Page:Brinkley - China - Volume 2.djvu/291

On the day previous to the expiration of the period of delay, the foreign Chamber of Commerce wrote to the Hong Merchants promising a definite reply in four days, and stating that "the absolute necessity of the foreign residents of Canton having nothing to do with the opium traffic" was "almost unanimously" recognised.

Events now moved rapidly. Commissioner Lin had no inclination to palter. He declared that unless the opium was given up, two of the principal Hong Merchants should be beheaded the following morning. In the face of this merciless threat the Hong Merchants appealed to the humanity of the foreigners, and the latter "subscribed" 1,037 chests, which, though obviously a mere fraction of the total quantity in store, sufficed to postpone the execution.

It appears that Commissioner Lin now became sensible of the injustice of visiting upon the heads of the unfortunate Hong Merchants, his own countrymen, the consequences of lawlessness which they were powerless to prevent. Therefore he conceived the idea of getting into his power one of the leading British traders, Mr. Dent, representative of the great house of Dent and Company, which had a large interest in the opium trade.

There is an apparent anomaly in the fact that any British firm of high standing should be connected with a traffic so disreputable as opium smuggling. But little if any discredit attached