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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.

  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

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