THE ENGLISH

PRESBYTERIAN MESSENGER.

CHINA AND THE OPIUM TRADE.

We are now at war with part of China, and may naturally expect ere long to be at war with the whole empire. The emperor doubtless is anxious to keep the sound of the cannon as far from his own ears as may be ; and would be glad that we should fight it out with the Cantonese a thousand miles from his palace at Pekin. The mandarins also at the other ports along the coast, besides that they and their people are more friendly than Yeh and the Canton rabble, will be happy to obey the orders of the emperor and to keep quiet; for by this conduct they may save their own persons and make a fair profit out of the additional business passing through their city during the interruption to trade at the south. Nevertheless, war, like fire, must spread unless very speedily brought to a close, and our statesmen seem to have no intention to pause till they have conversed with his “ celestial ” majesty in his own chief city.

We are at war with China, and it is now of little consequence discussing the particulars of the sudden plunge we have made into active hostilities. There may be disputes about “the proper moment,” and " the most favourable opportunity ;” but there is no difference of opinion among those who know China as to the necessity of carrying on the war vigorously now that we are engaged in it, neither is there much doubt as to the inevitability of the crisis, sooner or later, owing to the faithless and cruel conduct of the Chinese who were rapidly filling up the cup of their iniquities.

Some such collision was unavoidable, and we may now set aside criticism on the final affront, which merely precipitated matters.

Leaving the modus operandi, the conduct of the war to our naval and military chiefs, the people of this country ought so far to make themselves acquainted with the position of our affairs in China as to enable them to arrive at correct opinions regarding the proper course to be pursued by our statesmen at this critical juncture.

The popularisation of our constitution has brought with it to every individual conscience, a more direct responsibility for all that is done by the representatives of the nation at home and abroad.

It is understood that our envoy will insist, very properly, on formal communication with the highest authorities in the land ; that he will No. 112.-New Series.

I

VOL. IX.

further insist on the continuance of regular communication between the British and Chinese officials, which is essential to our safe and honourable residence in that country. He will also demand permission for all Britons to travel throughout China, under such general regulations regarding passports, etc., as are deemed desirable in some other countries; though, as we give the Chinese free admission to every part of the British dominions, we might claim a similar liberty there. But what is to be done with the opium trade P The opium trade does not appear to have had any connection with the present embroilment. Had it been the cause of the continued bad behaviour of the Cantonese, the same manifestations of animosity might have been looked for all along the coast where the opium ships have long been carrying on their traffic. The people and the mandarins in these quarters have, however, exhibited no such acerbity of spirit towards foreigners. Whilst settling our other affairs in China, it will be right surely to see that the opium traffic—which is by much the larger portion of our import trade there—be also put to rights. What are we to do with it? Are we to allow it to go on as at present P Shall we compel the Chinese to legalise it P or must we put it down ourselves? Mr. Donald Matheson, formerly of China, has given important evidence on this subject, in a pamphlet just published, entitled, “What is the Opium Trade?” This gentleman has had the amplest means of ascertaining the truth of this matter. He has a clear and well-balanced mind; and has delivered sentence of condemnation on the article as smoked by the Chinese, and on the traffic as illegal, in terms so decided, plain, and unimpassioned, that appeal seems hopeless. At the end of last century, a few hundred chests of opium annually found their way from India to China, and the article was admitted as legal merchandise. The ill effects of opium smoking, and the drain of silver in payment, led the authorities to prohibit the further introduction of the drug into China. , Gradually, however, an illegal trade has grown up to large dimensions; the importations now exceeding 70,000 chests per annum. This quantity, after being boiled and specially prepared, yields about 5,000,000 pounds weight of smokeable extract, in: it costs the Chinese £7,000,000 sterling. Does this smoking injure the people, or may opium be used like tobacco, wine, or spirits, temperately? Mr. Mo says—

“Those who would compare this with drinking wine, or ale, or even spirits in moderation, must be unwilling to look at it in its true light. The only comparison that can be made is between opium smoking and drunkenness.”

The indulgence is in every case an intoxication:

“The Chinese unquestionably look upon the indulgence as a vice, and not as a harmless luxury”; and they say, “when a man smokes opium that he is making his own coffin. But the injury done by this habit is not confined to the individual; it brings families to misery and ruin; it tempts to crime, and, being illegal, it leads to the demoralisation of those engaged in the retail trade; and what is worst of all, it is spreading rapidly.”

How can this drug find its way into China if the people regard it “as a vice," and the authorities prohibit it?

There is an old adage--video meliora proboque, deteriora sequor. They also see the evil, and in a measure deplore it; but the vice is too ensnaring, they cannot resist the temptation, and will give any price, and run any risk for the indulgence. Even in the civilised west, popular vices are too strong for the powers that be, and in China it is so in an aggravated degree. Opium is intensely craved by the victims; the mandarins cannot prevent them getting it, they therefore generally connive at the infraction of the laws, and turn the disobedience to account. The British flag floats over the vessels whence it is smuggled on the coast, and the British Indian Government grows and prepares it specially for the China market!

What good can the East India Company get by poisoning millions of these poor people? (All victims of vicious passion are poor and miserable people.) Get? They get a net income of nearly £4,000,000 sterling. They do not allow any opium to be grown in their own territories, excepting for their own monopoly; and from the sales in Calcutta of the quantity they thus produce they derive a net profit of £2,500,000 to £3,000,000, and the rest of the above £4,000,000 is the amount of a transit duty of £40 per chest on opium grown in the independent state of Malwa, which, being in the interior of Hindostan, has no outlet but through the Company's dominion.

What is to be done with this trade? The great body of Christian missionaries on the spot condemn it as hurtful to mankind, as directly and indirectly opposed to the Gospel, as derogatory to the British name, and, especially, as inconsistent in the eyes of the heathen with the reputation of faith in Jesus. It ought not to remain in its present position. The article is deleterious as used by the Chinese, and the traffic is illegal.

Shall we compel the Chinese to legalise it? That would doubtless remove a certain portion of the disgrace attaching to it, and of the mischiefs accompanying the trade as now carried on. But it is extremely doubtful whether we could succeed in the attempt to coerce them into this measure, and not at all doubtful that we have no right to force them to take any such step. Moreover, it would not meet the full requirements of the case.

Must we put down the traffic ourselves ? How could we do that? It would obviously be absurdity in the extreme for British authority to interfere with traffic in the article when it had once reached the shores of China. The only way to deal with the evil is to dry up the source; that is, to put an end to the cultivation of the white poppy in India. The traffic would at once disappear when this supply of the article failed.

Why was this not done long ago, and before this bad business had attained so unwieldy a magnitude? Which Ministry or which party in the State is to blame for this delay : It is not a party question at all. Every Government, Whig and Tory, for many years has either sanctioned or connived at it.

Mr. Matheson proposes a gradual reduction of the supply—“Let the 70,000 chests now exported, be annually reduced by 5,000 or 10,000 chests, etc." And Major-General Anderson, of the Madras army, whose important testimony in the shape of four letters on this subject addressed to Lord Shaftesbury, appeared in the middle of last year, also recommends a gradual reduction of the growth in India.

The better plan, however, would be to put an end to the growth at once. Those gradual escapes from a false position are never satisfactory. We tried to abolish slavery in our own West Indian Islands by degrees, but were compelled to terminate the process abruptly. A few, Chinese might die were they suddenly deprived of their daily supply; but many more might be permanently saved from the vice and the misery of the ensnaring indulgence, were the breaking of the habit altogether inevitable. A sudden and entire stoppage on our part would make it difficult, if not impossible, for any other nation to take up our position as panderer to this sin. Were we to retire gradually, the habit of smoking would remain unbroken, whilst others might have time, by degrees, to foster the cultivation elsewhere, and so less good might result. The Chinese grow some now, in out of the-way places. How much we cannot tell—it has been stated at 10,000 or 20,000 chests. At any rate they might raise enough to keep the incurables alive; and if they made more they would have the responsibility entirely on their own shoulders. Mr. Matheson says: “The British public have the power, through their Parliament,” and should use their “influence with the East India Company that, the cultivation of the poppy for the Chinese market may cease, for the plain reason that it is sent to supply a vicious and illegal demand.” It would be no violation of the sound principle of politico-economic science thus to put an end to opium growing in India. It would merely be the withdrawal of the East India Company from an injurious monopoly, that monopoly being itself contrary to all right views of trade or manufacture. Besides, if merely for financial reasons we prohibit the growth of tobacco in the British Isles, surely for far nobler reasons we may prohibit the growth of this drug in India. Would the national sacrifice be too great, even were the revenue to suffer for some years? When slavery was to be abolished, did we hesitate to sacrifice twenty millions sterling P When the national honour is at stake, do we shrink from an outlay of hundreds of millions in war P. Surely our national honour in peace is not unworthy of some sacrifice. The sacrifice would not be very great, and would only be temporary, and would be followed by incalculable benefits to ourselves and to mankind. The merchants now engaged in this traffic would obtain enormous prices for the stocks they might have on hand, and might leave the trade with large fortunes; but if in some cases it might be otherwise, they would not be much worse off than many who even now voluntarily abstain from gains they cannot approve of Some anxious people have admitted the terrible results of opium smoking and the great mischief of the illegal traffic, but have lamented the utter impossibility of doing anything to remedy or remove the evil. They think this trade, though bad, must be maintained, as the sacrifice of four millions of revenue by the East India Company would ruin our empire in Hindostan, and the absence of opium, which is worth seven millions sterling on the coasts of China, would endanger the stability of the British constitution and nation, because without opium we could not buy our tea or silk, and the falling off in the import of tea would hamper our Chancellor of the Exchequer and upset all our domestic arrangements

There is no ground for any such alarm. Though for the moment the Indian Government cannot get the loan of money readily, this does not arise from any want of confidence in the stability of British power, or any alarm at the failing resources of that country. The difficulty simply springs from some financial mismanagement of the authorities, who are supposed not to have kept faith about late loans, and so capitalists hang back a little.

The physical resources of India were never, however, in a more hopeful position than now. Various important public works are in progress; and, under the influence of steam, irrigation, railways, and electric telegraphs, to say nothing of improving methods of rule, so rapid an advance may be reasonably anticipated (with God's blessing on these means) in the cultivation of the land and the prosperity of the people, that the Government may in a few years draw with ease double or treble the present revenue if found necessary.

This last year we have taken from China about 90,000,000lbs. of tea, and pay for it about £4,500,000 sterling; and we have taken about 70,000 bales of silk, which is nearly double the usual quantity, and being high priced, we must pay for it £4,000,000 to £5,000,000 sterling. This last year we must have paid China, in one shape or other, £9,000,000 or £10,000,000 sterling, and, on an average of years, may have about £8,000,000 to pay. China takes about £1,500,000 sterling worth of British manufactures, and from £500,000 to £1,000,000 worth of Indian cotton, rice, and Straits' produce; opium pays the rest, and generally takes away, in addition to tea and silk, a quantity of silver. The current of coin has this season been towards China, owing to the additional value of the silk export.

If we have no more opium to give, the Chinese will demand silver instead, and where are we to get £5,000,000 or £6,000,000 sterling in silver coin to meet this necessity ? If the opium trade is doing mischief to mankind, we must wash our hands of it at any price, and the blessing of God will rest on the sacrifice.

But the way out of this commercial exchange difficulty is not so dark as some would have us believe. We might for a short while content ourselves with rather less tea and silk, until the Chinese learnt to take from us what we can afford to give.

We might, without danger send them silver for a year or two for part of their produce, and we can easily imagine such arrangements here and in India as would speedily remedy any temporary inconvenienceas for instance, the Indian Government, which, a few years ago, put a stop to a gold circulation, and has thereby caused a drain for silver, from this may restore that gold circulation, with manifest advantage to all parties. The British Government, by a judicious and ample, yet moderate, issue of paper money, might get far more than enough for the requirements of the trade.

But one true remedy will be found in the increased ability of the Chinese to take our manufactures, and when the barriers to free intercourse have been broken down, our merchants will speedily find out what the Celestials will take on terms much to our advantage.

If the article causes so much misery, and the trade is so derogatory to the character of a Christian nation, we should have done with it at once, at whatever sacrifice, were that ten times greater than the most timid can apprehend.