After a long period of commercial intercourse, there appear among the crowd of barbarians both good persons and
bad, unevenly. Consequently there are those who smuggle opium to seduce the Chinese people and so cause the
spread of the poison to all provinces. Such persons who only care to profit themselves, and disregard their harm to
others, are not tolerated by the laws of heaven and are unanimously hated by human beings. His Majesty the
Emperor, upon hearing of this, is in a towering rage. He has sent me, his commissioner, to come to Kwangtung, and
to investigate and settle this matter.
All those people in China who sell opium or smoke opium should
receive the death penalty. We have however received a specially
extended favor from his Majesty the Emperor, who considers that
for those who voluntarily surrender can be excused them from
punishment. But as for those who again violate the opium
prohibition, it is difficult for the law to pardon them repeatedly.
Having established new regulations, we presume that the ruler of
your honorable country, who takes delight in our culture and
whose disposition is inclined towards us, must be able to instruct
the various barbarians to observe the law with care. It is only
necessary to explain to them the advantages and disadvantages
and then they will know that the legal code of the Celestial Court
must be absolutely obeyed with awe.
We find that your country is sixty or seventy thousand li [3 li
equals one mile] from China. Yet there are barbarian ships that
strive to come here for trade for the purpose of making a great
profit. The wealth of China is used to profit the barbarians. That
is to say, the great profit made by barbarians is all taken from the
rightful share of China. By what right do they then in return use
the poisonous drug to injure the Chinese people? Even though
the barbarians may not necessarily intend to do us harm, yet in
coveting profit to an extreme, they have no regard for injuring
others.
Let us ask, where is your conscience? I have heard that the smoking of opium is very strictly forbidden by your
country; that is because the harm caused by opium is clearly understood. In the London metropolis where you
dwell, as also in Scotland, Ireland, and other such places, no opium whatever is produced. Since it is not permitted
to do harm to your own country, then even less should you let it be passed on to the harm of other countries - how
much less to China!
Explanation:
