THE CANTON FACTORY.-The dispute between the Chinese and the East
India Company's Factory at Canton, is at an end. The super- cargoes have terminated their war of words, without obtaining any other concessions than were offered five months before. Two additional Hongs have been established, and a farther increase is contemplated ; but every other point of difference remains as it did previous to the recent suspen- sion of trade, although promises of redress of minor grievances have been given.
All the Company's officers exclaim against the conduct of the Select Committee. Mr. Plowden, the late President, is alone spoken of in terms of mitigated censure, as the first who advocated the propriety of withdrawing from the false position which the:factors had so rashly taken up. Mr. Plowden, it will be recollected, was foiled in his endeavours to effect a settlement with the Chinese, it would appear by the obstinacy of his colleagues ; he soon afterwards embarked in the Bridgewater for England. Hardly had Mr. Plowden. left Macao, when the remaining members of the Committee, satisfied at length that they had overrated their influence with the Chinese, resolved to accept the terms offered ; and commercial intercourse was immediately resumed. The constitution of the wonder-working Committee, which alone of all bodies of Englishmen can manage to trade with the Chinese on ad- vantageous terms, is not unworthy of attention. It consists of about twenty individuals, the sons, for the most part, of Directors or of ex Directors of the East India Company. So valuable is an appointment to the establishment considered, that, to obtain it, a Director is expected to givetip the greater part of his patronage for the season. The persons nominated are not required, like the writers on the East Indian esta- blishments, to follow .a prescribed course of study ; they are despatched to China, to manage the delicate and complicated machinery of the Com- pany„ in total ignorance of the language, and of everything else relating to the people they are to traffic with. The higher offices of the Factory are attainable only by seniority, and it not unfrequently happens that the head of it is as unqualified as the last arrived member. In India, although interest may advance a servant of the Company, still the principle of fitness is professedly acted on in the selection of public func- tionaries.
One of the points of difference with the Chinese was, that the charge for harbour-dues is the same for all classes of vessels. The regu- lation is questionable, but, as the Company employ only the largest class of ships, and as the tonnage-dues on these are the lightest, an objection from them was the extreme of folly.
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