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"merchants; and for years they attempted by every "means in their power-by stopping all foreign trade, "by demands for the prohibition of the traffic in the drug, and by vigilant preventive measures-to put a stop to its importation. At length Captain Elliot, "the Superintendent of Trade, in 1839, agreed that "all the opium in the hands of Englishmen should be "given to the native authorities, and he exacted a "pledge from the merchants that they would no longer deal in the drug. On the 3rd April 20,283 "chests of opium were handed over to the mandarins, "and were by them destroyed-a sufficient proof that "they were in earnest in their endeavours to suppress "the traffic. This demand of Commissioner Lin was "considered by the English Government to amount "to a casus belli, and in 1840 war was declared. In "the same year the fleet captured Chusan, and in the "following year the Bogue Forts fell, in consequence "of which operations the Chinese agreed to cede "Hong-Kong to the victors, and to pay them an "indemnity of 6,000,000 dollars. As soon as this "news reached Pekin, Ke Shen, who had succeeded "Commissioner Lin, was dismissed from his post "and degraded, and Yih Shan, another Tartar, was "appointed in his room. But before the new commis"sioner reached his post Canton had fallen into the "hands of Sir Hugh Gough, and shortly afterwards Amoy, Ningpo, Tinghai in Chusan, Chapoo,

Shanghai, and Chinkeang Foo shared the same "fate; and a like evil would have happened to Nan"king had not the Imperial Government, dreading "the loss of the southern capital,' proposed terms "of peace. After much discussion, Sir Henry "Pottinger, who had succeeded Captain Elliot, concluded, in 1842, a treaty with the Imperial

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Commissioners, by which the four additional ports of Amoy, Fuh-chow-Foo, Ningpo, and Shanghai were "declared open to foreign trade, and an indemnity of "21,000,000 dollars was to be paid to the English" (Encyclopædia Britannica, Vol. V, p. 651).

"In 1839 a proclamation was issued threatening "hostile measures if the English opium ships serving "as depôts were not sent away. The demand for "removal not being complied with, 20,291 chests "of opium (of 149 one-third lbs. each), valued at £2,000,000, were destroyed by the Chinese Com"missioner Lin; but still the British sought to "smuggle cargoes on shore, and some outrages com"mitted on both sides led to an open war, which was "ended by the treaty of Nanking in 1842 (see "China, Vol. V, p. 651).

"From that time to the present, in spite of the remonstrances of the Chinese Government, the 'exportation of opium from India to China has con"tinued, having increased from 52,925 piculs (of 133 "one-third lb.) in 1850 to 96,839 piculs in 1880" (Ibid., Vol. XVII, p. 788).

Mr. Chester Holcombe, the distinguished American authority, deals with the subject at length in his work, The Real Chinese Question, from which I take a few pages:—

"By way of example, it is not possible to believe "that if the fair-minded and generous-spirited men "and women of Great Britain had been accurately "and plainly informed of the facts; if they had known "what ruin was being wrought upon the Chinese; if they had been made at all familiar with the argu"ments, protests, and appeals of the Imperial Govern"ment, and with its bitter opposition; if they had