on the coast, and what with flying visits by naval officers, they said, it was difficult enough for Chinese officials to keep, the foreign trade in order, but that barbarian women should also enter the hallowed precincts of the Celestial Kingdom was an outrage of Chinese fundamental principles of propriety and beyond all endurance. However, as usual, a cumshaw (bribe) smoothed away the objections, only the Captain of the Betsey, who so gallantly had rescued the shipwrecked women, was officially informed that he must never do it again, and take away the women as soon as possible on pain of permanent exclusion from the trade. As a parallel to this Chinese interdict placed on women, the Court of Directors of the East India Company renewed (A.D. 1825) a previously existing stringent order that European females were under no circumstances to be admitted to Canton. So strict was this rule, and so engrained did it become in the trading community of Canton, that the Hongkong successors in the old Canton trade maintained, until comparatively recent years, the same principle in the form of restrictions which the leading firms placed on marriage in the case of their employees.
As regards private traders in Canton, the East India Company watched, for nearly two centuries, with Argus' eye against the violation of their monopoly by adventurous intruders. No British subject was allowed to land at Canton except under a passport from the Court of Directors. Nor was any British ship permitted to participate in the China trade except when owned or chartered, or furnished with a licence, by the Company or by the Indian Government. Such licences were moreover subject to be cancelled at any moment by the Select Committee at Canton, who had also legal power to deport any British subject defying their authority. Nevertheless there were bold spirits who forced their way in. In the year 1780 a Mr. Smith was discovered at Canton trading on his own account, but was immediately ordered off without mercy. However, the East India Company's power extended only over their own nationals, and private traders of other nationalities
