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 iii. 2a>
 
 J- Vols
 
 CHINA: 
 
 A GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF THAT EMPIRE 
 AND ITS INHABITANTS, &c. 
 
 IX TWO VOLUMES. 
 Volume I.
 
 CHINA: 
 
 A GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF THAT EMPIRE 
 AND ITS INHABITANTS; 
 
 WITH THE 
 
 HISTORY OF FOREIGN INTERCOURSE DOWN TO THE 
 
 EVENTS WHICH PRODUCED THE 
 
 DISSOLUTION OF 1857. 
 
 By SIR JOHN FRANCIS DAVIS, Bart., K.C.B. 
 
 F.R,S., &c. 
 
 LATE HER MAJESTT'S PLENIPOTENTIAKT IN CHINA ; AKD 
 GOVERNOE AKD COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF OF THE COLONY OF HONGKONG. 
 
 A NEW EDITION, REVISED AND ENLABGED. 
 IN TWO VOLUMES.— Vol. I. 
 
 it)^ Illustrations. 
 
 LONDON: 
 JOHN MUKRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET. 
 
 1857. 
 
 Tlie riyht of Travtlation is reserved.
 
 LONDON" ; rRINTKI) UY W. CXOWES AND SONS, STAMFOUD STREET, 
 ASD CHAIIING CnOSS.
 
 P5 
 
 V. I 
 
 TO 
 
 VISCOUNT PALMERSTON, 
 
 K.G., G.C.B., 
 FIKST LOBD OF THE TEEASURY, 
 
 THE STEADY PROTECTOH OF BRITISH INTERESTS IN CHINA, 
 
 >■ ^h ^tbmti moxk, 
 
 AFTER TWENTY-ONE YEARS TRIAL, 
 
 IS INSCRIBED 
 
 BY THE AUTHOR. 
 
 544672 
 
 f'^OGRAPHt
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 The exhaustion of several previous Editions, 
 and the sort of Chinomanie created by the late 
 discussions in Parliament, with the events in 
 which those discussions originated, as well as 
 those to which they tended, called for a new 
 and enlarged impression of this work, which has 
 been augmented by an additional Chapter (the 
 fifth), bringing the history of British trans- 
 actions down to the present time. 
 
 Hollywood, Oloucestershire, 
 ifJi May, 1857.
 
 CONTENTS OF VOL. I. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 EARLY EUROPEAN INTERCOURSE. 
 
 Cliina little known to the ancients — Embassy from IVIarcns Antoninus 
 — Nestorian Christians — Arabian travellers ; Ibn Batuta — Maho- 
 medanism — Jews — First Catholic missions — fliarco Polo — Por- 
 tuguese — Chinese oiDiniou of Europeans — Pinto — Desire for 
 foreign commerce — Settlement of Macao — Fniitless embassies to 
 Peking — Catholic missions — Quarrels of missionaries — Persecu- 
 tions — Spaniards — Dutch at Formosa; expelled by Chinese — 
 Russian embassies Page 1 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 BRITISH INTERCOURSE TO THE FIRST EMBASSY. 
 
 First trade between England and China — Misrepresentations of Por- 
 tuguese — Treaty of commerce at Formosa — Troubles at Canton — 
 Charges on trade -^ Commodore Anson — Intrigues of Hong mer- 
 chants — Mr. Flint — Quarrels of English and French — Trade 
 forbidden at Ningpo — Seizure of Mr. Flint — The ' Argo ' — The 
 ' Lord Camden ' — Portuguese justice — Chinese maxim for ruling 
 barbarians — Conduct of a ship-master — Debts recovered from 
 Chinese — Shocking case of an English gunner — Mission of Lord 
 Blacartney 33
 
 X CONTENTS OF VOL. I. 
 
 CIIArTER III, 
 BRITISH IXTKRCOURSK TO TIIK OPEXIN'G OF TRADE. 
 
 Objects and results of Loril IMacartncy's embassy — Affair of the ' Pro- 
 vidence' — Americans at Canton — Expedition to Macao — Mission 
 to Oochin-China — Admiral Linois defeated — Ladrones — Success- 
 ful resistance to mandarins — Second expedition to Macao — 111 
 success of Admiral Drury — Interdict against Mr. Eoberts — The 
 • Doris ' — Successful measures of the committee — Embassy of 
 Lord Amherst — The ko-tow — The ' Alceste ' — Cases of homicide 
 
 — Conduct of Americans — The ' Topaze ' — Fire of Canton — 
 Failure of Hong merchants • - Discussions — Affair of Parsecs — 
 Factory invaded by Fooyuen — Opium-smuggling — The ' Amherst ' 
 
 — Affrays of smugglers with Chinese — Termination of Company's 
 charter Page 61 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 BRITISH INTERCOURSE TO THE 'WAK OF 1840. 
 
 Commons' committee of 1830 — Act of 1833 — Lord Napier appointed 
 cliief commissioner to China — ■ His difficulties and death — ]Mr. 
 Davis succeeds — Edicts of the viceroy — Administration of Sir 
 George Robinson — Increase of smuggling — Tlic opium-trade — 
 Debts of Hong merchants — Visit of Admiral Maitlaiid — Evils of 
 the opium traffic — Efforts for its suppression — Proceedings of 
 Commissioner Lin, and their results — Massacre of an English boat's 
 crew — The ' Volage ' — Affray with war-junks — The ' Psyche ' — 
 Affair of the ' Thomas Coutts ' — Collision with Chinese vessels — 
 English trade stopped — War declared Ill 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 BRITISH INTERCOURSE TO THE EXPEDITION OF 1857. 
 
 First captirre of Chusan — Visit to Peiho — Hostilities at Canton — 
 Reinforcements — Capture of Amoy — Recapture of Chus;m — 
 Chinliae and Ningpo taken — Land operations — Capture of Chapoo 
 
 — Of Woo-simg and Shanghae — Chinkeangfoo stormed — Treaty 
 of Nanking — Troubles at Canton — Kejnng's visit to Hongkong 
 
 — Convention of Boca Tigris — Restoration of Chusan — Riot at 
 Canton — Assaults on Englishmen — Expedition of 1847 — Chinese 
 murderers executed — Progress of rebellion to Nanking — Sir John 
 Bowring — Outrage on the flag 14G
 
 CONTEXTS OF VOL. I. XI 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 GEOGllArHICAL SICETCH OF CIIIXA. 
 
 Eighteen provinces of Cliina — Dimensions — Temperature — Prin- 
 cipal mountain-chains — Two great rivers — Imperial Canal — 
 Crossing the Yellow Eiver — Great Wall — The provinces — The 
 Meaou-tse — Volcanic symptoms in the west — Manchow and 
 Mongol Tartary — Neighbouring and tributary countries — Chinese 
 account of Loo-choo — Intercourse with Japan . . . . Page ISO 
 
 CHAPTER VII. : 
 
 SUMMARY OF CHINESE HISTORY. 
 
 Chinese mythological history — Authentic history commences with 
 Chow — Confucius — The first emperor — Erection of Great Wall 
 
 — Race of Han — • The " Three States " — Law against female 
 mlers — Nestorian Christians — • Power of the eunuchs — Feudalism 
 
 — Invention of printing — ■ Tartar encroachments — Reign of Koblai 
 Khan — His successors driven out of Cliina — The Ming dpiasty — 
 Catholic missionaries ■ — Conquest of China by Manchow Tartars — 
 Kang-hy — Kien-loong — First British embassy — Kea-king"s will 
 
 — The late emperor Taou-kuang — Final expulsion of Catholic 
 missionaries 217 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 GOVERNMENT AND LEGISLATION. 
 
 Chinese government parental — Practice at Canton exceptional — In- 
 fluence of public opinion — Motives to education — Love of peace 
 — Reverence for age — • Influence of wealth — No hereditary aris- 
 tocracy — The emperor — Ministers — Macliinery of government — 
 Pro\incial magistrates — Civil ofiicers superior to military — The 
 army — Implements of war — Penal code — Its arrangement — 
 Punishments — Privileges and exemptions — Crimes — Testimonies 
 in favour of the code — Sanctions superior to will of emperor . 249
 
 xii CONTENTS OF VOL. I. 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 NATIONAL OIARACTER AND INSTITUTIONS. 
 
 Worst specimens of Chinese at Canton — Instance of gratitude — 
 Good and bad traits — Pride and ignorance — Respect for age — 
 Regard to kindred and liirthplace — Infanticide — Physical cha- 
 racteristics — Earliest iuliabitants — Personal appearance — Caprices 
 of national taste — Primitive features — Imperial kindied — Im- 
 portance of talent and learning — Descendants of Confucius — 
 Absence of ostentation — Condition of women — Marriage cere- 
 monies — Desire of male progeny — Education — Funeral rites — 
 Primogeniture Page 296 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 MANNERS AND CUSTOMS. 
 
 The new year — Presents — Feast of lanterns — Fireworks — Con- 
 trariety of customs to our own — Festivals — Meeting the spring 
 — Encom-agements to husbandry — Festival for the dead — Cere- 
 monial usages — Feasts and entertainments — Description of a 
 dinner — Asiatic politeness — Articles of food — Taverns and 
 eating-houses — Amusements — Gambling — Conviviality — Kite- 
 fljing — Imperial himts — Skating 345 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 MANNERS AND CUSTOMS — (continued.) 
 
 Costume of upper classes — Arms not worn — Summer and winter 
 costume — Paucity of linen — Furs and skins — No sudden changes 
 of fashion — IModes prescribed by authority — • Honours to just 
 magistrates — Shaving and shampooing — Female dress — Dwell- 
 ings — Gardens — Furniture — Travelling by land — The post — 
 Itinerary — Conveyance of goods — Travelling by water — The 
 vessels — Passing a sluice — Antiquity of canals 383
 
 CONTENTS OF VOL. I. xiii 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 CITIES — PEKING, 
 
 External walls — The Tartarian city — The YeUow Wall — The 
 Chinese city — Occasional scarcity — Dangers of the emperor — 
 Gardens of Yuen-ming-yuen — Scene in last embassy — Expenses 
 of the court — Tartars and Chinese — Police — Murder of a French 
 crew — Punishment of assassins Page 420 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 CITIES — NAXKIXG AND CANTON. 
 
 Nanking partially depopulated — Occurrence in last embassy — View 
 within the wall — Similarity of Chinese cities — Canton : streets 
 and shops — Blercantile corporations — • Fhes — Charitable insti- 
 tutions — Clans and fi-aternities — Temples — Inundation of foreign 
 factories — Their limits — China-street and Hog-lane — Population 
 
 — Female infanticide — Kidnapping childi-en — People of the coast 
 
 — The military — Forts 4:47
 
 ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 Pace 
 
 View on Canton Kiveb 42 
 
 TuE Emperoe Kien-loono 63 
 
 Sketch neae Canton 100 
 
 Passing a Sluice 186 
 
 Plan, Elevation, and Section op the G-eeat Wall .. .. 193 
 
 BuDHiST High Peiest 214 
 
 Chinese Military Station, with Soldiees 246 
 
 Mandaein seated in a Sedan 271 
 
 Chinese Shield 276 
 
 Insteuments of "Wae 277 
 
 Punishment of Wooden Collae 284 
 
 Small Feet of a Chinese Lady 312 
 
 Chinese Booksellee 336 
 
 Chinese Sepulchee 340 
 
 Chinese Lanteens 348 
 
 Oblations 355 
 
 Teacups on Stands 358 
 
 EicE-BOWL AXD Chopsticks 366 
 
 Chinese Jugglee 380 
 
 Fan and Case and Belt 384 
 
 PUESE 384 
 
 SUMMEE AND WiNTEE CaPS 386 
 
 Chinese Gentleman and Seevant 388 
 
 Men's Shoes 389 
 
 Audience of Kien-loong 392 
 
 Husbandman 397 
 
 Inteeioe of Mansion 402 
 
 Chinese Jaes and Household Oenaments 406 
 
 Mandaein bearing Empeeoe's Lettee 408 
 
 Accommodation-Barge 413 
 
 Nine-stoeied Pagoda 451
 
 OTEODUCTIOK 
 
 The following- work owes its orio-in to a collection of 
 notes which the author made while resident in China 5 
 and these notes were compiled for a reason not altogether 
 dissimilar to the motive which a French writer alleges 
 for an undertaking of the same kind — " le desir de tout 
 connaitre, en etant oblige de le decrire." A residence of 
 more than twenty years (which terminated in the author 
 succeeding the late amiable and unfortunate Lord Napier 
 as his Majesty's chief authority in China) was perhaps 
 sufficiently calculated to mature and correct those opi- 
 nions of the country and people which he had formed, 
 as a very young man, in accompanying Lord Amherst 
 on the embassy to Peking in 1816. If some acquaint- 
 ance, besides, with the language and literature of the 
 Chinese empire was not of considerable use and assist- 
 ance to him in increasing the extent and accuracy of 
 his information, it must have been his own fault entirely, 
 and not any want of opportunities and means. 
 
 It is singular that no general and systematic work on
 
 xvi INTRODUCTION. 
 
 China had ever yet been produced in this country, not- 
 withstanding that our immediate interest in the subject 
 was vastly greater than that of any other European 
 nation. At the head of travels^ both as to date and 
 excellence, stand the authentic account of Lord Macart- 
 ney's Mission by Staunton, and Barrow's ' (Jhina,' to both 
 of which works it will be seen that reference has been* 
 more than once made in the following pages. The above 
 authorities have not been superseded by anything that 
 has since appeared, though the works of Mr. Ellis and 
 Dr. Abel, the results of Lord Amherst's embassy, are of 
 a highly respectable class, and contain much valuable 
 information on those points to which they confine them- 
 selves. Still no general account of the Cliinese empire 
 had ever issued from the English press ; and Pfere du 
 Ilalde's heavy compilation long remained the only me- 
 thodised source of information on the subject. Above a 
 century has now elapsed since that voluminous and in 
 many respects highly valuable work was first printed. A 
 great deal has of necessity become antiquated, and it is 
 not easy for any one, who is personally unacquainted with 
 China, to separate the really sound and useful information 
 it contains, from the prejudice which distorts some por- 
 tions and the nonsense which encumbers others. Of the 
 last, the endless pages on the ' Doctrine of the Pulse ' 
 may be taken as one specimen.
 
 INTRODUCTION. xvii 
 
 The following work being intended wholly for the use 
 of the general reader, so much only of each subject has 
 been touched upon as seemed calculated to convey a 
 summary, though at the same time accurate, species of 
 information in an easy and popular way. 
 
 The superiority which the Chinese possess over the 
 other nations of Asia is so decided as scarcely to need 
 the institution of an elaborate comparison. Those who 
 have had opportunities of seeing both have readily ad- 
 mitted it, and none more so than the Right Honourable 
 Henry Ellis, formerly our ambassador to Persia, whose 
 intimate personal acquaintance with China and India, as 
 well as with Persia, rendered him peculiarly calculated to 
 form a just estimate. The moral causes of a difference 
 so striking may perhaps occur to the reader of the 
 subjoined work : the physical causes consist, it may 
 reasonably be supposed, in the advantages which China 
 possesses from its geographical situation ; in the generally 
 favourable climate, the average fertility of soil, and the 
 great facility of internal intercourse with which the 
 country has been favoured by nature, and which has been 
 still farther improved by art. The early advancement of 
 China, in the general history of the globe, may likewise 
 be accounted for, in some measure, by natural and 
 physical causes, and by the position of the whole of that 
 vast country (^with a very trivial exception) within the 
 
 VOL. I. I
 
 xviii INTRODUCTION. 
 
 temperate zone. On this point the author will repeat 
 some observations which he long since made in another 
 place ; that " an attentive survey of the tropical regions 
 of the earth, where food is produced in the greatest 
 abundance, will seem to justify the conclusion, that 
 extreme fertility, or power of production, has been rather 
 unfevourable to the progress of the human race ; or, at 
 least, that the industry and advancement of nations have 
 appeared in some measure to depend on a certain 
 'proportion between their necessities and their natural 
 resources. Man is by nature an indolent animal, and 
 without the stimulant of necessity will, in the first 
 instance, get on as well as he can with the provision that 
 nature has made for him. In the warm and fertile 
 regions of the tropics, or rather of the equinoctial, where 
 lodging and clothing, the two necessary things after food, 
 are rendered almost superfluous by the climate, and 
 where food itself is produced with very little exertion,* 
 we find how small a progress has in most instances been 
 made ; while, on the other hand, the whole of Europe, 
 and by far the greater part of China, are situated beyond 
 the northern tropic. If, again, we go farther north, to 
 those arctic regions where man exists in a very miserable 
 state, we shall find that there he has no materials to work 
 
 * Sec the observations of Humboldt ou the use of the banana in 
 New Spain.
 
 INTRODUCTION. xix 
 
 upon. Nature is such a niggard in the returns which 
 she makes to labour, that industry is discouraged and 
 frozen, as it were, in the outset. In other words, the 
 proportion is destroyed : the equinoctial regions are too 
 spontaneously genial and fertile ; the arctic too unkindly 
 barren ; and on this account it would seem that industry, 
 wealth, and civilisation have been principally confined to 
 the temperate zone, where there is at once necessity to 
 excite labour, and production to recompense it," There 
 are, no doubt, other important circumstances, besides 
 geographical situation, which influence the advancement 
 of nations ; but this at least is too considerable an ingre- 
 dient to be left out of the calculation. 
 
 Since the above observations were first written, I have 
 been gratified by Sir Emerson Tennent's recognition of 
 their truth in his late valuable work on Ceylon, where he 
 quotes them, and varies the terms of the same proposition 
 thus : — 
 
 " The industry of man will always be the complement 
 of the liberality of nature. Where she confers or refuses 
 everything, exertion loses either its impulse or reward, 
 and man alike rests in ease or despondency. But in that 
 bounteous mean where the earth yields or withholds her 
 gifts in proportion as they are sought for and elaborated, 
 men, under the conjoint influence of necessity and hope, 
 mature the intellectual and physical powers on which
 
 XX INTRODUCTION. 
 
 invention and energy arc dependent, l)ut which lie dor- 
 mant and undeveloped when the lavish luxuriance or the 
 hopeless sterility of nature withdraws the motive or the 
 recompense, and renders labour respectively superfluous 
 or vain." 
 
 J. F. D.
 
 CHINA. 
 
 CHAPTEK I. 
 
 EARLY EUROPEAN INTERCOURSE. 
 
 Cliiua little known to the ancients — Embassy from Marcus Antoninus 
 — Nestorian Christians — Arabian travellers : Ibn Batuta — Maho- 
 medanism — Jews- — First Catholic missions — Marco Polo — Por- 
 tuguese — Chinese opinion of Europeans — Pinto — Desire for 
 foreign commerce — Settlement of Macao — Fruitless embassies to 
 Peking — Catholic missions — Quarrels of missionaries — Persecu- 
 tions — Spaniards — Dutch at Formosa ; expelled by Cliinese — 
 Russian embassies. 
 
 It is intended in the following pages to give such an 
 account of the manners and customs, the social, political, 
 and religious institutions, together with the natural pro- 
 ductions, the arts, manufactures, and commerce of China, 
 as may be deemed interesting to the general reader. The 
 most fitting introduction to this sketch will be, a cursory 
 view of the early acquaintance of the western world with 
 the country of which we are about to treat, followed up by 
 some notices of the more modern intercourse of Europeans, 
 and particularly the English, with the Chinese. 
 
 Antiquity affords us but a few uncertain hints regarding 
 an empire so far removed to the utmost limits of Eastern 
 Asia as to have formed no part in the aspirations of 
 Macedonian or of Roman dominion. Were a modern 
 conqueror to stop on the banks of the Ganges, and sigh 
 that he had no more nations to subdue, what has been 
 admired in the pupil of Aristotle himself would be a mere 
 absurdity in the most ignorant chieftain of these more 
 
 VOL. I. B
 
 \ 
 
 2 EARLY EUROPEAN INTERCOURSE. Chap. I. 
 
 eiili^hteiiod tiinos. We may reasonably hope that the 
 science and civilisation which have already so greatly en- 
 larged the bounds of our knowledge of foreign countries 
 may, by diminishing the vulgar admiration for such pests 
 and scourges of the human race as military conquerors 
 have usually proved, advance and facilitate the peaceful 
 intercourse of the most remote countries with each other, 
 and thereby increase the general stock of knowledge and 
 happiness among mankind. 
 
 It seems sufficiently clea^* that the Sei-cs mentioned by 
 Horace, and other Latin writers, were not the Chinese.* 
 This name has, with greater probability, been interpreted 
 as referring to anothm- people of Asia, inhabiting a country 
 to the westward of China ; and the texture, termed by the 
 Romans serica, in all likelihood meant a cotton rather than 
 a silken manufacture, which latter was distinguished by 
 the name homhycina. There appears sufficient evidence, 
 however, for the fact, that some of the ancients were not 
 altogether ignorant of the existence of such a people. 
 Arrian s])eaks of the Sinaj, or Thinae, in the remotest parts 
 of Asia, by whom were exported the raw and manufac- 
 tured silks which were brought by the way of Bactria 
 (Bokhara) westwards. It was under the race of Han, 
 perhaps the most celebrated era of Chinese history, that 
 an envoy is stated to have been sent in A.D. 04, by the 
 seventeenth emperor of that dynasty, to seek some inter- 
 course with the western world. This minister is said to 
 have reached Arabia ; and as it is certain that Hoti/^ the 
 prince by whom he was deputed, was the first sovereign of 
 China who introduced the use of eunuchs into the palace, 
 
 * It is noticed by Floras that ambassadors came from the Seres to 
 Augustus ; but Horace notices the Seres in a way which makes it un- 
 likely they should have been the Chinese. " Nee sollicitus times quid 
 Serci', et rcgnata Cjto Buctra parent."
 
 Chap. I. THE NESTORIAXS, 3 
 
 it may be deemed probable that he borrowed them from 
 thence. The contests of the Chinese with the Tartars, 
 even at that early period, are stated to have been the 
 occasion of a Chinese general reaching the borders of the 
 Caspian at the time when Trajan was Emperor of Rome. 
 The growing consumption among the luxurious Latins of 
 the valuable and beautiful silk stuffs with which they were 
 supplied through the medium of India, seems to have 
 tempted the Emperor Marcus Antoninus to despatch an 
 embassy to the country which was reported to produce 
 those manufactures. The numerous obstacles presented by 
 a land journey induced him to send his mission by sea, 
 A.D. 161. Like most attempts of the kind, this appears 
 to have been an entire failure, and the ambassadors re- 
 turned from China without having paved the way to a more 
 frequent or intimate intercourse with that secluded country. 
 
 The Jesuits have informed us that some of the Romish 
 missionaries discovered, in the year 1625, at one of the 
 principal cities of the province Shensy, an inscription in 
 Syriac letters, recording the first introduction of Christianity 
 into China in the year 635, by certain Nestorian bishops, 
 who had been driven eastward by persecutions in the 
 Roman provinces. We are not indebted, however, to these 
 refugees for any early account of the country. Their 
 existence in the same province of Shensy, at the period 
 when Marco Polo visited China, is clearly stated by that 
 traveller, as may be seen in Marsden's edition, page 404. 
 To those who travelled by land from Syria, and other 
 countries bordering on the Mediterranean, it was the 
 easiest of access, as being the most westerly point of the 
 empire towards Peking ; and they were probably induced 
 to settle there, from finding it one of the most populous 
 and civilized portions of China at that early period. 
 
 Marco Polo, besides, states that in a city in the neigh- 
 
 13 2
 
 4 EARLY EUROrEAX INTERCOURSE. Chap. I. 
 
 hourhood ofNankin;t»', on the banks of the Yang'-tse-Keang, 
 there were ''two churehes of Nestorian (Jhristians, which 
 were built in 1274, when his majesty the emperor aj)- 
 pointed a Nestorian, named Mar Sachis, to the govern- 
 ment of it (the city) for three years. By him those churches 
 were established where there had not been any before, and 
 they still subsist." * The editor justly observes that the 
 existence of these churches, of which no reasonable doubt 
 can be entertained, is a curious fact in the history of the 
 progress made by the Christian religion in the eastern or 
 remoter })arts of China. " It is remarkable," he adds, 
 " that De Guignes, in describing a religious building not 
 far from this city, mentions a tradition that gives strength 
 to the belief of an early Christian establishment in that 
 quarter : ' Les Chinois racontent qu'un Chretien, nomme 
 Kiang-tsy-tay, vivoit dans ce lieu il y a trois cents ans ; on 
 montre encore son appartement dans la partie de Test.' " 
 
 It is to the Arabs that we owe the first distinct account 
 of China, and of its peculiar institutions and customs. 
 Their far-extended conquests brought them to the confines 
 of that remote empire ; and the enlightenment of science 
 and literature, which they })ossesscd in no small degree 
 during the eighth and ninth centuries, led many indi- 
 viduals among them to explore unknown countries, and 
 to record what they had seen. We possess an interesting 
 specimen in Reuaudot's translation from the itineraries of 
 two Arabian travellers, in the years 850 and 877. These 
 bear internal evidences of truth and accuracy no less in- 
 disputable than those which distinguish the relations of 
 the Venetian traveller Marco Polo ; and as they have 
 reference to a much earlier period than even his, must 
 be considered to possess a very high degree of interest. 
 We can perceive a remarkable identity between the 
 * Marsdeu's Miirco Polo, p. 501.
 
 Chap. 1. ARABIAN TEAVELLERS. 5 
 
 Chinese as they are therein described, and the same 
 people as we know them at the present day, although a 
 period of 1000 years, nearly, has since elapsed ; nor can 
 the occurrence of one or two very remarkable discre- 
 pancies be considered as any impugnment of the general 
 veracity of these travellers, where there is, upon the whole, 
 so much of sound and correct information. The contradic- 
 tions have, in fact, evidently proceeded from some confusion 
 in the original manuscripts, by which observations that had 
 reference to other countries lying in their route, and whicti 
 are true of those countries at the present time, have become 
 incorporated with the account of China itself. These 
 Arabians describe a city called Canfu, which was pro- 
 bably Canton, at which place a very ancient mosque exists 
 to this day. The frequency of fires, and the long deten- 
 tion of ships, from various causes, as stated by them, might 
 be related of that emporium of foreign trade even at 
 present "This city," they observe, "stands on a great 
 river, some days distant from the entrance, so that the 
 water here is fresh." It seems at that time to have been 
 the port allotted to the Arabian merchants who came by 
 sea ; and the travellers notice " many unjust dealings 
 with the merchants who traded thither, which having 
 gathered the force of a precedent, there was no grievance, 
 no treatment so bad, but they exercised it upon the 
 foreigners and the masters of ships." We learn that the 
 port was at length forsaken, in consequence of the extor- 
 tions of the mandarins of those days ; and " the mer- 
 chants returned in crowds to Siraf and Oman." It is 
 remarkable that the travellers describe the entrance to the 
 port of Canfu as the " gates of China," which may pos- 
 sibly be a translation of Hoo-mun, " Tiger's Gate," or 
 Boca Tigris, as it is called from the Portuguese. 
 .These Arabians mention in particular the relief afforded
 
 6 EAELY EUROPEAN INTERCOURSE. Chap. I. 
 
 to the people from the public granaries during famine. 
 The salt-tax, as it now exists, and the use of tea, are thus 
 noticed: — "The emperor also reserves to himself the 
 revenues that arise from salt, and from a certain herb 
 which they drink with hot water, and of which great 
 (juantities are sold in all the cities, to the amount of vast 
 sums." The public imposts are stated to have consisted 
 in duties on salt and tea, with a poll-tax, which last has 
 since been commuted into a tax on lands : these Arabians 
 likewise mention the bamboo as the universal panacea in 
 matters of police ; and they very correctly describe the 
 Chinese copper money, as well as porcelain, wine made 
 from rice, the maintenance of public teachers in the towns, 
 the idolatry derived from India, and the ignorance of 
 astronomy, in which the Arabians were their first in- 
 structors. It is, in fact, impossible to comprise within our 
 Umits all the pei'tinent remarks, or even a small proportion 
 of the correct information, which may be found in this 
 curious and antique relic of early Arabian enterprise. 
 From the lights which it affords, as well as from other 
 sources of information relating to the first intercourse of 
 the Mahomedans with China, it has with tolerable cer- 
 tainty been inferred that, previous to the Mongol Tartar 
 conquest, they resorted to that rich country by sea chiefly, 
 and in the character of traders. 
 
 Subsequent to the establishment of the Mongol Tartar 
 dynasty by Zenghis Khan, China was visited by the Arab, 
 Ibn Batuta, whose travels have been translated by Pro- 
 fessor Lee. lie describes very truly the paper circulation 
 instituted by the Mongols, a scheme which subsequently 
 failed, in consequence of this paper being rendered utterly 
 worthless by excessive issues, and the bad faith of the 
 government, which derived a ])rofit from the circulation. 
 Even at that period Batuta observes that " they did not
 
 Chap. I. TOLERATION OF MAHOMEDAXIS]*!. 7 
 
 buy or sell with the dirhem or dhiar, for, should any one 
 get these coins into his possession, he would melt them 
 down immediately." If we may believe him, the Chinese 
 junks in his time sailed as far as Calicut, and he himself 
 embarked in one of them on his voyage to China. 
 
 The Mahomedan creed seems to have been established 
 and protected as the religion of a considerable part of the 
 population soon after the Mongol conquest, in the thir- 
 teenth century ; and it meets with perfect toleration at the 
 present day, its professors being freely admitted to govern- 
 ment offices, from which Christians are rigidly excluded. 
 There is a considerable mosque at Canton, of great anti- 
 quity, and forming, with its pagoda or minaret, a con- 
 spicuous object in the approach to the city by the river. 
 Numbers of that persuasion occurred in every part of the 
 route of the two British missions. Some gentlemen of the 
 embassy were walking, in 1816, with Dr. Morrison, at a 
 village about fifty miles from Peking, when they observed 
 inscribed, in Chinese, on the lantern of a poor shopman, 
 " An old Mahomedan." Being asked whence his pro- 
 genitors came, the old man answered, " From the western 
 ocean ;" but he could give no further information, except 
 that his family had resided there for five generations. 
 Dr. Morrison met with another near Nanking, holding a 
 government office, who said that his sect reached China 
 during the Tang dynasty, or about the period of the visit 
 of those two Arabians w^hom we have already noticed, in 
 the ninth century. The same individual stated that at 
 Kae-foong-foo, in the province of Honan, there were some 
 families of a persuasion denominated by the Chinese " the 
 sect that plucks out the sinew ;" these, in all probability, 
 must be the Jews mentioned by Grosier, who are said to 
 have reached China as early as 200 years before Christ, 
 in the time of the Han dynasty.
 
 8 EARLY EUROPEAN INTERCOURSE. Chap. I. 
 
 In the eighteenth vohniie of the ' Lettres edifiantes et 
 curieuses ' there is contained an account of the pains taken 
 by the Jesuits in China to investigate the origin of this 
 remarkable colony of Jews at Kae-foong-foo. The most 
 successful in his researches was Pere Gozani, who, in a 
 letter dated 1704, thus wrote : — " As regards those who 
 are here called Tiao-Ma-kiao (the sect that extracts the 
 sinew), two years ago I was going to visit them, under 
 the expectation that they were Jews, and with the ho})e of 
 finding among them the Old Testament ; but, as I have 
 no knowledge of the Hebrew language, and met with 
 great difficulties, I abandoned this scheme with the fear 
 of not succeeding. Nevertheless, as you told me that I 
 should oblige you by obtaining any information concerning 
 this people, I have obeyed your directions, and executed 
 them with all the care and exactness of which I was 
 capable. I immediately made them protestations of friend- 
 ship, to which they readily replied, and had the civility to 
 come to see me. I returned their visit in the le-pai-sou, 
 that is, in their synagogue, where they were all assembled, 
 and where I held with them long conversations. I saw 
 their inscriptions, some of which are in Chinese, and the 
 rest in their own language. They showed me their reli- 
 gious books, and permitted me to enter even into the 
 most secret place of their synagogue, whence they them- 
 selves (the commonalty) are excluded. There is a place 
 reserved for the chief of the synagogue, who never enters 
 there except with profound respect. They told me that 
 their ancestors came from a kingdom of the west, called 
 the kingdom of Judah, which Joshua conquered after 
 having departed from Egypt, and passed the Red Sea and 
 the Desert ; that the number of Jews who migrated from 
 Egypt was about 600,000 men. They assured me that 
 their alphabet had twenty-seven letters, but that they
 
 Chap. I. CHINESE JEWS. 9 
 
 commonly made use of only twenty-two, which accords 
 with the declaration of St. Jerome, that the Hebrew has 
 twenty-two letters, of which five are double. When they 
 read the Bible in their synagogue they cover the face with 
 a transparent veil, in memory of Moses, who descended 
 from the mountain with his face covered, and who thus 
 published the Decalogue and the Law of God to his 
 people ; they read a section every Sabbath-day. Thus 
 the Jews of China, like the Jews of Europe, read all the 
 Law in the course of the year : he who reads places the 
 Ta-kinrj (great sacred book) on the chair of Moses ; he 
 has his face covered with a very thin cotton veil ; at his 
 side is a prompter, and some paces below a Moula, to 
 correct the prompter should he err. They spoke to me 
 respecting paradise and hell in a very foolish way. There 
 is every appearance of what they said being drawn from 
 the Talmud. I spoke to them of the Messiah promised 
 in Scripture, but they were very much surprised at what 
 1 said ; and when I informed them that his name was 
 Jesus, they replied that mention was made in the Bible 
 of a holy man named Jesus, who was the son of Sirach ; 
 but they knew not the Jesus of whom I spoke." * 
 
 The first pope who appears to have sent a mission for 
 the conversion of the Tartars or Chinese to the Romish 
 faith was Lmocent IV. He despatched Giovanni Car- 
 pini, a monk, through Russia, in the year 124G, to Baatu 
 Khan, on the banks of the Volga , from whence they were 
 conducted to the Mongol Tartar court, just as the Great 
 Khan was about to be installed. Carpini was astonished 
 by the display of immense treasures ; and, having been 
 kindly treated, was sent back with a friendly letter : he 
 was rather pleased than scandalized by the near resem- 
 
 * For further particulars of the Jews in Chiua, see Chinese 
 Eepositoiy, vol. iii. p. 172. 
 
 b3
 
 10 EAELY EUROPEAN INTERCOURSE. Chap. I. 
 
 blance of the rites of the Chinese Budhists to the forms 
 of Romish worship, and inferred from thence that they 
 either already were, or would very soon be, Christians. 
 In 1253 Rubruquis was in like manner despatched by 
 St. Louis, during his crusade to the Holy Land, with 
 directions to procure the friendship of the Mongols. He 
 reached at length the court of the Great Khan, where, 
 like his predecessor, he observed the near resemblance of 
 Lama worship to the forms of Romanism, and concluded 
 that it must be derived from a spurious Christianity, 
 perhaps that of the Nestorians. 
 
 It is needless in this place to enter into any detailed 
 notice of the work of Marco Polo, which has been illus- 
 trated with so nmch erudition and industry by our 
 countryman Marsden. The doubts which were once 
 entertained of the veracity of Marco have long since 
 given way to admiration of his simple and faithful narra- 
 tive. Most of our readers will, perhaps, be aware that, 
 in the reign of Coblai Khan, the Mongol conqueror of 
 China, Nicholas and Matthew Paolo, or Polo, two noble 
 Venetians, reached his court : they were extremely well 
 received, and invited to return to China on their de- 
 parture for Europe. In 1274 they accordingly came 
 back, bearing letters from Pope Gregory X., and accom- 
 panied by young Marco, son to one of them. The youth, 
 by his talents and good conduct, became a favourite with 
 the Khan, and was employed by him for seventeen years, 
 after which he, with some difficulty, obtained permission 
 to return to his own country. The accounts which he 
 gave at Venice of the vast wealth and resources of the 
 Chinese empire appeared so incredible to Europeans in 
 those days, that his tale was most undeservedly dis- 
 credited, and he obtained the nickname of "Messer 
 Marco Millione." Another account of Cathay, or China,
 
 CiiAP. I. MISSION OF CORVINO. 1 1 
 
 was some time after written by Hayton, an Armenian, 
 and translated into Latin. According to liim, the Chinese 
 considered the rest of the world as blind, or seeing with 
 only one eye ; while themselves alone were blessed with a 
 perfect vision. 
 
 John de Corvino, despatched to Asia in 1288 by Pope 
 Nicholas IV., was the first successful promoter of the 
 Romish faith in China ; he arrived at Cambalu (as Peking 
 was called by the Tartars), and met with a kind recep- 
 tion from the emperor, notwithstanding the hostility of 
 the jealous Nestorians. He was allowed to build a 
 church, furnished with a steeple and bells, and is said to 
 have baptized some thousands of converts, as well as to 
 have instructed numbers of children in the Latin lan- 
 guage and the tenets of Christianity. The news of his 
 progress reached Clement V. on his accession to the 
 popedom, and he was immediately appointed Bishop of 
 Cambalu, with a numerous body of priests, who were 
 despatched to join him in his labours. On the death of 
 Corvino, however, it is probable that no successor, pos- 
 sessed of the same enterprise and industry, was ready 
 to succeed him ; for the establishment which he had 
 founded appears to have ceased, or at least sunk into 
 insignificance. 
 
 Abundant evidence is afforded by Chinese records that 
 a much more liberal as well as enterprising disposition 
 once existed, in respect to foreign intercourse, than has 
 prevailed since. It was only on the conquest of the 
 empire by the Manchows that the European trade was 
 limited to Canton ; and the jealous and watchful Tartar 
 dominion, established by this handful of barbarians, has 
 unquestionably occasioned many additional obstacles to 
 an increased commerce with the rest of the world. We 
 have already noticed the Chinese junks which were seen
 
 12 EAULY EUROPEAN INTERCOURSE. Chap. I. 
 
 by Ibn Batuta as far west as the coast of Malabar, about 
 the end of the thirteenth century. Even before the 
 seventh century, it apj)ears from native records that mis- 
 sions were sent from China to the surrounding nations, 
 with a view to invitintr mutual intercourse. The benefits 
 of industry and trade have always been extolled by the 
 peo})le of that country ; the contempt, therefore, with 
 which the present Tartar government affects to treat the 
 European connnerce must be referred entirely to the fears 
 which it entertains as to the influence of increased know- 
 ledge on the stability of its dominion. 
 
 According to the Chinese books, commerce, on its first 
 establishment at Canton, remained free from duties for 
 many years, but its increasing importance soon led the 
 officers of government to convert it into a source of gain. 
 As in Siam and Cochin-China at present, the pre-emption 
 of all imported goods seems at one time to have been 
 claimed ; but this did not last long, and the trade, after 
 having continued to increase at Canton, was subsequently 
 carried to other ports of the empire. The endeavour to 
 prevent the exportation of silver appears to have been an 
 error very early established ; but the regulations on this 
 subject, as might bo expected, have always been as futile 
 as they are at the present day. 
 
 It was not many years after the passage of the Cape 
 by De Gama that the Portuguese, in 1516, made their 
 first ap))earance at Canton. Their early conduct was not 
 calculated to impress the Chinese with any favourable 
 idea of Europeans ; and when, in course of time, they 
 came to be C()m])ctitors with the Dutch and the English, 
 the contests of mercantile avarice tended to jilace them 
 all in a still worse point of view. To this day the cha- 
 racter of Europeans is represented as that of a race of men 
 intent alone on the gains of commercial traffic, and regard-
 
 Chap. I. ARRIVAL OF PORTUGUESE. 13 
 
 less altogether of the means of attainment. Struck by 
 the perpetual hostilities which existed among these foreign 
 adventurers, assimilated in other respects by a close 
 resemblance in their costumes and manners, the govern- 
 ment of the country became disposed to treat them with 
 a degree of jealousy and exclusion which it had not 
 deemed necessary to be exercised towards the more 
 peaceable and well-ordered Arabs, their predecessors. 
 
 The first places of resort to the Portuguese were the 
 islands at the mouth of the Canton river.* The vessel 
 despatched by Alfonso Albuquerque, the captain-general 
 of Malacca, reached one of these, under the command of 
 Perestrello ; and, as his voyage proved very successful, it 
 had the effect of engaging others in similar enterprises. 
 Being distinguished as the first person who ever con- 
 ducted a ship to China under a European flag, he was 
 followed in the ensuing year by a fleet of eight vessels, 
 under the command of Perez de Andrade, who, on reach- 
 ing the coast, was surrounded by junks of war, and his 
 movements watched with suspicion. He was, however, 
 permitted to proceed with two of his vessels to Canton, 
 and, while successfully negotiating for a trade, received 
 accounts that the remainder of his fleet had been attacked 
 by pirates.t Some of his vessels returned with cargoes to 
 Malacca ; the remainder sailed, in company with some 
 juiiks belonging to the Loo-choo Islands, for the province 
 of Fokien on the east coast, and succeeded in establish- 
 ing a colony at Ningpo. The Portuguese subsequently 
 brought their families to that port, carrying on a gainful 
 trade with other parts of China as well as with Japan. 
 But in the year 1545 the provincial government, pro- 
 
 * We here quote from a small work printed at Macao in 1831, but 
 never regularly published, called ' The Canton Miscellany." 
 t Just as they might he now, on the same coast.
 
 1+ EARLY EUROPEAN INTERCOURSE. Chap, I. 
 
 voked by their ill conduct, expelled them the place, and 
 thus was for ever lost to them an establishment on the 
 continent of ('hina, in one of the ])rovinces of the empire 
 best adapted to the ends of European trade. The 
 general behaviour of the Portuguese had, from the first, 
 been calculated to obliterate the favourable impression 
 which the Chinese had received from the justice and 
 moderation of Perez de Andrade. Shortly after his visit 
 a squadron, under the orders of his brother Simon, was 
 engaged in open hostilities, having established a colony 
 at San-shan, near Macao (vulgarly called St. John's), 
 and erected a fort there : they were finally defeated by a 
 Chinese naval force, but continued to commit acts of 
 piracy on the native trading vessels. Subsequently to this 
 career of violence, and during the more recent periods of 
 their connexion with China at Macao, the Portuguese 
 appear, on the other hand, to have entertained too ex- 
 treme an apprehension of giving umbrage to the native 
 government ; and while they imagined they were securing 
 favour to themselves, their conduct has often served to 
 encourage Chinese encroachment. 
 
 Among the early and desperate adventurers from Por- 
 tugal, the exploits of Ferdinand Mendes Pinto have, by 
 the help of some exaggeration, handed his name down 
 as one of the princi])al. Having arrived with a crew 
 of other desperadoes at Ningpo, he learned from some 
 Chinese that to the north-east there was an island contain- 
 ing the tombs of seventeen Chinese kings, full of treasure. 
 Pinto and his companions succeeded in finding the place, 
 and plundered the tombs, in which they found a quantity 
 of silver : being attacked, they were obliged to retire with 
 only part of the booty ; and a gale having overtaken them 
 upon their return, in the neighbourhood of Nanking, only 
 fourteen Portuguese escaped with their lives : these were
 
 Chap. I. ADVENTURES OF PINTO. 15 
 
 taken by the Chinese, and after some maltreatment were 
 sent to Nankhig, and condemned to be whipped and to 
 lose each man a thumb. They were next conducted to 
 Peking, and on his way thither Pinto had occasion to 
 admire the manners of the Chinese, their love of justice, 
 and the good order and industry that prevailed among 
 them. Arrived at Peking, they were at length con- 
 demned to one year's hard labour : but before the time 
 expired they were set at liberty by the Tartars, who were 
 then invading the country. Pinto and his companions 
 now joined their liberators, and, while in their service, saw 
 one of the chief Lamas, whom he called their pope. A 
 curious description of this Tartar hierarchy has in later 
 times been given by Pere Gaubil. The Portuguese 
 adventurers at length quitted the Tartars, found their 
 way to the coast, and embarked again for Ningpo. Being 
 treacherously abandoned on a desolate island, where they 
 had almost died of hunger, Pinto and his companions 
 were taken off by a pirate, and soon afterwards driven by 
 adverse winds on the coast of Japan. On his return to 
 Ningpo this adventurer gave his countrymen so favour- 
 able an account of what he had seen, that a large expe- 
 dition w'as fitted out for Japan : several, however, of the 
 vessels were lost, and Pinto himself driven on the Loo- 
 choo Islands, where he and his companions were taxed 
 with the murder of some natives of Loo-choo, at the time 
 when Malacca was taken by the Portuguese. The king, 
 being told that all his countrymen were pirates, gave 
 orders that Pinto and the rest should be quartered, and 
 their limbs exposed : they were saved, however, by the 
 interposition of some native women, and Pinto at length 
 returned to Malacca. He afterwards engaged in a mis- 
 sion to Japan. It was about the same time, in 1552, that 
 the famous apostle of the East, St. Francis Xavier, con-
 
 16 EARLY EUROPEAN INTERCOURSE. Chap. I. 
 
 cerning whom so many credible and edifying miracles 
 have been related, died at San-shan, or St. John's. The 
 remains of his tomb are seen there at this day ; and the 
 Bishop of Macao used to make an annual visit there, for 
 the purpose of celebrating mass, and bringing away a 
 portion of the consecrated earth. 
 
 The first Portuguese embassy, and of course the first 
 from any European power by sea, to Peking took place as 
 early as 1520, in the person of Thomas Pirez, the object 
 being to establish a factory at Canton as well as at Macao. 
 Advices, however, had preceded him of the ill conduct and 
 violence of Simon de Andrade ; and, after a course of 
 humiliation, the unfortunate Pirez was sent back under 
 custody to Canton, the provincial government of which 
 place thus early showed its jealousy of any attempt on the 
 part of strangers to communicate with the court. Pirez, 
 on his arrival, w^as robbed of his property, thrown into 
 prison, and ultimately, it is supposed, put to death. The 
 various embassies to Peking, which have since followed in 
 three successive centuries, have met with diti'erent kinds 
 of treatment ; but, in whatever spirit conducted, they have 
 been equally unsuccessful in the attainment of any impor- 
 tant points of negotiation. 
 
 In the following year Alfonso de Melo arrived in China, 
 ignorant of the events which had taken place, and having 
 altogether six vessels under his command. " These," a 
 Portuguese writer observes, " were sent on shore for 
 water, but returned w^ith blood." They became imme- 
 diately involved in conflicts with the Chinese, who put to 
 death upwards of twenty prisoners that fell into their 
 hands ; and the squadron shortly afterwards sailed away 
 from China. 
 
 We have seen already that, previous to the arrival of 
 Europeans on its shores, the government of the country
 
 Chap. I. DESIEE FOR FOREIGN TRADE. 17 
 
 had given every encouragement to foreign commerce ; and 
 that, at a very early period, Chinese junks had proceeded 
 to the coasts of the peninsula of India. Statistical records 
 exist to the present day, having reference to foreign 
 Intercourse, which display a perfect knowledge of the 
 advantages of trade, and form a striking contrast with the 
 indifference which the present Tartar government affects 
 to feel towards it. Subsequent to a temporary prohibition 
 of foreign trade, a certain Fooyuen of Canton thus ad- 
 dressed the emperor : — " A great part of the necessary 
 expenses of both the government and the people at 
 Canton is supplied by the customs levied on merchants ; 
 and if foreign ships do not come, both public and private 
 concerns are thrown into much embarrassment and dis- 
 tress. It is entreated, therefore, that the Franks be 
 permitted to trade. Three or four advantages result 
 therefrom. In the first place, besides the regular tribute 
 of the several foreign states, a small percentage has been 
 taken from the remainder, adequate to the supply of the 
 provincial expenditure. Secondly, the treasury appro- 
 priated for the annual supply of the army in Canton and 
 Quong-sy is entirely drained, and our dependence is on 
 trade to provide against exigencies. Thirdly, the con- 
 tiguous province has looked to Canton for supplies, being 
 unable to comply with any demands made on it ; but when 
 foreign ships have free intercourse, then high and low are 
 all mutually supplied. Fourthly, the people live by com- 
 merce. A man holding a quantity of goods soils them, 
 and procures what himself requires : thus things pass from 
 hand to hand, and, in their course, supply men with food 
 and raiment. The government is thereby assisted, the 
 people enriched, and both have means afforded them on 
 which they may depend." Admissions of a similar nature, 
 of a very late date, contained in addresses from the pro-
 
 18 EARLY EUROPEAN INTERCOURSE. Chap. I. 
 
 viiicial government to Peking, have ])rovcd that the Chinese 
 authorities are by no means unmindful of the revenues 
 derived from the European trade. 
 
 It Mas about the middle of the sixteenth century that 
 the Portuguese established themselves at Macao, the only 
 European colony that, with very limited success, had as 
 yet been planted on the coast of China, It seems that 
 they had temporary shelter on shore as early as 1537, By 
 bribery and solicitation, leave was obtained for erecting 
 sheds to dry goods, which were introduced under the name 
 of tribute. The foreigners were by degrees permitted to 
 build substantial houses, and the petty mandarins con- 
 nived at an increasing population, the establishment of an 
 internal government, and the influx of priests, with their 
 endeavours to convert the Chinese,* The story of impor- 
 tant services rendered against pirates, and an imperial 
 edict transferring the dominion of Macao to the Portu- 
 guese, seems unfounded. Indeed a bishop of Macao wrote, 
 in 1777, that it was "by paying a ground-rent that the 
 Portuguese acquired the temporary use and profit of 
 Macao ad nutum of the emperor." This ground-rent, 
 amounting to 500 taels per annum, is regularly paid to 
 the present day ; and Chinese mandarins periodically 
 inspect the Portuguese forts, as well as levy duties on the 
 Macao shipping. Nothing, therefore, can be farther from 
 the truth than that the Portuguese possess the sovereignty 
 of that place. In 1573 the Chinese erected a barrier- 
 wall across the isthmus which separates Macao from the 
 island of Ileang-shan. A civil mandarin was very early 
 appointed to reside within the town, and govern it in the 
 name of the Emperor of China : this officer, called a Tso- 
 
 * A small compilation of ancient records concerning Macao was 
 printed, by a Swedish gentleman long resident there, in 1832, and from 
 him onr notes are derived.
 
 Chap. I. SETTLEMENT OF jrACAO. 19 
 
 tang, keeps a watchful eye on the inhabitants, and com- 
 municates information to his superiors. The Portuguese 
 are not allowed to build new churches or houses without a 
 licence. The only privilege they possess is that of govern- 
 ing themselves ; while the Chinese population of the town 
 is entirely under the control of the mandarins. The 
 Spaniards, indiscriminately with the Portuguese, have the 
 right of trading to Macao ; but the number of shipping 
 was, in 1725, by an order from the emperor, restricted to 
 twenty-five, and it is actually not much more than half 
 that number. The last emperor of the last Chinese 
 dynasty sent to Macao for some guns and a small military 
 force against the Manchow Tartars ; but in 1651 the 
 inhabitants of that colony were enrolled as the subjects of 
 the present Ta-tsing family. In 1809, when the Ladrones, 
 or native pirates, had become formidable to the Chinese 
 government, Macao furnished by agreement six vessels to 
 serve against them, at a charge of 80,000 taels to the pro- 
 vincial government. The pirates were induced by other 
 means than those of force to dissolve their confederation ; 
 and the Portuguese, although they claimed certain pri- 
 vileges for their services, were obliged to remain content 
 with their former condition. 
 
 The advantages which Macao possesses over Canton, 
 in respect to the Chineses duties, which are consider- 
 ably less at the former place than at the latter, might 
 perhaps be made available to a certain extent by British 
 traders.* The capital and enterprise of the Portuguese 
 inhabitants are not sufficient to employ the few ships 
 which they actually possess. Several of the vessels are 
 freighted in part by Chinese for the Malay peninsula and 
 islands. Although the freight is much hijjfher than in 
 junks, the property on board is considered so much safer 
 * Written in 183G.
 
 20 EARLY EUROPEAN INTERCOURSE. Ciiai-. 1. 
 
 — and the Chiiiesc do not practise insurance. They fre- 
 quently send adventures, too, on board English country 
 ships, or those pertaining to the Indian trade ; for there 
 is a duty amounting to 10 per cent, additional charged on 
 Portuguese ships at our eastern presidencies. The trade 
 of Macao is altogether in a very depressed state, and the 
 whole income from customs, which amounted in 1830 to 
 scarcely 70,000 taiils, is insufficient to meet the expendi- 
 ture. The entire Portuguese population, including slaves, 
 is not above 5000, while the Chinese of Macao are cal- 
 culated to exceed 30,000. 
 
 It seems needless to notice the several fruitless embassies 
 which the Portuguese, since their earlier resort to China, 
 have sent to Peking, and the last of which occurred in 
 1753: they exhibit the usual spectacle of arrogance on 
 the one side and profitless submission on the other. It 
 will be more interesting to take a short view of the 
 Romish missions, which at first promised to make rapid 
 and extensive progress, but were ultimately defeated by 
 the dissensions among the several orders of priests, and 
 the indiscreet zeal which some of them displayed against 
 the ancient institutions of the Chinese. In 1579 Miguel 
 Ruggiero, an Italian Jesuit, reached Canton, and in a 
 few years was joined by Matthew Ricci, who may justly 
 be considered as the founder of the Romish mission. The 
 literati of the country praised such of the precepts of 
 (Jhristianity as coincided with those of Confucius ; but 
 they found a stumbling-block in the doctrines of original 
 sin, of eternal torments, of the Incarnation, of the Trinity, 
 and of not being allowed concubines as w'ell as a wife. 
 No difficulties, however, could dishearten Ricci, who, by 
 his intimate knowledge of the mathematical and experi- 
 mental sciences, had the means of makinrj friends and 
 converts. He soon abandoned the garb of a bonze, which
 
 Chap. I. CATHOLIC MISSIONS. 21 
 
 he at first injudiciously assumed, and put on that of the 
 literati. With great good sense he saw the folly of 
 attempting at once to contend with those prejudices of the 
 Chinese which were blended with such of their institutions 
 as they considered most sacred, and which in fact formed 
 the very foundations of their social system. Montesquieu 
 has justly argued, from the peculiar character of the 
 Chinese customs, against the facility of introducing ma- 
 terial changes in them ; and especially of substituting 
 the Romish observances. The assembling of women in 
 churches, their private communication with priests, the 
 prohibition of offerings at the tombs of parents, were all 
 abominations in their eyes which could never be endured. 
 Ricci, for such reasons, made a distinction between civil 
 and sacred rites, admitting the former in his converts, and 
 particularly the ceremonies at tombs ; and his success 
 accordingly was considerable. 
 
 When he had passed about seventeen years in the 
 country, Ricci proceeded to Peking, and, by the favour 
 of one of the eunuchs of the palace, became introduced 
 to the emperor's notice, his presents being received, and 
 a place appointed for his residence. Other Jesuits joined 
 the mission, and established themselves at different points 
 from Canton to Peking, proceeding quietly, and with great 
 success, as long as they could remain unmolested by the 
 hot and indiscreet zeal of the several orders of monks, 
 who, in their haste to attack the Chinese prejudices, en- 
 sured their own discomfiture. The most distinguished of 
 the Jesuits, for his talents and knowledge, was Father 
 Adam Schaal, by birth a German ; he reached Peking 
 at the time when the last Chinese dynasty of Ming was 
 about to be expelled by the Manchow Tartars. Through 
 the influence of a Chinese Christian, named Paul Siu, 
 who was a Colao, or principal minister, and by his own
 
 22 EARLY EUROPEAX INTERCOUESE. Chap. I. 
 
 extensive knowledge of the physical sciences, Schaal be- 
 came a great favourite at court, and even retained his 
 place after the "J^artars had possessed themselves of the 
 empire. The first Manchow emperor, Shun-chy, to whom 
 he easily proved the ignorance of the Arabian mathe- 
 maticians, made him president of the Astronomical Board ; 
 and his own merits were a sufficient explanation of his 
 success, without any need of the lying miracles with 
 which P^re du Ilalde has not blushed to disfigure his 
 work. According to him, Adam Schaal being condemned 
 to death soon after the Tartar conquest, " this sentence 
 was carried to the princes of the blood and to the regent 
 for confirmation ; but, as often as they attempted to read 
 it, a dreadful earthquake dispersed the assembly. The 
 consternation was so great that they granted a general 
 pardon ; all the prisoners were released except Father 
 Adam, and he did not get his liberty until a month after- 
 wards, when the royal palace was consumed by the 
 flames." 
 
 Permission was given to tlie Jesuits to build two 
 churches at Peking, and new labourers were allowed to 
 enter the country : among these Ferdinand Verbiest, 
 another German Jesuit, and a man of distinguished 
 science, became the coadjutor of Adam Schaal. On the 
 accession of Kanghy, then a boy of eight or nine years 
 of age, under the tutorship of four Tartars, the disputes 
 which ensued with the intolerant Dominicans produced an 
 unfavourable impression on the minds of the rulers of 
 China. Accusations were preferred against the mis- 
 sionaries, and their zeal to make converts was condemned 
 as dangerous. It is said that Schaal died of chagrin, 
 and that Verbiest was compelled for some time to abscond. 
 When Kanghy, however, a monarch of enlarged and 
 liberal mind, came to exercise the government in his own
 
 Chap. I. MISSIOXARIES FAVOURED BY K.^XGHY. 23 
 
 person, Verbiest was made president of the astronomers ; 
 and through his influence the expelled missionaries were 
 allowed to return to their chui'ches. By the aid of Ver- 
 biest the emperor was enabled to cast guns, and to com- 
 pose a mathematical work, with tables of logarithms. Dur- 
 ing this reign, although the emperor was never himself 
 a convert, the state of Christianity in China was vastly more 
 flourishing than it is at present, after the lapse of above a 
 century and a half : it was placed by Kanghy on the same 
 footing of toleration with Mahomedanism and Budhism. 
 In the itineraries of Le Compte, and other Jesuits, 
 churches with European priests are mentioned at almost 
 every principal city. At Foshan, about four leagues above 
 Canton, Pfere Bouvet speaks of a Milanese Jesuit as pre- 
 siding over a church with a flock of 10,000 persons : at 
 this day there is perhaps not one single individual at that 
 same place. 
 
 The decree of Kanghy in 1692, permitting the exercise 
 of Christianity, was abrogated by his successor Yoong- 
 ching, who expelled the missionaries fi'om the provinces. 
 These spiritual delegates, meanwhile, had been in constant 
 collision with the native authorities throughout the empire, 
 and perpetually at strife among themselves ; and the juris- 
 diction of the field which they occupied became also a 
 subject of discussion between the kings of Portugal and 
 the popes. In consequence of the disputes which had 
 arisen, from a very early period, among the Jesuits and 
 the other orders concerning Chinese rites and ceremonies, 
 Matthew Ricci had drawn up for the mission a number of 
 rules in which he considered the objectionable customs as 
 merely civil and secular. Morales, however, a Spanish 
 Dominican, declared them to be idolatrous, and as such 
 they were condemned by Innocent X. Martinez, a Jesuit, 
 subsequently proved that these rites were of a civil nature,
 
 24 EARLY EUROPE^V^^ INTERCOURSE. Chap. I. 
 
 « 
 
 in which haht thoy came to bo allowed by Alexander VII. 
 Thus two o|)})osite o])inions were sanctioned by pa})al in- 
 fallibility, and the kingdom of anti-Christ was divided 
 aoainst itself 
 
 Notwithstanding every endeavour made by the more 
 sensible and temperate of the missionaries to com])romise 
 the differences, a zealot, named Carolus Maigrot, soi-disant 
 bishop of some Chinese provinces, issued a mandate in 
 which, unmindful of the decree of Alexander VII., he 
 decided that Tldcn signified only the visible and material 
 Heaven, and that the Chinese rites were idolatrous. Kanghy 
 himself, in 1700, declared, in an edict which was trans- 
 mitted to the pope, that Tlden means the true God, and 
 that the customs enjoined by the ritual of China were of 
 a civil, and not a religious character. The decision of 
 Maigrot, however, was supported and confirmed by a 
 decree of Clement XI. To settle disputes which had dis- 
 graced the Christian cause for nearly a century, Tournon 
 was despatched as apostolical vicar and legate to China ; 
 but this selection was not a wise one, for Mosheim de- 
 scribes him as a man " whose good disposition was under 
 the influence of a narrow spirit and a weak understand- 
 ing." Shortly after his arrival in 1705, having received 
 Pope Clement's decree, he issued a mandate that no 
 Chinese Christian should ever practise the customs which 
 had been interdicted by the Bishoj) of Rome ! The Em- 
 peror Kanghy, justly offended with this invasion of his 
 sovereignty, pronmlged an edict in which he tolerated the 
 missionaries who preached the doctrine of Ricci, but 
 declared his resolution to persecute those who followed 
 the opinions of Maigrot. In 1720 the j)atriarch Mezza- 
 barba was sent as legate from Rome, with the intention of 
 carrying the points in dispute ; but finding Kanghy de- 
 termined never to allow the pope any kind of jurisdiction
 
 Chap. I. MISSIONARIES PEESECUTED. 25 
 
 over his Chinese subjects, he made certain temporary con- 
 cessions with a view to savintj the Romish religion fi'om 
 the disgrace of being banished. 
 
 At length, by an imperial decree of Yoong-ching, in 
 1723, these disturbers of the public peace were formally 
 denounced. A few monks were tolerated in Peking, a 
 few remained concealed in the provinces, but the larger 
 number were driven to Macao, with a positive injunction 
 to leave the country by the first ship. The more en- 
 lightened and sensible Jesuits had acted with greater mode- 
 ration, and the influence of their protectors reconciled 
 them with the court. Ignatius Koegler was appointed by 
 the emperor president of the Astronomical Board, with a 
 title of honour. On the accession of Kien-loong, in 1736, 
 his fear of the mischievous priests, who were labouring in 
 secret to subvert his authority over his own subjects, led 
 him to seek them out with increased vigilance. Many of 
 them were detected in disguise in almost every province ; 
 these were imprisoned, and their converts either fled or 
 returned to their duty. To mitigate the severity of the 
 persecutions, the Jesuits residing at Peking spared neither 
 supplications nor bribes, but with little effect ; until the 
 decree of 1785, nearly fifty years after Kien-loong first 
 came to the throne, released the imprisoned monks, and 
 allowed them either to join their brethren at Peking, or 
 proceed to Europe. From that date to the present time 
 the Romish mission has been in a declining state, and 
 occasionally suffered renewals of persecution. According 
 to a return made by Pere Marchini, procurator of the 
 Propaganda mission at Macao, the actual number oi" 
 European priests in China, in 1810, was twenty-nine, 
 with about 200,000 native Christians. Since that date 
 the last of the Europeans has been sent away from Peking, 
 but a few still continue to lurk among the provinces. 
 
 VOL. I. C
 
 26 EARLY EUROPEAN INTERCOURSE. Chap. J. 
 
 The Spaniards, althou<jh they possess the privilege of 
 trading at both Macao and Canton, as well as at Amoy, 
 have derived less advantage from an intercourse with 
 China than most other nations, notwithstanding the vast 
 advantage which they possess in the locality of Manilla 
 and the Philip})ine Islands, within a few days' sail of 
 China, and ajjproached with equal facility in either mon- 
 soon. It has been suggested that, had bonded warehouses, 
 with a system of drawbacks on re-exportation, been estab- 
 lished at Manilla, one-half of the trade to China might 
 have been centred there at present. The heavy charges 
 and vexatious conduct of the Chinese government, together 
 with the close monopoly of the Hong merchants, would 
 have driven many a ship from Canton, could a neigh- 
 bouring port have been found with a supply of goods in 
 case of need. Formerly American and English ships often 
 found it convenient to touch at Manilla for a cargo of rice, 
 by the importation of which to Canton they avoided the 
 heavy port charges : but so ignorant is the Spanish govern- 
 ment of the commonest principles of political economy, 
 that rice is forbidden to be exported from Luconia when 
 its price is above a certain limit. 
 
 The Dutch met with little success in their attempts to 
 open^a trade with China until 1624, when, by means of 
 assistance from Batavia, they were enabled to form a settle- 
 ment on the west side of Formosa, opposite to the Chinese 
 coast. The vicinity of this to Manilla and Macao excited 
 the jealousy of the Spaniards and Portuguese, as well as 
 of the Chinese government. Liberty of trade with that 
 emjiire was at first denied them ; but the Dutch annoyed 
 the coasts with their ships, until it was agreed that, on 
 their evacuating the Pescadores (some small islands between 
 the main land and Formosa), and confining themselves to 
 the latter, liberty of commerce should be granted them.
 
 Chap. I. DUTCH AT FORMOSA. 27 
 
 A fort was built at the principal harbour, on the south- 
 west side of the island, named Fort Zealand, and measures 
 were taken to civilise and reclaim the aboriginal inha- 
 bitants of the country. In the mean while Peking fell a 
 prey to the Manchow Tartars in 1644, and all the northern 
 provinces, with most of the southern, acknowledged in a 
 short time the foreign dominion. Many thousands of 
 Chinese families emigrated from their country in the 
 course of the struggle, and no less than 25,000 are said 
 to have transported themselves to Formosa. This emigra- 
 tion tended greatly to the improvement of that new country, 
 and was at first encouraged by the Dutch : but their fears 
 were alaraied by the increasing numbers when they could 
 no longer prevent them ; and the influx of Chinese was a 
 principal cause of the final expulsion of the Dutch fi'om 
 that settlement. This forms an episode in the history of 
 European intercourse with China, deserving of some par- 
 ticular notice ; and here follows the account nearly as it 
 stands, abridged from Nieuhoff", in the second volume of 
 the Chinese Repository.* 
 
 A Chinese, for some time servant to the Portuguese at 
 Macao, and who had been baptized by the name of 
 Nicholaus, grew by foreign trade to be the richest mer- 
 chant in the country ; and when the Manchows invaded 
 the empire, he equipped, at his own expense, a small fleet 
 against the Tartars. His success attracted a vast number 
 of vessels, until he at length became commander of a very 
 formidable fleet. After several battles he was invited by 
 the Tartar chief to Peking, with the oflfer of a high title, 
 which he accepted, leaving the command of his fleet to his 
 son Kuo-shing, called, in Portuguese orthography, Ko- 
 shinga. The father was not permitted to return (being 
 kept probably as a hostage), but the son, notwithstanding, 
 * Page 411. 
 
 c2
 
 28 EARLY EUROPEAX INTERCOURSE. Chap. I. 
 
 continued fjiitliful to the Chinese cause, and opposed the 
 enemies of his country. In the course of three or four 
 years, however, the Tartars, by force of bribery, contrived 
 to drive him from the coast to the numerous islands in 
 the vicinity ; and the large and fertile country of Formosa, 
 now inhabited by numerous Chinese, became the object of 
 his hopes. The Dutch were aware that the secret agents 
 of Koshinga held a correspondence with the resident 
 Chinese, and, foreseeing the danger, increased the garri- 
 son of Fort Zealand in 1650. They still remained un- 
 molested for a time, until the exiled leader, being defeated 
 before Nanking, had no refuge left for himself and his 
 numerous followers except Formosa, On the application 
 of Coyet, governor of the settlement, twelve ships were 
 despatched from Batavia in 1660, with orders that, if the 
 alarm at Formosa proved groundless, the fleet should 
 proceed against Macao. The garrison now consisted of 
 1500 men, and the Dutch demanded of Koshinga whether 
 he was for peace or war. In his reply, by letter, he 
 affected the most friendly disposition tow^ards the settle- 
 ment, and, still farther to lull the Hollanders into security, 
 sent several merchant-vessels to Formosa, The gover- 
 nor's suspicions were not removed, as Koshinga still con- 
 tinued his preparations at Amoy ; but the majority of the 
 council being of opinion that there was no present danger, 
 all the ships were ordered away to their respective desti- 
 nations. The admiral, on his return to Batavia, accused 
 the governor of unreasonable apprehensions ; and the 
 council, wearied with the expense, and with what they 
 considered as the groundless fears of the governor, sus- 
 pended him from office, and ordered him to Batavia to 
 defend himself. His successor, M. Clenk, sailed for 
 Formosa in June, 1661. 
 
 Meanwhile, the events which were taking place on the
 
 CiiAf. I. WAll WITH THE DUTCH. 29 
 
 island justified all the anticipations which had heen thus 
 contemned. Soon after the departure of the Dutch fleet 
 from Fort Zealand, Koshinga and his forces were in 
 motion : he embarked upwards of 20,000 of his best 
 troops, and appeared before the settlement, where, assisted 
 by thousands of his countrymen on shore, he soon began 
 to land. Having occupied with his forces a point which 
 would cut off the communication between Fort Zealand 
 and another on the opposite side of the entrance, the 
 governor ordered out 240 men to dislodge him. About 
 4000 Chinese had already occupied the place, but so con- 
 fident were the Dutch that the enemy would not stand the 
 fire, that they immediately attacked them. The Chinese, 
 instead of giving ground, returned the fire with musketry 
 and arrows, and sent a detachment to attack them in the 
 flanks. The soldiers seeing this were alarmed and fled, 
 leaving the captain and nineteen men in the hands of the 
 enemy ; while only half their company reached the fort 
 alive. The defence by sea was no better ; for, though the 
 four ships in port attacked the junks, and sunk some of 
 them, one was burned by the Chinese fire-vessels, and 
 another sailed away with the news for Batavia. The 
 Chinese now landed without opposition, and cut off all 
 communication between the forts, as well as with tlie 
 open country ; while Koshinga summoned Fort Zealand, 
 threatening to put all to the sword unless they surrendered 
 at once. 
 
 Deputies were now sent to the Chinese camp, which 
 consisted of about 12,000 men, armed in three different 
 ways : the first, with bows and arrows ; the second, with 
 only swords and shields ; and the third, with back swords 
 and pikes three or four feet long, with broad pointed 
 heads of iron. The deputies were introduced into the 
 tent, where Koshinga sat in an elbow-chair, behind a
 
 30 EAELY EUROPEAN INTERCOURSE. Chap. I. 
 
 square table, surrounded by " the chief commanders, clad 
 in long robes, without arms, and in great silence, and with 
 a most awful countenance." Koshinga replied, that 
 " Formosa had always belonged to China ; and now that 
 the Chinese wanted it, the foreigners must quit the island 
 immediately. If not, let them only hoist the red flag." 
 On the folio wino' mornino- the red flaof w'as seen over 
 Fort Zealand, but the other fort was surrendered, with its 
 garrison and cannon. All the men able to fight were now 
 taken within the citadel, and the tow n itself set on fire, in 
 order to deprive the besiegers of shelter ; but the Chinese 
 saved many of the buildings, and brought up twenty-eight 
 pieces of cannon to bear against the fort. They were, 
 however, so galled by the fire of the Dutch, that the streets 
 were strewed with the killed, and the besieged, making a 
 sally, spiked their guns. Koshinga, finding all his attacks 
 fruitless, began a close blockade, and turned his rage on 
 the open country, making the Dutch residents, and espe- 
 cially the ministers, prisoners ; one of these was sent to 
 Fort Zealand, to propose terms of surrender, on the 
 refusal of which all the prisoners were to be put to death. 
 This individual, by name Hambrocock, having left his 
 wife and children with the enemy as hostages, like another 
 Regulus exhorted the Dutch to a good defence, and 
 returned to Koshinga with the governor's refusal. As 
 might have been expected, both himself and all the other 
 prisoners were put to death, including many of the women 
 and children. 
 
 Only two days after the Council at Batavia had cen- 
 sured Coyet for his fears, and despatched his successor 
 Clenk to Formosa, the ship which had sailed away ar- 
 rived with the news of the attack on that place. They 
 immediately revoked the censure, and fitted out ten ships, 
 with 700 soldiers, for the island : but Clenk arrived first
 
 Chap. I. EXrULSIOX OF THE DUTCH. 31 
 
 ofF Fort Zealand, where he saw the red flag flying, and 
 hundreds of C'hinese vessels lying in the north roads. He 
 came to an anchor, and sent his despatches on shore ; but, 
 instead of landing himself, sailed away for Japan. The 
 succours from Batavia soon afterwards arrived, and the 
 besieged began to act on the offensive ; but they were 
 unsuccessful in the attempt to dislodge the enemy from the 
 town. The garrison was now increased to the utmost ; 
 and the women and children, with the other useless 
 persons, sent to Batavia. These preparations checked the 
 approaches of Koshinga ; but the inconceivable impru- 
 dence of the Dutch lost them their advantage. The 
 Governor received letters from the Tartar Viceroy of 
 Fokien (the opposite province), requesting his assistance 
 in expelling the remains of Koshinga's forces from the 
 coast, and promising his aid afterwards to the Dutch at 
 Formosa. Five ships were accordingly sent away for this 
 purpose ; but three were lost in a storm, and the re- 
 mainder returned to Batavia. The wish of Koshinga was 
 complete. A deserter from the Dutch encouraged the 
 besiegers, and showed them the weakest points. They 
 now assailed the fort from three batteries, and succeeded 
 in making a breach, which they soon prepared to assault. 
 The Hollanders upon this began to deliberate, and the 
 majority of the Council decided that the fort was unten- 
 able. Accordingly, after a siege of nine months, with the 
 loss of about 1600 men, Formosa was given up, and the 
 Dutch returned to Java in 1662. Koshinga now became 
 independent sovereign of the island; but in 1683 it was 
 surrendered by his grandson to the Manchow Tartar 
 dynasty. 
 
 The intercourse of the Russians with China through 
 Siberia not beino" of a maritime character, and confined 
 altogether to the northern extremity of the empire, has
 
 32 EARLY EUROPEAN INTERCOURSE. Chap. I. 
 
 differed altogether from that of other European nations, 
 and we have not space to enter into the details of its 
 history. One attempt was made by them in 1806 to 
 comnnmicate with Canton by sea in two ships under the 
 command of Captain Krusenstern ; but an edict was then 
 issued forbidding to Russia any trade except by land at 
 the frontier station (established by mutual treaties) of 
 Kiachta in Tartary. The most celebrated early em- 
 bassies from Russia overland were those of Isbrand Ides 
 in 1G93 ; and of Ismaloff, sent by Peter the Great in 
 171i), an account of whose mission is well given by Mr. 
 Bell of Antermony. The ambassador in both instances 
 was treated with a degree of respect unusual at Peking, 
 and demonstrative of the estimation in which the power of 
 Russia was held there. Catherine I., in 1727, despatched 
 Count Vladislavitch to China, as ambassador-extraordi- 
 nary, and by him a treaty was concluded, by which the 
 Russians were to have a church at Peking, with an esta- 
 blishment of priests ; and four young Russians were to 
 remain at the residence of the embassy, for the purpose of 
 studying the language, and serving as interpreters be- 
 tween the two nations. The Russian mission now consists 
 of six ecclesiastical and four lay members, who study the 
 Manchow and Chinese languages. Their abode at Peking 
 extends to a period of about ten years, at the end of 
 which they are relieved by others from St. Petersburg.
 
 CiiAP. II. ENGLISH AT CANTON^. 33 
 
 CHAPTEK II. 
 
 ENGLISH IXTEPX'OURSE TO THE FIRST EMBASSY. 
 
 First trade between England and China — IMisrepresentations of Por- 
 tuguese — Treaty of commerce at Formosa — Troubles at Canton — 
 Charges on trade — Commodore Anson — Intrigues of Hong mer- 
 chants — Mr. Flint — Quarrels of English and French — Trade for- 
 bidden at Ningpo — Seizure of Mr. Flint — The ' Argo ' — The 
 ' Lord Camden ' — Portuguese justice — Chinese maxim for nding 
 barbarians — Conduct of a ship-master — Debts recovered from 
 Chinese — Shocking case of an English gunner — Mission of Lord 
 Macartney. 
 
 We now proceed to give a sketch of the early intercourse 
 between Great Britain and China, the first attempt to 
 establish which seems to have been as far back as 1596, 
 when three ships were fitted out in charge of Benjamin 
 Wood, bearing letters from Queen Elizabeth to the em- 
 peror ; but the ships were lost on their way out, and no 
 renewal of the project appears to have taken place. The 
 oldest record of the Company at Canton is dated April 
 6th, 1637, and commences thus : — " In the latitude of 6^ 
 degrees we took leave of the ship ' Planter,' whom God, 
 we hope, hath conducted in safety. Upon her was laden 
 as per invoice appeareth," &c. This was one of a fleet 
 of five ships, of which the remaining four, the ' Dragon,' 
 ' Sun,' ' Catherine,' and ' Ann,' proceeded on their way to 
 China, under the command of Captain Weddel. They 
 first arrived at Acheen in Sumatra. " At our reaching 
 this (it is said) we found no Christians in the whole town, 
 but there were three Dutchmen. Their capital was small, 
 as likewise their wit and manners, being fellows of former 
 slender employment, and sent hither rather to oppose any 
 
 c3
 
 34 EXGLTSTI INTERCOURSE. Chap. II. 
 
 of our nation that should aiTive in outfacing, outvying, 
 and outlying them, than for any real intent or desire of 
 trade." * The fleet proceeded on its way to China, and 
 arrived oft' Macao on the 28th of May. Here the Portu- 
 guese did all in their power to misrepresent them to the 
 Chinese, and prevent the chance of a trade. After several 
 fruitless attempts to establish a peaceful arrangement, 
 and some vain endeavours to depute persons from the 
 fleet to open a negotiation at Canton, it was resolved that 
 all the ships should sail up the river. They arrived in a 
 few days at the river's mouth, at present called the Bogue, 
 in the neighbourhood of the forts ; " and being now fur- 
 nished with some slender interpreters, they soon had 
 speech with divers mandarins in the king's jounkes, to 
 whom the cause of their arrival was declared, viz. to en- 
 tertain peace and amity with them, to traffic freely as 
 the Portugalls did, and to be forthwith supplied, for their 
 moneys, with provisions for their ships : all which those 
 mandarins promised to solicit with the prime men resident 
 at Canton ; and in the mean time desired an expectation 
 of six days, which were granted ; and the English ships 
 rode with white ensigns on the poop ; but their perfidious 
 friends the Portugalls had in all that time, since the return 
 of the pinnace, so beslandered them to the Chinese, re- 
 porting them to be rogues, thieves, beggars, and what not, 
 that they became very jealous of the good meaning of the 
 English ; insomuch that, in the night-time, they put forty- 
 
 * Tins rancour against the Dutch was the consequence of the mutual 
 jealousies which existed between the rival traders of the two countries 
 at that time in the East. A treaty concluded with Holland, called the 
 treaty of defence, in l(jl5, had no effect ultimately in jjroduciuo; har- 
 mony; and the dreadful massacre of Amboyna, in 1623, at length 
 liecamc the crowning act of cruelty and pei-fidy on the part of the 
 Hollanders.
 
 Chap. II. PERFIDY OF THE rOETUGUESE. 35 
 
 six of iron cast ordnance into the fort lying close to the 
 brink of the river, each piece between six and seven 
 hundredweight, and well proportioned ; and after the 
 end of four days, having, as they thought, sufficiently 
 fortified themselves, they discharged divers shot, though 
 without hurt, upon one of the barges passing by them to 
 find a convenient watering-place. Herewith the whole 
 fleet, being instantly incensed, did, on the sudden, disj)lay 
 their bloody ensigns ; and, weighing their anchors, fell up 
 with the flood, and berthed themselves before the castle, 
 fi'om whence came many shot, yet not any that touched so 
 much as hull or rope ; whereupon, not being able to endure 
 their bravadoes any longer, each ship began to play 
 furiously upon them with their broadsides ; and, after 
 two or three hours, perceiving their cowardly fainting, 
 the boats were landed with about one hundred men ; 
 which sight occasioned them, with great distractions, in- 
 stantly to abandon the castle and fly ; the boats' crews, 
 in the mean time, without let or hindrance, entering the 
 same, and displaying his Majesty's colours of Great Britain 
 upon the walls, having the same night put aboard all 
 their ordnance, fired the Council-house, and demolished 
 what they could. The boats of the fleet also seized a 
 jounke, laden with boards and timber, and another with 
 salt. Another vessel of small moment was surprised, by 
 whose boat a letter was sent to the chief mandarins at 
 Canton, expostulating their breach of truce, excusing the 
 assailing of the castle, and withal in fair terms requiring 
 the liberty of trade. This letter it seems was delivered ; 
 for, the next day, a mandarin of no great note, sometime 
 a Portugal Christian, called Paulo Noretty, came towards 
 the ships in a small boat with a white flag, to whom the 
 English, having laid open the injuries received, and the 
 sincere intent they had to establish fair trade and com-
 
 .{G ENGLISH TNTERCOUllSE. Chap. II. 
 
 merce, and were no way willin<i; (but in their own de- 
 fence) to oppose the China nation, presented certain gifts 
 and dismissed him to his masters, who were some of the 
 chief mandarins, riding about a point of land not far from 
 the ships ; who, being by him duly informed thereof, re- 
 turned him again the same night with a small jounke, 
 and full authority to carry up such as should be appointed 
 to CJanton, there to tender a petition, and to conclude 
 further upon the manner of their future proceedings." 
 The result was, that the blame of the late skirmish was 
 laid by the mandarins on the slanders of the Portuguese, 
 and, the captured guns being restored, the ships were sup- 
 plied with cargoes. 
 
 No further ti-ade, however, ensued for many years. 
 Soon after this period the interior of China was distracted 
 by the contests between the Manchow Tartars and Chinese, 
 while the coasts were overrun by large fleets of pirates, 
 under the leaders whom we have already had occasion to 
 notice. Another attempt was made by the English in 
 1664 to establish a commercial intercourse with Canton. 
 The Company's agents landed at Macao, and obtained a 
 lodging there, with the view of prosecuting a negotiation 
 with the Chinese : these, however, demanded 2000 taels 
 on each ship as a port-charge, and when 1000 were offered 
 they rejected the proposal. At length a guard of Chinese 
 was placed over the English, and they were obliged to 
 abandon the attempt and return to Bantam ; there being 
 every reason to suppose that the Portuguese, as usual, were 
 instrumental to their failure. In 1668 peace with the 
 Dutch encouraged the Company to look towards China, 
 and accordingly application was made to Sir Robert 
 Southwell, ambassador in Portugal, to obtain good treat- 
 ment for our ships should they be obliged to touch at Goa 
 or Macao. In the same year the Company's servants at
 
 Chap. II. TEEATY OF COMMERCE AT FORMOSA. 37 
 
 Bantam observed, in a despatch to the court, " llockchue* 
 will be a place of great resort, aflfordiug- all Cliiiia com- 
 modities, as tutanao:, silk raw and wrought, gold, China- 
 root, tea, &c., for Vvhicli must be carried broadcloth, lead, 
 amber, pepper, coral, sandal-wood, red-wood, incense, 
 cacha (cassia), putchuk, &c." These, all of them, form 
 articles of trade at present with either England or India. 
 
 The records then show that in 1670 a trade was estab- 
 lished at Taywan, or Formosa, with the chief Koshinga, 
 who, as we have before seen, had expelled the Dutch from 
 that island in 1662. It is possible that, knowing the 
 rivalry and animosity which existed between the Dutch 
 and English, he encouraged the latter to come, as a coun- 
 terpoise in his own favour, should the Dutch attempt to 
 repossess themselves of Formosa.f A treaty was entered 
 into, called " The contract made with the King of Taywan 
 for the settling of a factory," in which the Company stipu- 
 late " that we may sell or truck our goods with whom we 
 please, and likewise all persons may have the same fi'ee 
 trade with us ; that, for all injuries or wrongs that shall be 
 done us by the people here, the king shall right us ; and, 
 on the other hand, that what injuries or wrongs the English 
 shall do, application being made to the chief, satisfaction 
 shall be made them ; that upon all occasions we may have 
 access to the king's person ; that we may have the choosing 
 of our own interpreters and escrivans, and no soldiers to 
 be put upon us, and also to be free to walk without China- 
 men along with us ; that what goods the king buys shall 
 pay no custom ; that rice imported pay no custom ; that 
 
 * The provincial pronunciation for Foocliow Foo (which possesses 
 advantages for European trade) in Fokien iirovince. It has become 
 one of our five ports. 
 
 t European states now understand their common interests better, 
 and combine against the Chinese.
 
 38 ENGLISH INTERCOURSE. Chap. 11. 
 
 all guods imported pay three per cent, after sale, and all 
 •roods exported be eustoiii tree." It was provided, however, 
 that all ships should deliver up their guns and ammunition 
 while in port. It seems that this trade at leno;th proved 
 so unprofitable and vexatious that the Company, in 1G81, 
 ordered their establishments at Formosa and Amoy to be 
 withdrawn, and a trade, if possible, established at Canton 
 and Hockchue, or Foochow. In 1G83, Formosa, as already 
 noticed, was surrendered to the Tartars, and in a curious 
 despatch to the Company, dated the 20th December in 
 that year, it is observed that " the inhabitants were 
 ordered, in the name of the great Cham of Tartary, to 
 shave all their hairs off, save enough to make a monkey's 
 tail pendent from the very noddle of their heads, and 
 betake themselves to his country's habit." The Tartars, 
 from the very first conquest of China, have shown a great 
 disinclination to foreign trade, which may have arisen 
 partly from their having a less esteem for it than the 
 native rulers of the country, and partly from a fear of 
 some collusion taking place between Europeans and their 
 Chinese subjects. It was, in fact, after the Tartar con- 
 quest that the English were excluded from Ningpo and 
 Amoy, having traded at the latter place while it remained 
 independent of the Manchows, and some time after the 
 rest of China had submitted to them. 
 
 The ship 'Delight' was sent in 1685 to attempt the 
 re-establishment of a trade at Amoy ; and, about the same 
 time, active exertions were made by the Company towards 
 securing a regular commerce at Canton. In the progress 
 of all these trials one of the most striking circumstances is 
 the stupid pertinacity with which the Portuguese of Macao 
 excluded English ships from that j)ort ; and the perfidy 
 with which they misrepresented their supposed rivals to 
 the Chinese, with a view to prevent their getting a footing
 
 Chap. II. TROUBLES AT CANTON. 39 
 
 at Canton. In the course of time they have been unable 
 to exclude us altogether even from Macao ; but their 
 systematic policy has been to attribute motives to the 
 English which should injure them with the provincial 
 government ; and this was strikingly exem])lified during 
 the expedition under Admiral Drury, in 1808. 
 
 Soon after the Tartar conquest we find it stated by the 
 mandarins, in reply to certain inquiries on the subject, 
 that " a present to the emperor of strange foiols and beasts 
 would be more acceptable than a ship's lading of gold." 
 There can be no doubt that gifts of this kind are extremely 
 well suited to Peking ; and, on the occasion of any future 
 mission, it would be well to keep the advice in view, 
 instead of confining the selection of presents entirely to 
 works of art ; as they were, in our past embassies, most of 
 them unintelligible and useless to the emperor and his 
 court. The troubles of the trade at (/anton appear to 
 have commenced very early. The Hoppo, or chief com- 
 missioner of customs, in 1689 demanded 2484 taels for 
 the measurage (or port-charge) of the ship ' Defence,' but, 
 on finding that it would not be paid, he took 1500 taels. 
 In the mean while, one of the crew of the ' Defence ' had 
 killed a Chinese, and a tumult ensued in which several of 
 the seamen and the surgeon of the ship lost their lives. 
 Not satisfied with this, the mandarins declared that, unless 
 5000 taels were paid, the ' Defence ' would not be allowed 
 to sail ; but when they had refused 2000, the captain 
 quitted Canton, and took his vessel out of the river. The 
 later charges on a ship of about 800 tons in the port of 
 Whampoa were very little short of 5000 dollars, or above 
 1000/. 
 
 It appears from a letter of the Court of Directors to the 
 factory in China, dated 23rd November, 1699, that a 
 consul's commission w^as sent out to the chief of the Com-
 
 40 ENGLISH INTERCOURSE. Chap. II. 
 
 pany's council ; nor docs any notice appear on the records 
 of this having been subsequently recalled. They say, " We 
 have obtained a commission from his Majesty to constitute 
 you, and those who shall be hereafter appointed by us, as 
 our President in China, to be the King's minister or con- 
 sul for the English nation, with all powers requisite there- 
 unto." The Court of Directors appear to have been 
 unaware of this when, in 1832, they denied that their 
 president was any other than a Company's representative ; 
 indeed, it was very correctly observed in parliament, with 
 reference to this ])roceeding of the Court, that the complete 
 powers with which the legislature had vested the chief in 
 China over all Britisli subjects seemed alone to give him a 
 national character. 
 
 From the beginning of the century until 1727 many 
 very severe grievances were suffered at Canton, and, although 
 the trade continued to proceed, it was with frequent inter- 
 ruptions. In that year we find that an exemption was 
 demanded by the English from various extortions ; among 
 others a total charge of 16 per cent, on the trade ; heavy 
 taxes on the compradors or purveyors for supplying the 
 ships ; and what was called the present of 1950 taels, in 
 addition to the measurage or port fee. For some time the 
 local government had attempted to invest a single indivi- 
 dual, called "the Emperor's merchant," with the exclusive 
 right of conducting the European commerce. This "mon- 
 ster in trade," however (as he is very properly termed on 
 the records), was soon obliged to allow others to participate. 
 The Hong merchants then endeavoured to establish a 
 Co-liong, or tniited firm, among themselves. The super- 
 cargoes upon this declined trading until the combination 
 was dissolved, and a representation to the viceroy was 
 at length successful in removing it. On their declaring', 
 moreover, that they should be obliged to proceed to Amoy,
 
 Chap. II. CHARGES OX TRADE. 41 
 
 or some other port, unless the heavy charges on their trade 
 were remitted, the Hoppo promised them redress. Not- 
 withstanding this, in the following year of 1728, an addi- 
 tional duty of 10 per cent, was laid on all exports to 
 Europe, and the remonstrances of the English merchants 
 proved unavailing. 
 
 From what appears to have transpired relative to this 
 10 per cent, duty, it seems clear that raw produce has, 
 from the very first, found a better market at Canton than 
 manufactures. It is observed on the records, " a duty of 
 10 per cent, hath really been paid by the merchants to the 
 Hoppo on all goods sold to the Europe ships for some 
 years past, though, at the same time, the country * ships 
 remain free. At length one of the merchants gave this 
 reason, which they hold as a very just one, that the Hoppo, 
 for several years past, observing that a considerable duty 
 arose to the emperor upon goods imported by the country 
 ships (the raw produce of India and the Straits), and that 
 the Europe ships brought few or none, he fixed that rate 
 upon the merchants for all goods sold by them to the 
 Europe ships." The great industry and ingenuity of the 
 Chinese causes them to turn nearly all raw produce to good 
 account ; while the peculiarities of their national customs 
 and tastes, added to the obstacles of both law and prejudice 
 against European productions of art, render these far less 
 acceptable in general. This is true to the present time. 
 
 In 1734 only one ship, the 'Harrison,' was sent to 
 Canton, simply on account of the high duties and extor- 
 tions. ' An attempt, however, was made at Amoy, in the ship 
 ' Grafton.' The history of the negotiations at that place 
 affords a notable specimen of Chinese rapacity and faith- 
 lessness. After spending months in the fruitless endeavour 
 to obtain reasonable terms from the mandarins, they were 
 * Those from India.
 
 42 
 
 ENGLISH INTERCOURSE. 
 
 ClIAl'. II.
 
 Chap. II. CHARGES OX TRADE. 43 
 
 compelled at length to take their departure for Canton, prin- 
 cipally because they could not get liberty to trade with any 
 persons but those who were leagued with the mandarins, one 
 of whom was always stationed over them in the house they 
 had rented on shore. In addition to the regular duties, 
 which were very high, there was an extra charge of 20 per 
 cent, for the Hoppo. " The ignorance of the Amoy mer- 
 chants (it is observed), and the little encouragement they 
 gave us, makes us almost despair of doing any business at 
 that place." In 1736 the ship ' Normanton' proceeded to 
 Ningpo, and strenuous efforts were made to open a trade 
 there, unfettered by the oppressions they had suffered 
 formerly in the neighbouring island of Chusan ; but they 
 found the mandarins very imperious and obstinate, insisting, 
 as a necessary preliminary, on the surrender of their arms 
 and ammunition. There moreover appeared few induce- 
 ments to trade ; for the record observes, " it seems rather 
 to have been, than to be, a place of great commerce." It 
 is probable that this, with other parts of China, had suf- 
 fered by the Tartar invasion. After wasting nearly two 
 months in fruitless attempts to procure a fair trade, the 
 ' Nonnanton' sailed for Canton : on arriving there it was 
 found that the Emperor Kien-loong, who had just succeeded 
 to the throne, had remitted the duty of 10 per cent, as 
 well as the present of 1510 taels, leaving that portion of 
 the port-charges only which is called the measurage* 
 When the edict ordering this remission was to be read 
 in the Imperial Hall of Audience, the Hong merchants 
 informed the different European traders " that they must 
 prostrate themselves, kneeling on both their knees." 
 " Suspecting that the merchants endeavoured to make us 
 
 * Notwithstanding this, the provincial government contrived to 
 exact the /Jresewi to its full amount until 1829, when a trifling rediic- 
 tiou was made in it ; and the war put an end to tlie whole system.
 
 44 ENGLISH INTERCOURSE. Chap. 11. 
 
 believe this, in order that ])y our cora])hancc we might be 
 brought down to the same servile level with themselves ; 
 considering-, also, that the posture insisted on is such a 
 mark of abject submission as we never pay to our own 
 sovereigns in Europe, we unanimously agreed that we 
 should dishonour ourselves and our countries in complying 
 with it. Being apprehensive that they (the Hong mer- 
 chants) might succeed in their design of weakening us, by 
 creating in us mutual suspicions and jealousies, we met in 
 a body, and, by unanimous agreement, gave our solemn 
 words of honour that none of us would submit to the slavish 
 posture required, nor make any concession or proposal of 
 accommodation separately, without first acquainting all 
 the rest." It was fortunate for them that they formed 
 this worthy resolution, and never prostrated themselves — 
 for more substantial concessions would very soon have 
 been demanded, had they gone through the form of alle- 
 giance and fealty. It seems that in that year the total 
 number of European ships at Canton was ten, viz. four 
 English, two French, two Dutch, one Dane, and one 
 Swede. 
 
 At the close of 1741 his Majesty's ship 'Centurion,' 
 under the command of Commodore Anson, arrived off 
 Macao, in the prosecution of her voyage round the world, 
 being the first British man-of-war that visited China. 
 The interesting details of that ship's stay are well given 
 in the popular history of the voyage, and familiar to most 
 readers. After being hove down and repaired, the ' Cen- 
 turian ' put to sea, and succeeded in capturing the ' Aca- 
 pulco ' ship, with its valuable freight of treasure, with 
 which she proceeded again to the Canton river, being in 
 want of provisions. The Commodore on his arrival was 
 subjected, as usual, to numberless vexatious delays ; and 
 the following passages occur on the manuscript proceed-
 
 Chap. II. COMMODORE AXSON. 45 
 
 ings : — "A new difficulty was now started, that Mr. 
 Anson, being lodged at Mr. Townsend's, must first go to 
 Macao ; for, if he remained in the house after Mr, Towns- 
 end left it, the Ilong merchants said they should of course 
 become security for him to the mandarins ; and should 
 Mr. Anson take a Spanish ship near Macao, on the coast, 
 they would then be made answerable for the damages, 
 and perhaps lose their heads. Mr. Anson declared he 
 did not want any person to be security for him, but told 
 them that unless he got some provisions he would not stir 
 out of Canton, for he had not five days' bread on board 
 his ship . . We assembled the merchants the third time, 
 to persuade them, if possible, to prevail with the mandarins 
 to grant Mr. Anson a general chop for all the necessaries 
 he wants. They informed us the mandarins had such 
 a strange notion of a ship which went about the world 
 seeking other ships in order to take them, that they could 
 not be brouojht to hear reason on that head." At length 
 the merchants became so uneasy at the Commodore's stay 
 in Canton, that they suffered a purveyor to ship the pro- 
 visions without the inspection of the custom-house. 
 
 The loss of the ' Acapulco ' ship led the Spaniards, in 
 1744, to fit out several vessels for the annoyance of our 
 China trade ; and when the ' Hardwicke ' East Indiaman 
 arrived oft' the coast, a note was delivered, by means of 
 a Chinese boat, to say that three Spanish ships were lying 
 off Macao to intercept her : the ' Hardwicke ' accordingly 
 sailed away for Amoy. There, however, the mandarins 
 insisted on the ship's proceeding into the inner harbour 
 without any previous conditions, as well as delivering up 
 all arms and ammunition. The merchants showed no 
 disposition to trade, and, in fact, there seemed little to 
 trade with. Accordingly, after fifteen days of ineffectual 
 trial, the ship was compelled to proceed to India against
 
 40 ENGLISH INTERCOURSE. Chap. II. 
 
 the monsoon, without a single article of cargo ! Nor was 
 the condition of the trade much better at Canton. The 
 extortions increased in spite of all attempts at representa- 
 tion on the part of the supercargoes. The Hong mer- 
 chants used every endeavour, and at length succeeded in 
 preventing the access of Europeans to the officers of go- 
 vernment, finding that by that means they could exercise 
 their impositions on both with the greater success and 
 impunity. To the foreigners, they alleged that the man- 
 darins were the authors of all the exactions on the trade ; 
 to the mandarins, that the foreigners were of so barbarous 
 and fierce a temper as to be incapable of listening to reason. 
 The records observe, that " ever since they carried their 
 point of preventing all intercourse between the Europeans 
 and mandarins, they have imposed upon both in their turns, 
 and put the trade of this place upon such a footing as with- 
 out redress would render it impracticable to Europeans." 
 In these difficult times it was that Mr. Flint, a person of 
 uncommon talents and merit, contrived to master the diffi- 
 culties of the Chinese language ; but the ungrateful return 
 which his energy and exertions in their service met with 
 fi-om his employers was such as tended, in all probability 
 more than any other cause, to discourage his successors 
 from undertaking so laborious, unprofitable, and even 
 hazardous a task. We find Mr. Flint acting as inter- 
 preter in 1747, and he soon had to perform a very pro- 
 minent part in China, as will appear hereafter. 
 
 The grievances suffered by our trade led to a remon- 
 strance, in which the principal points were, the delay in 
 unloading the ships ; the plunder of goods on the river ; 
 injurious affiches annually ])ut up by the government, 
 accusing the foreigners of horrible crimes, and intended to 
 expose them to the contempt of the populace ; the extor- 
 tions, under fjilse pretexts, of the inferior officers ; and the
 
 Chap. II. QrARRELS OF ENGLISH AND PRENCII. 47 
 
 difficulty of access to the mandarins. The shij)s were de- 
 tained outside in 1754 until the viceroy had promised to 
 attend to these various complaints : but little was ulti- 
 mately gained. It is to be apprehended that the want 
 of union among the Europeans had, as usual, the effect of 
 frustrating their attempts at redress. " Some gentlemen," 
 it is observed, " were of opinion that we ought to make a 
 stand ; and as, by arguing the case, v,e seemed to be the 
 farther from a determination, we parted without any re- 
 solve, except that every man would do as he liked best." 
 This certainly was not the way to succeed with the 
 Chinese. The animosities which prevailed between the 
 English and French were productive of much trouble to 
 both ; and to such a height did the disorders arrive at 
 AVhampoa, between the crews of the different nations on 
 shore, that an English sailor was at length shot by some 
 of the French officers, and another taken prisoner ; which 
 was immediately followed by a letter addressed to the 
 English supercargoes from " Le Conseil de Direction de 
 Canton, representant la nation Franqaise a la Chine." 
 The Chinese magistrate held an inquest at Whampoa, 
 and desired the French, in the first place, to give up 
 their prisoner, which they did, alleging, however, that the 
 English had commenced the disturbance, by attacking 
 their people. As the Frenchman fired a musket, of 
 which he had deliberately gone in quest, it was plainly 
 nothing better than a murder ; and the English sailors 
 were so exasperated, that there seemed to be no way of 
 preventing their doing themselves justice, but to demand 
 justice from the Chinese government. The viceroy stopped 
 the trade until they should give up the criminal ; and 
 somebody was at length seized by the Chinese and taken 
 into the city, confessing himself the guilty person. He 
 was liberated the following year by order of the emperor.
 
 48 ENGLISH INTERCOURSE. Chap. II. 
 
 on occasion of a general act of grace ; and, as a means 
 of preventing further disturbances at AVhampoa, Dane's 
 Island was allotted to the English, and French Island to 
 the French sailors, for their recreation. 
 
 In 1755 Messrs. Harrison and Flint were despatched 
 to Ningpo, with the view of re-establishing a trade there 
 if possible. On their arrival they were well received, and 
 the charges and customs appeared considerably lower than 
 at Canton. The Fooyuen, or deputy-governor, was so 
 desirous of giving them encouragement, that he conceded 
 almost all the articles in their memorial : in so doing, 
 however, he appeared to have exceeded his power; for 
 when the ship ' Holdernesse ' subsequently proceeded to 
 Ningpo to take advantage of this apparent opening, the 
 viceroy, who was then in the province, sent an order for 
 all the great guns, small arms, and ammunition to be taken 
 out of the ship, and the same duties to be paid as at 
 Canton. Though the Fooyuen could not act directly 
 against this order, he did not comply with it, but sent it 
 straight up to Peking, with an account of what he had 
 done, thereby putting it out of the viceroy's power, as well 
 as his own, t(^ make an absolute decision in the interim. 
 As it would have been the end of September before an 
 answer could possibly arrive from Peking, the mandarins 
 agreed to begin business, provided that half the guns and 
 ammunition were delivered. Twelve great guns were 
 accordingly given up, and the ships unloaded : the ' Hol- 
 dernesse,' however, paid to the mandarins 2000 taels, 
 and the other charges and duties proved double those at 
 Canton, while no residence was allowed on shore. The 
 objection made by the government to a trade at Ningpo 
 was " the loss of revenue to the emperor, accruing from 
 overland carriage of tea and other goods to Canton ; " the 
 very circumstance, of course, which enhanced the prices of
 
 Chap. II. SEIZURE OF MR. FLINT. 49 
 
 those goods to the I^uro])can purchaser. On their de- 
 parture from Ningpo the supercargoes were formally 
 acquainted by the mandarins of all future trade being 
 forbidden them at that port ; and, on reaching Macao, the 
 officers of the local government in like manner infonned 
 them of a public edict confining the commerce to Canton. 
 
 At length, in 1759, the factory once occupied by the 
 English at Ningpo was destroyed, the merchants with whom 
 they had dealt ordered to quit the place, and the war- 
 junks directed to prevent any English ship from being 
 supplied with provisions at Chusan, Mr. Flint, notwith- 
 standing this, proceeded to Ningpo, upon which the 
 Canton government forbade his return, desiring that he 
 should be sent home to England whenever he re-a})pearod. 
 On arriving at Ningpo he was refused all communication : 
 upon this he proceeded to the neighbourhood of Peking, 
 and succeeded in making his complaints known to the 
 emperor. A mandarin of rank was appointed to proceed 
 with him by land to Canton, and there, in concert with 
 others, to sit in judgment on the Hoppo. Mr. Flint, on 
 reaching Canton, remained ten days in the city, and then 
 proceeded to the factory. Two days after, the foreigners 
 of all nations were received by the Chinese commissioners, 
 and informed that the Hoppo had been degraded, his place 
 being supplied by another. All impositions, moreover, 
 were remitted, except 6 per cent, on goods, and the present 
 of 1950 taels from each ship. 
 
 It proved, however, that these fair appearances were 
 destined only to be the prelude to a storm. Some days 
 afterwards the viceroy desired to see Mr. Flint, for the 
 purpose of communicating the emperor's orders : the 
 council wished to accompany him, and their request was 
 granted. When the party had reached the viceroy's 
 palace, the Hong merchants proposed their going in one at 
 
 VOL. I. D
 
 50 ENGLISH INTERCOURSE. Chap. II. 
 
 a time, but they insisted on proceeding- together ; and on 
 Mr. Flint being called for, they were received by a man- 
 darin at the first gate, proceeding onward through two 
 courts with seeming com})laisance from the officers in 
 waiting : but, on arriving at the gate of the inner court, 
 they were hurried, and even forced into the viceroy's pre- 
 sence, and (under pretence of doing homage after the 
 Chinese fashion) a struggle ensued with their barbarian 
 conductors, in which they were at length, by dint of num- 
 bers, thrown down. The viceroy, seeing tlicir determined 
 resolution not to submit to these base humiliations, ordered 
 the people to desist ; and then, telling Mr. Flint to advance, 
 he pointed to an order, which he called the emperor's edict, 
 for his banishment to Macao, and subsequent departure for 
 England. This he declared was on account of his endea- 
 vouring to open a trade at Ningpo, contrary to orders from 
 Peking ; he added, that the man who had written the 
 Chinese petition was to be beheaded that day, for traitor- 
 ously encouraging foreigners, " which execution," the 
 record observes, " was performed on a man quite inno- 
 cent of what these absolute and villanous mandarins were 
 pleased to call a crime." At the same time, the complaints 
 against the IIoppo were admitted to have been just. Mr. 
 Flint was detained in the city, and conveyed to a place 
 called Tsienshan, or Casa Branca, near Macao, where he 
 was imprisoned, but pretty well treated, though all cor- 
 respondence was cut off. 
 
 Some days after the above occurrence, the French, 
 Danes, Swedes, and Dutch met in a body at the English 
 factory, and jointly entered a protest against the act of the 
 viceroy : but Mr. Flint remained in prison from March, 
 1760, to November, 1762, when he was carried by the 
 Chinese to Whampoa, and put on board the ship ' Hor- 
 sendon,' to be conveyed to England.
 
 Chap. II. 'THE ARGO.' 51 
 
 The success and impunity of the Canton government 
 on this occasion seem to have encouraged it in its assump- 
 tions for some time after. When in March, 1765, his 
 Majesty's ship ' Argo ' arrived, convoying the ' Cuddalore ' 
 schooner, with a supply of half a million of dollars for the 
 Company's treasury, the Chinese insisted on searching the 
 schooner, on the plea that a woman was on board : but 
 when this was declined, as contrary to all precedent, they 
 said it would be sufficient if a mandarin were admitted " to 
 walk two or three times up and down the deck." They 
 were told that, when a Hcence had been granted for taking 
 out the silver, they might send whom they pleased to walk 
 up and down the deck. Provisions were denied to the 
 ' Argo ' in consequence of this dispute, and it was at length 
 arranged that a mandarin should g-o on board when the 
 money was unladen. The Chinese next demanded to 
 measure his majesty's ship ' Argo,' but this was refused 
 by Captain Affleck, more especially as there was a prece- 
 dent against so strange a requisition from a king's ship, in 
 the case of the 'Centurion,' Commodore Anson, in 1742. 
 The trade was again stopped in consequence, and the 
 Council at Canton offered to pay the amount of measurage 
 of the Company's largest ship in lieu of the 'Argo;' but 
 the mandarins would not consent, and Captain Affleck at 
 length allowed the ' Argo ' to be measured. Had he 
 sailed away at the commencement of the dispute, it is 
 probable that this might have been avoided. 
 
 The ill-will generated on both sides by the insolence of 
 the Chinese, and the consequences resulting from it, had 
 the effect of constantly embroiling the English and natives 
 for several years after, during a period in which a greater 
 number of affrays and homicides occurred than have ever 
 been known of late years. In 1772 the ' Lord Camden ' 
 was detained from 17th December to 5th January follow- 
 
 d2
 
 52 ENGLISH INTERCOURSE. Chap. II. 
 
 ing, in consequence of a tumult in which several Chinese 
 and Europeans were badly hurt ; the wounded men were 
 all conveyed into the factory, where two mandarins exa- 
 mined them. The ship was at first detained, hut permis- 
 sion at length given for her sailing, on condition that the 
 person who originated the mischief was detained in con- 
 finement ; but the recovery of all the wounded soon after 
 ])ut an end to the affair. In the following year a most 
 atrocious act of sanguinary injustice occurred at Macao, 
 stamping indelible disgrace on the Portuguese of that 
 place. A Chinese had lost his life, and, some ungrounded 
 accusation having implicated an Englishman named 
 Francis Scott, the local authority caused him to be ap- 
 prehended and confined. The case was tried in the Por- 
 tuguese court, the accused examined, and depositions of 
 witnesses taken ; but the slightest trace of guilt could not 
 be attached to the prisoner. The mandarins, however, 
 obstinately claimed him, and threatened the town in case 
 he was not delivered. To bring this perplexity to a close, 
 a general meeting or council was convened, and a member 
 of the Macao Senate argued, " It is unjustifiable to consent 
 to the sacrifice of an innocent man ; and, as the most accu- 
 rate inquiry sufficiently proves that the Englishman is not 
 guilty, our reasons for not surrendering him should be sub- 
 mitted to the mandarins, and persevered in until we shall 
 have succeeded in saving him from an ignominious death." 
 The vicar-general, however, named Francisco Vaz, argued 
 in the following singular manner : — " Morali:^ts decide 
 that when a tyrant demands even an innocent person, with 
 menaces of ruin to the community if refused, the whole 
 number may call on any individual to deliver himself up 
 for the public good, which is of more worth than the life of 
 an individual. Should he refuse to obey, he is not inno- 
 cent, he is criminal." Another Portuguese observed, with
 
 Chap. II. PORTUGUESE JUSTICE. 53 
 
 still less ceremony, " The mandarins are forcing away the 
 Chinese dealers, determined to starve us ; therefore we had 
 better surrender the Englishman." The plurality of votes 
 decided that Scott should be handed over, and the Chinese 
 put him to death.* 
 
 The following case occurs on the proceedings of 1780 : — 
 " 14th December. Some days ago a French seaman from 
 the 'Success' galley, country ship, killed a Portuguese 
 sailor belonofino: to the ' Stormont' iu one of the merchants' 
 houses. The man took refuge at the French Consul's, 
 where he remained many days, but at last was given up 
 to the Chinese, and was this morning publicly strangled 
 by order of the Fooyuen. This is the first instance of 
 one European being executed for the murder of another in 
 this country, and appears to be a very dangerous prece- 
 dent, as it may involve us in inextricable difficulties, if 
 even by accident one man should kill another. The man 
 executed to-day could not have had any trial of common 
 justice : the affair happened between him and the deceased 
 in Seunqua's hong at night, nobody knowing of the 
 quarrel until the ' Stormont's ' man was killed ; and we do 
 not understand that the Chinese government took any 
 means to find out the truth. Foreigners are not here 
 allowed the benefit of the Chinese laws, nor have they 
 any privileges in common with the natives. They are 
 governed merely by such rules as the mandarins for the 
 time being declare to be their will ; and the reason why 
 more inconveniences do not occur is this : — the officers of 
 government on such occasions rather choose to exact 
 money from the security merchants, compradores, &c., than 
 use harsh measures by which they gain nothing. Their 
 corruption, therefore, is so far the foreigner's security." 
 
 * Taken from a ' Contribution to a Historical Sketch of Jlacao,' 
 1834.
 
 54 ENGLISH IXTERCOUESE. Chap. II. 
 
 The fundamental maxim of Chinese intercourse with 
 foreigners has been accurately translated by Pfere Premare 
 as follows, and it is quite sufficient to explain their conduct. 
 " Barbari baud secus ac pecora non eodem modo regendi 
 sunt ut reguntur Sinse. Si quis vellet eos magnis sapientiae 
 legibus instruerc, nihil aliud quam summam perturbationem 
 induceret. Antiqui reges istud optime callebant, et ideo 
 barbaros non regendo regebant. Sic autem eos non regendo 
 regere, prseclara eos optime regendi ars est." That is, 
 " The harharians are like beasts, and not to he ruled on the 
 same principles as citizens. Were any one to attempt co7i- 
 troUing them by the great maxims of reason, it xvonld tend 
 to nothing but confusion. The ancient kings tcell under- 
 stood this, and accordingly ruled barbarians by misrule. 
 Therefore to rule barbarians by misride is the true and the 
 best way of riding themr It was on this principle that all 
 the benefits of Chinese law were (before the war) denied 
 to strangers, and that, in the case of even accidental homi- 
 cide, they were required to be delivered up, not for trial, 
 but execution. The mischiefs of such a system are 
 obvious ; and it is in consequence of this that acts of 
 atrocious violence on the part of foreigners, committed 
 by them under the plea of doing themselves right, have 
 been plausibly justified, though coming strictly under the 
 definitions of piracy, murder, or arson, which, under a 
 more vigorous government, would have rendered them 
 the property of the public executioner. The following is 
 a singular instance of successful daring. In the year 
 1781 a Captain M'Clary, master of a country ship from 
 Bengal, had stopped a sloop on her way from Macao to 
 Manilla. Being on shore at Macao, he told the Portu- 
 guese governor that he had ordered his mate to bring her 
 into the harbour for examination, having reason to suspect 
 she was Spanish property. The Portuguese on this had
 
 Chap. II. CONDUCT OF A SHIP-MASTER. 55 
 
 him seized and imprisoned until lie had sent an order for 
 the sloop being released without examination. This order 
 being taken to the mate, he bore down to the sloop in 
 order to comply with it ; but it blew such a gale of wind 
 that the sloop got adrift, and was wTCcked on the rocks. 
 M'Clary upon this was detained in prison for two months, 
 until, by .ill-treatment, and threats of being delivered to 
 the Chinese, the Portuguese had extorted from him a 
 payment of 70,000 dollars, under the pretence of its being 
 the value of the sloop. Some time after his liberation, 
 while M'Clary's ship was lying at Whampoa, in company 
 with another vessel under Dutch colours, news arrived of 
 war between England and Holland, upon which he seized 
 upon the Dutchman as a prize. The Canton government 
 immediately demanded restitution ; but M'Clary told 
 them that, if they would not interfere, the duties should 
 all be paid regularly ; whereas, if they molested him, he 
 would take her out of the river. On the Chinese insisting 
 that he should restore the ship, he rigged her and began 
 to drop down from his anchorage. There was immediately 
 a great bustle among the Chinese, and all the troops avail- 
 able, about 200, were rendezvoused at Tiger Island to 
 intercept his passage. The ship in the mean while was 
 surrounded by mandarins and merchants, and, when threats 
 and civilities had all failed, the Chinese being very anxious 
 for a compromise, the genius of Ponkhequa, chief Hong 
 merchant, devised the following creditable expedient. The 
 prize being close to the river's mouth, the Chinese were 
 allowed to board her in a shouting, triumphant manner ; 
 and, in return for his condescension, M'Clary was per- 
 mitted to withhold an iron chest containing pearls and 
 gold, fi-eighted by certain Armenians. 
 
 Meanwhile the Company's Council were in a very un- 
 pleasant situation, being held responsible by the govern-
 
 56 EXGLISH INTERCOURSE. Chap. II. 
 
 ment for the acts of M'Clary, who certainly was little 
 better than a ])iratc. They replied to the Chinese that 
 they could not control his proceedings otherwise than by 
 protests, and very properly refused the demand of the 
 mandarins, that they should accompany the Chinese officers 
 to the river to give weight to their measures. " The 
 more," it is observed, " they perceived their own want of 
 power over the real offender, the more they appeared 
 resolved to exert it over us, whom they had been accus- 
 tomed to see observant of all their regulations." An 
 application was made by the Chinese to the Portuguese 
 governor of Macao, to deliver them up, which he declined, 
 and a conclusion was at length put to these difficulties, 
 only by the circumstances already stated. 
 
 Towards the year 1782 the large sums lent by the 
 merchants of various nations to Chinese, at a high rate of 
 interest, had occasioned an accumulation of debts on the 
 part of the latter, amounting, it is said, to the enormous 
 extent of a million sterling. Among- the creditors were 
 numerous individuals connected with the trade of the 
 Indian presidencies, and these, after a course of fruitless 
 measures for the recovery of the property at Canton, 
 applied, through the Indian Government, to the admiral 
 on the station, Sir Edward Vernon, for his assistance. A 
 frigate was accordingly despatched to China, bearing a 
 remonstrance to the viceroy ; and after a reference of the 
 subject to Peking, an edict was received from the emperor, 
 ordering the liquidation of the debts by the whole body of 
 Hong merchants, as well as interdicting any one of them 
 from borrowing money for the future from strangers. The 
 debts were at length recovered, but so little effectual was 
 the interdict that repeated failures of Hong merchants, for 
 very large sums due to Europeans, occurred up to the year 
 1829.
 
 Chap. II. THE " GUXXER'S CASE." 57 
 
 Among the unhappy cases which have arisen from the 
 sanguinary practice of the Canton government in the 
 instances of homicides, whether accidental or otherwise, 
 when committed by Em'opeans, the most remarka])le, 
 perhaps, is that frequently alluded to under the name of 
 the gunner s case, in 1784. On the 24th November, in 
 that year, information reached Canton that a chop-boat, 
 alongside the ' Lady Hughes ' country ship, being in the 
 way of a gun fired in saluting, three Chinese had been 
 badly injured. On the following day it was learned that 
 one had died ; and the gunner, though entirely innocent 
 of any bad intent, and acting as he did in obedience to 
 orders, absconded from fear of the indiscriminating cruelty 
 of the Chinese. A iceiyuen, or deputed mandarin, soon 
 waited on the chief of the factory, Mr. Pigou, and with 
 the interpretation of the Hong merchants required that 
 the man should be submitted to examination, admitting, at 
 the same time, that his act had apparently proceeded fi-om 
 mere accident. The mandarin was informed that there 
 appeared no objection to the man's examination, provided 
 that it took place in the factory ; a stipulation which was 
 founded on the recollection of what had occurred in the 
 Frenchman's case in 1780. Two days after, the weiyuen 
 repeated his visit, accompanied by Ponkhequa, Hong 
 merchant, with the same demands : he was informed that 
 the ' Lady Hughes,' being a private ship, was not to the 
 same degree under the control of the chief as a Company's 
 vessel ; but that, if they would be satisfied with an exami- 
 nation in the factory, every persuasion should be used to 
 induce the supercargo of the ship, Mr. Smith, to produce 
 the man. The Chinese declared that the trial must be 
 before the Fooyuen in the city, and at length retired, re- 
 questing that Mr. Smith might not leave Canton for three 
 or four days, to which he assented. At eleven the same 
 
 d3
 
 58 ENGLISH INTERCOURSE. Chap. II. 
 
 nifht thoy returned to say that the man should be ex- 
 amined in one of the factories; but the event soon i)roved 
 that this was merely to lull their suspicions, for early the 
 next morning it was found that Mr. Smith had been de- 
 coyed from his factory by a pretended message from 
 Ponkhequa, and conveyed into the city by force. Mean- 
 while the avenues leading to the river had been barri- 
 caded, the merchants and linguists had fled, and the com- 
 munication with AVhampoa was suspended. 
 
 The heads of all the foreign factories, justly considering 
 this as a very threatening proceeding to the whole Euro- 
 pean community, united in a resolution to order up the 
 boats of the several ships manned and armed, both as a 
 security, and to manifest in the strongest manner the light 
 in which they viewed the acts of the government. Two 
 English boats were despatched to Whampoa to carry this 
 into effect. The watchful Chinese now endeavoured to 
 quiet them by a message from the Fooyuen, to the pur- 
 port that they should not be alarmed by the seizure 
 of the ' Lady Hughes's ' supercargo, as the intention was 
 merely to ask him a few questions and send him back 
 again. The greater number of ships' boats reached 
 Canton, although attempts were made to prevent them by 
 firing from the junks and forts in the river, and notwith- 
 standing their having been absurdly ordered to use no 
 arms in their own defence. A very bombastic document 
 was- received from the Fooyuen, threatening destruction if 
 any opposition were made, and a show of force at the same 
 time assembled in the river before the factories. On the 
 28tli the foreigners all joined in an address in behalf of 
 Mr. Smith, and in the evening the Fooyuen desired to 
 see a deputation from the factory of the several nations. 
 These reported that " his behaviour was much agitated, 
 and it was evident he would be glad to get handsomely
 
 Chap. II. THE " GUNXER'S CASE." .-,9 
 
 out of the business." The Chhiese were, in foot, frirrhtonod 
 at their o^^^l boldness, and a little resolution on the other 
 side might have saved the man's life. 
 
 A linguist soon arrived at the factory, bringing a letter 
 from Mr. Smith to the captain of his ship, desiring he would 
 send up the gunner, or some other person, to be tried by 
 the mandarins ; and this was forwarded on the 29th to 
 Whampoa, backed by a letter from the Council. On the 
 30th the unfortunate gunner, an old man, was brought to 
 Canton, and sent into the city, with an address, " signed 
 by the English Council and the representatives of the 
 foreign nations," in his favour. He was received by a 
 mandarin of superior rank, who verhalh) stated that no 
 apprehensions need be entertained as to his life, and that 
 when the emperor's answer had been obtained he should 
 be restored. In about an hour after, Mr. Smith returned 
 to his factory, stating that he had been very civilly 
 treated. On the 8th of January following the unhappy 
 gunner was strangled ! 
 
 This was the last instance of the kind to which the 
 English had to submit in China, although not the last 
 which has occurred at Canton ; for the case of the poor 
 innocent Italian, Terranova, given up by the Americans 
 in 1821, was very similar. Our own countrymen, warned 
 of what they had to expect from Chinese justice and good 
 faith, have on all subsequent occasions been ready to 
 undergo any extremities rather than be parties to the 
 death of an innocent man ; and their exertions have in 
 several instances been crowned with signal success. Soon 
 after the above unfortunate occurrence, in 1784, the 
 attention of the British government was naturally drawn 
 to the growing magnitude and importance of the trade at 
 Canton ; and it cannot be denied that, after the course of 
 amelioration then commenced, the general condition of
 
 60 ENGLISH INTERCOURSE. Chap. II. 
 
 the English at that j)la('C became considerably bettered. 
 It was in fact only four years after the death of the gunner 
 that Colonel Cathcart was sent from England (in 1788), 
 in the ' Vestal ' frigate, as ambassador to China. His 
 death on the passage out, in the Straits of Sunda, put an 
 entire stop to the mission for the time, and the frigate 
 returned to England;* nor was it until 1792 that the 
 project was renewed on a larger scale. In the month of 
 January of that year Mr. Dundas set on foot the proposal 
 of a Chinese embassy, grounded on the consideration of 
 our trade having gradually increased until its actual 
 amount exceeded that of all other nations ; to which it 
 was added, that the intercourse of almost every other 
 country with that empire had been attended with special 
 missions to Peking. It was hoped that such a measure 
 might relax the various trammels by which the commerce 
 with China was shackled, relieve it from some of its ex- 
 actions, and place our countrymen at Canton on a footing 
 of greater respectability, as well as security, in relation to 
 the local government. Lord Macartney accordingly pro- 
 ceeded from England in the ' Lion,' a 64-gun ship, in 
 September, 1792, accompanied by Sir George Leonard 
 Staunton, as Secretary of Legation. The occurrences and 
 result of that embassy are so well known from the cele- 
 brated work of the last-named individual, as well as from 
 the relation of Mr. Barrow, that it would be superfluous 
 to dwell upon them here. One of the principal effects of 
 the mission was to draw a much greater share of the 
 public attention towards China, and to lead gradually to 
 the study of the language, literature, institutions, and man- 
 ners of that vast and singular empire — a field which had 
 hitherto been occupied almost exclusively by the French. 
 
 * The tomb of Colonel Cathcart is still marked by a handsome mo- 
 nument, visible from the anchorage of ships at Anjier Point.
 
 Chap. III. RESULTS OF EMBASSY OF 1793. Gl 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 ENGLISH INTERCOURSE TO THE OPENING OF TRADE. 
 
 Objects and results of Lord INIacartney's embassy — Aftair of, the ' Pro- 
 vidence ' — Americans at Canton — Expedition to Macao — ^Mission 
 to Cocliin-China — Admiral Linois defeated — Lacb-ones — Success- 
 ful resistance to mandarins — Second expedition to Macao — 111 
 success of Admiral Drury — Interdict against ]Mr. Roberts — The 
 ' Doris ' — Successful measures of tbe committee — Embassy of 
 Lord Amlierst — The ko-tow — The ' Alceste ' — Cases of homicide 
 
 — Conduct of Americans — The ' Topaze ' — Fire of Canton — 
 Failure of Hong merchants — Discussions — Aiiair of Parsees — 
 FactoiT invaded by Fooyuen — Opium-smuggling — The ' Amherst ' 
 
 — AflVays of smugglers with Chinese — Termination of Company's 
 charter. 
 
 One of the principal objects of Earl Macartney's mission 
 to Peking was to obtain, if possible, the permission of the 
 emperor to trade at Ningpo, Chusan, Tientsin, and other 
 places besides Canton. All discussions upon these points, 
 and indeed every matter of business, were studiously 
 avoided by the Chinese ministers and mandarins, during 
 the residence of the embassy at Peking ; but, in his letter 
 to the King of England, the emperor did not omit to state 
 distinctly that the British commerce must be strictly 
 limited to the port of Canton. " You will not be able to 
 complain," adds he, " that I had not clearly forewarned 
 you. Let us therefore live in peace and friendship, and 
 do not make light of my words." 
 
 Were a judgment to be formed from the experiment 
 which took place in that same year to trade at Chusan 
 with the specific leave of the emperor, the jn-ivilege would 
 not seem to be a very valuable one. Captain Mackintosh, 
 of the Company's ship ' Hindostan,' who attended his 
 majesty's ship ' Lion' to the Yellow Sea, had free licence
 
 G2 EXGLISn INTERCOURSE. Chap. III. 
 
 to trade at ("!husaii if lie pleased (on that particular occa- 
 sion), and the ship was freed from all duties and port- 
 charges, as pertaining to the embassy. He accordingly 
 went there,* and " found the mandarins and people per- 
 fectly well disposed to comply with the emperor's orders 
 in respect to the privileges to be granted to the captain 
 and his officers in the purchase of a cargo there ; and tea 
 and silk were much cheaper than elsewhere : but the 
 Chusan traders were not prepared for so extensive a 
 concern as a cargo of goods fitted for the European 
 market, to fill a ship of the size of the ' Hindostan,' full 
 1200 tons, nor for the purchase of the European goods on 
 board her, better calculated for a larger city. They would 
 therefore expect specie for most of the articles they could 
 furnish for the ' Hindostan,' and which had not been 
 provided by her commander. He found it therefore 
 expedient to proceed to Canton." t 
 
 As it was hoped that the embassy had not been without 
 its effect in conciliating the good-will of the Chinese go- 
 vernment to the British trade, it was resolved, shortly 
 afterwards, to follow it up by a letter from his majesty to 
 the emperor, accompanied by presents. These accordingly 
 reached Canton in January, 1795, with letters and pre- 
 sents from the ministers, and the Chairman of the East 
 India Company, to the viceroy ; and the whole were con- 
 veyed into the city by the chief of the British factory. 
 The viceroy received the address to the emperor with 
 much satisfaction, and forwarded it, together with the 
 presents, to Peking, from whence a reply, . with corre- 
 sponding presents, was afterwards returned. Objections, 
 however, were made to accepting the letters and gifts in- 
 
 * Staunton's Embassy, vol. ii. p. .523. 
 
 t This island was in our peaceful possession from 1842 to 1846, with 
 scarcely any trade. It was imjjortant as a militai-y and political posi- 
 tion, not as a commercial.
 
 Chap. HI. 
 
 RESULTS OF EMBASSY OF 1793. 
 
 63 
 
 The Emperor Kien-Loong. 
 
 tended for the heads of the Canton government, on the 
 STOund of its not beinff allowable for Chinese ministers 
 to entertain a correspondence with the officers of a foreign 
 government. It was recorded on this occasion, as well 
 as on a subsequent one in 1805, that tribute had been 
 sent by the King of England to the " Son of Heaven,'" 
 and the record was quoted, not long ago, by the Canton 
 government, in an official paper addressed to the writer 
 of this, as president of the select committee in Oiina, 
 who stated, of course, in reply, that presents had been sent, 
 but no tribute. 
 
 No untoward events occurred for several years subse-
 
 04 EXGLISE INTERCOURSE. Chap. III. 
 
 quont to the embassy, to interrupt the quiet progress of 
 affairs at (^anton. The mandarins had improved in their 
 conduct towards the merchants, and the highly objec- 
 tionable measure of sto})ping the trade on the most trifling 
 occasions had not been lately resorted to by the Chinese. 
 At the same time, some of the heaviest burthens on the 
 European trade still continued, being too profitable to 
 both tlic local government and the Hong merchants to be 
 readily abandoned by them. The most objectionable of 
 these were the Consoo fund, arising from a rate which the 
 Hongs were permitted to levy upon the foreign commerce, 
 in order to meet the heavy demands of the government 
 on themselves ; and the inordinate amount of the port- 
 charges and fees. 
 
 An unfortunate occurrence, however, in 1800 threatened 
 for some time to place British affairs at Canton in some 
 jeopardy, although proceeding, as very usual on such 
 occasions, from the fault of the natives. While his ma- 
 jesty's schooner ' Providence ' was lying at Whampoa, a 
 party of Chinese in a small boat appeared one night to be 
 attempting to cut the schooner's cable. As they returned 
 no answer on being hailed, a shot was fired into the boat, 
 by which one Chinese was wounded, and another, who 
 jumped overboard in his fright, was drowned. The go- 
 vernment, as usual, demanded that the person who fired 
 the musket should be delivered up ; but Captain Dilkes, 
 who was then in China, commanding his majesty's ship 
 *• Madras,' required, on the other hand, that the Chinese 
 in the boat should be punished for their delinquency ; and 
 refused to deliver up the seaman, or even to allow him to 
 be tried, except in his own presence. The wounded 
 Chinese at length recovered, and so the correspondence 
 closed ; but, some time afterwards, an abstract of the 
 Chinese law relating to homicide was handed to the select
 
 Chap. III. AMERICANS AT CANTON. G5 
 
 committee by the local government ; although the shame- 
 ful injustice and perfidy with which, on several occasions, 
 the mandarins had treated foreigners accused of such 
 offences, gave them no right to expect that their laws 
 should be much attended to. 
 
 It was in the year 1802 that the American flag was 
 first hoisted at Canton. The consular agent for the 
 United States, who was, in all cases, appointed from 
 among the American merchants resident in China, was 
 simply a commercial officer, and called a Tae-pan, or 
 factory chief, by the Chinese. He received no salary 
 whatever from his government, but was permitted to levy 
 fees in the transaction of business with his countrymen, 
 besides trading on his own account. The American flag 
 continued to fly at Canton, notwithstanding the interrup- 
 tion which the trade of the United States, for some time 
 previous to 1815, experienced by the war with England ; 
 but in the year 1832 a dispute occurred between the 
 consul for the time being, and the captain of an American 
 frigate then on a visit to China. The captain having 
 failed to call upon the consul, the latter took offence on 
 the occasion, and the two republicans were too tenacious of 
 their respective ranks and dignities to come to an accom- 
 modation. The flag was struck, and the consul proceeded 
 home. Such disputes are rendered impossible, between 
 English officers, by the regulations of subordination and 
 etiquette conveyed in the consular and naval instructions. 
 
 An occurrence of some importance, in 1802, tended to 
 establish, beyond all doubt, a point which had sometimes 
 been questioned ; and this was the nature of the tenure on 
 which the Portuguese held Macao of the Chinese. It 
 was in that year that Lord Wellesley, Governor- General 
 of India, being apprehensive that the French republic had 
 some designs against the Portuguese establishments in
 
 eG ENGLISH INTERCOURSE. Chap. III. 
 
 the East, considered it necessary to garrison the principal 
 settlements of our " ancient ally " with British troops ; 
 and accordingly an expedition was sent from Bengal to 
 take Macao under our protection. The Portuguese would 
 have admitted the offered aid — indeed they had not the 
 power to refuse it — but the leave of the real masters had 
 never been asked. The Viceroy of Canton indignantly 
 repelled the idea of any portion of the Chinese empire 
 needing aid from foreigners, and required the troops im- 
 mediately to depart. In the mean while it fortunately 
 happened that the brig ' Telegraph,' despatched by the 
 Court of Directors with news of the peace in Europe, 
 arrived off Macao, and the whole of the troops accord- 
 ingly returned at once to Bengal on the 3rd of July. 
 The Portuguese did not fail on this occasion to carry on 
 their customary intrigues with the Chinese government, 
 with whom they did their best to ingratiate themselves, 
 by misrepresenting the views and designs of the English. 
 An unfortunate priest named Rodrigncs, from whose 
 knowledge of the Chinese language considerable assist- 
 ance had been derived during the stay of the expedition, 
 was in consequence so persecuted by his countrymen that 
 he was compelled to quit the place. The Portuguese, 
 however, have since had ample leisure to repent their 
 short-sighted and naiTow policy towards our countrymen, 
 as it had the effect of driving the whole of the Indian 
 opium-trade from Macao to Lintin, and thereby depriving 
 the former place of its most fertile, and indeed 07ilf/ 
 source of wealth. 
 
 The advantages of establishing, if possible, some com- 
 mercial relations with the King of Cochin-China, on the 
 part of the British, had been a subject of attention for 
 some time when Lord Strathallan, at that period Mr. 
 Drummond, president of the select committee at Canton, 
 
 I
 
 Chap. III. EXPEDITION TO MACAO. 67 
 
 appointed Mr. Roberts, a member of the foctory, to pro- 
 ceed on that service in November, 1803. That gentle- 
 man was directed to attend to the instructions of the 
 Governor-General of India, from whom he was the bearer 
 of a letter to the Cochin-Chinese king. Mr. Roberts was 
 civilly received, and met wath much liberal and friendly 
 assistance from the French missionaries at Hue-foo, the 
 capital. He had two audiences of the king, w-ith an inter- 
 change of presents ; but the council, with the usual 
 cautious and exclusive spirit of the ultra-Gangetic nations, 
 would not consent to any written treaty of commerce ; 
 and the envoy returned to Canton, after some months' 
 residence, without having been able to establish the ends 
 contemplated : nor was the more recent expedition of 
 Mr. Crawfurd to the same country attended wath any 
 material success. It appeared, subsequently to iSIr. 
 Roberts's mission, that reports prejudicial to the English 
 were raised by a Portuguese of Macao, named D'Abrio, 
 stating that they meditated an attack on the country. 
 Much alarm was excited, and, when the ' Discovery ' sur- 
 veying vessel appeared on the coast, refreshments were 
 denied to her. 
 
 The considerable naval force which had been main- 
 tained by France in the eastern seas for the annoyance of 
 our India and China trade, had directed the particular 
 attention of the Company to the due arming of their 
 ships, and an occasion occurred, in 1805, when the 
 efficiency of those noble vessels was signally proved. The 
 China fleet, consisting of sixteen sail, under the command 
 of the senior officer, Captain Dance, was homeward-bound 
 on the 15th February, when it fell in with the French 
 squadron, under Admiral Linois, who had been cruizing 
 for some time to the north of the Straits, with the express 
 view of cutting them off. The fleet, of which most of the
 
 68 ENGLTSn INTERCOURSE. Chap. III. 
 
 ships mounted thirty guns and upwards, formed in order 
 of battle, and advanced boklly to the engaf^ement, the 
 van being led by (Aiptain Timins of the ' Koyal George/ 
 who engaged the admiral's ship, a vessel of eighty guns, 
 and received upwards of sixty shot in his hull and rigging. 
 The fight concluded by the French squadron setting all 
 sail, and leaving the English in quiet possession of the 
 field, as well as of the immense amount of national pro- 
 perty of which they were in charge. The commodore of 
 the fleet was knighted in approbation of his gallant con- 
 duct, and the commanders of all the ships presented with 
 swords and other marks of distinction. This highly 
 respectable service has been dissolved by the operation 
 of the Act which deprived the East India Company of 
 their former privileges. 
 
 About this period, or shortly afterwards, commenced 
 the career of the Chinese pirates, called, after the Portu- 
 guese of Macao, Ladroiies, who for some years spread 
 terror along the coasts (if the Canton province, and even 
 up the river itself, as far as the city. The southern shores 
 of China, from the innumerable islands with which they 
 are studded, have always given employment and shelter 
 to a hardy race of fishermen, whose poverty, joined to their 
 independent habits, have at different periods led them to 
 combine in large bodies for piratical purposes, in defiance 
 of the weak and inefficient maritime force by which the 
 coasts of the empire are guarded. The power of the 
 celebrated leader, Koshinga, and his successes against 
 the Dutch settlers on Formosa, during the seventeenth 
 century, have been already noticed ; and a squadron 
 scarcely less formidable was destined to appear during 
 the period which elapsed between 1806 and 1810. Very 
 particular accounts have been obtained of these singular 
 freebooters, not only from a Chinese work, but from the
 
 Chap. III. CHINESE PIRATES. 09 
 
 personal narratives of Messrs. Turner and Glasspoole, two 
 Engflishmen who had the misfortune to fall into their 
 hands, and who were compelled mider pain of death to 
 attend the pirates in all their expeditions. 
 
 But however great their contempt for the imperial 
 fleet of China, or any other native force to which they 
 might be opposed, these Ladrones never willingly engaged 
 a European vessel larger than a boat, and the following 
 observations of the Emperor Kanghy seem to show that 
 their predecessors in his time were equally cautious. " We 
 have lately heard, from the pirate who suiTendered and 
 threw himself upon oiu* mercy, that, when his companions 
 went to plunder vessels on the seas, it was their practice to 
 avoid all European ships, being afraid of their fire-arms," 
 &c. The force and number of the later squadron of free- 
 booters have been accurately ascertained from the accounts 
 of Messrs. Glasspoole and Turner. Their junks or vessels 
 amounted in 1810 to about 600 of various sizes, from 
 80 to 300 tons, of which the largest seldom mounted more 
 than twelve guns, varying from six to eighteen pounders, 
 which had been either purchased from European ships, or 
 taken from the Chinese ; but chiefly the latter. Their 
 hand arms were pikes with bamboo shafts from fourteen to 
 eighteen feet long, and they used, besides, the common 
 Chinese pike with a handle of solid wood, and an iron 
 point consisting of a slightly curved blade. They had 
 also short stabbing swords, not two feet in length. Their 
 guns as usual were mounted on solid timber, without 
 trucks, breechings, or tackles, and run out right abeam, 
 so as to be fired only when they could be brought to bear 
 upon the object, by wearing the vessel ! The broadside 
 being fired, they hauled ott" to reload, which is a difficult 
 and tedious operation w ith the Chinese. The largest junks 
 carried between 100 and 200 men, and were furnished
 
 70 ENGLISH INTERCOURSE. C'iiap. III. 
 
 each with an armed boat for committing depredations 
 among the towns and vilhiges on shore. Few- narratives 
 can be more interesting than that of Mr. Glasspoole, which 
 was })iihhslied in the United Service Journal, but wliich 
 cannot be detailed in this place. Both that gentleman 
 and Mr. Turner were ransomed for considerable sums by 
 their friends at Canton, and escaped happily to rciaUi their 
 singular captivity and adventures. 
 
 Not the least remarkable feature about this formidable 
 fleet of pirates was its being, subsequent to the death of 
 its original chief, very ably governed by his wife, who 
 appointed her lieutenants for active service. A severe 
 code of laws for the government of the squadron, or of its 
 several divisions, was enforced, and a regular appropria- 
 tion made of all captured property. Marriages were 
 strictly observed, and all promiscuous intercourse and 
 violence to women rigorously punished. The rights of 
 the ladies were especially looked to under a gynarchy, 
 with no small benefit to the general cause. Passes were 
 granted to the Chinese junks or boats which submitted 
 to the pirates : but all such as were captured in govern- 
 ment vessels, and indeed all who opposed them, were 
 treated with the most dreadful cruelty. At the height 
 of their power they levied contributions on most of the 
 towns along the coast, and spread terror up the river to 
 the neighbourhood of Canton. It was at this time that 
 the British factory could not venture to move in their 
 boats between that place and Macao without protection ; 
 and to the Ladrones, therefore, may be partly attributed 
 the origin of the valuable survey of the Chinese seas by 
 Captain Ross ; as the two cruisers which were sent from 
 Bombay, at the select committee's requisition, to act 
 against the pirates, were subsequently employed by them 
 in that work of public utility, the benefits of which have 
 been felt by the whole commercial world.
 
 Chap. III. CIIIXESE nilATES. 71 
 
 Finding that its power was utterly unavailing against 
 the growing strength of the Ladrones, the Chinese go- 
 vernment published a general amnesty to such as would 
 submit and return to their allegiance ; a stroke of policy 
 which may be attributed to its acquaintance with the 
 fact, that a serious dissension had broken out between the 
 two principal commanders of the pirate forces. This pro- 
 ceeded even to the length of the black and red squadrons 
 (which they respectively headed) engaging in a bloody 
 combat, wherein the former was discomfited. The weaker 
 of the two now submitted to accept the offers of the 
 government, which promised free pardon, and kept its 
 engagements ; the leader was even raised to some rank 
 in the emperor's service ! Being thus weakened by the 
 desertion of nearly half her forces, the female chieftain 
 and her other lieutenant did not much longer hold out. 
 The Ladrones who had submitted were employed by the 
 crafty government against their former associates, who 
 were harassed by the stoppage of their supplies, and 
 other difficulties, and a few more months saw the whole 
 remaining force accept the proffered amnesty. Thus 
 easily was dissolved an association which at one time 
 threatened the empire : but as the sources and circum- 
 stances whence piracy has more than once sprung up are 
 still in existence, the success and impunity of their pre- 
 decessors may encourage other bands of maritime robbers 
 to unite in a similar confederacy at no distant period.* 
 
 A considerable number of years had elapsed since the 
 occurrence of one of those homicides which, even when 
 accidental, always proved so serious and embarrassing to 
 the trade at Canton; but in the month of March, 1807, 
 a case happened which showed in the strongest light the 
 consequences which might at any time result from the 
 riotous and unruly conduct of our seamen on shore, sub- 
 * This has been fully verified.
 
 72 ENGLISH INTERCOURSE. CiiAi'. III. 
 
 ject as they are in China to l)e snp})lic(l on the chea])est 
 terms with ardent spirits, called samshoo, generally adul- 
 terated with ingredients of a stimulating and maddening 
 quality. A portion of the crew of the ship ' Neptune ' 
 had been drinking at a spirit-shoj), and a skirmish soon 
 took place with the Chinese, upon which the men were 
 collected as soon as possible by their officers, and con- 
 fined within their quarters. The idle Chinese, however, 
 assembled in great numbers before the factory, and 
 pelted the gates, as well as every European who passed, 
 notwithstanding the presence of some Hong merchants 
 who had been summoned on the occasion. The confined 
 sailors, at length losing patience, broke through all re- 
 straint and sallied out on the mob, whom they scattered 
 in an instant, and one Chinese was knocked so rudely on 
 the head that he died. 
 
 The trade as usual was stopped by the Chinese, and 
 the Hong merchant who secured the ' Neptune ' held 
 answerable by the government for the delivery of the 
 offender. Nothing could be elicited as to the identity of 
 the individual, in a court of inquiry held on board the 
 ' Neptune.' The mandarins at first demanded that the 
 men should be tried within the city, but the case of the 
 poor gunner was retorted upon them, and the thing was 
 declared to be impossible. It was at length arranged 
 that an examination should take place within the factory, 
 before Chinese judges, but in the presence of the select 
 committee and Captain Rolles, of his majesty's ship the 
 ' Lion,' who were provided with seats in court, while two 
 marines with fixed bayonets stood sentries. 
 
 Eleven of the men, it was proved, had been more 
 violent than the rest, but no individual could be marked 
 as the actual homicide, though the Chinese still demanded 
 that a man should be given up. It was at length settled
 
 CUAP. III. REFUSAL TO DELIVER UP A SAILOR. 73 
 
 that one of the eleven, named Edward Sheen, should 
 remain in custody of the committee. The understanding 
 at first was, that a fine to the relations of the deceased 
 would be sufficient, but, on the committee preparing to 
 proceed to Macao, the government required his being 
 left behind. Captain Rolles now interfered, and declared 
 that, if Sheen was not permitted to be taken by the com- 
 mittee to Macao, he should take him on board the ' Lion,' 
 and the point was at length conceded. The local govern- 
 ment, being puzzled how to proceed, invented a tale in 
 which it was stated that Sheen, while opening an upper 
 window, had dropped by misfortune a piece of wood, 
 which struck the Chinese on the forehead and caused his 
 death. This was sent up to Peking as an official report, 
 and an imperial reply was soon obtained, sanctioning the 
 liberation of Sheen on his paying a fine of about twelve 
 taels, or four pounds sterling, to the relations of the de- 
 ceased. This singular transaction proves at once how 
 easily the emperor may be deceived, and with what un- 
 scrupulous readiness the local government can get out of 
 a difficulty. The firm and successful conduct of the com- 
 mittee and of Captain Rolles was much approved, and to 
 the latter 1000/. was voted by the Court of Directors. 
 
 Early in 1 808 information reached India of the pro- 
 bability of ambitious views being entertained by France 
 towards the East, and of the danger to which Macao might 
 be exposed by the vicinity of Manilla, if the French 
 should make that Spanish colony their own. In con- 
 sideration of treaties by which England was pledged to 
 protect Portugal and its settlements against aggression, 
 as well as of the interests which the English themselves 
 had at stake in the neighbourhood of Canton, Lord Minto, 
 having garrisoned the colony of Goa by a convention 
 with the governor of that place, deemed it fit to send an 
 
 VOL. L E
 
 74 EXGLISU INTERCOURSE. Chap. III. 
 
 expedition for the protection of Macao, which he a])pre- 
 heucU'd might be threatened by an enemy's fleet. It 
 might reasonably be questioned how far such a measure 
 was well advised, after the experience of the similar ex- 
 pedition just six years before, when it plainly appeared 
 that the Chinese treated Macao as a portion of their 
 empire, and the Portugese as mere tenants at will ; the 
 result at least was an utter failure. 
 
 The Portuguese governor of Macao, with his two or 
 three hundred starved blacks, could of course pretend to 
 offer no opposition ; he in fact soon received an order 
 from Goa to admit the troops ; but, under a thin veil of 
 compliance and affected friendship, it soon appeared that 
 the Portuguese were doing everything in secret to misre- 
 present the designs of the English to their Chinese masters, 
 by whom they were forbidden to admit any force into 
 Macao without permission previously obtained. It being 
 determined, however, by the president of the committee, 
 and by Admiral Drury, who commanded the naval force, 
 that the troops should land, a convention was signed on 
 the 21st of September, and they were disembarked quietly 
 on the same day. An order soon came from the viceroy 
 for the troops to depart ; and, when this was not complied 
 with, the trade at Canton was stopped, and provisions 
 denied both to the Indiamen and to the squadron of his 
 majesty's ships. An edict of the Chinese observed, 
 " Knowing, as you ought to know, that the Portuguese 
 inhabit a territory belonging to the celestial empire, how 
 could you suppose that the French would ever venture to 
 molest them ? If they dared, our warlike troops should 
 attack, defeat, and chase them from the face of the 
 country." 
 
 The admiral proposed to the viceroy by letter that they 
 should have an audience at Canton to accommodate
 
 Chap. III. SECOND EXrEDITIOX TO MACAO. 75 
 
 matters, but no answer whatever was returned. All 
 British subjects were soon after ordered to join their 
 respective vessels, and his majesty's ships were moved 
 higher up the river. As the viceroy still refused an 
 audience to Admiral Drury, and declared that he knew 
 no English authority but the Company's chief, the admiral 
 proceeded to Canton in person, and insisted on an inter- 
 view, saying he would be in the city in the course of half 
 an hour. The viceroy persisted in declining the visit, 
 and the admiral, instead of persevering in his intentions, 
 returned to his ship. 
 
 Some time after this the boats of all the men-of-war 
 and Indiamen were manned and armed, for the purpose 
 of proceeding on a second visit to Canton, and forcing a 
 way through the line of Chinese vessels which were moored 
 across the river, and filled with soldiers, in order to pre- 
 vent the admiral's approach. On reaching the line he 
 pulled up in his own boat to address the principal man- 
 darin, through the medium of a Portuguese priest who 
 acted as interpreter ; no parley, however, was admitted, 
 and, after being fired at for some time, one of the admiral's 
 men was wounded, when he ordered the signal to be made 
 for attack. " The signal was not observed, and ordered 
 not to be repeated. The admiral then declared his inten- 
 tion not to force the Chinese line, and returned with the 
 boats to the fleet. Though a man of undisputed courage 
 (as observed in the evidence before the Commons in 1830), 
 Admiral Drury seems not to have possessed that cool and 
 deliberate judgment which was essential to the success of 
 the business he had been engaged in." * The attempt to 
 proceed to Canton in the boats ought either never to have 
 been made, or it should have been carried through, A 
 
 * Parliamentary Evidence, 1830. 
 
 E 2
 
 Tf) ENGLISH INTERCOURSE. Chap. III. 
 
 pagoda was built by the Cliinese near the spot to com- 
 niLMiiorate their victory over the English. 
 
 The trade still continued at a stand, and the viceroy 
 issued an edict to repeat, that, while a single soldier re- 
 mained at Macao, no commerce could be allowed On 
 the 8th of December it was therefore determined to act 
 on a document lately received from the emperor, which 
 afforded a fair pretext for relinquishing the point in de- 
 bate. A convention was concluded in a few days after at 
 Macao, the troops were embarked, and Admiral Drury 
 sailed away in the ' Russell ' for Bengal on the 22nd of 
 December. Thus, after a fruitless discussion of three 
 months, the Chinese ended in gaining their point — the 
 withdrawal of the troops ; and their success was calcu- 
 lated to increase the arrogance by which they had always 
 been sufficiently distinguished. The viceroy of Canton, 
 however, was disgraced and removed by the emperor. 
 
 The line of measures pursued by the president in Cliina 
 in concert with the admiral, on the occasion of the expe- 
 dition, being disapproved in England, he was superseded 
 by a fresh appointment from home. The Chinese, how- 
 ever, did not forget their grudge against Mr. Roberts, 
 and they were encouraged by finding that he had been 
 censured by the Company ; while the Portuguese, at the 
 same time, with their usual servility, suggested complaints 
 affainst him. Soon after he had attain succeeded to a 
 seat in the committee, and returned from a visit to Eng- 
 land, the Hoppo in 1813 issued an edict against that 
 gentleman, expressly on account of his measures five years 
 before, and it was declared that he was not permitted to 
 proceed to Canton. Indisposition, it so happened, actually 
 detained him at Macao on that occasion ; but the com- 
 mittee were determined to deny the right of Chinese in- 
 terference in the appointments of the English authorities ;
 
 Chap. III. I>;TERDICT AGAINST MR. ROBERTS. 77 
 
 and, although the Factory reached Canton at the end 
 of September, they would not permit the ships to unload 
 until the interdict against Mr. Roberts should have been 
 withdrawn. On the 22nd of November the president 
 addressed a strong remonstrance to the viceroy on the 
 subject, but before an answer could be returned the gentle- 
 man who was the subject of discussion died at Macao of 
 his illness. The president then declared that the prin- 
 ciple on which the committee acted was in no wise altered 
 by that circumstance ; and as the Hoppo issued a paper, 
 in which the local government disclaimed the right of 
 interfering in the Company's appointments, the trade was 
 resumed. 
 
 The jealous and suspicious character of the Chinese 
 government was eminently displayed in the year 1813, 
 on the occasion of some presents from England being 
 conveyed to a minister at Peking. Soong-tajin, a man- 
 darin of high rank, who had acted as conductor to Lord 
 Macartney's mission, and whose kind and conciliatory 
 conduct to the English on that occasion, as well as when 
 he afterwards filled the office of viceroy at Canton, had 
 made some of them his warm friends, became at length 
 elevated to the rank of one of the emperor's council. It 
 was therefore resolved in England that, both as an ac- 
 knowledgment of past good offices, and an earnest of 
 future ones, a letter and presents should be conveyed to 
 the minister : the person selected for the performance of 
 this service was a Chinese named Ayew, for some time 
 linguist at Canton, and by him the gold box and letter 
 were safely conveyed to their destination. He returned 
 on the 25th of xAugust, with a card of acknowledgment 
 fi-om Soong-tajin ; but not long after his arrival the lin- 
 guist was seized by order of the government, and after a 
 summary trial banished to Tartary, for the crime of illicit
 
 78 ENGLISH INTERCOURSE. Chap. III. 
 
 dealiiififs with foreiirn l)arl)arians ! It was soon after 
 learned that the unfortunate minister had been disgraced, 
 and the present sent back ; and it lias been since re- 
 marked that the unguarded mandarin, whose amiable 
 character distinguished him above the generality of his 
 countrymen, never afterwards regained his former power, 
 or favour with the emperor. 
 
 The foregoing circumstances came subsequently, in the 
 year 1814, to be mixed up with discussions in which the 
 select committee were involved with the local government, 
 partly in consequence of the proceedings of his majesty's 
 ship ' Doris,' which was then exercising a very active 
 blockade against the American merchantmen in the 
 Canton river. In the month of April, the ' Doris,' being 
 on a cruise near Macao, captured the American ship 
 ' Hunter ' off the Ladrone Islands, and brought her in. 
 The Chinese government immediately issued an edict 
 desiring the committee to send the ' Doris ' aicay, which 
 they of course answered by stating their inability to 
 perform what was demanded. In May following, the 
 ' Doris's ' boats chased an American schooner from the 
 neighbourhood of Macao up to Whampoa, within ten 
 miles of Canton, where they took her ; but, before she 
 could be carried out of the river, the Americans at 
 Whampoa armed their boats and retook their schooner. 
 This event, with the capture of the ' Hunter ' previously, 
 commenced the troubles of 1814. The Chinese hereupon 
 entered upon a course of aggressive measures, not against 
 the frigate but against the factory, which soon became 
 intolerable. The local government first prohibited the 
 employment of native servants ; they then sent persons to 
 enter the factory, and seize upon such Chinese as they 
 found there. The boats of the Indiamen were molested 
 while peaceably proceeding on their business on the river ;
 
 Chap. III. THE ' DORIS." 79 
 
 and every attempt was made to prevent communication 
 with our men-of-war. 
 
 The committee, seeing the hostile disposition of the 
 government, determined on the bold measure of stopping 
 the trade, as the only means of arriving at a remedy. 
 The Chinese, somewhat startled at their old weapon being 
 turned against themselves, began to display a more con- 
 ciliatory temper, and, after some debate, a mandarin was 
 appointed to meet Sir George Staunton, who was deputed 
 to conduct the negotiation on the part of the committee. 
 Accordingly, on the 20th of October, Sir George pro- 
 ceeded to Canton, accompanied by Sir Theophilus Metcalfe 
 and Mr. Davis. The first subject of complaint was the 
 arrest of the linguist Ayew, for performing a service which 
 was merely complimentary on the part of the English, 
 and expressive of tlieir respect for a dignified officer of 
 government, who had conducted the first embassy through 
 China, and been on friendly terms with its members. It 
 was immediately replied that his seizure was on account 
 of a totally different affair, and that there was no intention 
 of condemning the proceeding. Several meetings took 
 place with the principal mandarins and one or two 
 assessors, but little progress was made towards an adjust- 
 ment ; when the viceroy suddenly determined on breaking 
 off the negotiation. The committee upon this resolved on 
 issuing a notice to all British subjects to quit Canton : Sir 
 George Staunton and the gentlemen with him embarked in 
 the 'Wexford,' and the whole fleet proceeded down the river. 
 This step had the effect of completely curing the obsti- 
 nacy of the viceroy. A deputation of Hong merchants 
 was sent down to the ships, with authority to state that 
 mandarins would be sent to discuss the remaining points 
 in dispute if Sir George would return. On his reaching 
 Canton an attempt was made to retract the pledge, but
 
 80 ENGLISH INTERCOURSE. Chap. III. 
 
 this could not be persisted in ; and, after several long and 
 tedious audiences with the mandarins, the princi])al points 
 in dispute were gained, and incorporated in an official 
 paper from the viceroy, as the only security against a 
 breach of faith on the part of the Chinese. The ])rivilege 
 of corresponding with the government under seal, and in 
 the native character, was now for the first time established; 
 an assurance was given that no (Chinese officer should ever 
 enter the British factory without leave previously ob- 
 tained ; and licence was given to native servants to enter 
 into the service of the English without molestation from 
 the petty mandarins ; together with some other points. 
 
 The measures alwve detailed were highly apj)rovcd in 
 England ; but the conduct and disposition of the Chinese 
 government for some time past had been such as to prove 
 that the commercial interests of the nation in China were 
 exposed to the utmost hazard from the chance of per- 
 petual interruption at the will of a capricious and despotic 
 set of delegates, who kept the court of Peking in profound 
 ignorance of their own oppressive and arbitrary conduct 
 towards the (Company's trade. To these circumstances 
 are to be attributed the embassy of Lord Amherst in 
 1816, of which the object w-as to secure, if possible, the 
 commerce of Great Britain upon a solid and equitable 
 footing under the cognizance of the emperor, and with 
 the advantage of a ready appeal to him in case of need 
 The design of a mission to Peking had been for some 
 time entertained by his majesty's ministers and the Court 
 of Directors, when the arrival from China of the despatches 
 of 1815 confirmed them in the resolution. It was hoped, 
 as a collateral object, and one within the range of possi- 
 bility, that an Englisli resident might be admitted at the 
 capital, or permission be obtained for trading to some of 
 the ports on the north-east coast
 
 CiiAP. III. QUESTION OF THE " KO-TOW." 81 
 
 The embassy left Eiig-land in the ' Alceste ' frigate on 
 the 10th of February, attended by the ' Lyra ' brig-, and 
 the ' General Hewett,' a Company's ship, and arrived off 
 Macao on the 12th of July, when it was joined by Sir 
 George Staunton, the first commissioner, as well as by the 
 Chinese secretaries, and the other gentlemen who were 
 appointed from England to accompany it to Peking. 
 The ships reached the Gulf of Pechelee on the 28th of 
 July, but the ambassador did not land until the 9th of 
 August. On the 12th the mission reached Tien-tsin, 
 where a feast was conferred on the part of the emperor, 
 and an attempt made to bring about the practice of the 
 ko-toiv, or prostration, before a yellow screen, preparatory 
 to the graiid performance of it before the emperor himself. 
 This, however, was successfully avoided, on the plea that 
 Earl Macartney had not been required to execute that 
 act of fealty and vassalage. 
 
 As some uninformed persons have, without sufficient 
 
 consideration or knowledge of the subject, ventui^ed to 
 
 argue that the non-performance of the ko-toio was too 
 
 strict an adherence to punctilio on the part of both our 
 
 ambassadors, it may be as well to show, that, putting (with 
 
 them) all considerations of national honour and dignity 
 
 entirely out of the question as mere vanities, and viewing 
 
 the matter simply as one of commercial profit or loss, 
 
 there is nothing to be gained by it, but the reverse. It 
 
 was observed in the narrative of Lord Macartney's mission, 
 
 " The Dutch, who in the last century submitted at once 
 
 to every ceremony prescribed to them, in the hope of 
 
 obtaining in return some lucrative advantages, complained 
 
 of being treated with neglect, and of being dismissed 
 
 without the smallest promise of any favour." * The fate 
 
 of a later Dutch embassy w?s still worse ; but it is fair to 
 
 * Ye], ii. p. 131. 
 
 E 3
 
 82 ENGLISH INTERCOURSE. Chap. III. 
 
 state their g'ains against their losses on the occasion. In 
 return 'for heating- their heads nine times against the 
 ground before the throne, they certainly had some broken 
 victuals — des ossements rouges — sent them as from the 
 emperor. Of these, however, \'an Braam observes, that 
 they were principally sheep's trotters, " which appeared to 
 have been already gnawed clean. This disgusting mess," 
 he adds, " was upon a dirty plate, and appeared rather 
 destined to feed a dog than to form the repast of a human 
 creature." As this was the only public advantage they 
 gained by their painful corporeal exertions upon the 
 ground, it may next be observed that the whole course of 
 their treatment on the journey back was (very deservedly) 
 of the most mortifying and degrading character. This 
 embassy occurred in 1795, during the era of small-clothes, 
 and before liberal principles had been generally esta- 
 blished in dress, as in other matters ; and these hapless 
 Dutchmen were made, on the most trivial occasions of 
 ceremony^ to perform their evolutions, while the wicked 
 mandarins stood by and laughed— and who would not ? — 
 at what has been styled " the embarrassment of a Dutch- 
 built stern in tight inexpressibles." 
 
 Sir John Malcolm, who understood, if any man ever 
 did, the Asiatic character, has observed in one of his 
 works, — " From the hour the first mission reached Persia, 
 servants, merchants, governors of towns, chiefs, and high 
 public officers, presuming upon our ignorance, made con- 
 stant attempts to trespass upon our dignity ; and, though 
 repelled at all points, they continued their efforts till a 
 battle royal at Shiraz put the question to rest, by estab- 
 lishing our reputation, as to a just sense of our own pre- 
 tensions, upon a basis which was never afterwards shaken." 
 Russia, whose ambassadors, like our own, have refused to 
 perform the Chinese act of vassalage, has a residency at
 
 CiiAP. III. QUESTION OF THE " KO-TOW." 83 
 
 Peking, which may at least (as an advantage) be set 
 against " les pattes d'un mouton," and " les ossements 
 ronges," which the Dutchmen gained by j)erformhig it. 
 Admitting, however, that the bahmcc was in favour of 
 the latter, it may reasonably be questioned whether it is 
 wise, on such occasions, to sink all considerations of 
 national respectability. The Athenians were a politic as 
 well as brave people ; and when Timagoras, who was 
 sent by them as ambassador to the King of Persia, had 
 the imprudence to degrade his country by the act of 
 prostration, he was condemned to die on his return. 
 
 But let us only do as the Chinese themselves have 
 always done. Gerbillon tells us that, when an officer of 
 the Emperor Kang-hy was taken by the King of the 
 Eluths, the latter insisted on his speaking on his knees ; 
 but the Chinese refused, saying he was not his vassal, but 
 his own emperor's. A Chinese account of Japan ex- 
 pressly states that an ambassador from Peking to that 
 country refused the prostration, and, rather than com- 
 promise the honour of his nation, returned without com- 
 municating the orders of his court. But it has been 
 mere ignorance to consider the ko-tow as nothing but a 
 ceremony. The unthinking majority is led by names, and 
 it is important to know that the prostration is the solemn 
 rite by which the King of Cochin-China, and the rulers of 
 the petty kingdoms of Corea and Loo-choo, do homage 
 by their emissaries upon being confiraied by the Chinese 
 emperor in the succession. The spirit and import of the 
 ko-toio is that of the form by which the feudal tenant in 
 capite did homage to his liege lord ; and every country 
 that, like Japan, has professed to be independent, has de- 
 clined performing it. 
 
 However oddly it may sound to us, at the distance of 
 more than 12,000 miles, the aspirations with which the
 
 84 ENGLISH INTERCOURSE. Chap. III. 
 
 court of Peking aims at universal supremacy are best 
 expressed in the words of the old secular hymn : — 
 
 " Alme sol, jiossis nihil url)e Roma 
 Visere majus ! " 
 
 All countries that send tribute, while their ambassadors 
 go through the forms of allegiance, constitute a part of 
 the empire, and their respective kings reign under the 
 sanction of the " Son of Heaven." This of course signifies 
 little enough at a distance, but the effect is felt in China ; 
 for any remonstrance against oppression, on the part of a 
 subject of one of these states, must be stopped by such an 
 unanswerable argument, which proves at once his relative 
 inferiority and w^orthlcssness ; and what had been merely 
 the rights of independence in another, become, in his case, 
 rebellion. Mr. Barrow, who had really studied China, 
 and understood it well, observed that " a tame and passive 
 obedience to the degrading demands of this haughty 
 court serves only to feed its pride, and add to the absurd 
 notions of its own vast importance." A Jesuit at Peking, 
 quoted by Du Halde, remarked, as long ago as 1687, 
 that the princes of Europe should be cautious how they 
 send letters and presents to China, lest " their kingdoms 
 be reofistered among the tributaries." 
 
 Though our altered relations with China have happily 
 rendered this no longer a question of expediency, or even 
 possibility, it is as well to add Dr. Morrison's observa- 
 tions : — " There is a difference of submission and devoted- 
 ness expressed by different postures of the body, and some 
 nations feel an almost instinctive reluctance to the stronger 
 expression of submission. As, for instance, standing and 
 bending the head is less than kneeling on one knee ; as 
 that is less than kneeling on two knees ; and that less, 
 again, that kneeling on two knees, and putting the hands
 
 Chap. III. QUESTION OF THE " KO-TOW." 85 
 
 and forehead to the ground ; and doing this once is, in 
 the apprehension of the Chinese, less than doing it three 
 times, or six times, or nine times. Waiving the question 
 whether it be proper for one human being to use such 
 strong expressions of submission to another or not, when 
 any (even the strongest) of these forms are reciprocal, 
 they do not interfere with the idea of equahty, or of 
 mutual independence. If they are not reciprocally per- 
 formed, the last of the forms expresses in the strongest 
 manner the submission and homage of one person or state 
 to another : and in this light the Tartar family now on 
 the throne of China consider the san-kwei hew-koic, thrice 
 kneeling and nine times beatino^ the head against the 
 ground. Those nations of Europe who consider them- 
 selves tributary and yielding homage to China should 
 perform the Tartar ceremony ; those who do not consider 
 themselves so should not perform the ceremony. 
 
 " The English ambassador, Lord Macartney, appears 
 to have understood correctly the meaning of the ceremony, 
 and proposed the only condition which could enable him 
 to perform it, viz. a Chinese of equal rank performing it 
 to the King of England's pictm-e ; or perhaps a promise 
 from the Chinese court that, should an ambassador ever 
 go from thence to England, he would perform it in the 
 king's presence, might have enabled him to do it. These 
 remarks will probably convince the reader that the English 
 government acts as every civilised government ought to 
 do, when she endeavours to cultivate a good understanding 
 and liberal intercourse with China. But since, while 
 using these endeavours, she never contemplates yielding 
 homage to China, she still wisely refuses to perform by 
 her ambassador that ceremony which is the expression of 
 homage." This argument takes the question upon a 
 higher ground than that sordid one of a mere commercial
 
 86 ENGLISH INTERCOURSE. Chap. III. 
 
 profit or loss ; but even accordhif^ to tliat, we think it has 
 been shown to be a losing speculation to kiss the dust 
 before the Chinese emperor. The performance of the 
 prostration by its ambassador places a country on a level 
 with Loo-cIloo^ and those tributary states whose kings 
 reign by the sanction of the court of Peking. The 
 non-performance of it (which has been the uniform 
 course pursued by every Chinese ambassador sent to a 
 foreign country) proves the independent sovereignty of a 
 state, and gains for its ambassador a far more respectful 
 treatment than the contrary procedure, as experience has 
 sufficiently proved. 
 
 In fact, the whole conduct of the persons deputed from 
 Peking to negotiate the point of the ceremonial, joined to 
 the information subsequently obtained, proved that the 
 rejection of Lord Amherst's mission was not entirely on 
 account of the ko-toio ; and that, even had the embassy 
 been received in the hurried and undignified manner 
 which was very properly resisted, it would have been sent 
 away again within a fevv^ days, contrary to the 'regulation 
 by which forty days are assigned as the limit of stay. 
 The provincial government of Canton well knew that a 
 principal object of the embassy was to complain of the 
 treatment which our commerce had there experienced, and 
 its whole influence had in every way been exerted to 
 frustrate the success of the mission. Lord Macartney, 
 who declined submitting to the prostration, was more 
 honourably received than almost any ambassador that ever 
 entered China ; aud it was remarked that, if there was 
 any difference in the treatment of Lord Amherst's embassy 
 he/ore and aftcj- its return towards Canton, it was in favour 
 of the latter. But it was afterwards clearly demonstrated 
 that the emissaries of the provincial government had been 
 busily at work : and even during the progress of the nego-
 
 Chap. III. THE « ALCESTE.' 87 
 
 tiations a rumour was heard that " one of the commis- 
 sioners had purchased his situation, to which he had no 
 proper title ; that he had amassed an immense fortune by 
 trade,'" &c., and other matters of the same kind, which, in 
 conjunction with the treatment of the embassy, clearly 
 proved the agency of the Canton viceroy and his colleagues. 
 
 Meanwhile, these same local authorities lost no oppor- 
 tunity of displaying their ill-will towards the ' Alceste,' 
 the ' Lyra,' and the ' Ilewett ' Indiaraan, which had 
 proceeded to Canton, and reached that place some time 
 before the arrival of the embassy through the interior 
 of China. The Hoppo denied a cargo to the ' Hewett,' 
 on the plea of her being a " tribute ship," looking, no 
 doubt, for a handsome bribe from the Hong merchants 
 for permission to load her. Leave was at the same time 
 refused to the ' Alceste ' aud ' Lyra ' to anchor at Wham- 
 poa, by which it was intended to degrade the British 
 ambassador below the tribute-bearer from Siam, whose 
 junk has free leave to enter the river ! The ' Alceste,' 
 however, proceeded very leisurely on her way ; and 
 Captain Maxwell, on being fired at by the junks and the 
 fort at the river's mouth, silenced the junks with a single 
 shot ; while one broadside sufficed to send the garrison 
 of the fort scampering up the side of the hill, down 
 which that defence is somewhat preposterously built. 
 The effect of this decisive conduct was evinced in the 
 short space of one day, by the arrival of all sorts of pro- 
 visions to the ' Alceste ' at Whampoa, by a free consent 
 to load the ' Hewett,' and by the publication of a state- 
 ment that the firing at the entrance of the river was an 
 affair of saluting ! 
 
 Those who composed the embassy were gratified to 
 find, on their arrival at Canton on the 1st of January, 
 that Captain Maxwell had not been deterred by any
 
 88 ENGLISH INTERCOURSE. Chap. III. 
 
 unnecessary apprehensions for their safety from duly 
 maintaining the dignity of the British flag. The vice- 
 roy, it appeared, had a letter from the emperor for the 
 Regent, which he was bound to deliver in person to 
 Lord Amherst. It was resolved by his excellency not 
 to consent to any meeting with that functionary unless 
 the first place was yielded to him.-elf and the commis- 
 sioners ; as Chinese of the rank of the viceroy were too 
 much accustomed to arrogate to themselves the prece- 
 dence on such occasions, even with their guests, and it 
 was important at Canton, the seat of our connexions with 
 the country, to take this public opportunity of maintaining 
 his own rights. Accordingly, a yellow tent was erected, 
 in which the viceroy, reverently lifting above his head 
 with both hands the emperor's despatch, which was en- 
 closed in a roll of yellow silk, delivered it, with much 
 solemnity, into the ambassador's hands. The whole 
 party then repaired to an adjoining tent, where his excel- 
 lency, with Sir George Staunton (who had now resumed 
 his former station at Canton) and the other commis- 
 sioner, took their seats to the left, or place of honour ; 
 and the viceroy, and his lieutenant, and the IIoppo, on 
 the other side. It w'as this same officer, by name Tseang 
 Tajin, who had inflicted so many vexations on the Eng- 
 lish at Canton since 1814, of whom it was one of the 
 principal objects of the mission to complain, and whose 
 intrigues at court may be considered as a chief cause of 
 its rejection. His looks on this occasion betrayed his 
 unfriendly feelings ; but an attempt which he made to 
 say something uncivil met with such a reception as made 
 him shrink within himself, and he was glad to hide his 
 embarrassment in a hurried take-leave, which closed the 
 business of the embassy in China. Mr. Barrow calcu- 
 lates * that Lord Macartney's mission cost the Chinese 
 * Travela in Cliiua, j). G05.
 
 •Chap. III. CASES OF HOMICIDE. 89 
 
 government a snm eqnal to 170,000/. sterling. Lord 
 Amherst's must have cost nearly the same during the 
 five months it was on their hands : and it is hardly sur- 
 prising if they are not anxious for many such expensive 
 visits. 
 
 It has often been a subject of just remark, that this 
 unsuccessful mission was followed by a longer interval of 
 tranquillity and of freedom from Chinese annoyance 
 than had ever been experienced before. From the year 
 1816 to 1829 not a single stoppage of the British trade 
 took place, except in the affair of the ' Topaze ' frigate 
 in 1822, and there the Canton government was glad to 
 make the first advances to a resumption of the suspended 
 intercourse, as we shall see. In 1820 an accidental 
 occurrence took place, which gave rise to transactions of 
 a very remarkable nature, proving, in the strongest 
 manner, the anxiety of the government to avoid a dis- 
 cussion with the English. Some boats from one of the 
 Company's ships were watering in the river, when they 
 were barbarously attacked by a party of Chinese with 
 stones. The officer in charge of the boats fired over the 
 heads of the assailants to make them desist, but the shot 
 unfortunately took effect among some boys on a high 
 bank opposite, and killed one of them. The Chinese, 
 as usual, demanded that somebody should be given up, 
 but the commhtee insisted on the urgent emergency 
 which led to the discharge of the gun, as well as on the 
 accidental nature of the case. 
 
 In the mean while, the butcher on board one of the 
 ships committed suicide, and the Chinese, on hearing 
 this, immediately took it up, thinking proper to assume 
 that he must be the individual who had shot the boy ! 
 The utmost eagerness and haste were shown by them in 
 appointing an inquest of mandarins, who proceeded to 
 examine the body ; and, as it was decided by them at
 
 90 ENGLISH INTERCOUESE. Chap. Ill, 
 
 once that the deceased butcher must be the homicide, the 
 trade proceeded as usual. It must be observed that the 
 comniittoe only granted permission for the ship to be 
 boarded by the mandarins when they demanded it, and 
 that the whole proceeding showed the extreme anxiety of 
 the local authorities to accommodate the allair, as soon 
 as they despaired of getting possession of some victim to 
 be strangled without a trial. But they carried the matter 
 still farther. A person of some rank, scandalized at this 
 disgraceful proceeding on the part of the government, 
 did his best to induce the father of the deceased boy to 
 declare that he was not satisfied of the butcher being the 
 slayer of his son. The mandarins immediately took all 
 the parties into custody, and punished the instigator of 
 the complaint as one who conspired to promote litigation 
 and trouble.* 
 
 Two cases of homicide now remain to be briefly related, 
 which occurred within a short period of each other, and 
 which exhibit, in every point of view, a very remarkable 
 contrast. The one, which involved the Americans, proves 
 the unhappy consequences of disunion among a number 
 of private traders, each of them influenced by his indi- 
 vidual interests and feelings ; the other, which implicated 
 the English, must ever remain an example of the benefits 
 to be derived in China from a well-organized and steady 
 union and perseverance against the barbarous conduct of 
 the Chinese. On the 23rd September, 1821, an Italian 
 sailor, by name Francis Terranova, on board the American 
 ship ' Emily,' was the unfortunate cause of the death of a 
 Chinese woman, whom he observed in a boat alongside 
 
 * It has been igiiorautly asserted that the committee were parties to 
 this disgraceful transaction : but the allegation is false, and their 
 official interpreter, Dr. Morrison, expressly refused the invitation of 
 the mandarins to be present.
 
 Chap. III. CASES OF HOMICIDE. 91 
 
 selling spirits to the crew. lie threw down a small 
 earthen jar, which struck the woman on the forehead, 
 and she immediately fell overboard and sunk, either in 
 consequence of being stunned, or because the wooden pin, 
 to which her oar was fastened, broke on her pulling away 
 from the ship. The American trade was stopped until 
 the man should be delivered up. They consented to his 
 being tried by the mandarins on board the ship, and after 
 this mockery of justice, in which not a single witness was 
 examined for the prisoner, and the offer of Dr. Morrison 
 to interpret was refused by the Chinese, the poor man 
 was declared guilty, and put in irons by the Americans, 
 at the desire of his judges. In a week after, complaints 
 and discussions arose among those whose trading transac- 
 tions were suffering from the delay, and, when it was 
 required that the Italian should be delivered up for a 
 second trial at Canton, the Hong merchants were told that 
 they might take him. In the words of Dr. Morrison, he 
 was " abandoned by those who should have protected him." 
 All Europeans, as well as Americans, were excluded from 
 his mock trial, and by daybreak next morning he was 
 hurried to the place of execution, in opposition to all the 
 delays and forms of Chinese law, and cruelly strangled. 
 The Peking government was at the same time informed 
 that he had been tried in open court, and that the 
 American consul had witnessed his execution ! 
 
 The success of the Chinese on this occasion was likely 
 to inspirit them on the next, which happened shortly 
 afterwards, in the case of the English frigate 'Topaze.' 
 As that ship lay at anchor near the island of Lintin, on 
 the 15th December, 1821, an unarmed party of her men, 
 who were watering on shore, suddenly found themselves 
 set upon in a barbarous manner by the natives, armed 
 with spears and long bamboos. The lieutenant in com-
 
 92 ENGLISH INTERCOURSE. Chap. III. 
 
 mand on board the ' Topaze,' seeing the desperate situa- 
 tion of his men from the deck, Imnned a party of marines 
 on shore, who by their fire covered the retreat of the 
 sailors, at the same time that some guns were discharged 
 on the neighbouring village to keep it in check. Four- 
 teen seamen were carried on board wounded, some of 
 them severely ; while it proved afterwards that two Chinese 
 were killed, and four wounded. Captain Richardson, on 
 the 19th, wrote to the viceroy, complaining of the assault, 
 and laying the blame of the transaction on the Chinese ; 
 but that officer would not communicate with him. Elated, 
 no doubt, by his late success in the American case, he 
 threatened to make the select committee responsible, and 
 to stop the Company's trade until two Englishmen were 
 delivered up. 
 
 The committee, finding their remonstrances unavailing, 
 perceived there was no better way of meeting the obstinacy 
 of the Chinese than to embark in their ships, and quit the 
 river until the affair should be settled. Accordingly, on 
 the 11th January, the flag at Canton was hauled down, 
 and the whole fleet proceeded to the second bar anchorage : 
 this immediately produced an alteration in the viceroy's 
 tone. On the 13th he issued a paper, declaring that, as 
 the committee had taken such a step as to remove from 
 Canton, he was convinced they could not control Captain 
 Richardson. They were therefore invited back, but at the 
 same time informed that, unless the men were delivered 
 up, the trade should be stopped : the committee, of course, 
 declined to return on such conditions. In the mean while, 
 as the frigate had moved to INIacao, the Chinese ho})ed for 
 an opportunity of saying that she had absconded ; but her 
 speedy return rendered this impossible. The discussions 
 went on without any result (the country ships carrying on 
 their business as usual) until the 25th January, when the
 
 Chap. III. THE ' TOr.VZE/ 93 
 
 Hong merchants brought down a paper fi-om the viceroy, 
 rejecting Captain Richardson's proposal to refer the matter 
 to England, and reiterating the demand for the delivery 
 of the men. The connnittee immediately ordered the 
 fleet to get under weigh, and move below the river to 
 Chuenpee. The Chinese pilots had been forbidden to 
 assist them, but they moved down with perfect ease and 
 safety, having their guns double-shotted, in case the 
 Chinese forts ventured to fire. 
 
 Though it had been before declared that no farther 
 intercourse could be maintained after the ships quitted 
 the river, the merchants hurried down on the 29th 
 to propose that the committee should address the viceroy, 
 stating it to be Captain Richardson's declaration that 
 two men had disappeared from the frigate ; by which 
 the local government would be enabled to show that these 
 two men must be the homicides. On this ingenious pro- 
 posal being indignantly rejected, it was next hinted that 
 the frigate should go away, if only for a few days, to 
 enable the viceroy to report that she had absconded. 
 The committee reiterated their inability to return to 
 Canton, unless they were totally separated and absolved 
 from the proceedings of his majesty's ships. Captain 
 Richardson, being present, took occasion to state formally 
 that the time of his departure was approaching, in order 
 to prevent their misrepresenting his motives hereafter. 
 
 On the 1st of February a letter was received from the 
 merchants, stating that an officer of government would be 
 sent to Lintin to investigate the business ; and on the 4th 
 a mandarin proceeded, by leave of Captain Richardson, 
 to a conference on board the ' Topaze,' where he saw 
 some of the wounded seamen. Visits of civility passed 
 between the president. Captain Richardson, and the 
 Chinese admiral, as well as the deputed officer from
 
 94 ENGLISH INTERCOURSE. Chap. III. 
 
 Canton ; and on the 8tli of the month the frigate, having 
 no further occasion to remain in China, set sail A 
 numher of attempts were suhsequently made to indua? 
 the committee to make a false statement to the viceroy ; 
 but, when all these had failed, a paper was received from 
 the Chinese authorities fully and freely opening the trade, 
 and absolving the committee from responsibility. They 
 accordingly returned to Canton on the 23rd February, 
 the discussions having lasted just six weeks. 
 
 The local government was on this occasion for the first 
 time brought to acknowledge that the committee had no 
 control over, nor connection with, his majesty's ships. 
 The subject of the two men's death was subsequently 
 renewed in 1823, but eventually dropped. The first- 
 lieutenant of the ' Topaze,' having been tried by a court- 
 martial on his return home, was honourably acquitted ; 
 and the result was conveyed in a letter from the Presi- 
 dent of the Board of Control to the viceroy. It was, 
 however, left to the discretion of the committee to present 
 this letter or not, as they might deem most proper ; and 
 as an edict had in the mean while been received from the 
 emperor, acquiescing in the conclusion of the discussions, 
 the letter was withheld. 
 
 A calamity of fearful extent, affecting equally the 
 Chinese and Europeans, occurred towards the end of 
 1822 ; this was the great fire, which has been calculated 
 to have equalled in its ravages that of London in 1666. 
 At nine o'clock on the night of the 1st of November a 
 fire broke out at the distance of about a mile north-east 
 of the factories, and, as the wind was then blowing with 
 great fury from the north, it soon spread with such un- 
 checked rapidity that at midnight the European dwellings 
 appeared to be threatened. Representations in writing 
 were sent from the British factory to the viceroy, off'ering
 
 Chap. III. FIRE AT CAXTOX. 95 
 
 every assistance with engines and men, and recom- 
 mending that the houses nearest the fire should he pulled 
 down to prevent its spreading. This, however, was not 
 attended to, and at eight o'clock on Saturday morning 
 the factories were on fire. All efforts during that day to 
 arrest the flames were rendered ineflectual by the violence 
 of the wind, and on Sunday morning everything was con- 
 sumed, with the exception of a few sets of apartments. 
 The Company had goods to a very considerable amount 
 burned in their warehouses ; but their treasury, which was 
 arched with solid blocks of stone, and secured by treble 
 doors, and which contained not much less than a million 
 of dollars, remained safe and entire, though surrounded 
 by the ruins of consumed buildings. It was said that full 
 50,000 Chinese were rendered houseless by this calamity, 
 and the numbers who lost their lives were very considerable. 
 A police and guard was appointed by the government to 
 protect property near the river and about the factories ; 
 but this was gi*eatly aided by a well-organized body of 
 armed men and officers from the Company's ships, who 
 relieved each other by turns. Without these precautions 
 there was every reason to fear a general pillage from the 
 multitudes of vagabond Chinese which had been brouo-ht 
 together, and seemed ready to take advantage of the 
 confusion. A considerable amount of property was saved 
 by means of boats on the river, and these boats for some 
 time served many of the Europeans as their only available 
 lodging; but, through the assistance of a Hong mer- 
 chant who lent them his house, the Company were able 
 to recommence their business in a week after the fire. 
 Such is the frequency of Chinese conflagrations near the 
 foreign factories, that the recurrence of a similar catas- 
 trophe may at any time be viewed as a probable event. 
 From this period a number of years elapsed during
 
 9t5 EXGLISn INTERCOURSE. Chap. III. 
 
 whifh affairs at Canton proceeded tranquilly, without 
 accident or hindrance of any kind ; but in the mean while 
 the mismana<^euient, or dishonesty, of some of the Ilong 
 merchants was preparing embarrassments of another 
 descrij)tion. Their number had of late years consisted of 
 ten or eleven, and of these one or two poorer individuals, 
 who had never enjoyed much credit or confidence, failed 
 for a small amount, without producing much effect on the 
 general trade ; but about the beginning of 1828 the 
 known difficulties of two of the principal Hongs began to 
 display the evil effects of a system of credit, which had 
 grown out of the regulations of the govcrinnent in respect 
 to the payment of the Hong debts. 
 
 It had been for many years enacted, by an order from 
 the emperor, that the whole body of Hong merchants 
 should be liable for the debts of their insolvent brethren 
 to Europeans. It was at the same time ordered that 
 no money obligations should be contracted by them to 
 foreigners ; but the prohibition proved utterly ineffectual. 
 The solid guarantee of the Consoo, or general body, 
 which afforded every certainty to the European or Ameri- 
 can capitalist that he should ultimately recover his loan, 
 whatever might be the fate of the borrower, gave to the 
 Chinese merchants such a facility in obtaining credit, as 
 led some of the more prodigal, or less honest ones, to 
 incur very large debts at the usual Chinese rate of ten or 
 twelve per cent. One of them failed in 1828 for the 
 amount of more than a million of dollars. He was 
 banished to Tartary, which, in Canton-English, is called 
 " going to the cold country ;" but, being of a broken con- 
 stitution, and withal a smoker of opium, he died on his 
 journey. In the following year, 1821), another Ilongist, 
 who had borrowed very largely of Europeans and Ame- 
 ricans, failed for a nearly ecjual sum. This last, however,
 
 Chap. III. FAILURE OF IIOXG MERCIIAXTS. 97 
 
 was altogether a fraudulent transaction, for Cbunqua 
 (which was the man's name) made off to his native pro- 
 vince with a large portion of the money ; and such was 
 the influence of his family, some of whom were persons 
 of high official rank, that he contrived to keep his ill- 
 gotten gains, and to make the Consoo pay his creditors. 
 
 These two failures, to the aggregate amount of about 
 two millions of dollars, produced, as might he expected, 
 a considerable sensation and loud clamours among the 
 foreign merchants at Canton. Discussions subsequently 
 arose with the Consoo as to the period in which the debts 
 were to be liquidated, the Hong merchants contending 
 for ten annual instalments, while the creditors would 
 not extend it beyond six. At length, by the powerful 
 influence of the select committee, which was exerted on 
 the side of the Europeans and Americans, it was settled 
 that both the insolvents' debts should be finally liquidated 
 by the end of 1833, which was about six years from the 
 occurrence of the first failure. The eyes of the govern- 
 ment were, however, opened to the mischievous* conse- 
 quences of the regulation which obliged the corporation 
 of Hong merchants to be answerable for the debts of any 
 member of the Consoo, however improvident or dishonest ; 
 and it was enacted that from henceforth the corporate 
 responsibility should cease. The whole amount of the 
 two millions was strictly paid up at the end of the limited 
 period ; and there was no real cause of regret, to the 
 foreign merchants, in the rule which made every man 
 answerable for his own debts ; for, in the first place, the 
 previous arbitrary system had generated a hollow species 
 of credit, which was anything but favourable to the trade 
 at large ; and, secondly, the debts, though they might 
 seem to have been paid by the Hong merchants, were 
 in reality paid by the foreigners ; as a tax on imports was 
 
 VOL. I. F
 
 98 ENGLISH INTERCOURSE. Chap. III. 
 
 expressly levied for the purpose, and this had even been 
 known to remain unremitted after the object of its crea- 
 tion \vas answered. 
 
 The last two failures had reduced the number of Ilong 
 merchants to six, a body altogether inadequate to conduct 
 the European trade : in fact, very little better than the 
 Emperor s merchant, or " monster in trade," noticed in 
 the last chapter. The six themselves were, of course, in 
 no way anxious that the number should be augmented ; 
 but the attention of the select committee became seriously 
 directed to that object. It was a singular fact, that, not- 
 withstanding the close monopoly enjoyed by the Consoo, 
 and the opportunities of making money possessed by its 
 members, the extortions and other annoyances to which a 
 Hong merchant was at any time exposed, by being securifi/ 
 for, or having any connexion with foreigners, were such, 
 that most persons of capital became disinclined to join the 
 number. As the local government seemed disposed to 
 show its usual indifference and contempt for the repre- 
 sentations of strangers, the Company's fleet of 1829 was 
 detained outside the river on its arrival, with a view 
 effectually to draw attention to the subject.* 
 
 On the yth September an address was sent to the 
 viceroy, in which the principal points urged were, the 
 necessity for adding to the number of Hong merchants ; 
 the heavy port-charge on ships at Whampoa, amounting 
 on a small vessel to about 800/. sterling ; and some check 
 on the rapacity of the government officers connected with 
 the customs. The reply and subsequent proceedings of 
 the viceroy were in favour of making new Hong merchants, 
 
 * In 1832 a newly-made Ilongist took for his cstablisliment (accord- 
 in<? to custom) a particular desifjjnatioii, and the one selected by him 
 signified " happiness, or prosperity, complete ;" but this was rather 
 premature, for, before he could begin trading, all his capital was ex- 
 pended in fees or bribes to the mandarins, and he failed.
 
 L 
 
 Chap. III. FAILURE OF IIOXG MERCHAXTS. 09 
 
 but unsatisfactory as to other points ; and the committee, 
 on the 16th November, renewed their remonstrances, and 
 continued the detention of the ships at their present 
 anchorage. The local authorities, however, showed no 
 disposition to swerve from their last declaration, and the 
 viceroy added, "As to commerce, let the said nation do 
 as it pleases ; as to regulations, those that the celestial 
 empire fixes must be obeyed." The discussions continued 
 without any alteration on either side until the 11th January, 
 at which date the necessity was contemplated of sending 
 the greater number of ships over to Manilla, until the 
 Chinese government should be induced to concede the 
 points in dispute. 
 
 The committee, at the same time, applied to the 
 governor-general of India to assist them by forwarding a 
 representation to Peking, and suggested the expediency 
 of some ships of war being sent to give weiglit to their 
 representations : the supreme government, however, de- 
 clined interfering without authority from home. There is 
 reason to apprehend that the Chinese authorities had been 
 confirmed in their obstinacy by a knowledge of the fact 
 that the committee were not unanimous, the majority being 
 opposed to the chief, who at length, finding himself at 
 variance with his colleagues, and of little weight in the 
 factory, made up his mind to quit China, which he did about 
 the end of January. The viceroy, on the 2nd February, 
 issued an edict, stating that an additional Hong merchant 
 had been already appointed, and that others would follow ; 
 that the debts of the two bankrupt Hongs would be paid ; 
 and that the subject of the port-charges had been referred 
 to the emperor. This appeared to the committee suffi- 
 ciently satisfactory to warrant their ordering the fleet up 
 to Whampoa, and on the 8th of the month the viceroy was 
 apprized of their having done so. By the 1st of March 
 three new Hongs were created. 
 
 f2
 
 100 
 
 ENGLISH INTERCOURSE. 
 
 Chap. III. 
 
 Matters now proceeded in peace and quietness, and 
 the ships were all hiden and sent home as usual ; but in 
 the following- season events occurred which threatened 
 at one time to produce much confusion and mischief. 
 
 Tlie detail was instructive, as it showed from what small 
 and contemptible beginnings the most serious results 
 might ensue in a place like Canton, where the Chinese 
 and strangers lived, in respect to each other, very much 
 in what the lawyers call " a state of nature," that is,
 
 Chap. III. AFFAIR OF PARSEEf?. 101 
 
 governed by no rule but tbeir own passions or interests. 
 A Swiss watcbmaker, named Bovet, lodged in tlie same 
 factory with some Parsees,* having a back entrance com- 
 mon to the premises. The watchmaker, being a violent 
 fellow, took it upon himself to fasten up this gate, on the 
 ground of the annoyance that he ex})crience(l from the 
 free passage. This, as might be expected, very soon led 
 to a squabble : an unfortunate man named Mackenzie, 
 master of a trading vessel, being roused by a loud dis- 
 turbance about nightfall, ran down with a stick, and 
 struck one of the most active of the Parsees, upon which 
 they all fell upon him, and inflicted such blows as occa- 
 sioned his death. 
 
 The Parsees were immediately shipped off by the com- 
 mittee as prisoners to Bombay, but the Chinese presently 
 applied for the delivery of the homicides for trial for 
 rather execution), quoting the case of the Frenchman 
 who had killed a Portuguese in 1780. At the same 
 moment an edict was issued by the viceroy, insisting on 
 the removal from Canton forthwith of the president's 
 lady, who had proceeded thither contrary to the custom 
 by which females were restricted to Macao ; and no un- 
 equivocal threats were held out that force would be resorted 
 to in the event of non-compliance. This, combined with 
 the risk to which Mackenzie's murder seemed to expose 
 the English, led the committee to order up from the fleet 
 a guard of about a hundred seamen and a couple of 
 eighteen-pounders, informing the Hongists that until the 
 threats were withdrawn these men should not be removed. 
 
 * Natives of Bombay, Fire-worshippers, or disciples of Zoroaster, 
 and the real representatives of tliose ancient Persians who fought with 
 the Greeks. They left their countiy after its conquest by the ]\Iaho- 
 metans, and settled in the west of India, where they are the most 
 commercial and intelligent of our Eastern subjects. Parsee would 
 seem to be derived from the Latin Persw.
 
 102 ENGLISH INTERCOURSE. <'iiai'. III. 
 
 This measure, having been adopted with celerity and 
 vigour, Wcis successful in intimidating the Chinese. An 
 assurance was given that no violence w^as intended, upon 
 which the guns and men were ordered down to the ships, 
 after having been about a fortnight at Canton. 
 
 The Court of Directors had in the mean while dis- 
 approved of the detention of their ships in the preceding 
 season, and superseded the committee, whose successors 
 arrived in November, 1830, soon after the events above 
 related. They found, as might be expected, much irrita- 
 tion prevailing on all sides, and were assailed by papei-s 
 from the viceroy, insisting on the withdrawal from Canton 
 of all the foreign ladies. Those actually on the spot 
 were allowed to remain there until the conclusion of the 
 winter season, but none came up in the following year, as 
 it was not deemed a point of sufficient consequence to 
 proceed to extremities upon : and indeed the very discus- 
 sion itself rendered Canton an undesirable residence for 
 females of any delicacy while it continued, the language 
 and epithets used by the Chinese in reference to them 
 being of a shocking description. But matters of a graver 
 character were soon forced upon the consideration of the 
 Company's authorities. 
 
 A considerable encroachment had been made upon the 
 river, subsequent to the rtibuilding of the foreign factories 
 after they w^ere burned down by the great fire of 1822, 
 the new ground being principally composed of the rub- 
 bish and ruins of the former buildings. The space in 
 front of the Company's factory had been extended in 
 common with the rest, and there remained only a corner 
 to fill up in order to complete a small square, which it 
 was intended to plant with shrubs, and convert into a 
 garden for exercise and recreation. This seemed from 
 the very commencement to excite the spleen of the
 
 Chap. III. FACTORY INVADED BY FOOYUEX. 103 
 
 Chinese, and the committee hitely snperseded had been 
 repeatedly required to undo the work. As this appeared 
 merely vexatious, the demand had been unheeded ; and 
 even when the Chinese, during the absence of the factory, 
 had destroyed a portion of the work, it was subsequently 
 restored by the aid of a party from the ships. The 
 newly-appointed committee found things in this state on 
 their arrival in China, and it was not long before an 
 explosion took place. 
 
 Some time after the departure of the last ship of the 
 season, and during the absence of the committee from 
 Canton, the Fooyuen, or viceroy's deputy, came sud- 
 denly on the morning of the 12 th of May to the factory, 
 and, sending for the Hong merchants and linguists, 
 demanded of them an explanation regarding the comple- 
 tion of the garden and quay in front of the Company's 
 house, contrary to the orders of the viceroy. AVhen 
 these pleaded their innocence of any participation in the 
 business, chains were sent for, and the linguist put in 
 confinement, while the chief Hong merchant remained on 
 his knees until the Hoppo, who was present, had inter- 
 ceded for him. An order was given to remove the quay 
 and restore it to its former condition, on pain of death to 
 the wretched Howqua and linguist ; and the Fooyuen, 
 ordering the late king's picture to be uncovered, seated 
 himself down with his back to it. Soon after this occur- 
 rence an edict was published, containing eight regulations 
 for the conduct of foreign intercourse, which 'tended to 
 make the condition of Europeans in China even worse 
 than it had been. No persons were to remain during 
 the summer at Canton ; the native servants were to be 
 under stricter surveillance ; all foreigners were to submit 
 to the government and control of the Hong merchants, 
 and not to quit the factories in which they lived ; none
 
 104 ENGLISH INTERCOURSE. Chap. III. 
 
 might move up and down the river without a licence ; 
 and restrictions were contemplated on the mode of 
 addressing the government, contrary to the sti})ulations 
 of" 1814. In consequence of these threatening proceed- 
 ings of the local officers, notices in P^nglish and Chinese 
 were issued hy the committee, stating that, unless the 
 apprehended evils were redressed or removed, the com- 
 mercial intercourse would be suspended on the 1st of 
 August followin"-. A letter was at the same time de- 
 spatched to the governor-general of India, suggesting the 
 expediency of an address from his lordship to the vice- 
 roy, to be conveyed by one of his majesty's ships. At 
 the end of May the English merchants and agents at 
 Canton published a set of resolutions, concurring in all 
 that had been done by the committee, as the only safe- 
 guard against additional evils and encroachments. 
 
 On the 9th June an edict was received from the viceroy 
 (who had, in the mean time, been absent on account of 
 an insurrection in Hainan), sanctioning what the Fooyuen 
 had done, and forwarding the emperor s confirmation of 
 the eight regulations which threatened the trade. The 
 sanction of the emperor having been thus obtained to the 
 obnoxious clauses, their abrogation no longer rested with 
 the local government. It therefore became necessary for 
 the committee to review their position, as the probability, 
 or rather possibility, of any alteration in these threatened 
 regulations previous to the 1st August could no longer 
 be contemplated. Tlicy accordingly came to the resolu- 
 tion of postponing any measures as to stopping the trade, 
 and any active steps towards obtaining a redress of 
 grievances, until the result of their reference to India 
 could be ascertained. This was accordingly made known 
 by a second notice, and the Bengal government was 
 apprised of the resolution. In the mean while, the stir
 
 Chap. III. OPIUM SMUGGLING. 105 
 
 made by the committee appeared not to have been without 
 its effect on the Chinese authorities, for no attempt was 
 made to put the new regulations in force, and Europeans 
 carried on their business unmolested at Canton. 
 
 In the month of November his majesty's ship ' Chal- 
 lenger ' arrived from Bengal, conveying the letter of re- 
 monstrance from the governor-general to the viceroy. 
 After some negotiation this was delivered in a suitable 
 manner to a deputation of mandarins ; but the written 
 replies, though they disavowed any intention of insult or 
 outrage to the factory, were so far from satisfactory, and 
 conveyed in so objectionable a mode, that the committee 
 refused to accept them. Thus the matter rested, and 
 subsequent instructions from England put a stop to all 
 further proceedings on this subject. 
 
 The smuggling trade in opium, which the exactions of 
 the Portuguese at Macao drove from that place in 1822 
 to Lintin, a small island between Macao and the entrance 
 of the Canton river, increased with extraordinary rapidity 
 from its first commencement, in consequence of the negli- 
 gence or connivance of the Chinese government. This 
 soon led to hopes (which were at length destined to be 
 disappointed) that a surreptitious trade of the same kind 
 might be extended along the whole coast of China to 
 the eastward, not only for opium, but for manufactured 
 goods. The local government of Canton had placed itself 
 in so false a position, with respect to the emperor as well 
 as to Europeans, by its long course of secret and corrupt 
 practices in relation to the prohibited drug, that it was 
 even disabled from interfering to protect its own subjects 
 at Lintin, where the armed smugglers lay in open defiance 
 of all law and control. Chinese were on several occasions 
 shot from the smuggling ships, with perfect impunity. 
 The relations of the deceased, as usual, appealed to the 
 
 f3
 
 100 ENGLISH INTERCOURSE. Chap. III. 
 
 mandarins ; but the anomalous situation of these func- 
 tionaries in respect to the Lintin trade always obliged 
 tliem in the end to evade or relinquish the demand for 
 satisfaction ; and the Company's authorities of course dis- 
 claimed all responsibility for proceedings out of the limits 
 of the river, where the smuggling system being connived 
 at by the lower mandarins themselves, they must take the 
 consequences of their own iniquity. 
 
 The attempts to establish a surreptitious trade were 
 soon extended from Lintin to the eastern coasts ; but the 
 success did not answer expectation. Beyond the limits of 
 the Canton province, as all European trade was expressly 
 prohibited by a long-established ordinance of the country, 
 the mandarins had not the same shelter for corrupt prac- 
 tices ; and, though opium might be introduced in small 
 quantities, a smuggling trade in manufactures proved 
 altogether visionary. The conductor of one of these 
 experiments, in 1831, reported that he could obtain " no 
 traffic besides opium ; nor had any of the vessels which 
 had gone to the eastward been ever able to deal in other 
 articles, except occasionally a little saltpetre." It soon 
 appeared, in short, that, without the consent of the 
 supreme government of Peking, no prospect existed 
 of an advantageous trade in manufactures, except at 
 Canton. 
 
 So much, however, had been both imagined and 
 asserted at home, regarding the facilities for trade at 
 the prohibited ports of China, that it seemed desirable to 
 the select committee in 1832 to try a final experiment, in 
 order to prove or disprove what had been given in evidence 
 before parliament. After ascertaining to what extent the 
 disposition of the local authorities on the coast might 
 favour such a smuggling trade, the next point of inquiry 
 related to the ports or stations at which it might most
 
 Chap. III. THE ' AMHERST.' 107 
 
 conveniently be carried on. The ' Lord Amherst,' a 
 small country ship, was accordingly sent on this service, 
 in charge of one of the Company's servants, who was 
 accompanied by Mr. Gutzlaif, well versed in the spoken 
 language of China, and especially of the coast. Every 
 possible advantage was thus afforded to the experiment, 
 and the selection of the goods was as various, and as well 
 adapted to the occasion, as a previous knowledge of the 
 tastes or wants of the Chinese could suggest. The ship 
 sailed on the 26th February, and did not return until the 
 4th September. Among other points on the coast, she 
 touched at Amoy and Foochowfoo in Fokien, at Ningpo 
 in Chekeang, and at Shanghae in Keangnan. On the 
 return, Corea and Loo-choo were visited. No device of 
 ingenuity or enterprise was spared to dispose of the goods 
 on board, and to establish a traffic with the natives. 
 These showed a very hospitable disposition towards the 
 strangers ; but all commerce was effectually prevented 
 by the mandarins, except in one or two trivial instances. 
 Some of the officers of government were civil and forbear- 
 ing, and even accepted of small presents ; others, less 
 condescending, were fairly bullied by the people in the 
 ' Amherst,' their junks boarded or their doors knocked 
 down, and their quarters invaded. Still the same vigilance 
 was exercised to prevent trade, and trade was prevented. 
 On the conclusion of the voyage it was stated in the 
 report that " much alarm and suspicion had invariably 
 been manifested, on the part of the local governments, at 
 their appearance ; and to fear might be mainly attributed 
 the civility which on some occasions they experienced." 
 As a commercial speculation, it was observed, the voyage 
 had failed, for they had " only succeeded in disposing of 
 a portion of the goods shipped." These goods, being in- 
 tended for experiment only, and not for profit, amounted
 
 108 ENGLISH INTERCOURSE. CriAP. III. 
 
 only to about 200 bales in the aggregate, but comprised 
 every variety of articles in demand at Canton. The 
 larger portion were brought back exactly as they went ; 
 and, of the few things which were not returned, a con- 
 siderable number had been given aicay. The loss on the 
 expedition amounted to 5647/. 
 
 In proceeding to the northward, the ' Amherst ' found 
 the authorities especially unfriendly and hostile to com- 
 merce. " Our sudden appearance on the coast," says 
 Gutzlaffs Journal, " spread general terror." The com- 
 mittee, in their report to the directors, admitted the un- 
 satisfactory result of the experiment, and acknowledged 
 that, though the Chinese natives were by no means averse 
 to a more extended intercourse, the government had dis- 
 played the most effectual opposition. The expedition 
 was, upon the whole, condemned by the court ; and their 
 animadversions were particularly directed against the 
 fictitious characters and false names assumed by those 
 who conducted the voyage. They commented on the 
 inconsistency of the frequent complaints against the false- 
 hood of the Chinese, while the English at the same time 
 were presenting themselves in an assumed shape, and in 
 direct violation of the laws of the country. 
 
 With some it may be a question how far the system of 
 exclusion practised by the Chinese government justifies 
 such means in order to defeat it ; but there can be none 
 whatever with regard to those deeds of violence on the 
 part of individuals who have themselves attem])ted no 
 other justification than the extent of the provocation. 
 Among these instances may be mentioned, the shooting 
 of Chinese from the smuggling ships near Lintin in 1831 
 and 1833, and the notorious case of an English subject, 
 who, by his own confession in the papers, actually set fire to 
 a mandarin's house. There could be no permanent peace
 
 Chap. III. AFFRAYS WITH SMUGGLERS. 109 
 
 or security for either natives or strangers as long as acts 
 like these might be committed with impunity ; and, under 
 the circumstances of our anomalous relations with the 
 country, it befitted our government to place a very sum- 
 mary controlling power in the hands of whomsoever it 
 appointed as its representative in China.* 
 
 Towards the close of 1833, when the authority of the 
 Company was drawing to an end, and before it had been 
 replaced by any other, the effects were seen in a series of 
 violences that took place not far from Lintin, where some 
 furious engfaffements occurred with the natives, and one 
 of them was killed. In revenge for this, an unfortunate 
 lascar, belonging to the smuggling ship principally con- 
 cerned, and who had been taken prisoner by the enraged 
 Chinese, was put to death by them. An organized attack 
 of armed boats from the opium ships was now prepared 
 against the town or village near which the occurrence took 
 place ; but the natives were prepared for them, and such 
 a fire was opened from a small fort when the boats made 
 their appearance, that it was thought better to return 
 quietly, without attempting to land. 
 
 The relatives of the deceased Chinese, not yet satisfied, 
 applied to their government for redress ; but the transac- 
 tion had occurred in connection with the opium-trade, and 
 the provincial authorities found themselves hampered with 
 the usual difiiculties. A singular device was fallen upon 
 by the Hong merchants : — One of these, by authority 
 of the government, caused to be conveyed to Canton 
 some individual out of a trading junk in the harbour of 
 Macao, who, for a bribe or reward, was to personate the 
 culprit who had shot the Chinese ! He was to be im- 
 
 * The Duke of Wellington, in liis memorandum, observed that such 
 an officer " must have great powers to enable him to control and keep 
 in order the king's subjects."
 
 110 ENGLISH INTERCOURSE. Chap. III. 
 
 prisoned for a certain time, and previous to his trial was 
 to be furnished with a prepared story which was to acquit 
 him of the murder, and convert the case into one of mere 
 accident or misfortune. Information of this scheme reached 
 the select committee at Canton, who, though they were 
 pretty well assured of the safety of the individual, and 
 quite certain that he was no British subject, still felt them- 
 selves bound to address the viceroy, and to protest against 
 these strange proceedings, with which the English name 
 was associated by report. After some trouble and a re- 
 newed correspondence, a public edict was issued by the 
 government, declaring that the affair in which the man 
 was said to be involved was accidental, and " assuredly 
 would not lead to the forfeiture of his life ;" and it was 
 subsequently understood that he was liberated. 
 
 On the 22nd of April, 1834, the trade of the East 
 India Company with China, after having lasted just 200 
 years, terminated according to the provisions of the new 
 Act, and several private ships soon afterwards quitted 
 Canton with cargoes of tea for the British islands. One 
 vessel had, previously to that date, sailed direct for Eng- 
 land under a special licence from the authorities of the 
 East India Company. A most important national experi- 
 ment was now to be tried, the results of which alone could 
 set at rest the grand question of the expediency of free 
 trade against the Chinese monopoly; or prove how in- 
 dividual traders were likely to succeed against the union 
 of mandarins and mandarin merchants.
 
 Chap. IV. COMMOXS' COMMITTEE OF 1830. m 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 ENGLISH INTERCOURSE — (continued). 
 
 Commons' committee of 1830 — Act of 1833 — Lord Napier appointed 
 chief commissioner to Cliiua — His difficulties and death — Mr. 
 Davis succeeds — Edicts of the viceroy — Administration of Sir 
 George Robinson — Increase of smuggling — The opium-trade — 
 Debts of Hong merchants — Visit of Admiral Maitland — Evils of 
 the opium traffic — Efforts for its suppression — Proceedings of com- 
 missioner Lin, and their results — Massacre of an English boat's 
 crew — The ' Volage ' — Affray with war-junks — The ' Psyche ' — 
 Affair of the ' Thomas Coutts ' — Collision with Chinese vessels — 
 — English trade stojjped — War declared. 
 
 In the evidence before a committee of the House of Com- 
 mons appointed at the beginning of the year 1830, with 
 reference to the approaching termination of the East India 
 Company's charter, it was clearly stated, as the opinion of 
 some of the most competent witnesses, that the removal 
 of the China trade from the management and control of 
 the Company would be attended by a great increase of 
 smuggling, and by an aggravation of all those circum- 
 stances which were calculated to embroil the Engrlish with 
 the government of China. One witness plainly declared 
 " the result would be, sooner or later, a war with China, 
 accompanied by wide-spread individual ruin." The report 
 which the committee grounded upon the whole of this 
 evidence was expressed in terms of caution, and by no 
 means recommended an entire subversion of the system 
 under which the British trade with that singular and ex- 
 clusive people had attained a magnitude and importance 
 unparalleled by that of any other country, even of America 
 and others whose trade was free. 
 
 Many prudent and reflecting persons were of opinion
 
 112 ENGLISH INTERCOURSE. Chap. IV. 
 
 that British traders from England, like those from India, 
 plight safely be allowed an unlimited access to Canton, 
 but that loth should still be subject to the control of the 
 Company's authorities, who, as the channels of inter- 
 course with the Canton government, should remain un- 
 disturbed. This was the opinion and intention of the 
 Duke of Wellington ; and when Lord Grey's cabinet 
 subsequently proposed the bill for the entire overthrow of 
 the Company at Canton, with the immediate subversion 
 of the long-established system, his grace entered his pro- 
 test against it. In the debate of the 13th of May, 1840, 
 on Lord Stanhope's motion with reference to China, the 
 Duke declared that " there existed on the records of their 
 Lordships' House amendments moved by him to the China 
 Trade Bill in order to induce the government and parlia- 
 ment to continue the trade in the hands of the East India 
 Company, simultaneously wuth British subjects at large, 
 and to leave in the hands of the East India Company 
 most particularly the management of the whole business 
 with the Chinese government at Canton." 
 
 Dis aliter visum ! — We have since been at war with 
 China ; and it will be the business of this chapter to pre- 
 sent a succinct narrative of events from the subversion 
 of the East India Company's administration in 1834 to 
 the end of the year 1839. The official documents have 
 all been made public in the Blue Book prepared for both 
 Houses of Parliament. In the year 1833 a bill was 
 carried through parliament by Mr. Grant, President of 
 the India Board, by which it was enacted " that it should 
 be lawful for his majesty, by commission under his royal 
 sign-manual, to appoint not exceeding three superin- 
 tendents of the trade of his majesty's subjects with China, 
 and to give to such superintendents certain powers and 
 authorities." The East India Company were not only
 
 Chap. IV. LORD NAPIER CHIEF COMMISSIONER. 113 
 
 deprived of their exclusive right of trading with China, 
 but of the rio-ht of tradinfj at all, in common with the 
 rest of the king's subjects ; and, as the operation of the 
 Act was to be immediate, their commercial property and 
 shipping were sold at a great loss. The English com- 
 munity at Canton were scarcely less surprised at the 
 suddenness of the revolution than the Chinese themselves 
 were. The maxim of Bacon, that nature should be imi- 
 tated by politicians in i\\Q gradual character of her changes, 
 seems to have been forgotten or disregarded ; and before 
 the arrangements consequent on so complete a transmu- 
 tation could be well completed, the chief commissioner 
 arrived in China on board the ' Andromache ' frigate, in 
 the person of Lord Napier, an amiable nobleman and 
 zealous public servant, who deserved a more propitious 
 en'and and a better fate. 
 
 The rumours of judicial and fiscal powers to be exer- 
 cised under the new commission were calculated to excite 
 the alarm of the jealous and watchful government of the 
 country, whose attention had only just before been drawn 
 to the attempts of English traders on the coast to force a 
 trade by intimidation. No previous communication what- 
 ever with the Canton authorities prepared them for the 
 appointment of Lord Napier ; * indeed there was no time 
 for it ; and his instructions were — " Your lordship will 
 announce your arrival at. Canton by letter to the viceroy." 
 The chief commissioner was received at Macao on the 
 
 * The writer of this stated his regret at the omission, in a letter to 
 the secretai-y of state, in these terms :— " If I may be allowed to ex- 
 press my own sentiments, I cannot help tliinking that a letter with a 
 few presents from the king to the Chinese emperor, transmitted, witli- 
 out any embassy, through the viceroy of Canton, as in 1795 (and I 
 believe once again afterwards), would have been a good mode of an- 
 nouncing so important a change. It seems to me that the native 
 government had some right to it, and that it was an eligible and inex- 
 pensive way of dispelling or allaying their accustomed suspicions."
 
 114 ENGLISH INTERCOURSE. Chap. IV. 
 
 loth July, 1834, in the manner due to his rank and per- 
 .sonal character, by the president of the connnittee, to 
 whom Lord Napier produced the commission and instruc- 
 tions under the royal sign-manual, appointing him col- 
 league and eventual successor to himself. Mr. Davis's 
 intention to quit (Jhina that year had long been settled 
 and declared, but the actual insertion of his name in the 
 conmiission, and a letter from the minister who had drawn 
 up the new bill, made him consider it his duty to accept 
 office while upon the spot ; and this was declared in an 
 official letter, on the express condition that he should be 
 at liberty to proceed home that same year. Sir George 
 Robinson undertook the provisional office of third com- 
 missioner until his majesty's pleasure could be known. 
 
 On the 23rd July the commission embarked on board 
 H.M. ship ' Andromache,' and proceeded to the anchor- 
 age at Chuenpee, below the batteries at the Boca Tigris. 
 At noon on the following day the superintendents left his 
 majesty's ship, and proceeded on board the cutter on their 
 way to Canton, where they arrived at two o'clock on the 
 morning of the 25th. 
 
 Lord Napier addressed a letter from himself to the 
 viceroy, announcing his arrival according to his instruc- 
 tions ; and when this had been translated by Di\ Morri- 
 son, the Chinese secretary to the commission, it was 
 despatched to the usual place of delivery, near one of the 
 city gates. Under a variety of pretexts, grounded prin- 
 cipally on the wording of the address, the mandarins at 
 the station declined to receive the letter, the real object 
 of the government being to oblige Lord Napier to quit 
 Canton until the emperor's permission for his residence 
 had been obtained. This indeed appears to be an act of 
 sovereignty of which all states are naturally exceedingly 
 tenacious. Though China has never yet been recognised
 
 Chap. IV. POSITION OF LORD XAPIER. 115 
 
 by any European state as participating in the rights and 
 obligations of that conventional code called international 
 law, a knowledge of the general principle was shown in 
 those papers from the ('hinese government, which declared 
 that Lord Napier's mission should have been announced 
 from England, and the sanction of the Peking court 
 obtained. 
 
 It was his lordship's misfortune to be placed from the 
 very first in an impossible position, as regarded the full 
 and immediate exercise of the functions confided to him ; 
 but his declining to correspond with the Hong merchants, 
 and his views as to the policy and practicability of a direct 
 communication with the mandarins, have been fully justi- 
 fied by later events, since Captain Elliot long ago obtained 
 that concession as a mere matter of necessity. What had 
 been for centuries practised by the Chinese authorities, in 
 their relations with the Portuguese governor of Macao, 
 might and ought to be yielded to the British functionary, 
 who, not being a merchant, could, in perfect conformity 
 with the Chinese usage, decline receiving any communi- 
 cation through the unsuitable channel of the Hong mer- 
 chants, until the mandarins found it convenient to address 
 themselves to him. In fact, the viceroy had, only two 
 years before, received in the most public manner a 
 despatch from Lord William Bentinck, transmitted by the 
 ' Challenger ' frigate, and superscribed of course as a 
 letter, and not a petition. The Hong merchants, acting 
 as the compulsory agents of the local government, and 
 finding that Lord Napier would have nothing to say to 
 them, soon fell upon the old expedient of threatening the 
 stoppage of the trade ; endeavouring by that argnmentum 
 ad crumenam to create a division among the English, and 
 set up a party opposed to the measures of his lordship. 
 They unhappily succeeded at length in dividing a com-
 
 116 ENGLISH INTERCOURSE. Ciiap. IV. 
 
 munity which had long contained within itself the germs 
 of dissension ; but Lord Napier took the earliest steps to 
 prevent it, if possible. In his despatch to the Foreign 
 Office of the 14th August he wrote, with reference to a 
 requisition from the Hong merchants to the English mer- 
 chants, calling upon them to attend a meeting of the 
 Hong at the Coiitoo House, " This appearing to me 
 rather a novel and unprecedented measure, I immediately 
 called a general meeting of all British inhabitants, to be 
 held at the hall of the superintendents at half-past ten, in 
 order to deliberate on the propriety and the consequences 
 of attending such a meeting. Mr. Davis and myself 
 addressed the meeting, deprecating such an attendance as 
 that proposed ; and a draft of the letter to the Hong mer- 
 chants, being read, was carried unanimously, with some 
 verbal alterations." 
 
 In the midst of these difficulties and discussions it 
 naturally occurred that now was the proper time to present 
 a respectful address to the emperor by the way of the 
 Yellow Sea, waiting the results of which, the commission 
 might suspend its functions and retire for a time within 
 itself. Lord Napier alludes to this in his despatch of the 
 14th August in these words : — " Mr. Davis has perhaps 
 offered some observations on this head, as he has already 
 done to me, in reference to the advantage of immediate 
 communication.' ' Such observations were in fact contained 
 in the letter to the secretary of state already quoted at 
 p. 113 (note), but omitted in the extract from the Foreign 
 Office.* — " The next best thing " (to an announcement 
 from England) " might have been a discretionary power 
 vested in Lord Napier, in the event of the provincial 
 authorities being found hostile or impracticable (things 
 quite within the range of possibility), to send up a 
 I" Parliamentary Papers, p. 25.
 
 Chap. IV. PROPOSED ADDRESS TO THE EMPEROR. 117 
 
 respectful address to the emperor by the way of the 
 Yellow Sea announcing the change, and praying for just 
 and liberal treatment from the Canton government. Lord 
 Napier tells me his hands are quite tied up on the point, 
 and that he must not communicate with Peking except by 
 a previous reference home. I could have wished that, at 
 so great a distance as 15,000 miles, a larger latitude of 
 discretion had been allowed, presupposing a well-founded 
 confidence in those who were to exercise it." There can 
 be little doubt that, if the proposed reference could have 
 been made, and the functions of the commission suspended 
 ad interim, the unfortunate occurrences which followed 
 might have been prevented. 
 
 Towards the end of August, after the viceroy had 
 refused Lord Napier's letter of announcement, and de- 
 clined every subsequent offer of direct communication, the 
 departure of a ship for England presented the first oppor- 
 tunity that had occurred since Lord Napier's arrival for 
 sending despatches to the Foreign Office. As the ship, 
 after quitting the river and remaining some days at Lintin, 
 was also to touch at Macao on her way out, circumstances 
 connected with the forwarding of the latest intelligence 
 led his lordship to request the second commissioner to 
 proceed to the latter place and await the vessel's depar- 
 ture. That being accomplished, Mr. Davis wrote to beg 
 that H. M. cutter mi<)fht be sent down for him as soon as 
 possible. The services of that vessel in communication 
 with the two frigates prevented her arrival until the night 
 of the 5th September, when she brought a letter from 
 Lord Napier explaining the delay. Very early on the 
 following- morninof the second commissioner started in the 
 cutter with Captain Elliot, and, on the way up, a few lines 
 were received from Sir George Robinson, saying that he 
 had come down to the frigates with a requisition from
 
 118 ENGLISH INTERCOURSE, Chap. IV. 
 
 Lord Napier to Captain Blackwood to move the ' Imo- 
 gene' and ' Andromache' to the anchorage of the mer- 
 chant-ships at AVhanipoa. A note from Captain Black- 
 wood stated that he would look out for the cutter until 
 seven o'clock the next morning, when the frigates would 
 weigh anchor to pass the hatteries. ^^ e accordingly 
 passed the cutter on under all sail, and, the wind being 
 fair, fortunately got on board the ' Imogene ' at mid- 
 night. 
 
 It appeared that the Chinese, not contented with their 
 earlier acts of annoyance and indignity — whether of a 
 personal nature, as the unnecessary breaking open of Lord 
 Napier's baggage, and the seizure of the purveyors of 
 provisions ; or the more serious and public injury inflicted 
 by the stoppage of the trade — had been emboldened to 
 proceed so far as to beset his lordship's residence with 
 soldiers, to drive away his native servants, and to cut off 
 the supply of provisions. Under these circumstances, 
 accompanied by the denial to sanction or make good any 
 transactions involving British property subsequent to the 
 16th August, the right honourable the chief superin- 
 tendent deemed it necessary, on the 5th September, to 
 send for a guard of marines, and to request the senior 
 officer of H. M. ships to proceed with the ' Imogene ' 
 and ' Andromache ' to the anchorage of the trade at 
 Whampoa. 
 
 Early on the morning of the 7th September we passed 
 the batteries at the Boca Tigris, in working up against 
 a northerly wind ; but, under every disadvantage, silenced 
 the fire which was opened on us, with only one man hurt 
 by a splinter, and a few ropes shot away. The wind 
 then failed, and the ships came to an anchor against 
 the ebb-tide below Tiger Island fort. Here they lay in 
 a dead calm until the 9th, when a breeze sprung up, and
 
 Chap. IV. TRADE REOPENED. 119 
 
 we weighed to pass Tiger Island. The battery opened 
 its best fire on the frigates ; but we passed within pistol- 
 shot, knocking the stones about the ears of the garrison, 
 though witli the loss of a man killed in each ship, and a 
 few wounded. Baffling calms again retarded the pro- 
 gress of the frigates, which did not reach Whampoa 
 anchorage until late on the 11th September. 
 
 On the arrival of H, M. ships among the merchant- 
 men at Whampoa, the communication between that place 
 and Canton was found to be entirely closed for all pur- 
 poses of commerce or otherwise ; and to the Americans 
 as well as to the English. A negotiation then com- 
 menced, in which the local government required the 
 withdrawal of the frigates from the anchorage of the 
 merchantmen, and the retirement of Lord Napier from 
 Canton, previous to the resumption of commercial business. 
 His lordship was therefore induced, on the 15th September, 
 to address a letter to the British community, in which he 
 informed them that, having thus far without effect used 
 every effort to establish the commission at Canton, he 
 did not feel authorised at present, by a continued main- 
 tenance of his claims, to occasion the further interruption 
 of the trade of the port. It was therefore arranged that 
 the frigates should proeeed to Lintin ; and Lord Napier, 
 whose health was in a very precarious state, embarked in 
 a chop-boat for Macao on the 21st September. On the 
 morning of the 26th his lordship reached that place by 
 the inner passage, his illness having been aggravated by 
 the heat of the weather, and by the delay and annoyances 
 experienced on the passage down. 
 
 The viceroy proved for once as good as his word in re- 
 opening the channel of commercial business as soon as the 
 chief commissioner retired from Canton ; and the traders 
 were soon fully engaged in loading their ships. In the
 
 120 ENGLISH INTERCOURSE. Chap. IV. 
 
 mean while Lord Napier's illness unhappily increased, 
 and at length, notwithstanding- the unremitted care of his 
 family and medical attendants, terminated his existence 
 in the course of a few weeks after his arrival at Macao. 
 
 His lordship's successor, Mr. Davis, in writing to the 
 secretary of state, observed, with reference to his own 
 advice of an appeal to Peking, that it might be recom- 
 mended by such reasons as the following : — first, that no 
 fact was better authenticated than the general ignorance 
 in which the local government kept the court in regard 
 to Canton transactions and its treatment of Europeans ; 
 secondly, that Chinese principles sanctioned and invited 
 appeals against the distant delegates of the emperor ; 
 thirdly, that a reference of the kind was so successful in 
 1759 as to occasion the removal of a chief commissioner 
 of customs at Canton, though made by only a subordinate 
 officer of the East India Company. 
 
 The useless office of master-attendant, now become 
 superfluous by the abandonment in England of the scheme 
 for levying duties on our ships in the Canton river, was 
 abolished by the chief superintendent, and the late 
 master-attendant, Captain Elliot of the Royal Navy, was 
 appointed by him to the office of secretary to the com- 
 mission. The severe loss experienced in the recent death 
 of Dr. Morrison, the Chinese secretary (more practically 
 versed in the language than any European), had been 
 supplied by his son ; and the services of Mr. GutzlafF, as 
 joint interpreter, were now secured by transferring to him 
 the salary which had lately been paid to the master- 
 attendant. 
 
 Two edicts were in the mean while issued by the 
 Chinese viceroy, in which the English merchants were 
 called upon to elect a temporary Taepan, or commercial 
 chief, to control the English shipping, and prevent the 
 
 1
 
 Chap. IV. THE YICEROY'S EDICTS. 121 
 
 smuggling at Lintin, where nearly forty vessels were now 
 anchored. They were, besides, directed to write home 
 for a Taepan, who was to be a merchant, and not a king's 
 officer ; the object of course being to keep the control of 
 the English in the hands of the Hong- merchants. No 
 notice whatever was taken of these edicts ; as it was clear 
 that the embarrassment which must result to the local 
 government, from the want of some authority to address 
 themselves to, would in time oblige them to recognise 
 the king's commission. This opinion was completely 
 sanctioned by the event, a direct correspondence with the 
 officers of government having been established by Captain 
 Elliot. 
 
 When the British trade had continued prosperously for 
 a space of between three and four months, the chief 
 superintendent, in his communications with the secretary 
 of state,* took a review of the principal occurrences up to 
 that period, as the best ground of an opinion relative to 
 the measures which our government should adopt. " I 
 am aware," he observed, " that two courses of a very 
 opposite nature might have been taken by me in lieu of 
 the one which I have pursued, and which, considering that 
 a season of unusual commercial activity and an increased 
 amount of tonnage is now drawing quietly to a close with 
 the monsoon, I see no reason to regret. I might, in the 
 first place, have tried the effect of a measure which has 
 not been without its advocates, and which (under very 
 peculiar and favourable circumstances) was successful in 
 1814 ; I mean the withdrawal of the ships from the river, 
 and the stoppage of the trade on our part. I do not deny 
 that this might have been productive of considerable 
 embarrassment to the local government for the time ; but 
 the ill success of such a course in the season of 1829-30, 
 * Parliamentaiy Papers, p. 78. 
 VOL. I. G
 
 122 ENGLISH INTERCOURSE. Chap. IV. 
 
 when the Company's ships were detained for five months 
 to little or no purpose, was a warning which 1 now do not 
 regret having profited by. 
 
 " 1 might, on the other hand, have adopted the opposite 
 extreme, of an immediate submission to the dictates of 
 the local government, and have proceeded to Canton to 
 place myself under the management of the Ilong; but 
 from this I was deterred by the conviction, stated to your 
 lordship in my despatch of the 11th November, that any 
 adjustment ought to take place as the result of a mutual 
 necessity, and that an unbecoming and premature act of 
 submission on our part, under present circumstances, could 
 not fail to prove a fruitless, if not a mischievous, measure. 
 
 " It was reasonably hoped by the commission that a 
 complete silence and abstinence from all further attempts 
 to negotiate with the Canton government, pending the 
 reference home, might be attended with a favourable 
 effect. The imperial edict forwarded with my despatch 
 of the 2nd instant, in which the blame of the transactions 
 of August and September is thrown on the Hong mer- 
 chants, and the late troubles attributed to their extortions 
 on the trade, must be viewed as an unequivocal sanction 
 of that opinion. An opportunity is afforded by this 
 imperial document, which his majesty's government may 
 not be inclined to neglect, of making an appeal to the 
 court of Peking against the conduct of its servants at 
 Canton, whose corrupt system in relation to the European 
 commerce tends nearly as much to defraud the emperor 
 of his dues as to discourage and oppress the European 
 trader." 
 
 Under the above circumstances, and with positive in- 
 structions not to appeal to the court of Peking without a 
 previous reference home, the chief superintendent waited 
 until the latter end of January, and then embarked for
 
 Chap. IV. SIR GEORGE ROBIXSOX. ] 23 
 
 England, being succeeded by Sir George Robinson. 
 With a view to securing to his majesty's commission the 
 valuable services of Captain Elliot as one of the super- 
 intendents, JNIr. Davis waived certain claims which the 
 regulations afforded himself, and resigned entirely his 
 station on embarking, thus causing Captain Elliot to 
 succeed as a member of the commission, according to the 
 general tenor of the sign-manual instructions. 
 
 For the space of two years from that date, during 
 1835 and 1836, public affairs proceeded in uninterrupted 
 quiet, under the charge of Sir George Robinson, who 
 strictly adhered to the principle that no advances should 
 be made towards negotiation but such as were dictated 
 from England. It was the pleasure of the government, 
 however, to leave the commission without any additional 
 instructions or powers, and to take no measures whatever 
 for appealing to Peking, or availing themselves of the 
 opening afforded by the emperor's edict before referred 
 to. The reciprocal commercial interests of English and 
 Chinese fortunately kept affairs tolerably quiet, notwith- 
 standing the doubtful or inadequate powers of the British 
 authorities, and the absence of a ship-of-war to strengthen 
 the hands of the chief commissioner, or, as the duke's 
 memorandum expressed it, " be within his reach." The 
 only remarkable exception to this quiet tenor occurred 
 in the case of a British trader, who, on the seizure of 
 his goods by the Chinese customs, threatened, and was 
 actually proceeding, to procure redress for himself by 
 acts of reprisal against the Chinese trade. This was 
 fortunately prevented ; and a despatch from the Foreign 
 Office, in 1836, declared that, if the individual persisted 
 in his intention, " he would be abandoned to the fate 
 which such a course would probably bring upon him ; and 
 further, that the commanders of any of his majesty's ships 
 
 g2
 
 124 ENGLISH INTERCOURSE, Chap. IV. 
 
 which might fall in with him would be bound to act 
 towards him as the naval instructions require them to act 
 towards ))irates."* Our commercial and political inter- 
 course w^ith China having been restored, a very summary 
 controlling power over British subjects was required in the 
 hands of the English representative, backed and supported 
 by a naval force. 
 
 It is universally allowed that the opening of the trade 
 in 1834 gave an immediate stimulus to smuggling of all 
 kinds, at the expense of the fair trade. In forwarding to 
 the secretary of state one of those edicts against opium 
 which until then had been regarded as mere waste paper, 
 Mr. Davis observed, " It remains now to be seen whether 
 the native government, having its attention at length 
 awakened by the increased amount of smuggling trans- 
 actions consequent on the open trade of this season, will 
 endeavour to give greater efficacy to its edicts, and oppose 
 some effectual impediment to the contraband commerce of 
 Lintin."t Just four years afterwards, Captain Elliot, 
 who had succeeded to Sir George Robinson, wrote thus : — 
 " There seems, my lord, no longer any room to doubt 
 that the court has finally determined to suppress, or more 
 probably most extensively to check, the opium trade. 
 The immense, and it must be said the most unfortunate, 
 increase of the supply during ^Ae last four yearn, the rapid 
 growth of the east coast trade in opium, and the con- 
 tinued drain of the silver, have no doubt gi-eatly alarmed 
 the government." 
 
 The magnitude of the evil led the Peking government 
 to consider various proposals submitted by its chief ad- 
 visers ; and the hopes of some persons, not very well 
 acquainted with Ciiinese ])rinciples of government, were 
 at one time confident that the trade would be legalised. 
 * Parliamentary raptrs, p. 126. f Hjid. p. 76.
 
 Chap. IV. IXCEEASE OF SMUGGLIXG. 125 
 
 A mandarin named Ileunaetse advised that a tax should 
 be laid on opium, and that it should be admitted, like 
 other goods, with a duty of about seven dollars a chest, 
 while the expenses of smuggling- amounted to at least 
 forty dollars. He argued that the increased severity of 
 the law against opium had only tended to increase the 
 amount of the bribe paid to the official underlings for 
 their connivance ; and that the lawless habits of increased 
 smuggling gave rise to a set of desperate villains, who 
 defied authority and became capable of the most atrocious 
 crimes. This argument was specious and conclusive when 
 viewed in the light of expediency alone ; but those ill 
 understood the unbending character of Chinese maxims 
 who expected that it would be adopted. " It is a principle 
 of the Chinese government" (said Dr. Morrison long 
 ago) " not to license what they condemn as immoral. I 
 know they glory in the superiority, as to principle, of 
 their own government, and scorn the Christian govern- 
 ments that tolerate these vices, and convert them into a 
 source of pecuniary advantage or public revenue." All 
 that the unfortunate mandarin got by his liberal advice 
 was to be banished into Tartary, and the measures of the 
 imperial government became more decided than ever. 
 
 The total amount of English smuggling had not only 
 been much less during the administration of the Company 
 at Canton, but they had the power and the means of 
 effectually excluding it from the interior of the Boca 
 Tigris, and confining it to Lintin and the coast. In 
 this manner, however nefarious the nature of the traffic, 
 and however corrupt the officers of the customs, some 
 external show of decency at least was preserved. But on 
 the subversion of the long-established system, and the 
 substitution of an authority whose powers were both in- 
 adequate and imperfectly defined, it was soon discovered
 
 126 ENGLISH INTERCOURSE. (hap. IV. 
 
 that licence was unbounded, and impunity complete. 
 Captain Elliot observed* that " the manner of the rash 
 course of traffic loitlnn the river had probably contributed 
 most of all to impress (on the Chinese government) the 
 urgent necessity of repressing the growing audacity of 
 the foreign smugglers, and preventing their associating 
 themselves with the desperate and lawless of their own 
 large cities." Thus it was the opium-trade within the 
 Boca Tigris — not the mere existence of the trade, but the 
 barefticed mode of carrying it on — which exasperated the 
 Peking government. " AMiile," said Captain Elliot in 
 the same despatch, " such a traffic existed in the heart of 
 our regular commerce, I had all along felt that the Chinese 
 government had a just ground for harsh measures towards 
 the lawful trade, upon the plea that there was no dis- 
 tinguishing between the right and the wrong." For such 
 cogent reasons that officer repeated, in the most urgent 
 manner, his application to be " vested with defined and 
 adequate powers for the reasonable control of men whose 
 rash conduct could not be left to the operation of Chinese 
 laws without the utmost inconvenience and risk, and whose 
 impunity was alike injurious to British character and 
 dangerous to British interests." But the time had now 
 passed by, and in three months after the above was 
 written the great explosion took place, in the indiscrimi- 
 nate and outrageous imprisonment of all the English at 
 Canton, — all those at least whom a forecast of some 
 coming mischief had not led to decamp in time. But we 
 are anticipating. 
 
 The more rigid enforcement of the laws on the smug- 
 glers at Lintin, and the other long-established haunts 
 
 * Despatch dated 26tli JanuaiT, 18H8. A witness examined in May, 
 18-iO, declared witli equal candour and tmtli — ^" We never paid any 
 attention to any law in China that I recollect.'' — Evidence.
 
 Chap. IV. DEBTS OF HOXG MEECHANTS. 127 
 
 at the outside of the Canton river, had driven the trade 
 into new channels. A great increase took place in the 
 smuggling on the east coast ; but the most dangerous re- 
 sult was the growing importation within the river, and as 
 far as Whampoa, by Europeans themselves in their own 
 boats. In this Captain Elliot very early foresaw that 
 the authorities would be driven to some violent measure, 
 in order to avert which he addressed a memorandum 
 in November, 1837, to the government at home, recom- 
 mending a special commissioner to be sent to Chusan, or 
 some other principal point on the coast, away from the 
 influence of the Canton mandarins, for the adjustment 
 of this perilous business. The government, in reply, 
 declined taking any steps of the kind at present. 
 
 If anything had been wanting to add to the gloomy 
 aspect which affairs were assuming at Canton about the 
 beginning of 1838, it was to be found in the enormous 
 debt of more than three millions of dollars due to the 
 English merchants from two insolvent Hong merchants, 
 with very little prospect of repayment. The last dollar 
 of a nearly equal amount had been paid up in 1834 to 
 the European creditors, through the influence and power 
 of the East India Company, who in fact stopped it from 
 the Hong merchants' accounts ; but no such potent means 
 of justice against the Hong monopoly were any longer 
 available under the free trade.* The Co-Hong had the 
 effi'ontery to propose that these new debts to the free 
 traders should be paid back in fifteen years — that is, in a 
 period when the bonds bearing 12 per cent, interest would 
 have more than doubled their capital in interest alone. 
 After a long and harassing discussion of many months, 
 
 * "An open trade upon our side, with such an association as the Co- 
 Hong on the other, must always be a very unfortunate state of things 
 to ourselves. " — Cnptaia Elliot'' s Despatch, p. 340.
 
 128 ENGLISH INTERCOURSE. Chap. IV. 
 
 it was settled that between eight and ten years shonhl be 
 the period allowed for paying the new debts arising since 
 the opening of the trade ; and to this the English creditors 
 found themselves obliged to submit. One of these drew 
 up a very curious paper on the history of the Ilong mer- 
 chants and their debts, in which he recapitulates by saying 
 " that the British merchants who have succeeded to the 
 East India Company, not possessing the advantages of 
 that body's monojjoly, and consequent identity of interest 
 and unity of action, are neither in the position to avoid 
 incurring the debts, nor to recover them when due ; and 
 that the organs of her majesty's government in China 
 have not as yet possessed the means to acquire moral 
 weight with the local authorities, or Hong merchants, to 
 replace the commercial influence of the East India Com- 
 pany's factory." In consequence of this melancholy and 
 desperate state of things, a debt of about three millions 
 of dollars became due to the English from the Hong mer- 
 chants, besides the claim for two millions sterling on 
 account of opium subsequently seized by Commissioner Lin. 
 A visit to China on the part of Admiral Sir Frederick 
 Maitland, in li. M. ship ' Wellesley,' about the period 
 when these debts were under discussion, might have 
 seemed to afford a good opportunity for his powerful in- 
 terference in behalf of the British merchants ; but there 
 is nothing to warrant the inference that the admiral dis- 
 cussed this point with the Canton government, or indeed 
 that he had any communication with the viceroy. The 
 'Wellesley' arrived in China on the 12th of July, 1^38, 
 accompanied by II, M. brig ' Algerine,' and the British 
 superintendent immediately joined the admiral, and pro- 
 ceeded with him to the anchorage of Tong-koo Bay, about 
 seven leagues south of the Boca Tigris. An edict soon 
 arrived from the viceroy, in the old form, addressed to
 
 Chap. IV. VISIT OF ADMIRAL MAITL.VXD. 129 
 
 the Hong merchants, and forwarded by them. Tliis 
 document was returned unopened, with a message that 
 the strict orders of her majesty's government made such a 
 mode of communication impossible. Captain Elliot then 
 proceeded to Canton, and forwarded to the city gates an 
 open paper for transmission to the governor by a mandarin. 
 The paper was left open with a view to obviate the diffi- 
 culty about the use of the character pin — a petition. It 
 was conveyed to the viceroy, but the merchants returned 
 it with a remark from his excellency that he could not 
 take it unless it bore the character pin. Captain Elliot 
 then declared that he had formally offered to set forth 
 the peaceful purposes of the admiral's visit, and, if the 
 viceroy did not think fit to accept these explanations, his 
 business at Canton was concluded, and he should forth- 
 with retire. A British boat, meanwhile, passing the Boca 
 Tigris, was fired upon by the forts ; and, when boarded 
 by a mandarin, was required to state whether the admiral 
 or any person belonging to him was there, as they should 
 not be permitted to pass up. Sir Frederick, on being 
 informed of this insult, remarked that he had come to 
 China with a determination to avoid the least violation 
 of customs or prejudices ; but that he was nevertheless re- 
 solved to bear no indignity to the flag. He accordingly 
 proceeded forthwith to the Boca Tigris with the vessels 
 under his command, to demand a formal disavowal of 
 these unprovoked attacks. A civil letter was soon re- 
 ceived from the Chinese admiral Kwan (since killed in 
 action with our forces) asking the reason of Admiral Mait- 
 land's visit ; and, in reply to this, a demand was made 
 for reparation on account of the late insult. The result 
 was, the mission of a mandarin captain of war-junks to 
 wait upon the British admiral, accompanied by one of less 
 rank ; and the expressions of disavowal of any intention 
 
 G 3
 
 130 ENGLISH INTERCOURSE. Chap. IV. 
 
 to insult were written at the dictation of the higher officer 
 by the hand of the other on board the ' Wellcsley ' in the 
 presence of the several parties. Sir Frederick Maitland 
 signified his satisfaction with this declaration, and, after 
 the exchange of some civilities, returned to his former 
 anchorage, and soon afterwards sailed away. 
 
 In two months after the departure of the ' Wellesley ' 
 another outbreak took place, as the result of that rash 
 system of smuggling within the Boca Tigris which had 
 grown up since the commencement of free-trade. A 
 seizure of opium was made at Canton, the property of a 
 British trader, and immediately in front of his dwelling. 
 The individual and the ship from which the opium came 
 were ordered out of the river within a given time, and the 
 unhappy Hong merchant who secured the ship, though 
 perfectly unconscious and innocent of the act, underwent 
 the severe punishment of the cangue, or wooden collar. 
 When the obnoxious individual had withdrawn himself, 
 the trade, which had been stopped in the mean while, was 
 expected to be resumed. 
 
 The government would seem to have been irritated 
 by this occurrence into one of its barbarous outrages on 
 human feeling, with a view probably to intimidate the 
 European smugglers in their desperate courses within the 
 limits of the river.* Only a few days after the discovery 
 above mentioned, the foreigners were struck with astonish- 
 ment by a sudden preparation, in the square immediately 
 before the factories, for the strangling of a native opium- 
 dealer. It was at once determined to resist this unpre- 
 cedented and intolerable act, and they succeeded in 
 chasing away the carnifex and his horrid apparatus. The 
 considerable crowd of Chinese that had assembled evinced 
 no unfriendly disposition towards the foreigners, but (as 
 * Blue Book, p. 324.
 
 Chap. IV. EVILS OF OPIUM TRAFFIC. 131 
 
 the despatch observes), " from a general concurrence, 
 rather the contrary." When, however, the crowd had 
 become exceedingly dense, some rash foreigners provoked 
 the people by forcibly pushing in amongst them, and 
 assailing them with sticks. They returned this with 
 showers of stones and other violence, and in a few minutes 
 the Europeans were driven within the gates of their 
 respective factories, which were immediately closed. But 
 the fury of the crowd, consisting at this time of some 
 thousands, was excited to a degree that threatened tra- 
 gical results ; until the Chinese soldiers succeeded in 
 dispersing the mob, while the criminal was executed at 
 one of the usual places. " All these desperate hazards " 
 (the despatch observes) " were incurred for the scrambling 
 and comparatively insignificant gains of a few reckless 
 individuals, unquestionably founding their conduct upon 
 the belief that they were exempt from operation of all law, 
 British or Chinese."* 
 
 The inconvenience and danger were so imminent, that 
 the chief superintendent called a meeting, at which many 
 foreigners besides English voluntarily attended. He felt 
 bound to say " that the present mischiefs originated in 
 the existence of an extensive traffic in opium, conducted 
 in small boats within the river. The results were the 
 actual interruption of the legal trade ; the seizure and 
 punishment of innocent men ; the distressing, degradation 
 of the foreign character ; and the certainty that the illegal 
 and violent traffic would fall into the hands of the des- 
 perate, the refuse, and probably the convicted of all the 
 countries connected with China." A notice was accord- 
 ingly issued to the small smuggling craft in the river 
 belonging to the English, that they must proceed outside 
 within three days, and the superintendent at the same 
 * Blue Book, p. 327.
 
 132 ENGLISH INTERCOURSE. Chap. IV. 
 
 time offered bis co-operation to the government for the 
 pm-pose of putting a sto]) to the river snniggling. It was 
 on this occasion that he obtained from the viceroy the 
 important concession of a direct communication with the 
 mandarins, without the intervention of the Hong mer- 
 chants. 
 
 The stagnation of the opium traffic for some months 
 proved that the proceedings against both smugglers and 
 consumers were sufficiently effective, and a report soon 
 spread that a very high officer from the court, bearing the 
 summary powers of a Kin-chae, or special Imperial Com- 
 missioner, was soon to be sent to Canton. Ilowqua, the 
 senior Hong merchant, significantly hinted that unusually 
 strong measures would be taken by this new functionary, 
 and dwelt upon the manifold mischiefs of the trade, par- 
 ticularly on the alarming character of the late interior 
 traffic, asking the British superintendent what his govern- 
 ment would do under such circumstances? Captain 
 Elliot answered that no such state of things could happen 
 in England ; and that the present evils had not only been 
 induced by the venality of the highest officers, but had 
 been put down by his own proceedings, as far as those 
 could operate. Howqua concluded by saying that some 
 strong official communication on the subject must be ex- 
 pected as soon as the high commissioner arrived. 
 
 A proclamation was in the mean while issued by the 
 local government in January, 1839, not through the 
 Hong merchants, but addressed directly to the foreigners, 
 — a remarkable and unusual proceeding, furnishing 
 strong evidence of the earnest feelings of the court. It 
 was required that the receiving ships on the outside should 
 be all sent away under the penalty of hostile measures. 
 The high commissioner's approach was announced, and it 
 was declared that, " though the axe should break in his
 
 CriAr. IV. COMMISSIONER LIN. 133 
 
 hand, or the boat should sink from beneath him, yet 
 would he not stay his elForts until the work was com- 
 pleted." 
 
 The arrival of the high commissioner was immediately 
 preceded by a native opium-smuggler being suddenly 
 brought down into the square before the foreign factories, 
 accompanied by a considerable force of troops, and there 
 publicly strangled ! All the European flags at Canton 
 were hauled down, and remonstrances made, to which no 
 answer was returned. From this event until the commis- 
 sioner's arrival, rumours of every description were afloat, 
 but the general impression was, that he would proceed 
 forthwith to Macao and commence his operations from 
 thence- Tents were pitched, a considerable force was 
 assembled, junks and boats of war collected, and, under 
 the forts at the Boca Tigris, a display of old native vessels 
 preparing to serve as fire-ships. On the 22nd March it 
 appeared that the storm had changed its direction, and 
 impended over the whole foreign community at Canton in 
 the most alarming form. 
 
 On his aiTival Commissioner Lin far surpassed in his 
 measures the most formidable apprehensions that had 
 preceded him. He immediately issued an edict directly 
 to the foreigners, demanding that every particle of opium 
 on board the ships should be delivered to the government, 
 in order to its being burned and destroyed. At the same 
 time a bond was required, in the foreign and Chinese lan- 
 guages, that " the ships should hereafter never again dare 
 to bring opium ; and that, should any be brought, the 
 goods should be forfeited, and the parties suffer death ; 
 moreover, that such punishment would be willingly sub- 
 mitted to." He plainly threatened that, if his requisi- 
 tions were not complied with, the foreigners would be 
 overwhelmed by numbers, and sacrificed ; but at the
 
 134 ENGLISH INTERCOURSE. Cfiap. IV. 
 
 same time made some vague promises of reward to such 
 as obeyed. 
 
 Oil tirst hearing of the proceedings at Canton, the 
 British superintendent, always present where danger or 
 diflfic'ulty called him, hurried up in the gig of H.M. ship 
 ' Larue,' and made his way to the factories on the evening 
 of the 24th March, notwithstanding the efforts made to 
 stop him. The state of intense distress in which he found 
 the whole foreign community may be estimated by stating 
 that the actual pressing difficulty was the obstinate demand 
 that one of the most respectable English merchants should 
 proceed into the city, and attend the commissioner's 
 tribunal. Captain Elliot's first step was to proceed to 
 Mr. Dent's house, and convey him in person to the hall 
 of the superintendents. He immediately signified to the 
 Chinese his readiness to let Mr. Dent go into the city with 
 himself, and upon the distinct stipulation, under the com- 
 missioner's seal, that he was never to be moved out of his 
 sight. The whole foreign community were then assem- 
 bled, and exhorted to be moderate and calm. On the 
 same night the native servants were taken away and the 
 supplies cut off, the reason given being the opposition to 
 the commissioner's summons. An arc of boats was formed, 
 filled with armed men, the extremes of which touched the 
 east and west banks of the river in front of the factories. 
 The square between, and the rear, wx're occupied in con- 
 siderable force ; and before the gate of the hall the whole 
 body of Hong merchants and a large guard were posted 
 day and night, the latter with their swords constantly 
 drawn. So close an imprisonment is not recorded in the 
 history of our previous intercourse. 
 
 Under these circumstances the British superiiitendent 
 issued a most momentous circular to his countrymen, 
 requiring the surrender into his hands of all the English
 
 Chap. IV. BLOCKADE AT CANTON. 135 
 
 opium actually on the coast of China at that date. In 
 undertaking this immense responsibility, he had no doubt 
 that the safety of a great mass of human life hung upon 
 his determination. Had he commenced with the denial 
 of any control on the occasion, the Chinese commissioner 
 would have seized the pretext for reverting to his measures 
 of intimidation against individual merchants, obviously 
 his original purpose, but which Captain Elliot's sudden 
 appearance had disturbed. He would have forced the 
 whole into submission by the protracted confinement of 
 the persons he had determined to seize, and, judging from 
 his proclamation and general conduct, by the sacrifice of 
 their lives. 
 
 On the 3rd April it was agreed that the deputy super- 
 intendent should proceed down the river with the man- 
 darins and Hong merchants, and deliver over to the 
 commissioner 20,283 chests of opium from the ships, 
 which were assembled for that purpose below the Boca 
 Tigris. The imprisonment and blockade in the mean 
 while remained undiminished at Canton, and attempts 
 were made to extort from the foreigners the bond by 
 which their lives and property would have been placed at 
 the disposal of the Chinese government. This, however, 
 was avoided. 
 
 It was not before the 4th May, when all the opium had 
 been delivered, that the state of imprisonment and block- 
 ade ceased at Canton. Leave was then given for all to 
 quit except sixteen individuals, who ultimately took their 
 departure, under an edict from the government never to 
 return. Frequent rumours in the mean while reached 
 Canton of Commissioner Lin's aggressive intentions to- 
 wards Macao. The Portuguese had taken advantage of 
 the proceedings within the river to embark their opium 
 and send it to Manilla ; but the commissioner insisted on
 
 136 ENGLISH INTERCOURSE. Ciiai-. IV. 
 
 the delivery of a certain quantity, under the threat of 
 occupying- the forts with Chinese troops. Captain Elliot 
 took the first opportunity to write to Lord Auckland, 
 Governor-General of India, detailing that " course of 
 violence and spoliation which had broken up the founda- 
 tions" (to use his own words) "of this great trade, as far 
 as Canton is concerned, perhaps for ever." He at the 
 same time applied for as many ships of war and armed 
 vessels, for the protection of life and property, as could be 
 detached from the Indian station. 
 
 The Chinese commissioner in the mean while set on 
 foot a system of restriction on the trade and intercourse 
 with foreigners to which Canton had hitherto been a 
 stranger, and which at once converted that place into the 
 Nagasaki of the Japanese. All the unlicensed merchants 
 and shopkeepers, engaged in most extensive transactions 
 with Europeans, were ordered to remove forthwith, and 
 their streets blocked up. Barriers were built across some 
 streets, the Victories stockaded about, terraces torn down, 
 and the foreigners made little better than prisoners within 
 their dwellings. The Americans submitted to all this ; 
 but it did not immediately affect the English, for the 
 British superintendent very properly ordered every subject 
 of her majesty out of the river, or left it to him to stay at 
 his own peril. Captain Elliot did not quit Canton himself 
 until the 25th May, when the sixteen proscribed indivi- 
 duals had left that place in safety, and the persons of no 
 other British subjects were in jco})ardy. 
 
 On a view of the conduct and proceedings of the chief 
 superintendent through this eventful scene of trial, it is 
 not easy to deny the truth of the high encomium passed 
 on that officer by the best of judges, the Duke of ^^'elling- 
 ton himself. In the debate of the 13th May, 1840, in the 
 House of Lords, his grace observed, with reference to the
 
 Chap. IV. PROCEEDINGS OF CAPTAIX ELLIOT. 137 
 
 immense responsibility incurred for the safety of British 
 subjects, that Captain Elliot " performed a service for 
 which this country and government owed him thanks, 
 an act of courage and self-devotion such as few men had 
 ever had an opportunity of showing, and probably still 
 fewer would have shown." The duke mijrht well add 
 that " he had never known a person filling a high station 
 in another country treated in such a manner as Captain 
 Elliot had been treated by the authorities of the Chinese 
 government at Canton. 
 
 In the month of July, 1839, the English traders were 
 most of them resident at Macao, and a large fleet of 
 merchantmen lay at Hong-kong. It was obviously im- 
 possible to trust to the faith of so perfidious a functionary 
 as Commissioner Lin, who had violated, one by one, all 
 his promises during the progress of delivering the opium, 
 and kept the British superintendent and his countrymen 
 confined for six weeks, in the vain endeavour to obtain the 
 bond by which they were to yield themselves up to the 
 future mercy of the government. The commissioner re- 
 mained at Canton, not daring to leave that province until 
 he could report the peaceful resumption of the regular 
 British trade at Whampoa. His anxiety to accomplish 
 this prime object of his hopes was betrayed by repeated 
 papers addressed to the English, who, however, felt no 
 disposition to place themselves once more within the power 
 of a man who set himself above the ordinary obligations 
 of honour and good faith. The impetuosity of this rash 
 functionary had certainly placed him in a very critical 
 situation ; for, according to the invariable policy of the 
 Chinese government, he was doomed to remain in his pre- 
 sent office until he had worked his mission to a conclusion. 
 The commissioner's perplexity was soon increased by the 
 impulse which his reckless measures had given to the more
 
 138 ENGLISH INTERCOURSE. Chap. IV. 
 
 desperate traffic in opium on the east coast The high 
 prices soon brought on the immense stocks from India, 
 and, as the superintendent observed, " the coasts were 
 dehvered over to a state of things which seemed hkely to 
 pass from the worst character of a forced trade to plain 
 buccaneering." Had the Canton government accepted 
 the sincere offers which Captain Elliot made to co- 
 operate with it in the repression of the vilest part of the 
 traffic, these calamitous and threatening results might 
 have been prevented ; but the impracticable pride of the 
 Chinese was soon destined to meet with its reward. 
 
 In the mean while an unfortunate occurrence took place 
 at Ilong-kong in the death of a Chinese, killed in a riot 
 which broke out on shore with some American and 
 English sailors. There was the plainest proof on all 
 hands that Americans were engaged as well as English ; 
 but they denied it, and, as the Americans were still 
 trading at Canton, the Chinese found it convenient to lay 
 the whole responsibility on the English, who were not 
 trading. Captain Elliot proceeded to the utmost verge 
 of his powers, with a view to affijrd the government all 
 reasonable satisfaction, by setting in action the criminal 
 jurisdiction, and placing six of the English rioters on their 
 trial. The mandarins were invited to attend, but did not 
 think fit to comply. Five of the men were found guilty 
 of riot and assault only. These proceedings did not 
 satisfy Commissioner Lin, who was glad to be able to 
 ascribe the stoppage of the trade to the recent homicide, 
 and not to his own violent proceedings at Canton. He 
 moved down to Ileangshan, a place forty miles from 
 Macao, with about 2000 soldiers ; insisted upon the deli- 
 very of a man, and u})on the entrance within the river of 
 all the British shipping (his real object) ; while, with a 
 view to enforce his demands, he took away all the native
 
 Chap. IV. MASSACRE OF BOAT'S CREW. 139 
 
 servants and stopped the supplies of food to Macao. As 
 the Portuguese governor of that place confessed his want 
 of means to aftbrd the English any protection, they all 
 quitted the place, and embarked on board the ships at 
 Hong-kong on the 26th August. 
 
 The state of hostility and insecurity was greatly aggra- 
 vated by a barbarous murder committed at this time by 
 some armed Chinese boats on the defenceless crew of an 
 English schooner, when seven lascars were massacred, and 
 a passenger on board left for dead, after having been 
 cruelly cut and mutilated. As a mandarin hat and knife 
 were left on board by the murderers, there rested a strong 
 suspicion that the assailants were mandarin boats acting 
 at the instigation of the commissioner, whose acts had 
 proved that he was quite capable of such a proceeding 
 when he saw little chance of an innocent sailor being de- 
 livered to him for execution. 
 
 The arrival of H. M. ship ' Volage ' at this juncture 
 was a fortunate occurrence, which assured the security of 
 British subjects and their shipping from the threatened 
 attacks of the Chinese. Assistance was immediately 
 offered to the Portuguese governor of Macao, and all the 
 means to render that place secure and independent ; but 
 he declined the offer, and trusted to the preservation of a 
 rigid neutrality. An untoward event soon afterwards 
 occurred on the 4th of September, in the encounter of 
 Captain Elliot's cutter, accompanied by the pinnace of the 
 ' Volage,' and a small armed vessel, the ' Pearl,' with 
 three large Chinese war-junks, employed in intercepting 
 provisions from the fleet, and anchored under a large and 
 well-manned fort, opposite to Hong-kong. After a fire of 
 nearly half an hour against this superior force, the English 
 boats hauled off from the failure of ammunition, not having 
 come prepared for actual conflict. The junks, however,
 
 140 ENGLISH INTERCOURSE. Chap. IV. 
 
 had suffered, and were presently seen to weigh and make 
 sail for tlie purpose of escaping through an adjacent outlet. 
 By this time cartridges had been made, and the boats, 
 bearing up, succeeded in beating the junks back to their 
 former position. In the evening the ' Volage ' arrived at 
 tlie bay, and the three boats joined her. During the 
 night, however, it was agreed not to proceed in the morn- 
 ing to destroy the three junks ; and this was the only un- 
 fortunate feature of the affair, being calculated to make 
 the Chinese ascribe their forbearance to wrong motives. 
 
 A disquieting occurrence on the 8th of September for 
 some time kept the English fleet in painful suspense. 
 The master of the British armed schooner ' Psyche ' im- 
 prudently left the harbour of Hong-kong without orders, 
 taking with him fifteen people, to reconnoitre a passage 
 in the immediate vicinity, said to be occupied by war- 
 junks. No time was lost on the following day, when his 
 absence became known, in sending boats to make in- 
 quiries, but without success ; and as there appeared every 
 reason to suppose that the parties, sixteen in number, had 
 fallen into the hands of the Chinese, the urgent nature of 
 the case led the chief superintendent and Captain Smith 
 of the ' Volage ' to declare the Boca Tigris in a state of 
 blockade until the men were delivered up. Before the 
 period of the blockade arrived, however, the boat and 
 her crew returned in safety. A strong adverse tide had 
 caught them in the narrow passage they purposed to 
 explore, and, observing a considerable force in the rear, 
 they had pushed on through the opposite outlet, and suc- 
 ceeded in reaching Macao, though after a long passage, 
 and in a very exhausted state, having neither provisions 
 nor sails with them. The blockade was accordingly with- 
 drawn. 
 
 Towards the end of October there was a prospect of a
 
 Chap. IV. THE ' THOMAS COUTTS.' 141 
 
 temporary adjustment of difficulties, so far as to admit of 
 the commerce beino- carried on below the Boca Tio-ris 
 until further instructions had been received from Eno-- 
 land. The British community were returning to Macao, 
 and the ships to Chuenpee in order to deliver their car- 
 goes. There was no departure whatever from the principle 
 that it was impossible to deliver up a man to be tried by 
 the Chinese, or to sign a bond of consent for the capital 
 punishment of the queen's subjects by the mandarins. 
 
 But all this M^as doomed to be frustrated. On the 5th 
 November the chief superintendent wrote thus to the 
 Foreign Office :* — " A diffigrent and unhappy turn of 
 affairs has been brought about, and I am grieved to report 
 that this serious public mischief is attributable to the 
 conduct of a British subject, Mr. Warner, master of the 
 ship ' Thomas Coutts.' Upon his arrival from Sincapore, 
 Mr. Warner did not repair to Hong-kong, but demanded 
 his pilot, and proceeded to the Boca Tigris, signed the 
 required bond of consent to the new laws, involving the 
 infliction of capital punishment by Chinese forms of trial, 
 and the ship was immediately carried up to Whampoa." 
 A committee of British merchants had previously stated 
 their apprehension " that the circumstance of one Eng- 
 lish ship, the ' Thomas Coutts,' Captain Warner, having 
 actually proceeded inside the Bogue, in violation of the 
 injunctions of her majesty's chief superintendent, and the 
 fact of the captain having signed the bond required by 
 the (Jhinese government, might occasion delays and dif- 
 ficulties in the proposed trade outside, which would never 
 have arisen had all the English remained firm, as they 
 had hitherto done." 
 
 The consequence was a determination on the part of 
 the commissioner to break off" his concluded arrangement, 
 
 * Additional Parliamentary Papers, p. 8.
 
 142 ENGLISH INTERCOURSE. Ciiap. IV. 
 
 and a demand for the entrance of the whole British ship- 
 ping on the same terms as the ' Thomas Coutts;' or their 
 departure in three days, under menaces of destruction if 
 they remained. It was soon Captain Elliot's task to 
 report the most serious collision which had ever taken 
 place hetween our navy and the Chinese force, if we 
 except perhaps the passage of the Boca Tigi'is in 
 1834. Finding that the Chinese were preparing for 
 aggressive measures against the fleet, and that Admiral 
 Kwan was in considerable force near Chuenpee, the chief 
 superintendent recommended to Captain Smith the imme- 
 diate removal of the ' \"olage ' and ' Hyacinth ' to that 
 neighbourhood, and a moderate but firm address to the 
 commissioner. This measure was calculated to ascertain 
 the actual extent of preparation, and her majesty's ships 
 could be in no more suitable or imposing situation than 
 in sight of the batteries, and under the immediate obser- 
 vation of the commissioner. 
 
 Captain Elliot accordingly repaired on board the 
 ' Volage ' frigate on the 28th October ; but strong ad- 
 verse winds retarded their arrival until the morning of the 
 2nd November, when her majesty's ships were anchored 
 about a mile below the first battery, where an imposing 
 force of war-junks and fire-vessels was collected. A 
 lieutenant, accompanied by Mr. Morrison, the interpreter, 
 was despatched to the admiral's junk with the address to 
 the commissioner. They were civilly received, and the 
 admiral replied that he would forward the paper to their 
 excellencies then in the neighbourhood, and send the 
 answer next day. He also expressed a wish that the 
 ships should move down a little farther, which Captain 
 Smith immediately did, with the intention to prove his 
 peaceful disposition. In the course of the same evening 
 a linguist was despatched to the ships with a verbal mes-
 
 Chap. IV. NAVAI. ACTION. 143 
 
 sage, requesting that Mr. Morrison might be sent on 
 board the admirars junk. It was answered, that the 
 written address contained all that was to be said, and for 
 the present such a visit was inexpedient. 
 
 In the forenoon of the 3rd an officer of some rank 
 anchored at a short distance from the ships, and again 
 sent the linguist to desire Mr. Morrison might come to 
 them : in reply to which the previous message was re- 
 peated. About this time the Chinese squadron, under 
 the command of the admiral, broke ground, and stood out 
 towards her majesty's ships, which were immediately got 
 under weigh, and directed towards the approaching force. 
 As soon as this proceeding was observed, the squadron 
 anchored in good order to the number of twenty -nine sail, 
 and her majesty's ships were hove to ; while a short cor- 
 respondence ensued, in which the Chinese were perempfory 
 in demanding the delivery of an Englishman, and refused 
 to retire. 
 
 Captain Smith now very properly declared that he did 
 not feel himself warranted in leaving this formidable 
 flotilla at liberty to pass inside of him at night, and carry 
 into effect the menaces against the merchant vessels ; and 
 thinking that the retirement of her majesty's ships before 
 a force moved out with the palpable intention to intimi- 
 date was not compatible with the honour of the flag, he 
 resolved to constrain their return to their former anchor- 
 age. At noon, therefore, the signal was made to engage, 
 and the ships, then lying hove to at the extreme end of 
 the Chinese line, bore away ahead in close order, having 
 the wind on the starboard beam. In this way, and under 
 easy sail, they ran down the Chinese line, pouring in a 
 destructive fire. The lateral direction of the wind enabled 
 the ships to perform the same evolution from the other 
 extreme of the line, running up again with their port
 
 144 ENGLISH INTERCOURSE. Chap. IV. 
 
 broadsides bearing. The Chinese answered with much 
 spirit, but the terrible effect of the English fire was soon 
 manifest. One wai-junk blew up at ])istol-shot distance 
 from the ' Volage/ three were sunk, and several others 
 water-logged. The admiral's conduct is said to have 
 been worthy of his station. Ilis junk was evidently better 
 manned and armed than the others ; and after having 
 weighed, or perhaps cut or slipped his cable, he bore up 
 and engaged her majesty's ships in handsome style. In 
 less than three-quarters of an hour, however, he and the 
 remainder of his squadron were retiring in great distress 
 to their former anchorage, and, as Captain Smith was not 
 disposed to protract destructive hostilities, he offered no 
 obstruction to their retreat. It is to be feared, however, 
 that this clemency was thrown away upon the Chinese, 
 who have no conception of the true principles of such for- 
 bearance, and subsequent facts show that they actually 
 claimed the victory. This they perhaps founded on the 
 circumstance of her majesty's ships making sail for Macao, 
 for the purpose of covering tne embarkation of the English 
 who might see fit to retire from that place, and of provid- 
 ing for the safety of the merchant-ships. On the 4th 
 November the ' Volage ' joined the fleet at Hong-kong, 
 and the 'Hyacinth' was left at Macao, to watch events in 
 that quarter. 
 . It was time that the Chinese should receive such a 
 lesson as the foregoing, for not long prior to it they had 
 robbed and burned a Spanish brig, the ' Bilbaino,' utterly 
 unconnected with opium, under the })lea that she was an 
 English vessel, though her proper flag was flying. As 
 that brig lay at anchor in the Taypa, a harbour ])ertaining 
 to Macao, she was surprised at daybreak by four war- 
 junks and several fire-rafts, accompanied by a immber of 
 mandarin boats, whose crews entered the brig, robbed her
 
 Chap. IV. WAR DECLARED. 145 
 
 of everything on board, and then set fire to her. The 
 Spanish mate was carried off in chains, with one of the 
 sailors ; while the rest of the crew saved their lives by 
 jumping overboard. The Chinese carried away the flag 
 with them ; and the Spanish consular agent at Macao 
 was denied all redress for this gratuitous and unjustifiable 
 outrage. 
 
 The discomfiture of Admiral Kwan's squadron was soon 
 followed by the refusal of all trade to the English with 
 China ; but, for some months, the Americans continued to 
 trans-ship goods and carry them up to Canton, bringing 
 back cargoes of tea on British account, which were shipped 
 for England on the outside of the Boca Tigris. This at 
 length attracted attention, and the emperor's edict, cutting 
 ofi' the commerce of the English, was enforced to the 
 utmost, by denying intercourse to such American ships as 
 trans-shipped cargoes. The local government went so far 
 as to purchase several ships — rather to act as floating bat- 
 teries than to be added to the emperor's squadron of war- 
 junks. Their sense of their own weakness, on the other 
 hand, was proved by Admiral Kwan not risking such ano- 
 ther victory as that for which he had been lately rewarded, 
 but keeping very close to the forts at the Boca Tigris, 
 notwithstanding several attempts to coax him out. The 
 Governor-General of India was invested with full powers 
 to declare war, and direct its operations ; and thus com- 
 menced the most important and momentous enterprise, 
 next to the conquest of India itself, in which the British 
 arms have ever been engaged to the eastward of the Cape 
 of Good Hope. 
 
 VOL. I.
 
 146 ENGLISH INTERCOURSE. Chap. V. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 BRITISH INTERCOURSE TO THE EXPEDITION OF 1857. 
 
 First capture of Chusan — Visit to Peilio — Hostilities at Canton — 
 Reinforcements — Capture of Amoy — Recapture of Chusan — 
 Chinhae and Ningpo taken — Land operations — Capture of Cliapoo 
 
 — Of Woo-sung and Sbangliae — Chinkeangfoo stormed — Treaty 
 of Nanking — Troubles at Canton — Keying's visit to Hongkong 
 
 — Convention of Boca Tigris — Restoration of Chusan — Riot at 
 Canton — Assaults on Englislimen — Expedition of 1847 — Chinese 
 murderers executed — Progress of rebellion to Nanking — Sir John 
 Bowring — Outrage on the flag. 
 
 A DETAILED narrative of the war with China, under any 
 circumstances unsuitable to this work, is rendered the 
 more superfluous by its previous existence in another,* of 
 which it is the main subject. So small a share had opium, 
 except as the spark which exploded the mine, in what 
 some have been pleased to call the "opium war," that 
 opium was never once mentioned in the treaty which 
 concluded it, save as claiming a fraction of the indemnity. 
 Two hundred years of submissive policy at Canton, 
 leading- to the evils already detailed, and the transfer of 
 our relations from the East India Company to the hands 
 of the British government, when the same submission 
 became impossible, were sufficient to account for what 
 very many persons had foresight enough to predict 
 
 The presumption of the local government and people of 
 
 Canton, in which all troubles of consequence then and 
 
 since have originated, and where the remedy should always 
 
 be topical, was unfortunately fostered by the first step 
 
 * Cliiua dming the War, &c. Longman, 1852.
 
 Chap. V. OPEXIXG OF THE WAR. 147 
 
 taken by us in the war. Our fine armament, instead of 
 addressing itself to the offending quarter, passed Canton, 
 where they were prepared for and expected us, to proceed 
 to Chusan, an unoffending place, where they were not 
 prepared. The inference at the former place was inevit- 
 able, and the emperor was duly informed that we were 
 afraid of them, Chusan fell at once into our hands in 
 July, 1840, and a lull took place, during which the 
 Chinese pursued their miserable system of kidnapping 
 and murder in detail, proving that they could assassinate 
 at least, if they dared not fight. That fine island, which, 
 for four years after the termination of the war, proved so 
 healthy in the occupation of the 98th and other regiments 
 under the command of Colonel (now Sir Colin) Campbell, 
 was at first a mere pesthouse, through the combined 
 influence of bad provisions and the abuse of spirits. A 
 large proportion of the Cameronian regiment lie buried 
 on the west of the town of Tinghae, near which they were 
 quartered ; and disease was the most destructive enemy 
 of our land forces during the whole war. The navy, being 
 confined to their ships, were less exposed to the causes of 
 mischief — above all, Chinese spirits commonly known as 
 samshoo. 
 
 A number of small operations, that of the ' Blonde ' 
 frigate at Araoy, and of the ' Cruizer ' at Chapoo, served 
 only to inspirit the Chinese, who, on the departure of 
 those ships, claimed the victory. A small surveying 
 vessel, the ' Kite,' was seized while aground at the moutli 
 of the great river, and its inmates paraded in cages, 
 previous to their intended execution, which, however, 
 they happily escaped. At length, in August, 1840, the 
 plenipotentiary resorted to the mouth of the Peking river, 
 too shallow to be approached by any but small vessels, 
 and thus defended by nature. He was referred back to 
 
 H 2
 
 148 ENGLISH INTERCOURSE. Chap. V. 
 
 Canton for the proposed discussions, and Keshen, a 
 person of high rank, was deputed to meet him there. 
 
 Tiie mischievous training which the Cantonese had 
 always received from their government had lately been 
 ao-o-ravated by the proceedings of their favourite Lin, 
 attended as these were with temporary success. The 
 general feeling was against the new negociator, when it 
 was known that he came the advocate of pacific measures ; 
 for a besotted notion prevailed that the so-called " rebel- 
 lion " minfht be easily subdued by an appeal to arms. 
 The wily Keshen fell upon the safer course of gaining 
 time by protracted discussions, costly to us, but attended 
 with the hope of some turn of fortune in his own favour. 
 At length, on the 6th of January, 1641, in the midst of 
 the most bland professions, the provoking discovery was 
 made of a secret edict, consigning to detailed destruction 
 and murder all British ships and subjects wherever they 
 might be found. This perfidy was fitly visited the very 
 next day by the storming of the forts at Chuenpee and 
 Tykoktow, the destruction of several hundreds of the 
 enemy, and the disabling of 173 guns. The Bogue forts 
 unfortunately escaped by the grant of an armistice. " We 
 must adopt other methods to stop them (said Keshen to 
 the emperor), which will be easy, as they have opened 
 negociationsy A furious despatch in the mean while 
 arrived from Peking, directing the minister " to send the 
 heads of the rebellious barbarians to the capital in 
 baskets." Keshen, however, was so hard pressed that he 
 concluded a convention with the British, by which Hong- 
 kong was ceded to us, six millions of dollars agreed to be 
 paid as indemnity, and the trade opened within ten days, 
 with a direct official intercourse on equal terms. 
 
 This proved the ruin of the minister at Peking, whence 
 the emperor despatched a notable diatribe, in which
 
 Chap. V. CHINESE TRIUMVIRATE. 149 
 
 Keshen was degraded, and his enormous property (ex- 
 ceeding the wealth by which some gentlemen of the 
 Jewish persuasion have purchased nobility in Europe) 
 confiscated. Chusan having been given up, as the result 
 of the temporary armistice, hostilities were resumed in the 
 south. On the 2Gth February Sir Gordon Bremer captured 
 all the Bogue forts, an event which produced consternation 
 at Peking, and some dismay even at Canton. 
 
 With the hope, perhaps, that wisdom might be found 
 in the multitude of counsellors, a triumvirate was 
 despatched from court, of whom the chief, Yihshan, a 
 relative of the emperor,* had no better qualification than 
 his presumption and ignorant contempt of foreigners. The 
 third commissioner reached Canton the first of the three, 
 just after the capture of the Bogue forts, immediately 
 despatching 2000 of the new troops from the north to 
 the first bar to "expel " us. Sir Thomas Herbert's light 
 squadron taught them a terrible lesson on the 1st March, 
 dispersing the whole of the Chinese force on shore with 
 great slaughter. Yet they were afraid to report the 
 affair otherwise than as a victory ; and a succession of 
 victories of the same description led to the capitulation 
 before Nanking in 1842. 
 
 A deputation from Canton invited a parley on the 3rd 
 March, near Napier's Fort at the barrier; but the absurdity 
 of their terms, relaxing as little as the Sibyl herself, 
 led to the occupation of Napier's Fort by our troops. 
 Yihshan at length reached his post on the 14th April, 
 though his besotted ineptitude rendered him a mere spec- 
 tator of passing events, and left Yang-fang, his colleague, 
 the real actor. Meanwhile an interval of armed suspense 
 occurred, unfavourable to ourselves, during which the 
 
 * For general cliaracter of imperial relatives, see Chap. IX., p. 317.
 
 1 50 ENGLISH INTERCOURSE. Chap. V. 
 
 Chinese were canything but relaxing in their preparations ; 
 while the cold and dry season was passing away, to give 
 place to heat and rain when we renewed 0])erations. 
 
 Chinese troops arrived daily from the north, and un- 
 equivocal symptoms of an approaching storm began to 
 thicken. The native traders near the foreign quarter 
 forsook their shops with ominous haste, and the European 
 merchants thought it time to consult their own safety. 
 Soon after the prefect of the city had assured them in 
 the most winning terms that they were in no sort of 
 danger, the attack began towards the night of the 21st 
 May, on our weakest quarter, by fire-rafts and by guns 
 on the shore, now unmasked for the first time. The 
 main body of the British land foi'ce, to the surprise of 
 the Chinese, advanced round by the westward to take 
 possession of the heights in the rear of the city. The 
 number of troops, including the Manchow garrison, 
 cooped up within the walls, has been estimated at 20,000, 
 and served mainly as a scourge to the inhabitants, the 
 confusion being terrible in its results to them. 
 
 When the forts to the north had been carried by our 
 troops, the fugitives pressed turaultuously into the city. 
 The inhabitants, on the other hand, fled from the tender 
 mercies of their own soldiery by the eastern gates. A 
 civil war of extermination soon began, and the leaders, 
 unable to control their rage, resolved to conclude a con- 
 vention, at any risk or expense, with us. Every outwork 
 had been mastered, and Canton lay at the mercy of the 
 British force. One of the Peking triumvirate made his 
 appearance on the walls, and invited a parley with Sir 
 Hugh Gough ; but the terms of a convention had already 
 been concluded by the plenipotentiary on the river-side 
 of the city. Six millions of dollars were to be imme- 
 diately paid as ransom, and the foreign trade resumed
 
 Chap. V. POPULAR OUTBREAKS. 151 
 
 on condition of our troops being- withdrawn. It was 
 significantly reported to Peking, that, " having once got 
 rid of the barbarians, and blocked up all the passages 
 leading to Canton, we may cut off their commerce, and 
 place them in the worst position." 
 
 ^Yhile the negociations were yet pending, an event had 
 occurred which surprised the Chinese leaders themselves. 
 Some of our idle camp-followers wandered into the empty 
 villages and committed excesses of various kinds, including 
 tlie violation of several tombs, in which the strongest 
 feelings of the Chinese are centered. A general rising 
 took place around, every weapon was seized, and a col- 
 lection of some thousands seemed to threaten the rear of 
 the British position. As their numbers gradually increased, 
 a message was delivered to the city, that the flag of truce 
 should be hauled down, and operations resumed, unless 
 this demonstration was quickly withdrawn. The prefect 
 of Canton despatched an order, and succeeded in dis- 
 persing the assemblage ; but many a wish has since been 
 uttered that the "braves" had received a taste of that 
 for which they seemed so ready, and been put to the rout 
 by shot and shell. From that day an idea seized the 
 rabble that they were equal to the enemy which had 
 defeated their rulers ; and, however absurd the notion, it 
 has been productive of the utmost trouble and mischief 
 ever since. Soon after the completion of the peace in 
 1842, the Canton mob burned down the factories and flag- 
 staflf under the organized conduct of leaders ; and their 
 aggressions were perpetually resumed for about five years, 
 until the public decapitation of the four murderers of 
 Englishmen, in 1847, seemed to diminish their taste for 
 mischief, and some ten years of comparative immunity 
 took place previous to the events consequent on the affair 
 of the ' Arrow ' lorcha.
 
 152 ENGLISH INTERCOURSE. Chap. V. 
 
 A change took place in the chief actors on both sides 
 soon after the conclusion of the operations against Canton. 
 With the arrival of Sir Henry Pottinger, followed by large 
 reinforcements, the scene of war became transferred to 
 another quarter. The Canton government did all in their 
 power to communicate with the new plenipotentiary, who 
 would not see any of them. A typhoon, or hurricane, did 
 some damage to our squadron as it lay off Hongkong, 
 but the energy of Sir W. Parker, the admiral, repaired 
 all defects, and towards the end of August, 1841, a fine 
 naval and military force was on its way to effective opera- 
 tions on the north-east coast. Views were at first enter- 
 tained of molesting Hongkong on the departure of the 
 armament, but the small force still retained there proved 
 amply sufficient for its protection. 
 
 Since the first capture of Chusan the (Chinese govern- 
 ment had not neglected preparations along the most ac- 
 cessible points of the coast. Amoy, from its good harbour 
 and former connection with European trade, was selected 
 as a point of defence, being a likely one of attack. A 
 stupendous stone rampart, of many hundred yards in 
 length, had been constructed eastward to the entrance of 
 the harbour. The guns of the line-of-battle ships pro- 
 duced little eflfect on this by their shot on the 27th of 
 August, but the left flank was escaladed by landing a 
 party of troops, who easily drove the enemy along the 
 whole length of the rampart, and the commandant, seeing 
 the place carried, walked into the sea and drowned 
 himself. Immediately opposite to the town of Amoy is a 
 little island called Koolangsoo, a mile in length, which 
 is easily defended, and commands the town and harbour. 
 It was resolved to leave a small land force there, and not 
 to occupy Amoy itself while the expedition proceeded to 
 Chusan. A report M'as immediately sent to Peking that
 
 Chap. V. BARBARITIES OF YUKIEN. 153 
 
 we had evacuated Amoy, and not a word was said about 
 Koolangsoo and its garrison. 
 
 The person in charge of the defence of Chusan and 
 Ningpo was the Mongol Tartar Yukien, a more sangui- 
 nary savage than even governor Yeh of Canton. Like 
 him, however, he employed assassination, poisoning, and 
 kidnapping, as legitimate modes of warfare. One of his 
 exploits was to flay alive the master of an English 
 transport caught on shore. But his punishment was 
 exemplary, and not long deferred. Chusan had been 
 defended by a huge embankment along the whole sea- 
 line in front of the town, on the supposition that the 
 attack would be made there ; but this was easily turned 
 by scaling the heights on the left, and charging the 
 Chinese along the rampart. The force then pushed on 
 for the hill immediately above the city on the west, 
 where the wall being scaled Chusan fell a second time 
 into our possession, on the 1st October, 1841. Many of 
 the inhabitants had so largely profited by our former 
 occupation that they now remained quietly to take care 
 of their property. The greatest order and discipline 
 prevailed, the markets were well supplied, and for five 
 years perfect contentment existed among our temporary 
 subjects in that fine island. 
 
 After the fall of Chusan, Yukien tried to keep up the 
 game of misrepresentation, and addressed the emperor 
 in a document still more mendacious than any previous. 
 But it was the last he was destined to write. The day 
 for which he professed so much desire at length arrived, 
 and on the 10th October our land and sea forces appeared 
 before Chinhae, his boasted stronghold. The two line- 
 of-battle ships were towed, in a perfect calm, into their 
 respective berths before the citadel, on the left bank of the 
 Ningpo river, and with the rest of the squadron undertook 
 
 H 3
 
 154 ENGLISH INTERCOURSE. Chap. V. 
 
 the reduction of that and the town ; while the land force, 
 about 2200 strong, was put ashore on the opposite side 
 to attack the Chinese camp, numbering full 5000 men. 
 The attack was made in three columns, the centre one in 
 advance, and tVie enemy formed with great confidence to 
 receive it, commencing a fire from their small artillery. 
 But the almost simultaneous attack of the three advancing 
 columns, with their well-plied volleys of musketry, soon 
 proved too much for the Chinese, who broke up in confu- 
 sion, flying on all sides, and leaving hundreds of dead and 
 wounded on the ground. 
 
 The ships meanwhile operated with fully equal effect 
 against the defences of the left bank, and the superior 
 range of their artillery and missiles spread destruction 
 before the enemy could get theirs to bear. The ruin and 
 consternation were fearful, nearly as much from the ex- 
 plosion of the Chinese magazines as from our fire ; and 
 the sanguinary Yukien was condemned to view this 
 dismal discomfiture of all his boasted anticipations. He 
 at first sought safety in flight, but, awaking to a sense 
 of his disgrace, attempted to drown himself. He was 
 dragged out by his followers, but on the following day 
 contrived to destroy himself by swallowing either opium 
 or some other deadly agent. 
 
 Such was the panic created among the whole popula- 
 tion, who had assembled in multitudes to wdtness our 
 expected destruction, and many of whom fell victims to 
 the fire, that not an attempt was made at further resist- 
 ance ; and the city of Ningpo, only a few miles up the 
 river, was taken quiet possession of by our force on the 
 13th October, being destined to aflford a good asylum 
 durinfT the ensuinnc winter to the land forces. Here the 
 campaign of 1841 closed in the progress of conquest to 
 the northward ; but some signal successes were achieved
 
 Chap. V. OCCUPATION OF NIXGPO. 155 
 
 on shore, both at Ningpo and in the immediate neighbour- 
 hood, all tending to disabuse the Chinese government of 
 its notions of invincibility, and to hasten the conclusion of 
 peace. 
 
 When the people of Ningpo discovered that they would 
 be treated like peaceful subjects, and that their worst 
 enemies were their own troops, or the vagabond banditti 
 by whom the town had been chiefly plundered, they 
 cheerfully remained, and supplied the provisions, for which 
 they received punctual payment. Three neighbouring 
 district towns were easily reduced, and a period of tran- 
 quillity ensued until the commencement of March. The 
 Chinese leaders, perhaps emboldened by the temporary 
 lull, had been for some time collecting a force with a view 
 to retake the city by surprise, and on the night of the 
 10th March a furious attack was made, by dense columns 
 of the enemy, on the west and south gates. At the 
 former they were bravely repulsed by the small guard of 
 the 18th Royal Irish, under Lieutenant Armstrong ; but 
 succeeded in gaining an entrance by the latter, though 
 they met with such a reception in the interior as soon led 
 to their retreating through the same gate with severe loss. 
 In the mean time a gun, with a party of artillery, hurried 
 to the west gate, and did great execution on the assailants 
 before they retreated. Smaller attacks simultaneously at 
 Chinhae and Chusan were easily defeated. 
 
 This occasioned our force becoming assailants in their 
 turn. Intelhgence having been received of an army of 
 5000 or 6000 men assembled in the neighbourhood of 
 Tsekee, under a Tartar general, a military and naval 
 brigade of 1250 men proceeded, on the 15th March, in 
 three steamers up the river, and found the enemy en- 
 camped on the heights of Segaon, to the north of the town. 
 The attack was made in three separate columns, and after
 
 156 ENGLISH INTERCOURSE. Chap. V. 
 
 some loss in ascending the heights from the enemy's 
 matchlocks, the whole force of the Chinese was soon put 
 to the rout, with considerable carnage. This was among 
 the final lessons which were necessary to dispel the igno- 
 rant conceit of the government, and teach them (what they 
 had long denied) that they were as unequal to us on the 
 land as at sea. The grand army of Chekeang was now 
 effectually dispersed, and the time quickly approached 
 for continuing the expedition in its victorious advance 
 towards the north, where its final success was promoted, 
 not less by what the enemy had learned of the moderation 
 and humanity of the reported barbarians, than by their 
 uniformly irresistible career. 
 
 The first point of attack after quitting Ningpo was 
 Chapoo, on the shore of the great bay or estuary of 
 the river on which Ilangchow is built. Here the resist- 
 ance, on the 18th May, was as ineffectual as usual, with 
 the exception of a sharp contest with some hundred 
 Tartars, who had retired to the interior of a temple, and, 
 seemingly ignorant of our custom of giving quarter, de- 
 fended that post in the most desperate manner until 
 burnt out. The astonishment of the survivors was great 
 on being dismissed with praise and rewards. The British 
 force was now advancing fast towards the mouth of the 
 Yang-tse-keang, and the worst fears of the Peking govern- 
 ment began to be realised. Great preparations had been 
 made at Woosung, lying at the entrance of the Keang 
 and of the Shanghae river ; but, when the squadron 
 reached that point, on the 16th June, they ranged them- 
 selves at anchor along the formidable-looking batteries, 
 and after two hours' firing the seamen and marines of the 
 fleet sufficed to drive the garrisons from their posts, after 
 killing the Chinese commandant, whose hnage was subse- 
 quently enshrined in a temple at Shanghae, further up the
 
 Chap. V. ADVANCE TO NANKING. 157 
 
 river. The British force advanced at once upon that city, 
 a flourishing port of trade, destined to contain one of our 
 new consulates. Here the resistance was almost nothing. 
 The town had been abandoned by its defenders, and the 
 plunder and devastation by thieves and vagabonds consi- 
 derably preceded our occupation. 
 
 The apathy and indifference of the people to invasion 
 had resulted very much from the experience of the immu- 
 nity enjoyed during the past winter by the unresisting 
 natives at Ningpo and elsewhere. Being little partial to 
 their Tartar rulers, they had the less motive to resist us, 
 and this was ominous to the imperial government. The 
 British force quitted Shanghae on the 23rd July, to try 
 the great problem of the navigability of the Yang-tse- 
 keang. Perhaps the most remarkable exploit of the 
 whole war was the safe conduct to Nanking, a distance of 
 200 miles, of fifteen ships of war, ten steamers, and above 
 50 transports, conveying 9000 troops, by the admirable 
 arrangements of Sir William Parker, along this mighty 
 stream, which had never before been ploughed by a 
 European keel. On the 19tli July the force was at 
 anchor off" Chinkeangfoo, a little below Nanking. 
 
 As guarding the openings of the Grand Canal north 
 and south of the river, and the transit of the river itself, 
 the post was of great importance. This was best proved 
 by the large Tartar garrison under Haeling, a com- 
 mander of some eminence. The resistance here on the 
 20th of July was greater than at any other point, and we 
 lost more in killed. Our squadron might have shelled 
 the city from the water, but the attack was reserved for 
 the land force. After dispersing some Chinese troops in 
 the plain, our attacking columns scaled the walls or forced 
 the gates with little opposition ; but it was on the ramparts 
 that the contest began, and for about two hours the
 
 158 ENGLISH INTERCOUESE. Chap. V. 
 
 Tartars disputed it step by step. Overpowered at last 
 with great carnage, the remnant disappeared, and Haeling, 
 retiring to his house, deliberately burned himself to death. 
 The families of the Tartar troops nearly all destroyed 
 themselves, as their compatriots had before done at 
 Chapoo. 
 
 The capture of this citadel and the destruction of so 
 many of the emperor's own praetorians, tended very much 
 to hasten the conclusion of a contest now so threatening 
 to the Peking government. The estimable and pacific 
 characters of the two chief commissioners, Keying and 
 Elepoo, both Tartars, aided the attainment of what was 
 now the principal aim of both parties. Moderation, 
 humanity, and comparative sincerity, on the Chinese side, 
 took the place of blustering, cruelty, and evasion. On the 
 4th of August the ' Cornwallis ' flag-ship anchored off the 
 north gate of Nanking, and the whole of the squadron 
 having arrived by the 9th, the disembarkation of troops 
 commenced the next day. The city was ill provided for 
 resistance, and the Tartar garrison had a foreshadow^ing 
 of their own probable fate in that of their comrades at 
 Chinkeangfoo, Negociations soon commenced, and, on 
 the first appearance of vacillation on the Chinese side, 
 preparations were made for carrying Nanking by storm. 
 The emperor at length, after hesitating on one or two 
 minor points, yielded his consent, and a treaty of peace 
 was signed by Sir H. Pottinger on board the ' Corn- 
 wallis ' on the 29th of August. The principal articles 
 were, the payment of 21,000,000 dollars as indemnity 
 for the war ; the abolition of the llong monopoly ; the 
 opening of five ports of trade under a tariff of moderate 
 duties ; the cession of the island of Hongkong ; and direct 
 communication on terms of perfect equality between the 
 two governments.
 
 Chap. V. TREATY OF PEACE. 159 
 
 The four new ports of trade (in addition to Canton, 
 the old one) had not been ill selected, considering the 
 means of information existing at the time. Amoy and 
 Ningpo were chosen as having been previous trading 
 ports ; and Ningpo has proved on trial the least profitable 
 of the four, perhaps from its vicinity to Shanghae, which 
 is the best of all, and therefore draws away its trade. At 
 Shanghae and Amoy we have the advantage of trading 
 under the guns of our ships, but at Foochowfoo, as at 
 Canton, there is the great disadvantage (in China) of all 
 transactions being at the distance of ten miles from the 
 shipping. The most untoward feature of all, however, on 
 the conclusion of the treaty, was the condition of affairs at 
 Canton. At that old and traditional seat of animosity 
 the rabble and its leaders had only added to the leaven 
 of hatred and malice which their rulers had always 
 instilled. To quote from a volume* published five years 
 ago, "This worked so effectually, that on the 7th of 
 December, a few months after the treaty was signed, a 
 mob, first attracted by a broil with some lascar sailors in 
 the streets, proceeded systematically to set fire to the 
 British consulate, their especial attention being devoted to 
 the destruction of the flagstaff^, which at length fell amidst 
 
 the shouts of the crowd The organised character of the 
 
 proceeding was clearly marked by some of the ringleaders, 
 or those who appeared to direct the movements of the 
 mass, endeavouring, when satisfied with the burning of the 
 premises, to stop the plunder. The government paid a 
 pecuniary indemnity on account of the losses ; but Canton 
 escaped with impunity a second time, and this cowardly 
 rabble remained in possession of the comfortable opinion 
 that they had established their superiority over those 
 foreigners whom their rulers had systematically taught 
 * China duiing tlie War and since tlic Peace. 1852.
 
 160 ENGLISH INTERCOURSE. Chap. V. 
 
 them to hate and despise during a restricted intercourse 
 of some two hundred years." 
 
 All our troubles of the least consequence, and all that 
 have not been conclusively dealt with since the peace, 
 have been at Canton. At Shanghae, Ningpo, and Amoy, 
 the British power and clemency were equally displayed 
 and the best results ensued. "Happy the people whose 
 annals are dull," and equally happy the even tenor of the 
 treaty which is not enlivened by repeated infractions. It 
 was discouraging, on reaching China in May 1844, and 
 receiving charge from Sir Henry Pottinger, to be greeted 
 with the intelligence that the incorrigible rabble of Canton 
 had, only the day before, got up a serious riot ending 
 in bloodshed. The spleen of the mob was, on this 
 occasion, directed against the Americans, who armed 
 themselves and lucklily shot one of their assailants, an 
 example which served for some time to check their 
 aggi-essive spirit. Not long after, when preparations 
 were making to rebuild the British quarter, an abusive 
 placard threatened renewed destruction to the consulate 
 if it should be restored. All this, it must be added, 
 was purely gratuitous — the Canton mode of commencing 
 peace. 
 
 Under the circumstances, it was a subject of congratu- 
 lation with myself that a man of so much wisdom and so 
 alive to the real interests of his country as Keying had 
 been chosen to conduct foreign relations at Canton. His 
 high rank, as a relative of the emperor himself, gave him 
 unusual weight and independence. The choice of the 
 site was not equally fortunate, for, with the iiTitable 
 tendencies already stated, there came, for the first two 
 years, the periodical operation of paying up the instal- 
 ments of the indemnity, which of course had anything
 
 Chap. V. THE OPIIBI QUESTION. 161 
 
 but a soothing effect.* Opium on the other hand had 
 ceased utterly to be a source of irritation since the war. 
 Not an edict was issued against it, and the drug was 
 openly carried about the streets in broad day, and sold like 
 any other article. Our consuls had repeatedly (in pur- 
 suance of my directions, who wished to observe the treaty 
 as to the prevention of smuggling in general), denounced 
 to the mandarins this open and impudent violation of the 
 law. It was now, however, a dead letter as to opium, 
 and the mandarins often requested that nothing might 
 be said about it. Under such circumstances, it is incon- 
 ceivable why a certain set of gentlemen in England 
 should any longer rave about opium ; the more especially 
 as the same gentlemen, with a Judaical observance of 
 the Sabbath condemned by the Author of Christianity 
 himself,t drive our own people into the gin and beer 
 shops, by at once flying at and strangling every attempt 
 at more innocent or improving recreations. Opium is 
 neither as brutalizing in its immediate, nor as prejudicial 
 in its ultimate, effects as spirits. 
 
 According to all reasonable expectation, considering the 
 wily character of the Chinese, a succession of the most 
 harassing attempts, direct or indirect, to invade our treaty 
 rights, beset the commencement of my diplomatic or ad- 
 ministrative functions. Infractions of our sovereignty were 
 attempted at Hongkong, though that island had been ceded 
 to Great Britain, " to be governed by such laws and regu- 
 lations as Her Majesty shall see fit to direct." It was in 
 
 * The whole amount of twenty-one millions of dollars, between four 
 and five millions sterling, was paid up by the commencement of 1846. 
 It woidd be difficult to obtain such another indemnity since the rebel- 
 lion, which has left to the Peking government neither the money, nor 
 the power of obtaining it. 
 
 t " The sabbath was made for man, not man for the sabbath."
 
 11)2 ENGLISH IXTERCOrRSE. Chap. V. 
 
 fact a Crown colony, gained by right of conquest. The 
 law officers of the Crown declared that it was impossible 
 to abandon our complete jurisdiction over the Chinese 
 inhabitants themselves, without converting the sovereignty 
 of the island into a mere occupancy. One daring Chinese 
 functionary attempted to levy contributions from the 
 natives in the south of the island ; and as it was necessary 
 to diminish the appetite for such proceedings, he was 
 towed round, at the tail of a steamer, in his own boat, 
 and kept a prisoner at Victoria for three weeks, until his 
 act had been formally disavowed. 
 
 Keying himself could not resist altogether the tempta- 
 tion of trying to retain at Canton something of the Ilong 
 monopoly, which had always proved so gainful to the 
 government. He proposed that as many as one hundred 
 licensed merchants should be established at that place ; 
 but he was told that the principle of the treaty, altogether 
 abolishing the Hong system, would be equally violated 
 by ten or by a hundred ; and perceiving the case to be 
 hopeless, he gave up the point with a good grace. Battles 
 of the same kind were to be fought at the new consulates. 
 The viceroy at Foochowfoo, well known for his anti- 
 European disposition, endeavoured to deny our consuls 
 residences within the town both there and at Amoy (also 
 under his jurisdiction), under precisely the same pretext 
 as at Canton — the hostility of the people. But the cases 
 had not the remotest analogy. The most decided and 
 energetic measures became necessary, and I had the 
 satisfaction, after much trouble, of establishing our 
 consuls in fitting residencies at Foochowfoo and Amoy 
 about the beginning of 1845. In no country is the 
 maxim " Principiis obsta " so indispensable as in China.* 
 
 * " Tlic consuls at the several stations reported various infractions of 
 the principle of perfect freedom in comuicrcial dealings and competi-
 
 Chap. V. ESTABLISHMENT OF CONSULS. 1G3 
 
 A personal inspection of the new consulates soon 
 demonstrated the great advantages of Shanghae above all 
 the other five ports. Its commercial position relatively 
 to the tea and silk districts, the friendliness of the native 
 authorities, and the favourable dispositions of the people, 
 were all in favour of this emporium, destined in a few 
 short years to surpass Canton, in spite of old habits and 
 ancient establishments. The Cantonese had by their 
 hostile propensities, on the very threshold of the treaty 
 relations, forfeited all claim to regard or sympathy, and 
 it was scarcely possible to view without satisfaction the 
 almost certain prospect of their forfeiting that foreign 
 intercourse from which the wealth and importance of 
 their city had been exclusively derived. 
 
 It was a wise policy which prompted England, France, 
 and America to make common cause — the cause of civili- 
 zation against barbarism — in these negociations. Divide 
 et impera^ a maxim which implies the substitution of 
 intrigue for substantial power, had not been neglected 
 by the Chinese during the war ; but had always been 
 met, and by the French especially, with a straightforward 
 manliness which altogether disconcerted them. The 
 
 tion. Tliis indirect interference was calculated, and evidently intended, 
 to impede the natural growth of European trade at the new ports. 
 One instance was the ohstnictiou of teas in their passage from the 
 place of production towards Shanghae, and the attempt therehy to 
 divert them towards their old destination. Canton. Another was a 
 monopoly-licence granted by the local authorities of Ningpo to certain 
 persons to deal in iron. A similar, or worse, monopoly of the trade in 
 cassia was granted to a single dealer at Canton, who accordingly ex- 
 acted from eveiy purchaser of that article a fee amounting to 50 per 
 cent, more than the duty required by the treaty tariff. Then, again, it 
 was foimd that a custom-house had been set up in the interior for 
 the collection of transit-duties on our cotton-manufactures, which by 
 the treaty could not be levied at the ports of trade. These nuisances 
 were finally abated, but at the price of much time and correspondence." 
 — China since the Peace, p. 91.
 
 164 ENGLISH IXTERCOURSE. Chap. V. 
 
 madness of Governor Yeh, in the late Canton troubles, 
 altogether forgot or set at nought such prudential con- 
 siderations, and he contrived to excite, not only the open 
 hostility of the Americans, and the declared disapproval 
 of the French, but the bitter enmity of the Spaniards, by 
 assassinating their consul, in his indiscriminating appetite 
 for foreign heads. Our civilised warfare to the northward 
 in 1842 humanised and converted the Tartar and Chinese 
 leaders, who ended in treating our prisoners with the 
 same kindness which we had uniformly displayed towards 
 theirs ;* but for Yeh, just reeking from the butchery of 
 his own countrymen, that was perhaps impossible. He 
 proved himself a worthy imitator of his atrocious pro- 
 totype Yukien (page 153). 
 
 Nothing could have been more unfortunate for Keying 
 than the choice of Canton as his place of residence and 
 negociation. With all his good intentions, the difficult 
 position in which he often found himself placed, between 
 his obligations to us and his fear of the bigoted Chinese 
 party, led him occasionally to essay evasions of the treaty. 
 Some of these have been alluded to, especially the 
 attempt to exclude our consuls from the interior of Foo- 
 chowfoo and Amoy, after the manner of Canton. Keying 
 made a faint attempt to restrict the rule of equality 
 between Chinese and British functionaries by the literal 
 terms of the treaty, correspondence alone being specified, 
 and to except their residences ; but he was told that the 
 eleventh article established not a form only, but a priji- 
 ciple — that of perfect equality on evei*y point whatsoever. 
 
 It is only just to say that Chinese faith is inviolable — 
 as long as the guarantees are ample and sufficient. In 
 this view the retention of Chusan with a British garrison 
 proved of the utmost consequence in securing the fulfil- 
 
 * China during the War, vol. i. passim.
 
 Chap. V. COMMISSIONER KEYING. 165 
 
 merit of treaty obligations. Koolangsoo (the little island 
 opposite to Amoy) had also been retained by us, but it 
 was a post of small consequence, and instructions were 
 received from home to evacuate it before the stipulated 
 time. The wish of Keying was rather that we should 
 continue there, fi'om a tenacious regard to the mere letter 
 of our conventions. He recommended that the treaty 
 should be observed " without deviating a hair's breadth ;" 
 but as this hair's breadth precision would have been at 
 the cost of a regiment in an unhealthy quarter, Koolangsoo 
 was evacuated in 1845, and restored to the Chinese 
 government. 
 
 Keying, in proof of his fi'iendly disposition, paid a visit 
 of four or five days to Hongkong in November, 1845, when 
 he won golden opinions by his dignified and amiable 
 conduct, corresponding with his high rank as the delegate 
 and representative of his sovereign. A steamer was sent 
 to Canton to convey him down, wnth his suite ; and when 
 the same steamer carried him back he desired to bestow 
 a munificent present of about two hundred pounds on the 
 crew. The naval commander-in-chief saw objections to 
 the receipt of this by the sailors, and accordingly it was 
 remitted (with Keying's approval) to the London Sea- 
 man's Hospital, who thus enrolled among its chief bene- 
 factors this justly celebrated Manchow Tartar. It was 
 Keying who negociated with M. de Lagrene the treaty 
 between France and China in 1844, as well as the* 
 Chinese treaty with the United States a few months pre- 
 viously. In both of these it was expressly stated (as well 
 as in our own) that the stipulated privileges should be 
 common to all the western states resorting to China — the 
 firmest bond of union among them. 
 
 The approaching period for the restoration of Chusan 
 in 1846 seemed a favourable moment for pressing the
 
 166 ENGLISH INTERCOURSE. Chap. V. 
 
 long-deferred treaty obligation to open the city of Canton* 
 to foreigners. The plea of disinclination on the part of 
 the people had proved so utterly false at both Foochow 
 and Amoy, and had there been so successfully overturned, 
 that the amount of its validity seemed worth trying at 
 Canton. As the result of renewed remonstrances a pro- 
 clamation was issued by Keying and his colleague the 
 Fooyuen, acknowledging the right of foreigners to enter 
 the city ; but the local government found itself then 
 unable to carry the point against the factious rabble, 
 which by degrees it had taught to oppose, not only 
 foreigners, but itself. Tiiis stupid policy, by a righteous 
 retribution, has proved one of the sources of the present 
 unsuppressed rebellion, the leaders of which are Canton 
 men.f Previously, however, to the delivery of Chusan, a 
 convention was signed at Boca Tigris, and subsequently 
 ratified by the emperor, formally admitting the right 
 of entry to the city, suspended as it was for the rea- 
 sons already stated. It is perhaps not impossible that 
 the longer retention of Chusan might have sufficed to 
 carry the point at Canton ; but there was a universal 
 outcry at the time for its immediate restoration according 
 to treaty : besides that the troops were required in India. 
 It has been stated in another place, "At the new ports 
 of trade there had been scarcely any trouble from the 
 beginning. The people were generally well disposed 
 ^towards us, and where local circumstances favoured trade 
 the progress was satisfactory, especially at Shanghae, 
 
 * The privilege to individuals was -wortli nothing. The real evil of 
 the exclusion was the odium and disgrace attaching therehy to foreign- 
 erri, and the irritation wliich it kept uj) ; besides iutcrrapting the free 
 personal communication of the respective authorities, and enabling 
 the higher Chinese officers to shut themselves up in unapproachable 
 exclusiveness. The mere denial of a treaty-right was an evil in 
 itself. 
 
 t For an explanation of Governor Yeh's conduct to the people of 
 Canton, see cud of this chapter, p. 178 (note).
 
 Chap. V. IIIOTS AT CANTON. 167 
 
 which seemed destined to supersede Canton in due course 
 of time. By way of accelerating this event the vicious 
 and incurable rabble of the latter place, who burned down 
 the British consulate only three months after the treaty of 
 peace, seemed determined from time to time to renew the 
 old feud, lest its embers should gradually become extinct 
 The evacuation of Chusan had just been completed in July, 
 1846, and I had parted on the most friendly and cordial 
 terms with the high officers appointed to receive it, when 
 a despatch from the General at Hongkong announced 
 that another riot at Canton, the third or fourth since the 
 peace, originating in a street brawl, had well-nigh caused 
 the sack and pillage of the whole foreign quarter. The 
 rabble, soon reinforced by shoals of vagabonds always 
 ready for mischief, had made a desperate onset upon the 
 dwellings of the English and Americans, who, perceiving 
 tlie extent of the peril, combined to repel them with fire- 
 arms, and at length succeeded in dispersing the assailants 
 after shooting three of their number. The Chinese govern- 
 ment, in the mean while, like ' an ancient and most quiet 
 watchman,' did nothing for three hours fi'om the com- 
 mencement of the broil, and perhaps would not have inter- 
 fered at all, unless in some fear at last for itself." 
 
 This tardy interference was made worse by the attempts, 
 on the part of the Chinese authorities, to simplify the 
 question by confining it entirely to the English, though 
 it was only common to them with the Americans. It was 
 required that the lex talionis should be visited on those 
 (altogether uncertain) individuals whose shots in their 
 own defence had told on the three Chinese. To this 
 there was but one answer, — " Your Excellency must be 
 well aware that from the commencement a most unjust 
 attempt has been made to fasten the odium of the late 
 disasters exclusively on British subjects. Had an im- 
 partial and fair line of conduct been adopted, the affair
 
 1(38 ENGLISH INTERCOURSE. Ciiap. V. 
 
 mio-lit be more easily carranfrod. It is a rule with all 
 nations, founded on the plainest principles of natural 
 justice, that any person who chances to kill an aggressor 
 in the necessary, and therefore lawful, defence of his life 
 and property cannot be punished. According to this 
 universal rule, the American who chanced to shoot a 
 Chinese aggressor in 1844 could not be punished by his 
 countrymen." The local government had, in fact, neg- 
 lected the enforcement of some excellent regulations, 
 which, with express reference to the affray of 1844, it 
 had pledged itself with the American minister to carry 
 out. The late disturbances were the inevitable conse- 
 quence of such remissness, or rather bad faith, and it 
 was time to revise its ancient but stupid maxim, " Bar- 
 baros non regendo regere,"* which bore on the face of it 
 its own condemnation. 
 
 The foreign residents at Canton, finding -themselves 
 thus reduced to " a state of nature " in relation to the 
 natives, saw the necessity of organizing their body into a 
 corps of trained volunteers to repel force by force. How- 
 ever desirable the protection of two or three men-of-war 
 at different points in the Canton river, it was not always 
 easy to accomplish. The limited number of the Eastern 
 . squadron, with the demands of the other four ports — the 
 want of ships to carry home, or to India, the successive 
 instalments of the indemnity — the recall by the Admiralty 
 of some, before their places had been supplied by others — 
 and the then active operations at Borneo and New Zea- 
 land, had reduced the force on the China station below 
 a convenient number. This was unfortunate at a mo- 
 ment when Chusan, that material guarantee — that bond 
 of peace and amity — no longer remained to us. 
 
 Towards the end of 1846 the culminating point of 
 
 * Vide p. 54, ante.
 
 Chap. V, ASSAULTS OX EXGLISIIMEX. 169 
 
 misrule had been reached by the Canton populace. 
 Among other acts of violence to British subjects or other 
 foreigners, two seamen, after being enticed into the back 
 streets, and there assailed by the mob, were beaten, 
 pelted, and badly wounded, and then brought half dead 
 to the consulate. The consul at Canton complained to 
 Keying. But the restoration of Chusan had produced 
 an unfavourable change. Other grievances called for a 
 strong appeal, which, however, was met by Keying with 
 a hmsquerie never before exhibited. 
 
 Then, again, about the commencement of March fol- 
 lowing, a savage attack was made on an officer of rank in 
 the Royal Artillery and five 6ther gentlemen during an 
 excursion up the Canton river. Soon afterwards a despatch 
 arrived, conveying stringent instructions to demand the 
 instant punishment of the parties who had ill-used the 
 two seamen, with an intimation to the Chinese authorities, 
 that if "they would not, by the exercise of their own 
 power, punish and prevent such outrages, the British 
 government would be obliged to take the matter into 
 their own hands, and it would not be their fault if in such 
 case the innocent were involved in the punishment sought 
 to be inflicted on the guilty." * A peremptory tone 
 became now necessary, less agreeable than the cordial 
 style of correspondence that had subsisted since the peace. 
 Keying, however, took no notice of the communication 
 from the home government, and for the rest made un- 
 meaning excuses for delay. 
 
 There was nothing in the present demands beyond the 
 obligations of existing treaty engagements, and a just 
 blame would have attached to any want of decision in the 
 emergency. In a consultation with the General com- 
 manding and the Senior officer of her majesty's navy, it 
 
 * Parliamentary Papers, 1847, p. 3. 
 VOL. L I
 
 170 ENGLISH IXTERCOURSE. Chap. V. 
 
 was dotorminod to jjroccod with a force to Canton and 
 demand rei)aration on the sj)ot. 
 
 The rapid and admirable co-operation of the naval 
 and military forces insured all the success contemplated. 
 There was fortunately little loss to the defenders in 
 carrying the resisting batteries ; but as a mere military 
 precaution every fort from the Bogue upwards was taken, 
 and every gun effectually disabled by spiking or knocking 
 off the trunnions, or both, to the number, as the General 
 reported, "of 827 pieces of heavy cannon." The force, 
 notwithstanding, reached Canton in only thirty-six hours 
 after quitting Victoria, and was drawn out in grim silence 
 to receive the Chinese minister, when he repaired to a 
 meeting at the British consulate. The immediate re- 
 paration, the only motive of the visit, was agreed upon 
 in about as many minutes as it had been delayed 
 months. The o])ening of the city had by the late con- 
 vention* been acknowledged as a right, but postponed 
 sine die by express agreement, and could not now be in- 
 stantly demanded jjcr parenthhe as it were ; but a definite 
 time was at least fixed, within a reasonable limit for both 
 parties. The requirements of the consul for the future 
 security of the ]5ritish quarter were amply conceded. 
 The ancient thoroughfare called by our people Hog 
 Lane was hermetically sealed by a strong wall at the 
 English end, and the site of the demolished buildings 
 devoted to a Protestant chapel. It has been since ac- 
 knowledged that this proved one of the best guardians of 
 the peace — having, in fact, stopped the channel through 
 which the rabble fired the consulate in 1842. The 
 western extremity of the Foreign quarter, more exposed 
 to inroad from the mob, was, by arrangement with Keying, 
 placed under a permanent Chinese guard. 
 
 * Vide p. 106, ante.
 
 Chap. V. EXrEDITIOX OF 1847. 171 
 
 It was necessary that the Foshan assailants should be 
 made a public example of before quitting Canton, and 
 this was accomplished in the presence of British officers 
 deputed expressly. On the 8th April, after the lapse of 
 a week, the force embarked in admirable order on its 
 return to Hongkong, leaving the light company of the 
 18th Royal Irish still at the consulate. Both services 
 received their meed of praise from the respective depart- 
 ments in England. The military were complimented by 
 Lord Grey for their success, " a result attributed not less 
 to the judgment with which these operations were planned 
 than to the admirable discipline of the naval and military 
 forces." To Captain McDougall, senior officer of the 
 navy, who had harder work than anybody, the Admiralty 
 conveyed expressions of approbation equally strong. 
 Three months afterwards appeared the following testi- 
 mony to the results of the expedition, impartial at least, 
 as it was from an American quarter : — " The prompt 
 exhibition of power, the reasonable demand of justice, 
 the skilful conduct of affairs, the equitable settlement of 
 difficulties, which are certainly distinctive characters of 
 the policy that has been pursued, have (as in the natural 
 remunerations of justice they ought) not only gone far in 
 securing the particular ends that were desired, but appear 
 sensibly to have increased the respect and good will, 
 while they have tended not a little to suppress the con- 
 tempt and ill-feeling of the Chinese community towards 
 foreigners." * 
 
 Meanwhile the disorder of the province was beginning 
 to make itself felt to the Chinese government. The 
 system of independent organisation, which had been 
 rather encouraged than checked since our war, led to 
 the maintenance of the " village braves," a very irregular 
 
 * Chinese Kepositorv, 1847, p. 366. 
 
 I 2
 
 172 ENGLISH IXTERCOtJRSE. Chap. V. 
 
 militia, who at len<:^th proved not only expensive but 
 troublesome to their employers. These licensed vaga- 
 bonds frequently insulted foreigners who roamed into the 
 country, and issued notices that they would maltreat or 
 kill any one who entered their neighbourhood. Under 
 these unfavourable circumstances it unfortunately hap- 
 pened that six young men went on an excursion into the 
 country, some of them with pocket-pistols in their pos- 
 session. It could not be ascertained how the unequal 
 contest began ; but with these pistols one Chinese was 
 shot dead, and another subsequently was brought to the 
 Consulate badly wounded in the abdomen. The fate of 
 the individuals themselves was to be cruelly murdered by 
 the brutal and exasperated populace. 
 
 The ' Daedalus ' frigate was under way in a few hours 
 for Canton, Keying, in his anxiety, having despatched 
 three letters in succession, declaring that not an indivi- 
 dual of the guilty should escape. In the course of nine 
 days the point was carried that, without waiting for the 
 emperor's warrant, four of the most guilty should be im- 
 mediately executed at the village where the crime was com- 
 mitted, in the presence of a company of the 95th and a 
 number of officers. Eleven others were afterwards punished 
 with death or exile. A copy of Keying's report to the 
 emperor was afterwards obtained. " I should wish " (he 
 wrote) " to chastise with the utmost rigour these stupid 
 villagers, that the stubborn population may learn to stand 
 in awe, unnumbered troubles be prevented hereafter, and 
 no excuse aftbrded to the English for revenging themselves. 
 As the undeserving of clemency is but one village, and 
 those deserving of consideration a number of provinces, 
 the capital punishments in one for the edification of 
 hundreds can be no reproach to your Sacred majesty's 
 tender regard for life." The examples made in this case
 
 CiiAP. V. BREAKING OUT OF REBELLIOX. 173 
 
 had the effect of preventing a repetition of such crimes 
 for years. 
 
 The Chinese authorities had soon to turn their atten- 
 tion to internal troubles, the natural consequences of the 
 latitude which they had allowed since the war to the 
 people of Canton province. That and the adjoininjo- pro- 
 vince of Kuang-se were, in fact, the nurseries of the 
 rebellion, wliich at length, after a career of almost un- 
 checked success, ended afterwards in occupying Nanking 
 "the southern capital," and at one time threatened 
 Peking, " the northern capital," itself. This was no- 
 thing but what had been foreseen by many, the result of 
 a general break-down of the powers of government since 
 the war with England, and the relaxation or abandon- 
 ment of those constitutional principles* which had 
 hitherto lent stability and strength to the huge machine. 
 " On voit que I'autorite regne peut-etre en Chine, mais a 
 coup siir elle ne gouverne pas," observed a winter in the 
 ' Revue des Deux Mondes.' 
 
 In course of time the month of April, 1849, came 
 round, appointed by express stipulation for the perform- 
 ance of treaty engagements, in opening the city of Canton 
 to both official and private persons. As regarded the 
 latter, it has been already observed that the right was 
 hardly worth a contest ; but as concerned the former, its 
 denial had the serious effect of preventing that free and 
 equal personal intercourse on business with the officers of 
 the Chinese government which had been properly deemed 
 a main point in the treaty of Nanking, and the mere 
 denial of which became a serious breach of that treaty. 
 Sir George Bonham wrote home for authority to enforce 
 our just requisitions when the time arrived ; and had the 
 bill been exacted when it became due (and there was a 
 
 * As detailed in Chap. VIII.
 
 174 ENGLISH INTERCOURSE. Chap. V. 
 
 considerable force on the spot), the obvious timeliness and 
 justice of the demand might have hastened its concession. 
 Commissioner Seu, however (who seems to have been 
 much on a par with his worthy successor Yeh), pleasantly 
 observed that the agreement about the city must have 
 been all a sham between Keying and Sir John Davis, 
 and that, if Keying's stipulation was to be observed, he 
 should come down from Peking in person. A far from 
 satisfactory state of intercourse naturally ensued ; and 
 wlien in 1856 the riofht had ajrain to be insisted on, it 
 was under circumstances much more unfavourable, from 
 the very fact of the appointed period being long past. 
 
 Meanwhile the progress of commerce at the four new 
 ports on the north-east coast, and the condition of our 
 relations with the people and the government in that 
 direction, presented a satisfactory contrast to the state 
 of things at Canton. With the exception of an accidental 
 collision with some disbanded junkmen near Shanghae, 
 which by the decisive measures of Mr. Consul Alcock 
 terminated much in our favour, there was little to excite 
 notice. The trade showed a marked tendency (as might 
 always have been foreseen) to flow to Shanghae espe- 
 cially. It lies close to the silk districts, and to some of 
 the most important of the tea countries. The trade at 
 Canton had always been so far a forced trade, as it was 
 the only trade allowed under the Tartar rule to foreigners. 
 The farthest point from Peking, at a great distance from 
 the tea and silk provinces, in the hottest climate, as far 
 as possible from the principal marts of the empire, it had 
 to contend with every disadvantage. The access to more 
 favourable markets doubled our importation of tea, from 
 40 millions in 1842, to more than 80 millions of pounds 
 in 185(). The trade in Raw silk, again, was almost a 
 new one, and to an enormous amount at Shanghae, being
 
 Chap. V. PROGRESS OF THE REBELLION. 175 
 
 above 50,000 bales in the latest year. On the side of 
 British exports, however, the resnlt was altof^ether difFer- 
 ent. For the reasons stated elsewhere in this work, the 
 consumption of our manufactures in China has not in- 
 creased, notwithstanding the opening of the trade in 1834, 
 and the access to all the northern ports since 1842. Our 
 exports had been, in ftict, a forced trade on the part of 
 the East India Company, who submitted to a considerable 
 loss on their outward cargoes, to be paid back by the teas 
 imported, 
 
 Shanghae, under all its promising aspects, was doomed 
 to be afflicted by the rebellion. It was in 1850 that the 
 progress of the insurrection in the Canton and Kuting-se 
 provinces first excited serious anxiety at Peking, and 
 Commissioner Lin, of opium celebrity, was despatched to 
 subdue them. He, how^ever, died on his w^ay ; and it 
 must have been a melancholy reflection for him to look 
 back on his rash acts at Canton as the real cause of the 
 present degradation and troubles of his country. Other 
 oflScers were appointed ; but in the course of two years 
 and a half, from September, 1850, to about March, 1853, 
 the Tae-ping* leaders made their way through the pro- 
 vince of Hoonan to the Great River, where they took 
 to the water as an auxiliary, and by that and tlie land 
 fought their way, marked by devastation, through some 
 af the richest parts of China, to Nanking and the mouth 
 
 * Tae-ping has been translated " peace," but it is more than that, 
 being in fact a vei-y ambitious phrase, bearing the exact import of orbe 
 pacato on Roman coins. Pacator was a subduer, or conqueror, more 
 than a peacemaker. In the programme of the ceremony to which 
 Lord Amherst would not .submit in 1816, it was pro\aded that, while 
 the foreigners prostrated themselves, the music should play the air 
 IJeen Ping- — " manifested subjugation " — a highly appropriate and sig- 
 nificant accompaniment. Ping really means subjugation. 
 
 "He makes a Solitude, and calls it Peace." — Byron.
 
 17G ENGLISH INTERCOURSE. Chap. V. 
 
 of the Grand Canal, where our own peace was dictated 
 in 1842. There, liowever, their fortune seemed to stop, 
 and since that period some expeditions, with douhtful 
 success, in the direction of Pekinn; and other parts, seemed 
 to occupy without improving their resources; while rumours 
 of divisions and mutual assassinations threatened to dis- 
 solve that union and concentration to which they owed 
 their previous success. The year 1850 was marked by 
 the succession of a new emperor with a troubled prospect 
 before him. 
 
 The hopes of the Christian world were at first raised 
 by the news that the heads of the revolution were 
 Christians ; but they were, in fact, as unlike Christians 
 as Mahomet was unlike a Jew. They might admit the 
 same historical Scriptures ; but one leader, in the intoxi- 
 cation of success, called himself the brother of Jesus 
 Christ ; while another subsequently assumed to be the third 
 person of the Trinity. With all their blasphemous extra- 
 vagancies, they denounced idol-worship, having learned 
 their first lessons (however subsequently perverted) from 
 a Protestant missionary ; and hence it was that the 
 Romish mission in China viewed them from the first with 
 an evil eye. Their strange and hybrid profession of faith 
 boded them little success, for Confucianism has not yet 
 lost its hold on the Chinese mind. 
 
 The neighbourhood of Shanghae to the insurgents' 
 head-quarters at Nanking occasioned a course of serious 
 internal troubles at that place, much to the annoyance 
 and hindrance of commerce. The panic in the early 
 part of 1853 was at its height; and as the Chinese In- 
 tendant at that port originated very false and unautho- 
 rized rumours as to our being prepared to act with the 
 emperor's forces against his rebel subjects. Sir George 
 Bonham deemed it advisable to visit the neighbour-
 
 Chap. V. APPOIXTMEXT OF SIR JOHN BOWRIXG. 177 
 
 hood of Nanking and prove our perfect neutrality. The 
 'Hermes' steamer proceeded up the Great liiver to 
 Nanking in April, and a very curious and interesting 
 account of the trip has been given by Mr. Meadows,* 
 on that occasion Chinese secretary and interpreter to the 
 plenipotentiary. The insurgent leaders, at the same 
 time that they gave us the name of " foreign brethren," 
 were found to be imbued with pretensions to universal 
 supremacy in nowise less absurd and arrogant than those 
 of the reigning dynasty. They were of course disabused 
 of this in the plainest and most distinct terms ; and they 
 admitted the propriety of our remaining neutral, profess- 
 ing at the same time to require no aid whatever from 
 any allies, as they were under the special protection of 
 Heaven. 
 
 Sir John Bowring, who had been consul for some years 
 in China, was appointed her majesty's plenipotentiary 
 and governor of Hongkong in 1854. The condition of 
 our relations with the government and people of Canton 
 was anything rather than satisfactory. Repeated in- 
 stances of unprovoked assault by the populace on British 
 subjects had to be reported home, and the spirit by which 
 the rabble was animated became manifest in a placard 
 issued during July, 1856, only a few months before the 
 commencement of hostilities: — "Hereafter (said this 
 inflammatory document), whenever any barbarian dogs 
 come within our limits, we ought, by calling together 
 our families, to maintain the dignity of our city, and, 
 bravely rushing upon them, kill every one." t The effect 
 of such appeals may be imagined ; not really discouraged 
 as they were (whatever their professions) by the authori- 
 ties, who had long adopted this dangerous and perfidious 
 
 * The Chinese and their Rebellion. 8vo. 185G. 
 t Printed Papers, 1857. 
 
 i3
 
 178 ENGLISH INTERCOURSE. Chap. V. 
 
 policy of secretly using' the populace against the European 
 residents, whom they feared as much as they disliked 
 them. " Events in Canton " (observed a letter from Hong- 
 kong) " will hardly have taken you by surprise. The fact 
 is, that, hardened and encouraged by success in their 
 policy of repulsion and haughtiness, the local authorities 
 have brought matters to a pass which cannot but bring 
 about a crisis. Every imperial commissioner has been 
 worse than his predecessor ; till at last the strongest 
 representations — even those in which the treaty powers 
 united — were either treated with disregard or scornfully 
 noticed." 
 
 Commissioner Yeh * was the last and the worst of these 
 mistaken politicians. In the minds of all who knew 
 the history of the past there could be no doubt of the 
 animus with which, on the 8th of October, 1856, he 
 sent a force of two armed boats and sixty men to haul 
 down the flag of a small British colonial vessel, the 
 ' Arrow,' having an English master on board. The 
 consul was (of course) insulted and threatened when 
 he went to remonstrate ; and it was well for British 
 honour and interests that Rear-Admiral Sir Michael 
 Seymour was at hand — the legitimate vindicator of his 
 nation's flag — whose measures, at once deliberate and 
 determined, inflicted the necessary castigation, without 
 leaving a pretence for just complaint. If any sanction 
 were required, it would be found in the simultaneous 
 
 * A curious, and not altogether unlikely, explanation Lag been 
 given, on good Chinese authority, of the unparalleled barbarity exercised 
 by Yeh on the Canton rebels, thousands of whom were beheaded by 
 him in a single week. They were not only rebels towards the em- 
 peror, but some of them, in their march northwards, had destroyed his 
 paternal and ancestral temple in Hookiiang province. The deadly 
 nature of this douhle criminality is explained at p. 282. It is said that 
 the sufferings of the Cantonese were a source of gratification to him, 
 and that he opposed all pacification partly on that ground.
 
 Chap. Y. AFFAIR OF THE ' ARROW.' 179 
 
 hostilities of the insulted American navy, the avowed 
 adhesion of the French minister at Canton, and the 
 unanimous approval of all Christian residents in the 
 country. 
 
 The very inappropriate cry of a " Chinese war " was 
 at first raised on the receipt of this intelligence in Eng- 
 land ; but to visit the sins of the misguided and stiff- 
 necked Cantonese on their unoffending countrymen to the 
 north would be as impolitic as it would be unjust. Such 
 a lesson as can be neither misinterpreted nor forgotten, 
 unflinchingly administered in the right place, may long 
 serve as the best of all peacemakers ;* and if the services 
 of our powerful navy are made available to the extinction 
 of piracy on the coast, the result may be as beneficial to 
 native as to foreign interests. In the mean while China 
 has had the honour of producing a dissolution of the 
 British parliament. 
 
 * The city itself, and the heights behind, would afford good quarters 
 to an occupying force ; and by the time the occupation had seciu'ed a 
 fitting renewal of the Treaty of 1842, the Cantonese would have had 
 leisure to dis^cover that their impregnable stronghold had really been 
 taken, especially if all the late "tiimnphal arches'' were carefully 
 demolished.
 
 180 GEOGRAnilCAL SKETCH OF CHINA. Chap. VI. 
 
 CHAPTER YI. 
 
 GEOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF CHINA. 
 
 Eighteen provinces of China — Dimensions — Temperature — Prin- 
 cipal mountain-chains — Two great rivers — Imperial Canal — 
 Crossing the Yellow River — Cireat Wall — The provinces — The 
 ]Meaou-tse — Volcanic sjTuptoms in the west — Manchow and 
 Mongol Tartary — Neighbouring and tributary countries — Chinese 
 account of Loo-choo — Intercoiu-se with Japan. 
 
 This chapter will be principally devoted to a succinct 
 view of the chief geographical features of China Proper, 
 under which may be included, on account of their un- 
 paralleled magnitude, and the important stations which 
 they hold in the maps of the country, a particular de- 
 scription of the Imperial Canal, and of the Great Wall. 
 The scientific skill of the Jesuit missionaries accomplished 
 a survey of the whole of this fine country on trigono- 
 metrical principles, so admirably correct as to admit of 
 little improvement ; and, with the exception of the 
 British possessions in India, there is no part of Asia 
 so well laid down as China. 
 
 Since the time of the Jesuits' survey, however, an 
 alteration has taken place in the divisions of the country. 
 The provinces of China, which then consisted of fifteen in 
 all, have been increased, by the subdivision of three of 
 the largest, to eighteen. Keang-nan has been split into 
 Keang-soo and Gan-hoey, Hoo-kuang into Hoo-nan and
 
 Chap. VI. PROVINCES— CLIMATE. 181 
 
 Hoo-pe, and the western part of Shen-sy has been extended, 
 and called Kan-so. These eighteen provinces constitute 
 a compact area, extending (if we leave out the island of 
 Haenan) from about 21° to 41° of north latitude, and 
 measuring in extreme length from north to south about 
 1200 geographical miles, with an average breadth from 
 east to west of nearly 20° of longitude, or something less 
 than the extent north and south. Perhaps no country in 
 the world, of the same magnitude, can be considered 
 upon the whole as more favoured in point of climate. 
 Being situated, however, on the eastern side of a great 
 continent, China follows the general rule which observa- 
 tion has sanctioned in attributing to regions, so placed, 
 an excess of both cold and heat at opposite seasons of 
 the year, which its precise position in regard to latitude 
 would not lead us to expect. In the month of September, 
 near Peking, Lord Amherst's embassy found the ther- 
 mometer occasionally above 90° ; while the huge solid 
 blocks of ice, which were at the same time carried about 
 for use, and exposed on the stalls, proved the severity 
 of the cold in winter. In the Yellow Sea, during the 
 month of July, and at 35° north latitude, the temperature 
 of the water at 40 fathoms proved to be 65 ', while that 
 of the air was between 80^ and 90\ Even at Canton 
 the southern extremity of the empire, and nearly in the 
 latitude of Calcutta, the mercury frequently falls below 
 freezing-point during the nights of January, while in 
 summer it sometimes, though not often, rises to 100'. 
 Notwithstanding these apparent extremes of heat and 
 cold, the climate must be generally characterised as 
 highly salubrious — a circumstance no doubt arising in 
 great measure from the extension of cultivation and 
 drainage. As a confirmation of the observations of 
 Humboldt, in his treatise of Isothermal Lines, it may be
 
 182 GEOGHAPIIICAL SKETCH OF CHINA. Chap. VI. 
 
 added, that the French missionaries were struck by the 
 resemblance which the chmate and products of northern 
 China and Tartary bore to those of the east coast of 
 North America ; and that the wild plant ginseng^ long 
 a monopoly of the emperor in the Manchow country, 
 has been imported in large quantities to Canton by the 
 American shi])s, to the great surprise of the Chinese. 
 
 The whole surface of China is varied in elevation, 
 rising generally in terrace.^ from the sea towards the 
 west, but there would seem, at the same time, to be no 
 mountains of very remarkable height. The principal 
 chains consist of two. One of these extends from Yun- 
 nan along the borders of Kuei-chow and Kuang-sy, 
 passing to the north of Canton province, where a road is 
 cut through the Mei-ling pass, which has been described 
 in both our embassies : it then takes a north-east direc- 
 tion through Fokien, and terminates in Che-keang. The 
 larger portion of the ridge to the north-west of Canton 
 province forms the inaccessible country (at least to the 
 native government) of the Meaou-tse, who have never 
 entirely submitted to the Tartars. Even in Chinese maps 
 their country is left a blank. The second principal chain 
 of mountains extends from Sse-chuen to Shen-sy, causing 
 the Yellow River to make an abrupt bend northwards 
 through the Great Wall. There are, besides, mountains 
 of considerable elevation westward of Peking, towards 
 Shan-sy province, but the plains from which they rise are 
 little raised above the sea. 
 
 The two principal rivers of China occupy a very high 
 rank in the geographical history of the globe. Taking 
 the Thames as unit, Major Rennell estimated the pro- 
 portions of the Yang-tse-keang and Yellow River at 
 fifteen and a half and thirteen. and a half respectively, 
 and they are secondary only to the Amazons and the
 
 CHAr. VI. THE TWO GREAT RIVERS. 183 
 
 Mississippi. The Yano-tse keang, the river, or the "son 
 of the sea," has been by some people styled the Blue River, 
 but in sailing there we found no such name for it among 
 the Chinese. It rises in Kokonor, the country between 
 Thibet and China, not far from the sources of the Yellow 
 River ; turning suddenly south, it makes an abrupt bend 
 through the provinces of Yunnan and Sse-chuen, where 
 it takes the name of the " Golden-sanded River ;" and 
 then flowing north-east and east, it subsequently makes a 
 gentle bend southward, and receives the superfluous 
 waters of the Tong-ting Hoo, the largest lake of China ; 
 thence, in its course towards the sea, it serves as a dis- 
 charger to another large lake, the Poyang Hoo, in 
 Keang-sy province ; after which it runs nearly north-east, 
 and flows past Nanking into the ocean, which it reaches 
 exactly under the thirty-second parallel of latitude. This 
 great stream flows with such a strong and prevailing ebb, 
 that Lord Amherst's embassy found great difliculty in 
 sailing up its course towards the Poyang lake, being 
 unable to make .any way at all, except with a strong 
 north-easterly breeze. The flood tide was felt no higher 
 than Kuachow, below Nanking.* 
 
 The Yellow River rises also in the country of Koko- 
 nor, but, soon turning as abruptly north as the Keang 
 does south, it passes across the Great Wall and makes an 
 elbow round the territory of the Ortous ; passing back 
 again across the wall, it flows due south, and forms the 
 boundary of Shan-sy and Shen-sy ; whence it turns 
 sharply eastward and reaches the sea in latitude 34 . 
 From the excessive rapidity of its stream, this river is 
 nearly unnavigable through its greater length. In the 
 
 * Where the " grain-bearing '' canal leads to Peking. A naval squa- 
 dron could probably make its way to this point, and blockade it. 
 (This was done in 1842, and the note is purposely left untouched.)
 
 184 GEOGRAPniCAL SKETCH OF CHINA. Chap. VI. 
 
 old maps of China the Yellow River has been represented 
 as flowing into the gulf" of Pechele, north of the Shan- 
 tung promontory. If, then, in the construction of the 
 canal under Koblai Khan, its ancient course was turned, 
 it is possible that this violence to nature has occasioned 
 the constant recurrence of the dreadful accidents which 
 attend the bursting of its artificial but ill-constructed 
 banks and dikes. It is a source of per})etual anxiety and 
 heavy expense to the government ; and there was a tax on 
 the Ilong merchants at Canton expressly on this account. 
 The enormous quantity of mud held in suspension by the 
 waters of the Yellow River (whence its name) causes 
 depositions at its mouth which tend rapidly to lessen the 
 depth of water. It is remarkable that the two great 
 rivers of China, which rise at a small distance from each 
 other, after taking opposite courses to the north and 
 south, and being separated by a distance of full fifteen 
 degrees of latitude, should reach the sea within two 
 degrees of the same point. 
 
 The coast of China, south of the promontory of Shan- 
 tung, is generally bold and rocky, except at the points 
 where the Yellow River and Yang-tse-keang empty them- 
 selves. The province of Peking is a sandy flat, and the 
 gulf which skirts it extremely shallow, so that a large 
 ship cannot approach the shore within many miles. The 
 whole coast of the empire abounds in safe and com- 
 modious harbours, of which those on the south were 
 accurately surveyed under the East India Company. 
 The east coast, however, though pretty correctly traced in 
 the missionary maps, had still to be nautlcally surveyed 
 for the purposes of shipping.* Generally speaking, from 
 the mouth of the Peking river to (Jhusan, the sea has 
 
 * Tliis has been accomplished iu a set of Admiralty Charts since 
 1M2.
 
 Chap. VI. IMPERIAL CANAL. 185 
 
 been found to be as free from dangers as in any part of 
 the world. 
 
 For the internal commerce of the empire, the Chinese 
 are rendered almost wholly independent of coast naviga- 
 tion by their Imperial Canal, which in point of extent and 
 magnitude of undertaking is, as well as the Great AN'all, 
 unrivalled by any other works of the kind in the whole 
 world. The canal, as we have already had occasion to 
 notice, was principally the work of Koblai Khan and his 
 immediate successors of the Yuen race. In the MS. of 
 a Mongol historian named Rashid-ud-deen, written in 
 A.D. 1307, and made available to us by MM. Von Ham- 
 mer and Klaproth, there is the following curious notice 
 of it : — " The canal extends from Khanbalik (Peking) 
 to Khinsai* and Zeytoon ; ships can navigate it, and it 
 is forty days' journey in length. When the ships arrive 
 at the sluices, they are raised up, whatever be their size, 
 by means of machines, and they are then let down on the 
 other side into the water." This is an exact description 
 of the practice at the present day, as may be seen by 
 reference to the accounts of the two English embassies. 
 
 It must be observed, however, that although the canal 
 has been generally considered to extend from Tien-tsin, 
 near Peking, to Hangchow-foo in Che-keang, being about 
 600 geographical miles, the canal lyroperly so called, that 
 is, the Ghii-Jio, or " river of floodgates," commences only 
 at Lintsing-chow in Shan-tung, and continues beyond the 
 Yellow River. The principal river that feeds it is the 
 Wun-ho, rising from the Taeshan in Shan-tung, and 
 falling into the canal at it highest elevation, in a line 
 perpendicular to its course. The waters of the river 
 striking with force against a strong bulwark of stone that 
 
 * Kingsze, or capital, the present Hangcliow-foo, the residence of 
 the Soong dynasty.
 
 18G 
 
 GEOGRATniCAL SKETCH OF CHINA. Chap. VI. 
 
 su])p()vt5 the western bank, part of them flow to tlie north- 
 ward, and part southward ; at this point is the temple of 
 the " dragon king," or genius of the watery element, 
 who is supposed to have the canal in his special keeping. 
 
 ..^ft. 
 
 One principal merit of this great work is its acting as 
 a drain to the swampy country through which it flows,
 
 Chap. VI. IMrERIAL C.AJXAL. 187 
 
 from Tien-tsin to the Yang-tse-keang-. Being- carried 
 through the lowest levels, and communicating with the 
 neighbouring tracts by floodgates, it lias rendered avail- 
 able much that would otherwise be an irreclaimable 
 swamp. As it is, however, some individuals of the em- 
 bassy, in passing through this desolate flat in 1816, were 
 laid up with intermittents of rather malignant type. The 
 large city of Hoae-gan-foo, near the Yellow River, ex- 
 tends for about three miles very much below the level of 
 the canal. In passing along its dilapidated walls, upon 
 which we look down fi'om our boats, it was impossible not 
 to shudder at the idea of any accident occurring to the 
 banks of the canal, as the total destruction of the town 
 must be certain. Near this point resides the Ho-tsoong, 
 or surveyor-general of the river, who has charge of its 
 banks. 
 
 Many readers will be aware that to the period of Yaou, 
 something more than 2000 years before our era, the 
 Chinese carry back their tradition of an extensive flood, 
 which by some persons has been identified with the uni- 
 versal deluge recorded in the Old Testament. After a 
 careful examination of their own written accounts, we feel 
 persuaded that this deluge of the Chinese is described 
 rather as interrupting the business of agriculture than as 
 involving a general destruction of the human race. It is 
 observed, in the book of Mencius (ch. v.), that the great 
 Yu " opened nine channels : Yu was eight years abroad 
 regulating the waters." This could hardly mean the 
 universal deluge, and in fact seems to have been some 
 aggravation only of the natural condition of those low 
 countries throue^h which the Yellow River and canal now 
 flow. Were they both of them to burst their banks at 
 present, the deluge of Yaou would be repeated. It was 
 for his merit in draining the country, or di'awing off
 
 188 GEOGRAPHICAL .SKETCH OF CIIIXA. Chap. VI. 
 
 the watei's of the iimudation, that the great Yu was so 
 celebrated. 
 
 To return to the canal. Many persons, and among 
 the rest Dr. Abel, have not been disposed to estimate 
 very hig:hly the labour and ingenuity displayed in the 
 construction of that artificial channel. He observes, "This 
 famous monument of industry, considered simply as a 
 channel of conniiunication between different parts of the 
 empire, appears to have been somewhat overrated as an 
 example of the immense power of human labour and 
 of human art. In every part of its course it passes 
 through alluvial soil, readily penetrated by the tools of 
 workmen, and is intersected by numerous streams. It 
 w ould be difficult to find any part of it carried through 
 twenty miles of country unaided by tributary rivers. The 
 sluices which keep its necessary level are of the rudest 
 construction ; buttresses formed of blocks of stone, with 
 grooves fitted with thick planks, are the only locks of the 
 Imperial Canal. It is neither carried through any moun- 
 tain, nor over any valley." Much of this is certahily 
 true, and confirmed by the observation of Du Halde, 
 that, " in all that space there w'ere neither hills, quarries, 
 nor rocks which gave the workmen any trouble either to 
 level or penetrate." But if the canal is admitted to be a 
 work of high national utility in more lights than one, the 
 simplicity of the means by which the end was attained 
 can scarcely be considered to derogate from its merit : 
 it would seem, on the contrary, to be a proof of the saga- 
 city with which the plan was formed. 
 
 The following account of the process of crossing the 
 Yellow River, at the point where it is intersected by the 
 canal, is given from two unpublished journals of the last 
 embassy. " On our left (proceeding south) was a stream 
 called the ' New Salt River,' which, like the canal, opened
 
 Chap. VI. CROSSING THE YELLOW RIVER. 189 
 
 into the Yellow River ; and on our right we had for 
 several days very close to us the Yellow River itself, 
 which just before this point of junction with the canal 
 suddenly turns north-eastward, after having run in a 
 south-easterly direction. When we had been a short 
 time at anchor, during which interval some of the chief 
 mandarins visited the ambassador, we all got under 
 weigh, and prepared to cross the famous Hoang-ho. All 
 the boats, on entering the river, struck right across the 
 stream without observing any order, and gained the 
 opposite bank in less than an hour. The weather being 
 fine and moderate, and the water perfectly smooth, our 
 boatmen were not so particular in the observance of their 
 ceremonies and libations on the passage of the river as 
 those of the last embassy ; but every boat, I believe, 
 burnt a few pieces of gilt paper, and let off a volley 
 of crackers, in honour of the occasion. The breadth of 
 the river in this part was about three-quarters of a mile, 
 the direction of the stream north-east by east, with a 
 current of three or four miles per hour, but the water not 
 much more muddy or yellow, at this point, than it has 
 been observed in the Pei-ho and elsewhere. 
 
 "The stream was certainly violent, and carried us 
 down a considerable way before we could reach the op- 
 posite bank, which was lined with a great number of boats 
 of various shapes and dimensions, some of them being 
 constructed exactly in the form of oblong boxes. Many 
 of these were stationary, and laden with the straw or 
 stalk of the holcus sorghum, and with coarse reeds, ready 
 to be transported to different parts of the river and canal 
 for the repair of the banks. This assemblage of boats, 
 though the greatest we have yet noticed in this part of 
 China, bore no comparison to what may be daily seen in 
 the river of Canton. When the current had carried us
 
 190 GEOGRAPmCAL SKETCH OF CUINA. CiiAr. VI. 
 
 down some distance to the eastward, we had a mile or 
 two to reascend the river, before we came to the opening 
 throuo"h which we were to pursue our route to the south ; 
 and the passage in the vicinity of the bank, to which we 
 kept on account of the current, was so obstructed with 
 boats, that this was not effected under four hours from 
 our first getting under weigh. The worst part was now 
 to come in passing through a sluice, on the hither side 
 of which the water, which had been confined in its pas- 
 sage through the abutments, raged with such fury as to 
 suck down large floating substances in its eddies. This 
 sluice upon a large scale was near one hundred yards 
 across, and through it the waters rushed into the river, at 
 a rate of not less than seven or eight miles an hour. 
 The projecting banks at the sides were not constructed of 
 stone-work, but entirely of the straw and reeds already 
 mentioned, with earth intermixed, and strongly bound 
 with cordage. 
 
 " Through this opening or sluice, and in close contact 
 with the bank on our left, our boats were successively 
 dragged forward by ropes communicating with several 
 large windlasses, which were worked upon the bank : by 
 these means the object was slowly accomplished, without 
 the least damage or accident. After thus effecting a 
 passage through the sluice, we found ourselves nearly in 
 still water ; not yet however in the southern division of 
 the great canal, as we had expected, but in the main 
 stream of another large river, hardly inferior in breadth 
 to that which we had quitted. We were told it commu- 
 nicated at no great distance with the great lake Iloong- 
 tse Hoo, to the right of our course. The stream by 
 which this lake discharges its waters into the Yellow 
 River is marked in all the maps of China, but represented 
 as totally distinct and unconnected with the Grand Canal.
 
 Chap. VI. THE GREAT WALL. 191 
 
 It seems evident, therefore, that the course of the naviga- 
 tion has been hitterly altered here, either from the over- 
 flowing of the Yellow River or some other cause. That 
 a change has taken place seems indicated by the name 
 ' New Salt River,' on the other side of the main stream of 
 the Hoano'-ho. 
 
 o 
 
 "A great deal of labour and contrivance has been 
 employed here in constructing the embankments, and 
 regulating the course of the waters. In the first place, 
 two or three artificial bays or basins have been hollowed 
 out in the bank of the river, where the boats proceeding 
 to the southward assemble in security and wait their turn 
 to pass. There are then two other narrow passes, or im- 
 perfect sluices, subsequent to the first opening that leads 
 from the river to the canal, having also broad basins 
 between them, and embankments constructed, as before, 
 with the straw or reeds confined by cordage. The 
 object of this repetition of sluices, with the basins between, 
 seems in some degree similar to that of the locks on our 
 own canals." 
 
 The important figure which the Great Wall makes in 
 the maps of China entitles this vast artificial barrier to be 
 considered in a geographical point of view. We have 
 already stated that it was built by the first universal 
 monarch of China, about 200 years before the commence- 
 ment of the Christian era, or rather more than 2000 years 
 from this time. It bounds the whole north of China, along 
 the frontiers of three provinces, extending from the shore 
 of the gulf of Pechele, 3t' east of Peking, to Syning, 15° 
 west of that capital The emperors of the Ming dynasty 
 built an additional inner wall, near to Peking, on the 
 west, which may be perceived on the map, enclosing a 
 portion of the province between itself and the old wall. 
 From the eastern extremity of the Great Wall there is
 
 192 GEOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF CHINA. Chap. VI. 
 
 an extensive stockade of wooden piles, enclosing the 
 country of Mougden, and this has, in some European 
 maps, been erroneously represented as a continuation of 
 the solid barrier. 
 
 The gentlemen of Lord Macartney's embassy had the 
 good fortune to pass into Tartary by one of the most 
 entire portions of the wall, and a very particular exami- 
 nation of the structure was made by Captain Parish. On 
 the first distant approach, it is described as resembling a 
 prominent vein or ridge of quartz, standing out from 
 mountains of mieiss or granite. The continuance of this 
 line over the mountain-tops arrested the attention, and 
 the form of a wall with battlements was soon distinctly 
 discerned. It was carried over the rido^es of the highest 
 hills, descended into the deepest valleys, crossed upon 
 arches over rivers, and was doubled in important passes, 
 being, moreover, supplied with massy towers or bastions 
 at distances of about 100 yards. One of the most ele- 
 vated ridges crossed by the wall was 5000 feet above the 
 level of the sea. It far surpasses, in short, the sum total 
 of all other works of the kind, and proved a useful barrier 
 until the power of Zenghis Khan overthrew the empire 
 of the Chinese. 
 
 The body of the wall * consists of an earthen mound, 
 retained on each side by walls of masonry and brick, and 
 terraced by a platform of square bricks. The total 
 height, including a parapet of five feet, is twenty feet, on 
 a basis of stone projecting two feet under the brickwork, 
 and varying in height from two feet to more, according to 
 the level of the ground. The thickness of the wall at 
 the base is twenty-five feet, diminishing to fifteen at the 
 platform. The towers are forty feet square at the base, 
 diminishing to thirty at the top, and about thirty-seven 
 
 * See jjlan, section, and c4eviition, from folio plates to Embassy.
 
 Chap, VI. 
 
 THE GREAT WALL. 
 
 193 
 
 feet in total height. At particular spots, however, the 
 tower was of two stories, and forty-eight feet high. The 
 bricks are, as usual in China, of a bluish colour, about 
 
 ijw' 
 
 ■Li^ll^Plffl^liffiM 
 
 ■ic:!;iiJili;||iiii-W( 
 
 fifteen inches long, half that in width, and nearly four 
 inches thick ; probably the whole, half, and quarter of 
 VOL. I. K
 
 194 GEOGRAPniCAL SKETCH OF CHINA. Chap. VI. 
 
 the Chinese Che, or covid. The blue colour of the hricks 
 led to a doubt of their having been burned ; but some 
 ancient kilns were observed near the wall, and, since 
 then, the actual experiment of Dr. Abel in 1816 has 
 proved that the brick-clay of the Chinese, which is red 
 at first, burns blue. The thinness of the parapet of the 
 wall, about eighteen inches, justifies the conclusion that it 
 was not intended to resist cannon : indeed the Chinese 
 themselves claim no such antiquity for the invention of 
 fire-arms. The above description confirms, upon the 
 whole, that of Ger billon, about a century before. "It is 
 generally," says he, " no more than eighteen, twenty, or 
 twenty- five geometrical feet high, but the towers are 
 seldom less than forty," 
 
 The same missionary, however, informs us that beyond 
 the Yellow River to its western extremity, or for full one- 
 half of its total length, the wall is chiefly a mound of 
 earth or gravel, about fifteen feet in height, with only 
 occasional towers of brick. Marco Polo's silence con- 
 cerning it may therefore be accounted for by the sup- 
 position that, having seen only this imperfect portion, he 
 did not deem it an object of sufficient curiosity to deserve 
 particular notice ; without the necessity of imagining that 
 he entered China from the westward, to the south of the 
 great barrier. 
 
 As a minute geographical description of each province 
 of the empire would be out of place in this work, we will 
 notice generally the points most deserving of attention in 
 all, commencing with those which lay in the route of the 
 British embassies. The flat, sandy, and sterile province 
 in which Peking is situated offers little worthy of notice. 
 The vast plain which surrounds the capital is entirely 
 devoid of trees, but wood is procured from that long hilly 
 promontory of Tartary which forms the eastern boundary
 
 Chap. VI. THE PEOYIXCES. 195 
 
 of the gulf of Leaoutung, and was named by Sir Murray 
 Maxwell the " Regent's Sword." The most considerable 
 town, next to Peking, is Tien-tsin, though it does not 
 rank as a city : it forms the frivium, or point of junction 
 between the canal, the capital, and the sea. Here are 
 seen the immense piles or hills of salt described by Mr. 
 Barrow, this being the depot for the salt provided to meet 
 the enormous consumption of Peking, and manufactured 
 along the marshy borders of the sea. On entering the 
 adjoining province of Shan-tung to the south, the atten- 
 tion is soon drawn to the commencement of the canal; 
 and on the lakes, or rather extensive swamps, through 
 which it is carried, are seen the fishing corvorants, birds 
 which will be more particularly described hereafter, 
 exercising their profession for their masters in numerous 
 boats. The surface in the north of this province and in 
 Pechele is so flat and low, that the tide, which rises only 
 nine or ten feet in the adjoining gulf, flows upwards of 
 one hundred miles above the mouth of the Pei-ho. The 
 country, therefore, consisting entirely of an argillaceous 
 sand abounding in mica, is frequently laid under water, 
 the general level not being more than two feet above the 
 surface of the river at high tide. In this circumstance, 
 joined to the vicinity of that constant source of inunda- 
 tions, the Yellow River, we may perceive, perhaps, an 
 explanation of the great inundation or deluge, which the 
 celebrated Yu is said to have carried off" in the course of 
 eight years by constructing "nine channels." 
 
 On entering Keang-nan, which is divided into the sub- 
 ordinate provinces of Keangsoo and Ganhoey, the country 
 soon improves, and the inequality of the surface renders 
 the locks, or floodgates, very frequent on the canal. 
 This is certainly the richest province of China. It is 
 famous for its silks and japanned goods, made principally 
 
 K 2
 
 19G GEOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF CHINA. Chap. VI, 
 
 at Soochow. Nanking', tlie ancient capital, became per- 
 manently abandoned for Peking by Yoonglo, in the 
 fifteenth centnry. The area of the ancient walls, only a 
 corner of which is occupied by the present city, measures 
 seventeen miles in circumference, being rather more than 
 the circuit of Peking. The reigning Tartar dynasty find 
 it their interest to retain the modern capital, from its 
 vicinity to Mougden, their birthplace ; but the ancient 
 one is greatly more centrical, with a finer climate, and 
 altogether better calculated to promote the prosperity of 
 the empire. Shanghae, a seaport near the mouth of the 
 Keang, was visited by Mr. Gultzlaff in 1831, and de- 
 scribed by him as the most considerable trading-place of 
 any on the coast ; it is, in fact, close to Soochow and 
 Hangchow, and has now become our best commercial 
 mart since the peace of 1842. On the Keang, not far 
 from the mouth, is that remarkably beautiful little island 
 called the " Golden Isle," surmounted by numerous tem- 
 ples, inhabited by the votaries of Budh, or Fo, and very 
 coiTectly described so many centuries since by Marco 
 Polo. At no great distance from this are the gardens of 
 Kien-loonff, erected for him when he visited his southern 
 provinces, and viewed by us in the embassy of 1816. 
 They were laid out in the usual style of Chinese garden- 
 ing, with artificial rocks and ruins, and wooden bridges 
 over a piece of water. The embassy saw the room in 
 which the emperor dined, and a stone tablet, having 
 engraved some sentences composed by himself The 
 whole, however, was in a sad state of dilapidation and 
 ruin, like almost everything else of the kind that we see 
 in the country. 
 
 In the district of Iloey-chow-foo, the most southern 
 city of the province, is grown the best green tea. The 
 soil in which it is reared is a decomposition of granite,
 
 Chap. VI. THE PROVINCES, 197 
 
 abounding in felspar, as is proved by its being used for 
 porcelain. Thus the same soil produces the tea, and the 
 cups in which it is drunk. In this province, too, is 
 Foong-yang-foo, the birthplace of the founder of the 
 Ming dynasty, who served, at first, as a menial in a 
 monastery of bonzes. He then joined a body of insur- 
 gents against the Mongol dynasty, and became their 
 chief. From beating the Tartars in every battle, and at 
 length chasing them from the country, he was styled 
 Hoong-woo, "the great warrior." 
 
 The adjoining province of Keang-sy is, perhaps, in 
 point of natural scenery and climate, the most delightful 
 part of China. The Poyang lake, in size approaching 
 the character of an inland sea, is bordered on its west 
 side by strikingly beautiful mountain scenery. It was 
 only hereabouts that the two British embassies varied in 
 their respective routes. That of Lord Amherst proceeded 
 along the Yang-tse-keang after leaving the canal, until it 
 reached the lake ; while Lord Macartney crossed the 
 Keang below Nanking, visited Soochow and Hangchow, 
 and, proceeding south and west, approached the lake at 
 its southern extremity. The following account of the 
 west side of the Poyang is from a MS. Journal : — 
 " Arrived early in the day at Nankang-foo. A long 
 mole was built on the south-east side of the town, making 
 a small harbour for boats to lie in, secure from the tem- 
 pestuous waters of the lake in bad weather. While we 
 were here, sufiicient swell existed to make it resemble an 
 arm of the sea, and the shore was covered with shingles 
 in the manner of a sea-beach." A description of the 
 mountains in the neighbourhood is given in another place, 
 as well as of King-te-ching, the most noted manufactory 
 for porcelain to the eastward of the Poyang. 
 
 From Keang-sy to the adjoining province of Kuang-
 
 198 GEOGRAPmCAL SKETCH OF CIIIXA. Chap. VI. 
 
 tung, or Canton, the passage is cut through the preci- 
 pitous ridge of mountains which separates them. It was 
 formed hy an individual during the dynasty Tang, more 
 than a thousand years since ; and an arched gateway in 
 the centre, of later construction, marks the boundary 
 between the two provinces. The name of the pass, Mei- 
 ling, is derived from the flower of a species of prunus 
 which gi'ows wild in profusion near the summit. After 
 reaching the foot of the steep acclivity on the north side, 
 the embassy were obliged to dismount from their horses, 
 or quit their chairs, in order to walk up. On reaching 
 the summit, where the rock is cut to the depth of above 
 twenty feet, the view on the Canton side breaks upon the 
 eye in full grandeur, consisting of ranges of wild moun- 
 tains, well wooded. The rocks at the pass have been 
 erroneously stated to consist of gneiss and quartz ; they 
 are, in fact, limestone, in common with the whole north 
 of Canton province, and supply the grey marble which is 
 so plentifully brought down the river. Immense square 
 blocks of the stone which compose the mountain are piled 
 up in pyramidal shapes on each side of the road down 
 the southern declivity ; the separate masses, however, 
 preserving the remains of a horizontal stratification. 
 
 The only two provinces to the east, or left, of the route 
 pursued by Lord Amherst's mission, are Che-keang and 
 Fokien, both of them bordering on the sea. The first of 
 these competes with Keang-nan in the production of silk, 
 and the country is thickly planted with young mulberry- 
 trees, which are constantly renewed, as the most certain 
 way of improving the quality of the silk which is spun by 
 the worms. The principal city of the province is the 
 celebrated Hang-chow, at the end of an estuary of the 
 sea, where the tide, according to Barrow, rises six or 
 seven feet. Close to this opulent town, on the west, is
 
 Chap. VI. THE PROYIXCES. 199 
 
 the famous lake Sy-hoo, about six miles in circumference, 
 the water quite limpid, and oversjiread with the nelum- 
 bium. This extensive sheet of water is covered with 
 barges, which appear to be the perpetual abodes of gaiety 
 and dissipation. On the coast, in the 30th parallel of 
 latitude, is the well-known port of Ningpo, the former 
 seat of European trade, and of a British consulate since 
 1842. The entrance is somewhat difficult, as there are 
 scarcely twenty feet of water on the bar at the highest 
 tides. Fifty or sixty miles from it, among the islands on 
 the coast, is Chow-san or Chusan, with a fair harbour, but 
 inconvenient for trade in comparison with Ningpo itself. 
 The capital of Chusan is Tinghae, which with the island 
 was held by us for four years, as a guarantee for the 
 fulfilment of the treaty of Nanking. 
 
 The contiguous province of Fokien preserved its in- 
 dependence against the Manchow Tartars longer than 
 any portion of the empire, being supported by the squa- 
 dron of the famous pirate (as he is sometimes called, 
 though he deserves a better name) whose son expelled 
 the Dutch from the adjoining island Formosa, when the 
 Tartars had dispossessed him of the main. The people 
 of Fokien retain a hereditary aptitude for the sea, and 
 chiefly supply the emperor's war-junks with both sailors 
 and commanders. A large proportion, too, of the trading 
 junks that proceed to sea pertain to Fokien. Two cir- 
 cumstances probably tend to maintain the maritime pro- 
 pensities of the inhabitants : — first, this province is so far 
 removed from the Grand Canal as to afford fewer induce- 
 ments to inland navigation and trade, always preferred, 
 if practicable, by a Chinese ; secondly, the proximity of 
 the opposite coast of Formosa keeps up a constant inter- 
 course by sea. The language or dialect of Fokien is so 
 peculiar as hardly to be intelligible elsewhere, and this
 
 200 GEOGRAPniCAL SKETCE OF CHINA. Chap. VI. 
 
 may chiefly be attributed to its long independence of the 
 rest of" the empire. Ch is always pronounced T, and 
 hence the difference between cha and tea for the great 
 staple production of China ; the first name for tea being 
 adopted by the Portuguese from Macao, and the second 
 by the English from Amoy. This port, the name of 
 which is a corruption of the native word Ileamun, is well 
 known to have been formerly the seat of the English 
 trade, being placed on an island near the coast in latitude 
 24^ 25', and since the peace of 1842 it has become the 
 seat of a British consulate. Fokien is the great country 
 of the black teas, and Bohea is a corruption of Vu-ee 
 Shan, the hills where they are principally grown. Foo- 
 chow-foo, the capital of the province, was yielded to us 
 as another port of trade by the treaty of Nanking. 
 
 AVe have now taken a cursory view of the finest and 
 most opulent parts of the empire. All the remainder 
 are inland provinces, less known to Europeans, and, ex- 
 cepting the shores of the Yang-tse-keang, probably much 
 less suited to the purposes of commerce. Of these, one 
 of the largest is Hoo-kuang, divided by the vast lake 
 Tongting Hoo,* with its tributaries, into two subordinate 
 provinces, Hoo-pe, and Hoo-nan — that is, " north and 
 south of the lake:" the last is to be distinguished from 
 Ho-nan, a province to the north. Immediately adjoin- 
 ing, to the south-west, is the province of Kuang-sy, under 
 the same viceroyalty with Canton, but greatly inferior in 
 wealth. North of Kuang-sy lies Kuei-chow, a small 
 mountainous province, of which the south boundary has 
 always been independent. It is peopled by a race of 
 mountaineers called Meaou-tse, who thus defy the Chinese 
 
 * The English translation of Du Halde, we observe, states that the 
 lake is very venomous, being thus absurdly rendered from the original 
 poissoneux.
 
 Chap. VI. IXDEPEXDEXT MOUXTAIXEERS. 201 
 
 in the midst of their empire. They gave the government 
 much trouble in 1832, and are said to have been " soothed " 
 rather than " controlled," to use favourite Chinese ex- 
 pressions — that is, managed rather than subdued. 
 
 The fact that an independent race of people should 
 exist in the heart of a country so jealous of its dominion 
 as China is certainly a singular one. The principal 
 seats of these mountaineers are between the provinces of 
 Kuei-chow and Kuang-sy, though some of them exist in 
 other parts of the same ridge ; and in the Chinese maps 
 their borders or limits are marked off like those of a 
 foreign country, and the space left blank. L'Amiot has 
 given an account of Kien-loong's expeditions against 
 them ; but as his narrative is taken from the official 
 papers sent to the emperor, which are in general not more 
 correct or veracious than the first Napoleon's bulletins, it 
 must be received with some allowances. According to 
 him, the viceroy of a neighbouring province had sent an 
 army against the Meaou-tse, who enticed them into their 
 mountains, and entirely cut off the Chinese with their 
 general. To revenge this, Kien-loong despatched a 
 leader named Akuei at the head of his best Tartar troops 
 to subdue them. This person is said to have entered 
 their country, and, in spite of all opposition, to have 
 taken their king prisoner, and nearly exterminated the 
 race. Still, however, they remain as independent as 
 ever, and the Chinese are contented to keep them within 
 their own limits by small fortresses erected on the 
 borders. Three thousand marched to Nanking in the 
 rebelhon of 1850. 
 
 The mountainous ridges occupied by this people extend 
 full six degrees, or about 360^geographical miles, from 
 west to east, comprising the southern borders of Kuei- 
 chow, with the northern of Kuang-sy, and the north-west 
 
 K 3
 
 202 GEOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF CHINA. Chap. VI. 
 
 limits of the Canton province ; but the Chinese contrive 
 to weaken their force by separating their different tribes. 
 The men do not shave their hair like the Tartars and 
 Chinese, but wear it tied up, in the ancient fashion of the 
 latter people before they were conquered. -The Chinese, 
 in affected contempt, give them the names of Yaou-jin 
 and Ldng-jin, dog-men and wolf-men. They are said to 
 inhabit houses of one story raised on piles, occupying the 
 upper part, and placing their domestic animals below. 
 The Chinese, without entering their mountains, purchase 
 the woods of their forests by agreement, and these, being 
 thrown into the rivers which intersect the hilly country, 
 are floated down into the plains. They make their linen 
 from a species of hemp, probably the material of what is 
 called gra%s-cloih at Canton ; and likewise manufacture a 
 kind of carpet for their own use. As soon as the children 
 can walk, the Chinese say that the soles of their feet are 
 seared with a hot iron, to enable them to tread on thorns 
 and stones without pain ; but this perhaps deserves little 
 more credit than the gi-ave assertion at Canton that the 
 people have tails^ — a piece of information which would 
 have been duly appreciated by Lord Monboddo, in his 
 speculations on the primitive elongation of the vertebral 
 chain in the human race. 
 
 In the month of February, 1832, a great rising took 
 place among the Mcaou-tse, extending to the neighbour- 
 hood of Lien-chow, on the north-west of Canton. The 
 leader took the name of the " Golden Dragon," and 
 assumed a yellow dress : this gave great offence and alarm 
 at Peking, and it was apprehended that some of the 
 "Triad Society," whose object is the overthrow of the 
 Manchow Tartars, had got among them. They made 
 their way into the plains, and defeated several bodies of 
 Chinese troops with considerable slaughter, including the
 
 .Chap. VI. MEAOU-TSE INSURRECTION. 203 
 
 loss of their arms and stores. The commander-hi-chief 
 of a neighhouriiig province was among the killed. The 
 mountaineers possessed themselves of several towns, but 
 issued notices to the Chinese people that they made war 
 only against the government. Of a thousand men sent 
 from Canton to recruit the emperor's forces, two hundred 
 were ordered back again as entirely useless, from the 
 baneful effects of opium. 
 
 The viceroy of Canton (called by the English " Go- 
 vernor Le ") proceeded against the insurgents, and, 
 though they at first retired, it was only to return, to the 
 amount, it is said, of 30,000, who engaged the Chinese 
 army, and slew 2000 of them, with a considerable number 
 of mandarins. One officer of rank, who understood their 
 language and customs, was sent to treat with them ; but, 
 on his entering their territory, they seized him and cut 
 off his head, saying that the spirit of Chang-ke-urh 
 (Jehanghir), the Mahometan prince who was perfidiously 
 murdered at Peking, had appeared and advised them to 
 make no terms with the faithless. While " Governor 
 Le " was unsuccessful to the south, the viceroy of Hoonan 
 attacked the insurgents on the north, and retook one of 
 the towns of which they had possessed themselves, killing 
 a great number, and taking some of the chief men pri- 
 soners. At length, two imperial commissioners were sent 
 from Peking, and they performed by policy much more 
 than had been likely to be done by arms. Reports were 
 spread of the innumerable forces that were coming to 
 exterminate the mountaineers, and they were at the same 
 time invited to come to terms. At length it was agreed 
 that they should confine themselves to their hills, and 
 that the Chinese should not invade their territories, and 
 the emperor's troops were withdrawn. " Governor Le," 
 however, was, in consequence of his ill success, deprived
 
 204 GEOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF CHIXA. Chap. VI. 
 
 of liis station at Canton, and ordered to proceed to Peking 
 to be put upon liis trial and degraded. The viceroy of 
 Hoonan, on the other hand, was honoured with the pea- 
 cock's feather, a distinction of a military character, pen- 
 dent from the back of the cap, and a multitude of rewards 
 were conferred on others, significant of the important ad- 
 vantages which had been gained over the enemy. These 
 continue as independent as ever, and must have been a 
 source of some anxiety to the Manchow dynasty at differ- 
 ent times. A few served as allies against us at Ningpo, 
 in 1842. 
 
 The province of Yun-nan, the most western part of 
 China, which borders on the Burmese territory, and is 
 not very far from Umerapura the capital. Is extremely 
 mountainous, and abounds In metals and other valuable 
 minerals. Gold Is found In the sands of the rivers, and 
 the Keang, In this part of Its course. Is named Kin-shdy 
 or golden-sanded There Is a salt-water well near Yaou- 
 gan-foo. Towards the north-west of this province, on the 
 borders of the Thibet country, Is found the Yak, or cow 
 of Thibet, the tail-hairs of which are used In various 
 manufactures, particularly carpets. The large province 
 of Szechuen, lying north-east of Yun-nan, Is traversed by 
 a portion of the great Keang. From the name of " snowy 
 mountains," applied by the Chinese to some of those 
 which extend along the north-west of this province, bor- 
 dering on the Thibet country, they must be of consider- 
 able elevation, and from their situation are probably 
 higher than any In China. Salt springs are found here 
 as in Yun-nan, towards the south-west. The province of 
 Shen-sy, bordering on Thibet, has been enlarged and 
 divided Into two, of which the westernmost Is called Kan- 
 so. Both this country and the adjoining province of 
 Shan-sy, towards Peking, abound in symptoms of volcanic
 
 Chap. VI. MAXCHOW TAllTARY. 205 
 
 action ; as the connection of salt-water lakes and springs 
 with jets of inflannnable gas and hot-wells. These may 
 be traced towards the south-west, through Szechuen 
 and Yun-nan to the Burmese country, where they also 
 occur in abundance, and are seemingly a continuation of 
 those volcanic traces which extend up through the Malay 
 peninsula from Sumatra and Java, both which islands 
 contain numerous volcanoes in full action. In Shen-sy, 
 near the city Yen-gan-foo, there distils from some rocks 
 an inflammable substance, which the Chinese burn in 
 lamps, and call She-yew, or stone-oil, being probably, 
 what its name imports, a kind of jMroleum. 
 
 Although not precisely included in our plan, which 
 is confined to China proper, it may not be amiss to 
 take some notice of the countries immediately con- 
 tiguous. 
 
 The region of Manchow Tartary, formerly the territory 
 of the Kin, whence the present rulers of China proceeded, 
 has been generally described as consisting of three pro- 
 vinces. Mougden, or Shing-king, the birthplace of the 
 reigning family, commences just at the eastern extremity 
 of the Great Wall, and is bounded on the south by the 
 gulf of Pechele. Here it is that the emperors are buried, 
 and their family mausoleum established. The country is 
 surrounded on the north-west and north-east by a stockade 
 of timber, about eight feet in height, which has been in- 
 correctly inserted in some European maps as a continua- 
 tion of the Great Wall. At Mougden is erected a sort 
 of epitome of the imperial government of Peking, with 
 various tribunals for the regulation of all parts of Tartary 
 immediately dependent on the emperor, whose subjects in 
 this part are called Bogdois by the Russians. To the 
 eastward of Mougden, and bordering Corea on the north, 
 is the second province of Manchow Tartary, called Kirin ;
 
 206 GEOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF CHIXA. Ch.vp. VI. 
 
 it is here that the famous wild plant ginseng, to which 
 the Chinese attrihute wonderful properties, is gathered as 
 an exclusive monojjoly of the emperor. Not long since, 
 however, the same plant was brought to Canton by the 
 Americans, having been discovered in their northern 
 states, in a climate and situation very similar to that of 
 Eastern Tartary. The missionaries, who constructed the 
 map for the emperor, were at a loss to explain the ex- 
 tremes of lieat and cold prevailing in these regions ; — 
 -' why countries which lie near the 40th degree of latitude 
 should differ so much from ours (in Europe), in respect 
 to the seasons and the productions of nature, as not to 
 bear comparison even with our most northern provinces. 
 The cold begins much sooner in these parts than at Paris, 
 notwithstanding the latitude of that city is almost 50°." 
 A small English vessel, which went up to the gulf of 
 Pechele in the winter of 1832, was nearly frozen up 
 there; and yet, during the month of August, 1816, we 
 observed that the fishermen on the coast went stark naked 
 on account of the excessive heat, and their skins were 
 burned almost black by the sun. Nothing can prove 
 more strongly that the climates of places are not in- 
 fluenced by their latitude merely. The third province 
 of Manchow Tartary, of which the inhabitants are the 
 Tagours, bordering on the Russian territory, is that of 
 Heloongkeang, or "the river of the Black Dragon," 
 otherwise called the Saghalien, or river Amur. 
 
 The Western or Mongol Tartars, commencing from 
 the Great Wall, extend as a distinct race even to the 
 borders of the Caspian. They are distinguished by their 
 nomadic habits, dwelling in tents, driving their flocks to 
 pasture from place to place, and accoutred with the bow 
 for sport or war. Of those dependent on China, but 
 governed through the medium of their own princes, or
 
 Chap. VI. MONGOL TARTARY. 207 
 
 Khans, the most considerable are the Kalkas, lyuig to 
 the north of the Shamo, or sandy desert called Gobi.* 
 They are all Budhists, and the wandering priests of that 
 persuasion are styled Shamans, in Chinese written 
 Shamun. The Ortous are confined between a bend of 
 the Yellow River and the Great Wall, which in this part 
 is a mere earthen mound about fifteen feet high. The 
 Mongols have been well described by M. Hue, in his 
 ' Souvenirs d^un Voyage.^ The principal seat of Chinese 
 rule in Mongol Tartary is at Ee-ly, a place to which 
 criminals from China (sometimes Hong merchants from 
 Canton) are occasionally exiled. They are generally con- 
 demned to military service, and in some cases become 
 slaves to Tartars. It is likely, however, that money 
 serves to mitigate their treatment, for a former linguist 
 of Canton, banished thither for conveying presents ta 
 Peking from the chief of the English factory to a minister 
 of state, returned, after a banishment of fifteen years, in 
 very good case, and by no means dissatisfied with his 
 residence. 
 
 Gerbillon, in the account of his expedition in 1688, gives 
 a miserable history of the Mongol and Kalka Tartars. 
 Entirely devoted to their Lamas, whom even the Emperor 
 of China honours on account of their influence over the 
 various tribes, the Mongols live in tents of coarse felt, eat 
 nothing but flesh half raw, and exchange their sheep and 
 cattle for a few of the necessaries of life, having no value 
 for money. Timkowski states that the usual medium of 
 exchange is tea, made up into the shape of bricks. As 
 late as the reign of Kang-hy, the chief of the Kalka 
 Tartars styled himself Emperor, but, becoming tributary 
 
 * In the Shamo desert no water is to be had except in pits dug in 
 the sand, and that of the worst quality. The suiface is strewed with 
 the bodies of animals, victims to thirst.
 
 208 GEOGRAPniCAL SKETCH OF CHINA. Chap. VI. 
 
 to China, in return for protection against the Elcuths, he 
 submitted to the rank of Wang, or King. At the time, 
 however, when Gerbillon visited Tartary, the brother of 
 the Kalka Khan told Kang-hy's envoys that he expected 
 to be treated as the son of an emperor, and was so treated 
 accordingly. The most w-esterly of the Mongol Tartars 
 are the Calmucs, or Eleuths, stretching towards the 
 Caspian. They waged war with Kang-hy in 1696, but 
 were defeated ; and these victories of the emperor's army 
 were, as we have before stated, painted by the Jesuits, 
 and engraved in France. 
 
 On the western side of China, bordering principally on 
 Szehuen province, are the Sy-fan, or Too-fan, who, 
 according to the Chinese, call their country Too-iJc-te 
 (Thibet), and, like the other Tartar races, are worship- 
 pers of Budh, or Fo, and under the dominion of Lama 
 priests. Their inaccessible mountainous retreats make 
 them practically pretty independent of Chinese control, 
 though they are counted among the subjects of the emperor. 
 They appear to have made some show in Chinese history, 
 previous to the dynasty of Yuen, or that of the Mongul 
 Tartars, and their princes even compelled the sovereigns 
 of China to yield them their daughters in marriage ; but 
 the arms of Zenghis Khan involved them in the common 
 subjugation, and they have since remained very quiet 
 within their hilly country, contented with the exercise of 
 their superstitions. There is a Chinese resident at Lassa, 
 the capital of Thibet, the high road to w'hich from Peking 
 lies through Sy-ning, in Kan-so province. 
 
 To the south, bordering on the western part of Yun- 
 nan province, are the Lolos, the original inhabitants of a 
 portion of Yun-nan, and very similar in habits, religious 
 observances, and language, to the Burmese, or people of 
 Ava. The Chinese exercise but a doubtful control over
 
 Chap. VI. FORMOSA. 209 
 
 them, for, though the emperor is said to confer titles on 
 their principal rulers, they appear to be entirely subject 
 to their native chiefs in all matters of consequence. On 
 the outskirts of the empire, towards the west, are a num- 
 ber of towns or stations called Too-sse, or " native juris- 
 dictions," where the aborigines are more or less inde- 
 pendent, and where there is, in fact, a kind of divided 
 authority, each party being immediately subject to its 
 own chiefs. This is particularly true of the Lolos. In 
 fact, Chinese authority exercised over strangers has 
 always been found intolerable, and hence the independent 
 jurisdiction secured to our consuls by treaty. 
 
 The two large islands of Formosa and Haenan, being 
 external to the main body of the empire, and therefore 
 exposed to the power of any maritime and commercial 
 nation that might wish to try the experiment of an insular 
 settlement near the coast of China, are both of them de- 
 serving of some attention. Of these two, Formosa is by 
 far the most favom-ed and the most desirable region. It 
 lies principally between the 25th and 22nd parallels of 
 north latitude, just opposite the coast of Fokien, from 
 which it is distant, at the nearest point, little more than 
 twenty leagues. The length is nearly two hundred geo- 
 graphical miles, with an average breadth of about fifty ; 
 and the climate, as might be expected from an insular 
 situation in that latitude, very favourable. The island is 
 divided longitudinally by a ridge of high mountains ; and 
 the w^estern portion, having been colonised by the Chinese 
 since the Manchow Tartar conquest, is now held by them 
 as a portion of the opposite province of Fokien. The side 
 that lies eastward of the hills is still inhabited by the 
 aborigines, who have always been described as a primi- 
 tive and savage race, bearing some common resemblance 
 to the Malays and to the inhabitants of the islands in the
 
 210 GEOGRAPHICAL SKETCn OF CIIIXA. Chap. VI. 
 
 Pacific ; since they blacken their teeth like the former, 
 and tattoo their skins, as a distinctive mark of rank, 
 after the manner of the latter. The expulsion of the 
 Dutch by the Chinese, nearly two hundred years since, 
 from tlu'ir settlement on the west coast of Formosa, has 
 already been described in the first chapter. The island 
 continued for some years to be held by the Chinese, inde- 
 pendently of the Tartar conquerors of the empire ; but in 
 1683 it submitted to the Manchow emperor, Kang-hy, 
 and became annexed to the empire as a part of the pro- 
 vince of Fokien. The position of Formosa, opposite to the 
 central coasts of China, would render it a most advan- 
 tageous situation for the promotion of European trJide, 
 except for the badness of the harbours and the dangerous 
 nature of the coast. 
 
 Haenan is rather smaller than Formosa, its greatest 
 length being under one hundred and fifty miles, with an 
 average breadth of about a decree. It is divided from 
 the province of Kuang-tung (to which it is subject) by 
 a very narrow as well as shallow strait, on the shore of 
 which the principal city of the island, Keung-chow-foo, is 
 situated. The climate of the island, from its situation 
 south of the parallel of latitude, is naturally hot ; but the 
 worst feature of the country consists in the dreadful hur- 
 ricanes by which it is devastated during the southerly 
 monsoon — a visitation from which Formosa seems to be 
 comparatively free. During the months of August, Sep- 
 tember, and October, the interior of Haenan, as well as ita 
 coasts, is peculiarly liable to the destructive typhoons for 
 which the Chinese sea is so notorious, and which have, at 
 diflferent times, wrecked many European vessels on the 
 island, besides the numbers that have foundered at sea. 
 Haenan has its aborigines as well as Formosa : they are 
 said to inhabit the mountains towards the middle of the
 
 Chap. VI. HAENAX— COEEA. 21 i 
 
 island, and occasionally to give trouble to the imperial 
 government. 
 
 The Chinese affect to consider all countries tributary 
 that have once sent an ambassador ; but those which 
 really have been so, and whose tribute is periodically 
 forwarded to Peking, are Corea, Cochin-China, Lewkew, 
 (or Loo-choo), and Siam. Corea (called Chaou-sien by 
 the Chinese) is said to have become a kingdom about 
 100 years before our era ; it is entirely ruled by its own 
 sovereigns, but the investiture of a new king is obtained 
 from the Emperor of China, who, whenever there is a 
 vacancy, deputes two officers to confer on the next in suc- 
 cession the title of Kuo-wang. To prevent contests after 
 his death, the reigning king sometimes names his heir, 
 and applies to the emperor to confirm him. The Coreans 
 use the Chinese character, but have a syllabic alphabet of 
 their own. The coasts of Corea are very far from being 
 correctly laid down in the maps, nor is it ^surprising that 
 the ships of the embassy in 1816 should have found them 
 so erroneously represented ; for P. Regis states that no 
 European had ever entered the country, and that the only 
 authority for the missionaries' map of Corea was a native 
 map brought back to Peking by a Chinese envoy, and 
 adopted for want of a better. He expressly says, " There 
 should be some further observations on the south and 
 east sides, which would complete the account of Corea as 
 a part of the general geography of Asia." Two French 
 frigates were lost on that dangerous coast in 1 (S47. The 
 chief productions of Corea are sable skins, ginseng, and 
 a strong paper used by the Chinese for windows, instead 
 of glass. 
 
 Cochin-China, including Tonkin, bordering on Kuang- 
 sy province, had its limits fixed as a separate state about 
 A.D. 250, by a brass pillar which remains to this day, and
 
 212 GEOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF CHINA. Chap. VI. 
 
 of which the situation is marked in the Jesuits' map. 
 The trihute of Cochin-China, as well as of Siam, is sent 
 periodically to Cantoii, whence it is forwarded in charge 
 of the ambassadors to Peking, and the vessels claim ex- 
 emption from port-charges and duties. The late war, 
 however, between Siam and Cochin-China interfered with 
 the regular transmission of tribute from both countries. 
 
 Lewkew, or Loo-choo, has been made in some degree 
 familiar to us by the relations of Captain Basil Hall and 
 Mr. M'Leod, and it has since been visited by Captain 
 Beechey, and later still by Mr. GutzlafF and others. 
 There is every reason to suppose that the people of those 
 islands are a jealous and suspicious race, being in the 
 power at once of Japan and China, and that their anxiety 
 to exclude Europeans from their country was veiled, on 
 the occasion of the ' Alceste ' and ' Lyra's ' visit, under a 
 cunning and plausible semblance of courtesy and good- 
 will, for hospitality it could hardly be called. The King 
 of Loo-choo derives his investiture from the Emperor of 
 China, and sends an embassy with tribute about once in 
 two years. Those islands seem to have had little or no 
 intercourse with China before the Yuen or Mongol dy- 
 nasty ; and there is reason to suppose that the unsuccess- 
 ful expedition sent by Koblai Khan against Japan may 
 have had some communication with them, and originated 
 the relations which have since existed. 
 
 According to the Chinese account of Loo-choo (printed 
 at Peking with moveable types), the island was formerly 
 divided into three nations or tribes, which were sub- 
 sequently united into one. It is stated that they have a 
 written character of their own (identical with that of 
 Japan), in which is recorded the ancient history of the 
 country, but that they also use the ('hinese character. So 
 far from the people of Loo-choo having no weapons, the
 
 Chap. VL LOO-CHOO. 213 
 
 same account relates that the foundation of the kIn<nlom 
 was laid by military force, in the person of a Japanese 
 prince, and that, in the temple dedicated to the con- 
 queror, there is to this day an arrow placed before the 
 tablet where his name is inscribed, in conformity with his 
 will, to show that his kingdom was established by arms. 
 They have also a copper coin of their own, but, as the 
 metal is scarce on the island, it exists in no laro-e 
 quantity ; and this may perhaps account for the first 
 English visitors having seen none. The Chinese say 
 they sometimes use their copper coin, and sometimes that 
 of Japan, both of which are introduced in trade. Loo- 
 choo, in fact, lies equidistant from both countries, and is 
 tributary to both. 
 
 According to the same authority, there is a nominal 
 king of Loo-choo, but the real power is exercised by a 
 minister, who is absolute. They have borrowed from 
 China the gradation of nine ranks, and compiled a system 
 of law from the penal code of their great neighbour. 
 They likewise borrowed from China its best institution — 
 a national education, with district schools, and public ex- 
 aminations for promotion. They venerate the memory of 
 Confucius, and study his works, with the notes of his great 
 commentator, Choofootse. Their religion is that of Fo, 
 or Budh, and they have all the subordinate idols attached 
 to that persuasion. Among other articles of food, the 
 Chinese say that the Loo-chooans make a sort of jjeni- 
 mican, composed of meat and pulse pounded and pressed 
 together, which is dried in the wind, and keeps a long 
 time. Their dislike of foreign visitors no doubt arises in 
 some measure from fear of giving offence to the Chinese ; 
 a consideration which likewise influences the people of 
 Corea in their exclusion of strangers. Keying, the 
 Chinese minister, was very urgent for the exclusion of
 
 214 
 
 GEOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF CHINA. Chap. VI. 
 
 Budhist High-priest. 
 
 our ships of war from Loo-choo ; but he was told that 
 they must be free to go everywhere. 
 
 The intercourse of China with Jayan from the earliest 
 ages seems to have been little better than an infliction of 
 mutual injuries, the latter country being too independent 
 and proud to yield the homage which was demanded by 
 the former. The Mongol conquerors of China, urged by 
 the spirit of universal dominion, made the most frequent 
 and determined attempts, first to persuade the Japanese 
 to send tribute, and then to subdue them ; but all without 
 success. The missions appear to have been principally 
 on the part of China, the Japanese sometimes receiving 
 them, and sometimes refusing to communicate ; but making
 
 Chap. Y1. INTERCOURSE WITH JARAX. 215 
 
 few or no returns, and not only denying- the homage which 
 was so much coveted, but demanding it from the other 
 party. At length an armament of 15,000 men was sent 
 by the way of Corea, but they only plundered the coast 
 and returned. Six years afterwards an envoy was again 
 despatched, who, with his whole retinue, was murdered 
 by the Japanese. This led to an armament of no less 
 than 100,000 men being despatched from China by Ko- 
 blai Khan, for the conquest of the country. On their 
 arrival upon the northern coast, a storm arose which 
 destroyed the greater number of the vessels ; and the 
 Japanese, attacking them on shore in several engage- 
 ments, either killed or made captives of nearly the whole 
 force, of which it is said that only three individuals ever 
 returned to their own country. This agrees in the main 
 with the account given by Marco Polo. 
 
 The Chinese dynasty of 3Iing, which drove out and suc- 
 ceeded the Mongols, suffered severely from the predatory 
 attacks of the Japanese on the coast, in return for the 
 hostilities which the latter had experienced from the 
 family of Koblai Khan. Envoys were sent to remon- 
 strate on the subject, and to invite the Japanese to 
 friendly intercourse, in which a hint at homage seems not 
 to have been forgotten. They were permitted to land, as 
 they were not sent by the hateful Mongols ; but no better 
 success appears to have attended their efforts to obtain 
 tribute, although some of the persons employed as envoys 
 were priests of Budh, for whom the Japanese have a re- 
 spect, on account of their connexion with their own national 
 religion. The piracies along the eastern coasts of China 
 were frequently repeated, but they seem to have led to no 
 renewed attempts on the part of the celestial empire to 
 punish or subdue Japan. Some commercial intercourse 
 at present subsists between the two countries, principally
 
 216 GEOGRArniCAL SKETCH OF CHIXA. Chap. VI. 
 
 carried on in jimks from Ningpo and Amoy or from 
 Chapoo. The Chinese justly value the real Ja])an\vare 
 above their own inferior manufactures in lacker, and this 
 ware, with copper, seems to be the chief article of im- 
 port.
 
 Chap. VII. ANTIQUITY OF CIIIIS^A. 21' 
 
 CHAPTEE VII. 
 
 SUMMARY OF CHINESE HISTORY. 
 
 Cliinese mythological history — Authentic histoiy commences with 
 Chow — Confucius — The first emperor — Erection of Great Wall 
 
 — Ea<5e of Han — The "Three States" — Law against female 
 rulers — Nestorian Christians — Power of the eimuchs — Feudalism 
 
 — Invention of printing — Tartar encroachments — Reign of Koblai 
 Khan — His successors driven out of China — The IMing djiiasty — 
 Catholic missionaries — Conquest of China by Manchow Tartars — 
 Kang-hy — Kien-loong — First British embassy — Kea-king"s will 
 
 — The late emperor Taou-kuang — Final expulsion of Catholic 
 missionaries. 
 
 Although a laboured history in detail of the Chinese 
 empire is not suited to the character and objects of this 
 work, still a rapid sketch of such revolutions as that 
 country has undergone, more especially in the last Tartar 
 conquest, seems requisite, in order rightly to understand 
 some peculiarities in the customs of the people, and even 
 some changes that have taken place among a race 
 generally remarkable for the unvarying sameness of its 
 manners and institutions. 
 
 Without attempting to deny to China a very high de- 
 gree of antiquity, it is now pretty universally admitted, 
 on the testimony of the most respectable native historians, 
 that this is a point which has been very much exag- 
 gerated. In reference to the earliest traditions of their 
 history, a famous commentator, named Choofootse, ob- 
 serves, " It is impossible to give entire credit to the 
 accounts of these remote ages." China has, in fact, her 
 mytliology in common with all other nations, and under 
 this head we must range the persons styled Fohy, !Shin- 
 
 VOL. I. L
 
 218 SUMMARY OF CHINESE HISTORY. Chap. VII. 
 
 noong, Iloang-ty, and their immediate successors, who, 
 like the demigods and heroes of Grecian foble, rescued 
 mankind by their ability or enterprise from the most 
 primitive barbarism, and have since been invested with 
 su])erhuman attributes. The most extravagant prodigies 
 arc related of these persons, and the most incongruous 
 qualities attributed to them ; — according to Swift's receipt 
 for making a hero, who, if his virtues are not reducible to 
 consistency, is to have them laid in a heap upon him. 
 " National vanity, and a love of the marvellous, have in- 
 fluenced in a similar manner the early history of most 
 other countries, and furnished materials for nursery tales, 
 as soon as the spirit of sober investigation has supplanted 
 that appetite for wonders which marks the infancy of 
 nations as well as of individuals." * 
 
 The fabulous part of Chinese history commences with 
 Puonkoo, who is represented in a dress of leaves, and 
 concerning whom everything is wild and obscure. He is 
 said to have been followed by a number of persons with 
 fanciful names, who, in the style of the Hindoo chrono- 
 logy, reigned for thousands of years, until the appearance 
 of Fohy, who, it is said, invented the arts of music, num- 
 bers, &c,, and taught his subjects to live in a civilized 
 state. He inhabited what is now the northern province of 
 Shen-sy, anciently the country of Tsin, or Chin, whence 
 some derive the word China, by which the empire has 
 been for ages designated in India. Foht/ (often absurdly 
 confounded with Fo, or Budh) and his two successors are 
 styled the " Three Emperors," and reputed the inventors 
 of all the arts and accommodations of life. Of these, 
 Shin-noong, or the " divine husbandman," instructed his 
 people in agriculture ; and Hoang-ty divided all the lands 
 into groups of nine equal squares, of which the middle 
 
 * Royal Asiat. Trans, vol. i. : Memoir concerning the Chinese.
 
 Chap. VII. MYTHOLOGICAL HISTORY. 219 
 
 one was to be cultivated in common for the benefit of the 
 state. He is said likewise to have invented the mode of 
 noting the cycle of sixty years, the foundation of the 
 Chinese system of chronology. The series of cycles is at 
 least made to extend back to the time in which he is 
 reputed to have lived, about 2600 years before Christ ; 
 but it is obvious that there could be no difficulty in cal- 
 culating it much farther back than even that, had the 
 inventors so pleased ; and this date is therefore no certain 
 proof of antiquity. 
 
 To the " Three Emperors " succeeded the " Five Sove- 
 reigns," and the designations seem equally arbitrary and 
 fanciful in both cases, being in fact distinctions without a 
 difference. The fictitious character of this early period 
 might be proved in abundance of instances, and it is the 
 worst feature of Du Halde's compilation to set everything 
 down without comment, and to be filled wdth general and 
 unmeaning eulogies out of Chinese works, whatever may 
 be the subject of description. He observes that one of 
 these Jive jSovereiffns regnl'died the Calendar, "and desired 
 to begin the year on the first day of the month in which 
 the sun should be nearest the 15th degree of Aquarius, 
 for which he is called the author and father of the ephe- 
 meris. He chose the time when the sun passes through 
 the middle of this sign, because it is the season in whicJi 
 the earth is adorned ivitJi plants, trees renew their verdure, 
 and all nature seems rea^iimated : " — this of course must 
 mean the spring season. Now the person alluded to is 
 said to have lived more than 2000 years before Christ, 
 and, according to the usual mode of calculating the pre- 
 cession of the equinoxes, the sun must have passed through 
 the 15th of Aquarius, in his time, somewhere about the 
 middle of December. In a Chinese historian this strange 
 blunder is not surprising, and only shows the character of 
 
 L 2
 
 220 SUMMARY OF CHINESE HISTORY. Chap. VII. 
 
 their earlier records ; but it ought to have been corrected 
 in a European work. 
 
 Yaou and Shun, the two last of the five sovereigns, 
 were the patterns of all Chinese emperors. To Yaou is 
 attributed the intercalation (in their lunar year) of an 
 additional lunar month seven times in every nineteen 
 years ; the number of days in seven lunations being 
 nearly equal to nineteen multiplied by eleven, which last 
 is the number of days by which the lunar year falls short 
 of the solar. Yaou is said to have set aside his own son, 
 and chosen Shun to be his successor, on account of his 
 virtues. The choice of the reigning emperor is the rule 
 of succession at the present day, and it is seldom that the 
 eldest son succeeds in preference to the rest. To the 
 age of Shun the Chinese refer their tradition of an exten- 
 sive flooding of the lands, which by some has been 
 unthinkingly identified with the Mosaic deluge. It was 
 for his merit in draining the country, or drawing off the 
 waters of the great inundation, in which he was employed 
 eight years, that " Yu the gi*eat " was chosen by Shun 
 for his successor. 
 
 lie commenced the period called Heel, upwards of 
 2100 years before Christ. Yu is described as nine cubits 
 in height, and it is stated that " the skies rained gold for 
 three days," which certainly (as Ur. Morrison observes) 
 "lessens the credit of the history of this period." In 
 fact, the whole of the long space of time included under 
 Hea and Shang is full of the marvellous. Chow-wang, 
 however, the last of the Shang (about 1100 years before 
 Christ), was a tyrant, by all accounts, not more remark- 
 able for his cruelty or extravagancies than many other 
 tyrants have been. Frequent allusion is made to him in 
 Chinese books, as well as to his wife, and various stories 
 are related of their crimes. One of the emperor's rela-
 
 Chap. VII. THE CHOW DYNASTY. 221 
 
 tions havinof ventured to remonstrate with him, the cruel 
 monarch ordered his heart to be brought to him for 
 inspection, observing that he wished to see in what 
 respects the heart of a sage differed from those of 
 common men. With the Chinese the heart is the seat 
 of the mind. 
 
 At length Woo-wong, literally " the martial king," 
 was called upon to depose the tyrant, and all tiiC people 
 turned against the latter. Wnen no hopes were left, he 
 arrayed himself in his splendour, and, retiring to his 
 palace, set fire to it, and perished, like another Sardana- 
 palus, in the flames. When the conqueror entered, the 
 first object he perceived was the guilty queen, whom he 
 put to death with his own hand, and immediately became 
 the first of the dynasty Chow. This forms the subject of 
 a portion of the ' Shooking,' one of the five classical books 
 delivered down by Confucius. The Chinese have no 
 existing records older than the compilations of Confucius^ 
 who was nearly contemporary with Herodotus, the father 
 of Grecian history, and to whom Pope has given a very 
 lofty niche in his ' Temple of Fame : ' — 
 
 " Superior and alone Confucius stood, 
 "VYbo taught that useful science — to be good." 
 
 The five classics and the four books, which were be- 
 queathed by that teacher or by his disciples, contain 
 what is now known of the early traditions or records of 
 the country. The period of authentic history may be 
 considered as dating from the race of Chow, in whose 
 time Confucius himself lived ; for, although it might be 
 going too far to condemn all that precedes that period as 
 absolutely fabulous, it is still so much mixed up with 
 fable as hardly to deserve the name of history. In his 
 work called Chun-tsieu {spring and autumn, because
 
 222 SUMMARY OF CHINESE HISTORY. Chap. VII. 
 
 written between those seasons) Confucius ogives the annals 
 of his own times, and relates the wars of the several jietty 
 states against each other. The southern half of the 
 present empire (to the south of the Yang'-tsc-kcang) was 
 then in a state of entire barbarism ; and the northern 
 half, extending from that river to the confines of Tartary, 
 was divided among a number of petty independent states, 
 derived from a common origin, but engaged in perpetual 
 hostilities with each other. 
 
 The period of Chow, comprising above eight centuries, 
 and extending down to 240 b.c., was distinguished, not 
 only by the birth of Confucius, but by the appearance in 
 China of Laou-keun, and, in India, of Fo, or Budh, w-ho 
 were destined to give rise to the two sects which, sub- 
 ordinate to that of Confucius himself, have influenced 
 rather than divided the population of China ever since. 
 The estimation, however, which they have respectively 
 enjoyed has been very different. The memory and the 
 doctrines of Confucius have met with almost uninter- 
 rupted veneration to the present time ; they have even 
 retained their supremacy over Budhism, the native wor- 
 ship of the Tartar dynasty ; while the absurd superstitions 
 of the other two sects have been alternately embraced 
 and despised by the different sovereigns of the country. 
 The mummeries of the Budhists are a parallel to the 
 worst parts of Romanism ; and the disciples of Laou-keun 
 combine a variety of superstitions ; each sect, at the 
 same time, being plainly a corruption of something that 
 was better in its origin. We shall have to speak of 
 these more in detail hereafter, under the head of Re- 
 ligions. 
 
 Confucius was respected by the sovereigns of nearly all 
 the independent states of (Jhina, and was employed as 
 minister by one of them. After his death, which hap-
 
 Chap. VII. TEE FIRST EMPEROR. 223 
 
 pened b.c. 477, at the age of seventy-three, a series of 
 sanguinary contests arose among the petty kingdoms, 
 which gave to this period of history the name of Chen- 
 kuo, or the " contending nations," and proved in after- 
 times the ruin of the race of Chotv. The king of Tsin 
 had long been growing powerful at the expense of the 
 neighbouring states : he fought against six other nations, 
 and, after a course of successes, compelled them all 
 to acknowledge his supremacy. The chief goverrmient 
 began now to assume the aspect of an emjjire, which 
 comprehended that half of modern China lying to the 
 north of the great Keang ; but which, after the lapse of 
 a few centuries, was doomed again to be split into several 
 parts. 
 
 The first Emperor (which is implied by the title 
 Chyhoang-ty), being troubled by the incursions of the 
 Tartars on the northern frontier, rendered himself for 
 ever famous by the erection of the vast wall, which has 
 now stood for 2000 years, extending along a space of 
 1500 miles, from the Gulf of Peking to "Western Tar- 
 taiy. It has been estimated that this monstrous monu- 
 ment of human labour contains material sufficient to 
 surround the whole globe, on one of its largest circles, 
 with a wall several feet in height. Another act of the 
 same emperor entitled him to a different species of fame. 
 He ordered that all the books of the learned, including 
 the writings of Confucius, should be cast into the flames : 
 many of course escaped this sentence, through the zeal of 
 those who cultivated learning ; but it is said that upwards 
 of 400 persons, who attempted to evade or oppose the 
 order, were burned with the books they wished to save. 
 It is not easy to explain the fantastic wickedness of such 
 an act on any common principles ; but one reason alleged 
 for it is, the jealousy that this foolish emperor entertained
 
 224 SUMMARY OF CIIIXESE HISTORY. Chap. Vll. 
 
 of the fame of his prog-enitors, and the wish he indulged 
 that posterity shoukl hear of none before himself. 
 
 About the year 201 b.c. the race of Han succeeded to 
 the sovereignty, and commenced one of the most cele- 
 brated periods of Chinese history. It was now that the 
 Tartars by their predatory warfare became the source 
 of endless disquiet to the more polished and peaceful 
 Chinese, by whom they were in vain propitiated with 
 alliances and tribute. They ^vere the Hing-lmo (erratic 
 nations), against whom the first emperor had vainly built 
 the wall ; and under the name of Heung-noo (Huns) 
 they constantly appear in the histories or fictions of that 
 period. The first emperors of this race endeavoured to 
 make friends of the Tartar chiefs by giving them their 
 daughters in marriage. "The disg'race," says a his- 
 torian of that period, " could not be exceeded — from this 
 t'me China lost her honour." In the reign of Yuen-ty, 
 the ninth emperor, the Tartars having been provoked by 
 the punishment of two of their leaders, who had trans- 
 gressed the boundaries of the Great \Yall in hunting, the 
 empire was again invaded, and a princess demanded and 
 yielded in marriage. This forms the subject of one of 
 the hundred plays of Yuen, an English version of which 
 was printed by the Oriental Translation Committee in 
 1829, under the name of the ' Sorrows of Han.' The 
 impolitic system of buying off the babarians, which com- 
 menced so early, terminated many centuries afterwards in 
 the overthrow of the empire. 
 
 The seventeenth emperor of Han, by name Ho-ty, is 
 said to have had considerable intercourse with the west. 
 It is even recorded that one of his envoys reached Tatsin, 
 or Arabia. It is certain that eunuchs, those fertile sources 
 of trouble to his successors, were introduced during his 
 reign, and it may be inferred that he borrowed them from
 
 CiiAP. YII. THE "TEREE STATES." 22.5 
 
 western Asia about a.d. 95. The reigns of the last two 
 emperors of Hiin were disturbed by the machinations of 
 the eunuchs, and by the wars with the rebels called 
 Hoangkin, or Yellow Caps. At this time so little was 
 left of the sovereign authority, that the emperors are 
 frequently designated by the mere term CJioo or lord. 
 
 The period of the S'anhio, or "Three States," into 
 which the country was divided towards the close of Han, 
 about A.D. 184, is a favourite subject of the historical 
 plays and romances of the Chinese. A work, designated 
 particularly by the above name, is much prized and very 
 popular among them, and a manuscript translation of it 
 in Latin, by one of the Catholic missionaries, exists in 
 the library of the Royal Asiatic Society. Extracts from 
 it might be made interesting, but the whole is perhaps 
 too voluminous to bear an English translation in print. 
 It is, however, as little stuffed with extravagancies as 
 could be expected from an oriental history, and, except 
 that it is in prose, bears a resemblance in some of its 
 features to the Iliad, especially in what Lord Chesterfield 
 calls "the porter-like language" of the heroes. These 
 heroes excel all moderns in strength and prowess, and 
 make exchanges after the fashion of Glaucus and Diomed, 
 Hector and Ajax.. One shows his liberality in horses, 
 another in a weight of silver, or wwi — 
 
 " And steel well-temper'd, and refulgent gold." 
 
 Society seems to have been in much the same state, split 
 into something like feudal principalities, hanging loosely 
 together under the questionable authority of one head. 
 That great step in civilization, the invention of printing 
 (which arose in China about the tenth century of our 
 era), had not yet taken place, and even the manufacture 
 of paper had not long been introduced. 
 
 L 3
 
 226 SUMMARY OF CHINESE HISTORT. Chap. VII. 
 
 The leader of Wei, one of the three states, having at 
 length obtained the sovereignty, established the capital 
 in his own country, Honan, and commenced the dynasty 
 called Tsin, a.d. 200. Having taken warning from the 
 distractions arising from the interference of eunuchs and 
 women in affairs of government during the period of the 
 Three States, a kind of Salic law was passed, that " Queens 
 should not reign, nor assist in pubhc matters" — a good 
 law, adds the historian, and worthy of being an example. 
 It was, however, soon afterwards abrogated in practice. 
 Some have concluded, not without probability, that the 
 name China, Sina, or Tsina, was taken fi"om the dynasty 
 of Tsin. The first emperor, or founder, is said to have 
 had political transactions with Fergana, a province of 
 Sogdiana, and to have received a Roman embassy. 
 
 On the conclusion of this race of sovereigns, in 
 A.D. 416, China became divided into two principal king- 
 doms, Nanking being the capital of the southern one, and 
 Honan of the northern. For about 200 years afterwards, 
 five successive races (woo-tae) rapidly followed each other ; 
 and the salutary rule of hereditary succession being con- 
 stantly violated by the strongest, the whole history of the 
 period is a mere record of contests and crimes. At 
 length, in a.d. 585, the north and south were united 
 for the first time into one empire, of which the capital 
 was fixed at Floniln. The last of the five contending 
 races was soon after deposed by Ly-yuen, who founded, 
 in A.D. 622, the dynasty of Tang. 
 
 Tae-tsoong, the second emperor of this race, was one 
 of the most celebrated in China ; his maxims are con- 
 stantly quoted in books, and his temperance and love of 
 justice considered as patterns. There is reason to believe 
 that certain Christians of the Nestorian Church first came 
 to China in his reign, about a.d. 640. It is recorded
 
 Chap. VIL FEMALE RULE— EUNUCHS. 227 
 
 that foreigners aiTived, having fair hair and blue eyes. 
 According to the Jesuits, whom Du Ilalde has quoted, a 
 stone monument was found at Sy-gdn-foo in Shen-sy, a.d. 
 1625, with the cross, an abstract of the Christian law, 
 and the names of 72 preachers in Syriac characters, 
 bearing the forementioned date. It has been urged that 
 this discovery might have been a pious fraud on the part 
 of the holy fathers ; but it is not easy to assign any 
 adequate motive for such a forgery, and the evidence 
 seems upon the whole in its favour. 
 
 One of the most remarkable circumstances in the 
 history of Tang is the extraordinary power which the 
 eunuchs of the palace arrogated to themselves. The 
 third emperor was so besotted by one of his wives that 
 he left her invested with sovereign power at his death, 
 contrary to the enactment before made and provided. 
 She reigned for about 20 years absolutely, leaving her 
 son emperor ; and this vicious and troubled period is 
 another example, quoted by the Chinese, of the mischiefs 
 which result to public affairs from the management of 
 women. During her reign the eunuchs gathered fresh 
 force, and for a considerable time had the choice of the 
 emperors, and the control of their actions. The influence 
 of such singular rulers must of course be referred to the 
 operations of intrigue. The uncontrolled access which 
 their condition gave them to all parts of the palace, and 
 to the company of both sexes, was greatly calculated to 
 facilitate their projects ; and projects of mischief and 
 disorder were the most likely ones to be formed by those 
 who were cut off from the ties of kindred, and sufficiently 
 disposed to regard the rest of mankind as their enemies. 
 The awe of state was not long felt by such as were the 
 immediate attendants, and perhaps the companions, of 
 the sovereign, in his private haunts ; and that barrier
 
 228 STJMJrAllY OF CHINESE niSTORY. Chap. VII. 
 
 once passed, the ap])roaches of insolence and usurpation 
 might advance unchecked. The power of the eunuchs 
 was at length destroyed hy the last emperor of the race, 
 who in great measure extirpated them, through the 
 assistance of a powerful leader whose aid he requested. 
 This person fulfilled his commission, but subsequently 
 killed the em])eror and his heir, and, after a course of 
 atrocious cruelties, put an end to the dynasty of Tang, 
 A.D. 81)7. 
 
 The whole country was once more throw-n into a state 
 of war and confusion, with several aspirants to the 
 sovereignty. This period, which lasted about fifty-three 
 years, is called in Chinese histories the Hmv Woo-fae, or 
 " latter five successions." The Tartar people of the 
 region now called Leaou-tung, at the eastern extremity 
 of the Great WaW, encouraged by the unsettled and 
 divided condition of the empire, gave much trouble by 
 their incursions. 
 
 These turbulent portions of the Chinese annals, which 
 were now soon to give way to a settled oriental despot- 
 ism, bear many features of a feudal cast about them. 
 We think we can perceive in the book of Mengtse, or 
 Mencius (as his name has been Latinized by the Jesuits), 
 that the original government of China approached in 
 some degree to that description. " The Sovereign, the 
 Koong, the How, the Pe, and the Nan, constituted five 
 ranks. The Sovereign had the immediate government 
 of 100 ly ; the Koong and How each of 100 ly; the Pe 
 70; and the Nan 50 ly." — {Heameng. ch. x.) We read 
 in their histories of grants of land to certain oflRcers of 
 state, and of government and military lands, in which 
 may be perceived a resemblance to the feudal fiefs or 
 benefices. A\ hatever may have been the tenure in 
 former times, the emperor is now, as in most oriental
 
 Chap. VII. INVENTION OF PRINTING. 229 
 
 countries, regarded as the ultimate owner of all lands, 
 from which he receives a tax of about 10 per cent. 
 
 After a succession of civil wars, Tae-tsoo, the first 
 emperor of the Soong dynasty, was raised to the throne 
 by the military leaders in consequence of the minority of 
 the real heir, who was only seven years of age, a.d. 950. 
 Being about to engage the Eastern Tartars, they did not 
 wish to be ruled by a child, who could not appreciate 
 their services. They accordingly fixed on a servant of 
 the deceased emperor, and immediately despatched mes- 
 sengers, who found him overcome with wine, and in that 
 state communicated their message. The history adds 
 that, " before he had time to reply, the yellow robe was 
 already applied to his person." Substitute purple for 
 yellow, and this might be taken for the translation of 
 some passage in Tacitus or Suetonius. 
 
 The art of printing having been invented just previous 
 to this dynasty, about five hundred years before it was 
 known to us, the multiplication of books, the instruments 
 of learning, was a principal cause of the literary cha- 
 racter of the age of Soong ; to the same cause may be 
 attributed the increased fulness of the records of this 
 period, from whence the really interesting thread of 
 Chinese history commences. Our lights now multiply 
 fast, and the Tartars begin to take a considerable share 
 in the national transactions. In fact, the whole history of 
 this polished but unwarlike race is a series of disgraceful 
 acts of compromise with the Eastern Tartars, called Kin 
 (the origin of the Manchows, or present reigning family), 
 until the Mongols, or Western Tartars, took possession of 
 the empire under Koblai Khan. 
 
 In the reign of Chin-tsoong, the third emperor of 
 Soong, the Eastern Tartars, having laid siege to a town 
 near Peking, were forced to treat, but still obtained
 
 230 SUMMARY OF CIIIXESE HISTORY. Chap VII. 
 
 advantageous terms, with a large annual donative of 
 money and silk. The pacific disposition of Jin-tsoong, 
 the fourth emperor, gave them further encouragement, 
 and a disgraceful treaty was the consequence. Ten 
 districts to the south of the wall being claimed by 
 them, they received an annual quit-rent of 200,000 taels 
 and a quantity of silk. To complete his disgrace, the 
 emperor called himself a tributary^ making use of the 
 term Na-hoong. 
 
 Shin-tsoong, the sixth emperor, is described as having 
 hastened the fall of his race, by attending to the absurd 
 suggestions of a minister who was for reverting to the 
 antiquated maxims of Yaou and Shun, names which may 
 almost be said to belong rather to the mythology than 
 the history of the empire. At length Wei-tsoong, the 
 eighth sovereign in succession, enslaved himself to the 
 eunuchs, and soon experienced the consequences of his 
 weakness and imbecility. The Eastern Tartars advanced 
 apace, took possession of a part of northern China, and 
 threatened the whole country ; they were destined, how- 
 ever, to be checked, not by the Chinese, but the Mongols. 
 These inhabited the countries which extend from the 
 north-western provinces of China to Thibet and Samar- 
 cand. They had already conquered India, and being 
 now called in against the Kin, or Eastern Tartars, they 
 soon subdued both them and the enervated Chinese, 
 whom they had been invited to protect. 
 
 The Mono^ols miffht be said to be masters of the 
 northern half of modern China from the year 1234. 
 The Kin, who until then had occupied a part of the pro- 
 vinces bordering on the wall, were attacked on one side 
 by the Chinese, and on the other by the Mongols, under 
 the command of the famous Pe-yen (Jiimdred eyes, or 
 Argus, on account of his vigilance), who is mentioned by
 
 Chap. VII. KOBLAI KIIAX. 231 
 
 Marco Polo, and the correctness of whose name is of 
 itself a sufficient proof of the genuineness of that early 
 traveller's narrative. Their principal city was taken, and 
 the death of their prince put an end for the present to 
 the Eastern Tartars ; hut the remnant hecame the stock 
 from whence grew the Manchows, who afterwards con- 
 quered China, and who hold it to this day in subjec- 
 tion. 
 
 When Koblai Khan had possessed himself of the 
 northern part of the empire, he took occasion of the 
 infancy of the reigning Chinese emperor to use an ar- 
 gument convenient to his purpose. "Your family," said 
 he, " owes its rise to the minority of the last emperor of 
 the preceding house ; it is therefore just that the remains 
 of Soong should give place to another family." The 
 famous Pe-yen pursued the Chinese army first to Fokien, 
 and afterwards to Hoey-chow in Canton province. 
 Great cruelty was exercised on the vanquished, and it 
 is recorded that "the blood of the people flow-ed in 
 sounding torrents." The remains of the Chinese court 
 betook themselves to the sea near Canton, and perished, 
 A.D. 1281. 
 
 On the accession of Koblai Khan, the first of the Yuen 
 dynasty, the favourite religion of the Mongols being that 
 of Budh, or Fo, of which the grand Lama of Thibet 
 is the head, an order was promulged to burn all the 
 books of the Taou sect. An exception was suggested in 
 favour of the Taou-te-king, as the only really inspired 
 writing of that religion ; but the order was made per- 
 emptory to burn them all. The historian, a Confucian, 
 observes that his majesty, who favoured Budhism, and 
 those of his predecessors who had encouraged the other 
 persuasion, were equally erroneous and partial ; both 
 doctrines should have been extinguished. Budhism, in
 
 232 SUMMARY OF CHINESE HISTORY. CirAP. VII. 
 
 fact, has never flourished as it did under the Mongol 
 Tartar race, bccau^^e it was their native religion. 
 
 Koblai fixed the seat of government at Peking, or 
 Kambalu, as it is styled by Marco Polo after the Tar- 
 tars. As the most effectual remedy for the sterility of 
 the plain in which that capital is situated, he constructed 
 the vast canal, extending south a distance of about 300 
 leagues into the most fertile provinces, and serving as an 
 easy conveyance for their products, independently of a 
 sea navigation. This great work, which is more par- 
 ticularly described in its proper place, was a benefit to 
 China, by itself sufficient to redeem in some measure the 
 injustice and violence by which the Mongol possessed 
 himself of the empire. 
 
 The northern portion of China was now known by the 
 name Kathai, or Cathay, the appellation invariably given 
 to it by the Venetian traveller. The southern was styled 
 Manjee, which is evidently a corruption of 3Iantsze, 
 originally applied to the barbarians of the south. There 
 is a portion of Ava bordering on China at this day 
 called Manchegee, which probably has the same deriva- 
 tion. Notwithstanding the great qualities of Koblai, 
 which were calculated to lay the foundations of a per- 
 manent dominion, the degeneracy of his successors was 
 such as to cause the empire to pass out of the hands of 
 the Mongol race in a little more than eighty years' time. 
 There is scarcely anything worthy of notice in their 
 annals, save the rapid and excessive degeneracy of these 
 Tartar princes. Koblai had wisely adopted the political 
 institutions of China ; but those who followed him sur- 
 passed the Chinese themselves in their luxury and effe- 
 minacy. Enervated by the climate and vices of the 
 south, they quickly lost the courage and hardihood which 
 had put the country in possession of their ancestors ; and
 
 CiiAP. YII. DEGENERACY OF MANCHOW DYXASTY 233 
 
 Shunty, the ninth emperor in succession, was compelled 
 to resign the empire to a Chinese. 
 
 It it is worthy of remark, that, of the score of dynasties 
 which have followed each other, all established themselves 
 on the vices, luxuries, or indolence of their immediate 
 forerunners. The present Manchow race has already 
 shown no unequivocal symptoms of degeneracy. The 
 two greatest princes by whom it has been distinguished, 
 Kang-hy and Kien-loong, sedulously maintained the 
 ancient habits of their Tartar subjects by frequent hunting 
 excursions beyond the wall, in which they individually 
 bore no small share of the fatigue and danger. The late 
 emperor, Keaking, and his two successors, have, on the 
 other hand, been remarkable for their comparative in- 
 dolence ; and the reigns of all have exhibited a mere 
 succession of revolts and troubles. The following is part 
 of an edict issued by the Emperor Taou-kuang in 182-4 : 
 — "With reference to the autumnal hunt of the present 
 year, I ought to follow the established custom of my pre- 
 decessors ; but, at the same time, it is necessary to be 
 guided by the circumstances of the times, and to act in 
 conformity to them. The expedition to Je-ho (Zhehol) is 
 also ordered to be put off for this year. It is an involun- 
 tary source of vexation to me : I should not think of 
 adopting this measure from a love of ease and indul- 
 gence." Since that date, however, the same course has 
 been repeated under various pretexts. The Manchow 
 rule has already lasted much longer than the Mongol, 
 and, from all present appearances, a bold and well- 
 conducted Chinese rebellion might perhaps succeed in 
 overthrowing it. 
 
 The first emperor of the 3Iing dynasty, which expelled 
 the Mongols in 1366, had been servant to a monastery of 
 bonzes, or priests of Budh. Having joined a numerous
 
 234 SU^IMARY OF CUINESE HISTORY. Chap. VII. 
 
 body of rcvoltcrs, he soon became their leader, and, after 
 makhig himself master of some provinces in the south, at 
 leng'th defeated a part of the emperor's troops in a great 
 battle. The Chinese now flocked to him from all parts, 
 and, having- crossed the Yellow River, he forced SJtunty 
 to fly northwards, where he died soon after, leaving the 
 empire in possession of the successful Chinese, who as- 
 sumed the sovereignty, wdth the title of Tae-tmo^ " great 
 ancestor, or founder." 
 
 The new emperor endeavoured to establish his capital 
 at Foongyang-foo, his native city, but was obliged, from 
 its local disadvantages, to give it up, and adopt Nanking 
 instead, erecting Peking into a principality for one of his 
 younger sons, Yoong-lo. When this prince succeeded as 
 third emperor of his family, the capital was transferred in 
 1408 to Peking ; a principal reason perhaps being the 
 necessity of keeping the Eastern Tartars in check. Nan- 
 king was still occupied by the heir^ with a distinct set of 
 tribunals, and this shows more confidence than is com- 
 monly displayed under Asiatic despotisms. It was in the 
 same reign that Timour, or Tamerlane, died on his way to 
 the conquest of China, in the year 1405. 
 
 During the reign of Hoong-hy, the fourth emperor 
 of the Ming family, a great conflagration of the palace 
 melted together a mixture of valuable metals, and fi'om 
 this compound were constructed numbers of vases, which 
 are highly valued at the present day. In this the reader 
 may perceive an origin somewhat similar to that of the 
 famous Corinthian brass. Some of the Chinese vases, so 
 highly esteemed, were seen by the British embassy near 
 Nanking in 1816. It is a common practice, however, at 
 present, to put the name of the above emperor on vases 
 which have no pretensions whatever to this antique value. 
 
 It was in the same dynasty that the Portuguese, as we
 
 CiiAP. YII. EOMAN CATHOLIC MISSIONARIES. 235 
 
 have already seen, came to China, and obtained, about 
 the middle of the sixteenth century, their imperfect tenure 
 of Macao ; and it was also under the 31ing race that the 
 Jesuits established themselves in China. The zeal and 
 address with which these intelligent and adventurous men 
 opened a way for themselves and their mission is de- 
 serving of high praise ; and the knowledge which some of 
 them obtained of the language, manners, and institutions 
 of the country has never perhaps been surpassed by any 
 other Europeans. Had it not been for the narrow- 
 minded bigotry and intolerance with which some of the 
 popes, and the monks whom they deputed to China, frus- 
 trated the labours of the more sober-minded Jesuits, Euro- 
 peans and their religion might at this day enjoy a very 
 different footing in the empire. 
 
 In the year 1618, Wanlie, the thirteenth emperor of 
 the Chinese dynasty, being on the throne, a war com- 
 menced with the Eastern Tartars, who now called their 
 country (the present Mougden) Manchow, which means 
 " the full region." We have before seen that, just pre- 
 vious to the Mongol conquest, and during the latter end 
 of the Soong dynasty, these Eastern Tartars, under the 
 name of Kin, or the " golden " race, had subdued some 
 portion of the north of China, but were driven out by the 
 Mongols. When the last of the Mongols, descendants of 
 Koblai Khan, w^ere expelled from China by the founder 
 of the Ming, or Chinese race, they sought a refuge among 
 the Eastern Tartars, and from their intermarriages with 
 the natives sprung the Bogdoi Khans, or Manchow 
 princes, who were destined to expel the Ming. It is in 
 this manner that the emperors of the present dynasty 
 derive their descent from Koblai Khan. 
 
 It was Tien-ming, the lineal ancestor of the family now 
 reigning, who in the time of Wanlie drew up a paper
 
 236 SUMMARY OF CHINESE HISTORY. Chap. VII. 
 
 containinp- seven subjects of grievance, on the ground of 
 which he formally attacked China, with the view of doing 
 himself justice. He entered the province of Peking at 
 the head of 50,000 men, and was preparing to besiege 
 the cjvpital, when he was repulsed, and compelled to retire 
 for a while to Leaoutung, north of the Great Wall. His 
 title, Tien-ynin<i, literally means " Heaven's decree." The 
 contest was subsequently resumed, and lasted with various 
 success until the last emperor of Ming succeeded in 
 1G27. This prince seemed insensible to the danger 
 which threatened him, and, instead of repelling the Tar- 
 tars, estranged his own subjects by his ill conduct, driving 
 at length a portion of them to revolt. The leader of the 
 rebels subdued the provinces Honan and Shen-sy, and 
 murdered the principal mandarins ; but in order to gain 
 their assistance, he freed the people from all taxes and 
 contributions. The success of this policy soon enabled 
 him to invest Peking with a very large army. The 
 emperor, preferring death to being taken by the rebels, 
 retired with his only daughter, whom he first stabbed, and 
 then put an end to his own existence with a cord, a.d. 
 1643. Thas perished the last Chinese emperor ; and the 
 spot where he died was pointed out to the late Sir George 
 Staunton in 1793.* The way in which a comparatively 
 small nation of Tartars possessed themselves of China 
 will now appear. 
 
 On the death of the emperor the usurper met with 
 universal submission, both at Peking and in the provinces, 
 with the exception of the General Woosankwei, who com- 
 manded an army near Eastern Tartary. The latter for- 
 tified himself in a city which he commanded, and was 
 presently besieged by the successful rebel, who showed 
 him his father in chains, threatening to put him to death 
 * Embas.sy, vol. ii. p. 121,
 
 Chap. YII. MAXCHOW CONQUEST. 237 
 
 if the town was not surrendered. The father exhorted 
 his son to hold out, and submitted to his fate : upon 
 which Woosankwei, to revenge his death, as well as that 
 of the emperor, made peace with the Manchows, and 
 called them in to his assistance against the rebels. The 
 usurper was in this manner soon defeated ; but the Tartar 
 king, proceeding to the capital, was so well received there, 
 and conducted matters with such dexterity, that he at 
 length found no difficulty in taking upon himself the 
 sovereignty. Being seized with a mortal sickness, he had 
 time to appoint his son Shun-chy, then a boy, as his suc- 
 cessor, A.D. 1644, and thus commenced the Manchow 
 Tartar dynasty, of which the eighth emperor is now 
 reigning. 
 
 Several cities of the south still held out against this 
 foreign government, and particularly the maritime pro- 
 vince of Fokien, which was not subdued until some years 
 afterwards. The conquered Chinese v/ere now compelled 
 to shave the thick hair which their nation had been 
 accustomed to wear from the most ancient times as a 
 cherished ornament, and to betake themselves to the 
 Tartar fashion of a long plaited tress, or tail. In other 
 respects, too, they were commanded to adopt the Tartar 
 habit on pain of death ; and many are said to have died 
 in preference to submission. Their new rulers must, in- 
 deed, have felt themselves sufficiently strong before they 
 issued such an order. Many are the changes which may 
 be made in despotic countries, without the notice, or even 
 knowledge, of the larger portion of the community ; but 
 an entire alteration in the national costume affects every 
 individual equally, from the highest to the lowest, and is 
 perhaps, of all others, the most open and degrading mark 
 of conquest. It can never be submitted to, except by a 
 people who are thoroughly subdued ; nor ever imposed.
 
 238 SUMMARY OF CHINESE HISTORY. Chap. VII. 
 
 except by a g'overmneiit that feels itself able to carry 
 a measure which is perha})s resorted to princii)ally for 
 the ])urpose of trying, or of breaking, the spirit of the 
 conquered. The ancient Chinese costume is now very 
 exactly represented on the stage of their theatre, to 
 which it has been exclusively confined ; but a return to it 
 is being tried by the insurgents at Nanking. 
 
 Such was the repugnance of the Chinese to the Tartar 
 rule, that during the eighteen years of the first emperor's 
 reign a portion of the south remained unsubdued, and a 
 very formidable opponent to the new dynasty existed on 
 the sea. This was Ching-she-loong, father to the mari- 
 time leader Koshinga, whom we have already had occa- 
 sion to mention as the person who took Formosa from the 
 Dutch. According to the policy always adopted, of 
 effecting by compromise what camiot be accomplished by 
 force, Shun-chy offered him honours and rewards at 
 Peking, on condition that he would submit. The father 
 accepted the invitation, leaving his fleet with his son, and 
 was w'ell received ; but Koshinga remained true to the 
 Chinese cause, and subsequently co-operated with the 
 adherents to the late dynasty on shore, committing great 
 ravages with his fleet along the coast. Kang-hy, the 
 second Tartar emperor, adopted the vigorous measure of 
 compelling his subjects in the six maritime provinces to 
 retire thirty Chinese ly, or three leagues, inwards from the 
 coast, on pain of death. Thus, at the expense of destruc- 
 tion to a number of towns and villages, and of loss to the 
 inhabitants, the power and resources of Koshinga were 
 reduced, and his grandson w^as at length prevailed on to 
 give up Formosa to the emperor, and accept the gift of a 
 title for himself, a.d, 1683. 
 
 The final establishment of the Manchow Tartars in 
 China is doubtless attributable, in no small measure, to
 
 Chap. VII. THE EMPEROR KANG-HY. 239 
 
 the personal character of Kang-hy, who is perhaps the 
 greatest monarch that ever ruled the country, and who 
 had the singular fortune to reign for sixty years. By his 
 hunting excursions beyond the Great Wall, when he really 
 proceeded at the head of a large army, he kept up the 
 military character of the Tartars ; while at the same time 
 his vigilant care was not wanting in the south. During 
 the year 1689 he proceeded along the Grand Canal to 
 Nanking, and thence to the famous city of Soochow. At 
 that opulent and luxurious place, it is said that, carpets 
 and silk stuffs being laid along the streets by the inhabit- 
 ants, the emperor dismounted, and made his train do the 
 same, proceeding thus to the palace on foot, in order that 
 the people's property might not be injured. 
 
 His liberal and enlightened policy was strikingly dis- 
 played on two occasions of foreign iiitercourse. First, in 
 the boundary and commercial treaty with Russia, of which 
 Pere Gerbillon has given an account, and which was con- 
 sequent on a dispute that occurred at the frontier station 
 of Yacsa, Gerbillon was sent by Kang-hy (whose nume- 
 rous favours to the Romish mission have already been 
 noticed) to assist the negotiation as translator ; and his 
 detail of the expedition is given in the fourth volume of 
 Du Halde. The mission proceeded in 1688, but circum- 
 stances prevented its completion until the following year ; 
 for the Eleuths or Kalmucs being then at war with the 
 Kalka Tartars, and the route of the expedition lying 
 along the country of the latter, it was thought prudent at 
 first to return. The second instance is that embassy in 
 1713 to the Khan of the Tourgouth Tartars, then settled 
 on the north bank of the Caspian, of which a translation 
 has been given by the present Sir George Staunton from 
 the original Chinese. This is the most remote expedition 
 that has ever been undertaken from China in modern
 
 240 SUMMARY OF CHINESE HISTORY. Chap. VII. 
 
 times ; and the details of the journey, with the emperor's 
 own instructions for the conduct of his ambassador, are 
 especially curious. Kang-hy subsequently gained con- 
 siderable glory by the conquest of the above-mentioned 
 Eleuths, who had long given great trouble in the regions 
 about Thibet; and the exploits and triumphs of the 
 emperor's army having been portrayed by a French mis- 
 sionary in a series of skilful drawings, these were sent by 
 the desire of Kang-hy to Paris, and there engraved on 
 copper-plates. They contain a very faithful representa- 
 tion of Chinese and Tartar costumes and court cere- 
 monies, and are by far the best things of the kind in 
 existence. 
 
 Yoong-ching, the immediate successor of this great 
 emperor, was remarkable for little else than for his vio- 
 lent persecution of the Romish priests, who had certainly 
 rendered themselves sufficiently obnoxious, by their im- 
 prudent conduct, to the rulers of China. Kien-loong, 
 who succeeded in 1736, and who, like his great pre- 
 decessor, Kang-hy, had the unusual fortune to reign for 
 sixty years, was no unworthy inheritor of the fame and 
 dominion of his grandfather. He encouraged the Chinese 
 learning by cultivating it in his own person, and some of 
 his poetical compositions are considered to possess in- 
 trinsic merit, independently of their being the productions 
 of an emperor. The principal military transaction of his 
 reign, remarkable, upon the whole, for its peaceful and 
 prosperous course, was an expedition against the Meacni- 
 tse, the race of mountaineers already described on the 
 borders of Kuei-chow, and not tar removed from the 
 Canton province. The emperor boasted that they were 
 subdued ; but there is reason to believe • that this hardy 
 people, intrenched in the natural fortifications of their 
 rude and precipitous mountains, lost little of the real
 
 Chap. YII. KIEN-LOONG— BRITISH EMBASSY. 241 
 
 independence which they had enjoyed for ages, and that 
 they were triumjjJiati magis qucun victl. They have never 
 submitted to the Tartar tonsure, the most conclusive 
 mark of conquest ; and their renewed acts of hostility, as 
 late as the year 1832, gave serious alarm and trouble to 
 the Peking government. 
 
 The first British embassy ever sent to China was re- 
 ceived by Kien-loong in 1793, and the liberal conduct of 
 that monarch in dispensing with the performance of the 
 prostration on the part of Lord Macartney contrasts 
 strongly with the petty species of trickery by which that 
 Tartar act of homage, called the Ko-tow, was sought to 
 be extorted from Lord Amherst in 1816, by his successor 
 Kea-king ; or rather by the ministers, for the emperor 
 subsequently disavowed his knowledge of their proceed- 
 ings. It may be reasonably supposed that Kien-loong, 
 at the end of a long and prosperous reign, felt sufficiently 
 assured of his own power and greatness to dispense with 
 such a ceremony ; and that the authority of his son having 
 been shaken by frequent insurrections, and even by some 
 attempts against his life, this circumstance rendered him, 
 or at least his court, more tenacious of external forms. 
 It has been ascertained, however, that the agency of the 
 provincial government of Canton was powerfully exerted 
 against the latter embassy. 
 
 When the reign of Kien-loong, like that of his grand- 
 father, had in 1795 reached the unusual term of sixty 
 years, which just completes a revolution of the Chinese 
 cycle, he resigned the throne to his son, with the title of 
 emperor, while he reserved to himself that of the Supreme 
 Emperor, though he retired altogether from state affairs, 
 and lived but a short time afterwards. Kea-king was ill- 
 calculated to maintain the imperial dignity after such ;i 
 monarch as his father. Serra, a Romish missionary, 
 
 VOL. I. M
 
 242 SUMMARY OF CHIXESE HISTORY. Chap, VII. 
 
 many years employed at Peking-, obtained a very parti- 
 cular account of his habits, which were extremely profli- 
 gate, and may account for the risks to which his life was 
 exposed from assassins. After the early morning audience 
 from which no emperor can excuse himself, and when he 
 had despatched the business submitted to him, he generally 
 retired to the company of players, and afterwards drank 
 to excess. lie would frequently proceed with players to 
 the interior of the palace, and it was remarked that his 
 two younger sons bore no resemblance to himself, or to 
 each other. He went so lar as to carry the comedians 
 with him when he proceeded to sacrifice at the temples of 
 Heaven and Earth. This, with other circumstances, was 
 noticed in a memorial by the famous Soong-heim, or 
 Soong-ta~jin, one of the censors, and the conductor and 
 friend of Lord Macartney while in China. When sum- 
 moned by the emperor, and asked what punishment he 
 deserved, he answered, " A slow and ignominious death.'' 
 When told to choose another, he said, " beheading ; " 
 and on the third occasion he chose " strangling." * He 
 was ordered to retire, and on the following day the court 
 appointed him governor of the Chinese Siberia, the 
 region of Tartary to which criminals are exiled : thus 
 (as Serra observes) acknowledging his rectitude, though 
 unable to bear his censure. 
 
 AVhen the reign of Kea-king, unmarked by any events 
 except the suppression of some formidable revolts and 
 conspiracies, had reached the twenty-fourth year, the 
 occurrence of the sixtieth anniversary of the emperor's 
 age was celebrated by a universal jubilee throughout the 
 empire. Even with private individuals, the attainment of 
 the sixtieth year (a revolution of the cycle) is marked by 
 a particular celebration. In 1819 the national jubilee 
 * The three gradations of capital inmislunent.
 
 Chap. VII. WILL OF KEA-KING. 243 
 
 was observed, as usual, by a remission of all arrears of 
 land-tax ; by a general pardon or mitigation of punish- 
 ment to criminals ; and by the admission of double the 
 usual number of candidates to degrees at the public 
 examinations. The celebration of one man's age by two 
 or three hundred millions of people is rather an imposing 
 festival, and could happen to none but the Emperor of 
 China. Kea-king, however, only survived it by a single 
 year; and his death, in 1820, was the occasion of some 
 curious information being obtained relative to the mode 
 of succession, and other particulars. 
 
 The emperor's will, a very singular document, was 
 published to the people. In it w'as this passage : — " The 
 Yellow River has, from the remotest ages, been China's 
 sorrow. Whenever the mouth of the stream has been im- 
 peded by sand-banks, it has, higher up its course, created 
 alarm by overflowing the country. On such occasions I 
 have not spared the imperial treasury to embank the 
 river, and restore the waters to their former channel. 
 Since a former repair of the river was completed, six or 
 seven years of tranquillity had elapsed, when last year, in 
 the autumn, the excessive rains caused an unusual rise 
 of the water, and in Honan the river burst its banks at 
 several points, both on the south and north sides. The 
 stream Woochy forced a passage to the sea, and the 
 mischief done was immense. During the spring of this 
 year, just as those who conducted the repair of the banks 
 had reported that the work was finished, the southern 
 bank at Eefong again gave way." The mention of this 
 subject in the emperor's will is a sufficient proof of its 
 importance. If the science of European engineers could 
 put an effectual stop to the evil, it would be the most 
 important physical benefit that was ever conferred on the 
 empire ; but the jealousy of China is not likely to let the 
 
 M 2
 
 244 SUMMARY OF CHINESE HISTORY. Chap. VII. 
 
 experiment be very soon tried.* Even the European 
 trade at Canton was annually taxed to meet the repairs 
 of the Yellow River. 
 
 The emperor's ivill proceeds to state the merits of his 
 second son, the next sovereign, Taou-kuang, in having 
 shot two of the assassins who entered the palace in 1813, 
 which was the reason of his selection. It has been even 
 supposed that Kea-king's death was hastened by some 
 discontented persons of high rank, who had been lately 
 disgraced in consequence of the mysterious loss of an 
 official seal. The emperor's death was announced to the 
 several provinces by despatches written with blue ink, the 
 mourning colour. All persons of condition were required 
 to take the red silk ornament from their caps, with the 
 ball or button of rank : all subjects of China, without 
 exception, were called upon to forbear from shaving their 
 heads for one hundred days, within which period none 
 might marry, or play on musical instruments, or perform 
 any sacrifice. 
 
 The personal character of the next emperor was much 
 better than that of his father, but the lofty title which he 
 chose for his reign, Taou-kudng, " the glory of reason," 
 was scarcely supported. The most disgraceful act of his 
 administration was the murder, in 1828, of the Mahomedan 
 Tartar prince Jehanghir, who had surrendered himself in 
 reliance on the faith of promises. It is supposed, indeed, 
 that the reduction of those tribes towards Cashgar, effected 
 by the aid of the Mongol Tartars that intervene, was 
 marked by more than the usual share of Chinese treachery 
 and craft. This war was a source of serious anxiety and 
 expense to the emperor, whose reign was infested by 
 a continual succession of public calamities and by more 
 revolts and insurrections than had been known since the 
 * I made the offer to Keying in 1845, but it was declined.
 
 Chap. VII. INSTABILITY OF TARTAR DYNASTY. 245 
 
 time of the first emperor of the Mancliow dynasty. Sub- 
 sequent to the termination of the troubles with the 
 independent mountaineers north-west of Canton, already 
 mentioned in another chapter, a very singular paper was 
 written by a (Jhinese, stating the submission of the enemy 
 to be a mere imposition on the emperor by his officers, 
 and a public disgrace. He said that the im])crial com- 
 missioners had expended 500,000 taels of silver for a 
 sham surrender and the appearance of victory, and won- 
 dered at their audacity in receiving the rewards of pea- 
 cocks' feathers, and other marks of favour. The money 
 was represented to have been thrown away, for the moun- 
 taineers had disowned the authority of those who accepted 
 it, and remained as independent as ever. 
 
 There must be a good deal of truth in this, or a 
 Chinese would hardly have exposed himself to the risk 
 of being the author ; and it is a singular picture of the 
 existing state of the empire. Many have been led by 
 the events of recent years to surmise that the end of 
 the Tartar dominion in China is at hand. Its establish- 
 ment and continuance is certainly a fact not much less 
 extraordinary (when the disproportion of the conquerors 
 to the conquered is considered) than the British dominion 
 in India : and the Mongol race were driven out by the 
 Chinese after a much shorter possession than the Man- 
 chows have already enjoyed. These have had the pru- 
 dence and wisdom to leave the Chinese in possession of 
 their own forms and institutions in most instances, and to 
 mould those of the Tartars to them ; but distinctions 
 sufficiently broad are still maintained to prevent the 
 amalgamation of the original people with their masters. 
 A symptom of weakness in the government has long been 
 its extreme dread of numerous associations among the 
 people ; one of which, the Triad Society, has for its known
 
 246 
 
 SUMMARY OF CHINESE HISTORY. 
 
 Chap. VII. 
 
 object the expulsion of the Manchows. The rebellion now 
 raging may perhaps eventually overturn the government. 
 An insurrection broke out in the island of Formosa 
 
 
 towards the close of 1832, accompanied by the death 
 of a large portion of the troops, and of the greater 
 number of mandarins on the spot, and the origin of 
 it was attributed to the oppression of the emperor's
 
 Chap. VII. EXPULSION OF EOMISH MISSIONARIES. 247 
 
 government. A Tartar general, after the lapse of a few 
 months, was despatched in all haste from Peking, with 
 power to take troops from the different provinces at his 
 need, and in a short time it was heard that the insur- 
 rection was over, and the troops countermanded. This 
 sudden restoration of tranquillity was hardly less sur- 
 prising, after violence had proceeded to such lengths, 
 than the speedy submission of the mountaineers ; but 
 it w^as never clearly ascertained whether it was effected 
 by force or by the divisions of the inhabitants .; or 
 whether money had been used, as in the case of the 
 mountaineers, to supply the place of arms. 
 
 The last emperor but one, Kea-king, showed a very 
 determined aversion and hostility to the Romish religion, 
 and numerous persecutions took place in his reign. The 
 next monarch, by all appearances, inherited the same 
 disposition from his father. He had not succeeded many 
 w^eeks to the throne when one of his high officers evinced 
 his zeal by an accusation against certain Chinese who 
 had been detected in the practice of what is called the 
 "religion of the western ocean." A still more unequi- 
 vocal proof existed in the expulsion from Peking of 
 the very last of those Eurojiean missionaries who for 
 their astronomical knowledge had been attached in suc- 
 cession, for about 200 years, to that tribunal or board 
 whose business it is to observe the motions of the 
 heavenly bodies, and to construct the imperial calendar. 
 It is probable that the Chinese astronomers have acquired 
 sufficient practical knowledge for the rough calculation of 
 eclipses, and other routine matters of the same kind ; but 
 in the course of time another generation may perhaps 
 require a fresh inoculation of science from Europe, and 
 it wnll then befit Protestant missionaries to imitate the 
 learning and enterprise of their Romish predecessors, —
 
 248 SUMMARY OF CIIIXESE IIISTOIIY. Chap. VII. 
 
 l)ut to avoid their want of moderation, and their disputes 
 with each other ahout trifles. 
 
 The reigii of Taou-kuang proved disastrous to his 
 country hy the success of our war, and closed witli his 
 death in 1850. That of his son and successor, llien- 
 foong, is likely to prove still more disastrous by a civil 
 war, which has divided the empire for some years, and 
 threatened the downfall of the Manchow dynasty. Some 
 hopes have arisen for the Tartars from divisions in the 
 insurgents' camp at -Nanking, their head-quarters.
 
 Chap. VIH. PRINCIPLE OF GOVERNMENT. 249 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 GOVERNMENT AND LEGISLATION. 
 
 Chinese government parental — Practice at Canton exceptional — In- 
 fluence of public opinion — Motives to education — Love of peace 
 — Reverence for age — Influence of wealth • — No hereditary aris- 
 tocracy — The emperor — Ministers — Machinery of government — 
 Provincial magisti-ates — Civil officers superior to militaiy — The 
 army — Implements of war — Penal code — Its arrangement — 
 Punishments — Privileges and exemptions — Crimes — Testimonies 
 in favour of the code — Sanctions superior to will of emperor. 
 
 Montesquieu has somewhere the following remark : — 
 " Heurcux le peuple dont Vhistoire est ennuyeuse ; " and if 
 this be the characteristic of Chinese history, if we find the 
 even current of its annals for a long time past (before 
 the late rebellion) less troubled by disorder and anarchy 
 than can be stated of most other countries, we must look 
 for the causes in the fundamental principles of its govern- 
 ment, and in the maxims by which this is administered. 
 It is well known that parental autliority is the model or 
 type of political rule in China — that natural restraint 
 to which almost every man finds himself subject at the 
 earliest dawn of his perceptions. Influenced, perhaps, by 
 a consideration of the lasting force of early impressions 
 on the human mind, the legislators of the country have 
 thought that they should best provide for the stability 
 of their fabric, by basing it on that principle which is the 
 most natural and familiar to every one from infancy, and 
 the least likely ever to be called in question. 
 
 Whether or not this was the design with which the 
 
 M 3
 
 250 GOVERNMENT AND LEGISLATION. Chap. VIlI. 
 
 patriarchal form has been so long- perpetuated in China, 
 it seems certain that, being at once the most obvious and 
 the simplest, it has for that reason been the first that has 
 existed amonj^ the various societies of mankind. The 
 North American tribes call all rulers "fathers." How- 
 ever vi'ell calculated to promote the union and welfare of 
 small tribes or nations, the example of China, perhaps, in 
 some respects demonstrates that in large empires, where 
 the supreme authority must be exercised almost entirely 
 by distant delegation, it is liable to degenerate into a 
 mere fiction, excellently calculated to strengthen and 
 perpetuate the hand of despotism, but retaining little 
 of the paternal character beyond its absolute authority. 
 It is the policy of the Chinese government to grant to 
 fathers over their children the patria potestas in full force, 
 as the example and the sanction of its own power. 
 
 There is nothing more remarkable in their ritual, and 
 in their criminal code, than the exact parallel which is 
 studiously kept up between the relations in which every 
 person stands to his own parents and to the emperor. 
 For similar offences against both he suffers similar 
 punishments ; at the death of both he mourns the same 
 time, and goes the same period unshaven ; and both 
 possess nearly the same power over his person. Thus 
 he is bred up to civil obedience, tenero ah ungui, with 
 every chance of proving a quiet subject at least. Such 
 institutions certainly do not denote the existence of much 
 liberty ; but if peaceful obedience and universal order be 
 the sole objects in view, they argue, on the part of the 
 governors, some knowledge of human nature, and an 
 adaptation of the means to the end. 
 
 In the book of Sacred Instructions, addressed to the 
 people, founded on their ancient writings, and read pub- 
 licly by the principal magistrates on the days that corre-
 
 Chap. VIII. SACRED INSTRUCTIONS. 251 
 
 spond to the new and fidl moon, the sixteen discourses of 
 which it consists are headed by that which teaches the 
 duties of cliildren to parents, of juniors to elders, and, 
 thence, of the people to the government. The principle 
 is extended thus, in a quotation from the sacred books : — 
 "In our general conduct, not to be orderly is to fail 
 in filial duty ; in serving our sovereign, not to be faithi'ul 
 is to fail in filial duty ; in acting as a magistrate, not to 
 be careful is to fail in filial duty ; in the intercourse of 
 friends, not to be sincere is to fail in filial duty ; in arms 
 and in war, not to be brave is to fail in filial duty." The 
 claims of elders are enforced thus: — "The duty to 
 parents and the duty to elders are indeed similar in 
 obligation ; for he who can be a pious son will also prove 
 an obedient younger brother ; and he who is hoth will, 
 while at home, prove an honest and orderly subject, and 
 in active service, from home, a courageous and faithful 
 soldier. . . . May you all, O soldiers and people, conform 
 to these our instructions, evincing your good dispositions 
 by your conduct and actions, each fulfilling his duty as a 
 son and a junior, according to the example which is left 
 you by the wise and holy men of former times. The 
 wisdom of the ancient emperors, Yaou and Shun, had 
 its foundation in these essential ties of human society. 
 Mencius has said, ' Were all men to honour their kin- 
 dred and respect their elders, the world* would be at 
 peace.' " 
 
 But the government does not confine itself to preach- 
 ing ; domestic rebellion is treated in nearly all respects 
 as treason ; being, in fact, jjetit treason. A special edict 
 of the last emperor went beyond the established law in 
 a case which occurred in one of the central provinces. 
 A man and his wife had beaten and otherwise severely 
 * Meaning China,
 
 252 G0YERX:N[EXT AND LEGISLATIOX. Chap. VIII. 
 
 ill-usod the mother of the former. This being reported 
 by the viceroy to Peking, it was determined to enforce in 
 a signal manner the fundamental principle of the empire. 
 The very place where it occurred was anathematized, as it 
 w^ere, and made accursed. The principal offenders were put 
 to death ; the mother of the wife was bambooed, branded, 
 and exiled for her daughter's crime ; the scholars of the 
 district for three years were not permitted to attend the 
 public examination, and their promotion thereby stopped ; 
 the magistrates were deprived of their offices and ba- 
 nished. The house in which the offenders dwelt was 
 dug up from the foundations. "Let the viceroy," the 
 edict adds, "make knowii this proclamation, and let it be 
 dispersed through the whole empire, that the people may 
 all learn it. And if there be any rebellious children who 
 oppose, beat, or degrade their parents, they shall be 
 punished in like manner. If ye people indeed know the 
 renovating principle, then fear and obey the imperial will, 
 nor look on this as empty declamation. For now, accord- 
 ing to this case of Teng-chen^ wherever there are the like 
 I resolve to condemn them, and from my heart strictly 
 charge you to beware. I instruct the magistrates of 
 every province severely to warn the heads of families and 
 elders of ^^llages ; and on the 2nd and 16th of every 
 month to read the Sacred Instructions, in order to show 
 the importance of the relations of life, that persons may 
 not rebel against their parents — for I intend to render the 
 empire filiaV This was addressed to a population esti- 
 mated commonly at 300,000,000. 
 
 " The vital and universally operating principle of the 
 Chinese government," says Sir George Staunton, " is the 
 duty of submission to parental authority, whether vested 
 in the parents themselves, or in their representatives, and 
 which, although usually described under the pleasing
 
 Chap. VIII. PRIXCirLE OP GOVERNMENT. 253 
 
 appellation of filial piety, is much more properly to be 
 considered as a general rule of action than as the expres- 
 sion of any particular sentiment of affection. It may 
 easily be traced even in the earliest of their records ; it is 
 inculcated with the greatest force in the writings of the 
 first of their philosophers and legislators ; it has survived 
 each successive dynasty, and all the various changes and 
 revolutions which the state has undergone ; and it con- 
 tinues to this day powerfully enforced both by positive 
 laws and by public opinion. 
 
 " A government constituted upon the basis of parental 
 authority, thus highly estimated and extensively applied, 
 has certainly the advantage of being directly sanctioned 
 by the immutable and ever-operating laws of nature, and 
 must thereby acquire a degree of firmness and durability 
 to which governments founded on the fortuitous supe- 
 riority of particular individuals, either in strength or 
 abilities, and continued only through the hereditary in- 
 fluence of particular families, can never be expected to 
 attain. Parental authority and prerogative seem to be, 
 obviously, the most respectable of titles, and parental 
 regard and affection the most amiable of characters, with 
 which sovereign and magisterial power can be invested ; 
 and are those under which it is natural to suppose it may 
 most easily be perpetuated. By such principles the 
 Chinese have been distinguished ever since their first ex- 
 istence as a nation ; by such ties the vast and increasing 
 population of China is still united as one people subject to 
 one supreme government, and uniform in its habits, man- 
 ners, and language. In this state, in spite of every in- 
 ternal and external convulsion, it may possibly very long 
 continue." 
 
 It is the business of the first of the ' Four Books ' of 
 Confucius to inculcate, that from the knowledge and
 
 254 GOVERNMENT AND LEGISLATION. Ciiai'. VIII. 
 
 government of oneself must proceed the ])roper economy 
 and government of a family ; from the government of a 
 family, that of a province and of a kingdom. The em- 
 peror is called the father of the empire ; the viceroy, of 
 the province over v^^hich he ])resides ; and tkti mandarin, 
 of the city which he governs ; and the father of every 
 family is the absolute and responsible ruler of his own 
 household. Social peace and order being deemed the 
 one thing needful, this object is very steadily and con- 
 sistently pursued. The system derives some of its efficacy 
 from the habitual and universal inculcation of obedience 
 and deference, in unbroken series, from one end of society 
 to the other ; beginning in the relation of children to 
 their parents, continuing through that of the young to 
 the aged, of the uneducated to the educated, and termi- 
 nating in that of the people to their rulers. 
 
 The great wealth of the empire, the cheerful and in- 
 defatigable industry of the people, and their unconquer- 
 able attachment to their country, are all of them circum- 
 stances which prove, that, if the government is jealous 
 in guarding its rights, it is not altogether ignorant or 
 unmindful of its duties. We are no unqualified admirers 
 of the Chinese system, but would willingly explain, if 
 possible, some of the causes which tend to the production 
 of results whose existence nobody pretends to deny. In 
 practice there is of course a great deal of inevitable 
 abuse, but upon the whole, and with relation to ultimate 
 effects, the machine works well ; and we repeat that the 
 surest proofs of this are apparent on the very face of the 
 most cheerfully industrious and (until lately) orderly, 
 and the most wealthy, nation of Asia. It may be ob- 
 served that great account is made of the circumstance of 
 cheerful industry ; because this characteristic, which is 
 the first to strike all visitors of China, is the best proof in
 
 Chap. VIII. ADMINISTRATION AT C.VNTON. 255 
 
 the world that the people possess their full share of the 
 results of their own labour. Men do not toil either 
 willingly or eftectively for hard masters. 
 
 It would be a very rash conclusion to form any es- 
 timate of the insecurity of property generally from what 
 has been formerly observed at Canton among those con- 
 nected with the foreign trade, and especially the Hong 
 merchants. These persons were instruments in the hands 
 of a cautious government, which, not wishing to come 
 into immediate collision with foreigners, used them in the 
 manner of a sponge, that, after being allowed to absorb 
 the gains of a licensed monopoly, was made regularly to 
 yield up its contents, by what was very correctly termed 
 " squeezing." The rulers of China consider foreigners 
 fair game ; they have no sympathy with them, and, what is 
 more, they diligently and systematically labour to destroy 
 all sjmpathy on the part of their subjects, by representing 
 the strangers to them in every light that is the most con- 
 temptible and odious. Tliere used to be an annual edict 
 or proclamation displayed at Canton at the commence- 
 ment of the commercial season, accusing the foreigners of 
 the most horrible practices, and desiring the people to have 
 as little to say to them as possible. We have already seen 
 that the professed rule was to govern them " like beasts," 
 and not as the subjects of the empire. With perfect con- 
 sistency, therefore, they were denied the equal benefits and 
 protection of the known laws of the country, condemned 
 to death for accidental homicide, and executed without 
 the emperor's warrant. These were their real subjects 
 of complaint in China ; and previous to the late war 
 afforded righteous and equitable grounds of quarrel, in 
 addition to the insults and outrages heaped on the na- 
 tional representative. 
 
 But to return to the merchants and other natives at
 
 256 GOVERNMENT AND LEGISLATION. Chap. VIIL 
 
 Canton : there is in fact a set of laws cxistiiijr under 
 this jeah)us Tai-tar government, which makes all trans- 
 actions of Chinese with foreigners, without an express 
 licence, traitorous — that is the word — and it forms a 
 terrible engine of extortion ; for the construction of the 
 terms of the licence, as well as of the particular regula- 
 tions from time to time enacted, opens a wide field for 
 injustice under the forms of law. This is the only solu- 
 tion of the anomaly, that at Canton, in a country where 
 there is a written code with numerous provisions against 
 extortion and oppression, and with severe denunciations 
 against the abuse of power, there should have been so 
 much of the evil apparently existing. But it was the 
 foreigner who paid, after all ; the Hong merchants were 
 the vSritables vacJies a lait, the real milch-cows, while 
 the foreign trade was the pasture in which they ranged. 
 One of the ablest of their body many years ago obtained 
 the express authority of the local government for the 
 Consoo or body of Hong merchants to levy charges at its 
 own discretion on the foreign trade, for .the avowed pur- 
 pose of paying the demands of the mandarins. Other 
 annual charges were levied to defray debts of individual 
 merchants to foreigners, and, the debts being liquidated, 
 the charges were continued. But for these abuses, the 
 fair trade of Canton would have been much more profit- 
 able. The treaty of 1842 has got rid of the Hong mer- 
 chants, and with them of much that was evil. 
 
 The same system could not by any means be prac- 
 tised where natives only were concerned ; and, if it could, 
 the country would present a very different appearance. 
 Extraordinary wealth is of course exposed to danger, — 
 feriuntque summos fulmina montes, or, as the Chinese ex- 
 press it, " the elephant is killed on account of his ivory." 
 But they have another saying, that " happiness consists
 
 Chap. VIII. PUBLIC OPIXIOX. 257 
 
 in a level or medium station ;" and it is certain that the 
 bulk of the native population enjoys the results of its in- 
 dustry with a very fair degree of security, or it would not 
 be so industrious. 
 
 There are some curious practical anomalies, which one 
 is not prepared to find under a despotism. The people 
 sometimes hold public meetings by advertisement, for the 
 express purpose of addressing the magistrate, and this 
 without being punished. The influence of public opinion 
 seems indicated by this practice ; together with that fre- 
 quent custom of placarding and lampooning (though of 
 course anonymously) obnoxious officers. Honours are 
 rendered to a just magistrate, and addresses presented to 
 him on his departure by the people ; testimonies which 
 are highly valued. These must be ranked with the ex- 
 ceptions to the theories of governments, of which Hume 
 treats when he mentions, among other instances, the im- 
 pressment of seamen in England ; which was a departure 
 from liberty, as the cases above mentioned are from 
 despotism.* It may be added that there is no estab- 
 lished censorship of the press in China, nor any limita- 
 tions but those which the interests of social peace and 
 order seem to I'ender necessary. If these are endan- 
 gered, the process of the government is of course more 
 summary than even an information filed by the attorney- 
 general. 
 
 It is deserving of remark, that the general prosperity 
 and peace of China have been very much promoted by 
 the diffusion of intelligence and education through the 
 lower classes. Amonc the countless millions that con- 
 stitute the empire, almost every man can read and write 
 sufficiently for the ordinary purposes of life, and a re- 
 
 * Impressment seems now virtually abrogated, and during the late 
 urgent war the navy was entirely manned by volunteers.
 
 258 GOVERNMENT AND LEGISLATION. Ciiap. VIII. 
 
 spcctable share of these acquirements goes low down in 
 the scale of society. Of the sixteen discourses which are 
 periodically read to the people, the eighth inculcates the 
 necessity of a general acquaintance with the penal laws, 
 which are printed purposely in a cheap shape. They 
 argue, that, as men cannot properly be punished for what 
 they do not know, so likewise they will be less liable to 
 incur the penalty if they are made duly acquainted with 
 the prohibition. This seems a very necessary branch of 
 what has been called '■'•preventive justice, upon every 
 principle of reason, of humanity, and of sound policy, 
 preferable in all respects io punishing ]\\&\acq.^^* 
 
 The general diffusion of education nmst be attributed 
 to the influence of almost every motive of fear or hope 
 that can operate on the human mind ; it is inculcated by 
 positive precepts, and encouraged by an open competition 
 for the highest rewards. One of the strongest motives to 
 every Chinese to educate his sons must be the conscious- 
 ness that he is liable to punishment for their crimes at 
 any period of their lives, as well as to reward for their 
 merits : parents are often promoted by the acts of 
 their sons. Montesquieu, in violently condemning the 
 liability to punishment,! seems to have been unaware, or 
 unmindful, that it is in some measure the result of that 
 absolute power which is through life intrusted to the 
 father ; and that such a trust, with some show of reason, 
 carries with it a proportionate responsibility. He is not 
 only punished, but rewarded too, according as he has 
 administered this trust. How such a system must operate 
 as a motive to education is sufficiently obvious; and the only 
 question is, whether the amount of personal liberty sacri- 
 ficed is balanced by the amount of public benefit gained. 
 So sensible are tliey of the importance of education, that 
 * Blackstonc, b. iv. c. 18. f Book vi. c. 20.
 
 Chap. VIII. LOVE OF PEACE AXD ORDER. 2.59 
 
 the lanffuao-e is full of domestic or of state maxims in 
 reference to it. " Bend the mulberry-tree when it is 
 young." " Without education in families, how are 
 governors for the people to be obtained ? "—and so on. 
 Every town has its public place of instruction, and wealthy 
 families have private tutors. 
 
 As regards the peaceful and orderly character by which 
 the Chinese, as a nation, have been distinguished, there 
 is much truth in another remark of Montesquieu, namely, 
 that the government had this object in view w^hen it pre- 
 scribed a certain code of ceremonies and behaviour to its 
 subjects ; " a very proper method of inspiring mild and 
 gentle dispositions, of maintaining peace and good order, 
 and of banishing all the vices which spring from an 
 asperity of temper." They certainly are, upon the whole, 
 among the most goodhumoured people in the Morld, as 
 well as the most peaceable ; and the chief causes of this 
 must be sought for in their political and social institutions. 
 Of the sixteen lectures periodically delivered to the 
 people, the second is " on union and concord among 
 kindred ; " the third, " on concord and agreement among 
 neighbours ; " the ninth, " on mutual forbearance ; " the 
 sixteenth, " on reconciling animosities." Here perhaps 
 we may perceive, also, the sources of their characteristic 
 timidity, which is accompanied by its natural associates, 
 the disposition to cunning and fraud. 
 
 The Chinese have lived so much in peace, that they 
 have acquired by habit and education a more than com- 
 mon horror of political disorder. " Better be a dog in 
 peace, than a man in anarchy," is a common maxim. 
 " It is a general rule," they say, " that the worst of men 
 are fondest of change and commotion, hoping that they 
 may thereby benefit themselves ; but by adherence to a 
 steady, quiet system, affairs proceed without confusion.
 
 2G0 GOVERNMENT AND LEGISLATION. Chap. VIII. 
 
 and bad men have notliinnf to gain." They have heen, in 
 short, a nation of steady conservatives. At the same time, 
 that only check of Asiatic despotism — the endurance of 
 the pcoj)le — appears from their liistory to have exercised 
 a salutary influence. The first emperor of the Ming 
 family observed, " The bowstring drawn violently will 
 break ; the people pressed hard will rebel." Another 
 sovereign observed to his heir, " You see that the boat in 
 which we sit is supported by the water, which at the same 
 time is able, if roused, to overwhelm it : remember that 
 the water represents the people, and the emperor only the 
 boat." Amidst all the internal revolutions of China it 
 is deserving of remark that no single instance has ever 
 occurred of an attempt to change the form of that pure 
 monarchy which is founded in, or derived from, patri- 
 archal authority. The only object has been, in most 
 cases, the destruction of a tyrant ; or, when the country 
 was divided into several states, the acquisition of universal 
 power by the head of one of them. The present rise 
 against the Tartar government can be clearly traced to 
 changes produced by our war. 
 
 This people has, perhaps, derived some advantage from 
 the habit of reserving its respect exclusively for those 
 objects which may be considered as the original and 
 leo'itimate sources of that feelin<?. There is much truth 
 in the observations of Mr. Rogers, in a note to one of his 
 poems : — " Age was anciently synonymous with power ; 
 and we may always observe that the old are held in more 
 or less honour as men are more or less virtuous. Among 
 us, and wherever birth and possession give rank and 
 authority, the young and the profligate are seen con- 
 tinually above the old and the worthy ; there age can 
 never find its due respect : but among many of the 
 ancient nations it was otherwise ; and they reaped the
 
 Chap. VIII. SMALL RESrECT FOR WEALTH. 261 
 
 benefit of it. ' Ricn ne maintient plus les moeurs qu'une 
 extreme subordination cles jeunes gens cnvers les vieillards. 
 Les uns et les autres seront contenus : eeux-la par le re- 
 spect qu'ils auront pour les vieillards, et ceux-ci par le 
 respect qu'ils auront pour eux-memes. ' " (3Iontesquieu.) 
 We have before mentioned that the Chinese possess 
 this antiquated habit ; but their regard for age, even, is 
 secondary to their respect for learning. " In learning," 
 says their maxim, " age and youth go for nothing, the 
 best informed takes the precedence." The chief source 
 of rank and consideration in China is certainly cultivated 
 talent ; and whatever may be the character of the learn- 
 ing on which it is exercised, this at least is a more legiti- 
 mate, and to society at large a more beneficial object of 
 respect, than the vulgar pretensions of wealth and fashion, 
 or the accidental ones of mere birth. 
 
 Wealth alone, though it has of course some necessary 
 influence, is looked upon with less respect, comparatively, 
 than perhaps in any other country ; and this because 
 all distinction and rank arises almost entirely from edu- 
 cated talent. The choice of official persons, who form 
 the real aristocracy of the country, is guided, with a very 
 few exceptions, by the possession of those qualities, and 
 the country is therefore as ably ruled as it could be under 
 the circumstances. " Les lettres (observed a correspon- 
 dent of ours from Peking), ainsi honoris par les Han, ont 
 acquis un grand ascendant sur le peuple ; la politique s'en 
 est empare dans toutes les dynasties, et c'est sans doute 
 a cette reunion des esprits que la Chine doit son bonheur, 
 sa paix, et sa prosperite," The official aristocracy, content 
 with their solid rank and power, aim at no external dis- 
 play : on the contrary, a certain aftectation, on their 
 part, of patriarchal simplicity operates as a sumptuary 
 law, and gives a corresponding tone to the habits of the
 
 262 GOYERNMEXT AND LEGISLATION. Chap. VIII. 
 
 people. We are bound to admit that some evil results 
 from this : superfluous wealth, in the hands of the vulgar 
 possessors of it, is driven to find a vent occasionally in the 
 gratifications of private sensuality. 
 
 Superfluous wealth, however, is no very common occur- 
 rence in diina. A man's sons divide his property 
 between them, or rather live upon it in common ; and the 
 only right of primogeniture seems to consist in the eldest 
 being a sort of steward or trustee for the estate. The 
 temptations to immoderate accumulation are not so great 
 as with us, nor the opportunity for it so frequent, where 
 the ordinary channels of commerce are liable neither to 
 such spring tides, nor to such violent ebbs. We must 
 repeat that the fortunes made by IIoppos and Ilong mer- 
 chants at Canton were no examples whatever of the usual 
 state of things in the empire, in cases where natives only 
 are concerned. The real aristocracy of the country being 
 official, and not hereditary, there are no families to be 
 perpetuated by a system of entails ; and, if a man were 
 willing to transmit his possessions in the shape of endless 
 settlements, the law will not let him. 
 
 It is an observation of Hume, that " the absence of 
 any hereditary aristocracy may secure the intestine tran- 
 quillity of the state, by making it impossible for faction or 
 rebellion to find any powerful heads," This, we fancy, 
 is exactly the principle on which the Chinese government 
 is so jealous of any undue perpetuation of greatness in 
 families,* There are certain hereditary titles, descending 
 one step in rank through five generations, and the privi- 
 lege of wearing the yellow and red girdles, which serve 
 to distinguish the numerous descendants of the imperial 
 
 * There is a law in their penal code denouncing death not only to 
 him who reconiniend.s the elevation of a cinl officer to an hereditary 
 title, but to him in whose favour the recommendation is made.
 
 Chap. VIII. ARISTOCRACY NOT HEREDITARY. 263 
 
 family ; but these, though they are certainly a class of 
 titular nobility, are far from being the real aristocracy of 
 the country, and, without personal merit, they are little 
 considered.* The Chinese have a saying, that, " by learn- 
 ing, the sons of the common people become great ; with- 
 out learning, the sons of the great become mingled with 
 the mass of the people." 
 
 All real rank of consequence being determined by 
 talent, the test of this is afforded at the public examina- 
 tions. These are open to the poorest persons ; and only 
 some classes, as menial servants, comedians, and the 
 lowest agents of the police, are excluded. The govern- 
 ment seems to consider that its own stability is best 
 secured by placing the greatest talent, if not always the 
 purest virtue, in offices of trust. With a view to pro- 
 moting the efficiency of their standing army, the Man- 
 chow Tartar emperors have established a military exami- 
 nation, in which the relative merit of mandarins in martial 
 exercises is distinguished by similar grades. t 
 
 It is time, however, that we proceed to consider the 
 actual machinery of government, commencing with its 
 supreme head, the emperor. His titles are the " Son of 
 Heaven," the " Ten Thousand Years." He is worshipped 
 with divine honours, and with the attribute of ubiquity 
 throughout the empire. The following is from an eye- 
 witness to the celebration of the emperor's birthday at 
 Peking,! and the ceremony is universal and simultaneous 
 through the chief cities of China. " The first day was 
 
 * Du Halcle observes, " They have no lands : and, as the emperor 
 eaimot give them all pensions, some live in great poverty." 
 
 t The Chinese may perhaps boast, that, having preceded lis in tlie 
 use of the compass, printing, giuipowder, tea, porcelain, silk, &c., they 
 have at last found us their followers in the institution of public exami- 
 nations for civil and military employment. 
 
 X Staimton, vol. ii. p. 255.
 
 264 GOVERNMENT AND LEGISLATION. Chap. VIII. 
 
 consecrated to the purpose of rendering a solemn, sacred, 
 and devout houiag-e to the supreme majesty of the em- 
 peror. The princes, tributaries, ambassadors, great offi- 
 cers of state, and principal mandarins, were assembled in 
 a vast hall, and u])on })articular notice were introduced 
 into an inner building, bearing at least the semblance of 
 a temple. It was chiefly furnished with gi'eat instruments 
 of music, among which were sets of cylindrical bells, sus- 
 pended in a line from ornamented frames of wood, and 
 gradually diminishing in size from one extremity to the 
 other, and also triangular pieces of metal, arranged in 
 the same order as the bells. To the sound of these in- 
 struments, a slow and solemn hymn was sung by eunuchs, 
 who had such a command over their voices as to resemble 
 the effect of the musical glasses at a distance. The per- 
 formers were directed in gliding from one tone to another 
 by the striking of a shrill and sonorous cymbal ; and the 
 judges of music among the gentlemen of the embassy 
 were much pleased with their execution. The whole had 
 indeed a grand effect. During the performance, and at 
 particular signals, nine times repeated, all the persons 
 present prostrated themselves nine times, except the am- 
 bassador and his suite, who made a profound obeisance. 
 But he whom it was meant to honour continued, as if it 
 were in imitation of the Deity, invisible the whole time. 
 The awful impression made upon the minds of men by 
 this apparent worship of a fellow-mortal was not to be 
 eflTaced by any immediate scenes of sport or gaiety, which 
 were postponed to the following day." 
 
 The emperor worships Heaven, and the people worship 
 the emperor. It is remarkable that with all this the 
 sovereign, in styling himself, uses occasionally such a 
 term of affected humility as " the imperfect man ;'' which 
 presents a contrast to the inflated and self-laudatory
 
 Chap. VIII. THE EMPEROR. 2Go 
 
 expressions of most oriental monarchs. Every device of 
 state, however, is used to keep up by habit the impres- 
 sion of awe. No person whatever can pass before the 
 outer gate of the palace in any vehicle, or on horseback. 
 The vacant throne, or a screen of yellow silk, is equally 
 worshipped with his actual presence. An imperial 
 despatch is received in the provinces with offerings of 
 incense and prostration, looking towards Peking, There 
 is a paved walk to the principal audience-hall, on which 
 none can tread but the emperor. At the same time, as if 
 his transcendant majesty could derive no increase from 
 personal decorations, he is distinguished from his court, 
 unlike most Asiatic sovereigns, by being more plainly clad 
 than those by whom he is surrounded. In Lord Macart- 
 ney's mission, while the crowd of mandarins was covered 
 with embroidery and splendour, the emperor appeared in 
 a dress of plain brown silk, and a black velvet cap with a 
 single pearl in front. Yellow, as the imperial colour, 
 would seem at present rather to distinguish things per- 
 taining to his use, or connected with him in other ways, 
 than to constitute a part of his actual garments, except 
 perhaps on very great occasions. The sovereign of China 
 has the absolute disposal of the succession, and, if he 
 pleases, can name his heir out of his own family. This 
 has descended from time immemorial ; and the ancient 
 monarchs Yaou and Shun are famous examples of such 
 a mode of selection. The imperial authority or sanction 
 to all public acts is conveyed by the impression of a seal, 
 some inches square, and composed of jade, a greenish 
 white stone, called by the Chinese Yu. Any particular 
 directions or remarks by the emperor himself are added 
 in red, commonly styled "the vei*milion pencil." All 
 imperial edicts of a special nature, after being addressed 
 to the proper tribunal, or rather authority, are promulged 
 VOL. I. N
 
 266 GOYERXMEXT AND LEGISLATION. ("hap. VIII. 
 
 in the Peking Gazette, which contains nothing hut what 
 relates to the supreme government ; that is, either re- 
 ports to the emperor, or mandates from him. It is 
 death to falsify any paper therein contained : but it must 
 be observed that these special edicts of the sovereign, 
 as applicable to the exigencies of particular cases, either 
 in aggravation or mitigation of punishment, are not al- 
 lowed to be applied as precedents in penal jurisdiction.* 
 There is more wisdom in this rule than in that which 
 gave to the rescripts of the Roman em.perors, in individual 
 cases, the force of per})etual laws — a system which has 
 very properly been called " arguing from particulars to 
 generals." 
 
 As Pontifex Maximus, or high-priest of the empire, 
 the " Son of Heaven " alone, with his immediate repre- 
 sentatives, sacrifices in the government temples, with vic- 
 tims and incense. These rites, preceded as they are by 
 fasting and purification, bear a perfect resemblance to 
 the offerings with which we are familiar in the history of 
 antiquity. No hierarchy is maintained at the pubhc 
 expense, nor any priesthood attached to the Confucian 
 or government religion, as the sovereign and his gi*eat 
 officers perform that part. I'he two religious orders 
 of Fo and Taou, which have been only tolerated, and 
 not maintained, by the government, derive support en- 
 tirely from their own funds, or from voluntary private 
 contributions. This remark must of course be confined 
 to China ; for in Mongol Tartary the emperor finds it 
 expedient to show more favour to the Lamas of the 
 Budhist hierarchy, on account of their influence over the 
 people of those extensive regions. It is a striking 
 circumstance that the Confucian persuasion should have 
 
 * Penal Code, sect. 415.
 
 Chap. VIII. THE MINISTERS. 267 
 
 continued supreme in China, though the conquerors of the 
 country were not Confucians. 
 
 The emperor's principal ministers form the Nuyko, or 
 " interior council-chamber," and the chief councillors are 
 four in number, two Tartars and two Chinese, the former 
 always taking- precedence : they all bear the titles of 
 Choong-t'hang and Ko-laou, ^^Titten by the Jesuits Colao. 
 Below these are a number of assessors, who, together with 
 them, form the great council of state. The body whence 
 these chief ministers are generally selected is the Impe- 
 rial College, or National Institute, of the Ilan-lin. If 
 there is anything which can be called a hierarchy of the 
 state religion (which we have already stated the govern- 
 ment does not maintain in a special shape), it is this 
 Han-lin. In his ' Memoirs of Napoleon,' Bourrienne re- 
 lates a very characteristic trait : in the classification of his 
 private library, the emperor arranged the Bible under the 
 head of political works. Just in the same spirit the 
 Chinese government makes religion an engine, or rather 
 a part, of political rule. The sovereign is high-priest, 
 and his ministers the members of the hierarchy ; and the 
 sacred books of Confucius are studied and expounded 
 by the Han-lin college, which in this respect is a species 
 of Sorbonne. Besides the supreme council of the em- 
 peror already mentioned, there is the Keun-ke-ta-chin, a 
 body of privy-councillors, for occasions when secresy and 
 despatch may be particularly required. The person called 
 Duke Ho, in Lord Amherst's embassy, was one of these. 
 
 The Lew~poo, or Six Boards, for the conduct of go- 
 vernment business in detail, are, 1. The Board of Official 
 Appointments, which takes cognizance of the conduct of 
 all civil officers ; 2. The Board of Revenue, which regu- 
 lates all fiscal matters ; 3. The Board of Rites and Cere- 
 monies ; 4. The Military Board ; 5. The Supreme Court 
 
 N 2
 
 268 GOVERNMEXT AND LEGISLATION. Chap. VIII. 
 
 of Criminal Jurisdiction ; G. The Board of Public Works. 
 These have all subordinate offices under them ; for in- 
 stance, the Astronomical Board is attached to the third, 
 the ritual being regulated by the calendar. 
 
 The Lyfan-yuen may be literally rendered by the 
 " office for foreign affairs." As its name imports, it has 
 charge of the external relations of the empire. One of 
 the presidents was deputed to receive the British embassy 
 in 18 IG, and they consist always of Manchow or Mongol 
 Tartars, no Chinese ever being employed. A very pecu- 
 liar feature of the government is next observable in the 
 Toocha-yuen, or office of censors, of which the members 
 are generally styled Yu-she. There are two presidents, 
 a Tartar and a Chinese, and the members consist in all 
 of about forty or fifty, of whom several are sent to various 
 parts of the empire, as imperial inspectors, or perhaps, 
 more properly speaking, spies. By the ancient custom of 
 the empire they are privileged to present any advice or 
 remonstrance to the sovereign without danger of losing 
 their lives ; but they are frequently degraded or punished 
 when their addresses are unpalatable. An example of 
 the office, and the fate of one of these, occurs at the 
 commencement of the romance of the ' Fortunate Union,' 
 published by the Oriental Translation Committee. A 
 lately living example, however, was conspicuous in Soong- 
 ta-jin, the conductor of Lord Macartney's embassy, who, 
 at a very advanced age, remained in a state of what 
 may be styled respectable disgrace, for the boldness and 
 honesty with which he had always spoken out. 
 
 The foregoing are the principal organs of the imperial 
 government at Peking. The provinces are placed under 
 the principal charge, either singly of a Fooyuen or Go- 
 vernor, or two provinces together are made subject to a 
 Tsoong-to, or " General Governor," who has Fooyuens
 
 Chap. VJII. PROVINCIAL MAGISTRATES. 269 
 
 under him for each single province. Canton and Knang-- 
 sy, adjoining, are together subject to the Tsoong-to, com- 
 monly called the Viceroy of Canton. In each of these 
 governments there is a chief criminal judge and a trea- 
 sm'er, the latter having usually cognizance of civil suits, 
 but his especial business being the charge of the ter- 
 ritorial revenue. The salt department is sufficiently 
 important to be under the particular management of 
 the Yen-yun-sse, or "salt mandarin," as he is called at 
 Canton ; the Chinese government, like so many others, 
 having reserved to itself the monopoly of this necessary 
 of life. 
 
 The separate cities and districts of each province in 
 the three ranks of Foo, Chow, and llien, are under the 
 charge of their respective magistrates, who take their 
 rank from the cities they govern. The total number of 
 civil magistrates throughout China is estimated at 14,000. 
 The importance of the European trade at Canton gave 
 rise to the special appointment there of the Haekuan or 
 commissioner of the customs, called by Europeans IIoppo, 
 a corruption of PIoo-poo, the IBoard of Revenue at Pe- 
 king. He was generally some Tartar favourite of the 
 emperor, sent down to make his fortune by the foreign 
 trade, and he generally contrived to do this rapidly, 
 by squeezing the Hong merchants, over whom he had 
 entire control. 
 
 A red book (being literally one with a red cover), in six 
 small volumes, is printed quarterly by authority, contain- 
 ing the name, birthplace, and other particulars relating 
 to every official person in the empire. No individual can 
 hold a magistracy in his own province ; and each public 
 officer is changed periodically, to prevent growing con- 
 nexions and liaisons with those under his government. 
 A son, a brother, or any other very near relation, cannot
 
 270 GOYERNMEXT AND LEGISLATION. Chap. VIII. 
 
 hold office under a correspond iiifj relative. Once in 
 three years the viceroy of each province forwards, to 
 the Board of Civil x\ppointments, the name of every 
 officer under his government down to a Ilien's deputy, 
 with remarks on their conduct and cliaracter, which have 
 all been received from the immediate superiors of each ; — 
 a plan not unlike that which has lately been ado])ted in 
 the civil "'overnment of British India. According to this 
 report, every officer is raised or degraded so many de- 
 grees. Each magistrate is obliged to state, in the cata- 
 logue of his titles, the number of steps that he has been 
 either raised or degraded. The offences of great officers 
 are tried by imperial commissioners, specially appointed. 
 Disturbances or rebellions in a province are never for- 
 given to a governor or ticeroy. The governor of Canton, 
 who only one year before had obtained signal marks of 
 the emperor's favour, was ruined in 1832 by the re- 
 bellion or irruption of the mountaineers in the north- 
 west, though he was quite innocent of any blame on the 
 occasion. 
 
 The relative degrees of civil and military officers are 
 partly distinguished by the colour of the ball which they 
 wear at the apex or point of their conical caps. These 
 are red, light blue, dark blue, crystal, white stone, and 
 gold ; and, with some modifications, serve to distinguish 
 what are called the "nine ranks." Each ball is accom- 
 panied by its corresponding badge, which is a piece of silk 
 embroidery, about a foot square, with the representation of 
 a bird, or other device, on both the breast and back of the 
 ceremonial habit, together with a necklace of very large 
 " court beads " descending to the waist. 
 
 These mere outward decorations, however, are not in- 
 fallible signs of the real rank of the wearer, for the bare 
 permission to assume the dress, without any of the powers
 
 Chap. VIII. CIVIL AUTHORITY ABOVE MILITARY. 
 
 271 
 
 or privileges, of an officer of government, may be pur- 
 chased for a large sum of money. The only benefit 
 derived is this, that, in case of a breach of the law, the 
 individual cannot be punished on the spot, nor until he 
 has been formally deprived of his ball or button, a process 
 which is not long in performing. Any Hong merchant at 
 Canton who should have purchased leave to wear the blue 
 ball on his cap might be cited to appear by a magistrate 
 of the lowest grade, who wears only a gold or rather a 
 gilt one, and, if really criminal, he might be deprived of 
 his finery and punished with the bamboo like any unpri- 
 vileged person. 
 
 JMandarin seated iu a Sedan. 
 
 It may be considered as one proof of social advance- 
 ment on the part of the Chinese, that the civil authority 
 is generally superior to the military, and that letters 
 always rank above arms, in spite even of the manner in 
 which the Tartars obtained the empire. In this respect 
 China may be said to have subdued her conquerors. A 
 military mandarin of the highest grade may be often 
 seen on foot, when a civil officer of middling rank would 
 be considered as degraded except in a chair with four 
 bearers ; the others are not allowed chairs, but may ride. 
 The present dynasty, as an encouragement to its army, 
 established examinations, or rather trials, in the military
 
 272 GOVERNMENT AND LEGISLATION. Chap. VIII. 
 
 art (as in ridinef and shooting with the bow), at which 
 the candidates are ranked for promotion in three degrees 
 like the civilians, though of course they can never come 
 in competition with each other. The value which they 
 attach to personal strength and dexterity in a com- 
 mander, and the rank which the bow and arrow hold in 
 their estimation, seem to prove clearly that the military 
 art is not beyond its infancy among the Chinese. 
 
 All the military of the empire are under the manage- 
 ment of their proper tribunal or board at Peking, the 
 power of which, however, is jealously checked by a 
 dependence on some of the others; as the Board of 
 Revenue must supply the funds, and the Board of Public 
 Works the mathiel of the army. The trusty Tartar 
 troops are ranged under the eight standards ; viz. the 
 yellow, white, red, and blue, together with each of these 
 colours bordered by one of the others. The green flag 
 distinguishes the Chinese troops. Each of the Tartar 
 standards is said to consist of 10,000 men, making a 
 standing army of 80,000. There is, besides, the local 
 militia spread through the provinces ; but this, from all 
 that has been observed of it, is such a ragged and 
 undisciplined rout as to be fit for little more than the 
 purposes of a police. 
 
 Including this militia, the whole number receiving pay 
 throughout the empire has been estimated at 700,000, of 
 which by far the largest portion are fixed to their native 
 districts, cultivating the land, or following some other 
 private pursuit. This circumstance in a peaceful country 
 makes the profession of a militiaman an object of solicita- 
 tion, as it provides something over and above a man's 
 ordinary means. How ill-calculated it must be to pro- 
 duce efficient soldiers need scarcely be argued. The 
 reasons adduced by Adam Smith, in his third volume, to
 
 Chap. VIII. THE ARMY. 273 
 
 prove the superiority of the militia of a barbarous nation 
 over that of a civilized one, are quite conclusive on the 
 subject, and best illustrated by the conquest of this very 
 country by the Manchows, a mere maniple of a nation. 
 
 The missionaries themselves, quoted by Du Halde, 
 who were much more accustomed to magnify than 
 diminish the merit of anything Chinese, seemed to be 
 aware of the inferiority of these troops as soldiers, 
 " They are not comparable," it is observed, " to our 
 troops in Europe for either courage or discipline, and 
 they are easily disordered and put to the rout. Besides 
 that the Chinese are naturally effeminate, and the Tar- 
 tars are almost become Chinese, the profound peace they 
 have enjoyed does not give them occasion to become 
 warlike." Several circumstances conduce to prevent 
 China from deriving such advantages as she might, to 
 her military power, from the actual amount of her 
 opulence and population. First, that pride and conceit, 
 which is a bar to all improvement in the arts, and, 
 among the rest, the art of war. Secondly, that jealousy 
 of. the Chinese population which prevents the Tartar 
 government from making of it such efficient troops as it 
 might. Thirdly, that overwhelming superiority which 
 the empire possesses over the petty and barbarous states 
 on its frontiers ; and which, in having prevented aggres- 
 sions on it, has precluded the practice and experience so 
 necessary to make good soldiers. 
 
 The long and successful resistance of the Meaou-tse, a 
 race of barbarians in the mountainous parts of the interior 
 of China itself, and their independence at the present 
 time, attest the weakness of Chinese military resources, 
 and the very moderate efficiency of troops which are 
 seldom employed in anything more formidable than the 
 suppression of a revolt in some starving province, and 
 
 N 3
 
 274 GOVERNMENT AND LEGISLATION. Ciixr. VIII. 
 
 thus enga<red, as it were, in fi;Ljhting with shadows. The 
 Canton troops in 1832 were defeated by the mountaineers 
 on the borders, and in fact proved utterly worthless, from 
 the general use of opium, and the absence of practice 
 and discipline. This on land : but their navy is even 
 worse. The long and successful career of the Ladrones, 
 or pirates, in the vicinity of Canton, who were, after all, 
 subdued only by the Jwnours conferred on their chief as 
 the price of his submission, is sufl&cient evidence on this 
 point. They have been as bad as ever since our war. 
 
 The abuses and malversation, on the part of military 
 officers intrusted with funds for the provision of soldiers, 
 appear to be frequent ; and there is reason to suppose 
 that some of the assumed militia of China are little 
 better than men of straw, whose allotted funds are mis- 
 applied, if not after the example, yet in the manner, of 
 that eminent commander Sir John Falstaff. It must have 
 been to some such system that our embassy in 1816 was 
 indebted for the ludicrous scenes exhibited in its progress. 
 The emperor's edicts ordained that the troops should 
 wear " an imposing aspect ; " but, on approaching a town 
 or station, numbers of fellows might be seen scouring 
 along the banks of the river, laden with jackets and 
 accoutrements, which were clapped on the backs of those 
 who had been pressed for the occasion, and who betrayed, 
 from under their assumed habiliments, the primitive dirt 
 and rags of their condition. 
 
 Very few mounted soldiers were seen by either of our 
 embassies, and, whatever may be their actual amount, 
 they are said to be nearly all Tartars. A great dif- 
 ference seems to exist between the pay of Tartars and 
 Chinese. One of the former, being a foot-soldier, is 
 allowed two taels per month, or about fivepence a day, 
 with an allowance of rice ; one of the latter, only one
 
 Chai'. VIII. UNIFORM AND ARMS. 275 
 
 tael and six-tenths, witliout the rice. The reasons for 
 this difference may be the following : — First, that the 
 Tartar in China belongs to a standing army, at a distance 
 from his home, and dependent solely on his profession ; 
 while the other is commonly, if not always, a militiaman, 
 carrying on his own occupations when off" duty. Secondly, 
 some allowance may be made for the national partiality 
 of the governing power, and the necessity of attaching its 
 confidential servants by liberality. 
 
 The most common uniform of the military is a jacket 
 of blue turned up witli red, or red bordered with white, 
 over a long petticoat of blue. The cap is either of rattan 
 or strips of bamboo painted, being in a conical shape, and 
 well suited to ward off" a blow ; though on some occasions 
 they wear a cap of cloth and silk, similar to that of the 
 mandai'ins, without the ball or button at the top. Some 
 few are defended by a clumsy-looking quilted armour, of 
 cloth studded with metal buttons, which descends in a 
 long petticoat, and gives the wearer the appearance of 
 one who could neither fight nor fly. The helmet is of 
 iron, in the shape of an inverted funnel, having a point at 
 the top, to which is attached a bunch of silk or horsehair. 
 
 The principal arms of the cavalry are bows and arrows, 
 the bow being of elastic wood and horn combined, with a 
 string of silk strongly twisted and wrought. The strength 
 of their bows is estimated by the dead weight required to 
 bend them, varying from about eighty pounds to a hun- 
 dredweight. The string, in shooting, is held behind an 
 agate or stone ring on the right thumb, the first joint of 
 which is bent forward and confined by the middle joint of 
 the fore-finger being pressed upon it. Their swords are 
 generally ill-made, and their matchlocks considered by 
 them as inferior weapons to the bow and arrow, which 
 they may perhaps be, considering their appearance and
 
 27G 
 
 GOVERXMEXT AXD LEGISLATION. Chap. VIII. 
 
 make. Some are ])rovide(l with shields, constructed of 
 rattan turned spirally round a centre. 
 
 Chinese Shield.— From an origiual drawing in the India House. 
 
 With regard to the use of artillery, Du Ilalde observes, 
 with apparent reason, that, " though the knowledge of 
 gunpowder is very ancient in China, artillery is but 
 modern." It is clear that, as late as 1621, the city of 
 Macao was invited to send three guns to Peking, with 
 men to manage them, against the Tartars ; and equally 
 certain that under the last emperor of the Chinese 
 dynasty, about the year 1636, when the empire was 
 threatened by the Manchows, the Jesuits at Peking were 
 desired by the emperor to instruct his people in casting 
 some cannon. But the most successful operator in this 
 way was the famous Ferdinand Verbiest, under whose 
 inspection some hundred ])ieces of artillery were con-
 
 Chap. VIII. 
 
 ARTILLERY. 
 
 077 
 
 .^■' 
 
 Instruments of War.
 
 278 GOVERNMENT AND LEGISLATION. Chap. VIII. 
 
 structed for the Tartar Eiiij)cror Kang-hy, towards the 
 end of the seventeenth century. This was made a sub- 
 ject of accusation against the Jesuits at Rome ; but they 
 defended themselves by arguing that it promoted the 
 cause of Christianity, by making their services necessary 
 to the Chinese government. It is certain that, during 
 the course of three centuries, no mission has ever suc- 
 ceeded for a time so well as theirs, but that at present 
 there are not a dozen European missionaries in the 
 interior, among a population estimated at more than 
 300,000,000 of souls. 
 
 The highest military rank is that of a Tseang-keun, or 
 Tartar General, one of whom has charge of the regular 
 troops in Canton province. This post can never be tilled 
 by a Chinese, but secondary commands may. Below 
 these are subordinate officers, promoted in regular order 
 from the lowest grade, according to their physical 
 strength, and their skill in shooting with the bow, com- 
 bined with the activity and zeal which they may oc- 
 casionally display in cases of civil commotion or revolt. 
 One very singular feature we must not forget to notice 
 in regard to the military officers of China. They are all 
 subject to corporal punishment, and very often experience 
 it, together with the punishment of the Cangue, or 
 movable pillory, consisting of a heavy frame of wood, 
 sometimes upwards of a hundred pounds in weight, with 
 holes for the head and hands. This parental allotment 
 of a certain quantum of flagellation, and personal ex- 
 posure, is occasionally the fate of the highest officers, 
 and, upon the whole, must be regarded as a very odd 
 way of improving their military character. It may be 
 observed, however, that enterprising courage is not con- 
 sidered as a merit in Chinese tactics. They have a 
 maxim, that " rash and arrogant soldiers must be de-
 
 Chap. VIII. PENAL CODE. 279 
 
 feated ; " which may be allowed to contain some truth ; 
 and the chief virtue of their strategy is extreme caution 
 and love of craft, not without a large share of perfidy 
 and falsehood ; so that to treat with a Chinese general, 
 and expect him to fulfil his engagements, would be alto- 
 gether a miscalculation.* 
 
 ^^'e may now turn our attention to that very efficient 
 engine for the control of its vast and densely-thronged 
 population, the penal code of China ; and this deserves 
 the more particular notice as affording the best data for 
 correctly estimating the character of the people to whom 
 it has been adapted. The most perfect code of laws in 
 the abstract is unavailing and useless, if not congenial to 
 the dispositions and habits of those for whom it is formed ; 
 and, without keeping this in view, we might be apt to 
 deny to the criminal laws of China the share of praise to 
 which they are justly entitled, after making due abate- 
 ment for their plain and undeniable defects. The follow- 
 ing testimony in their favour, from a very able critique f 
 on Sir George Staunton's version of the Leu-lee, must 
 be considered as praise of a high kind : — " The most 
 remarkable thing in this code is its great reasonableness, 
 clearness, and consistency : the business-like brevity and 
 directness of the various provisions, and the plainness and 
 moderation of the language in which they are expressed. 
 There is nothing here of the monstrous verbiage of most 
 other Asiatic productions ; none of the superstitious 
 deliration, the miserable incoherence, the tremendous 
 non-sequiturs and eternal repetitions of those oracular 
 performances ; nothing even of the turgid adulation, the 
 accumulated epithets, and fatiguing self-praise of other 
 
 * The whole of the ahove account of the Chinese niilitaiy was 
 singularly confirmed by our experience in the war. 
 
 t Edinburgh Eeview, August, 1810. By Sir James Mackintosh.
 
 280 GOVERNMENT AND LEGISLATION. Chap. VIII. 
 
 Eastern despotisms ; but a clear, concise, and distinct 
 series of enactments, savouring throughout of j)ractical 
 judgment and European good sense, and, if not always 
 conformable to our improved notions of expediency in 
 this country, in general approaching to them more 
 nearly than the codes of most other nations." 
 
 After this fair tribute, the evident defects of the system, 
 being in some measure those of the state of society in 
 which it originated, may be pointed out. There is, in 
 the first place, a constant meddling with, and anxiety to 
 compel the performance of, those relative duties which 
 are better left to the operation of any other sanctions than 
 positive laws. The evil of this perpetual interference of 
 the law to enforce the practice of virtues, which in great 
 measure cease to be such on being made compulsory, is to 
 diminish their beneficial influence on the mind ; and it is 
 on the same principle that compulsory charity, even, has 
 been condemned (though without sufficient reason), as it 
 exists among us in the instance of the poor-laws. The 
 Chinese carry their care beyond this life ; for any person 
 who is convicted of neglecting his occasional visits to the 
 tombs of his ancestors is subject to punishment. A second 
 defect which we may notice is that minute attention to 
 trifles, and that excessive care to provide for every pos- 
 sible shade of diff'erence that may arise between one case 
 and another, which is so opposed to the European maxim, 
 " de minimis non curat lex^ The Chinese, however, still 
 stop short of the Hindoo institutes of Menu, which pro- 
 vide for some rare and singular contingencies. For in- 
 stance, the inheritance of a son being a whole, and that 
 of a daughter a half, there is a peculiar sagacity and fore- 
 sight in directing that the portion of a hermaphrodite 
 shall be half of the one, and half of the other, or three- 
 fourths I A third defect is the occasional manifestation
 
 Chap. VIII. PROVISIONS AGAINST TREASON. 281 
 
 of a jealous fear, on the part of the government, lest in 
 the execution of its enactments the judge should ever find 
 himself impeded or hampered by too great clearness of 
 definition, or the subject derive too much protection fi'om 
 the distinct statement of crime and punishment. Hence 
 those vague generalities by which the benefits of a written 
 code are in a great measure annulled. The following- 
 enactment is a specimen : — " Whoever is guilty of im- 
 proper conduct, and such as is contrary to the spirit of the 
 laws, though not a breach of any specific article, shall be 
 punished at the least with forty blows ; and, when the 
 impropriety is of a serious nature, with eigbty blows." 
 The Chinese may justly say that it is " difficult to escape 
 from the net of the law," when its meshes are thus closed 
 against the exit of the minutest of the fry. 
 
 One feature of the criminal code, inseparable from the 
 nature of the government from which it sprung, is the 
 remorseless and unrelenting cruelty and injustice which 
 mark all its provisions against the crime of treason. No- 
 thing perhaps could more strongly show the different 
 tempers of despotism and freedom than the contrast be- 
 tween the Chinese law of high treason and our own. In 
 China, every species of advantage and protection afforded 
 to the criminal, in ordinary cases of a capital nature, is 
 taken away from the traitor ; in England, every possible 
 safeguard is afforded him. It is well known that, with 
 us, the prisoner must be furnished, at least ten days before 
 his trial, with a copy of his indictment, a list of witnesses, 
 and a list of the panel, or those from whom the jury are 
 to be chosen. Then, again, he may challenge or object 
 to as many as thirty-five of the panel in making up the 
 jury ; he cannot be convicted with less than two legal wit- 
 nesses ; and he may employ counsel in his defence. Now, 
 in China, not a single circumstance of indulgence or
 
 282 GOVERNMENT AND LEGISLATION. Chap. VII f, 
 
 safety to the criminal, in ca])ital cases, is ever stated 
 throughont the whole code without this addition, " except 
 in cases of high treason." The slendemess of the protec- 
 tion is only to be paralleled by the barbarity of the punish- 
 ment ; and, as in other absolute despotisms, the iimocent 
 family of the offender is consigned to destruction.* In 
 1803 an attempt was made on the life of the emperor by 
 a single assassin, lie was condemned to a lingering 
 death, and his sons, " behjg of a tender age," to be 
 strangled ! f Going back to the patriarchal origin of the 
 government, the Chinese derive a sanction for their law 
 of treason from their sacred books. These enjoin it on 
 a son to pursue the author of his father's death to ex- 
 tremity ; and Confucius himself tells him " not to live 
 under the same heaven with the slayer of his father." 
 The extension of this rule to the sovereign is, in the mind 
 of every Chinese, a matter of course. 
 
 The arrangement of the penal code is extremely me- 
 thodical and lucid. The first head is composed princi- 
 pally of general definitions and explanations in reference 
 to the whole code ; and the six following, which constitute 
 the body of the work, correspond exactly to the six 
 supremo boards or tribunals at Peking, being in fact the 
 best illustrations of the respective duties and functions of 
 those councils. In that light they may be briefly pre- 
 sented to the reader. 
 
 I. The division concerning the Administration of civil 
 
 * Among;st the Persians and Macedonians, not only the criminals 
 con\icted of treason, but all their relations and friends, were put to 
 death. The posterity of Marins's faction were disqualified, by a law of 
 Sylla, from advancing themselves by their own merit to e.states and 
 offices. — Yorke's Conmlerations on the Law of Forfeiture. 
 
 t This explains the wholesale massacres of so-called re1)els at Canton, 
 who have been slaughtered by Governor Ykh at the rate of some thou- 
 sands in a single week. He seems to have had his own private motives 
 also P. 178, note.
 
 Chap. VIII. DIVISIONS OF TENAL CODE. 283 
 
 offices corresponds to the first of the Supreme Tribunals 
 before noticed, whose title may be expressed by " the 
 Board of Civil Appointments." Its two books treat, 
 
 1. Of the System of Government, 2. Of the Conduct of 
 Officers. 
 
 II. The next comprehends Fiscal and Statistical Laivs, 
 and answers to the Board of Revenue at Pekino:. Its 
 seven books comprise, 1. The Enrolment of the People. 
 
 2. Lands and Tenements. 3. Marriage (in its statistical 
 relations). 4. Public Property. 5. Duties and Customs. 
 6. Private Property. 7. Sales and Markets. 
 
 III. The third treats of the Ritual Laws, and comes 
 of course under the Tribunals of Rites and Ceremonies. 
 The two books of this division treat, 1. Of Sacred Rites. 
 2. Miscellaneous Observances. 
 
 IV. The division concerning Military Laws belongs 
 to the Tribunal of War, or Military Board, and contains 
 five books. 1, The Protection of the Palace. 2. The 
 Regulation of the Army. 3. The Protection of the Fron- 
 tier. 4. Military Horses and Cattle. 5. Expresses and 
 Public Posts. 
 
 V. The next comprehends Criminal Laws, and per- 
 tains to the " Tribunal of Punishments," being by far the 
 most considerable portion, and comprising eleven books. 
 The principal heads are, " Treason, Robbery and Theft, 
 Murder and Homicide of various kinds. Criminal Inter- 
 course, Disturbing Graves, Quarrelling and Fighting, 
 and Incendiarism." 
 
 VI. The last division of the code, treating of Public 
 Works, and coming under the appropriate Board at 
 Peking, contains only two books. 1. Public Buildings. 
 2. Public Ways. 
 
 With regard to the punishments by which these laws 
 are enforced, it is important to observe that very un-
 
 284 
 
 GOVERNMENT AND LEGISLATION. Cii.u'. VIII. 
 
 founded notions have been prevalent iis to the caprice or 
 cruelty which can be exercised towards criminals. Some 
 vulgar daubs, commonly sold at Canton, and representing 
 
 the punishment of the damned in the Budhist hell, have 
 been absurdly styled " Chinese punishments," and con- 
 founded with the true ones. There is in the first division
 
 Chap. VIII. PUXISHMENTS. 285 
 
 of the code a very strict definition of all the legal pains 
 and penalties to which the subject is liable, and even the 
 application of torture in forcing evidence is strictly limited 
 in its extent and application. History indeed relates the 
 extraordinary contrivances of cruelty adopted by different 
 tyrants previous to the fonnation of a distinct and written 
 code ; but this is common to nearly all countries. 
 
 The most general instrument of punishment is the 
 bamboo, whose dimensions are exactly defined. The 
 number of blows, attached gradatim with such precision 
 to every individual offence, answers the purpose of a scale 
 or measurement of the degrees of crime, and this punish- 
 ment being often commutable for fine or otherwise, the 
 apparent quantity of flagellation is of course greater than 
 the real. A small hollow cylinder, full of tallies or slips 
 of wood, stands before the judge, and according to the 
 nature of the oftence he takes out a certain number, and 
 throws them on the floor of the court. These are taken 
 up by the attendants, and five blows nominally, but in 
 reality only four, inflicted for each.* This mitigation 
 goes to the emperor's credit, being called " imperial 
 favour," and it is in strict conformity with the Chinese 
 maxim, that "in enacting laws, rigour is necessary; in 
 executing them, mercy ; " although the converse has been 
 of late generally maintained among ourselves — in theory 
 at least. 
 
 The next punishment is the Kea, or Cangue, which has 
 been called the wooden collar, being a species of walking 
 pillory, in which the prisoner is paraded with his oftence 
 inscribed. It is sometimes worn for a month together, 
 and, as the hand cannot be put to the mouth, the wearer 
 must be fed by others. After this comes, in the first 
 
 * Tlie ceremony of the bamboo is described in the ' Fortunate 
 Union,' vol. ii. p. 62.
 
 286 GOVERNMENT AND LEGISLATION. Chap. VIII. 
 
 place, temporary banishment, to a distance not exceeding 
 fifty leagues from the prisoner's home ; and then exile 
 beyond the Chinese frontier, either temporary or for life. 
 Tartars are punished by an equal number of blows with 
 the whip instead of the bamboo, and, in ordinary cases, 
 with the Cangue instead of banishment. 
 
 The three capital punishments are. First, strangulation ; 
 Secondly, for greater crimes, decollation ; Thirdly, for 
 the greatest crimes, as treason, parricide, sacrilege, &c., 
 that mode of execution called Ling-chy, "a disgraceful 
 and lingering death," which Europeans have somewhat 
 incorrectly styled cutting into ten thousand pieces. The 
 heads of robbers and murderers are publicly exposed in a 
 cage suspended on a pole. 
 
 Chinese prisons are very severe, and, as there is no 
 Habeas Corpus Act, the most frequent instruments of 
 judicial injustice are prolonged imprisonments. Nothing 
 tends more effectually to deter from crime than the pro- 
 spect of incarceration in those miserable abodes, which 
 the Chinese emphatically style Ty-yo, or hell, and the 
 severity of which is increased by the confinement being 
 solitary.* Women in ordinary cases enjoy the fortunate 
 exemption of being placed, as criminals, in the custody of 
 their nearest relations, who are answerable for them, and 
 in this manner they escape the further contamination of 
 vice in a prison. The legal mode of torture, in forcing 
 evidence, is to squeeze the ankles or the fingers between 
 three sticks, tied triangularly ; the former being applied 
 to male, and the latter to female prisoners. Oaths are 
 never required, nor even admitted, in judicial proceed- 
 
 * We at home have lately gone into the other extreme, and encour- 
 aged crime hy making prisons more comfortahle than tlie abodes of 
 honest labour. " None but fools and horses work, " said a criminal 
 lately on the Midland circuit.
 
 Chap. VIII. PUNISHMENTS. 287 
 
 ings ; but very severe punishments are attached to false- 
 hood in evidence. 
 
 Ten privileged classes are enumerated in the introduc- 
 tory division of the code, who cannot be tried and 
 punished without a special reference to the emperor. 
 The grounds of exemption (which, as usual, are denied 
 in treason) consist, generally, in relationship to the im- 
 perial line, or in high character and station. Throughout 
 cases where the crime is less than capital, any person 
 under fifteen years of age, or above seventy, is allowed to 
 redeem himself from punishment by a fine. A species of 
 hinges evidence is permitted in cases of thieving and rob- 
 bery, with a view to the recovery of the lost goods : in 
 fact, something more than mere pardon is offered, as the 
 accomplice who informs is entitled to the reward attached 
 to the discovery of the criminals. This, however, extends 
 only to i\ie first offence. 
 
 The law distinguishes, in most cases, between prin- 
 cipals and accessaries before the fact, punishing the latter 
 one degree less severely than the former ; and in this re- 
 spect it difi'ers from our own system, by which accessaries 
 before the fact are punished as principals ; after the fact 
 merely as concealers of what they ought to have revealed. 
 In treason, however, as usual, the Chinese law punishes 
 both principals and accessaries, and their innocent rela- 
 tions, with a sweeping severity. Where the safety of the 
 emperor, or the stability of the government, is not in- 
 volved, milder and more benevolent traits are frequently 
 discernible in this code. AVith a view, for instance, to 
 promote kindred and domestic ties, it is provided that 
 relatives and servants, living under the same roof, shall in 
 ordinary cases be held innocent, though they conceal the 
 offences of their fellow-inmates, or even assist in effecting 
 their escape. • This was probably enacted in conformity
 
 288 GOVERNMENT AND LEGISLATION. Chap. VIIL 
 
 with that precept of (^'onf "ucius — " The father may con- 
 ceal the offences of his son, and the son those of his father 
 — uprightness consists with this." — (Hea-Lun, ch, 13.) 
 
 The desire entertained and professed by the Chinese 
 government, that its subjects should be generally ac- 
 quainted with the laws of the empire, has given rise to 
 something not unlike our now disused benefit of clergy. 
 It is enacted that all those private individuals who are 
 found capable of explaining the nature, or comprehend- 
 ing the objects of the laws, shall receive pardon for all 
 offences resulting from accident (and not malice), or im- 
 putable to them only in consequence of the guilt of others, 
 provided it be the first offence, and not implicated with 
 any act of treason or rebellion. A considerable portion 
 of the sixth division of the code is devoted to providing 
 for justice in the administration of legal punishments, and 
 establishing safeguards for the subject. Severe penalties 
 are denounced against officers of government for unjust 
 imprisonment, delay of justice, cruelty, &c. A species of 
 bail is allowed to minor offenders in case of sickness, and 
 they are exempted, or released from imprisonment, on 
 sufficient security being given for their return. Torture 
 is forbidden to be exercised on persons above seventy, or 
 under fifteen, as well as on those labouring under per- 
 manent disease. Women can never be imprisoned except 
 for capital offences, or for adultery. Torture and death 
 cannot be inflicted on a pregnant woman until one 
 hundred days after her confinement, in consideration, 
 we presume, of the infant. 
 
 The condition of slavery in China is broadly marked 
 by the absence of rights and immunities pertaining to 
 those who are subjects without being slaves. The law 
 regards slaves with less care, and affords less protection 
 to them than to their masters. Every offence is aggra-
 
 Chap. VIII. PUNISHMENTS. 289 
 
 vated or diminished in its penalty, according as it is 
 committed by a slave towards a freeman, or vice versa. 
 The crime of a slave who kills his master is punished 
 with lingering death, as petit treason ; while the converse 
 of the case is not even capital. We find the same 
 distinctions existing in the early history of Europe, in 
 respect to the comparative personal rights of freemen 
 and slaves. But besides domestic slavery, it seems that 
 for some infractions of the laws a whole family is 
 sometimes condemned to public servitude, as appears 
 from Section CXL. of the penal code. Personal service, 
 too, is frequently levied by the government as a species 
 of taxation on the lowest class, or that w^hich has nothing 
 but its labour to contribute. The comparative uncer- 
 tainty of this, notwithstanding sundry enactments against 
 its abuse, is a great evil ; and both our embassies had 
 reason to regret that they were the innocent occasions of 
 much oppression and ill-usage to the poor people who 
 were pressed by the mandarins to track their boats. 
 
 Robbery, with the concerted use of offensive weapons, 
 is punished with death, however small may be the amount 
 taken ; and, if a burglar be killed by him whose house he 
 invades, it is deemed an act of justifiable homicide. An 
 intimation conveyed to the local magistrate of Macao 
 that the English were aware of this part of the law, and 
 prepared to take advantage of it, had the good effect 
 of preventing night robberies, which until then had been 
 frequent. Simple stealing is punished only with the 
 bamboo and with exile, on a scale proportioned to the 
 amount ; and there is reason to believe that death is never 
 inflicted, whatever may be the value of the thing stolen. 
 Theft among near relations is punished with less severity 
 than ordinary stealing ; and Sir George Staunton explains 
 this its by being the violation of a right not perfectly 
 
 VOL. I.
 
 290 GOVERNMENT AND LEGISLATION. Chap. VIII. 
 
 exclusive, since the thief, according to the Chinese system 
 of clubbing in families, being part owner of the thing 
 stolen, infringes only that qualijkd interest which each 
 individual has in his share of the fomily property. Con- 
 sistently enough with this principle, we may add that the 
 thief seems to be more severely punished in proportion as 
 the relationship becomes more distant, as having a smaller 
 share of the property, and therefore violating a more 
 exclusive right. But then it must be remarked that the 
 rule does not apply to servants stealing from their 
 masters, a crime which in China is also punished less 
 severely than ordinary theft. The case is quite different 
 among us in England, and with apparent reason, on the 
 principle of its being a violation of necessary confidence, 
 in addition to the violation of property. 
 
 The Chinese law of homicide derives additional interest 
 from the circumstance of British subjects having, on 
 several occasions, formerly become obnoxious to it at 
 Canton ; though the war, and consequent treaty, have 
 since made them amenable to their own authorities exclu- 
 sively. With its characteristic love of order and horror 
 of tumults, the national code treats affrays with unusual 
 severity. Killing in an affray, and killing with a regular 
 weapon, without reference to any intent either expressed 
 or implied, are punished with strangling. Killing by 
 pure accident, that is, not in an affray, nor with a weapon, 
 and where there was no previous knowledge of probable 
 consequences, is redeemable by a fine of about AL to the 
 relations of the deceased. 
 
 With, regard to affrays, it nnist, however, be observed, 
 that a limit is allowed to the period of responsibility in 
 all cases where the homicide was evidently not precon- 
 certed. AVhen a person is wounded with only the hands, 
 or a stick, twenty days constitute the term of respon-
 
 CiiAP. VIII. PUNISHMENTS. 291 
 
 sibility, after which the death of the sufferer does not 
 make the offence capital, ^^'ith a sharp instrument, fire, 
 or scalding water, the term is extended to thirty days. 
 In case of gunshot wounds, to forty days ; of broken 
 bones or very violent wounds, fifty days. As the trans- 
 lator of the Leu-lee observes, the judicious application of 
 the knowledge of this particular law once contributed to 
 extricate the Company's servants in China from very 
 serious difficulties in the case of a native killed by a 
 sailor. 
 
 Fathers have virtually the power of life and death over 
 their children, for even if they kill them designedly, they 
 are subject to only the chastisement of the bamboo and 
 a year's banishment ; if struck by them, to no punishment 
 at all. The penalty for striking parents, or for cursing 
 them, is death, as among the Hebrews (Exod. xxi.). In 
 practice it does not appear that this absolute power 
 bestowed on fathers is productive of evil, the natural 
 feeling being, upon the whole, a sufficient security against 
 its abuse. 
 
 The law of China is so tenacious of order, and so 
 anxious to prevent the chance of homicide from quarrels, 
 that some punishment is attached to the mere act of 
 striking another with the hand or foot ; — not as a private, 
 but as a public offence. Though of course this cannot, 
 in the generality of cases, be acted upon, it may account 
 partly for the common spectacle of two Chinese jumping 
 about and vociferating their mutual reproaches for an 
 incredible time, without coming to blows. This noisy 
 gesticulation seems to answer the purpose of a moral 
 safety-valve, and is certainly more harmless than actual 
 hostilities, though perhaps more disagreeable to the neigh- 
 bours, inasmuch as it lasts longer. The responsible 
 elder of the village or district (divided always into 
 
 2
 
 292 GOVERXMEXT AXD LEGISLATION. Chap. VIII. 
 
 tithings and hundreds) often interposes on these occa- 
 sions, and restores quiet. The law also provides some 
 punishment for opprobrious language, on the ground of 
 its having " a tendency to produce quarrels and affrays ; " 
 or, as assumed by the English law in the criminal 
 prosecution for libel, tending to a breach of the King's 
 peace. 
 
 That portion of the Chinese code which relates to 
 fiscal or statistical matters, to the tenure of lands, and to 
 inheritance, will be noticed elsewhere ; but we may men- 
 tion the subject of debts in this place. A period is allowed 
 by law, on the expiration of which the debtor becomes 
 liable to the bamboo if his oblirations are not discharged. 
 A creditor sometimes quarters himself and his family on 
 his debtor, and, provided that is done without violence 
 and tumult, the civil authority does not interfere. One 
 of the insolvent Hong merchants formerly had in this 
 manner to entertain some of his Chinese creditors, until 
 the representations to the government of those Europeans 
 who had claims against him occasioned his banishment 
 into Tartary : it being a much greater offence to owe 
 money to a foreigner than to a native. The true reason 
 of this was the anxiety of that cautious government to 
 prevent the recurrence of the trouble which it has in 
 former times experienced from the embamissing claims 
 and demands of strangers, and no real sense of justice 
 towards them. 
 
 The able critique on the code, which w^e have already 
 quoted, proceeds to say, " AMien we turn from the ravings 
 of the Zendavesta, or the Puranas, to the tone of sense 
 and of business of this Chinese collection, we seem to be 
 passing from darkness to light — from the drivellings of 
 dotage to the exercise of an improved understanding ; 
 and redundant and minute as these laws are in many
 
 Chap. VIII. CHARACTER OF THE CODE. 293 
 
 particulars, we scarcely know any European code that is 
 at once so copious and so consistent, or that is nearly so 
 free from intricacy, bigotry, and fiction. In everything- 
 relating to political freedom, or individual independence, 
 it is, indeed, wofully defective ; but for the repression of 
 disorder, and the gentle coercion of a vast population, it 
 appears to us to be, in general, equally mild and effica- 
 cious." The defects are, of course, inherent in all des- 
 potisms, under which the legislator is not embarrassed by 
 those considerations which in free states render every new 
 law a problem, involving the greatest quantity of good to 
 the public at the least expense of liberty to the individual ; 
 and which, in countries where there is more liberty than 
 moral instruction, or where men are better acquainted 
 with their rights than with their duties, must always 
 render the business of government a difficult task. 
 
 It has been reasonably proposed by Sir George Staunton 
 to estimate the Chinese legislation by its results, " to 
 judge of the tree b;^ its fruits, some of which (he observes) 
 we shall find to be wholly inconsistent with the hypothesis 
 of a very bad government, or a very vicious state of 
 society." On this subject he quotes his colleague * in 
 the commission of the second British embassy, " whose 
 extensive acquaintance with Persia and India rendered 
 him a peculiarly competent judge of comparative merit in 
 this case. He pronounces China superior to the other 
 countries of Asia, both in the arts of government and 
 the general aspect of society : and adds, that the laws are 
 more generally known, and more equally administered ; 
 that those examples of oppression, accompanied with in- 
 fliction of barbarous punishment, which offi^nd the eye 
 
 * Sir Henry Ellis, ambassador to Persia, with whom the writer of 
 this travelled through China, and always heard him express the same 
 sentiments.
 
 294 GOVERNMENT AND LEGISLATION. Chap. VIII. 
 
 and distress the feelings of the most hurried traveller in 
 other Asiatic countries, are scarcely to be met with in 
 China ; that the proportion which the middling orders 
 bear to the othef classes of the community appeared con- 
 siderable ; that, compared with Turkey, Persia, and parts 
 of India, an impression was produced highly favourable 
 to the comparative situation of the lower orders." 
 
 " These statements," adds Sir George, " proceeding 
 from a writer whose general opinions are certainly not 
 very favourable to the government or people of China, 
 have the greater weight. I should be disposed to add 
 my own testimony to the same facts, and in the same 
 spirit. In the course of our journey through the Chinese 
 empire, on the occasion of that embassy, I can recall 
 to my recollection (the seaport of Canton of course 
 excepted) but very few instances of beggary or abject 
 misery among the lower classes, or of splendid extra- 
 vagance among the higher ; and I conceived myself 
 enabled to trace almost universally throughout China the 
 unequivocal signs of an industrious, thriving, and con- 
 tented people." 
 
 Chinese law, with all its faults, is comparative perfection 
 when opposed to that of Japan, as described by Kcempfer. 
 "I have often wondered," says he, "at the brief and 
 laconic style of those tablets which are hung up on the 
 roads to notify the emperor's pleasure. There is no 
 reason given how it came about that such a law was 
 made ; no mention of the law^giver's view and intention ; 
 nor any graduated penalty put upon the violation thereof. 
 Tlic bare transgression of the law is capital, without any 
 regard to the degree or heinousness of the crime, or the 
 favourable circumstances the offender's case may be at- 
 tended with." Some such comparison, perhaps, suggested 
 the complacent reflections of Tienkeeshe, a Chinese, who
 
 Chap, VIII. CERTAIN PARAMOUNT SANCTIONS. 205 
 
 thus wrote : — " I felicitate myself that I was born in 
 China ! It constantly occurs to me, what if I had been 
 born beyond the sea, in some remote part of the earth, 
 where the cold freezes, or the heat scorches ; where the 
 people are clothed with the leaves of plants, eat wood, 
 dwell in the wilderness, lie in holes of the earth ; are far 
 removed from the convertinj^ maxims of the ancient kings, 
 and are ignorant of the domestic relations : though born 
 as one of the generation of men, I should not have been 
 different from a beast. But how happily I have been born 
 in China ! I have a house to live in, have drink and 
 food, and commodious furniture. I have clothing, and 
 caps, and infinite blessings. Truly the highest felicity is 
 mine." * 
 
 The country cannot, upon the whole, be very ill- 
 governed whose subjects write in this style. But it is a 
 still more remarkable fact that the following should be a 
 popular maxim of the Chinese, and one frequently quoted 
 by them : — " To violate the law is the same crime in the 
 emperor as in a subject." This plainly intimates that 
 there are certain sanctions which the people in general 
 look upon as superior to the will of the sovereign himself. 
 These are contained in their sacred books, whose principle 
 is literally, salus populi suprema lex; as we shall see 
 when we come to consider them hereafter. However 
 much this principle may at times be violated under the 
 pressure of a foreign Tartar dominion, it nevertheless 
 has continued to be recognised, and must doubtless have 
 exercised more or less influence on the conduct of the 
 government. 
 
 * Chinese Gleaner, vol. i. p. 190.
 
 29G CHARACTER AXD IXSTITUTIOXS. Chap. IX. 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 NATIONAL CHARACTER AND INSTITUTIONS. 
 
 Worst specimens of Chinese at Canton — Instance of gratitude — 
 Good and bad traits — Pride and ignorance • — Respect for age — 
 Regard to kindred and birthplace — Infanticide — Physical cha- 
 racteristics — Earliest inhabitants — Personal appearance — Caprices 
 of national taste — Primitive features — Imperial kindred — Im- 
 portance of talent and learning — Descendants of Confucius — 
 Absence of ostentation — Condition of women — IMarriage cere- 
 monies — Desire of male progeny — Education — Funeral rites — 
 Primogenitiu'c. 
 
 Most of the good and bad traits of tlie Chinese character 
 may, as usual, be traced to the advantages or faults of 
 their social system. If those principles of government 
 and those laws, of which we have given a slight sketch, 
 have the effect of imbuing them with some of the vices 
 connected with timidity of character, which are particu- 
 larly disesteemed in Europe, it is only fair to give them 
 credit, on the other hand, for the valuable qualities which 
 they do really possess. The Chinese have, upon the 
 whole, been under-estimated on the score of their moral 
 attributes. The reason of this has probably been, the 
 extremely unfavourable aspect in which they have ap- 
 peared to the generality of observers at Canton : just as 
 if any one should attempt to form an estimate of our 
 national character in England from that peculiar phase 
 under which it may present itself at some commercial sea- 
 port.* 
 
 * This has received signal confirmation from our experience to the 
 northward since the war. The Cantonese are the very worst speci- 
 mens of their countrymen.
 
 Chap. IX. CAJfTON CHINESE. 297 
 
 It is in fact a matter of astonishment that the jieople at 
 Canton should be no worse than we have found them. 
 They are well acquainted with that maxim of their 
 government by which it openly professes to " rule 
 barbarians by misrule, like beasts and not like native 
 subjects ; " and they have been perpetually supplied by 
 the local authorities with every motive to behave towards 
 strangers as if they were really a degraded order of 
 beings. The natural consequence is, that their conduct 
 to Europeans is very different from their conduct among 
 themselves. Except when under the influence of either 
 interest or of fear, they are often haughty and insolent to 
 strangers, as well as fraudulent ; and such is the effect of 
 opinion among them, that, even in cases where interest 
 may persuade them to servility, this will not be exhibited 
 in the presence of a countryman. A beggar has often 
 been seen who, though he would bend his knee very 
 readily to European passengers when unobserved, refrained 
 altogether from it while Chinese were passing by. It was 
 some time before the very coolies, the lowest class of 
 servants, would condescend to carry a lantern before a 
 European at night ; and still longer before they could be 
 induced, by any wages, to convey him in a sedan, even at 
 Macao, where it was permitted. Is it surprising, then, 
 that they should reconcile it, without much difficulty, to 
 their feelings to overreach and ill-use, occasionally, these 
 creatures of an inferior rank, who, as their government 
 phrases it, come to benefit by " the transforming influence 
 of Chinese civilization ; " or, rather, is it 7iot very sur- 
 prising that so general a course of honesty and good faith, 
 and so many instances of kindness and generosity, even, 
 should have been experienced in their intercourse with 
 us? If we deny to the Chinese their fair advantages, on 
 a view somewhat more extended than the precincts of 
 
 3
 
 298 CHARACTER AND INSTITUTIONS. Chap. IX. 
 
 ( 'anion afford, and if we condenm them ignorantly, it is 
 the precise fault which we have most to censm-e on their 
 part. We in fact become as illiberal as themselves. 
 
 The following- anecdote, from a mii^cellaneous volume* 
 by Sir George Staunton, is a favourable specimen of 
 Chinese character, as it has appeared even at Canton. A 
 considerable merchant had some dealings with an Ameri- 
 can trader, who attempted to quit the port without dis- 
 charging his debt, and would have succeeded but for the 
 spirit and activity of a young officer of one of the Company's 
 ships, lie boarded the American vessel when upon the 
 point of sailing, and, by his remonstrances or otherwise, 
 prevailed on the American to make a satisfactory arrange- 
 ment with his creditor. In acknowledgment for this 
 service, the Chinese merchant purchased from the young 
 officer, in his several successive voyages to China, on very 
 favourable terms, the whole of his commercial adventure. 
 He might thus have been considered to have fulfilled any 
 ordinary claim upon his gratitude ; but he went further 
 than this. xVfter some years he expressed his surprise to 
 the officer that he had not yet obtained the command of 
 a ship. The other replied that it was a lucrative post 
 which could be obtained only by purchase, and at an ex- 
 pense of some thousand pounds, a sum wholly out of his 
 power to raise. The Chinese merchant said he would 
 remove that difficulty, and immediately gave him a draft 
 for the amount, to be repaid at his convenience. The 
 officer died on his voyage home, and the draft was never 
 presented ; but it was drawn on a house of great respecta- 
 bility, and would have been duly honoured. 
 
 The late Dr. Morrison formed a very fair estimate of a 
 people with whom he was better acquainted than most 
 Europeans. " In China," he observes, " there is much to 
 * Notices of China, part ii.
 
 Chap, IX. FALSE TOLITICAL ECONOMY. 299 
 
 blame, but something to learn. Education is there made 
 as general as possible, and moral instruction is ranked 
 above physical." The consequence is, that industry, 
 tranquillity, and content are unusually prevalent in the 
 bulk of the population. I'he exceptions to this, in the 
 tumults which arise from local distress in limited districts, 
 are in some measure the consequence of the very means 
 taken to prevent them. The Chinese are bad political 
 economists : the government, instead of allowing the trade 
 in grain to take its natural course, erects its own grana- 
 ries, in which there is much inevitable abuse, and pro- 
 hibits the business of the great corn-factor, who, in 
 consulting his own interests, would much better relieve the 
 dearth of one season by the redundancy of another. The 
 people, who are taught to look to the public granaries for 
 relief, and have been led by their patriarchal theory of 
 government to refer the good which they enjoy to the 
 emperor and his delegates, very naturally attribute the 
 evil which they suffer to the same quarters ; and the 
 government, aware of the danger, is proportionately 
 anxious to guard against it. If it fails, in the pursuit of 
 an erroneous system, there is no room for surprise. 
 
 Notwithstanding that his power is absolute, the emperor 
 himself on all occasions endeavours to prove that his con- 
 duct is based on reason, and originates in benevolence — 
 the truth of the argument being of course a distinct affair. 
 From the habits in which they are brought up, as well as 
 from the operation of certain positive laws already noticed, 
 the people are more ready to reason with each other than 
 to resort to the ultima ratio of force. The advantageous 
 features of their character, as mildness, docility, industry, 
 peaceableness, subordination, and respect for the aged, 
 are accompanied by the vices of specious insincerity and 
 falsehood, with mutual distrust and jealousy. Lying and
 
 300 CHARACTER AND IXSTITUTIOXS. Chap. IX. 
 
 deceit, beiiiir frencrally the refuge of the weak and timid, 
 have been held in Europe to he the most disgraceful vices, 
 ever since the influence of those feudal institutions under 
 which streng-th and courage were the things most valued. 
 The Chinese at any time do not attach the same degree 
 of disgrace to deceit ; and least of all did they dis- 
 countenance it towards Europeans at Canton. A true 
 calculation of their own interest made most of the mer- 
 chants of that place sufficiently scrupulous in their com- 
 mercial engagements, but on all other points " the foreign 
 devil," as they call him, was fair game. Many a Chinese 
 of Canton, in his intercourse with a stranger, would seem 
 occasionally to have an abstract love of falsehood and 
 trickery, independently of anything that he can gain by 
 it ; and he will appear sometimes to volunteer a lie, 
 when it would be just the same to him to tell the truth. 
 Mr. Barrow has attributed their national insincerity to a 
 motive which no doubt operates with the liigher classes, as 
 much as an ignorant contempt and a mischievous ma- 
 lignity do with the rabble. " As a direct refusal," he 
 observes, " to any request would betray a want of good 
 breeding, every proposal finds their immediate acqui- 
 escence : they promise without hesitation, but generally 
 disappoint by the invention of some slight pretence or 
 plausible objection : they have no proper sense of the obli- 
 gations of truth." This renders all negotiations with 
 them on public matters almost entirely fruitless without 
 material guarantees, as no reliance whatever can be placed 
 on them for the fulfilment of engagements. They dis- 
 pense with faith towards foreigners in a manner truly 
 Machiavellian. 
 
 The traveller above quoted remarked also the cheerful 
 character and willing industry of the Chinese- This is in 
 fact a most invaluable trait, and, like most other virtues.
 
 CiiAr. IX. PRIDE AND IGNORANCE. 301 
 
 it brings its own reward. The display is not, however, 
 limited to their own country. The superior character of 
 the Chinese as coloimts, in regard to intelligence, industry, 
 and general sobriety, must be derived from their educa- 
 tion, and from the influence of something good in their 
 national system. Their government very justly regards 
 education as omnipotent, and some share of it nearly 
 every Chinese obtains. Their domestic discipline is all 
 on the side of social order and universal industry. 
 
 The important advantages which they certainly possess, 
 more especially in comparison with the adjoining coun- 
 tries, have inspired the Chinese with the inordinate 
 national pride so ofiensive to Europeans. These illusions 
 of self-love, fostered by ignorance, have inspired them 
 with notions of their country, in regard to the rest of the 
 earth, quite analogous to those entertained by the old 
 astronomers, of the earth relatively to the universe. They 
 think it the centre of a system, and call it cJioong-kud, the 
 central nation ; nor is it a small increase of foreign inter- 
 course and knowledge that will be required to set them 
 right. The natural disposition of the people to despise 
 strangers has been artfully promoted by the mandarins. 
 A timid and miserable policy has led them to consider it 
 their interest to increase the mutual dislike and disunion. 
 Hence the slanderous proclamations formerly exhibited 
 by them against foreigners at Canton, and the penalties 
 attached to a "traitorous intercourse" with Europeans. 
 The most dangerous accusation against a native is that 
 of being subject to foreign influence in any way. 
 
 There is a positive law against the use of things not 
 
 sanctioned by custom ; partly therefore from fear, partly 
 
 from conceit, they are very little inclined to adopt foreign 
 
 modes, or purchase foreign manufactures.* Raw produce, 
 
 * It is remarkable that, while our imports of tea have quadruiDled,
 
 302 CHARACTER AND IXSTITUTIONS. Chap. IX. 
 
 or the materials of manufactures, find a better market 
 among them ; but the most marketable commodity of all 
 are dollars. Indisputably superior as Europe is in science, 
 and in the productions of science, yet to a Chinese, who 
 sees few things brought from thence that really suit his 
 peculiar and conventional wants, or that are in conformity 
 with the usages enjoined by the ritual, — and who, until 
 lately, heard little of the different states into which Eu- 
 rope is divided, but the indistinct rumour of their endless 
 wars, — it is not surprising if no very elevated picture pre- 
 sented itself, in comparison with his own immense and 
 wealthy country, its hundreds of millions of industrious 
 and intelligent people, and an uninterrupted peace (until 
 our war) of nearly 200 years, even if we go no farther 
 than the Tartar invasion. Whatever there is of extreme 
 poverty and destitution in the country arises solely from 
 the unusual degree in which the population is made to 
 press against the means of subsistence, by causes which 
 we shall notice hereafter ; and not from any fault in the 
 distribution of wealth, which is perhaps far more equal 
 here than in any other country. There is much less in- 
 equality in the fortunes than in the ranks and conditions 
 of men. The comparatively low estimation in which 
 mere wealth is held is a considerable moral advantage on 
 the side of the Chinese ; for — 
 
 the exports of British maimfacturos to China liave not incrcas(;d since 
 I stated as follows before a coniniittee of the House of Commons 
 twenty-seven years ago : — " The institutions of the coinitiy are built on 
 the maxims of their great philosoplier Confucius, and it was a leading 
 precejit of his to avoid intercourse with foreigners — ' to despise foreign 
 commodities ' — those are liis words. Tlie sacred books of tlie Chinese 
 are different from the sacred books of most other countries ; they are 
 not so much religious books as treatises on ethics and on government ; 
 and as long as the Chinese venerate those books, so long will the 
 institutions built upon those books remain more or less imchauged." — 
 Fird Ilcport, 1830.
 
 Chap. IX. AGE AND HIGH STATION HONOURED. 303 
 
 " 3[agiinm pauperies opprobrium, jubet 
 Quitlvis et facore et pati." 
 
 Poverty is no reproach among them. The two things 
 which they most respect are, station derived from per- 
 sonal merit, and the claims of venerable old age. The 
 last was signally honoured by Kang-hy, the second em- 
 peror of the reigning family. An inferior officer of more 
 than a hundred years of age having come to an audience 
 to do homage, the emperor rose from his seat and met 
 him, desiring the old man to stand up without ceremony, 
 and telling him he paid this respect to his great age. 
 According to that connexion which exists between the 
 languages and the usages of nations, the ordinary address 
 of civility and respect in China is Laou-yay, " Old, or 
 venerable father," which, as a mere form of speech, is 
 often addressed to a person half the age of the speaker. 
 
 The peaceful and prudential character of the people 
 may be traced to the influence and authority of age. In 
 consequence of the individuals of succeeding generations 
 living entirely under the power and control of the oldest 
 surviving heads of families, the ignorant and inexperienced 
 are guided by the more mature judgment of the elders, 
 and the sallies of rashness and folly easily restrained. 
 The effects of example and of early habit are equally 
 visible in their conversation. The Chinese frequently get 
 the better of Europeans in a discussion by imperturbable 
 coolness and gravity. It is part of their policy to gain 
 the advantage by letting their opponent work himself into 
 a passion, and place himself in the wrong : hence the 
 more than ordinary necessity of carefully preserving the 
 temper with them. Gravity of demeanour is much 
 affected, particularly by magistrates and persons of rank : 
 it is styled choong, literally heavy, or grave (which in its 
 origin means the same), in contradistinction to king, light,
 
 304 CHARACTER AXD INSTITUTIONS. Chap. IX. 
 
 or levity. As this is, in some degree, promoted by a 
 heavy, lumbering figure, it may be the origin of their par- 
 tiality for bulkiness in men ; while in women they admire 
 such an opposite quality. Any undersized individual, 
 who does not fill his chair well, they jocularly style " short 
 measure." 
 
 It is the discipline to which they are subject from 
 earliest childhood, and the habit of controlling their ruder 
 passions, that render crimes of violence so unfrequent 
 among them. Robbery is very seldom accompanied by 
 murder. Under real or supposed injury, however, they 
 are sometimes found to be very revengeful, and on such 
 occasions not at all scrupulous as to how they accom])lish 
 their purpose. Women will sometimes hang or drown 
 themselves, merely to bring those with whom they have 
 quarrelled into trouble. The people, quiet and submis- 
 sive as they are, will, when once roused by intolerable 
 oppression, rise en masse against a magistrate, and de- 
 stroy him if they can. In such a case, should the ob- 
 noxious governor escape the vengeance of the populace, 
 he seldom meets with any mercy at Peking, where revolts 
 prove serious occurrences to those under whom they take 
 place. 
 
 To the system of clubbing together in families — we 
 might almost say in clans — is to be attributed that sacred 
 regard to kindred which operates better than a public 
 provision for the relief of the poor, and serves as one of 
 the best means for the distribution of wealth ; a valuable 
 science, in which they perhaps beat our economists, 
 though they do not equal them in the rules for its 
 creation. Hence, too, that regard for the place of his 
 birth which always clings to a Chinese through life, often 
 making him apply for leave to quit the honours and 
 emoluments of office, and retire to his native village.
 
 Chap. IX. INFANTICIDE. 305 
 
 The same feeling makes the colonists, who venture 
 abroad in search of gain, return home as soon as they 
 have acquired something like a competency, though at 
 the risk of being oppressed under the forms of law for 
 having left China, They have a popular saying, " If he 
 who attains to honours or wealth never returns to his 
 native place, he is like a finely-dressed person walking in 
 the dark ; " it is all thrown away. 
 
 We have now touched briefly upon the leading fea- 
 tures of the Chinese character, w^hich will be viewed 
 and appreciated according to the peculiar tastes and 
 opinions of readers, but which by most persons must be 
 allowed to contain an admixture, at least, of v.'hat is good 
 and valuable. It remains to notice one important cir- 
 cumstance which has very naturally rendered this people 
 obnoxious to severe censure — the infanticide* of female 
 children. The presumed extent of this practice has been 
 brought as an argument against the prevalence of parental 
 feeling in China ; but we believe that the amount of it 
 has, by most writers, been overrated. No doubt but, in 
 occasional instances of female births, infanticide does 
 exist ; but these cases certainly occur only in the chief 
 cities, and the most crowded population, where the dif- 
 ficulty of subsistence takes away all hope from the 
 poorest persons of being able to rear their offspring. The 
 Chinese are in general peculiarly fond of their children, 
 and the attachment seems to be mutual. The instances 
 at Canton (a very crowded and populous place) of the 
 bodies of infants being seen floating are not frequent, and 
 may reasonably, in some cases, be attributed to accident, 
 where such multitudes are brought up from their birth in 
 small boats. There never was a more absurd blunder 
 than to charge to infanticide those instances in which the 
 * Tills subject is not mentioned in the peual code.
 
 306 Cn^yiACTER AXD IXSTITUTIOXS. Ciui-. IX. 
 
 infants are found floating- with a hollow gourd about their 
 persons, as if the gourd were a part of the system of ex- 
 posure ! \\ hy, the very object of attaching these gourds 
 to the children living in boats is to save them from the 
 risk of being drowned, and to float them until they can 
 be pulled out of the water. That children should some- 
 times be found drowned, in spite of this precaution, is 
 possible enough ; but to consider the gourds as part and 
 parcel of their fate is about as reasonable and correct as 
 if somebody should attribute all the deaths in England 
 from drowning to the exertions of the Humane Society.* 
 The Romish missionaries, with all their complete and 
 intimate knowledge of China, had a trick of giving their 
 own colouring to such matters as bore in any way upon 
 the honour and glory of the mission. We have seen that 
 they dealt now and then in miracles : the mere over- 
 statement, therefore, of the practice of infanticide was 
 natural enough, when connected with the object ; and Du 
 Halde gives a pompous account of the fruits of the mis- 
 sionary exertions. The merit, however, was peculiar, 
 and of an equivocal kind : for, instead of attempting on 
 most occasions to save the lives of the children doomed 
 to be drowned, they or their proselytes walked about to 
 the houses, baptizing the new-born infants previous to 
 death — a cheap, rapid, and easy work of charity. 
 
 " Liccbit, 
 
 Injecto ter pulverc, ciirras." 
 
 In their physical characteristics the Chinese are gene- 
 
 * ]Mons. de Guignes is quite right on tliis point. " Quant a ce que 
 Ton dit qu'c'lk'S attaclicnt uno calabasse sur le dos dcs enfaus poiu- les 
 faire Hotter plus long-tems, afin de donuer le toms a quelqiie pcrsonne 
 charitable de leur sauver la vie, elles ne le font que pour avoir elles- 
 memes le moyen de les secouiir dans le caa ou ils tomberoieut k la 
 riviere."
 
 Chap. IX. PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS. 307 
 
 rally as superior to the nations which border on them as 
 in other points. It has often been remarked that a finer- 
 shaped and more powerful race of men exists nowhere 
 than the coolies, or porters, of Canton, and the weights 
 which they carry with ease on a bamboo, between two of 
 them, would break down most other Asiatics. The free- 
 dom of their dress gives a development to their limbs 
 that renders many of the Chinese models for a statuary. 
 As sailors, they have been found always much stronger 
 and more efficient than Lascars on board of English ships, 
 though the obstacles which existed to their entering into 
 foreign service prevented their being frequently engaged- 
 During the war, the difficulty of manning the Company's 
 ships with English seamen was the occasion of great 
 numbers being employed, though at a very heavy ex- 
 pense. 
 
 The superior physical character of the Chinese, in com- 
 parison with many other Asiatics, must in great measure 
 be attributed to the lower average temperature, and the 
 general healthiness of their climate, notwithstanding the 
 existence of very considerable, as well as rapid, vicissi- 
 tudes of heat and cold. The extent to which cultivation 
 and drainage have been carried in all the lower levels 
 throughout the country, must, no doubt, have its share 
 in the effect ; and the general prevalence of active as 
 well as sober habits in the bulk of the population is 
 another important circumstance. It may be observed 
 here, that, if that terrible scourge the cholera could be 
 proved to have existed in China* during the period in 
 which it occasioned such frightful ravages in other parts 
 of the world, its extent and effects have been so com- 
 paratively inconsiderable as not to deserve serious notice. 
 The idea which has prevailed in France, relative to the 
 * The Eiu'opeau sMppiug at 'Wliampoa not iucludud.
 
 308 CHARACTER AND INSTITUTIONS, Chap. IX. 
 
 use of tea being a means of avoiding the disease, might 
 seem to derive some corroboration from this general im- 
 munity in the country where tea is more extensively con- 
 sumed than elsewhere ; but it is probably a mere idea. 
 
 When the cranium, or skull, of a Chinese is compared 
 with those of a European and a negro, it is observable 
 that what is called the facial angle^ in the case of the 
 first, is something of a medium* between the other two ; 
 in other words, the forehead and upper part of the face in 
 the Chinese retire, or incline backward, rather more than 
 in the European, but much less than in the African. 
 The same remark holds slightly in respect to the oblique 
 insertion of the incisors or front teeth. In the thickness 
 of the lips the Chinese approaches, but by no means 
 equals, the negro ; nor is that feature at all so prominent 
 as in the latter, whose physiognomy might, in some indi- 
 vidual cases, where the chin almost disappears, be desig- 
 nated by the term "muzzle." The nose is flattened 
 and the nostrils expanded in the Chinese, but not to the 
 same extent as in the Ethiopian, In some points of 
 physiology the people whom we describe bear a con- 
 siderable resemblance to the North American Indians. 
 There is the same lank, black, and shining hair ; the 
 same obliquity of the eyes and eyebrows turned upwards 
 at the outer extremities ; and a corresponding thinness 
 and tufty growth of beard. The Chinese, too, is distin- 
 guished by a nearly total absence of hair from the surface 
 of the body. In the smallness of the hands and feet, and 
 of the bones of the body, compared with Europeans, he 
 resembles the generality of Asiatics. We may remark 
 here that the Esquimaux, as represented in the plates to 
 Captain Lyon's voyage, bear a very striking similarity to 
 
 * This expression must be understood with reserve, as the departure 
 from the European standard is but trifling.
 
 Chap. IX. EAELIEST INHABITANTS. 309 
 
 the Tdn-kea^ or " boat-people," of the coast of China, 
 who are treated by the government as a different race 
 from those on shore, and not allowed to intermarry with 
 them. Whether the miserable inhabitants of the cold 
 regions to the north have thus migrated southward, along 
 the east coast, at some former periods, in search of a 
 more genial climate, must be a mere matter of conjec- 
 ture in the absence of positive proof. 
 
 Though the Chinese are allied to the Mongols in the 
 general cast of their features, the harsher points of the 
 Tartar are softened down in the former considerably. It 
 would be a hopeless task to attempt to explain, on any 
 certain grounds, the mode in which China first became 
 peopled. The only thing like testimony that we possess 
 out of China, relating to this subject, is in the Institutes 
 of Menu, as quoted by Sir William Jones. It is there 
 written, that " many families of the military class, having 
 gradually abandoned the ordinances of the Veda and the 
 company of Brahmins, lived in a state of degradation, as 
 the Chinas and some other nations." A native historian 
 certainly states that, at a period corresponding to 1200 
 years before Christ, " the Chinese nation was small and 
 feeble, the Eastern foreigners (people between them and 
 the east coast) numerous and strong," and that the former 
 "gradually obtained a settlement in the middle of the 
 country." This, as far as it goes, might be construed 
 into a proof that China, according to the opinion of Sir 
 William Jones, was originally peopled in part from 
 India. 
 
 But, however that may be, the position hazarded by 
 De Guignes, that the Chinese were a colony from Egypt, 
 seems hardly capable of sufficient support from testimony, 
 either direct or circumstantial. Such a distant emigration 
 could not have taken place without the knowledge and
 
 310 CHARACTER AXD IXSTITUTIOXS. Chap. IX. 
 
 notice of the nations inhabiting the vast countries that 
 intervene : besides which, there exists not the slightest 
 shadow of resembUmce between the hieroglyphics of 
 Egypt and the Chinese characters. This point was first 
 satisfactorily proved in a letter from Pere Amiot at Pe- 
 king to the Royal Society of London, which had applied 
 to him for information. In one respect, indeed, we are 
 ready to admit that there is a resemblance ; but that 
 is only in the use of the respective characters. The 
 researches of Dr. Young first proved that the pictorial 
 emblems of the sacred language of Egpyt had been used 
 in the Rosetta inscription, as symbols of sound in the 
 expression of foreign names. Now this is precisely what 
 the Chinese do, from obvious necessity, in similar cases. 
 Their monosyllabic characters are used to represent the 
 sounds of foreigners' names, and either connected by a 
 line along the side, or otherwise distinguished by a small 
 mark ; for the same reason that the Egyptians enclosed 
 theirs in an oval ring, or cartouche. 
 
 But to return to our immediate subject. People in 
 Europe have been strangely misled, in their notions of 
 Chinese physiognomy and appearance, by the figures re- 
 presented on those specimens of manufacture which pro- 
 ceed from Canton, and which are commonly in a style of 
 broad caricature. A Chinese at Peking might as well 
 form an idea of us from some of the performances of 
 CVuikshank, or the vagaries of Punch. The consequence 
 has been, that a character of silly levity and farce has been 
 associated, in the minds of many persons, with the most 
 steady, considerate, and matter-of-fact people in the 
 world, who in grave matters of business are often a match 
 for the best of Europeans. Their features have perhaps 
 less of the harsh angularity of the Tartar countenance in 
 the south than at Pekin"-. Amonff those who are not ex-
 
 Chap. IX. PERSONAL ArPEAR^iNCE. 31 1 
 
 posed to the climate, the complexion is fully as fair as that 
 of Spaniards and Portuguese ; but the sun has a powerful 
 effect on their skins, and that upper portion of a man's 
 person habitually exposed in the summer is often so dif- 
 ferent from the remainder, that, when stripped, he looks 
 like the lower half of a European joined on to the upper 
 moiety of an Asiatic. Up to the age of twenty they are 
 often very good-looking, but soon after that period the 
 prominent cheek-bones generally give a harshness to the 
 features, as the roundness of youth wears off. With the 
 progress of age the old men become in most cases ex- 
 tremely ugly, and the old women can only be described 
 by Juvenal : — 
 
 " Tales adsi^ice rugas 
 
 Quales, iimbriferos ubi pandit Tabraca saltus. 
 In vetula scalpit jam mater simia bucca." 
 
 " Such ^vriukles see, 
 
 As in an Indian forest's solitude, 
 
 Some old ape scrubs amidst her numerous brood." 
 
 A conjecture has already been offered in explanation of 
 the very opposite characters of figure admired in the two 
 sexes. A woman should be extremely slender and fragile 
 in appearance ; a man very stout — not in those propor- 
 tions that denote muscular strength, and what we call 
 condition — but corpulent, obese, aldermanlike. It is 
 fashionable in both men and women to allow the nails of 
 the left hand to grow to an inordinate length, until they 
 assume an appearance very like the claws of the bradypus, 
 as represented in Sir Charles Bell's work on the ' Hand.' 
 An English gentleman in China reasonably prohibited one 
 of his servants from indulging in this piece of foppery, on 
 the ground that fingers provided with such appendages 
 could not possibly perform any work. The brittlcness 
 of the nail rendering it liable to break, they have been
 
 312 
 
 CnARACTER AND IXSTITUTIOXS. 
 
 CUAP. IX. 
 
 known sometimes to protect it, when very long, by means 
 of thin slips of bamboo. 
 
 But the most unaccountable species of taste is that 
 mutilation of the women's feet for which the Chinese are 
 
 Small feet of a Chinese 1 adv. 
 
 so remarkable. Of the origin of this custom there is 
 no very distinct account, except that it took place about 
 the close of the Tang dynasty, or the end of the ninth 
 century of our era. The Tartars have had the good sense 
 not to adopt this artificial deformity, and their ladies 
 wear a shoe like that of the men, except that it has a 
 white sole of still greater thickness. As it would seem 
 next to impossible to refer to any notions of physical 
 beauty, however arbitrary, such shocking mutilation as 
 that produced by the cramping of the foot in early child- 
 hood, it may partly be ascribed to the principle which 
 dictates the fashion of long nails. The idea conveyed by 
 these is exemption from labour, and, as the small feet 
 make cripples of the women, it is fair to conclude that 
 the idea of gentility which they convey arises from a 
 similar association. That appearance of helplessness 
 which is induced by the mutilation, they admire ex-
 
 CiJAP. IX. CAPRICES OF NATIONAL TASTE. 31:3 
 
 tremely, notwithstanding its very usual concomitant of 
 sickliness ; and the tottering gait of the poor women, as 
 they hobble along upon the heel of the foot, they compare 
 to the waving of a willow agitated by the breeze. ^^ e 
 may add that this odious custom extends lower down in 
 the scale of society than might have been expected from 
 its disabling effect upon those who have to labour for 
 their subsistence. If the custom was first imposed by the 
 tyranny of the men, the women are fully revenged in the 
 diminution of their charms and domestic usefulness. 
 
 In no instances have the folly and childishness of a 
 large portion of mankind been more strikingly displayed 
 than in those various, and occasionally very opposite, 
 modes in which they have departed from the standard of 
 nature, and sought distinction even in deformity. Thus, 
 while one race of people crushes the feet of its children, 
 another flattens their heads between two boards ; and, 
 while we in Europe admire the natural whiteness of the 
 teeth, the Malays file off the enamel, and dye them black, 
 for the all-sufficient reason that dogs' teeth are white ! A 
 New Zealand chief has his distinctive coat of arms era- 
 blazoned on the skin of his face, as well as on his limbs ; 
 and an Esquimaux is nothing if he have not bits of stone 
 stuffed through a hole in each cheek. Quite as absurd, 
 and still more mischievous, is the infiituation which, 
 among some Europeans, attaches beauty to that modifica- 
 tion, of the human figure which resembles the wasp, and 
 compresses the waist until the very ribs have been dis- 
 torted, and the functions of the vital organs irreparably 
 disordered. 
 
 It is an interesting question to investigate how the 
 Chinese are to be ranked with other nations in the 
 comparative scale of civil society. Vie have already 
 endeavoured to show in part, and have still to show, the 
 
 VOL. I. p
 
 314 CHARACTER AND INSTITUTIONS. Chap. IX. 
 
 considerable moral and political advantages which they 
 actually possess, and which Sir George Staunton has, 
 with his usual knowledge and ability, summoned up as 
 attrilnitable " to the regard paid to the ties of kindred ; 
 to the sobriety, industry, and intelligence of the lower 
 classes ; to the nearly total absence of feudal rights and 
 privileges ; to the equal distribution of landed property ; 
 to the indisposition of government to engage in schemes 
 of foreign warfare and ambition ; and to a system of 
 penal laws the most clearly defined, comprehensive, and 
 business-like of any, at least among Asiatics'' It would 
 be idle, on the other hand, to deny that they possess 
 vices and defects peculiar to their own political and social 
 condition. 
 
 It has been reasonably argued, by the authority above 
 quoted, that " a people whose written language is founded 
 on the most ancient of principles, and the frame of whose 
 government is essentially conformable to the patriarchal 
 system of the first ages, must have segregated themselves 
 from the rest of mankind before the period at which the 
 symbolic was superseded by the alphabetic character, and 
 the patriarchal by other forms of government." The 
 same circumstances of government and language, which 
 denote the antiquity of the Chinese institutions, may, we 
 think, account for their durability. The theory of govern- 
 ment combining the pater atque pt'inceps, which has always 
 been the first to present itself to men's minds, if not the 
 best in practice, may be the most plausible in jn'inciple ; 
 and the system of written characters, which cannot be 
 altered with the readiness of our syllabic words (notori- 
 ously the subjects of caprice in most languages), may 
 have given a considerable fixedness to the intellect of 
 China, through the medium of its literature. Any one 
 who like the author has been in the habit of translating-
 
 CiiAP. IX. rRIMITIVE FEATURES. 315 
 
 into Chinese, knows the difficulty of conveying foreign 
 ideas in an intelhgible shape. 
 
 There is another primitive characteristic to be noticed 
 in the classification of the four ranks, or orders, into 
 which the community of China is divided. These are, 
 in the first place, the learned ; secondly, husbandmen ; 
 thirdly, manufacturers ; and, fourthly, merchants. This 
 arrangement seems sufficiently correct and philosophical, 
 considered with a reference merely to the successive rise 
 of those four orders in the progress of society. In the 
 earliest ages, superior wisdom and knowledge, the result 
 of old age and experience, constitute the principal claim 
 to respect and distinction. As society advances, and as 
 nomadic tribes become fixed to particular spots, they turn 
 their attention to the cultivation of land. AVith the 
 gradual increase of raw produce, the rise of towns, and 
 the adoption of exchanges between town and country, 
 follow manufactures ; and lastly, with the growth of 
 capital and the increase of manufactures, comes com- 
 merce, domestic and foreign. 
 
 But by the time that a country has reached a certain 
 point of advancement, this pristine arrangement (with the 
 exception of the first class) must be considered as merely 
 nominal, and perhaps, in some communities, rather as the 
 inverse order in which the several classes will really stand 
 in relation to each other. The influence of wealth — the 
 consequence arising from superior possessions — will have 
 its sway ; and as manufactures may become a more 
 fertile source of wealth than tillage, and commerce than 
 manufactures, so the former may impart greater influence 
 to those who pursue them respectively. Accordingly, we 
 find, in China, that the poor cultivator of one of those 
 small patches to which the subdivision of inheritances 
 tends to reduce the lands, derives little substantial benefit 
 
 P 2
 
 31 G CHARACTER AND INSTITUTIONS. Ciiai>. IX. 
 
 from the estimation in which his calling is affected to 
 be held ; even though the emperor himself once a year 
 guides the plough. On tlie other hand, the opulent 
 merchant contrives to obtain the services of those whom 
 he can benefit by his wealth — even the acquaintance and 
 good offices of persons in power — however low the nominal 
 rank assigned to him in the theoretical institutions of the 
 country. At the same time the class of the learned 
 retain their supremacy far above all, and fill the ranks 
 of government. 
 
 Hereditary rank, without merit, is of little value to the 
 possessor, as we have before noticed. The descendants 
 of the Manchow family are ranked in five degrees, which, 
 for that reason only, were distinguished by the Jesuits 
 with the titles of the five orders of European nobility. 
 These imperial descendants wear the yellow girdle, and, 
 without any power whatever, have certain small revenues 
 allotted to them for a subsistence. Of course, as they 
 multiply, some of the remoter branches become reduced 
 to a very indigent condition, when unaided by personal 
 exertion and merit. At the fall of the last Chinese 
 dynasty, a vast number of the ejected family dropped the 
 yellow girdle, and sought for safety in a private con- 
 dition. It is said that many of the representatives of 
 the Miiuj race still remain ; one of them was servant to 
 several of the Jesuits : and whenever it shall happen that 
 rebellion substantially succeeds against the Tartars, some 
 of the number may perhaps be forthcoming. 
 
 The imperial relatives of the Tartar line, being nu- 
 merous, and withal brought up to a life of idleness, are, 
 in many cases, ignorant, worthless, and dissipated ; and 
 it is possibly from some feeling of jealousy, as well as on 
 account of their disorderly character, that they are kept 
 under very strict control. The last British embassy had
 
 Chap. IX. IMPERIAL KINDRED. 317 
 
 a specimen of their conduct and manners at Yiien- 
 ming-yucn, as well as of the little ceremony with which 
 they are occasionally treated. When they crowded, with 
 a childish and uncivil curiosity, upon the English party, 
 the principal person among the mandarins seized a whip, 
 and, not satisfied with using that alone, actually kicked 
 out the mob of yellow-girdles. In the previous mission of 
 Lord Macartney, Mr. Barrow has related an instance of 
 the meanness of one of these princes of the blood — no 
 less a person than a grandson of the emperor — who sent 
 him a paltry present, with a broad hint that his gold 
 watch would be acceptable in return. 
 
 There are two lines of the imperial house of China ; 
 the first descended from the great conqueror himself, and 
 the second from his collaterals, or his brothers and uncles. 
 The first are called Tsoong-she, " ancestral house," and 
 distinguished by a yellow girdle, and a bridle of the same 
 colour. The second are styled Keolo (a Tartar word), 
 and marked by a red sash and bridle. Everything about 
 their dress and equipage is subject to minute regulation. 
 Some are decorated with the peacock's feather, and others 
 allowed the privilege of the green sedan. There are 
 rules concerning their establishments and retinue, and 
 the number of eunuchs which each may employ. The 
 greatest number of these allowed to any individual is 
 eleven, the chief of whom wears a white ball or button 
 on his cap. For the government of all the members of 
 the imperial kindred there is a court, called the " office 
 of the ancestral tribe." * This is wholly distinct from the 
 Chinese courts, and has its own laws and usages ; and a 
 Wang (called by the Jesuits 7'egulus, or little king) is 
 president of it. 
 
 The principal use of these imperial descendants seems 
 
 * T.soong-jin Foo.
 
 ;n8 CIIAILVCTEU AND INSTITUTIONS. Chap. IX. 
 
 to 1)C the formation of a courtly apanage, to swell the 
 emperor's state. They arc obliged, at the new and full 
 moon, to attend the court, and arrange themselves in 
 order, some within the audience-hall, and some without, 
 at, or rather before, daybreak. When the emperor makes 
 his appearance, they all fall prostrate, and perform their 
 adoration ; and it was the party collected for this purpose 
 at daybreak on the 2yth xVugust, 1816, which so greatly 
 annoyed the English embassy by their importunate 
 curiosity and uncourtly rudeness. It is their idle and 
 useless life, and the absence of any motives for exertion, 
 which makes these persons frequently both ignorant and 
 vicious, and extremely troublesome to the emperor. 
 Many 'have been ordered away from Peking, and sent 
 to Manchow Tartary, to be placed under the charge of 
 the native chiefs, while others have been sentenced to 
 perpetual solitary confinement. In 1819 one of the 
 imperial clan, wearing a red girdle, found his way to 
 (.'anton, where he had a relation by affinity officiating as 
 the provincial judge. Ilis plea for quitting the capital 
 was extreme poverty, but the judge did not venture to 
 house him. lie was delivered in custody to the local 
 authorities, and packed off again under military escort to 
 Peking, where it is said he was shut up for the remainder 
 of his life. These observations have received a very 
 remarkable corroboration in the conduct of the imperial 
 relatives Yih-shan and Yih-hing, during the war with us. 
 The estimable Keying was related to the enq)eror by 
 affinity only, and not by blood. 
 
 These persons are strongly contrasted, in point of 
 intelligence, learning, and every other claim to respect, 
 with the official rulers of China — its real aristocracy. 
 The impartial distribution (with few exceptions) of state 
 offices and maeristracies to all who ffive evidence of
 
 Chap. IX. IMPORTANCE OF TALENT AND LEAEXIXG. 319 
 
 superior learning or talent, without regard to birth or 
 possessions, lay probably at the bottom of the long-con- 
 tinued greatness and prosperity of the empire, now 
 deservedly on the decline from the notorious decay of 
 the salutary practice. Nothing can be more true than 
 the observations on this subject of the late Dr. Milne, an 
 excellent Chinese scholar : " This principle has always 
 been maintained ; although, as may naturally be sup- 
 posed, it has often in practice been departed from. Yet 
 the existence of the principle, and its being acted on to a 
 considerable extent, gives every person in China (with 
 the exception of menial servants, the lowest agents of the 
 police, and comedians) a solid reason to be satistied with 
 the system. They are the ambitious who generally over- 
 turn governments ; but in China there is a road open to 
 the ambitious, without the dreadful alternative of revolu- 
 tionizing the country. All that is required of a man is 
 the very reasonable thing that he should give some proof 
 of the possession of superior talents. 
 
 " The government affords him every three years, and 
 occasionally oftener, an opportunity of displaying his 
 attainments in a stipulated way ; and, if it cannot give 
 offices to all, it gives honours, and declares the successful 
 candidate eligible to a situation either civil or military ; 
 and, finally, to the highest offices of the state, if his 
 merits shall entitle him thereto. The present dynasty 
 has frequently sold commissions both in the civil service 
 and in the army, in order to supply its pecuniary wants; 
 which circumstance gives much dissatisfaction to those 
 who depend on their learning and knowledge for promo- 
 tion ; and this conduct is generally deemed disreputable. 
 Those of the community who are raised above maimal 
 labour, or the drudgery of daily business, are occupied 
 with what gratifies either their laudable emulation, or
 
 320 CHARACTER AND IXSTITUTIOXS. (map. IX. 
 
 their vanity and ambition ; and from amono-st these, 
 when the state wants men, it selects the best talents of 
 the whole country. I submit it, whether the principle 
 and the system which I have thus slightly exhibited be 
 not the great secret of the (Jhinese aggrandisement." 
 
 The superior honours paid to letters over arms nmst 
 tend to make Chinese ambition run in a peaceful channel. 
 At the annual meetings of the mandarins in the pro- 
 vincial capitals, to perform adoration before the emperor's 
 shrine on his birthday, this difference is shown by the 
 civil officers taking their places to the east (the higher 
 station), and the others to the west The civil mandarins 
 look upon Confucius as their peculiar patron, and are in 
 fact the high priesthood, whose sole privilege it is to 
 sacrifice at his temples. 
 
 The lineal descendants of Confucius also have some 
 hereditary honours. The head of this race is always dis- 
 tinguished by the title of Koong, the highest of the five 
 degrees before mentioned. He repairs to Peking once a 
 year from Keo-fow Hien, in Shantung province, the birth- 
 place of the great philosopher and statesman, and receives 
 certain marks of distinction from the emperor. Pere 
 Bouvet, in 1693, found the governor of a C]iou\ or city 
 of the second order, in one of the southern provinces, 
 bearing the same surname, and deriving his descent from 
 the deified teacher of China, but he had earned his office 
 by his learning, and not by his descent. Another was 
 treasurer of Canton province, and wrote me in 1846 an 
 official despatch concerning one of the instalments of the 
 war indemnity ; but as it was objectionably worded I was 
 obliged to return it through Keying, with a remonstrance. 
 The great limitation in the privileges of the various 
 species of hereditary rank, and the continual subdivision 
 of property among a man's numerous descendants, are
 
 CiiAP. IX. ABSEXCE OF OSTENTATIOX. 321 
 
 the causes which prevent any individual becoming- dan- 
 gerous by his influence or wealth. The true aristocracy 
 of China, its official rulers, are of course a constantly 
 fluctuating body. The gentry of every province, below 
 these, consist of the mandarins retired from employment, 
 and all who have attained any of the three literary 
 degrees, or the nine ranks distinguished by the ball on 
 the cap. The merit of a son often elevates his parents, 
 and posthumous titles of dignity are occasionally con- 
 ferred on the ancestors for several generations. 
 
 Among the various causes which conduce to give to the 
 upper classes in China their unostentatious character, and 
 to prevent expensiveness being afasJdon among them, we 
 may observe that a sufficient reason exists for the absence 
 of magnificence from the establishments of official persons, 
 independently of its being their policy to affect simplicity. 
 As none can exercise office in his birthplace or patri- 
 monial abode, he can have no motive to expend money 
 on his official residence, from which he is liable at the 
 shortest notice to be removed elsewhere ; the longest 
 period being generally three years. Hence official per- 
 sons are commonly very shabby in everything but their 
 personal habiliments ; their followers even being often 
 dirty and ragged. The pride of external pomp and 
 retinue is not allowed, on ordinary occasions, to any 
 except the official aristocracy, and with these it consists 
 rather in the number than in the condition of tb.eir 
 attendants. 
 
 The intercourse of social life in all cases where women 
 are confined to their homes, or to the company of their 
 own sex, must of course suffer ; and accordingly we find 
 that in China it is cold, formal, and encumbered with the 
 ponderous system of ceremonies which have been trans- 
 mitted from time immemorial. These, however, are 
 
 P 3
 
 322 CHARACTER AND INSTITUTIONS. Cii.vi-. IX 
 
 occasionally cast off in those scenes of convivial excess 
 into which exclusively male society is so apt to degene- 
 rate ; when the recoil is sometimes as great on the side 
 of licence, as the previous restraint has heen strict. 1 
 have seen a Chinese host carried off and put to bed 
 by his European guests. It must be observed, however, 
 in justice to the better class of Chinese, that these scenes 
 are held in deserved disre})ute, and prove always more or 
 less injurious to a man's character. 
 
 Notwithstanding the general disadvantages on the side 
 of the weaker sex here, in common with other Asiatic 
 countries, its respectability is in some degree preserved 
 by a certain extent of authority allowed to w^idows over 
 their sons, and by the homage which these are obliged to 
 pay to their mothers. The emperor himself performs the 
 ceremonies of the Kotow before his own mother, who 
 receives them seated on a throne. They have a maxim, 
 that " a w Oman is thrice dependent : before marriage on 
 her father ; after marriage, on. her husband ; when a 
 widow, on her son ; " but this seems to mean principally 
 with reference to support and subsistence. 
 
 The ladies of the better class are instructed in em- 
 broidery, as well as painting on silk, and music is, of 
 course, a favourite accomplishment. They are not often 
 very deeply versed in letters, but celebrated instances are 
 sometimes quoted of those who have been skilled in com- 
 posing verses.* The modesty of manner which is deemed 
 so essential to the female character is heightened by their 
 dress, frequently of magnificent materials, and in fashion 
 extremely becoming. They reckon it indecorous in 
 women of birth and breeding to show even their hands, 
 and in touching or moving anything these are generally 
 
 * The novel of lies deux Coimues, translutt'd by Abel-Remusat, turns 
 on this point.
 
 Chap. IX. COXDITION OF W0M:EN. 323 
 
 covered by the long sleeve. The Chinese look upon the 
 dresses of European ladies (as sometimes represented in 
 drawings or paintings) with surprise, and they certainly 
 present a considerable contrast to their own. Perhajjs in 
 both instances the just medium may be in some measure 
 departed from, although in contrary directions. 
 
 here is no point on which greater misconception 
 has prevailed than respecting the existence of universal 
 polygamy in China. We will state the case exactly, from 
 the preface to the translation* of the ' Fortunate Union,' 
 which is therein declared to be " a more faithful picture 
 of Chinese manners, inasmuch as the hero espouses but 
 one ivife. It is not strictly true that their laws sanction 
 polygamy, though they permit cmicuhinage . A Chinese 
 can have but one Tsy, or wife, properly so called, who is 
 distinguished by a title, espoused with ceremonies, and 
 chosen fi'om a rank of life totally different from his Tsie, 
 or handmaids, of whom he may have as many or as few 
 as he pleases ; and though the offspring of the latter 
 possess many of the rights of legitimacy (ranking, how- 
 ever, after the children of the wife), this circumstance 
 makes little difference as to the truth of the position. 
 Even in the present romance, the profligate rival aims at 
 effecting his union with the heroine, only by setting aside 
 his previous marriage w'ith her cousin as informal. Any 
 Chinese fiction, therefore (and of these there are many), 
 which describes a man espousing two wives, is, in this 
 respect, no truer a picture of existing manners than in 
 respect to any other silly or amusing extravagance which 
 it may happen to contain. In fact, the wife is of equal 
 rank with her husband by birth, and espoused with regular 
 marriage ceremonies ; possessing, moreover, certain legal 
 rights, such as they are : the handmaid is bought for 
 * 2 vols. Murray. 1829.
 
 324 CHARACTER AND INSTITUTIONS. Chap. IX. 
 
 money, and received into the house nearly like any other 
 domestic. The ])rinfiple on which Chinese law and cus- 
 tom admit the ofFsprinir of concubinage to " legitimate 
 rights is obvious — the importance which attaches in that 
 country to the securing of male descendants. It is plain 
 that tlie Tsy and the Tsie stand to each other in very 
 much the same relation as the Sarah and the Ilagar of the 
 Old Testament, and therefore the common expression first 
 and second wife,, which the translator himself has used 
 on former occasions, in imitation of his predecessors, is 
 hardly correct." 
 
 If a person has so7is by his wdfe (for daughters never 
 enter into the account), it is considered derogatory to take 
 a handmaid at all ; but if he has not, it is of course 
 allowable. Still, for every additional repetition, he sinks 
 in personal respectability, and none, in any case, but the 
 rich can afford it. But the strongest dissuasivcs to a 
 prudent person, on these occasions, are the domestic 
 jealousies that inevitably fill the household with confusion, 
 and sometimes with crime. The Chinese have a maxim, 
 that "• nine women in ten are jealous," and they speak 
 feehngly. 
 
 Without doubt it is a double calamity to a Chinese 
 wife to be childless, and the sentiment of Creusa in the 
 Greek play must be universal : — 
 
 Kot Tojv'S' aTTavTosv taKarov Trelcrfi KaKov 
 
 fK SouAtjs TLvhs 
 
 Twainhs, €is ahv Sco/xa SeairSrriv dyav. 
 
 Eurip. {loiv. 8:!(;.) 
 
 The feeling is very strongly portrayed in the drama* 
 called ' An Heir in Old Age,' translated from the Chi- 
 nese into English, and from the English version into 
 
 * 1 vol. 12mo. jMurra}'. 181G. This was edited by the late Sir 
 JmIiu Barrow, in the author's absence from England.
 
 Chap. IX. CONCUBINES. 325 
 
 French. Here the spouse of an old man, who has only 
 one daughter, in concert with her own child and the 
 young mail to w^hom the latter is married, drives from the 
 house a handmaid who, being pregnant, is an object of 
 unconquerable jealousy to all parties, except the old man 
 himself, who is anxiously expecting an heir. Both the 
 woman and child are concealed for three years, after 
 which the jealous feeling of the wife is overcome, only by 
 the consideration that, without a male heir, they shall 
 have nobody to sacrifice to their manes after death. This 
 regard to the sepulchral rites, by the way, is another feel- 
 ing not peculiar to China, but one powerfully developed 
 in several of the Greek plays ; as the ' Ajax ' of Sophocles, 
 and the ' Choephorse ' of ^-Eschylus. 
 
 The women whom a rich Chinese takes in the event 
 of his wife proving barren are generally purchased for 
 a sum of money. They are, of course, from the lowest 
 ranks, entering the family as domestic slaves ; and the 
 prevalence of this condition may be traced to the difficulty 
 of subsistence in so thickly peopled a country, which leads 
 many to sell their children, sometimes their wives, and 
 even themselves. Men of high spirit and principle have 
 been known to object to their daughters being handmaids 
 even to the emperor himself ; though, of course, this is an 
 exception to the general rule. When the sovereign has 
 espoused an empress with the usual ceremonies, he is 
 supplied with handmaids from among the daughters of 
 Tartars principally, selected on account of their beauty. 
 On the death of an emperor, all these women are shut up 
 in a secluded part of the palace, and debarred from mar- 
 riage with any one. Marco Polo, w-ith his usual fidelity, 
 describes the process of selecting the Tartar ladies for the 
 emperor, in the way that appears exactly to be followed 
 at the present day.
 
 326 CHARACTER AND INSTITUTIONS. Ciiai-. IX. 
 
 Marriage among the Chinese, with every circumstance 
 relating to it, is so fully described in the ' Fortunate 
 Union,' that the curious reader may be referred for de- 
 tails to that specimen of Chinese literature and manners. 
 It may be as well, in this place, to remark on the prin- 
 cipal legal conditions of the married state, and then to 
 describe the ceremonies attendant on the espousals. Their 
 maxim is, that "a married woman can commit no crime ; 
 the responsibility rests with her husband." Throughout 
 the Chinese law, obligations and penalties seem to be 
 pretty fairly adjusted ; excepting always in cases of 
 treason. A child, a wife, or a dependent, being very 
 much at the disposal of the father, husband, oi; master, 
 are proportionately exempt from punishment when acting 
 under their authority. A woman on marriage assumes 
 her husband's surname. Marriage between all persons 
 of the same surname being unlawful, this rule must, of 
 course, include all descendants of the male branch for 
 ever ; and as, in so vast a population, there are not a 
 great many more than one hundred surnames throughout 
 the empire, the embarrassments that arise from so strict a 
 law must be considerable. There is likewise a ])rohibition 
 of wedlock between some of the nearest relations by 
 affinity ; and any marriage of an officer of government 
 with an actress is void, the parties being, besides, punish- 
 able with sixty blows. 
 
 There are seven grounds of divorce, and some of them 
 are amusing. The first, barrenness, would seem to be 
 superfluous, as there is a remedy provided in legal concu- 
 binage ; but^the truth is, that either resource, or perhaps 
 both, are in a man's power, at his option. The other 
 causes of separation are, adultery, disobedience to the 
 husband's parents, talkativeness, thieving, ill-temper, and 
 inveterate infirmities. Any of these, however, may be set
 
 Chap. IX. MARRIAGE. ^27 
 
 aside by three circumstances : the wife having mourned 
 for her husband's parents ; the family having acquired 
 wealth since the marriage ; and the wife being without 
 parents to receive her back. It is in all cases disreputable, 
 and in some (as those of a particular rank) illegal, for a 
 widow to marry again. Whenever a widow is herself 
 unwilling, the law protects her ; and should she act by the 
 compulsion of parents, or other relations, these are se- 
 verely punishable. Widows, indeed, have a very powerful 
 dissuasive from second wedlock, in being absolute mis- 
 tresses of themselves and children so long as they remain 
 in their existing condition. 
 
 From the Budhists, who say that " those connected in 
 a previous existence become united in this," the Chinese 
 have borrowed the notion that marriage goes by destiny. 
 A certain deity, whom they style Yue-laou, " the old man 
 of the moon," unites with a silken cord (they relate) all 
 predestined couples, after which nothing can prevent 
 their ultimate union. Early marriages are promoted by 
 every motive that can influence humanity, and we shall 
 have to notice these particulars in treating of the exces- 
 sive population of the country. Their maxim is, " there 
 are three great acts of disregard to parents, and to die 
 without a progeny is the chief." The most essential cir- 
 cumstance in a respectable family alliance is, that there 
 should be equality of rank and station on either side, 
 or that "the gates * should correspond/' as the Chinese 
 express it. The marriage is preceded by a negotiation 
 called ping, conducted by agents or go-betweens selected 
 by the parents. The aid of judicial astrology is now 
 called in, and the horoscopes of the two parties compared, 
 under the title of " eight characters," which express the 
 year, month, day, and hour of the nativities of the in- 
 * ]Miui-hoo teng-tuy.
 
 328 CHARACTER AND INSTITUTIONS. Chap. IX. 
 
 tended cou})le. This beiiij"' settled, presents are sent by 
 the bridegroom in ratification of the union ; but the bride 
 in ordinary cases brings neither presents nor dower to 
 her husband. The choice of" a lucky day is considered 
 of such importance, that if the Kalendar (in which all 
 these matters are noted with the science of a Partridge, 
 Moore, or Sidrophel himself) should be unfavourable in its 
 auguries, the ceremony is postponed for months. These 
 superstitions are common to all times and countries. In 
 the ' Iphigenia at Aulis,' one of the plays of Euripides, we 
 have an exact case in point. Clytemnestra says to her 
 husband, who is deceiving her about their daughter, " On 
 what day shall our child wed ? " — to which he replies, 
 " ^Vhen the orb of a fortunate moon shall arrive." 
 
 The most appropriate and felicitous time for marriage 
 is considered to be in spring, and the first moon of the 
 Chinese year (February) is preferred. It is in this month 
 that the peach-tree blossoms in China, and hence there 
 are constant allusions to it in connexion with marriage. 
 These verses, from the elegant pen of Sir William Jones, 
 are the paraphrase of a literal translation which that in- 
 defatigable scholar obtained of a passage in the Chinese 
 ' Book of Odes :'— 
 
 " Sweet child of spring, the garden's queen, 
 Yon peach-tree charms the roving sight ; 
 Its fragrant leaves how richly green. 
 Its blossoms how divinely bright ! 
 
 " So softly shines the beauteous bride. 
 By love and conscious virtue led. 
 O'er her new mansion to preside, 
 And placid joys around her spread." 
 
 Some time previous to the day fixed, the bridegroom is 
 invested ceremoniously with a dress cap or bonnet, and 
 takes an additional name. The bride, at the same time, 
 whose hair had until this hung down in long tresses, has
 
 Chap. IX. MARKT.UiE CEREMONIES. 329 
 
 it turned up in the manner of married women, and fast- 
 ened with bodkins. When the wedding-day arrives, the 
 friends of the bridegroom send him })resents in the morn- 
 ing, with their congratuUitions. Among the presents are 
 live geese, which are emblematical of the concord of the 
 married state (not of the state itself, as an unthinking 
 European improperly remarked), and some of these birds 
 are always carried in the procession. The bride's relations 
 likewise send her gifts, consisting chiefly of female finery ; 
 and her young sisters and friends of her own sex come 
 and weep with her until it is time to leave the house of 
 her parents. At length, when the evening arrives,* and 
 the stars just begin to be visible, the bridegroom comes 
 with an ornamented sedan, and a cavalcade of lanterns, 
 music, &c., to fetch home his spouse. On their reaching 
 his residence, the bride is carried into the house in the 
 arms of the matrons who act as her friends, and lifted 
 over a pan of charcoal at the door ; the meaning of which 
 ceremony is not clear, but which may have reference to the 
 commencement of hor household duties. She soon after 
 issues from the bridal chamber with her attendants into 
 the great hall, bearing the prepared areca, or betel-nut, 
 and invites the guests there assembled to partake of it. 
 Having gone through some ceremonies in company with 
 the bridegroom, she is led back to her chamber, where 
 she is unveiled by her future husband. A table is then 
 spread, and the cup of alliance is drunk together by the 
 young couple. Some fortunate matron, the mother of 
 many children, then enters and pronounces a benediction, 
 as well as going through the form of laying the nuptial 
 bed. Meanwhile the party of friends in the hall make 
 merry, and when the bridegroom joins them they either 
 
 * 111 accordance with an epitlialamiura in one of their ancient books, 
 in which is this line, "The tliree stars shine on the gate."
 
 330 CHARACTER AND IXSTITUTIONS. Chap. IX. 
 
 ply him with wine or not, according to the character and 
 grade of the company. A\'hen the hour of retirement 
 arrives, they escort him to the door of the chamber in a 
 body and then disperse. 
 
 On the following day the new couple come forth to the 
 great hall, where they adore the household gods, and pay 
 their respects to their parents and nearest relations. They 
 then return to their chamber, where they receive the 
 visits of their young friends ; and the whole of the first 
 month is devoted in like manner to leisure and amuse- 
 ment. On the third day after the wedding the bride 
 proceeds in an ornamented sedan to visit her parents : 
 and at length, when the month is expired, the bride's 
 fi'iends send her a particular head-dress ; an entertain- 
 ment is partaken of by the relations of both parties, and 
 the marriage ceremonies thereby concluded. On some 
 occasions the bride is espoused at the house of her own 
 parents, with some little difference in the forms. Both 
 these modes are detailed in the novel of the ' Fortunate 
 Union.' 
 
 It may be remarked that, as so many parties are con- 
 cerned in the conduct of the negotiations previous to 
 marriage, and as the two persons principally interested 
 never see each other the whole time, there is a door open 
 to fraud and trickery, as well as to fnisunderstandings of 
 all kinds. It cannot be supposed, hp^vever, nor indeed is 
 it true in practice, that the bride^oom has never in any 
 case seen his intended spouse previous to wedlock : though 
 of course the separation of the sexes must prevent any 
 intimate society between them. The law provides for 
 most cases of dispute or detected imposture, some of 
 which enter into the plot of the novel already referred to. 
 Both parties are called upon explicitly to make known to 
 each other the existence of any bodily or constitutional
 
 CiiAP. IX. DESIRE OF MALE PROGENY. 331 
 
 defect ; what the true age of each is ; and whether they 
 were born of a wife or a concubine ; whether real oft- 
 spring, or only adopted. Should there be any suppression 
 of what is true, or any allegation of what is false, the 
 penalties are severe. The Chinese law prohibits all mar- 
 riages between subjects and foreigners, and even forbids 
 any alliances between the unsubdued mountaineers, called 
 Meaou-tse, in the interior of the empire, and its own 
 people in the neighbouring plains. 
 
 When women prove childless, they pay adoration to 
 the goddess Kuan-yin, a principal image in Budhist 
 temples, whose name means " heedful of prayers " (ter 
 vocata audit), and whose functions seem compounded of 
 those of Venus genetrix and Lucina. There is, however, 
 the widest difference, in their estimation, between male 
 and female offspring ; the former are as eagerly desired 
 as the latter are generally deprecated. Sons are consi- 
 dered in this country, where the power over them is so 
 absolute through life, as a sure support, as well as a pro- 
 bable source of wealth or dignities, should they succeed 
 in learning: but the grand object is the perpetuation 
 of the race, to sacrifice at the family tombs. Without 
 sons, a man lives without honour or satisfaction, and 
 dies unhappy ; and, as the only remedy, he is permitted 
 to adopt the sons of his younger brothers. Sometimes, 
 however, the extreme desire of male offspring leads 
 parents to suborn the midwives to purchase a boy of 
 some poor person, and substitute it for the girl just born. 
 This is termed tow loong Jiodn foong — " stealing a dragon 
 in exchange for a phoenix." 
 
 Their maxim is, that, as the emperor should have 
 the care of a father for his people, a father should 
 have the power of a sovereign over his family, A man is 
 even able to sell his children for slaves, as appears from
 
 332 CHARACTER AND INSTITUTIONS. Chap. IX. 
 
 the constant practice. They do not subscribe to the 
 precept of Rousseau — " Qucmd chacun pourrait s'alMier 
 lui-m/'me, il nepeut aliener ses enfants.'^ How comj)letely 
 the children of concubines pertain to the lawful wife 
 is proved by this passage in the drama of ' An Heir 
 in Old Age,' where, in addressing his wife, the old 
 man says, " Seaou-mei is now pregnant ; whether she 
 produces a boy or a girl, the same will be your property ; 
 you may then hire out her services, or sell her, as it 
 best pleases you." The handmaids are, in fact, only 
 domestic slaves. 
 
 The birth of a son is, of course, an occasion of great 
 rejoicing ; the family or surname is first given, and then 
 the " milk-name," which is generally some diminutive of 
 endearment. A month after the event the relations and 
 friends between them send the child a silver plate, on 
 which are engraved the three words, " long-life, honours, 
 felicity." The boy is lessoned in behaviour and in cere- 
 monies from his earliest childhood, and at four or five he 
 commences reading. The importance of general educa- 
 tion was known so long since in China, that a work, written 
 before the Christian era, speaks of the " ancient system of 
 instruction," which required that every town and village, 
 down to only a few families, should have a common 
 school. The wealthy Chinese employ private teachers, 
 and others send their sons to day-schools, which are so 
 well attended, that the fees paid by each boy are ex- 
 tremely small. In large towns there are evening schools, 
 of which those who are obliged to labour through the day 
 avail themselves. 
 
 The sixteen discourses of the Emperor Yoong-ching, 
 called the Sacred Edicts, commence with the domestic 
 duties as the foundation of the political ; and the eleventh 
 treats of instructing the younger branches of a family.
 
 Chap. IX. EDUCATION. 333 
 
 Dr. Morrison, in his dictionary, has given a selection 
 from one hundred rules, or maxims, to be observed at a 
 school, some of which are extremely good. Among other 
 points, the habit of attention is dwelt upon as of primary 
 importance, and boys are warned against " repeating with 
 the mouth while the heart (or mind) is thinking of some- 
 thing else.'' They are taught never to be satisfied with 
 a confused or indistinct understanding of what they are 
 learning, but to ask for explanations ; and always to make 
 a personal application to themselves of the precepts which 
 they learn. Scholars are not often subjected to corporal 
 punishments. The rule is to try the effects of rewards 
 and of persuasion, until it is plain that these will not 
 operate ; after which it is the custom to disgrace a boy 
 by making him remain on his knees at his seat before the 
 whole school, or sometimes at the door, while a stick of 
 incense (a sort of slow match) burns to a certain point : 
 the last resort is to flog him. 
 
 The object of the government, as Dr. Morrison justly 
 observed, in making education general, is not to extend 
 the bounds of knowledge, but to impart the knowledge 
 already possessed to as large a portion as possible of the 
 rising generation, and " to pluck out true talent " from 
 the mass of the community for its own service. The ad- 
 vancement of learning, or discoveries in physical science, 
 are not in its contemplation. It prescribes the books to 
 be studied ; a departure from which is heterodoxy ; and 
 discountenances all innovations that do not originate with 
 itself. In this we may perceive one of the causes, not 
 only of the stationary and unprogressive character of 
 Chinese institutions, but likewise of their permanency and 
 continuance. 
 
 The process of early instruction in the language is 
 this: they first teach children a few of the principal
 
 334 CHARACTER AND IXSTITUTIOXS. Chap. IX. 
 
 characters (as the names of the chief ohjects in nature or 
 art), exactly as we do the letters, by rude pictures, having 
 the characters attached. Then follows the Santse-king, 
 or " trinietrical classic," being a summary of infant erudi- 
 tion, conveyed in chiming lines of three words or feet. 
 They soon after proceed to the ' Four Books,' which con- 
 tain the doctrines of (Jonfucius, and which, with the ' Five 
 Classics ' subsequently added, are in fact the Chinese 
 Scriptures. The ' Four Books ' they learn by heart entirely, 
 and the whole business of the literary class is afterwards 
 to comment on them, or compose essays on their texts. 
 Writing is taught by tracing the characters, with their 
 hair pencil, on transparent paper placed over the copy, 
 and they commence with very large characters in the first 
 instance. Specimens of this species of caligraphy are 
 contained in the Royal Asiatic Transactions. In lieu of 
 slates, they generally use boards painted white to- save 
 paper, washing out the writing when finished. Instructors 
 are of course very plentiful, on account of the numbers 
 who enter the learned profession, and fail in attaining 
 the higher degrees. 
 
 Every principal city is furnished with halls of examina- 
 tion, and the embassy of 1810 was lodged in one of these 
 buildings, at Nanheung-foo, a town at the bottom of the 
 pass which leads northward from Canton province. It 
 consisted of a number of halls and courts, surrounded by 
 separate cells for the candidates, who are admitted with 
 nothing but blank paper and the implements of writing ; 
 a part of the system which corresponds with our college 
 examinations. The students w-ho succeed in their own 
 district, at the annual examination, are ranked as Sew- 
 tsae, or bachelors, and, according to their merits, are 
 drafted for further advancement, until they become fitted 
 for the triennial examination, held at the provincial
 
 CiiAP. IX. EDUCATION. 336 
 
 capital, by an officer expressly deputed from the Han-lin 
 college at Peking. The papers consist of moral and 
 political essays on texts selected from the sacred books, 
 as well as of verses on given subjects. Pains are taken 
 to prevent the examiners from knowing the authors of the 
 essays and poems ; but of course this cannot always be 
 effectual in shutting out abuse. 
 
 Those who succeed at the triennial examinations attain 
 the rank of Kiu-jin, which may be properly termed 
 licentiate, as it qualifies for actual employment ; and once 
 in three years all these licentiates repair to Peking (their 
 expenses being paid if necessary), to be examined for the 
 Tsin-sse, or doctor's degree, to which only thirty can be 
 admitted at one time. From these doctors are selected 
 the members of the imperial college of Han-lin, after an 
 examination held in the palace itself. These fortunate 
 and illustrious persons form the body from whom the 
 ministers of the emperor are generally chosen. 
 
 A man's sons may or may not be instrumental, by their 
 literary success, in reflecting honour on their parents, or 
 advancing them in worldly rank and prosperity ; but the 
 mere chance of this, joined to the heavy responsibility for 
 their conduct, is a great inducement to fathers to bring 
 them up with care, and may serve to account for the 
 universal prevalence of a certain degree of education 
 throughout the empire. Such is the demand on every 
 individual for exertion, in a country so thickly peopled, 
 that the children of the very lowest classes, whom ex- 
 treme indigence precludes from the hope or chance of 
 rising by learning, are trained to labour and to the cares 
 of life almost from the time they can first walk. With a 
 slight stick or pole, proportioned to their size, across 
 their shoulders, young children are constantly seen trudg- 
 ing along with weights, sometimes nmch heavier than
 
 336 
 
 CHARACTER AND INSTITUTIONS. Chap. IX. 
 
 they ouiiflit to carry, or busily engag-ed in other serious 
 employments, as the assistants of their parents. In a 
 country where the youngest cannot afford to be idle, 
 
 and where, as their proverb strongly expresses it, " to 
 stop the hand is the way to stop the mouth," there is an 
 air of staid gravity about some of the children quite 
 unsuited to their vears.
 
 Chap. IX. FUNERAL EITES. 337 
 
 But it is not during his life only that a man looks for 
 the services of his sons. It is his consolation in declining 
 years to think that they will continue the performance of 
 the prescribed rites in the hall of ancestors, and at the 
 family tombs, when he is no more ; and it is the absence 
 of this prospect that makes the childless doubly miserable. 
 The superstition derives influence from the importance 
 attached by the government to this species of posthumous 
 duty ; a neglect of which is punishable, as we have seen, 
 by the laws. Indeed, of all the subjects of their care, 
 there are none which the Chinese so religiously attend to 
 as the tombs of their ancestors, conceiving that any neglect 
 is sure to be followed by worldly misfortune. It is almost 
 the only thing that approaches to the character of a 
 " religious sense " among them ; for, throughout their 
 idolatrous superstitions, there is a remarkable absence 
 of reverence towards the idols and priests of the Budh 
 and Taou sects. The want of ceremony with which they 
 treat their gods is not more surprising, however, than the 
 apparently impious expressions which are occasionally 
 used in the ancient classics of Europe towards the whole 
 family of Olympus : — 
 
 " Tune cum virguncula Juno ! " , 
 
 When a parent or elder relation among the Chinese 
 dies, the event is formally announced to all the branches 
 of the family : each side of the doors is distinguished by 
 labels in white, which is the mouniing colour. The lineal 
 descendants of the deceased, clothed in coarse white cloth, 
 with bandages of the same round their heads, sit weeping 
 near the corpse on the ground, the women keeping up a 
 dismal howl after the manner of the Irish. In the mean 
 time, the friends of the deceased appear with M'hite cover- 
 lids of linen or silk, which are placed on the body ; the 
 
 VOL. L Q
 
 338 CHAEACTER AND INSTITUTIONS. Chap. IX. 
 
 eldest son, or next lineval male descendant, supported on 
 each side by relations, and bearino- in his hands a porce- 
 lain bowl containing two copper coins, now proceeds to 
 the river, or the nearest well, or the wet ditch of the city, 
 to " buy water," as it is termed. The ceremony nmst be 
 performed by the eldest son's son, in preference to the 
 second son, and entitles him to a double share of the pro- 
 perty, which in other respects is divided equally amono- 
 the sons. The form of washing the face and body with 
 this water being completed, the deceased is dressed as in 
 life, and laid in a coffin, of which the planks are from four 
 to six inches in thickness, and the bottom strewed with 
 quick-lime. On being closed, it is made air-tight by 
 cement, being besides varnished on the inside and outside 
 like a mummy-case. A tablet is then placed on it, bearing 
 inscribed the name and titles of the deceased, as they are 
 afterwards to be cut upon his tomb. 
 
 On the expiration of thrice seven or twenty-one days 
 the funeral procession takes place, the tablet being con- 
 veyed in a gilded sedan or ])avilion, with incense and 
 offerings before it. It is accompanied by music closely 
 resembling the Scottish bagpipe, with the continual repe- 
 tition of three successive strokes on a sort of drum. The 
 children and relations of both sexes follow in white, with- 
 out much order or regularity, and upon reaching the 
 grave the ceremonies and oblations commence. It being 
 a part of their superstition that money and garments nmst 
 be burned for the use of the deceased in the world of 
 spirits, these are, with a wise economy, represented by 
 paper. The form of the toml), whether large or small, is 
 exactly that of a Greek £1, which, if taken in the sense of 
 " the end," is an odd accidental coincidence. Those of 
 the rich and great are sometimes very large, and contain 
 a considerable quantity of masonry, with figures of animals
 
 Chap. IX. FUNERAL RITES. 339 ' 
 
 in stone. The whole detail of sepulchral rites, with the 
 sentiments of the Chinese concerninfj the dead, are con- 
 tained in the drama of ' An Ileir in Old Age.' 
 
 After the interment the tablet of the deceased is 
 brought back in procession, and if the family be rich it is 
 placed in the hall of ancestors ; if poor, in some part of the 
 house, with incense before it. Twice in every year, in the 
 spring and autumn, are the periods fixed for performing 
 the rites to the dead, but the first is the principal period, 
 and the only one commonly attended to. Unlike the 
 generality of Chinese festivals, which are regulated by the 
 moon (and therefore moveable), this is determined by the 
 sun, and occurs annually 105 days after the winter solstice, 
 i. e. the 5th of April. About that time (for a day or two 
 before or after does not signify to them) the whole popula- 
 tion of the town is seen trooping out in parties to the hills, 
 to repair and sweep the tombs, and to make offerings, leav- 
 ing behind them, on their return home, long streamers of 
 red and white paper, to mark the fulfilment of the rites. 
 Whole ranges of hills, sprinkled with tombs, may at that 
 season be seen covered with these testimonials of attention 
 to the departed, fluttering in the wind and sunshine. 
 
 Such are the harmless, if not meritorious forms of re- 
 spect for the dead, which the Jesuits wisely tolerated in 
 their converts, knowing the consequences of outraging 
 their most cherished prejudices ; but the crowds of igno- 
 rant monks who flocked to the breach which those scien- 
 tific and able men had opened, jealous, perhaps, at their 
 success, brought this as a charge against them, until the 
 point became one of serious controversy and reference to 
 the pope. His holiness, being determined to govern men's 
 consciences at Peking, and supersede the emperor's au- 
 thority over his own subjects, espoused the bigoted and 
 unwiser part, which, of course, led to the expulsion of the 
 
 Q 2
 
 340 
 
 CHARACTER AND IXSTITUTIO!^S. 
 
 Chap. IX. 
 
 monks of all varieties, '' black, white, and grey, with all 
 their trumpery," and prevented those social and political 
 nusi'hief's which have invariably attended their influence 
 elsewhere. Such a strict persecution of the Romish con- 
 verts followed, that, after the lapse of about three centu- 
 ries, the number of them at the present day is as nothing 
 in comparison with what it once was. The emperor said 
 of their conduct, " This surely is as contradictory to 
 reason and social order as the wild fury of a mad dog." 
 With reference to one of their miracles (of which they 
 were liberal), he adds, " It would appear to be a tale 
 which their ingenuity has contrived ; and upon this prin- 
 ciple what is there we may not readily expect them to say 
 or write ? " 
 
 Chinese Sepulchre. 
 
 The body of a rich person is generally transported to 
 his native province, how^ever distant ; but on the journey 
 it is not permitted to pass through any walled town. 
 We might take a lesson from their wholesome practice 
 of allowing no interments within cities, and of confining 
 them either to hills, or the most barren tracts unavailable 
 for cultivation ; thus consulting at once the health and 
 the subsistence of the living. To perform " the rites at
 
 Chap. IX. FUNERAL RITES. 341 
 
 the hills " is synonymous with the tombs in Chinese. To 
 such sanatory regulations, and to the antiseptic efiects at- 
 tending the constant burning of incense, crackers, »S:c., in 
 every house, we may principally attribute the remarkable 
 healthiness of Canton and other towns, notwithstanding 
 the drawbacks of a dense population, hot climate, low 
 site, indifferent drainage of houses, &c. Indeed, were it 
 not for the comparative coldness of the climate in Eu- 
 ropean cities where such abominations prevail, the gorging 
 the earth with corpses until it refuses to cover them, and 
 the filling of churches with dead bodies,* might work 
 effects sufficiently evident to all, to expel prejudices which, 
 
 " Sans honorer les inorts, font niourir les vivants." 
 
 No corpse is ever allowed to be carried up a landing- 
 place, or to pass through a gateway which can in any 
 way be construed as pertaining to the emperor, on ac- 
 count of the supposed ill omen, concerning which the 
 Chinese are so particular as seldom even to mention death 
 except by a circumlocution, as " to become immortal," — 
 that is, in the modified sense of the Budhists. 
 
 On the occasion of a deceased officer from a British 
 ship being taken ashore for burial at Macao, the sailors 
 were proceeding Mith the coffin up the steps leading to 
 the Chinese custom-house, when the inmates of the latter 
 turned out with sticks and staves to prevent them. The 
 sailors being, as usual, quite ready to fight, particularly 
 on an occasion when they supposed some insult was in- 
 tended to the dead, it is likely that mischief might have 
 ensued, if a person on the spot, who understood the pre- 
 judice, and explained it satisfactorily, had not prevented 
 the effects of the misunderstanding. 
 
 The importance which the Chinese attach to the spot 
 * We in England have at last grown wiser. 1857.
 
 342 CnAPvACTER AND INSTITUTIONS. Chap. IX. 
 
 in wliieli a body .should be burled is soinetiuies the occa- 
 sion of e.vtraordiuary delay in the performance of the 
 funeral cereinonles. A llong merchant at Canton, who 
 was the eldest son of the family, and had deferred for 
 various superstitious reasons the interment of his father's 
 body, was prosecuted at law by the next brother, and 
 finally compelled to commit it to the tomb. The principal 
 scruples on these occasions arise from circumstances relative 
 to the situation and aspect of the sepulchre, a sort of geo- 
 mantic science, in which the same cheats who profess 
 astrology affect to be adepts. Their calling is a suffi- 
 ciently secure one, since it is as difficult to prove the nega- 
 tive as the affirmative of those propositions in which they 
 deal ; and the dead make no complaints, being on such 
 points, as the doctor in Moli^re say.s, " Les jjIus honnetes 
 gents du mo7ide.'^ Tiie choice of a lucky spot is supposed 
 to have a considerable influence on the fortunes of the 
 survivors, and they will sometimes, after the lapse of 
 many years, dig up the bones with care, and remove 
 them to a distant and more favourable site. All tombs 
 are sacred to How-too, " queen earth," an expression which 
 has a most singular parallel, not only in the words, but 
 the occasion of their use, in a passage of the ' Electra' 
 of Euripides, where Orestes, invoking the shade of his 
 father at the tomb, adds, — 
 
 Kai r^ t' avacfra, x?'pas ?? SiSaip.' ifias.* 
 " And thou, queen earth, to whom I stretch my hands." 
 
 The original and strict period of mourning (according 
 to the ritual) is three years for a parent, but this is com- 
 monly reduced in practice to thrice nine, or twenty-seven 
 months, during which an officer of the highest rank must 
 retire to his house, unless under a particular dispensa- 
 
 * Elcctr. 078.
 
 Chap. IX, PRLMOGENITURE. 343 
 
 tion from the emperor. The full period of three years 
 must elapse before children can marry subsequent to the 
 death of their parents. The colour of mourning is white, 
 and dull grey, or ash, with round buttons of crystal or 
 glass, in lieu of gilt ones : the ornamental ball denoting 
 rank is taken from the cap, as well as the tuft of crimson 
 silk which falls over the latter. As the Chinese shave 
 their heads, the neglect and desolation of mourning are 
 indicated by letting the hair grow ; for the same reason 
 that some nations, who wore their hair long, have shaved 
 it during that period. On the death of the emperor, the 
 same observances are kept, by his hundreds of millions of 
 subjects, as on the death of the parent of each individual ; 
 the whole empire remains unshaven for the space of one 
 hundred days, while the period of mourning apparel lasts 
 longer, and all officers of government take the ball and 
 crimson silk from their caps. It is said that, on the death 
 of Kang-hy's empress, four of her maids desired to be 
 buried with her ; but that wise monarch would not per- 
 mit the exercise of this piece of Scythian barbarity, the 
 practice of which he abolished for ever in favour of the 
 more humane and civilized customs of the Chinese. 
 
 In regard to the succession to paternal property, the 
 disposal of it by will is restricted except to the legal 
 heirs ; and we have seen that, to a very limited extent, 
 there is a law of primogeniture, inasmuch as the eldest 
 son, or he who " buys water " at the funeral rites, has a 
 double portion. More correctly speaking, perhaps, the 
 property may be said to descend to the eldest son * in 
 trust for all the younger brothers, over whom he has a 
 considerable authority, and who commonly live together 
 and club their shares, by which means families in this over- 
 peopled country are more easily subsisted than they would 
 * Leu-lee, sec. 78.
 
 .544 CHARACTER AND INSTITUTIONS. Chap. IX. 
 
 otherwise be, and every man's income is made to go the 
 farthest possible. To this usage, and the necessity for it, 
 may be attributed the constant exhortations of the em- 
 peror, in the book of ' Sacred Edicts,' relative to the 
 preservation of union and concord among kindred and 
 their families.
 
 Chap. X. THE NEW YEAR. 345 
 
 CHAPTEE X. 
 
 MANXEES AND CCSTO.MS. 
 
 The new year — Presents — Feast of lanterns — Fireworks — Con- 
 trariety of customs to our own — Festivals — Meeting the spring 
 — Encouragements to husbandry — Festival for the dead — Cere- 
 monial usages — Feasts and entertainments — Description of a 
 dinner — Asiatic politeness — Articles of food — Taverns and 
 eating-houses — Amusements — Gambling — Conviviality — Kite- 
 flying — Imperial himts — Skating. 
 
 There is, perhaps, no people in the world that keeps 
 fewer holidays than the Chinese, among whose overflowing 
 population the introduction of a Romish kalendar of saints 
 would be altogether disastrous. Some of their festivals 
 are regulated by the sun, and are therefore fixed, as the 
 winter solstice, and the period for visiting the tombs ; but 
 the greater number, being dependent on the moon, become 
 accordingly moveable. The principal, and almost the 
 only universal, season of leisure and rejoicing is the new 
 year, at which time, indeed, the whole empire may be 
 said to be almost beside itself On the approach of the 
 new moon which falls neai'est to the point when the sun is 
 in the 15° of Aquarius (the commencement of the Chinese 
 civil year), all public offices are closed for some ten days 
 in advance, and the mandarins lock up their seals until 
 the 20th of the first moon. On the night of the last day 
 of the old year everybody sits up, and at the moment 
 of midnight commences an interminable feu de joie of 
 crackers strung together. Indeed, the consumption of 
 
 Q 3
 
 346 MANNERS AND CUSTOMS. <:iiap. X. 
 
 this noisy species of firework is so enormous that the air 
 becomes absolutely charged with nitre ; and a governor of" 
 Canton once in vain endeavoured to suppress it, on the 
 ground of the inidue wastefulness of the practice, though 
 it probably contributes to the healthiness of Chinese 
 towns. From midnight until dawn everybody is engaged 
 in the performance of sacred rites, or in preparing his 
 house for the solenniities of the new year. Many go 
 through the ceremony of washing and bathing in warm 
 water, in which are infused the aromatic leaves of the 
 Hoangpy, a fruit-tree. Every dwelling is swept and 
 garnished, and the shrine of the household gods decorated 
 with huge porcelain dishes or vases containing the fra- 
 grant gourd, the large citron, called by them " the hand 
 of Budh " (or F6), and the flowers of the narcissus. The 
 bulbs of this last are placed in pots or vases filled with 
 smooth rounded pebbles and water, just so long before the 
 time as to be in full blossom exactly at the new year. 
 Early in the morning of the first day of the first moon,* 
 crowds repair to the different temples in their best attire, 
 kindred and acquaintance meet, and visits are paid uni- 
 versally to offer the compliments of the season. A man 
 on this day hardly knows his own domestics, so finely are 
 they attired ; and on all sides along the streets may be 
 seen the bowings and half-kneelings, with the affected 
 efforts to prevent them, which constitute a part of Chinese 
 ceremonies of courtesy. 
 
 The large red tickets of congratulation which they 
 send to each other on this occasion have a woodcut re- 
 presenting the three principal felicities in Chinese esti- 
 mation, namely, male offspring, official employment (or 
 promotion), and long life. These are indicated by the 
 figures of a child, a mandarin, and an aged figure accom- 
 panied by a stork, the emblem of longevity. For the
 
 Chap. X. PRESENTS. "I-l? 
 
 space of the first three days it would bo reckoned un- 
 lucky, if not criminal, to perform any work beyond what 
 is required by the daily exigencies of life, and many defer 
 their occupations for about twenty days. At every house 
 the visitor is received with ready cups of tea, and with 
 the betel, as used in India and the Eastern islands. 
 That nothing may interrupt the general festivity, the ter- 
 mination of the previous year is occupied in setthng all 
 outstanding money accounts, and the discredit is so great 
 of not being able to pay up at that period, that many 
 will borrow, at a ruinous rate, of Peter, in order to satisfy 
 the demands of Paul. It being the custom to kill great 
 numbers of capons previous to the new year, an unhappy 
 debtor, who cannot arrange with his creditors at that 
 period, is said, in derision, to have " a capon's destiny." 
 
 The new year is the principal period for exchanging 
 presents among friends. These commonly consist of 
 delicacies, as rare fruits, sweetmeats, fine tea, and occa- 
 sionally of silk stuffs for dresses, and ornaments of various 
 kinds. These are accompanied by a list inscribed on a 
 red ticket, which it is customary to return by the bearer, 
 with this inscription, " Received with thanks." The com- 
 pliment is immediately to be returned by presents of 
 the same kind, and in the same manner, the servants 
 who convey them always receiving a i-eward. It is an 
 unpardonable insult to send back a batch of these 
 new-year's gifts, though, if they are deemed too liberal, 
 a selection may be made, and the rest returned, with this 
 note beside them on the ticket, " The pearls are de- 
 clined." The better kinds of fruits, tea, and other 
 articles used on these occasions, are for the same reason 
 styled "ceremonial, or present goods." 
 
 The first full moon of the new year is the Feast of 
 Lanterns, being a display of ingenuity and taste in the
 
 348 
 
 MANNEKS AND CUSTOMS. 
 
 CllAI'. X. 
 
 construction and mechanism of an infinite variety of lan- 
 terns made of silk, varnish, horn, paper, and glass, some 
 of them su])])lied with moving fi<!;ures of men fjallopinjEf on 
 horseback, fi<^hting, or performinf^ various feats, together 
 with numerous representations of beasts, birds and other 
 living creatures, the whole in full motion. The moving 
 principle in these is the same with that of the smoke-jack, 
 being a horizontal wheel turned by the draft of air 
 created by the heat of the lamp. The circular motion 
 is communicated in various directions by line threads 
 attached to the moving figures. The general effect is ex- 
 tremely good ; though, as objects of real use, the Chinese 
 
 lamps labour under the disadvantage of givin<>- but a poor 
 light, which arises in part irom the opacity of the 
 materials, and the superfluity of ornament, but princi- 
 pally from the badness of the lamp itself, which is simply 
 a cotton wick immersed in a cup of oil ; and they have 
 no way of increasing the light except by adding to the 
 number of wicks. They seem to admire our Argand
 
 Chap. X. FIREWORKS. 3-49 
 
 lamps, but seldom use them, except in compliment to 
 European guests : and, even when received as presents, 
 they may frequently be seen laid by in a dusty corner. 
 
 The fireworks of the Chinese are sometimes ingenious 
 and entertaining, rather, however, on account of the 
 variety of moving figures which they exhibit, than the 
 brilliancy or skill of the pyrotechny, which is inferior to 
 our own. Their best thing of the kind is what Europeans 
 call a drum, Irom its being a cylindrical case, in which 
 is contained a multitude of figures folded into a small 
 space, and so contrived as to drop in succession on 
 strings, and remain suspended in motion during the 
 explosion of the various fireworks contained within the 
 cylinder. They likewise contrive to make paper figures 
 of boats to float and move upon the water, by means of a 
 stream of fire issuing from the stern. Their rockets are 
 bad, but blue lights they manufacture sufficiently well for 
 the use of European ships. 
 
 In their diversions the Chinese have much of that 
 childish character which distinguishes other Asiatics. 
 Science, as an amusement, may be said to be entirely 
 wanting to them, and the intellect cannot be unbended 
 from the pursuits of business by the rational conversation 
 or occupations which distinguish the superior portions of 
 European society. The mind under a despotism has few 
 of those calls for exertion, among the bulk of the people, 
 which in free states give it manly strength and vigour. 
 Bearing no part in public transactions, and living in 
 uninterrupted peace, the uniform insipidity of their 
 existence is relieved by any, even the most frivolous and 
 puerile, amusements. This feature, as well as the very 
 striking contrariety of Chinese customs, in comparison 
 with our own, are given with sufficient correctness in the 
 following passages from a little work printed at Macao?
 
 350 M.\:N'NERS and customs. Chap, X. 
 
 which are inserted here, divested of some of the buf- 
 foonery of the original : — 
 
 " On inquiring of the boatman in which direction 
 Macao lay, I was answered, in the west-north, the wind, 
 as I was informed, being east-south. V\e do not say so 
 in Europe, thought I ; but imagine my surprise when, in 
 explaining the utility of the compass, the boatman added, 
 that the needle pointed to the south ! Desirous to change 
 the subject, I remarked that I concluded he was about to 
 proceed to some high festival, or merrymaking, as his 
 dress was completely white. He told me, with a look of 
 much dejection, that his only brother had died the week 
 before, and that he was in the deepest mourning for him. 
 On my landing, the first object that attracted my atten- 
 tion was a military mandarin, who wore an embroidered 
 petticoat, with a string of beads round his neck, and who 
 besides carried a fan ; and it was with some dismay I ob- 
 served hira mount on the right side of his horse. 1 was 
 surrounded by natives, all of whom had the hair shaven 
 from the fore part of the head, while a portion of them 
 permitted it to grow on their faces. On my way to the 
 house prepared for my reception, I saw two Chinese boys 
 discussing with much earnestness who should be the pos- 
 sessor of an orange. They debated the point with a vast 
 variety of gesture, and at length, without venturing to 
 fight about it, sat down and divided the orange equally 
 
 ■ between them At that moment my attention was 
 
 drawn by several old Chinese, some of whom had grey 
 beards, and nearly all of them huge goggling spectacles. 
 A few were chirruping and chuckling to singing-birds, 
 which they carried in bamboo cages, or perched on a 
 stick : others were catching flies to feed the birds : the 
 remainder of the party seemed to be delightedly em- 
 ployed in flying paper kites, while a group of boys were
 
 Chap. X. " MEETING THE SPRING." 351 
 
 gravely looking' on, and regarding these innocent occupa- 
 tions of their seniors with the most serious and gratified 
 
 attention I was resolute in my determination to 
 
 persevere, and the next morning found me provided with 
 a Chinese master, who happily understood English, I 
 was fully prepared to be told that I was about to study 
 a language without an alphabet, but was somewhat 
 astonished, on his opening the Chinese volume, to find 
 him begin at what I had all my life previously considered 
 the end of the book. He read the date of the publica- 
 tion — ' The fifth year, tenth month, twenty-third day.' 
 — ' We write our dates differently,' I observed ; and 
 begged that he would speak of their ceremonials. He 
 commenced by saying, ' When you receive a distin- 
 guished guest, do not fail to place him on your left hand, 
 for that is the seat of honour ; and be cautious not to 
 uncover the head, as it would be an unbecoming act of 
 familiarity.' Hardly prepared for this blow to my esta- 
 blished notions, I requested he would discourse of their 
 philosophy. He re-opened the volume, and read with 
 becoming gravity, ' The most learned men are decidedly 
 of opinion that the seat of the Human understanding is 
 the stomach.' * I seized the volume in despair, and 
 rushed from the apartment." 
 
 A festival much honoured by the Chinese, and in- 
 dicative of their ancient regard for agriculture, is that 
 which takes place when the sun reaches the 15° of 
 Aquarius. The governor of every capital city issues in 
 state towards the eastern gate, to " meet the spring,'' 
 which is represented by a procession bearing a huge clay 
 figure of the buffalo, called by the Chinese " water 
 bullock " (from its propensity for muddy shallows), which 
 is always used to drag their ploughs through the flooded 
 * They place it in the heart.
 
 352 MANNERS AND CUSTOMS. Chap. X. 
 
 rice-iiTounds. The train is attended by litters, on wliich 
 are borne children fancifully dressed, and decorated with 
 flowers, representing mythological personages ; and the 
 w'hole is accompanied by a band of musicians. A\'hen 
 they have reached the governor's house, he delivers a 
 discourse in his capacity of Priest of Spring, recommend- 
 ing the care of husbandry ; and, after he has struck the 
 clay buffalo thrice with a whip, the people fall ujjon it 
 with stones, and break in pieces the image, whose hollow 
 inside is filled with a multitude of smaller images in clay, 
 for which they scramble. This ceremony bears some 
 resemblance to the procession of the bull Apis in ancient 
 Egypt, which was connected in like manner with the 
 labours of agriculture, and the hopes of an abundant 
 season. 
 
 The emperor himself, at about the same period of 
 the year, honours the profession of husbandry by going 
 through the ceremony of holding the plough. Accom- 
 panied by some princes of the blood, and a selection of 
 the principal ministers, he proceeds to a field set apart for 
 the purpose, in the enclosure which surrounds the Temple 
 of the Earth, where everything has been duly prepared 
 by regular husbandmen in attendance. After certain 
 sacrifices, consisting of grain which has been preserved 
 from the produce of the same field, the em])eror ploughs 
 a few^ furrows, after which he is followed by the princes 
 and ministers in order. The " five sorts of grain " are 
 then sown, and, when the emperor has viewed the com- 
 pletion of the work by the husbandmen present, the field 
 is committed to the charge of an officer, whose business it 
 is to collect and store the produce for sacrifices. 
 
 The same countenance and example which the emperor 
 affords in person to the production of the principal ma- 
 terials of food, is given by the empress to the cultivation
 
 Chap. X. ENCOURAGEMENTS TO HUSBANDRY. 353 
 
 of the mulberry and the rearing of silkworms, the sources 
 whence they derive their chief substance for clotJdng, 
 and the care of which for the most part comes under the 
 female department. In the ninth moon the empress pro- 
 ceeds with her principal ladies to sacrifice at the altar of 
 the inventor of the silk manufacture ; and when that cere- 
 mony is concluded, they collect a quantity of the mulberry- 
 leaves which are devoted to the nourishment of the 
 imperial depot of silkworms. Various other processes 
 connected with the same business are gone through, as 
 heating the cocoons in water, winding off the filament, 
 &c. ; and so the ceremony concludes. Of the sixteen 
 'Sacred Edicts' addressed to the people, the fourth 
 relates exclusively to the two foregoing subjects. " Attend 
 (it is said) to your farms and nmlberry-trees, that you 
 may have sufficient food and clothing ; " and they are 
 reminded that, although only four of the provinces (all of 
 them cut by the 30th parallel of latitude) produce silk in 
 perfection, yet there are the equally useful materials, 
 elsewhere, of hemp and cotton. " Thus different are the 
 sources whence clothing is procured ; but the duty of pre- 
 paring it, as exemplified in the cultivation of the mulberry- 
 tree, is one and the same." One of the emperors of the 
 present dynasty caused a work to be published expressly 
 in illustration of the two great departments of native in- 
 dustry. It is styled Keng Che Too, ' Illustrations of Hus- 
 bandry and Weaving,' and consists of numerous wood- 
 cuts, representing the various processes in the production 
 of rice and silk, with letterpress descriptions. The great 
 preference which the rulers of China give to such kinds of 
 industry over the pursuits of commerce, but especially 
 foreign commerce, would seem to be dictated by a senti- 
 ment analogous to that which is conveyed in four of 
 Goldsmith's lines : —
 
 354 MANNERS AND CUSTOMS. Chap. X. 
 
 " That trades proud empire hastes to swift decay, 
 As oeeau sweeps the hil)our'd mule away ; 
 "While self-dependent states ean time defy. 
 As roeks resist the billows and the sky." 
 
 The principal public festivals of China remaining to be 
 noticed are not numerous. The fifth day of the fifth 
 moon, which usually occurs in June, is celebrated in a 
 way which cannot fail to excite the attention of a visitor to 
 the country. Very long narrow boats, built for the pur- 
 pose, are manned by forty to sixty, and sometimes eighty 
 men with paddles, who keep time to the beat of a gong, 
 with which one of the crew stands up in the boat. These 
 race against each other on the rivers with gi-eat heat 
 and emulation, and accidents frequently occur fi-om the 
 upsetting or breaking of the " dragon-boats," as they are 
 called from their jireat length. This constitutes one of 
 the few athletic diversions of the Chinese. 
 
 On the first day of the seventh moon, or some time in 
 the month of August, they have a festival for the benefit 
 of their departed relatives in the world of spirits. It is 
 not a domestic celebration, however, but a public one : 
 large mat-houses are erected, ornamented with lanterns 
 and chandeliers, in which are placed images of the in- 
 fernal deities, including Yen Wang, the Chinese Pluto. 
 Priests of the Budh sect are engaged to chant masses for 
 the dead, oflferings of food are presented, and large quan- 
 tities of paper representing clothes are burned, in order 
 that they may pass into the other world for the use of the 
 departed. On these occasions may be seen representa- 
 tions of the future state of the Budhists, with the torments 
 of the damned, and the various gradations of misery and 
 happiness in the life to come. These celebrations, being 
 calculated to bring large numbers together, appear to 
 consist in a great measure of feasting and entertainment ;
 
 Chap. X. 
 
 CEREMONIAL USAGES. 
 
 356 
 
 
 Oblations. 
 
 and they are said to have arisen from some tradition of a 
 yomig man who went down to the nether world to bring 
 back, not his wife, but (what is much more suitable to 
 Chinese sentiment) his mother. According to the story, 
 this Asiatic Orpheus was more successful than the 
 Thracian. 
 
 We proceed now to their ordinary usages in social 
 intercourse. The importance which the Chinese attach 
 to ceremonies might perhaps be supposed to produce in 
 them a constrained stiffness and formality of manner ; 
 but, notwithstanding the apparent incumbrance of cere- 
 mony prescribed on solemn occasions, our embassies have 
 proved that persons of high authority and station are dis- 
 tinguished generally in their address by a dignified sim- 
 plicity and ease. This does not, however, prevent their 
 laying a great stress on precedence, especially on public 
 occasions, where the spectators are numerous ; and in the 
 case of foreign embassies they will always do their utmost 
 to maintain (as thei/ think) the superiority of their own 
 court by placing themselves before their guests. The 
 following extract from Sir George Staunton's unpublished
 
 356 MANNERS AND CUSTOMS. Chap. X. 
 
 journal of the last embassy is in point : — " A message 
 had come from the legate to say that, as the passage of 
 the next sluice on the canal was attended with some risk, 
 the ambassador had better go on shore, and that he 
 should be ready to receive his lordship in a tent on the 
 following morning. To this was returned for answer, 
 that, if it was proposed to meet on any particular business, 
 the ambassador would attend ; but that otherwise he 
 begged to decline, having observed that the legate always 
 assumed the highest seat, although in his visits to the 
 ambassador the first place had invariably been given to 
 him. Kuang Tajin replied by saying that he did this 
 merely because his situation obliged him : word was ac- 
 cordingly sent that his excellency would be glad to meet 
 the Poo-ching-sse, or treasurer, whose station did not 
 oblige him to assume the highest seat. In the morning, 
 after breakfast, three chairs arrived for the ambassador 
 and commissioners, and on their way they crossed the 
 sluice, which was to be passed by their boats, over a tem- 
 porary range of boards. Immediately on the other side 
 stood the tent, a neat structure of coloured cloth in stripes, 
 which we were requested by the attendants to enter, and 
 take our seats. The legate, attended by the treasurer, 
 soon came in, and, after conversing for a short time on 
 their legs, the ambassador requested that Kuang Tajin 
 would sit down, saying he would waive all claims as 
 a guest to the first place. The legate upon this proceeded 
 to the first seat, and the treasurer, without the least cere- 
 mony, walked towards the second. On this the ambassador 
 desired it might be intimated that, though he was ready 
 to yield to the one, he would not consent to sit below the 
 other ; and the treasurer, rather than take the third 
 place, marched out of the tent" All this is now changed. 
 Such incivility to Europeans was the more unpardon-
 
 Chap. X. VISITING. 357 
 
 able, as among themselves it is the rule in general, during 
 visits, to contend for the lowest seat, and they would 
 be heartily ashamed of the opposite ill-breeding towards 
 each other ; but they viewed strangers as an inferior caste 
 altogether. Their arm-chairs are always ranged in 
 regular order, and, being very bulky and solid, like our 
 old-fashioned seats of former times, they are not easily 
 removed. In Chinese apartments there is placed a broad 
 couch, in size approaching to a bed, called a hhig. On 
 the middle of this is planted a little table about a foot in 
 height, intended to rest the arm, or place teacups upon. 
 On either side of this little table, on the couch, sit the 
 two principal persons, fronting the entrance ; and from 
 the ends of the couch, at right angles to it, descend two 
 rows of arm-chairs for the other guests, who sit nearest to 
 the couch according to their rank. 
 
 When any one proceeds in his chair to pay a visit, his 
 attendants present his ticket at the gate, consisting of his 
 name and titles written down the middle of a folded 
 sheet of red paper, ornamented with gold-leaf ; and there 
 is sometimes enough paper in these, when opened out like 
 a screen, to extend across a room. If the visitor is in 
 mourning, his ticket is white, with bl^e letters. Accord- 
 ing to the relative rank of the parties, the person visited 
 comes out a greater or less distance to receive his 
 guest, and, when they meet, their genuflexions, and en- 
 deavours to prevent the same, are also according to rule. 
 These matters are all so well understood by those who 
 are bred up to them, that they occasion no embarrass- 
 ment whatever to the Chinese. The ordinary salutation 
 among equals is to join the closed hands, and lift them 
 two or three times towards the head, saying, Haou, — Tsing, 
 tsing ; that is, " Are you well ?— Hail, hail ! " Hence is 
 derived, we believe, the Canton jargon of chin-chin.
 
 358 
 
 MANNERS AND CUSTOMS. 
 
 CllAf. X. 
 
 Soon after being seated, the attendants invariably enter 
 with porcelain cups furnished with covers, in each of 
 which, on removing the little saucer by which it is sur- 
 mounted, appears a small quantity of fine tea-leaves, on 
 which boilino- water has been poured ; and thus it is that 
 they drink the infusion, without the addition of either 
 sugar or milk. The delicate aroma of fine tea is no 
 doubt more clearly distinguished in this mode of taking 
 it, and a little habit leads many Europeans in China to 
 relish the custom. Though the infusion is generally 
 
 .<r^rnw[ff5?^l 
 
 
 
 Teacups on Stands. 
 
 made in the cup, they occasionally use teapots of 
 antique and tasteful shapes, which are not unfrequently 
 made of tutenague externally, covering earthenware on 
 the inside. At visits, a circular japanned tray is 
 geneally brought in, having numerous compartments 
 radiating from the centre, in which are a variety of 
 sweetmeats or dried fruits. These ai'e taken up with a 
 small two-pronged fork of silver. On the conclusion of a 
 visit, the host conducts his guest, if he wishes to do him 
 high honour, even to his sedan, and there remains until 
 he is carried of!': but on ordinary occasions it is deemed
 
 Chap. X. A MANDARIX'S CORTEGE. 359 
 
 sufficient to go as far as the top of the stone steps, if 
 there are any, or merely to the door of the apartment. 
 
 Only mandarins, or official persons, can be carried by 
 four bearers, or accompanied by a train of attendants ; 
 these are marshalled in two files before the chair. One 
 pair of the myrmidons carry gongs, on which they strike 
 at regular intervals ; another pair utter, likewise at 
 intervals, a long-drawn shout, or rather yell, to denote 
 the approach of the great man ; a third pair carry chains, 
 which they jingle in concert, being in fact gaolers or 
 executioners, with high caps of iron wire, in which is 
 stuck a grey feather. Then come two fellows with the 
 usual bamboo, or bastinade ; and the cortege is made up 
 by the servants and other followers, some of whom carry 
 red umbrellas of dignity, others large red boards, on 
 which are inscribed in gilt characters the officer's titles. 
 The populace who meet such a procession are not to 
 denote their respect in any other way than by standing 
 aside, with their arms hanging close to their sides, and 
 their eyes on the ground. It is only when called or 
 taken before a tribunal that they are obliged to kneel, 
 and these are occasions which most Chinese are not very 
 willing to seek. 
 
 English residents at Canton have occasionally had 
 opportunities of taking a part in the formal dinners of 
 the Chinese ; but few have witnessed a solemn feast 
 conferred by the emperor, which may be described from 
 the author's journal of the last embassy. "The am- 
 bassador informed the gentlemen of his suite that he was 
 going to perform the same salutation of respect, before 
 the yellow screen, that he was accustomed to make to the 
 vacant throne of his sovereign in the House of Lords. 
 AVe were directed to keep our eyes on him, and do 
 exactly as he did. A low solemn hymn of not un-
 
 360 MANNERS AND CUSTOMS. Chap. X. 
 
 pleasing melody now commenced, and at the voice of a 
 crier the two imperial legates fell prostrate three times, 
 and each time thrice struck the floor with their fore- 
 heads ; a cranio-verberative sound being audible amidst 
 the deep silence which prevailed around. Tlie am- 
 bassador and his suite, standing up in the mean while, 
 made nine profound bows. Thus far we had got very 
 well over the ground, without doing that which no repre- 
 sentatives of Chinese majesty ever condescended to do to 
 a foreigner until Genghis Khan first made them. They 
 here conceded to us the point on which they broke off 
 with Count Golovkin, the Russian ambassador, though 
 they yielded it to Lord Macartney. 
 
 " When the ceremony was over, the feast was brought 
 in, and the theatrical entertainments commenced. The 
 legates sat to the left, on an elevation of one step ; and 
 the ambassador and two commissioners on the same eleva- 
 tion to the right. The other Chinese grandees sat on 
 the left, a little below the legates ; and the gentlemen of 
 the embassy to the right, below his lordship and the com- 
 missioners. The two lines thus faced each other down 
 the room. As no chairs can be used where the emperor 
 is present, or supposed to be so, the whole party sat 
 cross-legged on cushions, with sartorial precision ; but 
 the mandarins, being bred to the trade, of course had the 
 advantage of us. The tables were low in proportion, 
 and, when we were all seated, a number of attendants 
 placed on each table, holding only two guests, a large 
 tray which fitted it, and contained a complete course, of 
 which four in all were served. The first consisted of a 
 rich soup ; the second of sixteen round and narrow dishes, 
 containing salted meats and other relishes ; the third of 
 eight basins of birds'-nests, sharks'-fins, deer-sinews, and 
 other viands supposed to be highly nourishing; the
 
 Chap. X. FEASTS AND ENTERTAINMENTS. 361 
 
 fourth of twelve bowls of stews immersed in a rich soup. 
 The guests helped themselves with chopsticks, small 
 spoons of porcelain, fashioned like a child's pap-boat, and 
 four-pronged forks of silver, small and straight ; and, 
 when they drank to each other, the warm wine was 
 poured into little cups by the attendants, who at the same 
 time bent one knee. 
 
 "At the other end of the hall where we sat, so as 
 to be viewed by each person from his place down the two 
 ranges of tables, proceeded the stage performances. The 
 music was infernal, and the occasional crash of gongs 
 might have roused Satan and his legions from their sleep 
 on the sulphureous lake. Some pyrotechnic monsters, 
 breathing fire and smoke, were among the dramatis per- 
 sonse ; but by far the best part of the scene was the 
 tumbling, — really superior in its kind. The strength and 
 activity of one man were particularly eminent. Leaping 
 from the ground, he performed a tumble in the air back- 
 wards, and, after the first effort, continued to revolve in 
 this manner with such velocity, that his head and feet, 
 the extremities of revolution, were scarcely discernible." 
 
 An invitation to a private feast is conveyed some days 
 before by a crimson-coloured ticket, on which is inscribed 
 the time appointed, and the guest is entreated to bestow 
 " the illumination of his presence." The arrangement of 
 the tables is the same as at the imperial entertainment, 
 but they are of the ordinary height, and the party are 
 seated on chairs, two at each table, so as to see the per- 
 formances on the stage. The substance of the dinner is 
 much the same as before described ; but previous to its 
 commencement, the host, standing up, drinks to his 
 guests, and then invites them to begin upon the dishes 
 before them. At a certain period of the entertainment, 
 towards the close, the whole party rise at once, and drink 
 
 VOL. L R
 
 362 MANNERS AND CUSTOMS. Chap. X. 
 
 to their host. Before the dramatic performance begins, 
 one of the actors presents to the principal guest a list of 
 plays consisting perhaps of fifty or sixty different pieces ; 
 but they have these so well by heart that they are ready 
 to perform any one he may select. There is no scenery, 
 and, in this respect, a gi'eat deal is left to the imagination 
 of the spectators. The dresses, however, are extremely 
 splendid, especially in heroical pieces, consisting of repre- 
 sentations of different portions of their ancient history. 
 The most objectionable part is the terrible din kept up by 
 the instruments of music and the gongs, during those por- 
 tions of the play which represent battles and tragical scenes. 
 
 The females of the household, meanwhile, who cannot 
 take a part in the festivities of the table, look on from 
 behind a trellis-work at one of the sides of the stage, with 
 such of their friends of the same sex as may be invited on 
 the occasion. A particular description of the Chinese 
 drama will be given in its proper place ; but we may 
 observe here that dancing is a thing almost entirely 
 unknown to them, either on or off the stage. On one 
 occasion, indeed, in the interval or space between the 
 ranges of tables, we saw two children, showily dressed, 
 go through a species of minuet, consisting of a regular 
 figure to slow time, accompanied by a motion of the arms 
 and head, not ungraceful in effect. 
 
 A formal diimer, which begins about six o'clock in the 
 evening, is generally protracted to a great length, the 
 succession of dishes, or rather bowls, which follow each 
 other appearing sometimes to be interminable. So little, 
 however, is eaten of each, that the guests often continue 
 tasting the contents of one after another until the very 
 end. There seems to be little regularity in the timing of 
 the different viands, but after the birds'-nest soup (which 
 is, in fact, a strong chicken broth, in which that substance
 
 Chap. X. DINNERS. 363 
 
 is introduced in long strips, after the manner of ver- 
 micelli) the peculiar delicacies which have already been 
 mentioned, together with mutton, fish, game, and poultry, 
 follow indiscriminately. The signal of the repast ap- 
 proaching its termination is the appearance of a bowl 
 of rice for each person, and this is followed soon after 
 by tea in lieu of the wine. The whole is crowned by a 
 course of fruits and sweetmeats, very much in the man- 
 ner of our dessert. 
 
 The gi*eater portion of cups, bowls, and saucers (for 
 they have no flat plates), which constitute the dinner 
 service, consist of fine porcelain ; but occasionally a few 
 particular meats are served in silver or tutenague covers, 
 under which is a spirit-lamp to keep them hot. The 
 wine-cups, too, are sometimes of silver gilt, and of rather 
 elegant vase-like shapes. The extreme smallness of these 
 cups, joined to the weakness of the wine, which is always 
 drunk warm, enables them to take a great number with- 
 out being in the least affected, or at all exceeding the 
 bounds of sobriety. On some occasions of peculiar cere- 
 mony the feast is closed by a great cup scooped from the 
 horn of the rhinoceros, which animal is said to exist in 
 the forests of Yunnan and Kuang-sy. We find in the 
 works of Arabian writers that the same substance has 
 often been used for the drinking-cups of Asiatic po- 
 tentates, being supposed to sweat on the approach of 
 poison, and therefore to be a safeguard against it. 
 When the Mongols conquered the empire, they probably 
 introduced its use into China. 
 
 The following description of a Chinese dinner, from 
 the pen of Captain Laplace of the French navy, although 
 rather a long extract, is given with so much of the cha- 
 racteristic vivacity of his countrymen, and so well conveys 
 the first impression of a scene not often witnessed by 
 
 R 2
 
 ;5G4 MANNERS AND CUSTOMS, Chap. X. 
 
 Europeans, that it is introduced without further apology. 
 " The first course was laid out in a great number of 
 saucers of painted porcelain, and consisted of various 
 relishes in a cold state, as salted earth-worms, prepared 
 and dried, but so cut up that I fortunately did not know 
 what they were until I had swallowed them ; salted or 
 smoked fish and ham, both of them cut into extremely 
 small slices ; besides which, there was what they called 
 Japan leather, a sort of darkish skin, hard and tough, 
 with a strong and far from agreeable taste, and which 
 seemed to have been macerated for some time in water. 
 All these et-cseteras, including among the number a liquor 
 which I recognised to be soy, made from a Japan bean, 
 and long since adopted by the wine-drinkers of Europe to 
 revive their faded appetites or tastes, were used as sea- 
 soning to a great number of stews which were contained 
 in bowls, and succeeded each other uninterruptedly. All 
 the dishes, without exception, swam in soup. On one 
 side figured pigeons' eggs, cooked in gravy, together with 
 ducks and fowls cut very small, and immersed in a dark- 
 coloured sauce ; on the other, little balls made of sharks'- 
 fins, eggs prepared by heat, of which both the smell and 
 taste seemed to us equally repulsive, immense grubs, a 
 peculiar kind of sea-fish, crabs, and pounded shrimps. 
 
 " Seated at the right of our excellent Amphitryon, 
 I was the object of his whole attention, but, nevertheless, 
 found myself considerably at a loss how to use the two 
 little ivory sticks, tipped with silver, which, together with 
 a knife that had a long, narrow, and thin blade, formed 
 the whole of my eating apparatus. I had great difficulty 
 in seizing my prey in the midst of those several bowls 
 filled with gravy : in vain I tried to hold, in imitation of 
 ray host, this substitute for a fork between the thumb and 
 the two first fingers of the right hand ; for the cursed
 
 CuAP. X. DINNERS. 365 
 
 chopsticks slipped aside every moment, leaving behind 
 them the unhappy little morsel which I coveted. It 
 is true that the master of the house came to the relief 
 of my inexperience (by which he was much entertained) 
 with his two instruments, the extremities of which, a few 
 moments before, had touched a mouth whence age, and 
 the use of snuff and tobacco, had cruelly chased its good 
 looks. I could very well have dispensed with such an 
 auxiliary, for my stomach had already much ado to 
 support the various ragouts, each one more surprising 
 than another, which I had been obliged, nolens volens, 
 to taste of. However, I contrived to eat with tolerable 
 propriety a soup pr(^pared with the famous birds'-nests, in 
 which the Chinese are such epicures. The substance thus 
 served up is reduced into very thin filaments, transparent 
 as isinglass, and resembling vermicelli, with little or no 
 taste.* At first I was much puzzled to find out how, 
 with our chopsticks, we should be able to taste of the 
 various soups which composed the greater part of the 
 dinner, and had already called to mind the fable of 
 the fox and the stork, when our two Chinese entertainers, 
 dipping at once into the bowls with the little saucer 
 placed at the side of each guest, showed us how to get 
 rid of the difficulty." We confess we were never witness 
 to this slovenly manoeuvre, as the Chinese tables are gene- 
 rally supplied with a species of spoon, of silver or porcelain, 
 sufficiently convenient in shape. 
 
 " To the younger guests, naturally lively, such a crowd 
 of novelties presented an inexhaustible fund of pleasantry, 
 and, though unintelligible to the worthy Hong merchant 
 and his brother, the jokes seemed to delight them not 
 a bit the less. The wine in the mean while circulated 
 
 * It is generally accompanied with pigeons' eggs boiled luinl, and 
 eaten witli soy.
 
 366 
 
 MANNERS AND CUSTOMS. 
 
 Chap. X, 
 
 Rice-bowl and Chopsticks. 
 
 freely, and the toasts followed each other in rapid succes- 
 sion. The liquor, which to ray taste was by no means 
 agreeable, is always taken hot, and in this state it ap- 
 proaches pretty nearly to Madeira in colour, as well as a 
 little in taste ; but it is not easy to get tipsy with it, for, 
 in spite of the necessity of frequently attending to the 
 invitations of my host, this wine did not in the least affect 
 my head. We drank it in little gilt cups, having the 
 shape of an antique vase, with two handles of perfect 
 workmanship, and kept constantly filled by attendants 
 holding large silver vessels like coffee-pots. The Chinese 
 mode of pledging is singular enough, but has at the same 
 time some little resemblance to the English. The person 
 who wishes to do this courtesy to one or more guests gives 
 them notice by an attendant; then, taking the full. cup 
 with both hands, he lifts it to the level of his mouth, and, 
 after making a comical sign with his head, he drinks off 
 the contents : he waits until the other party has done the
 
 Chap. X. DINNERS. 367 
 
 same, and finally repeats the first nod of the head, holding 
 the cup downwards before him, to show it is quite empty. 
 
 " After all these good things, served one upon the 
 other, and of which it gave me pleasure to see the last, 
 succeeded the second course, which was preceded by 
 a little ceremony, of which the object seemed to me to be 
 a trial of the guests' appetites. Upon the edges of four 
 bowds, arranged in a square, three others were placed 
 filled with stews, and surmounted by an eighth, which 
 thus formed the summit of a pyramid ; and the custom is 
 to touch none of these although invited by the host. On 
 the refusal of the party, the whole disappeared, and 
 the table was covered with articles in pastry and sugar, 
 in the midst of which was a salad composed of the tender 
 shoots of the bamboo, and some watery preparations, that 
 exhaled a most disagreeable odour. 
 
 " Up to this point the relishes, of which I first spoke, 
 had been the sole accompaniments of all the successive 
 ragouts ; they still served to season the bowls of plain 
 rice w^hich the attendants now,* for the first time, placed 
 before each of the guests. I regarded with an air of con- 
 siderable embarrassment the two little sticks, with which, 
 notwithstanding the experience acquired since the com- 
 mencement of the repast, it seemed very doubtful whether 
 I should be able to eat my rice grain by grain, according 
 to the belief of Europeans regarding the Chinese custom. 
 I therefore waited until my host should begin, to follow 
 his example, foreseeing that, on this new occasion, some 
 fresh discovery would serve to relieve us from the truly 
 ludicrous embarrassment which we all displayed : in a 
 word, our two Chinese, cleverly joining the ends of their 
 chopsticks, plunged them into the bowls of rice, held up 
 
 * It must be remembered that this was a formal dinner. Rice forms 
 a much more integral part of an every-day meal.
 
 368 MANNERS AND CUSTOMS. ("uap. X. 
 
 to the mouth, wliich was o})cned to its full extent, aud 
 thus easily shovelled in the rice, not by grains, but by 
 handfuls. Thus instructed, I might have followed their 
 example ; but I preferred making- up with the other deli- 
 cacies for the few attractions which, to my taste, had been 
 displayed by the first course. The second lasted a much 
 shorter time : the attendants cleared away everything. 
 Presently the table was strewed with flowers, which vied 
 with each other in brilliancy ; pretty baskets, filled with 
 the same, were mixed with plates which contained a vast 
 variety of delicious sweetmeats as well as cakes, of which 
 the forms were as ingenious as they were varied. This 
 display of the productions of nature and of art was 
 equally agreeable to the eyes and the tastes of the 
 guests : by the side of the yellow plantain was seen 
 the litcJii, of which the strong, rough, and bright crimson 
 skin defends a stone enveloped in a whitish pulp, wliich, 
 for its fine aromatic taste, is superior to most of the 
 tropical fruits. Indigenous to the provinces which border 
 on the Chinese sea, the newly-gathered litchi presents to 
 the inhabitants a wholesome and delicious food * during 
 the summer, and forms, when dried, an excellent provi- 
 sion for the winter. With these fruits of the warm 
 climates were mingled those of the temperate zone, 
 brought at some expense from the northern provinces ; as 
 walnuts, chestnuts (small and inferior to those of France), 
 apples, grapes, and Peking pears, which last, though 
 their lively colour and pleasant smell attracted the atten- 
 tion, proved to be tasteless, and even retained all the 
 harshness of wild fruits. The conversation, frequently 
 interrupted during the commencement of the repast, in 
 order to do honour to the numerous pledges of our host, 
 
 * Tliis is a very hotiting fniit, and known to be dangerous if taken 
 in large quantities.
 
 Chap. X. ASIATIC POLITENESS. 369 
 
 and to all the wonders of the Chinese kitchen assembled 
 before us, became now general, and sufficiently noisy. 
 My neighbom*, especially, little accustomed to such lively 
 mirth, was quite enchanted, and displayed his satisfaction 
 by loud laughs, to which was perpetually joined the 
 sonorous accompaniment of his somewhat overloaded 
 stomach. According to the received usages of Chinese 
 fashion, I ought to have followed this example, in testi- 
 mony of a more than satisfied appetite, but my wish 
 to gratify our excellent Amphitryon would not carry me 
 quite so far. This custom, which in France would seem 
 more than extraordinary, was, however, nothing nevv 
 to myself, for I had already remarked it in the best 
 societies at Manilla. Need I then to be surprised on 
 finding the Chinese so little nice in their convivial habits, 
 when our near neighbours the Spaniards have not yet 
 cast off this remnant of the grossness of the olden time ? " 
 This disagreeable custom would seem to be tolerated 
 all over Asia, where it is considered as much a matter of 
 course as coughing or sneezing. The curious part of the 
 history is, that any ideas of civility or politeness should be 
 attached to that which in England or France would be so 
 differently received. " At length," adds our author, " we 
 adjourned to the next room to take tea, — the indispen- 
 sable commencement and close of all visits and ceremonies 
 among the Chinese. According to custom, the servants 
 presented it in porcelain cups, each of which was covered 
 with a saucerlike top, which confines and prevents the 
 aroma from evaporating. The boiling water had been 
 poured over a few of the leaves collected at the bottom 
 of the cup ; and the infusion, to which no sugar is ever 
 added in China, exhaled a delicious fragrant odour, of 
 which the best teas carried to Europe can scarcely give 
 an idea." 
 
 R 3
 
 370 MANNERS AND CUSTOMS. Chap. X. 
 
 It is remarkable that the grape, althou<jfh abuiuhint, is 
 not used in this country for the production of Avine, 
 which is fermented from rice, but nevertheless resembles 
 some of our weaker white wines both in colour and 
 flavour. The rice is soaked in water, with some other 
 ingredients, for a considerable number of days. The 
 liquor is then boiled, after which it is allowed to ferment, 
 and subsequently drawn off clear from the bottom, to be 
 ])iit u]) in earthen jars, not unlike the amphorae of the 
 ancients still remaining to us. The residue is used in the 
 distillation of a very strong spirit, little inferior in strength 
 to pure alcohol, which they sometimes introduce in an 
 extremely small cup at the close of their dinners. When 
 good, it resembles strong whisky, both in its colourless 
 appearance and its smoky flavour. The Tartars are said 
 still to preserve a remnant of their pastoral state in their 
 predilection for a strong liquor which is distilled from 
 mutton. One of the soups, too, presented at the im- 
 perial feast conferred on the last British embassy at 
 Tien-tsin, was said to be composed of mare's milk and 
 blood ! 
 
 The Chinese are little addicted to drinking plain 
 water, which in a considerable portion of the country is 
 extremely bad. On the Peking river several of the 
 persons in the embassies suffered severely from its use, by 
 which they were afflicted with dysenteries and other un- 
 pleasant symptoms. It was generally of a milky colour, 
 and, though cleared in some measure by being stirred 
 with a bamboo, in the cleft of which a piece of alum 
 had been stuck as a precipitate, it always retained a 
 portion of its noxious qualities. It may fairly be sur- 
 mised that the badness of the water occasioned the first 
 introduction, and subsequently the universal use, of tea 
 as an article of drink. Notwithstanding their general
 
 Chap. X. FOOD AND DRINK. 371 
 
 repugnance to eating and drinking what is cold, none 
 understand better than the Cliinese of the north the use 
 of ice during hot weather. Near to Peking, in the month 
 of August, and when the thermometer stood above 80°, 
 we constantly saw people carrying about supplies of this 
 article of luxury. Tvro large lumps, whose solid thickness 
 proved the lowness of the temperature which produced 
 them, were suspended in shallow baskets at opposite ends 
 of a pole, carried across the shoulders. Every vender of 
 fruit at a stall either sold it in lumps, or used it in cooling 
 his goods ; and the embassy was liberally supplied with 
 ice for cooling wine. The mode of preserving it through 
 the summer is the usual one, of depositing the ice at 
 a sufficient depth in the ground, surrounding it with 
 straw or other non-conducting substance, and draining off 
 the wet. 
 
 The Chinese cookery has a much nearer resemblance 
 to the French than the English, in the general use of 
 ragouts and made-dishes, rather than plain articles of 
 diet, as well as in the liberal introduction of vegetables 
 into every preparation of meat. The expenses of the 
 wealthy, as might be expected, run very much in the 
 direction of sensual pleasures, among which the gas- 
 tronomic hold a conspicuous place. Some of the articles, 
 however, which they esteem as delicacies would have few 
 attractions for a European. Among others, the larvae of 
 the sphinx-moth, as well as a grub which is bred in the 
 sugar-cane, are much rehshed. Their dishes are fre- 
 quently cooked with the oil extracted fi'om the liclnus, 
 which yields the castor-oil of medicine ; but as it is used 
 by them in the fresh state, and with some ])eculiar pre- 
 paration, it has neither the strong detergent properties 
 nor the detestable taste by which this oil is known in 
 Europe.
 
 372 MANNERS AND CUSTOMS. Chap. X. 
 
 The general prevalence of Budhism amonir the popula- 
 tion is perha})S one of the reasons why beef is scarcely ever 
 used bv them ; though the multitudes of bullocks killed 
 annually, for the use of the European shipping, ])rove 
 that their religious scruples cannot be very strong. It 
 must, however, be observed, that some absurd prejudices 
 and maxims, not to say positive laws, have always existed 
 against an extended consumption of flesh food. There 
 are, accordingly, no people in the world that consume so 
 little butcher's meat, or so much fish and vegetables. The 
 rivers and coasts of this country are profusely productive 
 of fish, and the people exercise the greatest ingenuity in 
 catching them. Carp and mullet were observed by the 
 last embassy in all the towns bordering on the route from 
 Peking, an appearance of plenty which is explained by 
 the custom of stocking the w^aters artificially with spawn. 
 It would be a mistake to suppose that the extension of 
 cultivation had rendered game scarce. There are abund- 
 ance of wooded hills and mountains, as well as lakes, 
 about which wild fowl, pheasants, red-legged partridges, 
 and snipes, are plentiful. Wild geese are seen on the 
 Canton river during winter in large flocks, as well as teal 
 and wild ducks ; and the woodcock is sometimes, though 
 rarely, to be procured. 
 
 The most universal vegetable food in the empire, next 
 to rice, is the Pe-tsae, a species of brassica, which derives 
 its name (white cabbage) from being partially blanched, 
 as celery is with us. By our embassies it was frequently 
 used as a salad, and, when fresh, is little inferior to lettuce, 
 which it greatly resembles as a plant. The most cele- 
 brated place for its production is the neighbourhood of 
 Tien-tsin, where the soil is a loose sandy alluvium. From 
 thence it is conveyed, either in the fresh state or salted, 
 to all parts of the country. They are said to preserve it
 
 Chap. X. FOOD. 373 
 
 fresh, either by planting in wet sand, or by burying it 
 deep in the ground ; and it is a popular remark, that the 
 nine gates of Peking are blocked during the autumnal 
 season with the vehicles bringing in the pe-tsae. Besides 
 this vegetable, the northern provinces consume millet and 
 the oil of sesamum as general articles of diet. Many of 
 the cottagers were observed to possess the means of inde- 
 pendent support in the patches of cultivation which sur- 
 rounded their huts, being supplied in many cases with a 
 small and simple mill, worked by an ass, for the expres- 
 sion of the sesamum oil. The vegetable oils which are 
 used to the southward are obtained from the Camellia olei- 
 fera, and the Arachis hypoga^a, as well as the Ricinus. 
 
 As the embassies approached the south, the most com- 
 mon vegetables in use appeared to be the Solamim melon- 
 gena, several species of gourds and cucumbers, the sweet 
 potato, and one or two species of kidney-bean, of which in 
 some cases they boil the young plants. Peas, too, which 
 were introduced by the Dutch factory for their own use, 
 appear sometimes at Chinese dinners in stews, being 
 generally eaten in the pod, while this is young and tender. 
 We have lately introduced the Dioscorea Batatas, a hardy 
 esculent from Shanghae. Near Macao the potato has 
 become very common, but it does not spread so rapidly as 
 might have been expected ; for, after twenty years from 
 its first introduction, this vegetable was far from being either 
 plentiful or cheap at Canton, only eighty miles distant 
 • from the former place. Nothing, indeed, will ever super- 
 sede rice as the staple article of diet among the Chinese 
 populace, whose predilection for it may be gathered from 
 what Mr. Gutzlaff says in his journal : " Rice being very 
 cheap in Siam, every (Chinese) sailor had provided a bag 
 or two as a present to his family. In fact, the chief thing 
 they wish and work for is rice : their domestic accounts
 
 374 MANNERS AND CUSTOMS. Chap. X. 
 
 are entirely regulated by the quantity of rice consumed ; 
 their meals according to the number of bowls of it boiled ; 
 and their exertions according to the quantity wanted. 
 Every substitute for this favourite food is considered 
 meagre, and indicative of the gi*eatest wretchedness. 
 When they cannot obtain a sufficient quantity to satisfy 
 their appetites, they supply the deficiency with an equal 
 weight of water.* Inquiring whether the western bar- 
 barians eat rice, and finding me slow to give them an 
 answer, they exclaimed, ' Oh ! the sterile regions of bar- 
 barians, which produce not the necessaries of life. Strange 
 that the inhabitants have not long ago died of hunger ! ' 
 I endeavoured to show them that we had substitutes for 
 rice which were equal, if not superior to it ; but all to no 
 purpose ; and they still maintained that it is rice only which 
 can properly sustain the life of a human being." 
 
 If the rich should appear to be fantastic in the selection 
 of their diet, the poor are no less indiscriminate in the 
 supply of theirs. They will, in fact, eat nearly everything 
 that comes in their way ; and, with one-half of the pre- 
 judices of the Hindoos, a large portion of the Chinese 
 population would perish with hunger. They make no 
 difficulty whatever of dogs, cats, and even rats ; and in- 
 deed the first of these are enumerated as a regular article 
 of food in one of their ancient books. Among the rich 
 themselves, a wild cat, previously prepared by feeding, is 
 reckoned a dehcacy. Chinese dogs are said to have a 
 particular aversion for butchers, in consequence, no doubt, . 
 of the violation of those personal exemptions and privi- 
 leges which the canine race are allowed to enjoy almost 
 everywhere else. 
 
 As might be expected from the economical habits of 
 the people, that great save-all, the pig, is universally 
 * Making a sort of gruel of the rice.
 
 Chap. X. FOOD. 375 
 
 reared about cottages, and its flesh Is by far the com- 
 monest meat : the maxim is, " that a schohir does not quit 
 his books, nor the poor man his pigs." If it be true that 
 the frequent use of pork produces or predisposes to leprosy 
 Q^ cui id animal obnoxium," says Tacitus), the Chinese 
 would go far to corroborate the truth of the observation, 
 being very subject to that, as well as other cutaneous 
 affections ; but it must be remarked, at the same time, 
 that their foul-feeding is universal. They contrive to rear 
 ducks very cheaply, by making them hunt for their own 
 food. Large quantities of the eggs are hatched artifi- 
 cially, and the ducks brought up by thousands in peculiar 
 boats, where their lodging is constructed upon broad plat- 
 forms, extending far beyond the sides of the boat In this 
 manner they are conveyed to different parts of the rivers, 
 and turned out to seek their food upon the muddy banks 
 and shoals. So well disciplined are these birds, that, 
 upon a given signal, they follow their leaders with great 
 regularity up the inclined board, by which they return to 
 their habitation on the close of the day's feeding. The 
 flesh is preserved by the bodies of the ducks being split 
 open, flattened, and salted, and in this condition exposed 
 to the dry northerly winds during the cold months. 
 
 The consumption of salted provisions is very general, 
 and enables the government to draw a large revenue from 
 the gahelle which it levies on salt. In consequence of the 
 immense quantities of both sea and river fish which are 
 daily caught, and the rapidly putrescent nature of that 
 species of provision, a considerable portion is cured with 
 salt, and dried in the sun, the haut gout which generally 
 accompanies it being rather a recommendation to the 
 taste of the Chinese. Indeed, it is one of their most 
 favourite as well as universal articles of food ; and they 
 even overcame their prejudice or indiflPerence for whatever
 
 376 MANNERS AND CUSTOMS. Ciiai'. X. 
 
 is foreign, on the occasion of salted cod being introduced 
 for two or three years in Engh^h ships ; the somewhat 
 decayed condition in which it reached China being said 
 to have been anything but a drawback. This species of 
 cargo, however, besides its disagreeable nature, and the 
 injurious effect which it might have on more delicate 
 articles of shipment, was found during the long voyage to 
 breed a peculiar insect, which, from the readiness with 
 which it bored into the planks and timbers of a ship, was 
 considered as dangerous, and accordingly the import was 
 greatly discontinued. 
 
 The middling and poorer classes are amply accommo- 
 dated with taverns and eating-houses, where, for a very 
 small sum, a hot breakfast or dinner may be obtained in a 
 moment. There were some favourable specimens of these 
 at Canton, to the west of the factories, built up to the 
 height of two stories, and looking down the river. Such 
 was the jealous inhospitality of the local government, 
 or rather of the Hong merchants (who had charge of 
 foreigners), that the owners of these taverns were strictly 
 prohibited from entertaining Europeans ; and they have 
 often refused all offers from those who wished to try the 
 entertainment which they afforded. Such of the Chinese 
 of respectability as have not their families at Canton 
 frequently resort to these places in the evening, where 
 they are provided with a comfortable dinner ; and about 
 the period of sunset the whole range is seen gaily lighted 
 up through its several stories. 
 
 The public-houses for the poorer j)eople are generally 
 open sheds, and on particular festivals these consist of a 
 temporary structure of matting, with a boarded floor, 
 fitted up with tables and benches, and affording the means 
 of gambling and drinking to the dissolute portion of the 
 lowest class. To the credit of the Chinese as a nation, it
 
 Chap. X. TAVERNS-GAMBLIXG. 377 
 
 must be stated that the proportion which this description 
 of persons bears to their numerovis population is not 
 Uirffe. The seafaring inhabitants of Canton and Fokien 
 are perhaps among the worst. The dangerous profession 
 of these poor people, and their unsettled, wandering 
 habits, tend together to give them the reckless and im- 
 provident character which is often found attached to the 
 lower grades of the maritime profession in other countries. 
 Mr. Gutzlafl" has drawn a very revolting picture of the 
 sailors who navigate the Chinese junks, and his account is 
 no doubt in the main quite correct ; but it must be ob- 
 served, in general, of the gentlemen of his profession, both 
 Catholics and Protestants, that, accustomed habitually to 
 view the heathen almost exclusively on the side of their 
 spiritual wants, they have sometimes drawn rather too 
 unfavourable a picture of their moral character. This, 
 however, is more true of many others than of Mr. Gutz- 
 laff, whose candour has occasionally done fair justice to 
 the inhabitants of the Chinese empire, on the score of 
 their good qualities. 
 
 Though the lowest orders are certainly very prone to 
 gambling, this is a vice which is chiefly confined to them. 
 So much infamy attaches to the practice in any official or 
 respectable station, and the law in such cases is so severe, 
 that the better classes are happily exempt from it. This 
 seems to be a point on which the liberty of the subject 
 may in any community (where public opinion is ineffec- 
 tual) be unceremoniously violated, very much to its own 
 benefit, since true liberty consists in the power to do 
 everything except that which is plainly opposed to the 
 general good. Those laudable inventions, dice, cards, 
 and dominoes, are all of them known to the Chinese. 
 Their cards are small pieces of pasteboard, about two 
 inches long and an inch broad, with black and red cha-
 
 378 MANNERS AND CUSTOMS. Ciiai-. X. 
 
 racters on the faces. The idle and dissolute sometimes 
 train quails for fighting, as the Malays do cocks ; and even 
 a species of cricket is occasionally made subservient to 
 this cruel j)urpose.* Tiic Chinese chess differs in board, 
 men, and moves, from that of India, and cannot in any 
 way be identified with it, except as being a game of skill, 
 and not of chance. 
 
 They have two contrivances for the promotion of drink- 
 ing at their merry-meetings. One of these, called Tsoey- 
 moey, consists in each person guessing at the number of 
 fingers suddenly held up between himself and his adver- 
 sary, and the penalty of the loser is each time to drink a 
 cup of wine. In still, calm evenings, during the continu- 
 ance of the Chinese festivals, the yells of the common 
 people engaged at this tipsy sport are sometimes heard 
 to drown all other noises. It is precisely the same as the 
 game of tnorra, common among the lower orders in Italy 
 at the present day, and derived by them from the Roman 
 sport of micare digitis, of which Cicero remarked 
 that " you must have great faith in the honesty of any 
 man with whom you played in the dark ;" — " multd fide 
 opus est, ut cum aliquo in tenehris miees.'' The other fes- 
 tive game is a handsome bouquet of choice flowers, to be 
 circulated quickly from hand to hand among the guests, 
 while a rapid roll is kept up on a kettle-drum in an 
 adjoining apartment. Whoever may chance to hold the 
 flowers at the instant the drum stops, pays forfeit by 
 drinking a cup of wine. It may be easily imagined that 
 this rational amusement, at which the author (proh pu- 
 dor !) has more than once assisted, occasionally gives 
 rise to scenes worthy of Sir Toby and his associates in 
 ' Twelfth Night.' 
 
 * Two of them are placed togetlier in a bowl, and irritated until 
 they tear each other to pieces.
 
 Chap. X. AMUSEMENTS. 379 
 
 In lieu of theatrical entertainments at their dinners, 
 conjuring, sleight of hand, and other species of dexterity, 
 are sometimes introduced for the diversion of the assem- 
 bly. The conjuror has always an accomplice, as usual, 
 who serves to distract the attention of the spectators. 
 One of their best exhibitions of mere dexterity is where a 
 common china saucer is spun on its bottom upon the end 
 of a rattan cane in a very surprising manner. The rapid 
 revolution communicated to the saucer by the motion of 
 the performer's wrist, through the medium of the flex- 
 ible and elastic rattan, keeps it whirling round without 
 falling, even though the cane is occasionally held nearly 
 horizontally, and sometimes passed behind the back or 
 under the legs of the exhibitor. It may be observed 
 that the saucer is seldom in danger of falling, except for 
 the moment when the eye of the performer may be taken 
 off from it. 
 
 Among their out-of-door amusements, a very common 
 (me is to play at shuttlecock with the feet. A circle of 
 some half-a-dozen keep up in this manner the game 
 between them with considerable dexterity, the thick soles 
 of their shoes serving^ them in lieu of battledores, and the 
 hand being allowed occasionally to assist. In kite-flying 
 the Chinese certainly excel all others, both in the va- 
 rious construction of their kites, and the heights to which 
 they make them rise. They have a very thin, as well as 
 tough, sort of paper, made of refuse silk, which, in combi- 
 nation with the split bamboo, is excellently adapted to 
 the purpose. The kites are made to assume every pos- 
 sible shape ; and, at a great distance, it is impossible 
 sometimes to distinguish them from real birds. By 
 means of round holes, supplied with vibrating cords or 
 other substances, they contrive to produce a loud hum- 
 ming noise, something like that of a top, occasioned by
 
 380 
 
 MANNERS AND CUSTOMS. 
 
 ClIAl'. X. 
 
 Chinese Juggler. 
 
 the rapid passage of the air as it is opposed to the kite. 
 At a particular season of the year, not only boys, but 
 grown men, take a part in this amusement, and the sport 
 sometimes consists in trying to bring each other's kites 
 down by dividing the strings. 
 
 The taste of the Chinese court in its amusements was 
 observed by the several embassies to be nearly as puerile 
 as that of most other Asiatics. Farces, tumbling, and 
 fireworks were the usual diversions with which the emperor 
 and his guests were regaled. Two of the sovereigns of 
 this Tartar dynasty, Kang-hy and Kien-loong, maintained 
 the hardy and warlike habits of the Manchows by fre- 
 quent hunting expeditions to the northward of the Great 
 W^all. They proceeded at the head of a little army, by 
 which the game was enclosed in rings, and thus exposed 
 to the skill of the emperor and his grandees. We find, 
 from Pere Gerbillon's account of his hunting expedition 
 with Kang-hy, that a portion of the train consisted of fal-
 
 Chap. X. AMUSEMENTS. 381 
 
 coners, each of whom had the charge of a single bird. The 
 personal skill and prowess of Kang-hy appear to have 
 been considerable, and we have the following description 
 from Gerbillon of the death of a large bear: — "This 
 animal being heavy and unable to run for any length of 
 time, he stopped on the declivity of a hill, and the 
 emperor, standing on the side of the opposite hill, shot him 
 at leisure, and with the first arrow pierced his side with a 
 deadly wound. When the animal found himself hurt, he 
 gave a dreadful roar, and turned his head with fury 
 towards the arrow that stuck in his belly. In the endea- 
 vour to pull it out, he broke it short, and then, running a 
 few paces farther, he stopped exhausted. The emperor, 
 upon this, alighting from his horse, took a half-pike, used 
 by the Manchows against tigers, and, accompanied by 
 four of the ablest hunters armed in the same way, he 
 approached the bear and killed him outright with a stab 
 of his half-pike." 
 
 The amusements of the emperor's court on the ice, 
 during the severe winters of Peking, are thus given by 
 Van Braam, who was one of the Dutch mission which 
 proceeded from Canton soon after Lord Macartney's em- 
 bassy : — " The emperor made his appearance on a sort of 
 sledge, supported by the figures of four dragons. This 
 machine was moved about by several mandarins, some 
 dragging before, and others pushing behind. The four 
 principal ministers of state were also drawn upon the ice 
 in their sledges by inferior mandarins. Whole troops of 
 civil and military officers soon appeared, some on sledges, 
 some on skates, and others playing at football on the ice, 
 and he that picked up the ball was rewarded by the em- 
 peror. The ball was then hung up in a kind of arch, and 
 several mandarins shot at it in passing on skates, with 
 their bows and arrows. Their skates were cut oft" short
 
 382 MANNERS AND CUSTOMS. Chai'. X. 
 
 under the heel, and the fore part was turned up at rig-ht 
 angles." Those diversions are quite in the spirit of the 
 Tartars, whose original habits were strongly o])posed to 
 those of the quiet and effeminate Chinese. However 
 robust and athletic the labouring classes in the southern 
 provinces of the empire, those who are not supported by 
 bodily exertion are in general extremely feeble and inac- 
 tive. Unlike the European gentry, they seldom mount on 
 a horse, if not of the military profession ; and as nobody 
 who can afford a chair ever moves in any other way, the 
 benefits of walking are also lost to them. Nothiner 
 surprises one of these Chinese gentlemen more than the 
 voluntary exertion which Europeans impose on them- 
 selves for the sake of health as well as amusement. 
 Much of this inactivity of habit must of course be attri- 
 buted to the great heat of the climate during a consider- 
 able portion of the year ; and they would be greater 
 sufferers from their sedentary lives were it not for the be- 
 neficial custom of living entirely in the 02)en air, with warm 
 clothing, during even the winter months — that is, in the 
 south ; for to the northward the extreme cold compels 
 them to resort to their stoves and flues, with closed win- 
 dows and doors. The apartments of houses at Canton 
 are always built quite open to the south, though defended 
 from the bleak northerly winds by windows of oyster- 
 shells or slass.
 
 Chap. XI. COSTUMES. 383 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 MAXXERS AXD CUSTOMS — {continued.) 
 
 Costume of upper classes — Arms not worn — Summer and winter 
 costume — Paucity of linen — Furs and skins — No sudden changes 
 of fashion — Modes prescribed by authority — Honours to just 
 magistrates — Shaving and shampooing — Female dress — Dwell- 
 ings — Gardens — Furuitm-e — Travelling by land — The post — 
 Itinerary — Conveyance of goods — Travelling by water — The 
 vessels — Passing a sluice — Antiquity of canals. 
 
 " When dressed, every Chinese of any station wears by 
 his side a variety of accoutrements which would strike a 
 stranger as being of a warlike character, but which prove, 
 on examination, to be very peaceful appendages. A 
 worked silk sheath encloses a fan. A small leather bag, 
 not unlike a cartouche-box, suspended to the belt, supplies 
 flint and steel for lighting the pipe ; and the tobacco is 
 carried in an embroidered purse or pouch," Dr. Abel 
 thus describes the appearance of the first well-dressed 
 Chinese whom he saw on reaching the shores of the 
 Yellow Sea. Arms are, in fact, never worn on the per- 
 son except by soldiers at parade ; and even the military 
 mandarins do not wear swords on ordinary occasions of 
 ceremony. The common people are not allowed to be 
 seen with arms, except for specific purposes of self-pro- 
 tection, as when carrying off their property from a fire, 
 or for a defence against river pirates, and the like. 
 
 The possession of fire-arms is altogether forbidden by 
 the jealous government, as may be seen from the follow-
 
 384 
 
 MANNERS AND CUSTOMS. 
 
 GuAi'. XI. 
 
 Fan and Case. 
 
 ing extract from a Peking gazette : — " For the people to 
 have fire-arms in their possession is contrary to law, and 
 orders have already been issued to each provincial govern- 
 ment to fix a period within which all matchlocks belong-
 
 CH.vr. XI. SUMMER AND WINTER DRESS. 385 
 
 ing to individuals should be bought up at a valua- 
 tion AMth regard to those fire-arms which are in 
 
 immediate use for the safeguard of the country, the said 
 governor has already directed the proper officers to carve 
 on every matchlock the name of the person to whom it 
 is delivered, and to preserve a general register of the 
 whole. Let the governor also give strict charge to make 
 diligent search and prevent the illicit storing up of fire- 
 aiTns for the future ; and let the workers in iron be 
 rigidly looked after, lest they clandestinely manufacture 
 and sell them : the evil may thus be cut off in its com- 
 mencement. Those officers who have made full and 
 complete musters within the limited period, the governor 
 is directed to notice properly as an encouragement to 
 others." Those Chinese near Canton who employ them- 
 selves in shootinof wild-fowl for sale are said to belong 
 mostly to the militia of the province. The war with Eng- 
 land, however, was followed by a general relaxation of the 
 above rule. The government encouraged the populace to 
 arm themselves, vessels of all descriptions were licensed to 
 carry arms, the licences not being withdrawn, and hence 
 the spread of piracy on the coast went on until it attained 
 its recent extent. 
 
 The extremes of heat and cold which prevail through- 
 out the country at opposite seasons of the year, joined to 
 the general custom of living very much in the open air, 
 are the causes which have probably given rise to the 
 broad and marked distinctions that exist between the 
 summer and the winter dress of the better classes. The 
 difference is principally marked by the cap. The summer 
 cap is a cone of finely woven filaments of bamboo, or a 
 substance resembling chip, and surmounted, in persons of 
 any rank, by a red, blue, white, or gilded ball at the apex 
 or point of the cone. From the insertion of this orna- 
 
 VOL. 1. S
 
 886 
 
 MANNERS AND CUSTOMS. 
 
 Chap. XI. 
 
 mental ball descends all around over the cap a fringe, or 
 rather bunch of crimson silk, or of red horsehair ; in 
 front of the cap is sometimes worn a single large pearl. 
 
 
 The winter cap, instead of being a cone, fits closer to 
 the shape of the head, and has a brim, turned sharply up 
 all round, of black velvet, or fur, and rising a little higher 
 in front and behind than at the sides. The dome-shaped
 
 Chap. XI. SUMMER AND WINTER DRESS. 387 
 
 top is surmounted by the same ball as in the other case, 
 denoting the rank of the wearer ; and from the ])oint of 
 insertion descends a bunch of fine crimson silk just cover- 
 ing the dome. On the commencement of the cold or hot 
 weather, the first person in each province, as the Tsoong- 
 to, or viceroy, assumes his winter or summer cap ; the 
 circumstance is noticed in the official gazette, or court 
 circular, and this is the signal for every man under his 
 government to make the same change. In the embassy 
 of 1816 the imperial legate who conducted the mission 
 down to Canton, being for the time superior in rank to the 
 nceroy, in this manner put on his winter cap, and gave 
 the example to the province through which he was pass- 
 ing. Within doors they usually wear, in cold weather, a 
 small skull-cap, either plain or ornamented. 
 
 The summer garment of the better classes is a long 
 loose crown of light silk, gauze, or linen, hanofino- free 
 at ordinary times, but on occasions of dress gathered in 
 round the middle by a girdle of strong wTought silk, 
 which is fastened in front by a clasp of agate, or of the 
 jade, which the Chinese called ^ii. In an oppressive 
 climate, when the thermometer is at 80° or 90°, there is 
 much ease and comfort in the loose sleeves, and the free- 
 dom from restraint about the neck, by which this dress is 
 distinguished ; and the tight sleeves with the huge collars 
 and stocks of Europeans very naturally made them objects 
 of compassion, if not ridicule. To the girdle are fastened 
 the various articles noticed by Dr. Abel, as the fan-case, 
 tobacco-pouch, flint and steel, and sometimes a sheath 
 with a small knife and a pair of chopsticks. They are 
 very proud of displaying a watch, which is inserted in an 
 embroidered silk case or pouch. 
 
 The winter dress, being nearly as loose as that of sum- 
 mer, is less calculated to promote w^armth and comfort 
 
 s 2
 
 388 
 
 MANNERS AND CUSTOMS. 
 
 Chap. XI. 
 
 than the Eiiro])oan costume, and at the same time more 
 unfavourable to bodily activity and exertion. Over a 
 longer dress of silk or crape, which reaches to the ankles, 
 they wear a large-sleeved spencer, called ma-hva (or 
 riding-coat), which does not descend below the hips. This 
 is often entirely of fur, but sometimes of silk or broad- 
 cloth lined with skins. The neck, which in summer is 
 left quite bare, is protected in winter with a narrow collar 
 of silk or fur ; their loose dresses always fold over to the 
 right breast, where they are fastened from top to bottom, 
 at intervals of a few inches, by gilt or crystal buttons (the 
 latter in mourning) with loops. 
 
 Chinese Gentleman and Servant.— From Chinese Paintings. 
 
 In summer the nether garment is loose, and not unlike 
 ancient Dutch breeches ; but in w inter an indescribable 
 pair of tight leggings are drawn on separately over all, 
 and fastened up to the sides of the person, leaving the 
 voluminous article of dress above-mentioned to hang out 
 behind, in a maimer that is anything but pleasant. Stock- 
 ings of cotton or silk, wove and not knit, are worn by all
 
 Chap. XI. 
 
 DRESSES OF CEREMONY. 
 
 389 
 
 who can aiFord them ; and, in winter, persons of a certain 
 rank wear boots of cloth, satin, or velvet, with the usual 
 thick white sole, which is kept clean by ivJdting instead 
 of blacking, in the usual style of contrariety to our cus- 
 toms. The thick soles of their boots and shoes in all 
 probability arose from the circumstance of their not pos- 
 sessing such a substance as ivell-tanned leather, a thinner 
 layer of which is sufficient to exclude the wet. The shoes 
 made for Europeans at Canton are perfectly useless in 
 rainy weather, and spoiled on the very first wetting. 
 
 Men's Shoes. 
 
 The Chinese dresses of ceremony are exceedingly rich 
 and handsome, and contrast to great advantage with the 
 queer unmeaning capings and skirtings of our coats. The 
 colour of the spencer is usually dark blue, or ])urple, and 
 the long dress beneath is commonly of some lighter and 
 gayer hue. On state occasions this last is very splendidly 
 embroidered with dragons or other devices in silk and 
 gold, and the cost amounts frequently to large sums. At 
 the* imperial feast of which the last embassy partook at 
 Tien-tsin, the crowd of mandarins in full dress, sur- 
 mounted by their crimson caps and various-coloured balls, 
 certainly produced a striking effect. 
 
 The great sin of the Chinese costume is the paucity of
 
 390 MANNERS AND CUSTOMS. Chap. XI. 
 
 Avhitc linen, and consequently of washing-. Even their 
 bo(ly-<xarnicnt is sometimes a species of light silk, but 
 capable of purification. All the rest of their dress beinjg 
 of silks or furs, there is less demand for white calico or 
 linen in proportion to the numbers than in any other coun- 
 try. They spread neither sheets upon their beds nor 
 cloths on their tables, and the want of personal cleanliness 
 has of course a tendency to promote cutaneous and leprous 
 complaints. Their substitute for soap is an alkaline ley, 
 derived from a mineral substance, and rather corrosive in 
 its nature. 
 
 The skins of all animals are converted into apparel for 
 the winter. The lower orders use those of sheep, cats, 
 dogs, goats, and squirrels. Even rat and mouse skins are 
 sewai together for garments. The expensive fur dresses 
 of the higher orders descend from father to son, and form 
 sometimes no inconsiderable portion of the family in- 
 heritance. At an entertainment in Canton, where the 
 })arty, according to the custom of the country, were seated 
 in an open room without fires, the European guests began 
 to complain of cold ; upon which the host immediately 
 accommodated the whole number of ten or twelve with 
 handsome wide-sleeved spencers, all of the most costly 
 furs, telling them at the same time that he had plenty 
 more in reserve. They have one singular species of re- 
 finement on the score of skins. The young lamb in ntero, 
 after a certain period of gestation, is taken out, and its 
 skin prepared with the fine silky wool u})on it for dresses, 
 which of course require, on account of their small size, a 
 great number of landis to be thus "untimely ripped,"* and 
 the luxury is therefore an expensive one. 
 
 The Chinese, perhaps, may be said to ])()ssess an advan- 
 tage in the absence of those pei-petual and frequently 
 absurd mutations of fashion in Euroj)e, which at one
 
 CiiAP. xr. FASHIONS PRESCRIBED. 391 
 
 period blow out the same individual like a balloon, whom 
 at another they contract into a mummy ; and which are fre- 
 quently ridiculed and followed in excess at one and the 
 same time. They are not at the mercy and disposal, in 
 matters of taste, of those who make their clothes, and their 
 modes generally last as long as their garments. The 
 human shape and dress are not varied with the infinite 
 mutations of a kaleidoscope ; and that peculiar, though 
 indisputable species of merit, " being in the height of 
 the fashion," the honours of which must be chiefly shared 
 with the tailor and the milliner, is nearly unknown to 
 them. 
 
 The only setter of fashions is the Board of Rites and 
 Ceremonies at Peking, and to depart materially from 
 their ordinances would be considered as something- worse 
 than mere mauvais ton. It is their business not only to 
 prescribe the forms on all occasions of worship or of cere- 
 mony, but the costumes which are to be worn must be in 
 strict couformity to rule. The dresses of all ranks and 
 orders, and of both sexes, about the imperial palace, are 
 specified, as regards cut, colour, and material, with as 
 much precision as in any court of Europe. From the 
 Tartar religion of the Lamas, the rosary of 108 beads has 
 become a part of the ceremonial dress attached to the 
 nine grades of official rank. It consists of a necklace of 
 stones and coral nearly as large as a pigeon's egg, de- 
 scending to the waist, and distinguished by various beads 
 according to the quality of the wearer. There is a smaller 
 rosary of only eighteen beads, of inferior size, with which 
 the bonzes count their prayers and ejaculations, exactly as 
 in the Romish ritual. The laity in China sometimes wear 
 this at the waist, perfumed with musk, and give it the 
 name of Sedng-cJioo, " fragrant beads." 
 
 The various appendages worn at the girdle, as the
 
 392 
 
 MANNERS AND CUSTOMS. 
 
 Cii.\i>. XI. 
 
 purse or pouch, the steel and flint case for lighting the 
 pipe, the watch-case, &c., are generally of the finest silk 
 embroidery, which fonns one of the principal accomplish- 
 
 ments of Chinese ladies. Indeed all the handsome crape 
 shawls taken to England, some of which cost from sixty 
 to eighty dollars, are entirely the work of women, many
 
 Chap. XI. ORNAMENTAL APPENDAGES. 393 
 
 of whom earn more than twenty dollars a month by their 
 labour. A Chinese is seldom seen without his snufF-])ottle, 
 which is of oval construction, and less than two inches in 
 length, the stopper having a small spoon attached, similar 
 to that for cayenne-pepper, with which a portion of snuff 
 is laid on the left hand, at the lower joint of the thumb, 
 and thus lifted to the nose. The material of these bottles 
 is sometimes of porcelain, or of variegated glass, carved 
 with considerable skill in the style of cameos ; or of rock- 
 crystal, with small figures or writing on the inside, per- 
 formed in a manner which it is not easy to understand. 
 
 Among the presents sent to, or, in the language of 
 Peking diplomacy, conferred upon foreign sovereigns, is 
 the embroidered silk purse, one of which the old emperor 
 Kien-loong took from his side and gave to the youth who 
 officiated as page to Lord Macartney. This, however, 
 was of the imperial yellow colour, with the five-clawed 
 dragon, and could hardly be worn by Chinese subjects, 
 who always displayed the most profound reverence and 
 admiration when they saw it, and knew it was fi'om the 
 great emperor's own person. The ornament which has 
 sometimes, for want of a better name, being called a 
 sceptre, is, in fact, an emblem of amity and good will, of 
 a shape less bent than the letter S, about eighteen inches 
 in length, and cut from ihejade or yu stone. It is called 
 joo-ee, " as you wish," and is simply exchanged as a costly 
 mark of friendship ; but that it had a religious origin 
 seems indicated by the sacred flower of the lotus 
 (Nymphcea nelumho) being generally carved on the 
 superior end. 
 
 The Chinese have some singular modes of demon- 
 strating their respect and regard on the departure of any 
 public magistrate .whose government has been marked by 
 moderation and justice. A deputation sometimes waits 
 
 s3
 
 394 MANNERS AND CUSTOMS. Chap. XI. 
 
 on liiin with a habit composed of every variety of colour, 
 " a coat of many colours," as if made by a general con- 
 tribution from the people. With this he is solemnly in- 
 vested, and, thoug^h of course the garment is not intended 
 to be worn, it is preserved as an honourable relic In the 
 family. On quitting the district he is accompanied by 
 the crowds that follow his chair, or kneel by the way-side, 
 while at intervals on the road are placed tables of pro- 
 visions and sticks of incense burning. These honours were 
 shown to a former Fooyucn of Canton, a man of a most 
 eccentric but upright character, who, unlike so many 
 others in his situation, would never take anything from 
 the Hong merchants or others under his authority. He 
 seemed to have a supreme indifference for human grandeur, 
 and at length retired by his own choice, and the emperor's 
 permission, into private life, from whence it is said he 
 became a devotee of Budh. On his quitting (^anton a 
 very singular ceremony was observed in conformity with 
 ancient Chinese usage on such rare occasions ; when he 
 had accepted the various demonstrations of liomage and 
 respect from those who had been deputed by the people 
 to wait on him, he proceeded from his residence towards 
 the city gates, and, being there arrived, his hoots were 
 taken off, to be preserved as a valued relic, while their 
 place was supplied by a new pair. This was repeated 
 more than once as he proceeded on his way, the boots 
 which he had only once drawn on being regarded as 
 precious memorials. The conduct of the higher magis- 
 trates cannot fail to be influenced sometimes by the am- 
 bition of earning such popular honours, and there can be 
 little doubt that, in places less exposed to the contagion 
 of vice and temptation than Canton, there are good 
 magistrates in China as well as elsewhere. 
 
 But to return to costumes. The head of the men, as
 
 Chap. XI. SHAVING AND SIIAMrOOING. 395 
 
 we have before noticed, is invariably shaven, except at the 
 top, whence the tail depends in conformity with the Tartar 
 custom ; the only change being in mourning, when the 
 hair is allowed to grow. The Chinese having so little 
 beard, the principal work for the razor is on the head, and 
 consequently no person ever shaves himself. The great 
 number of barbers is a striking feature in all towns, and 
 sufficiently explained by the prevailing custom. They 
 exercise the additional function of shampooing, which, 
 with the antecedent shave, occupies altogether a con- 
 siderable time. Every barber carries about with him, 
 slung from a stick across his shoulder, all the instruments 
 of his vocation in a compendious form. On one side 
 hangs a stool, under which are drawers containing his in- 
 struments ; and this is counterpoised at the other end by 
 a small charcoal furnace under a vessel of water which it 
 serves to heat. Their razors are extremely clumsy in 
 appearance, but very keen and efficient in use. It is not 
 the custom for the men to wear moustaches before forty 
 years of age, nor beards before sixty. These generally 
 grow in thin tufts, and it is only in a few individuals that 
 they assume the bushy appearance observable in other 
 Asiatics. 
 
 The women would frequently be very pretty, were it 
 not for the shocking: custom of daubino^ their faces with 
 white and red paint, to which may be added the deformity 
 of cramped feet. In point of health, however, this is in a 
 great degree made up by the total absence of tight lacing, 
 and of all ligatures and confinements whatever about the 
 vital parts. The consequence is that their children are 
 born very straight-limbed, and births are scarcely ever 
 attended with disaster. Their dress is extremely modest 
 and becoming, and, in the higher classes, as splendid as 
 the most exquisite silks and embroidery can make it ; for
 
 300 MANNERS AND CUSTOMS. Chap. XI. 
 
 the Chinese certahily reserve the best of their silk manu- 
 factures for themselves. What we often choose to call dress 
 they would rcfrard as absolute nudity, and all close fitting 
 to the shape as only displaying- what it affects to conceal. 
 
 Unmarried women wear their hair hanging down in 
 long tresses, and the putting up of the hair is one of the 
 ceremonies preparatory to marriage. It is twisted up 
 towards the back of the head, ornamented with flowers or 
 jewels, and fastened with two bodkins stuck in crosswise. 
 They sometimes wear an ornament representing the foong- 
 hoang, or Chinese phoenix, composed of gold and jewels, 
 the wings hovering, and the beak of the bird hanging over 
 the forehead, on an elastic spring. After a certain time 
 of life the women wear a silk wrapper round the head in 
 lieu of any other dress. The eyebrows of the young 
 women are fashioned until they represent a fine curved 
 line, which is compared to the new moon when only a day 
 or two old, or to the young leaflet of the willow. 
 
 Pink and green, two colours often worn by women, are 
 confined exclusively to them, and never seen on men. 
 The ordinary dress is a large-sleeved robe of silk, or of 
 cotton among the poorer sort, over a longer garment, 
 sometimes of a pink colour ; under which are loose 
 trousers, which are fastened round the ankle, just above 
 the small foot and tight shoe. A proverbial expression 
 among the Chinese for the concealment of defects is — 
 " long robes to hide large feet." Notwithstanding this, 
 the Tartar women, or their lords, have had the good sense 
 to preserve the ladies' feet of the natural size. In other 
 respects, however, they dress nearly as the (-hinese, and 
 paint their faces white and red in the same style. 
 
 The ordinary dress of men among the labouring classes 
 is extremely well suited to give full play to the body : it 
 consists in summer of only a pair of loose cotton trousers
 
 Ch.vp. XI. 
 
 FEMALE DRESS— DWELLINGS. 
 
 39; 
 
 tied round the middle, and a shirt or smock, equally 
 loose, hanging over it. In very hot weather tlie smock is 
 thrown off altogether, and only the trousers retained. 
 They defend the head from the sun by a very broad 
 
 Husbandman. 
 
 umbrella-shaped hat of bamboo slips interwoven, which 
 in winter is exchanged for a felt cap ; and in rainy 
 weather they have cloaks of a species of flags or reeds, 
 from which the water runs as from a pent-house. A large 
 portion of the peasantry wear no shoes, but some are 
 furnished, particularly those who carry heavy burdens, 
 with sandals of straw to protect the feet. 
 
 In describing the dwellings of the Chinese, we may 
 observe that, in the ordinary plan, they bear a curious 
 resemblance to the remains of the Roman habitations 
 disinterred from the scorise and ashes of Pompeii. The 
 Pompeian villa at the Crystal Palace recalls at once the 
 plan of a Chinese house. They consist usually of a 
 ground floor, divided into several apartments within 
 the dead wall that fronts the street, and lit only by
 
 398 MANNERS AND CUSTOMS. Chap. XI. 
 
 windows looking into the internal courtyard. The prin- 
 cipal room, next to the entrance, serves to receive visitors 
 as well as for eating ; and within are the more private 
 apartments, the doorways of which are screened by 
 pendent curtains of silk or cotton, round inner courts 
 open to the sky. Near Peking, the embassies found 
 most of the apartments furnished with a couch or bed- 
 place of brickwork, having a furnace below to warm it 
 during the winter. This was usually covered with a felt 
 rug or mat, which, with the assistance of the warmth, 
 gave perpetual lodging to swarms of vermin, and ren- 
 dered the bed-places quite unavailable to the English 
 travellers. These flues, however, are very necessary 
 during the severe winters, when the fires in the better 
 houses are lit on the outside ; but in poorer ones the fur- 
 nace is wdthin, and serves the double purpose of cooking 
 and warmth, the whole family huddling round it. 
 
 All houses of consequence are entered by a triple gate- 
 way, consisting of one large folding-door in the centre, 
 and of a smaller one on either side. These last serve for 
 ordinary occasions, while the first is thrown open for the 
 reception of distinguished guests. Large lanterns of a 
 cylindrical shape are hung at the sides, on which are in- 
 scribed the name and titles of the inhabitant of the man- 
 sion, so as to be read either by day or at night when the 
 lanterns are lit. Just within the gates is the covered 
 court, where the sedan-chair stands, surrounded by red 
 varnished label-boards, having inscribed in gilt characters 
 the full titles of any person of rank and consequence. 
 We cannot better describe^ one of their larger mansions 
 than in the words of Sir George Staunton :* — "This 
 palace was built on the general model of the dwellings of 
 great mandarins. The whole enclosure was in the form 
 * Embassy, vol. ii. p. 139.
 
 Chap. XL DWELLINGS. 399 
 
 of a parallelogram, and surrounded by a high brick wall, 
 the outside of which exhibited a plain blank surface, 
 except near one of its angles, where the gateway opened 
 into a narrow street, little promising the handsome struc- 
 tures withinside. The wall in its whole length supported 
 the upper ridge of the roof, whose lower edges, resting 
 upon an interior wall parallel to the other, formed a long 
 range of buildings divided into apartments for servants, 
 and offices. The rest of the enclosure was subdivided 
 into several quadrangular courts of different sizes. In 
 each quadrangle were buildings upon platforms of granite, 
 and surrounded by a colonnade. The columns were of 
 wood, nearly sixteen feet in height, and as many inches 
 in diameter at the lower end, decreasing to the upper 
 extremity about one-sixth. They had neither capital nor 
 base, according to the strict meaning of those terms in 
 the orders of Grecian architecture, nor any divisions of 
 the space called the entablature, being plain to the very 
 top, which supports the cornice ; and were without any 
 swell at the lower end, where they were let into hollows 
 cut into stones for their reception, and which formed a 
 circular ring round each, somewhat in the Tuscan manner. 
 Between the columns, for about one-fourth of the length 
 of the shaft from the cornice downwards, was carved and 
 ornamented woodwork, which might be termed the en^ 
 tablature, and was of a different colour from the columns, 
 which were universally red. This colonnade served to 
 support that part of the roof which projected beyond 
 the wall-plate in a curve, turning up at the angles. By 
 means of such roofed colonnades every part of those 
 extensive buildings might be visited under cover. The 
 number of pillars throughout the whole was not fewer 
 than six hundred. 
 
 " Annexed to the principal apartment, now destined
 
 400 :\rAXXERS AND CUSTOMS. Chai-. XI. 
 
 for the ambassador, was an elevated building, intended 
 for the purposes of a private theatre and eoncert-room, 
 with retiring apartments behind, and a gallery for spec- 
 tators round it. None of the buildings were above one 
 story, except that which comprised the ladies' apartments 
 during the residence of the owner: it was situated in 
 the inmost quadrangle. The front consisted of one long 
 and lofty hall, with windows of (.^orean paper, through 
 which no object could be distinguished on the other side. 
 On the back of this hall was carried a gallery, at the 
 height of about ten feet, which led to several small rooms, 
 lighted only from the hall. Those inner windows were 
 of silk gauze, stretched on frames of wood, and worked 
 with the needle in flowers, fruit, birds, and insects, and 
 others painted in water-colours. This apartment was 
 fitted in a neater style, though upon a smaller scale, than 
 most of the others. To this part of the building was 
 attached a small back court with offices ; the whole cal- 
 culated for privacy. 
 
 " In one of the outer quadrangles was a piece of water, 
 in the midst of which a stone room was built, exactly in the 
 shape of one of the covered barges of the country. In others 
 of the quadrangles were planted trees, and, in the largest, 
 a huge heap of rocks rudely piled, but firmly fixed upon 
 each other, and at one end was a spot laid out for a garden 
 in miniature ; but it did not appear to have been finished." 
 
 In the best Chinese mansions there are seldom any 
 stairs beyond the few stone steps by which they are raised 
 above the general level of the ground. The stonework of 
 the foundation is extremely solid and handsome, and in 
 the neighbourhood of Canton it is always of granite. The 
 walls are of blue brick, frequently with an artificial facing 
 or pointing, by which strangers arc apt to be deceived as 
 to the fineness of their brickwork. They work in stucco
 
 Chap. XI, DWELLINGS. -iO 1 
 
 with great skill, representing animals, flowers, and fruits, 
 which are sometimes coloured to imitate nature ; and the 
 cheapness of this ornament makes it very common. The 
 partition- walls of the inner courts are frequently broken 
 into compartments, which are filled with an open work 
 of green varnished tile, or coarse porcelain. The mode 
 in which they tile their roofs is evidently derived from the 
 use of split bamboos for the same purpose, as it is practised 
 to this day by the Malays, and described by Marsden. 
 The transverse section of these tiles being something of a 
 semicircle, they are laid down the roof with their concave 
 sides uppermost to serve as gutters, the upturned edges of 
 every range being contiguous. But as these would admit 
 the rain at the lines of contact, other tiles are laid in a 
 contrary position over them, and the whole secured in 
 their places by mortar. The Portuguese houses in Lisbon 
 are tiled in the same manner, and were perhaps first de- 
 rived from their early knowledge of China. 
 
 In towns, where space is of consequence, the houses 
 and shops of the greater number of the inhabitants have 
 a story above the ground floor, and on the roof is often 
 erected a wooden stage or platform for drying goods, or 
 for taking the air in hot evenings. This custom contri- 
 butes to make their houses very liable to catch and to 
 spread fires during a conflagration. Nothing surprises the 
 Chinese more than the representations or descriptions of 
 the five and six storied houses of European cities ; and the 
 emperor is said to have inquired if it was the smallness of 
 the territory that compelled the inhabitants to build their 
 dwellings so near the clouds. They have the most absurd 
 superstition in regard to the ill-luck that attends the ele- 
 vation of dwellings above a certain height ; and the erec- 
 tion of a gable end (which they denominate by their 
 character for metal, approaching to the same shape) will
 
 402 
 
 :maxxees and customs. 
 
 ClIAl'. XI. 
 
 fill ca whole family with consternation, until certain cere- 
 monies have been performed to dispel the "evil in- 
 fluence.'' These remedies arc about as well founded in 
 
 common sense as the evils which tht^y are employed to 
 remove, and resemble exactly the charms and exorcisms 
 used in our olden time against witches, ghosts, and devils.
 
 Chap. XI. GARDENS. 403 
 
 In the same way that a horseshoe, with us, nailed against 
 the door was an infallihle protection from a witch, the 
 figure of a dragon, with its mouth wide open, opposite to 
 the unlucky roof, swallows up all the ngd-hy, "the bad 
 air, or influence." The Chinese, however, never seem to 
 have reached that height of judicial acumen by which, in 
 former times with us, many a helpless old woman was 
 thrown into the water, to be drowned if she sank, or burnt 
 if she floated. 
 
 The magnificence of Chinese mansions is estimated in 
 some measure by the ground which they cover, and by 
 the number and size of the courts and buildings. The 
 real space is often eked out by winding and complicated 
 passages or galleries, decorated with carving and trellis- 
 work in very good taste. The walks are often paved 
 with figured tiles. Large tanks or ponds, with the nelum- 
 bium, or sacred lotus, are essential to every country-house, 
 and these pools are generally filled with quantities of the 
 golden carp and other fish. Masses of artificial rock 
 either rise out of the water, or are strewn about the 
 grounds, in an affected imitation of nature, and on 
 these are often planted their stunted trees. Sir William 
 Chambers's description of Chinese gardening is a mere 
 prose work of imagination, without a shadow of foun- 
 dation in reality. Their taste is indeed extremely de- 
 fective and vicious on this particular point, and, as an 
 improvement of nature, ranks much on a -par with the 
 cramping of their women's feet. The only exception 
 exists in the gardens, or rather parks, of the emperor 
 at Yuen-ming-yuen, which Mr. Barrow describes as grand 
 both in plan and extent ; but for a subject to imitate 
 these would be almost criminal, even if it were possible. 
 
 The apartments of the Chinese are by no means so full 
 of furniture as ours in England, and, in this res])ect, they
 
 40-t MANNERS AND CUSTOMS. Ciiap. XI. 
 
 liave reached a point of luxury far short of our own. 
 Perhaps, however, they are the only people of Asia who 
 use chairs :* these resemhle the solid and lumhering pieces 
 of furniture which were in fashion more than a century 
 ago, as described by Cowper : — 
 
 " But restless was the chair ; the hack erect 
 Distress'd the weaiy loins, that felt no ease ; 
 The slippeiy seat hetray'd the sliding part 
 That press'd it, and the feet hung dangling down." 
 
 (cushions, with hang-ings for the back, are sometimes used 
 of silk, or English woollens, generally of a scarlet colour, 
 embroidered in silk patterns by the Chinese women. 
 Near the chairs are commonly placed those articles of 
 furniture which the Portuguese call cuspadores, or spit- 
 ting-pots, rendered necessary by the universal habit of 
 smoking', even among the women. The disagreeable 
 noise that attends the clearing the throat and fauces of 
 the poison inhaled by this practice is perpetual among 
 the Chinese, and makes one enter feelingly into the com- 
 plaints which have proceeded from several visitors of the 
 United States, in regard to similar habits (chewing 
 included) among our Transatlantic brethren. 
 
 Among the principal ornaments are the varied lan- 
 terns of silk, horn, and other materials which are sus- 
 })ended from the roofs, adorned with crimson tassels, but 
 which for purposes of illumination are so greatly behind 
 our lamps, and produce more smoke than light. At a 
 Chinese feast one is always reminded of the lighting of a 
 Roman entertainment : — 
 
 " Sordidum flamnia) trepidant rotantcs 
 
 Vertice fumum." 
 
 * Other Asiatics squat on the ground, and eat with their fingers ; 
 while the Chinese sit on chairs or henches, and eat with chopsticks, a 
 very cleanly mode.
 
 CiiAP. XI. FURNITURE. 405 
 
 The great variety, and, in the eyes of a Chinese, the 
 beautv of the written character, occasions its beinjj 
 adopted as an ornament on ahnost all occasions. Cali- 
 graphy (or fine handwriting") is much studied among 
 them, and the autographs of a friend or patron, con- 
 sisting of moral sentences, poetical couplets, or quotations 
 from the sacred books, are kept as memorials, or displayed 
 as ornaments in their apartments. They are generally 
 inscribed largely upon labels of white satin, or fiine- 
 coloured paper, and almost always in pairs, constituting 
 those parallelwns which we shall have to notice under the 
 head of Literature and Poetry. 
 
 In the forms of their furniture they often affect a 
 departure from straight and uniform lines, and adopt 
 what might be called a regular confusion, as in the divi- 
 sions and shelves of a bookcase, or the compartments of 
 a screen. Even in their doorways, instead of a regular 
 right-angled aperture, one often sees a complete circle, or 
 the shape of a leaf, or of a jar. This, however, is only 
 when there are no doors required to be shut, their absence 
 being often supplied by hanging-screens of silk and cloth, 
 or bamboo blinds like those used in India. Their beds 
 are generally very simple, with curtains of silk or cotton 
 in the winter, and a fine mosquito-net during the hot 
 months, when they lie on a mat spread upon the hard 
 bottom of the bed. Two or three boards, with a couple 
 of narrow benches or forms on which to lay them, together 
 with a mat, and three or four bamboo sticks, to stretch 
 the mosquito curtains of coarse hempen cloth, constitute 
 the bed of an ordinary Chinese. 
 
 It may readily be supposed that, in the original country 
 of porcelain, a very usual ornament of dwellings consists 
 of vases and jars of that material, of which the antitpiity 
 is valued above every other quality. This taste has led
 
 400 
 
 MANNERS AND CUSTOMS. 
 
 ClIAI'. XI. 
 
 to the manufacture of ftictitious antiques, not only in 
 ])on'elaln, but in bronze and other substances, — })()ints on 
 whifh L^rau^ors are often very egregiously taken in as 
 purchasers. The shapes of their tripods, and other ancient 
 
 Chinese Jars and ILjusrholtl Ornaments.— From Chinese Drawings. 
 
 vessels, real or imitated, are often fantastical, and not 
 unlike similar vestiges in Europe. In these they place 
 their sticks of incense, composed principally of sandal- 
 wood dust, which serve to perfume their chambers, as well 
 as to regale the gods in their temples. The Chinese are 
 great collectors of curiosities of all kinds, and the cabinets 
 of some individuals at Canton are worth examining. 
 
 Having considered the accommodations of the people 
 when at rest, we may view them in locomotion, or when 
 travelling. The manner in which the greater part of the
 
 Chap. XI. TRAVELLING. 407 
 
 empire is intersected by rivers and canals makes water- 
 carriage the most common as well as commodious method 
 of transit from place to place : but where that is im- 
 possible they travel (towards the south) in chairs ; and in 
 the great flat about Pekino^, in a one-horse tilted wagfjon, 
 or cart, — for it deserves no better name. The multiform 
 inconveniences of these primitive machines were expe- 
 rienced by the members of the last embassy, and have 
 been feelingly described by some of them. The wheels, 
 frequently solid and without spokes, like the cartwheels 
 at Lisbon, are low and fixed to very short axletrees. The 
 bodies, covered with tilts of coarse cotton, open only in 
 front, and are just wide enough to admit two persons 
 closely wedged. They have no raised seats, and the only 
 posture is to be stretched at length, or with the legs 
 drawn up, the sufferer being always in close contact with 
 the axle, without the intervention of springs. A servant 
 of the ambassador, who was an invalid at the time, and 
 had not strength to avoid the violence of the shocks, 
 actually suflfered a concussion of the brain. 
 
 The Chinese occasionally travel on horseback, but their 
 best land-conveyance by far is the sedan, a vehicle which 
 certainly exists among them in perfection, ^^'hether 
 viewed in regard to lightness, comfort, or any other 
 quality associated with such a mode of carriage, there 
 is nothing so convenient elsewhere. Two bearers place 
 upon their shoulders the poles, which are thin and elastic, 
 and in shape something like the shafts of a gig connected 
 near the ends ; and in this manner they proceed forward 
 with a measured step, an almost imperceptible motion, and 
 sometimes with considerable speed. Instead of panels, 
 the sides and back of the chair consist of woollen cloth for 
 the sake of lightness, with a covering of oilcloth against 
 rain. The front is closed by a hanging-blind of the same
 
 408 
 
 MANNERS AND CUSTOMS. 
 
 ClIAl'. XI. 
 
 materials in lieu of a door, with a circular aperture of 
 gauze to see tiirouah. The Europeans at Macao furnish 
 theirs with ^'enetian blinds, and never make use of any 
 
 ^^^^~<S0^ 
 
 other carriage. Private persons among the Chinese are 
 restricted to two bearers, ordinary magistrates to four, and 
 the viceroys to eiglit ; while the emperor alone is great
 
 Chap. XI. TRAVELLING. 409 
 
 enough to require sixteen. They divide the weight by 
 multiplying the number of shoulder-sticks applied to the 
 poles, as represented in a vignette to Staunton's Embassy, 
 .in an instance where the number of bearers would be six- 
 teen ; and this rule is made applicable to the conveyance 
 of the heaviest burdens by coolies or porters. The 
 Chinese constantly remind one of ants, by the manner in 
 which they conquer difficulties through dint of mere num- 
 bers ; and they resemble those minute animals no less in 
 their persevering and unconquerable industry. 
 
 There is no country of the same extent in which horses 
 are so little used for the purposes of either carriage or 
 draft, and this seems to arise, in some measure, from their 
 grudging to animals that food which the earth otherwise 
 provides for man. Their horses are in general miserable 
 stunted creatures, of the smaller order of ponies, and 
 almost always in the worst condition ; nor is the caparison 
 in most cases much better than the beast. The rider is 
 wedged into a high saddle of the usual oriental character, 
 of which every part, stirrups included, is extremely heavy 
 and cumbrous. The bridles ought to be of stitched silk, 
 but they are often of rope : and tufts of red horsehair are 
 sometimes suspended from the chest of the animal. Where 
 no rivers or canals afford the conveniences of water-carriage, 
 the roads, or rather broad pathways, are paved in the 
 south for horses, chairs, and foot-passengers ; but no 
 wheel-carriages were met with by the embassies except in 
 the flat country towards Peking. 
 
 Official persons are accommodated wath lodging on their 
 journeys in buildings called Koong-kudn, or government 
 hotels, and, wherever one of these does not exist, the priests 
 of the Budh sect are called upon to provide for them in 
 their temples. The gods appear sometimes to be treated 
 with little ceremony on these occasions. In 1816 a por- 
 
 VOL. I. T
 
 410 MANNERS AND CUSTOMS. Chap. XI. 
 
 tion of the great temple on the side of the river opposite 
 to ('anton was appropriated to the British embassy, and 
 fitted up for them, at the requisition of the English autho- 
 rities, in a very handsome style, altogetlier different from 
 the mode in which they had been commonly lodged in the 
 interior. Nothing surprised the Chinese more than the 
 number of comforts and conveniences which the l^^nglish 
 seemed to require, and the quantity of their baggage. 
 One of their own nation travels with little more than a 
 hard pillow rolled up in a thin mattress, or a mat : and as 
 for his wardrobe, he carries it all on his back, when not 
 travelling by water. In the latter mode of carriage, the 
 great officers of government sometimes convey no small 
 quantity of goods, and, as their baggage is exempted from 
 search, it is said that the privilege is often abused to 
 smuggling opium. 
 
 There is no post regulated by the government for 
 facilitating the general intercourse of its subjects ; though 
 one would imagine that a system of the kind might be 
 made very serviceable by this jealous autocracy (as it has 
 by some others) in promoting the special objects of its 
 police. The government expresses are forwarded by land 
 along a line of posts, at each of which a horse is always 
 kept ready ; and it is said that, when the haste is urgent, 
 a feather is tied to the packet, and the express is called a 
 fei-ma^ "flying-horse," on which occasions the courier is 
 expected to go at the rate of about a hundred miles a 
 day, until relieved. In this manner a despatch from 
 Peking reaches Canton, or vice vet'sa, a distance of 1200 
 miles, in a fortnight or twelve days. A letter from the 
 emperor himself is carried by an officer of some rank in a 
 hollow tube attached to his back. They have no tele- 
 graphs, but the embassies frequently observed that three 
 conical, or rather sugar-loaf, beacons were erected on the
 
 Chap. XI. CONVEYANCE OF GOODS. 411 
 
 most conspicuous points, to serve as signals by day or 
 night, with the assistance of lighted wood or straw in the 
 hollow, chimney-like interior. 
 
 There is printed for general use a very accurate 
 itinerary of the empire, containing the distances in 
 Chinese ly from town to town ; and one of these, on 
 being compared with the actual distances on the map, as 
 travelled by the last embassy, was found to corres})ond 
 with sufficient exactness. But the greatest public accom- 
 modation consists in the arrangements for the conveyance 
 of goods, which are regulated in the best manner The 
 public porters are under the management of a head man 
 who is responsible for them. The wages for the number 
 engaged are paid to him in advance, upon which he 
 furnishes a corresponding number of tickets, and, when 
 the work is done, these are delivered as vouchers for the 
 several porters to carry back and receive their money. 
 The ordinary pay is one mace, or under 8t?., per diem ; 
 and so trustworthy are these poor people, that not a 
 single article was known to be lost by the embassies in 
 all the distance between the northern and southern ex- 
 tremes of the empire. 
 
 But, putting speed out of the question, there certainly 
 is no country of the world in which travelling by water is 
 so commodious as in China : and it seems reasonable to 
 attribute this circumstance to the universal prevalence of 
 that mode of locomotion. Indeed, all the river-craft of 
 this people may be said to be unrivalled. The small 
 draft of water, and, at the same time, great burthen and 
 stiffness of their vessels, the perfect ease with which they 
 are worked through the most intricate passages and most 
 crowded rivers, and the surprising accommodation which 
 they afford, have always atti*acted attention. The Arab 
 Ibn Batuta, whose travels we have before noticed, in 
 
 T 2
 
 412 MANNERS A^'D CUSTOMS. Chap. XI. 
 
 describing the inland trading vessels of the Chinese, 
 states that they were moved by " large oars, which might 
 be compared to great masts (in respect of size), over 
 which five-and-twenty men were sometimes placed, who 
 worked standing." lie evidently alludes to the enormous 
 and very powerful sculls, which are worked at the stern 
 of their vessels, exactly as he describes, at the present 
 (lay. 
 
 From its situation in the line of the vessel's course, this 
 machine takes up no room in the passage of their crowded 
 rivers and canals — an advantage of no small consequence, 
 if considered by itself. It is a moving power, precisely 
 on the principle of a fish's tail, from which it is well 
 known that the watery tribes derive nearly all their pro- 
 pelling force, as the fins do little more than serve to 
 balance them. The composition of the two lateral forces, 
 as the tail or the scull is worked to the right and left, 
 of course drives the fish, or the vessel, forward in the 
 diagonal of the forces, according to a well-known principle 
 in mechanics. Although in the Chinese river-craft there 
 is always a rudder to steer with in sailing, the scull will 
 at any time serve in its stead, by merely shifting the 
 balance of impulse to either side as required. These 
 sculls are sometimes thirty feet in length, and the friction 
 is reduced to the least possible amount, by the fulcrum 
 being a tenon and mortice of iron, working comparatively 
 on a point. 
 
 The track-ropes, made of narrow strips of the strong 
 silicious surface of the bamboo, combining the greatest 
 lightness with strength, are very exactly described by 
 Marco Polo : — " They have canes of the length of fifteen 
 paces, such as have been already described, which they 
 split in their whole length, into very thin pieces, and 
 these, by twisting them together, they form into ropes
 
 Chap. XI. TRAVELLING BY WATER. 413 
 
 300 paces long : so skilfully are they manufactured that 
 they are equal in strength to cordage made of henij). 
 With these ropes the vessels are tracked along the river 
 by means of ten or twelve horses to each, as well upwards 
 against the current as in the opposite direction." It is 
 remarkable that the very instance where the practice of 
 the present day differs from this faithful traveller's nar- 
 rative, may be considered as an additional proof of his 
 general correctness. Horses are not now used to track 
 the Chinese boats, although it may have been the practice 
 under the first Mongol conquerors ; but the emperor's 
 warrant to each officer specifies a certain number of 
 horses, according to his rank, and men are supplied as 
 trackers, in lieu of horses, at the rate of three for each 
 horse. Du Halde gives a very correct account of this in 
 his second volume. The oars which they occasionally use 
 
 Accommodation Barg..'. 
 
 towards the head of their boats, besides the scull abaft, 
 are rather short, with broad blades. These are sus- 
 pended with a loop on a strong peg at the side of the 
 boat, and there is an advantage in its not being always 
 necessary to unship them, as, when useless, they are 
 drawn by the water close to the vessel's side, without any 
 retarding efffect. There is, besides, no friction, nor any 
 noise in a rullock, and no encumbrance of oars within 
 the boat. 
 
 The travelling barges used by mandarins and opulent
 
 414 MANXERS AND CUSTOMS. Ckap. XI. 
 
 persons afford a degree of comfort and accommodation 
 quite unknown in boats of the same description elsewhere; 
 but it nmst be repeated that speed is a quality which they 
 do not possess. The roof is not less than seven or eight feet 
 in height, and the princi])al accommodations consist of an 
 ante-room at the head for servants, a sitting-room about the 
 centre of the boat, and a sleeping apartment and closet 
 abaft. All the cooking goes on upon the high overhanging 
 stern, where the crew also are accommodated. There are 
 gangways of boards on each side of the vessel, which serve 
 for poling it along the shallows, by means of very long and 
 light bamboos, and which also allow of the servants and 
 crew passing from head to stern without incommoding the 
 inmates. The better boats are very well lit by glass 
 windows at the sides, or by the thin interior laminae of 
 oyster-shells. Others have transparent paper or gauze, 
 on which are painted flowers, birds, and other devices, 
 while the partitions or bulk-heads of the apartments are 
 varnished and gilded. The decks or floors of the cabins 
 remove in square compartments, and admit of all baggage 
 being stowed away in the hold. Everything in their 
 river-boats is kept remarkably clean, and this habit pre- 
 sents a strong contrast to their general neglect of cleanli- 
 ness in their houses on shore, which have not the same 
 ready access to water, and are besides often very ill- 
 drained. In short, their travelling barges are as much 
 superior to the crank and rickety budgerows of India, as 
 our European ships are to the sea-junks of the Chinese, 
 who seem to have reserved all their ingenuity for their 
 river-craft, and to have afforded as little encouragement 
 as possible to maritime or foreign adventure. 
 
 Where the expense is not regarded, Europeans often 
 travelled between Macao and Canton in the large Chinese 
 boats, of some eighty tons burthen, which are commonly
 
 CiiAP. XL TRAVELLING BY WATER. 415 
 
 used in unloading tl^ie ships, but fitted up when required 
 with partitions, .gUiss windows, and other conveniences for 
 travelling. The charges of the mandarins, under the 
 denomination of duties and fees, at length grew to be so 
 oppressive, that the thing was brought to the notice of 
 the viceroy in 1825, and a considerable abatement made 
 in the expense. Still, however, this was so considerable, 
 and the delays interposed midway in the passage, for the 
 purposes of scrutiny and examination, so tedious and 
 harassing, that most barbarians preferred going up and 
 down by the ship's passage in European boats. In this, 
 as well as many other instances, the cupidity of the man- 
 darins defeated its own purpose. 
 
 Nothing could more strongly characterize the busy 
 trading character of the Chinese among themselves, and 
 the activity of their internal traffic, than the vast numbers 
 of passage-boats which are constantly sailing along the 
 rivers and canals, crowded both inside and out with a 
 host of passengers. The fare in these vessels is quaintly 
 enough termed shuey-heu, " water-legs," as it serves in 
 lieu of those limbs to transport the body. None, however, 
 above the poorer classes avail themselves of these convey- 
 ances, as a small private boat can always be engaged, by 
 natives, at a sufficiently cheap rate. That the com})any on 
 board the public transports is not of the most select order 
 is plain from a caution generally pasted against the mast, 
 " Kin shin lio paou" "Mind your purses." There is a 
 species of tavern or public-house, a short way aboAc the 
 European factories in Canton, at the point whence all 
 these passage-boats are obliged to start by the regulation 
 of the police, and where the crowd and concourse is some- 
 times really surprising. Regular passports arc always 
 required, and the whole appears admirably arranged 
 to promote the objects of a very cautious and vigilant
 
 41 G MANNERS AND CUSTOMS. Chap. XI. 
 
 government, in the maintenance of order, without im- 
 peding the general circulation of industry.- 
 
 There is, in short, a business-like character about the 
 Chinese which assimilates them in a striking manner to 
 the most intelligent nations of the West, and certainly 
 marks them out, in very prominent relief, from the rest of 
 Asiatics. However oddly it may sound, it does not seem 
 too much to say that, in everything which enters into the 
 composition of actively industrious and well-organised 
 communities, there is vastly less difference between them 
 and the English, French, and Americans, than between 
 these and the inhabitants of Spain and Portugal, whose 
 proneness to stolid bigotry and oriental laziness was per- 
 haps in part imbibed from the Arabs. Through the 
 influence of climate and other causes, these seem still 
 retained in a surprising degree, though they must be 
 expected some day to give way to the example of more 
 enlightened and energetic nations. 
 
 Whenever the effects of our scientific machinery in 
 abridging labour are explained to an intelligent Chinese, 
 the first idea that strikes him is the disastrous effect that 
 such a system would work upon his over-peopled country, 
 if suddenly introduced into it, and he never fails to depre- 
 cate such an innovation as the most calamitous of visitations. 
 We shall see hereafter that they have some ingenious 
 contrivances by which to avail themselves of the natural 
 moving powers presented by wind, water, and the force 
 of gravity, and that they have managed to appropriate 
 in practice most of the mechanical powers with surprising 
 simplicity and effect : but of the strength that slumbers 
 in the giant arm of steam they are at once theoretically 
 and practically ignorant, although they both understand 
 and apply, in their commonest cookery, the heat of steam 
 under confinement to dress rice and other vegetables.
 
 Chap. XI. TRAVELLING BY WATER. 417 
 
 The canal and the Yellow River are a perpetual 
 source of anxiety and expense to the g-ovcrnniont, to keep 
 their banks in repair, and prevent those inundations to 
 which the country in the neighbourhood is constantly 
 liable. The use of steam-vessels is therefore utterly pre- 
 cluded by the peculiar character and circumstance of one 
 of the principal streams of China, as well as of the Grand 
 Canal. But it was impossible to travel with the embassy 
 in 1816, along that noble river the Yang-tse-kiang, which 
 divides as nearly as possible the empire into two equal 
 parts, and flows through its finest climates, without wish- 
 ing for steamboats ; more especially while suffering 
 under the delay that arose from sailing up against that 
 mighty stream, which runs with a prevailing ebb towards 
 the sea. It is indeed for such rivers as the Mississippi 
 and the Kiang that steamers are most peculiarly fitted, 
 and nothing can be less like steamers than the progress of 
 the Chinese travelling boats. Those very points of shape 
 and construction, from which they derive their commo- 
 diousness and safety, render them extremely slow under 
 the most favourable circumstances, and, with the excep- 
 tion of their smuggling or piratical . boats, the Chinese 
 may be said to be anything but economists of time on the 
 water. 
 
 The following extract from an unpublished journal of 
 the last embassy * exactly describes the singular process 
 of passing the sluices, which are substituted on the Grand 
 Canal for lochs. The advantage of the latter mode (which 
 seems unknown to the Chinese) is, the vessel being raised 
 or lowered to a different level by the gradual rise or fall of 
 the water in which it floats, by which means the dangers 
 of a sluice are completely obviated. " It was announced 
 that some of our boats were come up for the purpose of 
 
 * Journal of Sir George Staunton. 
 
 T 3
 
 418 MANNERS AND CUSTOMS. Chap. XL 
 
 passing through the shiicc, upon which the ambassador 
 proposed to the legate that we should walk up to the pier- 
 head, to see the manner in which this was effected. The 
 legate said he would accompany us with pleasure, being 
 himself curious to see the boats pass ; and we all accord- 
 ingly stood ui)on the pier-head, while the four headmost 
 boats (of sixty or seventy tons burthen) were shot through 
 the sluice. By means of the precautions adopted, and 
 which consisted partly in hanging against the sides of the 
 pier large fenders or cushions of rope, to deaden any acci- 
 dental concussion, the boats passed through with perfect 
 safety. The fall was somewhat greater than that of the 
 Thames under the arches of old London Bridge, but still 
 the hazard and difficulty seem to have been a good deal 
 magnified. The stone abutments were constructed chiefly 
 of large blocks of grey marble or limestone, with a few 
 blocks of granite intermixed. After the boats had passed 
 we returned with the legate to the pavilion for a few 
 minutes, and then rose to rejoin our sedans, and return in 
 them to our boats. 
 
 " At half-past twelve we passed through a second sluice 
 similar to the first, without taking the trouble to quit our 
 boats. We then brought to for some time, and did not 
 pass through the third sluice until about four. The fall 
 here was fully as great, and the torrent as rapid, as in the 
 first sluice'; but we all declined the legate's second invita- 
 tion to land while the boats were passing through. The 
 passage was effected by the whole of our squadron without 
 loss or accident. The boats of smaller dimensions steered 
 directly for the sluice and shot through the opening at 
 once ; but our connnon dinner-boat, and those of the am- 
 bassador and commissioners, were obliged to be warped 
 along the bank up to the pier-head gradually. In both 
 modes any failure or mistake, from bad steerage or ropes
 
 Chap. XI. PASSING A SLUICE. 419 
 
 giving way, might have been attended with serious con- 
 sequences ; for if any of the smaller boats had struck on 
 the pier-head, or if any of the larger ones had swung 
 round and presented their broadsides to the sluice, they 
 would in both cases have run considerable hazard of being 
 stove in and wrecked, and some of the persons in them 
 might have been drowned in the confusion. The large 
 boat in which I was had been warped up to a proper posi- 
 tion, and was on the point of being loosened from the 
 ropes in order to shoot through the aperture, when a suc- 
 cession of small boats unexpectedly came up, and pos- 
 sessed themselves of the passage, compelling us to hold on 
 against the stream for about a quarter of an hour, in a 
 situation that was awkward, if not hazardous." 
 
 It is curious to find this description of the passage on 
 the canal so exactly agreeing with that of an Arabian 
 traveller not much less than six hundred years ago, soon 
 after that artificial route by water was constructed under 
 the Mongol conquerors of China. The difl'erence of level 
 is commonly from five to six feet at the sluices, but in 
 passing by the townof Hoay-gan, near the embouchure of 
 the Yellow River, the boats sailed at an elevation of be- 
 tween fifteen and twenty feet above the level of the city, 
 and the travellers looked down upon the roofs of the houses, 
 which any accident to the bank of the canal must inevit- 
 ably have consigned to destruction. Ihe existence of 
 such a work in China, at a time when Europe was in- 
 volved in comparative barbarism, affords a curious subject 
 for reflection.
 
 420 CITIES— PEKING. Chap. XII, 
 
 CHArTER XII. 
 
 CITIES — PEKING. 
 
 External walls — The Tartarian city — The Yellow Wall — The 
 Chinese city — Occasional scarcity — Dangers of the emperor — 
 Gardens of Yuen-ming-yuen — Scene in last embassy — Expenses 
 of the coui-t — Tartars and Chinese — Police — Murder of a French 
 crew — Punishment of assassins. 
 
 The most striking feature of all the principal cities of 
 China consists in the high castellated walls of blue brick 
 by which they are surrounded, and of which the wall of 
 Peking may be considered as a specimen, with some 
 considerable difference, of course, in respect to its supe- 
 rior height and thickness. Like the ancient rampart of 
 the empire, this consists of a mound of earth or rubbish 
 incased with brick. The height is about thirty feet, the 
 thin parapet being deeply embattled, with intermediate 
 loopholes, but bearing no resemblance to regular embra- 
 sures for artillery. Indeed, cannon are not often seen 
 mounted on the walls, although there are often some old 
 guns lying about near the gates. The thickness of the 
 wall at the base is nearly twenty feet, diminishing, by 
 the inclination of the inner surface, to twelve or more at 
 the summit. The height and weight of this wall, with 
 its perpendicular external face, would only serve to facili- 
 tate the operations of battering-cannon, which, of course, 
 would begin to breach from the base ; but the principal
 
 Chap. XII. EXTERNAL WALLS. 421 
 
 weapon in the wars of the Chinese and Tartars has 
 always been the bow and arrow. At each gate the wall 
 is doubled by an outer enclosure in a semicircular shape, 
 the entrance to which is not opposite to the principal 
 gate, but lateral, with a view to security and defence. 
 Over both gates are erected towers of several stories, 
 which serve to lodge the soldiers who guard them. At 
 intervals of about sixty yards along the length of the wall 
 are flanking towers or bastions of the same height, pro- 
 jecting about thirty feet from the curtain. Most of the 
 plans of Peking represent a wet ditch entirely compassing 
 the sides of the city, and it no doubt extends round a 
 certain portion ; but when the embassy passed, in 1816, 
 it is quite certain that the north-east portion had not 
 even a dry ditch, and that some of the gentlemen quitted 
 their vehicles to take out specimens of the brick from 
 numerous holes which time and neglect had produced in 
 the face of the wall. The same thing was observed by 
 our embassy at Nanking, the ancient enclosure of which 
 was nearly as lofty as the present bulwark of Peking, but 
 no very notable remains of a ditch could be perceived at 
 that part which the travellers visited. 
 
 The area on which Nanking stood was more extensive 
 than the space enclosed by the walls of Peking, but the 
 greater portion of the surface surrounded by the ancient 
 defence is now devoid of even the traces of buildino-s : 
 and the city of Keang-ning-foo, as it is at present called, 
 occupies only a corner of the original enclosure. Peking 
 likewise contains so many void spaces of great extent, 
 that it is very difficult, considering the lowness of the 
 one-storied buildings, to imagine how it can hold such a 
 monstrous population as some have attributed to it. A 
 very large portion of the northern or Tartarian city is
 
 422 CITIES— rEKIXG. Chap. XII. 
 
 occupied by the enclosure which contains the palaces 
 and pleasure-grounds of the emperor ; the remainder is 
 studded over with the official or religious buildings, all of 
 them surrounded by large open courts ; and the Chinese 
 city to the south has some very extensive spaces occupied 
 by immensely spreading buildings, and gi'ounds attached, 
 where the emperor sacrifices to Heaven, and performs the 
 annual ceremony of ploughing, with various other rites. 
 There are, besides, large sheets of water, and gardens 
 devoted to the growth of vegetables for the city. With 
 every allowance, therefore, for the extent of area enclosed 
 by the walls, the population of Peking can hardly equal 
 that which is now comprised within the London bills of 
 mortality. 
 
 Father Hyacinth, long resident in the capital of China 
 as a member of the Russian mission, has given a very 
 circumstantial account of it, much of which is founded 
 on personal observation, and the rest derived from inquiry 
 or books. The short time which the mission of Earl 
 Macartney passed there admitted of fewer opportunities 
 of investigation ; but Mr. Barrow, who was left at Peking 
 and Yucn-ming-yuen while the ambassador attended the 
 emperor beyond the wall, made good use of his time, and 
 has given us a graphic description of what he witnessed. 
 The streets of Canton and of most other cities are 
 extremely narrow, admitting of only three or four foot- 
 passengers abreast ; but the principal thoroughfares of 
 Peking, which connect its different gates, are fully one 
 hundred feet in width. These are unpaved, no doubt in 
 consequence of the difficulty and expense of procuring 
 stone in the immense alluvial flat on which the city 
 stands ; and every inhabitant is compelled by the police 
 to clean and sprinkle with water, during the dry months, 
 that portion of the street which fronts his abode, with a
 
 Chap. XI F. INTERIOR ASPECT. 423 
 
 view to allay the dust. In rainy weather, however, the 
 principal ways are said to be in a dreadful state from the 
 want of proper drains, and in consequence of the perfect 
 level of the ground not allowing the water to flow off. 
 
 Sir George Staunton thus describes the appearance of 
 the capital, when it was traversed by the embassy on the 
 way to Yuen-ming-yuen : — " The first street extended on 
 a line directly to the westward, until it was interrupted 
 by the eastern wall of the imperial palace, called the 
 Yellow Wall,* ii'ora the colour of the small roof of 
 varnished tiles with which the top of it is covered. 
 Various public buildings, seen at the same time, and 
 considered as belonging to the emperor, were covered in 
 the same manner. Those roofs, uninterrupted by chim- 
 neys, and indented in the sides and ridges into gentle 
 curves, with an effect more pleasing than would be pro- 
 duced by long straight lines, were adorned with a variety 
 of figures, either in imitation of real objects, or more 
 commonly as mere works of fancy ; the whole, shining like 
 gold under a brilliant sun, immediately caught the eye 
 with an appearance of grandeur in that part of the 
 buildings where it was not accustomed to be sought for. 
 Immense magazines of rice were seen near the gate : 
 and, looking from it to the left along the city wall, was 
 perceived an elevated edifice, described as an observatory, 
 erected in the former dynasty by the Emperor Yoong-lo, 
 to whom the chief embellishments of Peking are said to 
 be owing. 
 
 " Several circumstances, independently of the arrival 
 of strangers, contributed to throng so wide a street. A 
 procession was moving towards the gate, in which the 
 white or bridal colour (according to European ideas) of 
 the persons who formed it seemed at first to announce a 
 
 * The Chinese name is " The Imjieriul Wall."
 
 424 CITIES— PEKING. Chap. XII. 
 
 marriajre ceremony ; but the appearance of young men 
 ovorvvhelnuMl with j^rief showed it to be a funeral,* much 
 more indeed than the corse itself, which was contained in 
 a handsome square case, shaded with a canopy painted 
 with jxay and lively colours, and preceded by standards of 
 varieo-ated silks. Behind it were sedan-chairs covered 
 with white cloth, containing the female relations of the 
 deceased. The white colour, denoting in China the 
 affliction of those who wear it, is sedulously avoided by 
 such as wish to manifest sentiments of a contrary kind ; f 
 it is therefore never seen in the ceremony of nuptials 
 (met soon afterwards), where the lady, as yet unseen by 
 the bridegroom, is carried in a gilt and gaudy chair, 
 hun"' round with festoons of artificial flowers, and followed 
 by relations, attendants, and servants bearing the para- 
 phernalia, being the only portion given with a daughter in 
 marriage by her parents. The crowd was not a little in- 
 creased by the mandarins of rank appearing always with 
 numerous attendants ; and still more by circles of the 
 populace round auctioneers, venders of medicines, fortune- 
 tellers, singers, jugglers, and story-tellers, beguiling their 
 hearers of a few of their tclien, or copper money, intended 
 probably for other purposes. Among the stories that 
 caught, at this moment, the imagination of the people, the 
 arrival of the embassy was said to furnish no inconsiderable 
 share. The presents brought by it to the emperor were 
 asserted to include whatever was rare in other countries, 
 or not known before to the Chinese. Of the animals that 
 were brought, it was gravely mentioned that there was an 
 
 ♦ The Cliinesc, who aro not fond of iising ill-omened words, call a 
 funeral " a white affair." 
 
 •j- It is avoided as heing unlucky, or ill-omened. The colour of 
 compliment or congratulation ia red.
 
 Chap. XII. INTERIOR ASPECT. 425 
 
 elephant of the size of a monkey, and as fierce as a lion, 
 and a cock that fed on charcoal. ***** 
 
 " As soon as the persons belonging to the embassy had 
 arrived at the eastern side of the Yellow Wall, they turned 
 along it to the right, and found on its northern side much 
 less bustle than in the former street. Instead of shops, all 
 were private houses, not conspicuous in the front. Before 
 each house was a wall or curtain, to prevent passengers 
 from seeing the court into which the street-door opened. 
 This wall is called the wall of Respect. A halt was made 
 opposite the treble gates, which are nearly in the centre of 
 this northern side of the palace wall. It appeared to 
 enclose a large quantity of ground : it was not level like 
 all the lands without the wall : some of it was raised into 
 hills of steep ascent : the earth taken to form them left 
 broad and deep hollows, now filled with water. Out of 
 these artificial lakes, of which the margins were diversified 
 and irregular, small islands rose, with a variety of fanciful 
 edifices interspersed with trees. On the hills of different 
 heights the principal palaces for the emperor were erected. 
 The whole had somewhat the appearance of enchantment. 
 ******* From the spot whence an oppor- 
 tunity thus ofifered to take a glance, through the gates of 
 the palace wall, at part of what was enclosed within it, 
 the eye, turning to the north, observed, through a street 
 extending to the city wall, the great fabric, of considerable 
 height, which includes a bell of prodigious size and- cylin- 
 drical form, that, struck on the outside with a wooden 
 mallet, emits a sound distinctly heard throughout the 
 capital. Beyond it, but more to the westward, was one of 
 the northern o:ates, the watch-tower over which rendered it 
 visible above the intermediate buildings. Proceeding on 
 beyond the palace gates, directly to the westward, between
 
 426 CITIES— PEKING. Chap, XII. 
 
 the Yellow Wall and the northern buildings of the city, is 
 a lake of sonic acres in extent, now, in autumn, almost 
 entirely overspread with the })cltated leaf of the injmphcca 
 nelumbo, or lien-ioka of the Chinese. * * * * The 
 route was continued westerly through the city. The 
 dwelling-house of some Russians was pointed out, and, 
 what was more singular, a library of foreign manuscripts, 
 one of which was said to be an Arabic copy of the Koran. 
 Some Mahometans were seen, distinguished by red caps. 
 Among the spectators of the novel sight some women were 
 observed ; the greatest number were said to be natives of 
 Tartary or of a Tartar race. Their feet were not cramped 
 like those of the Chinese ; and their shoes with broad toes, 
 and soles above an inch in thickness, were as clumsy as 
 those of the origmal Chinese ladies were diminutive. A 
 few of the former were well-dressed, with delicate fea- 
 tures, and their complexions heightened with the aid of art. 
 A thick patch of vermilion on the middle of the lower lip 
 seemed to be a favourite mode of using paint. Some of 
 them were sitting in covered carriages, of which, as well 
 as of horses, there are several to be found for hire in 
 various parts of the town.* A few of the Tartar ladies 
 were on horseback, and rode astride like men. Trades- 
 men with their tools, searching for employment, and ped- 
 lars offering their wares for sale, were everywhere to be 
 seen. Several of the streets were narrow, and at the en- 
 trance of them gates were erected, near which guards 
 were stationed, it was said, to quell any occasional disturb- 
 ance in the neighbourhood. Those gates are shut at 
 night, and opened only in cases of exigency. The train 
 of the embassy crossed a street which extended north and 
 south the whole length of the Tartar city, almost four 
 
 * None but privileged persons can use a chair so near to the empe- 
 ror ; but, in otlier parts, these are tlie common conveyances.
 
 Chap. XII. INTERIOR ASPECT. 427 
 
 miles, and is interrupted only by several pai-loos, or tri- 
 umphal fabrics ; and passing by many temples and other 
 capacious buildings and magazines, they reached, in little 
 more than two hours from their entrance on the eastern 
 side, to one of the western city gates." 
 
 From this they issued towards the imperial park of 
 Yuen-ming-yuen, and the route, thus accurately described, 
 can readily be traced on the plan of Peking. The Tartar 
 city, through which they passed, is about three miles in 
 breadth and four in length. The portion traversed by the 
 embassy was rather more than five miles, which was as 
 much as they could accomplish, with all interruptions, in 
 the space of time mentioned above. The observatory seen 
 by them to the left on entering the city was that of the 
 Kin-sing (or planet Venus), near the south-east corner of 
 the wall. A new set of instruments was made for it by 
 order of Kang-hy, under the direction of the Romish mis- 
 sionaries ; and the astronomical instruments brought out 
 by Lord Macartney were subsequently deposited there. 
 The high fabric, with its large cylindrical bell, which the 
 travellers observed between the north gate of the imperial 
 wall and the extremity of the Tartar city on that side, is 
 the Choong-loio, or " Bell-tower," near to which is the 
 office of the " General of the Nine Gates," to whose 
 charge is intrusted the police of the city. A wooden 
 mallet, being struck upon the huge bell, makes known the 
 five watches of the night, and the sound is heard through ■ 
 the greater part of the city. 
 
 Within the precincts of the Tartarian city, near the 
 southern gate of the imperial wall, are the principal boards 
 or tribunals of the supreme government ; and not far from 
 them is the college of the Russian mission, consisting of 
 ten persons, who are periodically relieved from St. Peters- 
 burgh. Near the westernmost of the three southern gates
 
 428 CITIES— PEKING. Chap. XII. 
 
 the Portuguese Jesuits had their college ; but the last of 
 this fraternity was scut away in the year 1827, in the per- 
 son of Padre Serra, who then furnished us with some 
 curious notes. The most favoured of the Romish clergy, 
 w'ho were the French Jesuits eTn})l()yed by Kang-hy, had 
 their dwelling allotted within the circuit of the imperial 
 wall, near the lake and gardens on the north and west of 
 the enclosure. This great space, occupying an area of 
 about two square miles, is just in the centre of the Tarta- 
 rian city, and can be entered by none but authorised per- 
 sons. It corresponds in shape to the outer limits of the 
 city, being an oblong square, built on a very regular ])lan ; 
 and contains within itself a third and still more sacred 
 enclosure, devoted exclusively to the emperor's abode, 
 called " The Prohibited Wall." This contains the pri- 
 vate palaces of the sovereign and his empress, communi- 
 cating by a gate on the north with a square two-thirds of 
 a mile in length, in which are situated the artificial hills 
 and woods mentioned by Sir George Staunton, as seen at a 
 distance in his progress through Peking. The architecture 
 and arrangements of the palaces and courts within the 
 " prohibited wall " are described as far exceeding any 
 other specimens of the kind in China. 
 
 In regard to population, the vast areas included within 
 the imperial wall and the central or prohibited wall may 
 be considered comparatively as empty spaces. Father 
 Hyacinth describes the lakes and gardens which he saw as 
 occupying nearly the whole western side of the larger 
 parallelogram, the lake alone being upwards of a mile in 
 length. From his account it may be inferred that the 
 palaces and gardens of the Chinese emperor are worthy of 
 the master of so many millions of subjects, who have been 
 estimated at a third of the whole human race. So much 
 of the capital, however, being devoted to the emperor, it is
 
 Chap. XII. POPULATION. ; 429 
 
 not easy to find lodging within the remainder of a paral- 
 lelogram of 3 X 4 miles * for the three millions of people 
 which some have inconsiderately stated that its walls, and 
 those of the southern or Chinese city, contain together. 
 This number nearly equals the whole population of the 
 kingdom of Portugal by the latest census. If we admit 
 that the number of subjects who own the emperor of Cliina 
 for their master really exceeds the amount of three hundred 
 millions, he may naturally speak with contempt of states 
 whose entire population goes not beyond the hundredth 
 part of his own " black-haired race," as he calls them. 
 
 On the east side of the Tartarian city is the Altar of 
 the Sun, because the luminary rises in that quarter ; and 
 for a similar, though not the same reason, the Altar of 
 the Moon is on the western side, because at the opposi- 
 tion, or at full moon, she sets in the west, while the sun 
 rises on the other side. This regard to the place of the 
 sun's rising serves to explain several points in Chinese 
 customs. Their climate makes it necessary to build all 
 considerable houses fronting the south, but closed to the 
 north ; for the sake of admitting the southerly monsoon 
 in summer, and excluding the northerly in winter. The 
 eastern side of the house is the most honourable, for the 
 reason above given, and the master of a family is therefore 
 called Tong-kea, " East of the household." But the left 
 hand is likewise to the east of the principal seat in the hall 
 of reception, which serves to explain the circumstance of 
 their making the left side the place of honour, so contrary 
 to the custom which generally prevails in other countries. 
 
 The Chinese town, which lies to the south of the Tarta- 
 rian or " City of Nine Gates," is not subject to the same 
 
 * Comprising the space from the east of Regent's Park to Betlinal 
 Green on the north, to Belgravia and the Grand Surrey Canal on the 
 south.
 
 430 CITIES— PEKING. Chap. XII. 
 
 rigid system of military police as that which contains the 
 abode of the emj)oror ; and its walls and defences are in- 
 ferior to those of the other, being, in fact, like the ordinary 
 Chinese towns. Tlie inclnded area is about equal to that 
 of the Tartarian city, but of this a very considerable por- 
 tion is occupied by the immense courts of the temples 
 dedicated to " Heaven," and to the deified inventor of 
 agriculture (sometimes styled the Temple of " Earth"), 
 where the em])eror sacrifices annually, and performs the cere- 
 mony of ploughing the sacred field. The Altar to Heaven 
 stands in a square enclosure, measuring about three miles 
 in circuit, near the southern wall of the Chinese city. The 
 terrace consists of three stages, diminishing from one hun- 
 dred and twenty to sixty feet in diameter, each stage 
 being surrounded by a marble balustrade, and ascended 
 by steps of the same material. Towards the north-west of 
 the enclosure is the Palace of Abstinence, where the 
 emperor fasts for three days preparat(jry to oftering sacri- 
 fices to the heavens at the winter solstice. On the other 
 side of the great central street leading to the Tartarian 
 city, and just over against the Temple of Heaven, stands 
 the Altar of the Earth. The square enclosure is about 
 two miles in circuit, and contains the field which is once 
 a year ploughed by the emperor and his great officers, 
 and the produce reserved for sacrifices. 
 
 In the vicinity of the south-east angle of the Chinese 
 city are extensive sheets of water, and large open spaces 
 cultivated with grain and vegetables for the use of Peking. 
 Towards the south-west angle, also, beyond the Temples 
 of Heaven and of the Earth, is a huge pool or lake, 
 dedicated to the genius of the watery element, under the 
 designation of Ht-loong, the " Black Dragon," where the 
 emperor either deprecates or prays for rain, according as 
 the country may be atflicted by deluge or drought. These
 
 Chap. XII. OCCASIONAL SCARCITY. 431 
 
 great chasms in the population of tlie capital, with the 
 vast spaces occupied by the imperial palaces and gardens, 
 make it very improbable tliat the population of Peking 
 should be at present equal to that of London, especially as 
 the houses are only of one story. The less strict police of 
 the Chinese city makes it a place of retirement to many 
 from the other, where the precautions for the emperor's 
 personal safety and quiet produce a system of discipline 
 not unlike that of a garrison town. The " General of the 
 Nine Gates," under whose charge it is placed, was sent, 
 in 1816, to urge the departure of the embassy from Yuen- 
 ming-yuen, and he did his best to excite their alarm, by 
 telling them that he commanded " a million of men." 
 
 There seems to be some reason for the care with which 
 the Tartarian city is guarded, if we take into considera- 
 tion the dangers arising from occasional scarcities in an 
 immensely populous city, which is fed, in a great measure, 
 with grain brought from the southern provinces. In the 
 year 1824 the court were seriously alarmed by the conse- 
 quences of a severe drought, which produced, first want, 
 and afterwards pestilence, at Peking. The late em- 
 peror, then reigning, issued a proclamation in these 
 words : — " The numerous resort of a hungry populace 
 from the surrounding country has led to the occasional 
 plundering of articles of food, and we have already issued 
 our commands for restraining and controlling them. One 
 of the censors has reported that sundry vagrants, with the 
 excuse of want and starvation, have been committing 
 depredations in the markets and other places of public 
 resort, in contravention of the laws. The proper autho- 
 rities are hereby commanded to issue proclamations on 
 the subject, and to exercise a rigid control, that the 
 neighbourhood of the imperial residence may be well 
 governed and orderly. The erection of additional play-
 
 432 CITIES— PEKING. Chap. XII. 
 
 houses (according to the same report) being highly pre- 
 judicial to the morals of the ])co])le, the police of the city 
 must also restrain and keep them within bounds." 
 
 Soon after was issued the subjoined : — " The different 
 stations at Peking have distributed grain during a long- 
 continued period ; but on the 20th day of the 5th moon 
 let them all be shut, and the distribution cease, as the 
 stores will not admit of further donations. The harvest 
 is now approaching, and the people may return to their 
 several districts to seek a livelihood by their own labour. 
 Let the governor of the province enjoin the district 
 officers to exercise a strict vigilance, at the same time 
 soothing the distressed populace, and preventing their 
 wandering about in a dispersed and vagabond manner ; 
 thus seconding our paternal solicitude to cherish them in 
 our bosom." To avert the drought which had created 
 this distress, the emperor ordained certain religious ob- 
 servances, and we give an extract fi'om his edict : — " On 
 account of the drought in the neighbourhood of the 
 capital, and the destitution of the husbandman's fields, 
 which have looked in vain for fertilizing showers, we sent 
 down our will that altars should be erected at He-loong 
 Tan * and elsewhere. Although during the last ten days 
 there has been a slight appearance of rain, it was quite 
 inadequate to moisten the earth. Let our eldest son, 
 Ye-heng, on the 7th day of the present moon, proceed 
 reverentially to the Temple of the Heavens to worship. 
 Let our imperial relative, Mien-kae, proceed with rever- 
 ence to the Temple of the Earth to sacrifice ; and Mien- 
 hia to the Temple of the Year. Let our son Ye-chaou 
 likewise sacrifice at the Temple of the AVinds. ***** 
 
 * HS-loong is the Saglialien, or Black Dragon, which represents the 
 principal river of Manchow Tartary, ■worshipped by the reigning 
 family. The dragon always signifies the watery element, or rivers.
 
 Chap. XII. DAXGEES OF THE EMPEROR. 433 
 
 Having sent down our will regarding the sacrifices to 
 be performed by the princes and great ministers on the 
 7th of the moon, we now intimate our intention to burn 
 incense in person on the same day at the Altar of the 
 Black Dragon." This may serve as a specimen of the 
 state worship of China. * 
 
 But other dangers beset the emperor in his capital, 
 either from the machinations of relatives who may plot 
 agrainst the throne, or from the treason of secret societies 
 or brotherhoods, of which we shall have to speak 
 " Though the succession to the throne," observed Padre 
 Serra, " depends on the arbitrary nomination of the 
 reigning prince, this does not always prevent usurpations. 
 An instance of this was seen in the succession of Yoong- 
 ching to his father, the great Kang-hy. The prince 
 nominated was the foioih; but this latter being in Tar- 
 tary at the period of the emperor's somewhat sudden 
 demise, Yoong-chiug, who was a privileged wang (or rer/u- 
 lus), entered the palace and seized the billet of nomina- 
 tion. Before the number four, which he there found, he 
 boldly set the sign of ten, and thus made it appear that 
 he, the fourteenth prince, was the one nominated. He 
 possessed himself of the sceptre, and ordered his brother 
 to be arrested and imprisoned in a place which is standing 
 to this day, four leagues to the north of Peking, in which 
 it is said that he died." On the 18th October, 1813, as 
 the last emperor but one, Keaking, was about to enter 
 Peking, on his return from the summer excursion to Je-ho 
 (the Hot-springs, about one hundred miles north-east of 
 the capital), a party of conspirators entered the imperial 
 palace, and kept possession of a part of it for some time. 
 The late emperor, who was only his second son, is said 
 to have owed his elevation to the good conduct he dis- 
 played on this occasion. He shot two of the rebels, and 
 VOL. I. u
 
 434 CITIES— rEKIXG. Cnxv. XII. 
 
 assisted to intimidate the remainder of those who had 
 penetrated within the })recincts of the palace. 
 
 Tlie first intimation of the preceding occurrence was 
 conveyed in a proclamation from the emperor, of which 
 the followin<^ is an extract : — " Eighteen years have 
 elapsed since, possessed of only inferior virtue, I looked 
 up, and received with profound veneration the throne of 
 my imperial father ; since which I dared not resign myself 
 to ease, or neglect the affairs of government. I had but 
 just ascended the throne, when the sect of the White Lily 
 seduced into a state of confusion four provinces, and the 
 people suffered more than I can bear to express. I 
 ordered my generals to proceed against them, and, after 
 a protracted conflict, reduced them to submission. I then 
 hoped that with my children (the people) I should have 
 enjoyed increasing happiness and repose. On the 6th of 
 the 8th moon the sect of Tien-ly (celestial reason), a 
 band of vagabonds, suddenly created disorder, and caused 
 much injury, extending from the district of Chang-yuen 
 in Pechele to that of Tsaou in Shantong. I hastened to 
 direct ^Vun, the viceroy, to lead forth an army to exter- 
 minate them and restore peace. This affair, however, 
 existed at the distance of one ^lundred leagues from 
 Peking; but, suddenly, on the 15th of the 9th moon, re- 
 bellion arose under my own arm — the calamity sprung up 
 in my own house. A banditti of upwards of seventy men, 
 of the sect Tien-ly, violated the prohibited gate, and 
 entered withinside ; they wounded the guard, and rushed 
 into the inner palace. Four rebels were seized and 
 bound ; three others ascended the wall with a flag. My 
 imperial second son seized a matchlock and shot two 
 of them ; my nephew killed the third. For this de- 
 liverance I am indebted to the energies of my second 
 son."
 
 Chap. XII. GARDENS OF YUEN-MING- YUEN. 43o 
 
 About eight miles to the north-west of Peking are the 
 gardens, or rather the park, of Yuen-ming-yuen, which 
 Mr. Barrow (who spent his time between that pkice and 
 Peking) estimates at an extent of twelve square miles. 
 As the face of the country on this side of Peking begins 
 to rise towards the Great Wall, the diversity of hill and 
 dale has afforded some natural facilities for embellish- 
 ment, which have been improved by art. According to 
 the description of the fore-mentioned writer, the land- 
 scape is diversified with woodlands and lawns, among 
 which are numerous canals, rivulets, and sheets of water, 
 the banks of which have been thrown up in an apparently 
 fortuitous manner in imitation of the free hand of nature. 
 Some parts are cultivated, and others left purposely wild ; 
 and wherever pleasure-houses are erected, the views appear 
 to have been studied. It is said that within the enclosure 
 of these gardens there exist no less than thirty distinct 
 places of residence for the emperor and his numerous 
 suite of ministers, eunuchs, and servants, each constituting 
 a considerable village. The principal hall of audience, 
 seen by Mr. Barrow, stood upon a platform of granite 
 four feet high, and was surrounded by a sort of peristyle 
 of large wooden columns, which supported the roof. The 
 length of the hall within was one hundred and ten feet, 
 the breadth forty-two, and the height twenty. The floor 
 was paved with slabs of grey marble laid checkerwise, 
 and the throne, made entirely of carved wood, placed in 
 a recess. The only furniture of the hall were a pair of 
 brass kettle-drums, two large paintings, two pairs of an- 
 cient blue porcelain vases, a few volumes of manuscripts, and 
 a table placed at one end of the hall, on which stood an old 
 English chimney-clock, made in the seventeenth century. 
 
 It was at a place called Ilae-tien, in the immediate 
 vicinity of these gardens, that the strange scene occurred 
 
 u2
 
 436 CITIES— PEKING. Chap. XII. 
 
 which termhiated in the dismissal of the embassy of 1816. 
 On his arrival there, about daylight in the morning, with 
 the commissioners and a few other gentlemen, the ambas- 
 sador was drawn to one of the emperor's temporary resi- 
 dences by an invitation from Duke Ho, as he was called, 
 the imperial relative charged with the conduct of the 
 negotiations. After passing through an open' court, 
 where were assembled a vast number of mandarins in 
 their dresses of ceremony, they were shown into a wretched 
 room, and soon encompassed by a well-dressed crowd, 
 among whom were princes of the blood by dozens, wearing 
 yellow^ girdles. ^Vith a childish and unmannerly curi- 
 osity, consistent enough with the idle and disorderly life 
 which many of them are said to lead, they examined the 
 persons and dress of the gentlemen without ceremony ; 
 while these, tired with their sleepless journey, and dis- 
 gusted at the behaviour of the celestials, turned their 
 backs upon them, and laid themselves down to rest. 
 Duke Ho soon appeared, and surprised the ambassador 
 by urging him to proceed directly to an audience of the 
 emperor, who was waiting for him. His lordship in vain 
 remonstrated that to-morrow had been fixed for the first 
 audience, and that, tired and dusty as they all were at 
 present, it would be worthy neither of the emperor nor 
 himself to wait on his majesty in a manner so unpre- 
 pared. He urged, too, that he was unwell, and required 
 immediate rest. Duke Ho became more and more press- 
 ing, and at length forgot himself so far as to grasp the 
 ambassador's arm violently, and one of the others stepped 
 up at the same time. His lordship immediately shook 
 them off", and the gentlemen crowded about him ; while 
 the highest indignation was expressed at such treatment, 
 and a determined resolution to proceed to no audience 
 this morning. The ambassador at length retired, with
 
 Chap. XII. SCENE IX LAST EMBASSY. 437 
 
 the appearance of satisfaction, on the part of Duke IIo, 
 that the audience should take place to-morrow. Hicre 
 is every reason, however, to suppose that this person had 
 been largely bribed by the heads of the Canton local 
 government to frustrate the views of the embassy, and 
 prevent an audience of the emperor. The mission, at 
 least, was on its way back in the afternoon of the 
 same day. 
 
 The previous embassy of Lord Macartney, in 1793, 
 attended the emperor's court at Je-ho (sometimes written 
 Zhehol), or " the hot-springs," at some distance north of 
 the Great Wall, in Manchow Tartary. The elevation 
 of this place, at some thousand feet above the plain in 
 which Peking is situated, renders it a cool summer retreat 
 during the excessive heats which prevail at the capital. 
 The gardens and residences of the emperor, though con- 
 siderable, are described as inferior in extent to those of 
 Yuen-ming-yuen. Still, however, the accommodation of 
 such a suite as the sovereign carries with him requires 
 a town in itself. Peking, in fact, is chiefly supported 
 throughout its vast bounds by the residence of the court 
 and the supreme government. Being neither a seaport 
 nor a place naturally suited to inland trade and manu- 
 factures, it derives nearly its whole importance from being 
 the dwelling-place of the " Son of Heaven." 
 
 His vast establishments are chiefly supported by the 
 surplus revenue, both in money and stores, remitted by 
 the way of the Grand Canal from the provinces.* An 
 imperial relative of the first rank receives, according to 
 P. Serra,t 10,000 taels annually from the exchequer, with 
 a large allowance of rice, and as many as three hundred 
 
 * It is this that makes the southern entrance of the canal so vahiahlc 
 a point to a hostile squadron, 
 •j- Koyal Asiat. Trans., vol. iii.
 
 438 CITIES— PEKING. Cuap. XII. 
 
 and more servants. As the multiplication of these expen- 
 sive idlers would soon ruin the government, their rank 
 descends by one degree in each generation, until after 
 five descents their heirs retain the simple privilege of 
 wearing the yellow girdle, with a bare subsistence. From 
 this degi-adation a few have been excepted by especial 
 favour, as it happened to a grandson of Kien-loong, to 
 whom that emperor granted the first grade for ten lives. 
 The expense to the state of a wting of the first rank is 
 about 60,000 taels or 20,000/. annually ; and this dimi- 
 nishes through the several grades down to the simple 
 inheritors of the yellow girdle, who receive only three 
 taels a-month, and two sacks of rice. But they are 
 allowed 100 taels when they marry, and 120 for a 
 funeral ; from which (says Serra) they take occasion to 
 maltreat their wives, because, when they have killed one, 
 they receive the allowance for her interment, as well as 
 the dowry of the new wife, whom they take immediately ! 
 In 1825 appeared the following order from the emperor: — 
 " The A\ ang (or regulus) Chunshan has presented to us 
 a petition, entreating our imperial favour in the advance 
 of some years' salaries, wherewithal he may be enabled 
 to repair the tombs of his family. We permit to be 
 advanced to him the amount of his money allowances for 
 ten years ensuing, and direct that his pay be annually 
 deducted until the whole shall be repaid." This title of 
 f^Fdiiff is the one by which the Chinese emperor used to 
 style the sovereign of England, whose representative (con- 
 sistently enough with such a broad assumption) was ex- 
 pected to beat his head nine times against the ground, 
 on being admitted to the presence of the universal 
 monarch ! 
 
 It is at Peking chiefly, and in its neighbourhood, that 
 the privileges of Tartars, in contradistinction to Chinese,
 
 CiTAP. XII. TARTARS AND CHINESE. 439 
 
 are most broadly marked, and most openly asserted. It 
 must be sufficiently clear to a sagacious government, as 
 that of the Manchovvs has always proved itself, that, beino- 
 so enormously outnumbered by the original inhabitants 
 "of China, the wisest policy must be to display a tolerable 
 impartiality in the administration of the provinces, and 
 especially the distant ones. An examination of the 
 Chinese red- book gave the following results: — Of the 
 eif/lit viceroys, having each two provinces, or one of the 
 largest, under his sway, there are no less than six Chinese ; 
 and of the fifteen lieutenant-governors, ten are Chinese. 
 On the other hand, the highest and most responsible 
 military commands are always intrusted to Manchows. 
 The probability is, that the genius of the Chinese is better 
 adapted to fitting themselves for civil offices, the qualifi- 
 cation for which is an adequate proficiency in that learn- 
 ing which is entirely founded on the ancient literature of 
 the country ; while, for military commands, the Manchows 
 are not only more likely to prove faithful to the present 
 dynasty, but at the same time are better suited by nature 
 and education. In the neighbourhood of the capital very 
 distinct ideas of local claims and jurisdictions appear to 
 be entertained by the Tartars. A\ hen* Lord Macartney 
 had passed just to the north of the Great Wall, on his 
 way to Je-ho, one of the attendants, who was a Tartar, 
 having been ordered for punishment by a Chinese man- 
 darin, immediately resisted with great vehemence, ex- 
 claiming against the authority of the latter on that side 
 of the national barrier. 
 
 The strict system of police, by which such an immense 
 population is kept in due order, is essentially the same 
 through the different cities and towns of the empire. Its 
 efficiency arises in a great measure from the principle of 
 responsibility, which forms so marked a feature of Chinese
 
 440 CITIES— PEKING. Chap. XII. 
 
 rule, and is carried among them to an extent quite beyond 
 our notions of equity. Every town is divided into tithings 
 of ten houses, and these are combined into wards of one 
 hundred ; or, as the Chmese term it, " ten houses make 
 a hea, ten Itea make a ■paou^^ or hundred. The magis- 
 trate is responsible for his whole district, the hundreder 
 and tithing-man each for his respective charge, and the 
 householder for the conduct of his family.* From this 
 gradation of authority all strangers and foreigners are 
 rigidly excluded. So summary is the mode in which the 
 objects of the police are etlected, that it is no light matter 
 to be once in their hands. The Chinese emphatically 
 express their sense of this unfortunate condition by the 
 popular phrase, " The meat is on the chopping-block." 
 
 The gates of all (Chinese towns are shut soon after it 
 is dark, when the first watch is sounded by a huge bell, 
 or drum, in some commanding station. At the end of 
 every principal street is a strong barrier of timber, which 
 is closed at the same time with the principal gates. These 
 are only opened to such as can give a satisfactory reason 
 for their being allowed to pass, or for being out at night ; 
 as, for instance, to call a midwife on a sudden emergency. 
 Every one is expected to carry a lantern, and is punished 
 for being found without it. When the particular watch 
 of the night has been indicated by a certain number of 
 strokes on the drum or bell at the principal station, this is 
 answered by all the rest ; and a police soldier walks from 
 one coiys tie (jarde to another, repeating the number of 
 
 * So time, however, is the maxim, Lajes sine moribus vance, that I was 
 obliged at Hongkong, whieli Ave held by right of conquest, to embody 
 a portion of the Chinese municipal law in an ordinance for the special 
 government of the native poiDulation, adopting their tithiugs and hun- 
 dreds, and something of the mutual responsibility. The judge used 
 occasionally to sit with a copy of Staunton's ' Penal Code of China ' 
 before him.
 
 Chap. XII. POLICE. 441 
 
 the watch (and thereby marking the time of niirht), by 
 striking two hollow bamboos together. 
 
 The great jealousy with which the personal safety of 
 the emperor is provided for at Peking renders the police 
 very strict in regard to all access to the ini])erial palace 
 and its neighbourhood. It has been well observed, that 
 the subjects of a despot are amply revenged by the fears 
 in which such regulations originate. According to the 
 penal code, " In all cases of persons who have lived 
 within the jurisdiction of the imperial city being con- 
 demned to die by the sentence of the law, their families, 
 and all persons whatsoever who resided under the same 
 roof with them, shall remove forthwith." The principal 
 duty of the military of China is to perform the office of a 
 police ; and it must be admitted that, by the aid of the 
 unrelenting system of responsibility, there is no country 
 in the world in which a more efficient police exists than 
 there. Not being very scrupulous as to the means, the 
 government generally contrives in some way or other to 
 accomplish its ends ; and occasionally makes up for its 
 own weakness by the policy of its measures. When the 
 pirates at the commencement of the present Tartar 
 dynasty ravaged the coasts of the maritime provinces, the 
 want of a force to oppose them on the water rendered 
 active measures impossible. The government, therefore, 
 offered no active resistance ; but merely obliged the in- 
 habitants of the coast to move thirty hj, or about three 
 leagues, inland, — a plan which proved perfectly successful. 
 
 European residents in China have generally found that 
 their property has been as secure from violent invasion as 
 it could be in any other country in the world ; and in one 
 or two instances, where flagrant acts of robbery combined 
 with murder have occurred, the efficiency of the police 
 
 u3
 
 442 CITIES— rEKING. Chap. XII. 
 
 has proved, in a very signal and remarkable manner, that 
 the government was not only wiHinrr, but able, to do them 
 summary justice. In 1810 the American ship 'Wabash,' 
 having opium on board, came to an anchor off Macao, 
 and, being manned by a very small number of hands, was 
 suddenly carried by a boatful of desj)erate Chinese, who, 
 coming on board under pretence of offering their services 
 as pilots, stabbed those who were on deck, or forced them 
 into the water ; and then, confining the remainder of the 
 crew to the forepart of the vessel, plundered her of all the 
 opium. When the fact was represented to the local 
 government, whose horror of piratical violence is extreme, 
 such prompt and effective measures were taken for the 
 discovery of the ruffians, that they were most of them 
 caught and condemned to death, and their heads exposed 
 in cages on the rocks near Macao as a warning to others. 
 But the case of the French ship ' Navigateur,' in 1828, 
 was still more remarkable, and may be given nearly from 
 the relation of M. Laplace, captain of the eighteen-gun 
 corvette ' La Favorite,' whose observations on the Chinese 
 we have had occasion to quote in another place. The 
 ' Navigateur,' a merchantman, was compelled by stress of 
 weather to put into Touron Bay on the coast of Cochin- 
 China. The disabled state of the ship, the difficulty of 
 effecting the necessary repairs, and the well-known un- 
 friendliness of the local authorities, forced the captain 
 and crew to the necessity of selling her to the King of 
 Cochin-China, and embarking themselves with their most 
 valuable effects on board a Chinese junk, which was 
 engaged to carry them to Macao. The voyage was short, 
 but still long enough to enable the crew of the junk to 
 conceive and execute a dreadful conspiracy against the 
 Frenchmen. It was in vain that one of the oldest of the
 
 Chap. XI I. MURDER OF A FRENCH CREW. 443 
 
 Chinese endeavoured by signs to draw the attention of 
 the French captain to the danger which threatened him ; 
 the latter had contented himself with making one or two 
 of his sailors keep watch by day, as well as during the 
 night ; but this charge was the more negligently exe- 
 cuted, inasmuch as most of the people, in consequence of 
 their previous sufferings, had to contend with fever or 
 dysentery. 
 
 The junk was already within sight of the great Ladrone 
 island, the mark by which Macao is made in the southerly 
 monsoon, and the Chinese passengers disembarked at 
 once into boats, with an eagerness which ought to have 
 roused the suspicion of the Europeans, had they not been 
 blinded by the most imprudent confidence. The night 
 passed quietly, and the dawning light seemed to promise a 
 happy landing to the Frenchmen ; but it was destined to 
 witness their massacre. These unfortunate men, the 
 greater number still asleep, were despatched with hatchets 
 and knives by the crew of the junk ; and their captain, 
 assailed by the assassins in the narrow cabin which he 
 occupied with his mates, after killing several of the Chi- 
 nese, fell himself the last. One seaman, however, still 
 remained, who, armed with an iron bar, continued to 
 make a desperate resistance, although badly wounded in 
 the head. Having reached the deck of the vessel, almost 
 overcome as he was in this unequal conflict, he leaped 
 into the sea, and appeared in this manner to ensure, by 
 his certain death, impunity to the murderers. 
 
 He contrived, notwithstanding, to swim to the nearest 
 fishing-boat, but was denied succour, with the usual selfish 
 prudence of the Chinese ; another boat, however, after- 
 wards received him on board, and landed him by night 
 on the shore at Macao. Sick and wounded as he was.
 
 444 CITIES— PEKING, Chap. XII, 
 
 the poor man Wtandered unknown for some time about the 
 streets, but at lenjrtli dl.-covered the abode of the French 
 missionaries, who with tlieir ready humanity relieved him 
 at once from liis immediate wants. In the mean while 
 the French consul had arrived from Canton, and the 
 affiiir, being brought by him to the notice of the Portu- 
 guese authorities at Macao, was placed by them in the 
 hands of the Chinese mandarins. By means of the in- 
 formation obtained from the French sailor, the Chinese 
 passengers, who had quitted the junk previous to the mas- 
 sacre, and repaired in all haste to their respective houses, 
 were summoned to Canton, From them was obtained 
 a full evidence as to the criminals, and their design ; and 
 a strict embargo was at once laid on a# the vessels within 
 the ports of Canton and the neighbouring province of 
 Fokien, 
 
 The assassins, being soon arrested in their junk, were 
 put into iron cages, and conveyed to Canton for trial and 
 judgment. On their arrival there it was ordained by the 
 emperor's strict order that the trial and punishment 
 should take place in the presence of the Europeans at 
 that place. Among the English spectators was the inter- 
 preter of the East India Company, Dr, Morrison, the 
 author of the Chinese Dictionary, whose labours have 
 been so useful towards illustrating the literature of the 
 country, and who was destined on this occasion to expe- 
 rience a very gratifying reward for his pains in acquiring the 
 language. His attention having been attracted by the loud 
 complaints of an old man, who, like the others, was shut 
 up in a cage with iron bars, and who, in protesting his 
 innocence, called for the French sailor whose life he had 
 contributed to save. Dr. Morrison approached the old 
 man's prison, heard what he had to say, and promised
 
 Chap. XII. EXECUTION OF ASSASSINS. 445 
 
 him his assistance with the judges. In a word, accom- 
 panied by the Frenchman, he presented himself before 
 the mandarhis, pleaded the cause of his client, and called 
 to their recollection that maxim of Chinese law, and of 
 humanity in general, that " it is better to let even the 
 guilty escape than to punish the innocent." He obtained 
 the consent of the court that the sailor should be con- 
 fronted with the accused ; and these, on the first sight of 
 each other, immediately embraced and shed tears, to the 
 great interest and sympathy of the audience. The judges 
 themselves yielded to the general sentiment, and at once 
 absolved the old man. Out of twenty-four prisoners, 
 seventeen were condemned and decapitated at once, and 
 their chief put to a lingering death in presence of the 
 Europeans. 
 
 Captain Laplace has made a great mistake in suppos- 
 ing that, when Dr. Morrison enunciated to the mandarins 
 that merciful and wise maxim which contributed to save 
 the man's life, he told them anything that they had never 
 before heard. We could prove to him, by chapter and 
 verse, that the precept is perfectly well known to the Chi- 
 nese, however grossly it may have been violated by them 
 in several cases where Europeans have unintentionally 
 caused the death of natives. It is, in fact, this knowledge 
 of what is right in criminal practice that formerly made 
 the conduct of the local government towards foreign homi- 
 cides so perfectly unjustifiable, and rendered it not only 
 excusable, but imperative, in Europeans to resist the 
 execution, not of law, but of illegality. Had they been 
 treated like natives on these occasions, and according to 
 the distinct provisions of the Chinese penal code, it might 
 be difficult to make out a right to oppose the laws of the 
 country in which they sojourn. But, as a just and equal
 
 440 CITIES— PEKING. Chap. XII. 
 
 administration of those laws to natives and foreigners 
 must always be the necessary condition of submission on 
 the part of the latter, the absurd injustice and partiality 
 of the local government deprived it of the right to com- 
 plain, if Europeans, in cases of accidental homicide, re- 
 fused to deliver up their countrymen to be strangled 
 without a trial, or with only the mockery of one. 
 
 Since the war, it has formed a principal stipulation in 
 the treaties with England, France, and America, that the 
 subjects of these several states shall be amenable only to 
 their own laws, as administered by the ministers or con- 
 suls resident in China. The same had long been the case 
 in the Levant.
 
 CuAP. XIII. OCCURRENCE IX LAST EMBASSY. 447 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 CITIES — XAXKIXG AND CANTON, 
 
 Naiiking partially depopulated — Occurrence in last embassy — View 
 within the wall — Similarity of Chinese cities — Canton : streets 
 and shops — IMercantile corjjorations — Fires — Charitable insti- 
 tutions — Clans and fraternities — Temples — Inundation of foreiji^n 
 factories — Their limits — China-street and Hog-lane — Popidation 
 
 — Female infanticide — Kidnapping children — People of the coast 
 
 — The military — Forts. 
 
 Although the circuit of the ancient walls of Nanking 
 exceeds that of the present capital of China, it has been 
 already stated that the larger portion of the area is now 
 either a waste, or consists of fields in a state of cultivation. 
 The last embassy had an opportunity of inspecting it in 
 1816, having been detained in the immediate neighbour- 
 hood for about two days, from the 21st to the 23rd October. 
 The opportunity was improved to the utmost, and the 
 liberty with which we were enabled to satisfy our curiosity 
 received some addition in consequence of an accident, 
 wherein the firmness of the ambassador was exercised with 
 a favourable effect. 
 
 Soon after the fleet of boats which conveyed the mission 
 had reached the suburbs of Nanking, on that great river 
 the Kiang, which flows a few miles to the north-west of 
 the old capital, the ambassador was induced, by the re- 
 ports of some gentlemen of the mission, who had already 
 explored a portion of the interior of the walls, without 
 any objection being made, to visit the nearest gate on the 
 north-west side. On reaching it, however, a mandarin of
 
 448 CITIES— NANKING AND CANTON. Chap. XIII. 
 
 subordinate rank, on horseback, with a pack of Chinese 
 soldiers after him, rushed past and closed the gates sud- 
 denly in the face of the party. In return for this rudeness 
 to the principal person of the mission, the individual who 
 had caused the gates to be shut was requested to open 
 them again, and it was declared that on no other condition 
 would the ambassador quit the spot. The underling, 
 however, who had committed the offence, showed no dis- 
 position to repair it, but took his departure in an impudent 
 style. His excellency, on this, requested two individuals 
 of his suite, of whom the writer was one, to proceed as 
 fast as possible to the imperial legate, who acted as con- 
 ductor to the embassy, and, complaining formally of the 
 insult which had been offered him, require that reparation 
 should be instantly made. We were very civilly received 
 on board the Kinchae's boat, who, when we had explained 
 the nature of the offence, immediately said that the person 
 who had been guilty of it must be out of his wits, and sent 
 at once to the highest military officer in the neighbour- 
 hood, to desire that he would go and see the gates re- 
 opened instantly. We in the mean while walked back to 
 rejoin the ambassador, accompanied by a very fat and 
 asthmatic mandarin, of the Order of the Blue Button, 
 who had much ado to keep up with our rapid pace. On 
 our reaching the gate, the (Jhinese general who had been 
 despatched by the legate presently arrived ; and, apolo- 
 gizing for the folly of the officer, caused the gates to be 
 re-opened. The ambassador expressed himself satisfied, 
 and declined entering the gate, telling the general and 
 the rest that he was sorry they should have had so much 
 trouble.* 
 
 * Twenty-six years afterwards tlie flag-sliip of Admiral SirW. Parker 
 was anchored off this very gate, and the Treaty of Nanking signed on 
 board, in August, 1842.
 
 CdAi'. Xlli. . NAXKIXG. 449 
 
 A large assembled crowd had witnessed the transac- 
 tion, and it evidently had a very favourable effect on their 
 conduct, which became more civil than ordinary. In the 
 course of the same day several gentlemen were allowed not 
 only to pass the gate, but to proceed as far as they pleased 
 into the interior ; and, from a high wooded hill within the 
 wall, could see the modern town to the south, which occu- 
 pies barely a third of the immense area. The ancient 
 name of Nanking (the southern capital) is still in common 
 use, but no longer admitted in official documents, wherein 
 it is styled Keang-ning-foo, a city of the first order, but 
 still merely the chief town of a province. The porcelain 
 tower of Nanking (which however is porcelain in nothing 
 but its tiles) was a conspicuous object in the distance, and 
 tempted some of the party to undertake a walk to the 
 modern town to inspect it. They reached the suburb 
 without interruption ; but the vast and dense crowd which 
 presently surrounded them made it imprudent to perse- 
 vere, and they were obliged to give up the principal object 
 of their excursion. It was satisfactory, however, to have 
 gained even this insight into the present condition of the 
 ancient capital of China, which had never been visited by 
 a former embassy. The following is from an unpublished 
 journal of Sir George Staunton on the same occasion : — 
 
 " The view from the summit of the hill (within the 
 gate) certainly well rewarded us for the labour of the 
 ascent, and was a perfect panorama. On one side, and, 
 as it were, beneath our feet, lay the suburb which we had 
 just quitted, the noble stream of the Yang-tse-keang, with 
 its several branches, or rather subdivisions, and beyond 
 them the pagoda of the city of Poo-keu-hien, and a dis- 
 tant range of hills in the horizon. On the other side was 
 a beautiful vale of many leagues in extent, the whole of 
 which, with several lesser eminences within its enceinte, is
 
 ■ioO CITIES— NANKING AND CANTON. Ciiai-. XIII. 
 
 included within the ancient boundaries of the imperial 
 city. Wq could trace with the eye, assisted by a tele- 
 scope, nearly the whole circuit of the walls ; but within 
 the vast space which they enclosed we looked almost in 
 vain for the habitations of men, or any traces of the former 
 populousness of this ancient capital of China. Even the 
 very ruins and vestiges of the buildings which we are led 
 to conclude must formerly have filled this space have dis- 
 appeared ; and at present clumps of trees, orchards, culti- 
 vated fields, and gardens, and a few scattered farm-houses 
 occupy their places. At a distance, indeed, beyond an 
 elevated ridge to the westward, we could perceive that a 
 part of the valley was overhung with a cloud of smoke, 
 which ])artially disclosed a few considerable buildings, and 
 no doubt arose from that portion of the city which con- 
 tinues to be inhabited. We could distinguish pretty 
 clearly the roofs of two or three buildings resembling 
 temples, two arched gateways, and three pagodas, one of 
 which, from its superior size and stateliness, and its 
 proximity to the river, we immediately concluded to be 
 the famous porcelain tower, and in this opinion we were 
 confirmed by our Chinese conductors." 
 
 The desolation which took place in this ancient seat of 
 the native sovereigns may no doubt be ascribed to the 
 Tartar conquerors, who demolished the imperial palace, 
 and even the sepulchres, in the rage of war. Much, how- 
 ever, may be attributed to another reason, which suffi- 
 ciently explains why, except the Great Wall, there are 
 few ancient monuments in China. Their edifices are far 
 from being of a solid construction, the columns being 
 in most cases of wood, and the climate throughout the 
 country subject to the greatest vicissitudes of moisture 
 and dryness, as well as of heat and cold. The nine-storied 
 buildings called pagodas, being of good solid brickwork,
 
 Chap. XIII. 
 
 NANKING. 
 
 451 
 
 Nine-storied Pagoda. 
 
 are among the most lasting. That of Nankhig is at the 
 head of these monuments, which are of a religious nature, 
 and, like the steeples of churches, were at first attached 
 to temples. Several still remain with the religious
 
 452 CITIES— NANKING AND CANTON. Chap. XIII. 
 
 establishments to which they belong, besides the one at 
 Nanking, a printed representation of which, with a de- 
 scription attached, was purchased by some of the embassy 
 while in the neighbourhood. Its dimensions are nearly 
 two hundred feet in height, the ground-plan being octa- 
 gonal, and the spiral staircase built through the solid part 
 of the wall, which surrounds a hollow space in the centre 
 that is carried to the summit of the building. In niches 
 at the sides of the stair are placed images of Budh, or of 
 the goddess Kuan-yin. 
 
 Nanking being situated in lat. 32° 4', the excellence of 
 the climate, joined to its proximity to the great Keang 
 and the canal, still renders it a populous place with a very 
 considerable trade, however fallen from its former splen- 
 dour. Besides its silk manufactures, and the cotton cloth 
 which takes its name, the Chinese highly esteem the paper 
 and the squares of ink which are made here. The pithy 
 substance, in England vulgarly called rice-jjaper, is like- 
 wise prepared in this neighbourhood from a plant called 
 Tung-tsaoUy which is now known to us, and has been named 
 Aralia jKipi/rifera. When the pirate Koshinga ravaged 
 the eastern coasts, he sailed easily up the mouth of the 
 Keang to Nanking ; and there is reason to suppose that 
 to a European fleet it would be one of the most vulnerable 
 parts of the empire, as the canal opens into the great 
 river a little below the city towards the sea. To block- 
 ade at once the mouth of the canal and of the Yang-tse- 
 keang could scarcely fail to distress the empire, and 
 especially Peking, which is fed by supplies fi'om the 
 southern provinces.* 
 
 Nanking stands pretty nearly midway between Peking 
 and Canton, the two most important extremes of China 
 
 * This was the precise mode in which our treaty of peace was im- 
 posed in 1842.
 
 Chap. XIII. CANTON. 453 
 
 on the north and south. Notwithstanding the very con- 
 siderable difference of climate which must be produced by 
 no less than seventeen degrees of latitude, the general 
 character of the cities and towns throughout the empire, 
 and of the houses which they contain, is surprisingly uni- 
 form. The most striking features are the lowness of the 
 houses, and the narrowness of the streets, which are 
 usually paved with flag-stones, and calculated only for 
 the passage of people on foot, or of those who are carried 
 in sedan-chairs. The way is sometimes crossed by those 
 triple gateways of an ornamental structure, which have 
 been improperly styled triumphal arches, but which are of 
 a square construction, and appear to have been usually 
 erected to the memory of individuals celebrated for their 
 talents or virtues. Another species of memorial, of the 
 same kind, is a large stone slab called She-pae, being 
 about eight feet in height, two in breadth, and half a foot 
 in thickness, covered with inscriptions, which record some 
 honour conferred by the emperor, or the merit of some 
 eminent person. These are always erected perpendicu- 
 larly on the figure of a tortoise, of the same stone from 
 which the slab is cut. 
 
 The portion of Canton in which the European factories 
 are situated, being a mere suburb, does not contain any 
 of the decorations above described ; but the arrangement 
 and architecture of the streets and shops is precisely the 
 same as within the walls of the city. The shops are com- 
 monly quite open towards the street, — that is, those 
 appropriated to Chinese customers ; for the few streets 
 devoted to European trade are rather on a different plan, 
 the shops being of a closer structure, and less exposed 
 to external observation. The several streets are com- 
 monly devoted to distinct trades. There is Carpenter- 
 street, or rather square, as it is carried round a parallelo-
 
 454 CITIES— NANKING AND CANTON. Chap. XIII. 
 
 gram ; Curiositi/ -street (as the English call it) is devoted to 
 the sale of anticiues, real and factitious ; and Apotliecary- 
 street is full of druggists' shops, the drawers in which are 
 neatly arranged and lettered, but filled j)rincipally with 
 simples. By the side of each shop is suspended from on 
 high a huge ornamental label of wood, varnished and 
 gilded, on which are inscribed the particular calling cf 
 the tenant, and the goods in which he deals. This label, 
 being hung like the sign of one of our inns, with its edge 
 towards the street, and inscribed on both sides, can be 
 read by all who approach the shop in either direction ; 
 and the vista of these numerous variegated signboards, 
 glittering with gold and varnish, gives to the better streets 
 a very gay appearance. 
 
 The inscriptions in the shops are sometimes amusing, 
 and at the same time highly characteristic of the keenness 
 and industry of the people as traders. We have seen the 
 following : — " Gossiping and long sitting injure business." 
 " Former customers have inspired caution — no credit 
 given." " A small stream always flowing," " Goods 
 genuine, prices true." " Trade circling like a wheel," &c. 
 Either the police must be very good, or the populace 
 tolerably abstemious ; for some of the shops which are 
 pretty richly supplied appear to be much exposed towards 
 the street. But the inhabitants of each division gene- 
 rally combine into a system of watch and ward for the 
 common protection ; and during the night the streets are 
 closed at each end by doors, which are guarded by the 
 regular police. Commissioner Lin made a complete 
 revolution in the streets adjoining the European factories 
 during the year 1839, converting these into a sort of 
 prison by blocking up several of the principal thorough- 
 fares, and leaving but one or two outlets. In this manner 
 the foreigners could be shut up and starved at the shortest
 
 Chap. XIII. CANTON. 455 
 
 notice, and their condition was rendered quite as degrad- 
 ing as that of the Dutch at Nagasaki in Japan. Yet the 
 Americans found trade profitable under these circum- 
 stances, and the war changed everything again. 
 
 The principal shops connected with European and 
 American trade are those occupied by dealers in silks, 
 lackered and carved ware, and all those smaller articles 
 that were not restricted to the Hong merchants, who 
 formerly had the exclusive privilege of trading in tea, 
 cotton, and other chief commodities. AVhen the latter 
 felt occasionally inclined to push their monopoly beyond 
 its established limits, and to encroach on the sufficiently 
 narrow trade of the shopmen, these usually combined 
 for the purpose of opposing them with some chance of 
 success. At the close of 1834 the Hong merchants 
 showed a disposition to exercise the whole weight of their 
 exclusive privileges against the English free-trade, and 
 even to add to them by depriving the shopmen of their 
 accustomed dealings. A considerable fennent was created 
 among the latter, which gave rise to a species of trades 
 unions, composed of manufacturers and dealers, who com- 
 bined to plague the Hong merchants and petition the 
 government, and succeeded, at length, in retaining such 
 portion of the trade as they had before possessed. 
 
 The silk-weavers and dealers are much in the habit of 
 forming combinations to maintain the rules of their trade, 
 and the prices of work as well as goods. The forfeit for 
 violating the laws of the combination is, to be at the sole 
 expense of a dramatic exhibition, which lasts for three days, 
 and to pay half the value of the commodity sold contrary 
 to rule, for the support of the tradesmen's hall, of which 
 there is generally one in every principal city, belonging 
 to each wealthy corporation of traders, if they may be so 
 termed. The embassy of 181(5 observed at Kan-chow-foo,
 
 450 CITIES— NANKING AND CANTON. Chap. XIII. 
 
 a i)rincl])al city of Keang-sy province, that by far the 
 most considerable buildings were the commercial halls, 
 belon£rin<r to the associated merchants and dealers. The 
 princijjal room in the exchange of the green-tea merchants 
 (who pass by this on their way to Canton) was named 
 Syclmn Tang, or "Hyson hall." In the appropriation of 
 these edifices, observes a })rivatc journal of the embassy, 
 there is a singular combination of religious with commer- 
 cial objects. They generally contain a temple of Budh, 
 or some local divinity, and at the same time are used as 
 an exchange, and house of entertainment and lodging, for 
 the society of merchants to whom they belong. 
 
 The worshipful corporation of silkmen of Canton, having 
 been of opinion in 1833 that some of their fraternity had 
 been unfairly dealt with by an American, in a contract 
 for silk piece-goods, forthwith exhibited a rather amusing 
 placard against him. " In conducting commercial trans- 
 actions (said the paper) the Chinese and foreigners are 
 generally the same ; in buying and selling with justice 
 and equity there is no difference between them, ^^'hen 
 the goods are delivered, the money is immediately paid ; 
 there are no perverse difficulties made, nor cutting deduc- 
 tions inflicted. But there is now living in the Swedish 
 factory. No. 2, an American devil, named Hot* to whom 
 a wolfish voracity has become nature. He monopolizes 
 silks and various goods for the Americans. A gluttonous 
 avarice fills his heart. There is long procrastination and 
 money unpaid, — contracting for nmcJi, and then requiring 
 little ; with the concealed and villanous intention of pick- 
 ing and choosing. He would point at a gem, and call it 
 a stone,'\ and then advance to administer the deadly 
 potion of cutting down the price ! And, again, when the 
 
 * Chinese corruption of the real name. 
 + Fifiriu-ativelv. 
 
 '<^
 
 Chap. XIII. CANTON. 457 
 
 time of payment arrived, he would enforce discounts. 
 He scraped and peeled off from the trader both skin and 
 fat. **** He, knowing that when the goods were once 
 prepared there was none to take them but himself, forced 
 his reductions upon us, and the Chinese brokers likewise 
 servilely complied with his wish, joining and assisting in 
 his wickedness ; so that we have been torn by the wolf, 
 and swallowed by the whale ! We have become fish and 
 flesh to him — our property is wasted without a return — all 
 our hearts unite in detesting him ; and therefore we have 
 issued this song of our discontent. All the weavers of 
 satin, silk, and crape publicly unite in the above decla- 
 ration." 
 
 The greatest risk to which the houses and shops of 
 Canton are exposed is that of fires, which in frequent in- 
 stances are not the results of mere accident. The Chinese 
 have very generally adopted the use of our engines, which 
 they themselves occasionally manufacture sufiiciently w^ell 
 to answer the purpose. The foolish notion of fatalism 
 which prevails among the people makes them singularly 
 careless as regards fire, and the frequent recurrence of 
 accidents has no effect upon them, although the fearful 
 conflagration of 1822 went far to destroy the whole city. 
 When the dry northerly winds of the winter season 
 have set in, the viceroy annually issues a notice to the 
 people, calling on them to beware of the acts of incendi- 
 aries, who purposely set fire to buildings with a view to 
 rob and plunder in the confusion : and that there is 
 sufficient ground for the apprehension seems proved by 
 the fact, that fires break out most fi'equently at the season 
 when they are most likely to spread, and most difficult to 
 extinguish. 
 
 Vagabonds and beggars are very numerous in Canton, 
 but not more so than in many large cities of Europe. In 
 
 VOL. I. X
 
 458 CITIES— NANKING AND CANTON. Chap. XIII. 
 
 all cases of dislocation, fracture, or diseased limbs, the 
 ignorance of anatomy, and abhorrence of amputation, 
 render some of the cripples very pitiable, as well as dis- 
 gusting objects. They have no levy of rates for the poor, 
 but some small charitable institutions, which " are few in 
 number and small in extent," according to the observa- 
 tion of the writer in a detailed description of the city of 
 Canton, published at that place. The following account of 
 them is from the same little work :* — 1. The "foundling 
 hospital " stands without the walls of the city, on the east. 
 It has accommodations for two or three hundred children, 
 and is maintained at an annual expense of 2522 taels, or 
 about 840Z. 2. Yang-tse-yuen is a retreat for poor aged 
 and infirm or blind people, who have no friends to support 
 them. It stands near the foundling hospital, and, like it, 
 enjoys imperial patronage, receiving annually 5100 taels. 
 These sums are chiefly derived from the foreign ships that 
 bring rice to Canton. 3. Ma-foong-yuen, a hospital for 
 lepers, is also on the east of the city. The number of 
 patients in it exceeds 300, and these are said to be main- 
 tained on 300 taels a-year ! The situation of lepers is 
 peculiarly wretched in China, as they become outcasts 
 from society, and from their families, from the first appear- 
 ance of the disease. The object is probably to prevent its 
 propagation. 
 
 The best maintenance of the poor, and the best provi- 
 sion for the due distribution of wealth, consists in the 
 manner in which both law and custom enforce among 
 them the claims of kindred. Public opinion considers it 
 the duty of well-conditioned relatives to support or assist 
 those who are allied to them by consanguinity, and the 
 state refuses to maintain those who can work for them- 
 selves, or have friends able to relieve them. The atten- 
 
 * Pago 57.
 
 CiiAp. XIII. CLANSHIP. 459 
 
 tion bestowed by the Chinese on their deceased ancestors, 
 and the prevalence of clanship, or extensive societies 
 claiming a common descent, give to the lower orders 
 some of that feeling which in England belongs only to 
 persons of family, but which has characterized the Scotch 
 •people very generally. The natives of Canton province, 
 and of Fokien, are the most remarkable in China for the 
 extent to which this feeling of clanship is carried, and for 
 the inconveniences to which it gives rise. In Fokien two 
 clans fell out in this manner in 1817. The name of one 
 was Tsae, and of the other Wang, and, a gathering of each 
 having taken place, they fought until many were killed 
 and a number of houses destroyed by fire. The police 
 seized the most violent ; but the worsted clan ag-ain 
 attacked the other, and killed several of them, until the 
 government called in the military to restore order. The 
 Chinese even carry this feeling abroad with them. Their 
 skill as cultivators occasioned some hundreds to be em- 
 ployed at St. Helena ; and when Sir Hudson Lowe was 
 governor of that island, he informed the writer of this 
 that two clans from different provinces of China, having 
 quarrelled in 1819, met together to have a battle royal. 
 A Serjeant's party turned out to quell the disturbance ; 
 but the stronger side, running up the side of one of the 
 steep ravines, began to roll down stones, while the weaker 
 one joined the soldiers, who were at length compelled to 
 fire in their own defence, by which several Chinese were 
 killed, and order soon restored. 
 
 But the fraternities which are most dreaded by the 
 government of China are those secret associations, under 
 various mysterious names, which combine for purposes 
 either religious or political, or perhaps both together. Of 
 the first description, the sect of the " Water Lily " (a 
 sacred plant), and that of the " Incense-burners," are both 
 
 x2
 
 460 CITIES— NANKING ilND CANTON. Chap. XIII. 
 
 denounced in the 7th section of the Shing-yu ; and with 
 them is confounded the Romish worship under the same 
 prohibition. The hite weak state of the government has 
 rendered it particuUirly jealous of all secret societies what- 
 ever, as well as cruel and unrelenting in punishing their 
 leaders. But the chief object of its dread and persecution 
 is the San-ho-Jioey, or Triad Society, of which some descrip- 
 tion was given in 1823 by Dr. Milne. The name seems 
 to imply that, when Heaven, Earth, and Man combine to 
 favour them, they shall succeed in subverting the present 
 Tartar dynasty, and that, in the mean while, every ex- 
 ertion is to be used to mature that event. They have 
 naturally had some share in the recent insurrections. 
 
 In October, 1828, a paper, of which the following is an 
 exact translation, was found in the Protestant burial- 
 ground at Macao, by a gentleman of the Company's 
 service, who, understanding the meaning of it, sent the 
 production immediately to the mandarin of the district, 
 with whom he happened to be acquainted, and who 
 entreated that the matter might not be made public, as 
 he should be severely punished for the mere discovery of 
 such a seditious paper within his district : — 
 
 " Vast was the central nation — flourishing the heavenly d3-nasty, 
 A thousand regions sent tribute — ten thousand nations did homage ; 
 But the Tartars obtained it by fraud — and this grudge can never be 
 
 assuaged. 
 Enlist soldiers, procure horses — display aloft the flowery standard, 
 Eaise troops and seize weapons — let us exterminate the Manchow 
 
 race." 
 
 Dr. Milne's account of the Triad Society, whose nature 
 and objects he took some pains to investigate, is so curious 
 as to deserve particular notice. The name of this associ- 
 ation means, "the Society of the Three united," that is, of 
 Heaven, Earth, and Man, which, according to the imper- 
 fect notions and expressions of Chinese philosophy, imply
 
 Chap. XIII. ILLEGAL FEATERNITIES. 461 
 
 the. three departments of Nature. There is a M'ell-known 
 Chinese cyclopaedia, arranged under these three heads. 
 In the reign of Kea-king, about the commencement of 
 the present century, the Triad Society, under another 
 name, spread itself rapidly through the provinces, and had 
 nearly succeeded in overturning the government. In 
 1803 its machinations were frustrated, and the principal 
 leaders seized and put to death, the official reports stating 
 to the emperor that " not a single member of that rebel- 
 lious fraternity was left alive." But the fact was otherwise, 
 for they still existed, and, w4th a view to secrecy, adopted 
 the name which they at present bear. 
 
 The objects of the association appear at first to have 
 been allied to something like freemasonry, and to have 
 aimed simply at mutual aid and assistance ; but as the 
 numbers increased, their views degenerated from the laud- 
 able ends of reciprocal benefit to violence and robbery, 
 the overthrow of government, and the acquisition of poli- 
 tical power by the expulsion of the Tartar dynasty. In 
 foreign colonies, as at Batavia, Sincapore, and Malacca, 
 the real or pretended branches of the association exist, 
 and their objects are mutual defence, as well as plunder 
 and other dishonesty. They engage to defend each other 
 from the attacks of police-officers, and to assist members 
 of their society in escaping from justice. If any one feels 
 himself injured, the others take part in his quarrel and 
 help him to revenge himself Still the professed design is 
 merely benevolent, as appears from their motto, which is 
 a distich with this meaning : — 
 
 " Tlie blessings mutually share, 
 The woe reciprocally beai'." 
 
 The management of the combination is vested in three 
 persons, who are denominated ho, elder brethren, in the
 
 462 CITIES— NANKING AND CANTON. Chap. XIII. 
 
 same manner that freemasons style each other " brothers" 
 Of their mternal discipline Dr. Milne could obtain little 
 information. The Society's regulations are said to be 
 written for greater security on cloth, which, on any emer- 
 gency, may be thrown into a well, or otherwise concealed 
 for a time. They have not been tolerated at Hongkong. 
 
 The ceremony of initiation is said to take place at night 
 The oath of secrecy is taken before an idol, and a sum of 
 money given to support the general expense. There is 
 likewise a ceremony called Jcuo-keaou, " passing the 
 bridge," which bridge is formed of swords, either laid be- 
 tween two tables, or else set up on the hilts and meeting 
 at the points, in form of an arch. The persons who receive 
 the oath take it under this bridge, and the yeh-ho, or chief 
 brother, reads the articles of the oath, to each of which 
 an affirmative response is given by the new member, after 
 which he cuts off the head of a cock, which is the usual 
 form of a Chinese oath, intimating, " Thus perish all who 
 divulge the secret." Some of the marks by which they 
 make themselves known to each other consist of mystical 
 numbers, of which the chief is the number three. Cer- 
 tain motions of the fingers constitute a class of signs. 
 To discover if one of the fraternity is in company, a bro- 
 ther will take up his teacup, or its cover, in a particular 
 way with three fingers, and this will be answered by a cor- 
 responding sign. They have a common seal, consisting of 
 a pentagonal figure, in which are inscribed certain charac- 
 ters in a sense understood only by the initiated. 
 
 Except in their dangerous or dishonest principles, the 
 San-hd-hoey bear a considerable resemblance to the society 
 of Freemasons. They even pretend to carry their origin 
 back to remote antiquity under another name. The mem- 
 bers swear at their initiation to be fraternal and benevo- 
 lent, which corresponds with the engagement of the free-
 
 Chap. XIII. FREEMASONRY. 4G:{ 
 
 masons. Another point of resemblance is in the ceremonies 
 of initiation, in the oath and the solemnity of its adminis- 
 tration. These are so striking as to merit the attention 
 of such as deem the history of fi'eemasonry worthy of 
 investigation. Dr. Milne goes on to observe that the 
 signs, particularly the use of the fingers, as far as is known 
 or conjectured, appear to bear a resemblance. "Some 
 have affirmed (says he) that the great secret of freemasonry 
 consists in the words ' liberty and equality,' and if so, cer- 
 tainly the term lieimg-te (brethren) of the Triad Society 
 may be explained as implying the same idea. AVhether 
 there exists anything in the shape of lodges in the San-ho- 
 hoey the writer has no means of ascertaining, but he 
 believes the Chinese law is too rigorous against this body 
 to admit of any ; nor does there appear to be a partiality 
 for the masonic employment." Branches of this associa- 
 tion have spread over most of the islands and settlements 
 in the Malay archipelago. They have sometimes impeded 
 the execution of our laws at Sincapore against Chinese 
 culprits, and the rapid increase of that portion of the 
 population may hereafter render them dangerous, unless 
 the most summary measures are adopted for their 
 suppression. 
 
 The cautious policy of the government of China, ever 
 on the watch to prevent the possibility of political associa- 
 tions under a religious exterior, allows no temples or other 
 institutions of that kind to be erected that are not strictly 
 orthodox, or which come not either within the Confucian 
 doctrine, or the tolerated sects of Fo and Taoa In 1824 
 the emperor issued this edict : — " To delude the people 
 with unorthodox opinions is a great contravention of the 
 laws. According to the report of the censor, a fane has 
 again been erected to the superstition of Woo-tung, at a 
 place three miles to the west of Soo-chow-foo. In the
 
 4G-I: CITIES— NANKING AND CANTON. Chap. XIII. 
 
 reign of Kclng-hy the fane was destroyed and the idols 
 burnt, and for a long series of years the superstition has 
 been suppressed ; but the sacrifices are now offered as 
 before. The witches place a pretended confidence in the 
 predictions of the spirits, and promise a fulfilment of hopes 
 and desires." This was in fact an oracle, such as the 
 weakness of human nature has given rise to in many other 
 countries. The emperor goes on to say, " Let not the 
 simple people be permitted to offer sacrifices or to associate 
 with the votaries of the superstition. Let the magistrates 
 issue instructions to the heads of families to exercise a 
 rigid control over their dependents. Let the whole 
 system of false worship, calculated only to delude the 
 uninstructed populace, with its burning of incense, and 
 collection of subscriptions, be followed up, whenever it is 
 detected, with severe punishment, in order that the public 
 morals may be preserved, and the minds of men set 
 right." 
 
 The description of the city of Canton, already referred 
 to, gives a short account of the principal licensed temples, 
 which may be considered as samples of what are 'to be 
 found in most other cities of the empire. " The Kuang- 
 heaou-tse, or temple of ' resplendent filial duty,' is one of the 
 largest, and stands within the walls, near the north-west 
 corner of the city. It is endowed with a considerable 
 quantity of land for the support of its priests or inmates, 
 who amount to 200 in number, and is said to have been 
 built as long ago as the period of the ' Three Kingdoms,' 
 A.D. 250. Another temple, having attached to it a lofty 
 pagoda, or minaret, is in fact a Mahomedan mosque, built 
 (as the Chinese say) by foreigners in the Tang dynasty, 
 when the Arabs traded to Canton, and still fully tolerated. 
 The Mahomedans amount at present to as many as 3000, 
 and are distinguished from the other inhabitants as per-
 
 Chap. XIII. TEMPLES. 4Go 
 
 sons who have no idols, and who will not eat swine's 
 flesh."* 
 
 Besides less considerable ones, there is a Budhist estab- 
 lishment at Canton, about three-quarters of a mile north 
 of the foreign factories, in the suburb beyond the city 
 walls, which contains 100 priests, who are maintained on 
 an annual revenue of 7000 taels. The temple, with its 
 grounds, occupies some acres of land, and has several 
 spacious halls, one of which was built by a son of Howqua, 
 the Hong merchant. In one part of the temple is a large 
 image of Budh, and in another an idol of Kudn-yin, the 
 goddess who " regards the cries " of mortals, and assists 
 them. She is worshipped chiefly by women. Another 
 very large temple and monastery of the Budhist persuasion 
 is to be seen on the opposite side of the river, nearly front- 
 ing the European factories ; but a particular description 
 and plan of this must be reserved to illustrate the sect of 
 Fo, under the head of Religions. 
 
 Among other temples. Canton, and indeed every princi- 
 pal city, contains one to the majesty and long life of the 
 emperor, under the title of Wan-show Koong, or the " Hall 
 of Ten Thousand Years :" the walls and furniture of this 
 temple are yellow, and at the period when the emperor's 
 
 * The Chinese observe of the IMahomedans that " the people of that 
 nation worship Heaven alone, nor is there any otlier being or thing to 
 which they pay divine honours. The rich (it is said) are liberal to the 
 poor, and all persons from other parts of the country are received as 
 friends (alluding probably to the sacredness of hospitality among the 
 Arabs). Their funeral rites are simjjle ; in Canton they are buried 
 without coffins. The shell in which the deceased is carried to the 
 tomb has a false bottom, which draws out, and lets the corpse fall into 
 the grave. If it fall with its face towards heaven, they regard the cir- 
 cumstance as an omen of futiu-e felicity ; if the corjise turn with its 
 face to the earth, it is an unhappy sign. In the times of Chin and Sny 
 (about the seventh century) they first entered China, and afterwards 
 came by sea to Canton. After the Yuen (Mongol) dynasty, they spread 
 widely through the country, and now they abound eveiywhere." 
 
 x3
 
 46G CITIES— NANKING AND CANTON. Chap. XIII. 
 
 birthday occurs in every year, the viceroy and all the 
 principal officers of government, both civil and military, 
 assemble there to pay him adoration. The solemnities 
 practised are exactly the same as when he is present. No 
 chairs are allowed ; but every one takes with hira a 
 cushion, on which he sits cross-legged upon the ground, as 
 the embassy and mandarins did at the im})erial feast at 
 Tien-tsinin 181G.* 
 
 Among the most respectable-looking buildings of Can- 
 ton, inasmuch as {hefrotUs at least are concerned, are the 
 foreign factories, which occupy a very limited extent along 
 the bank of the river in the south-western suburb. The con- 
 fined state of these, and their utter inadequacy to accom- 
 modate an increased number of traders, at tlie same time 
 that the government refused any increase of space, was a 
 subject often debated with the local authorities. These 
 factories, together with a large portion of the suburb in 
 which they are situated, are built on a muddy flat which 
 has been gained from the river, and they are consequently 
 erected upon wooden piles, only just above high-water 
 mark. The heavy rains, during the summers of 1833 and 
 1834, produced overflowings of the river, which inundated 
 the whole of the European quarters to the height of several 
 feet on their ground-floors. Boats plied from door to door 
 along the streets, and from one European residence to 
 another ; and a net was seen to be cast for fish in the 
 midst of a Hong merchant's grounds ! This was suc- 
 ceeded, as might have been expected, by sickness among 
 the natives and Europeans ; and there can be little doubt 
 that, if the inundations frequently recurred, the factories, 
 both from that cause and from their crowded state, would 
 become uninhabitable by the large numbers disposed to 
 try their fortunes at Canton. There would be no remedy 
 
 * Cliai). X., p. 3G0.
 
 Chap. XIII. INUNDATION OF EUROPEAN FACTORIES. 4G7 
 
 for these evils exceptinof permission to erect additional 
 factories in a more healthy situation, and heyond the reach 
 of the high tides, which never fail, durinn- the rainv 
 months, to inundate some portion of the space towards 
 the river. The effect of this in a hot climate must, of 
 course, be higldy noxious. 
 
 The following account of the inundation in 1833 Is fi'om 
 the ' Chinese Repository,' published at Canton : — " On the 
 5th and 6th of September the tide was at the highest, 
 being from four to five feet at the eastern gates of the city, 
 which are above the factories. On the night of the 5th, 
 the weather being calm and serene, the low murnmring of 
 the current, as it rolled along, was distinctly audible in 
 the foreign factories.* * * * On the 7th the water began 
 gradually to abate, but it did not return to its ordinary 
 level until after the 16th, when the S})ring-tides had passed 
 over. For upwards of a week, during the continuance of 
 the inundation, the current rushed past with such rapidity, 
 that all business with the shipping at Whampoa was 
 entirely stopped ; and even light gigs with European crews 
 had the utmost difficulty in reaching Canton. To describe 
 all that has come to our knowledge of the effects of this 
 awful visitation would far exceed our liijiits." The distress 
 occasioned in the province had a visible effect on the com- 
 merce of the European ships, as it lessened at once the 
 demand for imports and the supply of exports. The inun- 
 dations, so unprecedented in former years, are said to have 
 been occasioned by the neglect of the government, or its 
 inability, to repair the extensive ravages in the dikes and 
 embankments between Canton and the high country to the 
 north and west ; and, as the floods were repeated in 1834, 
 there is reason to fear their recurrence may be expected. 
 
 It may, perhaps, seem incredible that the whole front- 
 age of the buildings in which foreigners of all nations
 
 4G8 CITIES— NANKING AND CANTON, Chap. XIII. 
 
 have been shut up together, for the prosecution of their 
 tradiuir business at Canton, docs not exceed between 
 seven and eight hundred feet. Each front, of which there 
 are about thirteen, extends backwards some hundred and 
 thirty yards into a long narrow lane or thoroughfcire, on 
 each side of which, as well as over arches that cross it, 
 are the confined abodes of the English, French, Dutch, 
 Americans, Parsees, and others. INIany of these spend a 
 large portion, if not the whole, of their lives here in the 
 worship of Mammon, formerly without the sight of a female 
 face, and with no recreation but the jingling of dollars, as 
 they are perpetually being weighed or examined by the 
 Chinese money-changers in receipts or payments ! Many 
 years back a considerable number of flags, as the Danish, 
 Swedish, and Austrian, were hoisted in fi'ont of the fac- 
 tories, besides the English, Dutch, and American ; but 
 for the last quarter of a century these three, with the 
 French tricolor, which was erected soon after the revolu- 
 tion of 1830, have been the only foreign ensigns seen 
 there. 
 
 The European factories are called by the Chinese " the 
 thirteen Hongs ; " the word Hong being always used by 
 them to denote a commercial establishment or warehouse. 
 According to their custom, each factory is distinguished 
 either by some appellation denoting wealth and prosperity, 
 or by its flag. Thus the Austrian or imperial factory was 
 called the " Twin-eagle Hong," a name which it retains to 
 this day ; the Danish, the " Yellow-flag Hong ; " the 
 Company's, " the Hong that ensures tranquillity ; " the 
 American, " the Hong of extensive fountains ; " and so on. 
 To the east of all there is a narrow inlet from the river, — 
 a fetid ditch, which serves to surround a portion of the 
 city wall, as well as to drain that part of the town. This 
 is crossed with a single arch, by a narrow street at the
 
 Chap. XIII. CHINA-STREET AND HOG-LANE. 4GQ 
 
 back of the factories, that leads to the warehouses of the 
 several merchants, all of them communicatiiin- with the 
 river by wooden or stone stairs, from which the tea and 
 other merchandise is shipped. 
 
 The space occupied by the foreign factories is crossed 
 by two well-known thoroughfares, one of them named 
 China-street, and the other very appropriately dignified 
 with the descriptive title of Hog-lane. The former is 
 rather broader than the generality of Chinese streets, and 
 contains the shops of the small dealers in carved and 
 lackered ware, silks, and other articles in common demand 
 by strangers. These are attracted to the several shops 
 by inscriptions in the European character, which some- 
 times promise more than they perfonn : as when the 
 dauber of truculent likenesses calls himself a "handsome 
 face-painter," &c. The shops, instead of being set out 
 with the showy and sometimes expensive front of an Eng- 
 lish or French boutique, are closed in by gloomy black 
 shutters, and very ill lit by a small skylight, or rather a 
 hole in the roof. The inmates, instead of showing the 
 civility and alacrity of shopkeepers in London or Paris, 
 and anticipating the demands of their customers in the 
 display of their goods, slowly, and sometimes sullenly, 
 produce the articles from their cases and cupboards as 
 they may be asked for : so that shopping at Canton is far 
 from being an agreeable pastime. 
 
 The alley called Hog-lane it is not easy to describe by 
 any standard of comparison, as nothing so narrow or so 
 filthy exists in a European town. The hovels by which it 
 is lined were occupied by abandoned Chinese, who sup- 
 plied the poor ignorant sailors with spirits, medicated to 
 their taste with stimulating or stupifying drugs ; and 
 when the wretched men had been reduced to a bestial 
 state by these poisonous liquors they were frequently set
 
 470 CITIES— NANKING AND CANTON, Chap. XIII. 
 
 upon by their wily seducers, and robbed as well as beaten ; 
 until those sent in search of the sailors arrived and car- 
 ried them to their boat in this disgraceful condition. It 
 was here that the affrays, which many years since so fre- 
 quently led to homicides and discussions with the g-overn- 
 meiit, in general originated ; until the Company's autho- 
 rities invested the senior commander of the fleet with the 
 complete regulation and control of all boats, with their 
 crews, at Canton. Powerful influence was at the same 
 time used to put down the spirit-shops, or bind their own- 
 ers by heavy pains and penalties to good behaviour. 
 
 Those who anciently witnessed the fearful tumults gene- 
 rated in Hog-lane described them as something quite 
 remarkable. A few straggling sailors, fresh from their 
 ship, in passing a spirit-shop, would be greeted by some 
 Chinese with " How you do, Jack ? " which would be 
 immediately followed by a general exchange of similar 
 brief and familiar appellatives, as Tom, Bill, and Ned, be 
 the person addressed Christian or Pagan. A pipe and 
 repeated glasses of grog (all on the sailor's side) would 
 immediately follow, — with what might be called their 
 ulterior consequences ; for when the Chinese at length 
 made their singularly unreasonable demand for payment, 
 as, perhaps, a few dollars for what might be worth a few 
 pence, Jack would have just sufficient reason left to dis- 
 cern the extent of the enormity, without being at all in 
 a condition to meet the case by a logical reductio ad ah- 
 surdum. The place of reason would therefore be sup- 
 plied by the fist, or by anything still harder that chanced 
 to be grasped within it. The Chinese, not unprepared for 
 the emergency, and in full possession of their wits, would 
 discomfit by dint of numbers, and drive the drunken sailors 
 down the lane ; but these would presently return with 
 strong reinforcements ; and so the tumult would grow,
 
 Chap. Xlir. POPULATION OVERRATED. 471 
 
 with successive charges and recharges, and wounds deep 
 and broad, until several individuals on either side were 
 maimed or killed. This dangerous thoroughfare was 
 blocked up after the expedition of 1847, and the southern 
 extremity made room for an English chapel. 
 
 The European commerce at Canton will be noticed 
 specially hereafter. The amount of the native population 
 of this city hiis been often discussed, but so little authentic 
 information has ever been obtained on the subject that it 
 still remains a question wholly undecided. The sweeping 
 calculations, however, by which some persons have endea- 
 voured to make it amount to a million, do not seem to 
 deserve much credit. As the whole circuit of the city 
 has been compassed within two hours by persons on foot, 
 it cannot exceed six or seven miles, and, considering that 
 the houses are not more than a single story in height, it 
 seems difficult to imagine how such a monstrous number 
 as a million can be stuffed within its precincts, the whole 
 of which are within range of the eye. 
 
 Indeed a large portion of the manufacturing business 
 of the place is carried on, not upon the spot, but at a place 
 called Foshan, about ten or twelve miles higher up the 
 river. This stream, which is of such magnitude opposite 
 to the city as to float the largest junks, some of them equal 
 to eight hundred or a thousand tons burthen, loses much of 
 its size at a town called San-shuey Hien, which is not 
 more than thirty-six miles above Canton, and is so named 
 from the river there forming " three streams," or branches, 
 one of which conducts from the north, the other from the 
 west, and the third, composed of these two united, leads 
 down to the city. Nothing can exceed the beauty of the 
 country along the sides of the river. The low country is 
 interspersed with numerous well-wooded hills, planted 
 chiefly with firs, which rise like islands above the culti-
 
 472 CITIES— XANKING AND CANTOX. Chap. XIII. 
 
 vated flats by which they are surrounded. The hanks of 
 the stream are richly planted with fruit-trees, consisting of 
 the peach, the orange, and the plantain : and experience 
 has shown that their roots, imbedded in the rich mud 
 which has been chiefly gained from the river, and con- 
 stantly fed with moisture by the tides, succeed better in 
 that situation than in any other. 
 
 Not the least remarkable objects on the water, near 
 Canton, are the immense rafts of fir which are constantly 
 floated down to that place from the north and west. These 
 are frequently many hundred yards in length, and consist 
 often of systems of rafts lashed together, and extending 
 to an incredible distance. They are guided down the 
 river by means of long bamboo poles, managed by a few 
 persons who erect their huts on the rafts, and make them 
 their temporally abodes. A family of young children may 
 frequently be seen sporting fearlessly, and in perfect secu- 
 rity, on these huge plains of floating timber. 
 
 It must be observed that no inconsiderable portion of 
 what may be considered as the population of Canton 
 exists upon the river, in the multitude that inhabit the 
 junks, barges, and small boats. A very large majority 
 of the latter (as remarked in the " Description" of the 
 city) are Tan-kea, or " egg-house" boats, from their shape 
 resembling the longitudinal section of an egg. They are 
 generally not more than ten or twelve feet long, about 
 six broad, and so low that a person can scarcely stand up 
 in them. Their covering consists of a bamboo or mat tilt, 
 shaped like that of a waggon, which is very light, and 
 serves tolerably as a defence against the weather. Whole 
 families live in these boats, and are considered as a dis- 
 tinct part of the population, being under a separate 
 regulation, and not allowed to intermarry with those on 
 shore.
 
 Chap. XIII. EIVER POPULATION. 473 
 
 But for the method already described of sculling the 
 river-craft, it would be physically impossible for such mul- 
 titudes of vessels, large and small, to move about among 
 each other without mutual impediment and confusion. 
 The extreme order which reigned on the Canton river, 
 notwithstanding its crowded state, particularly struck 
 Captain Laplace, whom we have already quoted, and 
 whose remarks on the subject are here translated, as the 
 impressions of an individual altogether new to the place : 
 — " The greatest tranquillity, a perfect harmony, reigns 
 amidst this aquatic population. All these boats, of forms 
 and dimensions so varied, move peaceably about. No 
 fights, and rarely any quarrels. Each boat, carrying either 
 passengers or goods, and sculled by a female surrounded 
 by her little ones, meets everywhere with a good-humoured 
 accommodation, in consequence of which, notwithstanding 
 the rapid current of the river, accidents are extremely 
 rare. What a lesson for the lower orders, so brutal, so 
 coarse, among nations who pretend at the same time to 
 be the most civilized in the world ! In China, the know- 
 ledge and the arts which have given such an impulse to 
 the industry of France and England are much as they 
 were in Europe above a century ago ; but 1 repeat that 
 the Chinese are very much our superiors in true civiliza- 
 tion — in that which frees the majority of men from the 
 brutality and ignorance which, among many European 
 nations, place the lowest classes of society on a level with 
 the most savage beasts." Monsieur Laplace is quite right ; 
 the lower classes of the Chinese people are better edu- 
 cated, or at least better trained, in their conduct to each 
 other at least, than in most other countries. 
 
 The long experience of European residents, who have 
 been daily accustomed to sail or row upon the Canton 
 river, either for business or pleasure, has gone to corrobo-
 
 474 CITIES— NAXKIXG AND CANTOX. Chap. XIII. 
 
 rate the observations introduced in a former chapter 
 against the alleged frequency of the custom of female in- 
 fanticide, the existence of which to. a limited extent nobody 
 pretends to deny. That the practice is disapproved by 
 the Chinese themselves will be best shown by the follow- 
 ing extracts from a native work, which serve to prove, at 
 the same time, that it is partly the result of the jealousies 
 arising from the vicious system of legal concubinage. 
 " The drowning of infants, though it be the work of cruel 
 women, yet results from the will of the husband ; if the 
 husband be determined against drowning the infant, the 
 woman can have nothing in her power. If the child be 
 born of a handmaid, and the wife will not endure it, you 
 may pass it over, after the first month, to some other 
 family, and give it a name different from your own ; by 
 which means its life will be happily preserved. 
 
 " The nature of the tiger is most cruel, yet it knows 
 the relation between parent and offspring. Shall man, 
 who is the superior essence of all things, be surpassed by 
 the tiger ? I have heard that, when female children are 
 killed, the pain inflicted is beyond comparison — long suf- 
 fering ere they die. Alas ! the hearts of parents that can 
 endure this ! The disposition of daughters is most ten- 
 der. They love their parents better than sons do. Many 
 sons go from home ; daughters cleave to their parents. 
 Many sons disobey their parents ; daughters are obe- 
 dient. Sons have little feeling ; daughters always mourn 
 for their parents. Daughters love their virtuous husbands, 
 and in many cases increase their parents' honour. The 
 magistrates sometimes wrote tablets in their praise ; and 
 the emperor graciously conferred presents on them. Some 
 were made ladies of the palace ; others wives of great 
 men. If you preserve the lives of your daughters, a sure 
 reward will be the consequence."
 
 CiiAr. XIII. KIDXAPPING CHILDREN. 475 
 
 As far as general demoralization (the most natural of 
 all causes) can tend to promote the practice of infanticide, 
 Canton is considered hy the Chinese themselves as the 
 most licentious city in the whole empire, from the concur- 
 rent influence of its climate and of the vast circulation 
 of wealth produced by its foreign commerce. To be 
 appointed to an official employment at that place was 
 emphatically called " being j^romoted to Canton," so supe- 
 rior were the opportunities of enriching oneself in every 
 way, though it must now give way to other places. The 
 number of dissipated and idle vagabonds proves the com- 
 parative viciousness of this provincial metropolis ; and a 
 singular discovery, made in 1820, showed at once the 
 character of the place, and the evil effects resulting from 
 the practice of domestic slavery, as well as of legal con- 
 cubinage. It was on that occasion found that a system 
 of kidnapping male and female children had long pre- 
 vailed, and been carried on to a great extent by an 
 associated gang, and the following is an abstract of the 
 circumstances which were detailed at the time in the 
 ' Chinese Gleaner.' 
 
 The discovery was effected by the persevering efforts of 
 a silk-weaver, whose apprentice, the only son of a friend, 
 had been kidnapped soon after entering on his service. 
 The man walked the streets of Canton in search of the lad, 
 until by his daily wanderings and w^ant of success he be- 
 came half distracted. When all hope of finding the boy 
 had nearly vanished, he camQ,by mere accident on the 
 object of his search, who being, according to the Chinese 
 account, stupified by drugs or otherwise, did not know his 
 master. The weaver, however, conveyed him to his shop, 
 and then to the lad's father ; and after various remedies, 
 with the practice of some superstitious ceremonies, the boy 
 was restored to his senses and recollection. The case was
 
 476 CITIES— NAXKIXG AND CANTON. Chai-. XIII. 
 
 immediately reported to the government, by whom the 
 rendezvous of the kidnappers, ascertained from the hid's 
 information, was surrounded, and all escape prevented. 
 In the house were found six men and three women, who 
 had for a long course of years carried on a successful sys- 
 tem of kidnapping- children, and sending them to other 
 provinces to be sold as domestic slaves. Several hundreds 
 had been thus stolen by them, and ten were actually found 
 in the house. The gang were put to the torture, under 
 which two died, and the remaining seven were chained 
 together and paraded through the streets, receiving lashes 
 from the youths whom they had kidnapped ; after which 
 they were either put to death or transported to Tartary. 
 
 There is a peculiar turbulence about the character of 
 the people on the sea-coast of this province, as well as the 
 adjoining one of Fokien, which distinguishes them from 
 other Chinese, and has frequently been noticed in the go- 
 vernment proclamations, especially in regard to that spirit 
 of clanship which is a frequent source of so much disorder. 
 This difference may be perhaps attributed to the seafaring 
 habits which distinguish them from the rest of the empire. 
 The most notorious place for these excesses is the district 
 of Cliaon-clioio^ on the frontiers of Canton and Fokien, but 
 still in the former province. One of the inhabitants some 
 years since carried his appeal even to Peking against the 
 magistrates, who either would not, or dared not, restrain 
 the outrages, which resembled, in many respects, the 
 horrors so frequently enao4ed formerly by the Papists in 
 Ireland. His kindred, having refused to assist two other 
 clans in that neighbourhood to fight in their feuds, suf- 
 fered the most shocking cruelties in consequence. Their 
 houses were laid in ruins ; several hundred acres of land 
 seized and devastated ; money plundered ; temples of an- 
 cestors thrown down ; graves dug up ; and the water cut
 
 Chap. XIII. COAST rOPTJLATION. 477 
 
 off from the rice-fields. Many persons were killed ; more 
 still were maimed and cri])pled for life ; and, notwithstand- 
 ing the large rewards offered for the apprehension of the 
 leaders, such was the organization which bound them to- 
 gether that they escaped unpunished. 
 
 The immense fleets of pirates who have often continued 
 for years to infest the southern coasts, and who at length 
 have been put down only by a compromise on the part 
 of the government, may partly account for the existence 
 of a maritime population in these two provinces dis- 
 tinguished by a ferocity of character so different from the 
 peaceable mildness of the other Chinese. To repress these, 
 as well as to provide a safeguard against the European 
 traders, was probably the object of the unusually large 
 amount of Chinese troops and of war- junks which were 
 kept up in the Canton province. At a short distance 
 below the foreign factories is the dockyard, which seems 
 continually engaged in building or repairing the vessels 
 of the emperor's squadron, whose inefficiency against 
 European ships the Chinese never pretend to dispute. 
 The sovereign of China himself not long since issued a 
 paper, in which he inveighed against " the falling off" of 
 his navy, as he declared had been proved on several occa- 
 sions. " There is the name of going to sea," he observed, 
 " but not the reality. Cases of piracy are continually 
 occurring, and even barbarian barks anchor in our inner 
 seas," — alluding to the European vessels on the eastern 
 coasts.* 
 
 The land force retained about the city of Canton has 
 
 * The defeat of Admiral Kuan and his twenty-nine war-vessels by 
 the ' Volage ' and ' Hyacinth ' (a small frigate and sloop), in 1839, ex- 
 torted an admission in a paper from Peking that the European ships 
 were too strong to cope with : but the admiral was rewarded and a 
 victory claimed at Canton. ^Vbole fleets have been since destroyed.
 
 478 CITIES— NANKING .VND CANTON. Chai-. XIJI. 
 
 been estimated at 7000 ; but a considerable portion 
 of these are a mere municipal police, and not regular 
 soldiers, though the same term inng^ in contradistinction 
 to the common ])eople, is applied to all alike. One of the 
 viceroys of the province, subsequently to the ill conduct of 
 the Canton troops in the operations against the independ- 
 ent mountaineers, published a curious summary of the 
 duties of d (Chinese soldier in warfare : — " Whoever runs 
 away is to be decapitated. When an enemy advances, 
 he who shrinks, or whispers to his comrade, shall suffer 
 death. On commencing a fight, powder, shot, and arrows 
 must not be thrown away at a distance, but reserved for 
 closer action, as the want of them, when needed, is like 
 waiting to be slain with the hands tied. When a man- 
 darin is wounded or taken, the men must make every 
 effort to save him, and, if they neglect this, they are to be 
 put to death. The soldier who bravely kills an enemy 
 shall be rewarded, but he who lies concerning his own 
 merits, or usurps those of others, shall be decapitated. 
 He who hears the drum and does not advance, or who 
 hears the ffonof and does not retire, shall suffer the same 
 punishment. Strict adherence to the severities of martial 
 law is the only way to make brave men of cowards." 
 
 It may be reasonably doubted whether the above rules 
 are the best that could be devised for such a purpose, and 
 the proof is that the Chinese generally effect the objects 
 of force by trickery and compromise. But after this enu- 
 meration of the chief duties of a common soldier, it may be 
 as well to give, from another quarter, the virtues of a good 
 general in the selection of his men ; some of which, it must 
 be remarked, are rather of a speculative than of a practical 
 nature. " The covetous he appoints to guard his treasure ; 
 the uncoiTupt, to dispense his rewards ; the benevolent, to 
 accept submission ; the discriminating and astute, to be
 
 Chap. XIII. MILITARY— FORTS. 479 
 
 envoys ; the scheming, to divine the enemy's plans ; the 
 timid, to guard the gate ; the brave, to force the enemy ; 
 the strong, to seize an important pass ; the alert, to gain 
 intelligence ; the deaf, to keep a look-out ; and the hlmd^ 
 to listen. As a good carpenter throws away no blocks, so 
 a good general has no men unemployed. Each is selected 
 according to his capacity : but favour (it is added), and 
 interest, and secret influence subvert the order of things, 
 sending the blind to look out, and the deaf to listen " 
 Until 1841 it had never yet, by any chance, happened to 
 Chinese soldiers to be engaged with European troops on 
 land ; but, by the admission of the natives themselves, they 
 had always failed entirely, and always must fail, against 
 ships ; and it could scarcely be doubted that they would be 
 as easily discomfited in the other instance, whenever any 
 European power found it worth while to make the trial.* 
 
 The Chinese government has expended very large sums 
 in the vain endeavour to render the entrance of the Can- 
 ton river impassable to European ships of war. The 
 * Alceste' frigate forced her way, in 1816, almost without 
 opposition ; but, after that period, additional forts were 
 built, and all the guns that could be collected were 
 placed in them, with something like a determination to 
 succeed in the object. When Lord Napier, in Septem- 
 ber, 1834, despatched a requisition to his Majesty's ships 
 ' Imogene ' and 'Andromache ' to proceed to Whampoa 
 and join the merchant-shipping at their anchorage, it met 
 of course with a prompt compliance, and a fair experiment 
 of their strength and means was afforded to the batteries 
 at the Boca Tigris, as they had been long preparing 
 themselves.t Their proved inadequacy on that occasion 
 
 * The trial was first made in our war, and fiilly coufirmed tlii.s an- 
 ticipation. 
 
 t See Chap. IV.
 
 480 CITIES— NANKING AND CANTON. Chap. XIII. 
 
 led to additional defences being constructed, until the 
 long lines of stone works, bristling- with cannon in hun- 
 dreds, were sufficiently fonnidable, to the eye at least. 
 These have been repeatedly taken and disarmed, in 
 1841, in 1847, and 1856. 
 
 END OF VOL. I. 
 
 LONDON: PRINTED BT W. CLOWEB AND SONS, STAMFORD 8TBKET, 
 AtlD CHARING CROSS.
 
 THE LIBRARY 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY 
 
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 Los Angeles 
 
 This book is DUE on the last date stamped below. 
 
 
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