OPIUM QUESTION IN CHINA AND INDIA. 



667 



to be all that passes into the lungs of the 

 smoker. They are probably the cause of the 

 efficacy of the smokable extract as a prophy- 

 lactic against pulmonary and bronchial diseases. 

 The Chinese missionaries who forbid opium- 

 smoking, as well as juvenile marriages, to their 

 converts, commit a double mistake, and rear 

 an enfeebled class, who are decimated by con- 

 sumption. Another inestimable property of 

 opium is its value as a febrifuge. The Hindoos 

 who eat the crude opium find it a perfect safe- 

 guard against malarial endemics. Sir George 

 Birdwood considers opium beneficial to the 

 nutrition of vegetarians, as it prolongs the pro- 

 cess of digestion. The Hindoos who do not 

 take opium suffer from indigestion from the 

 time they are weaned till the end of their lives. 

 The reason is, that the human intestines are 

 not as long proportionately as those of the 

 graminivorous animals, and do not allow the 

 complete digestion and assimilation of vegeta- 

 ble food. Smoking opium, as is the custom in 

 China and the Indian Archipelago, he holds 

 entirely harmless and indifferent, milder than 

 tobacco, and the least alloyed of the pleasures 

 of the senses, one which " seems to possess the 

 true magic which spiritualizes sense." The 

 residuum of the " chandoo " smoked by the 

 rich is worked over with Indian hemp, tobacco, 

 and nux vomica, and smoked again by the 

 poorer classes. It is this " tye-chandoo," with 

 its deleterious admixtures, which has given 

 opium-smoking a bad name, although the mere 

 vapor from even those substances can not be 

 very harmful. 



The Chinese themselves contribute no testi- 

 mony to the English defenders of the opium- 

 vice. To them it is neither a u dietetic cor- 

 roborant " nor a prophylactic against consump- 

 tion or malaria, but a national curse. Even 

 the victims of opium pronounce it an enslaving 

 vice. It brings all other vices in its train. The 

 dissolute, the idle, and the vicious are all 

 opium-smokers. The indulgence is so expen- 

 sive that it ruins both rich and poor in fortune, 

 as well as character and health. The debili- 

 tated, cachectic, sodden- witted wrecks of men, 

 sunk in every vice, which are met with in 

 appalling numbers in the cities of China, are 

 believed by the Chinese to be the victims of 

 opium. They trace poverty and immorality to 

 this costly and demoralizing luxury with much 

 greater unanimity than the people of America 

 ascribe similar lapses of character and useful- 

 ness to alcohol. In Assam the cultivation of 

 the poppy was promptly suppressed, and the 

 consumption restricted by the Indian Govern- 

 ment, because the vice became so general that 

 it threatened to depopulate the province. The 

 same firm course is being now taken in Bur- 

 mah. The report of the commissioner in Bur- 

 mah presents a very different estimate of the 

 effects of opium-smoking from those of the 

 defenders of the Tientsin treaty, who represent 

 it as no more harmful than smoking willow- 

 bark. 



The papers now submitted for consideration pre- 

 sent a painful picture of the demoralization, misery, 

 and ruin produced among the Burmese by opium- 

 smoking. These show that, among the Bunnans, 

 the habitual use of the drag saps the physical and 

 mental energies, destroys the nerves, emaciates the 

 body, predisposes to disease, induces indolent and 

 filthy habits of life, destroys self-respect, is one of the 

 most fertile sources of misery, destitution, and crime. 

 fills the jails with men predisposed to dysentery ana 

 cholera, prevents the due extension of cultivation and 

 the development of the land revenue, checks the nat- 

 ural growth, of the population, and enfeebles the con- 

 stitution of succeeding generations. 



The Chinese Government have always been 

 sincere and consistent in their efforts to sup- 

 press the opium-vice, but with intermittent 

 energy, and through the agency of officials 

 who are for the most part lax and shamefully 

 corrupt. Opium was imported from India as 

 a medicine a couple of centuries ago, but was 

 first brought in considerable quantities and 

 consumed as a luxury in the last quarter of the 

 last century. The importers were the first 

 British merchants who settled in China, agents 

 of the East India Company at Canton, with 

 whom a guild of native traders called the Hong 

 merchants were permitted to hold dealings. 

 As soon as the demoralizing effects of the drug 

 were noticed, the authorities forbade its use, 

 and in the year 1800 an imperial edict was 

 issued entirely forbidding the import. The 

 opium-trade grew in spite of the prohibition, 

 and became established on a regular though 

 still illicit footing. Bribes were taken from 

 Dent, Jardine, and the other smugglers, and 

 the opium was passed by the customs officials 

 so systematically that the trade acquired a reg- 

 ular character. In 1820, when it had increased 

 to 6,500 chests, the opium-ships removed their 

 anchorage to Lintin, farther out of sight of the 

 authorities. The evil was as yet insignificant, 

 and confined to the wealthy and official classes; 

 but in the next twenty years it acquired seri- 

 ous dimensions. For years the Government 

 tried to enforce the law, but the opium im- 

 porters armed their ships and landed their 

 cargoes in defiance of the authorities. At 

 length Lin Tseh-seu was sent to Canton in 

 1839 to put down the traffic. He besieged the 

 factories at Lintin, seized the 20,000 chests of 

 opium, valued at six million dollars, and threw 

 it into the sea. Smuggling was resumed from 

 Hong-Kong, and, when he beleaguered that 

 place, war was declared. With all the humili- 

 ating terms and the heavy indemnities exacted 

 from the Emperor in the treaty of 1842, he 

 could not be induced to legalize the opium- 

 traffic. Hong-Kong became British territory, 

 and smuggling was carried on in Chinese ves- 

 sels flying the British flag. An arrest of pirates 

 on such a vessel was the ground of the second 

 opium war, by which the treaty of Tientsin, 

 legalizing the 'trade, was extorted in 1858. In 

 1869 negotiations were commenced for a re- 

 vision, releasing China from the obligation to 

 permit the traffic. A convention, authorizing 

 a slight increase in the import duty, was signed 



