Only with Twelve Men, On the Outside of the Wall

Or, Now That’s some doux commerce

Those that know me IRL know that there’s no…way…I… could… resist. Sorry, sober scholarship will return tomorrow.

Our young readers may not feel much interest in ordinary wars, at best they are infringements of the laws of God and humanity; but a war with the empire of China, with whose inhabitants no intercourse has been allowed for centuries, except on the outside of the walls of the single city of Canton with only twelve men called Hong merchants, is a war of considerable novelty.

~”About the British Taking Chusan,” Parley’s Magazine (New York) January 1841, v9, p.64

Uh, that’s what she said?

This makes a bit more sense (or less?) if you know that Parley’s was a family magazine? And double entendres were still in beta, in France.