A BARBARIAN EYE.

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refused to so much as receive it, and returned the document to the writer. Such a commencement did not promise well for the success of the new relationship.

The arrival of the Chief Superintendent excited great attention among the Chinese, and official requests were sent to the merchants of the guild, or hong, to ascertain exactly what were the objects and intentions of this new functionary. Their views were tersely summed up and expressed in the name by which they designated the representative of the English king. He was a "barbarian eye," come to take stock of the mysteries and resources of the Flowery Land. The Viceroy was not content with instituting inquiries; he issued an order. The foreigners had, by the laws of the Empire, the right to reside only at Macao, but as an act of special grace they had been permitted, on receiving and paying for a passport, to proceed to Canton. A special order was made that the new "barbarian eye" was not to be allowed to visit Canton, except after request made in compliance with established regulations. Lord Napier asked neither permit nor favour. He hardly deigned to touch at the so-called Portuguese possession of Macao, and went straight to Canton as the representative of his sovereign to the Chinese ruler. The mandarins were not merely furious at the audacity of the English official, but full of apprehension at the consequences that might follow to themselves when it became known at Pekin that a foreign ambassador had forced his way through one of the gates of the Empire. There was, under the circumstances, little to wonder at in the Viceroy curtly returning Lord Napier his letters of announcement, and refusing to hold any intercourse with one who came uninvited, and who established himself of his own accord in the position of a welcome guest.

The Hong merchants and the Hoppo, or Superintendent of Trade, being responsible for the good behaviour and prompt obedience of the foreigners, who were only allowed to come to Canton on their guarantee, it was always a very easy matter for the Viceroy to assert his official authority. On this occasion he brought all the pressure he could to bear on the native merchants in order that the mission of Lord

Napier might be rendered abortive, and that the foreign traders should be subjected to the most complete subservience under the laws of China. He succeeded as well as he could have possibly desired. The Hoppo and his subordinates were all devotion, for "the national dignity was at stake," and presented a memorial for the suspension of the trade. Lord Napier was confined to the factories. All business transactions were discontinued. The native servants left the employ of the Europeans; even their boatmen refused to perform their duties, and they became virtually prisoners. The trade was suspended in the most practical and pronounced manner, and the Europeans were confined to their small settlement. Such were the immediate consequences and the attendant features of the transfer of the supervision of English trade from the Company to the Crown.*

In addition to the national dislike of the foreigners, and to the official desire to maintain intact the dignity of the Empire, another circumstance contributed to increase the Chinese indignation against Lord Napier, and to make them regard with more or less indifference the prospect of a cessation of the foreign trade. This was the steady decrease through exportation in the amount of silver coin in the country. A report to the throne in 1833 stated that during the previous eleven years nearly sixty million taels of silver had been sent out of the realm, and that the Empire was

*It may be parenthetically observed at this point that comment on these facts is reserved to the end of this chapter. It must not be supposed that, while giving this summary of events in the most favourable light for China from her point of view, we are able to see any ground for acquiescing in the lightly formed and easily adopted view that England was "forcing a trade on China "-a phrase first used during the debates of 1833. In one form or another the change was inevitable. Respect for Chinese pride, admiration for an undeviating and historic policy, will not blind the eyes of the thoughtful to the truth that the attitude of the Chinese was one that could not be maintained save by superior force. There will be agreement also that it was well for the world at large, well probably for China herself, that pre-eminence in war was wanting to leave the Celestial Empire an unsolved mystery-the inscrutable embodiment, as a Government, of the most intense selfishness-to the end of time.

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consequently poorer by this amount. Various edicts were passed prohibiting the export of silver, and ordaining severe punishments for the infringement of the law. But as the people continued to purchase opium and other articles from the foreigners, they were compelled to give in return their silver. In all sincerity the Chinese authorities most ardently desired the stopping of the trade.

Lord Napier had a very difficult task to perform, and one in which it was, perhaps, impossible to attain complete success with honour. He presented to the personal abuse and violent attacks of the mandarins a courteous firmness which almost repelled their efforts. But he did not confine his action to defensive measures; he assumed a vigorous offensive by giving expression to several home-truths. His first document, which was of the character of a public notice to the Chinese merchants, closed with the following sentence: "The merchants of Great Britain wish to trade with all China, on principles of mutual benefit; they will never relax in their exertions till they gain a point of equal importance to both countries, and the Viceroy will find it as easy to stop the current of the Canton river as to carry into effect the insane determinations of the Hong." There is not much reason to feel surprise if the Chinese officials construed this proclamation into an open defiance of their power, and viewed it as an arrogant claim to prosecute a trade with China by or against their will. They retorted with an edict absolutely and unconditionally prohibiting all intercourse whatever with the English people.

That the Chinese were quite in earnest and fully prepared to brave the worst was clearly shown when their military appeared at the factories and forcibly removed all Chinese servants, and when the batteries of the Bogue forts fired on two English men-of-war. Lord Napier's difficulties were aggravated by his ill-health, and, in deference to the requests of the English merchants, he consented to leave Canton and to retire to Macao. The Chinese thus obtained another diplomatic victory, and they reasserted in this way, and with undiminished vigour, the principle that no foreigner, merchant or envoy, should be allowed to come to Canton, save by

their permit, granted only to the petition and on the guarantee of the Hong merchants. Lord Napier published a formal protest against "this act of unprecedented tyranny and injustice." But it had no effect, and, allowing for the views of the Chinese Government, it cannot be disputed that, not only were they fully in the right, but that their fortitude and fearlessness may not unjustly attract some admiration.

A correspondence which, at this early stage, assumed so acrimonious a tone, could hardly have proved beneficial to either country by being continued. It was suddenly interrupted by the death of Lord Napier, who had been taken ill before leaving Canton, and who suffered many privations on his journey to Macao, where he died less than three months after his first arrival in China. Although Lord Napier's method of dealing with the Chinese officials was blunt, if not dictatorial, he saw clearly enough that there was nothing to be gained by truckling to them, and his position as a representative of England forbade his resorting to those concessions which the mercantile community had previously been in the habit of offering as the price for the toleration of their presence.

The departure of Lord Napier from Canton was followed by the opening of the ships' holds, and by the resumption of trade. But the trade superintendents were ignored, even after his death, which shortly followed, and a petition was sent home to the King praying for his protection and effectual intervention in the interests of English commerce in China. Trade with foreigners was placed under certain provisions, which received the express sanction of Taoukwang himself, and became the recognized law. These provisions were divided under eight heads as Regulations, of which the principal were the prohibition of the entry of men-of-war into the inner seas, and the compulsion on Europeans to make all their requests through the Hong merchants in the form of a petition. The powers conferred on the superintendents of trade by the Commission of William IV. were completely ignored, and so far as it lay in mandarin power to decree the manner in which the foreign intercourse should be carried on, the position reverted to the conditions under which it

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was managed during the days of the Company. For a short space of time it seemed as if the appointment of Lord Napier were to be only a passing episode, and that the Chinese had effectually attained their one object, “to prevent the English establishing themselves permanently at Canton."

While the English officials were busy reporting their opinions on the new system, the Chinese, flattering themselves that they had carried their points, did not further interfere with the dealings between the Hong merchants and the Europeans. There was the usual amount of opium smuggled into the country, followed on rare occasions by the detection of those engaged in it, and by their punishment and the forfeiting of their goods. Sometimes the opium was publicly destroyed, but more often only a portion was burnt for the benefit of public morals, while by far the larger part was reserved for the gratification of the mandarins in their privacy. More serious cause of disturbance arose out of the piratical attacks on merchant vessels becalmed off the coast, or in distress. One vessel, the Troughton, was attacked in the Canton estuary by two junks filled with armed natives. The ship was plundered, and the captain and several of the crew seriously injured and maltreated. It was a matter of surprise how, under the circumstances, they escaped with their lives. Some attempt was made to discover the assailants, and several arrests were made, probably of innocent persons. But, although the subject was long under discussion, no one was ever punished for this daring outrage in Chinese waters.

The death of the Canton viceroy, named Loo, who had conducted affairs during this period of change, was attended by a certain modification in the relations between the two peoples. After long discussion and many threats to put an end to the trade altogether, the new superintendent, Captain Elliot, was granted permission, in March, 1837, to come to Canton; but the privilege was only conceded in the usual way on the petition of the foreign merchants through those of the Hong. During the interval of more than two years since Lord Napier's death the matter had been several times referred to Pekin, and it was only by special Imperial decree