The Sun.
London, England, 1870-05-13 00:00:00

SIR JOHN BOWRING ON OPIUM•

Sir John Bowrin writes to the Pall Mall Gazette he
the opium trade :—" It has been long known that 17.,
poppy has been and is cultivated largely in at least fies
Chinese provinces, and in the earlier edicts it was le,f
to the use of opium than to the ' oozing cut::
the sycee silver in payment for the ' foreign a' n'i,s
that the objections were urged. It was and
notorious that many of the decrees against the importatq
• of
.opium emanated from those who themselves consun3.'t,
it. Employed in excess, there can be no doubt of ve
being deleterious and dangerous, but its mischiefs ha
been much exaggerated. I caused statistics to be Pr :s
Pared when I was Governor of Hong Kong, and it StCi;,
shewn that there were fewer deaths among, ro.
60,000 natives who smoked opium than among 600 0113,-y
peans addicted to drinking. Among forty €4 one
own dependents and servants there was oulY be
who used the drug to excess nor let it
forgotten that opium has to a very large extent ballisrhe
intoxicating liquors, formerly much used in China-
the
drunkard is led to commit every sort of violence ; ke
effects of opium are much less unjurious—they who sra°
it are delivered over to delicious though delirious dreg'.l
but the community suffers little from these excesses..eb
believe no
.legislation will prevent an indulgence wl4Ol
may be called national and were Indian opium prohibited
and its supply checked, the vacuum would be soon
heavy
up from other. quarters. Any increase upon the,e-
duties now levied in China will but give greater encourt
ment to smuggling, especially along the extended cSe
and amid the many islands of the China sea, and "
almost universal corruption of the Custom-house officer,

THE PLEBISCITE FEVER.
nb
Paris has gone mad over " Oui " and " Non " duri
the last few days, as it does over every new thing. one
or
journal notes that towards the end of April the proPriefor
of a large magasin de nouveautes advertised a material he
ladies' dresses styled " Foulard-Plebiscite," of whieht
is
kept two shades called respectively Oui and Non. L:ao
said that the wife of a certain political personage,
the last
people accuse of having changed his opinions during sof
30 years, has been anonymously presented with a drestbe
this material,the colour of which changes accordinglY alp a
light falls upon it. A few days previous to the v°
baker in the neighbourhood of the Palais Royal shevie.„ere
heap of petits pains in his shop window, upon whichhsevuer
stamped. :—" Pains Pl6biscite, Oui ;" and now a jew•tarY.
on the boulevard, who has invented the plebisci the
jewellery, exhibits sleeve links and scarf pins with
word " Oui " written across them in large letters.

es'
The Dublin Court of Queen's Bench decided -d yor
terday that the Magee Presbyterian College, L°l'ea,ir
deny, was not a charitable institution within the ro eot
ing of the Act exempting such institutions from 1,809
of rates.
A letter from a gentleman, says a Bristol Pars at
makes the following statement :—" Mr. Bright, val° iffe
Llandudno, is much better, and is out every clitY• d to
knits garters to amuse himself, as he is only alic'we
read but little."

BIRTHS.
On the Ist ult., at Allahabad, the wife of Lieut.-Col. 1" P
°eke?
Bisho, Bngal Infantry, of a son.
On the 1 poth,e at 64, Regent's Park-road, Mrs. Henri n --I.
of a daughter.