were alike unavailing. He gave the people a year, within which they were to break off the habit by degrees, and to reform their manners; and, at the end of that time, he vowed he would execute every man amongst them that persisted in it. In the meantime, he hit upon the last and darling expedient of every Chinese statesman and philosopher, that of making men mutually responsible for each other. Thus the whole people were to be divided into tens, as they were elsewhere in the days of Alfred the Great, and each one of the party was to be made personally responsible for the good behaviour of all the rest with whom he was associated.
Notwithstanding all these strong measures, urged with all the sincerity of an enthusiast, they both failed at the time, and have failed ever since to eradicate the evil. The demand for the drug increased with the difficulty of procuring it; the indulgence became dearer owing to the danger which attended it; and, after all that was said and done, opium continued to be sought and enormously paid for. It was more generally used than ever; and even attention became directed to the cultivation of the poppy on Chinese soil, when the difficulty of procuring it from abroad became more urgent.
Lin rose into high favour, for a time, with the Imperial court, as might naturally be expected, and he was appointed governor of the second province in the empire. But long before the time came for him to remove to his new post, his star began to wane, his difficulties increased, and ultimately his fall was as great as his rise had been rapid.
For several months, as I have before stated, no British ship of war was present in the Chinese waters. It was in this interval—namely, in the month of July, 1839—that the great difficulty arose which excited so much attention at the time, and has done so since, arising out of the death of a Chinaman, by name Lin Wiehe, at Hong-Kong, during an affray with some British merchant seamen. This event was eagerly taken advantage of by the commissioner to attempt to enforce certain claims against the foreigners. Without entering into tedious details, many of which are already well known, it will suffice to mention that the man's death was really occasioned by a drunken row at a village near Hong-Kong; that the commissioner, in accordance with what had formerly been done on a similar occasion at Canton, demanded the surrender of the murderer to be tried by Chinese judges, and that Captain Elliot denied the jurisdiction altogether; but, at the same time, he himself preferred an indictment for murder against a seaman before a British grand-jury at Hong-Kong, who ignored the bill. But several men were ultimately found guilty of an assault only, and it appeared that one party was just as much to blame as the other.
The commissioner then grew more angry than ever: he caused the few English who still remained at Macao to be still further persecuted, and it was only through the friendly assistance of individual Portuguese families that they were enabled to obtain their daily food. The result was, that the whole British community left the place, together with Captain Elliot, and went to live on board the different merchant ships in harbour.
Things could not remain long in such a state of embarrassment; and, fortunately, on the 11th of September—that is, about three months and a half after the Larne had left those seas—the Volage, under Captain Smith, arrived. That gallant officer immediately perceived that active steps of some kind must be taken, and he accordingly issued a notice of blockade of the port of Canton, upon the ground "that the regular supplies of food had been prohibited to her Majesty's subjects; that the Chinese people had been ordered to fire upon and seize them wherever they went; and that certain of her Majesty's subjects had been actually cut off."
The immediate effect of this notice was to bring the Chinese, in some measure, to their senses; their proclamations against Englishmen were withdrawn—provisions were no longer prohibited; and, consequently, Captain Smith very properly withdrew his notice of blockade. Negotiations were entered into, and it was at length agreed that trade should be resumed outside the port of Canton.
Yet, all on a sudden, even this arrangement was violated by the Chinese; and, on the 26th October, notice was issued that they now required that ships should enter within the port of Canton—that is, within the Bocca Tigris. They repeated the demand for the murderer of Lin Wiehe to be given up, and that a bond should be signed by all, agreeing to be tried by Chinese officers for offences declared by them, before trial, to be capital. If this mandate were not obeyed, the whole of the foreign ships were to depart within three days, under a threat of immediate destruction.
The whole fleet, therefore, was now recommended to anchor in Tongkoo Bay, or Urmston's Harbour, which afterwards became the rendezvous of all the ships of war.
It is not necessary here to enter into minute details; it will be sufficient for the full understanding of the future operations to state that difficulties continued to increase on both sides, without much prospect of any solution. The Hyacinth having now arrived and joined the Volage on the 29th October, these two vessels proceeded with Captain Elliot to Chuenpee, some distance below the Bogue, to endeavour to obtain from the commissioner some explicit declaration of his intentions. On the 3rd of November they were attacked by the Chinese admiral with twenty-nine sail of war-junks, which, of course, they soon beat off: and thus occurred the first direct hostile encounter between the armed forces of the two nations. War now became more than ever inevitable. Yet, at the end of the following month, these two ships of war were again compelled to proceed to the Bogue, in consequence of the seizure of a British subject by the Chinese (not engaged in selling opium) at the anchorage of Tongkoo Bay.
The blockade of the river and port of Canton was therefore renewed by Captain Smith on the 15th January, 1840; but the gentleman who had been seized, Mr. Gribble, was at once restored, and the blockade was consequently raised.
Scarcely had this taken place, when down came to Macao a new Chinese governor of that district, and issued a positive edict for the immediate expulsion of all the English. Captain Smith, with becoming spirit, instantly ordered the Hyacinth, Captain Warren, to proceed into the inner harbour for the protection of his countrymen, which measure seemed to give great umbrage to the Portuguese governor, Da Silveira Pinto; and, in consequence of his representations, she was withdrawn on the following morning.
Occasion was taken to make as much as possible out of this occurrence, as if the Portuguese really possessed some authority in the place beyond that over their own countrymen, and very futile appeals were made to treaties with the Chinese government. After all, the utmost that could be said of it was, that if it was a little deficient in courtesy towards the Portuguese governor, the latter should have rather volunteered his consent to it. Nevertheless, the energetic spirit which it evinced undoubtedly tended to check the presumption of the Chinese authorities, and thus far to give some little security to British subjects. Captain Smith very properly put it upon the ground of its strengthening the Portuguese governor's hands, which in reality it did, and which that functionary stood greatly in need of. At the same time, Captain Smith very laudably expressed a hope that the language in which his Excellency would "demand the immediate removal of the Chinese forces, declaredly sent here to seize or destroy my countrymen, (to the deep insult of the Portuguese crown,) will be not less stringent, and as successful in its operation, as that in which your Excellency has been pleased to order the withdrawal of the Hyacinth."
During the whole of this time, preparations were being made by the Chinese for future operations in the Canton River; fireships were prepared, guns collected, and troops exercised.
On the 24th March, 1840, the fine frigate the Druid, commanded by Lord John Churchill, arrived off Macao, and thence proceeded to Tongkoo Roads, a most welcome reinforcement. About this time, also, the Chinese purchased the English merchant ship the Cambridge, intending to turn her into a man-of-war, and built some strange-looking little schooners upon a European model, with the view of employing them in some novel way or other against the British ships.
It is said that, at one time, Commissioner Lin got up a sort of sham fight at the Bogue, and dressed some of the assailants in red clothes, in order to habituate the defenders to the sight of the colour of the enemy's costume.
