Less Than Six Months After His Installation At Canton His Official
Relations Were Broken Off, And He Wrote Home To
His government a dispatch
complaining of the difficulty of conducting any sort of amicable relations
with the local mandarins, and
Indorsing the growing demand for the right
of dealing direct with the Pekin government. Captain Elliot, acting under
instructions from home, issued a public notice warning all English
subjects to discontinue the illicit opium trade, and stating that "her
Majesty's Government would not in any way interfere if the Chinese
Government should think fit to seize and confiscate the same."
At this juncture Commissioner Lin, whose fervor and energy carried him
away, appeared upon the scene, and, whereas a less capable or honest man
would have come to an arrangement with Captain Elliot, his very ability
and enthusiasm tended to complicate the situation and render a pacific
solution unattainable. Commissioner Lin, on taking up his post, lost no
time in showing that he was terribly in earnest; but both his language and
his acts proved that he had a very much larger programme than was included
in his propaganda against the opium traffic. He wished to achieve the
complete humiliation of the foreigners, and nothing less would satisfy
him. Within a week of his arrival at Canton he issued an edict denouncing
the opium trade; throwing all the blame for it on the English, and
asserting what was absolutely untrue; viz., that "the laws of England
prohibited the smoking of opium, and adjudged the user to death." The
language of the edict was unfriendly and offensive. The Europeans were
stigmatized as a barbarous people, who thought only of trade and of making
their way by stealth into the Flowery Land. At the same time that he
issued this edict he gave peremptory orders that no foreigner was to leave
Canton or Macao until the opium question had been settled to his
satisfaction. Even then English merchants and officials, who felt no great
sympathy with the opium traffic, saw that these proceedings indicated an
intention to put down the trade in other articles, and to render the
position of foreigners untenable. Lin's demands culminated in the request
for all stores of opium to be surrendered to him within three days. By the
efforts of some of the merchants about a thousand chests were collected
and handed over to the Chinese for destruction; but this did not satisfy
Lin, who collected a large rabble force, encamped it outside the
settlement, and threatened to carry the place by storm. In this crisis
Captain Elliot, who had declared that his confidence in the justice and
good faith of the provincial government was destroyed, and who had even
drawn up a scheme for concentrating all his forces at Hongkong, called
upon all the English merchants to surrender to him, for paramount
considerations of the lives and property of every one concerned, all the
stores of opium in their possession. More than 20,000 chests, of an
estimated value of $10,000,000, were placed at his disposal, and in due
course handed over by him to Commissioner Lin for destruction.
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Page 186 of 366
Words from 96634 to 97158
of 191255
