The Truth About Opium

Lecture I.

Objects of the Lectures.--Lectures based upon principle and not upon grounds of expediency.--Lecturer's knowledge of the Opium question derived from actual acquaintance with the facts, acquired during nearly fifteen years' residence in Hong Kong.--Opium smoking as practised by the Chinese perfectly innocuous, beneficial rather than injurious.--Opinion of Dr. Ayres.--Charges made by the Anti-Opium Society and its supporters false and unfounded.--Alleged knowledge of the members and supporters of the Anti-Opium Society founded on hearsay evidence of the worst and most untrustworthy character.--Lecturer not acting in the interests of the British merchants in China, nor of any other party or person.--Has no personal interest in the Opium question, and is actuated only by a desire to dispel the false and mischievous delusions spread abroad in England by the Anti-Opium Society.--British and other foreign residents in China hold opposite views to those disseminated by the Anti-Opium people.--British merchants as a body have no interest in the trade.--China a great Empire as large as Europe, with a much greater population.--Country and people of China described.--Impossible to demoralize and debase such a people.--Opium smoking a general custom throughout the eighteen provinces of China.-- Reasons for the prolonged existence of the Anti-Opium Society.--False charges of the Anti-Opium Society respecting the Indo-China Opium trade more fully formulated.--Petition to the House of Commons of the Protestant Missionaries at Peking.--Refusal to sign it of the Rev. F. Galpin.--If half those charges were true the British residents in China would be the first to raise their voices against the Opium trade.--Official Yellow Book published by Sir Robert Hart, the Inspector-General of Chinese Customs, negatives the allegations of the members of the Anti-Opium Society and the Protestant Missionaries.--Roman Catholic Missionaries make no complaint against the Indo-China Opium trade.--Allegations of the Anti-Opium Society that British trade with China has suffered from the alleged forcing of Opium upon China untrue.--Friendly relations between the British merchants in China and the Chinese people.--Englishmen more esteemed by the Chinese than any other nation.--Hong Kong described.-- Government of China described.--Hong Kong the head-quarters of the Indo-China Opium trade, Chinese residing there have better means of procuring the drug than elsewhere--no sufferers from Opium smoking found there.--Exposure by Dr. Ayres, the Colonial Surgeon of Hong Kong, of the fallacy that Opium smoking, although indulged in for years, cannot be dropped without injury to the system.--Fallacy of comparing the Chinese with the savages of Central Africa by the Secretary of the Anti-Opium Society exposed.--Archdeacon Gray, a resident for twenty years at Canton, silent, in his recent work on China and her people, as to the alleged iniquity of the Indo-China Opium trade.--Character of the Chinese as described by various authors.--Chinese a frugal and abstemious people.-- Opium smoking less injurious than beer or tobacco.--Charges of the Anti-Opium Society based upon fallacies; those fallacies detailed.-- Alleged objections of the Chinese to receive the Gospel on account of the Indo-China Opium trade the merest subterfuge, and utterly absurd and untenable.--The opinion of the late John Crawfurd, Esq., F.R.S., formerly Governor of the Straits Settlements.--His Dictionary of the Indian Islands and Adjacent countries.

Pages 1-49

Lecture Ii.

Hearsay testimony upon which charges of the Anti-Opium Society founded explained.--Chinese a polite people and treat Missionaries courteously, but despise Christianity, and will not tell Missionaries the truth about Opium.--Respectable Chinese would become an object of scorn and disgrace to their fellow-countrymen if they embraced Christianity.--Professing Chinese Christians in most cases impostors.--Heathen Chinese as a rule more trustworthy than so-called Christian converts.--Missionary clergymen in China have not the confidence of the Chinese people, and draw their information as to Opium smoking from polluted sources.--Difference between Missionary clergymen in China and the clergymen of all denominations in England as regards knowledge of the people they live amongst.--Missionaries in China wholly responsible for the imposture prevailing in England as to Opium smoking in China.--Although the Chinese are a spirit-drinking people, they never drink to excess.--Drunkenness unknown amongst Chinese.--Chinese-American treaty a sham as regards Opium.--Sir J. H. Pease, M.P., duped by the "bogus" clause as to Opium.--His speech on the Opium question in 1881.--Chinese smoke Opium wherever they go.--As much Opium imported into China now as before the sham treaty.--Opium a luxury which only the well-to-do can freely indulge in.--Explanation of the means by which unfounded statements respecting Opium are propagated.--Apologue by way of example.--Proof of the state of things explained by the apologue furnished by the Rev. Storrs Turner and Dr. Ayres.--First fallacy, that the poppy is not indigenous to China, but has been recently introduced there, presumably by British agency, and the second fallacy, that Opium smoking in China is now and always has been confined to a small per-centage of the population, but which, owing to the importation into the country of Indian Opium, is rapidly increasing, refuted and the truth fully stated.--Testimony of Mr. W. Donald Spence and Mr. E. Colborne Baber, and Sir Rutherford Alcock.

Pages 50-100

Lecture Iii.

Third and fifth fallacies upon which the members of the Anti-Opium Society and its supporters are misled.--Opium eating and Opium smoking contrasted with spirit drinking.--Valuable curative properties of Opium.--Spirit drinking produces organic and incurable diseases, is a fruitful cause of insanity, and leads to ruin and destruction.--The like effects admittedly not due to Opium.--Opium eating and Opium smoking totally distinct.-- Whatever the effects of Opium eating, Opium smoking perfectly innocuous.-- Anti-Opium advocates cunningly try to mix the two together.--Disingenuous conduct in this respect of the Rev. Storrs Turner--Mr. Turner so great an enthusiast as not to be able to see the difference.--Testimony of Dr. Eatwell as to the use of Opium.--Difference between Opium eating and Opium smoking explained in the case of tobacco smoking.--Tobacco taken internally a deadly poison, harmless when smoked.--Medical testimony as to the poisonous quality of tobacco and its alkaloid, nicotine.--Opium a valuable medicine, without any known substitute.--Anti-Tobacco Smoking Society, once formed the same as the Anti-Opium Society, put down by the common sense of the community, the like fate awaits the Anti-Opium Society.--Testimony of Dr. Sir George Birdwood, Surgeon-General Moore, Sir Benjamin Brodie, Dr. Ayres, and W. Brend, M.R.C.S., as to Opium.--Small quantity of Indian Opium imported into China.--Enormous amount of spirits consumed in the United Kingdom.--Anti-Opium Society blind to the latter, energetic as to the former a purely sentimental grievance.--Fallacy of Anti-Opium Society that supply creates demand refuted and exposed.-- Remaining fallacies refuted.--Effects of suppression of Indo-China Opium trade.--Missionaries detested in China.--Indian Opium welcomed.--Saying of Prince Kung.--Treaty of Tientsin explained and defended.--Erroneous notions of the Protestant Missionaries as to that treaty.--Abused by Missionaries, yet the treaty the Missionaries only charter.--Testimony of H. N. Lay and Lawrence Olyphant.--Spurious copy of De Quincey's "Confessions of an Opium Eater," published by Anti-Opium people.-- Testimony of Don Sinibaldo de Mas, formerly Spanish Minister in China, a powerful defence of the Indo-China Opium trade.--Policy of the Indian Government as regards Opium wisest and best.--Alleged proposal of Lord Lawrence to alter that policy.--Fallacy involved in such proposal exposed.--Abrogation of Indo-Opium trade injurious if not destructive to the spread of the Gospel in China.--False charge of smuggling by British merchants in China exposed and refuted.--Un-English policy of the Anti-Opium Society exposed.--Recapitulation.--Benevolence of the British public.--Necessity for seeing that it is not diverted into worthless channels.--Anti-Opium Society, mischievous, presenting a melancholy record of energies wasted, talents misapplied, wealth uselessly squandered, charity perverted, and philanthropy run mad.--Society should be dissolved and its funds transferred to Missionaries.--Missionaries should not mix up Christianity and Opium.--Missionaries defended and encouraged.

Pages 101-174

APPENDIX.

Official Letter of Francis Bulkeley Johnson, Esq., of the firm of Jardine, Matheson & Co., of Hong Kong and China, Chairman of the Hong Kong Chamber of Commerce, to Charles Magniac, Esq., M.P., the President of the London Chamber of Commerce, respecting the charge of smuggling against the British merchants in China, and giving particulars of the Indo-China Opium trade.

Pages 177-183

THE TRUTH ABOUT OPIUM.

Lecture I.

The object of these lectures is to tell you what I know about opium smoking in China--a very important subject, involving the retention or loss of more than seven millions sterling to the revenue of India, and what is far more precious, the character and reputation of this great country. With respect to the former, I would simply observe that I do not intend to deal with the question on mere grounds of expediency, strong as such grounds unquestionably are, for, if I believed that one-half of what is asserted by the "ANGLO-ORIENTAL SOCIETY FOR THE SUPPRESSION OF THE OPIUM TRADE," as to the alleged baneful effects of opium smoking upon the Chinese, were true, I should be the first to raise my humble voice against the traffic, even though it involved the loss, not of seven millions sterling, but of seventy times seven. But it is because I know that these statements and all the grave charges made by the supporters of that society, and repeated from day to day, against the Government of India and the Government of this country, and also against the British merchants of China, to be not only gross exaggerations but absolutely untrue--mere shadowy figments, phantasies, and delusions--that I come forward to draw aside the curtain, and show you that behind these charges there is no substance. Were my knowledge of the opium question derived merely from books and pamphlets, articles in the newspapers, and ordinary gossip, I would not venture to trespass upon your time and attention, because in that respect you have at your disposal the same means of information as I have myself. But I come before you with considerable personal experience, and special knowledge of the subject, having lived and practised as a solicitor for nearly fifteen years in Hong Kong, where I had daily experience, not only of the custom and effects of opium smoking, but also of the trade in opium in both its crude and prepared state. I had there the honour of being solicitor to the leading British and other foreign firms, as well as to the Chinese, from the wealthy merchant to the humble coolie; so that during the whole of that period down to the present time I have had intimate relations in China with foreigners and natives, especially with those engaged in the opium trade. Under these circumstances I had daily intercourse with the people from whom the best and most trustworthy information on the subject of opium and opium smoking could be obtained, and my experience is that opium smoking, as practised by the Chinese, is perfectly innocuous. This is a fact so patent that it forces itself upon the attention of every intelligent resident in China who has given ordinary attention to the subject. The whole question at issue is involved in this one point, for if I show you that opium smoking in China is as harmless, if, indeed, not more so, as beer drinking in England, as I promise you I shall do most conclusively, then cadit quæstio, there is nothing further in dispute; the Indo-Chinese opium trade will then stand out--as I say it does--free from objection upon moral, political, and social grounds, and the occupation of the Anti-Opium agitators, like Othello's, will be gone. It is true that the opponents of the Indo-Chinese opium trade interlard their case with political matters wholly beside the question; this they do to make that question look a bigger one than it really is, so as to throw dust in the eyes of the public and impose upon weak minds. For instance, they drag in the miscalled "Opium War" and ring the changes upon it. That war, whether justifiable or not, cannot affect the points at issue. It is an accomplished fact, and it is idle now to introduce it into the present opium question. And though I shall be obliged to go pretty fully into the whole controversy, I ask you to keep your minds steadily fixed upon the real question, which is briefly this: Is opium smoking, as practised in China, detrimental to health and morals, and if so, does the Indo-Chinese opium trade contribute to these results?

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