Page:Chinese account of the Opium war (IA chineseaccountof00parkrich).pdf/18

 however, had firmly discouraged any relations with them. They were now ruining the bodies and the fortunes of the Chinese with their abominable poison; and the memorialist proposed that the penalty of death should be decreed against all offenders. In consequence of this the Emperor at once remitted the matter to the consideration of all the high provincial authorities. Without a single exception, those officers recommended the most stringent measures, and he amongst them who wrote the most uncompromisingly was, Viceroy of Hu Kwang, who was at once sent for to Peking, whence, after receiving the Emperor's instructions, he was despatched as Special Imperial Commissioner to Canton, armed with full Admiral's powers in addition.

A hundred and fifty years or so earlier, opium had been admitted into China and taxed as an ordinary drug; but, previous to the year 1765, the annual import had never exceeded 200 chests. In consequence of the rapidly increasing number of smokers, the import was first forbidden in 1796. Notwithstanding this prohibition, the annual clandestine sales had, by the year 1820, reached nearly 4,000 chests. First stored at Macao, the opium gradually gravitated to Whampoa; but, after the publication of the first severe prohibitions in the thirties," it was finally stowed in hulks lying off the Ling-ting