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 informed 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, notwithstanding this, proceeded to Ningpo, upon which the Canton Government forbade his return, desiring that he should be sent home to England whenever he re-appeared. 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 1,950 taëls 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 a time, but they insisted on proceeding together; and on Mr. Flint being called for, they were

received by a mandarin at the first gate, proceeding onward through two courts with seeming complaisance 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 presence, 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 numbers, thrown down. The Viceroy, seeing their 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 endeavouring 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 traitorously encouraging foreigners," which execution," the record observes, was performed on a man quite innocent of what these absolute and villanous mandarins were pleased to call a crime." At the same time, the complaints against the Hoppo were admitted to have been just. Mr. Flint was detained in the city, and conveyed to a place called Tsien-shan, or Casa Branca, near Macao, where he was imprisoned, but pretty well treated, though all correspondence was cut off.

66

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 Horsendon, to be conveyed to England.

The success and impunity of the Canton Government on this occasion seems to have encouraged it in its assumptions 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 licence 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 go 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 precedent 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 following, 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 examined them.

THE PORTUGUESE GIVE UP AN ENGLISHMAN. 61

The ship was at first detained, but permission at length given for her sailing, on condition that the person who originated the mischief was detained in confinement; but the recovery of all the wounded soon after put 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 apprehended and confined. The case was tried in the Portuguese 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 accurate inquiry sufficiently proves that the Englishman is not guilty, our reasons for not surrendering him should be submitted to the mandarins, and persevered in until we shall have succeeded in saving him from an ignominious death." The vicargeneral, however, named Francisco Vaz, argued in the following singular manner:- "Moralists 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 innocent, he is criminal." Another

Portuguese observed, with 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

VOL. I.

E

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 belonging to the Stormont, in one of the merchant's 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 precedent, 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."

The fundamental maxim of Chinese intercourse with foreigners has been accurately translated by Père Premare as follows, and it is quite sufficient to

Taken from a "Contribution to a Historical Sketch of Macao," 1834.