any part of the United Kingdom. To these advantages may be added, that all disqualifications and distinctions of colour have ceased; that men of all colours have equal rights in the law, and an equal footing in society; and that every man's position is settled by the same circumstances which regulate that point in other free countries, where no difference of colour exists-that civil and religious liberty is universally enjoyed in as great a degree as in the mother country, and that we have a press as free as any in the world. Such is the present condition of this colony in those respects, and it may be asserted without fear of denial, that the former slaves of Jamaica are now as secure in all social rights as free born Britons. Let it be our study, gentlemen, to confirm, and if possible, improve this happy state."

perial parliament. Churches, chapels, and schools, raised with the aid of grants from the mother country and the island, or from the funds of charities and societies, and in some cases at the expense of individuals, or by local subscription, to which, in many instances, the labouring class contribute, are in the course of erection, in addition to many which already exist, and more are continually required to meet the demand for education and religious instruction. Several savings' banks are in operation, of which the labouring population laudably avail themselves; and it may be expected, and is to be desired, that more of these valuable institutions will be established."

With reference to these portions of the speech of his excellency, the house of assembly, in their address, echoed the pleasing statement of the governor in the following words :

"The peaceful demeanour of the emancipated population of this island redounds to their own credit, and affords a proof of their continued comfort and prosperity."

same time promising to enter more at length, in the present volume, into the history of our intercourse with the authorities at Canton since the arrival of the British chief commissioner, in 1834. We proceed accordingly to lay before the reader a statement of the occurrences since that period, in the order in which they took place; and, that the chain of narration may not be broken, we have thought it advisable to repeat here the account given in our last volume of the surrender of the opiumchests to the Chinese authorities, at the requisition of commissioner Lin. Since that period our relations towards China have assumed a very different character, and we can speak to them not as merchants petitioning for commercial privileges, but as conquerors dictating terms of fair and honourable reciprocity.

In the year 1833 a bill was carried through parliament by Mr. Grant (now lord Glenelg), president of the India Board, by which it was enacted" that it should be lawful for his majesty, by commission under his royal sign-manual, to appoint not exceeding three superintendents of the trade of his majesty's subjects with China, and to give to such superintendents certain powers and authorities." The East India Company were not only deprived of their exclusive right of trading with China, but of the right of trading at all, in common with the rest of the king's subjects; and, as the operation of the Act was to be immediate, their commercial property and shipping were sold at a great loss.

The first chief commissioner appointed was lord Napier, who arrived at Macao on the 15th of July, 1834. This was the first intimation that the Canton autho

rities had of the appointment. Indeed lord Napier's instructions were, "Your lordship will announce your arrival at Canton by letter to the viceroy." Mr. Davis," who had for some time been at Macao, had been named in the commission as second in authority to lord Napier, and he accepted the office temporarily, intending to return home the same year. Sir George Robinson undertook the provisional office of third superintendent until his majesty's pleasure could be known.

On the 23rd July the commission embarked on board H.M. ship Andromache, and proceeded to the anchorage at Chuenpee, below the batteries at the Boca Tigris. At noon on the following day the superintendents left his majesty's ship, and proceeded on board the cutter on their way to Canton, where they arrived at two o'clock on the morning of the 25th.

Lord Napier addressed a letter from himself to the viceroy, announcing his arrival, according to his instructions; and when this had been translated by Dr. Morrison, the Chinese secretary to the commission, it was despatched to the usual place of delivery, near one of the city gates. Under a variety of pretexts, grounded principally on the wording of the address, the mandarins at the station declined to receive the letter, the real object of the government being to oblige lord Napier to quit Canton until the emperor's permission for his residence had been obtained.

Much delay now took place, and,

because lord Napier did not come before the Chinese authorities in the supplicatory attitude of a petitioner, the Hong merchants threatened a stoppage of the trade. Towards the end of August, the viceroy having refused to recognise lord Napier's letter of announce ment, and declined every subsequent offer of direct communication, that nobleman took the first opportunity of sending despatches to the Foreign-office, and requesting further instructions. His situation was unsatisfactory and embarrassing.

It appeared that the Chinese, not contented with their earlier acts of annoyance and indignitywhether of a personal nature, as the unnecessary breaking open of lord Napier's baggage when the keys were at hand, and the seizure of the purveyors of provisions, or the more serious and public injury inflicted by the stoppage of the trade-had been emboldened to proceed so far as to beset his lordship's residence with soldiers, to drive away his native servants, and to cut off the supply of provisions. Under these circumstances, accompanied by the denial to sanction or make good any transactions involving British property subsequent to the 16th August, the right honourable the chief superintendent deemed it necessary, on the 5th September, to send for a guard of marines, and to request the senior officer of H. M. ships to proceed with the Imogene and Andromache to the anchorage of the trade at Whampoa.

Early on the morning of the 7th September the frigates passed the batteries at the Boca Tigris, in working up against a northerly wind; but, under every disadvan· tage, silenced the fire which was

opened on them, with only one man hurt by a splinter, and a few ropes shot away. The wind then failed, and the ships came to an anchor against the ebb-tide below Tiger Island Fort. Here they lay in a dead calm until the 9th, when a breeze sprung up, and they weighed to pass Tiger Island. The battery opened its best fire on the frigates, but they passed within pistol shot, knocking the stones about the ears of the garrison, though with the loss of a man killed in each ship, and a few wounded. Baffling calms again retarded the progress of the frigates, which did not reach Whampoa anchorage until late on the 11th September. The local government of Canton then agreed that trade should be re-opened, provided the chief commissioner would retire from Whampoa to Macao.

Lord Napier's health was in a precarious state, and, having embarked in a chop-boat for Macao, on the 21st September, he found his illness much aggravated by the heat of the weather and the delay and annoyances experienced on the passage down. Unhappily he became worse on his arrival, and, notwithstanding the care of his family (who had accompanied him to China), and his medical attendants, he sunk under the accumulated weight of anxiety and disease, and died a few weeks after reaching Macao.

Mr. Davis succeeded his lordship as chief commissioner or superintendent, and he appointed captain Elliot, R.N., secretary to the commission.

Two edicts were in the meanwhile issued by the Chinese viceroy, in which the English merchants were called upon to elect a temporary Taepan, or commercial

chief, to control the English shipping, and prevent the smuggling at Lintin, where nearly forty vessels were now anchored. They were, besides, directed to write home for a Taepan, who was to be a merchant, and not a king's officer,-the object of course being to keep the control of the English in the hands of the Hong merchants. No notice whatever was taken of these edicts, as it was clear that the embarrassment which must result to the local government from the want of some authority to address themselves to, would in time oblige them to recognise the king's commission. This opinion has been completely sanctioned by the event, a direct correspondence with the officers of government having been long since established by captain Elliot.

In January, 1835, Mr. Davis embarked for England, leaving sir George Robinson as his successor; and captain Elliot also became a member of the commission, according to the tenor of the instructions from the Foreign-office. For the space of two years from that date, during 1835 and 1836, public affairs remained in a state of uninterrupted quiet, under the charge of sir George Robinson, who strictly adhered to the principle that no advances should be made towards negotiation but such as were dictated from England. But throughout the whole of this time no additional instructions or powers arrived from the Foreign-office, a fact which was severely commented upon in the debate which took place this year in the house of commons on Chinese affairs, and which we have given at length in an earlier part of this volume. There can be no doubt that the opening of the trade in 1834 gave

an immediate stimulus to smuggling of all kinds, at the expense of the fair trade. In forwarding to the secretary of state one of those edicts against opium, which until then had been regarded as mere waste paper, Mr. Davis observed, "It remains now to be seen whether the native government, having its attention at length awakened by the increased amount of smuggling transactions consequent on the open trade of this season, will endeavour to give greater efficacy to its edicts, and oppose some effectual impediment to the contraband commerce of Lintin." Just four years afterwards, captain Elliot, who had succeeded to sir George Robinson, wrote thus:"There seems, my lord, no longer any room to doubt that the court has finally determined to suppress, or more probably most extensively to check, the opium-trade. The immense, and, it must be said, the most unfortunate increase of the supply during the last four years, the rapid growth of the east coast trade in opium, and the continued drain of the silver, have no doubt greatly alarmed the government.”

The government at Pekin now began to take into serious consideration the best mode of dealing with this contraband traffic, and various plans were proposed to them by its advisers. One mandarin named Heunatse, was unlucky enough to propose that the importation of opium should be legalized, and that it should be admitted like other goods on payment of a duty of about seven dollars a chest. But the government of the "great pure dynasty" treated this as an immoral and wicked suggestion, and the unfortunate mandarin was banished to Tartary for offering such advice;