tably be the offspring of the Opium trade. As men and Christians we must ever deplore war with its attendant miseries, be the cause, according to the laws of man, ever so just; but when an evil so dire as war, finds its origin in a struggle between two great nations respecting the use of a deadly poisonous drug, forced upon a people half destroyed by its influence, by a professedly more enlightened and humane people, under the express sanction of their own Government, and against the repeatedly expressed determination of the Government of the injured nation to prevent its introduction-when war finds its origin in such a cause, not only can we not justify it, but it is a duty which we owe to the benevolent and humane people of Britain, to enter our protest against it, however feeble that protest may be, and however impotent to restrain the pugnacious measures about to be adopted. In every war there must be a guilty party, a party who must and will be amenable to the law of God, if not of man, for all the misery and suffering and death which must necessarily attend its progress; for if not, we shall give to nations an irresponsibility we cannot concede to individuals. Assuming the truth of this position, the question in this matter is, Who are the guilty parties? Is the Chinese Government? the Queen's or the Company's Government? or are the Opium Merchants the guilty parties? A brief statement of events as they have occurred will best serve to set this matter in a clear and distinct light.

For many a year the Government of India grew and sold for exportation purposes, the drug in question; the chief, nay the only mart for it was China and the islands of the Archipelago; vessels sailed from this and the other chief ports of British India, laden with this destructive commodity; the Chinese Government ever and anon issued edicts against the traffic, which, through the corruption of its revenue officers both high and low, were always evaded, and the Opium growers, sellers and traders both in India and China looked upon the flowery edicts of the celestials as so many official pieces of waste paper. That this was the general impression on the minds of the Opium dealers up to the arrival of the Commissioner Lin, is clear from the expensive line of conduct they were pursuing at the very moment of his arrival. From what has since transpired it is evident that the Supreme Government of China have for many years felt determined if possible to suppress this trade, not from any distaste to the somnolent influence of the drug as individuals, but from a deep consciousness, as a wise Government, that it was wasting the physical, moral, and pecuniary resources of the country. Viewing the matter in this light, the forbearance of the Chinese Government is

without a parallel in the history of nations. The policy of China, by whatever name it may be designated, evidently increased the daring of the merchant smugglers; the whole trade, illicit as it was, was carried on under the very eye of the authorities appointed to suppress it, in a most open and almost official manner. Vessels arrived week after week laden with the drug, ships were ready to receive it in exchange for good pure silver, which was again borne away to a foreign land, while the drug was left to cast its sterilizing influence over the bodies and minds of one-third of the human race. All this the Chinese bore, with a patience unparalleled, for half a century. The conduct of the Chinese Government was still more to be commended, when we remember not only that this trade was opposed to the principles of wise and good legislation, but also to the fundamental laws of their religious system. Sobriety is one of its commendably distinguishing features. At length the Chinese authorities determine that this traffic shall not be, if they can prevent it; they despatch a Commissioner vested with extraordinary powers to the chief resort of the smugglers; he issues edicts, in which he with but too much reason indulges in remarks at the expense of our national morality and good faith, which no other nation than a guilty people could according to the law of nations tolerate. Now what is the substance, the finale of all these edicts?—we believe this: "We have long borne with the introduction of Opium into our country, we are determined it shall now cease. We are willing to trade with you for every other kind of produce but Opium; but we now warn you, that if any vessels containing this drug shall be found within our waters, they will be confiscated and exchequered." The edicts containing these sentiments were addressed to Captain Elliott (never recognized as Her Majesty's representative) as the most influential Briton at Canton, urging upon him the propriety of using his influence with his countrymen to abandon the trade, and still further threatening death to any subject of the celestial empire who should be found engaged in it. The trade was still pursued and the local authorities gave evidence of their decision by inflicting capital punishment on one unfortunate Chinese smuggler in the very face of the British factory, and by placing a cordon round the factory itself, making the Opium dealers prisoners until they should deliver up all the Opium in their possession. All the Opium was delivered up to Captain Elliott by the merchants, and by him given up to Lin, with an agreement on the part of Captain E. that Her Majesty's Government should indemnify the Opium merchants for their 20,000 chests of the drug. The contents of every one of these

chests was destroyed by the command of Lin, every ball of which bore the impress of the British Indian Government. As the plot begins to thicken here and the morality of the question becomes involved, we shall pause a moment, and discuss briefly matters at this period in the history of this drama. At this critical juncture of affairs, Captain E. (the unrecognized representative of Britain's Queen) with a perfect knowledge of the fact that every Englishman was declared a prisoner who should set his foot within the factory bounds, no doubt with the best and most humane intentions, but still with such a fact staring him in the face, and without the most ordinary means of defence or resistance at his command, lands and makes himself the prisoner of the Chinese, leaving again when he choses—for there is no evidence to prove that he was detained beyond what he might naturally have expected, nor was any violence offered to him in any way; and yet this insult offered to our representative, never recognized by them-this is to be a peg on which to suspend all the horrors of a war with the Chinese, and by which the people of England, not the Company's Government, will be mulcted, first, in the loss of all the revenue derivable from the tea trade; secondly, with an enormous debt for carrying on the war ; and, lastly, with a moral disgrace attached to the national character of having begun a war in defence of the Opium trade.

We say the morality of this question begins to be mysterious, but only as to the origin of the war; for certainly not the morality, but the immorality of the trade has progressed with a rapidity and to an extent unparalleled in the history of such things. Now what is the plain state of the case up to this point, what but that the suspension of all fair trade and the origin of war must be identified with Opium? But for this our subjects would never have been incarcerated or our representative insulted; nay, so far was this feeling carried that a distinction was drawn between the Opium merchants and others, and between those more distinguished for their activity in the trade and the mere sleeping partners in the firms. The former were banished from China, the latter allowed to remain for a while. In order to form a correct estimate as to the insult offered to Captain Elliott, we should remember that our Residence in China and all our trade was on sufferance; they did not acknowledge us as other nations have done, nor did they trade with us but on the merest sufferance; and had insult to our Sovereign's representative been a plea for war, it might have been found long ere the Opium question was discussed; for we suspect not one of all the Consuls of Britain ever experienced greater affronts than did Captain E., and yet they were borne with and tolerated in

a manner which we think reflected the highest credit on his feelings and conduct as a Christian and a Briton, Now if it be true, and it is, that the Chinese offered to trade with us for all other commodities but this Opium, but with the understanding that we must cut off the sinews of the trade, cease to grow it, cease to export it, cease to make it an item in our Government exchequer, and place our Opium dealers in the position they alone ought to hold in society; if this was the alone condition on which they would and are willing still to trade with us, and we will not accept it, but go to war with a people, nolens volens, after having broken its laws, political and religious, for many a year, because they have, in defence of the morals, health, and exchequer, manifested a courage and displayed a morality which should have commanded our admiration and put us to the blush-surely such a war, whatever may be its rise, cannot be deemed just, nor will it reflect any honor upon the escutcheon of Britain. Such, we are persuaded, was the impression of Captain E., he felt the national morality even of the case was defective; it would not bear to be weighed in the balance of national law, and he felt himself impotent to chastise those who he was convinced had not nationally and as a Government transgressed; if not, why did he, under the influence of a wise and humane policy, collect all the drug, hand it over to the Chinese, and in every way endeavour to curb and suppress the whole trade? why did he place his own character and that of his Government in jeopardy, by giving bonds which he must have doubted would ever be honored? Captain E. evidently is not the guilty party, but in this state of things what is the conduct of the Indian Government? Does it cease to grow the drug? No.-Does it cease to sell it? No.-Does it say to the Opium dealers, you must remove your offices to sequestered nooks of the coast, and your vessels must steal from our coasts as they do to that of China, under every flag but ours? No, while Captain E. is at the one end seizing the Opium, and the Chinese destroying it, we here are growing it, and selling it to the highest bidder; we are chartering ships which proceed to the coasts of China, armed to the teeth, which if report says true, rake the horizon with their grape-shot to prevent the approach of the Government preventive boats, and point their cannon into the boats of the Chinese Opium smugglers, while they make such a bargain as they (the British) deem best for themselves-and this under the British flag, and every ball of Opium stamped with the Company's mark!!! This might have happened for the first season, but that it should be repeated is beyond all incredible,

and yet we understand the order and the advance for a new crop have gone forth. Who are the morally guilty parties? We think it fairly rests but upon two parties; those who provide the Opium, and those who convey it: and we know but of two views which can at all extenuate the guilt of these parties. The one is, that the growers and sellers of the Opium are not bound to know whither it is taken; and the other, that it is too serious an item in the Government exchequer to give up at once. In reference to the first it may be said, if Government is to be responsible for the acts of the shippers in conveying it to China, then may we demand satisfaction from almost every Government under heaven for the delinquency of their subjects for introducing contraband goods into our ports. The difference is just this:-in the present case, the Government is the actual grower and seller, the chief merchant, the fountain from whence all the mischief flows; and we are ready to revenge any attempt on the part of the Chinese to take and imprison, or exchequer our ships, or our men. Nay more, we charter vessels, armed vessels, whose whole business it is to force the drug into the coasts and ports of China. To say that the Government do not know whither it is conveyed, is only the veriest quibbling; for for what ports are the ships cleared? why for China and the Straits: and if it is not conveyed to China, where is there a mart for it in the whole world? and if it be sold without a certainty of its going to China, then does the immorality deepen, for then must it be sent abroad in the earth to spread its withering influence on other lands—and this for gain!! In reference to the second observation. Surely the exchequer of the Government must not be replenished at the expence of every law both human and divine. Besides, the replenishing of the coffers of the Company from this source involves a question of morality towards the British people, for whilst the Opium revenue flows into this treasury, the immense revenue derivable at Home from the importation of tea is stopped, and the whole China trade turned to the American coasts. Previously to declaring war even now the authorities have had one course open to them as Christians, and that is, to wash their hands entirely of the whole traffic; for without this it is impossible they can go into the field with clean hands, if they can even then. There is yet another anomaly in this case, which may soon occur: supposing the British Government determine to chastise the Chinese for the insult offered to Captain E. and blockade the whole coast, it is clear that in maintaining that blockade they must and will cut off all the causes of irritation, and they must especially suppress all

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