1832.] Reform in China. 255 



sentence being averted only at the very earnest intercession of the other 

 parties present, he was instantly sent to prison. His excellency's rage 

 having now become nearly ungovernable, the senior Hong merchant was 

 similarly threatened with confinement and death ; and the covering being 

 torn down from the portrait of the King of England in the factory hall, 

 the foo-yuen seated himself with his back towards it, with every mark of 

 indignity and insult. The Chinese being accustomed to consider every 

 emblem, and even the supposed seat of their own sovereign as sacred 

 and inviolable, and never to be even approached without the most abject 

 obeisances, this outrage thus assumes a character of importance which it 

 would want under almost any other circumstances, and be perhaps suffi- 

 ciently resented by indifference and contempt. 



The gate and walls of the factory garden were then wholly broken 

 down, and the quay, made under the express sanction of the governor, 

 after the fire of 1822, wantonly and entirely destroyed, several hundred 

 labourers being employed to throw the earth into the very channel which it 

 was previously pretended had been obstructed and encroached upon, 

 though the premises thus laid waste, being rented from the Hong mer- 

 chants by the company, were in every respect their private property. 

 This most unprovoked aggression, it is also to be remembered, took 

 place when the commercial business of the season had recently ter- 

 minated in the most perfect good feeling ; and while the president and 

 gentlemen of the factory were residing one hundred miles distant, at 

 Macao, anxiously endeavouring to preserve and to secure this friendly 

 intercourse. Though the Hong merchants were expressly forbidden to 

 forward any particulars of this violence to the English, yet the news, 

 of course, very speedily reached them, when an official notice was imme- 

 diately issued, stating, that as under such circumstances, business could 

 not be conducted with either credit or security whilst thus exposed, un- 

 less the evils complained of were immediately redressed and security ob- 

 tained against their recurrence, all commercial intercourse between Great 

 Britain and China would be suspended on the ensuing 1st of August. 

 This proclamation, accompanied by a brief detail of the outrages we have 

 described, was then suspended at the factory gates, copies of which were 

 also extensively circulated amongst all the English residents, andforwarded 

 to Bombay, America, and England. To endeavour to obtain the redress 

 now so peremptorily required, two members of the select committee also 

 proceeded to Canton, where however, their complaints were so entirely 

 unattended to, that not only did the demolition of the company's pro- 

 perty continue during the whole of their stay, but additional workmen 

 were even employed throughout the night. An official remonstrance, 

 accompanied by the keys of the factory in a sealed cover, addressed to 

 the foo-yuen, were then delivered to the Hong merchants in full meeting, 

 who, being however, too much intimidated to present them, they were 

 subsequently transmitted through the kwang-heep, a military officer, by 

 whom they were again returned unopened. 



For the information of the natives on these important subjects, a pro- 

 clamation in the Chinese language was likewise posted in various parts 

 of the city, which it was understood created a considerable sensation in 

 favour of the English, though the hope which had been still entertained 

 of obtaining some redress on the return of Governor Le, was now des- 

 troyed by the arrival of a new code of regulations for the future trade, 

 enforcing such restrictions as made submission not only utterly degrading, 



