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the attitude complainingly attributed by him to the Chinese themselves. In a measure he was constrained to that course, for the British Cabinet, not discerning any exit from the impasse other than an appeal to arms, which, to their honour be it said, they were always most anxious to avoid, left the superintendent without any definite instructions except that reference to London must precede any attempt to open communications with the Peking Court. This period of interrupted intercourse continued for two and a half years. The trade was not affected: it went on as briskly and as profitably as ever. But there were no official, or even quasi-official, relations.

Meanwhile the Canton authorities, conscious that in the absence of some recognised control complications of a serious nature might occur at any moment, issued two edicts, one calling upon the British merchants to elect a temporary superintendent competent to discharge the functions hitherto performed by the principal representative of the East India Company; the other urging them to obtain the despatch from England of a governing official who should be a merchant, not a royal officer. The Chinese, in short, desired to perpetuate the old system that had existed under the regimen of the East India Company. It was very far from being a perfect system, but it had served its purpose fairly well, and it had possessed the advantage—a palpable advantage