the province from Lintin, at the mouth of the river, was now being brought into the foreign factories, and its introduction effected with the knowledge of the officials. The American consul reported that the amount imported in 1838 was about thirty-five thousand chests, of the value of $17,000,000. The emperor, learning that his edicts were not being properly enforced, determined to resort to more radical measures, and selecting one of his most trusted and energetic viceroys, Lin, he dispatched him to Canton as a special commissioner, bearing the great seal of the emperor, with full powers to put a stop to the importation, sale, and use of the vicious and hated drug.
It is said that the commissioner received his instructions in person from the emperor, who recounted to him the evils that had long afflicted his children by means of the "flowing poison," and, adverting to the future, paused and wept; then turning to the commissioner, said, "How, alas! can I die and go to the shades of my imperial father and ancestors until these direful evils are removed?"[1] Within a few days after his arrival Lin issued an edict, especially directed to the foreign merchants, in which he said that the emperor's wrath had "been fearfully aroused, nor will it rest till the evil be utterly extirpated." He thereupon ordered that the further importation of opium cease, under penalty of death, and that all of the unlawful article in their possession be delivered up to the authorities.
This order spread consternation among the merchants, the greater part of whom were engaged in the
- ↑ H. Ex. Doc. 119 (cited), p. 13; 7 Chinese Repository, 610.
