Modern History Sourcebook:
The People of Canton: Against the English, 1842
[Tappan Introduction]: From a paper that was agreed to at a great public meeting in
Canton.
Behold that vile English nation! Its ruler is at one time a woman, then a man, and
then perhaps a woman again; its people are at one time like vultures, and then they are
like wild beasts, with dispositions more fierce and furious than the tiger or wolf, and
natures more greedy than anacondas or swine. These people having long steadily devoured
all the western barbarians, and like demons of the night, they now suddenly exalt
themselves here.
During the reigns of the emperors Kien-lung and Kia-king these English barbarians
humbly besought an entrance and permission to deliver tribute and presents; they
afterwards presumptuously asked to have Chu-san; but our sovereigns, clearly perceiving
their traitorous designs, gave them a determined refusal. From that time, linking
themselves with traitorous Chinese traders, they have carried on a large trade and
poisoned our brave people with opium.
Verily, the English barbarians murder all of us that they can. They are dogs, whose
desires can never be satisfied. Therefore we need not inquire whether the peace they have
now made be real or pretended. Let us all rise, arm, unite, and go against them.
We do here bind ourselves to vengeance, and express these our sincere intentions in
order to exhibit our high principles and patriotism. The gods from on high now look down
upon us; let us not lose our just and firm resolution.
Source:
From: Eva March Tappan, ed., China, Japan, and the Islands of the Pacific, Vol.
I of The World's Story: A History of the World in Story, Song, and Art, (Boston:
Houghton Mifflin, 1914), p. 197.
Scanned by: J. S. Arkenberg, Dept. of History, Cal. State Fullerton. Prof. Arkenberg
has modernized the text.
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