In the
year 1840 Upper and Lower Canada were united into one province, and though
the union was not at first a success, the colonists were granted the power
of managing their own affairs; and soon came to devote their efforts to
developing the resources of the country, and ceased to agitate for
complete independence. The principle of union then adopted has since been
extended to most of the other North American colonies; and at the present
time the Dominion of Canada stretches across the whole breadth of the
continent from the Atlantic to the Pacific.
Another contest which marked the early years of the new reign was the
inglorious war with China (1839-42). The Chinese are great consumers of
opium, a hurtful drug, which produces a sort of dreamy stupor or
intoxication. The opium poppy is extensively grown in India, and every
year large quantities were exported to China. The government of the latter
country, professedly anxious to preserve its subjects from the baneful
influence of this drug, entirely prohibited the trade in it. Several
cargoes of opium belonging to British merchants were seized and destroyed,
and the trading ports closed against our vessels. Our government resented
this conduct as an interference with the freedom of commerce, and demanded
compensation and the keeping open of the ports.
As the Chinese refused to submit to the demands of those whom they
considered barbarous foreigners, a British armament was sent to enforce
our terms.
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