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GREAT QUEEN STREET, LINCOLN'S-INN FIELDS.

THE

ASTATIC JOURNAL

FOR

JULY, 1822.

Driginal Communications,

&c. &c. &c.

ON THE PRESENT DISPUTES WITH CHINA.

To the Editor of the Asiatic Journal.

SIB: The dearth of political events, and consequently the paucity of interest which our newspapers inspire, the readers, I am disposed to believe, as well as the editors and proprietors of those valuable productions, sincerely deplore. Revolutions have ceased to operate around us; and the march of mind (according to the new-fashioned phraseology) seems to adjust itself quietly to the ancient measure of things. Nations appear to have discovered that an enthusiasm for war, like party in politics, is in reality the madness of many for the advantage of a few; nay, even barbarous murders, frightful conflagrations, and explosions of steam-engines, have become almost as rare as the havock occasioned by the restless ambition of princes. The difference between Russia and Turkey offered some hopes to our anxious politicians: but these assume daily a more discouraging aspect.

This circumstance adds very much to the interest created by the serious dispute which has occurred in China. Speculations are already afloat concerning its consequences. Although our lucubrators have not yet ventured either to suggest or to deprecate a Asiatic Journ.-No. 79.

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declaration of war against the "Celestial Empire, the circumstances attending the occurrence have been commented upon by those who dogmatize in politics, and their remarks we may observe to be tinged with the peculiar habits of thinking, which belong to either of our chief political parties: as if it were imagined that something more was involved in the dispute than the loss of revenue, the interests of the East-India Company, or the risk we incur of being debarred from that fascinating beverage, which is an unfailing attraction to the social board, where it dissipates chagrin, expels ennui, and surrounds its votaries with a grateful atmosphere of steam and scandal.

The details of this aukward affair are yet but imperfectly known to us. It appears, from what has transpired, that the seamen of the Topaze frigate, upon landing to procure water, were beset by some Chinese at Lintin, or Lanton, on account (says a correspondent of the Times) of their having cut some brush-wood, which was private property this act was consequently an aggression on our part. At first the fracas was but slight; till afterwards CC came more and more,

VOL. XIV.

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and fought on part and part." The increase of numbers on both sides rendered the quarrel every moment more serious. In this contest of the thick tails against the long tails, the oaken towel against the bamboo, the numerical force of the latter party gave them such advantages, that the Jacks were in a fair way of being finished, had not the commander of the frigate opened upon the combatants; and it appears that the bullets did their duty impartially, without distinction of persons, for some of our tars were wounded, and two of the Chinese killed. The usual consequences ensued: stoppage of trade; desertion of Hongs; "throwing back" of memorials and communications; departure of the factory; and every miscreant drest in a little brief authority, Tscngtoo, and Foyeen, and Chumpein, and Hoppo, was doubtless upon the alert to derive all possible advantage from the accident.

There seems to be some disposition on the part of persons in this country to regard the proceedings of the Chinese in this affair as perfectly justifiable. Suppose, it is alleged, that the crew of a foreign ship in the port of London landed, and committed outrages, would it not be reasonable to require that the authors of the mischief should be delivered up, to be dealt with according to the laws of the country whose inhabitants they had maltreated? Undoubtedly; but would our measures be directed against all vessels and persons of the same nation quietly visiting our ports for the purposes of trade? Prompt steps would certainly be taken by our police to secure the offending parties; and if they escaped, representations might be made to the Government of the country they belonged to; but it would be absurd and intolerable to hold their countrymen responsible for acts which they not only did not participate in, but had no power whatever to prevent. Moreover, in most civilized countries, there is some security that

the trial of an offender will be conducted with tolerable regard to justice; and the representative of the nation he belongs to would be able to obtain for him all the facilities which the laws of the country he is amenable to allow to a prisoner. But in China, the surrender of a foreigner to trial is, in fact, giving him up to execution. Antipathy to foreigners inspires the Chinese authorities with the inclination to treat as guilty those who are delivered up to them; and no diplomatic or other character, it seems, justifies, in their opinion, any person in claiming even to be present at the trial of a prisoner; so that their power to inflict injustice is co-equal with their inclination.

Precedents might easily be quoted to shew that this is no exaggerated charge the whole tenor of the conduct of this people towards foreigners, from our first intercourse with them, has evinced a disregard for those fundamental principles of justice, which are seldom violated by nations just emerged from barbarism, as well as their contempt for the laws and maxims they have themselves established. An instance of the latter has occurred in the recent case of the Italian taken from the American ship Emily, who was executed immediately after trial, in open defiance of a law often triumphantly referred to by the Chinese, which forbids any criminal being put to death without the express sanction of their Emperor. appears that the trial, if such it can be properly called, of this unfortunate individual, took place with closed doors, and without any but natives being present, on the 27th October; and on the following day, he was carried to the usual place of execution and strangled. All the circumstances of that transaction shew the scandalous condition of government in the Chinese provinces; the original demand of money by the lesser officers, as a consideration for hushing the affair; the indecent behaviour of the Pan-yu,

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or minister of justice; and the want either of firmness or principle on the part of the Hong merchants, to whose artifices and clandestine behaviour, according to one account which has reached us, may, in a great measure, be attributed the unhappy turn which the affair took in the sequel. The well known timidity of the Chinese character accounts for their preference of fraud to force, in their endeavours to accomplish their object; and the success of their measures, in the case just adverted to, may naturally be expected to multiply the difficulties of coming to an adjustment in the affair of the Topaze.

No part of the Chinese code of laws relating to homicide seems to warrant the practice of insisting upon the surrender of foreigners chargeable with the death of a native in all cases, whether accidentally or designedly. Some years back the Supracargoes at Canton procured an extract from the criminal law, which was translated and made public for the information of persons resorting to China; it consisted of the following articles:

1. A man who kills another on the supposition of theft, shall be strangled, according to the law of homicide committed in an affray.

2. A man who fires at another with a musket, and kills him thereby, shall be beheaded, as in cases of wilful murder. If the sufferer be wounded, but not mortally, the offender shall be sent into exile.

3. A man who puts to death a criminal who had been apprehended, and made no resistance, shall be strangled, according to the law against homicide committed in an affray.

4. A man who falsely accuses an innocent person of theft (in cases of greatest criminality) is guilty of a capital offence; in all other cases, the offenders, whether principals or accessaries, shall be sent into exile.

5. A man who wounds another unintentionally shall be tried according to the law respecting blows given in

an affray, and the punishment rendered more or less severe, according to the degree of injury sustained.

6. A man who, intoxicated with liquor, commits outrages against the laws, shall be exiled to a desert country, there to remain in a state of servitude.

There appears nothing in the aforegoing articles which would lead to the conclusion that a person accidentally causing the death of another would be punished capitally, which would place the offence on the same footing with deliberate murder: nay, a person firing at another with intention to kill, and failing only through accident, would be punished more leniently than one who without the smallest design wounded another, who afterwards died, perhaps through mismanagement of the wound. But if, by a strained interpretation of the law, every spe cies of homicide is only to be expiated by death, where shall we find authority for robbing of life a nonoffending person, merely because he belongs to the same class of beings with the author of the mischief? A practice which appears not a whit more reasonable than the behaviour of the Spaniard whose nose was pulled in the dark by an unknown hand, and who, from a sense of honour, thought himself justified in sallying into the street, and provoking to mortal combat the first person he met there. Not many years back, a Chinese having lost his life among the Portuguese at Macao, the authorities seized a merchant of Manilla belonging to that nation, who had no participation in the crime, who was moreover a man of most estimable character, and strangled him. Such a system, even the extravagant maxim of fiat justitia ruat cælum cannot countenance; and should any attempt be made in the present case to enforce it, ought not the Government of this country to interfere, and having tried measures of an amicable character, in the hope of checking the artifices, fraud and cor

ruption which beset every avenue to the Imperial ear, and of establishing an intercourse with a Government, whose territories those of our Eastern Empire closely approach; should it not resent as a national affront the violation of those fundamental principles of universal equity, which are superior to any local or positive custom? The ingenuity displayed in the proclamations of the Viceroy of Canton to colour the details of the affair, and the plausible arguments employed by him to "make the worse appear the better reason," are sufficient to prove that the Government (whom these documents are evidently designed to delude), as well as its ministers, do not offend er ignorantiâ. A wholesome lesson of severity, which, in the instance of the dispute between the Alceste and the Chinese forts, was not thrown away, would, I imagine, have a salutary effect upon the subsequent behaviour of this arrogant, unprincipled people.

His Excellency the Governor of the two Kwang provinces, in his edict of 5th January 1822, alleges, as a ground for identifying the trading individuals with those on board the man of war, that "the reason of the cruiser coming so far as Canton is the protection of trade, and as all sorts of intercourse with the said nation (England) originates in commerce, it is impossible not to implicate the commerce in the prosecution." He adds also," that originally the foreigners killing the natives did not concern the traders; but the Celestial Empire knows the cruisers only in the capacity of convoy to trading ships at Canton; and whilst they are tranquil, the trade is permitted; but when they are not tranquil, it is interdicted." In the last edict of the 22d January, the Governor employs a more conciliatory tone than in his former papers: considering "the great distance the foreign merchants come to Canton," he could not bear the thought that they should be implicated because of

the man of war, and that country lose such great gains." He accordingly directs the Hong merchants to ascertain whether the Committee had stated perspicuously how the foreign murderers were to be forthcoming, as in that case they might send in goods to pay duties, and ship them;" but if the Committee still " gazed and stared about, and floated hither and thither," the shipping of goods was to be prohibited. With apparent fairness, he allows the ships to depart, declaring he will not either detain them, or force them away; judging perhaps what might be the result of an attempt of this sort. He even announces that there is no need of anxiety about the goods and debts in China; quoting the proverb, that "he who kills a man must pay for it with his life; and he who owes a debt must pay for it with his money." This passage has been referred to with some satisfaction: but it appears to me ambiguous, and probably implies that these are reciprocal acts: so that it may hereafter be maintained by no worse logic than we discover throughout the proclamations of his Excellency, that those who kill people in China, and refuse to surrender an individual to pay the usual forfeit, have no pretence to claim the debts due to them there.

In a dispute of this serious nature, much will depend upon the character and discernment of the sovereign. Little is known of the talents and capacity of Taou-kwang; but from one circumstance, I should be disposed to think lightly of him: At his accession, he assumed the title of Yuenhwuy, which had been that of an Emperor, A.D.470; the adopted son of Ming-te, the real son of a person of infamous character. The practice of assuming a title used before is uncommon, and therefore among such punctilious people as the Chinese denoted little respect for their prejudices; but the adoption of one so disgraceful can only have proceeded

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