The Viceroy Had Also Carried His Point Of Holding No
Intercourse With The English Envoy, To Whom He Had Written
That "the great
ministers of the Celestial Empire, unless with regard to affairs of going
to court and carrying tribute,
Or in consequence of imperial commands, are
not permitted to have interviews with outside barbarians." While the
Chinese officials had been both consistent and successful, the new English
superintendent of trade had been both inconsistent and discomfited. He had
attempted to carry matters with a high hand and to coerce the mandarins,
and he was compelled to show in the most public manner that he had failed
by his retirement to Macao. He had even imperiled the continuance of the
trade which he had come specially to promote, and all he could do to show
his indignation was to make a futile protest against "this act of
unprecedented tyranny and injustice." Very soon after Lord Napier's return
to Macao he died, leaving to other hands the settlement of the difficult
affair which neither his acts nor his language had simplified.
On Lord Napier's departure from Canton the restrictions placed on trade
were removed, and the intercourse between the English and Chinese
merchants of the Hong was resumed. But even then the mandarins refused to
recognize the trade superintendents, and after a short time they issued
certain regulations which had been specially submitted to and approved by
the Emperor Taoukwang as the basis on which trade was to be conducted.
These Regulations, eight in number, forbade foreign men-of-war to enter
the inner seas, and enforced the old practice that all requests on the
part of Europeans should be addressed through the Hong in the form of a
petition.
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Page 353 of 704
Words from 95688 to 95976
of 191255
