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DEATHS OF HOWQUA AND J. R. MORRISON.

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service of the English during the war; and it is to the credit of the imperial government, that none of the many hundreds, who served the English on ship and shore against their country, were molested in any way for so doing. Many were apprehended, but the commissioner says, " he has obtained from the good favor of his august Sovereign, vast and boundless as that of heaven itself, the remission of their punishment for all past deeds; . . . . they need entertain no apprehension of being hereafter dragged forward, nor yield in consequence to any fears or suspicions."

These new arrangements pleased the leading Chinese merchants far better than they did the hoppo and his underlings in the custom-house, and others, who had lined their pockets and feed their friends with their illegal exactions. The never failing sponge of the co-hong could no longer be sucked, but for a last squeeze, the authorities called upon the merchants for five millions of dollars, which they refused to pay, and withdrew from business with so much determination and union that the hoppo and his friends were foiled. The avowed object of this demand was to pay that portion of the $21,000,000, alleged to be for their debts, and they finally contributed among themselves about $1,700,000 towards it, the remainder coming out of the consoo fund. Howqua, the leading member of the body during thirty years, died about this time, aged seventy-five; he was one of the most remarkable men known to foreigners, and while he filled the difficult station of senior merchant, exhibited great shrewdness and ability in managing the delicate and difficult affairs constantly thrown upon him. His property, perhaps over-estimated at four millions sterling, passed quietly into the hands of his grandchildren.

The foreign community also suffered a great loss at this time in the death, by the prevailing fever, of John Robert Morrison, son of the Rev. Dr. Morrison, at the age of twenty-nine. He was born in China, and had identified himself with the best interests of her people, and their advancement in knowledge and Christianity. At the age of twenty, on his father's decease, he was appointed Chinese secretary to the British superintendents, and filled that responsible situation with credit and efficiency during all the disputes with the provincial authorities and commissioner Lin, and of the war, until peace was declared. His intimate acquaintance with the policy of the Chinese government,

and the habits of thought of its officers, eminently fitted him for successfully treating with them, and enlightening them upon the intentions and wishes of foreign powers, while his unaffected kindness to all natives assured them of the sincerity of his professions. The successful conduct of the negotiations at Nanking, under God, depended very much upon him, and the manner in which he performed the many translations to and from Chinese, connected with that event, was such, as to impart the utmost confidence to the imperial commissioners that they were fairly dealt with. The benevolent societies at Canton found in him a ready coöperator, and the Morrison Education Society, established in honor of his father, depended not a little upon his efforts and aid for its success and popularity.

Above all, he was eminently a Christian man, and whenever opportunity allowed, failed not to speak of the doctrines of the Bible to his native friends, among whom he ardently wished to see the Gospel introduced. The projected revision of the Chinese version of the Scriptures by the Protestant missionaries, engaged his attention, and it was expected would receive his assistance. With his influence, his pen, his property, and his prayers, he contributed to the welfare of the people, and the confidence felt in him by natives who knew him was often strikingly exhibited at Canton during the commotions of 1841, and the negotiations of 1843. He died at Macao, August 29th, a year after the treaty of Nanking was signed, and was buried by the side of his parents in the Protestant burying-ground. Sir Henry Pottinger announced his death as a "positive national calamity,”and it was so received by the government at home. He also justly added, "that Mr. Morrison was so well known to every one, and so beloved, respected, and esteemed by all who had the pleasure and happiness of his acquaintance or friendship, that to attempt to pass any panegyric upon his private character would be a mere waste of words;" while his own sorrow was but a type of the universal feeling in which his memory and worth are embalmed. As a testimony of their sense of his worth, the foreign community, learning that he had died poor, leaving a maiden sister who had been dependent upon him, and that his official accounts were in some confusion, immediately came forward, and contributed nearly fourteen thousand dollars to relieve his estate and relatives from all embarrassment.

POSITION AND BEARINGS OF THE OPIUM TRADE.

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The negotiations between the English and Chinese plenipotentiaries were concluded by signing a supplementary treaty of seventeen articles on the Sabbath, Oct. 8th (the day was a lucky one in the Chinese calendar), at the Bogue. This treaty provided for the settlement of debts, treatment of criminals, restraint of British subjects, registry of Chinese vessels at Hongkong, and the small foreign craft plying between Canton and that colony, &c. The VIIIth article, providing for the admission of all foreigners who had previously traded to Canton, to the other ports on the same terms as English subjects, was inserted at the special request of Kíying, that all might know the intentions of his government; for neither he nor his master knew anything of that favorite phrase in western diplomacy, "the most favored nation," and expected and wished to avoid all controversy by putting every ship and flag on the same footing.

It might have been expected that the Chinese government would have now taken some action upon the opium trade, which was still going on unchecked and unlicensed. Opium schooners were going in and out of Hongkong harbor, though the drug sold by government at Calcutta was not allowed by the same government at Hongkong to be stored on shore ; and the article was landed along the whole coast even to the Pei ho, and publicly smoked at Macao and Canton. Yet no edicts were issued, few or no seizures made, no notice taken of it, no proposition to repress, legalize, or manage it, came from the imperial commissioner. The old laws, denouncing its use, purchase, or sale, under the penalty of death, still remained on the statute book, but no one feared or cared for them. This conduct can be explained only on the supposition that having suffered so much, the emperor and his ministers thought safety from future trouble lay in enduring what was past curing; they had already suffered greatly in attempting to suppress it, and another war might be caused by meddling with the dangerous subject, since too it was now guarded by well armed vessels. Public opinion was still too strong against it, or else consistency obliged the monarch to forbid legalization; which he could hardly avoid acknowledging was the least of two evils.

Sir Henry Pottinger, hearing that persons were about sending opium to Canton under the pretence that unenumerated articles were admissible by the new tariff at a duty of five per cent., issued a proclamation in English and Chinese, to the intent that

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such proceedings were illegal, and would meet no protection from British officers or ships. He also forbade British vessels going beyond lat. 32° N., and intimated to the Chinese that they might seize all persons and confiscate all vessels found above that line, or anywhere else on the coast beside the five ports; and, moreover, published an Order in Council, which restricted, under nalty of £100 for each offence, all British vessels violating the stipulations of the treaty in this respect. Yet this was done chiefly to throw dust in their eyes, and put the onus of the contraband traffic on the Chinese government, and the violation of law on those who came off to the smuggling vessels; and these proclamations and orders, like their edicts, were to be put "on record." This was shown when Capt. Hope of H. M. S.Thalia, for stopping two or three of the opium vessels proceeding above Shanghai, was recalled from his station and ordered to India, where he could not "interfere in such a manner with the undertakings of British subjects,"-to quote Lord Palmerston's dispatch to Capt. Elliot. This effectually deterred all others from meddling with it.

Yet the commercial bearings of this trade were clearly seen in England, and a memorial to Sir Robert Peel, signed by 235 merchants and manufacturers, was drawn up, in which they proved that the "commerce with China cannot be conducted on a permanently safe and satisfactory basis so long as the contraband trade in opium is permitted. Even if legalized, the trade would inevitably undermine the commerce of Great Britain with China, and prevent its being, as it otherwise might be, an advantageous market for our manufactures. It would operate for evil in a double way: first, by enervating and impoverishing the consumers of the drug, it would disable them from becoming purchasers of our productions; and second, as the Chinese would then be paid for their produce chiefly as now in opium, the quantity of that article imported by them having of late years exceeded in value the tea and silk we receive from them, our own manufactures would consequently be to a great extent precluded." The memorial shows that between 1803-08, the annual demand for woollens alone was nearly £150,000 more than it was for all products of British industry between 1834-39; while in that interval, the opium trade had risen from 3,000 to 30,000 chests annually. Nothing in the annals of commerce ever

REMUNERATION MADE TO THE MERCHANTS.

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showed more conclusively how heartless a thing trade is when it comes in contact with morality or humanity, than the discussions respecting the opium traffic. These memorialists plead for their manufactures, but the East India Company would have been sorry to have had their market spoiled: what could Sir Robert Peel, or even Wilberforce, if he had been premier, do against them in this matter? The question was which party of manufacturers should be patronized. Yet none of these "merchants and manu. facturers of the highest standing and respectability" refer to the destruction of life, distress of families, waste of mind, body, and property, and the many other evils connected with the growth and use of opium, except as connected with the sale of their goods. One paper, in order to compound the matter, recommended the manufacture of morphine to tempt the Chinese, in order that if they would smoke it, they might have a delicate preparation for fashionable smokers.

The conduct of the ministry in remunerating the merchants and other subjects, who had surrendered their property to Capt. Elliot, was appropriate to the character of the trade. The six millions of dollars received from the Chinese, instead of being divided in China among those who were to receive it, which could have been done without expense, was carried to England to be coined, which, with the freight, reduced it considerably. Then by the manner of ascertaining the market value at the time it was given up, and the holders of the opium scrip got their pay, they received scarcely one-half of what was originally paid to the East India Company, either directly or indirectly, thereby reducing it nearly a million sterling. Furthermore, by the form of payment, they lost nearly one-fifth even of the promised sum, about £240,000 more. Then they lost four years' interest on their whole capital, or about £800,000 more. While the merchants lost, the government profited. The Company gained, during these four years, at least a million sterling, by the increased price of the drug, while Sir Robert Peel also transferred that amount from the pockets of the merchants to the public treasury. However, those who gave up their opium in March, 1839, also realized much greater profits in the latter part of that year, than they would have done had the opium trade gone on as usual; though this had nothing to do with the justice of their claims to full compensation from government.

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