This is a reproduction of a library book that was digitized by Google as part of an ongoing effort to preserve the information in books and make it universally accessible. http://books.google.com c $)artiarti College ILiliraru ► l-'KOM II 1 1: GI1-T OF HAROLD JEFFERSON COOI.IDC (Class of 1892) OF HOST! IX , FOR HOOKS RELATING TO CHINA <^\ V ■ / CHINA. J > /" =>: nuj-chun it CY: . C\ Ctwchow ay 3* 3* 4i ~&AOtr 1KQOM ovMACAO .s'M * Maxao Rosul' fr»"" •«* v. <?/...» I..-H ** * 4i Jam Cock cr Py '«* 7 ? «<-' 7 » «.?. ff 7 i .»* A foe U rt 7 7 little . , •4i t re/tow fr j£ M fflmtJs « U st H * <, ■ ft X ^? • * - Svr.ito-cjSor.ko d; WHTaSn I. V 1 ' ' a §■: % Sam Coekor Fyiamid yfy/I - FourjeeTXoci s\J~Vluf: "S*«t T -o « J MneMoumnM « * »v-, »' — i ft f/IC Garments merits ? <| JL 1^ 9* ' OtTy-bci 7 Q t fc\Tylo-ch<nrorGi-fOldI » Rack corertdat times -A * J « 10 5, § 12 '0 s 3 ..MM j/ fl ji a * f^ -rt'° wu /Cliook-cl n M 1 jf •7T- So b? 7 7 5 i ,- & a \\Chwujf-cJiotr . s * VJ 7 * v* [ovtiveast. Mons„,JU !•>, {/ie g 7> 5 » IS J* is )'j> 0(, 'i *»J JjeJ ••Atti-Mocm | i^ 70 .'hree G-A te s W-* 22 W Camlridqt Rack* o . yv- ..65' Vouuo* Ho^ .-6o' CHINA. OUTLINE or its GOVERNMENT, LAWS, AND POLICY: AND OF THE BRITISH AND FOREIGN EMBASSIES TO, AND INTERCOURSE WITH, THAT EMPIRE. BY- PETER AUBER, Secretary to the Honourable the Court of Directors of the East- India Company. LONDON: PARBURY, ALLEN, AND CO. LEADENHALL STREET. 1834. ClSo.S LONDON: Printed by J L. Cox and Son, 75, Great Queeu Street, Lintoln's-Inn Fields. '■I ? \ Circumstances having directed my attention in the year 1 830 to the political branch of the East- India Company's relations with China, various Memoranda were made upon points which it was thought might be useful in the future conduct of the Company's affairs. Events have since taken place which were not then contemplated, and the Company is no longer to bear a commer cial character. As the period approaches when the trade with China is to be thrown open, inquiry is made for some definite information regarding the principles upon which the Com pany's intercourse has been hitherto maintained at Canton, and countenance given to the British trade by the local authorities at that port. The present work has, therefore, amidst little leisure, been thrown together in the form of a connected VL outline, shewing also very briefly the nature of the government with which the Company's agents have had to deal, and the attempts which have been made by foreign nations to establish, upon the basis of a formal treaty, a regular intercourse with that singular people. January 1834. CONTENTS. CHAP. I. Page Fluctuation their extended in Commerce. Trade. — Policy — Rise of of Queen Dutch Elizabeth. Republic — ; Establishment of the East-India Company The Navi gation Laws. — Great Britain supplants Holland in Ships and Commerce. — State of the Currency in connexion with Agriculture, Manufactures, and Commerce. — Mo difications in the Navigation Laws. — Opening of the Trade with India and China 1 China. — Its religion.— Government. CHAP. II. — Laws. — Jealousy of Foreigners. — Independent of Foreign Commerce. — Poli cy of Government adverse to it. — People not indisposed to it. — Rise and Change in Government 41 CHAP. III. Missions to China. — From Khorassan. — The Pope. — France. — Venice. — Portugal. — Holland. — Russia. — From China to the Tartars. — Russia and Persia. — Treaty between Russia and China. — Settlement of Russian Stu dents at Pekin. — Chinese Superstition. — Revolution and Changes in Eastern Nations 71 CHAP. IV. British intercourse with China 123 Emperor restricts Trade to CHAP. Canton. V.— Imprisonment of Mr. Flint. — King's Ships in China. — Death of a Chinese, and serious differences with local Authorities. — Supra- Vlll CONTENTS. Pago cargoes to reside permanently. — Their Power ever British Subjects 170 Lord Macartney's Embassy CHAP. and its VI. results. — Letters from the King of England to the Emperor. — Emperor's reply. —to— SeriousChina Anson's fleet. disputesBay — Admiral Mr. in Manning. 1814 Linois. — — Resort Expedition of King's to Macao. ships 193 CHAP. VII. Embassy of Lord Amherst. — Company's Ship General Hewitt. — His Majesty's Ship Alceste. — And Topaze. — Discussions with Native Authorities. — Ships moored down to Chunpee. — King's Ships not to enter river in time of peace. — Discussions and stoppage of trade. — to—Edict Andthe as North-east case to females of the coast Sylph, at Canton. Affair and — contemplatedof And Mr. as Innes to Ships at seizure Canton. going of the Company's Cutter. — Japan. — Concluding Remarks. 254 List of Presidents of the Select Committee from 1785. 407 Orders in Council 409 CHAP. I. Fluctuation in Commerce — Rise of Dutch Republic; their extended Trade. — Policy of Queen Elizabeth. — Establishment of the East-India Company. — The Navigation Laws. — Great Britain supplants Holland in Ships and Commerce. — State of the Currency in connexion with Agriculture, Manufactures, and Commerce. — Modifications in the Navigation Laws. — Opening of the Trade with India and China. In this Preliminary Chapter subjects have been introduced which may be thought somewhat irre levant to the immediate object of the work, which professes to give the outlines of our intercourse with China. They, however, involve questions so interwoven with each other, and are so connected with the leading and controlling interests of this country, the state of which interests have gradually pre pared the way for the great changes relating to our Eastern trade, that a short reference to them may not be altogether misplaced, when new and extended fields of commerce are about to be laid B open to the enterprize and skill of the British merchant and manufacturer. History teaches us, that commerce has been, and will continue to be, in perpetual fluctuation, and that careful watchfulness is required on the part of a Government to preserve, as well as to extend, the commercial advantages which may have been acquired through the enterprize and energy of its people. It will be found that there is no country to which this remark will more ap propriately apply, or where it has been acted upon to a greater extent, than our own. Before England possessed foreign colonies and factories, her general trade was comparatively tri fling. She derived, in common with other nations, the products of India and China from the ports in the Levant. The discovery of the East-Indies and Brazil by the Portuguese, and of the West-Indies, Mexico, Peru, and America by the Spaniards, all nearly at the close of the fifteenth, or at the commencement of the sixteenth century, conduced to the extension of European commerce ; and the unsuccessful at tempts of England, as well as of the Dutch and the Danes,* to discover north-west and north-east passages to China, opened new and considerable sources of traffic, and led to the general increase of navigation. * In 1553, 1594, and 1595. ' The persecutions in Germany, in France, and in England, under Charles the Fifth, Henry the Se cond, and Queen Mary, produced results diame trically opposite to what were anticipated by those sovereigns, and gave rise to the Seven United Pro vinces, which rapidly formed one of the greatest commercial and maritime republics that had ex isted ; numbers of their subjects being compelled to seek that shelter and protection under the Prince of Orange which they were denied in their own country. Holland thus acquired the skill, and in many instances capital, of artizans and manu facturers of eminence. The toleration extended to all sorts of quiet and peaceable people, and the free constitution of their Government, tended to create wealth and confidence in a country in itself naturally strong in point of defence ; and the in stitution of the celebrated Bank at Amsterdam presented another inducement to commercial par ties Until to settle the inaccession the new of republic. Queen Elizabeth, Eng land had been comparatively little interested in the general affairs of Europe. That princess had encouraged the establishment of the Republic in order to form a barrier against the House of Austria, and her subjects perceiving the advantages which Portugal and Holland derived from the trade with Asia by the Cape of Good Hope, be came naturally anxious to participate in so lucra tive a traffic. " Neither individual means nor b 2 "■ enterprize were adequate to the trade of the " Indies; it was so remote, it could not be traded " in but on a joint stock." The East-India Company were accordingly in corporated, " for the honour of the nation, the " wealth of the people, the encouragement of en- " terprize, the increase of navigation, and the " advancement of lawful traffic." We may frequently trace the most important results, both as regards nations and individuals, to causes which at the moment were little contem plated by their authors. The unbridled licentiousness of a sovereign led to the establishment of the Protestant faith in this country ;. the effects of a religious persecution, for the purpose of upholding and extending the power of the Papacy, gave birth to a state which has been among its strongest opponents ; and the ne cessities of the Crown, occasioned by evil councils and * Previous a profligate to the expenditure,* year 1640, the introduced merchants of the London sys- lodged their money in the Mint at the Tower as a place of se curity. The king's inability to meet the Scottish army which was then approaching the borders of England, constrained him to call the Parliament together, which had not been summoned for twelve years, for the purpose of obtaining supplies.