war on the part of Great Britain. But the British cabinet failed to approve the action of Lord Napier, and stated that it was its purpose not to establish commercial intercourse with China by force, but by conciliatory measures.

This occurrence strengthened the Chinese government in its policy of exclusion and of maintaining the trade regulations. It has been seen in the extracts from the edicts and its conduct towards Lord Napier that it regarded all foreign nations as subject to the emperor, and that their officials could only approach and hold intercourse with his authorities as vassals. So strongly was this policy imbedded in the imperial system that it could only be eradicated by the rude argument of force. War with Great Britain was for the time deferred, but the treatment of his Majesty's commission had its influence on the decision of the British government a few years later to resort to hostilities. It is to be regretted, for the sake of our Christian civilization, that the conflict which came in 1840, known as the "Opium War," could not have had as just a provocation as that growing out of this insult to the British nation and the death of its representative.

Opium was introduced into China in the thirteenth century by the Arabs, but its use was confined exclusively to medicinal purposes, as in most other countries, and when the European ships began to visit the East it had no importance as merchandise. As late as 1773, when the Portuguese were supplanted in the supremacy of the market by the English, the importation of the drug had never exceeded 200 chests annually. As a

result of the victory of Clive at Plassy, the British East India Company secured the exclusive privilege of opium cultivation, and it soon became its most important article of exportation. Three years after the East India Company obtained this monopoly, its importation to China had increased five fold, and in 1790 it had mounted up to 4000 chests, or twenty fold.1

By that time it was fast coming into popular use for self-indulgence as a narcotic, and its evil effects were so apparent in the vicinity of Canton that the governor of the province memorialized the emperor for its exclusion. He stated that it was "a subject of deep regret that the vile dirt of foreign countries should be received in exchange for the commodities and money of the empire, and that the practice of smoking opium should spread among the people of the inner land, to the waste of their time and destruction of their property." In response to this memorial the emperor issued an edict in 1796 prohibiting its importation, and thenceforward the imperial authorities sought to suppress the traffic. The governor of Canton, in making proclamation to the foreign traders of this prohibition, told them that the Celestial Empire did not presume to forbid the people of the West to use opium and extend the habit in their dominions; "but," he said, "that opium should flow into this country where vagabonds clandestinely purchase and eat it, and continually become sunk in the most stupid and besotted state, so as to cut down the powers of nature and destroy life, is an injury to the minds and manners of men of the greatest magnitude;

1 Encyclopædia Britannica, Article, Opium.

and therefore opium is most rigorously prohibited by law."

The profits on the sale of the article were so large that, notwithstanding the interdiction, the importation continued to grow. The supply came exclusively from India and every chest bore upon it the stamp of the East India Company, as its sale in India was a government monopoly. The trade was encouraged by that company, regardless of the fact that it had been made unlawful by imperial edict, and British ships were mainly used in its transportation, although those of other nationalities were to a limited extent engaged in it. Between 1820 and 1830 the importation to China had risen to 17,000 chests, and the smuggling was conducted along the coast from Tientsin to Hainan. Such a large and extended trade could not be carried on without the complicity or connivance of the local authorities, and it was apparent that the customs officials and even others higher in power were reaping private gain from the smuggling.'

The ineffectual efforts of the government to suppress the importation of opium led many intelligent Chinese to advocate its legalization under strict regulations as to its domestic sale, and memorials to that effect were sent to the emperor; but the court at Peking was so thoroughly satisfied that the use was a national evil of alarming proportions that it refused to listen to suggestions for a license system. While many mandarins at the ports were compromised in the illicit traffic, there is no doubt that the moral power of the empire sym

16 Chinese Repository, 513; 7 Ib. 162; 2 Hist. China, Gutzlaff, 217.

pathized with and supported the emperor in his sincere and earnest efforts for its suppression.

More stringent orders were sent to Canton on the subject, and the arrests for violation of the prohibitory law became more frequent. One that attracted much attention was that of a Mr. Innes, a British merchant, and a Mr. Talbot, an American, in 1838, charged with complicity in the landing of opium at the factories. Both men were ordered to be expelled; but the American, upon investigation, was declared innocent. Owing to the hesitation of the British superintendent to execute the order of expulsion of Innes, a strong feeling of resentment was stirred up in the Chinese population, and the factories were threatened with mob violence. To show that the authorities regarded the foreign merchants as responsible for the opium traffic, they ordered a Chinese who had been detected in receiving the drug to be executed in the foreign quarter, and the officials were in the act of carrying into effect the sentence of strangulation of the culprit in front of the American consulate when they were driven away by a sudden onslaught of the foreign merchants. A short time afterwards another execution was successfully performed on the factory premises, which so outraged the residents that the consuls of all nations hauled down their flags, and for a time the trade was entirely suspended.1

At this period it would seem that the unlawful importation had become so open and notorious that the opium, which had in previous years been smuggled into

1 For full report by U. S. Consul Snow, H. Ex. Doc. 119, p. 2, 26th Cong. 1st Sess.

the province from Lintin, at the mouth of the river, was now being brought into the foreign factories, and its introduction effected with the knowledge of the officials. The American consul reported that the amount imported in 1838 was about thirty-five thousand chests, of the value of $17,000,000. The emperor, learning that his edicts were not being properly enforced, determined to resort to more radical measures, and selecting one of his most trusted and energetic viceroys, Lin, he dispatched him to Canton as a special commissioner, bearing the great seal of the emperor, with full powers to put a stop to the importation, sale, and use of the vicious and hated drug.

It is said that the commissioner received his instructions in person from the emperor, who recounted to him the evils that had long afflicted his children by means of the "flowing poison," and, adverting to the future, paused and wept; then turning to the commissioner, said, “How, alas! can I die and go to the shades of my imperial father and ancestors until these direful evils are removed?" Within a few days after his arrival Lin issued an edict, especially directed to the foreign merchants, in which he said that the emperor's wrath had "been fearfully aroused, nor will it rest till the evil be utterly extirpated." He thereupon ordered that the further importation of opium cease, under penalty of death, and that all of the unlawful article in their possession be delivered up to the authorities.

This order spread consternation among the merchants, the greater part of whom were engaged in the 1 H. Ex. Doc. 119 (cited), p. 13; 7 Chinese Repository, 610.