OK THE HABITUAL USE OT OPIUM 
74 
necessary of life ; some little comforts would be wished for, and could 
be procured} instead of 40 or 50 living under one roof, too often a 
mass of iniquity, a man and his family, or one or two single indivi¬ 
duals could afford to live in a house of their own. The attainment 
of comforts, where necessaries formerly could only be procured, would 
create an aspiration for luxuries, and once the man becomes dissatis¬ 
fied with his lot and wishes to raise himself, that man’s condition is 
bettered, and that improvement extending to the people at large, 
society would be benefited, and the phasis of thi3 settlement undergo 
a decided improvement. 
The present ^417,884 spent in Opium benefits three parties 
only, the Government, the Farmer, and one or two merchants; but the 
benefit to the latter class can be so small, from the sale of 240 chests a 
year, that it ought never to weigh against the abolition of a vice so 
dreadful as Opium smoking, in fact in a selfish pecuniary point of view, 
the merchants as a body ought to be the persons to wish for the 
complete abolition of Opium smoking, as the money now used in 
purchasing the drug, would certainly be expended in articles giving 
much more mercantile profit, so that instead of receiving 3 per cent 
on 144,000 the price of the Opium, 7 to 10 or more per cent would 
be received on % 417,884, which is the sum the Opium smoking 
public annually expend on the vice. The interest of the Farmer in 
such a question cannot be thought of, as he is created by the vice, and 
when C( God ” wills its suppression, he will not be required; the last 
party interested is the executive as respects the revenue. 
The radical and effective cure of Opium smoking is the complete 
exclusion of Opium; but as long as it is manufactured, as long as the 
poppy gives forth its juice, and man is there to collect it, so long 
will it be supplied to its votaries in spite of pains, and penalties, im* 
prisonment and death; no possible preventive force could put a stop 
to its introduction, the quantity consumed might be lessened, b ut 
that would he counterbalanced in a moral point of view by the es¬ 
tablishment of smuggling and its consequent evils. No,—however 
much we may deprecate the raising of a revenue from such a source, 
fattening as it were oa the miseries of others, I am, after much the 
