a fair decision. The ship was invaded and surrounded by Chinese forces, and there was no alternative but his surrender. It was followed by the mockery of a trial, he was executed, and his body was returned to the ship. While the dispute was pending the American trade was suspended. After the execution, the viceroy of Canton issued an edict, saying that as the Americans had "behaved submissively, it is proper to open their trade in order to manifest our compassion. The Celestial Empire's kindness and favor to the weak is rich in an infinite degree; but the nation's dignity sternly commands respect, and cannot, because people are foreigners, extend clemency. … Now it is written in the law when persons outside the pale of Chinese civilization shall commit crimes they too shall be punished according to law. I, therefore, ordered them to take the said foreigner and, according to law, strangle him, to display luminously the laws of the Empire. In every similar case foreigners ought to give up murderers, and thus they will act becoming the tenderness and gracious kindness with which the Celestial Empire treats them." The government of the United States was! severely criticised for taking no action in the matter.[1]
After this event American affairs at Canton passed on without occurrences of moment, the trade being maintained with satisfactory results. In the course of time the Chinese relaxed somewhat the strictness of the regulations. In the narratives between 1830 and 1840 we find that foreign merchants had been permitted to
- ↑ 1 The Chinese, Davis, 105; Williams's Hist. China, 108; 2 Hist. China, Gutzlaff, 267; H. Ex. Doc. 71, pp. 9–52, 26th Cong. 2d Sess.
