and judicial," and he asked for a personal interview at which he would more fully explain the object and duties of the commission. While this communication was being translated, Lord Napier was called upon by two of the hong merchants, in execution of an instruction from the governor that they should inform him of the existing regulations as to intercourse, which must be carried on through the hong merchants. Lord Napier summarily dismissed them, with the statement that he "would communicate immediately with the viceroy in the manner befitting his Majesty's commission and the honor of the British nation."
After the hong merchants took their departure, Lord Napier's letter to the governor was sent to the city gate of Canton by one of his staff, accompanied by several British merchants. At the gate they encountered Chinese officers, to whom they tendered the letter for delivery to the governor, but all of them refused to receive it. A messenger was dispatched to the governor reporting the situation, and after several hours other officers appeared, but none of them would even touch the letter, and the British official was forced to return with it to Lord Napier.
The reason given for the refusal to receive the letter to the governor was that it did not have on the superscription the usual word employed in Chinese official correspondence, to wit, "pin" (petition), which Dr. Martin, a high authority in such matters, says is "a word which in Chinese expresses abject inferiority."[1] The governor, in reporting the event to the emperor,
- ↑ A Cycle of Cathay, W. A. P. Martin, New York, 1896, p. 21.
