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recognised by the Chinese local authorities, and they equally ignored the consular agents appointed by France, Denmark, and Sweden at subsequent dates under circumstances of similar indifference to the rules of international intercourse. Thus the foreign communities were a law unto themselves. They obeyed or disregarded the sanctions and vetoes of conscience, not being subject to any other form of restraint, and their relations with the Chinese have been aptly compared to a state of nature. Sensible apparently of the abuses incidental to such a want of system, the Chinese local authorities appointed a leading native merchant to undertake the management of everything connected with the trade. That had been the method pursued in Japan for two centuries with regard to Korean and Chinese commerce, and the Canton authorities may easily have conceived it to be the method pursued by the English themselves at this very time in China, for the East India Company had an absolute official monopoly of the trade, and the Company's chief of council was not unlikely to be mistaken for a prototype of the sole agent whom the Chinese nominated. That nominee, however, is described in the British records of the time as a "monster in trade," and the idea of his appointment raised no little indignation, which perhaps the Chinese failed to appreciate clearly. Nevertheless they deposed the "monster," and advised their merchants to replace him by a combination, of which also the