47 2 Voyage of the Novara. 



in coloured check pantaloons, blue frock, open-work cravat of 

 Gros (le Naples, and dancing-master's puiiips, resembling 

 much more a second-rate Paris dandy than a diplomatist, it 

 seemed as though he must have been dispatched to this out- 

 of-the-way pai*t of the world for quite other than a diplo- 

 matic object, although he took great pains to spr-ead the re- 

 port that he had been appointed the successor of Baron Gros 

 in the Embassy. 



One day the Commodore and some members of the Expe- 

 dition received an invitation from the kind and hospitable 

 English Consul, Mr. Brook Robertson, to be present at a re- 

 ception at the Consulate of the Tau-Tai, or highest Chinese 

 official of the city.* 



We the more readily congratulated ourselves on this invit- 

 ation, as, owing to the sudden departm-e of the Tau-Tai, we 

 missed the opportunity of paying him a visit in his own 

 palace in tlie city. Punctually at the appointed horn-, 2 p.m., 

 a formal jjrocession was seen approaching the buildings of the 

 English Consulate. In front were carried numerous titles and 

 insignia, then the Tau-Tai in a large and handsome sedan- 



* The Tau-Tai, whose authority extends over the three prefectures of Soo-Chow, 

 Sung-Kiang, and Tai-tsing in the north-east of the province of Kiang-ti, is under 

 the governor of Soo-chow, and has resided at Shanghai ever since that port was 

 thrown open to trade. His salary by law is only 4000 taeh (£1445), but the various 

 perquisites and emolument attached to it make his actual income about 365,000 taeh 

 or £105,000 per annum; out of which he has, however, to defray all expenses 

 of subordinates, &c. ; so that the net annual income of this post is estimated at from 

 25,000 to 30,000 taeh (£7000 to £8700). Besides the Tau-Tai there is only the 

 Tschi-hien, a sort of magistrate who lives in Shanghai, and trades with the fo- 

 reigners. 



