above-named establishments as advertisements for themselves. Of these facts I can't be positive, having never seen the early accounts of the con cern. Contrary to the expectation of all us gents, who were ourselves as dismal as mutes, Mr. Brough came to the office in his coach-and-four, laughing and joking with a friend as he stepped out at the door. "Gentlemen!" said he, "you have read the papers; they announce an event which I most deeply deplore. I mean the demise of the excellent Alderman Pash, one of our constituents. But if any thing can console me for the loss of that worthy man, it is to think that his children and widow will receive, at eleven o'clock next Saturday, 5000l. from my friend, Mr. Titmarsh, who is now head clerk here. As for the accident which has happened to Messrs. Shadrach and Meshach,-in that, at least, there is nothing that can occasion any person sorrow. On Saturday next, or as soon as the particulars of their loss can be satisfactorily ascertained, my friend, Mr. Titmarsh, will pay to them across the counter a sum of forty, fifty, eighty, one hundred thousand pounds-according to the amount of their loss. They, at least, will be remunerated; and though to our proprietors the outlay will no doubt be considerable, yet we can afford it, gentlemen. John Brough can afford it himself, for the matter of that, and not be very much embarrassed; and we must learn to bear ill fortune as we have hitherto borne good, and shew ourselves to be men always!" Mr. B. concluded with some allusions, which I confess I don't like to give here; for to speak of Heaven in connexion with common worldly matters, has always appeared to me irreverent ; and to bring It to bear witness to the lie in his mouth, as a religious hypocrite does, is such a frightful crime, that one should be careful even in alluding to it. Mr. Brough's speech somehow found its way into the newspapers of that very evening; nor can I think who gave a report of it, for none of was heard on 'Change that day declaring he would bet five to one that Alderman Pash's money would never be paid, at the week's end the money was paid by me to Mrs. Pash's solicitor across the counter, and no doubt Roundhand lost his money. Shall I tell how the money was procured? There can be no harm in mentioning the matter now after twenty years lapse of time; and, moreover, it is greatly to the credit of two individuals now dead. 66 As I was head clerk, I had occasion to be frequently in Brough's room, and he now seemed once more disposed to take me into his confidence. Titmarsh, my boy," said he, one day to me, after looking me hard in the face, "did you ever hear of the fate of the great Mr. Silberschmidt of London ?" Of course I had. Mr. Silberschmidt, the Rothschild of his day (indeed I have heard the latter famous gent was originally a clerk in Silberschmidt's house). Silberschmidt, fancying he could not meet his engagements, committed suicide; and had he lived till four o'clock that day, would have known that he was worth 400,000l. “To tell you frankly the truth," says Mr. B., I am in Silberschmidt's case. My late partner, Hoff, has given bills in the name of the firm to an enormous amount, and I have been obliged to meet them. I have been cast in fourteen actions, brought by creditors of that infernal Ginger-beer Company; and all the debts are put upon my shoulders, on account of my known wealth. Now, unless I have time, I cannot pay; and the long and short of the matter is, that if I cannot procure 5000l. before Saturday, our concern is ruined!” "What! the West Diddlesex ruined?" says I, thinking of my poor mother's annuity. "Impossible! our business is splendid!" "We must have 50007. on Saturday, and we are saved; and if you will, as you can, get it for me, I will give you 10,000l. for the money!" B. then shewed me to a fraction the accounts of the concern, and his own private account; proving beyond the possibility of a doubt, that with tha office must be set you know, a dictum of a statesman, that give him but leave to use figures, and he will prove any thing. I promised to ask Mrs. Hoggarty once more for the money, and she seemed not to be disinclined. I told him so; and that day he called upon her, his wife called upon her, his daughter called upon her, and once more the Brough carriage-and-four was seen at our house. But Mrs. Brough was a bad manager; and instead of carrying matters with a high hand, fairly burst into tears before Mrs. Hoggarty, and went down on her knees and besought her to save dear John. This at once aroused my aunt's suspicions; and instead of lending the money, she wrote off to Mr. Smithers instantly to come up to her, desired me to give her up the 3000l. scrip shares that I possessed, called me an atrocious cheat and heartless swindler, and vowed I had been the cause of her ruin. How was Mr. Brough to get the money? I will tell you. Being in his room one day, old Gates, the Fulham porter, came and brought him from Mr. Balls, the pawnbroker, a sum of 12007. Missus told him, he said, to carry the plate to Mr. Balls ; and having paid the money, old Gates fumbled a great deal in his pockets, and at last pulled out a 51. note, which he said his daughter Jane had just sent him from service, and begged Mr. B. would let him have another share in the Company. "He was mortal sure it would go right yet. And when he heard master crying and cursing as he and missus were walking in the scrubbery, and saying that for the want of a few pounds-a few shillings-the finest fortune in Europe was to be overthrown, why Gates and his woman thought that they should come for'ard, to be sure, with all they could, to help the kindest master and missus ever was." This was the substance of Gates's speech; and Mr. Brough shook his hand and-took the 51. "Gates," says he, "that 57. note shall be the best outlay you ever made in your life!" and I have no doubt it was, but it was in Heaven that poor old Gates was to get the interest of his little mite. Nor was this the only instance. Mrs. Brough's sister, Miss Dough, who had been on bad terms with the Director almost ever since he had risen to be a great man, came to the office with a power of attorney, and said, "John, Isabella has been with me this morning, and says you want money, and I have brought you my 4000l.; it is all I have, John, and pray God it may do you good-you and my dear sister, who was the best sister in the world to me-1 -till-till a little time ago." And she laid down the paper, and I was called up to witness it; and Brough, with tears in his eyes, told me her words; for he could trust me, he said. And thus it was that I came to be present at Gates's interview with his master, which took place only an hour afterwards. Brave Mrs. Brough! how she was working for her husband! Good woman, and kind! but you had a true heart, and merited a better fate! Though wherefore say so? The woman, to this day, thinks her husband an angel, and loves him a thousand times better for his misfortunes. On Saturday Alderman Pash's solicitor was paid by me across the counter, as I said. "Never mind your aunt's money, Titmarsh, my boy, never mind her having resumed her shares; you are a true honest fellow; you have never abused me like that pack of curs down-stairs, and I'll make your fortune yet!" * The next week as I was sitting with my wife, with Mr. Smithers, and with Mrs. Hoggarty, taking our tea comfortably, a knock was heard at the door, and a gentleman desired to speak to me in the parlour. It was Mr. Aminadab of Chancery Lane, who arrested me as a share-holder of the Independent West Diddlesex Association, at the suit of Mr. Samuel Abednego, of Hanway Yard, diamond-merchant, for monies lent to the Company. I called down Smithers, and told him for Heaven's sake not to tell Mary. "Where is Brough?" says Mr. Smithers. Why," says Mr. Aminidab, "he's once more of the firm of Brough and Off, sir-he breakfasted at Calais this morning!" We have often thought that, as the year, "They arrived in a few days at the river's mouth, at present called the Bogue, in the neighbourhood of the forts; and, being now furnished with some slender interpreters, they soon had speech with divers mandarines in the king's jounkes, to whom the cause of their arrival was declared, viz., to entertain peace and amity with them, to traffic freely as the Portugales did, and to be forthwith supplied for their monies with provisions for their ships: all which those mandarines promised to solicit with the prime men resident at Canton, and in the meantime desired an expectation of six days, which were granted, and the English ships rode with white ensigns on the poops. But their perfidious friends, the Portugales, had, in all that time, since the return of the pinnace, so beslandered them to the Chinese, reporting them to be rogues, thieves, beggars, and what not, that they became jealous of the good meaning of the English, insomuch that in the night-time they put forty-six GREAT PLENIPOTENTIARY." close to the banks of the river, each The result of Captain Weddel's cogent arguments was such as might have been expected-permission for a free trade (unaccountably not fol lowed up), on payment of a fixed duty (2000 taels), was accorded, and he was enabled to load his vessels with cargoes of such a quality that the Company's agent at Masulipatam wrote that "Never Englishmen were so richly laden as they are with goods, and yet they flow with gold and silver in abundance." We have been induced to trespass on our readers' patience at some length with the above account of our first appearance in China, as it forms a little epitome of the subsequent the Chinese towards us, and points out, we firmly believe, the most proper method of dealing with that singular, but misgoverned people. More than two centuries have elapsed since Captain Weddel's visit to Canton; and at the end of that time we find ourselves forced to employ the very same measures, only on a greater scale, which he adopted. This brings us at once to the point more immediately before us- - the consideration of the line of policy which, with the experience of more than a century and a half of actual and frequent intercourse between this country and China to refer to, that unlucky plenipotentiary of Bohea, Charles Elliot, has thought proper recently to pursue. Let us first glance at the lesson which he who runs may read in the history of that intercourse. It We do not design to enter into all the particulars of our trade with China since the year 1677, when the Company ordered the magnificent sum of one hundred dollars to be invested in tea; till the year 1833, when upwards of 31,000,000 lbs. of the same commodity were imported from Canton into Great Britain. will suffice to take a rapid view of those critical occasions when serious differences arose between this country and China, as from the past alone we can form a just conception of the policy on which the recent measures of Captain Elliot were founded. We think that the recital alone of those occasions on which we were forced into collision with the Chinese authorities will suffice to prove to the most sceptical how ineffectual on all such occasions a vacillating and yielding line of conduct has been found in comparison of a more manly and honourable course. We think our readers, when we recall to their recollections a few facts, will be tempted to ask themselves, is it possible that the "great plenipotentiary" had ever studied the history of our relations with that country, in which such immense commercial interests were intrusted to his sole superintendence? We have detailed how Captain Weddel, in 1637, successfully opposed fraud with force, and obtained his objects. Let us now pass over the various petty exactions and harassing frauds on one side, as well as the occasional resistance, but generally passive submission, on the other, which marked the infant growth of that which is now the most valuable trade in the world carried on with a single city; and we find, in the year 1742, Commodore Anson refused permission to refit and provision his vessel after the hardships suffered during his celebrated voyage. His was a case of urgent necessity, yet the Chinese authorities refused him permission to proceed through the passage of the Bocca Tigris. Anson then announced that he had 300 barrels of gunpowder on board the Centurion, and that he was determined to force his way. The consequence of this spirited demand was immediate permission to pass, and the punishment of the mandarin and pilot chiefly concerned. In the year 1781, a Captain M'Clary, of the merchant service, having brought a Spanish prize into Macao, was seized by the Portuguese, thrown into prison, and forced to pay 70,000 dollars, as the value of his prize, which had unfortunately been wrecked after her capture. Soon after his liberation, and whilst lying off Whampoa alongside a vessel under Dutch colours, the news arrived of war having been proclaimed between England and Holland. M'Clary immediately seized the Dutch vessel next him. Hereupon the Chinese insisted on his restoration of the prize, as having been captured in their waters. M'Clary, however, being exasperated at the treatment he had previously met, refused to comply; and whilst the Chinese troops were collecting, and mandarins crowding round his ship with alternate threats and entreaties, she prepared to drop down the river with both vessels. The result of his braving the Chinese power was a most singular compromise. The Chinese were permitted, when M'Clary arrived with his prize near the mouth of the river, to board her, shouting triumphantly; and in return M'Clary was allowed to retain the most valuable part of his prize in the shape of an iron chest filled with gold and pearls. We do not defend M'Clary's proceedings in the above matter; but we felt that it was too much a case in point to be omitted in our list of the most remarkable instances wherein promptitude and determination have succeeded with the Chinese. Both parties violated international law,-the Chinese, in not preventing the unjust imprisonment and robbery of M'Clary by the Portuguese,-and M'Clary, in capturing the Dutch vessel when lying in the waters of a neutral country. After the unfortunate issue of Lord Amherst's embassy in 1816, and whilst the ambassador and suite were retracing their steps, as well as they could, towards Canton, travelling under a complete eclipse of the imperial favour, the Chinese, with the true petty tyranny which has always distinguished the underlings of office in all climates, thought proper to inflict such insults as were in their power on the commanders of the vessels which had accompanied Lord Amherst on his mission. Thus the hoppo (or superintendant of the customs) refused to allow the Hewett to take in a cargo; and the Alceste frigate and the Lyra were directed not to anchor at Whampoa. Captain Maxwell, however, who commanded the Alceste, perceiving the animus by which the Chinese were instigated in these proceedings, very properly disobeyed orders, obedience to which would have involved the debasement of our national dignity. He accordingly proceeded in the Alceste towards Whampoa, and on his passage was fired at by the junks and the fort at the mouth of the river. A few shots and one well-directed broadside served effectually to silence the ill-directed gunnery of his adversaries; and the consequence of his decision was that the Hewett was immediately allowed to take in her cargo, whilst the Alceste was liberally supplied with provisions; and the Chinese, rather humorously, accounted for their opposition by a proclamation, stating that their guns had been merely fired as a salute of honour. The next remarkable case to which we shall draw the attention of our readers, as illustrative of the good results of decision on our part when based on justice, is that of the English frigate the Topaze. A party of British sailors belonging to that vessel, when lying off the island of Lintin in 1822, were treacherously attacked by a superior body of Chinese on landing upon the island. In the conflict there were four of the natives wounded, and one killed, whilst fourteen of the British were more or less seriously hurt. The viceroy of Canton, proceeding on the Chinese principle of treating the barbarians-namely, that of requiring one or more of the "barbarians" to be delivered up, not for trial, but for execution, in every case of homicide, whether justifiable or not-insisted on two English seamen being sur rendered to the Chinese authorities. He threatened, at the same time, to make the Company's committee responsible in the event of their not being given up; and likewise to put a stop, meantime, to the entire trade. The English immediately had the firmness, in reply to this preposterous demand, to quit Canton, haul down the British flag, and proceed to the second bar anchorage. The high tone of the Chinese was immediately lowered; and when all their attempts to procure a dishonourable compromise had failed-such as, that Captain Richardson should withdraw for a few days, to enable them to report that he had absconded-they were at last obliged immediately to reopen the trade, and absolve the committee from all responsibility. Some Parsecs, subjects of the British empire in India, having, in 1829, murdered the unfortunate master of a trading vessel, named Mackenzie, during some midnight squabble, were sent prisoners to Bombay, there to stand their trial for the homicide. The Chinese authorities, in their usual way, demanded the delivery of the Parsees for execution (for that alone can be supposed to be the meaning of their demand, judging from their previous conduct on former occasions). The demand was of course refused. Threats were held out of using force in the event of non-compliance. The committee immediately ordered up two eighteenpounders and a strong guard to Canton, which so effectually intimi dated the Chinese, that their threats were at once withdrawn, and the guns consequently sent back, after having remained a fortnight at Canton. We do not approve of the subsequent conduct of the board of directors in superseding this committee, but cannot enter into details |