(Great Britain) coming to or leaving Canton have beyond their trade
not any public business; and the commissioned officers of the Celestial
Empire never take cognizance of the trivial affairs of trade. . . . The
some hundreds of thousands of commercial duties yearly coming from the
said nation concern not the Celestial Empire to the extent of a hair or a
feather's down. The possession or absence of them is utterly unworthy
of one careful thought.''[40]


[40] Ibid, p. 60.

Whereupon the proud Briton published and distributed a review
of the case, as he saw it, which closed as follows:--


``Governor Loo has the assurance to state in the edict of the 2d instant
that `the King (my master) has hitherto been reverently obedient.' I
must now request you to declare to them (the Hong merchants) that His
Majesty, the King of England, is a great and powerful monarch, that he
rules over an extent of territory in the four quarters of the world more
comprehensive in space and infinitely more so in power than the whole
empire of China; that he commands armies of bold and fierce soldiers,
who have conquered wherever they went; and that he is possessed of
great ships, where no native of China has ever yet dared to show his face.
Let the Governor then judge if such a monarch will be `reverently obedient'
to any one.''[41]


[41] Foster, pp. 61, 62.