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50 on the part of the Chinese Authorities to enter into any communication, or even to permit any intercourse with the officers of this Commission and that Elliot's attempts to open up communication with them had only involved him in additional contumely and insult, thereby greatly impeding the prospective adjustment of existing difficulties. The words which the Duke of Wellington penned (March 24, 1835) in condemnation of Lord Napier's mission, 'he (the Chief Superintendent) must not go to Canton without permission, he must not depart from the accustomed channel of communication, but he must have great powers to enable him to control and keep in order the King's subjects (the free traders), and there must always be within the Consul-General's reach a stout frigate and a smaller vessel of war,' seemed to be always ringing in Sir George's ears and formed the keynote of what he loved to call his 'perfectly quiescent policy.' He regarded himself as a Consul-General, unaccredited indeed to the Chinese Government, but specially commissioned to keep the free traders in order where they most needed it, at Lintin. There he remained, out of touch with the leaders of the legitimate trade at Canton and Macao, unrecognized by the Chinese Authorities and separated from his own colleagues in the Commission who desired to follow an active policy. Until the close of the year 1836, Sir George practically did nothing except signing ships' manifests and port clearances and writing dispatches to Lord Palmerston, in which he triumphantly reported from time to time that trade continued to flourish without disturbance, thanks to his own perfectly quiescent line of policy, and persistently dinning into the Minister's cars that he was 'waiting for His Lordship's positive and definite instructions as to future measures.'

In one point, however, Sir George went beyond the lines of the Duke of Wellington's policy. He was constantly on the look-out for a place where British trade might be conducted without being shackled with the extortions and impositions of the Mandarins, and where the Chief-Superintendent might be