he new superintendent, came up from Macao and bravely insisted
on sharing the duress of his countrymen. Calling the merchants
together he requested them to surrender their opium to him, to be
used in the service of the Queen as a ransom for the lives of her
subjects, assuring them that Her Majesty's Government would take
care that they should be properly indemnified. Twenty thousand
chests of opium were handed over to the viceroy (who destroyed the
drug by mixing it with quicklime in huge vats); and the prisoners
were set at liberty.

The viceroy fondly imagined that the incident was closed, and flattered
himself that he had gained an easier victory than he could have done
by sending his junks against the armed ships of the smugglers.
Little did he suspect that he had lighted a slow-match, that would
blow up the walls of his own fortress and place the throne itself
at the mercy of the "barbarian."

A strong force was despatched to China to exact an indemnity, for
which the honour of the Crown had been pledged, and to punish the
Chinese for the cut-throat fashion in which they had sought to
suppress a prohibited trade. The proud city of Canton averted a
bombardment by paying a ransom of $6,000,000; islands and seaports
were occupied by British troops as far north as the River Yang-tse; and
Nanking, the ancient capital, was only saved from falling into their
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hands by the acceptance of such conditions of peace as Sir Henry
Pottinger saw fit to impose.

Those conditions were astonishingly moderate for a conqueror who,
unembarrassed by the interests of other powers, might have taken
the whole empire. They were, besides payment for the destroyed
drug, the opening of five ports to British trade, and the cession
to Great Britain of Hong Kong, a rocky islet which was then the
abode of fishermen and pirates, but which to-day claims to outrank
all the seaports of the world in the amount of its tonnage. Not
a word, be it noted, about opening up the vast interior, not a
syllable in favour of legalising the opium traffic, or tolerating
Christianity.

So much for the charge that this war, which bears a malodorous
name, was waged for the purpose of compelling China to submit to the
continuance of an immoral traffic. That a smuggling trade would go
on with impunity was no doubt foreseen and reckoned on by interested
parties; but it is morally certain that if the Chinese had understood
how to deal with it they might hav