It is highly desirable that this subject of of trade. How does this hold as to China? the opium trade should be temperately and No question just now can be of more urgent quietly considered;-viewed on the open significance than this. From the Company's ground of commercial policy, and of inter- dealings in opium with China, thus far, have national right. It is, while taking our stand sprung sideways a useful result of this sort: on this lower ground, that we advert to a A flagrant and shocking inconsistency has connected subject, which the readers of the presented itself in the view of the more inNorth British Review, for the most part, are telligent and shrewd among the Chinese little accustomed to think of otherwise than people, when the nation which, for the sake in connection with reasons and motives of a of gain, is seducing and destroying helpless far loftier range. But let them give us a millions among them, comes to propound to few moments' indulgence. We need not them, and to entreat their acceptation of, a offend the sacred associations of any sound religion-a religion which, so far as appears, mind. authorizes and prompts to the most flagiThe Jesuit missions in India, in Japan, and tious conduct. The Christian missionary, upon the South American Continent, met alive as he is to the mortifying imputations their deserved ruin on this ground, when, to which he is open on this ground, has been abusing the opportunity which their mission driven to seek exculpation by marking off had given them, they laid a greedy hand the ground on which he stands, by a broad upon trade, and made a gain," a vast gain, border, from that occupied by his country"of godliness," or of its shams. A repeti- men, the dealers in opium. To some extent tion of this fatal error is not likely to be he may have succeeded in clearing himself risked in these times. Any such mistake of the stain; and so far as he has done this, would quickly be noised at home, and would so far as he has persuaded the people to meet a loud condemnation; this, we think, is whom he addresses himself that he disallows certain. the acts of these traders, and would put a Equally certain are two correlative prin- bar to them if he could, so far he has set ciples, which have come to be recognised in missions and trade clear the one of the a sort of spontaneous manner as the com- other. If this needful preliminary work be mon results of the modern missionary enter- done, or done to some extent, then things prises of the Christian commonwealth. The are in the most favourable position for givfirst of these laws of international intercourse ing legitimate effect to the reciprocity of is this that Christianity, while on some Christian missions and of trade in China, lines it follows in the wake of trade, on other if only this one stone of stumbling, the lines it is the forerunner, the pioneer of opium chest, were taken out of the way. trade, and has proved itself to be the most We do not know that any course of things simple and the most auspicious means of making an inroad upon regions which could have been opened before us in no other way.

Now this beneficial reciprocity, if it is to maintain itself in vigour, and if it is to be real, must be carefully held clear of any designed relationship, or any explicit compact;-at least it must do so on one side, if not on both. Let the merchant recollect himself as a Christian man, and do his duty as such when he has opportunity to send out the Gospel as well as his bales. But the Christian missionary plunges himself into an abyss wherein souls are lost, if he allows himself, even in the most remote manner, to be used as a tool for opening the door of commerce. All this we take to be immovably and universally certain.

could be imagined more propitious than this, that the Christian missionary should find himself at liberty to address his hearers by the way-side in this manner :-"We told you that we had no connection with the opium trade, but abhorred it; our countrymen at home disapprove and disallow it too; and at length those who have made their gain in this way have been persuaded to abandon it, and to betake themselves to lawful and useful lines of trade; henceforward, therefore, they will deal with you in those articles only, the exchange of which is beneficial on both sides!" It will be an era in missions to China when the missionary shall be allowed thus to lift up his head, and when he may boldly say as much as this.

But a new era in missions is not just now our theme. To the British merchant we Meantime, the law above named stands say, and we would say it if we had access to good-that Christian missions (whether we the "Honourable Court"-Put no obstacle intend it or not) have it in their nature to do, in the way of Christianity in China. Be glad unconsciously, that which they should abhor if you see the zeal of the missionary carrying to do wittingly, or of set purpose; they him far inland, where the trader has not yet will, if not hindered, macadamize the wastes been, or would not venture to go. Christianof the world, in preparation for the advances ity, with its inherent expansive forces

with its proper dynamics, its solvents, its induce every reader who professes Christian soul, its fire, its martyr resolution-its rea- humanity to read it for himself. The author, diness to suffer and to die, so that it may win General Alexander, who is honorary secresouls-Christianity will at length open China tary of the Society for Suppressing Opium to Europe-will soften the mass-will split Smuggling, is not only perfectly master of the rock-will mellow and leaven the lump. the question, but he is a master also of himChristianity will interpret China to Europe, self; we mean, that he writes with feeland Europe to China. Its electric fire will ing indeed, but entirely without vehemence, bring these countless millions of men into or undue excitement; and this is a comnear correspondence with western industry. mendation not always merited by the humane Are you asking how shall you get at the when they undertake the task of bringing people of China? The Gospel shall show enormous wrongs into notice, and under you the way. But on what condition shall reprehension. it do so? This is the one condition, namely -the opium chest must be taken out of the way of the missionary.

We cannot come to a close without directing the attention of our readers to the " Occasional Paper" of the Edinburgh Medical To bring about so desirable a result, the Missionary Society-the paper last named British people must stand ready to do their at the head of this article. It contains a letter part in this, as in many similar well-remem- by a medical missionary at Canton; and bered instances. They must inform them- while it exhibits a personal acquaintance selves on the subject;-they must convince with the subject-the opium trade, and opium themselves of the urgency of the case, and smoking in China-it gives evidence also of of the intimate connexion of the smuggling the writer's freedom from that excitement, trade in opium with, at once, the welfare, and that tendency to exaggeration, which too the very existence of the people of China-- often betray themselves in the style of benewith the spread of Christianity, and with the volent men, when they are endeavouring to extension of British commerce in the East-"write down" an evil of any kind. This ern world. When thus convinced and in- medical writer, from whom we should quote formed, the English public must sustain the if our space allowed, advances opinions as to efforts that are now making to press the the effects of opium smoking which do not subject upon the attention of Government. quite accord with the evidence we have cited For unless it be known in Parliament that from other writers. Nevertheless, he strongthere is a strong feeling to that effect in the ly urges the adoption of measures adapted country, nothing will be done beyond the to the diminution of the practice, which he appointment of a Committee. Whether at admits to be extensively prevalent, and to this time any progress beyond this of "get- be in the last degree injurious. We do not ting rid of the question," shall be made, attempt to adjudge the question of fact as depends, we might say, entirely upon the between this writer and others, whose testistrength of the conviction which pervades mony we have cited above. Let the truth the thoughtful portion of the public. A day, in this instance be known-the truth, nothing however, will come when the people of Eng-less, and nothing more. Let the facts, as land-slow as they are to move, but irresist- far as they can be ascertained, be perseverible when they have come to be of one ingly brought before the British public; and mind-shall condemn this wickedness as no the issue, sooner or later, will be, the extinclonger tolerable, and shall give judgment tion of the British opium trade with China. accordingly. To carry out such a righteous decision will be found a far easier work than in most cases is the removal of extensive

wrongs.

The papers and pamphlets named at the head of this article are, most of them, easily procurable; and they will be sought for by those who shall feel it a duty to inform themselves authentically and thoroughly upon the opium traffic question. They will read General R. Alexander's clear and very temperate pamphlet, "The Rise and Progress of British Opium Smuggling," &c., of which an enlarged and revised edition has just now appeared. From this able statement of the question, we might have made large extracts; but would rather so speak of it as shall

The recent events at Canton give a deep meaning to the Opium Trade question; the explanations which will forthwith be heard in Parliament will show how deep that meaning is.

3. The Republican Campaign Songster. | Treasury of United States, the agricultural New York, 1856.

The subsequent progress of the United States has been little less astounding; and if the angel were to reappear and address an inhabitant of Boston or New York, the celestial visitor might conclude with the same felicitation and the same warning. Accord- * See Captain Douglass Galton's masterly Report ing to the last Report of the Secretary of the on the Railways of the United States.

nor of its palpable sin, but of the singular for Mrs. Stowe's vivid picture of their suffercomplication of causes which render it fatal ings, when they are endowed with ordinary to concord, good government, and national sensitiveness, and much more when it is morality within the limits of the Federation, quickened and refined by education, can and of the apparent impossibility of getting hardly be overdrawn or exaggerated. It is rid of it without a civil or a servile war painful to dwell upon the scenes which must (perhaps both) of a thoroughly internecine be of almost daily occurrence in a slavekind. The feature which so fatally distin- breeding state, where sensitive beings are guishes it from the analogous institution literally treated like every other description amongst the ancients, has been placed in the of domestic animals, endowed indeed with most striking light by M. de Tocqueville. The instincts and appetites, but utterly destitute Greeks and Romans made slaves of their of parental or filial affection, beyond the captives, without regard to race. When period when it is required for the conthese were ransomed or manumitted, they tinuation or preservation of the species. resumed their pristine rights and former The exports in this sort of live stock from place as freemen, and soon became blended Virginia, from 1840 to 1850, have been with the rest of the population. Instead of computed to exceed ten thousand head a being intentionally degraded below the intel- year. How many cherished ties were ruthlectual level of their masters, they were lessly severed, must be left to the imaginataught accomplishments, and encouraged to tion. Assuredly when philanthropists were distinguish themselves by the cultivation of struggling to abolish and stigmatize the Af their talents of which Terence and Plastus rican slave trade, with its middle passage are examples. Something of the same sort horrors, they little thought that one direct takes place in the East, where slaves have result of their successful exertions would be frequently risen to the highest places of to create or encourage a commerce which, authority. In the United States, on the con- in some respects, is even more heartless and trary, the slaves are all negroes, and a negro, demoralizing than that which they imperbe his condition what it may, is regarded as an inferior animal, condemned by nature and predestined for oppression and contempt. The smallest infusion of negro blood in a family is a taint which nothing can erase or compensate. Emancipate the whole of the blacks to-morrow, and a new difficulty would consequently arise, namely, how to deal with them, for they would still remain a distinct and subjugated caste. They would be We agree with M. de Tocqueville, that watched with never-ceasing jealousy, and the comparison of Kentucky with Ohio, is most probably be forbidden either to meet quite decisive upon this point. These states and remonstrate, or to bear arms. How long are only divided by the river Ohio, and are could such an anomaly endure? Would on a par as regards natural advantages. On they succeed in vindicating their equality, the right bank (in Ohio) may be seen all or rise at intervals to provoke and justify the outward and unerring signs of industry renewed acts of injustice, or be gradually and enterprise; whilst everything on the exterminated by the wearing and tearing left (Kentucky) betokens neglect and indotyranny of centuries? The possibility of lence. The slave-holding state is outdone their getting the upper hand has been con- and outshone by its free neighbour in popustantly present to the minds of the proprie- lation, in buildings, in cultivation, in capital, tary class; and to prevent such a catastrophe, in short, in everything that indicates prothese have accumulated law upon law to gress and prosperity. The reason is obviplace and keep their slaves on a level with the brute creation. It is sufficient to name the law forbidding them to be taught to read or write, which has been judged a politic precaution in the South, where the numbers of the slave population are sufficient to excite alarm.

Shuddering humanity may be excused for Occasionally giving utterance to a wish that the unhappy victims of this soul-destroying legislation could be rendered entirely dead to the finest feelings of our common nature;

fectly suppressed. It is not unusual for slave-owners to turn their own sensuality and profligacy to account by sending their own children to market; and this brings us to what ought to touch all clear-headed and long-sighted Americans, namely, the irresistible and hourly increasing influence of slavery not only upon the morals but upon the material prosperity of the whites.

ous. Labour is honoured in the one, and regarded as a badge of inferiority in the other; and the effects extend beyond the personal habits of the class of masters, who compose a kind of indolent, pleasure-loving, partially refined, and extremely self-satisfied aristocracy. The emigrant will avoid settling in a country where he cannot earn his bread by the sweat of his brow without personal ignominy; and the free labourers who chance to be settled there, partake of the general deterioration and degradation. Al

though "the poor whites of the South," as they are called, outnumber their slave-holding fellow-citizens in the proportion of three to one, their wishes and interests are almost uniformly despised and trampled upon.

The maxim is as true of ambition as of vindictiveness. We have had in this country, and may have again, ample experience of what may be effected by an unscrupulous section against the convictions and interests Here, then, is an institution which drops of a better educated and more enlightened moral poison on all beneath its shade, majority. O'Connell's well-disciplined band which curses both him who tortures and made him virtual ruler of Ireland for a him who suffers through its instrumentality, period. Could Lord Derby and Mr. Disraeli -which contains within it the germ of a terri- keep their diminished and disheartened ble retribution, which is the direct negation troops together, they might again force of the grand principle that pervades and un- themselves into the temporary possession of derlies the whole system of republicanism, power, despite of their proved deficiencies as and which hourly threatens the dissolution statesmen, and the ludicrous incapacity of of the Union. Yet, instead of losing, it has their subordinates. The American slavebeen gradually gaining ground; slowly and holders have been playing for a more imsurely it has won its way forwards: those portant stake than the English Protectionwho have been bred up in it or under it, far ists. Their lives and property are at stake; from dropping to leeward, take the lead; at all events they think so; and minor dif and although, according to all the rules of ferences are never permitted to distract sound reasoning, they ought to have been worsted in the contest, there they are, and there they have been, for more than half a century, the real rulers of the Federation.

their attention from their paramount aim. They care not what price they pay for indispensable support; and they will vote for or against anything or everybody upon condition If we look to the present, we see them in that their own unrighteous cause shall be possession of both the incoming and the out- upheld. Let it be observed, moreover, that going head of the executive, and command- their interests and prejudices agree in some ing a majority in each branch of the collect- essential particulars with those of a large ive legislature. If we turn to the past, we portion of the Northern voters, who like find that, starting from the very commence- them, are jealous of the interference of Conment of American independence, they have gress in the internal affairs of the confedersupplied or obtained more than two-thirds ated states, and, like them also, have an inof the main objects of American ambition. veterate contempt for blacks. Recent events, Of the sixteen Presidents of the United States, however, have brought on a crisis which eleven have been actual slaveholders, and promises to be unfavourable to the tactics of three others wedded to their policy. They the slaveholders, by unmasking them. From have also named 61 out 77 presidents of the moment they exchanged "soft sawder " the Senate; 21 out of 33 speakers of the for bludgeons, and attempted to bully the House of Representatives; 15 out of 20 at- North, their chances lessened apace; and torneys-general: 17 out of 28 judges of the unless they make a temperate and conciliatsupreme court; and other high officials in ing use of their electioneering triumph, it proportion. The slaveholders of the United will be their last. At the same time, their States cannot, on the most liberal estimate, position is a very embarrassing one; for if be more than 350,000; and of this number they do not go forward, they will speedily only the adult males can exercise political be stripped of all the advantages they have privileges. The total number of voters in won. Unless they can secure a permanent the Union exceeds 3,000,000; and the North working majority in Congress, they will is pre-eminently the fountain of enterprise, have no alternative but to submit to see the seat of intellectual activity, and the that body rapidly reverting to the doctrines swarming hive of industry. What, then, is of its founders, or to execute their oft-repeatthe solution of the problem thus presented? ed threat of breaking up the Union. It is to be found in a complication of causes; Hitherto their strength has gone on inand amongst the most prominent may be creasing at a constantly accelerated ratio. ranked the unity of purpose, clearness of It was vainly thought that what is called view, and tenacity of will with which the the Missouri compromise had placed a defidominant minority has seen and pursued its nite limit to their usurpations. ends. According to Byron

This

was an agreement by which Missouri was admitted into the Union as a slave State, upon an understanding that slavery should be excluded from all the then (1818) federal territory west and north of the new State. This compromise was effected between the