The Sun.
London, England, 1859-10-11 00:00:00

4er.,liarnaonild is e
frostauffithcei,orrietglyisteesrt.ablished, and I
•f the " et.9ll2rs" of the institution,
The claims o- -each
Aexlpexunangue
hi.
d , reader, master, &c., were
embracing the I`l--ost*:.l the names struck from the
thenlist
of
persons
• OPIUM TRADE AND
THE B.RITISH 7."..PNUE,
B-71,

.s. 4.---_—_.

'eliev-

The Edinburgh Anti -Opium Committee, ..
ing that there are few s übjects of so great impol.
ante regarding which ti 'le public mind is so little
informed as the opium t rade and revenue, respect-
fully submit the followin 's• statement of the leading
facts regarding them to tibe serious consideration of
their countrymen.

OPIU TILADEC-
rep ared
1. An immense imp( eation of opium—p
expressly for the purpose of gratifying a vicious
taste by smoking it Ls Manually made into China
from ports in British India. This importation has
increased forty-fold since the beginning of the cen-
tf
uurr yt
h,
sr
afrrtoimu
e2h,oaosObteoe
nBOft,roeoaot e
de hbe
byes t
ssh.
i p lel en
tdemand
-
in ,
have succeeded in exte.nding t, by experimental
y
i
na
nays imn caed elBboyo, tchhei e flEya y Britishnd
C°
mmPear nc
nts wh 1735
but profit-
italhePourtuasatti—onas;
flfrrosmt
utfimaeluktlntigmceh, into new w parts of
able in the end, by ereatin g a taste for the new vice.
Opiumin now formds tshil, in
ekgraema-tonbuutlkog, of theas irtetudruness,fotru
Chinese
£,OOO, while the exort of all itish produce
tea an
and manufactures to Chinap average Brlittle more than
£2,000,000.
2. The use of this opium, so prepared, is produc-
tive of the most ruinous consequences to the popu-
lation where it is consumed. These consequences
are carefully to be distinguished from those which
result from the abuse of alcoholic beverages, melan-
choly as the latter are—the "former being, in the
long run, the rule not the exception, and the result
of the use not the abuse of the indulgence.
" The usual demoralising influences of the opium
trade" are thus not merely incidental to it, but, in
the language of the Report of the Select Committee
of the House of Commons, " are incontestable, and
inseparable from its existence."
3. According to the most unexceptionable testi-
mony of merchants, travellers, physicians, govern-
ment servants, missionaries, and Chinese states-
men, the vice, the misery, and even the
destruction of life, resulting from this in-
dulgence, it is almost impossible to estimate
" The moderate use" of opium as it is
prepared for the Chinese, which some suppose to
be so harmless, tends to the practice of sensuality
in its grossest forms. " Moderation" leads,
with fearful certainty and speed, to excess ;"
and excess to every crime of which its victim is
capable, until: his career is ended in a prema-
ture grave. The numbers thus cut off are variously
estimated ; but although it is only along the sea-
board that the practice prevails greatly as yet, the
lowest calculation exhibits an amount of mortality
which it is fearful to contemplate.
4. Public sentiment in China is strongly opposed
to this trade. On this account it is one of the
greatest obstacles in the way of Christian missions.
Our countrymen there are known only as vendors
of opium—the curse of China—or as preachers of
Christianity. The Imperial Government set itself
against the trade for more than 60 years, and de-
clared it contraband. It was, however, utterly
unable to contend with the heavily armed vessels
in which the opium is carried, but in 1839, after
repeated warnings to the English residents (the
last being addressed to them individually) to send
away their opium then in Chinese waters, a special
commissioner from Pekin caused the owners to be
confined within their own dwellings until they
surrendered the entire juantity, amounting to
20,253 chests. He then destroyed the whole,
valued at between one and two millions sterling,
and took such measures as rendered it almost im-
possible to dispose of a chest along the coast.
5. The British Government thsreupon declared
war against China ; and after the slaaightel‘ o f
nearly 40,000 of its subjects, dictated a treaty by
which the Chinese were compelled to pay more
than £4,000,000 for the opium destroyed, and for
the expenses of the war, and also to give up the
island of Hong Kong on their coast. The English
merchants had previously signed a pledge to dis-
continue the trade and the: British Government
entered into a supplementary treaty, by which they
bound themselves to discountenance all smuggling
for the future.
6. Instead of these engagements being kept, the
merchants (with, it is said, two exceptions) imme-
diately resumed the trade. After a time, the British
Government also allowed the island ceded to them
for the purpose of " careening and refitting ships,
and keeping stores there for that purpose," to be
used for warehousing the contraband opium ; and
the annual import into China has risen since that
war from less than 40,000 to 80,000 chests.
7. During the continuance of peace, the British
Government importuned the. Chinese Emperor to
legalise the opium trade, but always without suc-
cess. He refused again and again, alleging
that "nothingshould induce him to drive a revenue
from the vice and misery of the people ;" but a se-
cond war having broken out, they have now dictated
a new treaty, by which their former obligation to
di -courage smuggling is abrogated, and the Chinese
have been forced to legalise the trade, with every
prospect of its indefinite extension among
,‘ their
vast population of 400,000,000—more than a third
of the human race. The great rise which immedi-
ately took place in the price of opium in Calcutta
shows what ground there is for this apprehension.
OPIUM REVENUF.
8. By far the greater part of the opium imported
into China is prepared by the British Government
in India, expressely with that view. It is manu-
factured according to samples obtained from China
of that preparation of the drug most in demand
among the infatuated victims of the demoralising
influence before described. It has :all along
been packed according to Chinese weights, even
during the subsistence of the treaty binding thiz
country to disconrage smuggling into China,
and it is disposed of by public sale now in the
name of her Majesty, the profits arising from it
forming a large part of the Indian revenue.
9. Within the presidency of Bengal the Govern-
ment exercise a strict monopoly in the growth of
the poppy. This is enforced by regulations often
made instrumental of great oppression in the hands
of the corrupt native officials. The money re-
quisite for the cultivation is advanced by Go-
vernment, and an ever-increasing extent of the
richest land is annually devoted to that purpose,
at the cost of the proportionally diminished
growth of the useful products of the soil of India,
Thus,sn tdohnefeodt notwithstanding
eeehrssytet
iaueunieftd,
the
suchetEnhit easitrr
chairmen,
ms sugar,
India
nduluastcrao directors,nmiunpedsai
Company
yuf ea
h&dsome
ehxuet fre
othivaotvlletthdoee
rdiitvse drit
home
csaans w l
eohfetr he additionali t
is aNiv.tai se l before
w unknown,
revenue
h ilfer ot_mh eyth them-
selves,
farmingni.
selves, in their own " Memorandum of Improve-
ments in their Administration" (presented to Par-
liament, 1858), call the consumption of opium " a
hurtful indulgence, from which India itself has been
comparativelyce 0 rd
uf;
t free."
10. A
the testimony of competent and
attends
trntupr
evneejudds ttu h diced
ebeeuinseparableiva witnesses,cultivation
htine demoralisation
ia.the
A tradeGo
Government
enr which
ncmh is
eiChina
officer in that department declares that " one opium
cultivator demoralises a village ;" another, that
in Assam, where the cultivation is free, " it is de-
populating the country and degrading one of the
finest races" of that peninsula " into one of the most
abjects
enla e
untdhtehd
the
culturep r a ved.'
North-Western
Provinces,
oftiiupu
ppyispruinanbditedin:
in
of
tthe
the
e growths
upresidencies— and
ofaeeaodr
the
ii:su
at
sialene and Bombay
theoi
tmedb ayK prohibition
gis vir-
tually
Kingdom)
o
(as
t oclibnf Madras
this prohibition is easily enforced, the plant being
extremely conspicuous, and requirinc, to be four
months on the ground.
12. The remainder of the opium shipped from
India to China is the produce of native independent
states, but it can be shipped only from British ports
where the British Government have no difficulty
n levying any amount of transit duty they choose
o impose, there being no other route by which it

can pass.
From these two facts last mentioned, it is evident
that whenever the Legislature wills it, the culture
and manufacture of opium in India can be effectually
brought to an end.
That this would at first entail a serious loss to
the Indian revenue is admitted ; but the committee
believe that by wisely developing the great resources
of India, by employing the large capital which Go-
vernment has now embarked in the manufacture of
opium, in works of public utility, yielding a good
return ; and by an improved system of taxation,
reaching the more wealthy classes, the loss would
be only temporary, and the new sources of revenue
prove much more secure than the precarious and
dishonourable opium manufacture.
In name of the committee,
G. D. CULLEN, Chairman.
D. DAVIDSON, Vice-Chairman.
DAVID M`LAREN, lIOn. Sec.
Edinburgh, April 7, 1859.

A QUAINT REMARK.—It was told of an old Miss
lohnstone, of llawkhill, that, when dying, a tremendous
storm of rain and thunder came on, so as to shake the
house. In the same quaint, eccentric spirit, and with no
thought of profane or light allusions, she looked up, and
listening to the storm, quietly remarked, in reference tl her
departure, "Ech, sirs! what a nicht for me to be fleeing
thro' the airl"—Dean Ramsay's Reminiscences.