TNAG-2702-FCO40-3908-Memoirs-of-Sir-Percy-Cradock--diplomat-and-sinologist-1993 — Page 90

no cause for concern.

The British for their part were awakening slowly from

the eighteenth century dream of Cathay, in which China had

figured as the ideal nation, governed by philosophers, and

were moving to a harsher, more realistic appraisal. Macartney

in his Journal likened China to a ramshackle man-of-war

"which a succession of able and vigilant officers has

contrived to keep afloat for these one hundred and fifty years

past. but whenever an insufficient man happens to have the

command on deck, adieu to the discipline and safety of the

ship."

•

Macartney's requests, reasonable though they may have

seemed to the British, were insufferable to the Chinese. He

wanted improved conditions for the British merchants in

Canton; the opening of new ports on the China coast; if

possible, an island base for British commercial operations;

and the establishment of diplomatic relations on an equal

footing, with a resident British mission in Peking. In

Chinese eyes the request for territory was intolerable

enough; but worst of all was the proposal for relations with a

foreign sovereign on a basis of equality. This was much more

than a matter of protocol: it struck at the root of the Chinese

political and philosophical system. How could there be

equality in such a case? How could there be two suns in the

sky?

So the requests were dismissed as unthinkable,

"absolutely counter to the generous manner in which the

Celestial Empire treats foreigners and pacifies the four

The carefully assembled gifts from

barbarian tribes".

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