private merchants to trade to India; but this right was not extended to the trade with China, which was still confined to the Company till 1833, when a new law was made with regard to that also, and any person then was at liberty to go to China for tea, silk, and other commodities, which have since been much cheaper in consequence. Tea is little more than half the price it used to be, which is a great benefit and comfort to the poor.
21. But this had nothing to do with the war in China, which arose from a dispute about the British merchants selling opium to the Chinese, who were forbidden by their emperor to buy it, because it injures the health of those who take it, like drinking spirits.
22. Still the merchants continued to carry opium to China, and the people to buy it; so the governor at Canton, the only Chinese town in which foreigners were allowed to trade, seized and burnt some ship-loads of opium, for which he would not pay the owners; and this was the cause of the war.
23. There were several battles fought, in which the Chinese were always defeated, for they were not much acquainted with the present art of war; but, at last, after three years of warfare, peace was made with the British; and
