C90 



NAPlEit. 



coming to Canton liavc bct-n ponuillcd to request 

 und receive leave from the hoppo; and he then 

 observes: "On this occasion, the barbarian eye, 

 lord Napier, has come to Canton, without having 

 at all resided at Macao to wait for orders. Nor 

 has he requested nor received a permit from the 

 superintendent of customs, but has hastily come 

 up to Canton, a great infringement of the estab- 

 lished laws. The custom-house writers and 

 others, who presumed to admit him to enter, are 

 sent with a communication requiring their trial. 

 Hut, in tender consideration for the said barbarian 

 eye being a new-comer, and unacquainted with the 

 statutes and laws of the celestial empire, I will 

 not strictly investigate. But it is not expedient 

 that the said barbarian eye should long remain at 

 Canton provincial city; it must be required that, 

 when the commercial business regarding which he 

 has to inquire and hold jurisdiction is finished, he 

 immediately return to Macao ; and hereafter, with- 

 out having requested and obtained a permit, he 

 cannot be allowed to come to Canton. The great 

 ministers of the celestial empire are not permitted 

 to have private intercourse by letter with outside 

 barbarians. If the said barbarian eye throws in 

 private letters, I the governor, will not at all 

 receive or look nt them. With regard to the bar- 

 barian factory of the company without the walls 

 of the city, it is a place of temporary residence 

 for barbarians coming to Canton to trade. They 

 arc permitted only to eat, sleep, buy and sell in 

 the factories. They are not permitted to bring 

 up wives and daughters ; nor are they permitted 

 to go out to ramble about. All these are points 

 decided by fixed and certain laws and statutes, 

 which will not bear to be confusedly transgressed. 

 To sum up the nation has its laws ; it is so every 

 where. Even England has its laws. How much 

 more the celestial empire ! How flaming bright 

 are its great laws and ordinances, more terrible 

 than the awful thunderbolt! Under this whole 

 bright heaven none dares to disobey them ; under 

 its shelter are the four seas ; subject to its sooth- 

 ing care are the ten thousand kingdoms. The 

 said barbarian eye, having come over a sea of se- 

 veral myriads of miles in extent to examine and 

 have superintendence of affairs, must be a man 

 thoroughly acquainted with the principles of high 

 dignity; and in his person he sustains the duties of 

 an officer, an ' eye.' He must necessarily in every 

 affair act in accordance with reason; then only can 

 he control and restrain the barbarian merchants. 

 I, the governor, looking up, will embody the 

 extreme wish of the great emperor, to cherish 

 with tenderness the men from a distance ; and 

 assuredly I will not treat slightingly the outside 

 barbarians. But the national laws are extremely 

 strict and close- drawn ; we dare not in the least 

 transgress. Let the said barbarian eye be very 

 careful not to listen to the artful instigations of 

 evil men, enticing him, until he fails of the object 

 of the said nation's king in sending him so far. 

 Uniting all, I issue this order to be enjoined. 

 When the order reaches the said merchants, let 

 them immediately act in obedjence to it, and enjoin 

 the order on the said barbarian eye, that (he) may 

 know it thoroughly. Oppose it not. The said 

 merchants have had intercourse with the bar- 

 barians for many years: their knowledge of their 

 language and feelings must be good ; the linguists 

 and compradors are more closely allied to the bar- 

 barians. If they truly explain clearly, opening 



and guiding the understanding, the said barhuriun 

 eye assuredly cannot but obey. If there should 

 be disobedience and opposition, it must be owing 

 to the bad management of the said merchants, and 

 to the instigation of the linguists. Assuredly, the 

 said merchants shall be reported against, that they 

 may be punished; and on the linguists the laws 

 shall instantly be put in full force. [A phrase for 

 capital punishment.] Their respectability, their 

 lives are concerned. Tremble fearfully hcrcnt ! 

 make not repentance (necessary) ! These are the 

 orders." 

 "Tnoukwang, 14th year, Cth moon, 21st day." 



Lord Napier positively refusing to quit Canton, 

 a third order was issued, dated 30th July, in which 

 the governor threatens to report the Hong mer- 

 chants to the emperor, and commands that the 

 " baibarian eye must immediately set off and leave 

 the port, and not stop in the foreign factories out- 

 side the city loitering about." " The affair," it is 

 added, " concerns the national dignity. I, the 

 governor, will be able only to report against the 

 said merchants that they may be brought to trial." 

 The following day, a fourth order was issued to 

 tbe Hong merchants, who appear to be made the 

 unfortunate scapegoats, in which the governor 

 calls upon them to obey former orders, "to ascer- 

 tain clearly for what the barbarian eye has come 

 to Canton, and why, in disobedience of the regula- 

 tions, he has not requested a red permit." They 

 are required " to compel him, immediately, with 

 speed, to return to Macao, and reside there till 

 the governor shall have made a prepared report, 

 to request the imperial will be made known, that 

 it may be obeyed. Should there be any opposi- 

 tion," it concludes, "tbe said merchants will be 

 held solely responsible." The orders of the vi- 

 ceroy and hoppo were by the Hong merchants at- 

 tempted to be delivered to lord Napier, but his 

 lordship declined to receive them. Tbe Hong 

 merchants, in consequence, offered to be the me- 

 dium of communication between the viceroy and 

 superintendent. This offer was likewise refused. 

 Several fruitless negociations followed, into which 

 we cannot here enter. 



On the 2d of September, an edict was issued by 

 the viceroy, announcing the stoppage of the Bri- 

 tish trade. The edict declares that it is becom- 

 ing that the ships' holds should, according to law, 

 be closed, and directs that buying and selling on 

 the part of the English nation shall be put a stop 

 to from the 16th of August, and that the Hong 

 merchants shall withdraw all Chinese servants 

 from the factories. A free exportation of all arti- 

 cles contracted for previous to the 16th of August 

 was allowed. In consequence of this edict, the 

 British superintendents were cut off from a supply 

 of food, by the Chinese and all foreigners, and 

 lord Napier and his suite were reduced to live on 

 mess beef and pork from H. M. ships. On the 

 5th of September, lord Napier wrote to the secre- 

 tary of the British merchants (Mr W. S. Boyd.) 

 with reference to this edict, representing the stop- 

 page of the trade, after the grant of indulgence 

 and delay by the viceroy's order of the 18th ult., 

 as " a ground of grave complaint and remonstrance 

 to the viceroy on the part of the British;" and he 

 observed, that the permission to embark goods 

 paid for up to the 16th was vitiated in a great 

 measure by the prohibition to land cargoes from 

 the ships daily expected for tbe very purpose of 

 embarking the cargoes so contracted for. His 



