OPIUM

339
from  witnessing  the  abuses  to  which  its  contraband  character ­
  gave  rise*  With  this  changed  view  he  wrote  to  Lord
Elgin  as  follows  :—
“  I  have  more  than  once  understood  your  Excellency ­
  to  say  that  you  had  a  strong,  if  not  invincible,
repugnance,  involved  as  Great  Britain  already  was  in
hostilities  at  Canton,  and  having  been  compelled  in
the  north  to  resort  to  the  influence  of  threatened
coercion,  to  introduce  the  subject  of  opium  to  the  consideration ­
  of  the  Chinese  authorities.  Yet  I  am  confident, ­
  unless  the  initiative  is  taken  by  your  Excellency,
things  must  continue  as  they  are,  with  all  their  shame  ;
and  I  appeal  to  your  Excellency’s  high  sense  of  duty,
so  often  and  so  strongly  expressed  to  this  helpless
though  perverse  people,  whether  we,  the  representatives ­
  of  Western  and  Christian  nations,  ought  to
consider  our  work  done  without  some  attempt  to
induce  or  compel  an  adjustment  of  the  pernicious
difficulty.  In  such  an  attempt  I  shall  cordially
unite.”
After  alluding  to  the  possibility  of  putting  a  stop  to
the  growth  of  opium  in  India,  Mr.  Reed  goes  on  to  say  :
“  Of  effective  prohibition,  and  this  mainly  through
the  inveterate  appetite  of  the  Chinese,  I  am  not
sanguine  ;  and  I  therefore  more  confidently,  though
not  more  earnestly,  call  your  Excellency’s  attention ­
  to  the  only  other  course  open  to  us—attempt  to
persuade  the  Chinese  to  put  such  high  duties  on  the
drug  as  will  restrain  the  supply,  regulate  the  import,
and  yet  not  stimulate  some  other  form  of  smuggling,
with  or  without  the  connivance  of  the  Chinese.  The
economical  arguments  in  favour  of  this  course  are  so
fully  stated  in  the  accompanying  paper  that  I  need
not  allude  to  them  further.”
It  was  therefore  decided  that  the  matter  should  be
brought  to  the  notice  of  the  Chinese  Commissioners,  who,
*  “  Narrative  of  the  Earl  of  Elgin’s  Mission  to  China  and  Japan,”
!86o,  Vol.  IL,  chap.  xiii.