 one who had money, almost without exception, was 
 a dabbler in it. The houses that received the largest 
 consignments of opium had numerous cargoes of 
 cotton sent to them in the same way, and were the 
 principal shippers of tea and raw silk to this country. 
 
54 
 
 The yearly transactions of one firm have exceeded 
 in amount those of the East India Company during 
 the time of their monopoly. Their houses were the 
 abode of hospitality, their purse always open to 
 relieve distress, or to accommodate those who required 
 assistance. We have heard of the princely mer- 
 chants of Calcutta, in their former magnificence; 
 but, with no intention of depriving them of their 
 meed of praise, we may truly say that, without 
 ostentation or any show, the great houses at Canton 
 were more entitled to so high an epithet ; for if it be 
 princely to be munificent, the latter bore the palm. 
 
 There were two trades in China, the one called 
 par excellence the " regular or legal trade," the 
 other the " smuggling trade." The latter included 
 other articles, besides the principal one — opium. In 
 point of fact, however, both were equally regular 
 trades, although differently conducted, each paying 
 the duties, and fees instead of duties, to the govern- 
 ment officers, with the same punctuality. The 
 distinction, as to legality or illegality, was reduced to 
 less than the shadow of a difference, by the disinclina- 
 tion of the government to enforce the law. The one, 
 therefore, was rendered as legal as the other, when the 
 law was thus allowed to be suspended, or defeated 
 in its operation, by those who had made it, assisted 
 by others whose office it was to carry it into execu- 
 tion. Foreigners had, consequently, not to deal 
 with the law, but with those who should have been 
 its administrators, although they kept it in abeyance. 
 How, then, is any one justified in applying the term 
 " smuggling" to the mode adopted, not by foreigners 
 but by the natives, for introducing opium into 
 China, when done with the tacit and almost open 
 
55 
 
 consent of the government, as has been the case 
 from the Emperor down to the lowest official? 
 There is at any rate a great difference between 
 the clandestine introduction of an article that is 
 merely prohibited, and another that pays duty. The 
 first does not involve any principle but that of 
 opposition to the government of the country where 
 the introduction takes place ; the last embraces a 
 pecuniary consideration — the saving of the duty, 
 which, in other words, means, cheating the govern- 
 ment out of it. But even the latter has been done, 
 again and again, by some of the greatest merchants 
 in this country, in all parts where heavy duties were 
 charged upon importation. They thought it no 
 disgrace, and it met with no objection from any one. 
 Many is the cargo that has been disposed of in that 
 way at Gibraltar, the Spanish colonies, and else- 
 where. When the famous Milan decrees were in 
 operation, who thought it a crime to force our ma- 
 nufactures into the Continent, in the face of its then 
 universal ruler, Napoleon? Was he not then in 
 the same position to us as the Chinese are now, and 
 to a great extent always have been ? For British sub- 
 jects to smuggle goods into our own dominions, upon 
 which duty is charged, is dishonest ; and, if merely 
 prohibited, not reputable, being in the one case 
 cheating our fellow subjects, and in the other op- 
 posing the law, both being rendered criminal by it. 
 But, from usage and common opinion, neither the 
 one nor the other imputation lies upon us for intro- 
 ducing articles so defined into foreign countries. 
 Our government takes no part in it one way or 
 other ; but if it does not openly encourage such a 
 practice, it has no objection to see our trade so 
 
56 
 
 extended. The term " smuggler'' is not applicable 
 in any sense to the opium-merchants in China, who 
 have had it so unfairly and indecently rung in their 
 ears ; but having it before us just now, it may be 
 turned to some account to elucidate another part of 
 the subject. 
 
 At the time when the slave trade was carried on 
 by vessels fitted out from this country under sanction 
 of the law, were not those who assisted in any way 
 in their equipment, and the tradesmen who supplied 
 their stores and investments for the purchase of the 
 slaves, in some measure implicated, although they 
 might not possess the smallest share of the ship or 
 the adventure ? Would not the honourable minded 
 men who advocated its abolition consider them almost 
 as guilty of cruelty and oppression as the prin- 
 cipals? Even the brokers, who procured the 
 insurances upon the ships and slaves, and the under- 
 writers who subscribed the policies, were so exposed 
 to imputation, that partly through their own scruples, 
 but more especially giving way to public opinion, 
 it became at last extremely difficult to get the slave 
 ships insured. Government itself that had sanctioned 
 it, was besieged, and at length the bill for the aboli- 
 tion of the slave trade received the consent of the 
 throne. (That inhuman traffic was given up by us, 
 but has flourished ten times more vigorously since, 
 and with ten times more cruelty !) But how do the 
 public stand with respect to the opium trade, with 
 which attempts have been made to place the other in 
 juxta-position on the score of immorality, although 
 in that respect bearing no resemblance to each other ? 
 But the countenance given to both by government 
 has been the same, for which reason it is here 
 
67 
 
 introduced. The opium trade had been going on 
 for many years, as the slave trade had, and never a 
 v^ord said about it until lately, when a premium 
 being offered by Mr. King, for the best tirade 
 against the opium merchants, some portion of the 
 most active among us in philanthropic pursuits, but 
 not always the most discreet, chose the very time 
 when the lives of near two hundred of our country- 
 men were threatened by the Chinese government to 
 raise a violent cry against the sufferers, whose property 
 in opium, to the amount of near two millions and a 
 half sterling, had been sequestrated, and two millions 
 more at stake in other dependencies ! Their pity 
 was extended to the authors of the outrage — their 
 tender feelings all reserved for the tyrants, not the 
 tyrannized ! Why had they not taken up this matter 
 before, when they might have done it with a better 
 grace ? Were they too busy, or asleep, or were they 
 ignorant that such a trade was carried on ? Every 
 body knew of it that paid much less attention to pass- 
 ing occurrences, and therefore it could not have been 
 unknown to them. Why, then, did they not attack 
 the East India Company, or the government, — the 
 first drawing a large revenue from it, and the last 
 giving it the fullest sanction ? No, they either never 
 contemplated such a proceeding, or postponed it; but 
 when the " crisis" arrived, they vented all their in- 
 dignation upon their unfortunate countrymen in 
 China — fearful of attacking the strong, but treading 
 upon the fallen. How men whose professions are 
 so good, and whose intentions no one doubts, can 
 suffer their zeal to get the better of their understand- 
 ings, and overpower the sympathies of their nature, 
 by forcing them out of their proper direction, as has 
 
58 
 
 been the case in this instance, it is very difficult to 
 comprehend. With all due respect for them, we 
 will now leave them, and turn to another quarter. 
 The East India Company has partly existed by the 
 opium trade; the two houses of parliament have con- 
 firmed to it the monopoly of its growth ; the Board 
 of Control has never interfered with it; and they 
 enjoy it up to this moment with the free consent of 
 the home government. Who can say, then, that the 
 nation itself is not pledged to its maintenance, and 
 that one and all of us have not been participators in 
 the trade ? If those who are the immediate instru- 
 ments of carrying it on can justly be called " smug- 
 glers," then are we all smugglers, having lent our 
 countenance to it, and our authority. There is no 
 avoiding this dilemma — no getting out of the scrape 
 — the thing sticks to us like a bur. 
 
 How, then, can our government hold up its head, 
 and say to those who have lost their opium and their 
 money, under such encouragement and such co- 
 partnership, " Oh ! we have nothing to do with it ; it 
 is your own affair ; get out of this difficulty as you 
 can, for we will not make good to you a fraction of 
 your loss. It is true we think you should be paid 
 by somebody, and have therefore applied to the Chi- 
 nese. If we get the money from them you may get it 
 from us, but we make no promises." Let us look 
 for something to illustrate this question. Suppose 
 the lot of the First Lord of the Treasury to have been 
 so cast, that, instead of filling the high and honoura- 
 ble situation he now holds, he had been the leader of a 
 band — of what ? of smugglers, employed by a Com- 
 pany with plenty of money in their pockets, and who 
 carried on their contraband trade on a large scale. 
 
69 
 
 His lugger was the finest craft that skimmed the 
 seas, well manned and armed, as they used to be a 
 few years back, fearing nothing, and caring for no- 
 thing, except the profits of their daring enterprises. 
 The Company allowed the commander high wages, 
 and kept him in constant pay. The men were also 
 on wages during their time of service, but many 
 extra hands were usually shipped for the trip, and 
 on such occasions they Avere required to take a share 
 in the adventure, in order to insure their exertions, 
 having then a common interest with the Company, 
 and the Company with them. As most of them had 
 gained considerably by their different adventures, they 
 were able, generally speaking, to hold a respectable pro- 
 portion of the value of the cargoes so run. A large in- 
 vestment of valuable goods was shipped on board the 
 lugger at Flushing, to be delivered at a certain point 
 on the coast of England. The men had paid the 
 Company for their part of it, which had nearly ex- 
 hausted all their funds. All was ready. The cap- 
 tain came on board, and away they started. A 
 favourable wind and her long legs soon brought 
 the lugger in sight of Old England, and the point 
 of destination. As the evening drew in they ap- 
 proached the shore. The captain addressed his 
 crew : " Well, my lads, here we are. You have all 
 an interest in this adventure, and I am well paid for 
 my trouble. Let us do our best to insure success. 
 I rely upon your activity, and am certain that every 
 man of you will do his duty. For myself, I can 
 only say, that come what will athwart us, I am the 
 man to stand by you. Who ever saw me cower to 
 a squall, or flinch from the pop-guns of those fellows 
 ashore ? Tumble up the goods, then, my hearties, 
 
60 
 
 and into the boats with them." " Hurrah !'* cried 
 the men ; " the captain for ever ! What a fine fellow 
 we have got for a captain." " Avast !" said a man 
 with a cast in one eye; "avast cheering; ifs all 
 gammon. I knows him of old. What, do you 
 think I shall ever forget, when he hoisted his fore- 
 topsail, and left me and four or five others in the 
 hands of the land sharks, somewhere down about 
 Hastings ? Had'n't I fallen in love with the lugger, 
 I should never have shipped in the same bottom with 
 him again." "I suppose," said a man near him, not 
 much taken with his sinister look, " you are one of 
 those chaps that never ^ives any one his deserts." 
 " I hope it will not happen to any of you this trip," 
 said the first ; " but the captain's a man that takes 
 good care of himself ; and as for the Company, they 
 care for none of us, except when we are serving 
 their own ends." '^ Hold your jabber, and take 
 hold of this bale," said the second-mate. A few 
 turns of the boats had deposited most of the goods 
 on the beach. The last boat-load was landed ; the 
 small and neatly-packed bales of silks and laces 
 awaiting only the arrival of the people who were to 
 take them away. " Here they come," said one, who 
 in the dusk could not distinguish friends from foes. 
 The coast-guard were upon them ; and the sudden- 
 ness of their approach threw the smugglers into 
 some confusion. They rallied. A few shots were 
 fired, and a few cutlasses drawn ; when off went their 
 gallant captain to the boats as fast as his legs could carry 
 him, calling out as he ran, " Look after your bales, 
 for / can't help you." So deserted by him, whom 
 they expected to be foremost in the fray, they looked 
 first at the goods and then at the boats, which 
 
61 
 
 they saw shoved off from the shore by the 
 help of the few men that had been left in them. 
 They were then at their wits' ends whether to resist 
 the king's officers or not ; but seeing none of the 
 people who were to have taken away the goods, and 
 no help at hand, they thought it better to sacrifice 
 their property than to continue a conflict for no 
 certain result, in which some of the guard might be 
 killed, and themselves made amenable to the severest 
 sentence of the law. They therefore threw down 
 their arms and allowed themselves to be made pri- 
 soners ; but not without casting a wistful look at the 
 bales that contained nearly all their little property. 
 Many were their groans, but deeper their resentment 
 against their chief. " If he had not run away, and 
 carried off the boats, being more numerous and as 
 well armed as the guard, we should easily have over- 
 powered them ; and if the people had not then come 
 for the goods, we could have taken them back to the 
 lugger. Woe take the captain." "He made fine 
 speeches," said one, " and held out great encourage- 
 ment to us to join him in this venture, and after all 
 has left us in this mess." " Oh !" said another, 
 " who could have expected this from a fair-spoken 
 man like him, who had sailed the lugger so long ? 
 I'll not trust my own father after this !" " There's 
 no trusting of nobody now-a-days," said a third. 
 " Then there's the mate, that remained with the 
 boats when we landed, a man what knows so much 
 about foreign countries, and has sailed under so many 
 captains ; did'nt you see what a caper he cut,and how 
 he handled the boat-hook, when the noble captain 
 slapped (a sailor's term) into the boat, and told him to 
 shove off? A pretty pair of them ! If ever I gets my 
 
62 
 
 liberty again, and meets with either of them, may I 
 never tread shoe-leather if I dos'iit take my change 
 out of them. But whereas that fellow with a squint, 
 that twitted us about cheering ? He's not among 
 us now, so I suppose he remained with the boats, 
 just to have a fair start with the captain. I wish Fd 
 had half his brains." The simile of the Channel 
 smugglers holds good in the main features of the 
 case against government, although an exact parallel 
 cannot readily be drawn to meet all the circum- 
 stances. The losers in China have an equitable 
 claim founded on the encouragement they had re- 
 ceived to engage in the trade, and the failure on the 
 part of those who had so encouraged them, in having 
 any adequate protection at hand when their lives and 
 property were at stake. 
 
 Besides that, the peremptory order of Captain 
 Elliot, the government's own agent, to surrender 
 the opium to him under a promise of payment for 
 it from government, was an additional guarantee in 
 their eyes, they supposing that he had the authority 
 to make such a demand, and to enter into such an 
 engagement, never conceiving that he would have 
 taken upon himself so great a responsibility without 
 it. As he would not make known the import of his 
 instructions on a former and very recent occasion, 
 when he ordered the opium craft to leave the river, 
 some of the holders might have doubted, with much 
 reason, whether all was right ; but having no proof 
 to the contrary, as Mr. Warren says, in his able 
 pamphlet, how would the recusants have stood in 
 public opinion had the Superintendent fallen a vic- 
 tim to their refusal, if an after discovery had been 
 made among his papers that he had full authority 
 
63 
 
 from government to meet every contingency, and 
 subject it to his control, so as to include his de- 
 mand for the opium, and his promise of reimburse- 
 ment ? And that he had some other great object to 
 accomplish by the sacrifice, some other " weighty 
 reasons " for it, then only made palpable ? How 
 would any of us, in our general concerns as mer- 
 chants, or as men, look, if we were to sJmk a ques- 
 tion like* this as the government is now doing ? 
 Supposing a great mercantile firm in London to 
 have sent a person to China with the character of 
 their agent, to make large purchases of the produce 
 of the country, and with a letter of credit in his 
 pocket to draw upon them for the amount. He passes 
 his bills upon his principals, which are duly ho- 
 noured for some length of time. More are drawn, 
 and to the surprise of every one, they are returned 
 under protest. " No effects of the drawer in hand." 
 An investigation takes place. It appears that the 
 agent had made some large shipments on his own 
 account, which having arrived at a time when the 
 market for the produce was extremely depressed, 
 the house had refused to honour the bills, as they 
 were not disposed to saddle themselves with the loss. 
 The creditors abroad instruct their agents at home 
 to proceed against the house, not admitting the dis- 
 tinction they drew, as to the ownership of the pro- 
 duce affecting the character of the bills. The shipper 
 held and had exhibited their letter of credit when 
 he commenced drawing, and the parties who took 
 his drafts afterwards never considered any more 
 about it, or did not ask him any questions on the 
 subject. The principals persisting in the plea of 
 their not being liable, the matter is carried into court, 
 
64 
 
 and decided in favour of the plaintiff, on the 
 ground of the defendants being answerable for the 
 act of their agent, who had drawn the bills in ques- 
 tion under cover of their letter of authority, which 
 up to that period had not been withdrawn hy them : 
 thus establishing in such a case the liability of a 
 principal for the act of his agent, although done 
 for his own benefit. Now, with regard to the opium 
 surrendered to Captain Elliot, it would appear that 
 he had no direct authority to demand it, and scarcely 
 an implied one, much less to promise them compen- 
 sation, such a contingency not being looked for, and 
 the arrangement to meet it being one altogether of 
 his own contrivance. How, then, can we apply to 
 it the principle just elucidated, of an agent sent 
 abroad for the particular purposes of those who em- 
 ployed him, and then implicating them to pay for 
 acts in which they had no interest ? The agent in the 
 case stated had an authority to use the name of his 
 principals for their sole purposes, but it seems they 
 were made answerable although he perverted it to 
 his own. Is there not some connection between 
 the two cases ? Captain Elliot had certain powers 
 more undefined and extensive than the mere letter 
 of authority referred to, which was to answer one 
 particular end. We will say, for the sake of the 
 argument, that he found his own life in danger, and 
 immediately proposed the surrender of the opium ; 
 looking to his own safety in the first place, and as 
 a matter to him of imperative moment. 'Tis true, 
 thought he, I have nothing whatever in my instruc- 
 tions that bears at all upon my present situation, or 
 that sanctions such a ransom, and quite the contrary. 
 But what else can be done ? The Chinese demand 
 
65 
 
 it of me, and if I refuse, how great the risk ! If I 
 believed they would give way, I would say, no ; but 
 they appear to be so much in earnest that I am con- 
 strained to say, yes. They must and shall have the 
 opium. My countrymen, situated as they are, 
 nearly in the same danger as I am, will give me credit 
 for being able to do more for them with my own 
 government than I am quite sure of myself. I hope 
 they will pay for the opium, but how can I be cer- 
 tain of it ? However, there is no alternative. Til 
 promise the indemnity to those who deliver their 
 opium into my hands, and none whatever to those 
 who refuse. The opium was accordingly demanded 
 and delivered to him on his own terms, ^* for the 
 service of Her Majesty's Government," and was im- 
 mediately transferred by him to the Chinese. With- 
 out stopping to examine any further just now how 
 all the parties were situated when such a bargain 
 was struck, no contract has ever been made that 
 could be more clearly defined, and upon the face of 
 it more binding upon the contractor, or his prii ci- 
 pals. Does not that act attach responsibility upon 
 government ? They sent him to China as a protector 
 to the property of British subjects, with scarcely any 
 instructions bearing upon the duties and services he 
 had to perform, but allowing him, by that very omis- 
 sion, a great latitude to do what he thought expe- 
 dient. He was their own agent, and whether he 
 availed himself of such authority to save his own 
 life only, or the lives of all, the government is re- 
 sponsible for the loss so sustained. There are not a 
 few who think the danger was exaggerated, and 
 that the risk of refusal was trifling. The opium was 
 abandoned to the Chinese against the opinion of 
 
 F 
 
66 
 
 several of the large holders, though all, placing con- 
 iidence m his promises of indemnity, delivered their 
 portions to Captain Elliot with little difficulty. Did 
 he not, like the commercial agent, make use of the 
 credit of his employers, to serve his own ends, and 
 not theirs ; and are they not answerable in like man- 
 ner to the people who trusted him ? They appear 
 to have been led to think he had the fullest authority 
 for what he then did. Mr. King (no enemy of 
 •v S Captain Elliot) alludes to that point in his " Opium 
 Crisis," a pamphlet published in London. Speak- 
 ing of the opium claims, he says, " Let the adminis- 
 ^^ tration respect the pledge of their active and faithful 
 N^ servant, given, doubtless, in accordance with the 
 spirit of his private instructions." 
 
 From the peculiarity of the case, there may per- 
 haps be no clue to the tracing out of something that 
 might be laid hold of on which to ground a legal 
 claim, and follow it up by process against the go- 
 vernment. But if any of us in our own persons, or 
 by the instrumentality of another, to whom we 
 may have lent our authority and countenance, 
 ; should be the cause of loss to others, however 
 :> unintentionally, do we not feel a direct appeal to 
 ;- our liberality, if not to our justice, to award hirn' 
 I compensation ? particularly if it happened by the 
 V incompetency of the person whom, through care- 
 ^t lessness as to his qualification, or by a misapplica- 
 p tion of patronage, they had appointed to a high 
 and responsible office, to the great danger of private 
 ^ interests and the public service ? It is painful to 
 have to make these allusions to the Superintendent, 
 as he appears to have had the best dispositions to 
 do what was right, but he has made some sad mis- 
 
67 
 
 tals.es, which any one wriling an analysis of his acts 
 and omissions cannot pass over with any regard to 
 the cause of truth and public interests. His con- 
 stant servility to the Chinese — his intermeddling 
 with the opium trade, and the tenacity with which 
 he adhered to his own opinions — all tended greatly 
 to perplex our affairs, and finally to place us in the 
 situation in which we were found on the 27th of 
 March, when the opium was surrendered. 
 
 What could he possibly do to help them by going 
 up to Canton as he did ? Surely it was more diffi- 
 cult for the Chinese authorities to deal with two 
 hundred men than with one ? They knowing the 
 control he exercised over the greater part of the 
 foreigners, he was the very person they wanted to 
 carry the point for them. The moment he arrived 
 the immediate pressure of their importunities was 
 taken off from the others, and urged with redoubled 
 vigour against himself. The removal of Mr. Dent 
 had nothing to do with it. When the Superinten- 
 dent proceeded to that gentleman's house, and car- 
 ried him to his own residence, he had not reckoned 
 upon being made prisoner himself. He was blinded 
 to his real situation by an overweening confidence 
 that the Chinese authorities would be swayed by a 
 feeling of respect towards him, as Her Majesty's 
 officer, and their owing him personally a debt of 
 gratitude for services previously performed. If they 
 hud wanted the person of Mr. Dent, they could just 
 as easily have taken him out of Captain Elliot's 
 house as out of his own. The Superintendent has 
 been very much lauded for that proceeding, in which 
 he was only performing his duty, and what any one 
 else would have done under such circumstances. It 
 
had been usual at Canton for the most influential to 
 extend their protection to the least so, on occasions 
 of disputes with the Chinese in affairs of trade, 
 when they were sometimes very violent. The 
 Chinese, perhaps, had never entertained any serious 
 intention of taking Mr. Dent from his house by 
 force. And why should they, when he was equally 
 in their hands where he was ? The Commissioner 
 might have gone there himself in all the state of 
 a Chinese high officer, — arrayed his terrors before 
 him, and urged his categories with as much effect 
 and v/ith as little derogation of dignity as though 
 it had been done in his own palace. If an attempt 
 had really been made to force Mr. Dent from his house, 
 it may be asked of any one who has been in China, 
 and knew that gentleman, or the feeling that per- 
 vaded us there, whether the Chinese would not 
 have had to master the whole body of the residents, 
 before they could have succeeded in carrying him 
 off? There was probably no intention to detain 
 Mr. Dent an indefinite time, had he gone into the 
 city as requested, but under the refusal of the Com- 
 missioner to give him such an assurance from his 
 own hand, he did right not to go, and without it, 
 such is our want of confidence in Chinese honour, 
 that no one would have recommended him to try the 
 experiment, even with the promises of the great 
 officers of the place. If they really wanted him, 
 nothing deterred them from seizing his person but 
 such a consequence as has been stated as certain to 
 have occurred, which was the last thing they would 
 have risked. 
 
 Opinions have been expressed that the lives of all 
 were at stake had the opium been refused, but is it 
 
69 
 
 possible that a people whom we have lately dis- 
 covered to be so capable of dealing with intricate 
 political and commercial questions in the luminous 
 way we observe in their edicts and proclamations, 
 could have so lost their wits as to have enacted such 
 a tragedy? Although it suits them to make little of 
 foreign nations, upon paper, they must be impressed 
 with very different convictions in their own minds. 
 They are not ignorant of our power, but trusting 
 to their own numbers, and the too great deference 
 hitherto shown to them by us, they choose to appear 
 very independent. But a wholesale murder of the 
 entire foreign community at Canton never entered 
 their heads, nor even the taking of a single life ; 
 not so much, it is to be feared, on the ground of 
 humanity as of policy. Captain Elliot's inter- 
 ference, indeed, afforded the Chinese some apparent 
 justification for his own detention. They alleged 
 that he wished to carry Mr. Dent off to Macao. But 
 they knew perfectly well that such an escape was 
 impossible, under their strict orders to allow no one 
 to proceed down the river, and the force they had 
 stationed at different points to frustrate any attempt 
 of the kind. They would have treated him, perhaps, 
 at first, with a little courtesy, had he repaired quietly 
 to his own residence, but the moment they had 
 found him refractory they would have cast off all re- 
 serve, and put the strain upon him as they now did, glad 
 of a pretence to shorten their proceedings, and throw a 
 cover over their violence. Captain Elliot himself con- 
 sidered it a mere fiction. Under date of 30th March, he 
 says, " The native servants were taken from us, and 
 the supplies cut off the same night; but it was de- 
 clared by the (Hong) merchants that the orders 
 
70 
 
 had been issued in the course of the morning, by 
 reason of Mr. Dent's opposition to the High Com- 
 missioner s summons." Whatever those supple apo- 
 logists may have been led to speak, it was more 
 likely to have been resolved on consequent upon 
 and after his own arrival. On the 6th April he 
 adds, " On reconsidering the public correspondence 
 already transmitted, I find that the High Commis- 
 sioner boldly fastens our actual condition of impri* 
 sonment on my intention to make my escape, taking 
 with me Mr. Dent. The facts shall answer his 
 Excellency. On the 19th ultimo all intercourse 
 between Canton, Whampoa, and the outer anchor- 
 ages, was authoritatively stopped by the commands 
 of this government; and not a single ship's boat 
 has succeeded in getting from Canton to Whampoa 
 since the 21st ultimo, or (excepting my own, on the 
 24th;, at the risk of my life) from Whampoa to Can- 
 ton up to this date, 6th April. I did not leave 
 Macao till the 23d March. On the 24th I passed 
 through the Bogue, and there I fell in with the 
 British ship the Heroine, detained (notwithstanding 
 the perfect formality of her pass) upon the express 
 ground that ' householders' might attempt to escape 
 on board of her. So much for the implication that 
 all was open till I came in, with the intention to 
 run out." When Captain Elliot determined upon 
 going up, he might consider it a matter of consider- 
 able risk, as he appears to have done. In spite of 
 the precautions taken by him, through different 
 officers, to send on before him notices of his 
 pacific intention in his attempt to reach Canton, it 
 appears that they had not been generally diffused, 
 for armed boats pushed off after him from every 
 
71 
 
 side on his near approach to the Factories. Having 
 four good hands from the Lame, and one of her 
 small fast-pulling boats, with a favourable breeze to 
 carry sail, he baffled them all, and arrived at the 
 landing place, where he was met by numbers of our 
 countrymen who had been watching his approach 
 with much anxiety. It was a very different matter, 
 however, for a single unarmed boat, with only five 
 persons in it, to go up from Whampoa, to what it 
 would have been had any considerable numbers at- 
 tempted it. The Canton Press, 23d March, says, 
 ^^ boats are allowed to come up to Canton from 
 Whampoa, but cannot return thither." Again, 
 under date of 30th of March it observes, " From 
 Howqua's Fort he (Captain Elliot) proceeded in the 
 Lame's, boat, and no opposition was made, although 
 several mandarin boats followed him, watcliing his 
 motions." The Commissioner and Canton autho- 
 rities could never have contemplated the possibility 
 of his going up, or they would have kept the pas- 
 sage quite clear for him, or even sent him a passport 
 had he asked for it. It was a boon to them that they 
 never expected, and no sooner had he arrived than 
 they turned it to account. In an order from the 
 Commissioner, of the 26th of March, are these 
 words : " But has he indeed failed to consider that 
 having come from Macao to Canton he cannot keep 
 himself aloof from this matter?" He landed at six 
 in the evening of Sunday, the 24th March. All the 
 guards were immediately strengthened ; a watch was 
 set upon the Superintendent's door ; the Chinese 
 servants were withdrawn ; and the people ordered to 
 keep back the usual supply of provisions. The fo- 
 reigners were not allowed to go to market, and if 
 
72 
 
 they had gone no one would have sold them a single 
 article. It appears remarkable that these severe 
 measures had not been adopted before. The resist- 
 ance on the part of Mr. Dent had been going on for 
 two days previous ; why, then, did they not apply the 
 screw to him, and shut him up closely in his own fac- 
 tory ? It was not done nor thought of, and its general 
 application only suggested contemporaneously with 
 the Superintendent's own arrival. They imme- 
 diately said, "Who could have thought it? But 
 here he is, and let us set him to work. We can now 
 make use of more compulsory measures than before ; 
 for whilst he remained outside we w^ere fearful of 
 going too far, lest, including the man-of-war, he 
 might assemble a considerable force — arm all the 
 opium schooners more effectually, and, proceeding 
 up the river, be joined by the crews of the ships at 
 Whampoa. There is no knowing what trouble he 
 might have caused us, and, in anticipation of it, we 
 must probably soon have given up the demand for 
 the opium, and set all the foreigners at large. With- 
 out him those who are outside are now all astray, and 
 the game is thrown into our hands. We can now 
 try the starving plan, a strong argument with all 
 men, and therefore not inappHcable to them. But 
 remember, there is a line we must not pass — put it 
 in operation for two or three days and no more ; for 
 if one life should be lost, certain retribution will 
 overtake us. The countries of these foreigners are 
 at a considerable distance from us ; but the ships 
 and people who resort here are evidences of their 
 strength and knowledge. They will set both in 
 action, and come upon us with a force that we can- 
 not contend with. They will destroy every thing 
 
73 
 
 before them; and the great Emperor, to appease 
 their wrath, may not unlikely lower iis into the dust, 
 or take off our heads, although we are now acting 
 under his orders." 
 
 Captain Elliot's first suspicions w^ere, that the 
 Chinese contemplated an attack upon the shipping 
 at the outer anchorages, and he accordingly deter- 
 mined upon remaining at Macao, in order to conceit 
 with the commander of the Lame such measures as 
 might be expedient for their protection. Under the 
 pressure of the moment, although balancing in his 
 mind the hazard in which such a mass of property 
 was involved on board the opium ships, and his fear 
 of compromising her Majesty's flag, he took a sound 
 view of the case, and the only rational one that 
 could be arrived at, that he was bound to incur the 
 personal responsibility of taking under his protec- 
 tion that which had been tabooed by his instruc- 
 tions from the Foreign Office. The storm had burst 
 in the meantime in another direction. On the 22d 
 of March he heard of the detention of the British, 
 and all the foreign community, at Canton, and made 
 some arrangements for the shipping then lying at 
 different anchorages, proceeding to Hong Kong, and 
 placing themselves under the orders of Captain 
 Blake, or, in the contingency of his absence, the 
 senior commander of the opium vessels. The fol- 
 lowing notice was addressed by him to her Ma- 
 jesty's subjects : *' The Chief Superintendent of the 
 trade of British subjects in China, having received 
 information that her Majesty's subjects are detained 
 against their will in Canton, and having other urgent 
 reasons for the withdrawing of all confidence in the 
 just and moderate dispositions of the provincial 
 
74 
 
 government, has now to require that all the ships of 
 Her Majesty's subjects at the outer anchorages 
 should proceed forthwith to Hong Kong, and 
 hoisting their national colours be prepared to resist 
 every act of aggression on the part of the Chinese 
 government. In the absence of Captain Blake, of 
 Her Majesty's sloop Lame, Captain Parry, of the 
 Hercules, will make the necessary disposition for 
 putting the ships in a posture of defence ; and in the 
 absence of Captain Parry that duty will devolve on 
 Captain Wallace, of the Mermaid, And the Chief 
 Superintendent, in Her Majesty's name, requests all 
 British subjects to whom these presents may come 
 to respect the authority of the persons herein charged 
 with the duty of providing for the protection of 
 British life and property. Given under my hi*nd 
 and seal of office, at Macao, this 22d day of March, 
 1839. — (Signed) Charles Elliot, Chief Superin- 
 tendent of the trade of British subjects in China." 
 
 He then turned his attention to the critical situa- 
 tion in which our countrymen were placed at Canton, 
 meaning at first to proceed only as far as the Bocca 
 Tigris, and there negotiate in their behalf. The best 
 argument with the Chinese is that brought into play 
 against insufferable insolence, the argumentum bacu- 
 linum. He had it at his fingers' ends, and had 
 almost clutched the cudgel, but he wavered : an 
 unlucky thought came across him, that his going 
 right up to the Factories would dissolve the spell that 
 had bound his countrymen. He had a talisman in 
 his pocket, an " open-sesame," always ready, that 
 was to make locks, bolts, and bars, rive asunder, 
 every thing yielding at his approach. He thought he 
 had taken the measure of the Chinese, that he had 
 
75 
 
 got to their blind side, by cajoling them whenever 
 he could, and submitting to them very quietly when 
 he found they had got the " weather gage " of him. 
 All his compliments, and all the little acts of kindness 
 he had been so forward to show them, he naturally 
 thought should meet with an appropriate return. 
 He supposed he had done, what never man did yety 
 made friends of them, and if not, that they would, at 
 any rate, respect him as the representative of a great 
 nation, when he raised the aegis of his authority to 
 cover his unprotected countrymen. On went his 
 uniform coat, and up went the national flag. The 
 one was taken off by himself, but we do not hear 
 who hauled down the other. It was probably tram- 
 pled under the feet of the Chinese coolies, in whose 
 keeping he was placed immediately after landing. 
 O ! that he had taken a lesson from Lord Napier ! 
 who, constrained to proceed to Canton by his 
 instructions, and remain as long as possible, ex- 
 posed to insult, privation, and perhaps danger from 
 the exasperated authorities, was obliged for the 
 general good to return to Macao. With two frigates 
 at Whampoa his authority at Canton went for 
 nothing. Had he been on board them, and had he 
 thought it expedient to make use of them, the case 
 would have been very different. The alleged 
 motives that decided Captain Elliot to go up are 
 such as no one could cavil at. His desire to rally 
 round him, and form a nucleus to, a community that 
 he had known to be so much divided on other occa- 
 sions, was not unnatural ; and his intention to share 
 their danger was creditable to him as a man of 
 courage and of high feeling. 
 
 What did it signify, however, if the opium was to be 
 
76 
 
 given up, who gave it ? Whether the two hundred, 
 or the one individual ? The claim for indemnity would 
 have been the same upon the Chinese; and our 
 government wishes to establish that it makes no dif- 
 ference with regard to itself. When going up he had 
 flattered himself with the prospect of a very different 
 arrangement. Passports were to be demanded, and 
 the British were to embark all their moveable effects 
 on board the ships at Whampoa, and take their de- 
 parture within ten days. Nothing could display 
 more clearly how little he understood the temper of 
 the authorities, when he penned his address to our 
 countrymen, dated 23d March, and how greatly he 
 overvalued his own importance. It was read to them 
 the evening he arrived, when he was to all intents and 
 purposes incarcerated, with an armed guard at his 
 doors ; and they are stated to have responded to it 
 with cheers ! Drowning men are said to catch at 
 straws, and what could be a greater delusion at such 
 a moment, than the reciting of such a production — 
 sounds without a meaning, shadows without sub- 
 stance, promises without a chance of performance. 
 The applause was probably bestowed upon the inten- 
 tions of the Superintendent to have carried them 
 through with a high hand and a hearty good- will, if 
 he had had it in his power ; that is, what he would 
 have done if the Chinese would have let him, which 
 it was perfectly clear then that there was no chance 
 of. Such a notice, and such expectations, might 
 have been applicable had they all been in any country 
 where European views and practice prevailed ; for if 
 war had not actually commenced, and the govern- 
 ment not committed itself, as Napoleon did, by 
 already placing a restraint upon their persons, no 
 
77 
 
 doubt could have existed of their being allowed pass- 
 ports, and to take with them their property. China 
 stands by itself, and scarcely any rule that is 
 observed by other nations can be applied to it. That 
 notice read in the Superintendent's public hall was 
 intended to have been acted upon when he was a 
 free agent himself, and embraced the whole purport 
 of the negotiations he meant to have opened without 
 the entrance of the Bogue. 
 
 Well, there he was, placed in the critical situation 
 that his own impatience and the want of a due exercise 
 of his judgment had brought him to ; different indeed 
 to what he expected, with regard to his own influence, 
 but meeting and exceeding his most ardent wishes 
 to divert the violence of the Chinese to himself. They 
 turned upon him at once. They knew perfectly 
 well that he was an officer of our government sent 
 there under its orders, but never acknowledged him 
 in such a capacity, or at any rate never intended it, 
 although some approach to such an admission might 
 inadvertently find its way into the edicts and replies 
 of the local authorities. From the whole tenor of 
 their correspondence carried on in that official form, 
 it is quite clear that although they understood him 
 not to be a merchant, or one conversant with com- 
 mercial matters, yet as they could not obtain from 
 us exactly what they wanted, circumstances obliged 
 them to accept him as a substitute for a " Taepan." 
 The clearest distinction was generally drawn, to keep 
 themselves from being committed, and the character 
 " Pin" was invariably enforced upon him to mark 
 that distinction. Having been intruded upon them 
 against their inclination on this occasion, when they 
 had passed the Rubicon, they were the more ready 
 
IB 
 
 to make him feel the brunt of their violent proceeding. 
 If any man's life was in danger his was the most 
 so, which he must speedily have been aware of. He 
 had looked to the possibility of being made a pri- 
 soner with the rest, but evidently not to any mea- 
 sure more severe. 
 
 On the 23d of March, the day he left Macao, the 
 following letter was addressed by him to Captain 
 Blake, of Pier Majesty's ship Lame, "Sir, — The 
 various and unreserved conferences I have had the 
 honour to have with you, on the present extremely 
 disquieting state of circumstances, preclude the neces- 
 sity of recapitulating the reasons which compel me 
 to proceed forthwith to Whampoa for the relief of 
 her Majesty's subjects from their actual restraint and 
 dangerous situation. And if you shall not hear from 
 me in some certain and assuring manner, within the 
 space of six days from the date of this communi- 
 cation, I trust you will proceed in Her Majesty's 
 sloop under your command to the Bocca Tigris, and, 
 failing such authentic accounts of the safety and free 
 agency of all Her Majesty's subjects within those 
 forts, from the Chinese Admiral, as may be satis- 
 factory to you, I must beg you will consider us to 
 be prisoners, and adopt such immediate proceedings 
 for our relief as may seem suitable to you. Cordially 
 assenting with me in the propriety of avoiding any 
 unnecessary or ostensible intercourse with the British 
 shipping at the outside anchorages (many of which 
 have no doubt been engaged in the illicit traffic,) it 
 is at the same time most satisfactory to me to reflect, 
 that, in the event of any well-sustained evidence 
 of aggressive attempts, British life and property 
 will have the benefit of all the protection and 
 
79 
 
 countenance which you can afford. In treating this 
 delicate subject (why delicate at such a juncture ?) 
 I shall, perhaps, again remind you, that most of the 
 ships engaged in the regular trade are accustomed 
 to anchor at the usual outside stations, both upon 
 arriving and putting to sea. I hold it my duty to 
 you to state that I shall willingly take the full re- 
 sponsibility of any proceedings you may find it 
 necessary to adopt on account of these requisitions. 
 And it is a great support to me in my embarrassing 
 circumstances that I have the assistance of an officer 
 in whose zeal and ability I may justly repose entire 
 confidence. (Signed) Charles Elliot, Chief 
 Superintendent." — This letter shows that Captain 
 Elliot was satisfied that some demonstration or 
 application of force might have been made for the 
 relief of our countrymen. He had heard of, if not 
 read, the good effects that resulted from Captain 
 WeddelFs proceedings two hundred years before, 
 when British subjects were similarly circumstanced, 
 and must have known the current opinion at Canton, 
 that the Chinese were easily worked upon by an 
 appeal to their fears ; but how much better could 
 such a plan have been carried into execution had he 
 himself remained with Captain Blake, who had only 
 been a month in the country, and was little acquainted 
 with the navigation of the river, and many other 
 details that must have been combined to ensure 
 success. Besides that. Captain Blake, when left to 
 himself, might entertain some occasional misgivings 
 as to the responsibility he might be incurring, and 
 the effect it might have upon his future fortunes, if 
 considered to have done wrong, which the Superin- 
 tendent by being at his elbow might have calmed. 
 
80 
 
 As it turned out afterwards, such doubts were very 
 likely to have arisen, for Captain Blake, on that very 
 ground, and with far less reason, resisted the earnest 
 request of the British (who had then just left or 
 were leaving Canton) that he would stay by them 
 until they saw themselves in a safer position. The 
 Superintendent's true course v/ould have been to 
 have remained on his vantage ground at Macao, or 
 with the, ships, instead of hastily changing his mind, 
 and rashly throwing his person into the hands of the 
 Chinese. 
 
 Staggered at the unexpected restraint he was 
 placed under, and the risk he was exposed to by the 
 uncompromising temper of the Commissioner, it 
 was quite natural that a great reaction should take 
 place in the Superintendent's mind. Suppose any 
 one, feeling himself so buoyed up by confidence in 
 his own resources, and proceeding upon an enter- 
 prise of some difficulty or danger, to find suddenly 
 that those whom he expected to yield at his first 
 approach were much stronger and more determined 
 than he had suspected, and that instead of running 
 away they had pinioned his arms, and were threat- 
 ening his life, how great must be the fall of the 
 mercury in that man's animal barometer ! How 
 could he possibly make terms with them, or preserve 
 the unanimity of mind necessary to resist the hard 
 bargain they were driving with him for his ransom ? 
 Any one situated as the Superintendent was must 
 have felt a great revulsion. But if there was an 
 opportunity for the display of heroism by the cool 
 contemplation of sacrificing life itself to defeat a 
 stupendous act of injustice, the Superintendent 
 would have received all the honours of martyrdom 
 
81 
 
 had he submitted to it. It has been said, that under 
 the circumstances there was no necessity for the 
 early concession that was made. Apprehending 
 some measure of the kind, or forewarned of it by 
 former precedents or by some friendly Chinese, the 
 foreigners had at that time a stock of provisions 
 to last them a good many days. Supposing the 
 peremptory demand for the opium had been made to 
 the Superintendent late on Sunday evening, the 
 whole negotiation occupied only two days, having 
 been brought to a settlement by Tuesday night. 
 His order to the merchants was dated at 6 a.m., on 
 Wednesday. It is known that some of the holders 
 objected to so much precipitancy, and to the opium 
 being delivered at ail. It was also believed that had he 
 not gone up the Chinese would have taken the 1036 
 chests that had been offered, and not only taken but 
 paid for them, and that the matter would then have 
 ended by sending the remainder away. Those 
 parties certainly have a good ground to exclaim 
 against the surrender they were obliged to make, 
 under an empt}^ promise of reimbursement. There 
 was no unanimity about it between the holders and 
 him, for they were never consulted as to its being 
 delivered to the Chinese, and they never would have 
 given up the opium, either to him or them, without 
 an indemnity expressly stipulated for. Captam 
 Elliot's great object in going up to Canton, was to 
 save the opium at the same time that he carried 
 relief to his countrymen, and not the one at the 
 expense of the other. Both might have been done 
 had he remained firm in his resistance at Canton, 
 when he did go up, or acted upon the fears of the 
 Chinese, had he more judiciously remained at Macao. 
 
 G 
 
82 
 
 Captain Elliot is stated to have said on the 26th 
 of March that he had determined upon the surrender 
 of the opium on his way up from Macao, and to 
 throw the charge upon the British government. His 
 letter to Captain Blake of the 23d of March, and no- 
 tice of the preceding day to the commanders of ships, 
 all directed to the security of the opium as well as 
 other interests, are presumptive evidence that he had 
 then no such intention ; and, as when addressing 
 the meeting immediately after his landing, he was 
 distinctly understood to have objected to the offer 
 that had been made of the 1036 chests, and to say he 
 would hold on with the whole, it appears too clearly 
 that his declaration to the contrary was wrung from 
 him by the pressure of the moment to throw a cover 
 over his infirmity of purpose, and to make what was 
 forced from him appear a voluntary act. A most 
 remarkable chasm appears in the details of what 
 passed between the Superintendent and the Com- 
 missioner, on the 25th and 26th of March. The 
 despatches throw no light upon that dark abyss. 
 His addresses to the Viceroy, with the replies and 
 orders of the latter and the Commissioner, do not 
 aid us in its discovery. It is evident, however, that 
 something must have occurred, more than appears, 
 to have caused the Superintendent so suddenly to 
 give in. Those busy emissaries, the Hong mer- 
 chants, were frequently with him during the two 
 days referred to, and it is palpable that they must 
 have impressed upon him their certain belief of some 
 intended immediate violence to himself alone, unless 
 the opium were instantly delivered. The three orders 
 or edicts of the Governor and Commissioner, on 
 those days, were sufficiently threatening, but they 
 
83 
 
 do not contain any allusion to a specific measure of 
 a sanguinary character immediately to be put in 
 execution. The threat appears to have been first 
 conveyed to the Superintendent on the 25th, after 
 his application for passports, which caused him to 
 write his second address, desiring the former one to 
 be returned to him, and " that an officer might be 
 deputed to visit him that day, to the end that 
 matters might be peacefully adjusted." In his man- 
 datory order to deliver up the opium, he says, " And 
 I, the said Chief Superintendent, do further specially 
 caution all Her Majesty's subjects here present in 
 Canton, ow^ners of, or charged w^ith the management 
 of opium, the property of British subjects, that fail- 
 ing the surrender of the said opium into my hands, 
 at or before six o'clock this day, I, the said Chief 
 Superintendent, hereby declare Her Majesty's govern- 
 ment wholly free of all manner of responsibility or 
 liability in respect of the said British owned opium." 
 Such a declaration was at any rate superfluous : 
 for how would the recusants have fared had some 
 resisted when others had complied? Would not 
 the Chinese have said, " What ! do you fly in the 
 face of your own Chief, who has already promised 
 us the opium ? You are doubly guilty, and deserve 
 no mercy at our hands." Their lives might then 
 indeed have been endangered. By such an order 
 the die was cast, the fate of the opium sealed, and 
 an imperious necessity imposed upon all the merchants 
 to comply, or suffer increased severities at the hands 
 of their savage keepers. One house delivered up the 
 enormous quantity of 8000 chests, worth a million 
 sterling ! Was not that a stake worth contending 
 for by resisting to the uttermost ? Such a mandate 
 
84 
 
 paralyzed their opposition, and withered the arms 
 that were raised up against their oppressors. The 
 indemnity was thrown in, and on the faith of it every 
 one submitted to a surrender that could not have 
 been wrung from them either by him or the Chinese 
 without a fearful struggle. From the moment that 
 the Superintendent informed the Chinese that he was 
 ready to give up the opium, there was no drawing 
 back without a contest. That communication was 
 made on the 25th, without consulting any one. Had 
 he not given way, the whole evidence goes to show that 
 the Chinese would have abandoned the high ground 
 they had taken up, and submitted to a compromise ; 
 and that, while all were united, the old residents had 
 no fear of their going to extremities. 
 
 After the ineffectual application to Government, 
 who deny their responsibility for that act of their 
 agent, a petition from the sufferers has been pre- 
 sented to the great council of the nation. Its prayer 
 is couched in the simplest terms ; it presents a plain 
 <' unvarnished" statement of the facts, which have 
 been confirmed before a Committee of the House of 
 Commons, by witnesses fully cognizant of all the 
 circumstances of the " crisis," who saw with their 
 own eyes, and grasped as with their hands, every 
 palpable feature of the case. Let not the country's 
 representatives be niggardly on this occasion, but, of 
 whatever politics, honestly stand forward, and tell 
 the Ministers to draw their purse-strings, and so re- 
 deem the nation's credit and their own — both in the 
 descendant until this matter is honourably settled. 
 Ministers cannot be insensible to the equity of the 
 claim, if they do not admit its legality ; and if, only 
 taking into view the low ebb of their exchequer, they 
 
85 
 
 yield to an insensate and unjust clamour raised 
 against the petitioners, they may truly say, " Tis not 
 our will, but poverty consents." There is plenty of 
 money to be had if looked for in other places. The 
 nation is generous as it is just, and if left to exercise ^ 
 an unbiassed discretion will not be backward on 
 this occasion. One entire session has been allowed 
 to pass, and nothing done excepting an investiga- 
 tion by the Select Committee into facts, the main 
 features of which were notorious to every body. 
 They have closed their labours without doing the 
 very thing they had been appointed for — to com- 
 press all the evidence into a focus, and make their 
 report ; as men of such great judgment and experience 
 might easily have done. Why it was not done, and 
 why they should have shrunk from the responsibility 
 of expressing their opinion, one way or the other, 
 upon the claims of the opium merchants, is a matter 
 of wonder to many who have no direct interest in 
 the subject. 
 
 The position of the opium trade in China has 
 been singularly anomalous — unacknowledged by 
 our own government, and ostensibly prohibited by 
 the Chinese, although all were doing their utmost 
 in an underhand way to promote its extension. The 
 offspring of an elicit connexion between our go- 
 vernment and the East India Company, they have 
 been ashamed of their progeny, have disavowed it to 
 the Chinese, but at the same time were always led 
 by parental regard to do something, in a concealed 
 way, to maintain it. It may be compared to the 
 case of a powerful sovereign, who, having had a 
 child born to him by a favourite mistress, put it in 
 charge of trusty persons, who were to take every 
 
86 
 
 care of it, bat were strictly enjoined to conceal the 
 circumstances of its birth. After a while they took 
 the child abroad, there to improve its education, and 
 give it some knowledge of the world. The natives 
 of the country patted and fondled it as a child of 
 great promise. It received many presents, and its 
 pockets were well supplied with money by the kind- 
 ness of its admirers. The child grew up to maturity, 
 in favour with every one. Certainly the youth was 
 exceedingly captivating, and every one sought his 
 acquaintance, it being a constant source of pleasure 
 to those who frequented his company. All this gave 
 great satisfaction to the king, his father, when re- 
 ported to him by his trusty agents ; but still shame 
 or etiquette prevented him from acknowledging the 
 young man as his son. At length, however, the 
 king of the country hearing of the fascinating 
 stranger who was drawing all men to him, became 
 suspicious that treason might be hatching against 
 him, and sent spies accordingly to watch and report. 
 Those emissaries, to make a good job out of it for 
 themselves, soon put another face on the subject. 
 They affected to discover that this agreeable and 
 apparently amiable person, with the face of an angel, 
 was no better than a demon at heart. That he was 
 instilling poison into the minds of the king's subjects, 
 debasing their morals, and preparing them by degrees 
 to answer his own insidious purposes. The people 
 were ordered to abstain from his company, but many 
 paid him private visits, and told him not to be 
 afraid, for that he was still every one's favourite, 
 and that the creatures of the government were his 
 only enemies. The fears of the king were raised, 
 and orders sent to seize upon the person of the 
 
87 
 
 stranger, and also the parties who had brought him 
 into the country. To his great surprise, as well as 
 theirs, whilst he was enjoying himself as usual, he 
 was suddenly made prisoner, and what money he 
 had taken from him by the rough hands of the 
 officers. The persons under whose care he had been 
 sent abroad forwarded a hasty report to his father. 
 " Oh !" said he, when he received it, " this is too 
 much ! Nature can hold out no longer. I must 
 own him at last, and force the rascals who 
 have maltreated him to make retribution and amends 
 for their violence. The child of my loins to 
 be so treated ! the offspring of a great sovereign, 
 and the admired of all, to beheld in no greater 
 estimation than if he were a common malefactor ! 
 I'll come upon his oppressors in a trice, and let 
 them know who they have to deal with." The 
 protectors of his son, when reporting the occur- 
 rence, used these words : " Had you acknowledged 
 your son when he was going abroad, and told the 
 world that you would stand by him in any peril or 
 difficulty, we have strong reason to believe that the 
 government of this country would not have inter- 
 fered with him, and that he might at this time be 
 passing his time as profitably and pleasantly as 
 ever. Not having done so, they have said, * Oh ! 
 his father does not care a fig for him, so we'll just 
 take our own way with him ; for being his illegi- 
 timate child, he will never say any thing about it. 
 We'll send a letter to the king to tell him of his son's 
 tricks, and the necessity we have been under to act 
 in this way, and at the same to desire him to send 
 no more such bantlings among us, to seduce the 
 people and make them conspire against us.' These 
 
Were their words, but the letter delivered to us to 
 forward, we have retained as unworthy of your 
 Majesty's perusal." So far the fable; and now for 
 application. 
 
 With respect to our telling the Chinese govern- 
 ment, openly and plainly, that we would protect the 
 opium trade, in spite of their prohibitions, there was 
 some difficulty, and to appearance not a small one^ 
 on account of the legal trade, whilst they chose to 
 keep up the affected distinction between them. But 
 could we not have made the trial ? Might not we 
 have said, " It does not now suit us to send you 
 dollars for your tea, which, in fact, has more than 
 one-third of it been paid for during a good many 
 years by the proceeds of the opium. We have 
 nothing else to offer you, and if you will not take 
 the opium, we must take far less tea, raw silk, and 
 other articles. You know very well that your own 
 people will get the opium by hook or by crook, and 
 allowing you to be in earnest about its use, — which, 
 by your favour, we do not believe, — still, how 
 can you prevent their introducing it along your 
 extensive sea-coast, when you cannot effectually 
 shut it out from the city of Canton, the seat 
 of the provincial government, and the centre of its 
 resources ? If we put down the growth of the drug 
 in our own territories, and interdict our ships from 
 bringing it to your shores, it will still be produced 
 in places over which we have no control, and trans- 
 ported by other people belonging to various nations, 
 under no wholesome check and authority. As you 
 make no distinction between one foreigner and 
 another, you will be led to consider our subjects, who 
 may be carrying on their lawful business, in peace- 
 
89 
 
 ful reliance on your protection, as implicated ifi the 
 violent invasions of property, and aggression^ 
 against the persons of your people, not unlikely to 
 happen in the channels into which your opposition to 
 Us will infallibly drive the trade ; thereby bringing on 
 endless disputes and quarrels between us, exceedingly 
 inconvenient to us, but much more so in their con* 
 sequences to you. Be wise, then; think over the 
 matter again, and engage not to interfere with our 
 subjects, who, in the way of trade, bring the opium 
 to you, but apply yourselves to prevent your own 
 people from smuggling it into the country, if you 
 really wish to limit or put down its use. We will 
 answer for the good conduct of British subjects, if 
 not attacked by your authorities, but cannot help 
 you against the lawless people into whose hands 
 you would drive the traffic." Some such argu- 
 ments might have been made use of with them, and 
 perhaps with success, if tried three or four years 
 ago, and have prevented the great opium seizure 
 last year. This course could have been taken as an 
 application to their own reason, and treating them 
 as we would any other nation in communication 
 with us. 
 
 But do we not stand in a very different position 
 with China, cut off, as we are by her, from any 
 acknowledged right to consider ourselves independent 
 of her sway, or to have any thing to do with her 
 directly or indirectly; no concession made us ex- 
 cept by way of favour, and what is given to us at 
 one time arbitrarily taken from us at another ? No 
 community of feeling or interest is allowed as pos- 
 sible to exist betwixt us — between the dignified and 
 the ignoble, the great and the little ! Their policy 
 
00 
 
 IS all one-sided, selfish, overbearing, and hostile to 
 the common interests of mankind. It is true that 
 they are in number one-third of the whole human 
 race ; but still they are in the minority, and are not 
 entitled to overrule the two-thirds. In political 
 economy it is a maxim that the majority should 
 give law to the minority. This must always be the 
 case, right or wrong, when moral opinion fails to 
 prevail, whilst there remains the ultima ratio of an 
 appeal to physical strength, on which the deduction 
 is really founded. There can be no inherent right 
 in any one man to give law to another, but the 
 many make the laws, and the few must obey them. 
 It is never allowed that the smaller number shall 
 dictate to the greater. This is the practical bearing 
 of the question among individuals belonging to the 
 same nation. It must be the same, more or less, 
 between nation and nation. If minorities here pro- 
 pose what is advantageous to all parties, they are 
 listened to, and their advice adopted ; but if they 
 propound only what may be of use to themselves, 
 the majority overrules them. Can we not apply the 
 same reasoning and the same practice to China? 
 The abstract principle of individual right gives way 
 to the practical convenience of the many. China, 
 as one, cannot be allowed to oppose the rest of the 
 world, who are two, and more particularly when she 
 is asked to do any thing that cannot injure herself, 
 or place her in a worse state than she is in at present, 
 in any one particular. Lord Napier, however, ex- 
 cited and betrayed into rashness by the pertinacious, 
 and to him apparently unreasonable conduct of the 
 local authorities of Canton, sufficiently understood 
 the character of' the people. In his letter to Earl 
 
91 
 
 Grey, dated 21st August, 1834, he said, "There are 
 two propositions to be considered, which are perfect 
 axioms. 1st, That the Chinese people are most 
 anxious for our trade, from the Great Wall to the 
 southern extremity of the empire — the Tartar go- 
 vernment alone being anti-commercial : and the 2d 
 is, That the Tartar government, being in the extreme 
 degree of mental imbecility and moral degradation ; 
 dreaming themselves to be the only people on the 
 earth ; being entirely ignorant of the theory and prac- 
 tice of international law; that Government is not 
 in a position to be dealt with or treated by civilized 
 nations according to the same rules as are acknow- 
 ledged and practised among themselves." Lord 
 Napier's view of the oppugnant posture of China 
 not entitling her to the common observances of 
 other nations in their intercourse with each other, 
 has been agreed to by many others qualified to 
 give an opinion. Why, therefore, did not our go- 
 vernment take up the opium question quite in 
 a different way, instead of letting it lie dormant ? 
 They had implicated themselves by holding out a 
 silent encouragement of the trade, fully as much as 
 if they had proclaimed its lawfulness in the London 
 Gazette. If there v^as no impropriety in making 
 themselves parties to the trade, where was the diffi- 
 culty in their putting forw^ard some proposition to 
 the Chinese to secure its continuance, and the safety 
 of those concerned in it ? Were they ashamed to 
 make such an application — to acknowledge openly 
 the interest they had in a trade pronounced to be 
 immoral, to which they had nevertheless lent their 
 sanction ? Or, did they think it indelicate to moot 
 such a thing to the Chinese authorities, who had 
 
02 
 
 cried it down publicly, but privately encouraged it ? 
 Does it not appear likely, that if they had broken 
 through all such scruples, and have said, " The 
 opium trade is convenient to us, and not one really 
 objected to by you : we only ask you not to inter- 
 fere w^ith our people w^ho bring it to your shores. 
 Do w^hat you like w^ith your own, but do not touch 
 ours ; for under all the circumstances we can make 
 no distinction between opium and anything else ; 
 and your own objections to it being only nominal^ 
 there should be no great difficulty on your part in 
 coming to such an agreement. If, therefore, you do 
 not concede to this, our not unreasonable demand, 
 we shall hold you responsible for any act of violence 
 offered to either, and send a naval force to be always 
 ready for their protection." There can be but little 
 doubt, if that course had been taken at the time 
 referred to, or before, that the Chinese would have 
 consented to it, rather than quarrel with us about 
 the drug that ministered so much to the sphere of 
 their enjoyments, and against which they would 
 have waived every objection on the score of morality. 
 It does therefore appear an inconsistency almost 
 approaching to absurdity, to see the government 
 always so blind on that important point, (on which 
 our whole trade to China has virtually depended for 
 years,) and writing to our Superintendents, that in 
 the event of any opium in the hands of British sub- 
 jects being seized upon by the Chinese, they were 
 not to interfere for its protection ! but that the loss 
 should fall upon the proprietors, government shaking 
 their hands clear of any responsibility respecting it, 
 — just as if it might be only a few hundred pounds 
 instead of a few millions ; and as if there were no 
 
93 
 
 possible means of getting out of such a difficulty, 
 and clearing so valuable an interest from the immi- 
 nent hazard it was exposed to! When one party 
 was as deep in the mud as the other in the mire, 
 what indelicacy could there have been in broaching 
 the subject to the Chinese, and saying to them, if 
 they opposed, — *^ You treat us as if we were unde- 
 serving to breathe the air you breathe, to drink the 
 water you drink, to taste the fruits of your land, and 
 to hold out the hand of friendship to our kindred 
 man. You try all you can to make us despicable in 
 the eyes of your people. That is not the way of 
 other nations, nor of our own. We know you are 
 wrong in so doing, and having the power to resist, 
 we will not submit to be so treated. With your own 
 measure we will measure to you again. We shall 
 continue to bring opium, and anything else your 
 people may want, without consulting you any fur- 
 ther about it, and if you attack us we shall return 
 blow for blow," Such an argument would have 
 prevailed. They would either have met our pro- 
 position directly, or to avoid the semblance of acting 
 under constraint, have done what they had very 
 nearly decided upon, without any jogging from us — 
 legalized the trade. 
 
 There is another proposition that might have been 
 made to them to make the surrender of the opium 
 question more palatable to them, by giving them a 
 quid pro quo; for an appeal to their own interests is 
 ever powerful. If it may not already have occurred 
 to Ministers, and be one of the proposals said to form 
 a part of their instructions to the Commander-in- 
 Chief of the Expedition, it is not too late even now 
 perhaps to take it up. It is thoroughly ascertained 
 
94 
 
 that their great and only substantial objection to the 
 introduction of opium rests on the abstraction of 
 their silver currency, turning the balance of trade as 
 it does against them. Any measure that would 
 meet that inconvenience to a considerable extent 
 v^ould be sure to meet vrith their consideration. 
 
 It is an acknow^ledged truth in commerce, that, if 
 the price of an article of luxury in general use be 
 lowered, the consumption of it will increase, and vice 
 versa. If lowered, the increase should be in propor- 
 tion to the decrease of price ; and if raised, the de- 
 crease should be in proportion to the increase of the 
 price. Any considerable fall or rise, however, always 
 destroys the accuracy of the calculation, as to degree ; 
 for a great fall will draw an article of luxury into 
 more extensive use, and increase the consumption 
 beyond what the figures would show ; and the same 
 result would arise by a great increase of price operat- 
 ing upon the consumption in a disproportionate but 
 opposite way. The general result, however, would 
 bear out, in both ways, the proposition that a fall or 
 rise in an article of luxury would infallibly increase 
 or decrease the consumption up to the figures or 
 beyond them. 
 
 It is not so with things absolutely requisite for our 
 existence, which we cannot dispense with, which we 
 must have at any price, and of which at the same 
 time we could not consume more if the price were 
 never so low. Look to the article of bread, for in- 
 stance. Were it scarce and high in price, with no 
 other substitute to be had, a man would turn every 
 thing he had into money to enable him to buy it, and 
 whilst his means lasted would consume as much as 
 he could. Corn, therefore, when scarce, must infal- 
 
95 
 
 libly rise in price beyond all proportion to the actual 
 deficiency. Reverse the case, by substituting a 
 quantity sufficient or more than sufficient to supply 
 all mouths, would the consumption be much or any 
 thing increased ? or, whilst fairly brought to market, 
 would it be possible by any means to get up the 
 price ? No ; for every one would buy as much as 
 he could at the current price, and as he did not 
 require more than would supply his daily consump- 
 tion, or, in other terms, more than he could eat, he 
 would buy no more. A fall in the price of corn, 
 therefoi^e, or of any article of sheer necessity, does 
 not increase the consumption in any proportion to 
 affect the market price, for low-priced bread cannot 
 be eaten in greater quantity than high-priced bread. 
 The only way, in such case, in which the quantity 
 would be reduced and the price increased would be 
 by waste, by many a crust and many a dry or half 
 eaten piece of bread being thrown aside. But such 
 improvidence could only occur under a very great 
 degree of abundance and cheapness. 
 
 The preceding reference to an increase or decrease 
 in the price of corn, in its effects upon the consump- 
 tion, has been introduced to enforce the argument 
 in favour of a lower price in tea being certain to 
 bring a larger quantity into use. With regard to tea, 
 therefore, which is so general a favourite, and of 
 which more would be consumed were the price lower, 
 some calculations may be made to show the infalli- 
 bility of such a rule if applied to it. It adjusts 
 better with the stomach than coffee, and is therefore 
 more suited to the generality of constitutions, and with 
 regard to taste is equally if not more highly prized. 
 Both are exhilirating to the spirits, without pro- 
 
 
96 
 
 ducing the same deleterious effects that arise from 
 the use of distilled and fermented liquors, constantly 
 taken in any considerable quantity. The only tan- 
 gible or ready way to lower the price of tea would 
 be by reducing the present enomious duty. Had 
 the practice been continued after the expiration of 
 the East India Company's monopoly, of levying the 
 duty of 90 per cent, upon the market value of teas, 
 determined by the actual prices they fetched at their 
 quarterly sales, the probability is that the consump- 
 tion would now have been much greater than it is. 
 There was nothing to hinder the same machinery to 
 have been put in motion for the collection of the 
 duty by the Board of Customs, excepting perhaps 
 some additional expense, which would have sunk to 
 nothing in the accumulation that plan would have 
 occasioned, by the gradual but certain increase in 
 the proceeds of the duty. Under the lower rates of 
 freight and other charges in the new mode of impor- 
 tation, tea has been laid down here at a reduced rate. 
 Before the termination of the monopoly the selling 
 price of superior black tea in the retail shops was 
 8s. or 95. per lb. Now it is 6s., and has been 6s. 6d.y 
 good qualities selling at 6d. or 9d. lower ; allowing 
 a very handsome profit to the retailer, as a short 
 statement will show. The great consumption of the 
 country is of Congou. It is higher at this moment, 
 but we will take the price of the best quality, as it was 
 not very long ago, at Is. lid. to 2s. in bond ; add the 
 duty of 25. lid. you have 45. or 45. Id. as the cost to 
 him, while he has been selling it at 55. 6d. or 65. 
 The difference, however, is not all profit to him, the 
 admixture of Souchong, to increase its flavour, 
 causing a deduction. It is true he has a good deal 
 
97 
 
 of trouble in weighing out small quantities, and that 
 he employs a good many hands, who must be some 
 considerable drawback on his gains, and, therefore, 
 if the apparent profit of 40 or 50 per cent, has been 
 sustained steadily for several years against so much 
 competition, it may be supposed that the price is 
 not likely to be much reduced to the public by the 
 retailers. But whether this difference between the 
 wholesale and retail price is all profit, or part profit 
 and part charge, it is enough for the present purpose 
 to assume 50 per cent, as an outside increase of the 
 importer's price with the duty added, at which rate 
 the tea goes into consumption. Congou forming, as 
 was said before, the greater part of our imports, it can 
 be used as the basis of further calculations, supposing 
 that all other descriptions bear a relative value to it, 
 and that a rise or fall of price in it, must, in a great 
 degree, be felt by them, and have a proportionate 
 influence upon the consumption. 
 
 According to the rule applied, with the retail 
 price of the best Congou at 6s. instead of 9s., the 
 whole consumption, compared with 30,000,000 lbs. 
 under the East India Company's control, should 
 now be 45,000,000 lbs., whereas it actually is only 
 about 36,000,000 lbs. Had the ad valorem duty of 
 96 or 100 per cent, been continued, instead of im- 
 posing a fixed one, which has been a great dis- 
 couragemeut not only to the importation of low and 
 middling descriptions, but to the importers of the 
 higher qualities, under the frequent depression of 
 prices since the opening of the trade, the consump- 
 tion would have been considerably greater than it 
 now is, and at any rate should have reached the 
 45,000,000 lbs., under which it has been kept by 
 
 H 
 
98 i 
 
 the high and unvarying duty. The result is 
 9,000,000 lbs. less than the consumption should 
 have been, owing to this heavy burthen upon the 
 trade. With a reduction of one-third in the price, 
 the rule would bring out an increase of one-half in 
 the consumption, so that with the old ad valorem 
 duty, which did not check importation as the new 
 duty does, the consumption by this time would pro- 
 bably, or certainly, have been 45,000,000 lbs., 
 and the government, although losers at first, would 
 by this time be realizing the whole amount. Taking 
 the wholesale price in the Company's days at 3s., 
 and 2s. for the price now, the calulation of the duty 
 is at once made. Without taking into account any 
 reduction of price in China, or any alteration what- 
 ever in the charges of importation, or the importer's 
 and retailer's profits, and merely assuming the present 
 retail price of Os. for the ground of a calculation, 
 suppose the government were to reduce the fixed 
 duty of 2s. Id. to Is. per lb., the retail price should 
 then be reduced to 4s. 4id. or 4s. 4d. Comparing 
 4s. 4d. to 6s., the present consumption of 36,000,000 
 lbs. comes out increased to 49,846,154 lbs. In this 
 way the duty would be £2,492,307, instead of 
 £3,750,000, showing a loss to the government of 
 £1,257,693. The loss at the outset would be 
 £1,950,000 3 too much to be thought of in the 
 present state of our finances, unless a substitute 
 could be found, and none appears so convenient. 
 The fixed duty of 2s. Id. has been, until the last 
 twelve months, considerably more than 100 per cent, 
 upon the importer's sale price. But make an ad 
 valorem duty of 75 per cent, to begin with, and you 
 may trust to the growing consumption for reducing 
 
99 
 
 the loss at first incurred, and for the eventual equa- 
 lization of the return. Do this^ and admit all 
 qualities as before, and the imports will greatly in- 
 crease. A fixed duty keeps out the lower descrip- 
 tions of tea, whether it be moderate or high. At 
 present it acts as a prohibition. It was supposed 
 that the fixed duty, as levied, would keep out in- 
 ferior and worthless teas. But are we sure it has 
 succeeded altogether in the latter respect? The 
 Chinese are expert enough, and rogues enough, to 
 meet us at every turn. When they found we refused 
 to take the Boheas and very low Congous, as for- 
 merly, they are sufficiently adepts to pass them off 
 upon us still, by chopping and reducing the size of 
 the leaf, and otherwise preparing them, so as to 
 raise their apparent value, and deceive those who 
 are not very good judges ; thus converting Boheas 
 into Congous, and low Congous into those of a 
 higher grade. An ad valorem duty collected upon 
 the sale price is the fairest to all parties, and more 
 likely to answer every purpose than a fixed one. 
 The latter may suit the tea-dealers in our own 
 markets, but not the importers here, nor the shippers 
 in China, nor will it bring us so great a revenue 
 eventually as the ad valorem duty ; which, in its 
 operation, does not cramp or check the consumption, 
 but keeping pace with it, and growing as it grows, 
 adds proportionately to the revenue. Take the 
 price at Is. lid. per lb., add a duty of 75 per cent, 
 and retailer's advance of 50 per cent, upon the aggre- 
 gate, we have 5s. Ojd. or 5s. per lb. for the price to 
 the public. Comparing 5s. with the present price, 
 6s., we have 43,200,000 lbs. as the ratio of 
 36,000,000 lbs., our present consumption. With 
 
100 
 
 the price at Is. lid., the revenue tlien produced 
 would be £3,105,000, or less than now by 
 £645,000. The loss of revenue upon the con- 
 sumption now would be £1,162,500, still rather 
 startling. But why should we be afraid to try it ? 
 By the operation of a reduced price upon an article 
 of luxury, it is well known, as before stated, that 
 the increased consumption has a tendency to exceed 
 the ratio brought out by the figures, and why may 
 we not look for a similar result in this calculation 
 regarding tea ? If, duty included, we take the Com- 
 pany's price 9s., and the free trade price as before 
 stated 5s., the ratio of 30,000,000 lbs. is 54,000,000 
 lbs., to which there is nothing to prevent the con- 
 sumption extending itself if such an alteration of 
 the duty were made. But that quantity is only up 
 to the figures ; why may not the increase exceed 
 them? With the import price still Is. lid., the 
 duty on 54,000,000 lbs. would be £3,881,250, or a 
 gain of £131,250. 
 
 In our calculation respecting the probable increase 
 of the consumption by a reduction of the duty, it 
 may be observed that, at a quarter of an ounce 
 allowed for the daily use of one person during the 
 year, 54,000,000 lbs. would supply 0,468,493 indivi- 
 duals, or thirty-four in every hundred of our popula- 
 tion of twenty-five millions. Taking into account 
 the quantity of coffee and cocoa consumed in the 
 country, an estimate may be made whether the 
 general consumption will afford room to such an 
 increase in the use of tea. 
 
 Assuming Is. 3d. per lb. as the average price 
 cost of all the tea purchased by us in China, the 
 36,000,000 lbs. we have lately taken from them 
 
lOl ^>^'>>->> '>'^'>^ 
 
 gives us the sum of £2,250,000. Add £1,125,000, 
 the value of 18 millions more, to make up the 54 
 millions' expected consumption in four or five years, 
 we should then have that sum to take from the 
 Chinese in tea, which we have lately taken from 
 them in silver, when the opium trade was going on 
 at Canton, and turning the balance of trade against 
 them. They have estimated the amount at twice 
 that sum, but that is a great exaggeration, not having 
 been, upon an average of the last fifteen years, 
 more than one-third of what they have made out. 
 Have we not, therefore, before us, something to 
 tender them as a peace-offering, in this prospective 
 view of the tea trade ? Without any loss to our re- 
 venue, we should have £1,125,000 so to appropriate. 
 Let us tell them, " We will reduce the duty levied 
 in England upon the tea we take from you, to the 
 amount of three-fourths of what it is at present. 
 Watching the course of trade, we have concluded 
 that by thus reducing it, we shall as surely increase 
 the consumption, and so be able in a very few years 
 to take from you in tea the balance you now pay 
 us in money for the opium. We are led to make 
 this present sacrifice of £1,162,500 of revenue, 
 (equal to one half of the cost of the teas we now 
 take from you) for the sake of preserving peace be- 
 tween us ; for on any other ground there is no one 
 argument in its favour, so far as you are concerned. 
 You cannot stop the smuggling, by your own people, 
 of opium brought to your shores by our subjects, 
 any more than, perhaps, you can prevent them from 
 supplying us with the tea we may want. Besides 
 this, you may not know that we have begun to grow 
 tea ourselves, of identical qualities with your own. 
 
:/:^. '".-.. .::^'.\' io2 
 
 in a territory closely bordering upon China, possess- 
 ing its climate, soil, and every requisite for multi- 
 plying its increase ; which only requires a vigorous 
 following up to accomplish to such an extent that, 
 we may, in a handful of years, be able to dispense 
 with yours altogether. The obstacles you have lately 
 thrown in our way have already given a fresh im- 
 pulse to our undertaking, and if you do not now meet 
 our proposal, and come to a clear understanding 
 with us, by doing away your objections against the 
 opium, and placing our intercourse upon a secure 
 and uninterrupted footing, we shall prosecute the 
 growth of tea in Assam by every practicable means, 
 and gradually desert your shores. We have been 
 your best customers so far, and you will regret the 
 loss of our trade when it is gone past redemption. 
 It was for your tea that we first came to you, and 
 there are but few other things we require at your 
 hands. There is another consideration for you to 
 look to. If you fight us off in this matter of the 
 opium, and wish to leave it as a bone of contention 
 between us, thereby rendering it impossible for us 
 to carry on any regular and direct trade with you 
 with satisfaction, do you think we shall prevent our 
 subjects from conveying the opium to your coast? 
 It would come to you at any rate through other 
 channels, and therefore we shall not deem it expe- 
 dient to interfere with a trade so important to us. 
 It will therefore go on, and more of your money be 
 carried away than before. Our purchases of tea, 
 and every thing else, will be greatly circumscribed 
 by the indirect way in which they will be made, 
 and the balance coming to us in money be so much 
 the greater. Your wisest course then would be to 
 
103 • 
 
 legalize the trade at once, and so clear away all 
 these misunderstandings; but if you are not pre- 
 pared to do that, you must agree not to interfere 
 with our ships or subjects who are engaged in it." 
 
 It may not be superfluous to run over the China 
 correspondence, and select such passages and portions 
 as may seem to illustrate the subject under review. 
 
 The various and ample communications from Lord 
 Napier, Mr. J. F. Davis, and Sir George B. Robin- 
 son, regarding the complete failure of the king's 
 commission, and the consequent retirement of the 
 superintendents to Macao and Lintin, had been i^e- 
 ceived in due course at the Foreign Office. They 
 extended over a period embraced by the 9tli of 
 August, 1834, and the 1st of December, 1835. 
 During that time there were nine despatches from 
 Lord Napier and his subordinates, ten from Mr. Davis, 
 and thirteen from Sir George Robinson. Excepting 
 the short despatch of the Duke of Wellington, dated 
 2d of February, 1835, and the memorandum drawn 
 up by him on the 24th of March, no notice whatever 
 appears to have been taken of the mass of details 
 that had been allowed to accumulate unanswered, 
 until the 28th of May, 1836, when Lord Palmerston 
 merely informed Sir George Robinson that govern- 
 ment had acceded to his recommendation in extend- 
 ing the jurisdiction of the Commission so as to 
 include Lintin and Macao. Not a word was said 
 about the difficulties that had been encountered, nor 
 any remedy proposed to meet them : not a sen- 
 tence, confirmatory or not, of the determination 
 come toby the successors of Lord Napier, to remain 
 quiet, that is, to do nothing until they received in- 
 structions from home. There they were left, receiving 
 
• 104 
 
 their salaries, and enjoying, not otium cum digni" 
 tate, but idleness and disgrace, most certainly not 
 of their own seeking, nor at all palatable to their 
 tastes. 
 
 The next despatch from home is dated 6th of 
 June, 1836, acknowledging Sir G. Robinson's com- 
 munication of the 30th November. An elision is 
 made of its first portion, leaving a void to be filled 
 up by conjecture. That it did not contain any 
 thing bearing upon the more important business of 
 the Commission appears very certain ; and that it 
 was not at all consolatory to the feelings of the gen- 
 tleman to whom it was addressed is equally proba- 
 ble. The published part of the despatch relates en- 
 tirely to the case of a British subject, who, in conse- 
 quence of a loss sustained by him through the act 
 of the local government, had threatened reprisals. 
 Some goods of his had been put in charge of a 
 regular river pilot, to see them laden on board a 
 ship bound to Manilla, but by mistake, or some 
 other motive, they were carried by him up to 
 Whampoa. They were seized and sequestrated. 
 The transaction originated at Lin tin, outside the 
 Bocca Tigris, beyond which the customs regula- 
 tions do not extend ; and but for the deviation 
 made by the pilot, the government could not have 
 interfered, nor would they have cared any thing 
 about it, as there was no intention to smuggle the 
 goods into the country. But having caught them 
 within the port, they were not disposed to believe 
 the representations of the party aggrieved, nor to 
 order restitution. 
 
 On the 7th of June, four-and-twenty hours after 
 the said despatch, proceeded the dismissal of Sir 
 
105 
 
 George Robinson, for no alleged fault or incapacity. 
 His Lordship says, after another elision, "Your 
 despatches of the 16th and 29th January were 
 received here yesterday, and His Majesty's govern- 
 ment is accordingly furnished vv^ith the means of 
 forming an opinion with regard to the measure 
 which you adopted in November last, of taking up 
 your residence at Lintin. As to the advantages which 
 you anticipate would result to British commerce 
 from the formation of a permanent establishment at 
 Lintin, of the nature of that which you suggest in 
 your despatch of December 1st, 1835,1 have to say, 
 that, after duly considering what you have said 
 yourself in favour of such an establishment, and the 
 reasons against it, His Majesty's government do 
 not feel that they have been put sufficiently in pos- 
 session of the means of forming any formal opinion 
 upon this suggestion; and I, therefore, cannot 
 authorize the permanent residence of the Commis- 
 sion at Lintin, until I have received further informa- 
 tion upon the subject. You are not, however, to 
 understand from what I have said above, that I dis- 
 approve of your having resided for some time at 
 Lintin. So imperfectly imformed as I am, with 
 respect to what can be stated for and against the 
 step you have adopted, I am obiged to take for 
 granted that your reasons for having adopted 
 it appeared to you to be of sufficient weight 
 to counterbalance the inconveniences attendant 
 upon your having separated yourself from your 
 colleagues, and having undertaken alone to carry 
 on the business of the Commission, without 
 waiting to learn whether your government coin- 
 cided in your particular views or not. It has 
 
106 
 
 long been the intention of His Majesty's govern- 
 ment to reduce the establishment in China: this 
 measure is called for by the necessity of practising 
 economy in every branch of the public service, and 
 is justified by the extent and nature of the business 
 which the Commission has to transact. For the due 
 despatch of this business, I am of opinion that an 
 establishment considerably less than that which now 
 exists will be sufficient. I cannot yet exactly state 
 what may be the precise nature of the future esta- 
 blishment; but I am clearly of opinion that there 
 is no longer any necessity for the continuance of the 
 office of Chief Superintendent. It, therefore, now be- 
 comes my duty to acquaint you, that His Majesty's 
 government have decided to abolish at once the 
 office and salary of Chief Superintendent. In com- 
 municating to you this decision, I have at the same 
 time to inform you that your functions will cease 
 from the date of the receipt of this despatch. You 
 will make over to Captain Elliot all the archives of 
 the Commission ; which will, of course, include 
 copies of every despatch, and its inclosures, which 
 you have addressed to this department during the 
 period you have acted as Chief Superintendent." In 
 this unceremonious manner, and without any just 
 cause, was Sir George B. Robinson turned out of 
 office, to make room for the present occupier. 
 
 Some light appears to shed a glimmer on this 
 transaction. Captain Elliot had been in correspon- 
 dence with the Foreign Office. There are parts of 
 letters from him dated January 25, March 14, July 
 27, and October 10. The elisions in all of them 
 shew that there was something in the portions so 
 kept back not intended for the public eye. This 
 
107 
 
 kind of side correspondence appears to have been a 
 very improper interference witli the privilege and 
 office of the Chief Superintendent, through v^hom 
 all communications to government should have been 
 transmitted. Public letters should alv^ays be fi-om 
 the heads of departments, or othervt^ise they bear an 
 anomalous character, and must be considered rather 
 in the nature of private communications than of 
 formal despatches. These scraps therefore should 
 have been expunged from the large volume of 
 papers, but being there, it is impossible to shut our 
 eyes to the probability that the first of these letters 
 was the immediate cause of Sir George B. Robin- 
 son's dismissal. It was received at the Foreign Office 
 on the 6th June, 1836, the very day before that re- 
 solution was announced. The animadversions of 
 the Foreign Secretary, upon his having separated 
 himself from his colleagues, when he took up his 
 station at Lintin, are now accounted for, and traced 
 to their source — at least as far as reasonable conjec- 
 ture can go. It would appear that it is the duty of 
 subordinate officers to follow their superiors, and 
 therefore, by not doing so on this occasion, the 
 second and third Superintendents separated them- 
 selves from the chief, and not he from them. But 
 when a grand stroke is to be made, per fas et nefas, 
 to oblige a political partisan, justice and propriety 
 are sometimes set aside. The design to serve a 
 clansman of a noble lord was the probable and only 
 motive for turning out Sir George Robinson. There 
 never was a more palpable instance of a made-up 
 excuse to get rid of a public servant, than this, and 
 a clumsy one too. He is told that "the govern- 
 ment had determined to abolish at once the office 
 
108 
 
 and salary of Chief Superintendent." On the 15th 
 June Captain Elliot's appointment is intimated to 
 him in these terms : " His Majesty's government 
 having decided, for reasons stated in my despatch 
 to Sir George Robinson, of the 7th instant, to 
 abolish the office and salary of the Chief Superin- 
 tendent of British Trade in China, the duties of that 
 office have now devolved upon you, as Second Su- 
 perintendent. Sir George Robinson has been directed 
 to make over to you all the archives of the Com- 
 mission ; and you will, from the date of the receipt 
 of this despatch, consider yourself as the chief oi the 
 commission." Both communications appear to have 
 gone by the same ship. The one party is told that 
 the office had been abolished, and the other in the 
 same breath to assume it. The fact is, that it was 
 desired to put down the office-bearer, and not the 
 office. The appointment was continued to Captain 
 Elliot, with the self-same title, and much greater fa- 
 cilities, than had been enjoyed by his predecessor. 
 On the 8th of November, 1836, the whole constitu- 
 tion of the commission was remodelled. The de- 
 spatch says, " It appears to His Majesty's govern- 
 ment desirable, in order to insure unity of decision 
 and singleness of responsibility, as well as to avoid 
 those differences of opinion between co-ordinate 
 authorities, which are necessarily injurious to the 
 public service, and to the efficiency of the Commis- 
 sion, that the office of the Third Superintendent 
 should be abolished ; and that in the place of that 
 officer a Deputy Superintendent should be ap- 
 pointed, to act as assistant to the Chief Superinten- 
 dent, but under his orders and control ; and also to 
 act provisionally for the Chief Superintendent, dur- 
 
100 
 
 ing his occasional absence from his post.'* It is 
 singular that this concession of additional powers to 
 Captain Elliot should have followed the recom- 
 mendations of Sir George Robinson, who, in his 
 despatch of 1st February 1836, expatiates upon the 
 inconvenient results he had witnessed from the exist- 
 ence of a divided authority, before the retirement of 
 the Company's establishment; and he might have 
 added, perhaps, what he himself and our public 
 interests were then suffering, in consequence of the 
 differences among the Superintendents. It is not 
 intended here to draw a comparison between these 
 two gentlemen as to their respective merits, nor to 
 say who was the fittest to hold such an appointment ; 
 but to complain of the manner in which the one 
 was dismissed to make room for the other. It is 
 clear, however, that ever since the assumption of the 
 office by the present Superintendent, our troubles 
 have increased, and eventually reached their climax ; 
 not altogether chargeable to him, in so far as they 
 originated with the predisposition of the Chinese to 
 disturb us, but mainly so by the whole course of his 
 negotiations with the local government of Canton ; 
 irritating them at one moment by inconvenient 
 applications, and encouraging them at another by 
 unnecessary concessions. 
 
 It appears that Captain Elliot, in his capacity of 
 Second Superintendent, had, on the 27th Dec, 1835, 
 recorded his opinion that a public letter should be 
 addressed to the Commander of the steam-ship 
 Jardine, enjoining him not to proceed up the river, 
 as it was understood he intended to do, in contra- 
 vention of the orders of the local authorities, and 
 that a copy cf the letter should be enclosed to the 
 
110 
 
 consignees of the vessel. This minute was sent 
 home with the despatches of the Chief Superin- 
 tendent. On the 22d July, 1836, it was noticed, 
 and commented on at the Foreign Office, in a 
 despatch to Captain Elliot, in these words. " With 
 reference to that part of your minute of the 27th of 
 Dec, 1835, inclosed in Sir George Robinson's 
 despatch of the 18th of February last, in which, for 
 the reasons therein stated, you advised that the 
 commander of the steam-boat should be enjoined, on 
 the King's authority, by no means to proceed up 
 the river to Canton, I think it necessary to recom- 
 mend to you great caution in interfering in such a 
 manner with the undertakings of British merchants. 
 In the present state of our relations with China, it is 
 especially incumbent upon you, while you do all in 
 your power to avoid giving just cause of offence to 
 the Chinese authorities, to be at the same time very 
 careful not to assume a greater degree of authority 
 over British subjects in China than that which you 
 in reality possess. — I am, &c. 
 
 (Signed) " Palmeeston." 
 
 Such a letter should have deterred Captain Elliot 
 from further interferences with the affairs of the mer- 
 chants engaged in their ordinary pursuits ; but it 
 did not, as the sequel too lamentably proved. 
 
 The following extract from a despatch to Captain 
 Elliot, from the Foreign Office, under date of 22d 
 July, 1836, is important in its bearings upon his 
 actual proceedings with regard to the authorities of 
 Canton. '^ I have to observe to you that it does not 
 appear to His Majesty's Government that it would 
 be expedient that you should attempt to re-open 
 
 i 
 
Ill 
 
 communications with the Viceroy through the Hong 
 merchants ; but, on the contrary, it is desirable that 
 you should decline every proposition to revive 
 official communications through that channel, what- 
 ever may be the quarter from whence such propo- 
 sitions may come. It might be very suitable for 
 the servants of the East India Company, themselves 
 an association of merchants, to communicate with 
 the authorities of China through the merchants 
 of the Hong, but the Superintendents are officers 
 of the King, and as such can properly communicate 
 with none but officers of the Chinese government. 
 This is a point upon which you should insist ; and I 
 have therefore to instruct you, if any attempt should 
 be made by the Hong merchants to enter into com- 
 munication with you upon matters of public business, 
 to express your regret that you are not at liberty to 
 receive any such communications, except from the 
 Viceroy direct, or through some responsible officer 
 of the Chinese government. I have to add, that 
 His Majesty's government do not deem it expedient 
 that you should give to your written communi- 
 cations with the Chinese government, the name of 
 ' Petitions.' " 
 
 From the preceding despatch are collected the 
 first symptoms of any reviving recollections of our 
 critical situation in China. But to what purpose 
 was such a resuscitation ? It only brought us back 
 to the very point on which Lord Napier failed, and 
 on which by that time it ought to have been clearly 
 seen, that any other negotiator, whoever he might 
 be, would assuredly meet with similar disappoint- 
 ment. From the 2d February, 1835, up to the 22d 
 July, 1836, nothing had been done in the shape of 
 
112 
 
 instruction to the Commission as to its political or 
 commercial objects, and this long interval is wound 
 up by a return to the old story of the "Pin," and 
 having nothing to do with the Hong merchants. 
 
 Before that despatch, however, reached Captain 
 Elliot, he had used the freedom to think for the mi- 
 nisters, as they had not taken the trouble to do so 
 themselves ; but being in China, and knowing the 
 obstinacy of the authorities on the score of etiquette, 
 he concluded that the only chance he had of being 
 received at Canton was by sinking the King's 
 officer, and returning to the old practice of the Com- 
 pany's chief supercargoes, who invariably used that 
 character in the superscription of their addresses to 
 the Viceroy. On the very day that he entered upon 
 his new office, the 14th December, 1836, he announced 
 his appointment to the Viceroy, and requested per- 
 mission to repair to Canton. The document bore 
 the forbidden character " Pin," and was transmitted 
 through the equally forbidden medium, the Hong 
 merchants. The Viceroy responded to it in the usual 
 way through the same channel ; and, after waiting 
 the reply to a reference to Peking, Captain Elliot 
 was allowed to go up to the provincial city. The 
 Viceroy, in his order issued on receipt of Captain 
 Elliot's application, says, " The phraseology and 
 subject-matter of the said foreigner's address are 
 reverential and submissive. It seems that he under- 
 stands matters ; and he will, therefore, doubtless be 
 implicitly obedient in all things." Captain EUiot, 
 in his despatch of the 30th of December, 1836, de- 
 tailing the manner of his approach to the Viceroy, 
 and his expectations of being allowed to return to 
 Canton, concludes in these words : — " I have thus. 
 
113 
 
 my Lord, once more opened the communications 
 with this government, and I sincerely trust your 
 Lordship will see no reason to disapprove of my 
 motives, or of the manner of my proceeding. I 
 have acted under a strong persuasion that all hope 
 of peacefully carrying the point of direct official 
 intercourse was futile ; that the actual condition of 
 circumstances was hazardous ; that the instructions 
 in my hand do not warrant the assumption that I 
 have any high political or representative character ; 
 and, finally, that the course itself which I have pur- 
 sued is neither derogatory to the national honour, 
 nor at variance with sound principles of public pro- 
 priety and utility." An extract from another des- 
 patch, dated 12th of January, 1837, says, " In respect 
 to the Chinese character " Pin," upon the address of 
 the communications to the Governors from persons 
 in my station, I take the liberty to forward to your 
 Lordship the accompanying memorandum by Mr. 
 Morrison, the interpreter to this commission. It will 
 be observed that it is the identical character used by 
 officers of the Chinese government in their reports 
 to superior officers ; and, having regard to the radical 
 character under which it is classed, perhaps it may 
 be rather thought to mean the respectful exhibition 
 of information, than a distinct signification of the 
 ideas involved in our word ' Petition.' " The Super- 
 intendent appears to have been very desirous to find 
 out any other meaning of that little but most impor- 
 tant word than the humiliating one of a ^' petition." 
 There is no possibility, however, of altering it for the 
 better; for every one in China, for many years 
 past, who had joined in what we chose to call a 
 *' memorial," knew perfectly well that he was putting 
 
 I 
 
114 
 
 his hand to what the Chinese considered to be neither ^ 
 more nor less than an " humble petition." Mr. Mor- 
 rison's memorandum says, ** The signification of 
 these words (Pin and Yu) I subjoin, as extracted 
 from the Chinese Dictionary of Dr. Morrison : — ' Pin, 
 commonly used to denote a clear statement of any 
 affair made to a superior. Pin is to state to a supe- 
 rior, whether verbally or by writing, whether petition- 
 ing for something, or to give information of, — whe- 
 ther from the people to an officer of government, or 
 from an inferior officer to a superior several degrees 
 
 higher Commands are called Yu; which 
 
 word is used by superiors in the government to ex- 
 press their orders given to inferiors, or to the people.* 
 These are the words that have always been used in 
 the correspondence between foreigners and the 
 government ; and ^ Pin' is the word which the go- 
 vernor, in 1834, required Lord Napier to make , 
 use of." J 
 
 Well, there we have the Superintendent doing the 
 very thing that he had been told not to do, and that 
 most of his countrymen objected to. The trade had 
 gone on very quietly whilst the members of the 
 Commission had remained at Lintin or Macao, and 
 might have continued to do so ; there was, therefore, 
 no immediate necessity for committing its credit, nor 
 that of the nation, for the purpose of gratifying per- 
 sonal caprice. Upon such terms Captain Elliot 
 could be of no more use than any individual mer- 
 chant ; while, at the same time, his presence kept 
 the Chinese in a slow fever, always expecting that 
 he would be putting forward claims incompatible 
 with their usages. Carried on by his own opinion, 
 and not fearing any rebuke from home whilst he had 
 
115 
 
 such good friends at Court, he then made the first 
 step towards compromising our character, and 
 eventually involving us with the government. 
 
 He was, probably, let off in gentle terms at the 
 Foreign Office, but his conduct was not approved 
 of. The following extract from a despatch, dated 
 12th June, 1837, shows that the government had 
 not altered its views on those particular points. 
 His Lordship says, " I have received your despatch 
 of December 30th, 1836, detailing the particulars of 
 a communication into which you had thought 
 proper to enter with the authorities of the Chinese go- 
 vernment at Canton, through the Hong merchants ; 
 and I have also received your despatch of January 
 12th, 1837, in which you state the course which 
 you intended to pursue until the arrival of further 
 instructions from this department. I have now to 
 desire that, upon the receipt of this despatch, you 
 will forthwith inform the Hong merchants and the 
 Viceroy, that His Majesty's government cannot 
 permit that you, an officer of His Majesty, should 
 hold communications with an officer of the Em- 
 peror of China, through the intervention of private 
 and irresponsible individuals. You will, therefore, 
 request that any communications which the Gover- 
 nor may have to make to you in future may be 
 sent direct ; and that the Governor will consent to 
 receive directly from you any communications on 
 public affairs which the interests of the two govern- 
 ments may require you to make to him. You will 
 also explain, that if in future your written communi- 
 cations should not be endorsed with the characters 
 which are usually adopted by subordinate officers in 
 China, when addressing representations to superior 
 
116 
 
 Chinese authorities, this alteration will not arise 
 from any want of respect on your part towards the 
 Governor, but will simply be the result of the 
 established usages of England, which do not admit 
 that an officer commissioned by the king of England 
 should so address an officer commissioned by any 
 other sovereign." So far so well. But in looking 
 back to his lordship's despatch of the 22d of July, 
 1836, in which a distinction is drawn between the 
 supercargoes of the East India Company and the 
 Superintendents, on the ground of the former being 
 only the servants of a mercantile association, while 
 the latter were the officers of the king, if well con- 
 sidered, is it not clear that such a distinction is 
 entirely nominal, and admitted by the force of cir- 
 cumstances rather than by its intrinsic validity ? Is 
 not an insult offered, or injury inflicted upon a 
 British subject by any foreign power, although only 
 a private individual, and not a king's officer, con- 
 sidered to be transmitted through him to the head 
 of our nation, Majesty itself ? and is not govern- 
 ment bound, and generally found prompt enough, 
 to take it up ? The interested views of the Com- 
 pany, with regard to their China trade, smothered 
 any kindly or honourable feeling towards their own 
 servants, until at length it became an axiom with 
 them, and apparently had been adopted by govern- 
 ment, so far as that time, and with the Chinese, that 
 their particular duties and avocations tied them 
 down to passive submission, under any infliction 
 they suffered, short of personal restraint, or the taking 
 of their lives. Such apathy, or such disregard for 
 the interests of British subjects, feeling as keenly as 
 their masters or rulers, has never been given way to 
 
117 
 
 in any other quarter, and it is now to be hoped that 
 there is an end to so discreditable a distinction with 
 regard to China. 
 
 Upon the receipt of Lord Palmerston^s despatch 
 of the 12th of June, on the 21st of November follow- 
 ing Captain Elliot tried several modes of addressing 
 the Viceroy, but without effect, for he would not 
 waive the character "Pin/' In the early part of 
 1837, he had succeeded in sending his addresses, so 
 superscribed, under seal to the Viceroy, and through 
 the hands of the Hong merchants. The answers, 
 however, were never addressed to him directly, but 
 were in the shape of edicts or orders to be communi- 
 cated to him by the Hong merchants. Finding that 
 neither of these obstacles could be removed, and 
 constrained to comply with the orders of government, 
 conveyed to him by Lord Palmerston's despatch, 
 the British flag that had been flying in front of his 
 residence was struck, and the Superintendent em- 
 barked for Macao on the 2d of December. 
 
 In consequence of the Portuguese authorities at 
 Macao not having received any instructions from 
 their own government, relative to the residence of 
 the British superintendents of trade in that place, 
 some misunderstandings appear to have arisen be- 
 tween them, which were reported to the Foreign 
 Office. A representation of the facts was made to 
 the court of Portugal, and the following despatch 
 addressed to Captain Elliot, dated 14th of Septem- 
 ber, 1836 : "I am directed by Viscount Palmerston 
 to transmit to you, for the purpose of being for- 
 warded to the Portuguese Governor of Macao, the 
 accompanying letter, under flying seal, addressed 
 to his Excellency by his government, containing 
 
118 ! 
 
 instructions as to the conduct he should pursue in 
 all matters in which the superintendents of British 
 trade in China may have occasion to address them- 
 selves to his Excellency, on subjects relating to the 
 discharge of their official duties. These instructions 
 are sent to his Excellency, in consequence of the 
 representations of His Majesty's government to that 
 of Portugal, of the circumstances stated in Sir G. 
 Robinson's despatch of the 23d of November, 1835. 
 (Signed) W. Fox Strangways." 
 
 Next follow five despatches from Lord Palmer- 
 ston to Captain Elliot, all dated 8th November, 
 1836. The first relates to the case of Mr. Innes, 
 whose goods the Chinese government had seized 
 and sequestrated. The next to the claim upon Mr. 
 Keating for 300 dollars stopped out of the freight 
 of the ship Planter, for a similar sum improperly 
 charged him, for port dues or fees, by the Hong 
 merchant who had secured the vessel. The third 
 regards the j urisdiction and powers of the superin- 
 tendents, and says : " With reference to my des- 
 patches of this date, containing the opinion of His 
 Majesty's government upon the cases of Mr. Innes 
 and Mr. Keating, I think it right to state to you 
 that His Majesty's government are fully aware of 
 the inconvenience arising both from the undefined 
 state of the jurisdiction of the superintendents in 
 China, and from their want of power to enforce 
 decisions to which they may come on matters sub- 
 mitted to them by members of the commercial body 
 in China. The general question as to the nature, 
 extent, and powers of the future establishment in 
 China, is now under the consideration of His Ma- 
 jesty's government; and I am in hopes that, at no 
 

 119 
 
 distant period, some eflectual remedy may be pro- 
 vided for the inconvenience to which I have more 
 particularly adverted. In the meantime, I have to 
 recommend to you to confine your interference, 
 when called for, as much as possible to friendly 
 suggestion and advice to the parties concerned. 
 The assumption of powers which you have no means 
 of enforcing, and the issuing of injunctions which 
 are set at naught with impunity, can only tend 
 to impair the authority and lower the dignity of 
 His Majesty *s Commission in the eyes of those by 
 whom it is of importance that it should be looked 
 up to with respect. (Signed) Palmerston.'' The 
 fourth despatch was intended to put Captain Elliot 
 right about a stretch of authority that he had felt 
 some disposition to exercise. '' I have observed that 
 in your minute of the 15th of October, 1835, 
 relative to the case of Mr. Innes, you express an 
 opinion that the power given by the Act 26 Geo. 
 III. c. 57, sec. 35, to the supercargoes of the East 
 India Company, to arrest and send to England, 
 persons resident at Canton, may now be lawfully 
 exercised by the superintendents of British trade in 
 China, by virtue of the order in council of the 9tli 
 of December, 1833, which transfers to the superin- 
 tendents all the powers and authorities which were 
 by law vested in the supercargoes, at the date of the 
 termination of the exclusive rights of the East 
 India Company. As a misconception on this point 
 might give rise to much embarrassment, both to 
 His Majesty's government, and to the superinten- 
 dents personally, I have to state to you for your 
 guidance, that the clause of the Act of 26th Geo. 
 III. upon which you rest your opinon, was repealed 
 
120 
 
 by the 146th clause of the Act 33 Geo. III. c. 52; ' 
 and further, that the only power exercised by the 
 supercargoes was that of removing unlicensed per- 
 sons. But as no license from His Majesty is now 
 necessary to enable His Majesty's subjects to trade 
 with or reside in China, such power of expulsion 
 has altogether ceased to exist with respect to China. 
 (Signed) Palmerston." The fifth despatch relates 
 entirely to the reconstruction of the Commission, 
 and a reduction of salaries enjoyed up to that time 
 by the principals and their assistants. 
 
 On the 6th December, 1836, Lord Palmerston 
 wrote Captain Elliot in these terms : " I have had 
 under consideration Sir George Robinson's despatch 
 of May 1 7, reporting the particulars of a gross out- 
 rage committed on two masters of British vessels by 
 a Portuguese officer at Macao, and for which the 
 Superintendent had been unable to obtain any re- 
 dress from the governor of the settlement; and 
 further stating that the governor of Macao persisted 
 in declining to recognise the superintendents in their 
 public character, and had not even returned an 
 answer to their letters. In my despatch of Sep- 
 tember 14th, I transmitted to you, for the purpose 
 of being delivered to the governor of Macao, an in- 
 struction which the Portuguese government had 
 addressed to his Excellency, in consequence of the 
 representation made to them of a former transaction 
 of a similar nature ; and I trust that this instruction 
 will have had the effect of recalling the governor to 
 a proper sense of the respect which is due to officers 
 acting under His Majesty's commission, and will 
 have disposed him to take effectual measures for pre- 
 venting the recurrence of acts of violence towards 
 
121 
 
 British subjects. His Majesty's government have, 
 however, deemed it expedient, as well in conse- 
 quence of these occurrences as with a view to the 
 protection of British commerce in general, to address 
 instructions to the admiral commanding His Ma- 
 jesty's ships in the East Indies, directing him to 
 station a ship of war constantly in the China seas, 
 and to call the special attention of her commander to 
 the necessity of watching over the interests of British 
 subjects at Macao." These instructions appear to 
 have been transmitted to the Admiralty nearly nine 
 months before the date of the despatch, as is shown 
 by the following communication to the Secretary of 
 the Admiralty : — *^ Foreign Office, March 23, 1836. 
 I am directed by Viscount Palmerston to transmit 
 to you the accompanying extracts from the file of 
 proceedings of the Superintendents of the Trade of 
 British subjects in China ; the first relating to the 
 plunder, by some Chinese pirates, of the British 
 vessel Troughton — the second, to the difficulty which 
 the Superintendents experience, in the present state 
 of relations with China, in controlling the conduct 
 of British seamen resorting to the Canton river. In 
 laying these papers before the Lords Commissioners 
 of the Admiralty, I am to desire that you will state 
 to their Lordships that it is Viscount Palmerston's 
 opinion, with reference both to the protection of 
 British ships and property from plunder, and to 
 the necessity of sometimes enforcing subordination 
 among the merchant seamen, that a ship of war be 
 constantly employed on the Chinese station; and that 
 the commander of such ship should be instructed to 
 communicate with the British authorities in China, 
 and to act in concert with them for the maintenance 
 
122 
 
 of British interests in that quarter of the world. 
 (Signed) J. Backhouse." 
 
 Government appears to have been at last roused 
 to the necessity of having some kind of a force near 
 Canton for the protection of our merchants ; but 
 how small their ideas were, or how weak their re- 
 sources, was proved by the tardy appearance of the 
 Raleigh, of 16 guns, on the 12th June, 1837. On 
 the 2d February, 1837, Captain Elliot, in writing to 
 the Foreign Department, says, " It seems likely that 
 the visits of men of war at this crisis, for short 
 periods, and at brief intervals, would have the effect 
 either of relaxing the restrictive spirit of the pro- 
 vincial government, or of hastening onwards the 
 legalization measure, and thus, by one mode or the 
 other, of releasing the trade from its actual condition 
 of stagnation.'' The opium trade was then at a 
 stand-still, but a strong expectation was entertained 
 of its being legalized. On the same day he ad- 
 dressed a despatch to Lord Auckland, and another 
 to Vice-Admiral Capel, the commander-in-chief in 
 the Indian seas, requesting that a man of war should 
 be sent to China, accompanied if possible by two of 
 the Company's cruisers, — " to afford such counte- 
 nance to the general trade as might be practicable, 
 without inconveniently committing His Majesty's 
 government upon any delicate question." This 
 application of the Superintendent probably hastened 
 the execution of the Admiralty order, which had 
 been kept so long in abeyance ; perhaps from there 
 having been no vessel to spare from other services. 
 Thus, either from the paucity of our men of 
 war, or the inattention of government, not one 
 of them made its appearance from October, 1834, 
 
123 
 
 up to June, 1837; our valuable interests at Can- 
 ton having been left all that time without the 
 protection that such a force would have ensured, by 
 the wholesome restraint it would hav^e exercised on 
 the Chinese authorities. One small ship was cer- 
 tainly quite insufficient in the event of a decided 
 outbreak, but at times when there was no great 
 excitement even an 18-gun sloop would have been 
 useful ; for they knew, that although she could not 
 be dangerous to them, she might nevertheless be 
 very troublesome. In his despatch of 5th July, 
 1837, Captain Elliot says — *'In acknowledging 
 your Lordship's despatch of the 6th December, 1836, 
 I have the satisfaction to observe that the inclosure 
 in the despatch of the 14th September preceding 
 has had the effect of completely removing all diffi- 
 culty upon the subject of official correspondence 
 between the Portuguese government of this settle- 
 ment and His Majesty's officers. The instructions 
 to the Admiral, which your Lordship has been 
 pleased to notice in the former despatch, cannot fail 
 to be attended with the best consequences to the 
 general interests of the trade in this empire." 
 
 The Raleigh quitted China on the 12th Sept., 
 1837, having been two months, out of the three 
 she was there, away from Canton, on a cruize to the 
 North East Coast, and the Loo Choo and Bonin 
 Islands. She left Macao on that trip on the 23d 
 June, and returned on the 29th August. 
 
 On the 2d of November a despatch was addressed 
 to Captain Elliot to the following effect. " I have 
 to acknowledge the receipt of your despatches to the 
 27th of April inclusive, which have been laid before 
 Her Majesty's government. In your despatch of 
 
124 
 
 the 27th April, you detail the particulars of various 
 communications you had had with the Viceroy of 
 Canton, with a view to the assertion of your right to 
 forward your communications direct to that officer in 
 a sealed form, and to receive those of his Excellency 
 in a similar form, addressed direct to yourself, and not 
 to the Hong merchants. Her Majesty's government 
 have learnt with satisfaction that you had succeeded 
 in obtaining the admission of the first of these claims, 
 which relates to the mode of sending in your own 
 communications ; and I am to express to you the 
 approbation of your government of the course you 
 pursued on this occasion. You will not fail, on 
 every suitable opportunity, to continue to press for 
 the recognition, on the part of the Chinese autho- 
 rities, of your right to receive, direct from the Viceroy, 
 sealed communications addressed to yourself, with- 
 out the intervention of the Hong merchants." The 
 tenor of the above despatch is certainly extraor- 
 dinary, and the reasons that had worked so great a 
 change of opinion on the part of government most 
 incomprehensible. Nothing could be more contra- 
 dictory than their disapproval expressed in their 
 despatches of the 22d July, 1836, and 12th June, 
 1837, of the mode the Superintendent had marked 
 out for opening communications with the authorities 
 of Canton, and their approval here expressed of his 
 subsequent acts, in bringing to a conclusion, as far i^s. 
 was possible, the very same arrangements they had so 
 much reprobated. Turning to the despatches referred 
 to, it will be found that he had carried out as nearly 
 as could be what he had proposed to do in that of 
 the 30th of December. The only difference is, that 
 he had succeeded in having his addresses to the 
 
125 
 
 Viceroy conveyed under seal, to be opened, as was 
 understood, by him alone. They still carried with 
 them the character of a " petition," and were de- 
 livered to the Hong merchants to be forwarded. 
 The answers were in the shape of " commands," not 
 immediately directed to himself, but to be enjoined 
 upon him by the Hong merchants through whom 
 they were transmitted. In fact, the objectionable 
 Hong merchants were indispensable to the whole 
 arrangement ; and Captain Elliot had only accom- 
 plished what had cost Lord Napier his life in 
 avoiding, and what was in direct contravention, 
 not only of the instructions under the Royal 
 sign manual, but of the very communication 
 from Lord Palmerston before referred to. To 
 shew exactly how the affair stood, a few extracts 
 may be made from the correspondence, if such 
 it can be called, between the Superintendent and 
 the Viceroy. In order to smooth the way to 
 further propositions. Captain Elliot availed himself 
 of the occasion to report to the Viceroy the circum- 
 stances of seventeen natives of China, belonging to 
 a vessel that was carrying grain from one port to 
 another, and, encountering a violent tempest, had 
 been blown off the coast. The junk was fallen in 
 with by the British ship Moncrieff, bound from 
 Canton to England, in great distress, six of the crew 
 having died, and these people taken on board, and 
 landed at Pulo Aor, where they were left in charge 
 of a native chief, who had conveyed them to Singa- 
 pore. These details were stated to the Viceroy, with 
 some reference to the acts of kindness his own coun- 
 trymen, when shipwrecked on the coast, had expe- 
 rienced at the hands of the Chinese. He added, 
 
126 
 
 " The interchange of these charities cannot fail to 
 strengthen the bonds of peace and good will between 
 the two nations;" and ended with some complimen- 
 tary expressions. This was written on the 8th of 
 April, 1837. 
 
 On the 12th, Captain Elliot forwarded another 
 address to the Viceroy, in these terms : — " The 
 undersigned has the honour to announce to your 
 Excellency his arrival at Canton, for the performance 
 of his public duties, agreeably to the authority con- 
 tained in the Imperial edict. The undersigned takes 
 the liberty respectfully to observe to your Excellency, 
 that it is customary for officers of his nation, on 
 their arrival in the chief city of the country where 
 they are to perform their official duties, to propose 
 to have the honour of paying their personal respects 
 to the chief authority. The undersigned believes 
 this practice is also consonant with the customs of 
 this empire, and it will afford him great satisfaction 
 to offer such a proof of respect whenever your Ex- 
 cellency shall think fit to receive him and his suite. 
 The undersigned avails himself of this opportunity 
 to renew to your Excellency the sentiments of his 
 high respect.'' The Viceroy issued an order on 
 the 13th to the Hong merchants, that they should 
 acquaint the Superintendent that he had received 
 the communication respecting the seventeen Chinese 
 taken out of the junk, and their having been carried 
 to Singapore. " The dutifulness," he adds, " herein 
 manifested is worthy of consideration." He then 
 goes on to state that the Fuhkeen authorities had 
 not reported any missing rice-laden junk from For- 
 mosa, but that he had directed the financial Commis- 
 sioner to send the Superintendent's statement to the 
 
127 
 
 Governor of Fuhkeen and Chekeang, requesting him 
 to inquire into the facts, and return an answer. This 
 was all the acknowledgment made to the Superinten- 
 dent's communication at that moment, or thanks 
 returned for the services our people had performed. 
 On the 19th, however, the Viceroy again takes up his 
 pen. Whether he had been annoyed by Captain 
 Elliot's offer to pay his respects to him in person, 
 of which no notice was ever taken, or whether he 
 was really offended at his having spoken of China 
 and England in one breath, when communicating 
 the rescue of the Chinese from a watery grave, it is 
 not quite easy to determine ; but, however it was, he 
 starts on a high key, acting and strutting the part so 
 commonly assumed by the high officers of that vain- 
 glorious government. Nothing can show more 
 clearly than this very document how touchy they 
 are on this particular Chinese " point d'honneur ;" 
 the very high value they set upon their assumed 
 national superiority. He had been turning it over 
 and over for six days more, and found no rest until 
 he vented himself in another rejoinder to the Super- 
 intendent. He then says, " On the 8th instant, the 
 English Superintendent Elliot reported, that a vessel, 
 with officers and people of Formosa, having encoun- 
 tered a gale off the Pescador Islands, was driven to 
 Pulo Aor, within the dominions of the said nation ; 
 that the persons on board were rescued; and that 
 the foreign chief at Singapore had informed the said 
 Superintendent of the circumstances, in order that 
 he might report the same. * * * But for all — for 
 those without as well as those within the pale of the 
 empire — there are rules and bonds of action, styles 
 and modes of expression, becoming that dignity 
 
128 
 
 which has been so long respected. To the renovating 
 principles for so long a period emanating from our 
 empire, the barbarians on every side have submitted 
 themselves. They have tendered to the celestial 
 empire their respectful services ; and this empire 
 stands, in truth, at the head of the lands at its remotest 
 borders, in no other character than that of a ruler 
 amid ministering servants. As to foreign merchants, 
 permission is granted to them to trade and to export, 
 and thus is bestowed on them the means of obtain- 
 ing profit ; and, in regard to those in distress, they 
 are rescued from their distresses, and with needful 
 gifts are sent back. These things arise solely from 
 the all-pervading goodness and cherishing kindness 
 of the Great Emperor, whose favours are constant 
 and universal. Between him and the small, the 
 petty, how can there exist any thing like ' bonds of 
 peace and good will ?' The said Superintendent, in 
 his address on this occasion, has failed altogether to 
 conform himself to the old rules ; has omitted the 
 respectful expression ' Celestial Empire ;' and has 
 absurdly used such words and expressions as ^ your 
 honourable country,' and ' peace and good will be- 
 tween the two nations ;' giving utterance to his own 
 puffed-up imaginations. Not only is this offensive 
 to the dignity to be maintained, but also the ideas 
 therein expressed are absurd and ridiculous. At the 
 same time I, the Governor, on account of the dutiful 
 nature of the thing reported, and because the said 
 Superintendent, having but newly come to Canton, 
 is perhaps uninformed on many matters, viewed his 
 address indulgently and in a partial light, and mani- 
 fested vastness of liberality : therefore I refrained 
 from plainly correcting him, and casting back to him 
 
129 
 
 his address. But the said Superintendent haying 
 come to Canton for the purpose of controlling the 
 
 j merchants and seamen, he cannot avoid having from 
 time to time addresses to make ; and, if not fore- 
 warned, it will be impossible to ensure that he will 
 
 i not, by continued ignomnce and blindness, fall into 
 some grave error. This, then, would not be the way 
 to preserve uninjured the concerns of the foreigners. 
 I therefore issue this order to the senior Hong mer- 
 chants, requiring them immediately to enjoin it upon 
 the said Superintendent Elliot, that he may act in 
 obedience to it. In whatever addresses he may have 
 to present, he is absolutely required to conform im- 
 plicitly to all that is called for by the dignity of the 
 Celestial Empire. He must be careful to render his 
 expressions thoroughly respectful, in order that 
 appropriate commands may be given in reply. Let 
 him not again step into any path opposed to the 
 dignity of the empire, and so tread in a course of 
 still greater error. The senior Hong merchants, 
 whenever the said Superintendent, or a foreign mer- 
 chant of any nation, presents an address on any 
 subject, are required to give it a previous close and 
 careful perusal, and if there be in it any thing, as in 
 this instance, inconsistent with the perfect dignity to 
 be maintained, or any similar loose and crude 
 phraseology, they are immediately to send back the 
 address ; they must not have the audacity to present 
 it for the party : by doing which they will involve 
 themselves with such party in a severe investigation. 
 I, the Governor, having spoken, the law shall follow 
 up what I say. Let all listen with trembling atten- 
 tion. Oppose not these commands." 
 
 K 
 
130 
 
 It will be seen from the preceding edict how nee 
 Capt. Elliot was to a break-down in his very first efi 
 forts to communicate directly with the Viceroy und^i 
 close seal, and that from not studying sufficiently th( 
 tastes of the people, or, perhaps, not allowing his 
 interpreter to put his words into suitable language. 
 It being among his first essays, the honest pride and 
 independence of an Englishman, perhaps, prevented 
 him from using expressions that he must have con- 
 sidered degrading ; and certainly none but the most 
 overbearing and fastidious fops in the world could 
 have taken offence at the particular paragraph ob- 
 jected to, — " The interchange of these charities can- 
 not fail to strengthen the bonds of peace and good- 
 will between the two nations." Is there any thing 
 more wanting, after this, to show the extreme absur- 
 dity of their pretensions, or their utter want of reci- 
 procal feeling ? 
 
 If Captain Elliot had continued of the same mind 
 afterwards it would probably have been better for 
 him and all of us ; but, to accomplish his purposes, 
 he by degrees threw off that reserve, and fell into 
 the Chinese style so completely, that the authorities 
 must have been almost apprehensive of his surpassing 
 them in hyperbole and flattery, and accused him of 
 filching from them their most flowery effusions. 
 The term "celestial" was not at all spared after- 
 wards, though certainly a most objectionable one to 
 be applied to any thing of human institution. Rela- 
 tively speaking there may be nothing wrong in it, 
 as every thing is of celestial origin, but, as they 
 apply it, nothing can be more presumptuous or im- 
 pious, being an usurpation of holy attributes. Cer- 
 tainly the people and their government are a living 
 
131 
 
 wonder — a mighty nation, wrapt up in its own great- 
 ness ; but still, although raised up by Providence to 
 its present pitch, it is not " celestial." We hear of 
 I kings ruling by divdne right, but they are still nothing 
 ■ but poor mortals ; may it not be possible that the 
 Chinese have got hold of the same idea, and, in 
 their heathen propensities, perverted it as they have 
 done? 
 
 Upon a representation from Captain Elliot, that, 
 being a King's officer, he could not submit his ad- 
 dresses to the perusal of the Hong merchants, the 
 Viceroy, on the th^5 April, conceded the point, and 
 also stated, that when he had further occasion to ad- 
 dress the government, his communications were to 
 be sent through the three senior Hong merchants, 
 who held a kind of official rank. He added, how- 
 ever, ^^ but with respect to commands issued by me, 
 the Governor, to the foreigners from without the 
 empire, requiring their obedience in any matter, the 
 established rule of the Celestial Empire is, always to 
 address them to the said senior Hong merchants, to 
 be enjoined by them ; and this rule it is inexpedient 
 to alter." 
 
 After the Viceroy's answer, of the 22d December, 
 to Captain Elliot's first application to be allowed to 
 reside at Canton, and no difficulty thrown in his 
 way, excepting the necessary preliminary of obtain- 
 ing the consent of the Emperor, it was not to be ex- 
 pected that so much delay would intervene before he 
 received his passport. That only reached him at 
 Macao on the 29th of March. It is evident that there 
 were difficulties raised at Peking against it, and that 
 a long correspondence probably took place between 
 the government and the Viceroy before they gave 
 
132 
 
 their consent. The discussions with Lord Napier 
 were still strong in their recollection ; and it is not 
 to be wondered at that, in a matter of such impor- 
 tance to themselves, thej should have taken time to 
 deliberate. Even his having adopted, on the super- 
 scription of his address to the Viceroy, the character 
 ** Pin," did not relieve their hesitation. 
 
 On the 2d November, 1837, Lord Palmerston ad- 
 dressed the following despatch to Captain Elliot — 
 government at that time happening to think that some 
 greater protection was wanting to our interests in 
 China. "I transmit to you the copy of an instruction 
 on the subject of our relations with China, which has 
 been addressed by the Lords Commissioners of the 
 Admiralty to Rear-Admiral Sir Frederick Maitland, 
 Commander-in-Chief of Her Majesty's squadron on 
 the East India station. You will observe that 
 while Sir Frederick Maitland is informed that it is 
 desirable that one or more of the ships under 
 his orders should, as frequently as possible, visit 
 the China station, and should remain there as long 
 as may be consistent with the demands of the ser- 
 vice elsewhere within his command, he is also 
 instructed to take the earliest convenient opportunity 
 of himself visiting China, in order to have a per- 
 sonal communication with you, and thus afford an 
 opportunity for the interchange of information be- 
 tween yourself and him, which, in many possible 
 future contingencies, would be highly advantageous 
 to British interests in that quarter. Whenever, 
 therefore, you shall receive from Sir Frederick 
 Maitland an intimation of his arrival off the coast 
 of China, you will, if not then residing at Macao, 
 lose no time in proceeding to that place, to meet, 
 
GEORGE C. T. HARTLEY, Esq. 
 
 Tefuporary Offices : 
 
 St. Margaret' s House, 
 
 Victoria Street. S. W. 
 

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 12^2 
 
 
 
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 'y-^^^'£vi 
 
 -tonA,^ Lifyu 
 
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 133 
 
 and confer with him ; and in all your communica- 
 tions with the Rear- Admiral, or with the com- 
 mander of any of Her Majesty *s ships that may 
 visit China, you will be careful to conform your- 
 self to the line of conduct prescribed in the 
 instruction of which a copy is now transmitted to 
 you." In the communications with the Lords 
 Commissioners of the Admiralty, it appears that 
 certain instructions then existed regarding the visits 
 of our men-of-war to China under the orders of the 
 Commander-in-Chief in the Indian seas, which it 
 was found expedient to cancel, and to substitute 
 others more suitable to present emergencies. A 
 new instruction was, therefore, drawn up at the 
 Foreign Office, to be conformed to in the orders to 
 the Admiralty. It states thus : " The trade between 
 Great Britain and China being now by law thrown 
 open to all Her Majesty's subjects, instead of being 
 confined, as formerly, to the East India Company, 
 the care of our commercial relations with the Chinese 
 empire has, in consequence, been transferred to the 
 Crown : the East India Company's establishments at 
 Canton and Macao have been withdrawn, and a 
 Queen's officer has been substituted, with the title of 
 Superintendent, and with the duties of a Consul. It 
 is, therefore, desirable that one or more of the ships 
 under your orders should, as frequently as possible, 
 visit the China station, and should remain there as 
 long as may be consistent with the demands of the 
 service elsewhere within your command ; and 
 whenever a frigate can be spared for this service, a 
 ship of her class would be preferable to a smaller 
 one. The purposes for which such ships would 
 be stationed are : — First, to afford protection to 
 
134 ^ 
 
 British interests, and to give weight to any repre- 
 sentations which Her Majesty's Superintendent may 
 be under the necessity of making, in case any of 
 Her Majesty's subjects should have just cause of 
 complaint against the Chinese authorities ; and, 
 secondly, to assist the Superintendent in maintain- 
 ing order among the crews of the merchantmen 
 who frequent the port of Canton." The next para- 
 graph recommends that the officers and men should 
 be cautioned against giving any offence to the 
 Chinese; that the Superintendent should be con- 
 sulted upon such matters as concerned the laws and 
 prejudices of the people, and the proper places where 
 the ships should lie : " remembering always, how- 
 ever, that unless in a case of great emergency, when 
 a demonstration or an actual employment of force 
 may be urgently and absolutely necessary for the 
 protection of the lives and properties of British 
 subjects. Her Majesty's ships of war are studiously 
 to respect the regulations of the Chinese government 
 as to the limits beyond which foreign ships of war 
 are not allowed to approach the city of Canton. 
 But it is for many reasons expedient, for the in- 
 terests of Her Majesty's service, that you should 
 yourself take as early an opportunity as may be 
 convenient to have a personal communication with 
 Her Majesty's Superintendent, who would meet 
 you for that purpose at Macao ; and your visit on 
 that occasion should, if possible, be made in a line- 
 of-battle ship. The interchange of information 
 between yourself and the Superintendent would, 
 in many possible future contingencies, be highly 
 advantageous to the British interests in that quarter. 
 You will, however, constantly bear in mind, that 
 
135 
 
 while on the one hand it is useful that the Chinese 
 should be aware of the nature and extent of Her 
 Majesty's naval power, it is, on the other hand, 
 most important that you should avoid any proceed- 
 ings which might inspire the Chinese with an 
 apprehension that this naval power is likely to be 
 employed in unprovoked hostility against them." 
 
 The preceding long extracts are given to show 
 the exact views of our government as to the extent 
 of the protection they were disposed to afford to 
 our China trade, and the precautions under which 
 it was to be used. Captain Elliot had recommended 
 " frequent and short visits" of our ships of war, and 
 without directly stating that two or three should be 
 constantly stationed in the China sea, as he recom- 
 mended Manilla as a fitting place of rendezvous for 
 them it would appear that he thought it advisable 
 that they should be as near as possible to Canton. 
 Surely there has all along been a great mistake 
 respecting our men-of-war approaching or remain- 
 ing at the mouth of the Canton river. So fasti- 
 dious as the East India Company was on this 
 and other points at all likely to give umbrage 
 to the Chinese authorities, and their particular 
 interests having been so much at stake, government 
 then felt no disposition to interfere, and could not 
 have done so with propriety. In the long war that 
 lasted from 1793 to 1815, with the short interval 
 of peace in 1802-3, and the three months that 
 Buonaparte was at Elba, the Chinese had been ac- 
 customed to see our men-of-war anchoring at 
 Whampoa, along with the Indiamen they had con- 
 voyed. For many years after the conclusion of 
 peace, with the trade going on quietly at Canton, 
 
136 
 
 and the Company indisposed, at almost any cost, to 
 raise disputes, there was perhaps no great necessity 
 for the constant presence or frequent visits of ships 
 of war : but the moment their exclusive right to the 
 trade ceased, and the management of more compli- 
 cated interests devolved upon the government, the 
 expediency of a different course should immediately 
 have been seen. The proceedings which it had be- 
 come necessary to institute in 1829-30, relative to 
 the defective state of the Hongs, and the very high 
 duties and fees charged upon our shipping, had oc- 
 casioned a good deal of excitement among the 
 Chinese, which shewed itself openly in May 1831, 
 in the demolition of a part of the Company's pre- 
 mises. They were looking forward also to dif- 
 ferences that they thought likely to arise on the 
 retirement of the Company's compact and united 
 establishment, to which they had been so long 
 accustomed ; and having observed the resident mer- 
 chants, not connected with the Company, always to 
 take the lead when any thing was required to be 
 done, they drew the conclusion that when they be- 
 came more numerous, their demands would be urged 
 with greater frequency and more determination. The 
 senior Hong merchant, Howqua, looked forward to 
 the change with feverish anxiety, and if the same 
 feeling pervaded the rest of the merchants and the 
 local officers, it was not unlikely to create the very 
 evil they dreaded, by preparing for resistance when 
 there might really be nothing to fear or oppose. 
 That, however, was the condition of things at 
 Canton, for three or four years immediately pre- 
 ceding the opening of the trade ; and when Lord 
 Napier went up among them to urge pretensions that 
 
137 
 
 they had never heard of before, they considered that 
 the fulfilment of their forebodings had arrived. Their 
 discontent then broke out at once, like a smothered 
 flame that darts out through the superincumbent 
 smoke the moment it is roused by the action of ano- 
 ther element. From that time the necessity of having 
 a force at hand has been always apparent to any one 
 who gave the subject the consideration it required, 
 and to every one but those who had the disposal of 
 our ships under their command, and if none to 
 spare, the means within their reach of providing 
 what was necessary. Had three such vessels as the 
 Druid, Volage, and Hyacinth, been kept constantly 
 at Macao and the anchorages among the islands, and 
 observing to the letter the instructions before re- 
 cited with regard to the natives and their autho- 
 rities, the Chinese government would gradually have 
 overlooked and ceased to object to their presence. 
 They were not too many to alarm them as to any 
 unprovoked act of hostility. Our government, and 
 perhaps the Superintendents, have been too chary 
 of the Chinese in this respect. What we are 
 accustomed to see daily, and feel no inconvenience 
 from, we are insensibly led to tolerate, however 
 much we may at first have disliked it. 
 
 Well ; we have now got an order for the Admiral 
 to go himself, or send part of his squadron to China, 
 where it was so much wanted. The instruction to 
 the Admiralty is dated the 20th of September, 1837, 
 but the Admiral had not one ship to spare when he 
 received his orders. On the 21st April, 1838, he 
 writes Captain Elliot, from Madras, to the 
 following effect : — " I have the honour to inform 
 you that I relieved Vice- Admiral Sir T. B. Capel, 
 
138 
 
 in the command of her Majesty's ships in the 
 Indian seas, on the 5th of February last, and have 
 only delayed sending a ship to China in consequence 
 of the state of the relations of the Indian govern- 
 ment with that of Ava ; for the present every thing 
 bears a pacific aspect, though it is by no means cer- 
 tain that the differences between the two govern- 
 ments may n.ot ultimately produce hostilities. I 
 shall, however, take advantage of the present 
 position of affairs, to send the Lame to Macao, 
 and, after communicating with you cordially and 
 confidentially, with instructions to go on to Manilla, 
 and obtain a supply of cordage for the dockyard 
 at Trincomalee, and then return to Macao. In the 
 early part of June it is my intention to leave the 
 Straits of Malacca, for the purpose of paying a visit, 
 in the Wellesley, in compliance with instructions 
 from the Lords of the Admiralty, to enable me to 
 have a personal communication with you, as the 
 interchange of information for which such commu- 
 nication will afford an opportunity, might, in many 
 possible future contingencies, be highly advan- 
 tageous to British interests." Admiral Maitland 
 repeated Lord Palmerston's language in part of the 
 last sentence ; but what occasion could there be for 
 so many words about nothing ? What information 
 could Lord Palmerston, the Admiralty, or the Ad- 
 miral, convey to Captain Elliot about China ? — and 
 what information that he alone could really give, 
 was likely to be of any use in future to the Admiral, 
 the Admiralty, or Lord Palmerston, when the two 
 first had not the power, and the last no inclination, 
 to act upon it ? That sentence was merely put in as 
 a kind of stuffing to fill up the despatch — a void 
 
139 
 
 place that aflTorded room for something mur;h more 
 to the purpose, which was omitted. 
 
 It is now necessary to return to the subject of the 
 mode of communication between the Superintendent 
 and the local authorities, and trace out the course of 
 his proceedings in that respect subsequent to the 
 27th April, 1837, up to which date they had pro- 
 cured for him the plaudits of government, expressed 
 through its organ, the Foreign Office. On the 27th 
 April he had addressed the Viceroy in these terms : — 
 " The undersigned, &c. &c. has had the honour to 
 receive the edict from your Excellency, directed to 
 the three senior Hong merchants, dated on the 25th 
 instant, for communication to him. He begs to 
 offer your Excellency his respectful thanks for the 
 commands that his addresses shall always be com- 
 mitted to your Excellency's hands, by the three 
 senior Hong merchants, in a sealed shape. Your 
 Excellency, however, an illustrious officer, in a 
 very high station, has been pleased to signify that 
 the customs of the empire prevent a direct commu- 
 nication of your commands to the undersigned. 
 Under these circumstances he has bent his most 
 earnest attention to the course which it be- 
 comes him to pursue ; and he is humbly of opi- 
 nion that he shall best evince his profound respect 
 for the rules of this empire, by continuing to carry 
 on the communications in the manner prescribed by 
 your Excellency, until he can receive the further 
 commands of his own government. The under- 
 signed avails himself of this occasion to renew to 
 your Excellency the sentiments of his highest con- 
 sideration." 
 
 In a despatch to Lord Palmerston, dated 24th 
 
140 
 
 May, he transmits an edict from the Viceroy in reply 
 to the foregoing note. The Viceroy says, " This 
 address coming before me, I, the governor, have 
 perused the document, and fully informed myself of 
 its contents. As to any commands, which I, the 
 governor, may have to give, such commands have 
 hitherto been enjoined and inculcated through the 
 medium of the senior Hong merchants. This con- 
 cerns the settled dignity of the celestial empire ; and 
 the said nation, in its up-gazing contemplation of 
 the majesty and benignity of the empire, v^ill as- 
 suredly indulge no foolish expectations of change. 
 Let obedience be at once paid to this matter, as is 
 agreeable to the duty of the said Superintendent's 
 office." 
 
 In a despatch to Lord Palmerston, dated 4th of 
 September, 1837, referring to another of the 29th 
 August, which reported the return of his Majesty's 
 sloop Raleigh, Captain Elliot says, " I have now the 
 honour to submit a translation of the document 
 handed to Captain Quin by the officers of the pro- 
 vincial government of Foo-Chow-Foo, in the pro- 
 vince of Fuhkeen, on the 3d of July last. This 
 paper is not an edict from the Governor, addressed 
 directly to Captain Quin ; but it is an instrument, 
 signed and sealed by certain native officers, to whom 
 it (the edict) was addressed, involving a copy of his 
 Excellency's commands, communicated to them for 
 injunction upon Captain Quin. The sensitiveness 
 of the higher Chinese authorities upon the subject 
 of direct official communication with foreigners is a 
 feeling which is commonly supposed to be very 
 much confined to the government of this province. 
 It was strongly manifested, however, on this occa- 
 
141 
 
 sion at Foo-Chow-Foo ; and I believe it may be 
 considered to be a principle of Chinese policy which 
 will be found in active force at all the outward limits 
 of the empire." 
 
 Four different edicts having been issued by the 
 Viceroy and Deputy-Governor, in consequence of 
 orders from Peking, desiring the Superintendent to 
 send away the opium-ships both from Canton and 
 the north-east coast, he thought it expedient at last 
 to take notice of them. They were dated 4th 
 and 17th August, and 18th and 19th September. 
 How far he was called upon to take any notice of 
 them is a separate question ; but in the course of the 
 correspondence he gained a point for that occasion, 
 in having the desires of the Viceroy, that the subject 
 should be made known to our government, conveyed 
 to him under seal of two high officers of the city. In 
 the first place, he does not disclaim his knowledge 
 of the ships being there, but denies his own autho- 
 rity to remove them; having no public means of 
 knowing which of them are British and which 
 foreign, seeing only the papers of the ships that enter 
 the port. In regard to the will of the Emperor, that 
 the King of England should be requested to prevent 
 these irregular visits of British vessels to the coast, 
 he declares that the then mode of communication with 
 the Chinese authorities rendered it impossible for 
 him to forward such an intimation. Being himself 
 an officer, and wholly unconnected with trade, he 
 had so far deferred, at great personal responsibility, 
 to the then mode of receiving the Viceroy's orders 
 conveyed to him through the Hong merchants, but 
 would not dare to forward the substance of any in- 
 formation derived from such a source for submission 
 
142 
 
 to his own Sovereign. He referred the Viceroy to 
 the late instance of a communication made to Capt. 
 Quin, by the governor of Fuhkeen and Chekeang, 
 through the medium of certain high officers, and 
 stated that if the Viceroy w^ould adopt the same 
 mode the desire of the Emperor should be laid be- 
 fore his late Majesty. 
 
 The governor and lieutenant-governor made a 
 joint reply to Captain Elliot's address on the 28th 
 September, of w^hich an abstract is given. The edict 
 was sent to him through the senior Hong merchants. 
 It is to the following effect : — " The vessels having 
 been so long anchored off the coast, the Great Em- 
 peror has been informed of them ; and the Superin- 
 tendent having resided some years at Macao, how 
 can he be ignorant of the circumstances and places 
 of their anchorage ? The address of the Superin- 
 tendent is merely a specious document. The rule of 
 the empire is, that all commands issued to foreigners 
 are to be enjoined through the medium of the Hong 
 merchants ; and, in a matter of such importance as 
 the present, how can obedience be refused ? There 
 is, however, some reason in the representation, that 
 it is difficult to bring to the knowledge of his King 
 a plain and authentic document. They, therefore, 
 taking this into consideration, will adapt their pro- 
 ceedings to the occasion, and will instruct the prefect 
 of the department of Kwang-Chow, and the chief 
 military officer of the same department, to com- 
 municate their wishes to the Superintendent, who, 
 in obedience thereto, is to send away the receiving- 
 ships, and also to forward information to his King, 
 that such vessels may be prohibited coming here 
 again." The prefect of Kwang-Chow-Foo, Choo, 
 
143 
 
 and the commander of the forces of Kwang-Chow,Ta, 
 therefore took the edict, of which the preceding is an 
 abridgment, and on the 29th enjoined it, as desired, 
 upon the Superintendent. 
 
 On its receipt. Captain Elliot addressed the follow- 
 ing note to the Viceroy : — " The undersigned, &c. 
 &c. has had the honour to receive your Excellency's 
 edict, dated 28th September, conveyed directly to 
 him, under the seals of the Kwang-Chow-Foo and 
 Kwang-Heep, (the chief civil magistrate of Canton, 
 appointed by the Emperor, and the commander of 
 the garrison), and he will immediately transmit it to 
 his country by the rapid steam and overland com- 
 munication from Bombay. He has already signified 
 to your Excellency, with truth and plainness, that 
 his commission extends only to the regular trade 
 with this empire ; and, further, that the existence of 
 any other than this trade has never yet been sub- 
 mitted to the knowledge of his own gracious Sove- 
 reign. He- will only permit himself to add on this 
 occasion, that circumstances of the kind described by 
 your Excellency cannot be heard of without feelings 
 of concern and apprehension, and he desires humbly 
 to express an earnest hope, that sure and safe means 
 of remedying a hazardous state of things may be 
 speedily devised. The undersigned renews to your 
 Excellency the sentiments of his highest conside- 
 ration." 
 
 After Captain Elliot's retirement to Macao, in con- 
 sequence of his unsuccessful attempts to induce the 
 Viceroy to waive the point of etiquette involved in 
 the character " Pin," and to transmit his communi- 
 cations through officers of the government, as had 
 been done on the 29th September, with the edict for 
 
144 
 
 transmission to his late Majesty, he reverts to the 
 subject in a despatch from that place, dated 4th De- 
 cember, 1837. In it he says — "In my mind, my 
 Lord, the peaceful establishment of direct official 
 intercourse is no longer of questionable or difficult 
 accomplishment. The principle that officers were 
 not to reside in the empire has been formally 
 renounced by the Emperor himself, and that 
 was the main obstacle ; the clearest admission of my 
 right to direct sealed communications with the 
 Governor, upon the ground of my official character, 
 has been conceded ; an official mistake in an edict 
 describing me to be a merchant, has been publicly 
 acknowledged and corrected; facilities (especially 
 upon the plea that I was an officer, and involving a 
 direct official intercourse with the Mandarins here,) 
 have been accorded -, striking proofs of the disposition 
 to devolve upon me in my official capacity the 
 adjustment of all disputes, even between Chinese 
 and my own countrymen, have been afforded. On 
 one occasion the provincial government has already 
 communicated with me in a direct official shape ; 
 and upon my late departure from Canton, it was 
 easy to perceive that the Governor was prepared to 
 fall entirely into that course, upon the condition that 
 I should waive the proposed change in the super- 
 scription of my addresses." 
 
 In turning back to a document said to be the 
 memorial sent by the Viceroy to the Emperor after 
 Captain Elliot's application to be allowed to go up 
 to Canton, we find the following statement : — 
 "This report having come before me (that is, a 
 report of the Mandarins and Hong merchants sent 
 to inquire of Captain Elltot the nature of his parti- 
 
145 
 
 cular office, and his objects at Canton), I find that 
 since the dissolution of the English Company a 
 chief supercargo has not come hither ; that of late, the 
 ships' papers of foreign merchants returning home, 
 have been signed by this foreigner, who has resided 
 at Macao for the purpose, and is represented to have 
 quietly attended to his duty ; and that at this pre- 
 sent time ships are constantly and uninterruptedly 
 arriving, and the merchants and seamen are indeed 
 very numerous. It would be well promptly to 
 relax the unimportant restraints, in order to preserve 
 peace and quiet. Now, this foreigner having re- 
 ceived credentials from his country, appointing him 
 to the general control of merchants and seamen, 
 though he is not precisely the same as the chief 
 supercargo hitherto appointed, yet the difference is 
 but in name, for in reality he is the same. And, 
 after all, he is a foreigner to hold the reins of 
 foreigners ; and if not allowed to interfere in aught 
 else, it would seem that an alteration may be 
 admitted, and that he may be permitted to come 
 to Canton and direct affairs, according to the same 
 regulations under which the chief supercargoes have 
 hitherto acted. I have, for the present, commanded 
 the said foreigner to remain temporarily at Macao, 
 waiting until I shall have announced the facts to 
 your Majesty. If your Majesty's gracious assent 
 be vouchsafed, I will then write to the Superin- 
 tendent of Maritime Customs (the Hoppo) to grant 
 a passport for his admission to Canton. Thereafter, 
 he shall be required to change his residence from 
 Canton to Macao, and back again, according to the 
 season, just as under the former regulations ; and he 
 shall not be allowed to overpass the time, and linger 
 
 L 
 
146 
 
 about at the capital, so as gradually to effect a settle- 
 ment there. I will besides command the local, civil, 
 and military officers, and the Hong merchants, from 
 time to time, truly to watch and examine his con- 
 duct, and if he exceeds his duty, and acts foolishly, 
 or forms connexions with traitorous Chinese, with a 
 view to twist the laws to serve private interests, he 
 shall be immediately driven forth, and sent back to 
 his country. Thus will the source of any illegalities 
 be dried up.'* 
 
 The Imperial edict authorising the Superintendent 
 to proceed to Canton was received by the Viceroy 
 on the 15th of March, 1837. Its date is stated to 
 have been the 2d of February : if correct, there must 
 have been great delay or hesitation somewhere in 
 giving it promulgation, for in a matter of some 
 importance, as it was, it might have been transmitted 
 in sixteen or seventeen days. It takes up the language 
 of the Viceroy's order, issued upon Captain Elliot's 
 first application, so closely, that the words of the one 
 would do as well as those of the other ; but, being 
 of some consequence, the following copy is given 
 from the Hoppo's precept, dated 18th of March. 
 " Imperial Edict : — Tang has represented to us, that 
 since the dissolution of the Company, no chief 
 supercargo has come to Canton -, that in December, 
 last year, the said nation gave a special appointment 
 to one of its officers, to proceed to Canton and take 
 the general control of the merchants who came to 
 trade, also of the seamen, &c. ; that since the ships 
 of the said nation continually arrive, there ought to 
 be some one to control them, with a view to pre- 
 serve tranquillity ; and that the said foreigner having 
 received a public official commission for the control 
 
147 
 
 of the merchants and seamen, although his title be 
 not the same as that of the chief supercargoes hitherto 
 sent, yet in the duty of controlling he does not 
 differ. It is, therefore, our Imperial pleasure, that 
 he be permitted to repair to Canton, under the 
 existing regulations applicable to chief supercargoes, 
 and that on his arrival at the provincial capital he 
 be allowed to take the management of affairs. For 
 this purpose the Superintendent of Customs is 
 hereby commanded to grant him a passport. In 
 future he is to reside sometimes at Macao, and some- 
 times at Canton, conforming herein to the old 
 regulations ; and he must not be permitted to exceed 
 the proper time, and, by loitering about, gradually 
 effect a continual residence. The said Governor and 
 his colleagues are hereby authorized to hold the said 
 foreigner responsible for the careful control of affairs, 
 that so all disturbances may be prevented. They 
 should issue strict orders to all officers, civil and 
 military, and to the Hong merchants, requiring 
 them to inform themselves, from time to time, of the 
 true state of things, and to keep v^^atch on the said 
 foreigner. If he exceed his duty and act impro- 
 perly, or by combining with traitorous natives, to 
 twist the laws to serve his private ends, he must 
 immediately be driven back to his country, in order 
 effectually to remove the source of evil. Let this 
 edict be communicated to Tang. Respect this." 
 
 It is quite clear from the Emperor's edict, that 
 although they admitted the Superintendent to be an 
 officer of the British crown, they only accepted him 
 in his limited capacity of controlling his own coun- 
 trymen ; knowing the inconvenience of applying 
 their own laws to foreigners, whose manners and 
 
148 
 
 usages were so different from their own. They were, 
 therefore, satisfied to transfer to him the charge of 
 checking and correcting all irregularities of compa- 
 ratively minor importance ; still reserving to them- 
 selves the unalienable right of interfering in cases of 
 greater moment, involving injury to the property 
 and persons of their subjects. This power, so far 
 as they permitted him to exercise it, was possessed 
 by his predecessors the Company's Chief Super- 
 cargoes ; and in no respect whatever were they dis- 
 posed to admit any difference between him and 
 them, excepting from the circumstance of his being 
 an officer of his country, instead of the servant of a 
 trading association; which, however important to 
 us, they threw into the background. In fact, there 
 appears, at one time, to have been little or no diffe- 
 rence of opinion between Captain Elliot and them, 
 as to his actual position and duties ; for, upon re- 
 ference to his declaration in his despatch of 30th 
 December, 1836, he is found to say, " that the in- 
 structions in his hand did not warrant the assumption 
 that he had any high or representative character." 
 He certainly was not in the situation of an envoy of 
 our government, charged with the accomplishment 
 of some specific political purpose; and so far as 
 that, he was not, properly speaking, our representa- 
 tive, as the term is usually applied. But still in his 
 own person he represented the nation, inasmuch as 
 he was an officer of government, and to the same 
 extent exactly that our consuls do represent us 
 every where else; and, more particularly, where we 
 may happen to have no charge-d'affaires or resident 
 ambassador, whose functions are purely political. 
 There would appear to be little, if any, difference 
 
149 
 
 between British subjects, whatever their rank or 
 office, in the eye of the nation, which is bound to 
 protect them all; but there is a deference due to 
 rank, and a support owing to public officers em- 
 ployed in the service of their country, that call more 
 especially for our sympathy and protection, when 
 their dignity is compromised, or their persons put in 
 peril. The Chinese may have considered the out- 
 rage they eventually committed upon Captain Elliot 
 no greater than that inflicted upon the rest of our 
 countrymen, not having received him on any other 
 terms than they would a leading merchant of the 
 place. We see the thing otherwise, and consider 
 this act of violence and indignity the greater because 
 he was involved in it. 
 
 The concession made at Captain Elliot's sug- 
 gestion, in conveying to him under seal of two high 
 officers of the place the communication respecting 
 the opium ships to be laid before his late Majesty, 
 was to answer their own purposes, as he would not 
 undertake to transmit it if sent to him through the 
 Hong merchants. 
 
 Lord Palmerston having learnt by the Superin- 
 tendent's despatches, that having failed in bringing 
 the Viceroy to terms respecting the manner of com- 
 municating with the government, he had, in com- 
 pliance with his instructions from the Foreign Office, 
 repaired to Macao, his lordship, on the 15th of June, 
 1838, addressed a despatch to him, of which the 
 following is an extract : — " Her Majesty's govern- 
 ment have had under their consideration your de- 
 spatches of the 29th November and 4th December, 
 1837, in which you report your proceedings in exe- 
 cution of the instructions conveyed to you in the 
 
150 
 
 despatch of last year^ relative to the manner in 
 which you should send communications to, and re- 
 ceive them from, the Chinese authorities at Canton, 
 I have to acquaint you that Her Majesty's govern- 
 ment approve the course which you have pursued ; 
 and as the Chinese authorities persisted in their re- 
 fusal to communicate with you in the manner 
 required, Her Majesty's government consider that 
 you were perfectly right in retiring from Canton to 
 Macao." This despatch is one of the series of in- 
 consistencies established against the Foreign Office, 
 in regard to the subject referred to. Several des- 
 patches have before been brought into view, but 
 a short recapitulation of their tenor may not be 
 unprofitable. On the 22d July, 1836, Captain 
 Elliot was warned against the objectionable mode 
 of communication, which some private communica- 
 tion from him had prepared Lord Palmerston to 
 look for. No despatch from China appears in the 
 correspondence that could call for such a renewal of 
 the first and only instruction of government ; and 
 Sir George Robinson's opinions not leaning that 
 way, the suggestion of such a deviation must have 
 come from Captain Elliot. Of this despatch he took 
 no notice, or, at any rate, not a shadow of it appears 
 in the China correspondence. It probably reached 
 him when he was in the thick of his negotiations 
 with the Viceroy. His appointment as Chief Super- 
 intendent, forwarded on the 15th June, was acknow- 
 ledged on the 14th of December. The other could 
 not have been very long after it. If so, he went on, 
 notwithstanding the desire of government to the 
 contrary. The despatch from the Foreign Office of 
 the 12th June, 1837, disapproving of the Superin- 
 
151 
 
 tendent's approaches to the Chinese government 
 in the way he had advised on the 30th December, 
 1836, reached him on the 21st November, and on 
 the 2d December he in consequence retired to 
 Macao. On the 9th of October, 1837, Lord Pal- 
 merston received the despatch from Captain Elliot, 
 dated 27th April, advising his having done exactly 
 what government had cautioned him not to do, and 
 upon that a despatch was forwarded, dated 2d No- 
 vember following, highly approving of what had 
 been so decidedly condemned on the 12th June ! 
 But the detail is not yet finished. Upon the news 
 of the Superintendent having struck his flag at 
 Canton, and retired to Macao, on the 2d of De- 
 cember, 1837, arriving at the Foreign Office, the 
 despatch of the 15th June, 1838, was written, ap- 
 proving of his having left Canton, although the 
 despatch of the 2d November encouraged him to 
 remain there exactly upon the Viceroy's own terms ! 
 Thus annulling, in fact, the meed of praise they had 
 then accorded him, but not so expressed. Nothing 
 could be more contradictory, nor show a greater 
 disregard for correctness in what had been considered 
 a matter of great importance. However, one thing 
 has been made clear by it — that whatever Captain 
 Elliot did, or whatever somersets he threw, he was 
 sure to alight upon his legs at the Foreign Office. 
 
 On the 20th April, 1838, Capt. Elliot addressed 
 Lord Palmerston, from Macao, on the subject of the 
 trade carried on in opium within the river in 
 European boats, which, he observed, had ^'vastly 
 increased in the preceding two months." His state- 
 ment as to this sudden impulse given to that branch 
 of the trade has been contradicted, and being himself 
 
152 
 
 during that time at Macao, he, perhaps, was not so 
 correctly informed as the merchants in Canton. 
 However that may be, his despatch betrays the 
 desire he felt to limit or put an end to such illicit, 
 and as he considered it, dangerous traffic within the 
 port; and he thereupon proposed to himself to enter 
 into some correspondence with the Viceroy to clear 
 himself from the suspicion of having at all encou- 
 raged it, and perhaps to offer his services, as he did 
 afterwards, to put it down. The Superintendent 
 had not been at Canton since the 2d December, 
 when he found the Viceroy impervious to his de- 
 mands for an alteration in the mode of their com- 
 munications. He had not then received Lord 
 Palmerston's despatch of the 2d November, 1837, 
 approving of the intercourse as it had been carried 
 on, or he might, probably, have yielded to the strong 
 inclination he felt to be again in the provincial city. 
 To gain his point, he penned something like an 
 address to the Viceroy, which was submitted to the 
 perusal of Howqua, the senior Hong merchant, with 
 permission to lay the papers before the Viceroy if 
 he thought proper to do so. In the commencement 
 it stated that many months must elapse before he 
 could receive instructions from home for his public 
 guidance ; meaning, probably, that the Viceroy 
 should understand such instructions to be in regard 
 to the way in which the demand made by the 
 Chinese government for the removal of the opium 
 ships was to be met. He then says, '' he fears that 
 the absence of responsible authority over his coun- 
 trymen, for so long a period, may produce dangerous 
 and deeply-rooted irregularity, leading to violent 
 modes of remedy ', and in such proceedings it is to 
 
153 
 
 be apprehended innocent men might suffer, to the 
 great risk of the maintenance of peace be ween the 
 two nations." Mr. Morrison, to whom the paper 
 was transmitted, was doubtless instructed to explain 
 to Howqua, and he to the Viceroy, that the para- 
 graph recited was intended to apply to the river 
 trade in opium. The paper goes on to suggest to 
 the Viceroy a way in which their communications 
 might be renewed without being encumbered with 
 the troublesome character " Pin ;" which certainly 
 was a rational one, and could have been acted on 
 had the Viceroy been at all desirous to have Captain 
 Elliot's assistance in putting down the illicit traffic. 
 He proposed that the communications should be 
 carried on through the Chief Magistrate of Canton, 
 and the Commander of the Garrison, as had been once 
 done ; for, between them and him, he having been 
 formerly reported as an officer of the fourth rank 
 in his own country, there could be no necessity for 
 any other superscription on the addresses, excepting 
 their names and ordinary titles. He concluded the 
 document by saying, that in this manner he would 
 be in a condition to return immediately to Canton, 
 and resume the performance of his duties, of which 
 there was such urgent need. The paper was re- 
 turned to Captain Elliot, with a message from 
 Howqua, to the effect that the Governor had seen it, 
 but could not accede to the arrangement suggested. 
 Captain Elliot remarks, " I was sensible that the 
 present state of things could only subsist as long 
 as the Governor could venture to appropriate a large 
 share of the bribes, by which the system is upheld ; 
 and, therefore, I looked for no other result." The 
 communications, therefore, remained suspended. 
 
^ 154 
 
 On the 31st of May, 1838, the Superintendent 
 acknowledged the receipt of Lord Palmerston's 
 despatch, just referred to, of 2d Nov., 1837. He 
 says, — " The interruption of the communication still 
 subsists; but your Lordship may assure yourself 
 that there is no longer any serious obstacle in the 
 way of its re-establishment on a direct footing. The 
 countenance afforded me by the presence of the 
 Rear- Admiral, commanding in chief, will probably 
 enable me to carry the remaining points, soon after 
 his arrival in these seas." Without that assistance 
 in view, he assuredly had not the smallest reason to 
 expect any immediate concession of the disputed 
 point, so soon after the rejection of the very reasonable 
 proposal made to the Viceroy, which might not un- 
 likely have been accepted, had it not been coupled 
 with the allusion to the river smuggling, which there 
 was then no desire on the part of the local autho- 
 rities to interfere with. ~' ^..^ 
 
 Very soon after the arrival of Admiral Maitland 
 on the 12th July, and an interview with him, Capt. 
 Elliot determined on proceeding to Canton. In the 
 meantime the presence of the men-of-war becoming 
 known, the Keun-Min-Foo, or district magistrate of 
 Macao, addressed a chop to the Superintendent, who 
 finding it contained the character "Yu," signifying 
 a " command," returned it unread, with a written 
 intimation that it would be attended to the moment 
 the obnoxious character was expunged. The next 
 approach was made by the Viceroy in an order 
 addressed as usual to the Hong merchants, and 
 forwarded through the hands of a linguist. That 
 document was returned unopened, with a message 
 that the Superintendent's strict orders in this respect 
 
165 
 
 had been explained to the Viceroy, and that no 
 deviation could be made from them. To obviate any 
 inconvenience resulting from the uneasiness of the 
 government at the presence of the ships, and to 
 explain in some way the object of their coming, 
 vrhich it was doubtless the purport of the two re- 
 turned documents to inquire. Captain Elliot, with 
 the Admiral's concurrence, went up to Canton on 
 the 25th July, and having hoisted the national flag, 
 forwarded to the city gate an open paper, for trans- 
 mission to the Governor by the hands of a Man- 
 darin. The paper was left open, with a view to 
 avoid the necessity of using the character *' Pin." 
 It was to this effect : — "An Enghsh officer of the first 
 rank, ^Maitland,' commanding the ships of his 
 Sovereign in the Indian Seas, has arrived off these 
 coasts by the command of his government. The 
 Superintendent Elliot has now received Maitland's 
 instructions to signify to his excellency the Governor, 
 that he desires to explain the peaceful purposes of 
 this visit. It would be convenient, therefore, that 
 the manner of intercourse should be clearly under- 
 stood beforehand, so that all difficulties and mis- 
 understandings may be prevented. For this reason 
 Elliot requests that the Governor would be pleased 
 to send officers to communicate with him ; and, if 
 they should come, his Excellency may be assured 
 that they wdll be received in a manner consistent 
 with their dignity." 
 
 This address was conveyed to the Governor by 
 the Kwang-Heep, or commander of the garrison; 
 but was returned in the evening by the three senior 
 Hong merchants, with a remark from the Governor, 
 that his orders from Peking were imperative, and 
 
156 
 
 that he could not receive the paper unless it bore the 
 character "Pin." The Hong merchants were at the 
 same time desired to acquaint the Superintendent 
 that the Governor was a lover of peace and good 
 understanding, and would go as far as he could to 
 accommodate the difficulties upon the subject of in- 
 tercourse. They then proposed, by his command, 
 that he should receive an official address from the 
 Governor, setting forth that the senior Hong mer- 
 chants were indeed Mandarins, and that, therefore, 
 Captain Elliot could no longer reasonably decline 
 to receive papers addressed to them for communica- 
 tion to him. This evasion and subterfuge was in- 
 dignantly and properly repelled by Captain Elliot; 
 for the trick (for such it was) by which it was in- 
 tended to metamorphose, merely upon paper, those 
 persons who held only a kind of police authority 
 into officers of a high rank, was too palpable not to 
 be detected and despised. The scheme, therefore, fell 
 to the ground : nothing was accomplished, as had 
 been expected so sanguinely by the Superintendent, 
 during the stay of Admiral Maitland, in bringing to 
 a conclusion the knotty point of an honourable 
 mode of communication with the higher order of 
 Chinese authorities. The proceedings of the Admiral 
 in another particular have already been detailed; 
 and nothing more remains to be said respecting that 
 unprofitable visit of our ships, excepting to conclude 
 with a despatch from the Foreign Office to Captain 
 Elliot, in relation to it, dated 30th March, 1839, as 
 follows : — " With reference to your despatches of 
 7th and 10th August, and 13th October, 1838, in 
 which you report the proceedings which took place 
 between yourself and Rear-Admiral Sir Frederick 
 
157 
 
 Maitland on the one part, and the Chinese autho- 
 rities on the other, upon the late visit of the Rear- 
 Admiral to the neighbourhood of the Canton river, 
 I have much satisfaction in conveying to you the 
 approval of her Majesty's government of your con- 
 duct on this occasion. (Signed) Palmerston." — On 
 the point of etiquette, agitated at the time referred 
 to, not a syllable appears in that despatch. 
 
 We are novi^ approaching the period w^hen Captain 
 Elliot allowed his former feelings respecting the 
 river trade in opium again to overpower his judg- 
 ment. He now fell into the error from which the 
 Viceroy's imperviousness on the former occasion 
 alone saved him. Circumstances had changed since 
 that time. A seizure of opium had been made on 
 board some junks at Tienshan, and reported to the 
 Emperor, who had laid severe injunctions upon the 
 Viceroy to put an end to such palpable infractions 
 of the prohibition, on pain, in case of failure, of his 
 highest displeasure. This pressure upon the Viceroy 
 had more to do with the stoppage of the regular 
 trade than Mr. Innes's opium, attempted to be landed 
 at the Factories, and the whole river traffic in the 
 drug put together. Captain Elliot did not see far 
 enough on this occasion ; and, led by his impetuosity, 
 blundered into a wrong scent. The Viceroy, ill at 
 ease as he was, still knew perfectly well what to do 
 with the river trade in opium, and could have stopped 
 it whenever he pleased without laying his hands 
 upon a single European boat. A " scrap of his 
 pen," as has been said, would have put an end to it 
 at once. He had already stopped the deliveries at 
 Lintin, and surely it would have been much easier 
 to do it in the narrower stream of the riv er at Canton 
 
158 
 
 and Whampoa. He had only to issue a general 
 order to prevent its being landed by the natives ; 
 and, if disobeyed, by bambooing and imprisoning 
 some of the guilty parties, or perhaps inflicting a 
 heavier punishment, the river trade would sud- 
 denly have terminated. It might have been said of 
 the opium trade so carried on, as with some things 
 bearing a threatening aspect, " sufficient unto the 
 day is the evil thereof." If let alone at that time, 
 or at any time previous to the great seizure, the 
 Chinese would have worked out the whole question 
 much better than we could do it ourselves, and have 
 saved us from any necessity to interfere. By Cap- 
 tain Elliot's rash proceedings, in openly bringing the 
 subject under the observation of the Viceroy, and 
 obliging him to take notice of it, he probably induced 
 the other severe measures to which he and Commis- 
 sioner Lin afterwards resorted. Captain Elliot's 
 desire to render assistance to the Viceroy in an affair 
 wherein he required none, led to a renewal of the 
 never-ending discussions about the mode of official 
 communications. His despatch to the Foreign Office, 
 dated Canton, 31st December, 1838, will speak for 
 itself as to what passed between him and the Viceroy 
 on this occasion. He says, " The departure of a 
 ship for Bengal affords me an occasion to report 
 that the public intercourse between this government 
 and myself is renewed ; his Excellency having 
 consented to communicate with me, on all important 
 subjects, under the seals of the Kwang-Chow-Foo 
 and Kwang-Heep. In return for this substantial con- 
 cession, I have agreed to incur the responsibility of 
 communicating with his Excellency under the cha- 
 racter ' Pin ; but it has been clearly explained, that 
 
159 
 
 this course has been adopted on the ground that 
 native officers of my own rank address his Excel- 
 lency in the same form — an understanding naturally 
 involving the principle that British officers of the 
 first and second ranks will claim the right to com- 
 municate upon an equal footing with native autho- 
 rities of the like degrees." It is difficult to conceive 
 the reasoning by which Captain Elliot reconciled to 
 himself, as he appears to have done, the assumption 
 of the character '^ Pin." Although it may be 
 consonant with Chinese feeling and custom to 
 address their superior officers in such humble terms, 
 surely there is no parity between them and us, and 
 more especially with an officer of our government, 
 that can justify our falling into the same practice. 
 It is not required of us to address our own higher 
 authorities in expressions conveying more than 
 sentiments of respect, excepting when we have 
 something to ask which does not of right belong to 
 us ; when alone we become " humble petitioners." 
 A British officer never can have favours to ask of a 
 foreign government, at any rate in his public capa- 
 city ; and therefore Captain Elliot was not at any 
 time justified in adopting that style with the chief 
 autliority at Canton ; for our objects in China must 
 be sought for and gained by other means than the 
 grovelling submissions and serpentine prostrations 
 of the natives. In his address to the Viceroy on the 
 23d December, 1838, relative to the European boats 
 that were engaged in carrying opium up the river, 
 he states his desire that the Viceroy's orders may be 
 directed to him, under the seals of the Rwang- 
 Chow-Foo and Kwang-Heep, " not for any vain pre- 
 tensions of his own, but only that he might be able 
 
160 
 
 to impress on his own countrymen, in eases of 
 emergency, that he was acting at his Excellency's 
 requisition, and that his own government might see 
 he had had proper authority, as well as urgent 
 occasion, for his proceedings. Neither did he desire 
 to trouble his Excellency upon trifling affairs. So 
 soon as the intercourse might be renewed, all such 
 matters might be conducted between the official 
 Hong merchants and himself agreeably to his 
 Excellency's further arrangements. Influenced by 
 solicitude for the character of his country, and the 
 general protection of the interests of a good trade, 
 he felt it his duty to submit his own views to his 
 Excellency at that moment, and had, therefore, 
 used the character "Pin" in that address; but he 
 requested his Excellency to signify, through the 
 honourable officers, that it was a mode of address 
 used by native officers even of the second rank, so 
 that it might be seen by the government of his own 
 country that he had acted upon admissible prin- 
 ciples." The Viceroy, in his answer conveyed 
 through the said officers, dated 26th December, 1838, 
 says — " With reference to documents presented by 
 foreign countries to officers of the Celestial Em- 
 pire, on any affairs, all are required to use the term 
 Pin, This is one of the fixed statutes regarding 
 intercourse between the central and foreign nations, 
 and a rule, therefore, which it is, in an especial de- 
 gree, impossible to overleap. The Superintendent 
 aforesaid, not being a blind and unenlightened man, 
 how can he plead ignorance of this ? Besides, the 
 sovereign of his nation has ever been reverentially 
 compliant. And if you, a subject and a servant of 
 that sovereign, show that you indeed estimate the 
 
161 
 
 sentiments felt, and carefully and diligently fulfil 
 your duties conformably to them, you will receive a 
 high meed of praise. How can your well-doing be 
 found fault with as being wrong ? On this point 
 also the said Superintendent need give himself no 
 anxiety." In Captain Elliot's despatch of the 2d 
 of January, 1839, he complains that the Chinese 
 officers referred to, in conveying to him the Viceroy's 
 edict, had taken upon themselves to command 
 him to obey it, which, for prudential reasons, he 
 had received without a comment. He intended^ 
 however, on the next occasion, to send a short note 
 to those officers beforehand, requesting them to 
 signify that they were communicating his Excel- 
 lency the Governor's pleasure, and not their own. 
 He ended that despatch by an apparently ridiculous 
 assumption that such an attainment of direct official 
 communication would be satisfactory to Her Ma- 
 jesty's government; and stating that "It was the 
 first permanent intercourse of the kind which had 
 ever existed between that ancient empire and the 
 western world ; and with the rule plainly admitted, 
 and the countenance of Her Majesty's government, 
 prudent and watchful officers would, he trusted, find 
 it less perplexing to improve and extend the manner 
 (of it) than it had been to establish it." What had 
 he really established ? The right,, as he possessed it, 
 of addressing the Viceroy of Canton, was enjoyed 
 before him by the Company's supercargoes; and 
 the only thing he had gained, if gain it could be 
 called, was the occasional transmission to him of 
 the Viceroy's edicts by the hands of officers, under- 
 stood to be of the same rank as himself, who sent 
 them to him with their commands, instead of their 
 
 M 
 
162 
 
 compliments ! This was the last communication 
 from Captain Elliot on the subject of the official 
 correspondence between him and the local govern- 
 ment. Commissioner Lin not long afterwards made 
 his appearance, kicked over the Superintendent's 
 basket of eggs, and scattered all his supposed gains 
 upon Chinese impracticability to the four winds of 
 heaven. The Hong merchants were made use of 
 without any cereniony, but Choo and Han, the 
 Prefect and Commandant of Canton, were also 
 made the bearers or executors of the commands of 
 the Commissioner and Viceroy, during the proceed- 
 ings connected with the opium surrender ; the Com- 
 mandant once on the 25th of March, but the Prefect 
 throughout the whole of the transactions. The 
 Governor in this way kept his promise, that Cap- 
 tain Elliot should be honoured by their attendance 
 on all important occasions. As a finish to this 
 long detail respecting a point of form, in itself 
 apparently of little consequence, but in China all- 
 important, it remains only to add the despatch 
 of Lord Palmerston to Captain Elliot, dated 
 13th of June, 1839. "Your despatches to the 
 31st December of last year, and to the 30th 
 of January of this year, have been received, and 
 laid before Her Majesty's government. With refe- 
 rence to such of these despatches as detail the cir- 
 cumstances which led to an interruption of the trade 
 for a short period in December last, and the steps 
 which you took, in consequence, with a view to the 
 re-opening of the trade, and to the re-establishment 
 of your official communications with the Chinese 
 authorities, I have to signify to you the entire ap- 
 probation of Her Majesty's government of your 
 
163 
 
 conduct on those matters. But I have at the same 
 time to instruct you not to omit to avail yourself of 
 any proper opportunity to press for the substitution 
 of a less objectionable character than the character 
 ' Pin,' on the superscription of the communications 
 which you may have occasion to address to the 
 Viceroy." 
 
 Besides the wrong view Lord Palmerston took of 
 the notable proceeding referred to in the preceding 
 despatch, of the Queen's officer having headed a 
 Chinese force against Her Majesty's subjects, the 
 strong approbation bestowed upon him was in direct 
 opposition to the sentiments of government, conveyed 
 to Captain Elliot in a despatch, dated 22d July, 
 1836, before noticed, cautioning him against inter- 
 ferences with the enterprises of British merchants. If 
 in the comparatively small matter of a steamer 
 going up the river, how much more necessary was it 
 that such an injunction should extend to the vital 
 interest involved in the opium trade, towards which 
 the strictest reserve should have been maintained. 
 
 The following extract of a despatch from Sir George 
 B. Robinson, dated Lintin, 27th Feb. 1836, is not 
 an inapt commentary on the preceding details of use- 
 less and derogatory applications and compliances : — 
 " The trade is going on ; a friendly understanding 
 subsists between our commercial community and the 
 Chinese, ample for all commercial purposes, and a 
 mutual abstinence and forbearance from every source 
 of discussion and consequent enmity, evinces, in my 
 opinion, sound judgment and discretion. On the 
 subject of attempting to communicate with the local 
 authorities through the medium of the Hong mer- 
 chants, it is scarcely necessary for me to comment. 
 
164 
 
 The very act of such intercourse with them will 
 ever preclude the possibility of our coming into 
 more intimate contact with the mandarins. But it 
 is no communication, inasmuch as they will ever 
 decline to deliver even our petitions, on all occasions 
 relating to the extortions, oppression, and corruption 
 of their own body, against whose power and mono- 
 poly we have principally to exclaim, and for the 
 annihilation of which our strongest efforts ought to 
 be exerted. From a people so arrogant and barba- 
 rous, nothing is gained by undue humiliation and 
 self-abasement. They are generally disposed to 
 respect us in proportion as we respect ourselves. 
 Under existing circumstances, the less we have to 
 do with the Chinese authorities, the more probable 
 it is we shall avoid difficulties and dangers, by 
 which not only our present tranquillity may be 
 endangered, but our future arrangements affected." 
 Certainly the policy herein set forth was the best to 
 be followed, so long as our government chose to 
 keep the Superintendents in China, and do nothing 
 to aid them. Circumstanced as they were, their 
 best course was to remain at Macao or the outer 
 anchorages, for by going up to Canton, and enter- 
 ing into unprofitable negotiations with the local 
 authorities, as Captain Elliot did, they were sure 
 to degrade the Commission, and increase its embar- 
 rassments, i 
 On the 19th November, 1837, Captain Elliot 
 addressed a despatch to the Foreign Office, strongly 
 drawing the attention of government to what ap- 
 peared to him a very critical state of affairs in China. 
 He commenced by an allusion to the abandon- 
 ment of the project of legalizing the introduction 
 
165 
 
 of opium, which there was every reason to believe 
 had been favourably considered early in the year at 
 Peking. The vigorous proceedings of the provincial 
 government against the native smugglers at the 
 outer anchorages in the neighbourhood of Canton 
 had had the effect of greatly increasing the traffic on 
 the eastern coast of that and the neighbouring 
 province of Fuhkeen. Till the last four months 
 that branch of the trade had never employed more 
 than two or three small vessels, but at the date of 
 the despatch there were not less than twenty sail 
 of ships on the east coast; and there was 
 reason to believe blood had been spilt by the inter- 
 change of shot that, from time to time, had taken 
 place between them and the mandarin boats ; that 
 at Canton the native boats had been burnt, and the 
 native smugglers scattered, and the consequence 
 was, that a complete and very hazardous change 
 had taken place in the whole manner of conducting 
 that portion of the trade ; that a great part of that 
 trade was then carried on in European passage- 
 boats belonging to the British, slenderly manned 
 with Lascars, and scantily armed, so as rather to 
 invite than repel attack. He had no means of judg- 
 ing to what extent the shipping at Whampoa might 
 be engaged in that new mode of carrying on 
 the trade, but had some reason to believe they were 
 in some degree ; and as the Hong merchant, who 
 secured each ship, joined her commander and con- 
 signee in a bond to the government that she had no 
 opium on board, it was easy to foresee the difficulties 
 that would arise from a discovery that any of 
 them was so concerned. That though he was disposed 
 to believe that the higher officers of the provincial 
 
166 
 
 government were perfectly sensible of the extensive 
 smuggling of opium carried on in European passage- 
 boats, and from some motive, either of interest or 
 policy, or probably of both, opposed no immediate 
 obstacle to such a condition of things, yet that the 
 continuance of their inertness w^as not to be de- 
 pended upon. Disputes among themselves for the 
 shares of the emoluments, private reports against 
 each other to the Court, and lastly, the ordinary 
 practice of allowing abuses to grow to ripeness, 
 and to rest in false security, were all of them con- 
 siderations which forbade the hope that such a 
 state of things could endure. Setting aside the 
 interference of the mandarins, it was not to be 
 questioned that the passage of so valuable an 
 article in small and slightly armed vessels offered 
 a great temptation to piratical attack by the many 
 desperate smugglers that had been thrown out of 
 employment, and also to the needy inhabitants of the 
 adjacent islands. It was, therefore, by no means 
 improbable that another Ladrone war might be 
 directed against Europeans as well as Chinese. He 
 concluded by saying, "In fact, my Lord, while 
 looking around me, and weighing the whole body of 
 circumstances as carefully as I can, it seems to me 
 that the moment has arrived for such active interpo- 
 sition upon the part of Her Majesty's government 
 as can be properly afforded, and that it cannot be 
 deferred without great hazard to the safety of the 
 whole trade and of the persons engaged in its pur- 
 suit. The accompanying paper was originally 
 intended as a memorandum of matter to be framed 
 into a despatch to your Lordship, but several con- 
 siderations dispose nie to hope I shall be excused 
 
167 
 
 for transmitting it in its present form. That the main 
 body of the inward trade (about three-fifths of the 
 amount) should be carried on in so hazardous a 
 manner to the safety of the whole commerce and 
 intercourse with the empire, is a very disquieting 
 subject of reflection : but I have a strong conviction 
 that it is an evil susceptible of early removal." 
 Captain Elliot is said to have taken an exaggerated 
 view of the evils described as growing out of the 
 change that had been worked in the management 
 of the opium trade, and particularly as to the river 
 passage-boats, which were not then so extensively 
 engaged in carrying the drug, although they might 
 occasionally have taken up a few chests. Upon 
 the whole, however, it would appear that Captain 
 Elliot's fears were not ill-grounded at the time ; for 
 looking at the altered character of the trade, and the 
 strong opposition of the supreme government, daily 
 becoming more apparent, it was evident that matters 
 were not in a sound state. The Court had been 
 engaged in the consideration of two great measures 
 — the one being to legalize the importation and 
 growth of opium, and thereby save the great 
 expense of coast-guards, and other arrange- 
 ments to maintain the prohibition, besides the 
 inconvenient necessity it involved of frequent 
 interferences with the habits of the people ; — the 
 other, to enforce the restriction by increasing the 
 penalties already existing, and by sweeping and 
 active measures to destroy every vestige of the drug. 
 Whatever were the arguments used on either side, 
 or the validity of the objections raised against its 
 legalization, it was clear the government had then 
 decided upon throwing every possible impediment 
 
168 
 
 in the way of their own people who dealt in it. 
 Captain Elliot was by his own admission no friend 
 to the drug, objecting to it on principle, but he did 
 not then allow his private feelings to interfere with 
 his public duties, in a matter of so much importance. 
 He saw that it was time for government to step in, 
 and therefore recommended an armed negociation, 
 not for the purpose of attack, but for the security of 
 the Commissioner whom the memorandum recom- 
 mended to be sent. 
 
 It appeared to him that a convenient use might be 
 made of the Viceroy's edict of the 29th September, 
 transmitted at this time to the Foreign Department, 
 agreeably to his promise to that authority. He 
 suggested that a letter should be addressed to the 
 Viceroy, announcing that the edict had been received, 
 and signifying Her Majesty's pleasure to despatch a 
 Special Commissioner to China, to inquire in what 
 degree the evils complained of were chargeable to 
 Her Majesty's subjects ; and to consider by what 
 means it might be possible to establish all things 
 upon a safe and. satisfactory footing. The point of 
 destination to be Tchusan Island, the largest of the 
 group, lying at a convenient distance from the coast, 
 in the near neighbourhood of the great city of Ning- 
 po, and not very far from Nanking. It contained 
 a safe anchorage, which had been surveyed, and 
 produced enough to maintain its own population. 
 A six-and-forty gun frigate, and a sloop or two, 
 with a steam-boat from India, did not appear to 
 be a larger escort than should very properly attend 
 upon a Special Commissioner, charged with an 
 autograph letter from Her Majesty to the Emperor. 
 It was recommended that upon his arrival the chief 
 
169 
 
 native officer of the island should be required to 
 announce his coming to the Governor of Ningpo, 
 and to request that proper officers might imme- 
 diately be deputed to receive Her Majesty's letter to 
 the Emperor, and also one from the Secretary of 
 State to the Governor-General of the Provinces, 
 resident at Nanking ; as well as another to the 
 Cabinet at Peking. He thought it of considera- 
 ble importance that the Commissioner should 
 neither see nor communicate with any persons 
 deputed by the Governor of Ningpo, until it was 
 most carefully ascertained by the interpreters of the 
 mission that they were officers of the third rank, at 
 least, if civil, or the second, if military. The letters 
 of the Secretary of State to the Governor-General 
 and the Cabinet of Peking, might signify, in general 
 terms, the cause and objects of the mission, and 
 request that their Excellencies would move the Em- 
 peror graciously to appoint Commissioners of the 
 first rank to receive Her Majesty's letter ; and other 
 special officers to confer with him on the business of 
 his visit, in order that he might speedily complete it, 
 and sail back to his own country as soon as it were 
 satisfactorily arranged. If all intercourse at any 
 other point than Canton were obstinately refused 
 (and there it would be idle to go), the Commissioner 
 should be instructed to declare that he had orders 
 to take post where he was, till further directions 
 could be received from England ; and that he 
 should forthwith manifest an earnest determination 
 to secure himself in a safe attitude. When the 
 officers from Peking had arrived, it should be ex- 
 plained how impossible it was that the steps could 
 be taken that had been urged by the Chinese, and 
 
170 
 
 how futile they would be if their enactment were 
 practicable. More than one-half of the opium 
 imported into China might be shown to come from 
 places not in Her Majesty's dominions, and there- 
 fore neither the right nor the power rested in her to 
 forbid its exportation in foreign vessels, nor to pre- 
 vent it from being carried to China. From a person 
 filling his (Captain Elliot's) situation, any reasoning 
 of the kind would be out of place, it being his plain 
 duty to adhere to the principle that it was a subject 
 with which he had no concern. But the arguments 
 of a Commissioner specially appointed to treat the 
 subject would be attentively considered, and those 
 might be urged not only to the early legalization of 
 the trade, but to other important relaxations. He 
 believed it would be salutary to announce that Her 
 Majesty being without the power to prevent or to 
 regulate the trade, anxiously desired its legalization; 
 so that all men who visited the empire of China 
 might be within the control of the laws. The 
 Imperial government had frequently menaced the 
 entire extinction of the regular trade on account of 
 the illicit traffic in opium, which it was plain Her 
 Majesty had no means of preventing. Threats so 
 urgent and so hostile furnished an irresistible reason 
 for the presence of a protecting force. It might 
 therefore be declared, in conclusion, that Her 
 Majesty had no other alternative than to leave 
 such a force on the coast, in order that her subjects 
 carrying on the lawful trade should not be hindered 
 or injured in their pursuit. Upon the whole it 
 appeared to him that the time had fully arrived 
 when Her Majesty's government should justly 
 explain its own position with respect to the pre- 
 
171 
 
 vention or regulation of the opium trade, give its 
 own counsels, or take its own alternative course. 
 In other respects he would say that the Commis- 
 sioner should rather be instructed to gain all he 
 could, than be furnished with precise points of 
 insistance." 
 
 The preceding paragraph, although not altogether 
 in Captain Elliof s own words, contains the sub- 
 stance of his recommendations to government, com- 
 municated sixteen months before Commissioner 
 Lin's arrival at Canton. However much he may 
 have magnified the risk, through an over-sanguine 
 temperament easily excited, no one can safely say 
 that the state of the opium trade at that time was not 
 such as to raise considerable anxiety in the minds 
 of the merchants, and that they were not filled with 
 uncertainty as to its future course. Captain Elliot, 
 therefore, could not be far wrong in the general view 
 he took, although he might have mistaken some of 
 the particulars ; such as conflicts between the 
 Europeans and the coast-guard, and other lawless 
 and violent acts of the Chinese themselves, arising 
 out of the trade as then carried on. He could not 
 foresee the catastrophe that eventually took place, 
 but there was enough before him to throw a dark 
 shadow upon the future. He referred to this despatch 
 and memorandum of advice at various times after- 
 wards, and probably thought government would 
 act upon it. The cost of such a mission could not 
 have been very great; for the ships of war, that had 
 been thought necessary for the protection of British 
 interests at Canton, might have been removed (i/'they 
 had ever been there), with more advantage, to the 
 point and for the purposes designated. The Ministry 
 
1T2 
 
 were, however, spell-bound as to China, and received 
 Captain Elliot's communication with the utmost un- 
 concern. In Lord Palmerston's despatch, of the 15th 
 June, 1838, he says, " With respect to the smuggling 
 trade in opium, which forms the subject of your de- 
 spatches of the 18tli and 19th November, and 7th 
 December, 1837, I have to state, that Her Majesty's 
 government cannot interfere, for the purpose of 
 enabling British subjects to violate the laws of the 
 country to which they trade. Any loss, therefore, 
 which such persons may suffer, in consequence of the 
 7nore effectual execution of the Chinese laws on this 
 subject, must be borne by the persons who have brought 
 that loss on themselves by their own acts. With re- 
 spect to the plan proposed by you, in your despatch 
 of the 19th November, for sending a Special Com- 
 missioner to Tchusan, to endeavour to effect some 
 arrangement with the Chinese government about the 
 opium trade. Her Majesty's government do not see 
 their way in such a measure with sufficient clearness 
 to justify them in adopting it at the present moment." 
 A Chinese minister of state could not have written a 
 despatch more hostile to British interests. It is, in 
 fact, the counterpart of a Chinese edict, in which the 
 opium dealers were anathematised by those who had 
 encouraged them. Had his Lordship, instead of 
 writing that despatch, drawn up a short prescript to 
 the Admiralty to prepare such a squadron, and the 
 Cabinet laid their heads together to find out a proper 
 person to send. Commissioner Lin might probably 
 never have been heard of, and the whole matter of 
 dispute have been settled at Tchusan. 
 
 Captain Elliot's despatch from Macao, of the 7th 
 December, 1837, refers to an imperial edict pub- 
 
173 
 
 lished on the 20th of the preceding month, regarding 
 the departure of the receiving ships in one month, on 
 disobedience of which the regular trade was to be 
 stopped, and himself expelled. Captain Elliot says, 
 " Perhaps your Lordship maybe of opinion, that the 
 menaces to stop the regular trade, and to expel me 
 from the empire, strengthen the reasoning submitted 
 in the memorandum enclosed in my despatch of the 
 19th ult., in the advocacy of immediate and earnest 
 approaches to this Court by her Majesty's govern- 
 ment." In his answer, on the 21st November, to the 
 Viceroy's order, containing the edict, conveyed to 
 him through the Hong merchants, he declares his 
 inability to do any thing of the kind, and that he 
 must immediately report to the home government, 
 and that of India, the menaces of interrupted com- 
 merce and his own expulsion. 
 
 The next despatch from the Superintendent, 
 dated Macao, the 18th January, 183S, reports the 
 seizure of three chests of opium on board an English 
 boat in the vicinity of Canton, " about two miles 
 above the Factories," by some of the river police. He 
 says, " This is the first instance, for many years, of 
 a searching visit on board European boats ; and it is 
 to be apprehended the practice may be inconveniently 
 extended ; the more so as several of these boats are 
 armed." 
 
 On the 5th February, 1833, Captain Elliot en- 
 closes a memorial from the provincial government 
 to the Emperor, proposing the stoppage of the re- 
 gular trade until the opium receiving-ships should 
 have taken their departure from Lintin and the 
 neighbouring anchorages. He observes that the 
 Chinese merchants attached considerable importance 
 
174 
 
 to it. It had left Canton the end of December. The 
 memorial refers to the strict injunctions laid upon 
 the memorialists, the Governor, Lieutenant Go- 
 vernor, and Superintendent of Customs, to put 
 down the opium trade, and compel the foreign ships 
 that received it to return to their several countries. 
 It then goes on at considerable length to detail the 
 great exertions they had made, and succeeded in, 
 with regard to their own subjects, by frequent 
 seizures of opium, as well as some Sycee silver and 
 dollars, and the severe punishment of offenders : 
 that the effects of their measures were apparent 
 in the then low price of Sycev silver, and the great 
 fall in opium, one ball of which (weighing 21 
 catties) was now selling on board the ships at 
 sixteen to eighteen dollars, which had formerly 
 cost the traitorous natives thirty dollars. The 
 memorial then goes into a curious detail con- 
 cerning the effect on the public mind of such 
 measures to put down the opium trade. It says — 
 " But there being many crafty and cunning devices 
 which fail of success, numerous complaints have 
 hence arisen, proceeding from malicious tongues, 
 that these failures (alluding to distress among the 
 native merchants) are brought on by the measures 
 now adopted. Some there are, babbling scandal- 
 mongers, who represent that we, your ministers, if 
 besought by those who bring rich offerings in their 
 hands, are not unwilling to accept gifts. Others, 
 speculative men, of ruined fortunes, declare that the 
 civilians and the military officers, when bribed, 
 liberate, and apprehend only when they receive no 
 fees ; that, in searching for contraband articles, they 
 contrive only to annoy the honest merchant; and 
 
175 
 
 that if they perchance do make a seizure, they then 
 cause it to appear that the contraband goods have 
 been sunk, and are lost. Others, again, there are, 
 anxious, fearful-minded men, who lament these pro- 
 ceedings, saying, that since these urgently preven- 
 tive measures have been adopted, the foreign 
 merchant-vessels that have come hither have been 
 but few ; that the teas and silk have come into a dull 
 market ; that the circulation of the capital and inter- 
 change of goods has been far from brisk, so that 
 the merchants cannot preserve themselves from over- 
 w^helming embarrassments, and that part of Canton 
 province must be reduced to v^retchedness : further, 
 that since search is now being made in every place 
 for idle people and vagrants, in order to seize them, 
 many of the boat people are in consequence thrown 
 out of employment ; and it may justly be feared 
 that they will be driven to plunder, and that rob- 
 beries will daily be multiplied. These and similar 
 rumours are confidently circulated, but they are all 
 slanderous assertions of the credulous or the ma- 
 licious, intended to trouble the minds of us, your 
 minisiers, to disturb the steadiness of our bearing, 
 and confuse the correctness of our vision. Though 
 we venture not to be wholly wedded to our 
 opinions, nor to act as if we heard nothing, and 
 though, therefore, we seek to examine, with the 
 greatest impartiality, every well-founded rumour, 
 and all well-authenticated accusations of abuse, 
 with the hope of preserving the whole system of 
 affairs from taint or imperfection, yet must we not 
 give way to apprehensions which would render us 
 fearful to begin any thing, or afraid to carry it to an 
 ending, and would reduce us to the condition of 
 
176 
 
 him who, having a hiccup, left ofFswallowing food." 
 It will be remembered, that from two of these 
 same memorialists, the Governor and Lieutenant- 
 Governor, had proceeded, on the 7th September, 
 1836, a recommendation to legalize the trade, and 
 the preceding report of the strictures passed upon 
 the severe measures they had been since obliged to 
 pursue, was an ingenious device to raise doubts at 
 Court of the policy of going to such extremities. 
 They, however, recommended the stoppage of the 
 regular trade for a time, as the most expedient and 
 probably efficient plan for inducing the foreigners to 
 send away the opium ships. 
 
 The next despatch from the Superintendent is 
 dated from Macao, the 29th March, 1838. It in- 
 closed a letter from the chairman of a meeting of 
 certain of the foreign creditors of the bankrupt 
 Hing-tae Hong, covering a memorial to Lord 
 Palmerston, and a printed copy of the correspon- 
 dence between the creditors and the provincial 
 government upon the subject of their claims. It 
 also contained a paper entitled " The Chinese 
 Security Merchants in Canton, and their Debts ;" 
 from which might be gathered much information of 
 the past, if not instruction for the future, regarding 
 our transactions with that body of monopolists. 
 The memorial explains how foreigners have been 
 situated with the Hong merchants, and the great in- 
 convenience they were then suffering from the pres- 
 sure of their debts, but more particularly that of 
 Hing-tae. The memorialists, therefore, entreat the 
 immediate attention of government to the subject, 
 and recommend, as the best course to be pursued, 
 an interposition with the Court of Peking. These 
 
177 
 
 debts of the Hong merchants have already been 
 adverted to in the preceding pages, and the settle- 
 ment come to in this particular case. 
 
 In his despatch from Macao, on the 2d of April, 
 1838, Captain Elliot returns to this subject, and enters 
 into some explanations respecting the Consoo Fund, 
 to show that it was not originally instituted for the 
 exclusive purpose of discharging foreign debts. The 
 charge, he says, was imposed in 1779, as the terms 
 themselves signify, for " Hong use ; " in other 
 words, to meet all common demands against the 
 Co-Hong, whether for foreign debts or for the exac- 
 tions of the government. It was then settled as a 
 charge of 3 per cent, on certain specified articles, 
 estimated at a fixed value ; and although it had 
 never been regularly collected and funded, it has 
 always remained a permanent burden upon the 
 trade, fluctuating between 3 and 7 per cent. ; each 
 Hong merchant paying up the proportion necessary 
 to meet the exigencies of the year, and retaining 
 what might not be required as his own profit. 
 
 On the 27th of February, 1839, Lord Palmerston 
 addressed the following despatch to Capt. Elliot : — 
 " Your despatches to the 13th of October, inclusive, 
 of last year, have been received, and laid before Her 
 Majesty's government. I am not yet enabled to form 
 any opinion as to the instructions which it may be 
 right to send you on the subject of the debts of the 
 Hong Hing-tae, as it appears uncertain in what state 
 that question might be when any directions relating 
 to it could arrive in China. Your despatch of the 
 29th of March last, inclosing a copy of the memorial 
 of the British merchants interested in this matter, 
 was received on the 12th of October last. In this 
 
178 
 
 memorial the merchants prayed for the interference 
 of Her Majesty's government, with that of China, 
 to obtain a settlement of their claims, upon more 
 equitable terms than those which had been proposed 
 by the insolvent Hong, and which had been sanc- 
 tioned by the government of Canton. But on the 
 other hand, it appears, from Canton newspapers 
 lately received in England, that about the time when 
 your despatch was received at this office, the British 
 merchants at Canton had effected an arrangement 
 with the Hong merchants, upon terms not very 
 different from those against which they had in their 
 memorial protested. I request that you will inform 
 me whether this statement is true ; and if it is so, 
 I have further to instruct you to impress upon the 
 British merchants resident in China that it is of 
 great importance to their own interests, as well as to 
 the character of this country, that they should not, 
 on any future occasion, hastily apply to the British 
 government to found a representation to the Chinese 
 government in their behalf, upon principles which 
 they themselves may be disposed to abandon before 
 such a representation could reach the Chinese autho- 
 rities." On the 23d of March, 1839, another de- 
 spatch was addressed to the Superintendent, relative 
 to the subject of the preceding remarks. Lord 
 Palmerston says, " in continuation of the subject of 
 my despatch of the 27th ultimo, I think it right to 
 state to you, for your information, that when the 
 memorial of the British merchants, dated the 21st 
 of March, 1838, was received at this Office, Her 
 Majesty's government felt disposed to take imme- 
 diate steps for obtaining from the Chinese govern- 
 ment redress of the grievances which that memorial 
 
179 
 
 set forth; but upon further consideration it was 
 thought expedient to abstain from doing any thing 
 with that view, until the necessity for the inter- 
 ference of the British government should have become 
 manifest. There seemed reason to expect that the 
 appearance of the British admiral in the river of 
 Canton, might, by its moral influence, have brought 
 about an arrangement of this question, and thus have 
 obviated the necessity for any further measures on 
 the part of Her Majesty's government." — Why 
 might not this explanation have been subjoined to the 
 preceding despatch ? Not having been done, it looks 
 like an after-thought, raised up on a very slender 
 foundation. Certainly the inconvenience would be 
 great if government should, at any time, at the call 
 of its subjects in distant parts, stretch out its arm in 
 their defence, and find that they had, in the mean- 
 time, compromised the grievances of which they 
 had complained. But was Lord Palmers ton, in 
 this case, justified in making such a remark, and 
 throwing such a reproof in the faces of our country- 
 men in China? The settlement alluded to took 
 place late in November, and was announced to his 
 Lordship in another memorial, dated the 26th of 
 that month, still insisting upon the expediency of 
 such an interposition as they had recommended, to 
 provide for the due payment of the instalments, 
 and to protect them from future failures consequent 
 upon the then rotten state of the Hongs, and the 
 deficiency in the number of the Hong merchants, 
 occasioned by preceding failures and deaths. Just 
 before the second memorial reached him, Lord Pal- 
 merston had read the account of the settlement come 
 to. He had had the first memorial in his hands for 
 
180 
 
 four months, and probably without any strong in- 
 tention of acting upon its suggestions. What occa- 
 sion, then, was there for his getting into a flurry 
 about it? He appears to have thought that the 
 Admiral's visit in the Wellesley would do something 
 for them; and so might our friends in China; but it 
 did nothing. It was no cause for surprise, that, 
 after the frequent instances of the utter want of at- 
 tention paid to their interests or representations, and 
 the useless appearance of our men-of-war, who had 
 no proper instructions how to act, they should have 
 begun to doubt the success of their application, and, 
 in despair of a better arrangement, accepted what 
 they could obtain at the hands of an unjust and 
 arbitrary government, in whose clutches they were 
 kept by the remissness of their own natural pro- 
 tectors. 
 
 Captain Elliot's despatch of the 18th April refers 
 to some exercise of authority that he had occasion 
 to make on board the Abererombie Robinson, in 
 consequence of her crew having resisted the flogging 
 of a man who had been sentenced, under the old 
 regulations which had existed in the Company's 
 service, to receive two dozen of lashes. The officers 
 had been obliged to arm themselves. She had for- 
 merly been a Company's ship, and had nearly one 
 hundred men on board. By his interference and 
 determination the mutiny was quelled. The de- 
 spatch encloses some regulations that were drawn 
 up for the better maintenance of order at Whampoa ; 
 and the senior officer in the late Company's service, 
 who happened to be in command of a ship, ap- 
 pointed Commodore, and invested with the charge 
 of enforcing the regulations in the ships manned by 
 
181 
 
 Europeans. The appointing of the Company's old 
 officers, in preference to others who might be equally 
 fit to perform such duties, appears to have been 
 invidious, and therefore likely to cause dissatisfac- 
 tion. The ships in the country service, manned 
 with Lascars, were put under charge of the senior 
 commander. The other enclosures comprised, among 
 several particulars, the references to cases of mutiny 
 on board two several ships, which had been satisfac- 
 torily disposed of under the new regulations. 
 
 Captain Elliot's despatch of the 20th April, 1838, 
 among other matters, already alluded to, reported 
 the execution of a Chinese by strangulation, about 
 a week before, outside the walls of Macao, for traito- 
 rous intercourse with foreigners, and smuggling of 
 opium and Sycee silver. An inscription was placed 
 over him to that effect. Captain Elliot says, '' The 
 place of execution, (quite unusual) and indeed the 
 terms of the sentence, plainly indicate that it was 
 adopted mainly with a view to the intimidation and 
 for an example to the foreigners. It is also stated 
 (and probably with truth) that this execution, and 
 the manner of it, were by the special command of 
 the Court.'' 
 
 On the 23d March, 1839, Lord Palmerston ad- 
 dressed a despatch to Captain Elliot respecting the 
 preceding regulations for controlling the crews of 
 the ships at Whampoa, which had been submitted 
 to the law officers of the Crown; which opinion 
 was, that they were not at variance with law, pro- 
 vided they had been duly made and issued by Her 
 Majesty, according to the Act of the 3d and 4th 
 William IV. ch. 93, sec. 6. ; but that Captain Elliot 
 had no pov/er of his own authority to make any 
 
182 
 
 such regulations. The law officers were also of 
 opinion that they were an infringement of the right 
 of sovereignty enjoyed by the Emperor of China. 
 Under these circumstances he was instructed to ob- 
 tain, if possible, the written approval of the Go- 
 vernor of Canton for those regulations, and that 
 done, the proper steps should be taken for giving 
 effect to them according to the provisions of the Act 
 of Parliament. 
 
 All the despatches from the Foreign Office have 
 now been disposed of, either by inserting them at 
 length, or by taking such parts only as were ma- 
 terial to elucidate the subjects to which they referred. 
 Nothing has been left out that is of any particular 
 importance. 
 
 From the 18th of April to 2d December, 1838, 
 inclusive, there were eight despatches from Captain 
 Elliot to the Foreign Office. All have been made use 
 of as far as was required. That of the 20th April 
 reports the great increase of the river trade in opium, 
 and his own consequent apprehensions. Those of the 
 28th and 30th April, to the bankruptcy of the Hing- 
 tae Hong. May 31st, merely communicates his con- 
 tinued retirement from Canton, and his expectations 
 from the approaching visit of Admiral Maitland. 
 August 7th and 10th, the proceedings consequent 
 upon the passage-boat Bombay having been fired 
 upon and stopped, under suspicion of the Admiral 
 being on board. October 13th advises the departure 
 of Admiral Maitland, with the three men-of-war. 
 That of the 2d December only covered the second 
 memorial on the subject of the Hing-tae debts, which 
 had then been compromised. 
 
 From the 2d of December, 1838, to 2d January^ 
 
183 
 
 1839, inclusive, embracing a period pf considerable 
 anxiety and excitement, there were five despatches 
 from Captain Elliot to the Foreign Office, all of 
 which have been more or less referred to in the pre- 
 ceding discussions. His despatch of 8th December, 
 when on board the Cutter Louisa, at Whampoa, 
 reports the seizure of the opium belonging to Mr. 
 Innes, and the threat to pull down his house. In it 
 he says, " The Hong merchant (Ponhoyqua) who 
 secured the ship (the Thomas Perkins) has already 
 been sent down to this place, and is at this moment 
 undergoing the unmerited and degrading punish- 
 ment of the cangue, or wooden collar ; — wholly 
 unmerited indeed, my Lord, even if this opium had 
 come from on board the ship in question, for this 
 unfortunate man could neither have known nor 
 prevented its introduction ; but it is beyond a doubt 
 that it did not come from her at all, and almost as 
 certain that it did come from one of the numerous 
 small craft now at anchor in this river. These 
 severe and unjust proceedings have had their imme- 
 diate origin, in fact, either in the confused pronun- 
 ciation of the wretched Coolie, or as probably in the 
 fabrication of a name wrung from him by inquiry 
 under torture." He ends the despatch by saying, 
 *^ Your Lordship may be assured that I will avail 
 myself of the first proper opportunity to make an 
 earnest effort to end the actual disquieting condition 
 of things." The despatch of 13th December relates 
 entirely to the intended execution, in front of the 
 Factories, on the 12th, and the tumult and riot that 
 took place. On the 31st December he advises the 
 renewal of the communications with the Viceroy, and 
 the expected opening of the trade on the following 
 
184 
 
 day. The next is a long despatch, dated 2d 
 January, 1839, embracing all the details omitted 
 in the three preceding ones. It enclosed the corre- 
 spondence between himself and Mr. Innes, who had 
 quitted Canton on the 16th December. Among 
 the documents it covered, are, — his address to a 
 meeting of merchants, at his residence, on the 
 1 7th December, relative to the late events, and his 
 determination to expel the opium boats from the 
 river; his public notice, dated 18th, to those boats, 
 to proceed outside of the Bocca Tigris within three 
 days ; his memorial or petition to the Viceroy, on 
 the 23d, offering his services to the local govern- 
 ment in assisting them to drive out the boats 
 which he had denounced to them as being so en- 
 gaged; the Viceroy's answer on the 26th, autho- 
 rizing and ordering him to do as he desired; 
 Captain Elliot's acknowledgment of the same, 
 dated 28th, wtih some inquiries on the point of 
 etiquette; the Viceroy's answer on the 29th, and 
 wishing to know whether the Superintendent had 
 obeyed his commands and driven the boats out of 
 the river ; official notice by the Superintendent of 
 the trade being re-opened, dated 1st January, 1839 ; 
 and last, not least, under date of 31st December, 
 comes his official notice to Her Majesty's subjects in 
 China, respecting the renewal of his communica- 
 tions with the local government, and his proceed- 
 ings with regard to the opium boats. In it he says, 
 " He takes this occasion to republish that part of 
 the Act of Parliament and the Orders in Council 
 upon which his instructions are founded ; and 
 whilst he would respectfully observe that it is out of 
 his power to publish his instructions, it is at the 
 
185 
 
 same time his duty to promulgate (as he has always 
 done, and always will) whatever it may concern the 
 interests of Her Majesty's subjects to be generally 
 known. In declaring, therefore, that Her Majesty's 
 government will give no countenance whatever to 
 proceedings of the kind which he has now been 
 noticing, he requests it may be plainly understood 
 that he is conveying the unequivocal sentiments of 
 his instructions. Events, over which he had no con- 
 trol, have cast on this occasion a difficult task -on the 
 Chief Superintendent; and devoting the most at- 
 tentive consideration in his power to its suitable 
 performance, he can only aver that he has meant to 
 do no more than his duty, but certainly no less. 
 In the execution of such an office as his own, how- 
 ever, when decisions must almost always be taken in 
 moments of crisis, surrounded by embarrassing 
 circumstances, the possibility that illegalities may 
 be committed (with the sincerest intentions to 
 avoid them) is not to be denied. It is only just, 
 therefore, to remind Her Majesty's subjects that the 
 ninth clause of the Act of Parliament has provided 
 the manner of pursuing their legal remedy. His 
 official responsibility can always be fixed upon him 
 by representation to the Secretary of State for 
 Foreign Affairs, to whom it is the Chief Superin- 
 tendent's duty to transmit all complaints or appeals 
 against himself." In the despatch enclosing all 
 these documents, there is nothing particular to 
 notice that is not indicated by this series of papers. 
 It may be remarked, however, that it contains the 
 strongest impressions of self-satisfaction at the 
 result of his proceedings with respect to the opium 
 boats. But what cause of congratulation could it 
 
186 
 
 afford, to have been the first man who had ever 
 joined the Chinese against his own countrymen ? 
 How did those who foresaw the lamentable effects 
 of such a course relish the taunting way in which 
 he pointed out to them the legal remedy for any 
 injury they might incur by that rash and unjusti- 
 fiable act ? If it could be proved almost as clear as 
 a proposition of Euclid, that it brought on the subse- 
 quent demand for the opium at Lin tin, and his being 
 made the cat's-paw to get it, where are his funds to 
 meet a demand upon him for such a loss — supposing 
 his act should be found to be as illegal as it was 
 unjust ? 
 
 Another despatch from Captain Elliot, addressed 
 as private, under the same»date of 2d January, re- 
 marks upon the advance he had made with the 
 Chinese government, in their admitting for the first 
 time official intercourse between them and us — 
 which, in fact, amounted almost to nothing. The 
 despatch urges the expediency of enlarging his 
 powers for the purpose of enabling him more effec- 
 tually to control British subjects, and prevent them 
 coming into collision with the authorities. 
 
 A despatch of the 8th January from the Superin- 
 tendent brings under consideration the inefficient 
 state of the Co-Hong, and the exactions in the shape 
 of duties levied upon foreigners, for the express 
 purpose of paying Hong debts, but in reality to feed 
 the Consoo fund to a far greater extent than was ne- 
 cessary to meet the annual dividends or instalments. 
 He recommends " a direct appeal to the Court, with 
 a requisition that their number should be conside- 
 rably increased ; and as the government guarantee 
 was a mere delusion — -no money being ever taken 
 
187 
 
 from the public coffers to pay foreign debts — they 
 might be exonerated from that responsibility, merely 
 nominal, upon undertaking that orders should be 
 sent to the Canton authorities to apprehend and 
 punish native debtors who attempted to defraud 
 their foreign creditors." With such a people as the 
 Chinese to deal with, and the present system of 
 confining our intercourse to a certain set of persons 
 chosen by the government and completely under 
 their control, constantly administering to their ne- 
 cessities, and liable to be ruined by their extortions, 
 what benefit could possibly be derived from the 
 punishment of men so situated, that could at all com- 
 pensate for abandoning our present hold upon the 
 government ? Small as it may be, if depending on 
 their own sense of justice, there is still left an 
 option with our own government to urge it upon 
 them. 
 
 There were five despatches from Captain Elliot to 
 Lord Palmerston from the 8th January to 22d 
 M^rch, 1839, inclusive, when the account reached 
 him at Macao of the forcible detention of all the 
 foreigners by the Commissioner and local autho- 
 rities. On the 21st January he advised the tranquil 
 continuance of the trade since its re-opening on the 
 1st, but that there had been no relaxation of the 
 vigour of the government against the introduction 
 of opium, and more especially with the consumers. 
 On the 30th January he directed the attention of 
 government to the growing convictions he enter- 
 tained that the Chinese government was earnestly 
 bent on putting down the opium trade. He says, 
 " The stagnation of the traffic at all points may be 
 said to have been nearly complete for the last four 
 
188 
 
 months ; and it is now my duty to signify to your 
 Lordship the expected arrival of a very high officer 
 from the Court, to hold equal rank with the Go- 
 vernor, and specially charged, as I am this day in- 
 formed by Howqua, with the general conduct of the 
 measures lately determined upon at Peking, for the 
 suppression of the opium trade. It must also be 
 stated that the Emperor has recently been advised 
 to command a total interruption of the foreign trade 
 and intercourse, till the introduction of opium shall 
 be effectually stopped ; and an edict of great mo- 
 ment, evidently founded upon this policy, has just 
 been issued to the foreign merchants, but not yet 
 to myself. It shall be transmitted to your Lordship 
 as soon as Mr. Morrison has translated it; but it 
 is probable the communication will not be sent 
 officially to me till the arrival of the High Commis- 
 sioner from Peking, who may be expected in the 
 course of a few weeks. There seems, my Lord, no 
 longer any room to doubt that the Court has firmly 
 determined to suppress, or more probably, mpst 
 extensively to check, the opium trade. In the 
 excited temper of this extraordinary government, it 
 would be unsafe indeed to speculate upon the par-, 
 ticular measures they may pursue : but at least I am 
 sure that my own altered position, and the course 
 I took last month, with respect to the forced trade 
 within the river, will give much weight to my re- 
 monstf^ances, in any moment of emergency T The 
 despatch of 8th February covered the proclamation 
 referred to on the 30th January, addressed directly^ 
 to the foreigners by the Governor and Lieutenant-r ^ 
 Governor. It was remarked by Captain Elliot that r 
 "an address to foreigners by the heads of the 
 
189 
 
 government, instead of being to the Hong mer- 
 chants for communication to them, was an un- 
 usual, although not an unprecedented proceeding, 
 and furnished strong evidence of the earnest feelings 
 of the Court upon the subject in hand." He added, 
 that " a large proportion of the business of the 
 season had been got through, and hoped that before 
 the arrival of the Commissioner, v^ho was not ex- 
 pected for three weeks, the remainder would be 
 despatched. The stagnation of the opium trade 
 still continued, and the consequent breaking up of 
 the circulating medium was already producing great 
 and general embarrassment." The despatch of 
 the 21st February enclosed a statement of the ad- 
 ditional duties on exports and imports imposed at 
 the instance of the Hong merchants, for the alleged 
 purpose of paying debts due to foreigners arising 
 from the bankruptcy of Hing-tae and the insolvency 
 of King-qua. 
 
 On the 22d March, 1839, Captain Elliot, on the 
 eve of the most trying situation in which it could 
 be his lot or that of any other individual, perhaps, 
 to be placed, requiring the greatest self-possession 
 and the clearest vision to guide him, addressed 
 the following important despatch to Lord Palmer- 
 ston : — " My Lord, the enclosure has this moment 
 reached me from Canton, and I have only time to 
 transmit it by the Viscount Melbourne, on the point 
 of sailing. It will be very satisfactory for your 
 Lordship to know that Her Majesty's ship Lame is 
 here ; and Her Majesty's government may be 
 assured that I will take the most prompt measures 
 for meeting the unjust and menacing dispositions of 
 the High Commissioner and the provincial autho- 
 
190 
 
 rities. I have already forwarded a note to the 
 Keiin-Min-Foo, and the Governor of Canton, de- 
 siring to know whether it is the purpose of the 
 Chinese government to make war on the ships and 
 men of my country ; and I shall proceed to-morrow 
 to the Bocca Tigris to demand some plain and de- 
 finite explanation upon the whole subject. I have 
 no doubt that a firm tone and attitude will check 
 the rash spirit of the provincial authorities ; but I 
 should not omit to mention to your Lordship, that I 
 have, at the same time, offered to use my best efforts 
 for fulfilling the reasonable purposes of this govern- 
 ment, whenever they are authentically made known 
 to me. The completion of the great portion of the 
 trade of this year has relieved me of a very embar- 
 rassing addition to the difficulties of my situation. 
 I have, &c. (Signed) Charles Elliot, Chief Super- 
 intendent." 
 
 The following was the address sent to the Vice- 
 roy and the Keun-Min-Foo, being the same to 
 both: — "Macao, March 22, 1839. The under- 
 signed, &c. &c., seriously disturbed by the unusual 
 assemblage of troops, ships of war, fire-vessels, and 
 other menacing preparations, and, above all, by the 
 unprecedented and unexplained measure of an exe- 
 cution before the Factories at Canton, to the destruc- 
 tion of all confidence in the just and moderate dis- 
 positions of the provincial authorities, has now the 
 honour to demand, in the name of the Sovereign of 
 his nation, whether it is the purpose of his Excel- 
 lency the Governor to make war upon the men and 
 ships of his nation in this empire ? He claims im- 
 mediate and calming assurances on this subject; 
 and he has at the same time to declare his readiness 
 
191 
 
 to meet the officers of the provincial government, 
 and to use his sincere efforts to fulfil the pleasure of 
 the great Emperor, as soon as it is made known to 
 him. — (Signed) Charles Elliot." 
 
 At that moment Captain Elliot had in his hands 
 a letter from Mr. Astell, sent from Canton on the 
 20th, to apprise him of the constraint put upon all 
 the foreigners. It appears strange that no direct no- 
 tice of that act of violence, already consummated, 
 should be found in the preceding address to the 
 Viceroy. That letter was probably the enclosure he 
 refers to in his despatch ; but it covered also the 
 notable edict of the Commissioner to the foreigners, 
 dated the 18th March, 1839, ordering the opium to 
 be delivered up, and a bond to be given within 
 three days, on pain of the penalty of death, decreed 
 by the new law to meet a bygone offence; and 
 another, from the same high authority, addressed to 
 the Hong merchants, dated the 17th of the same 
 month, requiring them to give their zealous aid in 
 the execution of these his commands. He says, " It 
 is requisite that they should acquire an earnest se- 
 verity of deportment, that the energetic character of 
 the commands may be clearly made to appear. 
 They must not continue to exhibit a contumacious 
 disposition, or to colour over the matter, nor may 
 they again give utterance to any expression of soli- 
 citation. It is imperative on them to act with energy 
 and loftiness of tone, and to unite in enjoining these 
 commands. Three days are prescribed, within 
 which they must obtain the required bonds, and re- 
 port in reply hereto. If it be found that this matter 
 cannot at once be arranged by them, it will be appa- 
 rent, without inquiry, that they are constantly acting 
 
192 
 
 in concert with depraved foreigners, and that their 
 minds have a perverted inclination. And I, the High 
 Commissioner, w^ill forthwith solicit the royal death- 
 warrant, and select for execution one or two of the 
 most unworthy of their number, confiscating their 
 property to government; and thus will I show a 
 lucid warning. Say not that you did not receive 
 early notice." 
 
 To this terrible and unjust denunciation no effect 
 was given ; for, although the bonds were never 
 forthcoming, and the opium not delivered within the 
 three days, no Hong merchant was put to death. 
 Chinese wrath, upon paper, has generally been con- 
 sidered as likely to evaporate ; and in this instance 
 they were not in earnest, for the Hong merchants 
 had always been too useful to them to be so hardly 
 dealt with. The violent demonstrations of their 
 power are commonly made without any warning, 
 and their victims pounced upon when they least 
 expect it. 
 
 But, returning to Captain Elliot's despatch of the 
 22d March, when he had so much work cut out for 
 him, is not his irresolution immediately apparent ? 
 Why should he have had two courses to pursue,ii 
 when he should instantly have seen that there was 
 only one ? Chinese edicts have frequently said on 
 other occasions, " in this matter there are no two 
 ways''' If he had applied this saying to the case in 
 point, he should have seen there was only one way. 
 How mawkish it reads, when he says, " he has tlie 
 honour to demand whether it was the purpose of his 
 Excellency the Governor to make war upon the men 
 of his nation !" knowing at that very time that the 
 had already done so. And " claiming immediate 
 
193 
 
 and calming assurances upon this subject, he had at 
 the same time to declare his readiness to meet the 
 officers of the provincial government, and use his 
 sincere efforts to fulfil the pleasure of the Great Em- 
 pero?% as soon as it was made known to him !" 
 Was that a time to use fine terms — to talk of Excel- 
 lencies or Great Emperors, or of his desire to fulfil 
 their pleasure ? Would Lord Napier have written 
 such an address ? Or would he have written at all ? 
 Would he not have looked to the more certain means 
 of remedy in the ships at Lintin and Whampoa, 
 and have placed himself on board Her Majesty's ship 
 Lame, and never have left her until he had finished 
 his work ? What would the spirit of Capt. Weddell 
 have done, had it been re-embodied for the occasion 
 in some bosom worthy to hold it? Would not 
 his energy have been displayed in the old way : 
 all available force immediately put in motion — 
 the war-junks that opposed him overpowered and 
 destroyed — the trading vessels seized upon and 
 detained — and their blazing towns and villages 
 made the beacons of his vengeance ! The distressed 
 population fleeing in crowds to Canton, to urge 
 their complaints and wailings upon the Commis- 
 sioner and Governor, and no visible means of stay- 
 ing such calamities at hand, but the release of 
 the foreigners, would they have hesitated in doing 
 then what had been done by their long-gone pre- 
 decessors, but of whose acts the memory was still 
 preserved in Chinese annals? Such a course may 
 seem severe, but the occasion would have justified it. 
 Our countrymen would have been set at liberty — 
 the opium saved — the regular trade have been 
 resumed — the necessity of the present large arma- 
 
 o 
 
194 
 
 ment avoided — and last, not least, the Chinese 
 would have had a lesson to commit to their memory 
 that they might not have forgot for two hundred 
 years more. The means were adequate to the end , 
 but Captain Weddell was wanting. This was the 
 only occasion that ever required a display of judg- 
 ment and energy during the period of Capt. Elliot's 
 administration, and he broke down under it. 
 
 Public characters are said to be public property. 
 The conduct of any officer of government is, there- 
 fore, always liable to scrutiny, and may fairly be 
 subjected to examination, provided it be done with 
 candour, and divested of personal hostility. Both 
 these conditions have prevailed throughout the 
 observations that it has been necessary to make in 
 the course of this review. There has been no inten- 
 tion to place Captain Elliot in a worse position than 
 any other party who might have held his office, and 
 exercised its powers in a similar way. His undoubted 
 talent and capacity, if properly directed, should have 
 led to very different results. His public corre- 
 spondence every where shews the indices of a highly- 
 cultivated mind, and many are the remarks to be 
 gathered from it that demonstrate the soundness of 
 his judgment on some particular points. His great 
 error has been in trying to gain over the Chinese by 
 conciliatory means, and over-rating the amiable 
 side of their character. The public service demands 
 a free, but fair investigation, of the management of 
 its officers, on all occasions when ouj* interests 
 appear to have been committed by their acts; and 
 their great involvement in this instance points it 
 out especially as a fit subject for discussion. It is 
 highly expedient that the acts of public servants 
 
195 
 
 should, on proper occasions, be passed under sur- 
 \ ey ; for the liability to such a scrutiny must render 
 men more cautious in accepting employment for 
 which they may not feel themselves qualified, and 
 deter the government from making an indiscreet or 
 improper use of their patronage. 
 
 As to the part government has acted during the 
 period referred to, it is here only necessary to remark 
 that their whole proceedings have been brought into 
 view in the abstracts made from the large volume of 
 correspondence. It will be seen from them that the 
 entire charge has been thrown, from beginning to 
 end, upon the Superintendents in China ; without 
 any appearance of the government having sought 
 for information in quarters where it might have been 
 had, to guide them in framing some useful and 
 definite instructions to their own officials as to the 
 course they should follow. It will also be seen that 
 their despatches, ev^en upon the few points they 
 embraced, have been full of inconsistencies and 
 contradictions — approving to-day of what they dis- 
 approved of yesterday, and reprehending on the 
 morrow what they were quite satisfied with the day 
 before. It does not appear that any one proposition 
 proceeded from them that could be applied to any 
 available object. The burthen of their despatches 
 has been, from first to last, about the character 
 ''Pin ;" and where they found it they left it, without 
 disposing of it some years ago in a surnmary way, 
 as they should have done. 
 
 No subject has latterly excited so much attention 
 as this. After the continual excitement occasioned 
 by great changes in our domestic policy, the public 
 mind appears to have needed something to divert it 
 
196 
 
 to another direction. The outbreak of the Chinese 
 has been discussed in almost every possible way ; 
 and the abstract question of the immorality of the 
 opium trade sifted and winnowed until almost 
 nothing remains. Many attempts have been made to 
 hoodwink our government, and make it irresolute 
 in the prosecution of its own purposes. They have 
 been opposed by the conscientious scruples of many 
 well-meaning persons — by the casuistry of senti- 
 mentalists, and sticklers for unattainable and 
 impracticable things, who draw their distinctions 
 to a hair's breadth — but more formidably still by 
 their political adversaries. Let ministers, however, 
 proceed with their vigorous undertaking, in which 
 they have both justice and common sense on their 
 side. Let them not heed the railings of the adverse 
 portion of the press, but go on with their work until 
 they bring it to a conclusion ; which, under proper 
 management, cannot be otherwise than favourable. 
 That, however, must depend greatly upon the capa- 
 city of the leaders of the Expedition; and surely, for 
 their own credit, which is so deeply at stake upon 
 the issue of the experiment, ministers cannot have 
 made such appointments without due caution, and 
 proper grounds for confidence in the parties whom 
 they have selected, and more especially the Com- 
 mander-in-Chief. 
 
 When accused of having neglected our interests in 
 that quarter, they may perhaps say that their pre- 
 decessors in office were equally open to inculpation. 
 Until 1834 the East India Company stood full in the 
 way of any interference on the part of government. 
 They had the whole trade under their control, and 
 adopted the unvarying policy of entire submission 
 
197 
 
 to the Chinese, their grand object being to go on in 
 a peaceable manner, at whatever cost to the personal 
 feelings of the Supercargoes. They consequently 
 deprecated the least thing that was calculated to give 
 umbrage to the Chinese, and nothing more than the 
 appearance of our men-of-war. In their time, there- 
 fore, the sight of such a thing was very unusual. 
 The East India Company were supposed to be the 
 best judges of their own interests, and in fact of 
 those of all the British in Canton not in their service, 
 but carrying on a very large trade with the several 
 Indian Presidencies. When the trade was thrown 
 open, the government was certainly at a disadvan- 
 tage in devising the means of carrying it on quietly, 
 without compromising its own dignity, as the Com- 
 pany did. We had no handle just at that time to 
 take hold of, and oblige the Chinese to submit to a 
 new arrangement that would meet the altered posi- 
 tion of our intercourse; but had the government 
 acted upon the recommendations of the Company's 
 servants in 1831, upon the occasion of their Factory 
 being violently entered by the local authorities, and 
 part of their premises destroyed, the way would 
 have been cleared for placing Lord Napier in China 
 on the footing they contemplated when he was sent 
 out. In 1831, the termination of the Company's 
 charter was drawing so near, that the possibility of 
 the trade to China being thrown open was a con- 
 stant topic of conversation, and the necessity of 
 having a stronger hold upon the authorities of the 
 country becoming daily more apparent. With the 
 East India Company at its elbow, government did 
 nothing. The advice of the Supercargoes was 
 slighted, and the general expectation, both in China 
 
198 
 
 and India, disappointed. It does not appear fitting 
 to prosecute a quarrel after having allowed retaliation 
 to be a long time suspended; but some people 
 thought, when a Commission was determined upon, 
 that under all the circumstances we might stretch a 
 point, and send out a force to demand satisfaction 
 for the outrage in 1831, thereby securing a proper 
 reception for the Superintendents. The Chinese are 
 themselves very prone to rake up old grievances, and 
 urge them against us when we least expect it, and 
 therefore they would not have been much surprised 
 at our adopting such a course. A land and sea force 
 on a very moderate scale would have accomplished 
 all that was necessary, and the whole affair have 
 been settled in three months. At that time the stock 
 of tea in the Company's warehouses was equal to 
 two and a half years' consumption ; allowing ample 
 space for any unexpected delay in bringing the 
 Chinese to our terms. One insult passed over by 
 us has always been the encouragement to them to 
 endorse another on our backs. 
 
 Certainly matters were not so pregnant with mis- 
 chief and inconvenience in the times of the Tories, so 
 that it is impossible to say how they would have acted 
 had the same responsibility been cast upon them. 
 They have been blamed for not having taken up the 
 case of Lord Napier. It ought certainly to have 
 been done at once. The noble Duke who presided 
 over our foreign affairs, when the intelligence was 
 received, appears at first to have considered that the 
 Chinese had been pushed too hard; and in his 
 acknowledgment, under date of 2d February, 1835, 
 of Lord Napier's despatches to the 21st August, 
 recommends a strict adherence to the instructions 
 
100 
 
 he had received from Lord Pahnerston, dated 2oth 
 January, 1834, and particularly the 18th and 19th 
 articles of the general instructions given under the 
 royal sign-manual, all inculcating moderation and 
 a strict observance of Chinese laws and usages, so 
 long as they should be administered with justice and 
 good faith, and even-handed with the natives of the 
 country. His Grace emphatically says — "It is not 
 by force and violence that His Majesty intends to 
 establish a commercial intercourse between his sub- 
 jects and China, but by the other conciliatory 
 measures so strongly inculcated in all the instruc- 
 tions which you have received." The accounts were 
 received only two days previous, so that but little 
 time had been allowed for mature deliberation. A 
 vessel was leaving for Canton on the very day the 
 despatch was written, which was necessarily brief, 
 and applicable to the prima facie complexion of 
 Lord Napier's proceedings. There was not time 
 perhaps to advert to and examine how it was 
 possible to have avoided the resistance complained 
 of, nor how it could have been done at all without 
 disobeying the positive injunctions of our govern- 
 ment to proceed at once to Canton and enter into 
 direct communication with the Viceroy ; and avoid- 
 ing the Hong merchants or any other inferior 
 channel. The instructions under the royal sign- 
 manual, dated 31st Dec, 1833, article No. 2, say— 
 " In execution of the said commission, you will take 
 up your residence at the port of Canton, in the 
 dominions of the Emperor of China ; and you will 
 discharge the several duties confided to you by the 
 said Commission and Order in Council respectively, 
 at Canton aforesaid, or at any place within the river 
 
200 
 
 or port of Canton, or at any other place which may 
 for that purpose be hereafter appointed by us, and 
 not elsewhere^ In the instructions from the Foreign 
 Office, signed by Lord Palmerston, 25th Jan. 1834, 
 we find the course to be adopted by Lord Napier 
 marked out distinctly in these words. " Your 
 Lordship will announce your arrival at Canton by 
 letter to the Viceroy." What other course, then, could 
 be^here pursued without disobedience to his orders ? 
 Had he waited at Macao, it appears very doubtful 
 whether he would ever have been invited to go up. 
 With his known intention not to communicate with 
 any one but the Viceroy, and that upon terms of 
 equality, they would have kept him there till dooms- 
 day. 
 
 Lord Napier arrived at Macao from Great Britain 
 on the 15th of July, left it for Canton on the 25th, 
 in His Majesty's frigate Andromache, as far as the 
 Bocca Tigris, and from that in the cutter Louisa, 
 purchased of the Company at a valuation. The 
 second Superintendent, Mr. Davis, previously Chief 
 Supercargo of the Company's factory, thus writes 
 to Lord Palmerston from Canton on the 7th of 
 August, 1834 : — "Lord Napier seems to be clear as 
 to his instructions allowing him to decline any but 
 a direct communication with the officers of govern- 
 ment, and in the policy of his course I have no 
 hesitation whatever in concurring ; for to be governed 
 by the Hong merchants, a system which has always 
 been highly detrimental to our true interests, would 
 now be infinitely worse than under the reign of the 
 Company, whose transactions, amounting to some 
 millions per annum, did, of course, give them great 
 influence over those merchants. There even existed, 
 
201 
 
 perhaps, some community of interests, as the general 
 welfare and growth of their trade was, to a certain 
 extent, a reciprocal benefit. This species of influence 
 is out of the question with us, who, unless we can 
 have direct access to the government officers, can 
 do nothing whatever. Lord Napier's letter of an- 
 nouncement was rejected on the most frivolous or 
 inadmissible pretexts ; and matters remain where 
 they were on our arrival here on the 25th ultimo ; 
 the merchants having been told that they are only 
 letter-carriers, and that orders from them cannot be 
 received by Lord Napier or the Superintendents." 
 All the correspondence carried on since that time 
 between Lord Palmers ton and subsequent Superin- 
 tendents clearly establishes that Lord Napier perfectly 
 understood and did not exceed his orders, as to the 
 mode of communication with the authorities, how- 
 ever conveyed to him — whether by his written in- 
 structions, or by verbal explanations of the views of 
 government on the eve of his departure. 
 
 The only active measure resorted to by the Chinese 
 up to the 21st of August had been the refusal to 
 allow the shipment of cargo, announced by the Hong 
 merchants on the 16th. On the 2d of September the 
 trade was authoritatively suspended by the Viceroy 
 from the former date. On the 4th Lord Napier was 
 beset in his residence by a large number of soldiers 
 — his servants driven away, and his supply of pro- 
 visions cut off. On the 5th a letter was addressed to 
 the commander of the Imogene, then lying along 
 with the Andromache off Chumpee, requesting him 
 to send up a guard of marines, which was accord- 
 ingly done. A lieutenant, two midshipmen, a 
 Serjeant, and twelve marines, landed at Canton on 
 
202 
 
 the 6th, and took up their quarters in the Superin- 
 tendent's premises. The two frigates were required 
 at the same time to pass the Bogue, and proceed up 
 the river. They started on the 7th, passed the forts 
 of the Bogue and Tiger Island on the 8th, knocking 
 the stones ^bout the ears of the Chinese, and silencing 
 the guns — with a loss, however, of a man in each of 
 our ships — anchoring at Whampoa on the 11th. The 
 Chinese immediately adopted measures to prevent the 
 passage of armed boats to Canton, but were as little 
 disposed as before to yield to Lord Napier's remaining. 
 They wished him, by an indirect communication, to 
 understand that if he retired to Macao for a while, 
 he might return quietly to Canton, without any 
 further notice from the authorities, in order to allow 
 time for the receipt of instructions from Peking, as to 
 the mode of his recognition. The Viceroy had 
 neglected to inform the Court of the retirement of 
 the Company, and Lord Napier's arrival with the 
 commission, to replace them in another shape, 
 placed him in a dilemma. Thence all his efforts to 
 force him to retire ; at least that appears to have been 
 the opinion in China. 
 
 We cannot tell what other reception Lord Napier 
 might have met with, had his letter to the Viceroy, 
 announcing the objects of the commission, been 
 distinguished on the subscription by the character 
 " Pin," or " Petition." It is not unlikely that all 
 the other objections so strongly urged might then 
 have been waived, and the Superintendents have been 
 allowed to slip quietly into the lair of the Super- 
 cargoes. But to that there was an insuperable 
 obstacle — the credit of the nation. 
 
 All these ulterior proceedings from the 21st of 
 
203 
 
 August, and up to the 21st of September, when Lord 
 Napier embarked, under a strong guard of Chinese 
 officers and soldiers, to proceed by the inside 
 passage to Macao, and his arrival there on the 26th, 
 suffering under an accession of fever brought on by 
 the noise and annoyance he had been subjected to, 
 were made known at the Foreign Office on the 8th 
 of February, along with the receipt of the Secretary's 
 letter, dated the 28th of September. 
 
 On the 24th of March, 1835, accounts from the 
 Superintendents appear to have been received down 
 to the end of October, and among them the copy of 
 a despatch written by Mr. Davis to the late Lord 
 William Bentinck, then Governor General of India, 
 dated the 24th (or 28th) of October, of which the 
 following is a paragraph : — " At the same time that 
 the local authorities have evinced their desire to con- 
 tinue the trade, it is my duty to state that I have no 
 expectation of any voluntary advances from them 
 towards the recognition of His Majesty's Commis- 
 sion. The government of foreigners through the 
 Hong merchants is a system too valuable to the 
 Canton officers, in diminishing their responsibility, 
 and enabling them to practise their heavy exactions 
 with impunity, to be readily abandoned by them ; 
 nor does there seem any chance of bettering the 
 condition of the English trade in this respect, unless 
 His Majesty's government deem it expedient to 
 adopt measures of coercion, in the event of the 
 previous, and more eligible course, of a reasonable 
 appeal to Peking, by the Yellow Sea, having been 
 found to fail." In a communication to the Foreign 
 Office, dated the 28th of October, Mr. Davis describes 
 that appeal to be, by landing a despatch at the mouth 
 
204 
 
 of the Pei-ho, or Peking river, rather than a cumbrous 
 and expensive embassy. 
 
 With the whole of the China correspondence before 
 him, the noble Duke, on the 24th of March, 1836, 
 wrote the following memorandum as a minute of 
 Council : — " The despatches and proceedings of the 
 Commission of the superintendents in China have 
 given us all the information that we can acquire up 
 to the end of October, 1834, and as it is quite obvious, 
 from the reports and proceedings, that the attempt 
 made to force upon the Chinese authorities at Canton 
 an unaccustomed mode of communication with an 
 authority with whose power and of whose nature 
 they had no knowledge, which commenced its pro- 
 ceedings by an assumption of power hitherto unad- 
 mitted, had completely failed ; and as it is obvious 
 that such an attempt must invariably fail, and lead 
 again to national disgrace, and as it appears that, as 
 soon as Lord Napier had withdrawn from Canton to 
 Macao, the trade had been opened, that pilots had 
 been allowed to take British ships up the river to 
 Whampoa, and that the trade was flourishing as well 
 as ever when the accounts came away ; it appears that 
 the time is come when the Cabinet may take into 
 consideration the means of managing and regulating 
 this affair in future. It is quite obvious that the 
 pretext for the jealousy of Lord Napier and his Com- 
 mission, stated by the Chinese, was his high-sounding 
 titles ; the reality was his pretension to fix himself 
 at Canton, without previous permission, or even 
 communication, and that he should communicate 
 directly with the Viceroy. It does not much signify, 
 as far as the Chinese are concerned, what we call 
 our officer in our own language. He must not go 
 
205 
 
 to Canton without their permission. He must not 
 depart from the accustomed mode of communication. 
 For our own purposes, and for the sake of the trade, 
 he must be a man of naval, military, or official rank 
 and reputation ; he must be one in whose firmness 
 and discretion we can rely ; and he must have great 
 power to enable him to control and keep in order the 
 King's subjects." Here follow some remarks upon the 
 judicial functions of the Commission — a suggestion 
 for its improvement in that respect ; the abolition of 
 the office of Third Superintendent, and Assistant 
 Surgeon, and the reduction of the Second Superinten- 
 dent's salary from £3000 to £2000. Thememorandum 
 proceeds : " Some alteration must likewise be made 
 in the instructions under the royal sign-manual. 
 They are instructed to proceed to and reside at 
 the port of Canton. The port of Canton is described 
 as being within the Bocca Tigris, to which point it 
 is stated that His Majesty's ships are not to go. 
 The Superintendents, therefore, are required to go 
 to, and reside at, the place which the Chinese 
 authorities will not allow them to go, and at which 
 they will not allow them to reside. This and other 
 matters require alteration. It will be in the power 
 of the government hereafter to decide whether any 
 effort shall be made at Peking, or elsewhere, to 
 improve our relations with China, commercial as 
 well as political. That which we require now is, not 
 to lose the enjoyment of what we have got. I would 
 recommend, that till the trade has taken its regular 
 peaceable course, particularly considering what has 
 passed recently, there should always be within the 
 Consul-General's reach a stout frigate and a smaller 
 vessel of war." 
 
200 
 
 The noble Duke's views as to the reconstruction 
 of the Commission appear to have been very judi- 
 cious, particularly as to the choice of a gentleman of 
 the legal profession to whom should be confided the 
 exercise of its judicial powers, holding the office of 
 Second Superintendent, but the succession to that 
 of Chief Superintendent to devolve on the Secretary 
 and Treasurer. It surely was a great and radical de- 
 fect in the Commission, that such extensive powers 
 should be entrusted to parties who, however capable 
 of performing their duties in other respects, had, 
 perhaps, far less knowledge of the law than an ordi- 
 nary county magistrate. The conclusion drawn, 
 that we could not again send an authority to Canton 
 without experiencing similar resistance, was per- 
 fectly just, in the position in which we then stood 
 with the Chinese. But if not to Canton where was 
 he to go? Perhaps an arrangement might have 
 been made with the Portuguese government for his 
 permanent residence at Macao, as the mere Super- 
 intendent of our trade ; but the moment there w^as 
 any necessity for the exercise of his magisterial 
 powers he must have gone afloat — for small com- 
 munities are equally jealous of their privileges as 
 great ones. However desirous the Chinese were to 
 send off Lord Napier to Macao, they would much 
 rather have sent him back to England, and not un- 
 likely, had he lived, have obliged the governor to do 
 with him or any other authority of ours, professedly, 
 official, as he has lately been found to do with Cap- 
 tain Elliot. The remaining alternative was that 
 adopted for a considerable time by Sir George 
 Robinson — to carry on the duties of the Commission 
 on board-ship at one or other of the outer anchor- 
 
207 
 
 ages. In that he appears not to have been counte- 
 nanced by his colleagues, who preferred the elysium 
 of Macao to the close confinement and constant 
 rocking of the cutter. He removed from Macao to 
 Lin tin on the 25th November, 1835, and remained 
 there, with little intermission, until the 28th No- 
 vember, 1836, the date of his last despatch before his 
 dismissal from office. Certainly the business of the 
 season 1835-6 had been got through very quietly, 
 and after the warm altercations that had passed, the 
 authorities were probably more satisfied with his 
 remaining where he was than if he had gone up to 
 Canton even upon their own terms. At the time, 
 however, when the Chinese began to object so 
 strongly in their edicts to the opium trade at Lintin, 
 its principal rendezvous, they certainly would have 
 insinuated that it was carried on with the full con- 
 currence of the Superintendent, had he taken up his 
 station there ; and he would have had no rest until 
 he had shifted his quarters. All the anchorages, 
 however, were resorted to, according to the urgency 
 of the moment, by the opium ships, and others 
 carrying on a large contraband trade in divers ar- 
 ticles, so that he could scarcely fix himself anywhere, 
 but would have been driven from pillar to post, 
 and from post to pillar, without finding a resting- 
 place. 
 
 There was only one way of overcoming the com- 
 plicated difficulty arising out of Chinese pride and 
 prejudice, as to the distinction between a "Taepan" 
 and a ''King's officer," with their insuperable objec- 
 tions to the latter, and that was by coynpelling them 
 to receive him. The noble Duke had many other 
 things at that time to attend to, and thinking, per- 
 
208 
 
 haps, that the proceedings of the Chinese were the 
 natural results of the miscalculations of those who 
 sent out Lord Napier, although he must have felt 
 as deeply as any one for the deplorable fate of our 
 respected countryman, so persecuted by them, he 
 was then unprepared to go to extremities. He thus left 
 to another to cut the Gordian knot in which the 
 future destinies of China are involved, which his 
 own right arm and unerring blade might so worthily 
 have severed. Enough of honours rest upon his 
 head, but celebrity must attend any minister who 
 may rescue that secluded country from the state of 
 apathy in which it now lies. Diplomacy and inter- 
 course are all that is wanted to accomplish it, and 
 while they reject both nothing can be done. 
 
 During the short administration of the Tories in 
 1835, they certainly had their hands full. Fighting 
 their opponents inch by inch on the floor of the 
 House of Commons, and night after night, with 
 their minds fully occupied by domestic interests of 
 the greatest moment, they had but little breathing- 
 time, and none to turn their attention towards China. 
 What the Tories are said, then, to have neglected to 
 do, the Whigs, who so quickly replaced them, should 
 have commenced without delay, instead of folding 
 their arms or stuffing their hands into their breeches- 
 pockets. Within three months from the arrival of 
 the first tidings from Canton they were again in 
 power. They, therefore, are the parties more really 
 answerable for having allowed Lord Napier's and 
 the nation's wrongs to remain unnoticed and for- 
 gotten. They could not then plead the excuse, that 
 they had the East Company to consult, as on the 
 occasion of the outrage at Canton in 1831. Both 
 
209 
 
 omissions were most unfortunate, as they have un- 
 doubtedly conduced materially to bring on the pre- 
 sent rupture. 
 
 The greatest inconsistency and want of purpose 
 have marked their councils with regard to the mea- 
 sure they adopted to fill up the vacancy left by the 
 Company. They built on a rotten foundation, and 
 the work of their hands fell to the ground. There 
 they left it, as a memorial of their improvidence. 
 If the loss of the tea duties stared them in the face, 
 and prevented them from following up their own 
 plans, by calling the Chinese to account for their 
 treatment of Lord Napier, why, in the name of com- 
 mon sense, did they leave there the wreck of the 
 Commission — to be a laughing-stock to every one, 
 as it has been ? Who can read the despatches laid 
 before parliament without being struck with its in- 
 utility in answering any one purpose? The various 
 shifts and contrivances resorted to since the removal of 
 Sir George Robinson have all led to greater incon- 
 venience and discredit, and lowered us still more in 
 the eyes of the Chinese. When ministers could not 
 make up their minds to force the Commission upon 
 the Chinese, they ought immediately to have with- 
 drawn it, and left the merchants to manage for 
 themselves. With a small squadron of our men-of- 
 war always at hand, they would have gone on very 
 well, as far as concerned the trade — then our sole 
 object, if not now. 
 
 Encouraged by our weakness and vacillation, the 
 Chinese went on step by step in their career of inso- 
 lence and encroachment, till at length, passing all 
 bounds, and setting aside all fears of the conse- 
 quences, they committed one accumulative act of 
 
 p 
 
210 
 
 violence and robbery, as if to show us what fools we 
 had been to submit to all the rest. This has been 
 too much for ministers to stand. A jaded horse 
 will bear a good deal of whipping and kicking with- 
 out making him move a bit the faster, until at last 
 one cut in the raw gets up his mettle. The loss of 
 the trade and the duties, rather than the loss of the 
 opium, has at length roused them to the necessity 
 of doing infinitely more than would before have 
 been needful. 
 
 Late, however, as it comes, and blameable as they 
 have been, let us hail their present efibrts as the com- 
 mencement of a better system ; and setting politics 
 aside, in a case where our general interests are so 
 greatly concerned, receive it thankfully at their hands, 
 and give them all our support. They are more parti- 
 cularly entitled to it on another ground : for, coming 
 into power pledged to the strictest economy by many 
 of their supporters, which they have hitherto ad- 
 hered to almost to the annihilation of our exterior 
 defences, is it not clear as the face of day that they 
 must have gone into this expensive enterprise 
 against China very contrary to their own inclina- 
 tions and individual interests, as connected with 
 their political existence ? But conscious of its ne- 
 cessity, and feeling also that the honour of the 
 country was bound up in it, they have not hesitated 
 to do what was right, at whatever risk to their own 
 popularity. Englishmen can throw the distinctions 
 of party overboard when mutual interests are ap- 
 pealed to, and this is a proper occasion for such a 
 sacrifice. Party strife is the deck-lumber that pre- 
 vents the proper working of the state vessel. When 
 a storm arises, and the noble fabric reels to its in- 
 
211 
 
 fluence, it is the first thing the mariners seize hold 
 of, and gladly throw over her sides. So relieved, 
 she instantly rises, and rides buoyantly and trium- 
 phantly over the waves that threatened to engulph 
 her. Let us, then, forego our private feelings on an 
 occasion of so much public interest, and, if party 
 must have its victims, let ministers be assailed on 
 other grounds than this. 
 
 Turn your eyes to that distant realm, the ultima 
 Thule of the Eastern world. You will there behold 
 a region abounding in all that can satisfy the wants 
 or pamper the fancies of man, stretching through the 
 temperate to the torrid zone, with every variety of 
 climate that can diversify its productions ; its moun- 
 tain ridges the sources of ten thousand streams, 
 fertilizing the soil, and affording so many channels 
 of communication, and in their gatherings, the noble 
 rivers that appear intended by nature to convey the 
 produce of the land to the brink of the ocean. This 
 magnificent country has not been left to run into 
 wild and luxuriant waste, but has been subdued 
 and brought into order by the busy hands of an 
 innumerable race of men, as remarkable for their 
 industry as they are for their peculiar attributes of 
 person, language, and national character. Their 
 origin, or first possession of the soil, cannot be 
 traced, although their history goes back to the re- 
 motest antiquity, and, in fact, until all records are 
 lost in obscurity. Age has passed after age and 
 still found them there, accumulating in numbers 
 and resources, and gradually reduced by circum- 
 stances into a state of willing submission to the 
 powerful rule of one single individual. 
 
 In a great lapse of time the experience of sue- 
 
212 
 
 cessive generations has done its work in directing 
 their minds to many improvements in their domestic 
 economy, husbandry having taken and all along 
 held the lead. Manufactures followed at some dis- 
 tance in the wake of the plough, commencing with 
 simple contrivances to meet the most urgent of their 
 wants, and extending gradually to the fabrication 
 of articles called for by their progress in civiliza- 
 tion, until they have attained a high degree of per- 
 fection in every thing that can please the eye, or 
 add to personal comfort. They were clothed in 
 silks and cambrics when our own ancestors were 
 found with their painted bodies protected only by 
 a sheep-skin. It was long after that ere our nobles 
 mounted their silken doublets, or even thought of a 
 cambric collar. 
 
 The thirst for travel, or for gain, or to propagate 
 our holy religion, tempted a few enterprising 
 Italians to worm their way, through trackless wilds 
 and burning sands, to the far East ; from whence 
 they brought back, at much cost and trouble, those 
 rarities that were almost unknown to the then uncul- 
 tured Europeans. In course of time this little ped- 
 ling trade became extended, and was of considerable 
 magnitude in the hands of the Venetians and Ge- 
 noese, with whom it remained until the passage by 
 the Cape of Good Hope was discovered by the 
 skill and daring of the persevering Vasguez de 
 Gama. Then followed the art itself of manufacturing 
 the things so much coveted, and the introduction of 
 the silk-worm from China. The crusades, however 
 wild their character, or demoralizing in their conse- 
 quences, must have tended most materially to en- 
 courage a taste for Eastern luxuries, which remained 
 
213 
 
 in full vigour when the fanaticism that had misled 
 so many myriads was passed and gone. 
 
 In Italy great advances were made in the revival 
 and cultivation of the arts ; but it was long ere the 
 rest of Europe, and last of all England, began to give 
 them any attention. They languished among us for 
 many years. Excepting our woollen and linen 
 cloths, and hardware, which served barely to supply 
 our own wants, there was nothing but the ordinary 
 handiworks upon which to employ our population. 
 Two hundred years ago we were mere novices, and, in 
 the then usual course of things, we should not even 
 now have been much more advanced. To what, then, 
 is it owing that we have latterly made such rapid 
 strides ? What magic, what conjuration is it, that 
 has multiplied the works of our hands in so extraor- 
 dinary a manner — that has clothed us as we are now 
 all clothed, that has found food for a population 
 increased one-half in the last forty years, and that is 
 scattering plenty and exuberance in every direction ? 
 What is the powerful agency that has brought about 
 this wonderful change ? Is it not science, the 
 offspring of the mind, without which the works of 
 the hand must falter and stand still? To the 
 inventive genius of two or three great men of the 
 last century, raised up to help us, do we owe all 
 these advances. From being the last to begin, we 
 are now far beyond the rest of the world in the 
 magnitude and multiplicity of our manufactures. 
 
 In three quarters of a century we have made 
 greater progress than China has done for ages, and 
 have left her far behind, toiling on in the old beaten 
 track, with nothing to quicken her steps. With the 
 highest imitative powers, and fingers formed to trace 
 
214 
 
 out and fashion all the most delicate and difficult 
 works of art, they have few appliances to help their 
 labour and multiply their productions. They have 
 no surplus manufactures to offer to other nations. 
 They have, to be sure, some silk goods and nankeens 
 to dispose of, some fine porcelain and common earth- 
 enware, and the beautiful knick-nacks we see here, 
 in ivory, mother-o'-pearl, and lackered ware ; but all 
 these amount to but little in value. With a popula- 
 tion pressing hard upon the soil, and daily increasing, 
 every hand that can find employment in the field is 
 turned into it, leaving just sufficient to carry on the 
 handicraft trades. With such multitudes to work 
 for, and aided only by their hands, it is not surpris- 
 ing to see their towns so populous, and all living by 
 their respective avocations. Although they manu- 
 facture, they can never be a manufacturing people, 
 that is, have more than enough for their own wants, 
 without the application of science. The raw silk 
 they supply us with comes grudgingly from them, 
 and were the tea we take from them grown on the 
 champaign country, its quantity would be much 
 curtailed, by reason of every inch of level and fertile 
 ground being required for the production of the 
 necessaries of life ; but the tea plant being reared on 
 declivities unassailable by the plough, it does not 
 encroach upon their convenience. In a country 
 whose ports are always open to the introduction of 
 grain, there must be a consciousness of the insuffi- 
 ciency of their own produce to meet the demand, 
 and particularly when a bounty is given by a 
 government, — otherwise so restrictive and greedy 
 towards foreigners — for every cargo of rice so 
 introduced. 
 
215 
 
 Would not science assist them also most materially 
 in increasing the products of the soil, which they 
 have turned up and managed age after age just in 
 the same way, without a thought crossing their 
 minds respecting an improved method of culture ? 
 They are called very good gardeners and v€ry good 
 husbandmen, but it is probable they might take a 
 profitable lesson from a Scotchman or an Englishman 
 in both respects. What has raised the produce of 
 our and to such an excess as to cope with a popu- 
 lation so rapidly and greatly increased, but experi- 
 ments based upon scientific calculations ? How 
 much, then, might be done for China in that way. But 
 with a government so averse to change, and so fearful 
 of innovation, there is no prospect at present of any 
 improvement in that respect, or in any other, however 
 much parade they make about the people's welfare. 
 Time, that forwards every thing, may bring it about 
 eventually, and their eyes be opened to the disadvan- 
 tageous position their foolish jealousy and appre- 
 hension of foreigners has placed them in. With 
 such a country, and such variety of climate, teeming 
 with a population to turn them to the best account, 
 had it not been for the fancy we have taken to tea, 
 they have little else to give us in exchange for the 
 •very useful things that our greater advances in the 
 arts enable us to offer them. 
 
 May we not look forward with some hope that a 
 change may be worked in the feelings of their present 
 rulers by our means ? Are we to carry the sword in 
 one hand, and not the olive branch in the other ? 
 Should we destroy rather than build up ? Could 
 we tolerate the idea that our track should be a plague- 
 spot upon the land that has been blessed with peace 
 for so long a course of years ? We have been tan- 
 
216 
 
 talised, provoked, and driven most unwillingly into 
 this inroad upon them, and certainly, so far, have not 
 ourselves to blame for it, having postponed such a 
 proceeding as long as possible, and put up with the 
 jibes and cuffs of an overbearing government until 
 they were past endurance. Our patience under such 
 inflictions, and our reluctance to return evil for evil, 
 are strong guarantees for our keeping within the 
 bounds of moderation, in this great undertakhig to 
 curb the presumption of this remarkable people. 
 But there is still more behind. The genius of our 
 constitution leads us to bestow its immunities on 
 either hand wherever we go, to aid in the political 
 resuscitation of the fallen or the misgoverned, and to 
 impart the blessings we enjoy ourselves, as far as 
 is possible, to those who are not so fortunate. The 
 religion, too, which we possess, should be a security 
 to the people whom we invade against any unneces- 
 sary exercise of severity. Whichever way we look 
 at it the Chinese have no reason to apprehend much 
 injury in the first instance at our hands, nor any 
 beyond the necessity of the occasion, and once that 
 our present quarrel is made up, we may have oppor- 
 tunities of bringing forward in the rear of our 
 armament, the benefits that we are imperatively called 
 upon to impart to them. Our knowledge and our 
 power have been given to us for other ends besides our 
 own, and nothing can be more confirmatory of the 
 axiom that " knowledge is power" than the attempts 
 we are now making, and expect to succeed in, to 
 coerce a people fourteen or fifteen times our number, 
 and occupying a country ten or twelve times the 
 extent of Great Britain and Ireland. 
 
 That " knowledge" which has encouraged us to 
 embark in an enterprise which, without such guidance 
 
217 
 
 would be accounted sheer folly or madness, happily 
 extends itself to other objects more worthy of accom- 
 plishment than the mere castigation of the rulers of 
 a nation so mighty in number, but so weak in their 
 ignorance. Should we be favoured with full success 
 in this our bold but lawful undertaking, and establish 
 a footing among a people whose existence in such 
 dense masses is cause for wonder and respect, how 
 much it behoves us to communicate to them the gifts 
 with which we have been endowed, and which we are 
 so justly proud of. We hold them, as the trustees 
 of a noble estate, to be distributed to the lame, the 
 impotent, and the blind, for in such a position do the 
 Chinese stand in relation to us» We have fathomed 
 the depths of science, — they have never dipt below 
 the surface. We have brought the arts to a high 
 degree of perfection, — they have left them as they • 
 were centuries back. We enjoy a morality illumi- 
 nated by the truths of a pure religion, — their moral 
 code is obscured by the deceptions of the grossest 
 superstition. To remove these palpable and deplo- 
 rable distinctions between them and us is what we 
 should apply ourselves to, if ever we are allowed a 
 fair opportunity to set about it. Our battles may be 
 crowned with victory, our trade prosper exceedingly, 
 but they should still be considered as only the means 
 to an end, for great as may be the difference between 
 the Chinese and us in feature and language, still 
 greater are the disabilities under which they labour j 
 to remove which would be our highest glory. 
 
 THE jEND. 
 
 WiLsox and Oqilvy, 57, Skinner Street, Snowhill, Londoq. 
 
ERRATA. 
 
 Page 29, line 34, /or **case" read "rash." 
 ,, 80, ,, 2 7, /or "unanimity" reflcZ " equanimity." 
 ,, 95, ,, 7, /or " would buy as much as he could" read "could 
 
 buy as much as he wanted." 
 ,, 103, „ 7, /or "seem"rea<? "serve." 
 ,, 107, ,, 28, /or " design" rcfl^Z "desire." 
 ,,115, „ 32, /or" characters which are' ' read * ' character which is . " 
 
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