8 



THE THIRD WAR : CHINA. 



The Chinese Admiral Chin, in his proclamation, in 1839, against 

 England, declares : 



" You foreigners, giving no heed to the laws of Heaven's dynasty, 

 are every day rambling about. You never let us rest for a moment 

 from your visits. We would like to ask,'' says the Chinese Admiral, 

 " if our Chinese ships were to take a commodity prohibited in your 

 country, and go on forcing it into consumption, if you would bear it 

 patiently or not ? " 



This it was that led to the Opium War against China in 1838-39, a 

 war which was the direct cause of the deplorable successive Wars 

 against China in 1857 and 1858. 



Reduced to plain words, the vicious principle England wickedly 

 fought for in the China War was the unjust right of Great Britain to 

 force a hateful trade upon a foreign people, in spite of the protesta- 

 tions of the Government and of the public voice of the Chinese 

 Nation. A more iniquitous War cannot be imagined, for England at 

 the onset and throughout was distinctly in the wrong, for which the 

 East India Company were mainly responsible, and with them a few 

 private merchants, who bought of the East India Company the 

 noxious drug which they grew in India, and sold it to poison the 

 Chinese. 



The Chinese Government, and the whole Nation, desired to get 

 rid of, and to put down, this infamous trade. 



They considered it highly detrimental to the morals, the health, 

 and the happiness of the people. 



In dealing with China, the Government of England never seemed 

 to have given a thought of the right or wrong of the question, for they 

 did not consider it a matter worthy of any consideration. 



The controversy was entered upon, and the War waged with a "light 

 heart." 



The English Government appointed officials to reside in China 

 to control our commerce, and, unluckily, they invested themselves 

 with a sort of political or diplomatic character ; and no sooner was 

 opposition shewn, than these officials, acting on the conviction that 

 the English Government were behind them, ordered Ships of War to 

 break down the opposition at Canton, and thus to light the torch of 

 War between England and China. 



England believed that China was determined on War, which she 

 was not ; and China believed that England, from the first, was 

 determined on War, which was quite true. 



The fact was, the English people knew little or nothing of the 



