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Haikwan was getting into any cenebroglio.
Owing to their misdeeds, and to stop anything that endangered the public peace or the friendly relations with Foreign Powers, and he was glad that his action had been followed by good results, for he must constantly have observed that since he, the Viceroy, had assumed office there had been scarcely any complaints, in fact he could not recall an official complaint. The British merchants at Canton were not so dissatisfied as formerly and the tone of the Foreign local Press had considerably changed.
Further he must be aware how certain Chinese merchants petitioned for a customs station being established near Macao to avoid the necessity for their junks coming to Canton being examined. How that he told them it was unjust to expect them to go out of their course to Haikwan to be examined and pay duties and that artificial obstructions to a trade encouraged smuggling and a proclamation was issued saying that...