hina being able to stop the use of the
drug, said that they could not yet approach the throne on the subject; but
that the Custom-house officers "would not trouble to inquire whether our
ships brought opium or not." They even went so far as to say[19] that "on
the subject of opium the British and Chinese Governments should adopt
their own rules with reference to their own subjects." Sir H. Pottinger
intimated his readiness to prohibit our ships from carrying opium into the
inner waters of the empire, but the Chinese, he added, must enforce the
prohibition. But this was the difficulty; for what could be expected from
our measures while the imperial servants winked at the breach of the
imperial edicts. The Commissioner, Keying, then suggested that the Emperor
might consent to the legalization of the traffic if a large revenue[20]
were _guaranteed_ to him. The answer of the British Commissioner was that
the British Government did not wish to foster or encourage the trade, but
to place it on a less objectionable footing; and, therefore, that Keying's
proposal could not be considered. In commenting on these negotiations, Sir
H. Pottinger said that the principal _public_ reason (bribery and
corruption being the private ones) why the truth was disguised, or said to
be disguised, from the Emperor, was the inability of the Chinese to
prevent opium from entering the rivers and harbours of the empire, or from
being consumed by their subjects. The Chinese Commissioner tried to throw
the blame on the British Government, asserting that _they_ should enforce
the prohibition and prevent their subjects from engaging in the trade, a
position tenable on no principle of international obligations.[21] The
Chinese, then, were unable to stop the traffic and unwilling to legalize
it. The mandarins were driven to all kinds of desperate shifts to cloak
their imbecility; and Sir H. Pottinger, in one of his last despatches,
says: "The mandarins openly give out that they dare not stop the traffic,
else it would lead to the cultivation of the poppy in China to so great an
extent as to cause a scarcity of food, if not a famine." A truly
surprising reason!

However, the arguments of successive British Commissioners seem to have
gradually had their effect, and there were not wanting signs that the
Chinese authorities were coming round. They were beginning to see that the
only way to arrest the haemorrhage of silver, so alarming to them, which in
fifty-f