1832.] Reform in China. 259 



tioned. Foreigners of all descriptions are so rigorously and so jealous- 

 ly excluded, that every measure of national improvement is studiously 

 shut out j and since the expulsion of the Jesuits, about eighty years 

 since, they have remained as they were then left, perfectly unable to 

 advance a single step, after their instructors were withdrawn. A very 

 remarkable proof of which is, that in some scientific works recently 

 published in China, the astronomical and other instruments therein de- 

 picted, are exactly those which were used in France, and introduced by 

 the missionaries, at the period alluded to. 



From these premises, then, it appears incontrovertibly evident, that 

 every reasonable hope of comfort, or even safety for our countrymen 

 now settled there, depends on our immediate energy and firmness in 

 teaching these arrogant barbarians, that England will no longer consent 

 to purchase their tea, at the high price of national dishonour. Expe- 

 rience has repeatedly shewn us that forbearance and concession are with 

 them literally worse than useless ; for they but embolden them to be 

 still more insolent and overbearing. Let our next negociation be at the 

 sword's point ; and if we cannot obtain our just demand of indemnity 

 for the past, let us at least insist on security for the future. When 

 really forcible arguments are adopted, it will be speedily seen with what 

 facility they will be convinced ; and as, like Sir Lucius 0' Trigger's 

 duel, tf the quarrel is a very pretty quarrel just as it stands," the pre- 

 sent crisis then should at once be seized upon, to teach them that we 

 will no longer be insulted with impunity. Remonstrance, conciliation, 

 and forbearance, have each been tried in turn, for upwards of thirty 

 years ; and their results are before us. Let the East India Company 

 now reverse the system, and while they thus vindicate the national 

 honour and their own, let them no longer prostrate the dignity of Great 

 Britain at the feet of savages, or suffer the " meteor flag of England" 

 to stoop from its high " pride of place," at the haughty bidding of a 

 Chinese edict. It must be constantly borne in mind, that the mere 

 stoppage of commercial intercourse will be of no avail, since that would 

 punish the innocent only, without reaching the really guilty ; and the 

 loss would fall almost exclusively on the Hong merchants, who advance 

 money, and the tea manufacturers who borrow it ; and who would in all 

 probability, thus be, as their predecessors have been, reduced to beg- 

 gary. We hope, however, and we also believe, nearly as confidently as 

 we hope, that the Bombay government has already interfered, in the 

 only way in which interference can be effectual. Should our anticipa- 

 tions be unfortunately disappointed, that duty will then devolve on the 

 government at home ; for unless the chancellor of the exchequer be 

 prepared to sacrifice four millions of revenue, and the country and the 

 company to lose the tea- trade, as they most assuredly will, if this last 

 insult be passed over, it must become a national question. The only 

 ambassadors the Chinese will either listen to, or respect, are four-and- 

 twenty pounders ! T. 





