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Review of Public Occurrences. During the
APRIL,
When
port for the said foreigners to come up to Canton, and oversco matters. he thus comes up, he must coinply with the old regulations, having a residence at Cauton and another at Macao, and coming and going at the regular seasons. This is a law and ordinance of the celestial empire. The phraseology and subject- matter of the said foreigner's address are reverential and submissive. It seems that he understands matters, and he will, therefore, doubtless be implicitly obedient in all things. During the residence of the said foreigner, for the present, at Macao, the local officers should still keep a diligent and faithful watch on him, day and night; and they must not allow the said foreigner to presume to leave Macao a single step, or to hold any cominunication or intercourse with people unconcerned. This is of the utmost importance. With trembling anxiety obey this, and oppose it not. A special order." (Dec. 22d, 1836.)—Corresp. pp. 144, 145.
28th. Captain Elliot again addressed the governor, expressing the satisfaction he had felt in giving replies to the officers deputed by his excellency, and signifying his determination to remain at Macao until the emperor's pleasure should be known.
30th. Captain
Captain Elliot in a long letter under this date, to viscount Palmerston, thus describes what he had done and purposed to do.
44
My Lord,—In my dispatch to your lordship of the 14th instant, I had the hon- or to state, that I should endeavor to open the communications with the provin- cial authorities forthwith; and that I should take an early opportunity to make known to your lordship the means by which I hoped to accomplish that object. I perceived that the recent arrival of your lordship's dispatches would afford me a favorable pretext for addressing myself to the governor of the two provin- ces; and I was mindful that any delay in the communication of my appointment, might hereafter be construed into a point of a very suspicious nature, extremely difficult of satisfactory explanation; I lost no time, therefore, in drafting the accompanying note to his excellency,
"Another reason, too, had alwys presented itself to me, in recommendation of this prompt application to the governor. It seemed that a communication for- warded on the very recent receipt of instructions from his majesty's government, would of itself be a state of circumstances well calculated to dispose the governor to lend a reasonable attention to moderate and unsuspicious overtures, respectfully submitted for his excellency's adoption.
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The translation of this paper was sealed up and directed in the same form in which the Select Committee of supracargoes had been accustomed to superscribe documents to the governor's address. In other words, the superscription bore the Chinese character Pin, carrying in our language the signification of ‘an address from an inferior to a superior.' It was then placed in an open envelop to the address of the senior hong-merchant, and the whole inclosure was trans. mitted with the accompanying confidential letter to the agents of the East India Company at Canton, and to two members of the principal British firms at that place. These gentlemen were selected as being the most proper persons through whom the first declaration of my appointment and official character might be made, with a view to the sufficient formal authenticity of the fact. Upon the morning of the 25th instant, I had the satisfaction to receive an official com- munication from the gentlemen to whom my address had been confided, covering an edict from the governor in reply to it, together with a note from How qua