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Untitled Article
reason with us , and we say , Will you fight V Trul y we are in a nice condition to fit out an armament for such a distance ! We had better look at home : there is quite enough to do for a long time , without making war upon the most peaceful nation of the earth . It would be most unchristian-like and abominable , even
though Lord Napier provoked them by practical hostilities ^ to " visit him with the bamboo . " The Chinese offend nobody : wh y should they be offended ? Since they wish for no acquaintances , why cannot other nations retire upon their own dignity ? They ought to do this , or else behave themselves with proper decorum , consistent with the laws of a foreign country ; knowing as they do , the nature of those laws before they leave their own .
There have been frequent fracas of a temporary nature with the Chinese . But the East India Company knew better how to manage them . They will not have a dictator for a Barbarian Eye . We trust that a few months will bring us news of a permanently amicable adjustment , and that there will be no
slaughterous attacks made upon these inoffensive tea-pot people . Meantime , while upon ' the turn of a chance , ' in Lord Napier ' s mood , hangs the fatal signal for laying certain ships of war alongside the walls , and openin g a raking fire through every inlet ; while we see , in fancy , thousands of Chinese come marching down with feathers
trumpets , drums and spears , to be knocked over just like toy soldiers taken out of a box , but to be replaced by other thousands who would be swept off with the same ease ; while Lord Napier foams and vows annihilation , and all England is in a state of excitement ; France performing antics , Russia looking sinister , and America watching Russia ; the Celestial Emperor sits cross-legged ^ under an umbrella up at Pekin , a long p ipe in one hand , a cup of ' green tea in the other , knowing nothing at all about the matter ! We had proceeded thus far when news arrived of the
commencement of actual hostilities ; though the list of killed and wounded does not appear to be at all serious , that is , on the part of the English , a few score of Chinamen being of no consequence ; and shortl y after , the death of Lord Napier was announced ;—evidentl y occasioned b y great irritation of the mind , acting upon the nervous system , and rendered fatal by the influence of the
climate . Painful as it may be to contemplate the premature dissolution of one who represented our nation in a distant empire , and who may have been a very excellent private character , however mistaken or misdirected in his public proceedings ;—it is nevertheless somewhat amusing to observe the puzzled state of nearl y all the newspapers as to any definite opinions on the subject .
Ihey want their cue . Some of them threw out " feelers" in favour of great indignation at the impertinent squibs and crackers let off within the hearing of the sick man ; but t lie public did not respond , so we heard no more from the papers . The limes has characteristicall y remained quiet ; merely acting as a newsmonger
Untitled Article
280 Chinese Politics .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), April 2, 1835, page 280, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2644/page/56/
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