circumstance, "Sir, Prince Blucher and Prince Swatzenberg's measure's in the house now; and what's more, I've cut for Wellington." I believe he would have gone to St. Helena to make a coat for Napoleon, so great was his ardour. He wore a blueblack wig, and his whiskers were of the same hue. He was brief and stern in conversation, and he always went to masquerades and balls in a field-marshal's uniform. "He looks really quite the thing to-night," continued Mrs. Crump. "Yes," said 'Gina; "but he's such an odious wig, and the dye of his whiskers always comes off on his white gloves." "Every body has not their own hair, love," continued Mrs. Crump with a sigh; "but Eglantine's is beautiful." "Every hairdresser's is," answered Morgiana, rather contemptuously; "but what I can't bear is that their fingers is always so very fat and pudgy." In fact, something had gone wrong with the fair Morgiana. Was it that she had but little liking for the one pretender or the other? Was it that young Glauber, who acted Romeo in the private theatricals, was far younger and more agreeable than either? Or was it, that seeing a real gentleman, such as Mr. Walker, with whom she had had her first interview, she felt more and more the want of refinement in her other declared admirers? Certain, however, it is, that she was very reserved all the evening, in spite of the attentions of Mr. Woolsey; that she repeatedly looked round at the box-door, as if she expected some one to enter; and that she partook of only a very few oysters, indeed, out of the barrel which the gallant tailor had sent down to the Bootjack, and off which the party supped. "What is it?" said Mr. Woolsey, to his ally, Crump, as they sat together after the retirement of the ladies. "She was dumb all night. She never once laughed at the farce, nor cried at the tragedy, and you Hang him, I'll shoot him!" said Mr. Woolsey. "A fat, foolish, effeminate beast like that marry Miss Morgiana? Never! I will shoot him! I'll provoke him next Saturday-I'll tread on his toe-I'll pull his nose!" "No quarrelling at the Kidneys !" answered Crump, sternly; "there shall be no quarrelling in that room as long as I'm in the chair!" 66 Well, at any rate you'll stand my friend?" “You know I will," answered the other. "You are honourable, and I like you better than Eglantine. I trust you more than Eglantine, sir. You're more of a man than Eglantine, though you are a tailor; and I wish with all my heart you may get Morgiana. Mrs. C. goes the other way, I know: but I tell you what, women will go their own ways, sir, and Morgy's like her mother in this point, and, depend on it, Morgy will decide for herself." Mr. Woolsey presently went home, still persisting in his plan for the assassination of Eglantine. Mr. Crump went to bed very quietly, and snored through the night at his usual tone, Mr. Eglantine passed some feverish moments of jealousy, for he had come down to the club in the evening, and had heard that Morgiana was gone to the play with his rival. And Miss Morgiana dreamed of a man, who was,-must we say it ?-exceedingly like Captain Howard Walker. "Mrs. Captain So and So!" thought she. "O, I do love a gentleman dearly!" LIFE OF SIR MURRAY MAXWELL. CHAPTER XIV. ANCHORS AT LINTIN COMMUNICATIONS WITH THE FACTORY AND THE CHINESE- IT had been an object with Captain Maxwell, upon his first arrival at the Great Loo Choo, to obtain a personal interview with the king of the group, and he had managed matters with such excellent skill and temper, that the reluctance of the government to break through its own customs appeared on the eve of being set aside, when an unlucky accident, a fall from his horse, put a total stop to the negotiation. By many chiefs and men of rank both he and Captain Hall were visited, among whom, indeed, so close an intimacy sprang up, that they became frequent guests one with another. But the palace our navigators were not allowed to approach. As if, however, to convince them, and the sovereign whose majesty they represented, that this reluctance to meet them face to face proceeded from no unkindly feeling, one of the king's sons was deputed to wait upon Captain Maxwell, and to hid him farewell. The prince was well received, and, like all the other gentlemen of his nation, conducted himself with marked propriety. He undertook, likewise, to procure from his father an autograph letter to the King of England, making no secret, all the while, of the hazard which the writer would incur, of whose intercourse with strangers the Emperor of China, his feudal superior, was especially jealous, and from whom, were intelligence of the proceeding to reach Pekin, no mercy was to be expected. We need scarcely add that Captain Maxwell assured the prince that by him no imprudent disclosures would be made. Accordingly, the letter was forwarded, and with that in their keeping, amid sincere regrets on both sides, the Alceste and the Lyra, on the 27th of October, once more gave the canvass to the breeze and sailed away. Canton river was now the point for them, and nowhere else. It had been arranged between Lord Amherst and Captain Maxwell, that at Canton the embassy should re-embark. Moreover, as it was felt that 66 there was not time at their disposal for any minute or protracted investigations elsewhere, the commodore determined to steer at once for the place of meeting. Accordingly, all the remaining islands in the Loo Choo group were passed without halting. They next made the southern port of Formosa, from which, to the distance of two miles, a reef of rocks projects, and on which the sea breaks over, in calm weather, with frightful violence. "I never," says Captain Maxwell, saw or heard any break like that upon the reef of Formosa. Each wave, as it rose, resembled, in the distance, a small island rolling with irresistible force towards the larger one; and the noise we could distinctly hear, like thunder, several miles off." Thus, not without running some risk from the strong current that flows in that quarter, the two ships rounded Formosa outside the Tela Rita rocks amid a gale of wind; and on the 2d of November reached the anchorage off Lintin, about thirty miles from the Bocca Tigris or mouth of the Canton river. We have now arrived at a stage in our narrative which requires that of the unpublished journal of him whose career we are tracing ample use should be made; because, without appealing to that document, though there would be little difficulty in giving a correct detail of events, to the motives and feelings out of which such events arose, no clue could be obtained. At the same time, it is necessary that the reader should be fully aware of the exact position, as regarded both himself and others, in which Captain Maxwell on his arrival at Lintin was placed. Let it then be borne in mind that Lord Amherst's mission had not only failed in accomplishing the object which it was designed to accomplish, but that the ambassador and his suite had suffered at the hands of the Chinese treatment which, to say the least of it, was the reverse of respectful. Of this leading fact, letters from the Company's supercargoes informed Captain Maxwell almost as soon as he brought up; and it was further added, that the authorities at Canton, as if rejoicing over the issue, were become more insolent and overbearing towards the Factory than ever. For example, the ordinary channels of communication between them and the local government were cut off. It was, indeed, by stealth alone that they found an opportunity of sending a common message to their correspondents; and one of their servants, a Chinese, who was caught while thus employed, had been recently seized, imprisoned, and beaten. In a word, great uneasiness prevailed at the Factory, which was further increased by the unpleasant rumours which, from various sources, reached them, that the embassy, understood to be on its way towards the coast, would certainly not be permitted to rejoin the squadron any where along the banks of the Canton river, or under any other protection than that of a Chinese war-junk. While the members of the Factory sustained these wrongs, and were subjected to these insults at the hands of the natives, the commanders of the squadron, more immediately attendant on the representative of the British crown, were made to feel, in a variety of ways, that the temper encouraged towards them and the national flag was not very friendly. Up to this period ships of war from all nations had been accustomed to anchor, and refit, or refresh, at Chuanpee, a well-sheltered roadstead, nearer to the river's mouth by full fiveand-twenty miles than Lintin. To Lintin Captain Maxwell was peremptorily directed to confine himself; and the better to ensure attention to these orders, ten junks took up their stations as if to blockade the Alceste. Moreover, he was forbidden to hold any communication with the land, and the strictest vigilance was exercised in order to prevent fresh provisions, or any other article of which the crew might stand in need, being sent off to them in store-boats. Now Captain Maxwell had the best reason to suspect that these outrages were offered, not only without orders from the imperial government, but without the knowledge of the emperor. He bore them, therefore, with much impatience; and soon began to consider of the steps which it might be necessary to take for the purpose of vindicating the honour of the sovereign whom he served, and of the embassy which he had been appointed to pro tect. Absurd as the proceedings of the viceroy were, they did not go so far as to interrupt the correspondence of the British naval commander with the chiefs of the British Factory at Canton. Captain Maxwell accordingly learned that not now for the first time was the ambassador's escort subjected to insult. The General Hewitt, it appeared, which had been directed, after landing the presents, to proceed to Whampoa, and there take in a cargo of tea, was stopped twenty miles below that port at the second bar, and there placed in a state of blockade. But the patience of the gentlemen of the Factory, which had been well tried in other ways, ceased to hold out against this additional wrong. The General Hewitt was directed to force her way, if necessary, through the guardboats; and the mandarins, not relishing the preparations which were undisguisedly made on board, opened a way for her of their own accord, and permitted her to pass. The result was that, in the teeth of a viceregal proclamation, the ship reached the station which was appointed for her, and that the Chinese did in her case, as they had not long previously done in the case of a deputation from the Company's commanders, which had forced its way into the city, they made a virtue of necessity, and stated that to be their own act and deed which was accomplished in defiance of their best efforts to prevent it. There can be little doubt that the circumstance just referred to, namely, the advance of the Hewitt, and the effect produced by it upon the Chinese authorities, was not without its weight in determining Captain Maxwell as to the course which it would be expedient for him to pursue. The instructions from the Admiralty required that Lord Amherst should be received on board with the same marks of outward respect which had attended the embarkation of Lord Macartney; and he was given to understand that an imperial edict had appointed the same place of re-embarkation for both. The viceroy, on the other hand, forbade the Alceste to advance beyond the roadstead where she then lay; and informed her commander that the ambassador should be sent down to him, or left to be taken on board at Macao. Now should he pay attention to the mandate of the viceroy, he would disgrace the British flag, and, in some sort, come short of his own duty; should he act in opposition to such mandate, the consequences might, and probably would, be ruinous, both to himself and others. The banks of the river were powerfully armed. The forts were manned, and prepared to oppose her progress; and, above all, the ambassador, with the whole of his suite, would be, in the event of hostilities ensuing, at the mercy of a semi - barbarous people and government. Captain Maxwell's situation, in short, was one of very great delicacy; for in addition to the contingent dangers of which we have spoken, there was the almost certain stoppage of the trade, a movement which, when last put into practice, had cost the Company not less than half a million of money. We regret extremely, under these circumstances, that his correspondence with Sir Theophilus Metcalfe, the chief of the Factory, should not have been preserved; but this much we are able to state with authority, that though Sir Theophilus declined to express an official opinion, as to the necessity of entering the river at all hazards, he undertook to support Captain Maxwell, should matters come to an extremity, by every practicable means, and at all risk of loss. Meanwhile there was much speculation in various quarters as to the decision at which the commodore might be expected to come. It is probable that the wishes of almost all pointed to the bolder policy; it is certain that the opinions of most, and these the better judges, were against it. Sir Theophilus Metcalfe, for example, when speculating as to what might be done, writes thus: "It would, perhaps, place you clear of the annoyance of boats, or at least prove an annoyance to them, if you occasionally moved the Alceste from Lintin to Chuanpee and back again, or even into Macao roads. If the warriors fol lowed, an occasional tack when a boat was close in your wake, would give you a just idea of Chinese courage, bustle, and noise; and if a few men were compelled to cling to your rigging, it would afford them an opportunity of judging of British hospitality, and the Christian principle of returning good for evil." In like manner Captain Hall, on the 11th of November, writes from Macao, whither with the Lyra he had been sent to refit: It has occurred to me that if you remain where you are, or even go to Chuanpee, you will find it difficult to communicate unless I am here. The higher you go, the more your campadore will be impeded, unless you go smack up, which Ross and every one thinks you will find it a difficult job to accomplish." Again: "As to getting to Canton, it is by no means easy getting down is nothing. The Factory cannot assist you; for if a boat were sent, the river is lined with mandarins in such a way that you could never get past. The Factory schooner will not be allowed to return, and your only chance is to go up in some ship that is passing, or else be smuggled up in a campadore's boat,-which, of course, would not do." Having premised all this, and carried our readers' attention back to the date of Sir Theophilus Metcalfe's letter, in which he handsomely offered to incur all risks, and submit to every conceivable inconvenience should Captain Maxwell come to the determination of forcing his way up the river; we conceive that the object of this narrative will best be served if we permit the chief actors in the play to tell their own story. The following is from Captain Maxwell's report of his proceedings addressed to the secretary of the Admiralty, and drawn up for their lordships' information: "My reply to the chief of the Factory stated that we had suffered much from bad weather, and urged the necessity of an immediate application being made to the Chinese authorities for permission to enter the river and refit the ship, that she might be in readiness to receive the ambassador on his return. Beyond this I declined all interference on the part of the chief and his committee, because I was extremely desirous that no question of trade should be agitated on a point which exclusively concerned the great name and character of the British nation, which might be seriously injured in the estimation of this extensive empire, were any stand made in behalf of its unsullied dignity except by the immediate servants of his majesty, to whom the honour of his flag had been intrusted. "On the morning of the 4th of November, a mandarin of rank had come on board, sent, as he said, by the viceroy to welcome my arrival, and to tell me that he was directed to furnish the ship with a pilot, and to see that she was properly supplied with refreshments after her voyage. He behaved with great civility, which, their lordships may be assured, I took care to equal him in ; and he was saluted, on leaving the ship, with the customary number of guns. "I certainly did not then in the least suspect the object of this mandarin's visit, who, doubtless, had been selected for the occasion as an adept in Chinese diplomacy; for (as was clearly proved by subsequent occurrences) his actual mission from Canton was to see that we got no pilot, and that all chance of fresh provisions, or refreshments of any kind, reaching us, was completely cut off; which, by the vigilance of their armed junks, they perfectly effected during the day; and one or two boatmen who brought us any thing in the night did so at the risk of their lives." From this date up to the 7th, Captain Maxwell saw no more of the Chinese or their mandarins. On the 7th, however, his communications with the former were renewed; of the manner and results of which the following brief extract from his diary gives a lucid account: "On the 7th, five war-junks anchored near us, and a Chinese linguist from one of them came on board to say that a mandarin of high rank intended waiting upon me, when the necessary respect had been paid of previously sending an officer to wait upon him,-this arrogant exaction of deference was, to say the least, very unusual; but as disputing upon trifles might retard, but could not forward my wishes, the jolly-boat was despatched with a midshipman, who was instructed to shew himself on the junk's deck and return. This mark of our respect and humility immediately brought forth the great man, who, when seated in my cabin, opened the conference, by inquiring what ship it was, and where we came from? This pretended ignorance quite confirmed all I had heard or read of Chinese chicanery, and put me on my guard to meet and repel it. After informing him, the interpreter was desired to express my great astonishment at this pretended ignorance, as the mandarin who had the guard came alongside, and was answered all these questions in a regular form on the 2d of November, within one hour after we anchored. And the viceroy so well knew, from the coast-guard report, what ship it was, that he had sent a mandarin on board three days before to congratulate me on her arrival. All knowledge of this circumstance was disclaimed, and even doubts expressed of my veracity. He had the effrontery to say that if it was true the officer of the guard boarded us, he had neglected his duty in not reporting our arrival to the viceroy; and that if any other mandarin had come on board previous to himself he was unauthorised, and must have done so either from curiosity, or to make a fool of me. This last observation was repeated two or three times, and thought a good joke by the linguist, until he was gravely desired to inquire what proof the present mandarin was prepared to give that his visit was not of a similar description? as any attempt on the part of a Chinese mandarin to turn the captain of an English ship of war into ridicule might be attended with very unpleasant conse. quences to himself. The tenor and manner of this query entirely disconcerted all mirth, and produced the strongest assurances from the mandarin of his having been sent by the viceroy, and intend ing immediately to return to him. However, this attempt to disown the former intriguant was carrying refinement in policy a little too far, as it gave me vantage ground I was determined nothing should dispossess me of. It was now my turn to be incredulous; so, after a strong animadversion upon the viceroy's extraordinary conduct in withholding pilots, and actually attempting to starve the crews of ships employed upon the duty of carrying an ambassador to his emperor, who had been graciously pleased to issue edicts for their being kindly received and hospitably entertained in every port of his empire they might touch at; and after observing that the precedent of the Lion going to Whampoa to receive the former ambassador established a right for the Alceste to proceed there upon the present occasion, which was still more necessary from the ship being in want of repairs, which could only be effectually given in the smooth water of the river; I concluded by telling him, that as he was probably imposing upon me and the viceroy, by coming in his name when unauthorised, as the other mandarin had done, the only proof I would admit to the contrary was his returning on board with an answer from the local Chinese authorities, granting or refusing my request |