Heaven dis approves of the opium traffic wickedness being greater, the consequences of that wickedness You are distant from your homes many tens of thousand miles; your ships, in coming and going, cross a vast and trackless ocean; in it you are exposed to the visitations of thunder and lightning and raging storms, to the dangers of being swallowed up by monsters of the deep; and under such perils, fear you not the retributive vengeance of Heaven? Now our great emperor, being actuated by the exalted virtue of Heaven itself, wishes to cut off this deluge of opium, which is the plainest proof that such is the intention of high Heaven!... Secondly. You ought to make immediate delivery of this opium, in order to comply with the law of your own countries, opium habit which prohibits the smoking of opium, and he who uses it is adjudged to death! thus plainly showing that you yourselves know it to be an article destructive to human life. If, then, your laws forbid it to be consumed by yourselves, and yet permit it to be sold that it may be consumed by others, this is not in conformity with the principle of doing unto others what you would that they should do unto you. Foreigners know the evils of the The emperor has been generous to foreigners The opium traffic must Now you foreigners, although you were born in an outer country, yet for your property and maintenance do you depend entirely upon our Chinese Empire; and in our central land you pass the greater part of your lives, and the lesser portion of your lives is passed at home; the food that you eat every day, not less than the vast fortunes you amass, proceeds from naught but the goodness of our emperor, which is showered upon you in far greater profusion than upon our own people. And how is it, then, that you alone do not tremble before and obey the sacred majesty of the laws? Our great emperor looks upon the opium trade with the most intense loathing, and burns to have it cut off forever; be stopped and I, the high commissioner, looking up to the great emperor, and feeling in my own person his sacred desire to love and China, and, should you bring it, agreeing that the cargo be confiscated and the people who bring it, put to death. Thirdly. You ought to make immediate delivery of this opium, by reason of your feelings as men. You come to this market of Canton to trade, and you profit thereby full threefold. Every article of commerce that you bring with you, no matter whether it be coarse or fine, in whole pieces or in small, there is not one iota of it that is not sold off and consumed; and of the produce of our country, whether it be for feeding you, for clothing you, for any kind of use, or for mere sale, there is not a description that we do not permit you to take away with you; so that not only do you reap the profit of the inner land by the goods which you bring, but, moreover, by means of the produce of our central land, do you gather gold from every country to which you transport it. Supposing that you cut off and cast away your traffic in the single article of opium, then the other business which you do will be much increased, and you will thereon reap your threefold profit comfortably. Fourthly. You ought to make a speedy delivery of your The imporopium by reason of the necessity of the case. You foreigners tance of the foreigners from afar, in coming hither to trade, have passed over an un- being on good bounded ocean; your prospect for doing business depends terms with entirely on your living on terms of harmony with your fellow- the Chinese men, and keeping your own station in peace and quietness. Thus may you reap solid advantage and avoid misfortune! But if you will persist in selling your opium, and will go on involving the lives of our foolish people in your toils, there is not a good or upright man whose head and heart will not burn with indignation at your conduct; they must look upon the lives of those who have suffered for smoking and selling the drug as sacrificed by you; the simple country folk and the common people must feel anything but well pleased, and the wrath of a whole country is not a thing easily restrained: these are circumstances about which you cannot but feel anxious. I, the high commissioner, as well as the governor and lieutenant governor, cannot bear the idea of being unnecessarily harsh and severe; therefore it is that, though I thus weary my mouth, as it were, entreating and exhorting you, yet of "Chinese Gordon" do I not shrink from the task! Happiness and misery, glo and disgrace, are in your own hand! Say not that I did no give you early warning thereof! A special proclamation, to b posted before the foreign factories.1 TAOUKWAN, 19th year, 2d month, 12th day [March 26th, 1839] The Taiping rebellion was put down, thanks largely to the "Ever Victorious Army" which the Englishman Gordon, organized. As he was completing his work of reducing the rebels in 1863-1864 he became acquainted with the consul at Shanghai, Sir Harry Parkes, from whose letters we get some idea of Gordon and of the conditions in which they both worked. Sir Harry writes to his wife, July 4, 1863: 363. Some I am closing my mail after such a day of work, heat, thunder, reminiscences lightning, rain, and row. Being Independence Day, all the American ships through the night and through the day have been firing cannon until everybody is ill with the perpetual shocks. I have protested to the American consul general, and he has sent out a circular to stop it. I have just come from my last business chat with Sir F. Bruce [the British minister]. He is mighty civil to me in word and most complimentary on the work I have done since I have been here. He dines with me to-night. We sit down twelve [including Gordon]. [A year later Sir Harry writes to his wife] Gordon has been up to Nanking, and further on to see Tsang Kwo-fan, who is the highest authority out of Peking that the Chinese have, and he has been back a week. He stays with me whenever in Shanghai, and is a fine, noble, generous fellow, but at the same time very peculiar and sensitive,—exceedingly impetuous,―full 1 China has recently become a leader in the abolition of the opium trade throughout the world. In September, 1906, the Chinese emperor issued a decree ordering the gradual restriction of its use until it should, within ten years, be wholly prohibited in China. Two years later the Chinese government announced that all the powers had agreed to pro hibit the importation of morphia except for medicinal purposes of energy, which just wants judgment to make it a very splendid type. We see a good deal of each other when he is here, for, as he is very shy, I try as much as possible to dine alone, and we then tattle on Chinese affairs all to ourselves. [November 20, 1864] Gordon goes home by this mail and will make a point of seeing you. He had grown tired of his last job of forming a Camp of Instruction, which is far too slow an occupation to be suited to his active and somewhat erratic tastes, and, being unsuited, he has not made a very good job of it. He had not received assistance enough either from our government or the Chinese, and what is now arranged must be regarded still as experimental. I trust that we may secure from it the organization of such Continued a force as will keep rebels from this neighborhood. They are dangers fro the Taiping to be met with elsewhere, however. Amoy and Swatow have rebels been thrown into alarm, and Hankow also, by the approach of marauding hordes, and it will be some time before China loses the pest altogether; in fact, without a reformed government she will not part with them, and that again is a very great question. Perhaps years hence we may have a divided empire Reference a North and South - in the oldest country in the world as in the youngest. ... I was writing [November 24] when Gordon came in to wish me good-bye, and he has just left me to go on board. Of course we closed in round the fire and had a chat and a cigar, or rather he smoked, for I am off my tobacco just now, as I have caught cold and am out of sorts. I told him that he has reason to be thankful that he has been permitted to leave this country alive, or with a whole skin. He is a very shy man, and when at Shanghai will not call upon a soul. He has refused money whenever it has been offered to him, and has served throughout on a very low rate of pay. I have no doubt he will find you out, for he is not a man to spare himself trouble, and he will not allow himself to be involved in a London whirl, which will possess little fascination for him. He is a reserved, retiring man, and avoids glitter and bustle of all the Americ Civil War 364. President Fill more's letter to the emperor of Japan (1852) The mutual advantages of trade Section 103. How Japan became a World Power From the early part of the seventeenth century un 1853 Japan remained in haughty isolation from oth countries, tolerating practically no commercial inte course with European nations. In that year the Unite States dispatched Commodore Perry to Japan for th purpose of securing certain privileges to American cit zens. On this memorable expedition Commodore Perr carried the following very interesting letter from Pres dent Fillmore to his Majesty, the Emperor of Japan. Millard Fillmore, President of the United States of America to his Majesty, the Emperor of Japan Great and Good Friend: I send you this public letter by Commodore Matthew C Perry, an officer of the highest rank in the navy of the United States, and commander of the squadron now visiting your imperial majesty's dominions. I have directed Commodore Perry to assure your imperial majesty that I entertain the kindest feelings towards your majesty's person and government, and that I have no other object in sending him to Japan but to propose to your imperial majesty that the United States and Japan should live in friendship and have commercial intercourse with each other. The constitution and laws of the United States forbid all interference with the religious or political concerns of other nations. I have particularly charged Commodore Perry to abstain from every act which could possibly disturb the tranquillity of your imperial majesty's dominions. The United States of America reach from ocean to ocean, and our territory of Oregon and State of California lie directly opposite to the dominions of your imperial majesty. Our steamships can go from California to Japan in eighteen days. Our great State of California produces about sixty millions of dollars in gold every vear besides silver quicksilver. |