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there might not be a practicability of extending it."

But although China was thus regarded as being outside the pale of international usages, she did not so regard herself. The authorities at Canton refused to have any direct relations with Lord Napier. They declared, with obvious justification, that pending instruction from the Emperor it was not within their competence to recognise the delegate of a foreign State. A strange impasse ensued. Lord Napier vainly sought to convey his letter to the viceroy of Canton without employing the Hong Merchants as media. But no one would transmit the missive; its superscription did not comply with the prescribed formula of humility. Moreover, when Lord Napier, ignoring the rule which excluded all but tradesmen from the Factory of Canton, took up his residence there and eliminated the Hong Merchants from the machinery of intercourse, the viceroy declined to sanction the continuance of commerce under novel conditions not previously approved by his sovereign. The proclamations he issued on this occasion, the memorials he submitted to the Throne, the instructions he addressed to the Hong Merchants in connection with the complication, all betrayed an offensive conviction of the ineffable superiority of China to other nations, a silly show of haughty indifference to commerce, its gains and its losses, and an impertinent repudiation of the idea that any foreign official