Directory_and_Chronicle_1842 — Page 44

نا

Review of Public Occurrences During the

JAN

The following communication, having been translated into Chi- nese, and in the form of a letter, not a petition, addressed to the go- vernor, was carried to the city gates by Mr. Astell, accompanied by a deputation of gentlemen from the establishment.

“In pursuance of orders from my most gracious sovereign, William IV., king of Great Britain and Ireland, I bave the honor of notifying to your excellency my arrival at the city of Canton, bearing a royal commission constituting and up- pointing me chief superintendent of British trade to the dominions of his imper- ial majesty the emperor of China. By this commission are associated with me, John Francis Davis, esq., aud sir George Best Robinson, bart., late of the ho- Horable East India Company's factory at this place. The object of the said royal commission is to empower us, his majesty's superintendents, to protect and promote the British trade, which, from the boundless extent of his majesty's dominions, will bear the traffic of the four quarters of the world to the shores of the emperor of China,—the exclusive privileges and trade hitherto enjoyed by the honorable East India Company of merchants having ceased and determined, by the will and power of his majesty the king and the parliament of Great Britain. I have also the honor of acquainting your excellency, that his majesty, iny most gracious sovereign, has been pleased to invest me with powers, political and judicial, to be exercised according to circumstances.

"At present, I will only further request that your excellency will grant me, with my colleagues, the honor of a personal interview, when it will be my duty to explain more fully to your excellency the nature of the changes which have taken place, and upon which our present duties and instructions have been founded. Allow me to convey, through your excellency, to .......... imperial majesty, the high consideration of his majesty the king, my master; and with the utmost respect for your excellency, allow me to subscribe myself your excellency's very faithful and obedient servant. (Signed) Napier, Chief Superintendent."

In attempting to convey his lordship's letter to his excellency the governor, odd scenes, equally insulting and ridiculous, played off with more or less success a hundred times before, were reäcted at the city gates. We quote them as described in a dispatch from lord Napier to lord Palmerston.

"It may be here stated, that during the intrval employed in translating my letter, the hong-merchants, Howqua and Mowqua, arrived with the copy of an edict, ad- dressed by the viceroy to themselves, for the purpose of being enjoined on the su- perintendents by their body. Long experience having already proved to the East India Company the utter futility of such a medium of communication, and the compliance therewith only tending to degrade his majesty's commission and the British public in general, in the estimation of the Chinese people, and to rend- er the exertions of the superintendents to perform their various duties altogether ineffectual, the hong-merchants were courteously dismissed with an intimation,

• That I would communicate inmediately with the viceroy in the manner befit- ting his majesty's commission, and the honor of the British nation.' Mr. Astell was, therefore, instructed to deliver my letter to an officer, and to avoid any com· munications through the hong-merchants, which might afterwards be represent- ed as an official communication, and a precedent on all other occasions.