THE OPIUM TRADE. 169 



war against the wrongs of Austria. That is the country, 

 on the other hand, that protects the violators of the laws 

 of nations, the laws of humanity, and the dictates of 

 honesty. She supports Kossuth by her empty cheers, 

 because it creates a little political capital ; it will give 

 Austria, &c. more to do at home, and she will be the more 

 free to carry on as she pleases abroad ; and she would also 

 ensnare America into hostility to Austria and Russia, 

 and forsooth all that is humanity ! Oh, Americans, 

 look to China, and see some three millions of souls drop- 

 ping year after year into the grave, the victims of opium. 

 And, behold the price of England's inhumanity for the 

 wholesale destruction of that hecatomb, some 45,000,000 

 dollars yearly that is the price of the blood of millions 

 of Chinese destroyed year after year, by some 60,000 to 

 70,000 chests of opium, or 8,010,000 Ibs. to 9,345,000 Ibs. 

 of a deadly poison. 



I will insert the progress of the increase of opium, 

 and will afterwards show that the more it yields the 

 British East India Company the more that Government 

 squeezes all parties ; for that Government derives all the 

 profit, with the exception of that which is made by the 

 smugglers, its tools, which is of no gi^eat amount com- 

 paratively, and is divided between a fe\v mercantile houses 

 in China. Yardine, Matheson, & Co., the principal pur- 

 chasers, are supposed to have realized ,3,900,000 in 

 twenty years. The other six houses concerned in the 

 trade probably may make twice as much more. It would 

 give 9,000,000 in twenty years. This sum would be 

 only equal to one year's sale. Opium shipped to China 

 from East India for following years is : 



8 



