Or one hundred and feventy-three thoufand pounds ilerling;
three Chinefe ounces being equal to one pound fterling.
It is hardly poffible that this enormous fum o f money could
have been expended on account o f the Embafiy, though I
have no doubt o f its having been iffued out o f the Imperial
treafury for that purpofe. One o f the miffionaries informed'
me, in Pekin, that the Gazette o f that capital contained an article
dating the liberality o f the Emperor towards the Engliih
Embaffador, in his having direfted no lefs a fum than fifteen
hundred ounces o f filver to be applied for the daily expences o f
the Embafiy, while ftationary in the capital and at Gehoh The
fame gentleman made an obfervation, that the great officers o f
government, as well as thofe who had the good luck to be appointed
to manage the concerns o f a foreign embafiy, confi-
dered it as one o f the beft wind-falls in the Emperor’s gift, the
difference between the allowances and the adtual expenditure
being equivalent to a little fortune.
Van-ta-gin, indeed, explained to us, that although the Imperial
warrant was figned for thofe fums, yet that having a number
o f offices to pafs through, in all o f which it diminiihed a
little, the whole o f it was not a&ually expended on the Ern-
baffy. He gave to the.Embaflador an excellent illultration o f
the manner in which the Imperial bounty was fornetimes applied.
An inundation had fwept away, the preceding winter,
a whole village in the province o f Shan-tung, fo fuddenly, that
the inhabitants could fave nothing but their lives. The Emperor
having once lodged at the place immediately ordered
100,000
100,000 ounces o f filver for their relief, out o f whieh the firft
officer o f the -treafury took 20,000, the feeond 10,000, the
third 5,000, and fo on, till at laft there remained only 20,000
for the poor fufferers, So that the boafted morality o f China
is pretty much the fame, when reduced to praitice, as that o f
other countries.
The real expence, however, o f the Britifli Embafiy, could
not have been a trifle, when we confider what a vaft multitude
o f men, liorfes, and veffels were conftantly employed on the
occafion. Van-ta-gin affured me, that there were feldom fewer
than one thoufand men, and frequently many more, employed
one way or other in its fervice ; and I am perfuaded he did not
intend to exaggerate. In the firft place, from the mouth o f the:
Pei-bo to Tong-tcboa, we had forty-one yachts o r barges, each
on an average, including boatmen, trackers, and foldiers, having
on board fifteen me n t h i s gives fix hundred and fifteen
men to the boats only. Caterers running about the country to
colled provifions, boatmen to bring them to the feveral barges,,
the conduding officers, and their numerous retinue, are not
included in this eftimate. From Tbng-tchoo near three thoufand
men were employed to carry the prefents and. baggage, firft to
Umtg-ya-yuen, beyond Pekin, and then back again to the capital,
which took them three days. In our return from Tong-
tchoo to Hang-tchoo-fjo, we had a fleet o f thirty-veffels, with ten
men at leaft and, for the greateft part o f the journey, twenty
additional: trackers, to each veffel £ this gives nine hundred
people for the yachts alone..
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