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the Superintendents and the Cantonese Authorities by any
demand of redress for the insults offered to the King and
the country by the treatment accorded to Lord Napier, but
to exhibit a conciliatory disposition, by respecting Chinese
usages, and refraining from shocking the prejudices of the
Chinese official mind . Accordingly, in his first communication
to the Viceroy of Canton (December 14, 1836 ), he did not
refer to the events connected with Lord Napier's death, but
on the contrary explained that all he desired was ' to maintain
and promote the good understanding which has so long and
so happily subsisted .' This letter, written at Macao and
delivered at Canton by the hands of two Agents of the East
India Company (J. H. Astell and H. M. Clarke) and two
British free traders (W. Jardine and L. Dent ) to the Hong
Merchants, was conveyed to the Governor of Canton as a
humble petition of the barbarian headman Elliot . Looking
to the tenor of this letter and to the form of its delivery,
the Viceroy justly concluded that the old policy of the East
India Company was to be resumed by the cowed barbarians.
 CHANGE OF POLICY. 71

To make sure, he sent a deputation of Hong Merchants to
interview Elliot at Macao, to question him as to his official
status and policy, and to impress upon him that he must
first of all send a humble petition begging for a passport,
and then remain at Macao until Imperial permission had
been obtained for him to visit Canton , from time to time,
during each business season. The result of the interviews
that took place was that Elliot did as he was told. He
applied, in form of a petition, for a passport and dutifully
waited at Macao until a report had been sent to Peking
stating that the hatchet had been buried in Napier's grave,
that Elliot was virtually but a Chief- Supercargo with a
different name and a smarter uniform, and that things would
go on as of yore. Accordingly, three months later ( March 18,
6
1837 ) the Hoppo informed the Hong Merchants that Elliot
having received a public official commission for the control
of foreign merchants and seamen, although his title be not
the same as that of the Chief- Supercargoes (tai-pan) hitherto
sent, yet in the duty of controlling he does not differ, and
that therefore it is now the Imperial pleasure that he be
permitted to repair to Canton, under the existing regulations
applicable to Chief- Supercargoes, and that on his arrival at
the provincial capital he be allowed to take the management
of affairs. In forwarding a passport for Elliot to the Hong
Merchants, he instructed them to give Elliot particular orders
that as regards his residence, sometimes at Macao, sometimes
at Canton , he must in this also conform himself to the old
regulations, nor can he be allowed to loiter (at Canton)
beyond the proper period .' Thus the official status of the
King's Officer was fixed : subject to the control of the Hong
Merchants and under the orders of the Hoppo, let him obey
tremblingly !
Captain Elliot accepted this humiliating position with-
out further remonstrance and promised ( December 28, 1836)
to remain in Macao until further instructed . In March 1837
an Imperial edict was received at Canton authorizing Elliot's
72 CHAPTER VII.

proceeding to Canton. Accordingly he removed (April 12 , 1837 )
to Canton with Mr. Johnston, the Second Superintendent,
and took with him his whole suite, consisting of a Secretary
(Mr. Elmslie) , two Interpreters (Mr. Morrison and Mr. Gützlaff),
two Surgeons (Mr. Colledge and Mr. Anderson ) , and a Chaplain
(the Rev. Mr. Vachell) . On arrival at Canton , Captain Elliot
at once set to work to obtain a modification of his official
status. He commenced ( April 22 , 1837 ) by protesting that he
could not possibly continue sending any further communications
to the Viceroy through the Hong Merchants, but, on meeting
with a curt refusal, yielded this point five days later, on being
graciously allowed to send his petitions through the Hong
Merchants under a sealed cover addressed to the Viceroy.
But the Canton Authorities communicated with Elliot only
through the Hong Merchants, to whom they addressed their
orders. Thus things went on, quietly enough, for about seven
months, whilst the Viceroy ( September, 1837 ) repeatedly
instructed the Hong Merchants to order Elliot to send the
receiving ships away from Lintin, and Elliot persisted in
declaring that he had no power to do so, although he had
informed the British merchants ( December 31 , 1836 ) that Macao
and Lintin were included in his jurisdiction over British subjects
and ships. On receiving, however, renewed instructions from
Lord Palmerston to maintain the dignity of an Officer of the
British Crown, Captain Elliot humbly informed the Viceroy of
Canton (November 23, 1837 ) that, with all respect for His
Excellency's high dignity, he must discontinue the use of the
character Pien on his addresses to the Governor. When the
Viceroy peremptorily declined making the slightest concession
on this point, Elliot plucked up courage, hauled down his flag
and retired to Macao (November 29, 1837) . The Canton
Authorities, not in least moved by this proceeding, took no
notice of Elliot's departure, but recommended to the Emperor
(December 30, 1837 ) to stop the regular foreign trade until the
receiving ships at Lintin had taken their departure. Meanwhile
all official intercourse with Captain Elliot remained suspended.
 CHANGE OF POLICY. 73

Lord Palmerston approved of Elliot's proceedings (June 15,
1838) and sent Admiral Maitland, who arrived on July 12 ,
1838, in H.M.S. Wellesley, to cheer him up. Here was an
opportunity for Captain Elliot, and the Chinese unwittingly
improved upon it by foolishly firing on a boat of the Wellesley.
But Captain Elliot missed his chance and allowed the Chinese
to cajole him . Admiral Maitland was satisfied with a mild
apology by the Chinese Admiral and the usual exchange of
empty civilities between the two Admirals took place. Thus the
commander of the Wellesley was induced to sail away peacefully
(September 25 , 1838) , but under circumstances which justified
the assertion on the part of the Chinese that they had ordered
him off. This palpable mismanagement of the Admiral's visit
to China also met with Lord Palmerston's unqualified approval.
But the Chinese Authorities, having by this time taken the
measure of Captain Elliot's position, now reduced his official
status to an even lower level. They induced him actually to
yield (December 31 , 1838 ) the very point for the sake of which
he had struck his flag a year before, and to communicate with
subordinate officers of the Governor of Canton, by means of
humble petitions . The British newspapers in Canton now
overwhelmed him with a torrent of abuse, and even meek Lord
Palmerston regretted it and mildly suggested , six months later,
(June 13 , 1839) as a remedy, that Elliot should not omit to
avail himself of any proper opportunity to press for the
substitution of a less objectionable character than the character
Pien. But the real degradation in this move Lord Palmerston
did not understand. The concession which Captain Elliot made,
in December 1838, aud the price he paid for the re-opening of
official communications, involved far more than the use of an
objectionable character. For the official status now assigned
to Her Majesty's Commission and accepted by Elliot (December
26, 1838) was this : whilst previously receiving, from the lips
of the Hong Merchants, the orders of the Viceroy and the Hoppo,
the latter being next in rank to the Viceroy, he was henceforth
to receive through the Hong Merchants the orders of the local
74 CHAPTER VII.

Governor's subordinate officers, the Prefect of Canton city and
the Commandant of the local constabulary. Well might the
English newspapers of Canton cry shame at the fresh indignities
heaped upon British honour by placing the Queen's Commission
in China on a level below that of subordinate police officers,
in a position far lower than that of the former Supercargoes .
But, on the other hand, it must also be considered that Elliot
made these concessions at a time when, through the lawless
proceedings of foreigners engaged in the opium traffic between
Lintin and Whampoa, the life and property of the whole foreign
community had been placed in jeopardy and a dreadful
catastrophe was believed to be impending. Elliot believed that
this humiliating mode of communication with the Chinese
Government would only be of brief duration , pending the succour
he expected to receive from the home country. In this he was
mistaken. The public mind of England did not care for or
understand these things, or at any rate the nation was not
prepared yet to redeem the honour of the British flag in China.
Stronger measures had to be taken by the Chinese to arouse
public opinion in England, and the occasion for such measures
was furnished by the opium trade itself.
 CHAPTER VIII.



THE OPIUM QUESTION AND THE EXODUS FROM CANTON.
1839.

The taste for opium is a congenital disease of the Chinese
race. At the beginning of the Christian era, the uses and effects
of opium were the secret of the Buddhist priesthood in China .
Priests from India secured for themselves divine honours by
performing feats of ascetic discipline, fasting and mental
absorption, sitting for instance motionless for months at a time.
indolently gazing at a black wall. These feats were performed
by means of opium. Buddhist and Taoist priests peregrinated
through the whole of China performing astounding medical
cures by means of opiates. Centuries before European medical
science discovered the uses of opium, there was all over China a
large and constantly increasing demand for this drug, and, though
opium was grown in China from the earliest times, most of the
supply was imported into China by Arab traders at Canton and
Foochow. Nevertheless, while numbers of individuals taking
opium in excess were physically and morally ruined by it, the use
of opium never affected the health of the race to any perceptible
extent. When the smoking of opium and the consequent practice
of introducing opium vapour into the lungs commenced in China ,
is not known. As early as A.D. 1678 a regular duty on
foreign imported opium was levied at Canton, but for 77
years after that date the annual import . did not exceed 200
chests. By the year 1796, however, the annual rate of
importation had risen to 4,100 chests and the rapid spread of
a taste for opium smoking, and the consequent demoralisation
of individuals who smoked opium to excess, attracted the
attention of the Government. Accordingly the importation of
76 CHAPTER VIII.

opium was formally prohibited (A.D. 1796 ) by an Imperial
Edict, the regular levy of a duty on opium ceased, and for it was
substituted, with the connivance of the Cantonese Authorities,
a system of secret importation under a clandestine levy of official
fees . The effect of this Imperial prohibition was an immediate
rise in the selling price of opium, and a consequently increased
supply. Chinese historians report that by the year 1820, the
annual clandestine sales of opium at Canton had reached a total
of nearly 4,000 chests.
But we have exact statistics of the annual exportation of
opium from India, most of which found its way to Canton,
while the remainder which went elsewhere was balanced by
imports of opium into China from other countries. These Indian
Government statistics show that the exportation of opium from
India continued, from A.D. 1798 to 1825, with very little
variation, at an average rate of 4,117 chests per annum ; that
it rose in the year 1826 , at a bound, to 6,570 chests , and
continued until the year 1829 at an average annual rate of 7,427
chests ; that in the year 1830 the export suddenly rose to 11,835
chests and continued , until the year 1835, at an average annual
rate of 12,095 chests. But in the year 1837 , on account of the
enhanced demand caused by the general expectation entertained
in 1836 that the trade would be legalised, the exportation of
opium took another sudden bound, rising to 19,600 chests , in
consequence of which the total amount of opium, accumulated
in the hands of opium merchants at Canton and Macao during
the period 1836 to 1837, reached a total of 30,000 chests . Of
these, some 20,000 chests were sold in 1836 , to the value of
about two million pounds sterling, of which sum £ 280,000
went into the pockets of the High Authorities. The trade in
opium was all along carried on at Canton in the foreign factories,
where the Hong Merchants and their privileged clients and
even Chinese officials openly purchased-from the various foreign
merchants, representing English, Anglo- Indian (chiefly Parsee),
Portuguese, American, French, Spanish, Danish, and Dutch
firms- written orders (chops) for opium to be delivered by ships
 THE OPIUM QUESTION. 77

anchored in the outer waters of the Canton River. The opium
was not stored at Canton, but at first it was warehoused in
Macao, subsequently it was kept on board ships anchored at
Whampoa (the port of Canton) , until, with the year 1830, a
new practice arose. Foreign ships now used, on arrival from
India, to anchor first at the mouth of the Canton River, viz , at
Kam-sing-moon during the S.W. monsoon (April to September)
or at Lintin during the N.E. monsoon (October to March) , and
there to discharge their opium into stationary receiving hulks,
whereupon the ships proceeded with the remainder of their
cargo to Whampoa to engage there in the legitimate trade.
In the year 1830, there were only five such receiving ships in
Chinese waters, but by the year 1837 their number had increased
to 25, most of which were either English or temporarily
transferred to the English flag, though some were openly under
the American, French, Dutch, Spanish and Danish flags . These
receiving ships, anchored at Lintin or Kam-sing- moon, were
heavily armed and strongly manned, so much so that no Chinese
fleet could possibly interfere with them successfully. They
were readily supplied with provisions by native boats (known
as bumboats) and during the business season the officers in
command of these receiving ships were in daily communication.
with their respective agencies at Canton and Macao by means
of fast foreign cutters or schooners, manned by Indian lascars,
and known as European passage-boats. Since the winter of
1836, when foreign ships were forbidden to anchor at Kam-sing-
moon, and the prohibitions enforced by the erection of a shore
battery guarded by a naval squadron, the opium ships were
(1837 to 1841 ) confined to the station at Lintin . But whenever
the Cantonese Authorities made a special show of interference
with the opium traffic, as carried on at Lintin, some of the
most powerfully armed opium ships would be sent away to
the eastern and north-eastern coasts of China, to sell opium
wherever practicable along the coast, in a manner similar to
that practised at Lintin . In the year 1826 the commanders
of the receiving ships anchored at Lintin made an arrangement
78 CHAPTER VIII.

with the revenue cruizers established by the Viceroy Li
Hung-pan, under which these cruizers, for a monthly fee of
Taels 36,000, allowed the opium to pass freely into the ports
of Whampoa and Macao. And in the year 1837 , when strict
orders had been issued by the Emperor to stop all opium
traffic at Lintin , the Commodore Hou Shiu-hing, in command
of the Viceroy's cruizers, arranged with the commanders of the
opium ships at Lintin, to convoy or actually to carry by his
vessels the opium from Lintin to its destination , for a fixed
percentage of opium. Some of the opium which he thus received ,
the wily Commodore then presented to the Viceroy as captured
by force of arms, and on these meritorious services being officially
reported to the Throne, the Emperor bestowed on the Commodore
a peacock's feather and gave him the rank of Rear-Admiral.
The Annals of the present Manchu Dynasty (partly translated
by Mr. E. H. Parker) , from which the foregoing statements
are taken, allege that the opium annually stored in the original
five receiving ships did at first not amount to more than 4,000
or 5,000 chests, but that later on (1826 to 1836) there were,
on the 25 receiving ships, some 20,000 chests of opium in any
one year.
The extraordinary dimensions which the opium trade thus
assumed, with the connivance of the Chinese Authorities, as a
forced trade (neither legal nor strictly speaking contraband) ,
especially during the decade from 1826 to 1836 , naturally
aroused anxious attention both on the part of the English and
Chinese Cabinets .
The English Government viewed with apprehension the
annually increasing importance which the East India Company's
opium monopoly assumed, since 1826, as a source of public
revenue. The extent to which the income of the Indian
Government had gradually become dependent upon the cultivation
and export of opium, likewise caused the English Cabinet much
anxiety and perplexity. Parliament also took the matter up and
appointed a Select Committee to investigate the questions
involved, both in 1830 and 1832. In the latter year, however,
 THE OPIUM QUESTION. 79

the Committee, though by no means approving of the opium
traffic, gave it as their opinion that it did not seem advisable
to abandon so important a source of revenue in the East India
Company's monopoly of opium in Bengal.
Captain Elliot, the Government's representative in China,
personally abhorred the opium trade, root and branch , and did
not diguise his views either in his relations with the merchants
in Canton or in his communications to the Government. He
stated the perfect truth when he wrote to Lord Palmerston
(November 16 , 1839 ) that , if his private feelings were of the
least consequence upon questions of a public and important
nature, he might assuredly and justly say that no man entertained
a deeper detestation of the disgrace and sin of this forced traffic
on the coast of China ; that he saw little to choose between
it and piracy ; and that in his place, as a public officer, he had
steadily discountenanced it by all the lawful means in his
power, and at the total sacrifice of his private comfort in the
society in which he had lived for years. But he also stated
perfect truth, and in this respect Chinese history supports him,
when he wrote to Lord Palmerston (February 2, 1837 ) , that
the opium trade commenced and subsisted only by reason of
the hearty concurrence of the Chief Authorities of the
southern provinces of China and indeed also of the Court at
Peking ; that no portion of the foreign trade to China more
regularly paid its entrance duties than this opium traffic ; and
that the least attempt to evade the fees of the Mandarins was
almost certain of detection and severe punishment. Captain
Elliot further stated, on the same occasion, that a large share
of these emoluments reached not merely the higher dignitaries
of the Empire, but in all probability, in no very indirect manner,
the Imperial hand itself. The fact that, for centuries past, the
principal trade revenue office at Canton (that of the Hoppo)
has always been, as it still is, the monopoly of officers of the
Imperial Household, lends force to this surmise. But what
prevented Elliot's taking official proceedings against the opium
trade, which he personally loathed, was the same consideration
80 CHAPTER VIII.

which had prevented the Parliamentary Committee of 1832
disavowing it altogether. The evil had already gone on too
long . The opium trade had, by its financial operations, become
so intertwined with the legitimate trade, that separate dealing
with it was impossible. The import of opium into China, as
it gradually expanded, gave an enormous impetus to the export
of tea and silk from China to the European markets, and the
whole opium trade had imperceptibly become a necessity both for
China and for Europe ; for China, because the craving for opium
was so widespread among the Chinese people, that the demand for
it defied the severest criminal enactments ; for Europe, because
the sale of opium, which had by this time come to form three-
fifths of the whole British imports into China, provided a very
large portion of the funds required for operations in Chinese
produce destined for European markets . Indeed , as Elliot put
it (February 21 , 1837 ) , the movement of money at Canton
had come to depend, by the force of circumstances, almost
entirely upon the deliveries of opium at Lintin . The tares could
not be rooted out now, without destroying the wheat.
Lord Palmerston , and the other members of the Cabinet ,
whilst unanimous in their dislike of the opium trade, could
not yet agree to any definite solution of the problem. On one
point Lord Palmerston was perfectly clear, viz. that Her
Majesty's Government could not possibly interfere for the
purpose of enabling British subjects to violate the laws of
the country to which they trade, and that therefore any loss
which such persons may suffer in consequence of the more
effectual execution of the Chinese laws on this subject, must
be borne by the parties who have brought that loss upon
themselves by their own acts. He wrote to Elliot to this effect
(June 15, 1838 ) , but at the same time declared that the Cabinet
did not feel sufficient confidence in their apprehension of the
opium problem to enter upon any negotiations with the Chinese
Government regarding the repression or legalisation of the
trade in opium. Nevertheless there are indications that Lord
Palmerston had, in his own mind, already settled the leading
 THE OPIUM QUESTION. 81

principles of that policy which he formulated later on (February
26, 1841 ) , in the following words. It is evident,' he wrote
to Rear Admiral Elliot and to Captain Elliot , that no exertions
of the Chinese Authorities can put down the opium trade on
the Chinese coast, because the temptation both to the buyers
and to the sellers is stronger than can be counteracted by
any fear of detection and punishment. It is equally clear, that
it is wholly out of the power of the British Government to
prevent opium from being carried to China, because even if
none were grown in any part of the British territories, plenty
of it would be produced in other countries, and would thence
be sent to China by adventurous men, either British or of
other nations. The present state of Chinese law upon this
matter makes the trade illegal ; and illegal trade is always
attended with acts of violence. Battles between Chinese war-
junks and British smugglers have a necessary tendency to
produce unfriendly and embarrassing discussions between the
British and Chinese Governments, or at all events to keep alive
hostile feelings between the British and the Chinese people.
It would seem, therefore, that much additional stability would
be given to the friendly relations between the two countries ,
if the Government of China would make up its mind to legalise
the importation of opium upon payment of a duty sufficiently
moderate to take away from the smuggler the temptation to
endeavour to introduce the commodity without payment of duty.
By this means, also, it is evident that a considerable increase
of revenue might be obtained by the Chinese Government,
because the sums which are now paid as bribes to the custom-
house officers would enter the public coffers in the shape of
duty.'
The policy of the Chinese Government was for a long
time equally undecided, wavering between legalisation and
extirpation of the opium trade. The counsels of the leading
statesmen of China were divided until the close of the year
1838. But, whilst divided in their opinions as to the desirability
of stamping out the use of opium, and as to the possibility of
6
82 CHAPTER VIII.

preventing smuggling effectively, all the principal statesmen
of China were singularly unanimous in looking at the opium
question not, as we might suppose, from a moral point of
view, but simply and solely as a financial problem . Their
objection to the opium trade was not that it fostered a vice
gnawing at the vitals of the nation, but that it caused the
balance of the trade to turn against China and that it
accordingly drained China of silver and impoverished the
nation. The Chinese author of the above-mentioned Annals
of the Manchu Dynasty, whilst personally holding the same
views of the opium traffic which Elliot held, and occasionally
indulging in elaborate tirades concerning the immorality of
the traffic in opium, gives, as the reasons why the Chinese
Government condemned the trade, purely financial arguments.
Formerly, he says, a rule had been in force, that no silver
was to be exported and that the whole foreign trade should
be conducted by barter, which compelled foreign merchants
annually to import half a million dollars, but, he adds, with
the expansion of the opium trade it came gradually to pass
that a balance of silver had annually to be made up by
China . Thus also a Memorial to the Throne, by Wong
Tseuk-tsz, which contributed much to the victory eventually
scored by the anti-opium party in Peking, argued that the
growing consumption of opium was at the root of all China's
troubles, because silver was becoming scarce and relatively
dear, the value of the tael having advanced from 1,000
to 1,600 cash in price. But since the year 1832, and especially
all through the year 1836, the counsels of the pro-opium
party were decidedly in the ascendant at Peking and in the
provinces. A joint Memorial, presented to the Throne in
1832 by the ex-Viceroy and the Governor of Canton , boldly
recommended the licensing of the opium trade on the ground
that such a measure would reduce the price of opium and
thereby diminish the export of silver, and secretly hinted
that the encouragement of the growth of native opium would
still further impede the avaricious plans and large profits of
 THE OPIUM QUESTION. 83

the foreigners. Another Memorial, presented to the Throne
in spring 1836, further argued that the legalisation of the
opium trade would bring it under the rules of barter ; that
thereby the baneful effects of the trade, consisting in an annual
loss of over ten million taels inflicted on the currency of the
realm , would be entirely obviated ; but that for this purpose
the Hong Merchants must be made personally responsible for
the conduct of the whole opium trade and for the entire abolition
of the traffic carried on at Lintin ; and that the success of the
scheme depended upon levying such a small duty (seven dollars
a chest) as to cut off all inducement to smugglers to risk their
lives. When the Emperor remitted this Memorial (June 12,
1836 ) for further report , it was generally assumed at Canton
that it was now only a question of framing the regulations for
the detailed organisation of the legalisation scheme. Elliot gave
utterance to an opinion generally entertained at the time in
the best informed official circles of Peking and Canton, when
he wrote to the Foreign Office (October 10, 1836), that he
expected soon receiving the final orders from Peking for the
legalisation of the opium trade. When, a few weeks later
(October 28, 1836 ) , the Viceroy issued orders for the expulsion
from Canton of twelve foreign opium merchants, eight of whom
were British subjects, it was still thought that this measure ,
though rigidly insisted on (November 23 and December 13 ,
1836), was only meant as a blow directed against the Lintin
trade. This surmise was confirmed when an Imperial Edict
(dated January 26, 1837) appeared, which declared the baneful
effects, arising from a prevalence of opium throughout the
Empire, to consist in a daily decrease of fine silver, and
consequently placed a strict interdict on the exportation of sycee
silver, without prohibiting the trade in opium. On February 2,
1837 , Elliot wrote to Lord Palmerston, that he was still of
opinion that the legal admission of opium may be looked for.
That the Lintin trade was the principal, if not exclusive, cause
of objection, was further demonstrated by another Imperial
Edict with reached Canton in August, 1837. This Edict stated
84 CHAPTER VIII.

that, whereas the illicit trade, the importation of opium and
exportation of sycee, depended entirely on the receiving ships
stationed at Lintin, the resident foreigners must immediately
be ordered to send those ships away. Elliot accordingly had
four successive demands made upon him to order those ships
to leave China , and finally he was directed to write to his
King and request him to command those ships to leave, and
to prohibit their return to China. Captain Elliot declined to
interfere on the ground that his duties were at Canton and
that he had no power, and he hinted that the Chinese Authorities
were themselves at fault in not recognising him properly as a
Government Officer. But towards the close of the year the
hopes of the legalisation of the opium trade grew fainter and
fainter and Captain Elliot now (December 7 , 1837 ) reported
to Lord Palmerston, that things were in such a condition of
uncertainty that it was impossible to divine what the Chinese
Authorities meant, as they were wandering from project to
project and from blunder to blunder, and that the protection
of British interests demanded that a small naval force should
immediately be stationed in Chinese waters.
Lord Palmerston must have seen the reasonableness of
Captain Elliot's request. But he had by this time determined
upon applying to Chinese affairs his favourite policy of
masterly inaction . So he deliberately left Elliot and the
British community to their fate, unprotected by any fleet ,
and waited to see what the Chinese Government would
really do.
Whilst the British and Chinese Cabinets hesitated as to
the course to be taken , the hangers on of the Lintin trade
pushed matters to a crisis. During the first few months of
the year 1838, the number of foreign cutters and schooners
carrying opium from Lintin to Whampoa increased enormously,
and the deliveries of opium were now frequently accompanied
by conflicts in which fire-arms were used freely. Elliot
discovered that many of these craft were owned by British
subjects, but he was powerless. When he devised (as above
 THE OPIUM QUESTION. 85

mentioned) some police regulations for the purpose, Lord
Palmerston informed him that he had gone beyond his powers
in doing so. The Cantonese Authorities, irritated by this
incomprehensible inactivity of Elliot, desired to give foreigners
in general a warning, and caused a native, convicted of
smuggling opium and sycee, to be executed under the walls
of Macao (April 13, 1838 ). Trade continued, though under
gloomy apprehensions, as everybody felt that a crisis was
approaching. Things went on, however, quietly enough, until
the close of the year, when ( December 3, 1838 ) some boxes
of opium, that had been brought up to Canton, presumably
from an American ship anchored at Whampoa, were seized in
front of the house of Mr. Innes and discovered to be his
property. The Chinese Authorities immediately ordered both
Mr. Innes and the ship in question to leave Canton waters
within three days (subsequently extended to ten), whilst the
Hong Merchant, who was security for the ship, was at once
exposed in the stocks with a heavy wooden collar round his
neck. This caused great excitement, the more SO as the
other Hong Merchants sent Mr. Innes a written warning
that they were going to pull down his house over his head .
The threat was, however, not carried out, and the excitement
had well nigh subsided, when (December 12, 1888 ) the
Chinese Authorities, resolved to give the foreigners another
lesson to intimidate them, brought a criminal, condemned to
death on a charge of selling opium, and made arrangements
to execute him in the square, right under the windows of the
factories . Some of the foreigners at once protested against
the erection of the tent which was to accommodate the
officials, others pulled down what scaffolding had already
been put up, while a mob of some six thousand natives that
had collected stood by and at first applauded the proceedings
of the foreigners, laughing at the discomfiture of the Chinese
police . But when some foreigners imprudently pushed in
between the mob, and assaulted some of the crowd with
sticks, popular feeling turned against them and the cry
86 CHAPTER VIII.

' ta, ta ' (kill them) was raised on all sides. Showers of
stones now forced the foreigners into their houses ; the doors
were hastily barricaded ; a shot was fired, happily without
doing any injury ; the mob were about making preparations
for the entire demolition of the factories, and the life of
every foreigner in Canton was in imminent peril, when the
Authorities sent troops at the last moment and restored
quiet. But the Hong Merchants, whom the Authorities held
responsible for the disturbance, now declared that trade must
be suspended altogether, unless the traffic carried on in small
craft between Lintin and Whampoa were immediately put a
stop to . Elliot would have gladly exceeded his legal powers
to do so, but Lord Palmerston had left him without sufficient
naval support to clear the waters of Canton of an armed
traffic, carried on by the riffraff of every foreign nation,
supported by the Chinese people and secretly participated in
by Chinese officials. All he could do was to make an appeal
to the conscience of the foreign community and to warn the
offenders. He called a public meeting (December 17 , 1838)
and asked the merchants to co-operate with him in his efforts
to stop the traffic between Lintin and Whampoa. But the
reckless foreigners on board the boats down at Whampoa
cared neither for the threatenings of Elliot or the Chinese
Authorities, nor for the general reprobation in which all the
respectable foreign merchants at Canton held this traffic.
Elliot exhausted all his executive powers by serving a notice
upon all British subjects engaged on those boats, which
warned them that, unless they at once left the Canton River,
he would consider them as outlaws and leave them to be
dealt with by the Chinese Authorities. When Elliot issued
this notice (December 18 , 1838 ) , his communications with
the Chinese Government had been interrupted for nearly a
year. It was at this juncture, believing some dreadful calamity
to be impending upon the whole foreign community at Canton,
that Elliot resolved to resume official intercourse with the
Chinese Government at any cost, and accordingly he made
 THE OPIUM QUESTION. 87

the humiliating concessions above mentioned, consenting to
address the Cantonese Authorities as a humble petitioner and
to receive communications, which really were orders, from
the subordinates of the Governor of Canton city. He sacrificed
his personal and official dignity, because he saw no other way
of preventing a massacre .
However, the Cantonese Authorities were too well aware
of the advantages connected with the continuance of the
foreign trade at Canton, to resort deliberately to any extreme
measures. They had no wish to stop trade altogether, or
even to suppress the fair opium traffic at Canton , but they
were determined to stop the forced traffic between Lintin and
Whampoa, because it evaded the exactions of the higher officials.
The new year ( 1839) opened with gloomy forebodings,
for on the day when trade was re- opened (January 1 , 1839) ,
a rumour spread in Canton that the party at Peking, opposed
to the legalisation of the opium trade, had gained a decided
ascendency in the Imperial councils. And, indeed, while Elliot
was penning a dispatch to Lord Palmerston (January 2, 1839) ,
imploring the Foreign Office for some support under his
embarrassing circumstances, stating also that there was no
time to be lost in providing for the defined and reasonable
control of Her Majesty's subjects in China, the former
Viceroy of Hukwang, Lam Tsak-sü, better known as Com-
missioner Lin, was already on his way, armed with extraordinary
powers as Special Imperial Commissioner and High Admiral.
Lin . had previously distinguished himself as an uncompromising
anti-opium agitator and now, whilst travelling along the
wearisome route from Peking to Canton, he concocted an
elaborate scheme to entrap all the opium dealers and to
extirpate the whole opium traffic by one fell blow, besides
bringing the Cantonese Authorities once for all to book for
their connivance at, and share in , the opium trade . The news
of his approach caused, indeed, all the local officials, from the
Viceroy down to the Hong Merchants, to quake in their
shoes. Accordingly the opium traffic was actually stopped
88 CHAPTER VIII.

for several months before Lin's arrival, and the Authorities
bestirred themselves to make a show of serious repressive
measures. They now (January 10, 1839) issued a notification
strictly prohibiting the conveyance of opium from Lintin to
Whampoa, and further (January 16 , 1839) called upon all
foreign merchants to pledge their word that they would have
nothing whatever to do with the smuggling of opium or with
the exportation of silver. Again, acting upon advance orders
sent on ahead by Commissioner Lin, the Viceroy now ordered
the backdoors of the factories to be blocked up and set a
watch in front . Having thus shut in the foreign community,
the Viceroy and the Governor issued (January 30, 1839 ) a
joint proclamation addressed directly, without the intervention
of the Hong Merchants, to all foreign merchants. In this
proclamation foreigners were told that the Imperial Commissioner
Lin, sent from Peking to extirpate the whole opium traffic ,
was hourly expected to arrive in Canton. The Viceroy and
Governor even added , in their zeal, what was entirely against
Lin's plan, that the foreign merchants must at once send
all the warehousing vessels, anchored in the outer seas,
away. These orders were enhanced by the threat that, in
case of disobedience, trade would be brought to an end for
ever. The real sting of the proclamation was, however,
when read in the light of the newly established blockade of
the factories, in the words ' thus are the lives of all you
foreigners in our grasp.'
This blockade of the factories and the imprisonment of
the whole foreign community was, indeed, the indispensable
preliminary to the execution of Lin's deeeply laid scheme.
Having thus caught the whole of the foreign merchants in hist
net, Lin, to keep them busy, allowed the legitimate trade to
continue unmolested for the present, and proceeded first of all
to examine the high officials and the gentry of Canton as to
the detailed history of the opium traffic, censuring some and
cashiering others. But he at once ordered measures to be taken
to intimidate the foreign merchants further by the strangling
 THE OPIUM QUESTION. 89

of a Chinese opium dealer (February 26 , 1839 ) . in front of
the factories and in the presence of a formidable array of Chinese
troops . Further, to cut off their eventual retreat to Macao,
he ordered the Bogue forts to be guarded by a fleet, and a
blockade of Macao to be commenced by land and sea .
To prevent a collision, now imminent, Elliot ordered (March
7 , 1839 ) all English-owned passage boats to remain outside the
Bogue. But, thinking English residents at Macao to be at the
moment in greater peril than those at Canton, Elliot proceeded,
with the permission of the Chinese officials (March 10 , 1839 )
to Macao, where, to his great relief he found H.M. sloop Larne
which had just arrived . On passing through the Bogue, Elliot
had noticed that large numbers of fire-rafts and war junks
were being collected there, in evident preparation of an attack
on the foreign merchant shipping anchored at Lintin, and on
arrival at Macao he found active measures in progress for an
effective blockade. After making all necessary arrangements
with Captain Blake, the commander of the Larne, for the
protection of British residents at Macao, and ordering all British
ships in Chinese waters immediately to rendezvous, for mutual
protection, in the harbour of Hongkong, Elliot hastened back
to Canton, and, although finding every outlet of the Canton
River guarded by Chinese cruizers , he pushed resolutely on .
Having heard, en route, of fresh perils of his countrymen at
Canton, and believing that some desperate calamity would ensue
unless he reached Canton at once, he pluckily forced his way,
unarmed, in a small but fast-sailing gig of the Larne, manned
by four blue-jackets, through the successive cordons of Chinese
soldiery, until, he reached, at the imminent risk of his life, the
British factories. Elliot's arrival (March 24, 1839 ) revived the
drooping spirits of the foreign community who were at the
moment in sore perplexity, and the sight of the English flag
waving proudly and defiantly from the factory tower, where,
in place of the demolished flagstaff, the ensign staff of the
Larne's gig had been put up by Elliot's order, inspired every
heart with fresh courage .
90 CHAPTER VIII.

During Elliot's absence, the Imperial Commissioner Lin
had sent to the foreign merchants (March 18, 1839 ) a demand
for the surrender of all opium stored on board ships in Chinese
waters, threatening them with their lives if the order were
not obeyed forthwith. While the merchants were deliberating
what to do, the Hoppo, acting under Lin's orders, prohibited
foreigners, some of whom now sought to get away, retreating
to Macao (March 19 , 1839 ) and took measures to cut off
all communication with Whampoa and the outside shipping.
At the same time the factories were surrounded by a stockade
and a triple cordon of Chinese troops on land, and by a
semi-circular bridge formed by war junks on the river side.
When these measures were complete (March 21 , 1839 ) , the
demand of the surrender of all opium was repeated. The General
Chamber of Commerce now sought to appease the Authorities by
an offer to surrender 1037 chests of opium, but the offer was
contemptuously rejected, and Mr. Lancelot Dent, being supposed
to have under his orders six thousand chests of opium, was now
(March 22 , 1839 ) summoned to appear in person before the
Imperial Commissioner and to surrender himself forthwith at
the city gate. Naturally, all the foreign merchants made
common cause with him and it was unanimously resolved that
he should not go. Thereupon all Chinese servants were ordered
to leave the factories, and all supplies of fresh water and
provisions were cut off. Moreover, the senior Hong Merchants
(How-qua, senior, and Mow-qua) , loaded with iron chains
fastened round their necks, were now ( March 3, 1839 ) sent to the
factories, under the charge of the Prefect of Canton, with
orders, under pains of immediate decapitation, to bring Mr.
Dent with them into the city. The whole foreign community,
however, declared that he should not go, and when the Hong
Merchants affirmed that it would really cost them their lives
if they went away without him, Mr. Inglis pluckily volunteered
to go in place of Mr. Dent, if three others would accompany
him . This offer, readily accepted by the Prefect as a happy
compromise, was at once acted upon by three other gentlemen,
 THE OPIUM QUESTION. 91

Thom, Slade and Fearon . The four heroes proceeded accordingly,
with the Prefect and the Hong Merchants, into the city and
were examined, at the temple of the Queenof Heaven, by a
Committee of the highest local officers, under the Governor's
orders, viz . the Chief Justice, the Treasurer, the Grain Intendant
and the Commissioner of the Salt Gabelle. These high officials
were so struck with admiration of the bravery of the four
Englishmen, that, after briefly examining them, they allowed
them to return to the factories unmolested . Next day, however,
the demand for Mr. Dent's surrender was renewed and the
foreign community were just deliberating what was to be done
now, when Elliot arrived in their midst , took Mr. Dent under
his arm and carried him off to his own room, informing the
Chinese officers that he would rather surrender his own life-
than that of any Englishman under his charge.
On the following day (March 25 , 1839) , whilst the foreign
merchants signed bonds, pledging themselves not to deal in
opium nor to introduce it in China in any way, Captain Elliot
applied to the Viceroy, respectfully claiming passports for all
English ships and people at Canton, adding that , unless these
passports were granted within the space of three days, he would
be reluctantly driven to the conclusion that the men and ships
of his country were forcibly detained, and act accordingly. The
Chinese Authorities took no notice of this covert threat, well
knowing that H.M. sloop Larne could not engage the Bogue forts
single-handed . If anything were wanted to prove that , even
in this opium contest, the real question at issue was the absolute
supremacy of China over England, the reply, which Elliot now
received from the Viceroy Tang Ching-ch'ing, would prove it .
Elliot had, at the close of his letter, expressed a regret that
the peace between the two countries ' (meaning of course China
and England) was placed in imminent jeopardy by the late
unexplained and alarming proceedings of the Chinese Authorities.
The Viceroy, in reply, stated that he could not understand what
Elliot meant by the two countries ' ; that of course he could
not possibly mean to compare England with China, which would
92 CHAPTER VIII.

be absolutely preposterous, because all regions under heaven
were in humble submission to the Government of China, while
the heaven-like goodness of the Emperor overshadowed all ; and
that the English nation and the Americans had, by their trade
in Canton , of all those nations in subjection, enjoyed the largest
6 Therefore,' argued the sarcastic Viceroy,
measure of favour.
I presume, it must be England and America, that are conjointly
named " the two countries," but the meaning of the language
is greatly wanting in perspicuity.'
However, Elliot's application for passports was peremptorily
refused, as also another application he made on the same day,
begging that servants, water and food supplies might be restored
to the foreign community. He was reminded in reply that Mr.
Dent had not yet been surrendered and that the Imperial
Commissioner was determined to get possession of all the opium
now in China.
The foreign community, thus officially informed that they
were prisoners, calmly prepared for the worst . But they were
in a sad plight , for they were absolutely without any servants,
without fresh water, without fresh provisions, and had to live,
at short rations, upon what they had in their cupboards.
During the next few days, sundry Chinese officials overwhelmed
Elliot with complaints that he was the cause of all the troubles,
that Mr. Dent would have surrendered if Elliot had not
appeared on the scene, and that Elliot's preposterous notions of
international equality had caused the present refractoriness of
the foreign merchants and the delay in the delivery of the
opium. When these complaints were found to be of no avail,
the officials used threats, informing Elliot that the Imperial
Commissioner Lin had hitherto taken no action because ' he
cannot bear to destroy ere he has instructed,' and that therefore
Elliot had been allowed a few days' grace, but he should not
have servants or provisions, and the opium must be delivered
at once.
These were no idle threats. The factories were surrounded
by masses of Chinese soldiery, all longing for plunder ;
 THE OPIUM QUESTION. 93

combustibles of all sorts were brought to the spot, and on
the evening of March 26, 1839, there was not a foreigner in
the factories but was convinced that the Chinese were ready
to do the worst. After an anxious night, spent in deliberation,
and feeling constrained by paramount motives affecting the
safety of the lives and liberty of all the foreigners at Canton ,
Elliot issued, at 6 o'clock, on the morning of March 27 , 1839 ,
a public notice to British subjects, requiring them to deliver
up to him all British-owned opium , either in their possession
or under their control, holding him, on behalf of Her Majesty's
Government, responsible, and leaving it to Her Majesty's
Government hereafter to define the principles on which the
proof of British property and the value of British opium
should be determined . Two days later (March 28, 1839 ) ,
Elliot informed the Imperial Commissioner, that he was
prepared to deliver up 20,283 chests of British- owned opium.
In reply, Elliot was ordered by the Prefect of Canton to
give further detailed information as to the places where the
several amounts of opium were stored, and he was supplied
with various instructions as to the arrangements to be made
for the delivery of the opium. When Elliot, however, once
more requested that servants and food supplies be restored to
the prisoners, the Prefect informed him that no such indulgence
could be allowed until the delivery of the opium had commenced.
After several days spent in discussions of the mode of securing
the delivery of all the opium on board the different ships, it
was finally agreed by Commissioner Lin (April 2 , 1839 ) , that
Mr. Johnston, the Second Superintendent, should proceed under
a guard of Chinese officials and, armed with written orders of
Captain Elliot, bring all the ships up to the anchorage of
Lankeet, in sections of two ships at a time, to discharge the
opium there. Commissioner Lin then promised, that on
completing delivery of one-fourth of the opium, the compradores
and servants should be restored to the prisoners ; that on
completing delivery of one-half of the opium, the passage boats
should be allowed to resume communication with the ships ;
94 CHAPTER VIII.

that on delivery of three-fourths of the opium, trade should
be re-opened ; and, he added pompously, on delivery of the whole
being completed, everything should return to the ordinary
condition and a request should be laid before the Throne that
encouragements and rewards might be conferred . But Lin
further added, that, if there should be any erroneous delay for
three days, the supply of fresh water should be cut off ; if for
three days more there should be like delay, the supplies of food
should be cut off, and if such delay should continue still three
days longer, the criminal laws should forthwith be maintained
and enforced.
Mr. Johnston having left Canton, the imprisonment of the
foreign community, numbering over two hundred persons,
continued as rigorously as before, until April 17 , 1839 , when
the servants were tardily allowed to return to the factories and
food supplies were again obtainable. Meanwhile, however, the
prisoners were still guarded day and night by Chinese soldiers,
posted at their doors with drawn swords and instructed to cut
down any one who should make an attempt to escape. Both
the merchants and Captain Elliot were repeatedly worried by
demands to sign a fresh bond handing over to capital punishment
any of their countrymen who should hereafter deal in opium,
and professing abject submission to China's claim of supremacy.
No one signed the bond and the confinement continued .
The above detailed promises of Lin were by no means
faithfully adhered to. The servants were not restored as soon
as one-fourth of the opium was delivered ; the boats were not
permitted to run when one-half was delivered ; and the promise
that things should go on as usual on completion of the opium
delivery was falsified by reducing the factories to a prison with
one outlet , by the perpetual expulsion of sixteen merchants,
some of whom had never dealt in opium at all (as some clerks
and a lad were included), and by the introduction of novel and
unbearable regulations. Not until May 4 , 1839 , did the
imprisonment of the foreign community at Canton come to an
end. On that day, trade was declared re-opened and two days
 THE OPIUM QUESTION. 95

later fifty foreign merchants, known to have had no direct
dealings in opium, were allowed to depart for Whampoa en route
for Macao. Elliot, however, and the other merchants were
still detained in custody as hostages until the delivery of the
opium was completed (May 21 , 1839 ) . Then Elliot was
graciously allowed to leave, but the permission was coupled
with the demand now made that sixteen of the principal British
merchants should remain in custody as a punishment for dealing
in opium . Elliot refused to leave without them, and, after
protracted negotiations, he at last (May 27 , 1829) obtained their
discharge on their signing a bond, guaranteeing that they would
never return to China. By the end of May the exodus of British
merchants and British shipping from Canton waters was
complete. American merchants remained and became a favoured
class.
Lin had gained a victory . He had succeeded in stopping
for a time the trade in opium. But his seeming success had
been gained only by driving British trade away from Canton
in a manner eventually resulting in the establishment of a British
Colony at Hongkong, which in turn deprived Canton of all
its former commercial importance. He had also succeeded in
obtaining forcible possession of over twenty-four million dollars
worth of British-owned opium which it took him weeks (until
June 1 , 1839 ) to destroy with quick-lime in pits dug on the
sea shore at Chinkau, near the Bogue, and the full value of which
China had to repay a few years later.
·
This affair has been well managed,' wrote the Emperor
to Lin, but the verdiet of the vermilion pencil is not always
the verdict of history, and six months later Queen Victoria
stated, in her Speech from the Throne (January, 1840 ) , that
events had happened in China which deeply affected the interests
of her subjects and the dignity of her crown .'
 CHAPTER IX .



EXODUS FROM MACAO AND EVENTS LEADING UP TO THE
CESSION OF HONGKONG.

1839 to 1841 .


THE Imperial Commissioner Lin had been instructed by
the Government of Peking to do two things, both of which
were equally impossible, viz. to extirpate the opium traffic, root
and branch, but at the same time to secure the continuance at
Canton of the legitimate foreign trade under the old 1egime.
When Lin arrived in Canton, he found the opium trade stagnant
and its worst features, the forced trade between Lintin and
Whampoa, entirely cut off through the vigorous action, resorted
to at the last moment, of the Cantonese Authorities. Had he
confined himself to do the only thing possible, viz . to seek to
initiate measures tending to bring about, in course of time, a
moral regeneration of the Chinese nation, so as to reduce the
demand for opium to the lowest possible minimum, and at
the same time to introduce a moral reform of the mode of
conducting the opium trade, so as to prevent the recurrence of its
glaring abuses, he might have done some good and paved the
way for an eventual peaceful solution of this complicated opium
problem. But his instructions, based as they were on his own
original violent recommendations to the Throne, pledged him to
an extreme policy, impossible to carry out and necessarily
resulting in giving the opium trade a new impetus, besides
convincing at last even the people in England that, apart from
the opium question, the legitimate trade itself could not be
carried on, in a manner compatible with England's dignity,
under the old conditions.
 EXODUS FROM MACAO AND CESSION OF HONGKONG. 97

For four months before Lin's arrival at Canton (February,
1829 ) , the opium market had been overstocked and hardly any
sales had taken place. The great bulk of the supply of 1838
had remained unsold, owing to the energetic measures taken
in the inland districts, all through the southern provinces, to
repress the consumption . The immense stock of the year 1839
was just commencing to arrive from India where, on the very
day when over 20,000 chests were surrendered in Canton, sales
were either impossible or ruinous, because the prices in China
had fallen to between two or three hundred per cent. below the
cost of production and charges. Under these circumstances, to
rob the holders of opium of the stock which glutted the market ,
and to destroy over 20,000 chests of opium for which Elliot