Page:Brinkley - China - Volume 2.djvu/277

Chinese officers, and that isolation seemed desirable in the eyes of a British delegate whose prime object should have been to establish intercourse. In Chinese eyes he not only openly associated himself with the disreputable side of the trade, but was also content that no provision should be made for checking its violent abuses. "Should any unfortunate catastrophe take place," wrote Sir George from his retreat among the smugglers, "what would our position at Canton entail upon us but responsibility and jeopardy from which we are now free?" That was exactly what the smugglers also thought when they established their insular rendezvous at Lintin.

Sir George Robinson was succeeded by Captain Elliot, an official who has been the object of very severe criticism at the hands of modern writers. It has even been charged that his conciliatory methods and submissive demeanour betrayed the Chinese into acts which rendered war inevitable. Captain Elliot, though a man of much foresight, did not anticipate this harsh verdict, and consequently took little care to record indications of his political motives. What the facts appear to indicate is that the situation thoroughly alarmed him. Opium smuggling had now attained dimensions which could not be viewed without great disquiet. "The manner of the rash course of traffic within the river," he wrote, "probably contributed most of all to impress on the Chinese Government the urgent necessity of repressing