1832.] 
COMMERCIAL RIVALRT. 
383 
more impressive lesson " of barbarian justice and prowess." A 
certain amount of fighting* is necessary, and the sooner it is done 
the better; it will be worth a dozen embassies to the Celestial 
throne, though the ambassador should again do, as M'Cartney 
did, allow a flag to^ wave over his head, with the motto, " the 
ambassador of the King^of England bearing tribute to the Em- 
peror of China ;" or, as the Dutch ambassador Jitzing, crawl on 
his all-fours, and butt his head nine times on the ground when he 
came in presence of the " son of ten thousand years." We want 
at present no embassies to Pekin, unless backed by armed ships, 
with orders to frighten the mandarins by a show of power, and 
to use it too, if necessary. This is the only suitable diplomacy 
for the Chinese, and would be worth a hundred embassies of Lord 
Amherst, who was instructed to say, that he had no commercial 
objects in view ; that he had been sent half round the world to 
manifest the regard of his Britannic majesty for his Imperial majesty, 
and to improve the relations of amity that so happily subsisted 
between their illustrious parents — Kien-lung and George the 
Third. . " 
It is time this puerile policy should be abandoned, since " the 
experience of centuries has taught Europeans that the Chinese 
authorities will heap insult on insult upon them, when it can be 
done with impunity to themselves and their interests; but, when 
an opponent supports his arguments with physical force, or their 
interests demand it, they can be crouching, gentle, and even 
kind." 
If the legal trade should be stopped, the contraband will take 
its place ; for those who are now engaged in it, buy and sell of 
whom and to whom they please, without the least regard to the 
imperial edicts, which aim to restrict all trade to the seven Hong 
merchants of Canton. Does any one doubt this, let him reflect, 
that the laws of the empire make it death to smuggle opium, and 
yet no less than ten millions, and some years as high as fourteen mill- 
ions worth of this drug is introduced into the kingdom ! The govern- 
* The English, who have so often fought the battles of their continental neigh- 
bours, will, most probably, perform this service, from which we shall be equally bene- 
fited ; and should they now, as formerly, be content with the glory they may ac- 
quire for their pay, — we cannot object, provided we increase our trade, and increase 
it we will. ' 
