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agents of the company who had hitherto managed affairs at Canton, were replaced by three "Superintendents of Trade," appointed under the royal sign-manual of Great Britain and possessing status and powers which entitled them to communicate direct with the highest Chinese officials, it is evident that the old system became at once unpractical. The agents of the East India Company, whose paramount object was to transmit a handsome profit to their board of directors in London, might be content to rank with Chinese merchants, and to rely solely on the latter's good offices for facilities to conduct their trade; but officials holding their commissions direct from the British Crown were obliged to claim different treatment and to seek different channels of communication.

In making this radical change the British Government showed strange precipitancy. Had there been question of dealing with a State recognised as participating in the rights and obligations of international law, the new policy would have been duly intimated to the ruler of that State and his consent would have been regarded as an essential preliminary. China, however, not being recognised as such a State by Great Britain, Lord Napier, the chief of the three "Superintendents," was sent out to Canton without any previous notice whatever to the Chinese Government. His instructions were simply to communicate by letter with the viceroy at Canton, and while "protecting and fostering the trade," to "ascertain whether