of the Provinces has fallen into disorder & been greatly demoralized
At the present moment,
therefore,
& under these circumstances I scarcely think
any measure for the general disarmament of all native vessels
could be fitly insisted upon, even were it better calculated to attain the end in view. While the Chinese forces are consciously and manifestly incapable of affording by their own cruisers efficient protection to traders, there will be palpable injustice,
as well as impolicy,
in any general measure of this kind. It would, on the other hand, amount to disarming the honest trader and offering a direct encouragement to piracy by leaving him an easier prey. The pirates would always be the last to be reached by any disarming process.
As the Imperial Government gains strength and the embers of insurrection are extinguished,
order may be expected to return, and
the main cause of piracy, viz., the overflow of a starving and ruined population, will cease. That a large number of pirates will still continue in the dangerous cliques, never very large or small in number but very closely guarded, is unfortunately true. But the recruits gained will be diminished, and more effective steps taken both on the part of British authorities and the native Government, we may fairly hope that within a very few years piracy in the Chinese seas, if not entirely suppressed, may be reduced.
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