reason. The scene described in the following passage must have "As I walked, one evening during this period, from a temple where I had been on duty with the Adjutant-General, my path lay alongside a tank, on the border of which a sentry was posted to protect the magistrate's office. He had under his charge a Chinese prisoner seized for some slight offence. Having passed on to the office, I remarked, on my return in an hour's time, the same sentry looking anxiously in the water, and his charge missing. Casting my eyes in the same direction, I saw a man's head and long tail floating in the tank, which was scarcely knee-deep. The prisoner must have been so terrified at the ordeal to be undergone, that he sprung from the sentry's charge into the water; and he, not conceiving, to use his own expression, that the man would or could drown himself in a puddle, left him there to cool. So determined and frightened, however, at the new barbarian law-givers had the poor man been, that he must have held his head under the water till life was totally extinct, for when taken out, although medical aid was immediately procured, not the slightest symptom of animation was apparent."-(pp. 75, 76.) On the 30th of August was held that memorable conference with "the High Mandarin Keashen," member of the imperial cabinet, from the date of which the tide, hitherto setting in favour of the expedition, began, as is now pretty evident, to turn against it. The truth seems to be that we are no match for the Chinese in diplomacy: "Si disparibus bellum incidat In the field the case is different; but what of the largest triumphs there, "If policy regains what arms had lost?" The issue of the Chinese quarrel now that we are in the hands of Commissioners a thousand miles from the capital-our troops moreover ill-fed and worse lodged, and dying of fever amid the paddy-swamps of Chusan,* is more than the wisest of us dare venture to predict. But we are forgetting Lord Jocelyn. In the following passage we have some account of Keashen, and the conference between that great man and Captain Elliot : "In an hour we reached the landing-place. A bridge of boats had been constructed for our use across the mud-flat, and a narrow pathway, leading some hundred yards from the shore, brought us to an encampment, which had been thrown up for the reception of the mission. "A blue screen was placed at the entrance, so as to hide the interior from the gaze of the public, and here we were met by many more mandarins, and marshalled into the presence of Keashen. He rose at our entrance, and received the mission with great courtesy and civility. Indeed, the manners of these high mandarins would have done honour to any courtier in the most polished court of Europe. He begged us to remain covered, and was intro * See note at page 262. duced to each person separately, and expressed his hopes that the supplies had been received by the squadron. He made some excuse for our reception in the tents, but intimated that Tarkou was some distance from the landingplace. Judging from appearance, he might have been a man of forty, and looked, what he is said to be by his countrymen, a person of great ability. He was dressed in a blue silk robe, with a worked girdle; on his legs were the white satin boots common to all the higher orders; his head was covered with a mandarin summer cap, made of fine straw; in it was placed the deep red coral button, denoting the rank of the wearer, and the peacock's feather drooping between the shoulders. The encampment was surrounded with a high canvass wall, resembling that which encircles the private apartments of great men and native rajahs when travelling through India. Înside this screen were eight small tents, in each of which a table and forms were placed. These formed an oval, and in the centre was erected a canvass cottage, of rather an ingenious description; whilst at the upper end, concealed by another screen, stood the tent of conference. This was lined with yellow silk (the royal colour), and worked with the arms of the empire at the back. "The interpreters and Captain Elliot remained with the commission whilst the rest of the officers and gentlemen sought the different tents around, in which the lower orders of mandarins were busy preparing a breakfast for the party, for it was an extraordinary thing in this visit, that everything was apparently done by mandarins, none of their servants being admitted." Not at all extraordinary, my Lord Jocelyn, if you consider how important it was that the mandarins should be able to tell just what story they pleased, without encountering a single incredulous look, as soon as yourself and brethren had been got out of the way. "After a conference of six hours, during which period the loud voices of the plenipotentiaries in high argument had often struck upon our ears, the British plenipotentiary came forth, and the rest of the party having performed their salaams to the Chinese Commissioner, we departed for the Wellesley, greatly, I believe, to the relief and satisfaction of the mandarins. "The result of the conference requiring additional time to be given for another answer to arrive from the court, the squadron again got under weigh, to sail and make discoveries in this sea, hitherto so little known to the English mariner."-(pp. 110-112, 115, 117.) On the whole, we are well pleased with the little journal from which we have endeavoured to extract information and amusement for our readers. It is the modest, plain, straight-forward narrative of a soldier and an honest man-we hate the phrase "a man of honour." Our chief regret in laying it down has been, that the Noble Author did not see more, that so he might have told us more. We must not, however, take leave of him without expressing our regret at finding, in the 43rd page, a sneer at that zealous, self-denying missionary and man of God, Mr. Gutzlaff. Mr. Gutzlaff ill deserves such treatment, least of all at the hands of a young man. We hope that this blot may be effaced, should the book reach a second edition. We suggest also the omission or correction of such incongruous phraseology as the following::- "That storm has at last burst forth into the present attitude of defiance.”—p. 2. "Systematic darkness inculcated."-p. 3. "They see faintly glimmering in the distance, the internal struggle, &c."-p. 138. Rhetorical figures are sharp tools, and apt to cut the fingers of the inexperienced or the unwary. The opium question, and the quarrel with China growing out of it, are matters of very grave importance, and beset, we are willing to admit, with many and great difficulties. Perhaps, however, by endeavouring simply to follow the guidance of common sense and honesty we may not altogether fail if we attempt to place them in a just point of view. There are three distinct parties, each of whom is concerned in the origin and settlement of the dispute with China-the Chinese themselves the British government-and the opium-dealers. Nor must we forget a fourth party, who although occupying no portion of "the foreground" fill up the whole "distance" in the piece we mean the East India Company. Now with regard to the two last-named, the Honourable Company and the opium-traders, we wish we could perceive how it is possible to avoid classing them in the very same category, as enormous offenders against God and man. In the most fertile provinces of India the drug is grown. These are partly British territory, and partly territory under British influence and control. The company possesses within its own dominions a monopoly of the poison-crop; from that portion of it which is raised in the dependent district of Malwa, it derives a large revenue in the shape of a transit duty. The opium is collected by officers in the service of the company from the immediate cultivators-the Ryots. By the servants of the company it is packed in chests, stamped with the company's proper mark, and in the name and by the authority of the company sold to the opium-traders. To establish if possible still more completely the fact of the East India Company's connection with this vile traffic, it may be added, that it has had samples made up in separate packages, varying in form or quality, and sent to China, in order to ascertain the best mode of suiting its goods to the Chinese market, so as to meet with the readiest and quickest sale. The traders in opium with China have made themselves obnoxious to two distinct charges, either of which is sufficient utterly to overwhelm them with guilt and shame. In the first place their business, like that of gin-sellers in England, is of so atrocious a nature that it flourishes in exact proportion to the increase of crime and wretchedness amongst their customers; and secondly, they pursue their iniquitous calling in contempt and defiance of the laws of the country, an aggravation of guilt which does not lie at the door of the gin-seller. Whatever special pleading, whatever refinement of casuistry, hired or interested advocates may have recourse to in their defence-whatever attempts may be made to extenuate or soften the severity of these charges, their substantial truth is too manifest to need that we should waste a single moment in proving them. We come next to speak of the government and magistrates of China. That it is lawful for the former to make what regulations. it may judge expedient with regard to the admission into the country, or exclusion from the country, of commodities coming from abroad, we presume our readers will one and all admit: That it is the duty of the latter to enforce the regulations of their superiors is equally undeniable. We inquire not concerning the policy of such measures. That is a question with which, in the present argument, we have no concern. We simply affirm the fact of their lawfulness, which, of course, involves their binding obligation alike upon natives, and foreigners trading with the natives. Had then the Chinese acted, as they had an undoubted right to act in the case before us, the legislative authority passing laws against the opium-trade, and subordinate powers enforcing their observance, seizing, if needful "vi et armis," the goods of smugglers, and visiting them personally with the punishment which they deserved, there had been nothing more to be said on the subject. But here comes the nodus of the question. The government of China, that is the emperor and his council, issued indeed from time to time prohibitory decrees against the trade in opium; but the magistrates, those to whom the enforcement of the decrees was committed, not only neglected their duty, during a long course of years, but shamefully engaged in the trade themselves, or basely accepted bribes from those who were engaged in it. It is quite impossible to believe that this was unknown to the emperor at Pekin-scarcely possible to believe that it was done without his connivance, or that of the members of his cabinet. Under these circumstances does it not become exceedingly questionable how far the High Commissioner Lin had a right to demand the surrender of chests of opium, to the number of twenty thousand and upwards, even although it be admitted (some have denied it) that they were at the time within the limits of his jurisdiction? The traders had received every encouragement to believe, and to act upon the belief, that there was no serious intention on the part of the government to molest them in their calling, however contrary that might be to the letter of the law. They had had full proof of the supineness, to say the least, of the court, and the corruption and malefactions of the provincial functionaries at Canton. How then, again we ask, can the Commissioner be justified in resorting, (without any sufficient warning) to the extreme measure which marked the commencement of his dictatorship? But when it is further considered, that to enforce this act of arbitrary authority he maltreated, in various ways, our fellow-countrymen, and subjected the representative of our sovereign (who not only had no connection with opium smugglers but actually exerted his whole influence against them) to insult, imprisonment, and threats of starvation, nay of a still more ignominious death,—his violence rises into the dignity of a grave national offence, and assuredly calls for the interference of a power which the Chinese have been but too long permitted to treat with contempt. On this ground it is that we venture to justify the present naval and military expedition to China. How far we have a right to insist on indemnification for the opium surrendered to the Imperial Commissioner, we candidly confess that, with the imperfect data before us, we are at a loss to decide. We must leave this point to be settled by wiser and better-informed heads than our own. But on the score of wrongs inflicted, many and grievous, both previous to and since the opium seizure, we have a long account against China. As men bound to promote peace and to forgive those who have injured us, we might be willing that "by-gones should be by-gones," but it is our clear and manifest duty to take measures that the things of which we justly complain should exist no longer. If we are to have commercial intercourse with the Celestial Empire hereafter, it must be on a footing of avowed and recognised equality -no more Hong Merchants to act as convenient go-betweens, to preserve the dignity of viceroys and commissioners from official contact with outside barbarians". -no more confinement within the narrow walls of a factory on the shores of the Canton river, from which the wives and daughters of our merchants are excluded—no more gross and to the last degree insulting proclamations posted upon the dwellings of men of probity and virtue-no more encouragement to little rascally ragamuffins to mob them if they venture an hundred yards from their own doors, shouting after them" Foreign devils-barbarians-red-bristled devilslie-telling devils"-often adding obscene expressions and flinging light missiles."+ All these and such like things must come to an end from henceforth, and it is the duty of the British government to demand and insist that they shall. *In his first proclamation Lin required the surrender of all the opium in the ports or on the coast of China. +Travels in China, by Howard Malcolm, 1837. |