Editing William Jardine (merchant) (section)

==Departure from China and breakdown of relations==
Matheson returned to China in 1836 to prepare to take over the firm as Jardine was preparing to fulfill his temporarily delayed retirement. Jardine left Canton on 26 January 1839 for Britain<ref name=HKU />{{rp|209}} as retirement but in actuality to try to continue Matheson's work. The respect shown by other foreign opium traffickers to Jardine before his departure can be best illustrated in the following passage from a book by William C. Hunter.

<blockquote>
A few days before Mr. Jardine’s departure from Canton, the entire foreign community entertained him at a dinner in the dining room of the East India Company’s Factory. About eighty persons of all nationalities, including India, were present, and they did not separate until several hours after midnight. It was an event frequently referred to afterwards amongst the residents, and to this day there are a few of us who still speak of it.
</blockquote>

The Qing government was pleased to hear of Jardine's departure, then, being were more familiar with Jardine as the trading head and were quite unfamiliar with Matheson, proceeded to stop the opium trafficker. [[Lin Zexu]], appointed specifically to suppress the drug trafficking in Guangzhou, stated, "The Iron-headed Old Rat, the sly and cunning ring-leader of the opium smugglers has left for The Land of Mist, of fear from the Middle Kingdom's wrath." He then ordered the surrender of all opium and the destruction of more than 20,000 cases of opium in Guangzhou, representing 50 per cent of the entire trade in opium in 1838.<ref name=Napier>{{cite book|title=Barbarian Eye, Lord Napier in China 1834|url=https://archive.org/details/barbarianeyelord00napi|url-access=registration|last=Napier|first=Priscilla|date=1995|publisher=Brassey's|isbn=9781857531169|place=London}}</ref>{{rp|91}} He also ordered the arrest of opium trafficker [[Lancelot Dent]], the head of Dent and Company (a rival company to Jardine Matheson). Lin also wrote to [[Victoria of the United Kingdom|Queen Victoria]], to submit in obeisance in the presence of the Chinese Emperor.