THE LITERARY SPECTATOR.
WHEN Prince Chrom-chit, now the King of Siam, asked Mr. CR.AUFURD, the Envoy to that court, (whose work we spoke of last week,) if Ceylon, a country for which the Siamese have a su- perstitious veneration, was subject to the authority of the Governor- General of India, he was answered that Ceylon had a governor of its own, and was the only part of our Indian possessions so circumstanced. The Prince observed, that no doubt the King of England had made this distinction because Ceylon was holy ground! Poor Chrom-chit ! how little was he aware of the small portion of reverence which the King of England feels for the holy ground of Ceylon ! The lessons that books of travels give us are most striking : the moral here to be drawn is, that it is the un- conscious and most facile practice of human nature, to attribute one's own feelings and habits to everybody else. Another ad- vantage which works of this kind offer is, that they show us our own prejudices and proceedings through another medium, and often raise a veil from the truth, of the very existence of which the individual concerned may be utterly ignorant.
Prince Chrom-chit went on to ask what revenue the King of England derived from the sacred island of Ceylon : the Envoy told him, that so far from affording a revenue, Ceylon did not pay its own expenses. Now the remarks made by his Highness C hrom- chit, althaugh perfectly obvious to him, is not one which occurs to English Ministers. " Oh, ho!" said Chit, " if that be the case, it can be of no use to you ; and for what purpose was it conquered, and is it now retained ?" It is a long way to go to Siam to learn wisdom, and yet we observe they make shrewd remarks at Bang- kok. "If," said the Prah-klang, or foreign minister, "if you are at peace with all the world, why do you keep up such an immense navy as that you now describe ?"
Prince Chrom-chit, we were surprised to hear, has heard of Napoleon, and professes great admiration of his achievements. After much conversation on the subject, he at last off'ered the Portuguese interpreter a handsome sum of money to translate the history of his exploits from the French into his own language, that it might afterwards be done into Siamese for his Highness's particular gratification. Chrom-chit's respect for Napoleon seems to have been shared by the late King himself: for one night the embassy was knocked up by a messenger from the King, who came with a puppet three feet high purporting to represent an European, and requesting that any of the party would give the necessary directions for having the figure attired so as to represent the late Emperor Na- poleon. The next. morning, four tailors and two shoemakers made their appearance with cloth, velvet, gold lace, and leather, to carry the order into execution.
Who would expect to find the picture of an English fox-chase the ornament of a part of a Siamese temple ?—and yet it is true, that in the cell of the prior of the temple himself, Mr. CRAUFURD found copies not only of a fox-chase, but another picture descrip- tive of the charms of a country life ; and stranger still, two por- traits of celebrated English beauties, and these copied by a Chinese.
What notion, now, can be associated with these things, that they should be supposed fit decorations of a religious edifice ? or how is it that pursuits and persons so widely estranged from all that a Siamese holds in respect, can become objects of curiosity with these and other people ? It seems, however, that Chinese copies of some of our best prints, sold at an unusually low rate, are disseminated so widely that the traveller may meet with them not tn-rely in Siam, but in the. heart of Kamboja, Lao, or Chinese Tartan. Upon this fact Mr. CRAUFURD makes a shrewd re- mark, in a spirit that smacks more ot the Utilitarian than the man of taste,—" IVe may see," says he, "front this example, that in the intercourse of nations it is impossible to discover beforehand whether or not the productions of one be suited to the taste of the other, until the price be rendered low enough to meet the con- sumers' means of purchasing." A vivid account of Eastern manners is a perpetual treat, from the opposition it constantly olfers to our preconceived notions : ana of this kind always touch the very chord of laughter. The foreign mi- nister wished to see the Envoy, but the Envoy was lodged in a room on the first floor, for the house had been intended for a warehouse : all Siamese dwellings arc on the ground floor ; and nothing could induce the minister to enter, for it was gravely insisted on that a man of his consequence could not possibly subject himself to the indignity of having strangers walk over his head. Everybody has heard of the astonishment of the Chinese when they understood thet in an English carriage presented to the Emperor, it was ex- pected that his Majesty could be expected to sit behind and below the coachman, with the most undignified part of the driver's person right in front of the Imperial face : but this falls .short of the Prah- klang's horror of being walked over. There was, however, no way of satisfying this unwieldy minister, but by procuring , a lad- der, and letting him come in at the window ! The next visit that the Prah-klang made was effected in a similar manner, by scram- bling over the gable-end of the house into the corridor. His call was unexpected, and highly important : he came to complain that four glass lamps that had been offered to the King for sale, by some one in the .mission, had actually been sold, at -a - higher price than hts Majesty would give, to somebody else ; that his Majesty had set his heart on the sa..d lamps, and had threatened half his courtiers with corporal punishment. on account of his dis- appointment. Mr. CRAUFURD observed, that in English practice the highest bidder always carried away the commodity: for which practice, doubtless, the Prah-klang considered us as a set of un- civilized brutes, totally ignorant of the first principle and duty Of a subject—respect for the wishes of Majesty. In the evening the embassy was awakened by the cries of the Christian interpreter, who was suffering corporal punishment for not having reported the sale of the lamps of which the King had become so enamoured. All Bangkok was in a state of agitation for two days respecting these lamps, which were at last discovered in the possession of an old woman, who hastened with them to the palace, pretending that she had purchased them with no other intention than that of
presenting them to his Majesty. This is the Monarch of five millions of people ! This anecdote is akin to another as beautifully inconsistent with our notions of dignity. A conference had been fixed for a particular day between the envoy and the minister for foreign affairs for the great and powerful kingdom of Siam. The minister, however, sent an apology, begging that the meeting might be deferred, be- cause one of his fathers-in-law had broken a favourite mirror, and the minister was in such distress of mind as to be utterly incapable of attending to public business. When the Go vernor of Macao addressed a letter to the King, he expressed, after the fashion of Europe, his deep regret at not being able to repair in person to Siam, that he might then have " the honour of kissing his Majesty's royal hand." If the Go- vernor of Macao had really been at Siam, he would not have been permitted to approach within twenty yards of his Majesty's person. His proposal, therefore, was considered by the Siamese as highly offensive, and was expunged before they would venture to explain the contents of the letter to the King. During the audience which Mr. Craufurd had with his Majesty, his words were delivered in a grave, measured, oracular manner. One of the first officers of state repeated them to a person of inferior rank, and this person to an interpreter, who repeated them in the Malay language. His Majesty, after asking a few questions respecting the age of the King of England,
and of the Governor-General, concluded the interview by informing the Envoy, that what he had to say must be commu- nicated to Suri-wung-kosa ; adding, however, from his own mouth, these final words, " What we chiefly want from you is fire-arms." A smart stroke of a wand was then heard against the wainscot; curtains were moved by some unseen agency ; the throne was instantly concealed from view, and the King disappeared like Ju- piter on the stage; a flourish of wind instruments was heard— a wild shout setup—and all the courtiers fell flat upon their faces, and then commenced a series of six successive prostrations. During the audience, a heavy shower of rain had fallen, and his Majesty took the opportunity of making each person a present of a little umbrella : he had less regard to the feet of the embassy than the heads—for on no account were its members permitted to resume their shoes' though the court-yards and the road which they had to traverse had become exceedingly wet and dirty. They were in- formed that the first princes of the blood could not wear shoes in that sacred enclosure.
At Cochin China the envoy was not permitted to have an audi ence of the King : it was too great an honour for the agent of a Governor-General. When Mr. Craufurd persisted in claiming this privilege, the chief Mandarin said, with a smile, " It is natural enough that you should employ every expedient in your power to attain the honour of being presented to so great a King." Finlay. son says he and his principal laughed outright at the miscalculation of their ideas of the greatness of his Majesty the King of Cochin China. The Mandarin maintained, that since your objects are purely commercial, your business is with the minister of com- merce, and not with the King. There is truth in this. In reading the accounts of all these Eastern embassies, it strikes the reader forcibly that all the difficulties arise out of a regard for etiquette. They insist upon certain forms of expression in letters, and certain modes of personal reverence. Why not let them have their way ? - why waste time and money in contending with them ? Does it not argue as great folly to resist these forms as to in,ist upon them ? If our object he purely commercial, send commercial agents : if it be political, let agents proceed formally from the King of England, for these Eastern Monarchs will not respect the agent of an agent. For the Governor-General of India to send an embassy to the King, said they, is just as if the Governor of Saigon were to do so. It is vain for the ambassador to say what a great man the Governor-General is—how extensive are our possessions—and what a wonderful people the British are—how they go sailing and conquering about the world. Perhaps the arguments which it has cost us so much to enforce in Ava may make the name of Governor- General More formidable, and consequently more respected in these quarters.
The matter of this work of Mr. CRAUFURD'S was somewhat an- ticipated by Mr. Finlayson's book, and, as to the latter part, by Mr. Barrow's lively account of Cochin China : nevertheless we have found it highly instructive and amusing, and recommend it to all lovers of novelty. After Mr. CaAuFulto's return from Cochin China, he was employed in 1827 in a mission to the Bur- mese King, and we observe with pleasure the announcement of a book on that subject. It will be the third work of interest for which we are indebted to him. His first, on the Indian Archipelago, is positively crammed with information respecting the numerous and important countries that go under that name. On looking poor Mr. Finlayson's journal of this mission over again, we wish to retract what we said . of his unfriendly spirit towards the principal of the mission : it amounted, on examination, to little more than a rather supercilious expression of Mr. CRAU.- FU RD'S intention to "make a book," and of the different manner in which they estimated things..
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