to the buyer by the hope of vast and rapid gain. And do you
imagine that the intense appetite on one side for what had become
a necessary of life, and on the other for riches, would have been
appeased by a few lines signed Charles Elliot? The very utmost
effect which it is possible to believe that such an order would
have produced would have been this, that the opium trade would
have left Canton, where the dealers were under the eye of the
Superintendent, and where they would have run some risk of being
punished by him, and would have spread itself along the coast.
If we know anything about the Chinese Government, we know this,
that its coastguard is neither trusty nor efficient; and we know
that a coastguard as trusty and efficient as our own would not be
able to cut off communication between the merchant longing for
silver and the smoker longing for his pipe. Whole fleets of
vessels would have managed to land their cargoes along the shore.
Conflicts would have arisen between our countrymen and the local
magistrates, who would not, like the authorities of Canton, have
had some knowledge of European habits and feelings. The mere
malum prohibitum would, as usual, have produced the mala in se.
The unlawful traffic would inevitably have led to a crowd of
acts, not only unlawful, but immoral. The smuggler would, by the
almost irresistible force of circumstances, have been turned into
a pirate. We know that, even at Canton, where the smugglers
stand in some awe of the authority of the Superintendent and of
the opinion of an English society which contains many respectable
persons, the illicit trade has caused many brawls and outrages.
What, then, was to be expected when every captain of a ship laden
with opium would have been the sole judge of his own conduct? It
is easy to guess what would have happened. A boat is sent ashore
to fill the water-casks and to buy fresh provisions. The