The latest accounts from China confirm our apprehension, that no
additional security of hold is attained for our position y the mere coercion of the provincials on the extreme frontier. Our merchant population, indiscreet, overbearing, and unintelligible to the native population has exacted a further grant of land ; the inhabitants gravely, naturally, and justly, demur to giving it up.
They appeal to the wisdom and equity of the British. They do not understand our purpose in mooting it, nor the political ne- cessity under which the local rulers aot in conceding it. It is impossible that they can do otherwise than think their own case sound and just. Such disputes cannot be settled with the Chinese Lord-Lieutenant at Canton ; and a further attack on the city, which seemed imminent, could have no effect but to destroy the confidence of the inhabitants in our good faith and in the capacity of their own Royal Commissioner, and to perpetuate that discord which may yet embroil us with European powers on Chinese ground.
Previous page
