sure though gradual advances, in raising the British trade to a pitch of prosperity, and themselves personally to a degree of respectability in the estimation of the Chinese, which the most sanguine expectations, under a due knowledge of the circumstances of the case, would hardly have anticipated; securing at the same time to the revenues of Great Britain an annual sum, exceeding 3,500,000l, without any charge of collection."[1] The justness of the above remark will fitrther appear, when we consider that, according to the statement of Dr. Morrison, the Chinese rank in the scale by which they estimate the several classes of society,—the cultivators of the mind in the first class; the cultivators of the land next; in the third place are ranked the operators on the earth's produce; or the artizans and mechanics; and finally, the trader or merchant.[2]
During the greater part of the period since 1683, our commerce with China has been progressively increasing and prosperous. The finest ships which British industry and skill have constructed, and which British wealth and enterprise have employed in varied and extending commerce, have traversed half the circuit of the
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