The republic. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1849-1853, 1850-04-22
From the Boston Transcript.
The Opium Trade.


carried on, at the present time in India and China
has been just published in this city by John p
Jewett & Co. 1t is from the pen Of Nathan Allen,
M d.. and presents clear and comprehensive sur
vey of a subject, which is Of much greater moment
than is generally supposed. The rapid peopng of
our Pacific shores-the fact that many Of the imini
grants into California are from China and other
parts of Asia-are circumstances which invest with
added interest the extraordinary details here given
How much does the reader suppose that China
expends annually for the single article OF opium
that she expends more money than the whole
amount of the of the United States from all
sources whatever, and larger sum than any one
nation on the globe pays to another for single raw
material, with the exception of what Great Britain
pays to this country for cotton.
Compared with ardent spirits, opium is said to
be far pernicious in its effects; and there is
no slavery on earth to be compared with the bond
age into which it casts its victim. Its operation is
more deadly, by many degrees, than its less tyran-
nous rival. Chinaman once remarked: "It is
not the man who eats opium. but opium that eats
the man" The Chinese opium principally in
the form Of smoking. Their manner of smoking 1t
differs materially from that of tobacco. The pro-
cess consists in taking very long whiffs, thereby
communicating the influence of the drug to all the
air cells and at the time retaining it there
long possible. Travellers in Persia, Turkey, and
other countries where the vice Of opium eating has
existed for long time. do not represent the evils to
be great those of opium smoking in China.
Repeated efforts have been made by the Chinese
government to arrest the traluC In THIS 0einOrdl-
izing drug How they were baffied recently by.
the English, must be fresh in the recollection Of
our readers. "The opium war;" says an independ-
ent English writer, "will stand out in history as
an outrage on justice, on public principle, and on
the independent rights of nations" That the Chi
nese government has always been earnest and sim
in resisting the introduction of opium, Dr. Al
len thinks there can be no doubt. For forty years
its opposition to the evil has been steady and strong
1t does not permit the cultivation of the poppy in
China although the soil and climate of the country
admirably adapted to the cultivation. The en-
peror, when urged to egalize the opium trade and
establish duties its importation, replied in these
memorable words: 'It is true cannot prevent the
and corrupt will, for profit and sensuality, de-
feat my wishes; but nothing ,oU induce TO deripe
revenue from the pice and misery Of my people"
Christian England, ponder these words and blush:
The conclusion at which DIR. Allen arrives, Is
that the opium war; resulting in the trenty, by
which the island of Hong Kong was ceded TO the
British. and five Of the principal Chinese cities
were thrown open TO British trade, has afforded an.
creased facilities for prosecuting this perricious aud
most unchristidn traffic. 1t was never in a more
hourshing and vigorous state than at the present
time More than fifty thousand chests are now
annually shipped to China, taking off in return
thirty five millions of dollars. According to the
most recent intelligence, the sale will reach sixty
thousand chests the present year Since the war
with England the severe laws of China against all
who used or dealt in opium have been made dead
letter her statite book. The article is landed all
along the coast, and smoked publicly In the chef
cities In the lecture before the Boston Mercantile
Library Association, Mr.. William Sturgis recently
stated, that in 1913, seven millions Of dollars in
specie carried from the United States TO China
to pay for our importations from that country but
now most all our purchases paid by bills OF ex
change on England, from the proceeds Of the opium
hadet
Not only docs opium produce the most dreadful
physical and moral evils in China, but its intro
duction by Christians leads the intelligent Chinese
TO dstrust and reject Christianity. Dr. Medhurst
says, that almost the first word uttered by Chi
nese when any thing is said concerning the excel
lence of Christianity is, "Why do Christians bring
us opium, in defiance of our laws?" The same
| ship that brings the missionary brings the most ia
tai obstacle to his success. Glow long," asks the
author of this timely and we'll written pamphlet,
"will enlightened and Christian nation continue
to farm and grow a means of vice, with the pro-
cceds of which, when in her possession, be-
nighted and pagan nation dsdans to replenish her
treasury, being drawn from the ruin and misery of
her people' What must be the verdict of future
generations as they peruse the history Of these
wrongs and outragesN