Page:A wandering student in the Far East vol.1 - Zetland.djvu/279

Rh modifications introduced. Men in high places have unfortunately died, owing to their being suddenly deprived of the drug, and "these sad results of virtue have caused the stringency of the regulations to be relaxed, and those past fifty instead of sixty years of age are now to be allowed to continue smoking."

On the whole, more has, perhaps, been achieved than was to be expected. The other side of the picture, however, cannot be ignored. There is only too much evidence of the strength of the forces—some of which I have enumerated—which are acting, and must continue to act, as a drag upon the wheels of the Chinese chariot of reform. In the month of April (1907), for instance, "the consolidated Opium Tax Bureau, which is unquestionably an official institution, issued a proclamation urging the cultivation of the poppy for the sake of revenue," —a grave lapse from the high moral standard set by the emperor, Tao Kwang, who declared, in answer to the suggested advantages of legalising the opium traffic, that "Nothing would induce him to