an hostile one—the Chinese had been appealed to—and the humiliating necessity to which we were, in consequence, ultimately reduced, of evacuating the island, in order to recover our trade, is notorious.

Although, therefore, the supercargoes were certainly more zealous than discreet, as respected their own interests, in anticipating enquiries respecting the probable reception of the expedition, nothing can be more unjust than to throw upon them the whole weight of the responsibility, either for its original adoption, or for its subsequent failure-It was notoriously in preparation in India, some time before their communication upon it was received thereand had that communication been fully and properly acted upon, there are very strong rational grounds for believing, as already stated, that the result would have been extremely different.

NOTE

RELATIVE TO THE SUSPENSION

OF THE

Trade of the East-India Company,

AT CANTON,

IN 1907.

THE riots and irregularities which frequently took place when the sailors from the Company's ships were allowed to visit Canton on liberty are well known. An affray arising from this source, of a very curious nature, commenced at an early hour in the morning of the 24th of February, 1807, in a street in the neighbourhood of the European factories,

* This subject has been already noticed; but, as the case is curious, and has been much misrepresented, it is conceived that a fuller narrative of it, taken from the notes which were made by the Author at the time, will not be unacceptable.

Although the privilege of frequenting Canton, on liberty, is no longer expressly granted to our seamen, it is not to be supposed that they do not occasionally proceed to that city, on duty, and even sometimes by way of indulgence-Similar difficulties, therefore, with those here related, may easily recur again, and it is certainly useful to trace the means by which they have been met, and overcome, under the present system.

where the sailors are usually enticed to purchase liquor, and are generally, in the end, plundered of whatever property or money they may happen to have brought with them. On the first appearance of a disposition to riot, the captain and officers of the Neptune, (the ship to which the sailors then at Canton on liberty belonged,) actively interfered and exerted themselves to restore order among their people. In a short time they were enabled to secure them all within their factory, where they would in all probability have quietly remained, had not the Chinese populace behaved in the most outrageous manner, and collecting together in great numbers, continued during the greatest part of the day, to throw stones at the factory and at every European accidently passing, although the security merchants, and the mandarins on the quay, were repeatedly but ineffectually called upon to interfere and disperse them.

The sailors were so exasperated by this conduct, especially as some of them had actually been severely wounded by stones thrown in at the gate, that they eluded the vigilance of their officers, and twice rushed out upon their assailants, whom they easily and almost instantly dispersed. In the course of these sallies,

however, they had unfortunately the opportunity of striking and wounding several of the Chinese; but there was no reason to suppose at the time, that any individual had been very seriously injured, and no complaint of that kind was made.

On the 27th instant however, three days after the affray, it was reported that a Chinese had died in the city, on the preceding morning, in consequence of the wounds which he was said to have received on the 24th.-The Select Committee of Supercargoes, immediately on receiving this information, sent for the Hong merchant, Mow-qua, who was the security merchant for the Neptune, and requested him to use every means in his power to prevent the interference of the mandarins, or the accident being in any manner officially reported to them.-They then learnt from him, that unfortunately the proceedings in this case had already advanced so far as to render hopeless any attempt to suppress the enquiry, especially as the decased, although an individual of the lowest class, was in some degree a dependant on the family, and therefore under the peculiar protection of the Chong-quan, or general of the Tartar troops, a mandarin of the highest rank and influence.

It did not appear that the relations of the deceased attempted to charge the crime against any particular individual; but the evidence respecting the time and place in which the accident happened, was determined by the Chinese magistrate, to be sufficient to fix the guilt upon the sailors of the Neptune generally.— The Select Committee was in consequence verbally called upon, on the 28th of February, and afterwards officially by edict, on the 2nd of March, as representatives of the nation to which the ship belonged, to find out and deliver up the person who had struck the unfortunate blow, that he might be tried and punished according to the laws of China.

The line of conduct, which, however painful to their feelings, it would have been the duty of the Select Committee to have pursued, if the individual could have been ascertained, was sufficiently obvious. The propriety, and indeed, necessity, of complying with the laws of the country in which they resided, by delivering up a person charged, upon any reasonable grounds, with a capital offence, could hardly be disputed.

It was immediately however foreseen, that the discovery of the person, who struck any particular blow, among such a mixed multi