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of any British subject in the Factories. He based the order on alleged insecurity of life and property, though members of other nationalities did not discover any such insecurity, and were able to remain safely in the city, pursuing their business as usual. The British merchants, not without some reluctance and remonstrance, obeyed the order of their superintendent and withdrew to Macao and Hongkong, thereafter sending their goods thence to Canton in ships of other nations.

Commissioner Lin vainly sought to terminate this state of affairs. His original plan had been, not to disturb the legitimate trade, but to purge it of its illegitimate elements. If he included the innocent as well as the guilty in his scheme of coercion at Canton, it was because discrimination could not possibly be effected. The whole foreign community had virtually made common cause with the smugglers, since through its representatives it had declared its inability to prevent the opium traffic or to coerce those engaged in it. Therefore Lin could not choose but draw his cordon round all alike. He doubtless argued that the restraint might be terminated at once by the legitimate traders signing a promise to permanently abstain from a course of which they avowedly disapproved, and by the illegitimate traders surrendering their contraband goods. The British Government had emphatically declared that no protection could be afforded to