Directory_and_Chronicle_1842 — Page 214

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Review of Public Occurrences During the

APRIL,

“The manner in which I propose to re-open the communications with the viceroy, as the Select Committee was accustomed to conduct them, shall forin the subject of an early dispatch to your lordship.”—Corresp. p. 139.

On the same day, the 14th of December, he addressed the follow- ing communication to the governor of Canton :

"The undersigned has the honor most respectfully to announce to his excel- lency the governor of the two provinces, that he has this day received dispatches from the English government, appointing him to the station of chief English authority in China. In the actual condition of circumstances, with no English authority at Canton, and with great numbers of English ships in the river, having on board many hundreds of seafaring persons, and others little acquainted with the laws and customs of this empire, the undersigned believes his excellency will be of opinion, that he should be permitted to repair to Canton, with as little delay as possible, for the purpose of fulfilling the duties confided to his management. The undersigned has, therefore, the honor to request, that his excellency will be pleased to issue orders to furnish him a passport to proceed to the provincial city. In using his most carnest efforts to maintain and promote the good under- standing which has so long and so happily subsisted between this ancient and great empire and his own distant country, the undersigned can assure his ex- cellency, that he is only conforming to the strong instructions of his own govern- ment. The undersigned hopes he may permit himself to observe, in this place that no task could be more agreeable to his own disposition, than the duty of diligently seconding these wise objects, by the sincerest personal desire to con- ciliate the goodwill of his excellency. The undersigned has once niore to offer his excellency the sentiments of his most profound respect, and will conclude with the expression of an ardent hope, that his excellency's administration of these provinces may be long and prosperous.

-Corresp. p. 142.

(Signed) "CHARLER ELLIOT, Senior Superintendent." This address was accompanied by a short note to Howqua, senior hong-merchant; and under an envelop to him, was confided to the care of Messrs. Astell, Clarke, Jardine, and Dent; these gentlemen were requested to arrange a meeting with Howqua, and to deliver the governor's address to him. Four members of the Commission were to accompany captain Elliot to Canton.

22d. The address was duly forwarded and received by his excel- lency the governor, who, after noticing its reception and quoting it, thus proceeds:

"On the receipt of the above, I made examination, and find that since the English nation has had commercial intercourse here, it has, hitherto, established a Company, and appointed a chief, second, third, and fourth supracargoes to come to Canton, and manage the trade. The foreign ships of the Company sue. cessively reached Canton on the 7th and 8th months of every year; and their cargoes having been changed, left the port and returi el home in the course of the 12th inonth, and of the 1st and 2d months of the following year, After the de. parture of all the foreign Company's ships out of the part, the chief supracargoes of the Company, and all the foreign merchants of the said nation, requested per