ing tent, where his Excellency, with Sir George Staunton (who had now resumed his former station at Canton) and the other commissioner, took their seats to the left; and the Viceroy, his lieutenant, and the Hoppo, on the other side. It was this same officer, by name Tseang Tajin, who had inflicted so many vexations on the English 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 calculates* that Lord Macartney's mission cost the Chinese Government a sum equal 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 surprising 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 discussion with the English. Some boats from one of the Company's ships were *Travels in China, p. 605

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 committee 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 once that the deceased butcher must be the homicide, the trade proceeded as usual. It must be observed, that the committee 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 affair, 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 individual 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 23d 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 selling spirits to the crew. He 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 transactions 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 day-break next morning he was hurried to the place of execution, in opposition to all the delays

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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 command on board the Topaze, seeing the desperate situation of his men from the deck, hurried 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. Fourteen 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 im

mediately 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 Macao, the Chinese hoped 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 Hong merchants brought down a paper from the Viceroy, rejecting Captain Richardson's proposal to refer the matter to England, and reiterating the demand for the delivery of the men. The committee 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 proposal 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,