Narrative of the Voyages and Services of the Nemesis from 1840 to 1843. Bernard William Dallas
the profits were so large and irresistible, that hundreds of modes were discovered for conveying it from place to place, in spite of the penalties which awaited detection. The beheading of a few men, and the imprisonment of others, did not deter the mass; the delicious intoxication of the precious drug proved far too attractive to be controlled by the horrors of death or torture.
The truth is, however specious the edicts and writings of the Chinese may appear on paper, they are perfectly futile in reality, when the will of the people and the absence of any early prejudice is opposed to their accomplishment.
Without further pursuing a subject which, though deeply interesting, has been already so much a matter of discussion, we may at once come to the conclusion, that the passion of the Chinese for the pernicious intoxication of opium, was the first link in the chain which was destined to connect them at some future day with all the other families of mankind. The abolition of the privileges of the East India Company first opened the door for the general trade of all foreign nations upon an extended scale; but the trade in opium, which the Chinese were determined to carry on, in spite of all opposition of their own government, and with a full knowledge of the pernicious consequences which resulted from it, was the instrument by means of which the haughty tone and the inapproachable reserve of their government were to be at length overcome.
We now come to the period of the famous Commissioner Lin's appointment to Canton. This was indeed the climax of all the perplexities. Lin himself was the Robespierre, the terrorist, the reckless despot, who represented a certain party in the empire, who conscientiously believed that they could terrify not only their own countrymen, but even foreign nations, into patient submission to their will.
This singular man seems to have been composed of good and bad qualities in equal proportions, but always of a violent kind. In any other country than China, he would have been either distinguished as a demagogue or branded as a tyrant, precisely as circumstances chanced to lead him into a particular channel. He was reckless of consequences, so long as he could carry out his will without control. He was violent, yet not selfish; changeable, yet always clinging to his original views; severe, and even cruel and inexorable, in the measures by which he sought to gain his ends; yet, in reality, he is believed to have meant well for his country, and to have had the interests and the wishes of the emperor, his master, always at heart. He certainly believed that he could control both the people under his own government, and the foreigners who came into contact with them, by force; and his very errors seem to have arisen from excess of zeal in the cause which he adopted. His talent was unquestionable.
Lin became intoxicated with his own success (for the time, at all events) in whatever he undertook; and expected all his orders to be executed with the same energy and facility with which he gave them utterance. It is said, moreover, that he procured a copy of a remarkable work called a "Digest of Foreign Customs, Practices, Manners," &c., in which bad deeds rather than good ones, and even the names of individual merchants, were brought forward; and that he studied this book with constant pleasure.
On the 10th of March, 1839, this redoubtable commissioner reached Canton, having travelled with extraordinary speed from Pekin, whither he had been called to receive his appointment at the hands of the emperor himself; who is said to have even shed tears, as he parted with him.
He lost not a moment, upon his arrival at Canton, in setting all the powerful energies of his mind to work, to devise means of accomplishing his ends. He determined to endeavour to put a complete stop to the traffic in opium, both on the part of his own people and on that of foreigners; and his great aim was to "control, curb, and humble," the foreign community generally.
From this time forth, it became very evident, that great and complicated events must be looked for upon the political horizon. Even Captain Elliot himself could hardly hope that his little star of diplomacy could light the road to a solution of the difficulties, without an ultimate resort to arms.
It is true, that for a brief interval previous to Lin's arrival, the prospect seemed to brighten considerably. Captain Elliot had partially succeeded in establishing direct official intercourse with the governor of Canton; for it had been at length agreed, that all sealed communications coming from the chief superintendent, should be delivered into the hands of the governor, and the seal broken by him only. This was a great point gained; and Elliot seems to have managed it with considerable tact. Nevertheless, the correspondence could not be said even now, to be carried on upon terms of "perfect equality;" and even this concession was quite as much a matter of necessity to the governor, as it was to Captain Elliot; for the cessation of intercourse had been a source of equal embarrassment to them both.
This Governor Tang was a crafty, cringing, self-interested man; he derived immense sums from opium, and his own son was said to be employed in the clandestine traffic, against which, the father was uttering severe denunciations, followed by severer persecutions.
Lin afterwards suspected, and, perhaps, even discovered his delinquencies; and Tang became a willing and submissive instrument, if not a cringing sycophant. But his day of punishment came at last.
CHAPTER XI
It is worthy of notice that, just previous to the arrival of Commissioner Lin at Canton, the opium-trade had received such a check, that it might be said to have been for the time almost entirely suspended. We have seen the strong measures taken by Captain Elliot against it, which proved that he looked upon it with no favouring eye; and, in short, at that time the opium vessels had left the river altogether. But Lin was not a man to do things by halves. He had formerly, when governor of a province, earned the character of the people's friend; and he seemed now more determined still to win the appellation of the foreigner's enemy. He had belonged to the party opposed to the empress's influence, and, had she survived and continued in power, he would never have been sent on so dangerous a mission. But, when once the liberal party, and the advocates for the legalization of the opium trade, upon the grounds of the impossibility of excluding it by prohibition, had been defeated, it became almost a point of honour, certainly of pride with Lin, to shew how successfully he could carry out the views of the high Chinese, or exclusive party.
From the very moment of Lin's arrival, clothed with unlimited power, his restless energy, and his quick penetrating eye, made every officer of his government cower down before him. Indeed, there was hardly an officer of the province, from the governor downwards, who did not feel conscious of guilt, corruption, and peculation. From high to low, from rich to poor, Lin determined that a reign of terror should commence. He had lists prepared, containing observations upon the characters of all the public officers, of the Hong merchants, and even of the foreigners. He seemed determined to wage war with everybody. And, as a proof that his intentions against the foreign community were anything but conciliatory, within a few days after his arrival he sent round the Hong merchants to the different factories, to ascertain, by intrigue and persuasion, what weapons the foreigners were in possession of, and what means they had at hand for their own immediate defence.
Having privately arranged all his plans, and, believing that the foreigners were sleeping, Lin now ordered that all the opium in the inner waters, and also in the store ships in the "outer waters," should be given up to the officers of his government; and that a bond should be drawn up in "Chinese and foreign character, stating clearly that the ships afterwards to arrive there shall never, to all eternity, dare to bring any opium; or, if they did so, that their whole cargo should be confiscated, and all their people put to death, [by Chinese officers,] and, moreover, that they would willingly undergo it as the penalty of their crime."
This proclamation certainly caused a little panic in Canton, and it was precisely what the commissioner desired; and, the more the foreign merchants seemed disposed to meet his excellency's views, as far as lay in their power, so much the more did the demands of the commissioner rise. Every concession on the part of Captain Elliot, or the merchants, was to him a victory gained, and the forerunner of greater ones. Threats thundered forth against the heads of the Hong merchants rebounded in threats of all sorts, and alarming statements from them to the foreigners.
There seems to be some reason for supposing that, in the commencement of the business, it was intended by Lin that a certain compensation should be granted to foreigners for the value of the opium surrendered. Gradually, however, as he thought