diminution, or the entire failure of, the think it stands quite alone on this ground) opium trade with China. We believe that opium, as available for purposes of tranif a better direction were given to agricul- sient delirium, is a substance sui generis: ture and trade throughout India, it would it is not one of a class of drugs amongst quickly overtake any temporary deficiency. which a substitute might easily be found. We assume it to be certain, in the second If this one drug-opium, can be kept out of place That the Indian government, and the the reach of the mass of the people, the evils imperial government of China, if the two it entails meet at once an effective remedy. were in accordance, and if they were so Opium invaluable, indispensable, as а minded, might with ease prevent the impor- means in the hands of the medical practitation of opium along the coast of China. tioner, has a use which is so limited, and At present a fully armed marine force, on which is so well defined, that, even if it may a large scale, is employed in defending and still remain within reach of the few, it may maintaining the importation, being as it is easily be placed on a high shelf, where none contraband. It needs only a good under- but the long arms of the wealthy can lay standing between the Indian and the Chinese their hands upon it. governments to render the smuggling trade Then as to the production of this drug, dangerous and difficult to such an extent as the same kind of singularity attaches to it. would bring it to an end, or nearly so. A It is not one of a class of products, to repress lawful and a profitable trade with China would well pay the cost of a force in the Eastern seas sufficient to keep them clear both of pirates and of smugglers.

or forbid the whole of which would clearly be impossible. As an agricultural product. the poppy-field stands out with a broad and glaring individuality among the cereals, and But assuming these things as certain, the the grasses, and the legumens, just as the question has still its difficulties-some of single poppy in flower declares itself in the them apparent only, and some real. It is midst of a field of wheat. Every way, popwell understood that measures of prohibi-py farming is marked off from every other tion, or of restriction, are much more easily produce. It demands, if cultivated on a devised than carried out and made effective. large scale for commerce-it demands esOften have even the strongest and the most pecial conditions of soil, and of temperadespotic governments been compelled, after ture: it needs atmospheric steadiness; and undergoing a series of mortifying defeats, to the nearness of cheap labour, for the husleave things to take their course. Effect- bandry of it is costly. Poppy farming ively to exclude anything from a country is not within reach of every occupier of by high duties is to offer a premium to the land under a tropical sun; it has its chosen smuggler :-to limit the consumption of it spots. Then the opium manufacture must when already in the country, is an endea- adjoin the poppy field. Opium is not like vour impracticable; or quite impracticable whisky, which if you give it only its share in a free country-sumptuary laws and out of every stack-yard may be made to run domiciliary intrusions upon the privacies of a perennial stream from a kettle, in any life are out of the question, or ought now to hovel deep hid among the mountains. The be thought so. Nevertheless there are ex- poppy is, in a literal sense, and in a figuraceptional cases-there are instances on be- tive sense too, the creature of the sun-it half of which a special course may reasona- cannot be hid; the opium manufacture in bly be pleaded for, and must in fact be al-India could no more be put under a bushel, lowed. The promiscuous sale of the more than could hay-making be so served in Engactive poisons is an instance of this kind; land. the difficulty attaching to which is precisely What is the inference? Just this, that this-that the restriction which is sought for opium culture offers itself as an exceptive must be made to bear upon a very large product of agricultural labour, which more number of the articles that are kept for pop-readily, perhaps, than any other that could ular use in every druggist's shop. It may be named, might be brought under control, be asked, which are the poisons? If arse- and be made to confine itself within prenic and strychnine are to be shut off from scribed limits, and which, without inflicting popular use, there are a dozen pernicious drugs out of which the suicide or the murderer may make his choice, though they may not be quite so convenient in the appli

cation.

But no such difficulty or ambiguity attaches to the article with which now we are concerned, In a singular degree (and we

any damage or disadvantage either upon the occupancy of land, or upon any vested interests, might be hedged in by statutes or regulations, easily and certainly enforced. If a man may say to his gardener, "Don't put in any more parsnips this year, they are not wholesome," so may a government-if, indeed, it can do anything-if it can enforce

any sort of restrictive rule, it may say, "No more poppy farms-so many acres in such a district may be given to this plant; but no more."

that such a man is offended and alarmed by what he learns concerning the opium trade. He finds that it is carried on in violation of the admitted principles of international law; But it is said, if the opium manufacture that what may fitly be called the perpetration were abandoned, or were only restricted in of this trade is consigned to the hands of India, a stimulus would be given to the buccaneers-men who would be hanged by culture elsewhere; the people of China will dozens if their services were not in this case destroy themselves in this way, and the In- needed; and that the use of opium in China dian government may as well profit by their is attended with miseries deeper and more infatuation. This is the old plea for all widely spread than those which sprang from kinds of abominations. It is, or it was, the the slave trade. This alarm, and this reargument of the slave-trader: it is the plea vulsion of feeling, leads such a man-to of those who live and fatten upon detestable whom the care of the eastern world has been practices it is the plea of all who live by committed to make inquiry concerning the the crimes and vices of others-it is the traffic, on the common grounds of commerpretext of the receiver of stolen goods-it cial policy, and to ask, Are we really doing is, and ever has been, the legend upon the ourselves any good by this infernal trade? rogue's escutcheon, all the world over-"I Or can it be true that a barter which desdon't make the wickedness, I only live by troys the buyer and the consumer, and it." It would be a great wrong to suppose which stains with blood the hands of the that such a doctrine should be taken up and seller, is a good trade on the whole? Such used, either in Leadenhall Street, or the a man will soon convince himself that it is Government House, Calcutta.

The time is passed, or it is passing away, in which courses of conduct on the part of governments or corporations, which the individual man would abhor, may be palliated, connived at, and left to weigh upon the soul of the automaton whose business it is to sign official documents. That which is false and wrong, and cruel and ruinous to the weak and the ignorant, is coming to be scouted as a mistake in political economy, as well as a crime.

not so,

A good bargain is defined to be a transaction which is advantageous to both the parties; and it should be equally advantageous to both, all things allowed for. It may be good for a man, in certain cases, to give a diamond ring for a threepenny loaf; but this is not trade. Lately it was not understood, but now it is perfectly understood, that trade is at its best when both parties are flourishing, and are making money in the exchange. Lately it was not understood, but now it is well understood-thanks to the establishment of free-trade principles-that nations do not prosper in an inverse ratio to the prosperity of their neighbours; but, on the contrary, directly by means of their mutual prosperity, Need these things be demonstrated at this time? Surely not.

The opium traffic of the East India Company with China has come down to us along with many other evil things and great mistakes from times when atrocities and political errors hugged each other complacently, and were seldom called to give an account of themselves. But the opium traffic, along with other mischievous usages, must now be We may imagine a future Governorprepared to show cause why it should not General to be not merely a man of enlarged be condemned, not only as source, and the views, but one who is full of English feeldirect cause of incalculable miseries, but as ing; that he is more than an able adminisan enormous error in the international pol-trator of Indian affairs;-let him be a statesity. That it is, in fact, a mutual mischief man, and he will then govern India, thinking might be demonstrated in detail, and placed of it as part and parcel of the British Empire; beyond the reach of doubt. An exact and copious statement of the results and the course of European and American trade with China will show this. At present we can only make an appeal to common sense on more general grounds.

Let it be imagined now, for a moment, that a future Governor-General of Indiaright-minded as a man and a Christian, and well informed in the principles of commerce, and also, by structure of mind, holding in due contempt the small wisdom which so often flourishes and prevails in public offices;

he will be fixed in his resolution to look at China as it stands related to the commercial prosperity of the British Empire-not as it chances to relate to the Indian revenue. Thus regarded, the question of the opium traffic would quickly resolve itself, and be determined in a sense consonant with the dictates of humanity, and of international justice. He would see that national interests, largely understood, are not in this instance, any more than in any other instance, at variance with the eternal principles of justice and humanity. It is nothing more than an

imaginary necessity which, in this case, stands to descend to the details on this ground. in the way of our perceiving, that the enor- Let the reader, who would properly undermous wrong we are doing, for the sake of an stand the subject now referred to, first acimmediate gain, is even now avenging the quaint himself with all that can be known of injured people upon ourselves, and is sure to the processes and the means of the industrial make thorough work with us in the end, arts in China; and then let him pass at with a full measure of disastrous results. leisure through those vast structures-the The Chinese people, whether they number, spinning "sheds," the "mills," the "shops" as is said, three hundred and forty millions, of Lancashire and Yorkshire, and of the or some millions more or fewer-it does not manufacturing districts of Scotland; let him signify to our argument are just in that inform himself of the lowering of prices in state of imperfectly developed civilisation various articles, looking back ten years. which, under conditions we shall specify, These reductions of price having been might render them customers for British brought about almost entirely by the immanufactures, to an extent that is incalculable. provements and the extension of machinery, Their modes of life and their tastes embrace and by various perfectionments in the modes as large an assortment of the products of the of applying it. The result of such an explomechanic arts as is required for what we may ration must be the conviction, that the staple call the "outfit" of more highly advanced British manufactures may, for long years to western nations. Their own imitative inge- come, and probably for ever, undersell the nuity, the traditionary perfection of some of industry of China, even when charged with the arts among them, and their eminent freightage and the profits of merchants. handiwork skill, their domestic habitudes, But it must be well understood that the their love of decoration, their needs, as oc- enjoyment of this advantage, in any but a cupants of a region inclusive of great ine- very limited degree, is not a matter of course; qualities of temperature;-all these influen- for it is dependent upon certain conditions. ces bring them before us, if we speak now We have already learned this to our cost. as traders, as the buyers to a large extent of To make up cargoes for Canton and Shangwhat we have to sell. It is true that native hai may be easy, but to obtain a ready sale skill and industry, and cheap labour have for these consignments on remunerative hitherto sufficed, and will long suffice, for terms, is another matter, and is not so easy. meeting the demand in certain of the indus- The conditions of an extensive and evertrial arts, especially in those in carrying for- enlarging and remunerative trade with China ward which hand-labour has its advantages, are several-some of which are beyond our as compared with the products of machinery. present subject, but some bear upon it diIn the ceramic manufactures, and especially rectly.

in the decorative branch of it, the Chinese There is ground for believing that, alpotter and painter will be able to hold his though the absolutely indigent and destitute own against the men of the Staffordshire class in China may not be a larger propor potteries. Whoever has walked through tion of the entire population than in some the potteries, with an eye fixed upon China, European countries, the class of those who will have seen that the antiquated processes subsist upon almost the minimum of the which are there adhered to, especially in the means of life is very large. What can we decorative department, are so many premi- look for from these millions of barely-clad ums put into the hand of the Chinese potter. rice-eaters as customers for British manufacThen, again, it is not likely that we should tures? Very little in their actual condition, ever manufacture paper here in England, or but much gradually, if only we can reach be able to print books upon such paper advantageously, for the Chinese reading public. On various points this ingenious people possesses an advantage which we must be content to leave in their hands.

them extensively. In a mechanical sense the masses of China are now accessible:their system of inland navigation is such that if these water courses were opened to European means of transit, these vast regions But it is otherwise in almost every one would at once spread themselves out before of those industrial arts in which the com- our enterprise; and to us, as a trading and mand of boundless capital and the applica- manufacturing people, a nation of hundreds tion of machinery on the largest scale serve of millions would, in this sense, be born to at once to secure the highest excellence in us in a day. Not that the masses of the the work, and cheapness too, in a degree people, even if we had unrestricted access to which goes far beyond the limit of hand- them, would immediately, or soon be buylabour, however cheap it may be, and with ers of all we could send them. But it is a whatever ingenuity it may be employed. sure principle that the feeling, the taste, the We should far exceed our limits if we were coveting for conveniences and decorations,

If the British commercial policy were to be thought of as a whole-as a devised scheme of national enterprise, what we are doing, described in its naked reality, is just this, we are drugging to the death the man whom we are hoping to see enter our shop daily, purse in hand!

the factitious need to have, and to enjoy er himself, by thousands or by millions; or what has been presented to the eye, and has it is bringing him down from a condition lodged itself in the imagination-these ten- which is improvable, to a condition of desdencies, so deep-seated as they are in human perate and irrecoverable wretchedness. nature, require to be stimulated and to be cultured, and then they are sure to grow. When stimulated to a certain extent, and when they have become habitudes, they bring with them, or they actually create, the very means of further expansion. Those races especially that are constitutionally industrial, are peculiarly apt to admit this kind of stimulus. It is by help of the taste for conveniences and for decorations-it is the desire for things which lie a little way beyond the border of primary necessity, that individuals and that communities are lifted out of the slough of physical wretchedness, and are urged to labour, to patient endurance, frugality, enterprise. Human nature does better when led than when driven. Drive him by the lash, or by the imminent dread of hunger and nakedness, and man remains a savage. Lead and tempt him for- exceptions:-there is no instance in the ward by the prospect of comforts, and of a better condition of his home, and of an attire which shall allow him to maintain self-respect, and then his energies wake up, and you see what is in him.

If in the course of whatever changes in the internal condition of the Chinese empire-its breaking up, for instance, we should gain free access to the masses of the people-let us wisely use such an opportunity for promoting their domestic and industrial habits by tempting them to buy what we can sell them a good article and cheap. Open before the people of China your packages of printed goods from Lancashire;-shew them your Sheffield cutlery ;-offer them all those goods and wares which may be seen welling forth daily as a torrent from the vast machineries of manufacturing England and Scotland.

It is true that, within the encyclopedia of commerce, and as related to fiscal questions, there are instances analogous to this of the opium traffic: there are instances, we admit, which a determined controvertist might bring forward and insist upon, in bar of the conclusion to which we would come. There are instances resembling this of the trade in opium; but, we confidently say it, there is no instance strictly parallel to it; there is no instance so unambiguous, none so little complicated by admixture with impracticable

round of international intercourse which might so easily be dealt with, or in dealing with which so vast an amount of evil might be mitigated, or wholly excluded, at so small a cost. Our limits forbid that we should go into any of these comparisons. Rather than do so let it be granted that the principles which we should apply to the trade in opium ought, in consistency, to be applied to other similar cases. We do not, in fact, allow it to be so; but allow it for the moment, and then return to the instance in question.

Opium is not one of a class of products, some of which, or many perhaps, it would be impossible to exclude or prohibit. It is one drug, having a well-defined, and easily. marked, and conspicuous individuality. There is not, either in its legitimate quality as a medicine, or as a means of vicious indulgence, a substitute at hand. If the poppy But it is just at this point that we reach the were altogether to fail, the medical practidifficult, and, in truth, the afflictive stage of tioner would be hopeless of supplying its our present argument. The opium chest is place:-if the poppy culture were to be rea block of adamant in the way, stopping the duced within the limits of the demand for it course of British industry and enterprise, as on the part of the pharmaceutical chemist, toward the vast regions, and the many islands the opium smoker must resign himself to that lie east of the Straits of Malacca. We the misery of wanting his dose. Opium need not revert to the facts to which already eating and smoking may, alas! come in the we have made a cursory reference. These place of intoxicating liquors; and this fatal facts are, for the most part, out of question: substitution has, it is to be feared, extenthey are established by the concurrence of sively taken place in consequence of the illalmost all testimonies, and they leave us no considered attempt to reform drunkards by room to doubt that the opium chest, landed a vow. But while neither gin nor rum will upon the whole line of Continental China, bring about the opium delirium, opium and rapidly making its way inland upon the more than meets the cravings of the dramrivers and canals, is not merely draining the drinker. country of its means as a customer for our goods, but is actually destroying our custom

This clearly-defined simplicity, attaching, as it does, to the instance before us, there is

solid ground for the inquiry-What would jab to Pegu, and from the temperate flanks happen if, induced by considerations of what- of the Himalaya to Cape Comorin. In five ever class, whether moral, or political, or years, or less time, the Indian revenue will fiscal, the Honourable the East India Com- have recovered itself, and far more than repany should resolve to make up its revenue covered the momentary defalcation. But from other sources, and to wash its hands the second of these results of such a course of the trade in opium? Already, in the would be, a gradual and indefinite enlargecourse of this article, we have affirmed it as ment of the British commerce with China, certain that a system of prohibition, if it is and the Eastern Islands. China, even if to be effective, must be made to rest upon a it continued to consume opium, would compact between the Company and the rul- obtain it at a fraction of the present cost; ing power in China-either the present im- and its twenty millions of silver would be perial, or its vanquisher; the cordial inten- annually available for the purchase of comtion of which compact would be, to prevent modities which, instead of paralyzing the the importation of opium into China. And, national industry, stimulate and feed it, and moreover, as the Chinese official persons open before it new fields of gainful enteralong the coast are utterly venal and un-prise. Instances many and various in iltrustworthy, it must be understood that the lustration of this assumption might be adopium trade has been denounced as piracy; duced: take one;-any one who may chance and that it must be followed and hunted out, to have seen those samples of Chinese dyed along the coasts, and in all the eastern woven fabrics, which at different times have waters, as the slave trade has been in the been exhibited in Manchester, will have Atlantic. On any conditions short of these, other trading nations-we will not say the Americans would step into the place we had vacated, and the mischief would be scarcely checked.

gathered from these specimens two inferences; first, that from whatever causes, whe ther of climate or of chemical intelligence, or of manipulative skill, the Chinese dyer is likely to beat us, perhaps always, in bringBut it is not to be supposed that the con- ing out brilliant and deep-toned colours, the sumption of opium in China could be abso- blues, the purples, the crimsons. But then lutely and universally brought to an end. the woven tissue to which these rich dyes To attempt an issue of this kind would be to are imparted are far outdone in evenness of fail, and perhaps to aggravate the evil. In- thread and beauty of texture by the looms stead of doing this, the Chinese Government of Lancashire: our machinery does its office, might safely legalize the culture of the both as spinner and as weaver, in a manner poppy, and hold it under limitations. Grant which defies rivalry. And although we do it that measures of this sort would be diffi- not reach the splendour of Chinese colours cult in the execution; we are not called (not in woven fabrics any more than in deupon to consider or to devise the means for corated potteries) we are able, and on terms obviating such difficulties. What we have of the extremest cheapness, to print what to do with, are the results of such a course we weave: the printed goods of Lancashire as affecting ourselves; and yet, before we will please the people of China, if only we pass on, we may observe, that it must be a first send to China for the pattern, and then far easier task on the part of a government faithfully copy it. On this ground thento make a fence round a poppy-farm, and to it is one among many instances-there is a say to the occupiers-" these acres, and no division of labour instituted between nations more for this plant"-than to keep a look- on the opposite sides of the planet:-it is a out, night and day, along a thousand miles distribution of tasks which is founded upon of indented and dangerous coast, so as to the nature of things within the two countries intercept the armed smuggler: this latter is respectively; and it is therefore likely to be a means of keeping opium out of the reach permanent; nor is it out of reason to imagine of the people, which the Chinese government, if unassisted, could never make effective: the former is at least supposable, and might be found easy.

that cotton, grown on the flats of the Mississippi, and spun and woven in England, should be sent to China to be dyed, in whole colours, and then returned to the shops of London As affecting ourselves, we mean British and Paris, taking a place, and commanding interests at large, inclusive of those of our a price as goods not to be matched, and as empire in the East, the consequences of a evidences of what may be done when Europe, relinquishment of the trade in opium with America, and Asia join hands and work upon China would be, in the first instance, an ear- a system-a system which nature has chalked nest endeavour to develop, in a fuller degree, out for them. Only take the poppy out of this the several elements of national wealth world-wide field and we shall all fare the betthroughout the Peninsula-from the Pun- ter-China, India, England, and America.