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tive countries! The heart of the ruler of all within the Four Seas was indeed full of compassion and had been indulgent to the barbarians. But now no more delay could be granted. 'Cruisers would be sent to open their irresistible broadsides' upon the foreign ships. Yet in spite of these terrors the ships never budged. We were 'forbidden to wander about except three times a month and that not without a linguist,' but we walked wherever we pleased and the linguist was the last person we saw." In short, Chinese regulations and Chinese instructions were systematically ignored or violated. It cannot be reasonably supposed, though it has often been stated, that for this spirit of contemptuous defiance the Chinese themselves were primarily responsible owing to their venal laxity in enforcing the laws against opium. Something must doubtless be attributed to that default, and something also to the constitutional forbearance which makes them refrain from the employment of force even in emergencies where its exercise is essential. But the radical explanation is to be sought in the Occidental's sense of lofty superiority to everything Oriental, and in his incapacity to tolerate any restraint imposed upon his freedom by an eastern nation.

Those things were recorded in 1838, four years after the expiration of the East India Company's charter; the very year when Captain Elliot, British Chief Superintendent at Canton,