Page 170 - Merchants and Mandarins China Trade Era

156.

After a few meetings, on September 28, the committee

agreed on a response to the Chinese demand for Terranovia.

The Americans insisted that the matter be settled at a fair

and open trial for the accused. When the Chinese authorities

immediately acceded to hold such a trial and admit testimony
in defense of Terranovia, the committee were very pleased with

themselves. They did not realize that the Chinese assumed

that the Americans had conceded Terranovia's guilt in the

committee's willingness to submit him for Chinese trial. For

within the Chinese system a trial was merely a ritual at which

the guilt of the accused was confirmed and his sentence pro­

claimed. The authorities did not mind allowing testimony for

the defendant, they just listened and summarily dismissed it as

irrelevant. Such actions were not the outgrowth of hatred of

Americans or of foreigners. The Chinese were acting in accord-

ance with their judicial system.

On October 6, 1821 a trial was held aboard the Emily.

In attendance were the An-ch'a-szu (provincial judge) and his

assistants, the Kwang-chiu-fu (chief magistrate of Canton),
12
district magistrates, the Hong merchants, , and numerous Lin-

12
The Hong merchants were present because they were
the official means of corrununicc1tion between the government and
foreigners. In this affair the Hong merchants generally sup­
ported American statements and offered to the P'an-yu the view
that Terranovia might be innocent. They were severely casti­
gated for this, since the Governor-general had stated differently.
They were also criticized for not forcing the Americans to decide
more speedily to submit Terranovia for trial. Government officials
always blamed the merchants for actions of foreigners. Copies of
the Hong merchants' statements and messages are in Consular
Despatches: Canton, B.C. Wilcocks, Dec. 12, 1821.