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dence in that city on April 12, 1837. In his despatch acknowledging the receipt of the necessary permit, Captain Elliot "respectfully assured" the governor that "it was at once his duty and his anxious desire to conform in all things to the imperial pleasure." He has been strongly condemned, first for abandoning the "masterly inactivity" of his immediate predecessors, and secondly for assuming such a demeanour towards Chinese officialdom. Yet it is plain that he was guided throughout by a sense of imperative duty, and that no conscientious official could have continued to challenge the risks of inactivity.

Meanwhile the Government in Peking, becoming sensible of the rapidly growing magnitude of the opium traffic, set itself seriously to devise a remedy. The phases under which the question presented itself were three: first, the demoralising effects of the drug upon those using it; secondly, its destructive influence upon good order by causing smuggling; and, thirdly, its injurious financial consequences as producing an outflow of specie. Concerning the last point it has to be noted that whereas the annual exports of tea, silk, and other articles of Chinese produce represented a value of about seven million pounds sterling, the imports of foreign manufactures amounted to only four millions. Hence, could opium have been eliminated, China's foreign commerce would have brought to her coffers a sum of over three millions sterling annually in