ll Lin's raid in 1839, when 20,291 chests were
delivered up and destroyed in the Canton waters.

This violent action of Lin was the outcome of the ascendancy[10] of the
Protective party in China; for there can be no doubt that even in
Conservative China there was at this time a reform party, headed by the
young and accomplished Empress, who advocated enlarged intercourse with
foreign states, and, as a step towards this, a less protective policy in
trade, including a legalization of the importation of opium. A memorial
was even drawn up and presented to the Emperor by Heu Naetze,
Vice-President of the Sacrificial Board, in 1829, advocating the
legalization of opium. But even the influence of the Empress could not
prevail against the prejudices of the Court, and the memorials of Choo
Tsun[11] and Heu Kew, who, like Cleon of old, argued for the dignity of
the Empire and the danger of instability in maintaining the laws, carried
the day. It is not quite clear what grounds of objection to the traffic
were held by the Chinese Government, but the _moral_ ground, now made so
much of, was certainly not one. Between 1836 and 1839 several Imperial
edicts were published prohibiting the importation of opium, in which
"there is little if any reference to the evils of opium, but very clear
language as to the export of bullion."[12] This drain of silver was no
doubt the great reason for the Chinese hostility to the traffic. As late
as 1829 the balance of trade had been in favour of China, and silver had
accumulated; but this state of things had now been reversed, and the
increased export of silver--for opium was a very expensive article and had
to be paid for clandestinely in hard silver--had begun to cause a great
depreciation of cash,[13] the only copper coin of the realm, and to
occasion serious alarm at Pekin. Accordingly the Emperor, in pursuance of
several memorials on the subject, forbad the export of sycee, at the same
time that he took more energetic measures to put a stop to the traffic
which was chiefly responsible for this loss of bullion. In 1836 opium
ships were prohibited from entering the inner waters of Kunsing-moon,
while all foreign ships were detained at Lintin; and the local revenue
officers began to show more vigilance in putting down smuggling. In the
following year an edict was published prohibiting the continuance of
receiving ships in the outer waters, to which Captain Elliott, our
Superintendent of Trade, paid