Canton is so well known, that it would be superfluous for me to dwell
on that subject. The complaints of all nations against the extortions
practised there have been loudly and frequently heard in Europe, but the
steps that have hitherto been taken have proved unavailing. The common
answer is, "Why do you come here? We take in exchange your articles of
produce and manufacture, which we really have no occasion for, and give
you in return our precious tea, which nature has denied to your country,
and yet you are not satisfied. Why do you so often visit a country whose
customs you dislike? We do not invite you to come among us, but when you
do come, and behave well, we treat you accordingly. Respect then our
hospitality, but don't pretend to regulate or reform it." Such is the
language held to Europeans by all the petty officers of government with
whom they have to deal.
With such sentiments one cannot be surprized that foreign merchants
should be received with indifference, if not handled with rudeness, and
that the fair trader should be liable to extortions. This is still more
likely to happen from the complete monopoly of all foreign trade being
consigned to a limited number of merchants, seldom, I believe, exceeding
eight, who are sanctioned by government. The cargoes of tin, lead,
cotton, opium, and large sums of Spanish dollars, sent to Canton from
Europe, India, and America, all pass through the hands of these Hong
merchants, who also furnish the return cargoes. As the capital employed
is far beyond any thing of the kind we can conceive in Europe by so few
individuals, their profits must be proportionally great, or they could
not be able to bear the expence of the numerous and magnificent
presents which they are expected to make to the superior officers of
government at Canton, who, in their turn, find it expedient to divide
these with the Emperor and his ministers in the capital. The various
toys, automatons, moving and musical figures from Coxe's museum, the
mathematical and astronomical instruments, clocks, watches, machinery,
jewellery, all made in London, and now in the different palaces of the
Emperor of China, are said to be valued at no less a sum than two
millions sterling, all presents from Canton. The principal officers of
this government are invariably sent down from Pekin; they arrive poor
and, in the course of three years, return with immense riches. How much
of the enormous wealth of _Ho-tchung-tang_ came from the same quarter it
is difficult to say, but the great influence he possessed over the
Emperor, and his intimacy with the viceroy of Canton, who was superseded
in 1793, leave no doubt, that a very considerable part of it was drawn
from this port. The large pearl, which forms one of the charges
preferred against him, was a present from Canton, of which I have been
told a curious history by a gentleman who was on the spot at the time it
happened. An Armenian merchant brought this pearl to Canton, in the
expectation of making his fortune. Its size and beauty soon became known
and attracted the attention of the officers and the merchants, who paid
their daily visits to the Armenian, offering him prices far inadequate
to its value. At length, however, after minute and repeated
examinations, a price was agreed upon and a deposit made, but the
Armenian was to keep possession of the pearl till the remaining part of
the purchase-money should be ready; and in order to obviate any
possibility of trick, the box in which it was kept was sealed with the
purchaser's seal. Several days elapsed without his hearing any thing
further from the Chinese; and, at length, the time approached when all
foreign merchants are ordered down to Macao. The Armenian, in vain,
endeavoured to find out the people who had purchased his pearl, but he
contented himself with the reflection that, although he had been
disappointed in the main object of his journey, he still had his
property, and that the deposit was more than sufficient to defray his
expences. On reaching his home, he had no longer any scruple in breaking
open the seal; but his mortification may easily be supposed, on
discovering that his real pearl had been exchanged for an artificial
one, so very like as not to be detected but by the most critical
examination. The daily visits of these people, it seems, were for no
other purpose than to enable them to forge an accurate imitation, which
they had dexterously substituted for the real one, when they proposed
the cunning expedient of sealing the box in which it was inclosed. The
Armenians, however, were determined not to be outdone by the Chinese. A
noted character, of the name of _Baboom_, equally well known in Bengal
and Madras as in Canton, just before his failure in about half a million
sterling, deposited a valuable casket of pearls, as he represented them,
in the hands of one of the _Hong_ merchants, as a pledge for a large sum
of money, which, when opened, instead of pearls was found to be _a
casket of peas_.
It has always been considered that a foreigner has little chance of
obtaining justice at Canton. The import and export duties, which by the
law of the country ought to be levied _ad valorem_, are arbitrarily
fixed according to the fancy of the collector. And although the court is
at all times ready to punish, by confiscation of their property, such as
have been guilty of corruption and oppression, yet by accepting their
presents, it seems to lend them its encouragement. Besides, the distance
from Canton to the metropolis is so great, the temptations so strong,
and the chances of impunity so much in their favour, that to be honest,
when power and opportunity lend their aid to roguery, is a virtue not
within the pale of Chinese morality. A striking instance of their
peculation appeared in a circumstance that was connected with the
British Embassy. In consideration of the Hindostan having carried
presents for the Emperor, an order was issued from Court that she should
be exempt from duties at any of the ports where she might take in a
cargo. It happened that the Hong merchants had already paid the
Hindostan's duties with those of the other ships, of which her
particular share was 30,000 ounces of silver. The _Hoo-poo_ or collector
was therefore requested to return this sum agreeably to the order from
court, but he refunded only into Mr. Browne's hands 14,000 dollars,
which can be reckoned as little more than 11,000 ounces, observing, that
so much was the exact amount of the Emperor's duties. As in this
instance of a public nature the collector could not be supposed to act
without circumspection, we may conclude how very small a proportion of
the duties, extorted from foreigners trading to Canton, finds its way
into the Imperial treasury.
Thus the taxes, which, if we may judge of them from those paid by their
own countrymen, are extremely moderate, by the abuses of the
administration become serious grievances to the foreign merchant who,
however, has never hitherto employed the only probable mean of obtaining
redress--that of making himself acquainted with the language of the
country, so as to be able to remonstrate to the high officers of state,
against the oppressions and impositions of those who act in inferior
capacities; for, however rapacious and corrupt the first in authority
may be, his timid nature would shrink immediately from a bold,
clamorous, and able complainant, who possessed the means of making his
delinquency notorious. This observation has been verified by a recent
occurrence. A fraudulent suppression of a bankruptcy, for which the
government stood responsible, and by which the interests of the East
India Company, as well as of several individuals in India and Canton,
would materially have suffered, was completely frustrated by the simple
circumstance of Mr. Drummond, the chief of the factory, rushing into the
city of Canton, and repeating aloud a few words which he had got by
heart whilst, at the same time, he held up a written memorial; the
consequence of which was, that the memorial was immediately carried to
the viceroy, and the grievance complained of therein redressed. It would
have been in vain to convey it through any of the inferior officers or
the Hong merchants, as they were all interested in keeping it from the
knowledge of government.
The supposed difficulty of acquiring the Chinese language has hitherto
intimidated the residents in Canton from making the attempt. Satisfied
in transacting the Company's concerns through the medium of a jargon of
broken English, which all the Hong merchants and even the inferior
tradesmen and mechanics find it worth their while to acquire, they have
totally neglected the language, as well as every other branch of
information respecting the most interesting and extraordinary empire on
the face of the globe. The attainment in fact of four or five thousand
characters, which are sufficient to write clearly and copiously on any
subject, is much less difficult than usually has been imagined, but it
would require great attention and unremitting perseverance, such perhaps
as few are willing to bestow, who are placed in situations which enable
them to calculate, almost to a certainly, on realizing a fixed sum in a
given number of years. The climate may also be adverse to intense
application, but if the foundation was laid in England, much of the
difficulty would thus be obviated. The French, aware of the solid
advantages that result from the knowledge of languages, are at this
moment holding out every encouragement to the study of Chinese
literature; obviously not without design. They know that the Chinese
character is understood from the Gulph of Siam to the Tartarian Sea, and
over a very considerable part of the great Eastern Archipelago; that the
Cochin Chinese, with whom they have already firmly rooted themselves,
use no other writing than the pure Chinese character, which is also the
case with the Japanese. It is to be hoped therefore that the British
nation will not neglect the means of being able to meet the French, if
necessary, even on this ground. The method of accomplishing this
desirable object appears to be extremely simple. If the Directors of
the East India Company were to make it a rule that no writer should be
appointed to China until he had made himself acquainted with five
hundred or a thousand characters of the language[69], I will be bold to
say that, where the number sent out is so few (the establishment not
exceeding twenty) and the emoluments so very liberal, there would be as
little danger as at present, by such a regulation, of the appointments
being made out of their own families. The noble Marquis at the head of
their affairs in India has established an institution, which seems to
bid fair for producing a mutual benefit to the parent state and the
native Indians. The exertions of Sir William Jones and a few others had,
indeed, long before this, been productive of the happiest effects; and
great numbers, both on the civil and military establishments of the
Company, made themselves acquainted, in a certain degree, with the
different languages spoken in the country. In fact, it became a matter
of necessity, in order to remove prejudices imbibed against us and to
meet those of the natives. The Portuguese and the Dutch adopted a
different policy; and, like our residents at Canton, communicated only
with the natives in a jargon of their own languages. Mr. Thunberg tells
a story of a Dutch gentleman, who had resided as chief of their factory
in Japan for fourteen years, during which period he had been four times
in the capacity of Embassador to the court, yet, on being asked the
name of the Emperor of Japan, freely avowed that it had never occurred
to him to ask it. In fact, his grand object was the accumulation of so
many millions of florins in a given time; in the pursuit of which he had
completely lost sight of the Emperor of Japan and his millions of
subjects.
[69] There are several good manuscript Chinese dictionaries in England;
one of which is under publication by Doctor Montucci; who, I understand
from good authority, by many years of indefatigable application, had
succeeded in writing the characters with great neatness and accuracy;
and is well qualified in other respects for the undertaking, in which,
it is to be hoped, he may meet with suitable encouragement.
If then, by neglecting to study the language of the Chinese, we are
silly enough to place ourselves and concerns so completely in their
power, we are highly deserving of the extortions and impositions so
loudly complained of. If the trade of London was exclusively vested in
the hands of _eight merchants_, and if the foreigners who visited its
port could neither speak nor write one single word of the language of
England, but communicated solely on every subject with those eight
merchants, through a broken jargon somewhat resembling the languages of
the several foreigners, it might fairly be questioned, without any
disparagement to the merchants of London, if those foreigners would have
less reason of complaint than the Europeans have who now trade to China?
Even as things are, would a Chinese arriving in England find no subject
of complaint, no grievances nor vexations at the custom-house, which,
for want of knowing our language, he might be apt to consider as
extortions and impositions? Two years ago two Chinese missionaries
landed in England, in their way to the college _de propaganda Fide_ at
Naples. Each had a small bundle of clothes under his arm and, according
to the custom of their country, a fan in his hand. Being observed by one
of those voracious sharks who, under the pretext of preventing frauds
on the revenue, plunder unprotected foreigners and convert the booty to
their own advantage, the poor fellows were stripped by him of the little
property they carried in their hands, and were not, without difficulty,
allowed to escape with the clothes on their backs. Can we blame these
people for representing us as a barbarous, unfeeling, and inhospitable
nation, however undeserving we may be of such a character?
Our case at Canton is pretty nearly the same as that of the two Chinese
missionaries. Every petty officer of the government knows he can
practise impositions on our trade with impunity, because we have not the
means of bringing his villainy to the knowledge of his superiors. For,
how great soever may be the propensity of the Chinese people to fraud
and extortion, I have little doubt of the justice and moderation of the
Chinese government, when the case is properly represented. A recent
circumstance may be mentioned in support of this opinion. In the year
1801, a sailor on board his Majesty's ship the Madras fired upon and
mortally wounded a Chinese who was passing in a boat. A discussion, as
usual, took place with the Chinese government; but it was conducted in a
very different manner from what had hitherto been usual on similar
occasions. Instead of entering into any explanation or defence through
the medium of the Hong merchants, who tremble at the lowest officer of
government, a memorial was addressed to the Viceroy, drawn up in a
proper and becoming manner by the present Sir George Staunton, the only
Englishman in the Company's service who was skilled in the Chinese
language. Several conversations were also held on the subject with the
officers of justice, from which the Hong merchants were excluded.
Captain Dilkes setting up a plea of recrimination on the ground of some
Chinese having cut his cable with an intent to steal it, the government
assented to have the matter tried in the supreme court of justice in the
city of Canton. By the law of China, if the wounded person survive forty
days, the sentence of death is commuted for that of banishment into the
wilds of Tartary; yet so favourably did the court incline to the side of
the accused in this instance, that although the time was not expired,
and there was little hope of the wounded man recovering, they allowed
Captain Dilkes to take the seaman into his own custody, requiring only
that he should leave in court a written promise to produce him in case
the wounded should not survive the time prescribed by law. The man
lingered near fifty days and then died, upon which a message was sent by
the court, intimating to the Captain, that the court saw no impropriety,
in this instance, in leaving it to him to punish the delinquent
according to the laws of his own country; thus, for the first time,
assenting to set aside a positive law in favour of foreigners. By this
proper mode of interference an English subject was saved from an unjust
and ignominious death, which would otherwise inevitably have happened,
as on all former occasions of a similar kind, had the affair been left
in the hands of men whose interest it is to represent us as barbarians,
and who, however well they might be disposed, have not the courage to
plead our cause. Hitherto the Chinese have invariably made a point of
executing immediately, and without a regular trial, any foreigner who
should kill a Chinese, or some substitute in the place of the actual
criminal, as I have already instanced in the seventh chapter. One of the
most intelligent of the East India Company's servants at Canton,
speaking on this subject, in answer to certain queries proposed to him
about the time of the Embassy, remarks, "I cannot help observing, that
the situation of the Company's servants and the trade in general is, in
this respect, very dangerous and disgraceful. It is such that it will be
impossible for them to extricate themselves from the cruel dilemma a
very probable accident may place them in, I will not say with _honour_,
but without _infamy_, or exposing the whole trade to ruin." Yet we have
just now seen, on the recurrence of such an accident, that by the
circumstance of a direct and immediate communication with the
government, the affair was terminated, not only without disgrace or
infamy, but in a that was honourable to both parties.
CONCLUSION.
I have now gone over most of the points relative to which I have been
able to recollect the remarks and observations which arose in my mind
during my attendance on this memorable Embassy. The comparisons I have
made were given with a view of assisting the reader to form in his own
mind some idea what rank the Chinese may be considered to hold, when
measured by the scale of European nations; but this part is very
defective. To have made it complete would require more time and more
reading, than at present I could command. The consideration of other
objects, those of a political nature, which are of the most serious
importance to our interests in China, is more particularly the province
of those in a different sphere, and would, therefore, be improper for me
to anticipate or prejudge, by any conjectures of my own. It belongs to
other persons, and perhaps to other times[70]; but it is to be hoped
that the information, reflections, and opinions of the Embassador
himself, may one day be fully communicated to the public, when the
present objections to it shall cease, and the moment arrive (which is
probably not very distant) that will enable us to act upon the ideas of
that nobleman's capacious and enlightened mind, and to prove to the
world that the late Embassy, by shewing the character and dignity of the
British nation in a new and splendid light, to a court and people in a
great measure ignorant of them before, however misrepresented by the
jealousy and envy of rivals, or impeded by the counteraction of enemies,
has laid an excellent foundation for great future advantages, and done
honour to the wisdom and foresight of the statesman[71] who planned the
measure, and directed its execution.
[70] This was written at the close of the year 1803.
[71] The Lord Viscount Melville.
INDEX.
A
_Abaris_, the flying arrow of, 40
_Africa_, coast of, known to the Phenicians, 48
_Agriculture_, an honourable profession, 397
of _Pe-tche-lee_, 554
of _Shan-tung_, 554
of _Kiang-nan_, 561
terrace system of, 568
_Air_ sung by Chinese boatmen, 81
_Almanack_, national, 284
_Almeyda_, a Portuguese Jesuit, malignant spirit of, 19
_Alphabet_ of the Mantchoo language, 272
_American_ Indians resemble the Chinese, 44
traders, how considered at Canton, 593
_Amplification_, Chinese example of, 36
_Ancients_ unacquainted with China, 435
_Anniversary_ of the Emperor of China's birth-day, 196
_Anson's_ voyage, character of Chinese in the account of, 27
_Antiquary_, curious mistake of one, 258
_Appeal_, none in civil causes, 277
_Arbitrary power_, instance of, 85
_Arch_, very ancient in Chinese architecture, 339
those called triumphal, 95
_Archipelago of Chu-san_, violent currents in, 54
_Architecture_ of the palace of _Yuen-min-yuen_, 124
style of, in landscape gardening, 135
general observations on, 330
monumental, 339
_Arithmetic_, 196
_Armenian_ and his pearl, 611
_Army_ establishment, 405
how employed, 408
_Astronomy_, 284
ignorance of the Chinese in, 290
_Authority_, parental, basis of Chinese government, 359
B
_Baboom_, an Armenian, trick played by him at Canton, 612
_Bamboo_, the practice of flogging with, instanced, 161
general utility of this plant, 309
reflexions on the punishment of, 380
compared with that of the _knout_ in Russia, 383
_Bedford_, Duke of, his portrait in China, 115
_Beverage_ of life, 464
_Bishop_ of Pekin, his visit to _Yuen-min-yuen_, 110
_Books_, ancient ones of China, 276
_Breakfast_, Chinese, 89
_Briareus_ of China, 471
_Bridges_, 337
one of ninety-one arches, 520
_Budha_, compared with _Fo_, 468
_Burying-ground_, 497
C
_Calendar_, national, an engine of government, 391
_Camellia Sesanqua_, 536
_Camelopardalis_, noticed by Marco Polo, 46
_Canal_, Imperial, 335
observations on, 506-512
_Cannon_, 299
_Canton_, reasons for the Embassy avoiding it, 33
situation of foreigners trading to it, 610
_Carriages_ of the Chinese described, 90
those made by Hatchett puzzle them, 113
_Cavalry_, Tartar, 410
_Censorate_, 363
_Ceremony_ of the Court, 21
_Chain-pump_, 311
_Character_, physical, as given by Linnæus not correct, 184
moral, of Chinese and Tartars, 186
_Characters_ of the Chinese language, 248
keys or roots of, 251
examples of the composition of, 255
_Chastity_, palace of, 235
_Chemical Arts_, 298
_Checks_ to the absolute power of the Emperor, 362
_Children_ still-born exposed in the streets, 176
_Chou-ta-gin_, 70
_Chou-ta-gin_, kind attentions of, 604
_Christian Religion_ might once have been introduced, 449
_Churchmen_, intrigues of, not easily obviated, 18
_Cingalese_, of Chinese origin, 53
_Cities of China_, walls, towers, and gates of, 91
observations on, 500
_Cleanliness_ no part of the Chinese character, 77
_Cock-fighting_, 159
_Coffins_, splendid appearance of, 95
_Collieries_, 594
_Commerce_ of the Yellow Sea, how carried on, 60
_Comedy_ described, 201
extraordinary scene in one, 221
_Comparison_ of China and Europe, 29
of a Chinese and a Hottentot, 49
_Compass_, an original invention of Chinese, 39
observations on, 61
explanation of the circles on, 62
_Conclusion_, 621
_Conduct_ of Chinese prepossessing, 80
_Confucius_, religion of, 451
no statues to the memory of, 458
hall of, 459
_Cork Convent_, 597
_Corvorant_, the fishing, 506
_Cottons_, manufactures of, 307
cultivation of the plant, 556
_Court of China_, forms of, immutable, 21
manners and amusements of, 191
_Crimes and punishments_, 367
_Criminal offences_, mode of trial for, 370
_Crowd of persons_ at _Ting-hai_, 57
at _Tien-sing_, 78
at _Tong-tchoo_, 86
in _Pekin_, 96
_Cruelty_, instance of, 161
_Crystal lenses_, 341
_Cuckoo-clocks_, 181
_Currents_, violence of, in _Chu-san_ Archipelago, 54
_Custom_ respecting Embassadors, 22
_Customs_ and dress not subjects of ridicule, 74
_Cycle_ of sixty years, 293
D
_Daughters_ always sold, 145
_Day of rest_, policy of observing one, 154
_Decimal Arithmetic_, 297
_Deity_ not personified in China, 457
_Deluge_, universal tradition of, 432
_Deodato_, an Italian missionary, 107
_Departments_, public, 365
_Descartes_, his idea of prolonging life, 466
_Dignities_, personal, 385
_Dispositions_, natural, altered by influence of laws, 160
_Distillation_ of _Seau-tchoo_, 303
_Drama_, state of the, 218
extraordinary subject of one, 222
obscenities of, compared to those of Theodora, 223
absurdities of, similar to those of the amphitheatres, 224
_Dress_ of the Chinese, 71