Review of Public Occurrences During the
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how then will he answer it to his king, or how to their excellencies; it he will seriously consider it, he surely cannot find rest upon his bed.
"Their excellencies issue once more their commands, requiring the superin- tendent to make known to those of the receiving-ships the goodness and the terrors of the government; to lay before them the choice of weal or woe; and to call on them all immediately to return home: they also require him to report to his king, in order that the receiving-vessels may henceforth be prohibited from coming hither. Thus the good and bad will not be confounded; thus the un- bounded goodness of the emperor may be manifested, and the path of intercourse be for ever retained to those who are good among the foreigners, It would not be difficult for their excellencies to use the power placed in their hands, and at once drive off these offenders; but they do not decline repeatedly to give admo- nitions, lest anything should be wanting to the faithful exhibition of their require- ments, and so the display of impartial benevolence should be obstructed. But further contumacy, after this, will make it manifest that words are but thrown away upon willful offenders.”—Corresp. p. 235.
Referring to these "orders to the hong-merchants, captain Elliot, under this date, the 25th of September, thus addressed the governor of Canton.
"The undersigned, &c., &c., has had the honor to receive your excellency's edicts addressed to the senior hong-merchants, dated on the 18th and 19th Sep- tember, 1837. His commission from his government places the ships and subjects of the English nation trading to this port under his direction. It is his duty to use every effort to cause all British persons arriving within these limits, to respect the laws and customs of the empire; and your excellency may be assured that he will ever zealously devote himself to those objects. The undersigned is not ignorant that an extensive traffic is carried on without the port of Canton by the ships of foreign nations. But he sees only the papers of British ships which arrive within the port: and he is therefore without any public means of knowing which of the ships resorting to these anchorages are British; what is the nature of their pursuits; whence they come, or whither they go?
"Your excellency has now been pleased to direct that his majesty the king of England should be informed of the gracions will of the emperor,, requiring the adoption of measures to prevent these alleged irregular visits of British ships to the coast of China. It is the duty of the undersigned respectfully, but plainly, to signify to your excellency, that the present condition of his public intercourse with the government of these provinces renders it impossible, consistently with the customs of his country, that any such communication should ever arrive under the notice of the king. The pleasure of your excellency reaches the knowledge of the undersigned, who is an officer, and wholly unconnected with trade, in no more authentic and formal shape than the copy of an edict addressed by your excellency to native merchants. He does not dare to forward the sub- stance of information derived from such a source for submission to the throne.
"In his ordinary intercourse with your excellencies, he has deferred, at great personal responsibility, to the present manner of communication, because your excellency informed him that it was in conformity with the customs of the em- pire. But in the transmission of communications to the knowledge of the king of England, it is in like manner just and needful, that due regard should be had
the enstom- which res ulate the upanner of intercourse with his maje tx
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