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" The economic objections to the manner in which the opium 

 revenue is raised, whether in Bengal or Bombay, may be 

 admitted to be considerable. In the former case, the Gov- 

 ernment itself engages in private trade — a course which is 

 open to obvious objections. In the second case, a hekvy 

 export duty is imposed. In both cases the course adopted 

 interferes with, and restricts the free production of, and the 

 trade in, opium. It cannot be doubted that it would be 

 profitable to any trader to pay for crude opium a much higher 

 sum than is now paid by Government to cultivators of Bengal. 

 If, therefore, supposing such a thing to be possible, no restric- 

 tion were placed on the cultivation of the poppy, and if at the 

 same time the export duty were taken off, it is certain that an 

 immense stimulus would be given to the production of opium, 

 and that China would be flooded with the Indian drug. Thus 

 in direct proportion to the removal of the economic objec- 

 tions, the moral objections would be intensified in degree. 

 So long, therefore, as the plea of the an ti- opium society is 

 confined to the contention that the Indian Government should 

 cease its direct connection with the opium trade, it may be 

 said, with perfect truth, that their policy is based purely on 

 theory. Not only can it efi'ect no practical good, but it almost 

 certainly would do a great deal of harm. It would increase 

 the consumption of opium in China. It would, by cheapening 

 the price of the Indian drug, cause the poorer classes of the 

 population who now smoke native opium, to substitute Indian 

 opium in its place. It would, moreover, encourage the use 

 of opium amongst the native population of India, some of 

 whom, notably the Sikhs, are already addicted to the practice ; 

 and it would result in a diminution of the food supply of 

 India, by reason of the cultivation of the poppy over land on 

 which cereals are now grown. If, therefore, the policy is 

 not merely to be theoretical, but is to be productive of some 

 practical good, it must aim not only at the disconnection of 

 the Indian Government with the manufacture and sale of 

 opium, but at the total suppression of the cultivation of the 

 poppy." To us in Madras where the cultivation of the poppy 

 is entirely prohibited, the interest in the opium question arises 

 from the fact that the abolition of the export duty on the 

 drug and the relaxation of the restrictions placed on its trans- 

 port will have the efi'ect of flooding Southern India with a 

 noxious article and of creating a taste for it among its popu- 

 lation, which is not now addicted to the practice of consuming 

 opium. Fiu'ther the relinquishment of the large revenue 

 derived from the opium duty would also render the imposition 

 of additional objectionable taxation necessary, v/hile what is 



