Statistics of Opium SmoJcing. 523 



have ceased to liope that tlie trade can ever be enth-ely sup- 

 pressed, yet it is at least consolatory to know that, according 

 to the best calculations, the number of opium smokers 

 throughout China, in a population that is to say of 420,000,000, 

 is not above 4,000,000 to 5,000,000, and that an ordinary 

 smoker does not on an average consume more than one 

 mace or about one drachm * of ojDium, worth about 90 cash, or 

 ^\d. The provisions of the new tariff, by which opium may 

 be imported unrestrictedly on payment of a fixed duty of 30 

 taels (about £10) per chest when water-borne, and 20 taels 

 (about £6 10s.) when imported by land, must materially 

 effect the opium trade as hitherto carried on, and may very 

 possibly alter the views at j^resent entertained by the Chinese 

 Government with reference to this imj^ortant article of com- 

 merce, in proportion as its treasury begins to be replenished 

 by such a high rate of duty. 



Although for European readers the chief interest of China 

 is to be found in its relations with foreign countries, we yet 

 cannot take leave of it without a few remarks on the mo- 

 mentous political movement which has been on foot since 

 1849 in several provinces of China, and claims, in conse- 

 quence of its peculiar religious natm^e, universal interest. 



Hung-sin-Tsuen, the originator and head of this rebellion, 



* There are indeed smokers who smoke their two, four, five, and even eight drachms 

 per diem, but these are solitary instances, while the very costliness of the article for- 

 bids the use of the narcotic to the great mass of the population, except in the very 

 smallest quantities. 



