522 Voyage of the Novara. 



US, drawn vi^ with great labour and industry by Dr. Med- 

 liurst, informs us that between 1798 and 1855 there 

 were imported altogether 1,197,041 chests of opium from 

 Bengal, which, after deducting all expenses of cultivation and 

 shipment, represented a net gain to the East India Company 

 of £67,851,853.* 



Relying on the splendid profits secured to the East India 

 Company, and its colleagues settled in China, by the opium 

 traffic, no one troubled himself in the slightest with the many 

 protests of the Chinese Government, any more than the ana- 

 themas ijiunched at opium dealers and opium smokers by 

 English missionaries and philanthropists. The dealers, 

 growing richer day by day, contented themselves with 

 laconic replies to the more virulent of their antagonists, to 

 the effect that they were but supplying a want originating in 

 a national custom, and that it was as futile to attempt to 

 prevent the Chinese from smoking as to restrain Europeans 

 from the use of spii'ituous liquors. Both when abused are 

 productive of much evil, and even then opium was productive 

 of far less destructive ravages on the human organism, and was 

 never followed by such appalling catastrophes as those 

 resulting from alcohol. The dark side of the opium traffic 

 has since been so fully exposed, that but little more remains 

 to be said, and although even the most sanguine persons 



* A very similar result is arrived at by MacCuUoch, who calculates that the Com- 

 pany cleared 7s. 6d. per lb. on opium, which they bought by their agents from the 

 Bengal ryots at 3s. Gd. per pound, and retailed at lis. per pound. 



