CHINESE MAXIM FOR RULING BARBARIANS. 63

Si

explain their conduct. "Barbari haud secus ac pecora, non eodem modo regendi sunt ut reguntur Sinæ. quis vellet eos magnis sapientiæ legibus instruere, nihil aliud quam summam perturbationem induceret. Antiqui reges istud optimè callebant, et ideo barbaros non regendo regebant. Sic autem eos non regendo regere, præclara eos optimè regendi ars est." That is, "The barbarians are like beasts, and not to be ruled on the same principles as citizens. Were any one to attempt controlling them by the great maxims of reason, it would tend to nothing but confusion. The ancient Kings well understood this, and accordingly ruled barbarians by misrule. Therefore to rule barbarians by misrule is the true and the best way of ruling them." It is on this principle that all the benefits of Chinese law are denied to strangers, and that in the case of even accidental homicide, they are 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 attempted to be 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 Manila. Being on shore at Macao, he told the Portuguese 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 him seized and imprisoned until he 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 wrecked 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 available, 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 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 permitted to withhold an iron chest, containing pearls and gold, freighted by certain Armenians.

Mean while the Company's Council were in a very unpleasant situation, being held responsible by the Government for the acts of M'Clary, who certainly was little better than a pirate. 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 accustomed 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.

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 Europeans, the most

remarkable, 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 weiyuen, 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 from 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 examination 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, requesting that Mr. Smith might not leave Canton for three or four days, to which he assented. At eleven the same night they returned to say that the man should be examined in one of the factories; but the event soon proved that this was merely to lull their suspicions, for early the next morning it was found

that Mr. Smith had been decoyed 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 barricaded, the merchants and linguists had fled, and the communication with Whampoa was suspended.

The heads of all the foreign factories justly considering this as a very threatening proceeding to the whole European 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 purport 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 notwithstanding 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 28th 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 out of the business." The Chinese were, in fact, frightened at their own boldness, and a little resolution on the other side might have saved the man's life.