should do so, than that he should attempt to give to the public, at second-hand, that branch of their vindication which he is aware many other persons are much better qualified than himself to afford. Upon this principle I have certainly passed over sub silentio the charge of trampling upon Acts of Paliament." I can only say that, if the Court of Directors shall be found guilty of this offence, I shall be the last man to support them in it. I am certainly a decided advocate for the China monopoly, as by law established; but abuses of the monopoly against law, or violations of the conditions on which it is granted, should any such exist, which, however, I neither admit nor believe, I shall by no means attempt to defend. I advocate the monopoly, not as an approver of monopolies generally, nor even for the sake of the East-India Company (whatever claims it may have to the gratitude of the country for the vast and splendid addition to our empire which has been acquired and consolidated under its auspices), but solely because I conscientiously believe that, under the special circumstances of the case, the preservation of this monopoly in their hands is essential to the real interests of the country at large. But although it is true that I have only undertaken to discuss two points of the argument, they are cardinal points they are the points upon which the whole question hinges. For if I have proved that the argument founded on a comparison between the price of tea at New York and in London is untenable, what becomes of the conclusion drawn from it, that the nation is annually plundered of more than two millions sterling through the operation of this monopoly! This is the great imputed grievance: the other allegations are merely subordinate, and chiefly arise out of attempts to explain or account for it. Now I have proved from their own statements, that with respect to the . leading article of congo, two thirds of the whole, the argument is a mere fallacy. I have shewn that the article sold at New York under the name of congo was in fact an inferior sort of bohea, and I have proved this by the fact of its having, according to their own statements, sold for less than bohea in the same New York market (not London market, as the newspaper, by a strange misrepresentation of the argument has chosen to insinuate). In corroboration of the fact of this tea being bohea instead of congo, I have stated that the Americans are obliged to pay twice as much for real genuine congo at Canton as this pretended congo was sold for in America; and this statement remains uncontradicted. It is perfectly evident, therefore, that all inferences drawn from such comparisons as these, are perfectly nugatory. Tea may, after all, be dearer in England than in America; but the fact, if it be one, still remains to be proved. The next point in my letter which has been contested, is my estimate of the duties and emoluments of the supracargoes. On this subject the materials of vindication are ample ; and I will now enter upon them somewhat more at large than I before thought necessary; but let it be remembered, that unless the former assertion, namely, the extravagantly high price in England of tea, can be satisfactorily made out, this latter question does not signify one farthing to the country at large. If the nation is well supplied with tea at fair prices, it is not likely to trouble itself very much about the mode in which this is accomplished. First, with respect to the emoluments; my assertion that the supracargoes have no fixed salaries, has not been contradicted; but the false estimate of the amount of their commission has been re-asserted. I find, upon further inquiry, that I have rather over-stated the amount, instead of under-stating it; but it is waste of time to argue the matter further now, as I find that these accounts have been moved for, and are upon the point of being laid before Parliament. It is only by official documents thus officially produced that calumnies like these can be put down effectually. I understand that these accounts will prove thatt he whole expenses of our China establishment, including charges of every description, do not exceed three pounds per cent. on the trade, a charge which every one must admit to be surprizingly small; below, I believe, that of any private agency whatever of a similar nature, and amounting to such a complete disproof of the alleged extravagance of the establishment, as to render an examination into minor details of comparatively little consequence. That I may not, however, appear to evade the discussion, I will add a few remarks upon each of the alleged instances of mismanagement. First, as to the supracargoes being permitted to enjoy full allowances whilst absent from their station on leave. If the supracargoes were paid by fixed salaries, there might have been something in the argument, but as their emoluments consist wholly of a certain per-centage on the trade, it matters little either to the country or the Company (so that the business is properly done) in what proportions that per-centage is divided; nor is it in fact of much consequence even to the supracargoes themselves, as the advantage, whatever it is, is enjoyed by each of them in succession. It seems most probable that the severe and peculiar privations attending a long residence in China, and the advantage which has been found to arise from an occasional personal communication with their servants there, have led the Directors to adopt this arrangement, for facilitating their return to Europe, in a greater degree than in the case of their servants in India. Thus while by their residence in China, their local knowledge and experience is matured, it is by these occasional visits to England that the spirit and feelings of Englishmen are renewed and invigorated. Secondly; with respect to the insinuation that one of the individuals on the establishment is not in a state of health to be able to perform the duties of his station-whether this be so or not, I certainly shall not undertake to examine; but if it be so, it is a visitation of Providence, for which it is surely rather hard to make the monopoly responsible: and as to his enjoying his emoluments under such circumstances, it may be a hardship on his colleagues, who receive so much less out of the common fund in consequence, but it can be no act of extravagance on the part of the Company, as not one shilling more is thereby taken out of the public purse. Thirdly; as to the public table. This is really too contemptible a subject to argue upon. No person of common sense will deny the propriety and necessity of a public table being kept up by the Company in China: and as to luxury, I re-assert that this table is in no essential respect superior to the private tables of the Captains of the Indiamen: there may, indeed, be display, as in this town, at a tavern dinner; but luxury is seldom any where enjoyed at what is called a public table. Lastly; it is asserted that some one individual in the factory now draws a salary of £10,000 per annum. I must premise that believe this to be a very considerable exaggeration : but admitting it to be true that considerable allowances are enjoyed by the supracargoes towards the close of their residence in China, this is more than counterbalanced by the fact, which I know to be true, of their serving there, in many instances, during the first ten or twelve years, for little or nothing. The fact is, that the supracargoes do not finally return to England until after a period of from twenty to twenty-five years' service, and then barely realize a sufficient fortune to maintain themselves in the same rank of society with the retired servants of the Company, of the same standing, from India. If, therefore, the servants of the Company in China are overpaid, so must be also their servants in India in a far higher degree; for they do not submit to the same sacrifice-they do enjoy, in the midst of their labours, some of the luxuries of civilized society: their banishment is not without some comforts and alleviations to compensate for it. I next come to the duties of the supracargoes. It is amusing to see the manner in which the newspaper writer deals with this part of the subject. My account of their duties was abridged from a published work on the China trade. It is, he says, a flaming statement, which cannot be abridged; yet he does abridge it; that is, he leaves out all those branches of their duty which are peculiar to their situation as a factory in China. Their ordinary and strictly commercial duties, which he does enumerate, he says are no more than what are performed by the clerks of an English counting-house. This is far from correct in various respects, yet there is certainly some analogy between the cases; and if we add together the labours of the partners, confidential and inferior clerks, of some ten or twelve countinghouses in London, the sum total will certainly give us some idea of what the supracargoes may have to do in this branch of their duty. Even this will shew that they have no sinecure; but if this were all, I do admit that such duties as these might possibly be performed by a somewhat lower class of public functionaries : but the misfortune is, that there neither are, nor can be, in China, any "inferior agents or understrappers," as is pretended, to perform all this drudgery. The very peculiar and precarious tenure of our connexion with China is such, that the residence there of persons of inferior responsibility and trustworthiness can by no means be permitted. This drudgery must all be accordingly performed by persons destined for higher things; by persons who either are, or are soon to be, entrusted with the administration of millions of capital; with the supreme control over thousands of British subjects who, as merchants, officers, and sailors, frequent the port of Canton from Europe and India; and with the direction of the most difficult and delicate negociations, in cases of the highest emergency, with a most sagacious and singular people, and with the most jealous, arbitrary, and despotic government on the face of the globe. If it were not trespassing too largely upon your limits, I could easily shew you how every privilege which, by connivance or express concession, the trade, whether English or American, at present enjoys, is directly attribu table to the exertions of our supracargoes; I will, however, venture to quote one instance of great impor tance. In 1814 the Chinese Provincial Government, instigated by some interested individuals among the Hong merchants, proposed, and even ob tained the Emperor's sanction to some changes in the Chinese system of trade at Canton, of the most important nature. Among other innovations, the number of privileged Hong merchants was to have been reduced to three, and these three so closely associated together as to render any division amongst them, with a view to competition, or any other object in which the interests of foreigners were concerned, utterly hopeless. This scheme, which, upon a moderate calculation, would have raised the prices of Chinese produce, and depressed those of European manufactures, some thirty or forty per cent., besides subjecting the trade to many intolerable shackles in other respects, the supracargoes, by a series of deli berate and well-chosen measures, finally succeeded in subverting, a few months previous to the arrival of Lord Amherst's embassy. If this great public service had been performed by the instrumentality of his Lordship, the whole country would have rung with applause; but because it was accomplished silently, and with out any éclat, by functionaries bearing the humble designation of supracargoes, few in England have even heard of it beside those whose duty led them to peruse the details upon the records of the East-India Company. It is no disparagement to his Lordship to say, that this is a service which it was wholly out of his competence to perform: still less could a British Consul at Canton have performed it. Such an officer would be absolutely a cypher, a mere object of derision. of the supracargoes have conceded to them, that of "having been successful in their exertions for the protecting of British subjects from falling victims to the unprincipled and undis tinguishing severity of the Chinese laws." This is gratifying; and considering that it has been accomplished by per sons whom this writer has denominated "twelve idiots," it is somewhat surprizing: especially as the more fortunate Americans, who have "one man of sense as á consul," had nevertheless been obliged just before to submit to the infamy of surrendering an innocent seaman of one of their ships to the tender mercies of the Chinese bow-string! But there is at least one offence of which all the supracargoes are supposed to be undeniably guilty, that of being the sons or near relatives of the Directors. Let us then take up the list of the establishment, and see how even this part of the charge is made out. At the head is Sir James Urmston, the gentleman whose distinguished services in China, in adjusting the unfortunate dispute with the Chinese government relative to his Majesty's ship Topaze, have been recently rewarded by his Majesty, with the honour of knighthood, conferred by patent, which honour so conferred, is a mark of royal favour that has not been granted more than four or five times in the course of the last half-century. Is this gentleman the son or near re lation of a Director? Force, in China, is of course out of the question. It is by influence only, that injustice or oppression of any kind can be effectually resisted. I do not mean the influence of bribery: it is a very common, but a very gross error, to suppose that that is the species of influence which the Company's servants have generally recourse to with the Chinese. However efficient it may prove between Chinese and Chinese, it is an engine of power which foreigners can very rarely meddle with in safety. I mean the legitimate influence arising from the possession of the supreme control over commercial transactions of such immense magnitude. By the judicious distribution, and (in extreme The gentleman whom the Court of cases) the occasional suspension of this Directors have appointed to succeed commerce, the most important conces- Sir James in the chiefship, is Sir Wm. sions have been extorted, and the most Fraser, Bart. Is he the son or near threatening dangers averted. It is an relation of a Director? It is really influence which the supracargoes pos- tiresome to follow out these misrepresess, and they alone. A mere con- sentations in all their details. No sul, having neither goods to deliver doubt several of the members of the nor receive, would be thought less of factory are sons or near relatives of in China than the agent of a private the Directors. It is certainly a new ship. doctrine that this relationship should One merit, however, the opponents be a disqualification for serving the Company. If education and early been examining, has further asserted that the monopoly of tea injures our woollen manufactures, and that the abolition of the supracargoes would reduce the price of tea. As this is mere assertion, it may be sufficient to meet it with an unqualified denial: but I may possibly resume the subject at some future opportunity. I am, Sir, Your most obedient Servant, London, THE LATE RICHARD TWINING, ESQ. RICHARD TWINING, Esq., whose death, on the 23d of April, we recorded in our last number, was the son of Mr. Daniel Twining, and grandson of Mr. Thomas Twining, who, about the year 1712, established the tea-dealing business, which still continues in the family. Mr. Twining was born in the year 1749, and was educated at Eton; from whence he was taken at an early age, to conduct the business on the death of his father. He had, how ever, remained at school long enough to acquire a taste for literature, which he persevered in improving, in a remarkable degree, notwithstanding the exertions which were demanded from him, by the charge of a gradually increasing business, in the management of which he displayed great judgment, indefatigable industry, and a correctness of principle, which soon gained him the entire confidence of those with whom he had any intercourse. Mr. Twining possessed a great advantage in having his love of reading encouraged, and his course of study directed to the best authors by his elder brother, the Rev. Thomas Twining, the distinguished translator of Aristotle's Treatise on Poetry. It appears to have been an early resolution with him to employ every por tion of time which he could spare, however short, to the attainment of useful information; and it has frequently attracted the observation of those who had opportunies of noticing his habits, how much he gained by this, his favourite system. In 1770, Mr. Twining married the daughter of John Aldred, Esq., a most respectable manufacturer of Norwich. In the year 1784, he took a very active part in the important measure of the Commutation Act; upon which subject, he published several pamphlets, which, for clearness of arrangement, force of argument, and accuracy of information, procured him considerable reputation as an author. For many years, Mr. Twining constantly attended the Court of EastIndia Proprietors; and it is, probably, in the recollection of many persons who were in the habit of attending the debates at that period, that whatever subject he undertook to argue, he always came well prepared for the discussion. His language was invariably correct, his choice of words singularly happy, his articulation distinct and sonorous, his manner collected, impressive, and conciliatory, and his mode of conducting his argument, uniformly candid and unassuming. To these quali |
