Page:Narratives of the mission of George Bogle to Tibet.djvu/164

Rh MANNING GOES TO CHINA. [Intr. he studied the Chinese language under the tuition of Dr. Hagar in France, and afterwards, with the aid of a Chinese, in London. When the English travellers were seized by Napoleon on the breaking out of war in 1803, Manning obtained leave to quit France, entirely owing to the respect in which his undertaking was held by the learned men at Paris. His passport was the only one that Napoleon ever signed for an Englishman to go to England after war began.

In the collection of Charles Lamb's letters there are thirty- three to Thomas Manning, and those attempting to dissuade him from undertaking his Chinese enterprise are very humorous. On the 19th of February, 1803, Lamb wrote to his friend, begging him to get the idea of visiting Independent Tatary out of his head. He tells Manning that the reading of Chaucer has misled him, with his foolish stories about Cambuscan and the ring, and the horse of brass. "Believe me," he continues, "there are no such things. 'Tis all the poet's invention. A horse of brass never flew, and a king's daughter never talked with birds. These are all tales. Pray try and cure yourself. Take hellebore. Pray to avoid the fiend. Read no more books of voyages; they are nothing but lies."

But Manning was quite resolved. On the 3lst of March, 1806, Sir Joseph Banks, the President of the Royal Society, addressed a letter to the chairman of the Court of Directors, explaining the objects of Manning's undertaking, and his conviction that unless he could assume the manners and dress of the Chinese with the utmost exactness, and speak their language with purity and a proper accent, he could never succeed. He desired, therefore, to proceed to Canton, in the first instance, to acquire these difficult accomplishments; and Sir Joseph Banks, believing that Mr. Manning was likely to succeed, requested the Directors to assist his earnest endeavours to accomplish this great purpose. Sir Joseph concluded his letter thus: