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Macao and sometimes at Whampoa, though equally liable to the above penalties in either port, as the Portuguese are, so to say, entirely under the Chinese rule. That this contraband trade has hitherto been carried on without incurring the penalties of the law is owing to the excess of corruption in the executive part of the Chinese Government. … In the year 1780 a new Viceroy was appointed to the Government of Canton; this man had the reputation of an upright, bold, and rigid Minister. I was informed that he had information of these illicit practices and was resolved to take cognisance of them."

Thus, at the close of the eighteenth century, opium-smoking, after some sixty years of gradual growth, had assumed almost the dimensions of a national vice in China. Apprised of the fact not only by reports from the provinces but also by direct observation in Peking, the Government issued a new prohibitory edict. Its only effect was to increase smuggling. The smugglers did not encounter any serious obstacles. They were well aware of the law's provisions and of the severe penalties enacted against the use of the drug, but, on the other hand, they found the Chinese officials perfectly facile. Not only did many of the latter themselves indulge in the vicious practice, thus becoming morally incompetent to check it among the people, but also they derived an important accession of personal revenue by