The following articles are garnered from the Canton Register and, towards the end, the Friend of China but relate to news to or from Europe/America.
Vol 1 No 4 – 14th December 1827
The fall of nations is due to the decay of the mother country as the condition of Portugal, Spain and the Netherlands attest.
The decay of Portugal dates from its occupation by Spain in 1580. Spain sacrificed its own arts and manufactures in preference for the silver of Peru and Mexico and had no interest in promoting the Indian possessions of Portugal.
The Portuguese first came to China in 1517 when Ferdinand Andrade’s 8 ships carrying Thomas Pereira, the King’s ambassador, arrived for trade. Two ships were allowed up the river to Canton whilst the others stayed outside and harried the coast trade. Andrade went to Canton and dealt honourably but the Portuguese pirates in the other 6 ships compelled the Canton Governor to attack. The sailors escaped to Malacca but the ambassador was imprisoned and died. The Portuguese then traded at St John’s (San Chuan) until the grant of Macau which they garrisoned but which remained under Chinese control. The Chinese based officers there and controlled the food supply. Macau has spacious dwellings, warehouses, churches and forts. It reveals a hint of its former prosperity.1 Notwithstanding Portuguese decay elsewhere, Macau continues a trade with Brazil, Portugal and other national possessions.
All of India was open to the Portuguese flag and they had special treaty rights at Manila under the Spanish occupation of that country. All other foreigners were excluded from Manila trade. Religious intolerance and priestly intrigue lost them the Japanese monopoly (where the Japanese still perform an annual ceremony of trampling the crucifix) and submission to Chinese demands at Macau soon reduced the Portuguese to dependant status. All sorts of innovations by successive Chinese officials have become law through want of challenge. This is most apparent in the exactions made of any person landing there. “…there is no doubt that a proper remonstrance to the higher authorities would have the desired effect. Firmness is indispensable in urging the repeal of an oppressive order or in soliciting a right founded in justice,” the Editor says.
Macau’s decline is not solely due to Portugal’s decline. The crafty schemes and petty jealousies of its residents have materially contributed to its reduction. Vain and inordinate hopes of self-aggrandisement induced Arriaga, the Judge, to bargain his honour and fame for an empty title. His fall buried the hopes of the wealthiest inhabitants. His replacement, Don Jose Felipe Pires da Costo, should improve the situation.
Macau has lost its commerce but taste and hospitality survive. Balls, musical parties and masquerades are regular events.
Vol 1 No 9, 26th February 1828
A New York newspaper Albion of 2nd September has been received. It reports the British cabinet has changed. Greece has permitted the establishment of a local press under three conditions, the first of which is ‘no sacrilege’.
Vol 1 No 9, 26th February 1828
Franklin the arctic explorer has arrived in New York en route for England. He has confirmed the existence of a North West passage.2
Vol 1 No 12 – Sat 22nd March 1828
Letter to the Editor – ‘although, religiously speaking, Christendom presents many dark spots; still, in reference to science, to the arts and to equal rights, Christendom, though very far from being immaculate, represents the greenest portion of the globe’.
Vol 1 No 15 – Sat 12th April 1828
Marshall von Bulow, who brought up the last-arriving Prussian division that decided the battle of Waterloo, has repented of all the lives he has taken and in 1819 sought salvation from Jesus. He resigned from the army, returned all his military honours and went to Norway to teach Christianity. In April 1827 he was in London for ordination.
Germany is said to be rife with an anti-Christian belief called Neologism in which the truth of Christ is explained in scientific terms.
Vol 1 No 19 Sat 10th May 1828
A Spanish privateer Griego has caught the Mexican brig General Figueroa off the American west coast and another prize in the Mariana Islands. Both have been taken to Manila.
Vol 1 No 20 – Sat 17th May 1828
The two Mexican ships seized by a Spanish privateer and brought into Manila recently (see above) had cargoes totalling 700 quintals of Guatemalan indigo on board. Apparently there are no Spanish ships in Manila at present so the auction proceeds from prize sales will be low.
Vol 1 No 20 – Sat 17th May 1828
The Howqua has finally arrived at Canton from London via Gibraltar, Cadiz and Manila. It carried some Turkish opium so it may have entered the Mediterranean for a while as well. It reports a naval engagement at Navarino at which the Turkish fleet was destroyed by the British.
Vol 1 No 30 – Sat 2nd August 1828
Memoir from St Helena - A small book has been published in England by one of the group of Christians who prayed for Napoleon during his final sickness:
“We asked God to mitigate his severe bodily sufferings and sanctify them to his salvation”. One of his suite told us that Napoleon had the constant habit of prayer. He maintained he had abused his power less than any other ruler and expected history would vindicate him. He remained a devout Catholic and urged Dr A (the leader of the Protestant group) to go to Mass.
Vol 2 No 6 – Mon 16th March 1829
We have a report dated September 1828 that says Portugal was then tranquil. Madeira had declared for Dom Miguel after his squadron arrived there. His brother Dom Pedro is expected to get broad European support to take over the government. The army supports whoever is in power as it is funded from the treasury. Officers supporting the Constitution are being dismissed. The young Queen of Portugal has arrived at Gibraltar and gone to Genoa en route to England.
Vol 4 No 2 – Mon 17th January 1831
In the summer of 1830, King Charles X of France dissolved the national assembly and censored the press. A riot consequently broke out in Paris. The National Guard, part of the Paris garrison, and the citizens occupied the Tuilleries and most public offices in July. They appointed a provisional government under Jacques Lafitte, Casimir Perrier and others.
The principal French provincial towns have joined the rebellion and everywhere the tricolor has been hoisted. The deputies have met and Charles X offered to abdicate conditional on their accepting his son as the new King. His abdication was readily accepted but not the condition.
The Chambre of Deputies appointed Duc d’Orleans as Lieutenant Governor of France and selected a new ministry. This ministry has accepted revised terms from the King. In return for his abdication, he is to receive a passport to England with an escort of 1,000 men and an annuity of FF4,000,000. The Duc d’Orleans has been offered and accepted the crown, The ex-King has taken two American ships from Cherbourg and gone with his family to Portsmouth.
Vol 4 No 3 – Wed 2nd February 1831
The Bavarian Professor Neumann has just left China for England. He was commissioned by the King of Prussia to buy a library of Chinese books and succeeded. While in Canton he picked up something of the Cantonese dialect.
Vol 4 No 7 – Thurs 24th March 1831
European news:
The southern part of the Netherlands revolted in September 1830 and seceded, calling itself Belgium. A Dutch army has not been successful in putting down the revolution.
In Berlin there are riots calling for implementation of the constitution promised in 1814. Sixty protesters have been killed.
In Saxony a revolution has caused the King to flee.
In Hanover an insurrection against the nobility has required King George IV to yield the crown to his brother, the Duke of Cambridge.
The revolt in France appears to be diminishing in violence.
In Spain the constitution proposed in 1823 is finally to be introduced and to pacify the people, a general amnesty is declared.
Vol 4 No 16 – Mon 15th August 1831
We have just seen a copy of Major Head’s Life of Bruce. Bruce was an excellent reporter. When in Algiers as British Consul he wrote repeatedly to ministers and correctly told the true state of affairs there for which he was removed and a less independent man sent to gloss over the unacceptable conditions. This shows the unwillingness of British ministers to adopt causes they do not themselves initiate. How can ministers deal with France, the balance of power, reform at home and the new coalitions of surrounding nations in Europe as well as Chinese affairs?
The old adage ‘know thyself’ has become ‘take care of thyself’.
Vol 6 No 6 – Fri 3rd May 1833
The Dutch are endeavouring to control Belgium (the new state between Netherlands and France). Britain and France oppose them and, without the support of Russia, the Dutch will fail.
The English King has said the dispute will not affect trade to ports in the Far East but British Indian newspapers consider it necessary to capture Java if there is a war. We only lost Java through ignorance or treachery. Its recapture would not be difficult. The Dutch hold on the island is quite insecure.
It seems unlikely that the Netherlands will fight over Belgium as they would stand to lose other considerable territories.
Vol 7 No 3 – Tues 21st Jan 1834
A rebellion occurred in Portugal in July 1833. The priests and the police fought with the army and the people and were defeated. The Queen’s government has been re-established but at great cost. The streets of Lisbon are strewn with bodies.
Vol 7 No 8 – Tues 25th Feb 1834
Steam communication with India is approved. There will be two annual voyages from Bombay by the government steamer Hugh Lindsay and two from Calcutta by the privately owned Forbes. Coaling depots are being established at Galle, Socotra, Jeddah and Suez.
Vol 7 No 10 – Tues 11th March 1834
In praise of debt (from Tait’s Magazine):
Society is made of two classes, creditors and debtors. Creditors are thought to be enviable. This is wrong. The debtor has the sympathy of mankind. He is always the ‘poor’ or ‘unfortunate’ debtor. Whoever heard of a ‘poor’ or ‘unfortunate’ creditor? They are the harsh and hard-hearted. A creditor cannot be pitied unless he recants and becomes a debtor.
A debtor is interesting. Many people watch him and check his movements. He cannot disappear. His name is on many tongues and in many books. People think continuously about him. His door is constantly thronged. Judges know him as well as they know the Duke of Devonshire. His meals, his clothes, his furniture are well known and listed in all sorts of formal documents.
The man who pays his way is unknown. The milkman, the baker and the butcher have no record of him. Even his house is unknown. He pays his way to obscurity. When a carriage stops at his door no-one cares if he is about to leave town. When packages are removed from his house no-one follows to see if they are going to the pawnbroker.
Vol 7 No 12 – Tues 25th March 1834
The New Monthly Magazine for August 1833 recites a novel advertisement for a pleasure cruise published in the Greenock Advertiser.
A steamer from Glasgow will travel to Alexandria, Joppa and Athens for the entertainment of passengers who can thus visit three continents in two months.
Vol 7 No 8 – Tues 25th Feb 1834
UK Taxes – the repeal of the stamp duty on mineral waters has passed. Many capitalist associations are meeting in London to press for abolition of the tax on windows and houses.
Vol 7 No 9 – Tues 4th March 1834
It is not widely known that under the Anglo-American treaty any claims may be pursued by nationals of either country in either jurisdiction provided the countries are not at war.
Vol 7 No 14 – Tues 8th April 1834
President Jackson of America has withdrawn government funds from the Second Bank of the United States and made charges against its management. This is not the serious matter it superficially appears to be but just party politics. The President is dependent on State support for his re-election and will deposit the central bank funds in State Banks.3
Vol 7 No 18 – Tues 6th May 1834
Tait’s Edinburgh Magazine - With criminal apathy, the representatives of the people of England allowed the Irish Coercion Bill to pass.4 Now the Irish are almost in rebellion against the assessed taxes. Heat and violence are expended on the consequences of bad government while popular indifference is shown to the principles of good government.
If one’s watch runs fast it is useless to continually move the hands – one needs to adjust the mechanism. The scholar of Heracles examined the top of his leaking wine cask but could find no crack. When recommended to check the bottom he angrily said ‘can’t you see the wine is disappearing at the top?’
Our government continually complains about waste but does not identify its root cause. It is like a doctor treating symptoms not causes. The politician today talks of palliatives. It is useless to talk to him about the organic problem.
The English people now prefer to defy government that to improve it. This is a consequence of the recent changes being insufficient. The reformed House of Commons cannot provide the attention we want and the people have ceased to expect it. Instead of pressing for more Constitutional improvement, which has anyway been denied, they have become revolutionary. The policy of the government was to lead the people into thinking that Constitutional changes would improve their lot. Now the concept of Constitutional reform is disgraced amongst the populace and in its place resistance is arising. The problem is one of obedience. It involves the coming struggle between property and rapine.
These two principles of ‘letting-out’ and ‘damming-up’ - giving head and giving check5 - conceding the means while refusing the end - making the people sensible of their power whilst telling them they are in fact powerless to achieve what they want - exciting and denying expectations - have brought us to a state from which no-one can see the way out. The public is disturbed and no longer seeks its remedies by improving government. This is a frightful sign.
Vol 7 No 19 – Tues 13th May 1834
The Spectator - Shopkeepers, brokers, artisans are all forming associations to magnify their voices in the common wish to repeal the assessed taxes (on houses and windows - a taxpayer is supposed to return the full number of servants, dogs, horses and windows in his house, all of which are subject to taxation). They say in their meetings that they will never pay. So far the resistance is passive and it will have to be very general to have any effect. We do not expect taxpayers generally to unite in opposition to this law but the government will have to take quick and effective measures to enforce payment before resistance can become general.
Vol 7 No 27 – Tues 8th July 1834
Whigs and Tories - The term ‘Whig’ was first used by the Cameronians of Western Scotland. They frequently fought religious wars and ‘whig’ was the name of the spirituous liquor they drank. They commenced the famous insurrection of Bothwell Bridge that was put down by the Duke of Monmouth. The Duke was thought to have been too merciful and King Charles was told that Monmouth was a ‘whig’ himself. This introduced the word into Court and soon the followers of the Duke took the term to apply to themselves.
‘Tory’ is an Irish word. It was first used to signify a highwayman. Tories were involved in the Irish massacre of 1641. In 1680 a group of English Catholics pretended to be Protestants and by ridiculing the Papacy, encouraged the Papists, led by Titus Oates, to revive their plot to recover the English crown. They banished the Duke of Monmouth and recalled the Duke of York. They opposed the Bill of Exclusion. They tried to restore monarchical power over the parliament. They persecuted dissenters, murdered patriots, and finally set up a Catholic King on the throne, asserting his hereditary right. They were thus seen to be like the Irish highwaymen and the name ‘tory’ was popularly applied to them.
Vol 7 No 43 – Tues 28th October 1834
Earl Grey, as First Lord of the Treasury, has announced his new cabinet. It contains Palmerston as foreign secretary and Charles Grant as President of the Board of Control.
Vol 7 No 51 – Tues 23rd December 1834
The late Prime Minister of England (Grey) has quoted Napoleon “I have fallen, not in consequence of the combination that was against me, but because I opposed the spirit of the age. The Bourbons will for a time act in accordance with that spirit, but they will soon fall back into their old habits, and then the irresistible power of the age will destroy them; and this too will be the fate of all the old governments of Europe if they do not adapt their policies to the necessities of the times.”
Vol 8 No 5 – Tues 3rd February 1835
American ships are the fastest in the World. At first they were merely built for speed and could carry little cargo. Now the new ‘kettle bottoms’ combine capacity with speed. We were accordingly happy to hear that speed trials are being commenced in England to improve the performance of our own national ships.
Vol 8 No 7 – 17th February 1835
The Steam Committee reports that a steamer service Bombay to Suez or Bombay to Basra and thence up the Euphrates to Bir are both feasible.
The Suez route will be affected by the summer monsoon June – September and the Persian Gulf route might be difficult in November – February. There may be some superficial difficulties with wandering Arab tribes which need to be settled with the Porte.
The Committee recommends the Malta packet line be extended to Egypt and Syria to complete communications between India and England.
Vol 8 No 8 – Tues 25th February 1835
New York Evening Post - The Brig John Gilpin has sailed from Baltimore round the Horn to Batavia, to Canton, to Manila, thence via Sunda Straits around Australasia to Valparaiso and to Lima in less than 190 days, averaging 183 miles a day.
Vol 8 No 19 – Tues 12th May 1835
Message of the US President to Congress:
Our relations with Europe are generally satisfactory. We have a minor dispute with England over our N E frontier and a trade dispute with Belgium but neither is insoluble. Our problem lies with France. Her aggression against our trade between 1800 – 1817 is well known but each successive French administration denies our claims. I conclude that negotiations are ineffectual but we should have some means of pressing France to honour its treaty obligations to us. We could cut off her American trade or subject it to high duties but either course will act to the detriment of our own trade. Whatever we do to France will tend to obscure the justice of our claims.
There is one claim that we can pursue - France has already agreed to pay us a sum in compensation for this claim but has not done so. Our policy should be to give France no pretence for further delay. It has taken 25 years to obtain French recognition of our claims under treaty. It should not take another 25 years to get payment. International law allows us to seize French property within our jurisdiction without going to war. This remedy is occasionally used and was last used by France against Portugal. The timing of our response is up to Congress. If an appropriation is not made by the Deputies in their next session it will be adequately clear that France does not intend payment. At that time even one day’s delay on our part would be too long. It would be a stain on our national honour and a denial of justice to those Americans who have been injured. I recommend that a law be enacted permitting reprisals on French property should the French chamber make no provision in its next session. This will evidence our determination to have justice. Should she respond with violence she will earn the censure of civilised nations.
Vol 8 No 23 – Tues 9th June 1835
A dispute between the American Federal government and Barings has led to the dismissal of the old British merchant bank and its replacement by N M Rothschild & Co as the financial agent of the Department of State from 1st January 1836.
Vol 8 No 28 – Tues 14th July 1835
London news - Lord Palmerston and Sir George Staunton both lost their seats in the last election.
Vol 8 No 30 – Tues 28th July 1835
New York Enquirer, 6th March - The American Congress has ratified the proposals of President Jackson and insists that the Treaty with France of 4th July 1831 be maintained and its execution insisted upon. America is telling France that it is prepared to make France pay its debts and it is for France to decide whether it wants friendly or hostile relations between the countries.
Almost all the 15,000,000 people of the States support the policy. The U S will insist on its treaty rights and require France to honour its treaty obligations. If war be the consequence, so be it.
Vol 8 No 30 – Tues 28th July 1835
Madras Standard, 2nd June 1835 “Valediction to Joseph Hume MP”:
He is hated by the corrupt members of Church and State. Hume started his political career when reform was uncertain, when popular representatives in the Commons numbered 20-30 men. His opposition to the government was based on a system used by the Condotteri as described by Machiavelli. The Condotteri adopted a united front and spared each other as much as possible.
Hume had a particular advantage – he came from the people and owed no favours to anyone in power. He was simple in his habits and satisfied with the moderate capital he had amassed. He was extremely motivated and vigorous as is often typical of Scots. The energies that ordinary people invest in accumulating wealth he employed in gratuitous service to the people.
At that time the Commons was filled with commercial politicians - country gentlemen, lawyers, bankers and rich merchants. These people were usually engaged in business or, if retired, too old to be active.
Hume’s approach was unique. He simply examined the machinery of our oligarchical system and exposed its workings to the people. Nothing dampened his perseverance. Although the two parties abandoned him, the press reported his work and the public welcomed it. As a result of his exposés, even the Liverpool and Wellington administrations were shamed into cost reductions. They were forced to appoint committees of enquiry to provide shelter to their corrupt colleagues and to refuse the just demands of the people.
In this way Hume contributed to the reform movement more than any other person. Each reduction he obtained curtailed the means of the enemy.
The Duke of Wellington contributed unintentionally to the collapse of the oligarchical system he espoused - he was unable to distinguish between a political society and an army. An army carries out the orders of its general; the greater the economy and vigilance of its departments, the greater the efficiency of the army; an oligarchical system can only be maintained by spending the public money in maintaining the tools of popular suppression.
But a population rises as the pressure on it is relieved. Every reduction of pressure that Hume requested and Wellington approved, diminished the latter’s power and encouraged the people.
Hume was undismayed by threats, indifferent to sarcasm and maintained an imperturbable good nature, leaving his character to speak for itself. Hume’s incessant detection of abuses gradually revealed to the people how they were really being treated and ultimately shook the foundation of oligarchy. Oratory and talent could never have accomplished what Hume did by perseverance and industry. We mention all this because it is the duty of the people to honour a man to whom they are so fundamentally indebted.
Now the Reform Bill has encouraged many others to join Hume. There are still many powerful people living on public money, albeit reduced in numbers, and intensely hostile to Hume. This is the strongest motive we have for continuing our support.
Vol 9 No 18 – 3rd May 1836
The United Services Journal for July 1835 compares pay scales in the British and American navies. The Americans get 50 – 200% more than the British in each class of employment.
Vol 9 No 28 – Tuesday 12th July 1836
Editorial - The philosophy of Kant is developing in Europe. If not loyal, it is at least manly. These two adjectives apply to most human laws and government. Loyalty is a poorly understood abstraction but manliness relates to our wants and the things we can ourselves determine. The human mind is now making daring advances. Governments have sought to check this process and failed. It is now a serious duty for us to consider how our advances are to be guided.
Vol 9 No 40 – Tuesday 4th October 1836
Tait’s Magazine, May 1836 – The Corn Law rhymer:
An army of principles will penetrate were an army of soldiers cannot.
When nations require change, the danger is to those who oppose it.
When a nation changes its opinions it cannot be governed as before.
Aristocracy is a law against nature. Men accountable to no-one can be trusted by no-one.
Separate an individual from society and he cannot increase his wealth. The means is connected to the end. All accumulation beyond subsistence is derived from society.
Vol 9 No 47 – Tuesday 22nd November 1836
On 4th July 1837 the U S Flag will be spangled with 26 stars on the admission of Arkansas and Michigan to the Union. In 1818, when there were 20 states in the Union, it was enacted that on the entry of additional states an extra star for each one will be added to the flag, effective on the following 4th July.
The 13 stripes, denoting the original 13 states, were increased to 15 with the entry of Vermont and Kentucky but as the number of states grew it was perceived that not all could have a stripe and the flag then reverted to the original thirteen.
Vol 9 No 49 – Tuesday 6th December 1836
Sericulture in America – Massachusetts has incorporated a silk company which has bought a farm at Framingham and planted out a mulberry orchard preparatory to manufacturing silk. The orchard will extend to 100 acres this year. They have imported machinery for the manufacture of thread. All the cocoons are raised in New England.
New Jersey also has a silk manufactory and Judge Chambers of Kentucky is proposing a similar venture. In Connecticut, the Lisbon Silk Factory, near Norwich, makes $150 worth of silk goods each week. It employs three men and three boys. Meanwhile the government of Cuba is also introducing sericulture.
Vol 10 No 25 – 20th June 1837
American agricultural origins:
USA produces 400 million lbs of cotton annually. The entire crop derives from plants of Sea Island cotton reportedly taken originally from Persia.
Carolina rice, which sells at twice the price of Indian rice in London, originated from a sack of East Indian rice given by Mr C Daboral of India House to an American trader.
West Indian coffee originated from a single Arabica plant matured in a hot house in Amsterdam.
Vol 10 No 29 – 18th July 1837
American news :
There has been an amazing increase in the American cotton stock. According to a report from New Orleans dated 3rd December 1836, dealers estimate the production of Louisiana, Mississippi, North and South Alabama, Tennessee and the Atlantic states this year at 270,000 bales (1 bale – 400 lbs). Stock remaining from last year is 1,366,550 bales. There is 113,000 bales in the warehouses of which 40,000 bales are unsold. The excess is accumulating through want of shipping. Every open place is being used for storage. Speculators have become involved and a collapse of prices is imminent.
Reports from Natchitoches via Red River say 150 Mexican cavalry have occupied the Alamo at San Antonio de Bazar and advanced on the Guadeloupe River.
Vol 10 No 34 – 22nd August 1837
On 15th March a chap named Kearney attacked Loch, the Deputy Chairman of the India Company, in his office and wounded him in the head and neck. Loch’s shouts were heard by the messengers who rushed in and restrained Kearney. He was interrogated by the Lord Mayor but thereafter drank oxalic acid and died. Loch is recovering.
Vol 10 No 37 – 12th September 1837
Various London papers:
America is in financial crisis. The merchant bankers Hicks Lawrence & Co and S & M Allen have failed in New York. Exchange is at a 10½ - 12% premium but even then few houses could sell Bills on London. The 2nd Bank of the United States has sold bonds on two thirds credit at 7% premium and they have been resold at par which has fixed the interest rate at 4% per month.
U S shares quoted in London have dropped about 20% in the last few months. Cotton continues to decline and twenty firms have failed in New Orleans. Two British firms in American trade (Thomas Wilson & Co and Timothy Wiggins & Co) have been assisted by the Bank of England which has increased the money in circulation. George Wilde & Co has been allowed to fail.
This increase in circulation has forced money into the funds. Stock and Exchequer Bills have since appreciated. The Bank of England’s circulation has now reached £19 millions, 5% up on the last quarter. This will soon have to be reduced.
Vol 10 No 42 – 17th October 1837
The London papers are saying that the new Queen, now 18 years old, has recalled Lord Elphinstone from India to perform some function in the Royal household. An attachment between the two is alleged to have been the cause of the Lord’s prior removal from London.
Vol 10 No 42 – 17th October 1837
Observer, 21st May 1837:
The U S Ambassador to St James has recommended his government to send no silver to London to relieve the financial embarrassment of England.
He says the political disturbances in England are prompted by her financial difficulties. If the power of the capitalists is crippled, it will raise the democratic forces of the country and Ireland will be freed. If America sends specie now it will enable the Tories to overawe and dominate the people.
It is regrettable that the minister of a friendly power should have thought it appropriate to promote a financial and political convulsion in England. The promotion of reform in England must follow a considered course. Even the Whigs cannot support Ambassador Stevenson’s ideas.
Vol 11 No 6 - 6th February 1838
Athenaeum 5th Sept 1837:
Tea cultivation has commenced in France. The shrub languished in heat but some plants are growing well near Marseilles from whence it is proposed to plant them throughout the region in replacement of some of the orange groves.
Vol 11 No 21 – 22nd May 1838
European news – fires:
There have been terrible fires this winter – the Winter Palace at St Petersburg, the Italian Operahouse in Paris and the Royal Exchange in London. All three buildings have been destroyed:
The Royal Exchange fire commenced in Lloyd’s Coffee House and quickly spread to the captain’s room and the underwriting offices. Extinguishment water could not be sprayed for an hour as the pumps and hoses were frozen. When they were finally made to work it was too late.
The silvery bells of the clock tower used to play every three hours “God Save the Queen”, “Life let us Cherish” and “There’s nae Luck aboot the Hoose” in rotation and on Sundays, the old version of 104th Psalm. Now they are silenced. The grand chimes of the 12 bells in the steeple of Spitalfields were destroyed two years ago by fire and the only chimes to be heard in London now are at St Clement Danes in the Strand (where the old 104th psalm is played every four hours), St Giles at Cripplegate and St Denis Back in Fenchurch Street.
After extinguishment, on crossing the embers and entering the quadrangle, it was found that the splendid piazza and its embellishments were destroyed. The statues of the Kings and Queens of England since William the Conqueror were lying about, many of them fractured.
Vol 11 No 21 – 22nd May 1838
Bulwer’s Athenians:
The French philosophers of the last century stripped war of its glory. They turned our attention from the passions of savages, the enthusiasm of poets and the fame of heroes to the wrongs done to the murdered millions. They made humanity their fundamental principle.
They forgot the advantages of war – the misfortune of one generation is often the necessary preliminary for the prosperity of the next. War sometimes enlightens the invaded, sometimes the invader. It stimulates invention by harnessing the energy of distress. For some, war subdues and crushes, for others it encourages and exalts. The characters of men and nations are hardened by that bitter and sharp experience. It refines the subtle and the sagacious. Even a destructive war ending in the subjugation of a people gives birth to a counteracting force amongst them or their neighbours. Its effects are like the sea, rising and falling. It captures the fact of change in human destiny.
Had Persia not been destroyed, Greece might have left no annals and we would search in vain for inspiration from the ancients. When Persia withdrew to Asia, Greece rose majestically above the rest of the civilised world. Faraway on the Latin plains, Rome was struggling against its neighbouring Etruscan states. Gaul and Germany lay in barbarism and who could predict their future?
Persia remained the only superpower but its youth had been wasted and it could only sustain its existing immense empire. The defeat of Xerxes paralysed Asia. Thus Greece was assured of tranquillity and directed its national energies into peaceful pursuits. The Athenians returned to rebuild their city and restore their untended fields.
The Greek aristocracy had been impoverished by the war effort. New families arose, like that of the commoner Themistocles, to challenge ancient prescriptive rights of aristocrats. Soldiers were honoured. This new blood introduced a spirit of enterprise. Themistocles was peculiarly adapted to the circumstances of the time. It is the nature of free states to focus the popular will on the unity of despotism by sequentially producing great leaders who sympathise with and express the popular will. These leaders succeed or fail dependant on their giving or withholding the widest range of legislative power to direct the executive, thus uniting the wishes of the greatest number under the administration of the few – absolute but responsible government.
Editor – this helps to elucidate the peaceful policy of the Ching dynasty. Every allusion to war is carefully avoided; a military career is not honoured, and the army is kept inadequately supplied
Vol 11 No 25 – 19th June 1838
The Sun, 20th November 1837 has news of Russia:
There was a report two years ago that Tsar Nicholas was insane. We have a September 1837 report from Limburg in Galacia indicating he has selected Ekaterinburg (Sverdlovsk) for cavalry manoeuvres this year. Around Sverdlovsk are agricultural colonies to develop the production of the area. They are staffed by soldiers with few women.
The Tsar has just signed an order requiring the revolutionary Poles, whom he subjugated in 1830, to provide 600 young women aged 16 – 20 years to the soldiers. He has sent an army to enforce the order on the reluctant villagers. Several battles ensued, the villagers defending their women with sticks and scythes, before the girls could be secured from their protectors. Many resisting villagers have been knouted and banished to Siberia.
The 600 women were marched off to the colonies and examined, much like an army recruit, to confirm they were complete and functioning, before being dressed in their national costume and distributed. It is supposed they will eventually marry the soldiers although their relatives have petitioned the Tsar for relief.
There is a precedent. Catherine II allowed Potemkin to populate the Crimea with soldiers after he devastated it and a levy of young females was made in all the Russias to provide them with wives.
Vol 11 No 31 – 31st July 1838
Tea, coffee and tobacco have made the world smaller:
We would know nothing of China if there was no tea.
Tobacco was the sole trading link between Europe and England for 300 years.
Arabia is connected to us solely by coffee which was only discovered by chance towards the end of the 13th century. Sheikh Omar was persecuted and fled with his followers to the mountains of Yemen where they found the coffee bean growing wild. It was too hard to chew so they boiled it and found the liquor invigorating. Its use took 3 centuries to spread to other Arab states. The Egyptian priests popularised it. They spent their nights in meditation and their days in scourging. Coffee revived them. From Egypt it spread to Turkey.
Vol 11 No 31 – 31st July 1838
The International Copyright Law has sunk in the American Congress. It was supported by all British poets and novelists but U S publishers are opposed and the Representatives support them. A similar Bill is soon to be introduced in England where it will easily pass. The problem is in America and Europe. For each foreign book reprinted in England there are at least a hundred reprinted in France, Belgium and Germany.
Vol 11 No 38 – 18th September 1838
The Sandwich Islands Gazette, May edition “Fetters of the Press”:
Dr Channing of Boston, the Unitarian preacher and doyen of American writers, has the following to say on the condition of the Press:
Firstly, the newspaper press is fettered by dependence on subscribers, many of whom withdraw support when they see articles contradicting their own views. Consequently, few Editors will give publicity to an unpopular view. In seeking a balance between providing good information and maintaining a profitable business, editors often lose their moral independence. They fail to fully explore corrupt opinion or limit the excesses of popular passions. Effectively they focus and increase the violence of the people. Those subjects on which the public have been led to wrong opinions are likely excluded from their columns.
Secondly, men of conscience who cannot get their views published, are compelled to unite together and produce newspapers of their own in which they often express an extravagance of opinion that they would have eschewed had they been permitted space in an existing paper. Denial of publicity forces them together, their zeal increases with their numbers, their prejudices are entrenched and their willingness to violence to achieve their ends is promoted.
The anti-Masonry party lost its ability to publicly express its views after the murder of Morgan. That event caused Editors to shrink for publishing their views. The abolition of slavery movement has been ignored by the press - the subject is never publicly discussed. The movement is completely intolerant but denying it publicity is not the way to eliminate dissent. The thoughtful man is strengthened by exposure to a diversity of views. The intolerance of the anti-slavery movement will delay abolition because intolerance produces belligerence in those opposing the movement.
The greatest good is achieved by newspapers edited by men of superior ability and moral independence who judge all people and parties by the standards of Christianity and uncompromisingly speak the truth and express a just and lofty public sentiment. They give all honourable and upright men an opportunity to publish their views no matter how they are opposed to the fashion of the day. The power of the press is enormous and it can only be wielded by the best minds. Editors should be well paid and allowed to express reasoned opinions.
Editor – these remarks are inapplicable to the Canton press. The Canton Register and Canton Press were established by the two most eminent opium traders but have both published letters opposed to the trade. No correspondent should expect every Editor to understand the nuances of every argument. To do so we Editors would all have to be walking encyclopaedias. Editors draw public attention to matters of interest. A newspaper is primarily a record of events.
Vol 11 No 38 – 18th September 1838
Blackwood’s Magazine, April 1838 – Commerce spreads luxuries:
Twenty years ago a sailor could expect nothing but salt meat and biscuit after the first two weeks of a voyage. Then a French chemist ascertained that, by parboiling meats and vegetables and excluding air, he could maintain their freshness for years in champagne bottles. This was emulated in London using cans instead of bottles – tinned food facilitated circumnavigations of the globe.
Ten years ago an American thought to carry ice to India. He loaded his cargo in the American winter and arrived at Calcutta with one third melted but carried the remainder up the Ganges where it is now a regular annual import and enjoyment. Lord William Bentinck gave him a gold medal. Ice is now exported to the Brazils.
A few years ago turtle was unavailable in London for half the year. Now turtle soup is made in Jamaica, sealed in cans and shipped to London where it can be had every day of the year at 5/- a pint. A company has been formed to send oysters to South Africa. Once a colony of oysters has been formed there, it can be extended to Ceylon and Bengal and perhaps China. The India Company expects the delights of the oyster to open new markets and facilitate trade treaties.
Statistical Society - Russia is rapidly expanding its territories. It has occupied half of Sweden (the colony in Finland); it has taken Poland from the Austrian empire, it has seized parts of Turkey; it is paramount in Persia and it is moving into Tartary.
Her territorial acquisitions since 1770 have doubled her lands in Europe. In 1762 the population was recorded at 25 millions; in 1825 it was 58 millions.
Vol 12 No 7 – 12th February 1839
The Council of Plympton, Devon has sold the portrait of Sir Joshua Reynolds which he gave the town when he was its mayor. In the Plympton parish church Sir Joshua appears on the register as Joseph but his parents always intended he be called Joshua – the vicar got confused at the baptism. The residents say as a pre-teenager he was given to taking long solitary rambles. He was thought to be lazy but after one day-long absence his father tackled him and the boy produced from his pocket an astonishingly good sketch of Plympton to evidence what he had been doing. Plympton has two other pictures by Sir Joshua – they hang in the Council office.
Vol 12 No 8 – 19th February 1839
Galignani's Messenger (London), 8th Oct 1838 reciting an article in the Marseilles Semaphore:
A commercial treaty has been made between the French and British ambassadors on the one hand and the Porte (the Ottoman Empire) on the other. It was dated in September 1838 and sent to Europe for ratification.
It abolishes the existing Turkish government monopolies and import duties effective next March (1839) and substitutes a flat 5% import tax for the previous 3% tax. Foreign merchants will in future be allowed to trade with whoever they like. Austria and Prussia have notified the Porte that they will honour the status quo and will support France and England in maintaining the peace.6
Vol 12 No 9 – 26th February 1839
Mr Biddle's Bank of the United States appears to be insolvent. He has employed the Bank’s funds to speculate on cotton and the massive over-supply from the Southern states has collapsed the market. But Biddle had thoughtfully spread the risk by involving all sorts of other people in his speculation:
The American Bank’s commercial procedure is to buy a merchant's Bill on the security of his cotton shipment to London. They send the bill to their London agent who discounts it. At the same time that he remits the customer’s Bill, Biddle draws on the London agent for the same amount at 60 days sight. The London agent carries the risk for 60 days.7
This is the same procedure that destroyed the standing of several great American houses last year. We do not understand why the Bank of England allows it. Mr Biddle uses others' capital to raise the price of his cotton by withholding it from sale.
Marketing of the entire American cotton crop needs reorganising. The fundamental unit of cotton trade is the bale. Bales are supposed to contain 400 lbs. Recently they have dropped towards 200 lbs.
Editorial - The sale of the fire-damaged contents of the Royal Exchange has mainly focused on the statues of the Kings and Queens of England that were arrayed around the Hall. They are being disposed of at an average of 10 guineas each. The Mercer's Company has bought Charles II and Edward I.
George III might end up in a garden pond with a water pipe threaded under his arm. Will no-one take out an Injunction?
Vol 12 No 15 – Tuesday 9th April 1839
Austria and England have concluded a commercial treaty on 7th September 1838 to maintain free navigation on the Danube and contain Russian expansion. Whether the Tsar can induce his nobles to abandon their land grabs in the south and submit to peaceful co-existence with the neighbours is problematical. Controlling the Russian nobility requires the abilities of Peter the Great but we hope this treaty will avert war.
The Porte is co-operating with us. His fleet is under the control of our squadron in the Dardanelles and an English commander is on board each Turkish vessel. Turkey proposes to reopen Trajan's Canal from Rosova to the Black Sea thus cutting 87 miles off the journey and evading the Russian Customs House. This will free Turkish commerce from Russian influence.
Vol 12 No 24 – 11th June 1839
Baynes' History of Cotton Manufacture – the invention of spinning machines in England created and stimulated cotton farming in America. The cheapness of slave-picked cotton ensured the American supply was competitively priced. There is now more cotton harvested from the Mississippi states than the Atlantic states. Although it is cheap, the organisers must be satisfied with its profitability as the area under cultivation is extended year after year. This increase of production in America stimulated British industry to extend mechanisation of spinning of the thread to the knitting and weaving of fabrics.
This is how distant nations influence each other – they become mutually dependent. It guarantees peace. If America declares war on England it inevitably declares war on its own cotton-producing states. Now 9% of the British population is involved in the cotton trade and nearly 50% of our exports (and two thirds of British public revenue) are from cotton goods. This trade has risen from obscurity to staple in little more than fifty years and it is still growing.
Vol 12 No 24 – 11th June 1839
The Leeds Intelligencer, 29th December 1838 – The American President van Buren has spoken to his people concerning the Canadian boundary. He expects to establish a Boundary Commission with the British to finally align the frontier. He regrets that Americans have promoted insurrection in Canada:
‘They have made armed incursions into that colony of a friendly power intent on changing the government in disregard of their obligations and of American law. These criminal assaults have destroyed many Americans who engaged in them.
The Canadians have enlisted a militia against those Americans who have invaded them and we have the makings of a war on our own doorstep. It is US policy to be neutral to Britain and we will act against those Americans who disturb the peace and endanger our policies. We must uphold the spirit of our Constitution. This is our law that we made ourselves. Its enforcement underlies our national honour. These incursions will be put down.’
He also expects to make peace with Mexico through the intermediary of a friendly power.
His government is in negotiation with many Indian tribes who obstruct the American advance to the South and West. Historically these talks have resulted in the removal of the Indians, or the purchase of their lands or the terrorising of their peoples. There is considerable detail in van Buren’s original document.
The London Colonial Gazette of 19th January 1839 commented on the speech:
The American President may deprecate war but what of his people? A group of private American citizens has invaded Texas and established themselves. They have introduced slavery to Texas, a curse never seen there before. Although the government did not instigate the attacks, it did next to nothing to stop them. No American neighbour is safe. The pacific spirit that hitherto animated American government officials has become unreliable. We should stimulate the loyalty that the Canadians have shown to our Queen and country. They have shown determination to resist US expansion. We should check what our colonists really want and act accordingly.
Vol 12 No 25 – 18th June 1839
The Queen's speech, opening parliament on 5th February 1839:
"I have concluded treaties of commerce with Austria and Turkey. I have assisted Austria, France, Prussia and Russia in arranging the differences between Holland and Belgium - the Dutch have accepted our compromise, the Belgians are soon expected to do so, and the five powers will guarantee peace.
My minister has temporarily withdrawn from Persia but I hope to have him back there soon. For the same reason British India has had to protect our interests on Persia borders and prepare for war.
The emancipation of slaves in British West Indies proceeds. The temporary system of apprenticeship has been followed by their freedom and no disturbance of public order has resulted.
Lower Canada is being destabilised by Americans who have made hostile incursions into Upper Canada. Our forces and people have suppressed these disturbances and evicted the troublemakers. The American President is directing his people towards friendly relations with us.
Vol 12 No 25 – 18th June 1839
Colonial Gazette, 19th January 1839 - A comparison of the naval strengths if England, France, America, Russia, Egypt and Turkey is provided.
Vol 12 No 26 – 25th June 1839
Calcutta Englishman, 18th April:
There has been a rapid increase of recreational opium use in England. Chemists throughout the counties are reporting the same phenomenon. In London the chemists like windfall profits and restrict their market by price but in the counties opium remains cheap. Turkey pays an import duty of 1/- per lb and wholesales at 15/- per pound. The usual dose is 1 grain. There are 7,000 grains in a lb (i.e. 0.025d per dose wholesale).
Suppose the retail chemist marks up the price by 400%, then a farthing (¼d) will buy two doses of laudanum. This is much cheaper than alcohol. It is well known that opium in moderation is beneficial to health. In the recent biography of William Wilberforce, his sons note he could not drink wine without feeling heated but laudanum always provided the well-being he sought.
The temperance societies and the wine trade will oppose opium in England; indeed, it is the wine trade that is publishing the increased use of opium. The Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge in China has offered £100 prize for the best essay on its commercial, political and moral effects and how the trade should be handled in future. Regrettably, the society has not allowed contributors to copyright their entries so the quality may be low.
Vol 12 No 27 – 2nd July 1839
London news, 2nd March:
Problems with the Americans continue along the Canadian border. Private letters from Americans all unanimously assert American right to the lands in contention. The Governor of Maine appears to be taking a leading position. He has sent 200 armed men into the disputed area (around the Aroostook River) in New Brunswick and to the north of his state purportedly to prevent illegal logging. The US President suggests each country should administer part of the disputed area until a formal agreement can be reached. The Congress has now offered war if England will not forego its claims.
American securities listed in London have fallen on the news and trade between the two countries is declining. The cotton trade is badly affected. Depression in the London and Liverpool markets has reduced American shipments since 1st October to 302,000 bales, little more than half of last year's figure at this time.
Vol 12 No 27 – 2nd July 1839
The horse brigade of the Royal Artillery has gone north to the Midlands to deal with social unrest. They are taking 4 six-pounders and plenty of grapeshot for crowd control. Another troop of horse is standing-by.
Vol 12 No 42 – 15th October 1839
Calcutta Courier, 27th July - The House of Lords has issued its judgment on the dispute between the residents and the owner of the village of Auchterarder. Briefly, the landowner, the Earl of Kinnoul, appointed Mr R Young to a living in his gift as pastor to the villagers. The Presbytery of Auchterarder objected on the grounds that authority for or ratification of the appointment lay with the residents. The Earl asserted his right of patronage and the Judicial Committee of the Lords has now upheld the Earl.
Thus dies the independence of the Church of Scotland. The law upholds Caesar over Christ. In England the head of the Anglican church (Queen Victoria) is already Caesar.8
Vol 12 No 51 – 24th December 1839
London news - Sir Moses Montefiore has leased a large tract of land in Palestine for fifty years and is inducing the Jewish community, the most oppressed subjects of the Pasha, to remove there and become farmers. Jews in the Ottoman province of Syria cannot give evidence in court, they cannot own land and they are otherwise discriminated against.
Sir Moses has offered Mehemet Ali to establish a bank at Alexandria with a capital of £1 million, provided the Pasha will repeal the discriminatory laws against Jews. A prime function of the bank will be to provide agricultural loans to Jewish settlers in Palestinian lands. This may be the small beginnings of a long prophesised event.
Vol 13 No 4 – 28th January 1840
Spectator, 14th Sept 1839, recited in Bengal Hurkaru, 20th Nov 1839 – Taxes make cheap things dear. They tempt the multitudes to fraud and perjury. Recently an unbribed exciseman found nearly 100 illicit distilleries within a ½ mile of St Paul’s Cathedral. These private distillers reap fortunes while their more scrupulous neighbours appear in the bankruptcy courts. Occasionally a fraudulent distiller is caught and fined. Does he care?
When Lord Ripon was Chancellor of the Exchequer he was visited by a tobacco manufacturer who said he bought his snuff for less than the duty on it by always first getting a permit. The duty was then about 1,200% and the temptation at the Excise Office and Customs House to issue spurious permits was irresistible.
America taxes British manufactures heavily but dealers in Massachusetts sell them at a loss and grow fat. A huge smuggling operation was detected. Bales of broadcloth worth 20/- per yard are wrapped in flannel worth 2/- per yard and the like. The involved parties are all Yorkshiremen.
This is not a matter of honour, integrity, principle or national character – its simply an example of great risks winning great profits. Heavy taxes are a permanent temptation to defraud the revenue. Fraud is commonplace and more or less considered fair. Men who might pause before robbing an individual of a penny will not hesitate to rob the country of millions. Governments are supposed to minimise allurements to crime. Judges while trying thieves, repeatedly scold shopkeepers for alluring thieves with displays of valuable goods. Why cannot governments foresee the effects of high taxation?
Vol 13 No 4 – 28th January 1840
Liverpool Mail – It is not surprising, when we face aggression in every part of the world, that ministers cannot preserve the peace in Birmingham, Bolton, Manchester and similar places. Whigs are not strong enough to be ruffians so they are irredeemable cheats. They are ridiculous because they are dishonest. Whigs are represented in Canada by Lord Durham, in London by Lord John Russell, in Constantinople by Lord Ponsonby, in Washington by Fox, in China by Elliot and in Wigan by the mayor who signs his correspondence with a bishop’s cross.
Vol 13 No 10 – 10th March 1840
Hitherto a Jew could not become a First Class Citizen in Russia but now the Tsar says they can, provided they render themselves ‘worthy’.
Vol 13 No 10 – 10th March 1840
Journale de Perpignon – Paganini is depressed. He is spending his time at the baths in Vernet in the Bourbonnais. He has lost all his teeth and his servant has to mince his food. He walks a little and plays billiards but mostly he sits alone, cap on head, cane in hand, plunged in meditation. He sometimes makes involuntary movements which appear to annoy him and he stamps his feet. The paralysis he experiences particularly affects his speech. He leans towards the ear of his auditor, pinches his nose and talks feebly but quite often no sound emerges.
Vol 13 No 11 – 17th March 1840
The European powers are at Vienna to consider a settlement of the ‘eastern question’ between the Turks and their province of Egypt.
Mr Waghorn, the British trader at Alexandria who negotiated the overland mail route, has written to all British Chambers of Commerce9 to say he expects the overland route to be closed if the five powers attempt to force Egyptian agreement to a settlement with Turkey by blockading Alexandria. He notes this will particularly impact British trade in the east. “All you Chambers should assess the effects of a closure of the overland route on your members’ business. If you want your letters to India delivered in three months instead of nine, you will take action with government in support of Egypt.”
Vol 13 No 12 – 24th March 1840
On 23rd November 1839 Queen Victoria called 85 senior politicians to Buckingham Palace and told them she would marry Albert Francis Augustus Charles Emanuel of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. He is a fine fellow, the second son of Duke Ernst.
Vol 13 No 12 – 24th March 1840
An obituary and biography of the life of Admiral Sir Frederick Lewis Maitland is provided. He was the commander-in-chief of British naval forces in the East Indies and has just died of dysentery on the Wellesley off Bombay,
We list the post-captains on the East India station from whom a successor may be chosen, together with their dates of appointment:
Captain Sir James J G Bremer 7th June 1814
Rt Hon Lord J A S Churchill, 4th August 1826
H Smith 4th September 1829
C R Drinkwater 22nd July 1830
Joseph Nias 8th July 1835 and
Thomas Maitland 10th January 1837
(Note – There is a biography of the Admiral’s life in this and the succeeding edition - not reproduced here)
Vol 13 No 17 - 28th April 1840
The Naval & Military Gazette of 21st December reports Palmerston was married on Monday at St George’s Church, Hanover Square, to the dowager Countess Cowper, widow of the late Earl Cowper, and only sister of Viscount Melbourne. The couple left immediately for Palmerston’s estate at Broadlands in Hampshire.
Editor – this is good news. While Palmerston may prefer Lafitte on the breakfast table, her Ladyship will chose Pekoe or gunpowder. It may concentrate the Foreign Secretary’s mind on our problems here.
Vol 13 No 26 – 30th June 1840
The Times, 30th January 1840 – The Marseilles Chamber of Commerce advises its members that the French consulate at Manila is to be made a Consulate General for India and China and new consulates will be opened in Singapore and elsewhere in Asia. The Chamber previously told the government of the importance of French trade with China and a French Agent is expected to be sent to Canton. The Chamber has recommended its ship-owning and other members take advantage of the new arrangements.
Vol 13 No 26 – 30th June 1840
United Services Gazette – We hear Rear Admiral George Elliot is likely to succeed Maitland in command of the East India squadron and Briggs will succeed Elliot at the Cape. Sir Robert Stopford’s successor in the Mediterranean is still undecided but Sir Charles Adam wants the job and it would be foolhardy for this government to thwart the wishes of ‘one of the Family’.10
Elliot and Adam are efficient Admirals although far from the best available. China will be perplexed to find another Elliot coming to repair the blunders of his relative.
Editor – Sir Charles Adam, as First Sea Lord, told the Commons on 2nd March that he could not have sent a naval force to China more quickly because of the winter monsoon. Opium clippers beat-up to China from Calcutta against the N E Monsoon in a month. Anyway, the squadron did not have to beat-up in that way – it might have sailed via the eastern passage. Surely British tars can perform as well as Lascars.
Vol 13 No 25 – 23rd June 1840
The Queen’s Speech on opening parliament (extract) – I regret the commercial embarrassments in England and elsewhere that have so distressed our manufacturing districts. The spirit of insubordination amongst some workers broke out into violence and force was required to suppress it. I rely on the law, on your loyalty and wisdom and on the good sense of the people for the maintenance of order and the protection of property.
Vol 13 No 44 – 3rd November 1840
The Duke of Wellington is a fine military horseman but he’s not so skilled in cross-country. Near his Startfieldsay estate in Hampshire is the Bramshill Hunt which he generously supports and with which he frequently rides, together with his old friend Sir John Cope. Unfortunately the Duke falls off rather frequently.
Recently a Frenchman moved into the neighbourhood and started attending the Hunt daily, not as a member but as a riding spectator. He was always pleased to see the Duke arrive and followed him closely throughout the day. On enquiry it turned out that hunting was not of any particular interest to him, but he obtained a deep satisfaction from seeing ‘the overthrow of Old Waterloo’.
Vol 14 No 2 – 12th Jan 1841
The London Times - The agricultural labourers of the fens of Lincolnshire and Cambridgeshire have, for many years, been in the habit of taking an opium pill before going to work. It makes them work more efficiently and they find the labour more tolerable. They work on marshy land and the habit may have originated as a prophylactic against fever.
Vol 14 No 34 – 24th August 1841
Wm Jardine’s Address to the electors of Ashburton (near Exeter):
I am a firm friend of civil and religious freedom. I want to remedy every abuse, remove every grievance and allow everyone to receive the benefits of the Reform Bill as intended. I oppose the existing draft of the Law Amendment Act until it better protects the poor. I will only support ministers when I think they are right. I have long been connected in commerce with the staple trade of your town (serge) and will try to promote and advance it further. I will not neglect your local and private interests.
A song was sung at his reception:
Stand fast reformers in the field
Opponents to your strength must yield,
Tory corruption must give way
And Jardine now shall gain the day
Jardine was cheered by hundreds of people present who shared his liberal views. He said he had fought against oppression for 25 years in China and would continue to do so in England. He said he had refused the offers of three Dukes to recruit him as an MP. He wanted the suffrage extended to end bribery and intimidation. Many former Whigs were in the audience and clearly supported Jardine.
An old rich manufacturer named Solomon Toger mentioned the improved trade that Jardine would bring to Ashburton. Sir Warwick Tonkin then proposed Jardine be returned as candidate. He was so well received that his election is secure, however the Tory candidate MacKillop will canvass shortly.
Editor – Ashburton is a prescriptive borough and was named one of the four leading towns of Devon by Charter of Edward I. It formerly had two members but was reduced to one by the Reform Act. It now has a population of about 5,000. We do not expect Jardine to be much of a debater but he will be good value in committee where all the important parliamentary business is done.
Vol 14 No 44 – 2nd November 1841
Lord John Russell was married on 29th June at Minto House to Francis Anna Maria, 2nd daughter of the Earl of Minto.
Lord and Lady Dumfermline, Lord Edward Russell, Lord Melgund, Lady Elizabeth Elliot, Admiral George Elliot and Capt Charles Elliot all attended.
The couple will stay a few weeks at Bowhill, near Selkirk, the seat of the Duke of Buccleuch.
Vol 14 No 44 – 2nd November 1841
The elections are over and it has been a disaster for the liberals. The conservatives have a majority of over 70 (291 : 368). The present government must resign.
Lord John Russell is disappointed. He told the City:
“As you know income has been inadequate to defray expenses. We thought the reduction of Customs duties that we legislated for would eventually generate more income while concurrently getting the necessaries of life to the people at reasonable prices. We wanted to free trade with the colonies for the same reason. Our opponents said we were buying votes. Our proposals were defeated and an election called.
The cities and boroughs have supported us but the counties have overwhelmingly rejected us. We have previously abolished slavery in our colonies and destroyed the monopoly of privilege in our municipal corporations. We have made protestants and Catholics equal and thus secured the loyalty of Ireland. All these measures were opposed by the Tories.” etc….
Vol 14 No 49 – 7th December 1841
Elliot has been made Consul-General to the Republic of Texas. He’ll probably get the orders en route home and go there directly. This appointment may have two purposes – firstly, to rehabilitate him in an out-of-the-way place and secondly, to facilitate the repudiation of his opium debts.
Vol 14 No 50 – 14th December 1841
Queen’s Speech – the extraordinary expenses caused by events in Canada, China and the Mediterranean and the costs of maintaining a force adequate to protect Our extensive possessions makes an increase of the public revenue necessary. H M hopes this will fall primarily on the productions of foreign countries.
Some of our existing duties are so trifling in amount they cost more to collect than they are worth. The principle of protection, on which many of these duties are founded, should neither injure the State nor the people.
She hopes her Commons will enact means to relieve the distress of widespread unemployment (i.e. repeal the Corn Laws).
Peel is the new PM and Aberdeen the Foreign Secretary. The government fell in August over the Corn Laws – they increase fluctuations in supply, cause embarrassments to trade, derange the currency and produce hardship for the people.
Vol 14 No 50 – 14th December 1841
The census of 1840 establishes the population of the United States at 17,100,572.
Vol 14 No 52 – 28th December 1841
The British elections in the Autumn of 1841 brought in the Tories. They won a majority of over 70. The Whigs were thrown out for protecting the landowners by continuing the Corn Laws. Peel has reduced the duty on imported grain, lowered the retail price of grain and price fluctuations have diminished.
The government now has to pay for events in Canada, China and the Mediterranean and the costs of maintaining an adequate force in those jurisdictions. The new government will issue £9 millions in exchequer Bills towards 1842 expenses. Income tax has been reintroduced to make up the revenue. It will fall mainly on the new commercial class.
Vol 15 No 9 - 1st March 1842
London Mail, Nov 2 1841 – The census just concluded puts the populations of Great Britain and Ireland at 27 millions:
|
England & Wales Scotland Ireland Total |
16.0 2.6 8.2 26.8 |
The figures are exclusive of everyone out of the country on 5th June 1841
Vol 15 No 11 - 15th March 1842
In this edition the Editor publishes statistical data on the various rates of duty on tea since 1740 and on coffee and the product to the government that resulted. The figures support the Editor’s contention that the rate of duty is predicated on the effects of smuggling on the revenue to which the government merely responds.
Vol 15 No 11 15th March 1842
The Duke of Wellington recently sat for a sculptor who wished to engage the Duke in conversation to observe the range of facial expressions he produced. He explained to the Duke that he hoped to bring forth the expression at the moment the Duke said “up Guards and at ‘em” at Waterloo.
The Duke laughed and said “ah, that old story. People will invent words for me. Poets will write and painters will paint and I suppose we must give them some license, but really I don’t know what I said. I was aware that the moment for action had come and I gave the command for attack. I suppose the words were brief and homely enough for they ran through the ranks and were obeyed on the instant. I never saw sharper work. But as to the exact words I used at such a moment, I am sure I don’t recollect them, and I very much doubt whether any one else can.”
Friend of China, 1st April 1842 edition:
The 1839 English revenue from spirits was £8 million. Excluding moonshine that’s a gallon for every man, woman and child and costs each at least 15/- per year. At about the same date, the revenue of Russia was 600 million Roubles of which a quarter came from duties on wines and spirits.
The Colonist says that the value of spirits consumed in New South Wales exceeds £2 per head while the consumption of opium by the Chinese community there does not exceed 3d per head. The Australians are spending 200 times more on booze than the Chinese spend on their recreational drug of choice.
Editor - Indulging in the use of opium is, with the Chinese, far less subversive of individual duties and social rights than the immoderate use of ardent spirits.
Friend of China, 14th April 1842:
New York papers, just received, report the appointment of John Quincy Adams as Chairman of the Congressional Committee on Foreign Relations in place of Mr Cushing. Mr Adams is not expected to display the bigoted hostility to England of his predecessor.
Friend of China, 21st April 1842:
’A group of Peers implicated in the forging of exchequer bills have surrendered a man named Smith who has claimed responsibility for everything, been charged, pleaded guilty and sentenced to transportation for life.
The London papers say E. Beaumont Smith confirmed that politicians had instigated the theft and he had fronted it, but declined to name names.
Viscount Strangford has answered the imputations thrown upon him but another peer of eminent rank, attainments and influence has yet to do so and his colleague, an eminent Marquis also remains silent and suspect.
The Morning Chronicle rather identifies the anonymous peer by saying “he once before was compelled to do himself justice by commencing a prosecution against a journal which falsely charged him with corruption” – this is tantamount to giving his name.
Smith told the Court he was introduced to Rapallo, Solari and their associates in 1820 and soon became entangled in accommodation Bills business. He was tempted to ‘borrow’ an Exchequer Bill to meet his acceptances. Rapallo commenced a speculation to ramp part of the market and fund the shortfall but this failed and the fraud came to light. The Bills available to Smith were numerous and simply required a forged signature to make them valid.
Friend of India, 7th Feb 1842:
Capt Elliot who recently returned to London from China has had a long interview with the Chancellor of the Exchequer at Downing Street.
Friend of China, 21st April 1842:
At last colonial matters are receiving attention in London. The Colonial Society has formed the Colonial Club and issues the Colonial Gazette. Even Under Secretary of State Stephen might learn something. Until now it has been true, as said by Sir Josiah Child of India in 1680 that ‘… as to the laws of England they are wholly inapplicable; a heap of nonsense, compiled by a few ignorant country gentlemen, who hardly know how to make laws for the good governance of their own families, much less for the regulation of companies and foreign commerce.’
Friend of China 21.4.42 edition
News from Europe:
Prince Albert is accorded the rank of King Consort;
The King of Prussia will attend the christening of the Prince of Wales on 25 January as one of the infant’s sponsors.
The Dutch India fleet is to be augmented.
The French are sending more troops and emigrants to their colony in New Zealand.
The Hanseatic League has opened negotiations with the British government for the purchase of the Chatham Islands. They have already obtained the agreement of the owners - the New Zealand Land Company - to their sale to the Government of Hamburg for a German colony.
The British claim to their ownership rests on the visit of HMS Chatham which discovered the islands, so far as Europe was concerned, in 1791. We should try to entertain the Germans as they are intent on having colonies, no matter how small.
Friend of China 21.4.42 edition
At the last Leipzig Fair some Dutch traders offered Java tea at high prices and the flavour and strength were comparable to the best China caravan tea.
The good flavour is attributed to the short period since harvest and the good packing.
Friend of China, 21st April 1842:
A hundred people (the maximum allowed in the public gallery) marched to the Commons on Feb 10th to the cry “give us bread and labour” to object the lack of both. They listened to Robert Peel’s speech then adjourned to Brown’s Coffee Shop where it was agreed “the government measures just announced held no prospect of relief for the people and insulted their patience and suffering. The proposals indicate the landed aristocracy have no sympathy for the poor and their selfishness will destroy the country.”
Friend of China, 28th April 1842:
The Republic of Texas had a population of 300,000 at March 1841. Its imports for the 15 prior months were worth $1,670,000 and exports $220,000. Texas tried to raise a loan in London but failed because of the monetary crisis in America and general lack of confidence. It is an independent Republic, not part of the USA. Texas then approached France where Lafitte & Co in Paris have now arranged a loan. It is secured on the next 10 years of Texan Customs revenue. Texas is required to sell 3,000,000 acres of good land to Lafitte’s nominees. It is required to leave 25% of the advance on deposit with Lafitte for 2 years. Whilst Texas gets only $150 for every $200 borrowed (for the first two years) she pays interest at 6% per annum on the total loan of FF35,000,000. If the Republic of Texas was in financial trouble previously it is dead now.
Friend of China 28.4.42 edition
The immense debts of numerous U S states has caused English buyers to reduce purchases of American cotton. U S newspapers are accordingly pressing the state governments to settle the outstandings.
The New York Herald says Mississippi, Indiana and Illinois will not pay on their bonds. Michigan, Florida, Maryland and Pennsylvania will pass their dividends but should eventually make payment of both principal and interest. Louisiana, South Carolina and Maryland and some city and railroad bonds have advertised payment of interest in London of the amounts due up to 1.1.42.
Vol 15 No 18, 3rd May 1842
The Earl of Ripon has told the House that he expects the war in Persia (Afghanistan) will not be satisfactorily concluded. He denied holding a similar view of the war in China.
Friend of China 12.5.42 edition
News from America. The Federal deficit is now reported to have reached $14,000,000. Legislators and judges are not being paid.
Vol 15 No 21 - Canton Register, 24th May
After the resignation of under-secretary Backhouse, the remaining staff of the Foreign Office under Lord Aberdeen is as follows:
|
Under-secretaries Precis writer Private Sec’y to Aberdeen Messenger of state papers Junior Clerks |
Viscount Canning, H U Addington W B Stopford C G Dawkins Archdeacon Goddard S Ponsonby, son of Viscount Duncannon C Spring-Rice, son of Lord Monteagle. |
Owing to the quantity of slave-trade business, four new clerks are being attached to the Office
Friend of China 12.5.42 edition
London news:
Life expectancy in England now averages 39 years in town and 55 years in the country.
The foundation stone of the new Royal Exchange was laid by Prince Albert in January.
Friend of China, 19th May 1842:
Lord Ashburton, Francis Baring and Humphrey Mildmay have been found guilty of bribing Mexican legislators to enact a law preventing foreigners owning land. Their purpose was to deprive Thomas Kinder of the advantage that his Mexican landholdings gave him in a contract with the Defendants.
Friend of China, 26th May 1842:
This edition contains a derogatory poem about Robert Peel. He has become unpopular in England due to the shortfall of government revenue and his re-instatement of the hated war tax on incomes. The poem is entitled ‘The Eel Peel’:
Dissect this statesman, probe his patriot zeal;
Tis surface, what his name imports, mere Peel.
And from that name, should we deduct a letter,
Behold ‘tis Eel, than which, none fits him better.
Friend of China 2.6.42 edition
The Royal Navy fleet now comprises 592 ships of which 107 are armed steamers.
Friend of China, 2nd June 1842:
Tens of thousands of pictures of Napoleon have been sold in England but not one single picture of Wellington has been sold in France.
Friend of China, 9th June 1842:
Valletta harbour, January 1842 – the rear admiral thinks it necessary to call on the captains of HM ships to give effect to circular No 261 of 25th August 1840 issued by the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty, being satisfied that the progress of luxury and extravagance in midshipmen’s messes is allowed to go on unchecked, it must sap the morals and discipline of the service.
Sgd Francis Mason, Malta 20th Jan
Friend of China, 23rd June 1842:
Amongst the last 120,000 marriages registered in England, 40,587 husbands and 58,959 wives could not write their own names.
Friend of China 23.6.42 edition
Peel’s budget includes the re-introduction of income tax at 7d per £ (3½%). It was previously categorised as a war tax. All incomes under £150 will be exempt. This will produce £3,775,000. There is no change to the duty on tea and sugar imports.
Canton Register Vol 15 No 28 - 5th July 1842
London Times of 30th March 1842 has published Lord Aberdeen’s reply to the American ambassador Stevenson’s note on the ‘right to search’. The American government is concealing it, but it has circulated amongst members of Congress. Stevenson’s arguments are weak. Aberdeen’s response is lucid and reasonable. Stevenson only presented his note after he had left England. Aberdeen had to await the arrival of Mr Everett, as Stevenson had left no locum tenens. This explains the apparent delay.
Stevenson’s complaint was that the British government asserts a right of search of American ships in peacetime. He bases his position on a construction of some comments of Palmerston. Aberdeen renounced the views of his predecessor. He formally renounces a right to search American ships in peacetime.
He distinguishes the right to search, which involves checking nationality, object of voyage and nature of cargo, from establishing the nationality of a ship.
He says once a vessel is established to be American, then British cruisers should abstain from interfering with her, be she a slaver or whatever. To deny this right is to make the American flag a cover for all sorts of piratical enterprise. Stevenson tried to avoid this exact cause of British interest by limiting his objections to ‘bona fide’ American traders and excluding those ships that fraudulently fly the American flag.
Aberdeen quite reasonably asks how these ‘bona fides’ are to be proved. Stevenson must presume that the flag alone establishes nationality, but he fails to do that. His position actually extends American protection to every lawless enterprise.
Aberdeen claims the right to check every vessel about which there are reasonable grounds for suspicion. Stevenson says no other nation except Britain has asserted such a right. Aberdeen notes the constant practice of American cruisers, particularly in the Gulf of Mexico, of examining all suspicious vessels whether flying the British flag or whatever. Who says these ships are suspicious? Of course it is the commander of the American cruiser. The right to search is as important to America as to Britain. These checks ensure that trade across the high seas can be safely accomplished.
Canton Register Vol 15 No 28 - 5th July 1842
Amongst the mails recently received at Alexandria from the East were three large letter bags, totally half a cwt, addressed to the Duke of Northumberland and Lord Prudhoe.
Rats ate a hole in one bag and it turned out to contain coffee not letters. Now the captain of the Oriental, which carried the bags, claims freight on them, the Customs claims revenue and the post office claims postage.
The nobles have identified the most economical response - they have gifted the coffee in proportionate shares to the three claimants.
Friend of China 30.6.42 edition
Commercial news from London:
London financial problems are continuing. Several respected firms have suspended payments in March. Imports are low and stocks have been run down. The bullion stock in London is immense. Money is cheap and easy to get. When confidence is restored there should be an immediate boom.
Letters from China sent in January have revealed the extent of tea shipments to be expected in London in May. They have depressed the market. Bohea (the cheapest of teas) is 1/6d per lb, Company’s congou 1/10d. All the others are one to three shillings except gunpowder of which the best qualities are 4/6d.
The silk market is a little lower but prices are expected to firm. Silk garments are better than raw silk as stocks are much reduced.
Other news from Europe:
The French government has announced it will increase its steam flotilla to 70 of which 40 will be ships of war.
The West India steam packet averages 253 miles per day.
The ancient marbles collected in Lycia (from Telimissus?) by Charles Fellows for the British Museum are said by the Malta papers to be nearly ready for embarkation. They cost the country only the freight and are said to rival Elgin’s for beauty.
The new steam frigate Geyser has four of the largest guns ever put on a ship. Two are 10” bore and two 8” bore. The bigger cannon fires a shot of 86lbs.
Friend of China 7.7.42 edition
Peel’s new low duties are being denounced by the farmers as revolutionary. The initial impulse for free trade was made by Manchester and particularly by the member for Stockport (Cobden).
Friend of China, 14th July 1842:
The Editor’s solution to British financial booms and busts:
England should repeal all duties and imposts on trade and instead raise revenue from a ½ - 1% tax on all real property both in England and its colonies. This will finance the Empire and permit its occupants to eat, dress and buy luxuries all at market cost. We would become the cheapest country in the World; all our countrymen who have left because of the expense would return; a flood of wealth would flow through the Empire.11
Friend of China, 14th July 1842:
Queen Maria II of Portugal has commanded that the constitution of 1826 be applied in Macau. It was declared to be the Basic Law of the enclave on 10th July 1842.
Vol 15 No 28, 12th July 1842
6th report of the London East India and China Association, presented at their office at 2 Cowper’s Court, Cornhill. 3rd March 1842:
We congratulate the membership on the adoption by government of some few of the measures we have pressed upon it.
Lowering the import duty on sugar to 26/- for foreign and 24/- for colonial and East India Company sugar does not provide adequate differential to ensure a market for our members. The committee received opinion from principal importers of colonial sugar and discussed it with government. The result in parliament (Peel’s budget) was unsatisfactory and we will try again with the Earl of Ripon, the President of the Board of Trade.
Friend of China, 28th July 1842:
HRH Prince Albert has been appointed Lord Warden of the Stannaries (the tin- and copper-mining districts of Cornwall and Devon) and Chief Steward of the Duchy of Devon and Cornwall. By his request no emoluments are payable.
Canton Register Vol 15, No 31 – 2nd August 1842
American news: Federal finances are in a mess. The Treasury is empty and the legislature is withholding its consent from the President to give security to any party willing to loan money to the Federal Government. Congress seeks to promote individual state rights over the Union.
Commercial banks cannot meet the claims upon them either. Nevertheless, the American Press writes of ‘national honour’ and ‘unsullied credit’ with the now-familiar threats. These gentlemen oppose the delineation of the Canadian boundary with England and wish to bring-on a war. Their exuberant proposals have drawn a public rebuke from Senator Clay.
Canton Register Vol 15, No 31 – 2nd August 1842
London news: Money is plentiful. Interest stands at 3%. The Company has advised a revised exchange rate of 2/- per Company Rupee.
Notwithstanding this reduction of value, £250,000 went to India by this mail and bullion shipments to that country are expected to be soon commenced by individuals and companies. The Bank of England has set the interest rate for Bills of Exchange and notes discounted by the Bank at 4% wef 7th April 1842. This will make money cheaper as discount brokers will lower their own rates in competition with the Bank for the best Bills.
Last August General Sir G Cockburn suggested a plan to Sir Robert Peel to improve the national finances. The Times has now published it. It requires the government to ban the issue of paper money by public and private banks and substitute its own issue of £30 – 50 millions in large notes (£5 - £3,000). This would place a like amount of revenue at the disposal of the government.
Vol 15, No 31 – 2nd August 1842
Mr Laurence Peel, Chief Justice of Calcutta, has been knighted.
Canton Register Vol 15, No 31 – 2nd August 1842
There has been a great fire at Hamburg. Of the 10,000 buildings in the town, some 2,000 have burnt down.
Friend of China 11.8.42 edition
A huge fire started on 11th May in Hamburg and engulfed the entire town. It burned for four days before it was brought under control. Many lives were lost and damage to property is estimated at £5,000,000. Subscriptions are being collected all over Europe.
Friend of China, 4th Aug 1842:
The Sun (apparently a Massachusetts paper):
A gentleman has proposed a solution to American financial constraints – a tax on female beauty. The ladies will rate their own charms on a scale of one to ten and pay the relevant tax. It is expected to be cheerfully paid and very productive.
Friend of China 4.8.42 edition
The British Government has refused permission for German colonisation of the Chatham Islands.
Friend of China 11.8.42 edition
Queen Victoria, while returning from the park in an open carriage after her evening walk on 30th May, was shot at by John Francis at Constitution Hill. This is the second attempt on her life. She knew an attempt might be made and had disallowed her ladies-in-waiting to accompany her. She was accompanied by Prince Albert and the equerry Col Arbuthnot. The attempt was made at the same place that Oxford used last year. Francis aimed his pistol and pulled the trigger but the gun just flashed. A nearby fusilier caught him immediately. Francis was handed over to Arbuthnot who took him to the Palace Lodge. He was then taken to Gardiner’s Lane Police Station and from thence to the Home Office where he was grilled by a hastily convened Privy Council but remained silent. He was finally sent to Tothill Fields Prison. Francis’ father is a stage carpenter at Covent Garden of good character and he could not explain his son’s act
Friend of China 18.8.42 edition
Tax Return received at Shrewsbury in 1801
I John Smith do declare
I have but little money to spare.
1 little house, 1 little maid,
2 little boys, 2 little trade,
2 little land,
2 little money at command.
(By this you see I have children three.)
Friend of China 18.8.42 edition
The Alabama cotton planters have met to discuss the state of their business.
1/ What is the cheapest we can produce cotton - agreed 8¢ per lb delivered at Mobile.
2/ Should we tax foreign cotton manufactures to encourage local manufacture – a majority say yes.
3/ How long will England buy US cotton in preference to Indian? - only so long as the Indian supply is too small (1830 85,000 bales; 1835 130,000 bales; 1840 230,000 bales)
Friend of China 18.8.42 edition
Editorial - Palmerston's policy towards France has encouraged Minister Thiers to precipitate a war. We hope it can be averted. The War of Tariffs was actually begun by the French in taxing our linens with prohibitory duties. Peel reduced British duty on many French products in the expectation it might cause them to reciprocate. (He overlooked the immense tax on silks, brandy and wines which are their main exports. That was a mistake but the general policy was right.) He told the house 'It is the interest of England to buy cheap, whether other countries buy from us or not' - how true.
The rubbish about ‘reciprocity’ and about ‘payment in specie being economically damaging’ is contemptible, as Peel has recognised.12
Friend of China 18.8.42 edition
American news:
The Government of the Republic of Texas has declared a blockade of the ports of Mexico.
President Boyer of Haiti has personally led his troops into battle against his House of Representatives and put a summary end to their deliberations.
Canton Register Vol 15 No 34 – 23rd August 1842
London Globe - America is trying to woo back European capital. The London and Amsterdam financial houses (Palmer, Cryder, Rothschild, Hope, Willink and Dennistoun etc) lost £75 millions in the collapse of American State stocks.
Now the States are pressing the Federal Government to legislatively increase the value of their debt instruments in the expectation that foreign money will then again be advanced to them.
The State bonds all pay 5 – 6%. Illinois bonds are trading at 15% of face value, Indiana 20%, Maryland and Michigan 30-40%. Even Pennsylvania is only 50%. We should take care.
The individual States will have to evidence greater straightforwardness in their financial affairs. The Federal government is powerless against the combined effects of corruption and democracy. If the Union breaks down, there will only be the individual States to answer for their debts and they will not find it easy to pay their way.
Friend of China 25.8.42 edition
European news:
Since 1830 the armies of all the European countries have cost £2 billion to equip and maintain.
Russia is preparing a second expedition against the Circassians. She has demanded Turkey cease supplying gunpowder to the Circassians (a factor in the previous Russian defeat). Russia has no legitimate claim to this land and we hope she fails.
Coffee bushes grow satisfactorily in Andalusia.
Auckland now has a population of 2,000 and the British government wants to make it the capital of New Zealand.
Friend of China 8.9.42 edition
King Louis Philippe is 69 years old and suffering from dropsy.13 He will die soon, indeed he may have died already. A new monarch will likely adopt a war policy.
Friend of China 15.9.42 edition
London news as at 4th April 42:
Yet another attempt on the Queen's life has been reported. The offender is a hump-backed young man call John William Benn. The last offender (Francis) was tried and sentenced to death but the Queen has graciously allowed him to be transported for life.
There has been a big earthquake in Santa Domingo, thousands are reported to have died.
France has become bellicose to us; America has become pacific.
Peel's new Customs tariff and the income tax have been approved by the Queen. Peel says he will reduce the tea duty if he can find other items to make up the revenue.
Money is very cheap due to lack of commercial confidence.
£1,942,000 has been collected in London for the sufferers of the disastrous fire at Hamburg.
Notwithstanding the foregoing, English commercial and manufacturing firms are in a desperate state and many have failed.
Friend of China 6.10.42 edition
RMS Columbia has made the voyage from Boston to Liverpool in 11 days 6 hours (including 6 hours stopover at Halifax to board and alight passengers). This is a record.
Friend of China 6.10.42 edition
Dr Montgomery has been awarded a medal for successfully cultivating nutmeg in Singapore.
A Chinese exhibition has been opened at Hyde Park corner by the American Nathan Dunn, an old resident of Canton. The proprietor has built a Chinese building 225' x 50' containing a superb screen and three colossal religious figures. A number of displays are made up like rooms. You look through a window to see inside. They contain embroideries, magnificent dresses and elaborate paintings. The Queen visited with Prince Albert and enjoyed it.
Friend of China 6.10.42 edition
The new British tariff has become law. The contempt with which government has treated business for the last 50 years is at an end. Peel has promoted free trade principles to the point there can be no returning to the old ways.
The magnitude of the interests in grain, sugar and coffee did overly influence the government to protect them from free trade. Now it is proposed to permit foreign grain to be milled in bond, a proposal contemptuously rejected by the land-owners previously. Perhaps corn spirits will also be distilled in bond? The colonial trade must obtain advantage from any such measures.
For residents of England, the diminished costs of consumption will offset the new income tax while for foreign trade there will be real benefits.
The land-owners with parliamentary power are now so committed to free trade that they cannot resile when it comes to repealing the Corn Laws.
The China war has ended and, provided there is no drain in Afghanistan, the government should increasingly be in surplus. Part of this will defray the reduced duties on coffee and foreign and colonial sugar but we people in the China trade stand to get nothing. We have good grounds to appeal for justice and demand the tea duty be reduced. The duty must be below 1/- per lb to increase consumption.
Friend of China 6.10.42 edition
The Parisian press is delighted with the prohibitory duties enacted by the French legislature on English imports. The increases are 25 - 35% and the items to pay this impost include our linens. The French press expresses an unfavourable view of our Indian Empire. A very slight decrease in French funds occurred at the time of their publication. It was apparently due to a perception that the new duties might be misunderstood in England.
Friend of China, 13.10.42 edition
Peel has agreed not to allow a differential duty in favour of Assam tea. Well done!
We effectively pay our West Indies colonies £7,000,000 per annum (the value of the revenue lost if the import duty applied to coffee and sugar from other countries was applied to West Indies). In return we sell them an annual total of £3,500,000 of commodities which they could get nowhere else more cheaply.
Canadian timber is admitted to England at a preferential duty over Baltic, producing a notional annual loss in revenue of £1,500,000. We export goods to Canada to a gross value of £2,000,000.
The colonists say that Empires must operate a protective system. Economists have valued this protection to British colonies at between £31 – 36 millions per annum. Mr James Deacon Hume, a Customs official for 39 years and Secretary of the Board of Trade for 11 years, calculates the total cost to the British people of supporting colonial trade in this way at £50 millions per year. Perhaps this was in Peel's mind when he repudiated the Company’s request for preferential duty on Assam tea.
Friend of China, 20.10.42 editio
The New York Journal of Commerce notes that Wisconsin has commenced mining copper. Specimens have been around for many years but this is the first commercial output from the newly settled North Western territory.
Mining from Illinois has already developed very quickly. America is now self-sufficient in lead and competes with England in the export market for that metal. Soon it will be an exporter of copper. The domestic iron manufacture of USA is already valued at $30,000,000 per annum
Trade in sperm oil to the interior is at an end. It has been superseded by camphene in the East and lard oil in the West. Lard oil has also largely replaced olive oil in cloth manufacture. The use of purified lard for cloth is a novelty.
Peel has just reduced duties on vegetable oil and oil seeds which should increase consumption in England. Many new products have been introduced recently and an oil almost equal to olive has been expressed from the American peanut. The Chinese get oil from a huge variety of nuts and seeds for various purposes and some of these must be useful in England. Further investigation is required.
Friend of China 20.10.42 edition
American news - The delimitation of the Canada/USA frontier is about to be amicably announced.
Friend of China, 27.10.42 edition
The consular system of the USA is faulted by Dr Mayo in a recent review. He says most American consuls are commission merchants engaged in trade at their place of work. They consider the office they fill as a means of increasing their profits and their influence rather than upholding the national interest. This creates jealousy with their competitors and diminishes the dignity of the nation.
Friend of China, 3.11.42 edition
Russian trade figures - Imports and exports are valued at £19,524,000. The population is 56 millions. A vast amount of smuggling is done in Russia - their Customs officers are just like Chinese Customs officials.
Friend of China 3.11.42 edition
A new iron steam frigate Guadeloupe has been completed for the Company and will sail from England shortly.
The steam communication route via the Red Sea will be extended to China next year.
Friend of China 29.12.42 edition
Slave trade - Capt Borden of the whaler Sally Ann has produced a list of slavers and their cargoes captured by British frigates between July 1840 - May 1842 and sent to St Helena for adjudication. We were shocked to learn this trade is still carried on so extensively. The list shows 34 ships carrying 5,139 slaves that were detained during the 23 month period.
Of the slaves 1,746 have died, 1,332 were sent to the Cape of Good Hope, 542 to Demerara, 120 to Jamaica, 201 to Trinidad, 198 were apprenticed at St Helena and 1,010 remain on that island pending for availability of work in a British colony for their future living.
Of the ships 28 flew the Portuguese flag, 2 Brazilian, 1 Montevidean and 3 English (of which one was the brig Cypher formerly of Salem, Mass.)
Friend of China 29.12.42 edition
Editorial - The settlement of the north-west boundary dispute between Canada and America was not addressed by Ashburton in his recent treaty negotiations. We fear John Bull will hand over Oregon, which could feed the entire United Kingdom, to Brother Jonathan who is quietly flocking there in great numbers.
Friend of China, 5.1.43 edition
Commercial report from London:
Cotton, woollen and silk mills were closed for a fortnight in August but there has been an abundant grain harvest this year and wheat is cheap at 15/- per qtr (28 lbs, 12.7 kgs).
A huge stock of bullion has been collected in the Bank of England producing a widespread feeling amongst the merchants that everything is good. All kinds of foreign produce are available.
(Editor - seems the recession is over. Peace in China will brighten everyone when the news arrives in London in November.)
Friend of China, 12.1.43 edition
War between America and Mexico:
The Americans are unhappy because Mexicans are giving aid to Texas. The Mexicans thought the financial problems of the United States meant Washington could not effectively respond. Now America has its hands on California it will not be long before it tries to assimilate Oregon and Columbia as well. England should take care of its possessions on the American west coast.
Friend of China, 12.1.43 edition
Commodore Thomas Jones, Commander in Chief of the US Navy in Pacific, has made a Proclamation to the Spanish-speaking residents of California:
'If you are peaceful and continue your businesses I offer you citizenship in the United States, whether you are native or foreigner. If you don't want to join us you will be given time to sell your property and remove but you must remain neutral throughout the time you are here. All supplies you give to the US army or navy will be paid for.‘
Friend of China, 12.1.43 edition
Comparative annual revenue of European countries in 1841 in Sterling:
|
Land tax Other taxes |
GB 1,184,585 51,997,000 |
France 33,250,900 17,500,000 |
Prussia 3,994,000 3,667,000 |
Austria 8,795,000 7,700,000 |
(The anomalously low land tax receipts in England are due to the political power of the landowners. Between George III's coronation and 1841, 6,810,000 acres of United Kingdom land were enclosed. This includes Pitt’s great raffle of lands during the early course of the wars with France)
Friend of China 29.12.42 edition
Slave trade - Capt Borden of the whaler Sally Ann has produced a list of slavers and their cargoes captured by
British frigates between July 1840 - May 1842 and sent to St Helena for adjudication. We were shocked to learn
this trade is still carried on so extensively. The list shows 34 ships carrying 5,139 slaves that were detained
during the 23 month period.
Of the slaves 1,746 have died, 1,332 were sent to the Cape of Good Hope, 542 to Demerara, 120 to Jamaica,
201 to Trinidad, 198 were apprenticed at St Helena and 1,010 remain on that island pending for availability of
work in a British colony for their future living.
Of the ships 28 flew the Portuguese flag, 2 Brazilian, 1 Montevidean and 3 English (of which one was the brig
Cypher formerly of Salem, Mass.)
Friend of China 29.12.42 edition
Editorial - The settlement of the north-west boundary dispute between Canada and America was not addressed
by Ashburton in his recent treaty negotiations. We fear John Bull will hand over Oregon, which could feed the
entire United Kingdom, to Brother Jonathan who is quietly flocking there in great numbers.
Friend of China, 5.1.43 edition
Commercial report from London:
Cotton, woollen and silk mills were closed for a fortnight in August but there has been an abundant grain harvest
this year and wheat is cheap at 15/- per qtr (28 lbs, 12.7 kgs).
A huge stock of bullion has been collected in the Bank of England producing a widespread feeling amongst the
merchants that everything is good. All kinds of foreign produce are available.
(Editor - seems the recession is over. Peace in China will brighten everyone when the news arrives in London in
November.)
Friend of China, 12.1.43 edition
War between America and Mexico:
The Americans are unhappy because Mexicans are giving aid to Texas. The Mexicans thought the financial
problems of the United States meant Washington could not effectively respond. Now America has its hands
on California it will not be long before it tries to assimilate Oregon and Columbia as well. England should take
care of its possessions on the American west coast.
Friend of China, 12.1.43 edition
Commodore Thomas Jones, Commander in Chief of the US Navy in Pacific, has made a Proclamation to the
Spanish-speaking residents of California:
'If you are peaceful and continue your businesses I offer you citizenship in the United States, whether you are
native or foreigner. If you don't want to join us you will be given time to sell your property and remove but you must remain neutral throughout the time you are here. All supplies you give to the US army or navy will be paid for.
Friend of China, 12.1.43 edition
Comparative annual revenue of European countries in 1841 in Sterling:
|
Land tax Other taxes |
GB 1,184,585 51,997,000 |
France 33,250,900 17,500,000 |
Prussia 3,994,000 3,667,000 |
Austria 8,795,000 7,700,000 |
(The anomalously low land tax receipts in England are due to the political power of the landowners. Between George III's coronation and 1841, 6,810,000 acres of the United Kingdom were enclosed. This includes Pitt's great raffle of lands during the early course of the wars with France.)
Friend of China, 19.1.43 edition
London news - Lord Ashburton has returned from America with a Treaty of Peace resolving our disputes
concerning the Canadian boundary, extradition and slave trading. The Americans are said to be very pleased with the agreement but English commentators are not so happy. Details will be published when available.
The price of wheat in England continues to fall and the 6-week average is now 54/-. Importers of foreign grain are said to have lost £2 millions.
The Tariff is working! Inexpensive imported American ham and pork have forced down prices of not only those items but also beef and lamb. Meat wholesalers have been obliged to lower prices to maintain market share.
Friend of China 16.2.43 edition
The Spectator - There is no point in maintaining diplomatic missions at every capital city. We should focus on those where interesting things happen. Many of the German and American states invariably vote with the central government. In those places, like Saxony and Wurtemburg, there is no point having a representative. We should concentrate our diplomatic activity on places like New York and Maine where the local government is likely to oppose the central government occasionally.
Friend of China, 2.3.43 edition
We have received the New York papers up to 31.10.42 and the US is not at war with Mexico. The Texans have repulsed the Mexican attacks but sustained heavy losses.
The amount of outstanding US public debt is now $198 millions of which $103 millions was incurred by the 8 states that have defaulted on interest payments on their Bonds. Of these eight only Mississippi has repudiated, the others say they want to pay but have no money. It is however certain that the governments of Pennsylvania and Maryland are lying.
Friend of China, 2.3.43 edition
The Philadelphia Enquirer cites a drug-store owner who says there are many opium eaters and laudanum drinkers in the city. Many are abandoned women; some were introduced to the drug as treatment for disease. Some of them can tolerate up to 4 ounces of laudanum a day, enough to kill four unhabituated adults. Women sometimes come into his drug store trembling all over, order the drug, snatch the laudanum out of his hands and drink it down right there. They pawn their clothes and sell their furniture to buy supply.
Friend of China, 2.3.43 extraordinary edition
The Cambridge has left Malta for England with the valuable ancient marbles from Xanthus.
Friend of China, 2.3.43 extraordinary edition
A French shipping report copied from Journal du Havre comparing the fleets employed on English and French trade:
|
|
|
No of Ships dispatched from national ports |
Tonnage |
|
UK |
1840 |
42,435 |
7,497,833 |
|
UK |
1841 |
42,710 |
7,525,585* |
|
France |
1839 |
Unavailable |
2,930,000 |
|
France |
1840 |
Unavailable |
2,896,000** |
* 74% of this figure exported in British bottoms
** 42% of this figure exported in French bottoms
UK coasting trade in 1841 carried 22,184,047 tons of goods
Fr coasting trade in 1840 carried 2,314,735 tons of goods
The British merchant marine in 1840 totalled 28,692 vessels with average burden of 80 tons;
The French merchant marine in 1840 totalled 15,600 vessels with average burden of 27 tons
Friend of China, 2.3.43 extraordinary edition
The American Federal Government has put a stiff import duty on silk - $1.50 per lb on pongee and white goods, $2.50 per lb on all others (they seek to protect their own nascent silk industry). This will stimulate the smuggling trade into USA across the Canadian border.
Friend of China 9.3.43 edition
Knight’s London Magazine says London is the biggest city in the world. It occupies 32 sq mls. It consists of the City, Westminster, Finsbury, Marylebone and Tower Hamlets on the north bank and Southwark and Lambeth on the south. The house-owners of London pay one third of the window tax of all England.
Friend of China, 9.3.43 edition
German Customs Union - The population of the states in the Union was 24,048,970 in 1837. Sugar imports that year equate with 4.4 lbs per head per annum. In Britain it is 29 lbs per head. The Germans consume 2.2 lbs of coffee per head but only 2 ozs of tea. We hear the tea in the German market is the very finest qualities (the flowery pekoes) trans-shipped from London.
Friend of China, 16.3.43 edition
The war between USA and Mexico ended on 21.10.42 and the US force occupying Monterey is being withdrawn. According to the Seminario Filipino, the newspaper in the Spanish colony of Philippines, the whole war lasted 30 hours and was solely due to the shameful acts of Commodore Thomas A Jones, commander of US naval forces in the Pacific.
Friend of China, 16.3.43 edition
England is annoying other maritime nations in the world with its anti-slavery activities off the African coast and in the Caribbean. She could find herself fighting a war in Europe for the sake of Africa!
America questions her right to search, France denies it, all others detest it.
We mention this because one of the new duties of our treaty port consuls in China will be to prevent smuggling. Smuggling will diminish only if the commercial treaty has very low duties.
Friend of China, 23.3.43 edition
Editorial - Sir Robert Peel partly attributed the need for new property and income tax to the uncertain cost of the China war. Now it is concluded and a huge indemnity paid he should withdraw the taxes.
Friend of China, 23.3.43 edition
Bombay Times reports the production of American goods has accelerated so quickly that prices are dropping. Cotton is cheaper than it has been for many years. This will kill the Bombay cotton farmers.
With US imports restricted by the high tariff and exports so vibrant, the amount of specie at New Orleans is accumulating rapidly. Hopefully America’s good fortune will enable them to put their banking affairs in order.
Friend of China, 23.3.43 edition
New York papers report the Pittsburgh iron mills have fabricated 100 Paixhan guns and Capt Chauncey has inspected them and found them well made. They are all 32 pounders weighing about 2 tons each. An iron steam frigate is also nearing completion at Pittsburgh.
Friend of China, 23.3.43 edition
Sir Henry Ellis is in Brazil to negotiate the slave-trade question. The Brazilians say they need slave labour to harvest the sugar crop as the weather is too hot for Europeans. Britain has a high tax on foreign sugar as so much is produced with slave labour. Sir Henry has been instructed to offer a British import duty reduction in return for freedom of the slaves.
Friend of China 30.3.43 edition
A long list of army promotions from the London Gazette of December 1842
Friend of China 30.3.43 supplement
The French government has officially informed all interested parties that it will not ratify the treaty of 20th Dec 41 for the suppression of the slave trade.
Friend of China, 30.3.43 supplement
During 1841, 2,247,778 gallons of Scotch whisky was drunk in England. The sellers described it on their bottles as ‘pure malt whisky’ but in fact the entire quantity manufactured from malt that year was 520,942 gallons. The rest is a mixture of whisky made with malted and unmalted grain, and is no doubt considered adequate by the Scots for the English ‘loons’.
On the other hand in Scotland during the same year 5,989,965 gallons of whisky were consumed of which only 614,743 was made from partially unmalted grain.
Total consumption of spirits in 1841:
|
England and Wales Scotland Ireland |
Population 15,911,725 2,628,257 8,265,382 |
Consumption (gallons) 11,511,907 6,078,719 6,515,781 |
It has hitherto been popularly assumed that the Irish drink more than anyone but if that is true they must be making their own spirits. Another anomaly is that the Scots are the most virtuous people of the kingdom but they appear to consume more alcohol than others.
Friend of China, 6.4.43 edition
It is deplorable that Lord Ashburton's treaty with the United States did not address the entire boundary between Canada and USA. The ownership of the Columbia River Territory (Oregon) remains in dispute.
While we were concerned to resolve this problem and settle the Sandwich Islands, the patriotic editor of the Colonial Magazine (Montgomery Martin), says we can get £500,000 from bringing the fur trade of this part of the continent to Oregon for export. The Russians are buying our furs and sending them into China via Kyakhta to barter for tea. We could do this from Hong Kong.
Friend of China, 6.4.43 edition
London papers - The US President’s comments on the Ashburton treaty:
‘Britain claims a portion of Oregon that is now occupied by Americans. The two governments should resolve their differences. But it became manifest in the late negotiations that determining the respective rights would have been protracted and, had it failed, might have involved other matters. Rather than forego other advantages, as this matter is not very pressing, its settlement was postponed’.
Friend of China 6.4.43 edition
The London Mail reports that Austrian Lloyd's at Trieste say communications between India and the Mediterranean are possible. The Austrian brig Pylades has arrived at Trieste from Alexandria with a cargo of tea, rice and indigo from the Far East which was delivered to Suez by the Indian ship Bengalee and carried overland by camel to Alexandria.
If carts can be made for the road carriage, the route will become viable and merchandise intended for the European continent can go direct instead of around the Cape. Cargo can reach Trieste, Leghorn and Marseilles within two months of dispatch from Bombay.
Friend of China, 11.4.43 edition
The Queen's speech to parliament this year, which she did not give personally, mentioned the commercial treaty just concluded with Russia but no details are yet available. Other bilateral commercial treaties are in negotiation with Spain, Holland, Austria, France, Portugal and Brazil. No doubt there will be many changes to our tariff.
Friend of China, 11.4.43 edition
The USS Somers, a 10 gun brig, was returning to its home port from Africa when the details of a mutiny were uncovered. The ringleader was Mr Midshipman Spencer, son of the US Secretary at War. He was 19 years old at the time. He and two associates were instantly hanged from the yardarm.
Friend of China, 8.6.43 edition
Recent London Times leader:
"We can make treaties at the cannon's mouth but in truth we are no diplomatists. The present cabinet seems unable to escape from the labyrinth into which My Lord Palmerston had wandered .... Our trade is withering away and our revenue declines exactly in proportion as we look back for a lesser trade not in our power and overlook a greater trade within our grasp.
“All home interests are neglected, trades combine and memorialise in vain; after months of wasted labour they sink into apathy, and wonder at the infatuation of the minister who can dally endlessly with foreign powers, and pay no regard to the thousands at home kept for years in an agony of suspense as to what shape their business may be forced to assume."
Friend of China 15.6.43 edition
March overland mail:
The Queen will have a baby in April.
A commercial treaty has been concluded with Russia permitting that country to send her ships to Indian ports on MFN trading basis.
London trade is bad - tea and silk prices falling. Money cheap at 2%.
Friend of China, 22.6.43 edition
President Tyler has enunciated American maritime policy. He says a belligerent's right to search ships and his right to visit ships is identical. He regards both as abandoned by Great Britain under the Washington Treaty. His view has been noted in London where it was thought it is contrary to Britain's construction of her claimed rights and will be debated.
Friend of China 22.6.43 edition
Extract from the Times concerning Oregon Territory sometimes called Columbia River Territory (a British possession on the American west coast):
Recent events in China make it apparent that as Chinese commerce and trade increases there will be an effect on the other nations of the Pacific Rim. This may be expected to particularly affect our Australian colonies and the North West of America. It highlights the need for a canal across the isthmus of Panama. The U S Government is alive to these foreseeable changes and President Tyler has asked Congress for a handsome provision for his representative to the Celestial court.
He has at the same time observed the importance that the Sandwich Islands might assume in such a new pattern of World trade and has accordingly published American recognition of Kamehameha III’s native government. The French have indicated the care with which they are observing these developments by their own occupation of the Marquesas. The Spanish assert a claim to these islands but no-one listens to them anymore. The French will develop them better, using them for trade in peace and as a base in war, but actually they lie too far south to be realistic challengers to the Sandwich Islands for the cross-Pacific trade and ship-repairing and provisioning business.
In spite of the blind unsparing haste with which our democratic descendants are rushing West to appropriate the ample Oregon territory, it seems unlikely that these rude backwoodsmen should reach the Pacific in our lifetimes. Nevertheless we should suspect that America intends to claim Oregon by leaping over the normal development of the next fifty years, sending emigrants directly there and increasing her settlements in the disputed area.
British America and the United States occupy the area between Russian and Spanish America. We have to settle these boundaries. Oregon may be an unpeopled region with a savage coast, but when the Treaty of Washington was signed last August the question of the Oregon boundary, whilst absolutely understood, was not addressed. In future the oldest nations of the Far East may be blended with those unborn states in the Far West, united by that ocean that rolls between the utmost limits of the old and new hemispheres.
Friend of China 22.6.43 edition
The overland mail has brought news from London up to 6th March 43:
HMS Blonde and Herald have arrived in America.
There has been a terrible earthquake in Antigua and the capital was almost completely destroyed but fortunately few lives lost.
Friend of China 13.7.43 edition
News from the London papers:
Lord Ashburton’s Washington Treaty has been approved by parliament and, with that out of the way, slavery in the East has become a concern of the country (Editor - following the report in this paper)
Friend of China, 3.8.43 edition
Prince Augustus of Saxe Coburg Gotha has married Princess Clementine of France.
Friend of China 17.8.43 edition
Judging from the numbers of captures on the African west coast, the slave trade seems to be going from strength to strength. The Portuguese ship Progresso was taken into Simon’s Bay on 2nd June. From the manifest, the tally was 6 dead, 231 alive and 162 thrown overboard.
Friend of China 17.8.43 edition
We learn from the mail that the Zollverein (German Customs Union) intends to send a consul to China to open commercial relations. We have previously adverted to the intentions of France and this all seems to reveal the awakening interest of Europe in China. No doubt the new tariff, which is so good for everyone, will encourage that interest. The Zollverein comprises 30 million people occupying 10,000 German square miles. It is an immense commercial network which Belgium and Hamburg are negotiating to join. With the foreseeable inclusion of the Hanseatic towns, the Zollverein will soon rank next to England in the extent of its shipping and external trade.
The recent attempt to buy the Chatham Islands from the New Zealand owner, although abortive, shows the Zollverein also wants colonies.
Owing to the stupidity of our legislators’ domestic policies, the Zollverein can now produce many English products at cheaper price than we. Woollens from Liege and Aix la Chapelle are less expensive than from Leeds or Huddersfield. These German goods have hitherto been shipped to London and brought here as British goods. Much of the cheap woollen cloth found at Ningpo and Shanghai and called Russian by the Chinese is actually German weaves from the Leipzig fair imported to China by Russians at Kyakhta.
As regards cottons, the Germans have their Turkey Red dye which is a world-beater. Even England sends yarns to Elberfeld for dyeing and return.
China can get cheaper hardwood and firearms from Liege than Birmingham. German linens and Bohemian glass would also find a market more easily than the English product. Amber is produced in Prussia, smalts (fragments of coloured glass) in Saxony, spelter (zinc) from Silesia. Napoleon said German steel was as good as Swedish.
German tea consumption is comparatively small but increasing. It is not considered as a medicine but, like us, as a beverage. In 1838 1,301,600 lbs of tea were imported at Hamburg. Even if the Germans were uninterested in tea there are many other Chinese products that could form a return cargo. Indeed they buy many Chinese goods from London through the East India Agencies. We have no statistics.
All this information comes from a visit to Prussia some years ago. We suspect that an important trade between the Zollverein and China could soon develop.
Friend of China, 17.8.43 edition - Rumour
Capt Elliot has proposed to the government of the Republic of Texas that it abolish slavery in return for British recognition of Texan independence from Mexico.
Friend of China 31.8.43 edition
M/s Chang and Eng, Siamese twins, have married the Misses Sarah and Adelaide Yeates of Wilkes County, North Carolina.
Friend of China, 24.8.43 edition
Comments on smuggling from ‘an established publication’:
The law loses its moral authority when tax is set so high it tempts to evasion and then punishes the offence. It is only necessary to examine the tariff of a country to know if smuggling is widespread in it or not.
Spain enacts a high import duty. British exports to Gibraltar exceed £1 millions. These exports are almost exclusively 7 million pounds of tobacco which is smuggled into Spain.
France permits its traders to bond goods intended for smuggling so no duty is paid on it en route. British duty evaded by French smugglers (mainly of brandy £500,000) in 1831 was estimated at £800,000 exclusive of tobacco. British duty on tobacco is 90% and ¾ of the duty payable on tobacco in Ireland is avoided by smuggling. The Board of Trade indicated in 1840 that at least 48% of French silks imported to England paid no duty.
On the other hand British goods to the value of about £2 millions are smuggled annually into France across the Belgian frontier and some through the channel ports. The Belgian intermediaries used dogs to effect their smuggling and in the decade 1820/30 a total of 40,278 smuggling dogs were caught by French Customs and destroyed.
In 1822 385 boats and 52 ships were seized by the British preventive service in the act of smuggling. In 1831 the preventive service cost £700,000 – 800,000; 116 smugglers were in British gaols and 64 more were pressed into serving in the Navy. The total cost of the Customs and Excise departments in 1840 was £2,309,611. In 1835 there were 11,600 Customs officers and 6,072 Excise officers.
Friend of China 31.8.43 edition
Summary of British news received by the June overland mail:
The Duke of Wellington and Sir Robert Peel have reiterated the late King’s concerns about Ireland in 1833 and a huge force has been sent to maintain the Union. Recruiting is commenced to increase every regiment, except those serving in India and China, by 60 men.
Goulburn has published the national account and we are £2 millions short. Peel over-estimated the Excise by £1.2 millions and the Customs by £0.75 millions. If you exclude the one-off receipts, like the Chinese ransom, its even worse. But we believe the crisis has passed and with the Income Tax starting to arrive and the improved business climate, there should be a surplus soon.
One third of the Church of Scotland has seceded from the establishment without fuss. Such an overt act of attachment to a principle should awaken interest in England where no-one knows of their ghostly squabbles.
Sir Richard Arkwright died in 1792 and left £½ million to his son. The son, also Richard Arkwright, has now died and left £7½ millions to his five sons. He paid the highest estate duty of £15,000, applicable to estates in excess of £1 million.
Friend of China 31.8.43 edition
The liberal newspaper Editors of London are angry with Lord Aberdeen for taking no reciprocal action after the French seizure of Otaheite (Tahiti).
Surely the World is big enough for both England and France?
French colonisation can only benefit England and vice versa. Honourable rivalry with France will quicken our energies and coerce our home government into finally evolving a proper system of colonial administration to replace the jobbery and mal-administration that now characterises it.
Friend of China, 31.8.43 edition
American news - Mr Webster has resigned as Secretary of State and abandoned his proposed commercial treaty with England
The Anglophobe Caleb Cushing leaves for China 1.7.43 on the Brandywine.
Friend of China 7.9.43 supplement
The Bombay has reached Bombay from Plymouth in 80 days, a remarkable achievement, reported in the Friend of India.
Friend of China, 7.9.43 edition
The Times article which we published last week about M Lagrené and a French Admiral coming to China considers the matter as an outburst of national vanity. We think not.
In France the domestic beet-sugar industry is being taxed to raise its cost to the level of colonial cane-sugar. It is expected that the monopoly on beet-sugar will then be removed and the home industry allowed to collapse, presumably to be replaced by imported cane sugar.
An association of capitalists headed by Baron Terneaux have acquired the best part of Cayenne with the intention of developing its produce of which sugar cane is the most important. The abolition of the beet-sugar monopoly appears to be part of a larger design that reveals the French government’s intention is to develop their merchant marine and their colonies and promote global trade as the English have done so successfully.
At the same time France has annexed the west (African) coast of the Red Sea. It is forming settlements in the Niger delta near Cape Palmas. It has just occupied the Marquesas and Society Islands, strengthened its post at Madagascar and extended its trading stations at Senegal. Now we have this matter (above) of a mission to China and an Admiral on the way here with a squadron.
We think all this reveals the French government’s new policy is one of colonial and trade expansion.
McCulloch’s Geographical Dictionary gives the value of French manufactures in 1839 as £94 millions. The principal items that year were silk £12 millions, woollens £10½ millions, linens £10.4 millions, cottons £9 millions, hardware £8½ millions, leather £6 millions and misc £37½ millions = £94 millions.
In 1836 French exports were worth £36 millions and imports £38 millions. In that year the French mercantile marine was still small as illustrated in the following table:
|
No of merchant ships in 1836 1 2 2 12 48 171 568 1,310 1,526 1,243 10,735 |
Tonnage 800+ 700 - 800 600 - 700 500 - 600 400 - 500 300 - 400 200 – 300 100 – 200 60 – 100 30 - 60 > 30 |
Friend of China 14.9.43 edition
London news from the overland mail up to 6th July:
The French and American press protest British occupation of the Sandwich Islands. They should note that this occupation is professedly provisional and may not be ratified by parliament.
We are pleased to see Commander W H Hall, late of the Nemesis, is to command the Royal Steam Yacht ‘Victoria and Albert’. This is a distinguished mark of favour for a truly meritorious officer.
Col Fawcett CB of HM’s 55th regiment was killed in a duel with his brother-in-law, Lt Monroe.
Princess Augusta of Cambridge has married the Grand Duke of Mecklenburg Strelitz.
Friend of China, 14.9.43 supplement
News from London by the July overland mail:
The arrival of the first tranche of the Chinese war indemnity has arrived and replenished the exhausted British treasury.
The opium controversy is quiet but Sir Robert Peel has to move the compensation payments for Elliot’s opium scrip soon and it will flare up again then.
Friend of China, 14.9.43 supplement
The best ways of increasing and cheapening the food supply is something that occupies the minds of statesmen. In 1838 wheat was 50/- a bushel and the British people paid £40 millions for food. When it then rose to 73/- a bushel they paid £60 millions and deprived other retailers of £20 millions of business. This price rise occurred because there was a duty on foreign grain that prevented it competing in our market.
In Britain today there are 17,000,000 people who eat wheat daily, 10,000,000 who eat potatoes and no wheat; and 4,000,000 who live principally on oatmeal. How can 10,000,000 people not exchange their work for wheat? What a shame when recently in New Orleans a plague commenced because of the surfeit of food which could not be consumed and had rotted on the wharves.
Friend of China, 5.10.43 edition
Manchester Guardian - The American cotton crop this year is enormous. 2,195,328 bales had arrived at U S ports by mid May and is increasing at 40,000 bales per week. A total crop of over 2,350,000 bales is expected. The export to Britain will be c. 1,300,000 bales. Vessels available to this country are numerous and freight rates accordingly low. We could receive 1,500,000 bales by early September. The stock in Liverpool at 900,000+ bales now far exceeds the same time last year which was itself a record.
Friend of China, 12.10.43 edition
The Cincinnati Gazette says there are nine lard oil factories in town, five of which produce 150,000 gallons of lard oil per annum. One of these factories produced 123,966 lbs of stearine in eleven months. Some of this is suitable for culinary purposes and only a small part is used for candles. Stearine is confused with tallow at New Orleans and the quantities exported of each are accordingly difficult to assess but the records do show an increasing quantity of ‘tallow’ being received at New Orleans from the west. One Cincinnati establishment manufactured 150,000 lbs of stearine candles last year. They are said to be as brilliant as sperm oil but they burn longer and waste less. Stearine candles require 16-19ºF more heat than sperm to melt. Consequently there is less accumulation of melted grease which makes them cleaner to use. They cost 25¢ per lb and are superseding sperm in the west. They are regularly shipped along the Caribbean north coast and to Havana and are well considered everywhere.
Friend of China, 12.10.43 edition
The New York Spectator has been considering great wealth:
Mr Arkwright was the richest man in Europe. He may have been ponderous but he was a leviathan capitalist. Only one man has half his wealth – Mr Solomon Heine of Hamburg – he has £4 millions approx. It should be recalled that Mr Arkwright’s estates included landed property to a value of £1 - £2 millions which was not included in the calculation of his estate duty.
While the Barings, the Rothschilds and the Hopes are immensely wealthy they cannot compare. Only by accumulating all the fortunes distributed in profits by the House of Baring and adding it to the firm’s capital might one approximate Arkwright’s total. All the capital of all the Rothschilds throughout Europe might reach half of Arkwright’s fortune (c. £4 millions).
In America the only man to approach Arkwright is Mr Astor of New York whose vast holdings of real estate and in commerce are said to be worth $16-17 millions or about £4 millions.
Another rich American was Stephen Girard. He made his money in St Domingo but was driven out when the liberated slaves assumed the government of that island and became the great banker of Philadelphia. It was a matter of contention between New York and Philadelphia as to which city had the richer capitalist. Stephen Girard died a few years ago and his last testament revealed wealth of $11 – 12 millions. When Astor was told of this he appeared satisfied and said ‘that would not do’, meaning, we believe, that it did not exceed his own prodigious accumulation.
Friend of China 19.10.43 edition
Sugar production in America (presumably 1842 but not stated)
|
Louisiana New York Ohio Vermont Indiana Mississippi Rhode Island Delaware |
119,947,720 lbs 10,048,100 lbs 6,363,386 lbs 4,647,934 lbs 3,727,795 lbs 77 lbs 50 lbs 0 lbs |
Friend of China, 6.1.44 edition
Complete recitation of a trade treaty dated Jan 1843 between United Kingdom and Russia in this edition.
Friend of China, 13.1.44 supplement
A commercial treaty has been concluded between Britain and Uruguay on 26.8.42. It is reproduced in full. The British Government is settling bilateral trade treaties globally.
Friend of China 13.1.44 supplement
The Queen has just visited France (and Belgium) with Prince Albert.
Editor - the French think the Queen spends all day eating Cheshire cheese and drinking porter.14
1 As mentioned elsewhere in the text Macau’s prosperity was principally due to its trade with Japan.
2 See the ‘Year without a Summer’ chapter for more details of the North West Passage.
3 The Editor may be wrong. The Bank’s private shareholders are thought to have not paid for their shares and relied for operating capital on the government’s shareholding (which was paid) and on the government revenue stream.
4 This is not the famous Act of a decade later after the potato bight and the famine but another little-known but likely similar Act of the same name.
5 Horse-riding terms.
6 The doublespeak in the last sentence is code for ‘we expect the same deal’. This Turkish agreement may well have been the precedent for British policy towards China.
7 i.e. Biddle’s money is never at risk and he can venture his entire capital into other trade.
8 This caused the Presbyterian secession from the Anglican Church
9 Calcutta, Bombay, Madras, Aden, Canton, London, Liverpool, Bristol, Glasgow, Birmingham, Manchester and Sheffield have Chambers. There may be a few others too.
10 He is a brother-in-law of Lord Minto.
11 To convert the basis of British revenue to a Land Tax would never be conceded by the land-owners who are now being joined increasingly by City merchants. It cannot be done in the British commercial system. It is the introduction of French principles by the back door.
12 Academic exponents of political economy consistently asserted the points made in the final paragraph throughout the period that Britain had favourable trade balances with the rest of the World. They comprise a regular feature of commentary on China-trade. Contrarily the accumulation of gold reserves remained a central bank intention in all western countries at that time and continues to be a feature of many western economies today e.g. America recently claimed to hold (2006) about 200 trillion dollars in gold and Germany claimed about half that.
13 The last King of France, eldest son of Philippe Égalité. He abdicated in 1848 shortly before the establishment of the 2nd Republic.
14 From the published grocery lists in the newspapers it does appear that the cheese of preference in 1840s England was Cheshire. Seldom is any other cheese available.