merely the future development, but the absolute annual dividend of the greatest trading and administering company of all time depended. The profit of the China trade enabled Warren Hastings and the Marquis Wellesley to carry out their schemes of empire at the same time that they satisfied the wants and expectations of the Directors in Leadenhall Street. Each year was consequently marked by a steady increase in the quantity of goods sent from Calcutta and Bombay; and as these vessels sailed during many years both unarmed and without a convoy, it is clear that the Company preserved in its dealings with the Celestials its natural character of a purely commercial venture. In this particular the old motive, which in Madras had turned our merchants into soldiers, jealousy and dread of France at last compelled the arming of these vessels, which then formed in turn the nucleus of the old Indian marine.

The advantages drawn from the trade being so great, and the available force for coercing the Chinese so insignificant, it followed as a matter of course that the English had to put up with many exactions, and to purchase the right to trade by complying with the whims of the local authorities, often couched in a dictatorial and arrogant spirit. The Emperor, whether it was Keen Lung or any of his successors, did not, in plain truth, want them to come at all. They made their way in as a thief in the dark by the back door of the Empire; and it was only the corruptness of the mandarins that supplied them with the opportunity of evading the strict injunctions of the central executive.

The traffic was as profitable to these officials as to the Europeans, and they had, consequently, equal reasons for its maintenance. They grew rich upon it, and to be appointed hoppo, or farmer of the customs, was considered the way to certain fortune. Latterly it was reserved as a privilege for a member of the Imperial family. The office had always to be purchased at a high price, and the holder could only retire on his gains by making the Government a present, voluntary or enforced, of the better half of his fortune. Despite the heavy taxes and dues, and the objectionable contributions to the Consoo Fund, the English came every year in increasing numbers, and with their ships carrying larger cargoes. The Chinese remained masters of the situation, and the mere threat of suspending the trade sufficed to bring the stoutest captains and the most independent merchants to their knees.

The Chinese might have been able to have continued relations on this footing for a very much longer period than they did but for two circumstances, of which one only was within their control. They were not content with imposing taxes and custom dues; they claimed authority over the persons of foreigners, and the right to try those who transgressed their laws as interpreted by themselves. The principle, for the application of which the Chinese showed themselves singularly unani. mous, is one that has often been discussed in connection with the trial of Christians by an Eastern race and code both in Europe and in Asia. But whatever may be advanced theoretically against it, the sentiment of Europeans is strongly against the admission of any such

right; and after many warm debates and some hostile encounters the grand privilege of ex-territoriality has been conceded by China and her neighbours, imitating in this the example of Turkey and the other Mahomedan states of the West. But in the days of which we are right had been conceded. The

speaking no such

Chinese authority was supposed to be supreme in the Bocca Tigris; and if foreigners chose to come there, it was contended that it should be on the condition of subordination to the laws of China. Unfortunately, as the result must make us think, events showed that this was to be no empty boast, and that the Chinese really required its exact fulfilment.

As early as 1784, when the Emperor Keen Lung was at the height of his fame, an accident occurred on the crowded river. A shot from one of the trading vessels whilst firing a salute happened to strike and kill a Chinese sailor. The affair was really accidental, but the Chinese mandarins at once demanded the surrender of the culprit. A lengthy and heated discussion ensued; but the Chinese were persistent, and would entertain no compromise short of the actual surrender of the man. The old threat of suspending the trade was renewed, and it proved only too successful. The sailor was given up, and was forthwith strangled. Some promise seems to have been required that he would not be killed; but, of course, there was no reason to suppose, under the circumstances, that it would be kept.

* Meaning the Tiger's Mouth; more commonly called the Bogue, the name given to the estuary of the Canton river.

The Chinese were thus allowed to assert in a very effective way their sovereign rights; and, of course, such a strong proceeding as this could not fail to produce a considerable effect.

But in one sense the Chinese had over-reached themselves. The punishment * of this poor gunner was so monstrously unjust, and so quite disproportionate with his unwitting offence, that it at once put an end to all idea of making a similar surrender in the future, so far, at least, as English subjects were concerned. The maintenance of a profitable trade can be purchased at too dear a price, if the return has to consist in part of national dishonour. Several cases of a like character occurred, but none of the offenders were surrendered. Sailors would show that they were free from the forbearing spirit of their officers and Government, and on provocation resort to a display of national vigour. In the result these outbreaks+ had sometimes a termination fatal for the Chinese of Canton and Whampoa. And when these brawlers were punished, it was by English law and in just proportion to the nature of their offence.

The second circumstance which threatened to com

*The mandarins apparently acted on the idea of getting a life for a life." A Chinaman had been killed; an European must be slain in expiation. It mattered nothing whether he was the real culprit or not.

There was the affair of the "Providence" schooner, where several Chinese were shot and one killed in attempting to remove the anchor of that vessel; and, at a later period, that of another Chinaman killed by a sailor of the "Neptune" man-of-war during a riot on shore. This sailor might have been given up, but for the firmness of Capt. Rolles of H.M.S. "Lion."

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plicate the question, and which did actually disturb the arrangements existing between the Hong merchants and their European visitors, was the more frequent appearance of English men-of-war in Chinese waters as the necessary consequence of the contest with France. These came not merely in the character of guards for Indian commerce, but also on a roving mission to clear the seas of the tri-colour. Wherever a French vessel appeared in those days it was not long before an English frigate followed, and the Chinese found it impossible to distinguish between these perfectly independent representatives of the same people and kingdom. The captains of these vessels thought more of enhancing the dignity of their sovereign than of the worldly interests. of their fellow-countrymen; and the necessary consequence was an unceasing conflict between them and the Chinese mandarins, who were only kept in any sort of good humour by the profitable business of supplying them with provisions at extortionate charges.

The question was still further complicated by the condition of things in the Canton river and on the coast of the Kwantung province. The Chinese have never been distinguished for naval prowess as a nation, but at this period they had no navy at all worthy of the name. But the natural disposition of the people of the south prompted them to a life of adventure on the sea, and it found relief in the formation of piratical bands, with their head-quarters among the numerous islands at the mouth of the Pearl River. These bands had to a certain extent combined, and formed at the beginning of the century a powerful confederacy, which was absolutely