Travels in China Part 30

Caterers running about the country to collect provisions, boatmen to bring them to the several barges, the conducting officers, and their numerous retinue, are not included in this estimate. From _Tong-tchoo_ near three thousand men were employed to carry the presents and baggage, first to _Hung-ya-yuen_, beyond Pekin, and then back again to the capital, which took them three days. In our return from _Tong-tchoo_ to _Hang-tchoo-foo_, we had a fleet of thirty-vessels, with ten men at least and, for the greatest part of the journey, twenty additional trackers to each vessel; this gives nine hundred people for the yachts alone.

From _Hang-tchoo-foo_ to _Eu-shan-shien_ and from _Hang-tchoo-foo_ to _Chu-san_, there might probably be employed about forty vessels, with twelve men to each, or four hundred and eighty in the whole. And, besides the people employed by the officers of government to purchase provisions, numbers were stationed in different parts of the rivers to contract the stream, by raking together the pebbles where, otherwise, the water would have been too shallow for the boats to pa.s.s; and others to attend at all the fluices on the ca.n.a.ls to a.s.sist the vessels in getting through the same.

From _Tchang-shan-shien_ to _Eu-shan-shien_, overland, we had about forty horses, and three or four hundred men to carry the baggage.

From the _Po-yang_ lake to Canton, we had generally about twenty-six vessels with twenty men to each, including boatmen, soldiers, and trackers, which gives five hundred and twenty men for these alone.

The Emba.s.sy consisted of near one hundred persons, but as for the several officers and their numerous retinue of guards, attendants, and runners, I have not the least idea to what their numbers might amount; all of whom, being on extraordinary service, were supported at the public expence.

The whole expence of the Emba.s.sy to this country, including the presents, did not exceed eighty thousand pounds; an inconsiderable sum for such a nation as Great Britain on such an occasion, and not more than a fourth part of what has been generally imagined.

Although the British factory was in every sense more comfortable than the most splendid palace that the country afforded, yet it was so repugnant to the principles of the government for an Emba.s.sador to take up his abode in the same dwelling with merchants, that it was thought expedient to indulge their notions in this respect, and to accept a large house in the midst of a garden, on the opposite side of the river, which was fitted up and furnished with beds in the European manner, with glazed sash windows, and with fire grates suitable for burning coals. On our arrival here we found a company of comedians hard at work, in the middle of a piece, which it seemed had begun at sun-rise; but their squalling and their shrill and harsh music were so dreadful, that they were prevailed upon, with difficulty, to break off during dinner, which was served up in a viranda directly opposite the theatre.

Next morning, however, about sun-rise, they set to work afresh, but at the particular request of the Emba.s.sador, in which he was joined by the whole suite, they were discharged, to the no small astonishment of our Chinese conductors, who concluded, from this circ.u.mstance, that the English had very little taste for elegant amus.e.m.e.nts. Players, it seems, are here hired by the day and the more incessantly they labour, the more they are applauded. They are always ready to begin any one piece out of a list of twenty or thirty, that is presented for the princ.i.p.al visitor to make his choice.

The nature of the trade carried on by foreign nations at the port of 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 pa.s.s 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 c.o.xe'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 princ.i.p.al 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 subst.i.tuted 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 circ.u.mstance that was connected with the British Emba.s.sy. 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 circ.u.mspection, 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 circ.u.mstance 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. .h.i.therto 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 j.a.panese. 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 n.o.ble Marquis at the head of their affairs in India has established an inst.i.tution, 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 j.a.pan for fourteen years, during which period he had been four times in the capacity of Emba.s.sador to the court, yet, on being asked the name of the Emperor of j.a.pan, freely avowed that it had never occurred to him to ask it. In fact, his grand object was the acc.u.mulation of so many millions of florins in a given time; in the pursuit of which he had completely lost sight of the Emperor of j.a.pan and his millions of subjects.

[69] There are several good ma.n.u.script 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 circ.u.mstance 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 pa.s.sing 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 a.s.sented 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, a.s.senting 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 subst.i.tute 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 Emba.s.sy, 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 circ.u.mstance 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 Emba.s.sy. The comparisons I have made were given with a view of a.s.sisting 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 antic.i.p.ate 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 Emba.s.sador 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 n.o.bleman's capacious and enlightened mind, and to prove to the world that the late Emba.s.sy, 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.

_THE END._