no cause for concern.
The British for their part were awakening slowly from
the eighteenth century dream of Cathay, in which China had
figured as the ideal nation, governed by philosophers, and
were moving to a harsher, more realistic appraisal. Macartney
in his Journal likened China to a ramshackle man-of-war
"which a succession of able and vigilant officers has
contrived to keep afloat for these one hundred and fifty years
past. but whenever an insufficient man happens to have the
command on deck, adieu to the discipline and safety of the
ship."
•
Macartney's requests, reasonable though they may have
seemed to the British, were insufferable to the Chinese. He
wanted improved conditions for the British merchants in
Canton; the opening of new ports on the China coast; if
possible, an island base for British commercial operations;
and the establishment of diplomatic relations on an equal
footing, with a resident British mission in Peking. In
Chinese eyes the request for territory was intolerable
enough; but worst of all was the proposal for relations with a
foreign sovereign on a basis of equality. This was much more
than a matter of protocol: it struck at the root of the Chinese
political and philosophical system. How could there be
equality in such a case? How could there be two suns in the
sky?
So the requests were dismissed as unthinkable,
"absolutely counter to the generous manner in which the
Celestial Empire treats foreigners and pacifies the four
The carefully assembled gifts from
barbarian tribes".
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