THE OPIUM QUESTIOHj 
 
 OR, 
 
 IS INDIA TO BE SACRIFICED TO CHINA? 
 
 BY 
 
 EGBERT NEEDHAM GUST, 
 
 LATE MEMBER OF HER MAJESTy’s INDIAN CmL SERVICE. 
 
 “ Audi alteram partem.” 
 
 “ Magna est veritas et prievalebit.” 
 
 I 
 
 LONDON : 
 
 TEUBNER & CO., 57, and 59, LUDGATE HILL. 
 1885. 
 
 Rights Reserved. 
 
HERTFOKD; 
 
 PRINTKD BY STEPHEN AUSTIN AND SONS. 
 
THE OPIUM QUESTION, OR “IS INDIA TO BE 
 SACRIFICED TO CHINA?” 
 
 I. — All about Opium. Sultzberger,1884. Ridge Mount, ADerley,S.E. 
 
 II. — Truth about Opium. Brereton. Allen & Co. 
 
 III. — Truth about Opium-smohing. Bromhall. Hodder & Stoughton. 
 
 IV. — Friend of China. Dyer Brothers, Paternoster Row. 
 
 V. — Christlieb : Indo- British Opium and its Effects. Nishet, Berner 
 
 Street. 
 
 VI. — Vindication of England' s Policy . Haines, 1884. Allen & Co. 
 
 VII. — China Yellow Book: Opium. II. Special Series, No. 4. 
 Shanghai, 1881. 
 
 VIII. — England, China and Opium. Pry, 1873. Bumpus, Holborn. 
 
 IX. — Opium Question Solved. Arnold. Partridge & Co., 1882, 
 
 Paternoster Row. 
 
 X. — Opium Question. Moule. Seeley, Pleet Street, 1877. 
 
 In the midst of loud declamation and plenteous abuse, 
 the Anti- Opium agitators neglect to grapple in a practical 
 manner with the subject, or suggest any feasible remedy for 
 the alleged evil. It is natural that this should be so, for, 
 not understanding the formidable complications of the dis- 
 ease, how can they prescribe for the patient P The problem 
 is a solemn one. If the agitators urge that China is not to 
 be sacrificed to the financial wants of India, the whole body 
 of Anglo-Indians rise, as one man, to maintain that India 
 shall not be sacrificed to the moral weakness of China. Eng- 
 land has no direct interest in the matter : every rupee of the 
 vast sums spent in the culture of the poppy, the manufacture 
 of the drug, and its export by sea to China, is supplied by 
 natives of India, or Anglo-Indians, transacting business in 
 India. 
 
 Let us clear away sundry topics which only cloud the 
 discussion, and divert the mind from the real issue, which is, 
 “ What shall be done in 1885 ? ” 
 
( 4 ) 
 
 I. The war of 1841-42 may, or may not, have been con- 
 nected with opium in its origin (which is doubtful), or have 
 been wicked (which is also doubtful) ; but whatever it was, 
 it is an accomplished fact and a matter of history. 
 
 II. The war of 1857 arose entirely from the capture of 
 a small vessel, and had nothing to do with opium. Be it 
 recollected that Parliament was dissolved, and the matter 
 was laid before the country, and the war was the direct 
 result of the votes of the electors of Great Britain and 
 Ireland. The people had the matter before them, and 
 decided upon it. India was not consulted. 
 
 III. Peace was made, and certain ports were thrown open 
 to all merchandize, opium, at the request of the Chinese, 
 being admitted to the Free Ports subject to a fixed Customs 
 Duty. Beyond those Treaty-ports China is absolutely master 
 of the situation, and nothing can pass out of those ports 
 without an arbitrary transit-duty, which can at discretion 
 be made prohibitory. I have ascertained this fact from the 
 most competent authorities, and, if there were any treaty 
 compelling China to admit opium beyond the Treaty-ports, 
 I should join in the petition to have that treaty repealed. 
 It is very true that, if the Chinese were to forbid the passage 
 of opium out of the Treaty-ports, smuggling would be re- 
 sorted to along two thousand miles of coast by men of every 
 nationality ; but England, if it attempted to exclude French 
 brandy, would run the same risk, and the Navy of the 
 United States was not able to exclude the blockade-runners 
 during the cotton famine. 
 
 lY. The injurious effects of over-indulgence in opium- 
 smoking is admitted. But every nation has its prevailing 
 vice, which must be attacked by moral arguments, not by 
 the Arm of the Flesh. An English Bishop rightly said 
 that it would be better for men to be drunkards than slaves. 
 The people of England extract twenty-eight millions annually 
 from the intemperate habits of a portion of the community. 
 There are worse things in China, a far greater moral 
 contamination than opium-smoking. Why do the citizens 
 of the United States, who admit all nationalities to their 
 
( 5 ) 
 
 territory, exclude the Chinese ? Because they bring with 
 them a contamination worse than opium-smoking. 
 
 V. If the habit of opium-smoking is so destructive of 
 body and mind, as the agitators say, it would tell upon the 
 population. China, however, is like a full bowl, overflowing 
 into every land, Australia, New Zealand, the Indian Archi- 
 pelago, South Africa, and America. Other vices bring with 
 them sterility, poverty, and national weakness. China is 
 a power of unwieldy but gigantic strength : it has recovered 
 all its lost ground on its North-West frontier, holds its own 
 against Russia, and France, and there are no signs of a 
 decay in its arts, manufactures, or national power. 
 
 YI. If unhappy Ireland had a culture, a manufacture, 
 and an article of export, which enabled the tenant to live 
 in comfort, the landlord to receive his rent without fail, the 
 State to levy an excise of eight millions on the export ; if 
 the population were indebted to this culture for social and 
 undemoralized happiness and content, would the Parliament 
 of Ireland consent to destroy this culture, and arrest this 
 manufacture, because the inhabitants of the Fiji Islands, or 
 South America, were so uncontrolled in their appetites, and 
 so abandoned in their proclivities, as to destroy themselves 
 with over-libations of whisky ? Yet such is the state of many 
 millions in British India, to whom the culture of the poppy 
 is as the wand of Fortunatus. Landlord and tenant welcome 
 the arrival of the Opium-Factory Agent, who pays upwards 
 of a million in advance without interest, under contract, for 
 delivery of the poppy juice, thus protecting the cultivator 
 from the exactions of the village banker, and enabling him 
 to pay his rent to his landlord, and enabling the landlord to 
 pay his land-tax to the State. 
 
 YII. If India were a constitutional colony (and one ex- 
 cellent result of this agitation will be, that constitutional 
 powers will be conceded to it for self-protection from selfish 
 Englishmen), would it be expected that the Colonial Parlia- 
 ment would throw to the winds a revenue of eight millions, 
 because irresponsible men in England take up one side of 
 a question, and, forgetting the drunkenness of England, and 
 
( 6 ) 
 
 the frightful injuries inflicted upon Africa by the English 
 commerce in arms and liquors, sympathize with the debased 
 Chinese opium-smoker, and its debased and mercenary rulers, 
 who fill their despatches with moral saws, and tolerate in- 
 efiahle abominations ? 
 
 VIII. “ Begin at home ” is a maxim which applies both 
 to the English agitator and the Chinese Government. China 
 will soon become, if it is not already, the largest opium 
 producer in the world, and some even think that ere long it 
 will export opium. Of one fact, however, there can be no 
 doubt, that travellers in remote regions find the poppy 
 cultivation and the opium pipe among tribes never visited 
 by European, or accessible to the Indian drug. It is not 
 clear that opium-smoking ever has prevailed outside China : 
 in British India, with the exception of British Burma, 
 which is outside of India proper, and in the Indo-Chinese 
 Peninsula, it is totally unknown. 
 
 IX. With our streets at home inundated with intoxicating 
 liquors, with our manufacturers sending out annually arms, 
 ammunition, and rum, to every part of unhappy Africa, so 
 as to enable the aborigines, who have survived down to the 
 nineteenth century, and have outlived the foreign slave- 
 trade, to destroy themselves by internecine war and drunken- 
 ness, of which they were ignorant before the arrival of the 
 white man : with human sacrifices and cannibalism still 
 practised in marts to which our traders resort : with many 
 forms of frightful cruelty and horrible crime rampant in 
 countries to which we have access, are we to throw away 
 the Empire of India in the vain and fanciful idea of keeping 
 back a heathen Chinaman from his pipe, while we have 
 failed to hold back a Christian Englishman from his pot ? 
 
 X. It is notorious that the surplus-income of British India 
 over the absolute necessities of the State is supplied by the 
 wonderful and heaven-sent windfall of the opium- revenue, 
 and out of this surplus fund the Bishops with their Chaplains, 
 and the grants-in-aid to the Missionary Societies from the 
 Education Department, have for many years been paid. If 
 then this source of revenue be so tainted, as the Anti-Opium 
 
( 7 ) 
 
 agitators would have us believe : if it be an accursed thing, 
 like the price of blood, the wage of the prostitute, the cost of 
 a brother’s soul, and the incense offered to Mammon, how is 
 it that these societies, so outwardly blessed by the Almighty, 
 can accept a part of the spoils and mingle it with the pure 
 offerings of Missionary love and thanksgiving? It is their 
 duty before God and Men to reject the contamination. The 
 Missionary Societies know very well from what source the 
 surplus-income of British India comes, and yet they do not 
 hesitate to take their share. 
 
 XI. Amidst the agitators there are two camps ; the plat- 
 form-orators, and the prudent Secretary of the Anti-Opium 
 Society, who must sometimes start at the utterances of the 
 extreme members of his own party. We have heard the 
 opium-trade likened to the slave-trade. What does this 
 mean ? No doubt the slave-trade was a curse to the country 
 which despatched the slaves, and a heavier curse to the 
 country which received the slaves ; but the sympathy of 
 the world was with the slave himself, a man of like passions 
 to ourselves, and with an immortal soul. But the opium 
 trade is one of the choicest and richest blessings to the 
 country which exports it, blest at every stage of the trans- 
 action, and to every one concerned in it : to the country 
 which receives it, it has neither brought depopulation, nor 
 poverty, nor sterility, nor weakness, though to a large number 
 (about two millions out of a population of four hundred 
 millions) of the debauched members of that nation it has 
 supplied an opiate, more carefully prepared and of greater 
 intrinsic excellence than the culture and manufacture of his 
 own country can produce, or at least has as yet produced, for, 
 in the ports of Mongolia the Chinese indigenous opium has 
 driven out the Indian alien drug. We can scarcely suppose 
 that any sympathy is felt with the fate of the opium-ball : 
 so the analogy with the slave-trade falls to the ground. 
 
 XII. The agitators sometimes urge that it is an Indian, 
 sometimes an English question ; but I never heard any one 
 urge seriously that sevenpence in the pound should be added 
 to the English Income-tax to make up for the loss of 
 
( 8 ) 
 
 Revenue to British India, and that compensation should 
 be given to the landlords and tenants and chiefs of Central 
 India for the terrible loss caused to them by the abandon- 
 ment of a profitable culture. Yet, if we have the strength 
 of our convictions, we should rise to the dignity of paying 
 the forfeit of our own misconduct. Sydney Smith gives 
 an anecdote of the Bishops on one occasion feeding the 
 starving populace with the dinners of the Deans and Canons, 
 while they kept their own. When slavery was abolished, 
 the twenty millions of compensation were paid by England 
 and not by the West India Islands. An extremely moral 
 sensitiveness should not be sordid, and attempt to make 
 a scape- goat of a subject-empire to satisfy its own scruples, 
 not shared by the people of India. A much larger sum 
 (perhaps five-fold) than twenty millions would be required 
 to supply the compensation to the agricultural and com- 
 mercial interests wantonly injured by the Exeter Hall 
 moralists. Hor would the Chinese be any the better for 
 this Quixotic insanity. 
 
 XIII. Another line of argument, brought forward in 
 Exeter Hall, is, that the suppression of the trade would 
 cause India no loss at all. It is stated, with charming 
 simplicit}^ that the area of culturable soil, now occupied 
 by the poppy, would be at once transferred to cereals, 
 which would be equally profitable and be a safeguard 
 against famine. How little do such advocates know of 
 the infinite trouble taken, during the last thirty years, 
 to introduce into India other and more profitable products 
 than cereals ? How little does he reflect that a glut of 
 cereals is the ruin of a country, unless the means of export 
 are at a very high stage of development, which requires 
 capital ? Besides, land under poppy-culture pays its land- 
 tax to the State, and rent to the landowner ; and it will 
 have to do the same if under garden-crops or sugar-cane : 
 but over and above the land-revenue and rent, the opium 
 pays an export duty of eight millions to the State, and who 
 would dare place an export-duty on any other crop ? There 
 would therefore be a dead loss to the State, but the land- 
 
( 9 ) 
 
 lord and tenant, in losing the poppy-culture, would lose 
 their enhanced profit upon a profitable culture with a 
 certain demand, and in the provinces under the Bengal 
 monopoly they would lose the opium-advances, which fall 
 annually in a shower of silver over the fortunate districts 
 suitable for the cultivation of the poppy. 
 
 XIV. Herod and Pilate are reported to have become 
 friends on the occasion of the condemnation of an innocent 
 prisoner. This reflection rises in the mind when we read of 
 a Roman Cardinal and the Evangelical Clergy of England 
 joined in a strange alliance. In the Papal Bull of 1882, the 
 British and Foreign Bible Society is described as the eldest 
 daughter of Satan, and all Protestant Missionaries as pro- 
 pagators of lies, and yet the evidence which has convinced 
 the Cardinal is supplied by these Missionaries. On the 
 other hand, the Evangelical Clergy have over and over again 
 denounced the Pope as the Father of Lies, and yet on this 
 extremely complicated question of morality and politics, they 
 appear on the platform, and exchange compliments with the 
 Cardinal. The astute Cardinal would keep the monopoly, 
 which the Anglo-Indians are longing to get rid of, until he 
 can find an opportunity to cut down the culture, manufacture, 
 and trade, root and branch. Others would get rid of the 
 monopoly as a glaring offence, and leave to time and public 
 opinion to correct the greater evil, which is inextricably 
 entwined with the great principles of liberty, freedom of 
 culture, freedom of trade, and freedom of export. Still the 
 independent observer cannot but look on the sudden alliance 
 between parties otherwise so opposed in a matter, the whole 
 gist of which is mixed up with the efforts of Protestant 
 Missions, as inauspicious and suspicious. Over and over again 
 it is asserted that the opium trade is the chief obstacle of 
 Protestant Missions, and the Missionary Societies take it up 
 as such without going into the truth of the assertion. Such 
 being the case, the Cardinal was a strange ally : “ Xon tali 
 auxilio.” I remark that there was the same inauspicious 
 conjunction of orators to attack the Surgeons on the platform 
 of the Anti- Vivisection Society. 
 
( 10 ) 
 
 I would not willingly say an unkind word against any 
 Missionary. I am a Member of the C<jmmittee of the British 
 and Foreign Bible Society and the Church Missionary 
 Society, and take an active interest in every attempt to 
 evangelize India and China, assisting the work by addresses 
 on platforms, by my writings, my subscriptions, and the 
 devotion of the best part of my time to Committee work. 
 Their motives are pure and above suspicion : their hostility 
 to the opium-trade is inspired by respectable but mistaken 
 feelings, roused by ignorance, or misconception of the real 
 state of the case. The plummet line of their investigations 
 does not reach the bottom. They do not appear to advantage 
 in this controversy, as going out of their proper sphere, and 
 displaying a narrowness of vision. Some of them are indeed 
 great men, of whom the world may be proud, but the 
 majority are men of self-devotion and probity, but no 
 Government would deem it wise to rule an empire on their 
 advice,' or according to their notions. 
 
 In their phraseology the great kingdoms of India and 
 China, with their population of seven hundred millions, are 
 conventionally described as the kingdom of Satan : those of 
 us who have lived a quarter of a century in the midst of the 
 people of India, know how untrue that description is of them, 
 and it may be assumed to be equally untrue of the Chinese. 
 The kingdom of Satan, if it were localized, would probably 
 be found in some European capital. They fix on some 
 particular evil which strikes their eye, and attribute to that 
 evil their want of success in their field, forgetting that in 
 other fields, where that particular evil does not exist, want 
 of progress is complained of also. For instance, caste is 
 denounced in India, opium in China, cannibalism and 
 slavery in Africa, and polygamy and idolatry everywhere. 
 As a rule, owing to the necessity of acquiring the vernacular 
 language, the transfer of a Missionary from one field to 
 another is not possible : so a Chinese Missionary lives and 
 dies with the conviction, that, if he could get rid of his bug- 
 bear opium, his way would be clear. Nor are those, who 
 chronicle the works of Missionaries in Europe, wiser, for we 
 
( 11 ) 
 
 read in a pamphlet by a great and good German writer, that 
 be would recommend tbe English Government at once to 
 throw up and abandon the millions obtained for India from 
 the export of opium, and trust to God to siqjply the deficit. 
 I write with all reverence, that empires are not built up and 
 maintained on such principles. It is a pulpit-utterance, and 
 not the counsel of a ruler. 
 
 Nor do the Missionaries recollect the famous words of 
 Prince Kung, “ Take away from us your Missionaries and 
 your opium.” Sir Rutherford Alcock has publicly stated 
 that the enmity felt by the Chinese to the importation of 
 foreign opium sinks into nothing, and will not bear com- 
 parison with the hatred, felt and openly expressed for 
 Missionaries of all denominations and their doctrines, and it 
 has been a constant trouble to the Ministers of the French, 
 English and American Governments. In 1884 at Fuh Chou 
 placards were stuck up against the Missionaries. I do not 
 justify the Chinese rulers or people, but I state facts, and 
 it is reasonable to believe, that, if China recovered its inde- 
 pendence, it would sweep away all treaties, and get rid of 
 both subjects of annoyance. The Missionaries have, in China 
 and elsewhere, directly and indirectly, done infinite good, 
 and it would be wiser and better, if they would not meddle 
 in politics, leaving to Caesar the things that belong to Caesar, 
 and devoting themselves to the things of God. And I can 
 truly say that throughout the length and breadth of India, 
 with extremely rare exceptions, such has been the practice 
 of Missionaries of every denomination. Unhappily in China 
 the Missionaries have taken up political agitation, with very 
 little advantage or credit. Could these excellent men, whom 
 I love even in their weaknesses, have a term of five years in 
 Africa, how gladly, on their return to China, they would 
 accept the Chinaman with his pipe, and try and win him by 
 moral influences and the public press, could they be rid of 
 the savage and the cannibal, the sorcerer and the execu- 
 tioner, whose presence weighs down the spirit of the 
 Missionary on the Victoria Nyanza and the Niger. 
 
 The agitation has been re-echoed by a certain class in 
 
( 12 ) 
 
 England. So long as the principle of repressing the use of 
 intoxicating liquors and drugs is not adopted by the State 
 for the people of England, it seems mere mockery and 
 hypocrisy on the part of Englishmen to apply it arbitrarily 
 to a nation not under their control. The Chinese, who are 
 the consumers, and the Indians who are the producers, must 
 laugh at the hypocrisy of a nation, of which drunkenness is 
 the notorious blot, and urge it to begin its moral reform at 
 home. In one of the reports of the Society I read that the 
 Chinese Government desire to stop opium-smoking among 
 their own soldiers, and they are quite right to do so ; but it 
 is shocking to think that for the first offence the punishment 
 is slitting, or excision, of the upper lip, and the second ofience 
 is visited with decapitation. In all our wars we have re- 
 fused to accept as allies tribes who scalped their prisoners. 
 The Anti-Opium Society does not hesitate to ally itself with 
 the rulers of China, who openly avow such barbarous laws, 
 though we may hope that they are not acted upon. 
 
 I was reading a short time ago the Report of the Anti- 
 Vaccination Society, and but for the title, it might have been 
 supposed to have been the Report of the Anti-Opium Society: 
 there were the same speeches at public meetings, the same 
 complacent self-assertion, a general abuse of all Governments, 
 who were fools, or knaves, or both, and a disposal of a most 
 intricate and difficult question in an off-hand manner. The 
 Reports of the Anti-Vivisection Society are moulded in the 
 same mould. Many of the discussions of the Anti-Opium 
 Society have the character of a College Debating Society, for 
 the Society is spoken of as “ the English nation,” and one 
 individual, writing from Calcutta, vouches for the opinion of 
 the Hindu people; another correspondent, who had never 
 left Hong-Kong, undertakes to express the opinion of the 
 Chinese people. About twelve men seem to do all the speak- 
 ing, for their names appear at all the meetings, and the same 
 arguments are used with variations of inaccuracy, reiteration 
 of abuse, and strange inconsistency. Can a tree at the same 
 time bring forth good and bad fruit ? Can the long suc- 
 cession of Indian Viceroys and Governors, whose praise is in 
 
( 13 ) 
 
 the lips of all parties, whose Biographies are sold by 
 thousands of copies, all have been deceived, or were they 
 purposely blind and base in this one particular ? Most of 
 the speakers on this subject are of third and fourth rate 
 calibre, and some really good speakers, when they handle the 
 opium pipe, fall short of their usual excellence, as if out of 
 their depth or uncertain of the drift of their policy : occa- 
 sionally, really great men have stepped down into the arena. 
 Lord Salisbury and Mr. Gladstone were at one on this issue : 
 the former statesman remarked, in a somewhat bantering 
 tone, that the deputation “ raised a very large question, when 
 “they asked them to interfere in any way to discourage the 
 “ action of private enterprise in supplying a drug which the 
 “ Chinese preferred to take. He could not hold out any hope 
 “that any legislation in that direction was probable. If he 
 “ were to assign a time, when such legislation might be 
 “undertaken, he should say it would be subsequent to the 
 “ time, when a Bill was passed preventing the sale of spirits 
 “in England.” But Mr. Gladstone, in 1880, raised the 
 question above its usual level, and touched a higher chord : 
 he said, “ Do not let it be supposed that I am treating this 
 “subject with indifference. The charge is that this subject 
 “has been approached from a very low level of morality 
 “ (hear, hear). Let us see, then, whether we can escape from 
 “ this low level of morality and resort to the high level of 
 “ morality which is recommended. If we are told that we 
 “ must abolish this traffic, then the charge has no meaning 
 “ at all, unless we assume the obligation on the part of the 
 “ people of England. Either we are to assume the obligation 
 “on the part of the people of England, or content ourselves 
 “ at the present moment with giving a promise that some- 
 “ thing will be done in the future. It would be a very high 
 “ level of morality indeed, in one point of view, if we were 
 “ prepared on behalf of our constituents to put 3c/. or Ad. on 
 “the income-tax and assume the payment of these seven 
 “ millions. That would be taking our stand on a high level 
 “ of morality. But that is no part of the debate. That is not 
 “proposed; therefore that is not the level of the morality. 
 
( 14 ) 
 
 “ It must be some other level of morality, and let us see what 
 “it is.” 
 
 And how injudicious, and impolitic, and indeed un-Chris- 
 tian, has been the mode of agitation adopted. Hard words 
 and gross insults have been heaped upon a body of men, 
 who for a long series of years have watched over the in- 
 terests of the great Indian people. No close Corporation, 
 no City Giuild, no Company of Merchants, has been fattened 
 by the opium export-duty. It is notorious that the Govern- 
 ment of India is renewed every five years by both the great 
 parties of the State, and a long line of illustrious statesmen, 
 and an army of less distinguished but no less honest and 
 single-minded servants of the State, both Civil and Military, 
 have made India their study and delight. Some, like Lord 
 Elgin, have brought Chinese experience to India, others, 
 like Lord Napier of Magdala, have served in both countries. 
 There has been a Government at home independent of the 
 Government of India, and yet there has been an absolute 
 uniformity of opinion on this great question, shared by every 
 one of the servants of the Queen, who had studied the sub- 
 ject. Nor have the distinguished representatives of England 
 in China arrived at a contrary opinion. I have myself taken 
 the opportunity of personally consulting members of the 
 China Diplomatic Body on their return to England, and 
 I have received always the same reply. To show the length 
 to which this abuse has gone, I mention that in my presence 
 a Member of Parliament, at a great public meeting, asserted 
 that “ the gold coin, called a Sovereign, was large enough 
 to hide the name of God,” as if any of the distinguished 
 champions of the policy pursued by the Government of 
 India for the last forty years had the remotest pecuniary 
 interest in the matter. They were not slave-holders fight- 
 ing to retain their slaves, or monopolists struggling to retain 
 their monopoly, or rack-renting landlords to maintain their 
 right of eviction, but persons totally uninterested in the 
 issue, but convinced that an attempt was being made to 
 force a policy contrary to the rights and interests of the 
 people of India. 
 
( 15 ) 
 
 Let us consider the matter from the Chinese side of 
 the question. I am not careful to defend the use of the 
 drug, or to assert that opium-smoking is innocuous. So 
 much I can say from knowledge. I lived a great many 
 years among the Sikhs of the Pan] ah, who habitually 
 swallowed opium-pills, and a finer, manlier, more prolific 
 race cannot be found. In “ China Millions ” I find at page 
 32, 1879, that Opium was plentiful in Yunan, and yet the 
 people had a well-to-do appearance and good houses, not- 
 withstanding that the narcotic, home-grown, could be pur- 
 chased for a trifle. Mr. Cooper remarks, that it would be 
 death to a large portion of the population suddenly to stop 
 the supply, and that the Chinese Government, in wishing 
 to stop the Indian opium, were acting, as they generally do, 
 without any idea of the welfare of the people. I read in 
 the “Friend of China,” 1883, page 221, that the elders of 
 a village begged that the cultivation of the poppy might be 
 stopped in their village, remarking that about one per cent, 
 wpuld smoke Indian opium, while twenty per cent, smoked 
 home-grown opium. The greatest anti-opium agitator is 
 obliged to admit that no reliance could be placed upon edicts 
 from Pekin, as they meant nothing, and were only bland 
 expressions of Confucian morality. Moreover they are known 
 to mean nothing, and subordinates in high office smoked 
 opium, and collected excise on imported opium, took bribes 
 to permit home-grown opium : attempts to stop cultivation, 
 or destroy cultivation, notoriously failed. It transpires that 
 the Chinese themselves, while their Rulers were denouncing 
 the trade of the Europeans, were exporting opium from 
 Yunan to Burma. There seems little doubt that the amount 
 of home-grown opium far exceeded the imported opium, and 
 the real objection of the Chinese Government was to the 
 annual drain of silver from China, as the balance of trade 
 was against them. It is notorious that the Chinese Govern- 
 ment levy an excise upon home-grown opium exceeding one 
 million, and levy a differential duty on land cultivated with 
 the poppy. 
 
 But of all things the idea is to he deprecated of making 
 
( 16 ) 
 
 China a corpus vile, upon which, benevolent enthusiasts desire 
 to inaugurate a policy, which they are totally unable to en- 
 force at home. One authority reports that opium-smoking 
 is a pleasure, which it is quite possible to enjoy in modera- 
 tion, and take in the same way as the Scotchman takes his 
 whisky ; and a Chinaman stupefied by opium is a much less 
 terrible person than a Scotchman excited by whisky. Setting 
 aside, however, such considerations, there is no doubt that 
 the violent extirpation of opium-smoking in China is as im- 
 possible as that of gin-drinking in England. When men 
 are persuaded that the practice is undesirable, the fashion 
 will die out ; but attempts to compel them before they are 
 so convinced can only lead to aggravation of the ills com- 
 plained of. Why should an enlightened Government, such 
 as the English, recommend the tottering dynasty of the 
 Chinese Empire to interfere with the private habits of the 
 people ? This would be dangerous even in England, where 
 the people are educated and enlightened. We should never 
 attempt such a crusade in India. Mr. Herbert Spencer, in 
 his late work “ Man versus the State,” shows that we are 
 advancing too far in that direction in England, and over- 
 governing, and therefore mis-governing. The Sikh Govern- 
 ment, which preceded us in the Panjab, forbade the use of 
 tobacco, or the slaughter of kine, but tolerated the burning 
 of widows, the killing of female infants, and the burying 
 alive of lepers. Mahometan rulers forbid liquor shops, while 
 they tolerate polygamy, and punish an abandonment of the 
 jMahometan religion by death. In the Papal States change 
 of religion and matrimony to a large proportion of the 
 people were forbidden, but there was no objection to State 
 Lotteries, licentious lives, and liquor-shops. Leave the 
 people in their pleasures and their private habits alone, so 
 long as they refrain from breaches of the peace, and appro- 
 priation of the property of others. Leave it to moral pressure, 
 and education, and general advancement, to control, diminish, 
 and eventually eradicate the particular moral weaknesses, 
 from which no one nation is free, though they differ in 
 character and degree. It is very easy to make a treaty 
 
( 17 ) 
 
 forbidding the importation of opium into Japan, because the 
 people are not addicted to the drug. It is still easier for the 
 Government of the United States to make a treaty forbidding 
 the export of opium from North America, considering that 
 no opium is grown in the length and breadth of the United 
 States : whether American citizens abstain from the trade in 
 the Chinese seas remains to be seen. So random are the 
 assertions, that it is a relief to find that no one has yet 
 charged the Indian Government with introducing the culti- 
 vation of tlie poppy into Western China, via Tibet and 
 Burma, from pure motives of mischief, to complete the proofs 
 that that Government consisted of men who were both 
 knaves and fools. The import of opium from Persia is com- 
 paratively insignificant. Borneo opium up to this time is 
 only a possibility. On the Zambesi, in East Africa, the 
 Portuguese have commenced the cultivation, and send the 
 opium to India. One of the chief resources of the Dutch 
 Government in the Indian Archipelago is opium : it is sold 
 to the Chinese, and forms one- tenth of the revenue of the 
 colony. 
 
 It must be recollected that the Chinese Empire is sending 
 colonists literally all over the world, and they take their 
 pipe with them, and it is asserted, that they recommend 
 with success the custom to the inhabitants of the country 
 where they settle. This fact does not bear on the subject 
 of importation of Indian opium into China, and is only 
 mentioned by the Anti-Opium Society by way of aggrava- 
 tion. There are, however, colonies of Chinese in Singapiir, 
 the Malay States, the Islands of Sumatra and Java, the 
 French Settlements of Saigon, and the Kingdom of Siam, 
 as well as in Peru and California. They all smoke opium, 
 and are beyond the influence of the Chinese Government, 
 but they intercept a portion of the Indian opium shipped 
 for the China seas. The Chinese at Singapur are robust, 
 hearty and energetic beyond other Eastern races, and yet 
 beyond doubt they are all smokers. Is it expected that 
 in Australia, Hong-Kong and Singapur, English Colonies, 
 the crime of smoking opium is to be punished in the Courts 
 
( 18 ) 
 
 of Law ? It is whispered that the practice has commenced 
 in London, and is extensive in the United States of North 
 America. 
 
 There is little doubt that the Chinese Government has 
 been false throughout. In spite of the high moral seasoning 
 which distinguishes their arguments, the real taste of their 
 flesh is sometimes discovered. The Grand Secretary argued 
 to Sir T. Wade, that the fair thing would be for the Indian 
 Government to divide the enormous profits on the export of 
 opium with China, share and share alike. He declined to 
 give up his revenue on home-grown opium. In fact, he 
 showed himself to be a ruler of men, and not a member 
 of an irresponsible voluntary association. The Mandarins 
 and the Governors of Provinces smoke themselves, and make 
 a profit upon the drug. The real solution of the difficulty 
 will be to deal with home-raised and foreign opium upon 
 an equitable adjustment of excise, transit-duty, and customs. 
 
 Let us consider the matter from the Indian point of view. 
 I took the opportunity of stating, some years ago, at a 
 meeting of the Committee of the Church Missionary Society, 
 that the Government of India had nailed its flag to the mast, 
 and that I rejoiced that it had done so. The Viceroy in 
 Council has recorded his opinion that the loss of the opium 
 export duty would cause insolvency : they state this in 
 language not capable of misapprehension : other sources of 
 revenue are not available, and reduction of expenditure is 
 impossible. The abolition of the export duty would confer 
 a very doubtful benefit on the Chinese, but it would do 
 incalculable harm to the millions of India. Perhaps this 
 is overstated, as empires and nations have survived heavier 
 losses. I am very sorry that an attempt was made to 
 widen the cultivation in the North-West Provinces, but it 
 proved to be an utter failure. The cultivators stated that 
 they had been badly used in old days, that they did not now 
 understand the cultivation, and had other crops which paid 
 as well, and they wanted no change. The improvement of 
 communication enabled more bulky produce, such as sugar- 
 cane and potatoes, to be carried to distant markets, and the 
 
( 19 ) 
 
 poppy is driven to inferior lands. It is satisfactory to know 
 that the area of 500,000 acres, now occupied by the poppy, 
 will not be enlarged. 
 
 It appears that not more than £200,000 is realized from 
 opium sold in India at the different Collectorates. India 
 abounds in stimulants and narcotics, and opium is only one 
 of many. The Arlan nations seem to prefer to swallow the 
 drug, the Non-Arian to smoke it. I have often as Collector 
 superintended the sale of the opium to the local retailers : if 
 a prisoner were found to be addicted to opium, he had to be 
 supplied with daily decreasing doses, so as to wean him of 
 the habit without endangering his life : only once I came 
 upon two men from the Himalaya, (whence also much opium 
 is imported into India) who were hopelessly addicted to the 
 practice, and were miserable objects. In the early days of 
 our rule in the Panjab, where the cultivation has never been 
 restricted, post, or concoctions of opium, was sold openly in 
 shops licensed for the purpose. In Western India a decoction 
 of opium is sold publicly in the cities, and called Kusumba. 
 The Anti-Opium Society will scarcely find proofs, that with 
 suck vast stores of opium available in British India, we 
 have attempted to raise revenue by encouraging our sub- 
 jects to indulge vicious habits. We have raised the largest 
 possible revenue out of the sale of the smallest possible 
 suppjy. 
 
 There is not the least probability of the present policy 
 being abandoned or modified, but it is as well to consider 
 what is possible or the contrary. We might abandon the 
 export duty, and set the Indian opium as free as indigo and 
 grain. The consequences would be an enormous increase of 
 the exported article, an excessive fall of the price of the drug 
 in China, and such a defalcation in our revenue as would 
 cause insolvency for the time at least. If an attempt were 
 made to impose other taxes, we may imagine the indignation 
 of the people of India : the mass of the population is very 
 poor : the salt tax ought to be reduced : to impose further 
 burdens merely to gratify a moral whim of a small portion 
 of the English people, who had taken up an extreme view of 
 
( 20 ) 
 
 the subject, would be a cruel injustice, and arouse a keen 
 sense of wrong wdlfully and widely inflicted. 
 
 We might abolish the monopoly, and disconnect the State 
 with the manufacture and sale of the drug. To some tender 
 and uninstructed consciences the very existence of this 
 monopoly aggravates the evil, and, as a rule, all monopolies 
 are wrong; but if the State withdrew, its place would at once 
 be occupied by a Company, and very serious considerations 
 would arise. So inexplicable are the reasons which guide 
 good men in their actions, that it is possible, that some of the 
 loudest denouncers of the National Sin, as the opium trade is 
 called, might be found among the shareholders of this new 
 Company. On the death of an advanced total abstainer a 
 few years ago, he was found to have shares in a hotel, which 
 held a liquor license, and his family could not see the incon- 
 sistency. But the abolition of the monopoly cannot be looked 
 upon only from the financial point of view, but as a measure 
 affecting the well-being of the people of India. A great 
 Company, seeking only a good dividend, would flood the 
 country with opium, with great injury to the people. It is 
 true that no monopoly exists in the West of India, whence 
 nearly half the export duty is collected, but the poppy culti- 
 vation is entirely within the territory of Native States, whose 
 system differs entirely from our own. It is obvious that a 
 State monopoly is the severest of all fiscal restraints, and 
 those who really desire the export to be reduced should not 
 seek to destroy the monopoly, however scandalized they may 
 be by its existence. 
 
 We might forbid the export, in the same way as the 
 Government of Italy forbids the export of works of art, but 
 it would be very difficult to prevent smuggling with so large 
 a seaboard. The people of India would resent the, to them, 
 unintelligible policy of interference with a profitable trade, 
 contrary to all the well-established principles of political 
 economy. The cost of the preventive force would be very 
 heavy, and the interference with other trades very annoying. 
 In fact, such a measure scarcely comes within practical 
 politics, but we should have the Native Chiefs of Central 
 
( 21 ) 
 
 India to deal with : they derive a large revenue from the 
 drug : the prohibition of export would entirely destroy this, 
 and they would demand compensation, and so would the 
 Landholders of Bengal. Who would satisfy these lawful 
 demands arising from inconsiderate legislation? 
 
 That we should prohibit the culture of the poppy within 
 British India is a thing that is not possible. It would be a 
 law unworthy of an enlightened Government, and would be 
 incapable of execution. It is true that we can restrict the 
 culture to certain regions which are most suitable to the 
 crop. I have had considerable experience in the North of 
 India from the river Karamnasa to the river Indus, and con- 
 sider it impossible to forbid absolutely any culture, and I 
 cannot imagine that it would be feasible in Bengal. If the 
 culture were prohibited in British India, and allowed to con- 
 tinue in the Native States, the production there would be 
 stimulated: the attempt to prohibit the culture in the Native 
 States would either he illusory, or, if enforced, lead to very 
 serious consequences, and peril to the very existence of our 
 Empire in India. 
 
 And at the same time that India was thus exposing herself 
 to perils, and expenditure in the maintenance of repressive 
 establishments in a fight against nature, equity, and common 
 sense, the Chinaman would be smoking his pipe with opium 
 supplied by his own country, or other opium-growing 
 countries, not such good opium perhaps, but much cheaper, 
 and in much larger quantities ; and it is not obvious that, if 
 the Anti-Opium Society has any definite ideas of its objects, 
 it will have gained anything, for all the sad pictures of the 
 debased and ruined Chinaman would be as true, or as de- 
 ficient in truth, as ever, and the Missionary would be met 
 with the same harrowing scenes, and would realize that it 
 is not that which goeth into a man defiieth a man, hut his 
 own fallen and corrupt nature. 
 
 We must recollect that there is now a respectable Free 
 Press in . every part of India and in every language, and 
 the Press would have a word to say on such an insane policy. 
 I do not think that the Government of India would entertain 
 
( 22 ) 
 
 it for a moment, but I wish the Anti-Opium Society to 
 understand the ultimate consequences to which their ideas 
 would lead. 
 
 I intimated this summer to a friend, who like myself is 
 a Member of a Committee of a Missionary Society, that I 
 intended to write a paper defending the Indian policy in 
 this matter. His remark was that I should be soundly 
 abased for so doing. I am quite prepared for the con- 
 tingency. Sir Rutherford Alcock felt himself compelled 
 to stand forward and enlighten the public mind, and 
 mercenary motives were at once attributed to him in con- 
 nexion with the new Borneo Company. It is the old story. 
 When a man has a bad case in a court of law, his only 
 resource is to abuse the attorney of the opposite party. I 
 admit that those who oppose the Indian policy are actuated 
 by the highest and purest motives : having myself no 
 interests whatever except the promotion of Missionary 
 enterprise, I claim the same admission in my own favour, 
 nor do I rush into the controversy hurriedly, as I have had 
 it under consideration for more than five years, waiting for 
 some further denouement of the Chefu Convention, which 
 appears to have disappeared. Let it be clearly understood 
 that under no circumstances would the Government of India 
 admit into its Treasury income, of which the sources are 
 tainted, such as the produce of lotteries, a tax on Hindu 
 pilgrimages, offerings to idol-temples, the price of slaves, 
 the earnings of slave-labour, the profits of immoral estab- 
 lishments, w'hether gambling, as at Monaco, or brothels, as 
 in some European States, any more than it would accept the 
 hire of the assassin, or the premium pudoris of the unfortunate 
 classes who infest the great cities. The line of demarcation 
 of lawful, and unlawful, income is quite clear. The kindly 
 fruits of the earth, blessed by the hand of the Creator, are 
 intended to be gathered. In the case of the poppy they are 
 thrice blessed, supplying comfort to the cultivator, rent to the 
 land-owner, land-revenue to the State, and over and above, 
 a magnificent export-duty. Neither in morals, nor by the 
 law of nations, can a legitimate commerce be impugned. If 
 
( 23 ) 
 
 fanciful and romantic objections were admitted, tbe Quakers 
 would object to villainous saltpetre, as being tbe component 
 of gunpowder. The total abstainer would object to hemp, 
 sugar, and rice, whence intoxicating liquor is distilled. It 
 is mere hypocrisy in a nation, which exports rum, gin, and 
 gunpowder in such enormous quantities from English ports 
 to Africa, and which, among many noble qualities, is noted 
 for the drunkenness of a portion of its people, to feel such 
 a tenderness for the besotted Chinese. It would be much 
 easier for those, who think with me, to sail with the wind, 
 and throw overboard the interests of the people of India. 
 Sir Wilfred Lawson is the only consistent antagonist, for he 
 would go to the root of the matter, and place opium and alcohol 
 in the same category, adding a plea for mercy in favour of 
 opium, as the opium-smoker is not a wife-beater, a ruthless 
 murderer, a breaker of the peace, and a public nuisance. 
 
 It may be distinctly asserted that the opium trade is not 
 based upon force : the Chinese are quite strong enough to 
 exclude it if they chose, and their being ready to resist the 
 French, on a much less important grievance, proves that 
 they could do so, and they know, as every one knows, that 
 England would never attempt to force the drug into China 
 by war. But when “force” is so vigorously denounced, 
 have the leaders of the movement reflected upon the mean- 
 ing of the term which they so often use ? By force of 
 character and of arms, England has raised herself to her 
 present lofty position : by force she vanquished the Spaniards, 
 the French, and the Russians, subdued vast kingdoms in 
 Asia, Africa, America, and Australasia, and brought under 
 subjection a large portion of the world. Our Indian 
 Empire is based upon force : our prestige throughout the 
 world is based on our potential, or stored, force. I have 
 been pelted by little boys in the towns of Turkey, and have 
 walked alone at my ease, and respected, in the great cities of 
 India : this was owing to the force stored up in our canton- 
 ments. It was not the outcome of treaties, but of conquest. 
 
 Some years ago I described to Giuseppe Garibaldi, the 
 Italian Liberator, our system in India : he remarked that 
 
( 24 ) 
 
 we were no better than the Austrians after all ; and this has 
 often led me to reflect upon our inconsistent position, for in 
 Europe we are the champions of every State which seeks 
 for political liberty, and in Asia we are ourselves despots. 
 The only reply is that we are there, and it is not practical 
 to leave India ; but, while we are there, we are bound to 
 stand up for the people of India, and be their champion 
 against the Manchester manufacturers ; against the senti- 
 mental philanthropist ; against our own countrymen, who 
 come to fill their pockets, and go home again : we are bound 
 to protect the Indian in the enjoyment of his laws, customs, 
 lands, and civil rights : if we cannot give him political 
 liberty, he shall have everything short of it : if he cannot 
 have a Constitution like the colonies of Great Britain, he 
 has a strong phalanx of men who have known India from 
 their youth, and loved the people, and are ready to resist 
 any attempt to oppress them, deprive them of equality in 
 the courts of law, or of free trade, and free commerce. 
 If the Chinese do not like the products of India, they can 
 let them alone. The Indian ports are open to every possible 
 product of Chinese industry. If the Chinese prefer their 
 home-grown opium, be it so, and India will seek other 
 markets, and develop other industries ; but it will do so by 
 its own spontaneous action, and not under the threats of 
 benevolent enthusiasts in a distant country. 
 
 However dark the colours may be, with which the opium 
 trade is painted, it is there, and, if the Government of India 
 abolished its monopoly, and remitted the export-duty, and 
 set the cultivation of the poppy free, the trade would not 
 be diminished, but would be enormously expanded. It is 
 said of King Henry V., that he intended, if he had con- 
 quered France, to destroy all the vines with a view of 
 arresting drunkenness. The late Maharaja of Pateala 
 allowed no distilleries and dancing girls within his terri- 
 tory ; but the extent of his administrative capacity may 
 be measured by the fact, that I tried in vain, in a personal 
 interview, to persuade him to allow me to open a post-office 
 in his dominions. It is, however, beyond the power of 
 
( 25 ) 
 
 Viceroys, or Parliaments, or even Philanttiropic Associa- 
 tions, to fight against Nature, and exclude from culture 
 and commerce one of the richest gifts of the earth. By 
 restricting the culture to certain tracts (of which the soil 
 is most suitable to its cultivation), we can create a monopoly, 
 and forbid the culture beyond certain limits ; but as to 
 forbidding it altogether in the central poppy region in our 
 own territory, it is impossible, and, if it were possible, it 
 would be a difl&cult and costly operation to war against 
 Nature and freedom of culture under the influence of a mere 
 fancy. Still less feasible would any attempt be to arrest 
 the culture in the territory of the independent Chiefs of 
 Central India. It is possible that if prices fell, the culture 
 would be given up in outlying districts, and other staples 
 would prove more profitable ; but this matter would be 
 settled by the cultivator himself, and not by the State. 
 
 The people of China will soon have unlimited supplies of 
 home-grown opium. The action of the Anti-Opium Society 
 has helped to open the eyes of the Chinese authorities to the 
 policy of this counter-action, which will arrest the export 
 of silver, and still supply the much-coveted drug. India 
 will suffer for the time, but it is not clear what the morals 
 of the Chinese will gain. The Chinese Grovernment now 
 thoroughly understand that no force will be used to intro- 
 duce the Indian drug, and they are anxious to share the vast 
 revenue by imposing a transit-duty. If a few millions make 
 use of the Indian-imported opium, which does not penetrate 
 far into the country, scores of millions will learn to smoke 
 the home-grown opium manufactured in their midst. "When 
 the Indian export trade has, under the inexorable laws of 
 Supply and Demand, shrunk into nothing, it is not obvious 
 whether the Anti-Opium Society will congratulate them- 
 selves upon the extinction of the so-called National Sin, or 
 feel like engineers “ hoist with their own petard,” when they 
 contemplate the enormous increase of opium-smokers in China. 
 
 In the mean time the march of events seems likely to 
 extinguish the opium trade and the Anti- Opium Society 
 in one common ruin. I quote the last accounts : 
 
( 26 ) 
 
 “There cannot be any doubt but that the foreign drug will be 
 driven, slowly perhaps, but steadily, by native competition, from 
 the China market. The records of the foreign Customs, and the 
 Consular service, the testimony of travellers and missionaries, 
 supply evidence on this point which cannot be doubted. The 
 three northern Ports, in one year, show a loss amounting to 27 
 per cent, of their total imports. The native drug has so much 
 improved, that it is there driving the foreign article from the 
 market, even though the foreign prices had been reduced from 
 9 to 24 per cent, from those of the previous year. Sechuan 
 opium is fast supplanting the foreign on the Yangtze, the distribu- 
 tion being largely carried on through boatmen and foot travellers, 
 who tell no tales. In Formosa and South China generally, though 
 the decline of the opium imported through the Customs is marked, 
 the consumption is said not to be largely on the decrease, owing 
 presumably to contraband supplies, nor does the native article as 
 yet interfere largely with the foreign drug. The reason for this 
 is simple. The opium of Yunan and Sechuan cannot yet 
 compete with the Indian opium, adulterated, as sold at the ports 
 of Formosa, Amoy, Swatow, Pakhoi or Hoihow, where it is 
 delivered, principally by means of junks from Singapiir and 
 Hong-Kong, mainly, of course, the latter place. It resolves 
 itself into a simple question of cost of carriage. 
 
 “Among the reasons assigned for this decrease are the action of 
 the Chinese authorities towards discouraging the practice, and the 
 depressed condition of trade. The latter is undoubtedly a factor in 
 the case, but I have no faith in the former. That the authorities are 
 taking any serious steps towards the suppression of the drug is not 
 to be credited, least of all by any one who has travelled in Interior 
 China. Like the Abbe Hue, from personal experience gained in 
 Chinese travel, I can say : — ‘ Pendant notre long voyage en Chine, 
 nous n’avons pas rencontre un seul tribunal ou on ne fumat I’opium 
 ouvertement et impunement.’ It is found, in the opium pro- 
 vinces, growing under the walls of nearly every court-house. All 
 travellers are agreed in this, that Yunan and Sechuan opium is 
 rapidly increasing in quantity and improving in quality. It is fast 
 forcing its way to the seaboard ; being already brought there 
 and shipped along the coast, although as yet in small quantities. 
 The poppy is spreading over other provinces, and as the value of 
 the crop is double that of wheat, it is fast replacing that dry- 
 weather crop. The use of the Indian drug, since the improvement 
 of the native article, is becoming, slowly but surely, a luxury only 
 tor the more affluent trader or official. Perfected still more, fashion 
 will give its imprimatur to the native article, and then the foreign 
 drug will be doomed.” 
 
 The owner of a mine finds that the ore is exhausted, and 
 he has nothing to blame himself for : he has done his work 
 scientifically, but the gift of Nature is exhausted. So will 
 
( 27 ) 
 
 it be with British India. It made good use of the ad- 
 vantages which fertility of soil, industry, and commerce 
 supplied, and when one of them fail, there is nothing for 
 it but to let the export- duty die out, and strive to face the 
 financial diflficulty. This is something very different from 
 abandoning without cause an abundant source of revenue. 
 But this decay of resources will be a work of time, and the 
 opium trade with its shower of silver upon India will, though 
 perceptibly diminishing, scarcely disappear in this generation. 
 The Missionaries in China will restrict themselves to their 
 proper duty of preaching the Gospel, sadder at the spectacle 
 of the awful increase of opium-smoking, perhaps wiser in 
 having learnt that it is idle to fight against Nature, free- 
 trade, and the liberty of each man to control his own actions 
 in things not forbidden by the laws of civilized nations. 
 The Government of India will have to restrict its many 
 plans of usefulness. The Anti-Opium Society will cease its 
 exertions, unless, under the guidance of more thorough and 
 earnest leaders, it turns its attention to gin, rum, and French 
 brandy, exported to West Africa or consumed in England. 
 
 My own feeling has ever been in favour of getting rid, at 
 as early a date as possible and at some sacrifice of revenue, 
 of the monopoly, because a monopoly in itself is wrong, 
 and in this case a scandal to some minds, and it seemed 
 feasible to arrive at the same results on the East side of 
 India, which have spontaneously arisen on the West side; 
 but I am convinced now that the abolition of the monopoly 
 would be prejudicial to the best interests of the people of 
 India, and that is with me the paramount consideration. 
 I have already stated that, if I were satisfied that opium 
 was introduced by force into the Provinces of China outside 
 the Treaty-ports, I should join the opposite party. Five 
 years ago I called, with another member of the Committee of 
 the Church Missionary Society by appointment on the late 
 Sir Harry Parkes, then Envoy and Minister Plenipotentiary 
 at Japan, and satisfied myself that this allegation was not 
 true. A short time ago a Missionary from China told the 
 Committee of the Church Missionary Society, that the 
 
( 28 ) 
 
 Chinese Government systematically neglected the provisions 
 of the Treaty as regards religious liberty. I made him repeat 
 those words, and then asked him, why then it was alleged 
 that they were afraid to do the same with regard to opium ? 
 His reply was that the Chinese were afraid of the merchants, 
 hut not of the Missionaries. But I read in the Times 
 (October 23, 1884) “that for the last nine or ten years the 
 “ Chinese Government has been allowed to encroach on 
 “ treaty rights, and has levied with impunity heavy transit- 
 “ duties, which have virtually nullified the treaty-advantages, 
 “ and proved disastrous to the sale of Manchester goods in 
 “ the interior.” This is the statement of a Hankow 
 merchant. In the face of such statements, and the fact that 
 the Chinese Government is not afraid to go to war for 
 ancient and shadowy rights over Tonkin with the French 
 Government, how can we believe the Chinese Government 
 is not able to raise the transit-duties upon opium to such 
 an extent as to raise the price and restrict the sale.^ Is 
 China not strong enough to put down smuggling if the 
 attempt were made ? 
 
 Nor can I, after calm reflection on the whole case during 
 the last fifteen years, acquit the Anti-Opium Society of being 
 the cause of the miserable end of the contest, which will 
 have injured the people of India by the destruction of a 
 profitable industry and trade, and has yet multiplied the 
 vice of opium-smoking in China beyond any previous calcu- 
 lation. What was their object ? Did they desire to arrest 
 the vice in China, or only to free the Government of India 
 from the imputation of pandering to that vice? If we de- 
 sired to wean the English public of their taste for alcoholic 
 drink, we should scarcely commence a crusade against the 
 importers of brandy, or the distillers of gin. The line which 
 the Anti-Opium Societj’’ adopted of indiscriminate abuse had 
 two effects : it stiffened and hardened the views of the Go- 
 vernment of India. The statesmen who were, or had been. 
 Viceroys, and meritorious public servants who were or had 
 been Governors and high officials, felt injured by the gross 
 insinuations which they felt that they did not deserve : they 
 
( 29 ) 
 
 at least understood the nature of the problem, but upon the 
 Committee of the Anti- Opium Society there was not one 
 Anglo-Indian of experience, nor was it likely that there 
 would be one : a general feeling of resentment at, and con- 
 tempt for, the movement was felt in Anglo-Indian circles both 
 in India and England. But their proceedings had another 
 effect, not contemplated, but equally real. The eyes of the 
 Chinese rulers were opened to the exceeding value of the 
 trade, and to the firmness with which the Indian Govern- 
 ment held to it. They saw also how feeble were the efforts 
 of the Anti-Opium Society, whose motive was not the welfare 
 of the Chinese, but the alleged discredit attaching to the 
 English name. Opium cultivation was found to be as ac- 
 ceptable to the Chinese landowners, the local Governors and 
 the State, as, it has proved to be in India. It was not clear 
 what results the Anti-Opium Society desired : it is clear what 
 they have obtained. 
 
 The above remarks were written in London in October, 
 1884, despatched to Calcutta, and appeared in the pages of 
 the “Calcutta Review” on the 1st of January, 1885. I 
 had no idea that negociations were going on, and that the 
 Chefii convention would so soon be ratified. Yet such has 
 been the case. The death-blow to the argument of “ force ” 
 being applied to the Chinese Government has been struck, 
 and in the Paper (China, No. 5, 1885) presented to the 
 Houses of Parliament, August, 1885, Marquis Tseng appears 
 as a very sensible negociator, representing a very sensible 
 and enlightened Government at Pekin. They have entirely 
 entered into the Commonwealth of Nations, and thoroughly 
 appreciate the valuable addition to the Imperial Revenues 
 by an additional squeeze of the Indian opium, which pays the 
 Customs-duty for permission to enter the Treaty-port, and 
 a heavy Transit duty for permission to leave it : when sold 
 in retail, it may again be taxed, in the form of an excise, but 
 upon equitable principles with regard to the Native-grown 
 Drug. 
 
 The arrangement now sanctioned is hy the Chinese 
 
( 30 ) 
 
 Government : there are no Confucian platitudes, no high 
 moral sentiments, but an unmistakeahle desire to secure to 
 the Imperial Treasury, as distinguished from the Provincial 
 Chests, as large an income as possible, collected in advance 
 at the Treaty-port. Moreover, the information is volunteered 
 that the new arrangement will harmonize with existing In- 
 stitutions in China. The matter has stood over for seven 
 years, and, as if by an irony of Fate, the final arrangements 
 were conducted by the Liberal Ministry, and brought to all 
 but a formal conclusion, but the finishing touch has been 
 given by a Conservative Ministry under the signature of 
 Lord Salisbury. 
 
 It may be asked then : why add to the controversial litera- 
 ture ? let the dead dog lie. We shall probably hear little 
 more of the Anti-Opium Society. It is to be hoped that 
 moral influences will be brought to bear to stay the plague 
 of opium-smoking among the Chinese People, and that the 
 great European and North American peoples will resist the 
 contagion. Shame on them, if they do not ! 
 
 But the mischief does not end here. England has many 
 sins to answer for, both in past and present time. She has 
 used the strength of a giant as a giant, invading weaker 
 countries, and then abandoning them ; but in the matter of the 
 opium-trade England is not to blame, unless the new prin- 
 ciple is to be laid down that no Christian Nation is to be 
 allowed to export Gunpowder, Arras, Alcoholic Drinks, and 
 Intoxicating Drugs, and no commercial treaties are to be made 
 with weaker Asiatic and African Nations. To make such with- 
 out a degree of pressure, which in the case of European 
 Nations would be intolerable, is impossible. Englishmen, by 
 unwarrantably vilifying their own country, and in this case 
 unjustly, only give foreign nations the opportunity of echo- 
 ing it. We read with astonishment such expressions as the 
 following : “ The most outrageous and unpardonable national 
 crime of any age.” These unjustifiable expressions are 
 quoted and amplified by such excellent and respectable 
 Religious organs as the “Missionary Review” of Prince- 
 ton, U.S., and are believed by thousands of over-confident and 
 
( 31 ) 
 
 uninstructed readers. Such expressions as these follow,, in- 
 dicating gross ignorance : “ The perversion of many hundred 
 “ thousand acres of the best land in India from food crops to 
 “ crops of this poison is the main cause of the frequent 
 “ famines in that country. The thousands of Hindus who 
 “ grow the poppies and make the opium are greatly demora- 
 “ lized thereby, many of them becoming eaters or smokers of 
 “ the baneful stuff, and the opium vice is spreading in almost 
 “ all parts of India. In Burma and Arracan opium was given 
 “ away at first, then sold at a cheap rate, and the price raised 
 “ when the habit was established. England on a vast scale is 
 “ ruining her own subjects as well as the Chinese.” Surely this 
 is something more than ignorance, and amounts to Saggestio 
 Falsi. It is notorious that India suffers from a glut of Cereals, 
 and exports grain to England. It is equally notorious that 
 the amount of opium sold in India is extremely limited, 
 and that the population of the opium-growing districts are 
 peculiarly free from the use of the drug. It would not be 
 easy to find an opium-swio/ier in British India west of the 
 Brahmaputra River, except the Chinese immigrants. As to 
 the alleged policy adopted in Burma, it is simply ridiculous. 
 
 What will be thought of the following extract of a com- 
 munication by a Chinese Missionary to his credulous friends : 
 
 “ The thing which remains for us to do now is to give the people 
 the Gospel of the Lord Jesus ; meanwhile to use every effort to 
 induce our Government to abolish the trade as far as India is 
 concerned. We must wipe our hands of this dirty trade, though 
 we cannot wipe out the past ; the harvest has been sown. The 
 Chinese regard it as a direct act of plotting the nation's destruc- 
 tion, equally as much as the conduct of a man who is guilty of 
 administering poison to another for some evil advantage. 
 
 “I was talking with two men yesterday upon the subject of 
 opium. One was a young fellow who is now using medicine to 
 break off the habit. As_we were talking of its effects, he stamped 
 his foot, exclaiming, ‘Alas! alas! from where did it first come?’ 
 I answered, ‘ From India ; hut,’ I added, ‘ no one has forced you to 
 grow it, neither forced you to eat it. There is no foreign drug to 
 be bought here ; it is all your own production.’ Nevertheless the 
 fact remained that Englishmen introduced %t, or at least introduced 
 the practice of habitual smoking ; before that, it was scarcely 
 known, if known at all. 
 
 “ The English nation are undoubtedly the sowers of this dreadful 
 
( 32 ) 
 
 seed ; it has yielded an abundant harvest of death and ruination in 
 China. So prevalent is the habit here, that the bulk of the 
 people do not I’ise before ten or eleven o’clock in the forenoon, 
 and no business is commenced in the commercial houses until 
 nearly mid-day.” 
 
 A distinct reply is required, and an indignant denial, and 
 an appeal to patent facts. We shall next hear that the 
 English introduced the use of intoxicating liquors among 
 the tribes in the valley of the Kongo : fortunately Henry 
 Stanley, an American citizen, in his great work, published 
 1885, mentions incidentally, that these tribes were wholly 
 given to the use of intoxicating liquors of their own manu- 
 facture, before they saw a white face. 
 
 If any one had a dear friend, exposed to unjust obloquy, 
 affecting his whole moral character, would he, if he had the 
 facts at his command, maintain silence ? If any one were 
 deliberately and without foundation, to attack the British 
 and Foreign Bible Society and Church Missionary Society, 
 to which I have devoted the remainder of my life, should 
 I not draw the sword in their justification? and can I be 
 silent, when such things are said against my countrymen, 
 against the two great parties, Liberal and Conservative, which 
 govern the country, and do not spare the failings of each 
 other, and are equally jealous of the National good name : 
 when such frightful crimes are imputed to the Govern- 
 ment of British India, with regard to which I quote a few 
 lines from a Leader in the “ Times,” which appeared only 
 a few days ago (Aug. II, 1885), and which expresses my 
 deliberate sentiments after a prolonged study of the system 
 of administration of European, Asiatic and African Nations. 
 “ On the whole, we are convinced, such an inquiry will be 
 “ useful, mainly, because it will show that there never was 
 “ a Government, be its faults what they may, more efficient 
 “for good, more progressive and enlightened, and more 
 “ consistently inspired by the highest and purest motives, 
 “pursued with indefatigable zeal and absolute self-devotion, 
 “ than that of the English rulers of India.” 
 
 This pamphlet is written for an American, as well as an 
 English public. 
 
 London, Aug. 18, 1885.