the inner harbour of Macao (February 4, 1840), with a view to enable British subjects to take refuge on board. Thereupon both Governor Pinto and the Senate of Macao waxed wroth, declared their dignity offended, their neutrality violated and sternly ordered the ship to leave immediately. Captain Smith yielded and withdrew the Hyacinth on the following day. However the very lowest ebb of the honour and fortunes of British trade in China had now been reached, and a change was at hand.
In England public opinion was now at last fairly aroused, thanks to the keynote struck by the Queen's Speech from the Throne (January, 1840) in which Her Majesty identified her interests and the dignity of the Crown with the fate of Elliot and the British merchants in China. Whilst regretting or condemning the opium trade as a whole, the British public clearly perceived that British trade with China must be re-organized on an entirely new basis. Arrangements were quietly made by the Government to fit out an expedition to China. Lord Palmerston explained in the House of Commons (March 12, 1840) that the object of this expedition was not to commence hostilities but to open up communication with the Emperor of China. The good people of Great Britain did not want war with China and especially nob for the sake of the opium trade, but they were quite satisfied that, as an Order in Council (April 4, 1840) expressed it, satisfaction and reparation should be demanded from the Chinese Government on account of the late injurious proceedings of certain officers of the Emperor of China.
The Chinese Government was meanwhile kept tolerably well informed of what transpired in England. Commissioner Lin had a great passion for keeping spies among the employés of British merchants and officers, and his intelligence department kept him supplied with translations of newspaper cuttings. Lin accordingly was able to inform the Emperor, long before the expedition arrived, 'that Elliot had applied for troops to be sent to China; that the Queen had directed Parliament to
