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NATIONAL LIBRARY OF MEDICINE NATIONAL LIBRARY OF MEDICINE NATIONAL LIBRA s/^l^i^ dNiDiasw do Aavaan tvnouvn 3NI3I0.3W dO ABVaSIT TVNOIIVN 3NI3I03W dO A /"^ ' m o^ NATIONAL LIBRARY OF MEDICINE NATIONAL LIBRARY OF MEDICINE NATIONAL LIBRA NATIONAL LIBRARY OF MEDICINE NATIONAL LIBRARY OF MEDICINE NATIONAL LIBR ' ':• "So-./ S /' | ' n/ • s i ,NAL UBRAR* OF MEDICINE NATIONAL UBRAR* OF MEDICINE NATIONAL LIBRARY xx^ -° * x , x V * \ 3NIDI03W dO JkHX- a ^. 1 1VNOI1VN 3NIDI03W dO AUVMSIT 1VNOI1 i03w do Aavaan tvnouvn g * E . •'' | -'•• <2 ONAL LIBRARY OF MED.CINE NATIONAL LIBRARY OF MEDICINE NATIONAL L.BRARY Of MED.CI - 8 - ■ X • , '*-" S ■- t ~" ' j ' -c X X ■ -- s -• -£ < i V <7 * \ ■■'. § '--V ' t '?-■ 8 | X /■' :-^ i | * i ' f " 3NIDI03W dO ABVaSH TVNOIIVN 3NIDIQ3W dO Aava9l1 TVNOI1 )IQ3W dO *8V!i ' TVNOIIVN lr* -"u3 X t- , ' * i I ,i:" !• \ "■ i - ' i N IONAL LIBRARY OF MEDICINE » * ■' " " NATIONAL LIBRARY Of MEDICINE NATIONAL L'feRARY OF MEDIC 1 : ■ 1 dNIZMOd" iO *«VJ«H WnOUVN 3NOIQ3W dO ASVaSIl 1VNOI 1 f I NATIONAL UBRARY Of MEDICINE NATIONAL LIBRARY Of MEDIl / - I r, I /'■:■; * -'.": /I 1 , / ? ■* •» ''. ' ; ' / ,, , -£ S •.■•. • -' '- ' '• -s / ■> / g_ ' i ^Ni->ia3w dO Aavann ivnoiivn inidiq3w do Aavaan ivnc DIQ3W JO A»V^ TVNOIIVN dNIJIUJ" ■■ONAL LIBRARY OF MED.CINE ' NATIONAL LIBR ARY Of MEDIC INE NATIONAL LIBRARY OF MED, DI03W dO A»va8ll 1VNOHVN I "• -^ • a. 3 / | IONAL Lli' i^Y Of MEDICINE c ■■ J'.. I" °" ' " >- ,^f 0 .r57 ,i ' '■>-. -' I < ■■■.-, > 4 X '■'. ■■•■■ f AN m>^' ESSAY THE OPIUM TRADE. INCLUDING A SKETCH OF ITS HISTORY, EXTENT, EFFECTS, ETC., AS CAEK1ED ON IN INDIA AND CHINA. BY NATHAN ALLEN, M. D. /£tl( BOSTON: PUBLISHED BY JOHN P. JEWETT & CO. NOS. 17 & 19 CORNHILL. 1850. A We. \%5C ANDOVER: JOHN D. J7LAGG, STEREOTTPER AND PRINTEK. THE OPIUM TRADE. Scarcely anything was known respecting China till the pres- ent century, and most of the knowledge which we now possess has been obtained within the last fifteen years. As foreign in- tercourse continues to grow more frequent and unrestricted with this Empire, the world will undoubtedly become better and bet- ter acquainted with its history and the character of its inhabitants. The recent settlements and great increase of trade on our Pacific shores will open a more direct communication with China, and render whatever concerns that people far more interesting and important to our own country. The antiquity of that nation, tracing its history by a direct and connected series of events back almost to the creation of the world, its vast extent of territory and resources, its literature and its arts, its government and its immense population, estimated at 350,000,000, constitute objects of exceedingly great interest. But passing by all these topics, we propose to examine a subject which vitally affects the interests of this great nation, viz., the opium trade. The amount of capital invested in this traffic, its present and prospective effects on human happiness, involving the welfare of nearly one half of the race as well as the relations existing between the two greatest empires in the world, render the subject vastly important to the statesman, the philanthropist, and the Christian. China expends for the single article of opium, annually, more money than the * When this Essay was commenced, it was intended for the pages of some Review or Magazine, but, after its completion, it was found too long to appear entire in any periodical, and the writer has been induced by the advice of friends, to pre sent it to the public in pamphlet form. 4 whole amount of the revenue of the United States, from all sources whatever, and a larger sum than any one nation on the globe pays to another for a single raw material, with the excep- tion of what Great Britain pays to this country for cotton. The traffic is yet comparatively new,—has grown with unparalleled rapidity, and is almost unknown except to those personally concerned in it. Opium is a production of the plant, Papaver Somniferum, and commonly called, in English, Poppy. The peculiar pro- perties of this vegetable were discovered at a very early age. Though it is not specifically mentioned by name in the Old Tes- tament, yet there are good grounds to believe that the product or juice of the Poppy constituted an important element of what is called in Scripture, " mixed wine." The art of distillation not being then known, it was customary to mix certain drugs, and aromatic gums, with their wines, in order to improve their flavor, nnd give them more stimulating qualities. Homer and other Greek writers, who lived in the same century as David and Solo- mon, make frequent mention of the peculiar intoxicating proper- ties of the Poppy. It was also well known among the Romans. Virgil, Livy, Pliny, Ovid, and other authors, describe it as being used for various purposes. The Poppy was originally a native of Persia, but it may now be found growing as an ornamental plant in gardens throughout the civilized world. It is cultivated somewhat extensively in Turkey, and most of the opium used for medical purposes in Europe and America, is produced in that country. But India affords a far more extensive field for its cultivation. It is estimated that more than 100,000 acres of the rich plains of central India, as well as the alluvial valley of the Ganges, are now occupied for this pur- pose. Formerly these same grounds were used for the produc- tion of sugar, indigo, corn, and other grain, but these useful crops have yielded to the more profitable culture of the Poppy. It appears that a mild climate, rich soil, plentiful irrigation, and diligent husbandry are absolutely necessary for its successful cul- tivation. The crop is also very much dependent on the season, being easily injured by storms and winds, as well as seriously affected by the amount of moisture distilled in the form of dew. 5 The Rev. James Peggs, an English Missionary, having resided many years at Cuttack, province of Orissa, India, gives the follow- ing account of the cultivation of the Poppy, and the manufacture of its juice for market: — " In India, many thousands of men, women and children, are employed in poppy cultivation, which is throughout, a simple process. The ground in the first place requires to be finely ploughed, and completely cleared of all weeds. The fields are then fenced in, and divided off into many squares, by means of small dikes, and thus the requisite amount of water is conveyed to every part of the plantation. The plant requires to be well weeded and irrigated even until it comes to maturity, as the cultivation is entirely carried on during the dry season. The seed is sown in November ; and during a period of about six weeks in February and March the juice is collected. " The falling of the flowers from the plant is the signal for making incisions, which is done by the cultivators in the cool of the evening, with hooked knives, made for the purpose, in a circular manner around the capsules. From these incisions a white milky juice exudes, which is concreted into a dark brown mass by the heat of the next day's sun ; and this being scraped off every evening as the plant continues to exude, it constitutes Opium in its crude state. '•' The great object of those in India who prepare Opium for the China market, is, so to inspissate the crude juice as to leave a very hot-drawn, watery extract which will, being dried, possess the greatest amount of purity and strength of flavor when smoked through a pipe. The Chinese, themselves, estimate its value in direct proportion to the amount of these qualities. The process of inspissation is carried on in the cool shade, and care is ob- served in securing a proper jelly-like consistency, without grit or sourness, both of which are readily detected by the Chinese. When ready for market it has a smell peculiar to itself, heavy and not unpleasant, and possesses an adhesiveness which keeps it from dropping from the hand for some seconds, though the hand be in an inverted position. The Chinese carry it through another process of boiling before they use it. In smoking, they always lie down, and the ordinary kind of tobacco pipe is never used for Opium. 6 " The Bengal Opium is made into balls about the size of the two fists, and covered over with a hard skin, made of the petals of the poppy, each ball having a separate apartment in the chest when sent off to market. The chest is made of mango-wood, and consists of two stories, each story containing twenty balls. In other regions of India, it is made into cakes about the size of a single fist, and packed up in dried poppy leaves, having no separate apartments in the chest. For the sake of securing their contents, the chests are always covered over with hides, or coarse cloth. India produces about forty thousand chests of Opium annually —the chests varying in weight from 125 to 140 pounds : the prices in China during the last three or four years fluctuating from 500 to 900 dollars per chest." Malwa, Benares and Behar (or Patna) are the principal locali- ties in Bengal for its cultivation, and every chest of the drug exported from India bears one of their names, according to the part of the country where it was produced. The cultivation of the Poppy, as well as the manufacture, and the traffic in Opium, in the two last named provinces being both subject to the East India Company, is a strict monopoly of the government. For superintending and managing the business, there is an extensive and complicated system of government agency. Large sums of money are advanced to the Ryots, or native cultivators, to meet in part the expense of cultivating the Poppy, and when the crop is come to maturity and the juice is collected, it must all be de- livered to government agents at a fixed price. As all engaged in its cultivation and manufacture, are paid for their services, the Opium when prepared becomes the property of government. In Benares and Behar, the cultivation of this drug is not alto- gether a matter of choice, or interest, on the part of the native inhabitants, but such a combination of circumstances and influ- ences are brought to bear upon them, as to amount almost to compulsion. In the Chinese Repository for Feb. 1837, may be found an able article on this subject, with references to various works as authorities ; from this article, we make the following quotation : — " The lands under cultivation are measured every year, and their boundaries fixed, in order to prevent collision among those to whom they are assigned. The government an- 4 nually enters into an engagement with the cultivators, through an intermediate agency, constituted in the following manner: there is 1st, a collector, who is an European ; 2d, there are gomastahs, a superior class of men (native) both in education and caste ; 3d, sudder rnattus, a respectable class of land- holders ; 4th, village mattus, the principal villagers, a little superior to the ryots ; 5th, the ryots, the chief laborers in the cultivation of the poppies. The ' engagement' entered into with government is this: when the poppy is ripe and immedi- ately before extracting the juice, the gomastah and his establish- ment make a circuit of the country, and form, 'by guess,' a probable estimate of the produce of each field. He then makes the ryot enter into an engagement with him to deliver the quan- tity there estimated, and as much more as the field will yield, at the price previously fixed ; if he fails to deliver the estimated quantity, and the collector has reason to suppose he has em- bezzled the deficiency, he is empowered by law to prosecute the ryot in the civil court, for damages. And should an individual un- dertake the cultivation, without having entered into engagements with the government to deliver the produce at the fixed rate, his property would be immediately attached, and the ryot compelled either to destroy his poppies, or give security for the faithful de- livery of the product." Thus we see a most oppressive system of espionage at the same time established over the natives to prevent the cultivation of the poppy for private uses or sale. It is true the engagement is made only for one year, when the ryot may abandon its cultivation ; but then in case he does, he must remove at considerable sacrifice from the grounds, and per- haps from the village, with no reasonable prospect of improving his situation. Besides, these cultivators and such natives as are landholders, are, from policy, kept constantly in debt to the government agents, and thus become so dependent upon them as absolutely to be obliged to do their bidding. It is found that each chest of Opium, obtained in this way, costs the government about 300 Rupees.* A small portion of it is sold in the interior provinces of India, for native use, but the greater part is trans- * The value of a Rupee, in our currency, is 45 1-2 cents. 8 ported down the river Ganges to Calcutta, where it is publicly sold on set market days, by auction, to merchants who purchase and export it to China. Inasmuch as the price of Opium vanes with the season and demand, these sales frequently afford occa- sion for great speculation with merchants, the same as stocks, etc. in this country. The price at which it is sold varies some- what with the quantity in the market and the demand for it, but generally brings from 1200 to 1300 Rupees, or on an average, more than four times as much as the first cost. The government thus receives annually an immense revenue from this source. In 184G, there were thus sold 21,649 chests, making a clear profit to the government of over £2,000,000 sterling. In 1847, it is stated on good authority, that about 10,000 chests more were sold at Calcutta — that is, over 31,000 chests — which would increase the revenue to £3,000,000. And this includes a part only — perhaps two-thirds — of the Opium raised in India, and of course, not all the government revenue from this source. In Malwa, a province lying in the western part of India, the cultivation of the Poppy and the manufacture of Opium, are carried on under very different management. This province is subject in its government to native Princes, and the cultivation of the soil is therefore entirely beyond the East India Company's control. Here, the Poppy is cultivated, and Opium is manufac- tured as freely as rice and wheat are cultivated, without any re- straint or interference on the part of government agents. The question with the farmers, therefore, is simply one of profit, whether they will raise a crop of the Poppy, or of rice or wheat. Here Opium is bought and sold in all the market places, just as grain and other productions are ; and it is estimated that 7,000 or 8,000 chests are annually consumed in Malwa and the adja- cent provinces. But their principal market is the city of Bombay, some 400 to 500 miles distant from Malwa. And in order to reach this market, all their Opium must be transported in car- riages over land this distance, and pass through certain territories of the East India Company. For the mere privilege of passing through these lands, the Company levy a Tax, or " transit duty," so called, of 400 Rupees on every chest of Opium. Formerly this tax was only R. 200 ; it was then raised to R. 300, and in 9 1847 increased again to R. 400. And in all probability within a few years, when the East India Company shall find it for its interests, a still larger transit duty or tax will be exacted. The law on this point is rigidly enforced, as all Opium found within the bounds of government's possessions, not covered by a pass- port, is confiscated at once, and subjects its owner to a heavy penalty. Thus a large revenue is annually collected. In 1846, about 25,000 chests of Opium were transported in this way to Bombay, which would bring over £1,000,000 net income to the Company. The Opium is here purchased by merchants, and exported to China. If we here add the Revenue obtained at Calcutta, we find that the East India Company received in 1846 from this source £3,000,000. And in 1847, inasmuch as there was some 10,000 chests of Opium sold at Calcutta more than the previous year, the Revenue must have considerably exceeded this amount. The merchants who hereafter become the princi- pal parties in the business, make from 15 to 25 per cent, more on all the Opium exported from Calcutta and Bombay to China. But before describing particularly the transportation and sale of the drug, as well as its effects on the Chinese, let us examine briefly the origin, history and extent of the trade. The plan of sending Opium from Bengal to China, was first suggested by a Mr. Watson, in the year 1767, to a council of Representatives of the East India Company held at Calcutta. Mr. Wheeler, at that time an officer and an influential member of the Company, advocated the plan, and after being favorably en- tertained, it was adopted as a happy expedient towards raising a revenue for supporting government. Previously to this time, a small trade in Opium, rarely exceeding 200 chests per year, had been carried on with the Chinese by some Portuguese merchants, who brought their Opium from Turkey. From 1767 to 1794, the East India Company made several adventures of Opium to China, which, for various causes, were not very successful. In 1794, the English succeeded in station- ing one of their ships, laden exclusively with Opium, at Wham- poa, where she lay unmolested for more than a year, selling out her cargo. This city continued about 25 years to be the princi- pal market for the sale of the drug, though the trade encoun- 2 10 tered considerable difficulty from pirates infesting those seas as well as opposition on the part of the Chinese. Macao also furnished somewhat of a market, but, in 1821, the Opium mer- chants, on account of the difficulties attending the sale at these places, withdrew entirely from the harbor of Whampoa and Macao, and stationed their vessels under shelter of Lintin Island, in the bay at the entrance of Canton River. Henceforth this place became the seat of extensive trade. Here might be seen large armed vessels reposing, throughout the year, at anchor, constituting a floating depot of store-houses, for receiving the Opium in large quantities from the ships bringing it from India, and dealing it out in chests and cases to the Chinese junks to be retailed at various points on shore. The Merope, Capt. Parkyns, in 1821, was the first ship that commenced the system of deliv- ering Opium at different cities along the coast of China, and from that time, the trade increased with wonderful rapidity. Eligible places also on the east and north-east coast of China were selected to station receiving vessels, to which the Chinese might easily have access, and become participators in the trade. Mr. James Holman, in his " Travels in China," page 162, describes the trade in 1830, as follows:—"At half past one P. M., we anchored off the S. W. side of the Island of Lintin, where the foreign vessels engaged in the Opium trade remain stationed, and we found the following ships lying at anchor: the Merope, Parkyns ; Samaranny, Grant, James Crockett; Jannisena, Hec- tor ; the American ships, Scattergood, Tartar, Linton, Margaret Forbes, and Terrier, brigantine ; the Portuguese ships Don Manuel and brig Letitia ; the Danish brig Dansborg and the French ship La Rose. After breakfast, Capt. Gove invited me to accompany him on a visit to some of the floating Opium stores, which sev- eral of the vessels may justly be considered, as they remain in China all the year round to facilitate the importation of this article by receiving it from that class of vessels called Opium runners. I examined specimens of the drug, made up into balls and cakes, and packed in cases ; however, the smugglers generally remove it from the ship in bags, in which it is more easily conveyed to the junks outside the port, and also for subsequent transportation by land. Their smuggling boats are of an amazing length, and 11 generally pull from 40 to 50 oars. Their weapons of defence are usually one small carriage gun or swivel, with muskets, board- ing spikes, swords, and stones. Their boarding netting is similar to an ordinary fishing net, being intended merely to guard them against the stones. They have also shields for the same pur- pose. Not a ball of Opium is delivered by the receiving vessel until it has been previously paid for in cash, and the fear of their cannon balls effectually prevents the Chinese war junks from interfering with them. The whole business of the transport of Opium between Lintin and Canton, is so ad- mirably managed that the boats are but seldom interfered with, nor are they likely to be, so long as the Free Traders can afford to pay the Mandarins so much better for not fighting, than the government will for doing their duty. " The use of Opium has become so universal among the peo- ple of China, that the laws which render it penal, and the procla- mations which send forth their daily fulminations against its continuance, have not the slightest effect in checking the preva- lence of so general a habit. Smoking houses abound in Canton; and the inhabitants of every class who can furnish themselves with the means to obtain the pipe, are seldom without this article of general luxury. It is a propensity that has seized upon all ranks and classes, and is generally on the increase." A well informed writer in the Chinese Repository for 1838, sketches the state of the trade at that time as follows : — " The Chinese coast from Macao to Chusan, is now the constant cruis- ing ground of 20 opium ships. The waters of Canton are con- verted into one grand rendezvous for more than 30 opium boats. At Macao, besides several houses engaged in the sale of Opium on a large scale, fifty or sixty smaller dealers distribute it by the catty or cake; and the preparation of the drug for smoking and its introduction into the interior, under every ingenious cover, gives employment to ten times that number of Chinese. At Canton the foreign residents, with two or three uninfluential ex- ceptions, are all identified with the Opium trade. The late introduction of it in large quantities to Whampoa, has had the unhappy effect of increasing vastly the number of buyers ; so that it is now rare to meet a native who is not himself engaged 12 in its purchase, or whose opposition to it is not disarmed by the knowledge that it is the daily business of his friends and rel- atives." Rev. W. M. Lowrie, an American Missionary, while sailing along the coast of China, in 1843, makes the following entry in his journal of Aug. 31st: "During the voyage from Hong Kong to Arnoy, we passed in sight of three of the great Opium depots along the coast. These three were Tong-san, How-tow- san, and Namoa. At these three places, the Opium dealers in Canton and Macao have ships constantly stationed to keep sup- plies of Opium, and to them the smaller vessels, or opium clip- pers, as they are called, resort for cargoes which they carry to different parts of the coast, and dispose of always for silver. The number of vessels employed in this traffic is very great. A single mercantile house in Canton employs about fifty vessels, ships, barks, schooners and brigs, while another house has thirty or more. It is almost impossible to find a vessel going up the coast which does not carry it. Nine Opium ships were anchored close along side of Amoy. I was told on good authority that every man in Amoy who could afford to buy Opium, was in the habit of smoking it. The Chinese officers make no effort what- ever to prevent its introduction, and I saw Opium pipes openly exposed for sale in the streets. A few years ago, it would have been almost as much as a Chinaman's life was worth, to have been detected in the sale of anything used in consuming the prohibited article." Rev. George Smith visited the island of Chusan, in 1845, and found stationed there, three or four Opium receiving vessels, besides a large number of native smuggling boats which conveyed the drug to numerous cities on the main land. More than 2,700 chests were sold at Chusan annually, valued at almost two millions of dollars. Some idea of the extent of the trade at a much later date as well as of the parties engaged in it may be obtained from the following statement of Mr. Martin, in his work on China, vol. IL, page 258, published in 1847 : — •' There are a number of vessels engaged in the Opium trade. Jardine and Company have the following Opium vessels stationed at Amoy, one ; Namoa, one • Chimmo Bay, one; Whampoa, one; and four or five plying 13 always between Hong Kong and China. About five vessels are employed conveying Opium between India and China, and a large receiving ship of 700 tons, is moored all the year round at Hong Kong. Dent and Company have nearly as many vessels as Jardine & Co., but of a smaller class. Burn, Macivar & Co. have about four on the coast, and two between India and China. Gilman and Company have three on the coast. Pyver, two on the coast with India. A Parsee firm, Rustomjee and Company, two on the coast. An American firm, Russell and Company,* have four on the coast and three between India and China, under the American flag." Here we have about fifty vessels enume- rated as engaged exclusively in the Opium trade, besides, in all probability, many others belonging to smaller concerns embarked in this business, as well as a greater or less number of vessels which are only partially freighted with the drug. Mr. Henry Charles Sirr notices in his work on China, vol. I., p. 176, the state of the trade in 1848, at Foo-chow : — "It is stated that two millions and a half dollars worth of Opium is an- nually imported into Foo-chow, from whence it finds its way into the interior. The Chinese assert that the inland trade has materially decreased, owing to the constant call for sycee silver to pay for the drug, which is smuggled along the coast as far as Chin-cew, one hundred and sixty miles south, where a large fleet of smuggling Opium clippers lies, belonging we regret to say to some of the oldest and wealthiest firms in China. In the city of Foo-chow alone, more than one hundred houses are devoted to the smoking of the drug, whilst as many more retail the accursed poison in small quantities. Would it not be better even in a commercial point of view, for our merchants to minister to the lawful wants of the people in China, than to pander to their vices, as trade must stagnate when energy and industry subside, which invariably is the case when man becomes an Opium devotee." The Rev. Mr. Johnson, a Missionary of the A. B. C. * This is the only American firm, as far as we can learn, engaged in the traffic: and what is the amount of capital invested, or the extent of the trade carried on un- der the American flag, we have no means at hand of knowing The same censures which are applied to the English, should also be meted out to all Americans engaged in this traffic. 14 F. M., visited Foo-chow in 1847, and states in the Missionary Herald of that year, p. 357, that " he was informed by intelli- gent individuals that not less than one half of the male popula- tion of that city were more or less enslaved to the use of Opium." At Shanghai, a seaport still farther north, Mr. Sirr says, " We regret to say that the consumption of Opium is very great, and the number of smoking houses numerous." The Chinese junks that convey the Opium along the coast and up the rivers for the purpose of sale, have received from their peculiar character, the epithet of "fast crabs," and " scrambling dragons," and are manned by desperadoes of the worst and lowest class. All the iniquities of bribery, fraud, perjury, and violence, which are inseparably connected with smuggling, are practised ; and occasionally bloody collisions occur between them and the native authorities. Sometimes with a perfect under- standing on both sides, a shamfight is got up between the smug- glers and mandarins, in order to display great vigilance and activity, thereby deceiving the government agents. The ships used for transporting the Opium from the ports of India to China are built and fitted up expressly for this business, and are said to be among the finest vessels anywhere to be found. Most of them are constructed in the form of schooners or brig- antines, with low hulls, and being adapted to cut the waves with remarkable* speed, are called "clippers," or "runners." Mr. Martin, in his recent work on China, vol. II., page 259, notices two of these vessels in the following manner : — " Altogether, there are about fifty vessels or " clippers," of various sizes, gen- erally well manned and armed, and fast sailers, engaged in the Opium traffic. The Mazeppa, a schooner of 130 tons, con- veyed on one occasion half-a-million of dollars from the north- east coast of China to Hong Kong, the proceeds of Opium sold on the coast. The vessels conveying the drug from India to China are probably the finest boats in the world. The Lanrick of 283 tons register, built at Liverpool, cost £13,000, belonging to Jardine & Co. is superior in sailing on a wind to any man-of- war. I made a voyage in her down the China seas to Java, in 1845, in the teeth of the monsoon, when she was under the command of one of the most skilful and daring seamen that ever 15 sailed. Frequently we were running eight and nine knots close hauled, and carrying royals, when a frigate would have reefed top-. sails and courses. In one of her voyages the Lanrick carried 1250 chests of Bengal Opium, valued at £200,000. The Lanrick, like other vessels of her class, was fully armed with long nine- pounders, musketry, etc. These vessels give a good idea of the ' buccaneers ' which frequented the Spanish main. Their com- manders are generally educated men, of gentlemanly manners, very hospitable, of generous dispositions, well-skilled in seaman- ship, and of a courage and boldness unsurpassed." The following statistics, derived from the most authentic sources, will give some idea of the rapid progress and present extent of the trade : From 1794 to 1820, the amount of Opium exported to China varied from 3,000 to 7,000 chests each year. In 1824, it increased to 12,639 chests, and, in 1834, to 21,785 chests, valued at $14,454,193. In 1837, it amounted to between 39,000 and 40,000 chests, valued at $25,000,000. In 1838 and '9, the trade was seriously interrupted by the more decided and efficient measures of the Chinese to break up and suppress entirely the smuggling in of Opium. After a series of alterca- tions between the parties representing each government, as well as some more violent exhibitions of hostility, the Chinese forced the merchants to surrender what Opium they had on hand, and destroyed the whole, amounting to more than 20,000 chests. This step led to a war between the two nations, and the negotia- tions for settlement were not entirely brought to a close till Aug. 1842. During these years, a much smaller quantity of Opium was brought into the market, and the demand being so much greater than the supply, it sold for almost double its former price, bringing from $1000 to even $1600 per chest. Mr. Tiffany states that the members of one English house made in this way, at the close of the war, from four to eight hundred thousand pounds sterling apiece. But no sooner was peace declared between the two nations, than again commenced brisk operations in the Opium trade. From the " Commercial Memorandum," issued by the Govern- ment Opium Agent stationed at Bombay, and therefore correct, we learn that the number of chests exported from that city to 16 China, has been as follows : — 1843 — 4,* 18,321 chests ; 1844 — 5,31,902; 1845 — 6, 13,227; 1846 — 7,19,311 ; 1847 — 8, 15,196 ; and up to June, 1849, there had been 12,000 chests exported, which would undoubtedly amount to 18,000, by Oct. I, 1849. From an official Report of the chief articles of trade exported from Bombay, we find, that the average amount of Opium for five years ending with Dec. 31, 1848, is put down at 19,111 chests. This quantity sold at $650 per chest,— which, perhaps is an average price —amounts to over $12,000,- 000 annually. The capital invested in this trade at Bombay alone, is greater than in any other article. In 1840, the Opium traffic formed more than two-thirds of the total exports of Bom- bay and Bengal. In 1846, the value of the Opium exported from this city to China, was more than three times the amount of the exports to England, and more than the entire trade, ex- ports and imports, between Bombay and all Europe. According to the Custom House returns, the amount exported this year ex- ceeded in value $15,000,000. Let us now turn to Calcutta and examine what has been the state of the trade in that city. From the Government Gazette and other official Reports, we find the amount of exports of Opium from Calcutta to China, put down as follows: — 1843__ 4, 21,526 chests; 1844—5, 22,000; 1845 — 6, 24,990; 1846 — 7, 21,649; 1847 — 8, 28,705. And from Oct. 1, 1848 to Aug. ], 1849, at the ten monthly sales of Opium that had then taken place, the average sale had been 3000 chests each month, which, for the last year according to this rate, would amount to 36,000 chests. It is sold at public auction in Calcutta on express condition that it shall be immediately exported from that city. Most of the mercantile houses here are more or less concerned in the trade. The quality of the Opium (Benares and Patna) sold in Calcutta is not so good as the Malwa at Bombay, and does not bring so high a price. The average rate for which the article has been sold for several years past — as near as we can make the estimate from price currents — will not vary much * The season for the Opium trade commences Oct. 1st, and ends Sept. 30th the ensuing year, including in the twelve months a part of two years. 17 from $550 per chest.* Thus 36,000 chests of Opium, sold at this rate, would bring almost $20,000,000. This sum added to the amount paid out at Bombay, and we have over $32,000,000 expended for this single article of trade, and exported from these two cities alone. Then the Chinese pay an advance on this sum of several millions more, which goes into the hands of the mer- chants as the fruit of their investment and labors in the trade. It should, moreover, be borne in mind, that unlike all other arti- cles of merchandise, no barter or exchange of commodities, whatever, is tolerated in this traffic. The payment for Opium must always be paid in specie, or Chinese sycee, which is the purest of silver. The principal use made of Opium by the Chinese, is in the form of smoking, and one great object in the trade is to furnish an article adapted to their peculiar tastes. This depends somewhat upon the cultivation of the Poppy — the quality of its seed — the goodness of the soil — the manner of collecting and converting its juice into a dry extract, or balls convenient for transportation. The Chinese value any sample of Opium in direct proportion to the quantity of hot-drawn, watery extract, obtainable from it, and to the purity and strength of that extract when dried, and smoked through a pipe. Sometimes the ryots or native cultivators, in order to increase the weight of the article, and consequently their profits in its sale, have resorted to adulterating the juice of the Poppy by mixing with it sugar, catechu, molasses, cow-dung, soft clayey mud, pounded poppy-seed, as well as the juice of various plants, but these adulterations are generally detected by the government agents : and the Chinese themselves having often been imposed upon in this way formerly, are now careful to test the purity of the drug, before purchasing. The Rev. George Smith of the Church Missionary Society, in a voyage from Hong Kong to Shanghai, in 1845, thus notices this feature of the trade as he was entering the Woosung River: — "Our own vessel, though not engaged in the Opium traffic, carried 750 chests of Opium as a part of her freight, which were discharged on board of one of the receiving ships stationed at Woosung. * The price of Opium, both at Bombay and Calcutta, is quite variable, sometimes selling at 1000 R. and again bringing 1400 R. per chest. 3 18 We went on board this ship and saw the process of preparing the inspissated juice of the Opium for test, previous to purchase. On opening the chests, and clearing away a number of dry pop- py leaves, an oblong dry cake, of a brown color, was taken out, weighing four or five pounds. In the boxes made up by the East India Company, greater care is taken. The balls are more round, and are placed in partitions, each box containing forty, and being, moreover, carefully cased in hides. The bargain is soon struck with the Chinese broker, who incurs the risk of pur- chasing for the more opulent Chinese Opium merchants at Shanghai and in the neighborhood. A piece of Opium is taken as a sample from three separate balls, and prepared in three sep- arate pots for smoking, to test its freedom from adulteration. This process took nearly half an hour, during which the Opium was mixed with water, and after simmering and straining, was kept boiling till, by evaporation, it was reduced to a thick con- sistency, like treacle. Each box is sold for nearly £200; and we saw about 1500 taels of Syae silver in large lumps, of the shape of a shoe, weighed out and paid into the iron chest of the ship. Shropps, Opium dealers, interpreters, and native account- ants, were closely standing together on different parts of the deck, which wore a busy and painfully animated appearance." After the arrival of the drug in China, various chemical exper- iments have been tried upon it, in order to make it more palata- ble, and increase its pleasurable effects on the nervous system. It has been found, that by subjecting it to a process of heating, evaporation, filtering, etc. its strength is very much increased as well as its flavor greatly improved. Mr. S. \V. Williams in his work on China, vol. II., page 388, gives the following minute ac- count of this process, together with a description of the pipe used in smoking: " The utensils used in preparing the Opium for smoking, con- sist chiefly of three hemispherical brass pans, two bamboo filters two portable furnaces, earthern pots, ladles, straining cloths, and sprinklers. The ball being cut in two, the interior is taken out, and the Opium adhering to, or contained in the leafy covering is previously simmered three several times, each time using a pint of spring water, and straining it into an earthern pot; some cold 19 water is poured over the dregs after the third boiling, and from half a cake (weighing at first about 28 pounds, and with which this process is supposed to be conducted,) there will be about five pints of liquid. The interior of the cake is then boiled with this liquid for about an hour, until all is reduced to a paste, which is spread out with a spatula in two pans, and exposed to the fire for two or three minutes at a time, till the water is all driven off; during this operation, it is often broken up and respread, and at the last drying cut across with a knife. It is all then spread out and covered with six pints of water, and allowed to remain several hours or over-night for digestion. When sufficiently soaked, a rag filter is placed on the edge of the pan, and the whole of the valuable part drips slowly through the rag into a basket lined with coarse bamboo paper, from which it falls into the other brass pan, about as much liquid going through as there was water poured over the cake. The dregs are again soaked and immediately filtered till found to be nearly tasteless ; this weaker part usually makes about six pints of liquid. " The first six pints are then briskly boiled, being sprinkled with cold water to allay the heat so as not to boil over, and removing the scum, by a feather, into a separate vessel. After boiling twenty minutes, five pints of the weak liquid are poured in and boiled with it, until the whole is evaporated to about three pints, when it is strained through a paper into another pan, and the remaining pint thrown into the pan just emptied, to wash away any portion that may remain in it, and also boiled a little while, when it is also strained into the three pints. The whole is then placed over a slow fire in the small furnace, and boiled down to a proper consistency for smoking; while it is evapora- ting, a ring forms around the edge, and the pan is taken off the fire at intervals to prolong the process, the mass being the while rapidly stirred with sticks and fanned, until it becomes like thick treacle, when it is taken out and put into small pots for smoking. The boxes in which it is retailed, are made of buffalos' horn, of such a size as easily to be carried about the person. The dregs containing the vegetable residuum, together with the scum and washings of the pans, are lastly strained and boiled with water, producing about six pints of thin brownish liquid, which is 20 evaporated to a proper consistence for selling to the poor. The process of seething the crude Opium is exceedingly unpleasant to those unaccustomed to it, from the overpowering narcotic fumes which arise, and this odor marks every shop where it is prepared, and every person who smokes it. The loss in weight by this mode of preparation is about one half. The Malays prepare it in much the same manner. The custom in Penang is to re- duce the dry cake made on the first evaporation to a powder; and when it is digested and again strained and evaporated, reducing it to a consistence resembling shoemakers' wax. " The Opium pipe consists of a tube of heavy wood, furnished at the head with a cup, which serves to collect the residuum or ashes left after combustion ; this cup is usually a small cavity in the end of the pipe, and serves to elevate the bowl to a level with the lamp. The bowl of the pipe is made of earthernware, of an ellipsoid, and sets down upon the hole, itself having a rimmed orifice on the flat side. The Opium smoker always lies down, and the singular picture given by Davis, of a ' Mandarin smok- ing an Opium-pipe,' dressed in his official robes and sitting up at a table, was probably made to order by some artist who had never seen any body use it. Lying along the couch, he holds the pipe, aptly called yen tsiang, i. e. smoking pistol, by the Chinese, so near to the lamp that the bowl can be brought up to it without stirring himself. A little Opium of the size of a pea, being taken on the end of a spoon-headed needle, is put upon the hole of the bowl, and set on fire at the lamp, and inhaled at one whiff, so that none of the smoke shall be lost. Old smokers will retain the breath a long time, filling the lungs, and exhaling the fumes through the nose. The taste of the half-fluid extract is sweetish and oily, somewhat like rich cream, but the smell of the burning drug is rather sickening. When the pipe has burned out, the smoker lies listless for a moment while the fumes are dissipating, and then repeats the process until he has spent all his purchase, or taken his prescribed dose." In many of the cities of China may be found numerous shops devoted exclusively to the sale of the drug, with accommodations fitted up expressly for smoking. The poorer classes generally resort to these shops, but the wealthier orders do their smoking 21 more privately in their own dwellings. Many of these shops are represented to be the most miserable and wretched places imagin- able. They are kept open day and night, each being furnished with a greater or less number of bedsteads, constructed of bam- boo-spars, and covered with dirty mats and rattans. A narrow wooden stool is placed at the head of the bed, which answers for a pillow or bolster; and in the centre of each shop there is a small lamp, which diffuses a cheerless light through this gloomy abode of vice and misery. The shop-keeper attends on his customers, serving them with a pipe, the prepared drug and other implements used in smoking. The Rev. Mr. Squire (of the Church Missionary Society) who resided several years in China, in speaking of the Opium shops at Canton, says : — " Never, perhaps, was there a nearer approach to hell upon earth, than within the precincts of these vile hovels, where gaming is like- wise carried on to a great extent. Here every gradation of excitement and depression may be witnessed." The Rev. Mr. Pohlman, an American Missionary who resided several years at Amoy, states that there are as many as one thousand Opium shops in that city alone, where the drug can be obtained and facilities are furnished for smoking. While the rich have private rooms fitted up for this purpose, with all the conveniences which can administer to their comfort, taste or luxury. The class, and number of persons addicted to this practice may be inferred from the following facts : One of the chief officers belonging to the Chinese Court, in a memorial to the Em- peror, says: — "At first, the use of Opium was confined to the pampered sons of fortune, with whom it was an idle luxury, but still used with moderation, and under the power of restraint. Since then, its use has extended upward to the officers and belted gentry, and downwards to the laborer and tradesman, to the traveller, and even to women, monks, nuns, and priests. In every place its inhalers are to be found. And the implements required for smoking it, are now sold publicly in the face of day." It includes therefore among its votaries, officers of high rank and dignity, wealthy men, merchants and bankers, as well as the common mechanics and laborers. But it has been the general opinion of writers on this subject that Opium smoking was 22 most prevalent among the higher classes of the Chinese, inasmuch as the habit is a very expensive one, and this class of persons are most exposed to the temptation. As to the number of persons addicted to the vice, it must range between four and five mil- lions. From a careful and somewhat extended inquiry * made by persons having the best means of knowing as to the exact amount of Opium daily used by those in the habit of smoking, it was ascertained that, on an average, each person consumed a little upwards of 17 grains per day. According to these data, 10,000 chests would supply one million of persons, and for the last six years, there have been over 45,000 chests of Opium an- nually consumed in China in this way. The quantity of Opium daily consumed depends very much on the habits of the smoker ; at first he cannot inhale more than from 3 to 6 grains at a time, but will go on gradually increasing the dose, till in a few years, some consume even 300 grains daily. The expenses attending this habit are very great — so great that in most instances it regulates the quantity used, each one con- suming as much as he can possibly command means to ob- tain. Mr. Smith while visiting the Opium smoking shops at Amoy, questioned ten persons indiscriminately as he met them — most of whom were laborers — as to the formation, effect and expense of the habit, etc. Five of these individuals consumed a mace or sixty grains daily, and it cost them on an average two thirds of their daily earnings to purchase the article! This fact shows how amazingly expensive is the habit, and what a fearfully impoverishing effect it must have upon all those who for any length of time, give themselves up to this vice. Besides, it is calculated by Mr. Martin, and other writers well acquainted with the evil, and competent to form a correct judgment in the matter as any other individuals that can be found, that the victims of this vice do not live on an average more than ten years after they have once fairly given way to the habit. It brings on a train of dis- eases which make rapid work of destruction on all the vital organs of the human body. By means of this vice then accord- ing to the above data, and estimating the number of Opium * See Martin's China, vol. II., page 196, and the Chinese Repository, vol. VI p 302. 23 smokers at 4,000,000, more than 400,000 human beings in China find annually a premature grave ! What other vice in the whole history of the world ever produced such appalling ravages on human life ! Opium is one of the oldest and most valuable articles in the Materia Medica. It is used in medicine, in its various prepara- tions, under a greater variety of circumstances, and to accomplish more important results, than any other single article. Strike out this drug from the list of therapeutical remedies, and it would be very difficult for the whole class of narcotics or sedatives, or even both combined to make good its place. The immortal Sydenham once remarked, that if he could be allowed only two weapons with which to combat disease, in its multifarious forms, Opium would be his first choice. So on the other hand, the evils grow- ing out of its abuse, surpass, in magnitude, permanency and extent, those of all other medicinal agents combined, unless it be that of ardent spirits. By a series of experiments, it has been found that Opium given in large doses, operates on the whole animal kingdom as a pow- erful poison, causing paralysis, convulsions, stupor and death ; and, the greater the development of the nervous system, the more marked and diversified, the effects of the drug. So in reference to the different races, as well as individuals of each race, its operations are not uniform. On the Indian and Negro, who have a predominance of the sanguine, lymphatic or muscular temper- ament, its effects partake more of an animal nature ; but where there is a greater development and activity of the brain, together with the nervous system, it operates more directly and effectively on the mind. At the same time, its deleterious effects on the body are by no means diminished. Again. The effects of the Opium on the human system de- pend very much upon the quantity and frequent use, as well as the age, temperament, habits, idiosyncracy, etc. of the individual. Its first and most common effect is to excite the intellect, stimu- late the imagination, and exalt the feelings into a state of great activity and buoyancy, producing unusual vivacity and brilliancy in conversation, and at the same time, the most profound state of perfect self-complacency. All idea of labor, care and anxiety 24 vanish at once from the mind. Then follow a succession of gorgeous dreams or a continued state of ecstasy, almost inde- scribable. Mr. Tiffany in his late work on the " Canton Chinese," thus happily attempts to sketch this state of the Opium smoker: — "The victim inhales his allotted quantity and his senses swim around him, he feels of subtle nature, he floats from earth as if on pinions. He would leave his humble station, his honest toil, his comfortable home ; he would be great. He runs with ease the paths of distinction ; he distances rivals ; wealth and power wait upon him, the mighty take him by the hand. His dress is costly, his fare sumptuous, his home a palace, and he revels in the pleasures he has read of and believed to be a fiction. Music sounds through his lofty halls, sages assemble to do him honor, women of the brightest beauty throng around him, he is no longer poor, lowly and despised, but a demigod. The feast is spread, the sparkling cup filled to the brim with hot wine, and he rises to welcome one whom he has left far behind in the path of glory, to tender to him triumphant courtesy. And as he ad- vances a step, he reels and staggers wildly, and competitors, guests, minstrels, magnificence, all fade from his vision, and the gray, cold reality of dawn breaks upon his heated brain, and he knows that all was nought, and that he is the same nameless creature that he has ever been. A cold shudder agitates his frame, weak and worthless he seeks the air, but finds no relief. He cannot turn his thoughts to his calling, he is unfit for exer- tion, his days pass in sloth and in bitter remorse. And when nHit comes in gloom, he seeks again the sorceress into whose power he has sunk and whose finger mocks while it beckons him on." There seems to be a wonderful power in the use of this druo-, to attract and captivate. It holds out a temptation far more powerful than that of any other intoxicating agent. Such is the testimony of experience as well as observation in the matter. This fascination does not arise merely from that passion in human nature for excitement — that yearning after stimulus, and that horror of ennui which crowd the Parisian Theatre__the English Gin Palace and the American Bar Room ; but, from havino- experienced or heard of that peculiar state of ecstasy which can 25 be produced only by this drug, and which has not inappropriately in some respects, been termed the " Chinese Heaven." A writer, in the Chinese Repository for 1836, comparing the effects of ardent spirits with Opium, after enumerating several points of resemblance, concludes his remarks (p. 297) as follows : — " There is but one point more of difference between the intoxi- cation of ardent spirits and that of Opium deserving of particular attention, and that is, the ten-fold force with which every argu- ment against the former applies to the latter. There is no slavery on earth, to be compared with the bondage into which Opium casts its victim. There is scarcely one known instance of escape from its toils, when once they have fairly enveloped a man. The fact is far too notorious to be questioned for one moment, that there is in Opium, when once indulged in, a. fatal fascination which needs almost superhuman powers of self-denial, and also capacity for the endurance of pain, to overcome. The operation of Opium is, on this account, far more deadly by many degrees than its less tyrannous rival." It is the after or secondary effects of this drug, which have such a destructive influence on the constitution. Its continued use destroys the natural appetite — deranges the digestive organs — impedes the circulation, and vitiates the quality of the blood — depresses the spirits and gradually weakens the power of the involuntary nerves as well as the volitions of the mind, thereby taking away the powers of free agency and converting the man into the brute. How expressive the remark once made by a native : It is not the man who eats Opium, but it is Opium that eats the man. The practice of eating Opium as a luxury has prevailed for more than a century in Persia and Turkey, but that of smoking it, originated at a much later period and has been confined mostly to China and its adjacent provinces. The effects of the latter practice, we believe, are far more pernicious than the former. The truth of this position is supported by two arguments, 1st. The differ- ent mode of receiving the drug into the system, and, 2ndly, From an examination of the facts in the case. When Opium is taken into th • stomach, besides its local effects, its influence is commu- nicated both by the sentient nerves of the stomach to the cerebro- 4 26 spinal system and thence to the whole animal economy, and by absorption into the blood through the veins and lymphatics. But when Opium is inhaled into the lungs, it comes in direct contact with a far more extended and delicate tissue, composed in a great measure of nerves, and not only enters the circulation more or less by absorption, but, at the same time, by its inherent nature, contracts the air-cells of the lungs in such a manner as to prevent the blood from receiving its due proportion of oxygen. This radical change in the quality of the blood must have a most de- structive influence. The manner of smoking Opium differs materially from that of tobacco. The process consists in taking very long whiffs, thereby expanding the lungs to their utmost capacity, and communicating the influence of the drug to all the air-cells, and at the same time, retaining it there as long as possi- ble. This secret explains in part the almost instantaneous and powerful effect which it exerts upon the whole system. In the former case, the poison enters the system very much diluted with other ingredients; but, in the latter, it is received in a purer and more concentrated form, and its deadly effects fall more directly upon the vital organs of the system. Now as to the facts in the case. Travellers in Persia, Turkey, and other countries where the vice of Opium eating has existed for a long time, do not represent the evils to be near as great as those of Opium smokers in China. The change produced by the former practice upon the physical system is not characterized by so rapid or marked progress. Its victims too, retain a better control as well as longer use of their mental faculties, and are known oftener to reform. Other essential points of difference might be noticed, but, without dwelling on this part of the subject longer, we will here introduce a summary statement from various writers who have been careful observers of the effects of smoking Opium. Let us listen, in the first place, to the testimony of the Chinese themselves on this subject. A distinguished Chinese scholar in a memorial to the Emperor, says : —" Opium is a poisonous dru^ brought from foreign countries, and. when the poison takes effect the habit becomes fixed, and the sleeping smokers are like corpses — lean and haggard as demons." He proceeds to illustrate, in detail, its effects under these heads, — it exhausts the animal 27 spirits—impedes the regular performance of business — wastes the flesh and blood — dissipates every kind of prop- erty — renders the person ill-favored —promotes obscenity — discloses secrets — violates the laws — attacks the vitals and destroys life. Another Chinese, (holding a high office in gov- ernment,) speaking of Opium-smoking, remarks that " when the habit becomes inveterate, it is necessary to smoke at certain fixed hours. Time is consumed, men's duties are forgotten, and they can no longer live without this poison. Its symptoms are diffi- culty of breathing, chalky paleness, discolored teeth and a withered skin. People perceive that it hurries them to destruc- tion, but it leaves them without spirit to desist." Another government officer writes to Sir Henry Pottinger, that, " Opium is an article whose flowing poison spreads like flames. It is neither pulse nor grain, yet multitudes of our Chinese subjects consume it, wasting their property and destroying their lives; and the calamities arising therefrom are unutterable ! How is it possible to refrain from forbidding our people to use it." In another state paper this evil is described by one of the Emperor's ministers, "as a fearful desolating pestilence, pervading all classes of people, wasting their property, enfeebling their mental facul- ties, ruining their bodies and shortening their lives." What stronger language can be used to characterize the injurious effects of any one evil ? But let us examine what foreign residents and travellers in China say on the subject. Doct. G. H. Smith, who resided some years as a surgeon at Penang, describes the effect of Opium smoking, in the Medico-Chirurgical Review for April, 1842, as follows : — " The hospitals and poor-houses are chiefly filled with Opium smokers. In one that I had the charge of, the inmates averaged sixty daily ; five-sixths of whom were smokers of Chandoo. The baneful effects of this habit on the human constitution are conspicuously displayed by stupor, forgetfulness, general deterioration of all the mental faculties, emaciation, de- bility, sallow complexion, lividness of lips and eyelids, languor and lack-lustre of eye, appetite either destroyed or depraved. In the morning, these creatures have a most wretched appear- ance, evincing no symptoms of being refreshed or invigorated by sleep, however profound. There is a remarkable dryness or 28 burning in the throat, which urges them to repeat the Opium smoking. If the dose be not taken at the usual time, there is great prostration, vertigo, torpor and discharge of water from the eye. If the privation be complete, a still more formidable train of phenomena take place. Coldness ,is felt over the whole body with aching pains in all parts. Diarrhoea occurs ; the most horrid feelings of wretchedness come on : and if the poison be withheld death terminates the victim's existence." In the London Lancet for 1841, we find these observations from James Hill, a surgeon of an English ship, which visited China in 1839: — "The habitual use of Opium as practised by the Chinese cannot fail to produce the most injurious effects upon the constitution. The peculiar languid and vacant expression, the shallow and shrivelled countenance, the dim and sunken eye, and the general emaciated and withered appearance of the body, easily distinguish the con- firmed Opium smoker. The mind, likewise, soon participates in the general wreck of the body ; and the unhappy individual losing all relish for society, remains in a state of sottish indifference to every thing around him but the deadly drug, now his only solace, which sooner or later hurries its victim to an untimely grave." Such is the testimony of two medical observers, whose education and professional duties gave them superior advantages forjudging correctly of the effects of this drug. Capt. John Shepperd, recently chairman of the East India Company, who has spent considerable time in China, says : — " The smoking of Opium has the most demoralizing effects. To a certain extent it destroys their reason and faculties, and shortens life. A confirmed Opium smoker is never fit to conduct busi- ness, and generally unfit for all social intercourse with his friends and family. You may tell him by his inflamed eyes and haggard countenance." Mr. T. Lay, who accompanied Buchey's expedition as Natu- ralist, states in his journal while among the Chinese, that the Opium smoker may be readily identified by his " lank and shrivelled limbs, tottering gait, sallow visage, feeble voice, and the death-boding glance of his eye ; these are so superlative in their degree and so closely blended in their union, that they at once bespeak him to be the most forlorn creature that treads the earth." 29 Lord Jocelyn, who was engaged as military secretary in the campaign of J 840, thus adverts to the use of Opium as witnessed at Singapore : — " One of the streets in the centre of the town is wholly devoted to shops for the sale of this poison ; and here in the evening, may be seen after the labors of the day are over, crowds of Chinese who seek these places to satisfy their depraved appetites. The rooms where they sit and smoke, are surrounded by wooden couches, with places for the head to rest upon, and generally a side room is devoted to gambling. The pipe is a reed of about an inch in diameter, and the aperture in the bowl for the admixture of Opium, is not larger than a pin's head. The drug is prepared with some kind of conserve, and a very small portion is sufficient to charge it, one or two whiffs being the utmost that can be inhaled from a single pipe, and the smoke is taken into the lungs as from the hookah in India. On a begin- ner, one or two pipes will have an effect, but an old stager will continue smoking for hours. At the head of each couch is placed a small lamp, as fire must be held to the drug during the process of smoking ; and from the difficulty of filling and pro- perly lighting the pipe, there is generally a person who waits upon the smoker to perform that office. A few days of this fearful luxury, when taken to excess, will give a pale and hag- gard look to the face, and a few months or even weeks will change the strong and healthy man into a little better than an idiot skeleton. The pains they suffer when deprived of the drug after long habit, no language can describe ; and it is only when to a certain degree under its influence that their faculties are alive. In these houses devoted to their ruin, these infatuated people may be seen at nine o'clock in the evening in all the dif- ferent stages. Some entering half distracted to feed the craving appetite they have been obliged to subdue during the day, others laughing and talking wildly under the effects of a first pipe, whilst the couches round are filled with their different occu- pants who lie languid with an idiot smile upon their countenance, too much under the influence of the drug to care for passing events, and fast emerging to the wished for consummation. The last scene in this tragic play is generally a room in the rear of the building, a species of dead-house, where lie stretched those who 30 have passed into the state of bliss which the Opium smoker madly seeks—an emblem of the long sleep to which he is blindly hurrying." Mr. R. M. Martin, who is well known as the author of several valuable works on India and the British Colonies, has recently published a large work on China. Mr. Martin for some time held the situation of her " Majesty's Treasurer for Colonial, Con- sular and Diplomatic Services in China," and was also a " Mem- ber of her Majesty's Legislative Council at Hong Kong." His opportunities therefore, of acquiring information, official and by observation were superior, and in a chapter on this subject, vol. II. page 176, he remarks thus : — " No language would convey a description of the sufferings of those to whom Opium has be- come a necessary part of existence ; no picture could impress the fearful misery which the inmates of an Opium smoking shop exhibit. Those dens of human suffering are attended by unfor- tunate women—as Opium in the early use is aphrodisiac, and as such prized by the Chinese. In few, but very few instances, if indeed in any, moderation in Opium is exercised : once fairly begun, there is no cessation, until poverty and death ensue ; and when digestion has nearly ceased and deglutition even becomes painful, the utmost effect of the drug is merely to mitigate the horrors of existence. Those who begin its use at twenty, may expect to die at thirty years of age ; the countenance becomes pallid, the eyes assume a wild brightness, the memory fails, the gait totters, mental exertion and moral courage sink, and a fright- ful marasmus or atrophy reduces the victim to a ghastly spectacle, who has ceased to live before he has ceased to exist. There is no slavery so complete as that of the Opium-taker: once habit- uated to his dose as a factitious stimulant, everything will be endured rather than the privation ; and the unhappy being endures all the mortification of a consciousness of his own degraded state, while ready to sell wife and children, body and soul, for the continuance of his wretched and transient delight; transient indeed — for at length the utmost effect produced is a temporary suspension of agony, and finally no dose of the dru<* will remove or relieve a state of suffering which it is utterly im- possible to describe. The pleasurable sensations and imaginative 31 ideas arising at first, soon pass away ; they become fainter and fainter, and at last entirely give place to horrid dreams and appalling pictures of death : spectres of fearful visage haunt the mind ; the light which once seemed to emanate from heaven is converted into the gloom of hell ; sleep, balmy sleep has fled forever ; night succeeds day only to be clothed with never end- ing horrors; incessant sickness, vomiting, diarrhea, and total cessation of digestive functions ensue; and death at length brings, with its annihilation of the corporeal structure, the sole relief to the victim of sensual and criminal indulgence. The Opium shops which I visited in the East were pcrect types of hell upon earth." Mr. J. F. Davis, the present Governor of Hong Kong, pub- lished a work on China some years since, and in giving a brief sketch of Chinese commerce, remarked as follows: — "The engrossing taste of all ranks and degrees in China for Opium, a drug whose importation has of late years exceeded the aggregate value of every other English import combined, deserves particu- lar notice, especially in connection with the revenues of British India, of which it forms an important item. The use of this pernicious narcotic has become as extensive as the increasing demand for it was rapid from the first. The contraband trade (for Opium has always been prohibited as hurtful to the health and morals of the people) was originally at Macao ; but the Portuguese drove it to the Island of Lintin, where the Opium is kept stored in armed ships, and delivered to the Chinese smug- glers by written orders from Canton, on the money being paid at that place. A late memorial to the Emperor from one of the censors laid open the evil in all its deformity. I have learned, says he, that those who smoke Opium and eventually become its victims, have a periodical longing for it, which can only be as- suaged by the application of the drug at the regular time. If they cannot obtain it when this daily period arrives, their limbs become debilitated, a discharge of rheum takes place from the eyes and nose and they are altogether unequal to any exertion ; but, with a few whiffs, their strength and spirits are immediately restored in a surprising manner. Thus Opium becomes to Opium smokers their very life ; and when they are seized and 32 brought before magistrates, they will sooner suffer a severe chas- tisement than inform against those who sell it." In 1847, Rev. George Smith published a work detailing his researches in China, in the years 1844, 5 and 6, while on an exploring expedition, with instructions from the Church Mission- ary Society to collect information upon the moral and religious character and wants of the Chinese. His attention was therefore particularly called to the influence of the Opium trade as furnish- ing a great obstacle to the introduction of Christianity into China, and in his work as well as public speeches on his return to Eng- land, he was faithful in exposing the effects of this evil. Since then Mr. Smith has been appointed Bishop of Hong Kong. Mr. S. spent the winter of 1846 at Amoy, and the following sketch is, in part, the result of his observations on this subject: — " During my stay at Amoy, I made many inquiries respecting the prevalence and effects of Opium smoking, and often visited, with a Missionary friend, some of the shops in which Opium was sold. The first Opium-house which we entered was situated close to the entrance to the taou-tais palace. Four or five rooms in different parts of a square court, were occupied by men stretched out on a rude kind of couch, on which lay a head- pillow, with lamps, pipes and other apparatus for smoking Opium. In one part of the principal room the proprietor stood, with deli- cate steel-yards, weighing out the prepared drug which was of a dark, thick, semi-fluid consistency. A little company of Opium smokers, who had come hither to indulge in the expensive fumes, or to feast their eyes on the sight of that which increasing poverty had placed beyond their reach, soon gathered around us and entered into conversation. Lim-pai, who accompanied us — himself a reclaimed Opium smoker — earnestly took part in the conversation with his countrymen. They formed a motely group of sallow, sunken cheeks, and glassy, watery eyes, as with idiotic look and vacant laugh, they readily volunteered items of informa- tion, and described the process of their own degradation. They all assented to the evils and sufferings of their course, and pro- fessed a desire to be forced from its power. They all complained of loss of appetite, of the agonizing cravings of the early morn- ing, of prostration of strength, and of increasing feebleness but 33 said that they could not gain firmness of resolution to overcome the habit. They all stated its intoxicating effects to be worse than those of drunkenness, and described the extreme dizziness and vomiting which ensued, so as to incapacitate them for exer- tion. The oldest man among their number, with a strange in- consistency and candor, expatiated on the misery of his course. For three years, he said he had abandoned the indulgence, at the period of Commissioner Lin's menacing edicts and compulsory prohibition of Opium. At the conclusion of the British war, the Opium ships came unmolested to Amoy; he had opened an Opium shop for gain, and soon he himself fell a victim. He enlarged on the evils of Opium smoking, which he asserted to be six: 1st. Loss of appetite ; 2. Loss of strength; 3. Loss of money; 4. Loss of time ; 5. Loss of longevity ; 6. Loss of virtue, leading to profligacy and gambling. He then spoke of the insidious approaches of temptation, similar to those of the drunkard's career. A man was sick, or had a cold; a friend recommended Opium, and he fell into the snare. Or again, some acquaintance would meet him and press him by urgent solicitations to accompany him to an Opium house. At first he would refuse to join in smoking ; by degrees his friends became cheerful; their society was pleasant; his scruples were derided; his ob- jections speedily vanished ; he partook of the luxury ; it soon became essential to his daily life, and he found himself at length unable to overcome its allurements. " I subsequently visited about thirty other Opium shops in different parts of the city. One of these Opium dens was a narrow, dark, and filthy hole, almost unfit for a human being to enter, and appropriately joining a coffin maker's shop. From the people we gained various particulars as to the nature and extent of the Opium traffic. The large native wholesale dealers were in the habit of strongly manning and arming a boat, in which they proceeded outside the boundaries of the port to the Six Islands. There the foreign Opium vessels lying at anchor were similarly armed and prepared for resistance, in event of the Chinese authorities attempting to capture them. The native boats returned with the chests of Opium to Amoy, and might be seen, with some European flag flying aloft, passing swiftly through 34 the harbor, with sails set, and all the crew plying their oars. They always formed too strong a force to encourage the hope of successful pursuit, either by the pirates or mandarins. The wholesale native smugglers then retail the Opium balls separately to the retail dealers and proprietors of Opium shops. No secrecy is observed respecting this article of universal traffic. I have seen three consecutive houses kept by Opium venders. The people say that there are nearly a thousand such establishments in Amoy. Public notices on the corners of streets frequently invited the attention of passers-by to Opium ' three winters old,' sold in the opposite houses. To the better class of these shops the servants of rich men might be seen resorting, in order to purchase the prepared drug, and to carry it in little boxes, or, if the quantity were moderate, on little bamboo leaves, to their masters for smoking at his own house. They all asserted that they paid no bribes to the mandarins, saying tl at these also smoked Opium, and, therefore, were prevented by shame from interfering with the people. They assented to the probability of bribes being paid to the native authorities by the large wholesale purchasers, who go outside the harbor to buv Opium from the foreign ships. Among other proofs of the full cognizance of the local authorities, as well as of the very general prevalence of Opium smoking, may be mentioned the fact of persons being met with in almost every street, who gain their entire livelihood by manufacturing the bowls of Opium pipes, which they publicly expose for sale in every direction." We might extend these quotations detailing the effects of Opium smoking as seen and described by various other travellers or residents in China, but deem it unnecessary. The witnesses we have already summoned cannot be accused of partiality or exaggeration in their descriptions, ns they could have had no motive or inducement whatever to resort to any such means. Most of them were officers holding important trusts under the English government and were well acquainted with the state of things in China, having resided there, some of them, twenty years. It will be seen that there is great similarity in these descriptions though expressed in different language. While it may appear that the evidence already submitted as to the evil 35 effects of this drug was abundantly sufficient, still we wish to notice briefly its use in two places very differently situated from China. If we take for instance an island or province, where the population is permanent, with no great change or increase from abroad, and where the general use of Opium has prevailed for ten years or more, we shall then have still stronger evidence of its pernicious effects. The Island of Formosa, situated in the Chinese seas, was visited in the seventeenth and eighteenth cen- turies by the Dutch and Portuguese merchants, and became a place of considerable trade and wealth. This Island then had a noble race of people, distinguished for their industry and enter- prise. But in the history of Formosa, we find the following striking passage : — " The natives of this place were at first sprightly and active, and being good soldiers, were always suc- cessful in battle. But the people called Hung-maou (Red-haired) came thither, and having manufactured Opium, seduced some of the natives into the habit of smoking it. From these the mania for it rapidly spread throughout the whole nation ; so that, in process of time, the natives became feeble and enervated, submit- ted to foreign rule and were ultimately completely subjugated. Now the English are of the race of foreigners called Hung- maou. In introducing Opium into this country, their purpose has been to weaken and enfeeble the Central Empire. If not early aroused to a sense of our danger, we shall find ourselves, ere long, in the last step towards ruin." * The other place referred to, is Assam, a small province lying on the eastern frontier of Bengal, and added to the British pos- sessions by conquest in 1825. Mr. Bruce, superintendent of the Tea Plantations in Assam, in his report presented a few years since to the East India Company, remarked as follows:—"I might here observe, that the British government would confer a lasting blessing on the Assamese and the new settlers, if immedi- ate and active measures were taken to put down the cultivation of Opium in Assam and afterwards to stop its importation. If something of this kind is not done and done quickly too, the thousands that are about to emigrate from the plains into Assam, * See Chinese Repository, vol. V. p. 393. 36 will soon be infected with the Opium mania, that dreadful plague which has depopulated this beautiful country, turned it into a land of wild beasts, with which it is overrun, and has de- generated the Assamese from a fine race of people to the most abject, servile, crafty and demoralized race in India. This vile drug has kept and does now keep down the population, the women have fewer children compared with those of other coun- tries, and the children seldom live to become old men, but in general die at early manhood; very few old men being seen in this unfortunate country in comparison with others. But those who have resided long in this unhappy land know the dreadful and immoral effects which the use of Opium produces on the native. He will steal, sell his property, his children, the mother of his children, and, finally, even murder for it. AVould it not be the highest of blessings, if our humane and enlightened government would stop these evils and save Assam, and all those about to emigrate into it as tea cultivators from the dreadful results attendant on the habitual use of Opium ? We should in the end be richly rewarded by having a fine, healthy race of men growing up for our plantations, to fell our forests, to clear the land from jungle and wild beasts, and to plant and cultivate the luxury of the world. This can never be effected by the enfeebled Opium consumers of Assam who are more effeminate than wo- men." In view of all these facts, the question naturally arises, what has China done to oppose the introduction or arrest the progress of such evils ? Has she ever as a government adopted any de- cided, systematic measures to prevent them ? It would seem, at first thought, that a nation so large and powerful might have easily abolished this entire traffic. What then has been the history of Chinese legislation upon this subject ? Prior to the year 1800, Opium was included in the tariff of maritime duties, under the head of medicinal dru^s, and was treated by government as an article intended exclusively for medical purposes. And the duty exacted upon its importa- tion, was a mere nominal sum, without any particular reference to raising a revenue. But the practice of smoking the " vile dirt" had already taken deep root and its evil effects were be^in- 37 ning to awaken the attention of the Chinese government. In 1799, one of the Emperor's chief ministers, " fearing lest the practice of smoking Opium should spread among all the people of the inner land, to the waste of their time and the destruction of their property," presented a memorial requesting that the sale of the drug should be prohibited and that offenders should be made amenable to punishment. Soon after this, the Chinese government enacted special laws to prevent both its impor- tation and its use, denouncing at the same time, the severest penalties on the contravention of their orders. In 1809, the governor of Canton, then holding the seals of the commission of maritime customs, published an edict, requiring the Hong * mer- chants when presenting a petition for a ship to discharge her cargo at Whampoa, to give a bond that she had no Opium on board ; and, in case of refusal, the vessel should not be permitted to land, but should be expelled from the port. In 1815, the governor of another province sent up a report to the Emperor complaining that some traitorous natives had estab- lished themselves as dealers in Opium at Macao, and in reply, commands were given to carry the laws into vigorous execution. But the traffic was still carried on at these two cities either by bribing or deceiving the local officers. Finding their laws inef- fectual to prevent the importation or use of the drug, the govern- ment issued still more stringent prohibitions in 1820, and com- menced in earnest to inflict the penalties of violated laws. This step forced the Opium merchants to withdraw their ships from Macao and Whampoa, to Lintin, an Island in the harbor, without the jurisdiction of the provincial governors. As one of the results of this change, foreigners were kept somewhat at a distance, and the Chinese themselves became more active participators in the traffic. In 1830, 2 and 4, one edict after another was issued, declar- ing that the " injury done by the influx of Opium and by the increase of those who inhaled it, was nearly equal to a general * The Hong merchants (Chinese) are twelve in number, licensed by government as intermediate agents in trade, between foreign merchants and the Chinese people, becoming responsible for the good conduct of the former, and, at the same time, se- curing to the Emperor the payment of all maritime duties. 38 conflagration" and denouncing upon the seller and smoker of the poison, the bastinado, the wooden collar, imprisonment, ban- ishment, and the entire confiscation of his property ; yes, even more, the severer penalty of capital punishment, either by public decapitation or strangulation. But notwithstanding all this, the trade kept constantly increasing. A most foul system of bribery and corruption had been practised in every gradation of office to evade the laws. The love of gain had proved stronger than fidelity to the Emperor's commands. The " flowing poison " had been doing not only its work of death on the body of every one coming in contact with it, but it had penetrated deep into the soul, corrupting all the better faculties of the mind. In this state of things, Heu Naetse, Vice President of the Sacrificial Court at Peking, having closely watched for years the evil effects of the trade both upon the Chinese people and officers, urged in a me- morial to the Emperor that the traffic should be legalized either by an exchange of commodities or by imposing a duty upon the importation of the drug, inasmuch as its introduction by smuggling could not be prevented. The Emperor consulted his ministers as well as the governors of the different provinces, most of whom opposed the legalization, and after a prolonged and thorough dis- cussion of the whole subject, it was finally concluded to put a stop to the trade by enforcing rigorously the laws against it. As edicts and proclamations had thus far proved unavailing, it was resolved by the high Court at Peking, to depute an Imperial Commissioner to Canton, clothed with the highest powers and authority. The officer chosen for this purpose was Lin, a man about fifty years of age, distinguished for his talents and literary acquirements, born and bred in one of the maritime provinces and well acquainted with all the arts of foreigners. He was considered a true patriot; of incorruptible honesty, in high favor with the Emperor, who is said to have personally communicatee his instructions to him, expressing at the same time, his "deep sense of the evils that had long afflicted his children by means of the flowing poison," and adverting to the future, paused, wept and said, " how, alas! can I go to the shades of my impe- rial father and ancestors until these direful evils are removed." In March, 1839, Commissioner Lin arrived in Canton to enter 39 upon his arduous and responsible duties, with the intention to effect the " utter annihilation of the Opium trade." Finding on examination that the fines, imprisonment, tortures and executions, which had occasionally been inflicted on the Chinese people, for violating the laws against selling or smoking the drug, had not perceptibly checked its traffic, he determined to lay the axe at the root of the tree. He gave orders at once that no more passes or permits should be given to foreigners who wished to go from Canton to Macao or Whampoa, and commanded that all the Opium, whether stored in the Factories or on board of ships in the harbor, should be immediately surrendered. After issuing several edicts, he succeeded in compelling the merchants to give up 20,283 chests of Opium and to sign a bond that they would forever cease from trading in the article, Lin forthwith dispatched a messenger to the Emperor, requesting instructions as to the disposal of the drug; and in reply he was directed to destroy every chest near Canton so that both the " natives of the Celestial Empire, and foreigners might witness and be aware of the entire destruction of the destroying poison." The place selected for carrying into effect this order, was Chinkow, a few miles from Canton, lying on the water and con- venient for transporting the Opium. Mr. King, an American merchant, was permitted to be present, and thus describes (Asiatic Journal, 1839) the place and manner of destroying the poison : — " The larger part of the foreground was covered by three vats of perhaps 75 feet by 150, each opening by sluices into the river. The chests of Opium after being re-weighed and broken up, in the presence of high officers, were brought down to the vats ; the contents, ball after ball, broken down and crushed upon platforms raised on high benches above the water, and then pushed by the feet of the coolies into the receptacles beneath. A large number of men were employed in thus macer- ating the balls for some days with long rakes, until the whole became a fceted mud, when the sluices were raised, and the vats emptied into the river. Every precaution seemed to be used by the officers to ensure the complete destruction of the drug, the spot being well guarded, the workmen ticketed, etc. ; in fact we turned from the scene fully satisfied that the work was being 40 performed with rigid faithfulness, and much disposed to wonder that while Christian governments are growing and farming this deleterious drug, this pagan monarch should nobly disdain to enrich his treasury with a sale that would not fall short of R. 20,000,000." This bold and decided measure of Lin to suppress the Opium traffic, led to a war between England and China, commonly de- nominated the " Opium war." Without giving a detailed account of this war, we will briefly state the more prominent points at issue, together with some remarks as to its character and termi- nation. The abstract right of the Chinese government to seize and destroy this Opium was not called in question, either by English merchants or members of Parliament. Neither the fact, that the Opium was smuggled into China, in violation of the laws of the nation, and therefore forfeited, was made a subject of controversy. But various circumstances connected with the history of the trade and the manner of seizing the Opium as well as the general treatment, which foreigners received from the Chinese, became the principal grounds of complaint and pretexts for war. It was alleged that the Chinese had per- mitted the trade to go on almost forty years without strictly enforcing the laws, — that they had themselves become active participators in the traffic — that most of the Opium seized was on board of vessels beyond the jurisdiction of the Chinese govern- ment, and that holding certain English merchants as prisoners until the Opium was all given up, and expelling others from Canton and Macao on suspicion of being concerned in the trade, was an insult to the English nation. Great austerity and exclu- siveness, and many instances of violence practised by the Chinese in their intercourse with foreigners, were adduced as violations of the laws or established usages of all civilized nations. Another argument advanced in favor of this war, was to ob- tain indemnity for the loss of these 20,283 chests of Opium, estimated to be worth $12,000,000. Capt. Elliot, the superin- tendent of trade, in his public call on British subjects to surrender all the Opium in their possession into his hands, to be delivered over to fhe order of Commissioner Lin, declared himself respon- 41 sible for its loss on behalf of her Majesty's government. And accordingly the merchants in confirmation of this pledge of Capt. Elliot, afterwards sent a petition to the Lords of her Majesty's government, urging the following reasons as a claim : — " That the trade in Opium had been encouraged and promoted by the Indian government, under the express sanction and authority, latterly of the British government and Parliament, and with the full knowledge also, as appears from the detailed evidence before the House of Commons on the renewal of the last charter, that the trade was contraband and illegal." The English government itself had, in fact, directly ap- proved of the traffic, and was deeply interested in its con- tinuance. For we find that the Parliamentary committee appointed in 1832 expressly for the purpose of considering the Opium monopoly, in all its bearings, moral, political and economical, concluded their report, which was accepted, as fol- lows : — "In the present state of the revenue of India, it does not appear advisable to abandon so important a source of reve- nue — a duty upon Opium being a tax which falls principally upon the foreign consumer, and which appears upon the whole less liable to objection, than any other which could be substitu- ted." Thus we see that England was an interested party, and would naturally be disposed to justify recourse to war, in order to secure indemnity for loss and a continuance of the trade. The Chinese government had endeavored to arrest the traffic by pun- ishing severely and in various ways their own subjects, and also remonstrating, entreating and threatening the English, but all to no purpose. They saw their country and people becoming im- poverished and ruined — the severe punishment of their own subjects of no avail so long as the English continued to sell hun- dreds and thousands of chests of Opium, in spite of entreaties and threats, and in contempt of all law. What more could they do? Nothing ? They might have attempted to take possession of the Opium ships by force ; but this would have been attended with a fearful amount of blood-shed, as these Opium store ships were all armed like ships of war and filled with desperadoes. The Opium was all forfeited by being brought there contrary to the laws of the nation, and the harbors where the Opium ships were 6 42 stationed, were a part of the Chinese possessions and under their jurisdiction as much as the land. The Chinese government had a right by the laws of nations, forcibly, if necessary, to seize the Opium. But they effected its surrender without violence or loss of life, and when they might have legally sold it for more than $12,000,000, they destroyed every chest of it, openly and pub- licly, disdaining to raise a revenue from the ruin of their own people. They could not therefore regard this war in any other light than an outrageous invasion of their rights and property. Many of the English at Canton and in India had long been desiring war, alleging that the Chinese had used violence upon their merchants and would not open their ports generally to all kinds of trade ; but the secret cause of all this was kept out of view as much as possible. The cry of war — war — was raised and re-echoed in every possible way. All circumstances and means and pretexts were used to make a cause for war, and excite the nation to it. But the real cause of all these troubles — the Opium trade — was as much as possible kept out of view. The Parliament and people of England, and of every country, must be mystified in all possible ways in respect to the Chinese troubles. The East India Company — including the great body of Europeans in India, and many thousands in England were deeply interested in the matter — receiving a large revenue from this source. The Opium traders and smugglers in China and India were of course interested to the amount of $12,000,000, the value of the Opium, which the Chinese had seized and destroyed. All parties concerned, except the Chinese govern- ment, wished also to continue the trade. Men who had so great interests at stake, - whose characters also were implicated, would of course employ the best talents and all possible means that money could command — writers, attorneys and orators to make the " worse appear the better cause." Numerous pam- phlets and reviews appeared on the subject magnifying the grievances of the English, and finding all manner of fault with the conduct of the Chinese. Still there were some noble ex- ceptions. Several members of Parliament publicly exposed the evils of the Opium trade, and resisted most strenuously all warlike measures. Said Lord Sandon : — " It is a disgrace to a Chris- 43 tian country to carry on the Opium trade as we have done." Said W. H. Lindsay, P. M.: — " As it is, nothing can be more inju- rious to the British character, than the mode in which the Opium trade is at present conducted. It is real smuggling accompanied by all its worse features of violence, and must frequently be attended with blood-shed and loss of life." And even Capt. Elliot, the representative of the English government in China and commander of its forces during the war, was constrained to make this confession in one of his messages : — "No man en- tertains a deeper detestation of the disgrace and sin of this forced traffic than the humble individual who signs this despatch. I see little to choose between it and piracy ; and it is rapidly staining the British character with the deepest disgrace." One of the leading Quarterlies at the time remarked on the subject as fol- lows : — " We may deceive ourselves for the moment, but we shall not deceive our contemporaries, nor the next generation. The Opium War will stand out in history as the blackest stain on the character of Britain, being an outrage on justice, on public principle and on the independent rights of nations." That the Chinese government has always been earnest and sincere in resisting the introduction of Opium, there can be no doubt. Their laws prove this fact, and such is the testimony of all disinterested foreigners residing in China. Says a writer in the Chinese Repository (for 1840, p. 416) : — " The opposition of the Chinese government to the Opium trade has been steady and strong during a period of forty years ; the prohibitions have been as clear and as explicit, and the measures to carry them into effect as constant and vigorous as the combined wisdom and power of the Emperor and his ministers could make them." They refuse also to allow the cultivation of the Poppy in China, which, in soil and climate is admirably fitted for its production* If they would only allow the Opium to be produced in China, its importation would soon cease, and thus a heavy drain of silver be saved to the nation. They will not, however, impose any tax or duty upon its importation, though they might in this way * It should be stated that the Poppy is cultivated to some extent in Yunan and other provinces, in the southern part of China, but against the express laws of the Chinese government. 44 raise a large revenue. And all proposals or suggestions in refer- ence to encouraging the cultivation of the Poppy, or that the trade in the drug be legalized, originated in the opinion and fear that its contraband introduction could not be prevented. This is a lamentable state of things in a great nation like China, with 350,000,000 of inhabitants. The Emperor, when urged to legalize the trade, replied in these memorable words : — "It is true," said he, '•' I cannot prevent the introduction of the flowing poison; gain-seeking and corrupt men will, for profit and sensu- ality defeat my wishes; but nothing will induce me to derive a revenue from the vice and misery of my people." Much has been said respecting the anti-social and non-inter- course character and principles of the Chinese government. It was so when Europeans first went to China. They allowed, to some extent, commercial, but not political or diplomatic inter- course. This has been their foreign policy from time immemo- rial. It seems to be interwoven as a part of their national char- acter and existence. And has the conduct of Europeans been such as to overcome this prejudice and secure their confidence ? Look at the whole history of the Opium trade for a haft' century and more. Has not this cause more than any other tended not only to perpetuate but also increase this exclusive and non-inter- course practice ? Again. What has been the history of Java, Assam, Ceylon, Eastern and Western India and other nations where Europeans had obtained free access ? Have not all these nations been subjugated, stripped of their most valuable possess- ions and virtually made slaves, to these foreign powers ? The Chinese knew these facts well. Was it strange then, that when such a fate befalling their neighbors stared them also in the face, they should persist more than ever in their non-intercourse pol- icy ? Was not this their only resort to avoid coming into hostile conflict with foreign nations ? And was this a criminal thing, and did it afford any reason or justification for recourse to war ? It is not pretended but that the Chinese were guilty of many grave and serious provocations to war, aside from this traffic; their treatment of Lord Napier and certain measures employed to obtain redress for evils, real or imaginary, inflicted upon them by foreigners, were highly censurable. But would the 45 present war ever have arisen, had it not been for the English persisting in this smuggling trade 1 Sir George Staunton, than whom there is no higher authority in Britain, being thoroughly versed in Chinese history and affairs, declared in Parliament that, " if there had been no Opium there had been no war." The Chinese being inexperienced in the tactics of modern war- fare, soon found themselves overpowered by British arms, and were not disposed to continue long so unequa' a contest. After several unsuccessful encounters, which threw four of their prin- cipal cities into the hands of their enemies, and finding Nanking blockaded, and Peking, the capital itself, threatened, Keying, high commissioner of the Emperor, addressed a communication to Sir Henry Pottinger, commander of the British forces, request- ing a cessation of hostilities and soliciting an interview with reference to terms of peace. The articles of treaty proposed by the English Plenipotentiary were : — 1st. Lasting peace between the two empires. 2nd. The Chinese government to pay twenty one millions of dollars before the expiration of three years, twelve being for the expenses of the war, three for debts due the Eng- lish merchants, and six for the Opium destroyed 3rd. The ports of Canton, Amoy, Fughchau, Ningpo, and Shanghai, to be thrown open to British trade and residence, under such restric- tions as shall be satisfactory. 4th. The island of Hong Kong to be ceded to the Queen. 5th. All British prisoners to be released. 6th. All Chinese in the hands of the English to be pardoned and held guiltless. 7th. Correspondence to be conducted hereafter on terms of perfect equality. 8th. When the treaty receives the Emperor's assent, and six millions of dollars are paid, the Eng- lish forces shall withdraw from the river and the places now occu- pied, but Chusan and Kulang to be retained till all provisions of the treaty are completed. After these several items had been discussed between the two parties, the trade in Opium, the chief cause of their disturbances was introduced. The Chinese anxiously inquire " why will you not prohibit the growth of the Poppy in your dominions, and thus effectually stop so pernicious a traffic ? " " Your people must become virtuous and your officers incorruptible, and then you can stop the Opium coming into your country," is the reply. The 46 Chinese, conscious that their people had not moral principle enough to resist the use of the drug, nor physical force sufficient to pre- vent its introduction by smuggling, earnestly desired the adoption of some measure by the English themselves which would eradicate the evil, root and branch, and therefore pressed the question still more urgently. " Other people will bring it to you if we stop the cultivation of the Poppy ; if England chose to exercise so arbitrary a power over her tillers of the soil, it would not check the evil," adds the Envoy. " You cannot do better than legalize its importation and thereby limit, if not remove the facilities which now exist for smuggling." The Chinese acknowledged the plausibility of the argument, but expressed themselves persuaded that their master would never listen to a word on the subject. They were evidently disappointed that some proposition to put an end to this infernal traffic was not made a part of the articles of agreement; and, while apparently hesitating and raising ob- jections on this point, it was intimated that any delay or refusal to accept the conditions already before them, would lead at once to a renewal of hostilities. Thus they were absolutely compelled to accede to just such terms as their enemies proposed, or else see their country plunged still deeper into all the horrors of a san- guinary war. There are two or three points in these articles of treaty deserv- ing more particular attention. We find of the twenty-one millions of dollars exacted of the Chinese, six put down as in- demnity to the owners of the 20,000 chests of Opium which were destroyed. According to the laws and usages of all civil- ized nations, contraband goods are liable to forfeiture and confis- cation. This is the penalty invariably attached to the violation of such laws.* No one questioned for a moment that the Chinese government had perfect right to enact such laws, and when vio- lated to seize the smuggled article, if need be, vi et armis. In this case no violent measures were resorted to. Instead of sell- ing the Opium and depositing the proceeds in the public treasury, * " The very idea of indemnifying smugglers who have lost their property bv the just operation of the laws, which they violated, seems preposterous. They knew the risks they incurred ; they were their own insurers ; they have reaped a profit in past years, and the total loss which they have now suffered, is only a deduction from those proiits." — Asiatic Journal, 1839. 47 the Emperor ordered every chest to be publicly destroyed as an evidence of his detestation of the drug. The owners had been forewarned again and again ; they knew full well what might justly be the consequences of their forbidden course. And why only half of the estimated value of the Opium claimed ? The smugglers ought to have lost the whole in equity — all was for- feited. On what principles then of jurisprudence, or for what reasons was only half its value exacted ? Do the English govern- ment ever pay for smuggled goods when seized ? Do they ever destroy them when their use would be injurious to their people ? This treaty required that five of the principal cities of China should be thrown open to British trade and residence under cer- tain restrictions, which should be satisfactory to the English as well as the Chinese ; and the island of Hong Kong to be ceded outright and forever to the Queen. The professed object of this provision was to open the chief ports of China for general trade and commercial intercourse, which might prove equally as bene- ficial to that nation as to others. But what has been its practical effect ? Has it not opened the door still wider, and given a more permanent foothold than ever for the Opium traffic ? The Can- ton Circular of 1846, speaking of the high price which the drug brought at that time, very significantly remarked thus : — " We need not ask then the question, who has been chiefly benefitted by the war in China, justly called the Opium war." Hong Kong is an island, eight miles in length and from two to four miles in breadth, near the mouth of Canton river, and 37 miles eastward of Macao. It now contains a population of about 15,000, and, besides being very accessible to any part of the Chinese coast, possesses one of the best harbors in the world. The English selected this island as a great depot for trade, and have expended, according to Mr. Martin's estimate, six or eight millions of dollars on public improvements, such as roads, wharves, buildings, etc. Most of the English officers reside here and are supported by government at an expense of more than two hun- dred thousand dollars annually. The salary of the governor alone is between thirty-two and thirty-three thousand dollars. The principal article of commerce carried on here is Opium. 48 Besides numerous shops and stores, several large receiving ships are stationed the year round in the harbor. In 1845, an impor- tant event occurred here in the history of the trade, viz., Governor Davis licensed the public sale of Opium by retail. Mr. R. M. Martin, then treasurer and member of the Executive Council, earnestly opposed the measure, and in his work on China already referred to, vol. II., p. 186, expresses his dissent in part in the following strong language : — " Twenty Opium shops have been licensed in Hong Kong, within gun-shot of the Chinese Empire, where such an offence is death ! Hong Kong has now, there- fore, been made the lawful Opium smoking shop, where the most sensual, dissolute, degraded, and depraved of the Chinese may securely perpetrate crimes which degrade men far below the level of the brute, and revel in a vice which destroys body and soul; which has no.parallel in its fascinating seduction, in its inexpress- ible misery, or in its appalling ruin. When the Governor proposed the conversion of Hong Kong into a legalized Opium shop, under the assumed license of our most gracious and religious Sovereign, I felt bound as a sworn member of Her Majesty's Council in China to endeavor to dissuade him from this great crime ; but no reasoning would induce him to follow the noble example of the Emperor of China, who, when urged to derive a revenue from the importation of Opium, thus righteously recorded his sentiments in an answer which would have been wor- thy of a Christian monarch : — < It is true I cannot prevent the introduction of the flowing poison ; gain-seeking and corrupt men will for profit and sensuality, defeat my wishes ; but nothing will induce me to derive a revenue from the vice and misery of my people: But money was deemed of more conse- quence in Hong Kong than morality ; it was determined in the name of Her Majesty to sell the permission to the highest bid- der by public auction —of the exclusive right to poison the Chi- nese in Hong Kong — and to open a given number of Opium smo- king shops, under the protection of the police, for the commission of this appalling vice. Would we have acted thus towards France or Russia, and established a smug-ling depot on their shoresin a prohibited and terrific poison? We dare not. Why then should we legalize and protect this dreadful traffic on an island 49 given to us by the government of China as a residence and for commercial intercourse." Thus the war, instead of putting an end or even a check to this evil, has actually afforded greater facilities for prosecuting the traffic. It was never in a more flourishing and vigorous state than at the present time. More than 50,000 chests are now annually shipped to China, taking off in return thirty-five mil- lions of dollars, a sum greater by one half than is paid on the whole imports from all other countries. According to the most recent intelligence it is estimated that the sale will reach 60,000 chests the present year. The article is landed all along the coast and smoked publicly in the chief cities. And notwithstanding the supply has rapidly increased, the demand more than keeps pace with it; and such in all probability will continue to be the case, for many years, if not ages, to come, unless Divine Provi- dence should interpose to arrest its progress. The old laws pro- hibiting its use and traffic still remain unchanged. That their nature with the penalties attached may be correctly understood, we will here copy them as they now stand in the Xlth volume of the Penal Code of China : — " Dealers in Opium shall be exposed with the wooden collar about their necks one month, and then sent to the army on the frontier. Accomplices shall be punished with a hundred blows and transported three years. Those who open shops to sell Opium and entice the sons of respectable fam- ilies to smoke, shall be condemned to death by strangling after a period of confinement. Accomplices shall be punished with a hundred blows and transported three years. Masters of boats, constables, and neighbors shall be punished with a hundred blows and three years transportation. Officers of government at Court who buy and smoke Opium, shall be dismissed from the service, receive a hundred blows and exposed with the collar about their necks two months. Soldiers and common people, who buy and smoke Opium, shall be punished with a hundred blows and ex- posed with the collar one month." But these laws, to all practical purposes, are a dead letter on their statute book. Since the war with England, scarcely any attempt whatever has been made by the Chinese to enforce them. Prior to this war, punishment for their violation was of very fre- 7 50 quent occurrence. It is somewhat difficult to account for the present inactive course of the Chinese government, in respect to an evil which is exerting such a destructive influence on that people. Mr. Williams remarks that " this conduct can be ex- plained only on the supposition that having suffered so much, the Emperor and his ministers thought safety from future trouble lay in enduring what was past curing; they had already suffered greatly in attempting to suppress it, and another war might be caused by meddling with the dangerous subject, since too it was now guarded by well armed vessels. Public opinion was still too strong against or else consistency obliged the monarch to forbid legalization, which he could hardly avoid acknowledging was the least of two evils." It is an easy thing for a government to pass laws interfering with people's appetites and tastes, but a very difficult thing to enforce such laws. Some portions of our own country, with a population as moral and orderly as can be found on the globe, understand this difficulty well, where laws have been enacted to suppress the sale of intoxicating drinks, the exe- cution of which has encountered very powerful opposition. How much greater then must be this difficulty, among a population like the Chinese, in attempting to prohibit the sale and use of an article far more fascinating than ardent spirits, and especially when the principal depredators, as in the present case, are rela- tively so great and powerful as the English ? The enormous profits which the East India Company and mer- chants receive from this traffic, constitute an important feature in its character, and distinguish it from all other articles of com- merce. Connected with this fact is also another equally impor- tant, viz., the immense drain of specie from China. " The Friend of India," for July 26, 1849, printed at Serampore, and of the highest authority in matters of this kind, published the follow- ing facts bearing on this point: — " The clear profit of the British government of India from the consumption of Opium by the Chi- nese at the end of the official year, 1848 — 9, including of course the tax on Malwa Opium at Bombay, will be found to have fallen little short of three crores and twenty lakhs of rupees, or three millions, two hundred thousand pounds sterling ($ 15,188,000.) It is the most singular and most anomalous traffic in the world. 51 To all present appearances, we should find it difficult to maintain our hold of India without it; our administration would be swamped by its financial embarrassments. Its effects on Chinese finances must be as disastrous as it is beneficial to our own. The trade is not legalized in China, and the drug is paid for in hard cash. The annual drain of the precious metals from China through this article is therefore between five and six millions sterling. No wonder that the Cabinet at Peking are struck dumb by this ' oozing out' of silver, and that we hear from time to time, of the most resolute determination to extinguish the trade. But with more than a thousand miles of sea coast to guard and so small a protective navy, and nine-tenths of the officers in it venal to a proverb, that Cabinet is helpless." Here we have a clear profit in one year to the British govern- ment in India, £3,200,000, or $15,488,000, which accrued from the sale of 54,000 chests of Opium. The sales for the five pre- vious years were as follows:—1843—4, 39,847 chests; 1844 — 5, 53,902; 1845 — 6, 38,217; 1846 — 7, 40,960; 1847 —8, 43,901; amounting in all, with those of 1848 — 9, to 270,827 chests, averaging 45,138 each year. Estimating the sales of the five first years at the same rate as those of 1848 — 9, (and we believe the average price obtained was considerably higher,) we have an annual revenue during the last six years to the East India Company of $12,946,247, amounting in all to nearly $80,000,000. Yes, besides the expense attending the production, transportation and sale of the drug in India, this single article of trade has yielded this vast sum of clear profit to the East India Company since the declaration of peace between China and England. Well might the writer of the above article fear in case of its removal, that the British government would " find it difficult to maintain its hold in India, and that its admin- istration there would be swamped by financial embarrassments." But the annual drain of the precious metals from China is more than five or six millions sterling. We have seen that the average number of chests sold from 1843 to 1849, was 45,138 per annum ; and according to the best authorities the average price which the Chinese of late years have paid for Opium has been $700 per chest. At this rate the annual drain of specie 52 on China would be $31,596,600, and for the last six years, it would amount to $ 189,579,600. From a careful examination of the amount of Opium sold during the six years immediately preceding the war, that is, from 1833 to 1839, we find the aver- age quantity to fall but little short of 30,000 chests per annum, which at $600* per chest, makes an annual drain of $18,000,- 000, and during this period of six years, the sum of $108,000,- 000. From 1823 to 1833, the average sale was 12,000 chests annually, which at the same rate and for this period of ten years, amounts to $72,000,000 more. If we now add the $21,000,- 000 which the Chinese paid the English government at the close of the war, for the destruction of the 20,000 chests of Opium and also for losses by the Hong merchants, together with the expenses attending the war, we have the round sum of $390,- 500,000; nearly one-half of which found its way directly into the treasury of the East India Company, and the remainder into the pockets of those engaged in the traffic. And we may safely calculate that the Opium consumed by the Chinese prior to 1822, cost them $10,000,000 more. We have then the immense sum of $400,000,000 of specie drained from China, within the last half century, for this single article alone ; and all this too in express violation of the repeated edicts of the Emperor forbidding the exportation of " sycee silver." No wonder that the Cabinet of Peking are struck dumb by this " oozing out " of the silver ! What other nation is there on the globe, which would or could bear such heavy drafts upon its precious metals ? f But this foreign drain of silver does not cover the whole expense. There are in addition the perquisites or bribes paid to local officers and the profits of the retailer, which undoubtedly would annually increase the expense from $8,000,000 to * In 1839, when the Chinese destroyed the 20,000 chests of Opium, it was valued at $12,000,000, that is $600 per chest. This was considered at the time, a moderate estimate; no complaint was made against it on the part of the Chinese : since then the average price has not varied much from $700 per chest. The highest for which it was ever sold, was $2,650 per chest in 1821; and the lowest $360 in 1796. t Since writing the above paragraph, we are informed by a gentleman well ac- quainted with Chinese trade, that some deduction should be made from these esti- mates of the drain of bullion, as bills of exchange are frequently received in payment for Opium which are used by merchants to purchase teas, silks, etc. of the Chinese for foreign markets. 53 $10,000,000 more. The exact amount of profit made in the retail trade cannot be definitely stated, as it must vary at differ- ent times and places, and then depends upon a variety of circumstances, which it is very difficult to investigate. But from a careful examination of all the means at our command, we are satisfied that it must on an average considerably exceed twenty-five per cent. And what return of commodity or equivalent in value does this immense outlay bring to China ? Nothing ! No, nothing but loss of health, waste of property, mental imbecility, moral degradation and destruction of life. These evils cannot be reckoned in dollars and cents : figures and language both utterly fail to portray their magnitude and extent. The clear profit to merchants engaged in the traffic, is repre- sented by Mr. Martin to average about 15 per cent. It is stated that in consequence of realizing such sure gains, in so short a time and with so little trouble in the Opium trade, they are unwilling to embark in any other branch of commerce or busi- ness. It should be borne in mind that cargoes of Opium, in point of value and certainty of sale, are very unlike those of all other goods. The vessels that transport the drug from India to China, generally carry from 800 to 1300 chests, making two or three voyages in a year, which, selling at $700 per chest will produce in return from $500,000 to over $1,000,000. In 1848 one ship carried 1800 chests from Bombay to Hong Kong, and sold it for $750 per chest, receiving for this single cargo $1,350,000. Suppose a vessel carries 1000 chests and sells for $700,000; this at 15 per cent, would net the owner $105,000. Besides there is no risk or delay in the sale, and the pay is always cash. We will mention in illustration only two instances of the immense wealth obtained in this way. Mr. Jardine (of the firm Jardine, Matheson & Co.) being about to return to England a few years since divided with his partners £3,000,000 (almost $15,000,- 000)'of profit in trade, the greater portion of which had been accumulated in the space of ten years. Howqua, one of the leading Hong merchants, died in 1842, having been engaged in this traffic more than thirty years. His property at his decease was supposed to amount to £4,000,000, or nearly $20,000,000. How true it is that ever since the world began, the commerce 54 which has reckoned among its articles the bodies and souls of men, has been most lucrative, whether it be in one that deals directly in flesh and bones as so much merchandise, or one which tempts with poisonous drugs and fiery drinks. It should be borne in mind also that the profits received by mer- chants from this traffic are divided among a small number residing in China, India, and England. The profits received by the East India Company amounting to almost one-half of the whole receipts, go, not only to enhance the value of its capital stock, but to support the India government, its numerous officers, its large army, navy, etc. Besides, a considerable amount of the specie thus obtained finds its way to England, and bills of exchange are passed to merchants in London, Liver- pool and other cities, with which they purchase their teas, silks, and other merchandise of China. Mr. William Sturgess stated in a lecture delivered not long since before the Boston Mercantile Library Association, that in 1818, $7,000,000 in specie was carried from the United States to China to pay our importations from that country, but now most all our purchases are paid by bills of exchange on England, from the proceeds of the Opium trade. There is one other important fact stated in the paragraph already quoted, viz., the inability of the Chinese government to enforce its laws. This inability arises mainly from three causes. 1st, from the character of the Chinese people as affected by the article in trade, and 2ndly, from the peculiar exposure of the country, and 3dly, from the present state of its government. The Chinese people have naturally excessive acquisitiveness and fond- ness for those temporary enjoyments which do not require great efforts of body or mind. Besides, they have never been trained to the rigid exercise of moral principle or decision of character. Large rewards therefore in the way of bribes appeal powerfully to their love of gain, and when once they have tasted the bewitching pleasure of this drug, they readily yield to the temp- tation. And the longer such habits are indulged, the more powerful the control of the propensities over the intellect and conscience. Thus all, whether bribed or engaged in vending, or using the " flowing poison," become more and more corrupt. 55 Such persons will resort to all manner of expedients to evade law ; and no dependence whatever can be placed in them, either as individuals or officers. What can a government do with such subjects, in a country too of more than one thousand miles of sea coast indented with numerous harbors, inlets and rivers, inviting the wholesale Opium smuggler with his richly laden vessel, armed with all the forces which wealth and skill can command — a country moreover whose seaports, villages and coasts are contin- ually thronged by millions of inhabitants goaded on by an insatiable craving for this fascinating drug — a country defended by an army and navy always small but rendered inefficient and treacherous by this very poison itself, and with nine-tenths of its own governmental officers venal—surely a Cabinet with such subjects, with such defences and such agents, must be helpless indeed ! We have already seen what an immense drain of specie this traffic annually makes on China. Though she always received small supplies from tributary provinces, her mines originally must have ranked among the richest in the known world. But to such an extent has this drain been carried, that many of the older mines are now entirely exhausted, and government by the last reports was actually engaged in making surveys to discover new ones. Mr. Williams states the following important fact, that " the Opium trade has been for fifteen years nearly fifteen mil- lions of dollars in excess of the regular exchange of commo- dities, and the drainage of the country for this balance will probably go on as long as the taste for this pernicious narcotic continues or there is specie to pay for it." Thus we see, that, notwithstanding the immense quantities of tea and silks which are annually exported from China, their value does not begin to equal the expenditure for Opium, an article of luxury, or rather of destruction, which brings no equivalent in return. Another recent writer represents the finances of China to have been in an embarrassed state for several years past, caused by a diminution of its revenue, but which some attribute, with more reason, to the vast quantity of silver which leaves the country to pay for the Opium smuggled into the Celestial Empire by the English. And may not this be one of the agencies which look towards the downfall of that great nation ? 56 Besides this constant drain of silver in diminishing the resources of China, the consumption of Opium operates powerfully in other ways to impoverish the country. Political economists make the wealth of a nation to be made up of the wealth of all the individuals composing it; and that the original sources of wealth are three, labor, land, and capital. Whatever lessens either of these or their productiveness when employed upon each other, lessens the wealth of the whole nation. Capital may be em- ployed in two ways, either to produce new capital or merely to afford gratification, and in the production of that gratification, may be consumed without replacing its value. The* first may be called capital, but the last expenditure. If the first is large, the last will be small, and vice versa. Without any change in the amount of wealth, capital will be increased by the lessening of expenditure, and lessened by the increase of expenditure. Let us apply these well established principles in political economy to the use of Opium:—A man buys a quantity, and smokes it, when he would be better without it. The expense of the article and the time employed in obtaining and smoking it are an entire loss. His labor also becomes less productive. The capital of course produced by his labor is diminished. And the expendi- ture goes on constantly increasing, while the capital is at the same time constantly diminishing, thereby impoverishing the individual more and more. Such is the simple history of millions of cases in China. And such is the natural and necessary ten- dency of the abuse of this narcotic from beginning to end. Its use in this way is a palpable and gross violation of all correct principles of political economy, and must tend inevitably and powerfully to diminish all the sources of national wealth. The impoverishment will appear still more striking, if we bear in mind that its use is confined mainly to men who are always considered the greatest producers, and who, after having formed the habit, live on an average only 10 or 12 years. The Canton Circular for 1846, a commercial paper, speakino- of the state and prospects of trade generally in China, remarks that " with respect to the Opium trade, as at present conducted it is certainly a great evil, and indirectly injures the sale of other merchandise." This evil prejudices the Chinese against all 57 commercial intercourse with foreigners and destroys all desire or ambition on their part to improve their circumstances or cultivate habits of industry, besides stripping them of all their resources. Had the influence of this drug never been felt in China, we have good evidence to believe that it would have proved the best market in the world, for the sale of European and American manufactures. It is a fact that in proportion as the Opium traffic has increased, that in British manufactures has decreased. It has been said that the Chinese were adverse to commercial inter- course withdforeign nations ; but what is the evidence in proof of this statement? Lord Napier, whose testimony is entitled to the greatest ^respect, wrote in the year 1834 that, " the Chinese are most anxious to trade with us," and again, " it is a perfect axiom that the Chinese people are most anxious for our trade from the great Wall to the southern extremity of the empire." Sir George Robinson also states that in 1835 " the people are intensely desirous to engage in traffic." Mr. Gutzlaff affirms that " English woollens are in great demand, yet we have still to look for that time, when the spirit of British enterprise shall be roused, for in regard to China it is almost dormant." Lord Napier indeed said that the "Tartar government was anti- commercial." It may be so. But why is not commerce carried to the fullest extent of the privileges which are possessed? Simply, as Capt. Elliot stated, because the Opium traffic is " in- tensely mischievous to every branch of trade." Mr. Dunn, who spent many years among the Chinese, says, " they possess a strong predilection for commerce and a great taste for foreign manufactures. The principal barrier to the rapid increase in the consumption of British goods is, I conceive, the Opium trade. Stop this, and you will have their warmest friendship —a friend- ship that will so facilitate and increase the consumption of your manufactures that a few years only would show them to be your ' best customers." Mr. Martin inquired of one of the chief officers at Shanghai, how trade could be best promoted; he immediately, and with great sternness, answered, " cease send- ing us millions worth of Opium, and then our people will have more money to purchase your manufactures." Another feature of this trade deserves particular notice, viz., 8 58 its smuggling character. All enlightened and even civilized nations have ever regarded it as a fundamental principle that a nation may enact whatever laws of commerce its interests may be supposed to require. It has a right * to permit or restrict, to encourage or prohibit any articles of merchandise it may deem necessary. Any known or intended infringement or violation of this right by another nation is and should be considered one of the greatest national crimes. And to take advantage of the peculiar circumstances of a nation and force it to yield partially or wholly this right to its great detriment, is, to say the least, highly dishonorable. How has this established right been re- spected by the English government in its intercourse with China in the sale of Opium ? At first, and so long as it was employed for medicinal purposes only, its importation with a small duty was allowed. But when it began to be used some- what extensively for its intoxicating qualities, followed by the most pernicious effects, not only in draining the country of its legal currency, and thereby deranging trade generally, but in the loss of time, health, property, mental and physical capacity for labor and greatly increasing theft, fraud, licentiousness, violence and premature death, the Chinese government, to prevent these dreadful evils, and save their country from ruin, utterly prohibited its importation, thus making it a contraband article. Their right to do this has never been called in question, as there was no violation of treaty stipulation, and the interests of the country being jeopardized, required such a measure. But it was entirely disregarded. The drug has been smuggled into that country in rapidly increasing quantities for more than fifty years, in face of wholesome laws, earnest remonstrances and severe threatenings, and the direful effects on the inhabitants of China, all of which was well known to the parties concerned. Having borne these constantly augmenting evils for forty years, the Chinese government attempted to apply a remedy, not by pun- * This principle or right is based on the common usage of all nations, and not on that great principle of Christian Ethics, " Love thy neighbor as thyself." The extreme exclusiveness and arrogant assumptions of the Chinese in their treatment of other nations, cannot in all instances be justified by the fundamental principles of Christianity or of universal brotherhood. 59 ishing British, but Chinese smugglers, and by destroying the condemned drug, wherever found within their limits. There- upon England declared war against China, and after having de- stroyed an immense amount of property and killed thousands of her subjects, agreed on terms of peace, compelling the injured party to pay all the expenses of the war and the value of the Opium destroyed, without even allowing that party to have the pernicious drug declared in the treaty a contraband article. And still the work of death is carried on more vigorously than ever by British merchants, sustained and encouraged by the British government, through its representative, the East India Company. A system of smuggling on a grander scale and with greater profits, followed at the same time with more disastrous results, the world has never witnessed. What a spectacle! An enlight- ened nation having interwoven into the very texture of its government the principles of Christianity, and yet in view of all the nations of the earth, not merely trifling with, but trampling in the dust a great national acknowledged right, and pouring in unnumbered and direful evils upon more than three hundred millions of unenlightened and unchristianized persons, against the most earnest remonstrances and severest threats of their con- stituted government. In view of such treatment, what opinions and impressions must these three hundred millions of pagans form of such a nation ? Should such a course of conduct pre- vail among the nations of the earth, utter ruin both of govern- ments and people must inevitably ensue.* There is still another important view of this trade which ought not to be overlooked — its moral and religious bearings. It exerts a powerful influence among the Chinese in three ways to prevent the introduction and spread of Christianity : — 1st. It creates insuperable prejudices —2nd, is the parent of many other vices, and 3dly, depraves, if not destroys their moral natures. The epithets which they apply to the article itself are a proof of this prejudice — " smoking dirt," " vile dirt," " flowing poison," " black commodity," " black dirt," etc., etc. And the peculiar * " We know it is a smuggling trade, one which the Indian government could the case be reversed, and the Chinese send Opium to India, would put down by the halter." — Madras Athenaeum, Feb. 1848. 60 traits of character which they attribute to dealers in the drug show also the strength of their prejudices, and how difficult it is for them to think of imitating the example of such persons or to receive " any good thing " from such a source. This prejudice is manifested still more strikingly in the interviews of the Chinese with the professed teachers of religion. Dr. Medhurst, who has lived for many years in China and visited its principal maritime cities, says : — " Almost the first word uttered by a Chinese when anything is said concerning the excellence of Christianity is, ' Why do Christians bring us Opium, and bring it directly in defiance of our laws ? That vile drug has destroyed my son, has ruined my brother, and well nigh led me to beggar my wife and children. Surely those who import such a deleterious sub- stance, and injure me for the sake of gain, cannot wish me well, or be in possession of a religion better than my own. Go first and persuade your own countrymen to relinquish this nefarious traffic and give me a prescription to correct this vile habit, and then I will listen to your exhortations on the subject of Christian- ity.' " The Rev. George Smith (now Bishop of Hong Kong) in a speech before the Church Missionary Society, London, 1847, remarked on this point as follows : — "If those who profess to doubt the magnitude of this obstacle to the progress of Chris- tianity in China, could hear the more patriotic of the Chinese frequently with a sarcastic smile, ask the Missionaries, whether they were connected with those individuals who had brought that poison, which so many of their countrymen ate and perished — they would perceive it is vain — I will not say it is vain — but it is certainly inconsistent in us as a nation to send the Bible to China. The same breeze that wafts the Christian Missionary to that benighted land, brings on its wings the elements of moral destruction in that illegal traffic, which stamps with inconsistency the country of Christian missions." In the Memoirs of Rev. W. M. Lowrie, who had spent several years as a Missionary in China, and was drowned in the Chinese seas, Aug. 1847, being thrown overboard by pirates, we find, p. 207, this statement: — " One of the very greatest difficulties in the way of Christian Missions in China, arises from the prevalence of the use of Opium, and it is to be feared that it will long con- 61 tinue in the way. When a man acquires a taste for Opium, there is nothing he will not do to gratify it; and its use is most deleterious. It injures his bodily health, it stupefies his mental powers, and it deadens his moral feelings, and when the habit of using it is once confirmed, it is almost impossible to abandon it. The fondness for Opium is one of the strong chains in which Satan has bound this great people, and it is a heart-sickening reflection that this evil luxury is supplied to them by the mer- chants of the two nations which profess to be actuated by the purest Christianity." Dr. Malcolm also, in his Travels in south- eastern Asia, vol. II., p. 159, in remarking on the influence of the Opium trade, says, " We have little reason to wonder at the reluc- tance of China to extend her intercourse with foreigners ; nearly the whole of such intercourse brings upon her pestilence, poverty, crime and disturbance. No person can describe the horrors of the Opium trade. The influence of the drug on China is more direful and extensive than that of rum in any country, and worse to its victims than any outward slavery. That men of correct moral sensibilities and enlightened minds, should be so blinded by custom or desire of gain as to engage in this business is amazing. . . . That the government of British India should be the prime abettors of this abominable traffic, is one of the greatest wonders of the nineteenth century. The proud es- cutcheon of the nation that declaims against the slave trade, is thus made to bear a blot broader and darker than any other in the Christian world." That this traffic is the parent of many vices, and debases the moral nature of man, thereby furnishing a most powerful obstacle to the spread of Christianity, requires but little proof after the detailed account of the evils which we have already presented. A single practice that necessarily and invariably begets in rapid succession, idleness, poverty, fraud, dishonesty, licentiousness, theft, piracy, and even murder, needs yet a word in any lan- guage fully to characterize it. The whole physical system is prostituted, the intellect stupefied, the conscience perverted and the will brought into complete subjection to one all-controlling passion, converting its possessor into a brute — nay more, a sot ! Such characters surely must afford almost hopeless materials for Christianity to reach and renovate. 62 What is to be the probable result of this traffic upon China, is a question of momentous interest. How long is it to continue to drain the country of its specie—embarrass its finances — corrupt its officers — impoverish and ruin its inhabitants ? Are the difficulties attending this contraband trade still to be the occasion of frequent broils and interruptions of commercial intercourse as in years past, between the Chinese and foreigners ? Must there be another Opium war? Is this ancient and extensive country to be ruined commercially, politically and morally ? Will the Chinese suffer the devastations of this evil to go on till the great Celestial Empire with her three hundred and fifty millions of inhabitants lose, like some neighboring provinces, her own inde- pendence and become tributary to a foreign power ? Or to escape such a melancholy fate, will her government either resort to the extensive cultivation of the Poppy within her own borders, or else legalize the importation of the drug from abroad ? Are there any rational prospects that China will ever extricate herself from these dreadful evils ? We are constrained to reply, that neither the light of experience nor the prospects of the future afford us any well grounded hopes of such a desirable result. Who is responsible then for the continuance of these evils? And who has power, and to whom does the duty belong to put an end to this traffic? — the merchants engaged in carrying it on? — or the East India Company, whose treasury is so much enriched by its profits ? — or the English government that con- fers upon this Company such chartered privileges ? Formerly the whole trade — not only in India, but the transportation to, and the sale of the drug in China, was a complete monopoly of government; but now that monopoly is confined to India, whence all the supplies come, and where government has the entire con- trol of its cultivation, manufacture and sale, which it can at any time either abandon or prohibit. But we have no reason what- ever to expect that the merchants will voluntarily relinquish a traffic so lucrative, nor that the East India Company (an incor- porated body, in common parlance, without a soul,) will totally change its revenue laws which have been constantly increasing its resources for more than fifty years. We must then look to the English government as primarily and chiefly responsible for this 63 traffic, and to Parliament in particular. Clarkson and Wilber- force by their devoted and unwearied labors to abolish slavery in the British possessions, won immortal fame ; but here is an evil of far greater magnitude, enslaving the souls as well as bodies of many millions, fostered too for more than a half century by government itself. As the East India Company is shortly to petition Parliament for a renewal of its charter, who will fear- lessly come forward like Clarkson and Wilberforce, to examine into this evil, expose its terrible effects and call for their removal ? How can the Chinese regard the English in any other light than wholesale smugglers and wholesale dealers in poison ? The latter can expend annually over two millions of dollars on the coast of Great Britain to protect its own revenue laws, but at the same time, set at bold defiance similar laws of protection enacted by the former. The English are constantly supplying the Chinese a deadly poison, with which thousands yearly put an end to their existence. In England even the druggists are expressly forbid- den to sell arsenic, laudanum or other poison, if they have the least suspicion that their customer intends to commit suicide. But in China every facility is afforded and material supplied under the British flag, and sanctioned by Parliament itself, for wholesale slaughter. How long will an enlightened and Chris- tian nation continue to farm and grow a means of vice, with the proceeds of which even when in her possession, a benighted and pagan nation disdains to replenish her treasury, being drawn from the ruin and misery of her people ? Where is the consistency or humanity of a nation supporting armed vessels on the coast of Africa to intercept and rescue a few hundred of her sons from a foreign bondage, when at the same time, she is forging chains to hold millions on the coast of China, in a far more hopeless bondage ? And what must the world think of the religion of a nation that consecrates churches, ordains ministers of the gospel, and sends abroad Missionaries of the cross, while, in the mean time, it encourages and upholds a vice which is daily inflicting misery and death upon more than four millions of heathen ? And what must be the verdict of future generations as they peruse the history of these wrongs and outrages ? 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