1832.] 
COMMERCIAL RIVALRY. 
385 
advantage which the new state of things may offer in China, — we 
cannot be idle or indifferent spectators. It is time our public 
vessels were on the ground, under judicious instructors, that our 
knowledge may keep pace with the events as they transpire. Com 
merce has constantly increased with the knowledge of man, yet 
it has been undergoing perpetual revolutions 1 These changes 
and revolutions have often mocked the vigilance of the wary and 
the calculations of the sagacious ; but there is now a fundamental 
principle in commerce, which will enable the intelligent merchant 
and wise government to foresee and provide for most of these 
changes, — and that is, a thorough and extended knowledge of the 
dispositions, habits, and necessities of the people, and of the natural 
capacities and resources of the country where we have commer- 
cial intercourse. At no period of our history has this knowledge 
of China been so essential to our interests as at the present mo- 
ment. 
Thus speaks an English writer : — Let us evidence in the 
strongest manner, along the whole coast and in every port of China^ 
our naval power, and manifest the ease with which that power^ 
when duly exerted, could cut off the internal and external sup- 
_ plies of the empire. Let us add to science by a complete survey 
of the coasts of China, Japan, and Corea, and of the Loo-choo 
islands. The prosecution of these surveys would necessarily de- 
tain H. M. ships frequently in the waters of China, where they 
..should insist on paying and receiving such courtesies as are be- 
coming and customary between civilized nations at peace with 
each other ; demanding supplies of provisions and water as a 
matter of course, and in the usual way these affairs are managed 
in other countries ; at the same time the merchants of Great 
Britain would be pushing their enterprises in all quarters, under 
the constant protection and frequent presence of H. M. ships." 
Here, indeed, is "a new world of matter for a world of mind." 
We, too, must be on the alert, to show the Chinese that we have 
naval power to any extent we please ; but, at the same time, that 
we are content with our own extent of territory, and would not ac-^ 
cept of any portion of another country if it were freely offered 
us. The Island of Pulo Condore, in 8° north latitude, and almost 
within sight of the coast of Cambodia, should be examined by 
. fib 
