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because their disorderly and masterful conduct had displayed them in the light of intolerable associates. It was not because she entertained any project of terminating their commerce and driving them from her coasts that she instructed Commissioner Lin to adopt the measures which finally involved her in war. It was because they had introduced into their commerce an unlawful element which threatened to debilitate her people morally and physically and to exhaust her treasure. But for opium-smuggling by British subjects the war would never have taken place, so far as human intelligence can discern. History can have only one verdict in the matter. It is impossible to doubt that, had opium been an insignificant article of commerce, a country where the public conscience is so highly developed as it is in England, would never have officially associated herself with such a traffic, or questioned China's right to crush it by the exercise of any measures however drastic. But opium was not an insignificant article of commerce. It was the lubricant which kept the whole machinery of England's Eastern trade running smoothly and satisfactorily. India owed England a large sum, and further bought from her every year much more than she sold to her. To redress the balance and to meet payments on account of interest and principal, considerable sums of specie should have been transmitted annually from Calcutta to London. On the other hand, England's purchases every