"TO THE CHRISTIAN PUBLIC OF GREAT BRITAIN.
"In again appealing to you in reference to the opium war in China, I
will begin by quoting the following extracts from a letter which I
addressed to you on the 19th of the Third Month, 1840.
"'It is now too notorious to render needful entering at large
into the subject, that the guilty traffic in opium, grown by the
East India Company, to be smuggled into China, at length
compelled the Chinese Government to vindicate the laws of the
Empire, which prohibit its introduction, and to take decisive
measures for the suppression of the traffic, by the arrest of
the parties concerned in it at Canton, and the seizure and
destruction of the opium found in the Chinese waters.[A] It is
also well known that the superintendent of the British trade,
(Capt. Elliott) so far compromised his official character and
duty, as to take under his protection one of the most extensive
opium smugglers, and thus rendered himself justly liable to the
penalties to which they were obnoxious; and at the same time
gave, as far as was in his power, the sanction of the British
nation to this unrighteous violation of the Chinese laws.
[Footnote A: "See 'Thelwall's Iniquities of the Opium Trade,'
and 'King's Opium Crisis,'"]
"'The following fact is, however, not so generally known. An
individual,[B] now in this country, who has acquired immense
wealth by this unlawful trade, has been in communication with
the Government, and his advice, it is presumed, has in no small
degree influenced the measures they have adopted; though a
leading partner in a firm to which a large proportion of the
opium that was destroyed belonged; and at the very time he was
claiming compensation, or urging a war with China, his house in
India was sending armed vessels loaded with opium, along the
coast of China, and selling it in open defiance of the laws of
that Empire. This information, with the names of the vessels and
the parties concerned, the number of chests of opium on board,
the enormous profits they were realizing, et cet., was some time
ago communicated to the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs,
on authority which he did not and could not dispute.'
[Footnote B: "This individual is in the new House of Commons,
professedly as a reformer, and represents a borough which
formerly sent to that House one of its most upright members, who
has now retired from public life.]
"On the 7th of April, Sir James Graham brought forward a motion
in the House of Commons, in reference to this subject, but in a
manner which gave it so much of a party character, that our
cruel injustice to the Chinese, and the disgraceful conduct of
our Government in attacking them, was lost sight of by many,
whose professed principles ought to have made them foremost in
condemning these proceedings. The Whig Ministry having intimated
they would resign if Sir J. Graham carried his motion, every
other consideration was forgotten in anxiety lest a political
party should be injured or lose office.
"This feeling not only pervaded the supporters of the Government
in the House of Commons, but also extended to many leading
religious professors of various denominations; and thus no
public feeling sufficiently strong could be raised to counteract
in Downing-street, the combined and powerful influence of the
East India Company and the wealthy opium smugglers; though
public meetings were held in London and many places in the
country, and petitions forwarded justly deprecating this war, as
one of almost unparalleled iniquity. At the meeting in the
metropolis, which was held at Freemason's Hall, and at which the
Earl of Stanhope presided, the following resolutions were
passed:--
"'1. That this meeting, whilst it most distinctly
disavows any party or political objects, and deprecates
most strongly any such construction being put upon its
efforts, deeply laments that the moral and religious
feeling of the country should be outraged--the character
of Christianity disgraced in the eyes of the world--and
this kingdom involved in war with upwards of three
hundred and fifty millions of people, in consequence of
British subjects introducing Opium into China, in direct
and known violation of the laws of that Empire.
"'2. That, although the Chinese have not been heard in
their defence, the statements adduced by the advocates
of the war, clearly establish the fact, that the East
India Company, the growers of and traffickers in opium,
and British subjects who received the protection of the
laws of China, have been, throughout, the wrong doers;
therefore this meeting (without reference to the
conviction of many, that all war is opposed to the
spirit and precepts of the gospel,) holds it to be the
bounden duty of the government immediately to effect an
equitable and pacific settlement of the existing
differences with China.
"'3. That all traffic in opium with the Chinese being
contraband, the opium which was surrendered to their
government was justly confiscated; and that to demand
payment from the Chinese, to make reprisals upon them,
or, for this country to give compensation to the British
merchants thus engaged in smuggling, would be to
sanction and even grant a premium on crime.
"'4. That the petition now read be adopted by this
meeting, and presented to both Houses of Parliament; and
that the Right Honorable Earl Stanhope be requested to
present the same to the House of Lords, and Lord Sandon
to the House of Commons.
"'5. That the resolutions of this meeting be published
at the discretion of the Committee; and that a copy of
them in the Chinese language be transmitted, through the
High Commissioner Lin, to the Emperor of China.'
"Since this period, I have been in company with several
Englishmen who were at Canton at the time of the seizure of the
opium; and though some of them were concerned in the trade
themselves, and were naturally biassed in favor of their own
country, they all agreed in condemning the proceedings of the
English. I have recently spent some time in the United States,
whose intercourse with China is extensive and frequent, and
where the merits of this case are clearly understood by many of
the most intelligent and candid-minded citizens; and these,
without any exception, considered the acts of the British
government in this matter as some of the most flagrant that ever
disgraced a civilized, much less a Christian people.
"On my return to this country I found a new administration
entering upon office; the members of which have, for the most
part, condemned the conduct of their predecessors in relation to
this war; and I again, therefore, venture to appeal to the
_Christian_ public of my country that they may, without delay,
forward petitions, or memorials, strongly urging a reference of
the existing differences with China to commissioners mutually
appointed, who shall be authorized to adjust them, and also to
determine upon the best means of entirely suppressing the guilty
traffic in opium. The present government are not yet committed
to this cruel war; and may no difference of political views
deter you from the faithful discharge of this Christian duty!
Even should you not succeed in inducing our rulers to adopt this
course, or the overtures of this country be rejected by the
Chinese, you will have satisfaction in having made the attempt.
"One-third of the human race are now receiving their impressions
of the Christian religion, by its professors waging a murderous
war to compel them to make restitution to the contraband opium
dealers, for the destruction of this deadly poison, which
continues to be grown by the East India Company, and poured into
China in defiance of all laws, human and divine. Besides the
loss of life sustained by the Chinese, and the fearful mortality
amongst the British troops, from the unhealthiness of the
climate, it is probable that little short of ten millions
sterling has already been expended in naval and military
armaments, and the enhanced price of tea and sugar,[A] in the
monstrous attempt to force the Chinese to pay about two millions
to those opium smugglers. All this, be it remembered, is added
to the burdens upon the industry of our own oppressed
population.
[Footnote A: It is well known that the high rate of freights
from Calcutta, in consequence of the shipping required for the
Chinese expedition, greatly contributed to the late extravagant
price of sugar.]
"Earnestly desiring that you may be induced to discharge your
duty as Christians, and whatever may be the result, acquit
yourselves of your share of the national guilt, I conclude with
the words of a friend: 'For my own part, I think the present
distress of the nation may be the retributive chastisement of
our recent atrocious war in China and the East. * *
* All history, and the daily march of events, demonstrate
the perpetual retributive interference of an overruling
providence. Yet this doctrine, proclaimed as loudly by
experience as by revelation, and as legibly written on the page
of history as in the Bible, appears to have not the smallest
practical influence on the most enlightened statesmen, and the
most Christian and enlightened nation in the world.'
"Very respectfully,
"JOSEPH STURGE.
"_Birmingham, 9th Month 30th_, 1841."
"_10th Month 9th_, 1841.
"Since writing the foregoing, the intelligence has arrived that
Canton has been seized; that 'Gen. Sir Hugh Gough calculates the
loss of the Chinese, in the different attacks, at one thousand
killed and three thousand wounded;' that the British have
extracted six millions of dollars as a ransom for evacuating the
city, which the Chinese call 'opium compensation;' and it is but
too evident that the work of the wholesale murder of this
unoffending people has but begun, for Capt. Elliot, who appears
to have been too tender of shedding human blood to please his
employers, is recalled, and is succeeded by Sir H. Pottenger,
who, it is reported, has instructions from Lord Palmerston to
demand _fifteen millions_ of dollars for the opium smugglers,
and the whole of the expenses of the war, and to secure the
right to the British of planting armed factories in the
different Chinese ports.
"Shall history record that no voice was raised by the Christians
of Britain against the employment of their money, and that of
their starving countrymen, in deeds like these!!"