resolved at all hazards to put a stop to a traffic so ruinous to
his people. Commissioner Lin, a native of Foochow, was transferred
from the viceroyalty of Wuchang to that of Canton and clothed with
plenary powers for the execution of this decree. To understand the
manner in which he undertook to execute the will of his master
it must be remembered that diplomatic intercourse had as yet no
existence in China, because she considered herself as sustaining
to foreign nations no other relation than that of a suzerain to
a vassal. Her mandarins scorned to hold direct communication with
any of the superintendents of foreign commerce--receiving
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petitions and sending mandates through the hong merchants, thirteen
native firms which had purchased a monopoly of foreign trade.

In 1834 Lord Napier was appointed to the humble position of
superintendent of British trade in China, He arrived at Macao on
July 15 of that year, and announced his appointment by a letter to
the prefect, which was handed for transmission to the commander of
the city gate of Canton--a barrier which no foreigner was permitted
to pass. The letter was returned through the brokers without any
answer other than a line on the cover informing the "barbarian
eye" (consul) that the document was "tossed back" because it was
not superscribed with the character _pin_ (or _ping_),
which signifies a "humble petition."

This was the beginning of sorrows for China as well as for poor
Napier, who, failing in his efforts to communicate with the mandarins
on equal terms, retired to the Portuguese settlement of Macao and
died of disappointment. The eminent American statesman, John Quincy
Adams, speaking in later years of the war that ensued, declared
that its cause was not opium but a _pin_, i. e., an insolent
assumption of superiority on the part of China.

The irrepressible conflict provoked by these indignities was
precipitated in 1839 by the action of the new viceroy, who undertook
to effect a summary suppression of the traffic in opium. One morning
shortly after his arrival, the foreigners at Canton, who were always
locked up at night for their own safety, awoke to find themselves
surrounded by a body of soldiers and threatened with indiscriminate
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slaughter unless they surrendered the obnoxious drug, stored on
their opium hulks, at an anchorage outside the harbour.

While they were debating as to what action to take, Captain Charles
Elliot, t