Page:China- Its State and Prospects.djvu/112

 vice, when we pray every day, for ourselves, "Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil." When Mammon has less hold on the hearts of civilized men, and when educated merchants begin to be more scrupulous about the craft, by which they get their wealth, then we may expect that opium dealers will be diminished, even in Canton; and the time is not, we hope, far distant, when it shall be considered as disreputable to administer to the vicious indulgences of the Chinese, as it is now to those of the British—and as creditable to abstain from opium dealing abroad, as from distillation at home.

As the Chinese government cannot put down, and the foreign community of Canton, it is to be feared, will not abandon, the illicit traffic in opium, we must look for a more immediate remedy to another quarter. It is well known, that the greatest part of the opium is grown within the territory, and transported through the dominions of the Honourable East India Company. It is, in the Bengal presidency, a monopoly in the hands of our Indian government, who dispose of it to our merchants, at the annual sales. The profit derived from the transaction is, doubtless, great; and as a comparatively small quantity of the article is consumed by the immediate subjects of the company, and the evils consequent thereon, are confined to foreign lands, it is possible, that the Board of Directors, at home, and our Indian government, abroad, may have overlooked the enormity. Now, however, neither the company, abroad, nor the directors, at home, can plead unconsciousness in the matter: it has been told, and it shall be rung in the ears of the British public, again and again, that opium is demoralizing China, and becomes