'm 
 
 
 mm 
 
 •s^^; 
 
 
 ^ 
 
 X 
 
 i;3sS
 
 :?^'';i
 
 THE USE OF OPIUM 
 
 AND 
 
 ITS BEARING ON THE SPREAD 
 
 OF 
 
 CHRISTIANITY IN CHINA. 
 
 A PAPER 
 
 Read before the Shanghai Missionary Conference, 
 19th May, 1877. 
 
 The H^v. a, E. Moule, 
 
 OF THE 
 
 CHURCH MISSIONARY SOCIETY 
 
 SHANGHAI: 
 
 PRINTED AT THE ** CELESTIAL EMPIRE " OFFICE. 
 
 1877.
 
 During the month of May in the present year, a General Conference repre- 
 senting all the Protestant Missionaries in China, was held at Shanghai to 
 deliberate upon various questions connected with the propagation of the 
 Gospel in China. At that Conference, which lasted for fourteen days, a 
 number of papers that had been specially prepared for the occasion were 
 read and subsequently discussed. The following paper and a full account 
 of the discussion upon it will be found in the official report of the entire 
 proceedings of the Conference. It has been thought however, that con 
 sidering the immense importance of the subject treated of in this essay, it 
 would be well that the essay itself together with some of the speeches 
 referring to it and the resolutions arrived at by the Conference, should be 
 published in a separate form for circulation in England. 
 
 Shanghai, August, 1877.
 
 UIUC,
 
 "THE USE OF OPIUM 
 
 AND 
 
 ITS BEARING ON THE SPREAD 
 
 OF 
 
 CHRISTIANITY IN CHINA."
 
 "If looked at in all its difficulties and relations politi- 
 cal, commercial, social, it is intricate enough to absorb the 
 minds of the most profound statesmen; while on the other 
 hand, vie^AT^ed as an enormous wrong perpetrated by a 
 professedly Christian nation it is transparent to the most 
 ignorant." 
 
 E. PEASE, Esq,
 
 THE USE OE OPIUM 
 
 AND 
 
 OF 
 
 CHEISTIANITY IN CHINA. 
 
 In til'® course of s^a article ©a fck® sufejeet of Opiam, printed im fcke C?Mix:c!a 
 MtssiosMirj Entelligeacer ior Jtilj ISTS, tke MIowiiig waE^ds aeciir :— " !& is 
 rigkt tkat fclia.S6 wko are interesfeed. im Cliidsfck,!2. Missiosis skoiiid. hs,wQ their 
 attei^tMsi onie© m.Qie p«oiafc6df.j s^ecaiied to fckat whick is fck© ckief kEndeaaca 
 iu. feke progress of fck© Gffispai. of Our Loj^d Jeg^is Ckrisfe, aad wkkk bars 
 agaiast fckat Gospel, tk© ii^isis of <me tfeird of tka Ii5imaa saee." 
 
 A Ckiiies© Ckdstiaa writer desedbmg Ckiaese fckoGgkt oa tkis satyect, 
 remarlcs, ^' Ifc k elea,2°j say fekey^ — ^fck© Ckisie^s — fekafe o«Lr Goiintcj is hemg 
 icmnedo Tkes© MissioiL schools and hospitals are not E^allj ^fiabiisked 
 with, a good inteatiou, Wky do tkey saofe p>ifc asi ead £o tke sal© of Opiiiai I 
 Would ELot this fee better tkata tsai tkoasaad kospitals, and fcea fekotisaad 
 preackiag kalis f Tk© kiadra^sice presented by Opmm to tke Missiojiaries, 
 wketker pkysicians qy: pzeasckeis, readers tmltle&& their e©jrfes.™ 
 
 Unless tkese words are wkolly overdrawn tkey contain ample Justi- 
 fication for tke intzodiiction of tke subject of Opium at tkis Conference;. 
 We are told and justly so, tkat ^^ Opium has passed out of tke sentintentat 
 into tke practical staga" Fow our desire is tkafc real and practical benefit 
 may accrue to our work as a consequence of our meeting. And kere we 
 are met by tke statement that tkere is a tking wkick constitutes one of our 
 greatest kindrances, and wkick skuts tke brazen gates of Ckinese hearts 
 against our message more stiffiy than anytking else. Is tkis a oiero night-
 
 mare, tlie consequence of heated imagination, or is it a terrible reality ? If 
 it be a delusion, it is high time that we be wakened out of our sleep, and 
 cease to inveigh against a fancied wrong. If it be a fact, no words can 
 express the momentous character of that fact; and whether right or 
 wrong, it is abundantly worth while thoroughly to discuss and ponder the 
 question. 
 
 I must honestly confess that had I had the choosing of my own quest- 
 ion, I should have worded it differently. It runs at present thus : — " The 
 use of Opium and its bearing on the spread of Christianity in China." Now 
 it is an undoubted fact that opium-smoking is a hindrance to our work. I 
 agree with Mr. Stevenson, of the China Inland Mission, when in his ad- 
 dress at Devonshire House in January 1875, he remarked that " this has 
 always been the great difficulty with Missionaries, because the habitual use 
 of opium deadens the moral sense." I suppose that any vice will in time 
 produce this effect; and any vice is of course per se an enemy of the Relig- 
 ion of Him Who saves His people from their sins. And yet I cannot see 
 that opium-smoking differs so far from other vices in moral nature and in- 
 fluence as to justify our spending time in the consideration of the mere use 
 of the drug as a hindrance to Christianity. Just so much is certain, viz. 
 that it is a vice and not a harmless indulgence in a healthful stimulant. 
 Opium-smokers, perhaps more readily than other vicious persons, confess 
 that they are wrong-doers. 
 
 To my own mind tlte great hindrance wdtich opium as distinguished 
 from other vices and evils presents to the Gospel, must bo traced not so 
 niucli to its use, as to the Jtlstory of that use, and Mr. Stevenson in the 
 course of his speech fully coincides with this view ; and at the risk of ap- 
 pearing to force an opening for the subject, I must in adopting the wording 
 of the question, " The use of Opium, and its bearing on the spread of 
 Christianity in China " be permitted to ask, and to confine my remarks 
 chiefly to the endeavour to answer, the question " How came the Chinese 
 to use this drug as a stimulant and an article of excessive and baneful in- 
 dulgence ? and how far does the moral effect of this history bear upon our 
 mission work % " 
 
 I must be permitted also in passing to notice the fallacy which some- 
 what persistently underlies the arguments of those who criticize the present 
 Anti-opium agitation. It is assumed that our great object is to cure the 
 Chinese of opimii-smoking, and that one means to attain this most desirable 
 end is the stoppage of the Indian supply. Surely this is a fallacy and a 
 mistake. Our great object is to rid Christian England of the shame and 
 •wrong connected with her Q^mmrseUmfj^ more than to cure Heathen China
 
 — 3 — 
 
 of her vice of o]p'n\m-smoJihig. So far as human agency is concerned, China 
 must cure herself. Hospitals and Opium Eefuges practically useful as they 
 are, must yet ever be so few and feeble as to act the part of protest 
 prompting and suggesting, never of universal efficacy. 
 
 This is the true issue. England has not only injured China by her 
 share in the trade ; she has through the moral effect of the history of that 
 trade, crippled her power to apply the one remedy for all China's woes — the 
 Gospel. 
 
 Now in approaching this melancholy and disastrous history, I do not 
 forget that English guns opened China. I agree with the veteran Dr. 
 Williams, when in his interesting narrative of the voyages of the Himmaleh 
 in 1837, he remarks that "the agency adequate to open up China must 
 be far more powerful and incisive than an unarmed brig. It demanded the 
 power of a large fleet to break up the seclusiveness of her rulers, so that 
 they could never restore it." The arrogance, conceit, and supercilious in- 
 solenc(3 with which forty years ago the Chinese treated foreigners can 
 hardly be realized now ; though indeed somewhat loud echoes of those old 
 voices do sound occasionally in our ears. All who care to study the sub- 
 ject will find in Dr. Morrison's Life, as well as in the pages of the Chinese 
 Repository and of contemporary histories, astonishing descriptions of 
 Chinese exclusiveness and pride. Such must sooner or later have been 
 brought down before the force of western intercourse. But it was a dire 
 calamity that one chief agency which hastened the catastrophe was the 
 Opium Trade ; a thing immoral in Chinese eyes ; and immoral, for it was 
 then illegal as contraband, in English eyes. This surely was not only the 
 match which fired the mine ; may I not say that it supplied much of the 
 powder which loaded the mine 1 And this at the time indefensible trade, 
 gave a plausible colouring to the indefensible exclusive policy of 
 China. 
 
 Now lest I be charged with giving my conclusions without my pre- 
 mises, let me observe in passing that the strongest words in condemnation 
 of the trade are fully sanctioned by the utterances of public men at the 
 present day. Mr. Eeacli during the Debate in July 1875 — himself a mem- 
 ber of the Indian Finance Committee, and speaking and voting against the 
 motion for the abolition of the monopoly, calls it '• this immoral trade in 
 opium..'^ 
 
 Mr. C. B. Denison M.P. for Yorkshire, a man of large Indian experi- 
 ence, and yet an upholder on financial considerations of the present system, 
 admitted that " if the consideration of the question could be based on moral 
 grounds, there were few members who would not go into the lobby with
 
 — 4— 
 
 Ihe h&nc'WtMe gentleman " (Si? Wilfiid Lawson — tLat is in Ms lac^tiess foy 
 the aMitioB of the trade). 
 
 Mr, Eonrke, tlie present Under S^^eietaij fax Foieign Ai^aiis> in op- 
 posing Mr. EicLaid's aiiti-opium resolution in July 1876;, stated tbai "he 
 Saad nerej fceaid any one say ougbt in the Hoisse of ComiQoiiis m fayoisr of 
 iLe Opimn Trade from a imoiral point of view." 
 
 Sir Geoige CaanpljeB, foinierly Iieist.-GoTeino]r of Bengal, and anr 
 adTOcate also on financial grounds foT tbe present' system, admits that '^ aa 
 an Englishman Is© is Teiy mm^h UmMed Ami il W© baye, I Mieve*;, 
 says lie, fonced opi^m upon China." 
 
 Yet surely Mr, BoBrke h wjong in saying tlial th© Opium Tiade lias 
 MBJbT Siad a moTal defender in th® Hons® of Com®j©ns. Tli© trade as ift 
 mow exists, has- l>een defended of ©onTs© on Fife© Tiade piincif^ss ; hut the 
 defence is feehle and tottesing when we lememhei that on the selle/s side 
 it is not so mneh a malter of piiyate ©nteipirise as a Goyenimental mono- 
 poly; whiM on th© Iwye/s side, the GoTemiQemi of China lose- scaieelj 
 an opportistnity of ©xpies^ng their i^solintion, Tieaty or no Treaty, to eon- 
 template — and if possible to tieat OpiuM, as diSerent from other comiinod- 
 ities. MoftrOTex the late Piinse Minister — Mt, Gladstone, Mr. Grant Dijff 
 late Under Secrotaiy for India, and Loid Misbiwy the piesent Indian 
 Minister, haye all defended the tiade on the ground that ©piu^m-smoking is 
 an ancient Chinese irice, and that England has hist sopplied an already op^n 
 3inarket> making the opinra trade simply on a par with the spirit trade as t©^ 
 Kiorality. 'Now supposing this view to Ibe coire€t> I woiild lemind you 
 that in on® hundred years the consniinption ©f foieign opium ha® 
 grown from 200 chests per annnro to 80,000 chests; and that in 
 eighty years England has drawn £ 184,000,000 sterEng or some" 
 $800,000,000 from China as the pii«?e of opiran delivered in her ports ; 
 a tremendons pesponsibiiity this, for a Christian and philanthTo|)ic power 
 to have fostered and developed, even if shje did not introduce, so terri- 
 Ible a vice. This wonld have heen a tremendons responsibility for 
 England, I say, even had China been open for a hiandied years, and 
 had this drag been an article of commerce, willingly placed from tho 
 iirst by her authorities on an eqnality with other goods. Eut has 
 this been so? Does this give a fair lepresentaiion of the tme state 
 of the case 1 I mnst panse bnt a moment to remind yon farther, how 
 sad is the mockery of the argument that opium-smoking in China is no 
 worse than the nse of alcoholic drinks in England. Sir Thomas Wade in 
 Ms memorandum concerning the Eevision of the Treaty of Tientsin speaks 
 ihns ; ** to loe it is vain to think otherwise of the nse of opium in China
 
 than as a liabit many times more peroicioiis Dationaliy speaking ilmji the 
 gin and whisky drinking whicli we deplore at home." Suppose Sir Tliomas 
 to be wrong. Granted for the moment that the two Yices are on a par. 
 What then? Is not all England awakening now in alarm and earnest 
 practical anxiety^ desiring to grapple with this great shame and curse of a. 
 Christian country, intoxication 1 
 
 But the question before us now, is — where does opium come from, and 
 how far is England guiltily responsible for its eyil effects 1 Now we are 
 met with two arguments on this subject ; firstly, by the direct assertion that 
 the Chinese have always known and always smoked the drag ; and secondly, 
 by the indirect argument that it stands to reason that such must have been 
 the case, sinfe the trade could not otherwise have sprung so rapidly into 
 existence, neither would the Indian Government have sent their opium 
 blindly to a doubtful or non-existent market. Now with I'eference to the 
 first point, the following is all the direct evidence which I have been able 
 to collect. In a geography published 26 years ago by Seu, formerly Lieut.- 
 Governor of Fuh-kien, speaking of imports from India, he says " formerly 
 Chinese cloth was all woven of hemp, but in the reign of T^ae-tsoo of 
 the Yuen dynasty (A.D. 1280-1295) the invasion of India led to the 
 the acquisition of the cotton plant, which has now spread through the 
 central domain (i.e. China). The poisonous drug opium, however, also came 
 from India, Note that Sze-chuen in its southern districts and Yun-nan in 
 the western being conterminous with India also plant the poppy, A strange 
 portent it is that this worthless and mischievous vapour should be pro- 
 duced of all places in the world precisely in the original realm of Buddha." 
 " It is by no means certain that tlie author asserts that opium was introduced 
 with cotton 600 years ago, but merely that it was derived at some period 
 like cotton from India.'"*" Mr. Cooper in his evidence before the Plouse of 
 Commons remarks that the habit of smoking opium on the western borders 
 of China, has existed for a great many yeare, probably, he miglit say, for 
 two centuries. Sir E. Alcock refers to a Chinese historical work dated 
 A.D. 1736, which notices the culture of the poppy in Yung-cheng foo. 
 Opium is mentioned also in the Pen-ts'ao or Chinese Herbal, published 
 about 200 years ago, and 300 years ago in the Ming dynasty it was known. 
 Dr. Macgowan has started the interesting question whether the Mings did 
 not suppress the use of opium which had come into vogue during the Yuen 
 dynasty. Marco Polo makes no allusion to the poppy in his account of 
 the productions of China 600 years ago ; a fact surely not without signi- 
 ficance. 
 
 * Quoted from a letter in the " Globe," Sept. 1, 1876, by the Eev. G. E. Moule.
 
 I am informed, however, that testimony has recently been extracted 
 from native books, which tends to estaLhsh the fact that the culture of the 
 poppy existed in some parts of China, so far back as the year A.D. 732. 
 But none of these authorities cited above countervail the allegation that the 
 opium-smoking mania in China is comparatively recent and has been 
 fostered if not created, by the action of the Indian Government. Mr. T. T. 
 Cooper in his " Pioneer of Commerce " informs us that Father Deschamps 
 Avho had been upwards of 30 years in Sze-cliuen had seen the growth of 
 opium introduced ; for when as a young priest he first entered the province, 
 its culture was scarcely known. Indeed Sir George Balfour, one of the 
 founders of Shanghai, in his speech two years ago in the Opium Monopoly 
 Debate remarked, however rashly, and I fear erroneously, " as to the cul- 
 tivation of opium by the Chinese themselves ; he did not believe it " ! 
 
 I believe that all the direct evidence of which we are possessed goes to 
 prove that the existence of the vice of opium-smoking in China prior to the 
 advent of the Opium Trade proper, was so infinitesimal as compared with 
 its after development, that it may almost be said not to have existed. 
 Certainly the utmost which can be sustained by this evidence is that the 
 habit was indulged in by the Chinese people ; that the Chinese authorities 
 had succeeded in controlling and suppressing the vice, when the advent of 
 foreign opium revived and reinvigorated the plague. 
 
 The second argument, of a deductive nature, to the effect that proof 
 apart, it must have been so in the nature of things — that the Chinese must 
 have been fond of opium or the Indian Government would never have supplied 
 the drug nor the Chinese have so greedily consumed it, this argument 
 leading to the very heart of the question, need not in itself detain us long. 
 Is it sound *? Would commercial men recognize it 1 Is is not a well known 
 and legitimate occupation to seek markets for goods 1 Is it not a well-known 
 device in mercantile operations to advertise — puff, if you please — goods, and 
 to create a liking for them ? Sir Walter Raleigh would be astonished to 
 hear that because he introduced tobacco-smoking into England, it is supposed 
 on this account to have been an ancient vice — shall I say 1 — in England* 
 Or the great ancestor of the Shaftesbury family, Sir Anthony Ashley, Queen 
 Elizabeth's Secretary at War, who first grew cabbages in England would 
 demur to the fact that because men in merry England do now largely con- 
 sume cabbages, therefore they were in existence before he tried the experi- 
 ment. 
 
 And that I am not making a grim joke, but am pointing to a sad and 
 possible fact; listen to the following account of doings elsewhere. In 
 Aracan prior to British rule, the punishment for using opium was death.
 
 — 7 — 
 
 Opium was legalized however, when Eugland assumed the Government, 
 and organized efforts were made by Bengal agents to introduce the use of 
 the drug, and to create a taste for it amongst the rising generation, by open- 
 ing shops, inviting the young men, and at first distributing it gratis. Is it 
 a great stretch of the imagination to suppose that on the coast of Ciiina 
 seventy or eighty years ago, the British smuggler found equally enterprising 
 agents amongst the Chinese to create a taste and force a market for the drug? 
 
 But the British Opium Trade is not a mere private enterprise, it is 
 a Governmental affair. Why descend to such devices ? Why — in the words 
 of Sir W. Muir — has the Indian Government since 1821 at all events acted 
 " not as a revenue collector merely, but as a trader, pushing ably and vigor- 
 ously their interests in the trade, anxious to trim the market, growing, 
 manufacturing, selling, overstimulating the production, overstocking the 
 market, and flooding China with opium " 1 Why ? Simply for that reason, 
 which stands out in clear solitude when all the mists and dust of sub- 
 terfuge and by-arguments are blown away, money, the necessity for money 
 — this is the real support of the opium trade now, this was its origin. Not 
 so much Chinese need of opium, as English greed of money, and it will be 
 supported I fear, by Chinese cupidity, and refusal to abandon the opium 
 revenue. The story is in brief as follows : Clive's victory at Plassy on 
 the 23rd June 1757, virtually transferred to England the sceptre of 
 India; and in 1765, when the Dewanni (or supreme power) passed 
 into the hands of the British, the old monopolies held by the native 
 rulers of the land passed also into the possession of the conquerors. 
 Three of these monopolies, opium, salt, and saltpetre, were taken over 
 by the Court of Directors of the East India Company into their 
 own hands. In 1775, Warren Hastings during the stormier days of 
 his rule, wishing to win the favour of Mr. Sulivan, the Chairman of 
 the Company, presented this monopoly to his son, Mr. Stephen 
 Sulivan, a young man, just arrived in India. Opium however, (mark 
 this fact) was reported to be no longer saleable in Bengal, and the 
 Supremo Council in order to make the monopoly lucrative for the present 
 and future incumbents, entered on the daring speculation of sending it 
 tentatively to Canton. Previous to this date, the Portuguese importing 
 200 chests annually were the only foreign traders in the drug, they pro- 
 curing it from the Danes in India, and the Danes in their turn from the 
 English. 
 
 The first venture in this now vast and lucrative trade started as if it 
 were a piratical enterprise, armed to the teeth. " It was — said Mr. Fitz- 
 hugh a hundred years ago — a business of difficulty and disgrace, and a
 
 devLAtLoa from tlie plain iroad of an honourable trade to pursue tlie crooked 
 patk of smuggliag/* For aLready the Cliiiiese au.tkodfcies had taken, alarm, 
 and had forbidden the importation, of opiam oa very severe penalties ; the 
 <?pia«i QVL seizure was burnt ; the vessel in which it was broiiglit into port 
 was confiscated, and the Chinese in whose possession it was fo^ind were piifc 
 to deatk" 
 
 This state o£ things was well known m Calcutta ; and accordingly tlm 
 '' j^J'onsnch " s.nd. ^* Patna " laden with opinm dropped down the Hooghlj 
 on their voyage to Canton, armed also, the qrq with thirty-^ix twelve- 
 pounders, artd the other with twelve fcwo-poundeirs and two twelve-pounders, 
 ^' to ensure the safety'* as it was annoaneed, "of the Compa.ny's property." 
 
 The intention of Colonel Watson, the Company's engineer, as stated 
 Iby himself, was to erect in China an opium monopoly^ and by means of ifc 
 to open trade with the Northern and Eastern districts of China, The plan 
 sitcceededj hu.t a brand ol shame has teen infiicted on the fair fame of our 
 coiintry which probably will never be effaced,* I need not detain yoa 
 long with the aftee: steps of the sad dark history. How the tisdQ after 
 soBiie iinsjiocessfiil ventyii-es stryiek root and grew; how in 1797, the Chinese 
 authorities B-gsiii farotally prohibited importation ; how in iSOO, so strong 
 was the protest and so heavy the penalty denosiineed, that for a|f ew yea,rs the 
 Court of Directors act^dallj interdicted the conveyance of opiant in. th© 
 Contisany's ships ; how the prtahibition was removed and the trade steadily 
 incre^ed; how in 1809, and in subsequent years, bonds were requis^ed from 
 th^ Hong merchants at Canton that ships on their arrival at Whampoa had 
 no opi^^n on board; how in 1821, the year when the East Endia Company 
 more form.al[y adopted and worked the monopoly as their own enterprise, 
 specially striugent measnres were a<iopt©d at Canton to snppress the traffic ; 
 how foreigners were bi:^nded with the disgrace and responsLbLiity of so per- 
 iticions a pr^a^etice, and were reuiindeAl (Oh !! terrible irony of this heathen 
 exhortation to a Christian power) that ^^ the gods will carry fair traders ovec 
 the ocean in safety, but over contraband smugglers the wrath of men and 
 gods is suLspended " ; how the Co^irt of Directors, whilst expressing '' their 
 latter repiEgnane© to the trade, and longing to abolish its consiitnption, yet 
 as the Chinese would have it," continued deliberately to grow and prepare 
 the drug expressly for the Chinese market, and to ship it under England's 
 lion flag, though contraband in Chinese law, detested in Chinese aiorality, 
 and denounced by Chinese statesmen ; how for sixty long yeais this snrng- 
 ghng continued ; how the Emperor Tao-kwang himself a reclaimed opium- 
 smoker, Lxjnsed himself to save his country, and sent the energetic but in- 
 
 * S€« G, U, S. lateiligeacer for July, and Christiam Ofa^ervex for August 1876,
 
 — 9 — 
 
 Solent Lin to exterminate the plague; how the destruction of 20,283 chests 
 of surrendered opium, and the concomitants of needless insolence to Lord 
 iN'apier, Captain Eliot, and the Canton residents, led to the war of 1841 ; 
 how the Chinese beaten and humhled would surrender Hongkong and open 
 their ports and pay for the confiscated opium, but would not legalize the 
 detested drug ; how for fourteen years more though still contraband, the 
 trade, with the five new ports for its ingress, rapidly increased ; how the 
 lorcha Arrow on the 8th October 1856 was seized — illegally indeed, but that 
 seizure prompted, it would seem, by irritation on account of continuous and 
 daring smuggling ; how this seizure led to the war of 1856, and to the 
 Treaty of Tientsin and Convention of Peking, by the 26th and 28th 
 Articles of which signed finally on the 24th October 1860, the struggle of a 
 century closed, and opium was admitted on the tariff rules ; admitted, but 
 with repugnance, shame, and undying hostility ; how now for seventeen 
 years England has been — not a smuggler indeed, but a poisoner; how amidst 
 the gorgeous Imperial pageant at Delhi, with famine desolating South India 
 from the W. Ghauts to the Bay of Bengal, the Indian Government so far from 
 renouncing their own share in the Opium Trade, actually recognized with 
 public approval Holkar's share in the Malwa growth, by presenting to him 
 a banner with, this strange device, three poppy heads ; and how in China 
 not all the force of Treaty rights, not all the fair show of Custom's tariff, 
 not all the prestige of the great and just Government of British India, not 
 all the arguments of anxious financiers, nor the protests of philosophical 
 speculators, have deprived the drug of its pernicious effects, or the trade of its 
 evil name ! All these are — are they not 1 — matters of history. Are you 
 aware of them? Have you studied them? Have you pondered them? Chris- 
 tianity is our common religion, our common glory and our hope ; and the 
 disgrace brought to one Christian power" by a trade which with the utmost 
 reluctance and the profoundest sorrow, I yet denounce as immoral in its 
 origin, and as most injurious in its long life and present existence — its 
 present existence being connected without a break with the past — this dis- 
 grace cannot but affect us all, and hinder the progress of our common 
 work. I might pause here, simply leaving these facts before you; but as 
 we are supposed to be practical in this opium question, I offer before I 
 close, four subjects for consideration; firstly, an incentive to prompt and 
 immediate action ; secondly, the probable results to China and thirdly to 
 India, of any great revolution in the Opium Trade ; and lastly, a thought 
 as to our own practical duty in this matter. 
 
 The Chinese Minister to England has stated in reply to a deputation 
 from the Society for the suppression of the Opium Trade, that China is
 
 — 10 — 
 
 anxious to abolish the trade, but that otlier countries besides England must 
 co-operate in order to make the abolition possible. This is a piece of in- 
 formation surely well known to all who have studied the subject, and need 
 not detain us now, for most certainly the initiative must be taken by 
 England. England alone supporting the trade, could prevent the action 
 of all other Treaty powers j England alone repenting and reforming, would 
 in all probability enlist the support and countenance of other countries. 
 
 1. — It is impossible to look with anything but the gravest concern and 
 alarm on the rapid increase in the growth of native opium. In the year 
 1875, from Chefoo, Hankow, K'ewchwang, Ningpo, and Tientsin, (the only 
 reports I have seen) the account is the same, the production is steadily on 
 the increase. Mr. Grosvenor reports one-third of the land in Yiin-nan as 
 occupied with the culture of the poppy. Mr. Gubbay reports 50,000 piculs 
 as produced annually in Sze-chuen, and as much if not more in Shen-si. 
 Mr. Taintor reports it as spreading rapidly in Mongolia and Manchuria. This 
 cannot fail ere long to affect seriously the Indian trade, and possibly in the 
 long run it will drive the Indian drug altogether from the market. It is 
 by no means certain (as is often confidently asserted) that Chinese opium 
 can never equal Bengal opium. Indian-grown tea was at first far inferior to 
 Chinese. Eut by care and pains it has been so improved that 20,000,000 
 lbs. of Indian tea are equal in tea-making power to 25,000,000 lbs. of 
 average Chinese tea, and the Chinese are said to be now imitating Indian 
 tea. Now it may be said that this prospect of the Indian drug being 
 turned out of the Chinese market is not much to be regretted. I think on 
 the contrary, that it is a prospect of the utmost danger. I do not refer now 
 to the loss which the Indian revenue will sustain. I do not dwell even on 
 what the North China Dally News calls the consequent " demoralization of 
 the entire country hy the home groivth"* I refer to the then irreparaUe 
 stain on the English name, and by implication on Christianity. And as 
 this ousting of the Indian drug — defeated, disgraced, banished, is not a 
 mere dream, but a possibility, it behoves us as Christian Missionaries to 
 seek promptly, at once, ere it be for ever too late, some way of honourable 
 retreat, some plan for straightforward confession of wrong, and some prac- 
 tical reparation for this long evil. 
 
 * Dr. Gait gathers from the record of the opium patients received into his Hos- 
 pital at Hangchow that opium-smoking has a very prejudicial influence on the in- 
 crease of the population. To 154 married patients of the average age of 33 years, 
 during an average period of 7.9 years, only 146 children were born. Opium is some- 
 times said to have an anti-periodic action over ague ; but this is not the case, 
 several patients having had that disease for years while smoking. The paroxysm, 
 however, may in some cases be mitigated, by taking the pipe when the fit is coming 
 ou.
 
 —11 — 
 
 2. — But it is objected that any great revolution in the Indian Trade 
 such as its gradual suppression or immediate abolition, will produce these 
 two injurious results ; China will grow a far inferior drug and in ever in- 
 creasing quantities, and India will lose her revenue and have to tax heavily 
 her own subjects. I reply very briefly that we possibly underrate the far 
 reaching repressive power of the Chinese Government. The Nortli-Cliina 
 Daily News in a leader of the 24th April 1874, remarks that " the question 
 remains ivhether the Chinese Government if left to itself might not even yet 
 succeed in repressing the use of a drug lohich is so gravely deleterious to its 
 people." It may be true that Pao Yuen-shen, the Governor of Shan-si, finds 
 the enforcing of edicts against opium growing simply a braving of unpopu- 
 larity. The Chinese may fairly be expected to grumble against the prohibi- 
 tion of native growth, when the doors of the Empire are opened to the 
 foreign drug. But what if the foreign drug were shut out once more 1 
 What if as the North-Gliina Herald, somewhat naively suggests " the clause 
 legalising the import of the drug be elided from the Treaty, and the respon- 
 sibility of preventing its ingress be thrown on to the Chinese authorities " 1 
 "Would not the deep and strong moral feeling of the people, which execrates 
 the drug and the habit as a plague and a vice, support then the Govern- 
 ment in their restrictive measures 1 The Celestial Empire informs us that 
 on the 17th June 1876, from 1,200 to 3,000 opium dens were simultaneously 
 closed in Soochow, and this without riot or serious resistance. In the pro- 
 vincial capitals of Nanking and Hangchow, opium dens are also being closed 
 by the officials. During the paper-man excitement last autumn, every gong 
 in the city of Hangchow was bought up and vigorously clanged by the 
 people as a charm against the sprites. But at the Tao-tai's word in his 
 quieting proclamation, however unwillingly, every gong was silenced and 
 the excitement died away. Cannot the authorities in China prohibit min- 
 ing, when the poor people know well that gold, iron, and coal, are lying in 
 lazy profusion side by side in their hills ? And could China, think you, 
 do nothing to eradicate or to blight this plague, were her hands set free, 
 and were she placed on her trial to make good her virtuous protestations of 
 a hundred years ? 
 
 3. — Am I asked what India is to do for her revenue 1 I might reply 
 generally that India the pride and glory of the British Crown, can receive 
 nothing but harm from such a source of revenue. But this is sentimental. 
 It has been suggested as a practical measure by a retired Indian civilian 
 that the exports may be reduced one-tenth annually, leading thus to higher 
 prices, and so not at first decreasing the revenue. In the year 1868-69, the 
 number of chests was 74,949 and the revenue therefrom £6,700,000. In
 
 the year 1867-68, the number of chests was 88,428 and the revenue 
 £6,100,000. The number of chests — that is, were more by 13,500, and the 
 revenue was less by £600,000. Again in 1848-49, from" 33,563 chests they 
 realised £2,780,000, and in 1853-54, from 53,321 chests they realised only 
 £2,500,000. — an increase of 20,000 chests (as many as Lin destroyed), and 
 a decrease of £280,000. The great difficulty will be, doubtless, with the 
 opium grown in the dominions of Ilolkar and Scindia. Eut the same 
 policy of gradual repression without the alarm of sudden decrease of revenue 
 might be adopted by an advance in the transit dues which have been 
 similarly increased more than once in former years. It has been suggested 
 also that India's resources, but for the soporific ease produced by this 
 source of revenue, might be developed far more rapidly than at present. 
 Why ! in six years' time, the export of Indian tea to Great Britain has risen 
 from fifteen to twenty-nine million pounds ; and the export of grain is very 
 rapidly on the increase. The curtailing of expenditure on public works (save 
 in such times of distress as the present great famine) and on the military 
 and civil establishments has also been recommended, and the reimposition 
 of the income tax in the more popular form of the Madras Veesabudda tax 
 which affects those classes alone which pay no other tax. AU these 
 suggestions have been made, and it is further to be observed that the result 
 to England would probably be very great. Mr. Alderman McArthur 
 informs us that China with four hundred million inhabitants, takes only 
 six million pounds' worth of British products, whilst the Australian colonies 
 with four millions of people, take fourteen million pounds' worth of goods 
 annually. 
 
 Now these plans may be more or less open to objection ; and some of 
 these comparative estimates may be somewhat fallacious, but can it be as- 
 serted that financial difficulties may condone for immoral practices, and 
 money conquer Christianity 1 
 
 Anti-opium agitators neither forget nor ignore the tremendous difficul- 
 ties entailed by the long continuance and wide ramifications of the trade — 
 the ruinous consequences, not to the Government of India alone, though 
 this is the loudest protester, but to those whose vested interests more or less 
 connected with the trade would be injured by its abolition ; nor again, do 
 they forget or ignore the point noticed in the Noiih-Cliina Daily NeicsoiihQ 
 14th May, viz. the serious results of the large importation of bullion which 
 the disappearance of opium would necessitate; nor, further, the serious diffi- 
 culty the Chinese would experience in grappling alone with the smuggling 
 trade which would again revive along the coast. But on the other hand 
 we cannot forget or ignore the fact that present circumstances cannot alter
 
 — 13 — 
 
 history, or this other fact that upas tree levellers though looking with a 
 kindly eye on vested interests, are not wont to allow such interests to 
 hamper for ever the march of justice and humanity. 
 
 4. — And now finally, what is to he done hy ourselves ? I may remind 
 you in passing that some signs of a change are visible. Lord Salisbury has 
 given a distinct pledge that henceforth efforts shall not he used to increase 
 the production of opium for export to China by extending the monopoly 
 system. Moreover by the Convention of Chefoo, under the third head of 
 the section on trade, it is enacted that " On Opium, Sir T. Wade shall move 
 his Government to sanction an arrangement differing from that affecting 
 other imports." The precise meaning and effect of this arrangement, not 
 yet however ratified, I am -not wise enough to understand or predict ; but 
 it seems designed ^to enable the Chinese to repress consumption and restrict 
 importation. 
 
 I see from the latest papers that Sir T. Wade whilst admitting to the 
 full the dire evil wrought by opium, yet thinks that nothing can be done 
 by political agitation in England, and that the Chinese Government is un- 
 able even if willing, to act in the matter.. I fear that Sir T. Wade may be 
 right ; but it is a case in which an experiment cannot injure even if it fail 
 to relieve. 
 
 As to our own duty I would suggest (1) — that all who have not yet 
 done so, join by subscription and by active help, the Anglo-Oriental Society 
 for the suppression of the Opium Trade. Its object is " ^o urge the British 
 Government entirely to disconnect itself from, and discourage the opium 
 traffic, at the same time restoring to the Chinese Government perfect inde- 
 pendence of action to deal with opium in any loay it may please." Such a 
 Society obviously requires liberal pecuniary support if it is to do the necess- 
 ary preliminary work of enlightening the public at home who are strangely 
 ignorant on the subject, and of stirring the warm and generous sympathies 
 of Englishmen for the suppression of a wrong which though less sensational 
 and less startling than the Bulgarian atrocities, is surely infinitely wider 
 and deeper in its destructive results than they. The monthly magazine 
 the Friend of China, has been criticized, as containing some unwise articles', 
 some doubtful statistics, some unnecessary rhapsody. Let us then supply 
 its indefatigable editor with sober fact and reliable information. (2) — Shall 
 we as a Missionary Conclave — or if our American and German friends from 
 chivah-ous feelings decline to join in such a document, shall English Mis- 
 sionaries alone — memorialize the Empress of India, our ever-beloved Queen, 
 to remove if it may be, this dark stain from the lustre of her glittering 
 crown ?
 
 —li- 
 lt has been suggested that it may be possible by a public manifesto to 
 separate Christianity from policy in this question. Such a document re- 
 quiring however great care in wording, should state the fact that foreigners 
 as Christians have never ceased to deplore the trade, and that they are at 
 present urging their own Government to restrict, and if possible abolish, the 
 trade ; expressing at the same time the hope that the Chinese Government 
 will act promptly and cordially in concert with the English Government 
 should such measures be adopted by the latter. 
 
 Shall I be considered presumptuous if in conclusion I suggest that perhaps 
 very few of us have ever earnestly and definitely carried this difficult and dis- 
 astrous subject to God in prayer 1 In the tradition to which Dr. Macgowan 
 has drawn attention, it is stated that the founder of the Ming dynasty for 
 three days in succession implored Divine aid for suppressing the use of 
 opium. And in a placard now widely posted, and quoted by the learned 
 doctor, it is stated that "during a former dynasty Heaven prohibited 
 opium ; during this dynasty it can bo interdicted only by Heaven." And 
 we who believe in that all prevailing ITame which moves the hand that 
 moves the world may learn — not the mode indeed, but the duty of prayer 
 even from the Chinese. 
 
 Oh ! how freely we should breathe were this great incubus removed. 
 Wo could be almost content then to be disliked as men as much as opium, 
 even as Prince Kung in a peevish mood assured Sir R Alcock to be the 
 case. If but the Christian name, if but Christianity be set free from the 
 long shame, we poor ignorant and infatuated missionaries might afford to 
 live still under a cloud. 
 
 Indeed were it possible to say that Christian England regrets the 
 injuries of the past and brings opium no more, Christianity I believe could 
 afford — not to laugh at, but to meet with serene courage and confident hope 
 all other obstacles in her way. I do not underrate them. I should have 
 lived and worked in China to very little purpose if I knew nothing from 
 experience of their power. 
 
 Ancestral worship with its moral semblance, ancient sanctions and 
 lucrative advantages ; Confucian morality with its pride of learning and 
 high sounding verbiage ; Taoism and Buddhism satisfying in a way the 
 straining gaze of the human soul into the unseen world which is its true 
 home, and supplying prescriptions for present religious wants and future 
 immortal hopes; covetousness, licentiousness, materialism, worldliness — in all 
 the breadth of that term, self-righteousness, the pride also of semi-civiliza- 
 tion less teachable than barbarism and without the humility of true culture; 
 the incrustations caused by centuries of isolation, superstition, ignorance
 
 — 15 — 
 
 and sin ; all these are tremendous foes. But they are heathen systems and 
 heathen sins ; the natural foes of Christ's Church. 
 
 This Opium Trade is a Christian's monopoly. Its history is a Christ- 
 ian sin, a Christian shame. Take away this abmormal, this unnatural 
 ally of heathenism, and we can meet the enemy without doubt of the final 
 issue.
 
 APPENDIX, 
 
 I. 
 
 SPEECHES DELIVEKED UPON THE OPIUM QUESTION AT 
 
 THE SHANGHAI MISSIONARY CONFERENCE, 
 
 19th may, 1877. 
 
 II. 
 
 RESOLUTIONS OF THE CONFERENCE.
 
 The Eev. Alex. Williamson LL.D. of the United Presbyterian Church of 
 Scotland, Chefoo, said that the Opium question was undoubtedly one of the 
 most serious questions which had come before the Conference. Its gravity 
 could not be over-rated ; but the practical bearing of the subject on the 
 members of the Conference was that it should lead them to enquire how they 
 might best meet this gigantic obstacle to the spread of the Kingdom of God 
 in China. 
 
 Mr. Moule's paper suggested that each missionary should at his own 
 station at once set about the formation of an Anti-Opium Society amongst 
 the natives, and the suggestion was a good one ; but we could not ignore 
 the fact that the evil had now become so great, — humanly speaking — so 
 irreparable, that the remedy was out of our hands. God alone could save 
 China from this awful curse. The British Government might stop the 
 cultivation of the poppy in India, but the Chinese would only grow it more 
 extensively. The Chinese Government might issue proclamations, and a 
 few amongst the officials might enter vigorously into a project for suppress- 
 ing the vice, but this would not go far to destroy it. There are millions in 
 China to whom opium is dearer than houses, or children, or wives — dearer 
 even than life itself. By such persons every device would be attempted 
 and every risk run, in order to enable them to satisfy the craving which 
 opium creates, and one of the saddest features of the whole subject is that 
 this remark holds true not only of the people in general, but also of a very 
 large proportion of those in authority — the officials of all ranks. It appeared 
 to him therefore, that while every means should be prosecuted which would 
 tend to originate and foster an anti-opium spirit amongst the young, as well 
 as amongst those of the Chinese who are patriotic and opposed to the vice, 
 our chief duty in the matter was the duty of prayer. Our only hope was 
 in the power of the Holy Ghost acting on the minds of men. God alone 
 Who can change and strengthen human nature can meet and overthrow the 
 demon that has taken possession of so many even of the finest minds in 
 China, exercising a fascination over them far worse than the fascination 
 produced by the excessive use of alchohol.
 
 — 20 — 
 
 The Rev. E. H. Graves M.D. of tlie Soutliern (American) Baptist IVIis- 
 siou, Canton, said that an Anti-Opium Society liad been formed by the 
 native Christians in Canton. They published for general circulation 
 amongst their countrymen, a translation into Chinese of an appeal written 
 by Mr. Turner of the Anti-Opium Society in England, and also a hand- 
 bill exhorting people to abstain from the use of opium. At first they 
 seemed to be accomplishing but little practical good, and they therefore 
 appointed a day for special prayer for God's guidance and blessing in their 
 work. Before long they heard of a remarkable answer to their supplica- 
 tions. Several of the Chinese officials and gentry, in response to Mr. 
 Turner's appeal, had themselves formed an Anti-Opium Association and 
 they invited the Christians to attend their meetings and join them in their 
 efforts to put down the evil. They offered good prizes for essays on the 
 subject and have since published some twenty-five of these essays together 
 with a translation of Mr. Turner's paper and a number of popular exhorta- 
 tions against opium-smoking. They submitted the essays to the Christians 
 asking them to reject any that they thought objectionable and they 
 have also proposed to the missionaries to co-operate with them in opening 
 a shop for the sale of anti-opium publications and other books bearing on 
 morality even though they should be Christian, they themselves offering to 
 bear all the expenses of renting the shop, etc. 
 
 Dr. Graves thought it was important to urge the native Christians to 
 form Anti-Opium Societies and believed that by so doing they would place 
 themselves in sympathy with all the most moral of their fellow countr}--- 
 men, while by thus arraying themselves actively against evil, tlicy 
 would give Christianity a higher position in the eyes of the more thought- 
 ful aiuongst the heathen. 
 
 The Bev. D. Hill of the AVesleyan Mission, Wusueh, said that there 
 appeared to be some doubt existing in certain quarters as to the evil effects 
 of opium-smoking. This was a question however, on which no doubt existed 
 in the minds of the Chinese themselves. Again and again he had heard 
 Chinamen say " If you want to be revenged on your enemy, you need not 
 strike him, you need not go to law with him or do anything of the kind, 
 you have only to entice him into smoking opium. If you can give him a 
 taste for opium, you will take the surest means in your power of ruining 
 him utterly." A remark of this kind sufficiently indicates the view which 
 the Chinese themselves hold of the tendency of opium-smoking. Another 
 evidence of the immoral tendency of the practice is that opium-smoking 
 is generally found to be closely associated with prostitution. A large 
 number of opium dens are infested with prostitutes. Opium is also a com-
 
 —21 — 
 
 mon cause of cuicide. Mr. Hill thought that as missionaries we should 
 raise our protest against the conduct of the English Government in rela- 
 tion to the opium traffic, on moral grounds. It had been said that this 
 traffic produced a revenue to India of eleven milUon pounds sterling per 
 annum. It mattered not whether it were eleven million or eleven hundred 
 million; if the source of revenue be immoral, the amount of it cannot justify 
 its collection. He thought the English public were not at all acquainted 
 with the real state of the case and that if it were plainly laid before them, 
 we might hope to see the traffic suppressed. 
 
 The Eev. C. Douglas LL.D. of the English Presbyterian Mission, Amoy, 
 supported a motion which had been proposed by the Kev. C. W. Mateer of 
 Tungchow for a committee to draw up resolutions on the Opium Trade. He 
 thought however, that great care should be taking in preparing such 
 resokitions, and that no statements should be made which could not be 
 fully proved. Some incautious statements made in connexion with the 
 Anti-Opium Society of England had done harm. Any utterances made by 
 this Conference should combine deep earnestness of feeling with great 
 caution. As to the reality of the evil complained of, he said that the 
 native churches in Amoy were unanimous in their rule against admitting 
 opium-smokers to Church-membership. On this point the native Christians 
 are quite as decided as the missionaries. A convert who smokes opium is 
 at once put under Church discipline. 
 
 In considering the means to be used for the suppression of the opium traffic, 
 Dr. Douglas said he had learned in the case of the Temperance movement, 
 that it was not well to attempt too much at first. The first thing to be tried 
 in the present instance, was to sever the connexion of the Indian Government 
 with opium and also to resist any proposal to restrict the power which the 
 Chinese Government now possesses over the traffic. By existing treaties 
 the Chinese Government has unlimited power of imposing taxes upon opium 
 when once it is out of foreign hands. In this respect Opium is on quite a 
 different footing from all other articles of import, for with regard to them, 
 there are clauses in the treaties regulating the rate of taxation in the in- 
 terior of the country, but in the case of opium, there is nothing to prevent 
 the Chinese Government from putting on any duty they please in the 
 interior. This power should not be at all restricted, but every assistance 
 should be given to the Chinese Government in the exercise of its legal 
 powers of repressing the sale and use of the drug. 
 
 He said he had also learned from his experience in the Temperance cause, 
 that a distinction may be made between the trade and those engaged in it. 
 He would wage war to the last extremity against the lirjuor traffic in Eng-
 
 land, yfit he would admit tliat there are many g'ood men engaged in it. So 
 Avliilst we attack tlie opium trade we should beware of denouncing all who 
 are connected with it. It is wonderful how far a man whose principles are 
 right, may be blinded in the application of those principles, by custom or by 
 interest. Yet on the other side, he would relate a fact. Many years ago 
 the head of one of the principal firms engaged in the sale of opium, residing 
 at one of the treaty ports of China, was deeply affected by the power of the 
 Gospel. He at once felt the need of reconciling his position with his religious 
 convictions; he set to work to write a pamphlet in defence of the opium 
 trade ; it was almost ready for the press when he saw that his arguments 
 were faulty, he tore up his manuscript and resigned his situation. 
 
 The Eev. G. John of the London Missionary Society, Hankow, said that 
 he was very thankful for the admirable paper to which we had all listened 
 with so much interest. Especially he felt thankful to Mr. Moule for calling 
 the attention of the Conference to the duty of prayer in regard to this sub- 
 ject. He felt with Dr. Williamson that the matter was in the hands of 
 God. Even if the foreign trade in opium were suppressed, opium-growing 
 and opium-smoking would still go on in China. Yiin-nan, Kwei-chow and 
 Sze-chuen were red with the poppy every year. In several of the other 
 provinces also it was extensively cultivated. The evil was one of enormous 
 magnitude and he did not see what could stop the curse but the Spirit of 
 God. Some things however, we might do and ought to do. We must keep 
 ojmim out of the Christian Church in China. If we wished to sink the 
 Church and degrade it in the eyes of the heathen we could not succeed better 
 than by admitting opium smokers into it. Much of our hope for the future 
 of China depended on maintaining the purity of the native church. Then 
 we must do also what we can to save the opium-smoker. ]\Ir. John said he " 
 was one of those who believed that opium-smokers can be cured, and this 
 belief was based on what he had himself seen in Hankow where many 
 opium-smokers attend the Hospital, not a few of whom have been attracted 
 by the reports of others who had been under treatment there and have 
 returned to their homes completely cured. He thought that as missionaries 
 we must take up an uncompromising attitude in regard to the im- 
 morality of the trade in opium, and the evil of smoking it. Attempts were 
 sometimes made to palliate the sin of the trader and to make light 
 of the evil effects of the use of the drug. On both points our utterance 
 must be clear and emphatic. AYe know that opium is a curse — a curse 
 jjliysically, a curse morally, and a curse socially to the Chinese, and this 
 fact we must declare in loud ringing tones. We must also denounce 
 the trade as immoral. It had been suggested that while we blame the
 
 — 23 — 
 
 trade, we must be tender in speaking of the trader. But Trade has no 
 conscience to which we can appeal. If we blame at all, it must be the 
 trader. Whatever the trader may be in other respects, and he may be a very 
 admirable man indeed — his relation to this traffic must be denounced as 
 wholly wrong. The missionary is made to feel constantly that this trade 
 with its disgraceful history, speaks more eloquently and convincingly to 
 the Chinese mind against Christianity, than he, the missionary, does or 
 can do for it. It is our duty to appeal to the great heart of England — for 
 she has a heart, and when that heart begins to beat warmly on the quest- 
 ion, this foul blot on her escutcheon will soon be wiped off.
 
 II. 
 
 A Committee consisting of the Revs. C. W. Mateer, G. John, R. 
 Lechler, A. E. Moule, and C. Douglas, LL.D., appointed to prepare some 
 resolutions in regard to the Opium question, presented the following report, 
 which was adopted : — 
 
 1. — That opium-smoking is a vice highly injurious, physically, morally and 
 socially. 
 
 2. — That the opium trade, though now no longer contraband, is deeply in- 
 jurious, not only to China, but also to India, to Great Britain, and to the other 
 countries engaged in it ; and especially that both from its present history, and 
 its present enormous extent, producing suspicion and dislike in the minds of the 
 Chinese, it is a most formidable obstacle to the cause of Christianity ; and it is 
 the earnest desire of this Conference that the trade may be speedily suppressed, 
 except so far as it is necessary to supply the strictly medicinal use of the drug. 
 
 3. — That while fully aware of the serious commercial and financial difficul- 
 ties in the way of abolishing the trade, and not venturing to give any opinion as 
 to the means by which these may be obviated, it is the solemn conviction of this 
 Conference that in this case, as always, " nothing which is morally wrong can 
 be politically right." 
 
 4. — That in addition to the dissemination of strictly accurate information, 
 the Conference believes that the labours of those in Great Britain opposed to the 
 opium trade may at present be most practically and beneficially directed towards 
 the effort to sever the direct connexion of the Indian Government with the 
 growth, manufacture and sale of opium ; and to oppose any attempt to obstruct 
 the action of the Chinese Government in all lawful endeavours to regulate, 
 restrict or suppress opium-smoking and the opium trade in China. 
 
 5. — Finally, this Conference urgently appeals to all the churches of Christen- 
 dom to pray fervently to God that He may prosper the means used, so that this 
 great evil may speedily come to an end, and to make their voices heard in clear 
 . and earnest tones, so as to reach the ear and awaken the conscience of England, 
 and of all other Christian people and governments.
 
 .^ 
 
 f.^y 
 
 r