thousand chests are, every year, landed upon | principal facts of the case in due perspective the coast of China, at a cost to the people of many millions sterling, and at a profit to the Indian Government of not less than five millions. For many years past

"a fleet of fast-sailing vessels, or steamers, fitted out in the most complete manner, and fully armed, is constantly traversing the eastern seas, laden with this drug, each vessel carrying seven or eight thousand chests: while large receiving ships, moored at various points along the coast of China, constitute so many floating warehouses, to which the Chinese smugglers have recourse, openly and constantly, and in defiance of the Government -its own officers conniving at the traffic."

before the reader, we must go back a few steps, and trace the course of things from its origin in India; and show what is the relation of the opium trade to the interests of the East India Company.

The poppy, as we all know, flourishes within a wide isothermal belt; it gives a flaunty gaiety to our cottage gardens; and in the painter's eye, it relieves, in a happy manner, the monochrome of the ripening wheat-field. In every land, almost, it draws the eye to itself, and speaks its power to assuage pain: the milky exudation of the seed-vessel, when the petals have just fallen, comes into the hand of the pharmaceutical At a time within the memory of men now chemist as perhaps the most extensively living, the opium-pipe in China was the useful, and the most urgently needed, of all luxury of the opulent only; and the indul- the remedies he prepares, as the means of gence, well known to be of dangerous tend- alleviating sufferings. But this plant, alency, was kept within bounds, by all but a few; but in consequence of the endeavours made of late years to extend a trade which has been found to be more lucrative than any other, the drug has been placed within the reach of the middle and lower classes.

though it thus offers itself to the service of man, in almost every land, yet loves the warmest climates; and, to be available in a commercial sense, for the production of opium, it is scarcely cultivated further north than the fortieth, or thirty-fourth degree of latitude, on this side the equator. It is grown, as an article of commerce, in Turkey, and on some fertile and well-watered plains of Asia Minor, and Persia; but nowhere with so much advantage as on the plains of central India. It is there, and under a careful system of culture, that the poppy luxuriates, and that it yields its juice in the greatest abundance, and of the best quality. It is calculated that 100,000 acres of the richest lands watered by the Ganges, and in the plains of central India, are given to the poppy.

'Smoking-shops have been opened, and the needful smoking appliances have been brought within the means of the poorest, so as that at this time, and for some years past, the less wealthy gentry, the official class, tradesmen, mechanics of all kinds, labourers, and women, have very generally become habitual opium-smokers. Although calculations in cases of this sort can be little more than approximately correct, they are quite as likely to fall short of the truth, as to exceed it. It has been assumed as a basis of such a calculation, that an habitual opium-smoker consumes about seventeen grains daily; reckoning at this rate, 10,000 chests would supply one million of such smokers for a year; but of course a much larger A very laborious husbandry is required to number, if we include those who do, or who are render the lands devoted to this growth recompelled to allow themselves a smaller quantity munerative; constant weeding and irrigadaily. But lately 50,000 chests have been im- tion are needed. When the flower falls, and ported annually into China; and this quantity, the unripe capsule is exposed, a knife, formed distributed according to a probable supposition, over those districts within which opium hitherto has been freely offered to the mass of the people, will show that a larger per centage of the adult population has become the victim of the poison."

But whether this proportion be larger or smaller, it is a proportion that is always on the increase; and at the same time the area over which it prevails is always extending. When we say that the average daily consumption is seventeen grains, there are many who use a much larger quantity; and as to the cost of the indulgence, men of the labouring class, questioned indiscriminately by Dr. Smith (bishop of Victoria) acknowledged that their opium-smoking took from them two-thirds of their daily earnings.

But now for the purpose of bringing the

for the purpose, is used to make an oblique incision around it, from which exudes a milky juice, that becomes inspissate by the heat of the sun; and the next day is removed, and collected as a dark brown tenacious semi-solid. The many processes which this matter undergoes, first in India, and afterwards in China, to refine it, and to fit it for its different applications, it would be beside our purpose to describe. It is enough just to say that, when compacted into cakes or balls, it is packed in chests-each weighing from a hundred and twenty, to a hundred and forty pounds; and when carried to China, the chest is worth about £150, or £160 sterling. It is as thus made up in chests, for exportation, that we have to speak of it on the present occasion.

"How is the Government to go on at all, and how is the British Empire in the East to be maintained, if it be deprived of the opium revenue; if troduction of opium into China, should in any the forced production in India, and the forced inway cease, or even if it should reach a limit, and in any degree decline?"

As to the culture of the poppy in Hindoo. it is a part upon the regularity of which, and stan, if it were left to take its course along upon its constancy of increase, the Indian with other congenial products of the soil-Government can, with the most confidence, such as sugar, indigo, cotton, and corn, it rely. To such an extent is this the fact, that would not be very extensively admitted the question has presented itself in this the labour being comparatively great, and form:the chances, dependent upon the season, being many of a failure; for one untimely storm of wind and rain may destroy a crop. The growth of the poppy, if not interfered with, would be confined to the most favourable spots; and in that case it would adjust itself to the demand for medicinal purposes. But this is not the state of the case; nor has it been for many years past. In all those parts of British India the soil and climate of which are at all favourable to opium farming, the occupier of the soil-the ryot, holds his land under a stringent obligation to produce a certain quantity of opium, yearly, which he is bound to sell to the agents of the trade has been augmenting at a rapid the Government at a price fixed by them. Regulations the most severe have been devised, and are rigorously enforced, for the purpose of keeping up the supply, and of securing a constant increase of it, such as shall furnish the opium markets at Calcutta and Bombay monthly with not less than 3000 chests for the one, and a third of that quantity for the other.

It is, to a great extent, by means of advances from the Government that the ryot-the native cultivator-is enabled to carry on the culture round the year; his condition, therefore, is always that of a debtor to the party to whom he is compelled to sell his produce. The opium which reaches Bombay is produced chiefly in countries that are not under the control of the Indian Government, and the conditions of the culture are there different.

This particular produce having been thus forced up to its actual state, by a direct interference on the part of the Indian Government-a Government absolute and irresistible-its relation to other kinds of produce is altogether artificial; so that at any moment, if, by any means, this interference were to be withdrawn, and at the same time the ef forts of the Chinese Government to exclude the drug, were to become effective, the poppy growth of India would fall into its proper relative insignificance, and the same lands would, with advantage to India and to the world, give themselves to husbandries that need no such forcing.

So long as ten years ago the East India Company received, in one year, a net revenue of three millions sterling from its monopoly, and from that time to this, with variations arising from the seasons, and from the political and commercial condition of China,

rate. The average cost of a chest of opium, up to the time when it is sold at Calcutta, at the monthly auction, and when it passes into the hands of the merchants who ship it for China, is about thirty-five pounds. The price obtained at these sales varies considerably, but an average may be £105; often it rises much above this amount. Looking back twenty years, the profits hence derived by the company have steadily increased, and are in course of augmentation. These profits arise, not merely from its own dealings directly, as producers of opium, but from the duty levied, as pass-duty, upon every chest which reaches Bombay from the districts that are not under its control. This duty has amounted to forty or forty-five pounds upon the chest. On the whole, the revenue derived from this source is so considerable, as we have stated above, that the opium question has come to be one which has been thought to touch, perhaps we might say, the existence of the British supremacy in the East; and if, without admitting any considerations of a moral kind into our calculations, we were thinking simply and coldly of the stability of that power, it must be with some anxiety, nay, a deep anxiety, that we come to understand the precariousness of a trade, upon the continuance and the increase of which everything seems to depend.

At this point we turn to Lord Dalhousie's Minute, named at the head of this Articlea splendid record as it is of his term of ofBut how shall any such desirable change fice! Nothing of the kind, perhaps, has latebe brought about? An answer to this ques-ly appeared which better deserves perusal, tion may be difficult. The revenue derived by or which suggests so many reflections, touchthe East India Company from their monopo- ing the wellbeing of hundreds of millions of ly of the opium trade has gradually come to the human family. But we keep to our imconstitute a large part of its revenues, and mediate purpose. In Articles 19 and 20 of

this Minute, the noble Marquis reports the revenue of the Indian empire for the year 1854-55.

ment, understanding its commercial interests, would come to the conclusion-that, if now to deny opium to the people be a hopeless matter, it would at the least be better "By the several territorial acquisitions which for China to grow the poppy at home, than have just been enumerated, a revenue of not less to pay five times its cost to foreigners. Exthan four millions sterling has been added to the tensive districts within the limits of the emannual income of the Indian Empire. Stated in general terms, the revenue of India has increased pire are as well adapted to this culture as from £26,000,000 in 1847-48, to £30,000,000 in are the plains of Hindoostan; labour is 1854-55; and the income of the present year, ex- cheaper in China than in India: the entire clusive of Oude, has been estimated at the same profits of the East India Company, the proamount of £30,000,000 sterling. Without enter- fits of the merchants concerned, and the costs ing into any close detail, it may be stated that of the transit, may be saved; and it scarcethe main sources of revenue are not less productive than before; while the revenue derived from ly admits of a question that opium agriculopium has increased from £2,730,000 in 1847-48, ture in China might be so carried on as to £4,700,000 in 1854-55, and is estimated at upwards of £5,000,000 for the present year."-Minute, Art. 20.

would enable the native dealer very far to undersell the importer of his drug. It is not easy to see why a change of this sort may not be introduced, clearly as it is indiFrom this statement it appears that the cated by the facts of the case, if only they traffic in opium, which is mainly with China, be understood in China. Even the present yields as much as one-sixth part of the en- disturbed state of the empire may lead to tire revenue of the Indian Empire. it; for whereas, while the Imperial authoriIf, then this source of revenue-the opium ty was everywhere recognised, and, as to trade with China-be, as we think it must the interior of the country, was effective, the be granted that it is, of a precarious kind, culture of the poppy might not be possible then a due and prudent regard to the stabil-easy as it would be for the Government ity of the British rule in the East will give to come in upon all who should attempt it, urgency to the question-whether provision it may now be the fact, or it may ere long should not be made timely provision-for come to be the fact, that districts favourable supplying a probable deficiency from sources to this culture may have ceased to yield that are less remote from British control? obedience to the Imperial authority, and This question steers clear entirely of all mo- that the occupiers of the soil in those disral considerations; it is political or econo-tricts may find themselves at liberty to purmic purely. The possible failure or decline sue their own interests. When it is conof the opium trade with China, may arise in sidered that every chest of opium paid for several different ways, which it may be well on the coast of China costs at least five briefly to mention. times what it would cost if the poppy were

It is not to be imagined as at all a prob-grown, and the opium were manufactured able event, that the Chinese Government by the Chinese people for themselves, it should be able to effectuate its earnest en- must be felt that, if once the prohibitive deavours to exclude the drug, and to sup- measures of the Government were removed, press the smuggling trade. Hitherto, and or were in any way to cease to take effect, in the present distracted state of the empire, the Indian opium trade would become dethese endeavours are still less likely to suc- pendent entirely, or to a great extent, upon ceed; thus far they have utterly failed. The the continued ignorance of the Chinese peoopium war-that dark passage of British ple as to their own interests; or, if not so, history-has taught the Chinese Govern- upon their utter want of capital, as well as ment and the people, that to any extent, in- of the spirit of enterprise. land, to which European armaments may If at one and the same moment the facts penetrate, resistance to our military power concerning the opium trade were to break is vain. The feebler race, and the less perfect in upon the Chinese mind, and the Imperial civilisation, must take law-right or wrong authority were to be weakened, and the pre-from the stronger, and the more knowing. sent strain upon the monetary resources of But even this consciousness of its weakness China were to reach a crisis, the result, as may lead the Government, or those separate affecting the Indian trade, would seem to be Governments that may result from the pre- inevitable, or nearly so :— sent conflict, to defend themselves, commercially, at least, in another manner. The annual drainage of silver from China, on this account alone, is such as to drag it down ward toward ruin; and a far-seeing Govern

"Fifty or sixty thousand chests of opium, at the cost of a hundred and thirty pounds sterling per chest, are annually paid for by China, either in hard silver, or in goods, equal to silver in relation to the resources of the country. This drain

has gone on always increasing, until the disturb-ficial to the peoples-many-that are subing and ruinous effect of it has reached a point ject to it. We have no space for historical where it threatens a wide-spread calamity: the mass of the people is in course of becoming indi- comparisons, but may assume it as certain, that no well-informed Englishman, who is gent to a degree which cannot be exceeded. It is only as the opium plague spreads further and not perverted by malign and unpatriotic further inwards, over the empire, that the funds prejudices, would attempt to deny that the apon which it draws can be maintained. But British domination in the East-the object these funds are not inexhaustible. The tea and as it is of wonder and admiration to the the silk which China brings in her hands, in part world, is a good, incalculably great, to the payment of the chest of opium, do not suffice for nations of India; or that the overthrow of this purpose. For a long course of years the de- it would be a calamity, the depth of which ficiency has been made up each year by something like fifteen millions of dollars, paid in hard silver. none could estimate. This drain has deranged the monetary condition of the empire to an extent which cripples its industry, and which has spread so much discontent among the people, as to have aggravated, if it have not originated, the intestine commotions by which, at present, it is torn. The silver mines of China have been very productive, but it is affirmed that the richest of them have long been exhaust ed, and that the Government has sent its agents

To treat any question touching the stability of the Indian Empire with indifference, must be an affectation. We hold this to be certain; nor should we give heed for a moment to any argument relating to the opium trade, the ground of which was this, that humanity at large has no concernment with the maintenance and perpetuation of that in search of new veins. How far this search It is with a feeling altogether of a empire. may have been successful, is not known; but this is contrary sort that we go about to inquire certain, that the exhausted condition of the em- whether the Indian revenue, is, in fact, so pire at large has not been relieved." dependent upon this one source of income as has been, and is usually assumed.

On such grounds as these, let it be for a Lord Dalhousie's report of his eight moment admitted as probable, that China years' administration brings under view, should cease, whether gradually or suddenly, within the compass of a few pages, the to be willing, or to be able to take at our territorial acquisitions which have taken hands the opium of India. If this cessation place during these eight years, and the conshould imply the abandonment of the per- sequent augmentation of the revenue to the nicious practice of opium smoking to a amount of not less than four millions stergreat extent, all humane persons must re- ling. The income for the present year is joice, and rejoice, too, whatever might be estimated at thirty millions sterling. We come of Indian revenue. But let us suppose must abstain from going into details, any nothing more than this, that China resolves further than these may touch our conclusion to save itself the three or four hundred per in the question before us. During these cent. of artificial cost, and to raise and pre- eight years, "the tonnage which sought the pare its own opium. In that event, it is port of Calcutta has more than doubled in true, humanity has gained nothing; but at amount." At the same time, internal trade, the least, the British conscience stands re- as well as those means which so vastly falieved from a heavy burden. China con- cilitate the measures of Government, have tinues to destroy herself with this poison; received incalculable aids by the completion but we no longer are the receivers of the of a thousand miles or more of railwaypieces of silver which hitherto the suicide by the extension and improvement of has brought into our hands. canals; and, not least, by the extension of But now, in such an imagined case, which the electric telegraph through four thousand implies nothing very improbable, what miles of country.*

course would the Indian Government, or the But as to these territorial acquisitions, "Honourable Court" at home, adopt and the direct increase accruing to the revenue pursue? In attempting a reply, we turn is far from being the most important part again to Lord Dalhousie's Minute. This of the advantage thence arising-or likely record of an eight years' administration may to arise. well be read with amazement by our European neighbours-north and south, and by us with a consciousness-let it not be in the world's vain dialect, "a proud consciousness" of a domination to which nothing in history is comparable-a domination so wide, so various in the national elements it embraces-so vast in its resources, and exercised, on the whole, in a manner so bene- territory. D-19

VOL. XXVI.

"An extensive trade is springing up in Pegu, and when the deficient population of the country shall have been supplied as it will be under the firm British rule the province of Pegu will

* While writing, we see that the Company has just now authorized the further extension of this system over more than three thousand miles of its

equal Bengal in fertility of production, and will But this exposition of the resources of surpass it in every other respect."-Minute, India touches our present purpose at yet another point.

Art. 26.

The acquisitions of the Company in Berar and Nagpore have brought under its immediate control those districts which are

most favourable to the culture of cotton. Nothing connected with the British Empire in the East, and with its bearing upon our manufacturing supremacy, can be more important than is the increase of the cotton culture in India: a large supply of cotton from that quarter, free-grown, if it were equal in quality, and on a level as to price with that of the slave States of America, is in every sense intensely to be desired. An increase, in this article alone, might quickly make good a deficiency in the revenue that is now drawn from the opium traffic. Some districts in the kingdom of Pegu are likely also to be devoted to the cotton culture.

in

it

In India canal navigation is usually, if not is the pathway of trade-the cheapest and every case, a double-handed blessing: the surest; it is the source of irrigation over wide levels-provinces, through which it passes. So it has already opened the interior to European manufactures, and at the cured India to a great extent against those same time has-may we not say so?-sevisitations of famine which have not failed to decimate the people periodically. At once to facilitate and extend trade, and to

exempt the people from these devastations, incalculably. On this subject we must cite is to augment the resources of the empire the Governor-General again :

"Of all the works of public improvement which can be applied to an Indian province, works of irrigation are the happiest in their And foremost among all the works of irrigation effects upon the physical condition of the people. that the world has as yet ever seen, stands the Ganges canal, whose main stream was for the first time opened on the 8th April 1854.... Within eight years the main lines of the Ganges canal, applicable to the double purpose of irrigation and navigation, have been designed, executed, and opened. Extending over 525 miles in and in its extreme breadth 170 feet, the main length, measuring in its greatest depth 10 feet, irrigation line of the Ganges canal is justly described as a work which stands unequalled in its class and character among the efforts of civilized nations."-Minute, Art. 87.

"The cultivation of tea in Assam," we are here told, Minute, Art. 79, "has prospered in a remarkable degree. The plant has also been largely introduced into the upper districts of the north-west provinces; and, some years ago, plantations were established in the Deyrah Dhoon, and in Kumaon and Gurhwal. More recently Mr. Fortune has been employed to bring plants and seeds in large quantities from China, and to engage Chinese workmen for the manufacture of the tea. The cultivation has extended along the Himalayas. Extensive plantations are now growing up on the heights toward Kangra; and an experimental plantation has been formed on the Murree Hills, above Rawul Pindee. Further to the eastward, in Kumaon and Gurhwal, the Zemindars have adopted the cultivation of the This Report then goes on to mention, in plant themselves. Very large quantities of tea their order, as many as twenty-six public are now manufactured every year. It sells works connected with inland navigation, readily at a high price. There is every reason with irrigation, and with maritime security, to believe that the cultivation of the tea plant which have either been completed within will be very widely spread in future years, and that the trade in tea produced in India will be the same term of years, or which are now come considerable in extent."-Minute, Art. 80.

in progress. To canals succeed roadsalmost novelties in India;-then railways, The growth of flax, of silk, the rearing of and the electric telegraph; in which last sheep in Pegu, and of horses-the pre- class of improvements India seems to be servation and renewal of forests (especially taking the lead in all the world:-but we in the kingdom of Oude) " will now be must refrain, and answer the questioncarefully regulated and preserved." An How do these magnificent undertakingsextensive survey of districts likely to contain magnificent because beneficent, how do they mineral treasures-coal and iron especially, touch our present subject-the opium rehas been carrying forward for some time, venue of India? and promises to be productive to an important extent.

They touch this subject in two ways distinctly. In the first place, they spread before us a prospect not unsubstantial, or in any "On the ground of these encouraging facts, sense visionary, of such a development of fair hopes may be built that the present most the vast natural resources of India, and of urgent want of India, in connexion with her ma- such an expansion of its internal trade, and terial improvement, namely, an ample supply of of its commerce, as may warrant a sure good iron, within her own bounds, may at no distant date be abundantly supplied."-Minute, calculation of the gradual, and probably the rapid increase of the revenue. It is

Art. 85.