457 
OPIUM SMOKING. 
officers. And further, that the effects of opium smoking on 
the population have been ascertained to be most pernicious 
and ruinous both morally and physically, although the latter 
point may not be at all times apparent. 
Consider now the position of the whole trade as may be shewn 
prominently in one instance, namely, at the port of Fubchow. 
At that port the only foreign influence at work (if we except 
the Consular officers) consists of a considerable band of 
Christian missionaries and the contraband opium •trade, for 
no other foreign trade there exists. Christianity and the 
opium trade are here apparent as conflicting interests on one 
common field, they are in strong and palpable contrast as 
principles of good and evil, and their bearing on the whole 
of China though more complicated, so as to confuse and con¬ 
found men’s minds, is not the less reducible to these two 
simple elements of good and evil. 
Let it be further considered whether any inducement how¬ 
ever lucrative would lead us to incur the solemn responsibility 
of attempting to introduce this insidious scourge of opium 
smoking into a new and untried field, for, if it would not, the 
same responsibility rests upon us for participating in an old 
established evil when time has developed its true character. 
But indeed argument is needless. Every Christian who 
will take the trouble to examine into the matter will find that 
the opium trade to China cannot for one moment be defended 
on Christian principles, that by applying such a test it is at 
once disclosed to view in its true colors as a monster evil 
which is devastating the east, and which if he have the cour¬ 
age to confess bis faith, he can no longer be conscientiously 
engaged in. 
MAHOMEDANISM IN THE INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO. 
To ascertain the influence of Mahomedanism on the lives 
and literature of the Malays jand other islamised inhabitants 
of the Archipelago, we shall from time to time draw the 
attention of our readers to such of the principles, doctrines, 
habits, traditions and literature of Mahomedanism as appear 
to us to exercise or illustrate this influence. In this, as in 
other parts of our miscellaneous contributions and extracts, 
we shall aim at presenting the impressions made on different 
orders of minds by the facts observed in connection with the 
subject, sometimes with and sometimes without comments 
of our own. This apposition of views will excite more inter- 
