No. 5. Minute by the Governor-General, their unwarrantable oppression will not be submitted to, and at the same time to give additional weight to the representations of the Select Committee, by publicly showing that they have the protection of the Sovereign of Great Britain, while the referred to in No. 4. ships might be employed in enforcing their orders for the suspension of all commercial intercourse by the British trade of India with China. "The measures here proposed for our adoption involve not merely an interference in affairs which have been entirely separated from our authority, but demand also a degree of responsibility, which nothing but the clearest conviction of the necessity of the case could authorize us to assume. It was incumbent upon the Select Committee, when asking our support to proceedings of so novel a character, and pregnant with consequences of such extreme magnitude, to have laid before us all the information which, as perfect strangers to the affairs of China, we necessarily require for our own satisfaction and guidance. It could hardly have been expected that we should have pledged the character and consideration of this Government by a public remonstrance, without a thorough understanding of the question under discussion, and without a complete developement of the data upon which the calculation of failure or success must have been founded. "The only despatches received from the Select Committee are dated the 21st of December and the 11th and 19th January. It is in the letter of the 11th January that the Select Committee communicate their causes of complaint against the Chinese local authority, and their having had recourse to the suspension of the trade as the only means of obtaining redress. This statement has nothing to support it but the mere authority from whence it proceeds. It is not accompanied by any documents. The correspondence with the Viceroy is not transmitted; and though I know from a private letter from Mr. Plowden, the President of the Select Committee, that he has not concurred with his colleagues, his dissent, a document of the utmost importance, which would have put us in possession of the other side of the question, has been entirely unnoticed. "It is quite clear, that upon the point of the reduced number of Hong Merchants, and upon the non-performance of their engagements, the Select Committee and the Merchants in general have a strong case of grievance. There are other points also, no doubt, which require correction. But wholly unacquainted as we are with the manner in which the business between the Factory and the Hong Merchants is conducted, as well as with the politics, interests and feelings both of the subordinate Chinese agents at Canton, and of the Imperial Cabinet of Pekin, it is quite impossible for us, without much more explanation than the despatch of the 11th of January affords, to comprehend the whole subject, or rightly to appreciate the grounds upon which the Select Committee have acted. "It was important that we should have been made acquainted with the following facts: 66 1. In what manner and to what extent the interests of the East India Company were affected by the present state of things, and whether the evil was of that vast and pressing nature as not to admit of the delay of a reference. 66 2. In what degree the withdrawal of the trade would affect the private interests of the Viceroy, and the revenues of the State; how far the intended recourse of Mr. Elphinstone to the same measure had influence over the determination of the Viceroy; and how far that intended act received the sanction of the Court of Directors. 66 3. What reason is there to suppose that the representations of the Supreme Government will have more effect that those of the Select Committee? On what grounds is it now concluded that the cautious policy of not admitting ships of war, and of excluding all possible chance of collision or cause of offence, hitherto so successfully pursued, and in a very recent instance strongly recommended by a preceding Select Committee, is erroneous and unnecessary? And above all, what is the foundation of the security that this bolder measure of intimidation by a remonstrance from the supreme power in India, backed by a naval force of His Majesty, will ensure success? And, in the event of failure, it would have been satisfactory to have been informed in which manner a safe and honourable retreat might be effected. To supply in some part the omissions in the correspondence of the Select Committee, I have to lay before the Board extracts of two private letters I have received from Mr. Plowden, dated the 16th and 24th January, describing the different view taken by him of the conduct of the Chinese authorities, and express473. No. 5. Minute by the Governor-General, referred to in No.4. ing his dissent from the opinions and measures of his colleagues. It is impossible My opinion of the inexpediency of the two propositions of the Select Committee will have been sufficiently evinced by the preceding remarks. Were measures of intimidation justified by the proceedings of the Chinese government, which appears not to be the case, we, at any rate, uninformed as we are, could not lend ourselves, without the sanction of our superior authorities, to so radical a change of the peaceful policy hitherto invariably and successfully followed, which has carefully abstained from all display of power, and thus strictly adhered to the maintenance of the simple character of a commercial factory. But I am of opinion that the restoration of the trade may be easily effected through the mediation of the Supreme Government, and that the interposition of an authority supposed to be superior, and as no party to past proceedings, may both save the Select Committee from the humiliation of a retreat, if such should be eventually necessary, and be equally acceptable to the Chinese government, who, whatever may be their assertions, cannot be indifferent to the continuance of so lucrative a traffic. The advantage of this course will be, that, in the event of failure, no additional object will have been thrown in the way of such measures as the authorities at home may think fit to adopt. After the call that has been made upon us by the Select Committee, and the obvious difficulty of their situation, I cannot but calculate on a ready disposition on their side to listen to our advice; but it will be proper to provide for an opposite contingency. The importance of the occasion requires that we should depute upon this service an officer of the highest consideration. The offer of Sir Charles Metcalfe to undertake this mission leaves nothing to be wished for upon this point, and will be received with equal gratification by the council and the home authorities. His name is not unknown in China, and I anticipate from the Select Committee that willing attention to his opinion which his reputation so strongly invites. I annex a draft of the instructions which I propose to be given to him, and which will render it unnecessary for me to extend the limits of the present Minute. LETTERS TO SUPRACARGOES, 1832. COPY of LETTERS from the COURT OF DIRECTORS of the EAST INDIA COMPANY to their SUPRACARGOES in China, dated the 13th January 1832, and the 18th April 1832. Ordered, by The House of Commons, to be Printed, 18 May 1832. 13th January 1832. ! Our President and Select Committee of Supracargoes at Canton in China. Para 1. [T being uncertain whether any conveyance to China may offer before dispatch the Company's sloop of war "Coote," by which we received in November last your despatches of May preceding. 2. We transmit numbers in the packet, a copy of our Secretary's letter dated the 9th November, acknowledging by our desire your advices of May, and also copy of a letter from our Chairman and Deputy-Chairman to you, under date the 9th December, announcing the receipt of your despatch of the 18th June, via San Blas and Tampico. The originals of these letters were forwarded by the American ship" Addison," which sailed from Liverpool the 31st of December. 3. The leading points detailed in your advices now before us, comprising your letters to the 22d July, and your Consultations to the 19th of that month, are— The aggressions of the Foo Yuen on your Factory : The eight Regulations issued by the Viceroy : Your announcement of the intended stoppage of the trade on the 1st August last; and your request to the Bengal government for the aid of some of His Majesty's ships of war to enable you to carry into effect the measures which you then contemplated, but of the nature of which you have given us no information: Your subsequent determination of the 10th June, not to enforce the stoppage of the trade, in consequence of the new regulations having received the sanction of an imperial edict, and the intimation of this resolution to the Bengal government, accompanied by a declaration, that "on the termination of the season, when the "valuable property of the Company as well as of individuals has been rescued, you deeply feel that the time will be arrived when reparation must be "demanded." 66 4. We proceed to consider the measures connected with the alterations in the front of the Factory, which led to the aggressions of the Foo Yuen in the month of May last. 5. The subject was first noticed upon the Select Committee's Consultations of the 20 September 1828, in the following terms : "The anxiety evinced by the government to commence unlading our ships, "holds out to us a favourable opportunity for gaining their sanction to a plan "which we had devised in the month of February, and had already carried partially "into effect (but of which no notice is taken on your records), for improving the access to the stairs of the Company's Factory in Canton, when the work was unexpectedly interrupted by the interference of the Nan-hey-yuen." 66 6. The nature and necessity of the projected alteration was explained, and a general description entered into of the locality of the premises alluded to. 7. The Select Committee then stated that they had communicated in the first instance their views to the Hong merchants, in order that the matter should be represented to government previously to entering upon the operations, when they were assured by the merchants" that no necessity existed for a formal representa"tion of the case to the local authorities." S. It appears that the Committee still expressed to the merchants their reluctance to enter upon the undertaking without the previous sanction of government; but |