inconsistent with the law of nations. Do not, in your zeal for
one great principle, trample on all the other great principles of
morality." Just such are the grounds on which Her Majesty has
demanded reparation from China. And was it not time? See, Sir,
see how rapidly injury has followed injury. The Imperial
Commissioner, emboldened by the facility with which he had
perpetrated the first outrage, and utterly ignorant of the
relative position of his country and ours in the scale of power
and civilisation, has risen in his requisitions. He began by
confiscating property. His next demand was for innocent blood.
A Chinese had been slain. Careful inquiry was made; but it was
impossible to ascertain who was the slayer, or even to what
nation the slayer belonged. No matter. It was notified to the
Superintendent that some subject of the Queen, innocent or
guilty, must be delivered up to suffer death. The Superintendent
refused to comply. Then our countrymen at Canton were seized.
Those who were at Macao were driven thence: not men alone, but
women with child, babies at the breast. The fugitives begged in
vain for a morsel of bread. Our Lascars, people of a different
colour from ours, but still our fellow-subjects, were flung into
the sea. An English gentleman was barbarously mutilated. And
was this to be borne? I am far from thinking that we ought, in
our dealings with such a people as the Chinese, to be litigious
on points of etiquette. The place of our country among the
nations of the world is not so mean or so ill ascertained that we
need resent mere impertinence, which is the effect of a very
pitiable ignorance. Conscious of superior power, we can bear to
hear our Sovereign described as a tributary of the Celestial
Empire. Conscious of superior knowledge we can bear to hear
ourselves described as savages destitute of every useful art.