Cuar.II.] MIXED CHARACTER OF FOREIGNERS. 29 
particularly to those engaged in the opium trade; 
and will, in fact, be the head-quarters of all houses 
who have business on the coast, from the facilities 
of gaining early information regarding the state of 
the English and Indian markets, now that steam 
communication has been established between this 
country and the south of China. Moreover, with 
all its faults, its importance may yet be acknow- 
ledged in the event of another war. Our country- 
men cannot have so entirely forgotten the kind of 
protection which used to be afforded them by the 
Portuguese at Macao, as to make them wish to be 
put in the same circumstances again; and it is of 
no little importance to know that their lives and 
property are safe under the British flag, which has 
... “ braved a thousand years 
The battle and the breeze.” 
