kill a Chinefe, or fome fubftitute in the place o f the adual criminal,
as I have already inftanced in the feventh chapter. One
o f the moft intelligent o f the Eaft India Company’ s fervants at
Canton, fpeaking on this fubjed, in anfwer to certain queries
propofed to him about the time o f the Embaffy, remarks, I
“ cannot help obferving, that the fituation o f the Company s
“ fervants a n d 'th e trade in general is, in this refped, very ,
“ dangerous and difgraceful. It is fuch that it will be impof-
“ fible for them to extricate themfelves from the cruel dilemma
“ a very probable accident may place them in, I will not fay
“ with honour, but without infamy, or expofing the whole
4 trade to ruin.” Yet we have juft now feen, on the recurrence
o f fuch an accident, that by the circumftance of a dired
and immediate communication with the government, the affair
was terminated, not only without difgrace or infamy, but in a
way that was honourable to both parties.
C O N C L U S I O N .
I H A V E now gone over moft o f the points relative to
which I have been able to recoiled the remarks and obferva-
tions which arofe in my mind during my attendance on this
memorable Embaffy. The companions I have made were
given with a view o f aflifting the reader to form in his own
mind fome idea what rank the Chinefe may be confidered to
If old, when-'meaftffed by the fcale o f European nations; but
this part is very defedive. T o have made it complete would
require more time and more reading, than at prefent I could
command. The confideration o f other objeds, thofe o f a political
nature, which are o f the moft ferious importance to our
interefts in China, is more particularly the province o f thofe in
a different fphere, and would, therefore, be improper for me to
anticipate or prejudge, by any conjedures o f my own. It belongs
to other perfons, and perhaps to other times * ; but it is to
be hoped that the information, refledions, and opinions o f the
Embaffador himfelf, may one day be fully communicated to the
public, when the prefent objedions to it fh&ll ceafe, and the
moment arrive (which is probably not very diftant) that will
enable us to a d upon the ideas o f that nobleman’ s capacious and
enlightened mind, and to prove to the world that the late Em-
baffy, by fheyving the charader and dignity o f the Britifh na-
* This was written at the dofe o f the year 1803.
x tion