1841.
Six Months with the Chinese Expedition.
513
Lord Jocelyn thinks-nay he affirms, positively-that 'some part' of the twenty thousand chests of opium surrendered to Lin was ac- tually destroyed, and this "no doubt was so," in order "to keep the face of the commissioner clean.” (p. 15.) He supposes that very much of it was not destroyed, and proves this by a curious train of reasoning, thus: "the present sale, being one chest of Patna and Benares to two of Malwa, (it having, previously to the surrender of the opium, been generally the reverse,) gives the merchants of Ma- cao the idea that the market is already overstocked with their own article, privately sold by the mandarins-a view of the subject that seems more than probable." That Lin and Tăng, or their agents, did not abstract one half of the twenty thousand chests, canuot in- deed be disproved by direct evidence. That Tang had a disposition bad enough to do such an act, no one can doubt, who knew that man. But that Lin did, or would, aid or abet, or connive at, such conduct, no one who knows him will believe. The opinion, that the whole was faithfully destroyed, which was at the time expressed in our pages,-an opinion advanced after having seen the extensive preparations made under Lin's own eye for its complete destruction at Chinhow we have never seen cause to reverse or question.
After the British government had determined to send an armed expedition to China, one of the first objects sought for was the pos- session of an island as a depôt for the troops and commissariat, which might at some future day answer as an establishment for trade. The Indian government proposed, that immediately upon the arrival of the expedition in China, the forts at the Bogue should be razed to the ground, and the island of Lantao occupied as a point d'appui; 'but as the authorities on the spot took a different view of the case, the expedition proceeded northward passing by Canton. This was done in accordance with instructions from the government at home-so lord Jocelyn tells us, and so we long ago supposed. And he adds, that it was a sad disappointment to all the combined force, "and those who had been rejoicing in the expectation of new laurels to be gathered on the battlements of the Bogue, now walked the decks listlessly, un- willing and unable to conceal their disappointment."
C
There is something like inconsistency between the course of con- duct here and that at Chusan : the forts at the Bogue were spared, because it was the great wish of the government at home to save the effusion of blood, until all pacific negotiations had failed;' at Chusan, 'However, it happened otherwise; and the morning of the 5th of July, 1840, was the day fated for her majesty's flag to wave over the
61
VOL. X. NO. IX
65