To remedy these evils two courses were open.  One was effective prohibition, with the assistance of the Foreign Powers; but this, the Chinese Commissioners admitted, was practically hopeless, mainly owing to the inveterate appetite of their people for the drug.  The other remained:  regulation and restriction, by the imposition of as high a duty as could be maintained without giving a stimulus to smuggling.  It was not without much consideration that Lord Elgin adopted the latter alternative; and it was a great satisfaction to him that his views on this subject were ultimately shared by Mr. Reed, the Envoy of the United States, who had come to the country with the intention of supporting the opposite opinion.

In the course of the conferences on these points, which were carried on in the most friendly spirit, Lord Elgin induced the Commissioners to make a separate agreement that he should be permitted, irrespectively of the conditions imposed by the Treaty, to make an expedition up the great river Yangtze Kiang; a permission of which he gladly availed himself, not only for the sake of exploring a new and most interesting country, but even more with the view of marking how entirely and cordially his Treaty was accepted.

Shanghae.—­November 2nd.—­You will, I am sure, see how necessary it has been for me to protract my stay to this time.  The systematic endeavour to make it appear that my work was a failure could be counteracted only by my own presence.  The papers, &c., from England are complimentary enough about the Treaty, but some of the accounts which have gone home are somewhat exaggerated, and perhaps there will be a reaction....  More particularly, I find a hope expressed that we have plundered the wretched Chinese to a greater extent than is the case....  Meanwhile, I have achieved one object, which will be, I think, the crowning act of my mission.  I have arranged with the Imperial Commissioners that I am to proceed up the river Yangtze.  The Treaty only provides that it shall be open when the Rebels have left it.  I daresay this will give rise to comments.  If so, I shall have anticipated them, by going up the river myself.  I shall take with me my own squadron (what I had in Japan).  The weather is beautiful; quite cool enough for comfort.  We shall visit a region which has never been seen, except by a stray missionary.  I shall lose by this move some three weeks, but I do not think they will be really lost, because it will give so very complete a demonstration of the acceptance of the Treaty by the Chinese authorities, that even Hong-Kong will be silenced.

November 6th.—­I hoped to have started to-day, but am obliged to put off till Monday, as the tariff is not yet ready for signature.  I grieve over every day lost, which protracts our separation.  I see that in the very flattering article of the Times of September 7th, which you quote, it is implied that when I signed the Treaty, I had done my work,