The National Register.
London, England, 1817-05-26 00:00:00

j) tp

No. 485.—V0i.. X.

LORD AMHERST'S
EMBASSY TO CHINA.

fir-CFNT me :minds from the embassy state, that on the arri-
val of the ship* in the.gulph of Pe-teltedee, Ihe 2Stla July, two
inibtary officers came ..tr from the shore, alld expressed some
surprise at tlfi it haying reached that all rht.rage in so short a
time after notice had been tiast received oldie embassy ; and
it was evident that no lit e variations had been made for its
reception. T.,) days ,ino.ards, however, the same officers
loomed with intelligence that three mandarins of rank had
li.om appointed to attend the ambassador to the capital; the
first of the name of Quoag, the imperial legate, awl a Tartar;
the second, Chang, a civilian; the third, Via, a military offi-
cer; being the exact counterparts of the three Ta jive, or great
non, appointed to wait on Lord MaCertney ; and, to make the
parallel complete, the Tartar legate announced his intention
of receiving the ambassador on shine, %slide the other tern
paid their respects to him on board the Alceste. They
brought with them a fleet of junks, as on the former ()erasion,
containing the itnpeiiil present of refreshments for the ships'
crews, iut ended also, a hen unloaded, to convey back the pie-
sent: and haggage of the ambassador and Lis suite. The
present dad out contain such a vast pram:ion of hogs, fowls,
puinkins, and pears, as on the former °cm- ion, front the want
most probably, of a longer notice to provide 111(.111 t butt it
was ample; and the friendly attentions of these two men, as
well as the concili:iting manners of the legate, held out the
promise of a favourable and honourable reception in Pekin.
Two clammed:knees, however, were casually mentioned, that
in some degree east a damp over this agreeable prospect. In
the first 'fare, it was rumoured among the Chinese on shore
that the Emperor would set .ast for Gehol, in Tartary, on the
9th September, previously to which, he would receive the
ambassador in Pekin, amid give him his final audience of
leave: secondly, the two mandarins Chang and I insinuated
pretty 'dainty that the usual ceremony of prostration %%maid
be expire:W(ll'a oun the ambassador; it the filmier point was
not got over, it was (ine evident that no time would be al.
lowed fee the transaction of any kind of business, and the
question of the ceremmay was considered as a point of s i•al
importance--as, 011 the refusal or compliance with this de-
grading and humiliating demand, England must continue to
maintain, in the eves of this haughty government, that high.
rank amiindependent spit it for which she had hitherto been
known to them, or set the seal of vassalage to her submission,
and be registered among the eeeee fiber of their petty tea manta-
Howe% er, as these men seemed not to have any posi-
tive instructions on that head, and as every thing Intim( rto had
b,.en conducted on the same plan and principles as hereto-
fore, it was hoped thatno such concession would be persisted
in, or any material deviation be demanded, inconsistent with
the precedent established by Lord Macartney.
Some little objection was at first made to the number of
Perseus attached to the embassy, a hich, with the guard, band
of music, and servants, am 11111 l led to seventy •five ; the orders
I'r Pekin limiting the number to fifty. The olijeetiost,
however, was immediately removed, and a firet (Waltore Ili uu
thirty commodious barges appointed to carry thin up the
river to Tong-shoo., within twelve miles of the capital; and
so studious were they to follow the former precedent, that e
vessel was pi spared to receive two cows, to supply the English
yt ith milk for their tea.

Here ends our direct information from the embassy ; the
rest is from Chinese authority, which is, in tact, no authority
at all ; the most andacions falsehoods were daily published
when the former embassy was in the country, and Lord
l'ulacartney had constant occasion to observe, that their
ideas of the obligations of truth were very lax; besides,
whatever appears in the Pekin Gazette is prepared solely
and exclusively for the Chinese. No foreigner is supposed to
know any thing of what passes in China. It would seem,
then, from this gazette, that the emperor had not seen the
ambassador, nor received the Regent's letter and presents ;
and that the reason ❑ssigned for this unfriendly proceeding
v as the refusal, on the pat t of Lord Amherst, to go through
the degrading ceremony required from all the petty king-
it:olns nominally under the protection of the empire; a cere-
mony which, as we have stated, is the sign and seal of their
vassalage. This ceremony requires the person to Atli down
at the word of common! on both knees, and, on another
word being given by a kind of herald, to bow the head nine
distinct times to the ground. It has been conjectured, that
our quarrel with the Nepanlese had some share in the untow.
turd eiremustances of the embassy; but this is not likely ;
much less is it so that the emperor should have been first in-
formed at that quarrel by Lord Amherst. He had in fact
appointed a general, and marched an army through Tartary
to Thibet, long before the arrival of the embassy ; and that
general reached Lassa about the S:1111e time that Lord Am•
iu•rst arrived at Tien-Sing. The fist appearance of discon-
tent is manifested at the circumstance of the ships leaving the
gulf of Pe-ts he-lee without orders; it insinuates that these
ships went oft for sonic bad purpose, and with the design of
examining the coast ; and circular orders were sent to the
officers of the maritime provinces, directing them not to per-
mit the ships to anchor, or a single man to land, but to de-
sire them immediately to proceed to Macao, and there to wait
the arri4al of the ambassador. This ignorant government
could not conceive the dasher of a large ship of mar lying at
anchor in the middle of au extensive anlph, in less than four
fathoms water, and eleven mules from shore, at u time too
when the change of the 111011‘11011 was momentarily expected,
and when those bort ible hurrie-au•-s called ty idioms prevail,
and in one of which, in tact, the Alceste was caught in her
return to the southward :--deceitful in all its proceeding• ;
its conduct at variance with all its 11101 al and OOlitiCal
; it could only impute bad motives to measures of neces-
sary precaution, though the same measures had also been
adopted by Sir Erasmus Gower on the termer occasion.
The danger, in fact, was slated to the legate and the two
mandarins; and so well satisfied were they with the reasons
aistgued for nut remaining iu that oiieu anchorage, that they