182 OPIUM TKADK. 



are become the scape-goats of opium monopolists and 



English cupidity ! Look to this 2" :>U) ' <'-'''Wvr d? l'~t p^trie. 



The drain of silver from China by this opium, is 



striking at the root of commerce ; and notwithstanding 



o O 



the large amount of cash America and England pay for 

 their goods beyond the value of the goods exported, which 

 may be now some 120,000,000 of dollars, (in 1845 it was 

 10,000,000 ready cash,) and as the import into America 

 of tea for 1851 is upwards of 28,700,000 Ibs., ready 

 cash payments must have greatly increased on the part 

 of America ; therefore, there is no way to increase the 

 trade with China but by putting a stop to the opium 

 drain, which is so much more serious than is represented. 

 Next year U'^5-) the charter of the British East India 

 Company is to be brought before Parliament, and it is 

 the more necessary to conceal the amount of this fearful 

 drug that is produced : therefore, the drain for opium 

 on China, yearly, cnnnot be less than 44,0i 10,000 of 

 dollars, and the destruction of some five to six millions 

 of people annually. 



In proof of this injury to the trade of China, I will 

 not fill up this article further by the testimony of indi- 

 viduals, but will give two extracts from the deliberate 

 judgment of a body of Englishmen, the Parliamentary 

 Committee of Is 17 ; and since their report was made, 

 the evil has increased 1"0 pur cent. : u The pay- 

 ment for opium, as will lie seen from the inordinate 

 desire for it which prevails, and from the unrecognized 

 nature of the transaction, which requires a prompt settle- 

 ment of accounts, absorbs the silver, to the great incon- 

 venience of the general traffic of the Chinese." And 

 again : u Opium trade, however, already flourishes at 



