The Chinese Authorities Could Not Help Being Encouraged In Their
Opinions And Course Of Proceeding By The Attitude Of The English.
Their
most sweeping denunciations of the iniquity of the opium traffic elicited
a murmur of approval from the most influential among the foreigners.
No
European stood up to say that their allegations as to the evil of using
opium were baseless and absurd. What is more, no one thought it. Had the
Chinese made sufficient use of this identity of views, and shown a desire
to facilitate trade in the so-called innocent and legitimate articles,
there is little doubt that the opium traffic would have been reduced to
very small dimensions, because there would have been no rupture. But the
action of Commissioner Lin revealed the truth that the Chinese were not to
be satisfied with a single triumph. The more easily they obtained their
objects in the opium matter the more anxious did they become to impress
the foreigners with a sense of their inferiority, and to force them to
accept the most onerous and unjust conditions for the sake of a
continuance of the trade. None the less, Captain Elliot went out of his
way to tie his own hands, and to bind his own government, so far as he
could, to co-operate with the emperor's officials in the suppression of
the opium traffic. That this is no random assertion may be judged from the
following official notice, issued several months after the surrender of
the stores of opium.
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