delivered at Macao to the Portuguese or to the Chinese." He knew that the whole trade was illicit, and that not a pound of the drug could be got into China except by smuggling and in defiance of the laws of the empire; and yet he deliberately proposes a system by which the company shall find a market in China, and thus increase its ill-gotten gains. The directors, . in their reply, take the precaution to observe at the outset that they "would on no account wish to be concerned in an illicit trade;" and then, with that peculiar sort of consistency that characterizes their entire history, they continue:

Were we once possessed of a firm establishment to the eastward, there would be little doubt of the success of the undertaking. We might meet there with a market for the whole produce of our opium farms, to be paid for in dollars, or in tin and pepper, and such other articles as might be very profitably disposed of at Canton. And whatever opium might be in demand by the Chinese, the quantity would readily find its way thither without the company being exposed to the disgrace of an illicit commerce.

The purpose of the directors to stimulate the traffic as much as possible, to make it a source of increasing revenue, and yet to shield the company from any charge. of directly violating the laws of China, is here clearly set forth; and on this policy they acted as long as the company retained control in India. Externally, they conformed to the law. In reality, they encouraged and promoted smuggling in various ways. Toward the close of the last century we find them prohibiting any of their servants, on penalty of immediate dismissal, from carrying the drug to China. Their authority over British subjects in China was such that they could thoroughly enforce any order they chose to issue. Their power was vested in the supercargoes, who constituted a sort of council, or band of officers for the company, always resident at Canton. Every officer of a British vessel sailing to China was obliged to sign a bond that he would obey their orders. They had equal control over British subjects in India. No British ship could trade with China without a license from them, and the license became void in case of any failure to obey the orders of the supercargoes. Never had any body of men more complete power to prevent smuggling than had the East India Company. Yet

at the same time that they were prohibiting it by their public orders they were continuing to grow opium for the Chinese market, and to sell it to the smugglers, whom they freely licensed to trade with Canton. They ascertain, in 1829, that a great preference is shown in China for the Behar opium, and they immediately order an inquiry to discover what are the qualities that have obtained for it this preference, with the purpose of adapting their opium to the taste of their Chinese customers. The payments made to the poppy growers in India were increased from time to time, with the avowed purpose of inducing them to extend its cultivation; and Sir George Staunton refers to measures of this kind taken by the company about 1831 as suddenly almost quadrupling the supply.

Much of the illegal trade was carried on for many years through the Portuguese settlement of Macao; but eventually the Portuguese, thinking that the British were making too much money through the use of their port, took measures to confine the trade of that port to Portuguese subjects. The British merchants then tried to establish their trade at the port of Whampoa; but the attempt was unsuccessful, as the virtuous Chinese officials stoutly resisted the introduction of the forbidden drug, while the vicious ones demanded exorbitant bribes. At the mouth of the Canton River lies the island of Lintin. Its ample harbors afford a safe anchorage at all seasons of the year. Ships would be safe both from the vicissitudes of the weather and from the attacks of Chinese man darins. So Lintin became the home of the "opium fleet." The receiving-ships stationed there were strongly armed, and increasing quantities of opium stored in them, until, in 1834, the amount had risen to more than twenty thousand chests. The vessels that brought supplies to these store-ships were the finest clippers that floated on the sea; and the ships of rival houses frequently raced from India to China, often making over three hundred miles a day, winged messengers of beauty, but carrying death and destruction to China.

The method of carrying on the trade was as follows: Natives wishing to make purchases would apply through brokers to British merchants at Canton, who would issue orders on the receiving-ships. Carrying boats armed with guns, and manned by crews of desperate character, plied between Lintin

and the city. They were popularly designated "fast crabs," or "scrambling dragons." These boats, with more or less connivance by the Chinese authorities, delivered the illicit drug to the purchasers at Canton. The illegal traffic was not allowed to progress, however, without frequent and vigorous protests. Honest and patriotic officers would frequently take strong measures for its suppression, and on various occasions imperial edicts were issued against it. Among these, a notable instance is that of the Emperor Tao-kwang, in 1821, on the occasion of the confiscation of certain cargoes at Canton because of opium smuggling. In his edict, referring to the export trade in tea and other articles as beneficial to foreigners, he says:

Yet these foreigners feel no gratitude, nor wish to render a recompense, but smuggle in opium, which poisons the empire. When this conduct is referred to the heart, it must be disquieted; when referred to reason, it is contrary to it. In broad day on earth there is the royal law; in the shades after death are gods and demons. These foreign ships pass an immense ocean; they likewise go through gales of wind, boisterous seas, and unknown dangers, entirely preserved by the condescending protection of the celestial gods; and, therefore, they should hereafter rouse themselves to zealous reflection, to bitter repentance, and to reformation, and alter their inhuman, unreasonable conduct.

Subsequent history, up to the time when the British Government abolished the control of the East India Company over British subjects in China, in 1834, is but a repetition of that already given. It is a history, on the one hand, of a company of professedly high-minded English gentlemen, vested with extraordinary powers, proclaiming in their public documents hearty acquiescence in the laws against opium, and ostentatiously forbidding all connection with it on the part of their agents, while secretly stimulating and encouraging the traffic in every possible way, and complacently pocketing the enormous gains of the nefarious trade. Before the traffic passed from the control of the company, opium had cost China $11,618,167, while she received for her tea supplied to the whole of Great Britain only $9,133,749.

In 1834 the British Government abolished the East India Company's monopoly of trade in China, and threw it open to all British subjects. The company, in retiring from China, tried to quiet their consciences by saying, "Were it possible

to prevent the use of the drug altogether, we would gladly do it, in compassion to mankind." To this they added the preposterous and hypocritical declaration that their object in retaining the opium monopoly was rather to restrain the habit than to obtain revenue! They showed the sincerity of this declaration by selling larger quantities of opium than ever to any body who would pay them for it.

Under the new arrangement, Lord Napier was sent as the first British Superintendent of Trade to China; but the Chinese Government, which had been dealing for a century with a trading company, refused to have any thing to do with "the petty English nation;" and the only official notice taken of his lordship's arrival was a tide-waiter's report that "three foreign devils have arrived." The increasing traffic, and its increasing irregularities, led the Chinese Government to take more energetic action for its suppression. In 1836 an edict was issued, mentioning by name nine prominent opium merchants, and demanding their expulsion. Captain Elliot, who was then Superintendent of Trade, did not comply with this demand. In January, 1839, a proclamation was issued, requiring that the receiving-ships be sent away, and threatening hostile measures in case of non-compliance. Commissioner Lin was sent to Canton, clothed with extraordinary powers to deal summarily with the matter. He demanded three things: (1) That all the opium on board the ships should be handed over to the government to be destroyed. (2) That the owners of the vessels should give a bond that they would never again bring opium to China. (3) That if afterward any was brought it should be confiscated, and the smugglers should be punished with death. These terms were concise, and easy to be understood; and they were evidently propounded in downright earnest. If not acceded to, the lives of foreigners were threatened. The foreign residences were surrounded, and many British subjects put in great peril. Under this pressure Captain Elliot, promising indemnification by the British Government to the merchants, collected over twenty thousand chests of the drug and handed them over to the Chinese commissioner, who proceeded with great heartiness to the work of destruction, which occupied twenty days-a thousand chests being destroyed each day, (in June, 1839.)

It is not contended that in all the conflicts which led to this result the Chinese were in every particular right and the British wrong; but as to the essential justice of this act of Commissioner Lin, many a just and true Englishman will join with Mr. Ormerod in saying:

I hold that Commissioner Lin served us just rightly when the opium that was to have carried on the destruction of his fellowcountrymen was, instead, destroyed by him; and I honor the patriotism and admire the pluck of the brave and spirited commissioner who dared to step forth in defense of his country, and, in the interests of simple justice and of common humanity, to make a firm stand against a nation so great and powerful as our

own.

Even after this, opium clippers came to China, and sought to land their cargoes. A crisis was precipitated by a riot between American and English sailors and some of the Chinese, in which a Chinaman was killed. Lin laid the blame upon the English, and although Captain Elliot made reasonable overtures, Lin refused to accept them, moved with two thousand men to the neighborhood of Macao, where the English had taken refuge, demanded that an Englishman should be given up for execution, and cut off the supply of food. His demand was refused, and the English took to their vessels. The Chinese then massacred the crew of an English schooner, and insisted on the signing of the opium bond, or the departure of all British vessels within three days. This brought on an engagement, in which the Chinese were worsted; and soon after the British were denied the privilege of trading with China.

Events were thus drifting inevitably toward war. The debates in Parliament following these transactions distinctly reveal the motives which controlled the action of the British Government. Sir John Hobhouse stated concisely the reason why the government had done nothing to put down the opium trade, when he said that it was because the trade was profitable. Lord Melbourne said, "We possess immense territories peculiarly fitted for raising opium, and though I would wish that the government were not so directly concerned in the traffic, I am not prepared to pledge myself to relinquish it." Lord Ellenborough made a strong point of the fact that the opium trade brought in a revenue of a million and a half