An account of the proceedings of the government metropolitan police in the city of Canton

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HENRY ROUSE VIETS

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AN ACCOUNT OF THE PROCEEDINGS

OP THE

GOVERNMENT

METROPOLITAN POLICE

IN THE CITY OP

CANTON.

Bv JAMES HENRY, Esq. M.D.

Can such things be,

And overcome us like a summer's clOud,

Witliout our special wonder ?

Macbetu.

DUBLIN s
HARDY k WALKER, 4, L0WE:R SACKVILLE-ST.

1840.

Digitized by tine Internet Arcinive "

in 2010 witin funding from

Open Knowledge Commons and Harvard Medical School

http://www.archive.org/details/accountofproceedOOhenr

PROCEEDINGS OF THE
GOVERNMENT

METROPOLITAN POLICE

IN THB

CITY OF CANTON.

CHAPTER I.

Le monarque des dieux leur envoie une grue,
Qui les croque, qui les tue,
Quiles gobe a son plaisir.
Les grenocjilles qui demandent un" roi.

The government metropolitan police had not
been long established in the city of Pekin,
when the inhabitants of Canton became weary
of their old night watch, and desired to see a
new police establishment in their own city on
the model of the Pekin metropolitan police.
The old watchmen, said they, do not mind us ;
they are appointed by ourselves, and paid by
ourselves, and are under no authority but our
own. Watchmen will never be efficient unless
they have a tight hand over them. We must

a2

4 PROCEEDINGS or THE GOVERNMENT

get rid of ours, and have a new police under
the control of a government commissioner, who
will take care that they do their duty ; as for
us we have something else to do than to look
after watchmen and police constables. Then
the people of Canton applied to the imperial
legislature and said, "Grive us a new police on
the model of thePekin metropolitan police ;'' but
the voice of the people of Canton was too weak
to be heard at Pekin, for Canton is five hundred
miles distant from Pekin, and there were at
the same time hundreds and thousands of other
cities in the great empire of China calling at
the top of their voices on the imperial legisla-
ture, and there was only one imperial legisla-
ture for them all; so the voice of the people of
Canton could not be heard; but after some
time it happened that the imperial legislature
began to centralise and assimilate, and then
they gave to the city of Canton a metropolitan
police on the model of the Pekin metropolitan
police. Then great was the joy of the people of
Canton, and loud their praises of that paternal
government, and of that wise legislature which
even at so great a distance as Pekin had heard
and attended to the prayers of the people of

METROPOLITAN POLICE IN CANTON. 0

Canton. The frogs did not rejoice more when
Jupiter gave them a king, than the people of
Canton rejoiced when the imperial legislature
gave them the new government metropolitan
police. Some indeed looked grave and shook
their heads, but they were only few, and the
people of Canton did not mind the grave looks
or the shaking of the heads of a few who
thought themselves wiser than the rest.

Nothing could exceed the admiration of the
people of Canton for the new police. They
admired their decent, quiet, orderly appear-
ance, their white gloves and comfortable
coats, and polished hats and boots ; not one
of them was ever seen smokino-, or eatinof
opium, or drunk in the streets. " We are
glad," said the people of Canton, " that we
have got rid of the old watch with their cotton
nightcaps and their wooden boxes, in which
they used to snore away the night. We have
now got a most respectable and cfiicient body
of men, constantly on the watch both day and
night, changed at regular hours, and what is
still better, they are kept to their duty without
any trouble to us ; they go about too without
arras, and do not terrify us as the old watch-

6 PROCEEDINGS OP THE GOVERNMENT

men did with their long iron-pointed halberds
and rattles, nor do they disturb us in the dead
hour of the night by calling out what o'clock it
is, and wake us from our sleep that we may
know the hour. There will now be an end to
all midnight brawls and drunken squabbles,
and the streets will be as quiet by night as
regular and orderly by day." And experience
proved, as the sequel of this history will show,
that the people of Canton were right, and that
the streets of Canton did become quiet by
night and regular and orderly by day.

The first step towards this desirable end was
effected the moment the new government police
appeared upon the streets of Canton ; for from
that moment the calling of the hours and the
springing of rattles, and the drunken brawls
with the watchmen ceased, and the burghers of
Canton were not disturbed in their sleep, from
the time they went to bed until the time they
got up ; and great was their delight thereat, and
loud their praises of the new institution, and
of the admirable arrangements of Mr. Commis-
sioner Vin, father of the present famous Com-
missioner Lin, the opium destroyer.

But although the people of Canton were no

METROPOLITAN POLICE IN CANTON. 7

longer disturbed at night, still it sometimes
happened that they were awakened early in
the morning by a small tiny voice, which used
to cry " wheep, wheep, wheep," very early in the
morning in the streets of Canton; and when
the police watched, they found that this voice
proceeded from the red lips and white teeth of
several little black-faced children, who went
about the streets with bags on their shoulders
for carrying away the soot of the chimneys, for
Canton is a very smoky city. Therefore the
cook-maids watched for these little children
early in the morning, that they might send
them up the chimneys to scrape them and
brush them, and carry away the soot ; and the
little children used to cry "wheep, wheep,
wheep," to let the cook-maids know that they
were there, and ready to go up the chimneys.
Now there had been a decree of the imperial
legislature forbidding these little children to
cry "wheep, wheep, wheep," but notwithstanding
they persevered, and the old watchmen were
either too sleepy or too good-natured to pre-
vent them. At first the new police did not
know where the sound came from : but when
they watched they found that it came from the

8 PROCEEDINGS OP THE GOVERNMENT

children, and that it was not the chirping of
birds; and after that the cook-maids looked in
vain for the children, for their tiny voice was
heard no more. Whether they perished of
hunger or fled to some city where there was no
metropolitan police was never ascertained.

The people of Canton had scarcely had time
to admire the steady orderly demeanour of the
new police, and had not enjoyed for more than
a month the absence of the watchmen's rattle,
and of the little chimney sv/eepers " wiieep,
wheep, wheep," when they were called upon to
pay the half year's tax for the new police,
amounting to sixpence in the pound of British
money, or one-fortieth part of the rental of Can-
ton ; which was just three times as much as had
been required for the support of the old watch.
Those who had shaken their heads at first now
shook them again, but it was to no purpose ;
the people of Canton had got good value for
the money which they were called upon to pay,
and even if they had not, still the money must
be paid. There was therefore no use in shaking
their heads; it was observed, however, that the
number of heads shaken w^as somewhat .greater

than it had been before.

\

METROPOLITAN POLICE IN CANTON. 9

The people of Canton now began to look
more narrowly at the new police, and some
said that they carried arms, and some said that
they did not. This discussion, however, did
not last long, for it happened just at this time
that the Mayor of Canton gave a great official
dinner, and that as some young men of the
company were returning home at a late hour,
talking loudly and laughing, and one of them
singing a loyal song, a party of the new govern-
ment police came up and commanded them to
cease singing and laughing and talking loudly,
and to walk quietly home. It is probable that
the young men, who had drunk pretty freely
of Chinese wine, thought that they had only
the old night-watch to deal with, for they went
on laughing and singing, and did not mind
what the police said to them ; whereupon the
police proceeded to arrest them, and when the
young men resisted, the police drew out of their
long skirt pockets short thick bludgeons, hea-
vily loaded at the end, every man of them a
bludgeon, and in a moment the young men
were levelled to the ground and dragged off to
the station-house, and in the morning they
were brought before the magistrates and fined

Ad

10 PROCEEDINGS OF THE GOVERNMENT

for being drunk, all but one who died of his
wounds in the station-house before he could be
brought before the magistrates.

This circumstance having decided the ques-
tion whether the government metropolitan
police carried arms or not, the people of Can-
ton next began to consider whether pikes and
halberds, like those of the old watchmen, would
not have been better weapons for the new
police than those deadly bludgeons which they
carried in their pockets. They debated this
point with much warmth until some one ob-
served that it was useless to discuss the ques-
tion, as they had no authority over the new
police, and could not so much as cause them to
wear black gloves in place of white ones. The
justice of this observation was apparent, and
the people of Canton ceased to discuss what
sort of arms should be carried by the new
police.

It was not long, however, before another
question arose among them, and they asked
" why do the new police always walk upon the
curb-stone of the foot-way." They leave the
wall to the burghers out of respect, said some
of the good people of Canton. A little obs^er*

METROPOLITAN POLICE IN CANTON. 11

vation, however, showed that where there was
only the curb-stone, and no space between it
and the wall, the police kept the curb-stone,
and the burghers were shoved into the channel;
and further observation showed that the same
thing happened when the foot- way was two
flags wide, for the police kept the curb- stone,
and their sergeant kept the inner flag, and the
burghers were shoved into the channel. One
day it happened that where the foot-way was
two flags wide, a burgher through inadvertence
took the wall when a file of police was coming
along the foot-way, the file upon the curb-
stone, and the sergeant on the inner flag ; he
was jostled about among them, and got several
contusions upon his thighs from the loaded
ends of the bludgeons which they carried in
their pockets. Another burgher, who was
possessed of the organ of combativeness,
stopped short, and stood stock-still on the curb-
stone as the file of police came down meeting
him. The sergeant ordered the file to halt.
" Is a free burgher of Canton to go ofi* the
curb -stone," said the burgher, " and wet his
feet in the channel, in order to make room for
the new poHce ? The police are the servants

12 PEOCEEDINGS OF THE GOVERNMENT

of the burghers, and not the burghers of the
pohce."

" We beg your pardon, Sir," said the
sergeant, stepping forward, "we are not the
servants of the burghers of Canton, but of Mr.
Commissioner Vin and the imperial govern-
ment at Peldn ; you must go out into the
channel, or we shall arresfc you instantly, and
lodge you in the station-house for the night,
and in the morning you will be fined, and per-
haps imprisoned, for obstructing the police,
unless you can prove your innocence to the
satisfaction of Mr. Commissioner Vin and the
imperial government at Pekin."

This argument was conclusive, and the free
burghers of Canton never a^fterwards disputed
the curb-stone with the government metropo-
litan police.

" After alV said they, " it is not so very
inconvenient to take a few steps in the channel,
when there is no room on the foot -way ; and
even if it were, we should not forget that the
frequent wetting of our feet, and being now
and then run over by the carts and carriages,
will accustom us to hardship, and render us
better able to bear the strictness of martial law,

METROPOLITAN POLICE IN CANTON. 13

which, it is not imhkely, will soon be pro-
claimed in OantoD. Thus did the burghers of
Canton, by the application of the highest kind
of philosophy, reconcile themselves to what
was inevitable.

14? PROCEEDINGS OF THE GOVERNMENT

CHAPTER II.

" Ah ! Freedom is a noble thing."

Barbour in Ellis's Specim.

Now the new government police kept watch
continually in the streets of Canton both clay
and night, and they walked up and down both
in the front and at the rere of the houses, and
they looked in at the doors and e.t the windows,
and they looked up at the roofs and down
into the areas and kitchens, and they saw
every thing which was brought into the houses,
and every thing which was brought out, and
they knew who visited at every house, and
they saw every thing which the burghers did,
and they watched them when they went out,
and when they came home, and they listened to
what they said, and they knew the face and per-
son of every burgher, so that if any one offended
the government and fled to Europe or America,
there was always a policeman who knew him

METROPOLITAN POLICE IN CANTON. 15

ready to be sent after him to bring him back
from any part of the world where he might be.
And they had books and pencils in their
pockets, every man a bludgeon in one pocket,
and a book and a pencil in the other ; and
they wrote down in their books every tiling
that they saw and heard, and reported it every
night to the superintendant, and the su-
perintendant to the chief commissioner, and
the chief commissioner to the imperial go-
vernment at Pekin. And they were disci-
plined and marshalled every day, and they
had Serjeants and captains, and the guard
which they kept in the streets of Canton w^as
relieved every six hours. And in the dead
hour of the night, when all else was silent, you
might hear the heavy military tread of their
companies marching to relieve guard. And
they were not in any respect under the control
of the inhabitants of Canton, but obeyed the
orders of the imperial government. Yet they
were not a standing army, for they had neither
drums nor fifes, and their coats were blue and
not red, and they were not armed with mus-
kets and bayonets, but only with bludgeons.
And they had station houses in the different

16 PROCEEDINGS OF THE GOVERNMENT

quarters of the city, and if any burgher was
found staggering in the streets, or lying sick or
insensible from eating opium or drinking wine,
or from a fit of apoplexy, or fainting, or from
exposure to the cold, or from want of food, he
was brought to the station-house, and locked
up for the night ; and in the morning, if he was
still living, he was brought before the magis-
trates and fined for being drunk; and if any
burgher had a dispute or quarrel with a police-
man, he was locked up in the station-house for
the night, and in the morning he was brought
before the magistrates and fined for being
drunk, and in default of payment, he was im-
prisoned for forty-eight hours.

And there were, in the city of Canton, a
great many poor men who had cars and horses,
and plied for hire. And the magistrates
made what rules and regulations they pleased
for these poor carmen, and enforced the ob-
servance of them by the infliction of fines, and
by seizing their cars. And they appointed at
what rate they should drive, and what fares
they should receive, and how many passengers
they should take up ; and where they should
go, and where they should stop, and where

METROPOLITAN POLICE IN CANTON. 17

they should keep their cars. And before the
government metropohtan pohce were esta-
bHshed, these poor carmen now and then in-
fringed the rules of the magistrates, and yet
escaped being fined ; but after the establish-
ment of the police, they never escaped ; for
the policemen were always upon the spot
watching them as cats watch mice ; and every
time that they infringed any of the rules, the
policemen pounced upon them, and brought
them before the very magistrates who had
made the rules, and they fined them and
seized their cars. And nothing could be more
free and happy than the condition of these
poor carmen, for the magistrates had absolute
authority over them, both legislative and exe-
cutive ; and they paid the magistrates an an-
nual rent for leave to do whatever the magis-
trates ordered them to do ; and the magis-
trates fined them and seized their cars when-
ever they deviated in the smallest degree
from their orders, and they had no appeal
from the decision of the magistrates, and no
protection from the fines and the seizing of
their cars. But the mandarins drove where
they pleased, and as fast or as slow as they

18 PEOCEEDINGS OF THE GOVERNMENT

pleased, and stopped where they pleased, and
paid neither annual rent nor daily fines to the
magistrates.

And there was an edict of the imperial
legislature, that no drink should be sold ex-
cept in licensed houses, and as soon as the
government metropolitan police was esta-
blished, this edict was carried into effect ; and
if any burgher was found drinking in an un-
licensed house, he was fined ; and if any
burgher gave a supper or a party, or if there
was a wedding, and if drink was sold in the
house, the whole party was arrested and
brought before the magistrates, and men
women and children were fined ; but if the
mandarins had a party at the great rotundo
€*anton ^^ B#kia, which was not licensed, the man-
darins were not fined, nor those who sold drink
in the rotundo, but the police attended, and
kept the burghers at a distance, and made way
for the carriages of the mandarins, and kept
all things in order. And the fines which the
magistrates received were very numerous, and
amounted to many thousand pounds of British
money annually. And out of the fines a fund
was formed by which the government metro-

METROPOLITAN POLICE IN CANTON. 19

politan police might be increased as occasion
required, without disturbing the repose of the
citizens of Canton, or giving trouble to the
imperial legislature.

20 PROCEEDINGS OF THE GOVERNMENT

CHAPTER III.

Justice. — What hast under thy cloke, woman ?
Bose, (opening her cloak.) — Marry; a coat of Linsey-wolsey,
and a heart beating hard, your worship.

Old Play.

And there was an order from Mr. Commis-
sioner Vin that all persons who carried any
sack, or basket, or bundle, or load of any kind,
or any placard, should walk out in the centre
of the streets, and not upon the footways ; and
the police drove all such persons off the foot-
ways and made them walk out in the middle
of the streets, in the dirt and in the wet ; and
the streets of Canton were newly M'Adamized,
and the sharp edges of the split stones cut
their feet, so that they bled ; for some of them
had no shoes, and the shoes of others of them
were bad, and the weight of the burdens \vhich
they carried on their shoulders, forced the
sharp edges of the stones into their feet ; and
many of them were run over by the horses, and
the drays, and the carriages ; and they pre-

ISIETROPOLITAN POLICE IN CANTON. 21

sented an liumble memorial to Mr. Commis-
sioner Vin, and said that the police had driven
them off the footways, which were made for
the safety of those who went on foot, and for
their protection against horses and carriages,
and had driven them out into the middle of the
streets, and that they were knocked down and
run over by the carriages, and they humbly
begged to be allowed to walk on the footways
again, as they used to do w4ien there was no
government metropolitan poHce in Canton.

And Mr. Commissioner Vin answered, that
if they walked on the footways, they would
incommode the mandarins, which could not
be permitted, and that, as there was no other
place for them, they must walk out among the
horses and carriages ; and that if any of them
were hurt, they would be taken care of in the
hospitals, and the children and widows of
those who m^ight be killed, would be supported
in the workhouses, at the expense of the citi-
zens of Canton.

And there was another order from Mr.
Commissioner Vin, that the police should stop
all persons who were found carrying bundles
after sunset, and should brins^ them to the

22 PROCEEDINaS OP THE GOVERNMENT

station-house, and examine what was in the
bundles. And it was only after sunset that
the poor women of Canton could go out to buy-
food and other necessaries for themselves and
their children, for they were at work all day.
And when the order came from the Chief Com-
missioner, that all persons carrying bundles
should be stopped and searched, the women
when they went out in the evenings used to
hide their bundles under their cloaks. And
then if a policeman saw a woman after sun-
set, with a bulk under her cloak, he stop-
ped her and opened her cloak, and then if it
was a woman with child, he told her to go
on ; but if she had a bundle, he brought her to
the station-house, and examined what was in
the bundle ; and if there was nothing in it
but some potatoes for her children's supper, or
a loaf of bread, or a few turf or candles, she
was dismissed ; but if there was any article
of greater value, she was kept in the station-
house all night, and was brought before the
magistrates in the morning, and committed
to the great House of Correction of Canton on
suspicion of being a thief. And after a little
time the poor women of Canton ceased to go

METEOPOLITAN POLICE IN CANTON. 23

out at all, for they were at work all day from
sunrise to sunset ; and if they went out after
sunset they were stopped by the police to see
what they had under their cloaks ; so they
ceased to go out altogether, which contributed
greatly to the quiet of the streets of Canton,
and to the security of the property of the
mandarins; and Mr. Commissioner Vin and
the government metropolitan police, were in
great favour with all the mandarins.

And the Chief Commissioner issued an order
against all crying of wares, and all ballad sing-
ing, and playing of musical instruments in the
streets ; and then if the police heard a poor
woman cry fresh eggs, they arrested her,
and lodged her in the station-house for the
night, and in the morning she was brought
before the magistrates, and fined for being
disorderly and creating a disturbance in the
streets. And if they found a blind fiddler
with a dog leading him, they killed the dog,
and took the fiddle and lodged it in the sta-
tion- house, and brought the fiddler before the
magistrates, and fined him for being disorderly
and creating a disturbance in the streets.

24 PROCEEDINGS OP THE GOVERNMENT

CHAPTER IV.

" Perhaps we've borrowed this from the Chinese.**

Don Juax.

And there were a great many poor men and
women who used to sit upon stools at the
corners of the streets, and they had Httle
baskets and tables before them, and some of
them sold apples and oranges ; and some of
them sold nuts and gingerbread ; and others
sold oysters, and cockles, and crabs. And there
was an order from Chief Commissioner Yin
that they should all be removed; and the
policemen threw down their tables and their
stools, and their baskets, and scattered their
apples and oranges, and cockles, and nuts, and
gingerbread. And those who sold them were
brought before the magistrates, and the ma-
gistrates told them that they should sell in
shops and houses, and not in the streets. And
they said that they would rather sell in shops

METROPOLITAN POLICE IN GANTON. 25

and houses, where they would be warm and
comfortable, and where their goods would not
be injured by the weather ; but that they were
too poor to do so, for that all the money
which they earned would not pay the rent of
ishops and houses, and was barely sufficient to
buy food for themselves and their children,
and to pay for the straw on which they slept
at night, in back cellars and back garrets.
And the magistrates said that they must find
some other way of Hving ; and then as they
were too poor to pay fines, they were dis-
charged. And they wandered into the streets,
and the police saw them, and asked them what
they w^ere doing, and they said "Nothing." And
the police said, " How do you live V And they
answered, " We did live by selling apples and
oranges, and nuts and gingerbread, and
oysters and cockles, and crabs, but our tables
and stools have been taken from us, and our
goods have been destroyed, and we are going
about not knowing what to do." And the
police said, "You are vagrants and vagabonds,
and must be taken before the magistrates,
because you have no mode of livelihood." And
the police took them before the magistrates,

26 PROCEEDINGS OF THE GOVERNMENT

and they were convicted of being vagrants,
and were imprisoned for three months in the
great House of Correction of Canton, and
were kept to hard labour for eight hours every
day, and were fed at the expense of the
burghers. And when the term of their impri-
sonment had expired, they were discharged ;
and as soon as they were discharged, some of
them went into the work-houses, where they
were supported at the expense of the burghers
of Canton; and others of them hid themselves;
for they said, " If we wander about, not having
anything to do, we shall be sent to the great
House of Correction where we were before.^' So
they hid themselves in holes and corners, and
in sewers and in vaults under ground, and
when they were hungry they came out and
robbed for food ; and those who did so were
arrested by the police, and some of them were
transported, and others of them were hanged.

METROPOLITAN POLICE IN CANTON* 2?

CHAPTER V,

*' Porter — Make way there for the Princess.
Porter's Man — You great fellow, stand close up, or I'll make
your head ache.
Porter— You o' the camblet, get up o* the rail : I'll
pick you o'er the pales else."

King Hknry VIII.

And the government metropolitan police kept
every thing in order in the streets of Canton,
and removed all obstructions. And it hap-
pened that the Great Lieutenant Mandarin
was to set out for Pekin at four o'clock in the
afternoon of a certPtin day ; and at twelve o'clock
he stood at the gate of his castle, which opened
into the principal street of Canton, and the
Chief Commissioner of police stood beside
him ; and it was the busiest time of the day in
Canton, from twelve until four oVlock ; for the
merchants were going to the Exchange, and
their clerks were hastening to the banks with
the money to pay their bills, and the postmen
were running with the letters? and the stage

28 PROCEEDINGS OF THE GOVERNMENT

coaches were going in and out full of passen-
gers, and the cars were plying to and fro, and
the lawyers, and attorneys, and the witnesses,
and the suitors, were going to the law courts,
and the physicians were going to visit the sick,
and some were making haste to get to the
steam-boats, and others to the railways, and
the porters were carrying goods, and there
were trucks and cars, and carts and waggons,
heavily loaded, going both back and forward.
And when the Great Lieutenant Mandarin
saw all the hurry and bustle, and all the busi-
ness that was going on without any distur-
bance or irregularity, he praised the Chief
Commissioner and the government metropo-
litan police, and said, " You keep all things
orderly and regular here, just as they do in the
great city of Pekin ;"' and the Chief Commis-
sioner said, " Yes, your Excellency, we keep
all things in order ; we make those who go,
keep on the left, and those who come, keep on
the right ; and we allow no man to impede his
neighbour or obstruct the highways ;" and then
he called the superintendant, and commanded
the streets to be cleared, because his Excel-
lency the Great Lieutenant Mandarin was to

MEIROPOLITAN POLICE IN CANTON. 29

set out on his journey to Pekin at four o'clock
that day; and all the cars, and carts, and
wheelbarrows, and waggons, and coaches, were
turned out of the principal street, and out of
all the line of streets through which his Excel-
lency was to pass, from one end of Canton to
the other ; and the soldiers came and drew up
in lines along the streets, in front of the houses
on both sides, and the shops were shut up, and
no man was allowed to pass across the street ;
and if any one attempted to pass, not knowing
that his Excellency was to set out for Pekin in
four hours afterwards, the soldiers placed their
muskets across him and stopped him ; and if
he persisted, the police came up and took him
to the station-house, and he was kept there all
night, and the next morning he was brought
before the magistrates and fined for obstruct-
ing the streets. And the police stopped up the
openings out of all the other streets into the
line through which his Excellency, the Great
Lieutenant Mandarin, was to pass, and they
turned back all the horses, and carriages, and
carts, and wheel-barrows, and stage coaches,
and men carrying loads, and nothing was suf-
fered to pass ; and the great line of the prin-

,^9

80 PROCEEDINGS Or THE GOVERNMENT

cipal streets, from one end of Canton to the
other, was kept free from all passengers ; and
the officers of the troops who lined the streets,
and the staff of his Excellency the Great Lieu-
tenant Mandarin, rode up and down in the
void space for four hours, waiting for his Ex-
cellency to leave the castle ; and all the busi-
ness of Canton was interrupted for four hours;
and at the end of that time the Great Lieute-
nant Mandarin came out of the castle and rode
along the line, followed by his soldiers and his
staff; and a strong body of the metropolitan
police, mounted on horseback, went before him,
and the Chief Commissioner rode by his side.
And the Great Lieutenant Mandarin admired
the order and regularity with which every thing
was done, and how the government metropo-
litan police kept the streets clear for the con-
venience of the burghers of Canton, and for
the despatch of business, and he said to the
Chief Commissioner — " This is even more
regular than the great city of Pekin, for the
streets are not cleared there for the Emperor
himself." And when they had passed along
the whole line, the military were ordered
to fire ; and they fired several voHies, and many

METROPOLITAN POLICE IN CANTON. SI

windows were broken ; and then they marched
to their barracks, and the business of Canton
began a^ain ; and some of the shopkeepers re-
opened their shops ; but many did not, for it
was almost dark ; and the physicians proceeded
on to visit the sick, and they found some of
them dying and others of them dead ; and the
witnesses and lawyers were too late at court,
and the suitors lost the term ; and many of the
merchants^ bills were dishonored, for the clerks
were too late with the money ; and those who
were to go by the railways and steam -boats
were not in time, and had to wait until the
next day. And the government police were
always busy in maintaining order and removing
obstructions, and keeping the passage of the
streets free for every one.

32 PROCEEDINGS OF THE GOVERNMENT

CHAPTER VI.

*' And the physician seyde : there be some remedies worse

than the disease."

Old Story.

And there were a great many pickpockets in
the city of Canton ; and when they saw the
new government metropohtan pohce they
were filled with consternation, and said, " Now
indeed we are utterly ruined : the poor-laws
gave us the hrst blow, but the new police will
finish us entirely. For since the poor-laws
came, those who used to have gold in their
purses have only silver, and those who used to
have silver have only copper, and those who
used to have copper have nothing at all; and
those who used to carry silk handkerchiefs
carry only cotton ones, and those who used to
carry cotton ones carry only bits of paper ;
but the new police are worse than the poor-
laws, for they will not so much as let us put
our hands into the burghers pockets to feel

METROPOLITAN POLICE IN CANTON. 33

whether the poor-laws have left anything in
them." And they would have removed out of
Canton to some other city where there were
no metropolitan police, but an old pickpocket
said, " You talk more like children and honest
men than like wise men and pickpockets : you
have nothing to fear from the new police ; they
have something else to do than to mind thieves
and pickpockets. It will be quite enough for
them to mind their business, and keep the
burghers in order. In my opinion thieves and
pickpockets never thrive so well any where as
where there is an efficient government police.
If you doubt the correctness of this opinion
only cast your eyes upon the city of Pekin :
they have had an efficient government metro-
politan police established there these twenty
yeg-rs, and yet there is no city in the world
where our profession is so rapidly advancing in
numbers, wealth, and respectability. And the
pickpockets were convinced, and cried ' hear,
hear;' and they took courage and did not
leave the city of Canton. And it happened just
as the old pickpocket said, for the streets of
Canton were full of the new government police,
and yet the burghers' pockets were picked

34* PROCEEDINGS OP THE GOVERNMENT

every day ; and Mr. Commissioner Via asked
the policemen — " Why do you let the thieves
pick the pockets of the burghers every day ?"
And the policemen said — " We cannot help it,
we have so many things to do ; for we have to
watch the burghers both when they go in and
when they go out, and to take a note of every
thing they say and of every thing they do, and
we have to report daily to the imperial govern-
ment, and we have to keep the streets regular
and in order, and to remove all obstructions,
and we have to bring the carmen every day be-
fore the magistrates to be fined, and we have
to see that no opium is eaten, and that every
house where wine or spirits or tobacco is sold
is closed at a certain hour, except the great
rotundo of Canton, and we have to take care
that none of those articles is sold in any unli-
censed house to the burghers, but only in the
great rotundo to the mandarins, and we have
to bring all those who are found drunk to the
station-house, and we have to attend the next
day to give evidence against them, for it is upon
our evidence that the magistrates convict them
and receive the fines, and we have to clear the
streets every time the Great Lieutenant Man-

METROPOLITAN POLICE IN CANTON. 35

darin goes to Pekin or returns from it, and we
have to put down all agitation against the go-
vernment, and to promote all agitation for the
government, and to help the government at all
registries and at all elections both for guardians
of the poor and for municipal officers, and for
burgesses to send to Pekin to serve in the im-
perial legislature, and we have to attend every
where and at all times day and night, and to
obey all the orders of the imperial government,
and we cannot prevent the pickpockets from
picking the pockets of the burghers unless our
number be doubled/' And Mr. Commissioner
Vin saw that the policemen said right, and the
number of the policemen was immediately dou-
bled, and so was the tax ; and then if a pick-
pocket attempted to steal a burgher's hand-
kerchief he was sure to be detected, and the
policemen took the handkerchief and lodged it
in the station-house, and brought both the pick-
pocket and the burgher before the magistrates,
and the pickpocket was imprisoned in the
great House of Correction, where he was
supported at the expense of the inhabi-
tants of Canton ; and the burgher being
bound over to prosecute, could not leave the

S6 PROCEEDINGS OP THE GOVERNMENT

City until the trial was over, or if lie did leave
it, he was obliged to return in time to attend
the trial. And when the trial came on, it some-
times happened that the pickpocket was ac-
quitted either from a flaw in the indictment or
some mistake in conducting the prosecution ;
but it generally happened that, if the burgher
had taken care to fee counsel and attorney, the
pickpocket was found guilty, and sentenced to
a further term of imprisonment, during which
he was supported at the expense of the inhabi-
tants of Canton; and the handkerchief was
restored to the owner on his paying the police-
man a gratuity, which was not expected to be
much above the entire value of the handkerchief.
And at first, after the doubling of the police,
there were a great many of those trials before
the Recorder of Canton, but they gradually
became fewer and fewer, and at last ceased
entirely ; and the burgher's wives read ■ the
newspapers every day, and when they found
that there were no more accounts of pick-
pockets being taken up and tried before the
Recorder, they said, " Our husbands will not
require so many handkerchiefs now, for the
metropolitan police have driven the pick-

METROPOLITAN POLICE IN CANTON. S7

pockets out of Canton.'' But still the burghers
required as many handkerchiefs as before, and
their wives were puzzled and could not under-
stand how it was ; until, one day, it happened
that a burgher's wife, as she was walking with
her husband, saw a pickpocket stealing the
handkerchief out of her husband's pocket, and
cried out, " Stop thief ! Stop thief ! I see the
way the handkerchiefs go." But her hus-
band put his hand upon her mouth and pulled
her on ; and when they were at some distance,
and he was sure that the thief had got clear
off, he said, "My dear, do not say another word
about the handkerchief, unless you wish me to
be brought before the magistrates, and to be
bound over to prosecute, like the goose in the
story of the goose and the schoolmaster." And
when the burgher's wife said, that she had
never heard the story of the goose and the
schoolmaster, the burgher said. Once upon
a time a boy was going to school, and he saw a
goose with her goslings feeding on the side of
the road, and he ran and plucked a feather out
of her wing, and the goose became very angry,
and made a great outcry, and ran after the
boy to school and complained to the school-

38 PROCEEDINGS OP THE GOVERNMENT

master ; and tlie schoolmaster told the goose,
that the busmess of the school could not be
interrupted at that moment, but that as
soon as school was over, the matter should be
inquired into, and then if she was able to
prove the crime against the boy, and identify
her feather, the boy should be punished as the
enormity of his crime required, and she should
have her feather restored to her. But the
goose said, that she could not stay, because she
had a family to attend to ; and that every thing
would go wrong at home, and her goslings
stray away and be lost, if she staid until school
was over ; and then the schoolmaster said, that
it was necessary to the ends of justice, that
she should stay, and he gave orders that her
wings should be clipped immediately, to pre-
vent her from flying away. And when the
school was over, the schoolmaster caused all the
boys in the school to stand up before the goose,
and he asked her, " which of these boys plucked
the feather out of your wing ?" And the goose
said, "I cannot tell, they are all so like." And
then the schoolmaster showed her two feathers
and said, " Which of these feathers is yours ?""
And the two feathers were so like that the goose

METROPOLITAN POLICE IN CANTON. S9

could not tell which was hers ; and she would
have' compared them with the feathers in her
wings, but she could not, for her wings were
clipped ; so the schoolmaster dismissed the case,
and the boys laughed at the goose, and she
went away without her feather, and with her
wings clipped, to look for her goslings. And
the burgher's wife perceived that the goose
had suffered more from the schoolmaster than
from the boy, and she agreed with her husband
that it was better not to say any more about the
handkerchief. And from that day forward the
wives of the burghers ceased to inquire what
became of their handkerchiefs, and why there
were no more prosecutions of pickpockets
before the Eecorder of Canton.

c2

40 PROCEEDINGS OP THE GOVERNMENT

CHAPTER VII.

" The gentleman's recreation."

And the lowest order of the burghers of Can-
ton were very poor, and they could neither read
nor write, and their houses were uncomfort-
able, and they had no places of innocent re-
creation abroad, and when their day's work was
over they sometimes had recourse to badger-
baiting and cock-fighting for their amusement.
And Mr. Commissioner Vin was a man of
humane and tender feelings ; and he could not
endure that poor dumb animals should be tor-
tured for amusement, and he gave orders to
the superintendant of the new government
police to put down badger-baiting and cock-
fighting, and all other cruel amusements ; and
the superintendant took with him a strong
party of the police, and they found two men
baiting a badger in an obscure court in one of
the poorest suburb-s of Canton, and there were

METROPOLITAN T'OLICE IN CANTON. 41

from twenty to tliirty of the poorest burghers
looking on ; and the superintendant com-
manded the poHce, and they killed the dogs
and the bad2:er, and arrested the two men
who had the badger, and all those who were
looking on, and brought them before the
magistrates ; and all those who were looking
on were fined, and the two men who had the
badger were sentenced to imprisonment for six
weeks and to be kept to hard labour for six
hours every day.

And the next morning, when Mr. Commis-
sioner Vin came to his office, the superinten-
dant brought him, as usual, the report of the
proceedings of the police for the preceding day ;
and Mr. Commissioner Vin read the report,
and made several notes and memorandums in
his own private book ; and when he came to
the account of the arrest and imprisonment of
the two men who had been found baiting the
badger, he said to the superintendant, " You
have done well : I am glad those fellows have
been caught ; there is nothing more detestable
and despicable than cruelty to poor dumb ani-
mals." And the superintendant was a very young
man, and only lately appointed, and he did

42 PR0CEEDINC4S OF THE GOVERNMENT

not know his duty well, and he said, "The
crime is great, but the punishment is greater ;
the men are ignorant and uneducated, and
what they did was not for amusement, but to
obtain bread for themselves and their wives
and children ; and now while they are in pri-
son what will their wives and children do ?"
And the chief commissioner became angry, and
said, " You are not fit to be superintendant of
the government metropolitan police if you take
part with badger-baiters and cockfighters. Do
you suppose that we are living in the times of
the emperor Jam-Es, when badger-baiting and
cock-fighting were fashionable, and were prac-
tised by all the mandarins and by the emperor
himself? Or are you ignorant of the law which
the mandarins passed against cruelty to ani-
mals, as soon as they ceased to take pleasure
in it themselves ? It is that beneficent law
which it is now our duty to enforce against the
burghers, so as by a seasonable severity to pre-
vent them from indulging in those vicious ha-
bits which are no longer sanctioned by the
practice of their superiors/' And the superin-
tendant saw that what the chief commissioner
said was right, and he gave strict directions to

METROPOLITAN POLICE IN CANTON. 43

the police ; and then if any little boys were
found hunting a cat or a dog, they were brought
before the magistrates, and imprisoned in the
House of Correction ; and if a car-driver was
found whipping his horse to make him go
faster, he was brought before the magistrates
and fined. And the superintendant himself,
with a strong body of the police rode round the
city of Canton once every day by the great
Circular Road, which goes entirely round the
city. And it happened one day, when he came
to a turn in the road, that he saw something
cross the road so quickly that he could not be
sure what it was, but he thought it was a hare.
And immediately after came a number of fierce
dogs with open mouths, and then a great
many men on horseback ; and the men shouted
to each other, and to the dogs ; and they pur-
sued the hare across the road, and broke
down the fences, and galloped through the
young corn ; and the hare turned, and came
back, and the men and the dogs turned after
her, and she came close past the superinten-
dant, and he heard her panting, and he saw
her eyes starting out of her head, and the
foremost dog came closer and closer upon her,

44< PROCEEDINGS 0¥ THE GOVERNSIENT

and he saw him seize her by the haunch, and
she turned her head round and screamed with
agony ; and at the same moment the second
dog caught her by the back of the neck, and
the other dogs came up and tore her in pieces
in an instant ; and the men on horseback said
what fine sport it was, and they wondered the
hare had been able to run so far, and that her
heart had not burst with terror and hard run-
ning before the dogs overtook her. And the
superintendant said, " These men are worse
than the badger-baiters, for they have done
this cruel act for mere sport, and not to gain
a subsistence by it; and they have done it
boldly in the open day, and before all the world,
and not in an obscure corner; and for the sake
of their sport, they have broken dov^n their
neighbour's fences, and destroyed his young
corn; and they have not done this through
ignorance, for they are all mandarins, and well
educated, and know what they are doing;''
and he ordered the party of police who were
with him to arrest them, but the mandarins
laughed at him and at the police, and they all
galloped away except three whose horses were
too tired to gallop any more, and the police

METROPOLITAN POLICE IN CANTON. 45

arrested those three and brought them before
the magistrates. And the superintendant said
to the magistrates, " I found these men with
dogs torturing a hare to death, for mere sport."
And when the magistrates saw that they were
mandarins, they said to them, " Come in here
and sit on the bench along with us." And
when they had sat down with them on the
bench, the magistrates asked them, "Is it pos-
sible that you tortured a hare to death for mere
sport ?" And one of the mandarins, who was
a member of the Humane Society of Canton,
answered, " No, God forbid that we should
torture any animal: we were only hunting."
And another of them said, that although
the statute against cruelty to animals extended
to other sports, such as bear-baiting and cock-
fighting, it did not extend to hunting, or shoot-
ing, or angling, or coursing. And the third
mandarin said, that it was contrary to com-
mon sense to suppose that the manda-rins, who
made the law against cruelty to animals, in-
tended that it should be applied to their own
amusements ; and that therefore the superin-
tendant, when he arrested him and the other
two mandarins for hunting, must have been

c3

46 PROCEEDINGS OP THE GOVERNMENT

either mad or drunk. And then the magis-
trates dismissed the case ; and the mandarins
went home with the magistrates, and dined
with them that day. And the next day the
superintendant of the government metropohtan
pohce was removed from his office, and ano-
ther superintendant appointed in his place.
And the two badger-baiters were kept to hard
labour in the House of Correction, for six
hours every day, until the term of their impri-
sonment expired.

METROPOLITAN POLICE IN CANTON. 47

CHAPTER VIII.

" Mind neither good nor bad, nor right, nor wrong,
But eat your pudding, slave, and hold your tongue.'*
Prior's Merry Andrew.

And the neAv government police attended at
all public meetings, and some of them wore
their uniform and kept order, and others of
them were dressed in plain clothes, and mixed
with the burghers, and overheard their con-
versation, and reported every word to the im-
perial government at Pekin. And at the
theatres they stood in their uniform both at
the doors, and in the lobbies, and in the pas-
sages, and in the inside of the house ; and some
of them sat among the audience in plain
clothes ; and they kept order, and put an end
to all hissing and clapping ; and they allowed
no one to cough, or to laugh, or to talk loudly;
and the theatres became quiet, and regular,
and orderly ; and the police heard every whis-

48 PROCEEDINGS! OP THE GOVEKNMENT

per that passed between the burghers and
their wives and their children, and reported
all they heard to the imperial government at
Pekin.

And when the children found that there was
no more laughing, or hissing, or clapping, and
that the theatres were grave and solemn, they
said they would rather not go to them any more.
And as there was no more hissing or clapping
the actors did not know whether they pleased
the audience or not, and then they began to
stop at the end of every sentence, and one of
them came forward and said to the audience in
an audible, but not very loud voice, for fear of
being arrested by the police, " If we have spo-
ken that speech right, nod your heads ; and if
"wrong, shake your heads." And thence arose
the practice of nodding, and shaking heads,
which is represented in the earthen figures of
the Chinese mandarins. And after some time
the people of Canton became tired of nodding
and shaking their heads, and ceased to go to
the theatres, and the patentees became bank-
rupts, and the actors removed to other cities
where there were no government police, and the
people of Canton sat lit home in the evenings

METROPOLITAN POLICE IN CANTON. 49

beside their fires with their children ; and it
was the sixth year of the command of the go-
vernment metropoHtan pohce over the people
of Canton.

50 PROCEEDINGS OF THE GOVERNMENT

CHAPTER IX.

" Five tomahawks wi' bluid red-rusted:
Five scyraitars wi' murder crusted."

Tam O'Shanter.

And there was a decree of the imperial legisla-
ture that all the arms in the empire of China
should be registered, whether they were fire-
arms, or arms with sharp edges or sharp
points ; and the same decree declared that all
the unregistered arms were forfeited to the
emperor.

And the constitution and privilege of the im-
perial legislature were such that its decrees
were always kept secret from those who were
required to obey them. So the burghers of
Canton knew nothing about the decree for the
registration of arms until the government me-
tropolitan police came to seize all the arms
that were not registered ; and then every man
that had a sword, or a gun, or a pistol, mad^

METROPOLITAN POLICE IN CANTON. 51

haste and registered it ; but many were seized
before they could be registered. And the po-
lice examined the registry, and they found that
many of the arms which had been registered
had not been duly registered, and they went
round again and seized all such. And all the
arms which the police seized were lodged in the
great armoury at Pekin for the use of the em-
peror; and when the police searched the
houses for arms they found knives and forks,
and they said, " These have sharp points and
edges, are they registered ?'"* And the burghers
said not. And the police said, " They are
little swords and spears, and are all forfeited."
And they gathered them up, and carried
them away, and sent them to the great ar-
moury at^ Pekin. And from that time forth
the burghers of Canton used chopsticks in
place of knives and forks ; and this was the ori-
gin of the use of chopsticks throughout the
great empire of China. And the police came
back with their search warrants in their hands,
and said, "We hear that you carry little swords
in your pockets." And they searched the pockets
of the burghers, and found their penknives,
and said, " These too are forfeited, for they

52 PBOCEEDINfiSi OF THE GOVERNMENT

have sharp points and edges ;" and they
took away their penknives. And then the
burghers not having any knives to mend their
pens or cut their pencils, began to use steel
pens instead of pens made of quills, and Mor-
dant's ever-pointed pencils instead of cedar-
wood pencils. And the police came again and
seized their razors ; and then the people of Can-
ton began to use tweezers in place of razors.
And when the people of Canton found that
their knives and forks, and their penknives,
and their razors, -were forfeited to the emperor,
because they had not been registered, they
made haste and registered their umbrellas and
their walking-sticks, and their tooth-picks,
and their ear-picks ; and the scissors, and the
bodkins, and the needles, and the pins of their
wives and children, and every thing that had a
sharp point, or a sharp edge ; and they regis-
tered also their pokers and their tongs, and
their shovels; and the cookmaids registered
their toasting forks, and flesh forks ; and the
butlers registered their corkscrews ; and the
o-rooms registered their pitchforks and their
currycombs ; and the carpenters their chisels,
and their planes, and their saws ; and the mor

METROPOLITAN POLICE IN CANTON. 53

song their cold chisels, and their trowels ; and
the shoemakers their awls, and their cutting
knives ; and the turners their gouges ; and
the bell-hangers their borers ; and the watch-
makers their drills ; and the apothecaries their
spatulas ; and the surgeons their lancets, and
scalpels, and trephines ; and the bankers the
files on which they kept their papers ; and the
gardeners their spades, and their hoes, and
their rakes ; and the farmers registered their
ploughshares, and their scythes, and their bill-
hooks, and the horns of their goats, and of
their rams, and of their cows, and the spurs of
their cocks ; and many of the people of Can-
ton registered their noses, and many of them
registered their chins, and some registered
both ; and every thing that had a sharp point or
a sharp edge, in the whole city of Canton, was
registered. And the registry office filled the
whole of one of the wards of the city, and
there were five hundred clerks in it, always
writing ; and there were fifty inspectors over
the clerks, and two overseers over the inspec-
tors ; and the clerks, and the inspectors, and
the overseers, were under the command of
Mr. Commissioner Vin, and were paid out of

54 PROCEEDINGS OP THE GOVERNMENT

the tax for the support of the government me-
tropoHtan police; and the registry was begun
in the sixth year of the metropoHtan pohce, and
in that year the tax was doubled for the second
time, and amounted to two shillings in the
pound of British money, or one-tenth of the
rental of the city of Canton.

And there was great rejoicing among the
thieves and robbers of the city of Canton at
the registration of the arms of the burghers ;
and they marked all those houses which were
not registered, and they robbed them ; and
then the burghers complained to the chief com-
missioner, and said, " Give us back even our
knives and our forks, that we may protect our-
selves and our houses ; for the robbers say
we have not so much as a knife or a fork,
and that we cannot hurt them with our
chopsticks." And the chief commissioner
said, " I cannot give you back your knives and
your forks, for they are forfeited to the em-
peror, but I will do what is better for you : I
will give you two policemen for every one you
have, and they will protect you and your houses
from the thieves and robbers." And the chief
commissioner did as he had said ; and the num-

METROPOLITAN POLICE IN CANTON. 55

ber of policemen was again doubled, and so
was the tax; but still the houses of the burghers
were robbed, for there was only one policeman
for every six houses ; and when the policeman
was watching one house, the robbers robbed the
next. And when the ribbonmen wanted arms
they had no occasion to go about searching
what houses had arms, and what houses had
not ; but they went straight to the registered
houses and showed the list taken from the
registry, and demanded the arms, one by one,
according to the list, just as if they were their
own, which they had lent, and which they were
receiving back again upon an inventory.

And at the end of five years the registration
of arms was completed, and a return of all the
arms registered was sent to the imperial go-
vernment at Pekin ; and immediately there
came an order from the imperial government,
superseding Mr. Commissioner Vin, because
he had made an imperfect registration of the
city of Canton, and had registered only the
fire-arms, and the arms with sharp points and
edges, and had not registered also the mis-
siles.

And Mr. Long Twang was appointed chief

56 PHOCEEDINGS OF THE GOVERNMENT

commissioner of police in the place of Commis-
sioner Vin ; and lie built a new re^istiy office,
whicli was twice as large as the old one, and
he appointed double the number of writing
clerks, and double the number of superinten-
dants and overseers, and the government me-
tropolitan police tax was doubled again. And it
was in the twelfth year of the command of the
government metropolitan police that Mr. Com-
missioner Long Twang commenced the registry
of the missiles of the people of Canton; and
he made them register ail their missiles, both
their pots and their pans of delph and iron,
and all the cups and the saucers out of which
they drank their tea ; and their stools, and
their chairs, and their tables ; and the tiles and
slates on their houses ; and the bricks and
stones in their walls, and the stones in their
streets. And the registry of the missiles was
not completed for twenty years, or until the
thirty- second year of the command of the
metropohtan police over the people of Canton.

METROPOLITAN POLICE IN CANTON. 5?

CHAPTER X.

Flavins. •' I'll about,

And drive away the vulgar from the streets;
So do you too, where you perceive them thick."

Julius C^sar,

And Mr. Commissioner Long Twang said, "I
will make the streets of Canton so regular,
that those who remember the days of Mr.
Commissioner Vin, will say the streets of Can-
ton were nothing but disorder and confusion in
his day." And he issued an order, that if any
burgher stopped to read a placard, or to look
in at a shop window, the police should order
him to move on ; and that if any shopkeeper
exhibited in his windows any pictures or figures,
or any wares, calculated to attract the passers-
by, and to cause them to stop and look in, he
should be summoned before the magistrates
and fined. And then the shopkeepers finding
the lower hsvlyes of their shop windows useleSf?,

58 PROCEEDINGS OF THE GOVERNMENT

built them up ; but they kept the upper halves
open in order to admit the light. And when
the shopkeepers built up the lower halves of
their windows, the policemen were no longer
able to see what was doing behind the coun-
ters. And then there came an order from the
chief commissioner's office that every shop-
keeper should fix a ladder, at least three feet
high, on the ground immediately outside his
window, in order to enable the government po-
lice to look in at the upper part of the window;
and the shopkeepers put up the ladders, and
they are to be seen in Canton until this day.

And Mr. Commissioner Long Twang said,
' There is no use in all that I and my prede-
cessor have done for the order and regularity
of the streets, and for the convenience of the
burghers of Canton, if the burghers are allowed
to obstruct the footways by stopping and con-
versing with each other when they meet in the
streets." And he gave orders that if a police-
man saw two burghers standing talking toge-
ther in the streets, he should order them to
move on ; and if he saw two walking arm in
arm he should order them to separate and
walk in file ; and a programme was posted up

METROPOLITAN POLICE IN CANTON. 59

at all the police offices, stating in what order
all the burghers and their wives, and their
children should walk. And the programme de-
clared that if a man and his wife walked arm
in arm in the streets of Canton, the line should
be for the first offence so much, for the second
offence so much, and for the third offence so
much ; and if a man walked with a child in
his hand the fine should be so much. And
the programme declared that the wife should
walk after her husband, and the child after
its mother or its father, as the case might be.
And it was found that the children, when they
walked behind, strayed away, and were run
over by the horses and carriages of the man-
darins ; and then there came a new order from
the office of the government metropolitan police,
that in future no children should be allowed to
go out into the streets at all; and this order was
productive of great good, for the children
being kept at home escaped danger of cold,
and wet, and various accidents to which they
were sometimes exposed from the carriages
and horses of the mandarins. And it was
found that notwithstanding all this care there
was still some irregularity in the streets of

60 PROCEEDINGS OP THE GOVERNMENT

Canton, for the biirgliers did not all walk at
one pace, but some quicker and some slower ;
and then a policeman was stationed at the
corner of every street to play the hurdygurdy.
And the other policemen watched to see that
every burgher, as he walked, kept time to the
policeman's playing ; and those who did not
W'ere taken to the station house and brought
before the magistrates and fined; and this
happened to all that had no ear for music, or
were deaf, or were lame ; and when it ap-
peared that there were a great many who
were deaf, and who had no ear for music, ano-
ther policeman was placed on an elevated
platform beside the one who played the hur-
dygurdy, so that he could be seen from all
parts of the street ; and he beat time with his
hand. And when this was done there was no
excuse either for the blind or the deaf, for the
deaf saw the policeman beating time, and the
blind heard the hurdygurdy. But the lame
were obliged to stay at home with the children,
unless they were mandarins who could go in
their carriages. And the policemen said to
the inspectors, " We have now had great ex-
perience in the art of keeping the streets re-

METROPOLITAN POLICE IN CANTON. 61

gular and orderly, and in facilitating the inter-
course through every part of the city of Can-
ton, and we think a great improvement might
yet be made." And the inspectors said,
" What is it ? For if it is good we will re-
port favourably of it to the superintendant,
and the superintendant will recommend it to
the chief commissioner." And the policemen
said, " All the burghers walk with their faces
turned forwards and shoulders square, would
it not be better if they walked sideways, with
only one shoulder forward." And the inspec-
tors approved greatly of the suggestion of the
policemen, and reported it to the superinten-
dant. And the superintendant asked the
chief commissioner, would he listen to a sug-
gestion for facilitating intercourse in the
streets of Canton? And the chief commis-
sioner said, " Does the suggestion come fvm
any of the burghers of Canton ; for if it dues,
I will not listen to it." And the superinten-
dant said " No, but from the pc^licemen."
Then the chief commissioner said, " Let me
hear it." And when he heard what it was, he
approved of it. And the next day there was
an order of the chief commissioner, that every

D

62 PROCEEDINGS OF THE GOVERNMENT

one should walk sideways in the streets of Can-
ton. And the first day that the order was put
into execution, the chief commissioner mounted
his horse and rode out; and he saw all the
people of Canton walking sideways to the tune
which the pohcemen were playing upon the
hurdygurdies. And the first man he saw walk-
ing sideways was a bishop. And he perceived
that there was no room gained by his walking
sideways. And he took out his memorandum
book and wrote in it, " Bishops to be excused
walking sideways, because they are smaller
from side to side than from before backwards."
Then he went a little farther and saw a Chief
Justice, and he made the same observation
upon him ; and he wrote in his memorandum
book, " Item, Chief Justices." And he had
not gone far when he saw a woman with child.
And he wrote in his memorandum book,
Item, " women with child." And when he re-
turned to his office he gave orders to the effect
of the notes which he had made in his memo-
randum book.

And it was now the fortieth year of the
command of the government metropolitan po-
lice, and many of the people of Canton said.

METROPOLITAN POLICE IN CANTON. 63

" We will remove out of Canton and buikl
houses in Emperorstown, and we will livo
there, and then we will neither be under the
command of the government metropolitan po-
lice, nor have to pay the tax for their sup-
port.'' And when the imperial government
at Pekin found that many of the people of
Canton were living at Emperorstown, and that
they were walking in the streets without regu-
larity and order, and not sideways to the tune
of hurdygurdies, they had a decree passed by
the imperial legislature to extend the district
of the government metropolitan police to Em-
perorstown. And then those who had re-
moved to Emperorstown were obliged to pay
tlie tax, and to walk sideways to the tune of
hurdygurdies in the streets of Emperorstown,
just as they had done in the streets of Canton.
And then those of the burghers of Canton
who were able to afford it, left China and
took ship for Europe. And when they came
to Rome, and Naples, and Vienna, and Paris,
they began to walk sideways in the streets, and
the people of those cities said, " Are these Chi-
nese mad,or do they always walk sideways when
they are at home V And then those who had

64* PROCEEDINGS OF THE GOVERNMENT

come from Canton told tliem how it was ; and
they tried to walk straight forward ; and at
first they were not able, but by degrees they
learned to do so. And they were astonished
when the saw that the burghers of Rome, and
of Naples, and of Vienna, and of Paris, walked
whatever way they pleased, and that they had
public gardens and promenades, and that there
were shady trees along the sides of their
streets, and that they had chairs and tables
under the trees, and that they used to sit and
talk to each other and take their coffee in the
open air, and that some of them wrote their
letters and transacted their business in the
street before their doors, and that they were
cheerful, and noisy, and merry, and that they
carried burthens on the footways, and that
they stopped to look in at the shop windows
and were not taken up ; and they said *' Where
are your government police, for we heard in
China that you had them before us, and that
ours were formed upon the model of yours V
And the people of Kome, and of Naples, and
of Vienna, and of Paris, showed them their
gendarmes, and said these are our government
police ; and they are but too like the Chinese

METROPOLITAN POLICE IN CANTON. 65

metropolitan police which you have described
to us, for they are nothing but government
agents placed in command over us ; but still
as they have not yet begun to interfere vexa-
tiously with us at every turn, nor to drill us,
nor to make us walk sideways in the streets,
we are rather inclined to think that it was not
our gendarmes, but either the Turkish janis-
saries or the police of the emperor of Japan,
which served as the model for your Chinese
metropolitan police.

66 PROCEEDINGS OF THE GOVERNMENT

CHAPTER XL

King. ^— "'Lady mine, proceed."

Queen. — " I am solicited, not by a few,

And those of true condition, that your subjects

Are in great grievance. There have been commissions

Sent down among them, which have flawed the heart

Of all their loyalties." — -

King Henry VIIL

And when all those who were able to afford it
had left Canton, those who remained behind
became poorer and poorer every day ; and
many of them went into the work-houses, and
some of them were appointed metropolitan po-
licemen, and others of them were appointed
tax collectors ; and all such were well fed and
clothed, and became fat and plump; but the
rest became bankrupts and insolvents, and had
fevers, and choleras, and influenzas ; and many

METROPOLITAN POLICE IN CANTON. 67

of tliem died, and those who recovered and
survived said we will memorial the Great Lieu-
tenant Mandarin ; and they memorialed the
Great Lieutenant Mandarin; and the Great
Lieutenant Mandarin received them most
graciously, and said that nothing in the world
would give him so much pleasure as to oblige
either them or any other respectable persons,
if it v/ere in his power ; but that really it was
not in his power, for his business was only to
govern them and execute the laws upon them;
and that for his part he thought that they
must have mistaken him for some body else,
or they would not have applied to him, for that
he belonged to Pekin and knew something of
the people of that city, but was a stranger to
Canton, and knew nothing at all about them,
and that all they said might be either true or
false for aught he knew ; and he recommended
them, if they were labouring under any griev-
ance, to apply to the Grand Secretary of the
imperial government at Pekin, who would no
doubt set every thing right for them.

And the people of Canton did as the Great
Lieutenant Mandarin had recommended them,
and applied to the Grand Secretary of the im-

6S PROCEEDINGS OF THE GOVERNMENT

perial government at Pekin. And the Grand
Secretary of the imperial government at Pekin
told them that it was all a mistake on the part
of the people of Canton, and that, although
they were not aware of it themselves, they
were in reality much more happy, and much
more prosperous, and much more free under
the present government than they had ever
been under any previous one; and that it
was impossible that it could be otherwise, be-
cause the true happiness, and prosperity, and
liberty of a people consisted altogether in their
having the greatest possible number of govern-
ment commissioners placed over them. That
the present government had given the people
of Canton, within the space of a very few years,
a greater number of commissioners vested with
absolute power and authority, than all the
preceding governments taken together. That
it was not necessar}^, at the present mo-
ment, to enumerate all those commissioners, as
they must be fresh in their recollection ; but
he could not refrain from mentioning a few of
them. There were, for instance, the Educa-
tion Commissioners, who had entirely relieved
them from that weighty charge, the religious,

METROPOLITAN POLICE IN CANTON. 69

moral and political education of their children.
That it was the duty of those commissioners to
root out and exterminate all opinions and prin-
ciples opposed to those of the government, and
to inculcate the precise views of the govern-
ment itself upon every subject. There could
not, as he conceived, be a greater boon to the
people of Canton, or one more calculated to
produce unanimity between a government and a
people ; and he begged to say, without meaning
any offence to the people of Canton, that if
they had had the good fortune to be educated
in the same way themselves, there would have
been fewer misunderstandings between them
and the government, and they would most pro-
bably have been ruled by one and the same
government during their whole lives. Then
there were the Ecclesiastical Commissioners
under whom the government had placed the
whole of their ecclesiastical property, and all
their ecclesiastical affairs, in order that the
people of Canton, being freed from all care
and anxiety about such matters, might have
the more leisure to attend to their secular
concerns. And then that they might not be-
stow too much attention upon the latter, and

70 PSOCEEDINGS OF THE GOVERNMENT

become quite worldly minded, the government
had made a new valuation of their property
by valuation commissioners, and transferred
it all to Poor Law Commissioners, who
would make a new and more equitable distri-
bution of it, on the just and humane principle
so frequently urged by the people of Canton
themselves and now almost universally recog-
nised ; that in the first instance all the ex-
penses of building work-houses, and of outfit,
and of salaries to officers, should be paid ;
that then all the aged and infirm should be
provided for ; and lastly, all the able bodied
paupers ; care being taken that in every in-
stance the residue of the property, if any,
should revert to the original owners. That
besides all these boons, which they had thus
freely bestowed upon the people of Canton,
the government had felt the necessity of mark-
ing a provision for their personal liberty, that
dearest of all possessions, and without which
all other possessions were valueless. They
had, therefore, given them the commissioners
of metropolitan police, who, while they would en-
force the orders of all the other commission-
ers, would at the same time watch the liberties

ilETROPOLITAN POLICE IN CANTON. 71

of the people of Canton as it were the apple of
their eye. The people of Canton might, there-
fore, discharge from their minds all uneasiness
on this subject also, and confide their liberties
to the tender care of the police commissioners;
and the government could assure them that
the surveillance of the police would prove a
more effectual protection to them than even
jails and imprisonment ; because the emperor''s
judges, by their writ of Habeas Corpus, could
take a man out of jail and imprisonment, but
no writ of Habeas Corpus could take a man
from under the surveillance of the police.
The present government, who had been always
the tried and well known friends of the liberty
of the subject, claimed the exclusive merit of
the introduction of this new agent into Can-
ton, and they were not without hopes that at
no very distant period they would be enabled,
through its instrumentality, utterly to extir-
pate and banish out of the land the writ of
Habeas Corpus, that greatest stumbling block
and worst enemy to all good and liberal and
efficient government. The Grand Secretary
had only to add, that the government having

72 PROCEEDINGS OF THE GOVERNMENT

thus provided for all tlielr wants, both spiritual
and temporal, and having left them no room
for care or anxiety, either about the education
of their children or the management of their
property, or the protection of their liberties,
had hoped that they would be content and
happy as the people of Pekin were ; but as
they were not so, and wished for further con-
cessions, the government had the pleasure to
inform them, that although they had never
before mentioned it publicly, they had for a
considerable period had it in contemplation to
appoint a new board of Commissioners for the
purpose of co-operating with the existing com-
missioners of police, and with their assistance
establishing a well organized system of domi-
ciliary visits, including a censorship of the
press. That it was quite evident that this
measure was all that was wanting to render
their system of governing by police surveillance
as perfect as any thing human could be ; and
they were happy to say, that as they had ori-
ginally constituted and continually trained the
present police force with a view to this measure,
they had now ready to their hands in that force

METKOPOLITAN POLICE IN CANTOX. 73

almost the whole of the machinery requisite
for carrying it into effect. And still further,
that the people of Canton might not have even
the shadow of a ground for complaint, he
would take upon himself the responsibility of
stating, that it was the intention of the impe-
rial government to appoint six of the most
deserving and best conducted of them, as
writing clerks to the new commissioners, at
salaries equivalent to fifty pounds per annum of
British money, to be paid quarterly out of the
new tax, which it would be necessary to lay on
the city of Canton, for the purpose of defray-
ing the expense of the new commission.

%

74 PROCEEDINGS OF THE GOVERNMENT

CHAPTER XII.

" Have patience, good people !''

As YOU LIKE IT.

-And the people of Canton said, " We have no
resource but in the imperial legislature at
Pekin." And they drew up a petition, and sent
the Mayor of Canton with it to Pekin, to pre-
sent it to the imperial legislature ; and it was
the forty-fifth year of the command of the go-
vernment metropolitan police. And when the
Mayor of Canton came into the great hall,
where the imperial legislature were sitting, he
took the petition and began to read it. And
some one told the president that there was a
man at the far end of the hall, who held a
paper in his hand, as if he were reading it ; and
the president took his telescope and looked
through it, and said, *' I see a man far off, but
I cannot hear what he is saying.*" And when

METROPOLITAN POLICE IN CANTON. 75

the Mayor of Canton perceived that he was
not heard, he took a brazen trumpet out of his
pocket, and blew a blast upon it. And all the
members of the imperial legislature, when they
heard the blast, started ; and some of them
dropped their hats, and those who were talk-
ing to each other became silent, and those
who were sleeping on the benches jumped up ;,
and they looked towards the man with the
brazen trumpet ; and he blew upon his trum-
pet, and said, " I have come here with a
petition." And they said, " Throw the peti-
tion under the table, where all the petitions are
thrown."" And they showed him the basket,
under the table, where waste paper was kept
for the use of the members of the imperial
legislature. But he would not. And he blew
again upon his trumpet, and said, " The peti-
tion of the people of the city of Canton." And
they interrupted him again, and said, " What
city of Canton? Is it in China?" And he
was a cunning man, and he knew that if he •
said it was in China they would not hear him,
and he said, " No, it is in Europe, at the
antipodes." And then they said, " Good !
Let us hear him." And they asked him again,

76 PROCEEDINGS OF THE GOVERNMENT

" Are the people of that city yellow, like us
and you, or are they black ?" And he knew that
they would have no sympathy with them
unless he said they were black : and he said,
" They are black." And then they said, "Tell
us what is in the petition, for it is contrary to
constitution and to privilege, to read petitions
in this house ; and if petitions were read in
this house, nothing else could be done, and
they would fill the whole house, and the whole
city of Pekin; and besides so great is the hall,
that the petitions could not be heard, unless
every man had a brazen trumpet, as you have.'"
And the Mayor of Canton spoke through the
brazen trumpet, and said, " Your petitioners
say that they are loyal and dutiful to the great
emperor at Pekin, and that they are ready to
spill the last drop of their blood in his service."
And an old man, who seemed by his accent to
be a Tartar, said, " Do they pay us taxes l and
if they do, what is the " tottle o' the 'hoP o"*
them?" And the Mayor of Canton said, "They
pay taxes from the time they get up in the
morning, until the time they go to bed at night.
And the taxes which they pay are both gene-
ral and local; and the general taxes are upon

METROPOLITAN POLICE IN CANTON. 77

every thing they eat, and upon every thing
they drink, and upon all their clothes, and upon
all their furniture ; and the local taxes are
upon every thing else. And they have a whole
army of tax collectors, whom they feed and
clothe, and who call upon them every hour of
the day to collect the taxes, and to serve
the notices, and to distrain for the arrears.
And when they go out into the streets to avoid
the tax collectors, the beggars beg from them,
and the metropolitan police drill them, and
make them walk sideways in file to the
tune of hurdygurdies. And when they return
liome, the police commissioners send collec-
tors to collect the police tax, and policemen
to search for unregistered arms, and the va-
luation commissioners send valuators, and
the commissioners of poor rates send collec-
tors to collect the rate, and the beggars send
deputies to beg from them ; and the depu-
ties of the beggars are worse than the beg-
gars themselves, for the beggars only beg
from them when they meet them in the
streets and at their doors, but the deputies of
the beggars come into their warerooms, and
their offices, and their parlours, and into the

78 PROCEEDINGS OP THE GOVERNMENT

drawing-rooms and bed -rooms of their wives
and children. And they have given up every
thing they have in the world to the tax
collectors, and the commissioners and the
beggars. And they have neither trade nor
manufactures ; and they are dying of fevers
and choleras, and influenzas ; and the prayer

of their petition is" But before the Mayor

of Canton could finish his sentence, the Grand
Secretary of the imperial government fell sick,
and coughed, and spat, and sneezed, and cried
*'0h! Oh!" And then all the other members of
the imperial legislature, except the president, fell
sick Hkewise; and they coughed, and spat, and
sneezed, and hawked, and rubbed their feet
against the ground, and cried "Oh ! Oh !" And
when the Mayor of Canton perceived that the
sound of the trumpet could not be heard, he
took the trumpet from his mouth; and as
soon as he did so, the sickness of all the mem-
bers of the imperial legislature ceased, and
they all became well. And then the Mayor of
Canton blew another blast upon his trumpet,
and said, " This is the prayer of their peti-
tion." And suddenly they fell sick again, and
became worse than they were before. And

METROPOLITAN POLICE IN CANTON. 79

he stopped again and they became well. And
when he blew again upon his trumpet they
became ill again. And every time that he
blew upon his trumpet, so often did they be-
come ill, and each time they were worse than
before. Then the Grand Secretary of the im-
perial government stood up, and said, " This
man has given us the influenza, and we have
had six relapses of it. If he blows again upon
his trumpet we shall have another relapse, and
many of us shall die. Let us give him into the
custody of our sergeant-at-arms for breach of
privilege.'' And they all cried out, "Pie is guilty
of breach of privilege; let us give him into
the custody of the serjeant-at-arms.'' And they
gave him into the custody of the sergeant-at-
arms. And then the Grand Secretary of the
imperial government asked whether there was
any motion before the chair. And the presi-
dent said that there was not, but that any
member might move upon the petition which
they had just heard. But they all said that
they had nothing to move. And then the
president declared that there was no motion
before the chair, and the house adjourned.

Dublin : Printed by P. DixoN Habdy, 3, Cecilia-street

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