NAPIER. 



689 



the effect of full chords struck on a finely-toned 

 organ." 



Our conclusions are, then, that England is less 

 gifted with a sense of art than many other nations, 

 and that this deficiency, connected with various 

 adverse circumstances to be traced in the history 



and condition of the country, accounts for the 

 want of a national music. At the same time we 

 are of opinion, that, but for these adverse circum- 

 stances, English music would have at this time 

 been in existence. 



N 



NAPIER, WILLIAM JOHN, ninth lord Napier 

 of Merchistoun, in the peerage of Scotland, was 

 born at Kinsale, in Ireland, October 13th, 1786. 

 At the age of sixteen he chose the navy as his pro- 

 fession ; and he was a midshipman on board the 

 Defiance at the battle of Trafalgar, when that 

 ship captured the St Ildefonso, and carried the 

 prize into Gibraltar. He afterwards served on 

 board the Foudroyant, and the Imperieuse, captain 

 lord Cochrane, who, in his despatches of the 7th 

 of January, 1807, noticed him as having distin- 

 guished himself in a boat attack on Fort Roquette 

 on the preceding day. On the 14th of November 

 following he commanded one of two boats which 

 captured a privateer of eight guns and fifty-four 

 men ; and was one of twelve in his boat who were 

 wounded, two of whom died. On the 20th of 

 February, 1808, he assisted in cutting out of the 

 bay of Almeira a French letter of marque of ten 

 guns, two brigs, and a large settee. Being sent 

 to conduct an unarmed vessel, detained by the 

 Imperieuse, to Gibraltar, he was, on his passage, 

 taken by a privateer from Mahon, on April 3d, 

 1808, and carried into Ivica, where he remained a 

 prisoner for three months. He was released when 

 the Spaniards began to throw off the French yoke, 

 and afterwards assisted in the defence of Fort 

 Trinity, and at the siege of Roses. He was on 

 board the Imperieuse, April 12, 1809, when the 

 Calcutta was taken. On the 6th of October fol- 

 lowing he received his, commission as lieutenant; 

 from which period he served in the Kent seventy- 

 four; and Sparrowhawk, eighteen, until his promo- 

 tion to the rank of commander, June 1, 1812. 

 He was wounded in the attack on Palamos, De- 

 cember 14, 1810. His first ship as commander 

 was the Goshawk 16, stationed on the coast of 

 Catalonia, where he had the misfortune to be 

 wrecked September 21, 1813. In March, 1814, he 

 was appointed to the Erne corvette, of twenty guns ; 

 and in June following he obtained a post commission. 

 On the peace in 1815, lord Napier retired from active 

 service ; but previous to his settling on his family 

 estates, although then in the twenty-ninth year of 

 his age, he entered the university of Edinburgh, 

 and spent the first winter there in a course of 

 study. He then commenced a series of agricul- 

 tural pursuits, with quite as much energy and suc- 

 cess as he had followed his profession. Uniting 

 objects, neither of them easy of attainment, the 

 improvement of his family estate with the comfort 

 and happiness of the peasantry who resided on it, 

 he succeeded in making himself beloved by his 

 father's tenants, and esteemed and respected by 

 the whole neighbourhood. His lordship wrote 

 a treatise on the system of agriculture best adapted 

 to the pastoral district in which he resided. On 



the 1st of August, 1823, he succeeded his father 

 in the peerage. He was recalled to his profession 

 on the 6th of May, 1824, having obtained the 

 command of the Diamond of forty-six guns, then 

 fitting for the South American station. On this 

 station he remained about two years and a half, 

 and then returned to his native country. In De- 

 cember, 1833, he received from the king a com- 

 mission appointing him principal superintendant of 

 the trade of the British nation in China. The 

 interest at present attached to the Chinese ques- 

 tion, induces us to give a somewhat detailed 

 account of the proceedings consequent on this ap- 

 pointment. It would appear that his lordship's 

 instructions empowered him to take a " high hand" 

 with the Chinese, but in this he was not supported 

 by the British merchants. 



Lord Napier arrived at Macao, in his Majesty's 

 ship Andromache, on the 14th of July, 1834. 

 Notice of his lordship's arrival was immediately 

 sent to the Hong merchants at Canton ; and was 

 by them forthwith forwarded to Loo, the governor 

 of Canton, who issued instructions, dated the 21st 

 of July, that his lordship should continue at 

 Macao, and if he wanted to come to Canton, in- 

 form the merchants, that they might previously 

 petition the governor, who would send the peti- 

 tion by post conveyance to Pekin. The distance 

 of Pekin from Canton makes it a postage of at the 

 least eleven days, and the return would have oc- 

 cupied eleven more; to which must have been 

 added whatever time his imperial majesty might 

 have thought fit to require for deliberation respect- 

 ing the manner in which be should regulate the 

 intercourse his lordship had been sent to superin- 

 tend. To this delay lord Napier determined not 

 to submit ; and accordingly waiving all ceremony, 

 and dispensing with the honours of a public entry, 

 his lordship first appointed his coadjutors, and par- 

 ticularly the late Dr Morrison, to conduct his cor- 

 respondence with the Chinese ; and then, accom- 

 panied by them, betook himself to his boat, late in 

 the day, on the 24th of July ; and after encounter- 

 ing a stormy and rainy night on the Canton river, 

 landed on the morning of the 25th at the factory 

 at Canton, a building which has been allotted by 

 the Chinese for the temporary residence of the 

 English merchants. On his arrival at Canton, he 

 sent a letter to the governor, which was refused 

 at the city gates ; in consequence of its superscrip- 

 tion being that of a letter, instead of a petition. On 

 the 27th of July, the governor issued a second 

 order, wherein, after repeating part of the first, 

 and referring to the past days of tranquillity, and 

 ordering the merchants, linguists, and compradors 

 to instruct the " new-come barbarians in all things," 

 he proceeds to remark that hitherto the foreigners 

 2x 



