“When the writer, on the 20th of last April, after the surrender to the British superintendent, “for the use of H.M.’s government, to be delivered over to the government of China”, of 20,283 chests of British-owned Opium, undertook to write the following Narrative, he thought he should be able to finish it before the business of last season was concluded; but the inveteracy of the high commissioner against the English trade and the English nation […] occasioned, of course, an encrease of public documents, and private mercantile correspondence; the Canton Register Press was, consequently, fully occupied…” (Preface).
Largely a documentary collection on Lin Ze-xu’s (1785-1850) anti-opium campaign and the foreign reactions, this book is a key-document for the history of the first Opium war that was to shape relations between Britain and China for over 100 years. Printed in Canton it provides the texts of government despatches, public notices, and letters by most of the key players in the affair (incl. Charles Elliot, Comissioner Lin, the Hong merchants, Robert Morrison, William Wetmore). It predates Shuck’s famous ‘Portfolio Chinensis’ which was published in Macao in the following year.
John Slade (died 1843) became editor of the ‘Canton Register’, China’s first English newspaper, after the departure of W. W. Wood. Very rare. Cordier 2360. Morrison I, 680.
