The Sun.
London, England, 1857-03-09 00:00:00

TORTURE IN INDIA.

The Earl of ALBEMARLE gave notice of his inten-
tion, on Monday "nrx:-„ to more for certain returns on
the subject of the infl,ction of torture in India.

TH 1$ OPIUM MONOPOLY.

The Earl of SHAFTESBURY rose t,) move that the
following qnestione be put to the judges :
"1. Whether, according to the true construction of the
4th section of an Act passed in a session of Parliament
holden in the 3d and 4th years of the reign of his late Ma-
jesty King William IV., entitled "An Aot fur effecting an
arrangement with the East India Company, and
for the better government of his Majesty's Indian Terri-
tories till the 30th day of April, 1854 ," it is lawful fur the
East India Company to derive a revenue from opium by
the following system :—That is to say, by prohibiting and
preventing the growth of the poppy, from which opium is
male, within their territories except as grown on
their account and under their license and su-
perintendency, advances of money being annually
made by them to the cultivators of the poppy by way
of prepayment of the price of all the juice of the poppy of
a specified consistence, to be produced from the land in re-
spect of which such advances are made, such price being es-
timated according to a price fixed by the company for the dis-
trict in which the land happens to be situated ; the cultiva-
tors delivering to the company as much of such juice as the
cultivators can produce, such jute being afterwards sent
by the conspany to their factories, and there manufactured
by them into opium; afterwards sent by them from those
factories to Calcutta, and there sold by them by auction at
their sales, the excess of the sale prices over and above the
first coat!constitntinm the revenue in question.
"2. Whether, having regard to the supplemental
treaty bet ween her Majesty and the Emperor of China, bear-
ing date the Bth d ty of October, 184:1, which contains the
following words,—` A fair and regular tariff of duties and
other dues having now been established, it is to hoped that
the system of smuggling will entirely cease,' it is
lawful for the East India Company to deal with such
opium in the manner stated in the first question, with
the full knowledge that it is so purchased at the above-
mentioned sales for the purpose of being smuggled into
China in-contravention of the Jaws of that empire; and
so to cultivate and manufacture the same with a view prin-
cipally to the China market, and to its being so purchased
for such purposes as aforesaid ; the Company with that
view manufacturing the opium into the form which the
Company consider best adapted to facilitate and promote
that contraband trade 1"

The noble lord took the opportunity of entering at
length on the subject, and contended that the greatest
ob,tacle to the spread of Christianity in China was the
cultivation and sale of opium by the East India Com-
panyi; that the statute law gave a monopoly in salt,
tobacco, and bet-I nut to the company, but not one
word in that law was said about opium. The noble
earl then detailed the process of the cultivation of the
poppy, the flavouring the opium to suit the palate of
the Chinese, and concluded by urging their lord-
ships to agree to his motion, saying that ii
his questions were submitted to the judges of the
land, he had no doubt in his own mind that they would
arrive at the conclusion that the whole transaction was

illegal. If it was declared that this abomination was
legal, and existed by act of Parliament, then he pledged
himself to bring the whole subject in all its enormity
before Parliament, and appeal to the feelings of the
country to put a atop to such an abominable system.
The LORD CHANCELLOR opposed the motion.
[LEFT SPEARING.]

HOUSE OF COMMONS—(This Evening.)
The SPEAKER took the Chair at 4 o'clock.
PRIVATE BUSINESS.
The following private bills were oonsidered as amended,
and ordered to be read a third time :—Cornwall Rail-
way ; Exeter and Exmouth Railway ; Price's Patent
Candle Company ; Whitehaven, Cleator, and Egremont
Railway.
The following private bills were read a second time
and ordered to be committed :—Keith and Dufftown
Railway (No. 2), South Yorkshire and North Lincoln.
shire Junction Railway, and Cork and Youghal Rail-
way.
The We=tmineter Improvement Bill was withdrawn.