THE PACIFIC OCEAN. 



423 



The intelligence we had jiift received of the flare of af- '"> 

 lairs in Europe, made us the more exceedingly anxious to 

 haflen our departure as much as poffible; and 1, therefore, 

 renewed my attempt to procure a paflage to Canton, but 

 without effect. The difficulty arifing from the eftablifhcd 

 policy of the country, I was now told, would probably be 

 much increafed by an incident that had happened a few 

 weeks before our arrival. Captain Panton, in the Seahorfe, a 

 fhip of war of twenty-five guns, had been fent from Madras, 

 to urge the payment of a debt owing by the Chinefe mer- 

 chants of Canton to private Britifh fubjects in the Eaft 

 Indies and Europe, which, including the principal and com- 

 pound interefl, amounted, I underllood, to near a million 

 fterling. For this purpofe, he had orders to infill on an 

 audience with the Viceroy of Canton, which, after fome 

 delay, and not without recourfe being had to threats, was, 

 at length, obtained. The anfwer he received, on the fub- 

 jec~t of his miflion, was fair and fatisfactory ; but, imme- 

 diately after his departure, an edict was fluck up on the 

 houfes of the Europeans, and in the public places of the 

 city, forbidding all foreigners, on any pretence, to lend 

 money to the fubjects of the emperor. 



This meafure had occafioned very fcrious alarms at Can- 

 ton. The Chinefe merchants, who had incurred the debt, 

 contrary to the commercial laws of their own country, and 

 denied, in part, the juflice of the demand, were afraid that 

 intelligence of this would be carried to Pckin ; and that the 

 Emperor, who has the character of a jufl and rigid prince, 

 might punifh them with the lofs of their fortunes, if not 

 of their lives. On the other hand, the Select Committee, 

 to whom the caufe of the claimants was flrongly recom- 

 mended by the Prefidency of Madras, were extremely ap- 



f prehenfive, 



