Page:China- Its State and Prospects.djvu/114

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92
BRITISH GOVERNMENT

principles of mildness and equity, will never lend themselves to the promotion of a measure which demoralizes a population, in such a wholesale manner; and, still less, condescend to derive a profit from that which ruins myriads. The East India Company might, if they would, greatly diminish the trade in opium. If they were to discontinue the growth of it, in their own territories, and to bind down the native princes in alliance with them, to do the same; while they forbad the transport of it through their dominions, India would, then, no longer be what it now is,—the great source from whence the evil originates. Were the supplies from India cut off, the inconsiderable stock, and inferior quality, yielded by Turkey, would be far from supplying and satisfying the market, and the practice sink into desuetude, from the fewer facilities afforded for its gratification. The lands now employed in the cultivation of the poppy, being necessarily rich and fertile, would, if laid out in the raising of other productions, be equally valuable to the possessors; and, while the revenue was not diminished, the happiness, health, and industry of the people, would be increased; in addition to which, the divine blessing would, doubtless, be doubly bestowed on those, who renounced an apparent benefit to themselves, in order to extend a real good to others.

If unsuccessful with the East India Company, we would carry up our remonstrances to the government of Great Britain. Since the discontinuance of the company's trade with China, and the consequent withdrawal of its establishment, the English government have placed a superintendent of British trade at the port of Canton. The attempt of Lord Napier to fix his