illness and death at Macao, less than three months after his first arrival in China.

The introductory chapters of Mr Morse's first volume will greatly assist his readers to understand the general position in China at the time of Lord Napier's arrival. The chapter on the Canton Factories and the Co-Hong, containing an account of the whole course and conditions of foreign trade prior to the abolition of the East India Company's monopoly, is particularly illuminating. The chapter on Jurisdiction is also of much interest, but exception must be taken to the statement that 'one accused of a criminal act is in China assumed to be guilty from the mere fact that he is accused,' and that his trial is more for the purpose of publicly establishing the charge and determining the penalty than of ascertaining the truth.' A Chinese magistrate is, no doubt, in practice prone to assume an accusation to be well-founded, but in theory the burden of proof is on the accuser, in China as in England.

Lord Napier's determined efforts to establish direct official relations had failed; and his successor made haste to declare his own policy to be one of 'absolute silence and quiescence,' pending the receipt of further instructions from His Majesty's Government. No instructions of any kind arrived; and, as Mr Morse puts it, the quiescent commission went to sleep,' to the great discontent of the local British merchants, who endeavoured, but in vain, to stir the home Government from its lethargy by a memorial to the Throne. The reasons for their discontent are thus summarised by Mr Morse:

'Up to 1834 a Chinese monopoly of the closest had been faced by an English monopoly such as English sentiment could tolerate, and . . . the English company could present a single front against exactions other than those designed to tax the trade. Now the Chinese monopoly remained, not yet shorn of any of its powers; but the English monopoly had been abolished, the English merchants were left as sheep without a shepherd, and the English Government had not yet taken the effective steps which should substitute a governmental agent as leader and protector in place of the company. The commercial result is seen in the figures for the trade.' [These show a great rise in the prices of Chinese commodities exported, and a fall in the prices obtained for English imports.]

throughout the struggle the protagonist of the Western Powers, his American nationality may be counted a further advantage, since his judgment of British policy is exposed to no suspicion of partiality.

The Government's object being to ensure that the transfer of the control of British trade from the East 'India Company to the Crown should be attended by the least possible change in policy or procedure, the new Superintendents were entrusted only with such 'powers and authorities' as had previously been vested in the Company's 'Supracargoes,' two of whom were associated with the Chief Superintendent, Lord Napier, in his commission; and the instructions issued to them are emphatic in warnings against any 'conduct, language, or demeanour' that might revolt the opinions or prejudices of the Chinese people or Government.'

The Foreign Secretary's final instructions defined yet more clearly the attitude to be maintained by the Chief Superintendent, for in them he is directly prohibited from ' entering into any new relations or negotiations with the Chinese authorities, except under very urgent and unforeseen circumstances.' In all contingencies that it was possible to foresee he was required to await instructions from England-this in days when letters from Canton took over five months to reach London. Plainly, the framers of these timid injunctions were not inspired by any spirit of adventure, appropriate to the shaping of a new policy; and so unwelcome was the discovery that by their own action they had in truth made a new policy necessary, that for nearly six years they refused to face this disconcerting fact, and left their representatives for all that time without guidance or support.

Lord Napier's instructions included a direction to announce his arrival by a letter to the Viceroy. His efforts to procure acceptance of this letter merely showed how deeply repugnant to Chinese prejudice was the idea of any official intercourse with the outer barbarian. His contest with the Viceroy could not, it would seem, have been avoided; and his defeat was equally inevitable. Obedience to a peremptory order to leave Canton was finally enforced by the stoppage of trade, the isolation of the British community, and the placing of their lives in peril; and the episode ended tragically in Lord Napier's

illness and death at Macao, less than three months after his first arrival in China.

The introductory chapters of Mr Morse's first volume will greatly assist his readers to understand the general position in China at the time of Lord Napier's arrival. The chapter on the Canton Factories and the Co-Hong, containing an account of the whole course and conditions of foreign trade prior to the abolition of the East India Company's monopoly, is particularly illuminating. The chapter on Jurisdiction is also of much interest, but exception must be taken to the statement that 'one accused of a criminal act is in China assumed to be guilty from the mere fact that he is accused,' and that his trial is more for the purpose of publicly establishing the charge and determining the penalty than of ascertaining the truth.' A Chinese magistrate is, no doubt, in practice prone to assume an accusation to be well-founded, but in theory the burden of proof is on the accuser, in China as in England.

Lord Napier's determined efforts to establish direct official relations had failed; and his successor made haste to declare his own policy to be one of 'absolute silence and quiescence,' pending the receipt of further instructions from His Majesty's Government. No instructions of any kind arrived; and, as Mr Morse puts it, the quiescent commission went to sleep,' to the great discontent of the local British merchants, who endeavoured, but in vain, to stir the home Government from its lethargy by a memorial to the Throne. The reasons for their discontent are thus summarised by Mr Morse:

Up to 1834 a Chinese monopoly of the closest had been faced by an English monopoly such as English sentiment could tolerate, and . . . the English company could present a single front against exactions other than those designed to tax the trade. Now the Chinese monopoly remained, not yet shorn of any of its powers; but the English monopoly had been abolished, the English merchants were left as sheep without a shepherd, and the English Government had not yet taken the effective steps which should substitute a governmental agent as leader and protector in place of the company. The commercial result is seen in the figures for the trade.' [These show a great rise in the prices of Chinese commodities exported, and a fall in the prices obtained for English imports.]

"The foreign traders were helpless in the hands of the Hong merchants, even in the matter of postponing the settlement of accounts; and with the fuller realisation of the weakness of their commercial position came also a keener sense of their political, social, and personal humiliation' (1, 169).

A continuance of the 'quiescent policy' proved impossible, each year's experience but serving to strengthen the proof that trade could not be efficiently protected if the prejudices of the Chinese Government were not to be revolted.' But the British Government still refused to face this conclusion; and successive Superintendents were left to struggle with increasing difficulties without support. Even after a change of Chinese policy with regard to opium had led to a series of acts of aggression against the persons and property of British merchants, they still hesitated; and not until April 1840 did they decide to use force to break down the barriers that the Chinese had so obstinately maintained.

The change above referred to in Chinese policy towards the opium trade is fully described by Mr Morse, who has made an exhaustive study of the whole muchdiscussed opium question. Few persons probably are now under the delusion, at one time widely spread, that England forced' opium on China; but, if any such remain, they will find in his pages ample proof of their error. The trade was, as he remarks, of great importance in international commerce, but

'it was not the cause which led the British Government to engage in the first war, ending with the Treaty of Nanking, nor did it contribute to the second war, ending with the Treaty of Tientsin; it had no effect on the political or diplomatic action of the foreign governments which were concerned in Chinese affairs . . . from 1839 to 1858' (1, 539).

Naval and military operations were, in sailing-ship days, not easy to conduct in distant waters, even against a not very formidable enemy; and the hostilities against China (not technically a "war," but "reprisals") that opened in the late autumn of 1839 lasted, with occasional truce, until the summer of 1842, when the Emperor yielded assent to the terms embodied in the Treaty of Nanking, by which, among other things, the

island of Hongkong was ceded to Great Britain, and British merchants were permitted to establish themselves at five of the chief Chinese ports. But, although the Central Government had bowed to force, the Empire generally, and Canton in particular, was far from being convinced of China's military inferiority; and the history of the next eighteen years is one of incessant friction, ending in fresh hostilities and a more stable settlement. It is, in a sense, with the year 1860 that China's international relations with the Western Powers truly begin, since in that year, by the Conventions of Peking, their representatives were for the first time admitted to permanent residence in the capital, and thus brought into direct intercourse with the Central Government.

China had accepted an unfavourable decision on the main point at issue-that of the terms on which her intercourse with the West was thenceforth to be conducted; and the title The Period of Submission,' which Mr Morse's second volume bears, marks appropriately enough this change in her official attitude. It is hardly, however, a suitable label for the whole period from 1860 to 1893, for no submissiveness characterised her attitude after she had herself, in 1881, found a threat of force effective against Russia. The hostilities with France, in 1884, served also to foster the growth of a defiant spirit, for they ended, unlike previous conflicts, with no clearly marked victory of the Western Power.

The period was one in which there was much readjustment of the terms on which the rights acquired by foreigners were to be exercised, but it was not marked by any striking change in the general relations between China and the West; and no detailed survey can here be attempted of the many questions that presented themselves for settlement. They are handled by Mr Morse with great impartiality and a just sense of proportion; and he gives a full account of the great Taiping rebellion, elucidated by excellent maps. To the history of the Inspectorate of Maritime Customs he devotes a special attention which the increasingly important functions of that department fully merit. He had indeed originally intended to make Sir Robert Hart the central figure of his work; but failure to obtain Sir Robert's diary (in