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to procure the season's tea, and Chinese authorities to gather duty on the shipments. This brief interval of commercial calm was interrupted by an attempt—to which, of course, the epithet "treacherous" is applied by many historians—on the part of the Chinese to expel the invaders. But the latter, assuming the offensive, pushed up to the walls of the city, and had actually placed their batteries in position to bombard it, when negotiations recommenced and the British plenipotentiary agreed to accept a ransom of six million dollars for the threatened town. His act of clemency was strongly condemned by certain critics who held that only by the capture of Canton could the Chinese have been taught the futility of further resistance. Probably these critics judged rightly. There were in China at that time a war party and a peace party. The Emperor sided with the former. His Majesty had not yet abandoned the hope of making all concessions conditional on the suppression of the opium trade, and since the British Government was determined not to pledge itself to co-operate for that purpose, though equally determined not to openly avow its resolve, the most humane course would have been that those charged with the conduct of the campaign should strike the strongest and most decisive

blows in their power so as to deprive the Chinese of all illusions. Captain Elliot's instincts, however, always ranged themselves against proceed-