have fuppfrfed yourfelves authorized to pay me this refped.
“ Your ¡Sovereign, liowevery having direded you to chufe a fa-
■“ vourable moment o f my reign, you have now fent to felicitate me
if accordingly in the name o f your faid Sovereign. Thefixtieth
“ year o f my reign was about to be completed. Y o u , a com-
. pany, tooi diftant from your Sovereign, could not announce it
to him. Interpreting this to be his pleafure, you have under-
“ taken to fend, in his name, to do me homage ; and I have no
‘ ‘ -doubt this prince is infpired towards me with the fame fenti-
meats which I have experienced in you. I have, therefore,
o received your Embaffador as i f he had been fent immediately
“ by his King. And I am defirous you ihould be made ac-
“ quainted that I have remarked nothing in the perfon o f your
“ Embaffador, but what bore teftimony o f his refped for me,
a and o f his own good condud.
- n I commanded my great officers to introduce him to- my
prefence. I gave him feveral entertainments, and permitted
“ him to fee the grounds and the palaces that are within my vaft
“ and magnificent gardens o f Yuen min Yuen. I have fo aded
« that he might feel the effeds o f my attention, dividing with
* him the pleafures which the profound peace o f my empire
« a|lows me to enjoy. I have, moreover, made valuable pre-
“ fents, not only to. him, but alfo to the officers, interpreters,
“ foldiers, and fervants o f his fuite, giving them, befides what
“ is cuftomary, many other articles, as may be feen by the
“ catalogue.
“ Your
St Your Embaffador being about to return to the prefence o f
“ his fovereign, I have direded him to prefent to this Prince
“ pieces o f filk and other valuable articles to- which I have
“ added fome antique vafes.
“ May your King receive my prefent. May he govern his
“ .people with wifdom; and give his foie attention to this grand
“ objed, ad in g always with an upright and fincere heart:
“ and, laftly, may he always cheriih the recolledion o f my
“ beneficence ! May this King attentively watch over the affairs
“ o f his kingdom. I recommend it to him ftrongly and ear-
“ neftly.
“ T he twenty-fourth day o f ther firil moon o f the fixtieth
“ year o f the reign o f Kien Long.”
The very different treatment which the Engliih embaffy received
at the court o f Pekin is eafily explained. The Chinefe are well
informed o f the fuperiority o f the Engliih over all other nations
by fe a ; o f the great extent o f their commerce ; o f their vaft
poffeffions in India which they have long regarded with a jealous
e y e ; and o f the charader and independent fpirit o f the
nation. They perceived, in the manly and open condud o f
Lord Macartney, the reprefentative o f a fovereign in no way in7
ferior to the Emperor o f China, and they felt the propriety,
though they were unwilling to avow it, o f exading only the
fame token o f refped from him towards their fovereign, that one
of their own countrymen, o f equal rank, ihould pay to the portrait
o f his Britannic majefty. It muft, however, have been a
D hard