PROSPECTS OF OUR TRADE WITH CHINA. 403 



tion, is it worth while for us, because they keep our merchants at a 

 still greater distance, on that head, to go and seize on their territory, 

 or be angry with a newly-appointed Governor because he chooses 

 to use the word Mwan, which we render " Barbarian,'' instead of 

 E, " Foreigner,'' especially when irritated? The writer has seen E, 

 " Foreigner," frequently used, as well as Yin-ke-le, " English," when 

 applied to us as a people. 



At page 20, Mr. M. mentions that the committee bitterly com- 

 plained of a proclamation which the Chinese annually stuck against 

 the factory, and requested its removal. The Hoppo's reply is, 

 " li has been stuck up for more than thirty years. It did not com- 

 mence to-day. As the language of the proclamation is rather 

 ignominious, why did not the former Barbarian merchants early 

 indulge their anger, and, with hearts dead to the subject, cease to 

 come again to knock heads at the service for an open market?" 



Thirty years ago, not one of the British Factory could read this 

 proclamation, it was then felt no grievance ; but, since the school- 

 master has gone abroad, every one reads it, and is accordino-ly in- 

 dignant thereat ! It is one of those papers which are issued as a 

 mere matter of form, and applies to all foreign residents, whether 

 English or not — that subjects of the celestial empire shall not attend 

 on Europeans, who are thus designated barbarians. It probably ori- 

 ginated with some petty officers of the country, that they might 

 claim a dollar annually from each of the servants thus employed. 

 Beyond the phraseology, no evil results from the publication. 



At page 32, Mr. M. lays great stress upon the Chinese having for 

 so long a period carried on commerce with us, and at times invited 

 us to renew our trade when suspended, thereby inducing us to con- 

 struct a system of commercial dealings on a very extensive and 

 permanent scale, and enquires " whether from all this is not to be 

 implied a tacit agreement on the part of the Chinese to carry on 

 trade with us on equitable principles ; such a one in short as, if broken, 

 will warrant us in compelling an obedience of good faith." And, at 

 page 34, he extracts largely from Vattel, to prove that all men ought 

 to find on earth the things they stand in need of, &c,, &c. This 

 reasoning when applied to European nations Is natural and forcible, 

 but it does not bear on the Chinese, who have never admitted a re- 

 ciprocal commerce. Commerce with them proceeds from an act 

 of kindness of the emperor towards those who come from a dis» 

 tance, this is their mode of reasoning, and is imperative. 



At page 38 he observes, " The viceroy, so early as ] 678, invited 

 the English to settle a factory at Canton." The writer thinks that the 

 object of this was to prevent the expenses of two establishments of 

 Hong merchants, &c., and to concentrate all foreigners in one spot, 

 with an ultra design of increasing the revenue derived from the com- 

 merce. Mr. Thoms, in his Appendix on the Revenue of China, pao-e 

 32.'}, " entertains no doubt but what the whole of the impositions com- 

 plained of by the English residents when at Amoy, and the subse- 

 quent imperial edicts excluding the foreign trade from Amoy, and 

 confining it solely to Canton, were political schemes of those at the head 

 of government at Peking, to effect that desired change. They, no 



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