They were, besides payment for the destroyed
drug, the opening of five ports to British trade, and the cession
to Great Britain of Hong Kong, a rocky islet which was then the
abode of fishermen and pirates, but which to-day claims to outrank
all the seaports of the world in the amount of its tonnage. Not
a word, be it noted, about opening up the vast interior, not a
syllable in favour of legalising the opium traffic, or tolerating
Christianity.
So much for the charge that this war, which bears a malodorous
name, was waged for the purpose of compelling China to submit to the
continuance of an immoral traffic. That a smuggling trade would go
on with impunity was no doubt foreseen and reckoned on by interested
parties; but it is morally certain that if the Chinese had understood
how to deal with it they might have rid themselves of the incubus
without provoking the discharge of another shot.
Here ends the first act, in 1842; and in it I may claim a personal
interest from the fact that my attention was first turned to China
as a mission field by the boom of British cannon in the Opium War.
China was not opened; but five gates were set ajar against her
will. For that she has to thank the pride and ignorance of emperor
and viceroy which betrayed them into the blunder of dealing with
British merchants as a policeman deals with pickpockets. For the first
[Page 156]
time in her history she was made aware of the existence of nations
with which she would have to communicate on a footing of equality.
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