Lin was by no means wanting in energy to meet the great crisis which he had contributed so much to produce. In addition to the enlisting of troops, the preparation of defences, the casting of guns, building of fire-vessels and gun-boats, &c., he directed that many passages of the river should be blocked up with stones, and others staked across with piles. In short, Lin was a bold, uncompromising, and specious man. He tried to console the Emperor, by assuring him that he was quite certain that, along the northern coast, sickness and cold would carry off all the barbarian forces, even if the want of food, and the exhaustion of their powder and shot, did not reduce them to extremities; but he never once alluded to any probability of being able to beat off the barbarians in fair fight. With regard to his successor, Keshen, his character will be better developed as we proceed. But it is worth while here to remark, that Keshen appears to have been one of the few about the court who began to apprehend serious consequences from Lin's measures. He had always been cautious in committing himself, and though no friend of the foreigners, he had feared their power, and felt the weakness of his own country, as well as the necessity of trying some other measures than those means hitherto employed, to put a stop to the perpetual disturbances which took place in several parts of the empire, and threatened rebellion even within the capital. Keshen was an astute courtier, a polished and well-mannered man, and all those who were present at either of his two interviews with Captain Elliot were struck with his courteous and gentlemanlike manner. Although he made every preparation for resistance, he seems to have thought he could gain more by diplomacy, and he resolved to take advantage of the disposition for negotiation rather than dictation on Captain Elliot's part, to play his cards with tact and cunning, in the hope of gaining time. But he saw his weakness, and the impossibility of contending with success against our forces, and, having distinctly reported thereon to the Emperor, he was, of course, set down as a coward, and, consequently, as a traitor. He had the boldness to tell the Emperor the actual weakness of his strongest points of defence; whereas, Lin only stated how much stronger they _would_ have been, had the government made it a rule to have devoted ten per cent. of the whole customs' revenue of Canton to the improvement of their means of defence, the building of ships, and the casting of cannon.