The Way
of Heaven is fairness to all; it does not suffer us to harm others in order
to benefit ourselves. Men are alike in this all the world over: that they
cherish life and hate what endangers life. Your country lies twenty thousand
leagues away; but for all that the Way of Heaven holds good for you as for
us, and your instincts are not different from ours; for nowhere are there
men so blind as not to distinguish between what brings life an d what brings
death, between what brings profit and what does harm. Our Heavenly Court treats
all within the Four Seas as one great family; the goodness of our great Emperor
is like Heaven, that covers all things. There is no region so wild or so remote
that he does not cherish and tend it. Ever since the port of Canton was first
opened, trade has flourished. For some hundred and twenty or thirty years
the natives of the place have enjoyed peaceful and profitable relations with
the ships that come from abroad. Rhubarb, tea, silk are all valuable products
of ours, without which foreigners could not live. The Heavenly Court, extending
its benevolence to all alike, allows these things to be sold and carried away
across the sea, not grudging them even to remote domains , its bounty matching
the bounty of Heaven and Earth.
'But there is a class of evil foreigner that makes opium and brings it for sale, tempting fools to destroy themselves, merely in order to reap profit. Formerly the number of opium smokers was small; but now the vice has spread far and wide and the poison penetrated deeper and deeper. If there are some foolish people who yield to this craving to their own detriment, it is they who have brought upon themselves their own ruin, and in a country so populous and flourishing, we can well do without them. But our great, unified Manchu Empire regards itself as responsible for the habits and morals of its subjects and cannot rest content to see any of them become victims to a deadly poison. For this reason we have decided to inflict very severe penalties on opium dealers and opium smokers, in order to put a stop forever to the propagation of this vice. It appears that this poisonous article is manufactured by certain devilish persons in places subject to your rule. It is not, of course, either made or sold at your bidding, nor do all the countries you rule produce it, but only certain of them. I am told that in your own country opium smoking is forbidden under severe penalties. This means that you are aware of how harmful it is. But better than to forbid the smoking of it would be to forbid the sale of it and, better still, to forbid the production of it, which is the only way of cleansing the contamination at its source. So long as you do not take it yourselves, but continue to make it and tempt the people of China to buy it, you will be showing yourselves careful of your own lives, but careless of the lives of other people, indifferent in your greed for gain to the harm you do to others; such conduct is repugnant to human feeling and at variance with the Way of Heaven. Our Heavenly Court's resounding might, redoubtable to its own subjects and foreigners alike, could at any moment control their fate but in its compassion and generosity it makes a practice of giving due warning before it strikes. Your Majesty has not before been thus officialy notified, and you may plead ignorance of the severity of our laws. But I now give my assurance that we mean to cut off this harmful drug for ever. What it is here forbidden to consume, your dependencies must be forbidden to manufacture, and what has already been manufactured Your Majesty must immediately search out and throw it to the bottom of the sea, and never again allow such a poison to exist in Heaven or on earth. When that is done, not only will the Chinese be rid of this evil, but your people too will be safe. For so long as your subjects make opium, who knows but they will not sooner or later take to smoking it; 50 that an embargo on the making of it may very well be a safeguard for them, too. Both nations will enjoy the blessing of a peaceful existence, yours on its side having made clear its sincerity by respectful obedience to our commands. You will be showing that you understand the principles of Heaven, and calamities will be not sent down on you from above; you will be acting in accordance with decent feeling, which may also well influence the course of nature in your favour.
'The laws against the consumption of opium are now so strict in China that if you continue to make it, you will find that no one buys it and no more fortunes will be made. Rather than waste your efforts on a hopeless endeavour, would it not be better to devise some other form of trade? All opium discovered in China is being cast into burning oil and destroyed. Any foreign ships that in the future arrive with opium on board, will be set fire to, and any other goods that they are carrying will inevitably be burnt along with the opium. You will then not only fail to make any profit out of us, but ruin yourselves into the bargain. Intending to harm others, you will be the first to be harmed. Our Heavenly Court would not have won the allegiance of innumerable lands did it not wield superhuman power. Do not say you have not been warned in time. On receiving this, Your Majesty will be so good as to report to me immediately on the steps that have been taken at each of your ports.'