Travels in China by Sir John Barrow (top e book reader .txt) π
[1] Monsieur (I beg his pardon) Citoyen Charpentier Cossigny.
Perhaps it may not be thought amiss, before he enters on the more immediate subject of the work, to correct, in this place, a very mistaken notion that prevailed on the return of the embassy, which was, that an unconditional compliance of Lord Macartney with all the humiliating ceremonies which the Chinese might have thought proper to exact from him, would have been productive of results more favourable to the views of the embassy. Assertions of such a general nature are more easily made than refuted, and indeed unworthy of attention; but a letter of a French missionary at Peki
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Our case at Canton is pretty nearly the same as that of the two Chinese missionaries. Every petty officer of the government knows he can practise impositions on our trade with impunity, because we have not the means of bringing his villainy to the knowledge of his superiors. For, how great soever may be the propensity of the Chinese people to fraud and extortion, I have little doubt of the justice and moderation of the Chinese government, when the case is properly represented. A recent circumstance may be mentioned in support of this opinion. In the year 1801, a sailor on board his Majesty's ship the Madras fired upon and mortally wounded a Chinese who was passing in a boat. A discussion, as usual, took place with the Chinese government; but it was conducted in a very different manner from what had hitherto been usual on similar occasions. Instead of entering into any explanation or defence through the medium of the Hong merchants, who tremble at the lowest officer of government, a memorial was addressed to the Viceroy, drawn up in a proper and becoming manner by the present Sir George Staunton, the only Englishman in the Company's service who was skilled in the Chinese language. Several conversations were also held on the subject with the officers of justice, from which the Hong merchants were excluded. Captain Dilkes setting up a plea of recrimination on the ground of some Chinese having cut his cable with an intent to steal it, the government assented to have the matter tried in the supreme court of justice in the city of Canton. By the law of China, if the wounded person survive forty days, the sentence of death is commuted for that of banishment into the wilds of Tartary; yet so favourably did the court incline to the side of the accused in this instance, that although the time was not expired, and there was little hope of the wounded man recovering, they allowed Captain Dilkes to take the seaman into his own custody, requiring only that he should leave in court a written promise to produce him in case the wounded should not survive the time prescribed by law. The man lingered near fifty days and then died, upon which a message was sent by the court, intimating to the Captain, that the court saw no impropriety, in this instance, in leaving it to him to punish the delinquent according to the laws of his own country; thus, for the first time, assenting to set aside a positive law in favour of foreigners. By this proper mode of interference an English subject was saved from an unjust and ignominious death, which would otherwise inevitably have happened, as on all former occasions of a similar kind, had the affair been left in the hands of men whose interest it is to represent us as barbarians, and who, however well they might be disposed, have not the courage to plead our cause. Hitherto the Chinese have invariably made a point of executing immediately, and without a regular trial, any foreigner who should kill a Chinese, or some substitute in the place of the actual criminal, as I have already instanced in the seventh chapter. One of the most intelligent of the East India Company's servants at Canton, speaking on this subject, in answer to certain queries proposed to him about the time of the Embassy, remarks, "I cannot help observing, that the situation of the Company's servants and the trade in general is, in this respect, very dangerous and disgraceful. It is such that it will be impossible for them to extricate themselves from the cruel dilemma a very probable accident may place them in, I will not say with honour, but without infamy, or exposing the whole trade to ruin." Yet we have just now seen, on the recurrence of such an accident, that by the circumstance of a direct and immediate communication with the government, the affair was terminated, not only without disgrace or infamy, but in a that was honourable to both parties.
I have now gone over most of the points relative to which I have been able to recollect the remarks and observations which arose in my mind during my attendance on this memorable Embassy. The comparisons I have made were given with a view of assisting the reader to form in his own mind some idea what rank the Chinese may be considered to hold, when measured by the scale of European nations; but this part is very defective. To have made it complete would require more time and more reading, than at present I could command. The consideration of other objects, those of a political nature, which are of the most serious importance to our interests in China, is more particularly the province of those in a different sphere, and would, therefore, be improper for me to anticipate or prejudge, by any conjectures of my own. It belongs to other persons, and perhaps to other times[70]; but it is to be hoped that the information, reflections, and opinions of the Embassador himself, may one day be fully communicated to the public, when the present objections to it shall cease, and the moment arrive (which is probably not very distant) that will enable us to act upon the ideas of that nobleman's capacious and enlightened mind, and to prove to the world that the late Embassy, by shewing the character and dignity of the British nation in a new and splendid light, to a court and people in a great measure ignorant of them before, however misrepresented by the jealousy and envy of rivals, or impeded by the counteraction of enemies, has laid an excellent foundation for great future advantages, and done honour to the wisdom and foresight of the statesman[71] who planned the measure, and directed its execution.
A
Abaris, the flying arrow of, 40
Africa, coast of, known to the Phenicians, 48
Agriculture, an honourable profession, 397
of Pe-tche-lee, 554
of Shan-tung, 554
of Kiang-nan, 561
terrace system of, 568
Air sung by Chinese boatmen, 81
Almanack, national, 284
Almeyda, a Portuguese Jesuit, malignant spirit of, 19
Alphabet of the Mantchoo language, 272
American Indians resemble the Chinese, 44
traders, how considered at Canton, 593
Amplification, Chinese example of, 36
Ancients unacquainted with China, 435
Anniversary of the Emperor of China's birth-day, 196
Anson's voyage, character of Chinese in the account of, 27
Antiquary, curious mistake of one, 258
Appeal, none in civil causes, 277
Arbitrary power, instance of, 85
Arch, very ancient in Chinese architecture, 339
those called triumphal, 95
Archipelago of Chu-san, violent currents in, 54
Architecture of the palace of Yuen-min-yuen, 124
style of, in landscape gardening, 135
general observations on, 330
monumental, 339
Arithmetic, 196
Armenian and his pearl, 611
Army establishment, 405
how employed, 408
Astronomy, 284
ignorance of the Chinese in, 290
Authority, parental, basis of Chinese government, 359
B
Baboom, an Armenian, trick played by him at Canton, 612
Bamboo, the practice of flogging with, instanced, 161
general utility of this plant, 309
reflexions on the punishment of, 380
compared with that of the knout in Russia, 383
Bedford, Duke of, his portrait in China, 115
Beverage of life, 464
Bishop of Pekin, his visit to Yuen-min-yuen, 110
Books, ancient ones of China, 276
Breakfast, Chinese, 89
Briareus of China, 471
Bridges, 337
one of ninety-one arches, 520
Budha, compared with Fo, 468
Burying-ground, 497
C
Calendar, national, an engine of government, 391
Camellia Sesanqua, 536
Camelopardalis, noticed by Marco Polo, 46
Canal, Imperial, 335
observations on, 506-512
Cannon, 299
Canton, reasons for the Embassy avoiding it, 33
situation of foreigners trading to it, 610
Carriages of the Chinese described, 90
those made by Hatchett puzzle them, 113
Cavalry, Tartar, 410
Censorate, 363
Ceremony of the Court, 21
Chain-pump, 311
Character, physical, as given by Linnæus not correct, 184
moral, of Chinese and Tartars, 186
Characters of the Chinese language, 248
keys or roots of, 251
examples of the composition of, 255
Chastity, palace of, 235
Chemical Arts, 298
Checks to the absolute power of the Emperor, 362
Children still-born exposed in the streets, 176
Chou-ta-gin, 70
Chou-ta-gin, kind attentions of, 604
Christian Religion might once have been introduced, 449
Churchmen, intrigues of, not easily obviated, 18
Cingalese, of Chinese origin, 53
Cities of China, walls, towers, and gates of, 91
observations on, 500
Cleanliness no part of the Chinese character, 77
Cock-fighting, 159
Coffins, splendid appearance of, 95
Collieries, 594
Commerce of the Yellow Sea, how carried on, 60
Comedy described, 201
extraordinary scene in one, 221
Comparison of China and Europe, 29
of a Chinese and a Hottentot, 49
Compass, an original invention of Chinese, 39
observations on, 61
explanation of the circles on, 62
Conclusion, 621
Conduct of Chinese prepossessing, 80
Confucius, religion of, 451
no statues to the memory of, 458
hall of, 459
Cork Convent, 597
Corvorant, the fishing, 506
Cottons, manufactures of, 307
cultivation of the plant, 556
Court of China, forms of, immutable, 21
manners and amusements of, 191
Crimes and punishments, 367
Criminal offences, mode of trial for, 370
Crowd of persons at Ting-hai, 57
at Tien-sing, 78
at Tong-tchoo, 86
in Pekin, 96
Cruelty, instance of, 161
Crystal lenses, 341
Cuckoo-clocks, 181
Currents, violence of, in Chu-san Archipelago, 54
Custom respecting Embassadors, 22
Customs and dress not subjects of ridicule, 74
Cycle of sixty years, 293
D
Daughters always sold, 145
Day of rest, policy of observing one, 154
Decimal Arithmetic, 297
Deity not personified in China, 457
Deluge, universal tradition of, 432
Deodato, an Italian missionary, 107
Departments, public, 365
Descartes, his idea of prolonging life, 466
Dignities, personal, 385
Dispositions, natural, altered by influence of laws, 160
Distillation of Seau-tchoo, 303
Drama, state
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