36 OPIUM : 



found itself face to face with a dangerous social evil of an alarming kind. The 

 physical effects of Opium-smoking as displayed in the shrivelling up of the features 

 and an early death, as thus described by eye-witnesses, produced a deep impression 

 in Peking. The sellers of Opium were to be punished, not the buyers. The masters 

 of Opium shops are dealt with most severely, as being the seducers into evil paths 

 of the young members of respectable families. Sellers of Opium were to bear the 

 wooden collar for a month, and be banished to the frontier. The keepers of shops 

 were to be punished in the same way as propagators of depraved doctrines ; that 

 is, they were to be strangled after a few months' imprisonment. Their assistants 

 were to be beaten with 100 blows, and banished 1,000 miles. Everyone was to 

 be punished except the smoker ; for example, boatmen, local bailiffs, neighbours 

 lending help, soldiers, police runners, in any way connected with the matter, all had 

 punishments assigned them. The same was true of magistrates and Custom House 

 Superintendents in the sea-port towns where these things had happened ; all were to 

 bear some penalty. Only the Opium-smoker was exempted. It was felt, perhaps, 

 that his punishment was self-inflicted ; he would die without the help of the law. 

 This edict was followed by another the next year for the checking of evil practices 

 among the colonists of Formosa. All guilty of robbery, false evidence, enticing the 

 aborigines to commit murder, the sale of gambling instruments or of Opium for 

 smoking, are to be punished with death or banishment. 



Spread of Opium- Opium-selling for smoking purposes has from this time forward been regarded 



smoking in the 



eighteenth cen- as a crime by the ruling authorities. From their point of view it is considered as 

 criminal in proportion to the mischief it causes, which is without doubt great beyond 

 computation. The very earliest instance of legislation on this matter is here before 

 the reader. It was based on local events occurring on the sea-coast, a long way from 

 Peking. The gradual spread from the province of Fuhkien to all the provinces was 

 still in the future and was not before the minds of the legislators. The sale of 

 Opium was connected in their minds with gambling, robbery, and false accusation ; 

 its special guilt consisted in its being a temptation to evil on the part of the 

 salesmen, as the drug was destructive of the physical health, comfort, and life of their 

 victims. The effects proved the criminality. Further, it was closely conjoined with 



