A. D. 1794. 303 



Perhaps the Englifh feanien, with the high ideas of their own naval fu- 

 periority, and the careleflhefs of confequences, which ib ftrongly mark 

 their charader, may have been fometimes lefs corred: in their condud:, 

 than the rigid pundiUos of Chinefe etiquette and mechanical behaviour 

 required. From thefe caufes, and perhaps from others unknown, the 

 EngUfh were the leafl fivourcd, or rather the mod rigoroufly treated, 

 of all the European nations who reforted to Canton ; and probably alfo 

 the moft dreaded, fince their acquifitions in Hindooftan, their conqueft 

 of Manila, and the general reputation of their naval power, were heard 

 of in China. The ofl&cers of government at Canton, and efpecially the 

 colledlor of the cuftoms, finding that the oppreffion of foreigners was 

 not likely to be found fault with, or even to be heard of, at court *, 

 proceeded in their extorfions till they raifed the demands for cufloms 

 and port-charges upon a confiderable fhip to the enormous amount of 

 ^10,000 flerling. It was in vain to pretend to remonflrate. No nat- 

 ive durft tranflate a memorial, or acft as interpreter in laying their 

 grievances before the viceroy : and Chinefe fubjecls have even been 

 puniihed, for teaching their language to foreigners. 



The merchants of the hong f , almoft the only people with whom the 

 Europeans could have any authorized intercourfe, though difpofed to 

 favour foreign commerce, as advantageous to themfelves, yet having all 

 the caution and timidity natural to the fubjeds of a government, which 

 is arbitrary in every one of its fubdivifions, either durft not prefent the 

 memorials of their foreign friends ; or, if they did, they fuppreiTed the 

 nervous arguments and clear flatement of fadls contained in them, and 

 reduced them in the tranllations to abjed petitions, more Ukely to in- 

 vite, than to avert, infult and oppreffion. Neither do the members of 

 the Chinefe government think it necefl'ary to fliow the fmallefl: attention 

 to foreigners, or their trade, which they are not difpofed to acknowlege 

 to be of any advantage to a people pofTeffing, in their own variety of 

 climates, all the neceflaries and comforts of life, and, as they believe, 

 all the ufeful knowlege attainable by man. Influenced by fuch ideasj 

 the Chinefe do not confider the great influx of money poured into their 

 country by foreign commerce as a benefit ; and, inftead of encouraging, 

 they merely tolerate, a very rigoroufly refliritted intercourfe with fo- 

 reigners. 



The principal trade of the Eaft-India company has of late years been 

 in tea, an article which China alone fupplies. It therefor became an 

 objecft of the firfl: importance to endeavour to obtain relief from the 



* ' A Britlfh fubjeCl in the fsrvice of the Eaft- ' with a view of prefenting, in obedience to his 



• India v-onipany, who had attained the language « fiiperiors, a memorial of grievances from the 



• of the country by having been lent to Canton ' Britifh factory.' \_Accoutil of the embajjfy, l^c. V^ 



• at a very early age, and had remained long in it, i, f. 28.] 



• was punifhed, by expiefs order from Pekin, for f For the eftablifhment of the /w;^, or co-hong-, 

 « having attempted to penetrate to that capital fee above V. iii, p. 655. . 5 



