emperor's edict for the destruction was country on the globe, intersected with promulgated at Canton on the 3d June; numerous navigable rivers (two of the and a letter from the agent of Lloyd's, first magnitude) and their affluent streams; dated 25th June, states, The last of the an internal navigation, unparalleled even opium is to be destroyed this day.' Now, in Europe, extending in one line 1200 the intervening period of twenty-two miles, with a single portage, and connectdays, at 300 chests destroyed per day (the ing the northern capital with the great number stated to have been settled for southern emporium of foreign trade ;the process), would give no more than when we find that this great mass of 6600 chests, not one-third of the quantity human beings are supplied with all the delivered. Has LIN, too, become a necessaries of life, and most of the luxsmuggler of opium? Whatever may be uries, without foreign aid; that they are the case, the crisis has passed: the sacri- living in a state of peaceful industry, gov. fice has been made it did not satisfy erned by a code of laws peculiarly their the Chinese, but forthwith tempted them own, and wholly unlike those of any to new audacities--and the consequences other nation using a written, original, are to follow. and philosophically constructed language, The American letter-writer deprecates which bears no affinity to any other, and war, which, he says, would not be against of so high an antiquity that neither the the Chinese government, but the Chinese records nor the memory of man run to people. We were once of the same the contrary;-when we find the arts opinion. We indeed deemed the pro almost all in a state of high advancement, ceedings of the Imperial Commissioner and many of them of extreme beauty ;to have been carried to an extremity for example, their silks, satins, sculptures which could admit of no justification, in wood, in ivory, and horn, such as those considering how long a legitimate com- exquisitely-wrought ivory fans and horn mercial intercourse (valuable to both lanterns, which we have not yet been parties) had subsisted, and the great number of years that the opium trade had been tolerated, so far, at least, by the Pekin government, that it had entirely overlooked its own decrees, both as regarded foreigners and Chinese. But, nevertheless, had matters remained as they were at the point to which we have brought them, and had the Commissioner Lin not proceeded to acts against British subjects still more outrageous than the violence by which he obtained possession of the opium, we should still have advo. cated a peaceable adjustment of the question; but this appears to be now impossible.

able to imitate ;-their porcelain vases, to the beauty and transparency of which none of the nations of Europe have yet attained; when we reflect that the art of printing has been practised by them from time immemorial, and thousands upon thousands of volumes published on the various subjects of government, laws, morals, and religion (pagan as it is), on agriculture, gardening, and other domestic arts, together with the lighter kinds of reading, as novels, plays, and romances;-when, moreover, we find, what is not to be found elsewhere in the whole Eastern world, this vast population living in houses of stone, or brick, or wood, The question is, however, a very grave neatly fitted up and furnished, the upper Notwithstanding all the irritating and middle ranks dressed in silks and reflections to which these recent occur- satins, and the peasantry in cotton rences give rise in every English mind, clothing-advantages, too, which their we cannot get rid of a certain predilec- ancestors possessed when our own were tion in favour of China. We cannot rudely wrapped in the skins of animals; divest ourselves of the recollection, that when we find them enjoying the luxury it is the oldest nation on the whole earth of lying in beds surrounded with curat present existing; one whose annals tains, sitting on chairs and sofas, and extend to at least 3000 years, brought eating their meals off tables, while other down in a regular and uncontradicted orientals are still squatting on the ground; history, in which we find an unbroken when we consider these things, we conseries of dynasties, ruling over a popula- fess ourselves unable to regard the Chition exceeding that of any other empire nese without a feeling of respect; nor in the world in numbers, yet one, un- are we surprised that, to quote only one changeable, to all appearance, unmixed. eye-witness, the Right Honourable Henry When, moreover, we find such a multi- Ellis, after traversing the land from Pekin tudinous population, possessed of the to Canton, should say:

one.

largest, most fertile, and best wateredi It is impossible to travel through the emperor

of China's dominions without feeling that he has | English people know of the internal power of the the finest country within an imperial ringfence in the world.'

It seems to us absurd to contemplate such a nation, with such a history, and such a country, without far more respect than European writers are in the habit of expressing. Whatever defects we may see in the details of its government, still we must feel that there is some grand principle of good management at the bottom-something which no other nation has been able to match. And indeed we must take the liberty of remarking, that, in comparing the official Reports and other Chinese state documents, comprehended in the parliamentary folio now on our table, with almost all the specimens of English diplomacy bound up within the same blue cover, we are more and more disposed to pause about adopting the self-satisfied contemptuous tone of thinking and speaking as to China, which has been so much in fashion both in and out of Downing Street.

While on this part of the subject, we may here introduce an extract from a letter in our possession, written last summer at Canton by a gentleman wholly unconnected with trade.

You will, of course, be acquainted long ere this can reach you with the desperate state of our af. fairs in China. I can scarce find words to describe the pass to which matters have been brought. The opium trade is the cause; but it does not end with the opium trade. It has also embarrassed seriously our legal trade, which is in such a position that I can see no medium course to re-open it, except by means of a successful war, or the most cringing and humiliating concessions. The former I depre. cate, as we have a bad, a notoriously unjust, cause to build upon; and if circumstances compel us to the second, why then, the sooner the better, and let us put the best face upon matters that we can. Meantime the Americans, most luckily for them, not being politically mixed up with the opium trade, as we unfortunately are, are preparing to renew their commercial intercourse with the Chinese, as if nothing had happened; while all the British subjects are ordered out of Canton by the chief superintendent. The British ships and property are or dered by the same authority to remain outside; and any transactions for British accounts must pass, pro tempore, through the hands of the Americans. I cannot tell you how ashamed I feel of the state of affairs here. I am certainly averse to retrace our steps, and confess to the Chinese that all we have said and threatened before is just so much bullying and blustering, to which they need pay no attention; and yet to try the voie de fait and fail, would, I fear, be to have our flag banished from those seas, and the whole of the foreign trade to pass through the hands of the Americans, as took place at Japan some couple of hundred years ago, in the case of the Portuguese and Dutchmen.

Again, with reference to the force required for the renewal of our intercourse with the Chinese on higher or more honourable grounds, little as the

country, they are about to enter the lists with three hundred millions of intelligent human beings, forming the mightiest nation upon earth; one not to be coerced by some sixteen hundred men, as Mr. Lindsay proposes. If the Chinese are deter. of warfare on which we must engage will be of mined, as a nation, to resist, then, I fear, the scale such a magnitude as to be totally out of the power of the British empire to follow up; and yet of the two evils, since we have now crossed the Rubicon, the scabbard, I would rather fight it out manfully since we have now drawn the sword and cast away than bend our necks for the Chinese to set their feet upon; for, with all their good qualities, they are not magnanimous, and would show but little generosity towards a fallen foe.'

Thus far from Canton.

'Macao, 8th July.

I had written the above at Canton some days previously, and have now come down here, leaving but one British subject behind me; but he lives with the Americans, and passes for one of them. The American ships are now at Whampo, in security. The British ships are lying at anchor at Hong-Kong; and in the event of any hostilities ensuing between our government and that of the United States, would all be easily captured by the two American ships.of-war at anchor here. Strange to say, in this important crisis we have no English vessel of war here!.. The commissioner Lin is a very remarkable man, especially for a Chinese. subjects of history, geography, coins, medals, the He has frequently sent to me for information upon steam engine, &c. &c., and seems to feel an interest in matters that the other mandarins affect to look upon with contempt.

There is now in circulation here a very curious document, being no less than a letter from the imperial commissioner, the viceroy, and fouyuen, to her majesty the Queen of England; but as they insisted on writing to her as their equal, Captain Elliott declines to forward it. It refers chiefly to the opium trade, praying that she will take steps to put it down. It is a very good and sensible letter; and with the exception of one or two expressions, respectful enough throughout. I am, &c.'

One of the expressions here alluded to is the address To the barbarian Queen Victoria.' We have shown elsewheret how wholly mistaken is this translation; and we are only surprised that Mr. Morrison did not take a lesson from his late father's Chinese and English Dictionary,' where he will find that, in the eighteen significations of the character E, the word barbarian is not included. Its general meaning is something strange, and the sense in the address is, foreign;

*The Duke of Wellington, in his memorandum of March, 1835, recommended two things: first, that the English authorities should most carefully abstain from mixing themselves up with the opium traders; and second, that, in order to enable them to transact their proper business with security and dignity, there should always be at hand a stout frigate' and a lesser vessel of war!

Quarterly Review, No. 100.

us.

เ

simply, To the Foreign Queen Victoria. we apprehend, are defined; and if any of We do not see that anything would have his acts fall beyond the scope of his combeen gained in courtesy had the usual mission, the principal is not responsible. name of English (Hung-mou) been adopt- Suppose, for instance, an agent for the ed-nor yet that the Commissioner Lin owner of a great estate on the west coast would have been more accurate had he of Ireland, availing himself of the name, written, To the red-haired Queen Victo- character, and credit of his principal, ria.' Great offence was given to the late should be able to raise a large sum of Lord Napier and his friends by his being money, ostensibly on his account, and styled, in some of the translations, the embark with it for that happy land where Barbarian Eye-meaning neither more runaway rogues can dwell in security nor less than the foreign superintendent or and unmolested-will Mr. Warren mainoverseer; but we thought the blunder had tain that the owner of the estate, whose been sufficiently exposed. Enough, how- name was made use of, is bound by the ever, for the present, of the Chinese; fraudulent act of his agent to replace the we shall know them better soon, and they money? But Mr. Warren takes up another ground equally untenable: he asks, Among other questions of importance 'Can it be seriously suggested that the to which the opium crisis has given rise, "trade and commerce,' which Captain is one of a financial nature,-Whether Elliott was sent to protect and promote, any, or what, or by whom, restitution is did not extend to the traffic in opium to be made for the value of the large which was contraband?' In reply, we amount of property delivered up on do 'seriously suggest' that the trade and Captain Elliott's order, said to be about commerce in question did not include two millions and a half sterling ;-that is opium. to say, is the British government, or is the East India Company-in whose territory the greater part of the opium was produced, and through whose customhouses it was sent to China-or are the opium dealers themselves to sustain that loss? This question, in our opinion, is not yet ripe for solution. The now unavoidable and immediate hostilities must first be brought to a point, before some of the most important practical data can be ascertained.

Would any British minister so far stultify himself as to instruct, for instance, the superintendent, or chief of the commission, or by whatever title he may be called, to protect and promote smuggling at Canton, at the same time that he is instructing a consulto take special notice of all prohibitions, so that he may admonish all British subjects against carrying on an illicit commerce;' and, moreover, that he is diligently to at tend to this part of his duty, in order to In the mean time the opium traders are prevent smuggling?' But Mr. Warren using their best exertions to induce the will find, on referring to Captain Elliott's British government to indemnify them for instructions, which we understand to be the whole amount of the loss. The gov- the same as those of the late Lord ernment would, in our opinion, establish Napier, that they are not vague and a most dangerous precedent by thus con- obscure,' as he pronounces them to be, senting to reward illegal transactions, on on this point; but that the mercantile the promise or pledge of an authorised interests, which these officers were sent agent. If such an agent, the mere superin- to protect, are such and no other than, tendent of trade, can bind the government as expressed therein, 'the trade and to the payment of millions, what might commerce of our subjects in the peacenot an ambassador, chargé d'affaires, or able prosecution of all lawful enterprises.' even secretary of legation do? The thing He will find, too, that Captain Elliott appears to us utterly inadmissible. The himself perfectly understood that his com ablest advocate for the traders is Mr. mission was thus limited; that it was Warren, who argues the case as between not until the very day he signed the a principal and his agent, and maintains grand order that he ever compromised that the former is responsible for the acts himself to the Chinese as having any of the latter. That doctrine, however, in concern in, or control over, the traders the broad view taken of it, cannot be in opium. It is the sudden change of sustained. The instructions to an agent, resolution as to this matter, which forms * Mr. Warren is a barrister of the Inner Temple the most extraordinary point in the -and the author of the highly popular work called whole story as told in these Parliamentary documents.

Diary of a late Physician.'

6

Another learned advocate, who calls But it is alleged that the Indian ryots, himself ' a barrister at law,' has made a or farmers, are compelled to cultivate discovery we were not prepared for-he the poppy, to the exclusion of other proqualifies it, indeed, with an if, but we ducts. We doubt this very much. it is fear his if, in the present case, will be true, no doubt, that the Company have no peacemaker-he says, if the empe- advanced money to help ryots engaged ror gave his sanction to his authorities in this as well as in other branches of in Canton (which he never did, but cultivation-the growth of rice, for inthe contrary) to permit the importa- stance, out of which arruck is madetion of opium, notwithstanding the law but we cannot see that the persons who (of 1796), it was as much a repeal of the bought opium for the purposes of an il law, as if the formal revocation of it legal trade, and lost it in the course of had actually taken place, and the pun- their proceedings, have any legal claim ishing persons for the violation of it, is of indemnity against the government of as unjust and cruel, as if it were an ex Bengal. The House of Commons, we post facto law altogether.' Were this are told, refused on one occasion to ingood law, what a number of our old sta- terfere with these internal territorial artute-books might be committed to the rangements of the Company, and thereflames ! Choo-tsun argues the point fore the British nation is compromised! much better. We agree with him that But we reject such inferences. Firstly, the non execution of a law may happen why should the House of Commons confrom ignorance, indifference, or conniv- clude that one of the most blest of mediance, but that none of these can repeal cal articles could only be grown in India the law or affect its validity. with a view to immoral indulgences in We apprehend that Captain Elliott China. So much for those who argue stood precisely in the same position this whole question as if it were one of with the late East India Company's su- pure ethics. Secondly, for rational perpercargoes. These gentlemen, as well sons who look at matters of business as the commanders of the East India with common sense, would it not have ships, were strictly prohibited from hav. been rather hard on the East India Coming, directly or indirectly, any concern pany, after stripping them of all the with the importation of opium; not from benefits derived from trade, and particu any abstract moral aversion to the drug, larly that most lucrative branch of it but simply because it had been declared with China, to dictate to them the mancontraband by the Pekin government; ner in which they should raise a revenue and it will not be denied, that every gov- from the cultivation of their land? Lord ernment has a full right to declare what foreign articles may, and what shall not, be imported. But, say the advocates for the traders, the poppy is grown in the possessions of the East India Company, the drug is carefully prepared there for the China market it passes through their custom-houses, and its destination is well known. What then? Do no smuggled goods for France, Spain, and the two Americas pass through our custom houses, with a sufficient knowledge of their several destinations, and is any attempt made to stop them. Does France make any attempt to prevent her brandies, silks, or But we must say a word or two more any other article from being smuggled in- on a plea which has already been glanced to England? Or the Dutch their gins or at: we mean, the alleged encouragement sweet waters? Do any of the smugglers given to the introduction of opium by the of these nations, or their governments, Chinese themselves. No doubt it has make any reclamation on ours for proper- been winked at by inferior officers, as in ty lost, or vessels destroyed by our coast other nations, where smuggled articles. blockade or revenue cruisers? Certainly are generally sought after with avidity; not; the smugglers and their employers it was this that made our coast blockades take upon themselves all risks of their ille- and coast guards necessary. Most men,? gal enterprises, well knowing that no man says Choo-tsun, 'prize what is strange; can take advantage of his own wrong. and so we find it at most of our own great

Sandon, we perceive, has been prevailed upon by a certain set or sect of persons to present a petition against the growth of opium in India. Among them are Quakers sly and Presbyterians sour,' excellent people, but sometimes more busy than wise. Has the noble lord consulted his constituents of Liverpool?

Lastly, it has been said that the opium ships were not in China waters when the seizure was made. This plea cannot avail. Hong-Kong is close to the continent of China, in the bay of Macao, and as much in China as Spithead is in England.

ports. It is well known how eagerly, at This fact was so notorious that the whole of Canthe bathing-places on the coast, the ladies ton was placarded with pasquinades in doggerel seek to gratify their desires in procuring hopeful son. rhymes about the viceroy, his four boats, and his About the same period, for the first Brussels lace, (frequently de facto Eng-time in the history of the opium trade, foreigners lish,) French gloves, silks, &c., through commenced actually to carry on a smuggling trade the means of some old woman, who is themselves in European boats.'-Lindsay, p. 15. always at hand to wait on them, well If any one of less authority than Mr. stuffed with such like commodities. We Lindsay, who was on the spot, had stated all remember the carriage of the lady of this, we should scarcely have felt disposed a lord-chief-justice of the Court of King's to give it credit. But, with such an exBench being stopped on the highway, the ample before them, can it be surprising smuggled goods seized, and a penalty of that all the inferior officers of the govern 10007. laid on the coach. If smugglers ment became active smugglers of opium? had not been encouraged along our shores that they not only connived at, but parwhy should we have to pay 400 commissioned officers of the navy and 4000 seamen, as a coast-guard against their illicit practices? This plea, then, of encouragement by the subaltern officers, while the government was denouncing the trade under severe penalties, will not we think, avail.

Mr. Lindsay, however, assures us, that 'during the peaceful and regular days' that is, from 1821 to the time when the traders were forced to quit Whampoathere was neither mystery nor secrecy in the mode of carrying on the traffic.

At that time there must have been from thirty to forty fine Chinese boats, each pulling from thirty to fifty oars, employed in the trade. These boats plied up and down the river in open day, passing to and fro, in front of the forts and government cruisers, without any notice whatever being taken of them. In Canton, boating was a favourite di.

ticipated in the profits of, the tradetheir share of which, upon a moderate estimate, is stated by Mr. Lindsay at not less than 280,000l. annually;' this sum being divided between the viceroy, the hoppo, the admiral of the station, and their dependants?'

There is a singular fact connected with a small fee or perquisite of a dollar per chest, which especially belonged to the admiral. It would appear that this sum had not been very regularly paid, so, his own countrymen, his excellency, some years in order to secure himself against being cheated by ago, sent a very civil message to the various depôt ships at Lintin, requesting, as a special favour, that ships, and paid over to him monthly, which had achis perquisite might be collected on board the foreign tually been done, so long as the regular trade lasted.'-Lindsay, p.

10.

Under all the circumstances of the case -the Superintendent's (however absurd) version; and we had several first-rate six-oared identification of himself with the opium London wherries, in which we used generally to go traders-his order (however rash) for the out for a pull about four in the afternoon, and ma- surrender of the opium to him when it ny a race have we held with these large opium was placed securely in their ships, and boats, which generally used to arrive at Canton about that hour. For the honour of London wher. utterly beyond the power of the Chinese ries, I must say that I never saw a fifty-oared boat-the encouragement given to the culture which we could not beat. Several times, during and manufacture of the drug by the East the winter, certain large boats used to leave Can- India Company-and the indifference as ton bearing divers foreign articles for the imperial palace. These boats carried the imperial flag, to its prohibition by the Chinese authoriwhich privileged them against all search or exam. ties, during the peaceful and regular ination; and thus each flotilla carried away several days,' thereby encouraging its importa hundred chests of opium for sale and distribution tion:-all these things being considered, in the various towns along the road, forming ano

ther valuable perquisite of office to some function ary.'-Lindsay, pp. 10, 11.

He goes on to tell a most strange story: it is neither more nor less than that, in 1836, when the proposal of Heu-nae-tse to legalise the opium trade was agitated in the cabinet at Pekin, the trade was suddenly stopped, and the leading opium dealers thought it safe to burn their boats

-but

The viceroy of Canton was thus reduced to a serious dilemma as to how the opium trade should be conducted, and the mode he adopted to arrange the matter was strange indeed. He built four of the largest-sized boats, each pulling fifty oars, car. rying his own flag, and with these he carried on the trade himself, through the agency of his own son.

we are not disposed to deny that a case, not of strict right and justice, but ad misericordiam, may be made out for the opium dealers; especially if the report in the city should prove unfounded (of which we know nothing,) that the gains made by those concerned in the trade have been enormous;-that one gentle. man boasts of having put in his pocket 180,0007.; and that one house has cleared not less than 400,000. !

Some of their advocates suggest a par tial remuneration for their losses; but the main question is, who is to advance the money? The Pro and Con' gentleman finds no difficulty on this point. He de