Appendix.[A] I trust none under whose notice this subject may come will
endeavor to evade their share of responsibility. If the present war with
China were the sole consideration, perhaps no course would be left to
the Christian citizen, but to record his protest and mourn in silence;
but the conclusion of the war _per se_ would not terminate the
difficulty, for trade and mutual intercourse between the two countries,
_on the basis of a reciprocation of interests_, can never be restored
till the EAST INDIA COMPANY'S OPIUM TRADE, a traffic, like the slave
trade, hateful in the sight of God and man, is suppressed; or at least,
until British connection with it is severed; If asked who are the guilty
persons, I would say, in the first instance, the East India Company;
secondly, the opium smugglers; thirdly, the British government, and
lastly, the British people, who, by silent acquiescence, make the whole
guilt, and the whole responsibility their own.

[Footnote A: See Appendix G.]

The author of the most popular modern work on China, who long
superintended the interests of the British merchants at Canton, and
whose work, to a considerable extent, reflects their views, after
stating the increasing discouragements imposed by the authorities on
foreign commerce, the effect for the most part of opium smuggling, and
other lawless proceedings, observes:--"These (discouragements) are their
(the British merchants) real subjects of complaint in China; and
whenever the accumulation of wrong shall have proved, by exact
calculation, that it is more profitable, according to merely commercial
principles, to remonstrate than submit, these will form a righteous and
equitable ground of quarrel!!"[A]

[Footnote A: Davis's China and the Chinese, (Murray's Family Library,)