Directory_and_Chronicle_1842 — Page 613

1842.

Opium-smoking in Penang.

591

tive to those who live in poverty and distress. There are many per- sons within the sphere of my own observation, who have attained the age of sixty, seventy, and more, and who have been well known as habitual opium-smokers for more than thirty years past. It is a well-known fact, that the present emperor of China was a slave to the pernicious habit of smoking opium for many years; but that, by great moral courage and perseverance, he weaned himself from the vice, and has ever since become a most violent persecutor of those who are addicted to the indulgence. He accordingly issued edicts of severe punishment against the smoker, vendor, importer, and all concerned in the traffic of opium; and, finding these ineffectual, he made the crime capital, and punished it with death. Whatever may be said in favor of the opium traders, and against the policy or jus- tice of the Chinese emperor, I ain convinced in my own mind that the real object of his edicts was the good of his subjects, and that he hoped, however vainly, to eradicate a vice destructive alike of the health and morality of those who became its victims. But his majes ty's government acted on very different principles; namely, the most selfish, venal, and mercenary. It is a notorious fact, that many, per- haps most of the officers employed in preventing the importation and smuggling of opium, are themselves opium-eaters, or opium-smokers, and consequently that they wink at the illicit trade, or take bribes of opium or dollars for the introduction of the drug. It is well known now, that in several of the southern provinces of China, opium is cul- tivated to a great extent, without any check from the local authorities, and, doubtless, without any knowledge of the emperor himself. The propensity to opium-smoking is becoming so universal and so irresisti ble in China, that no sumptuary laws, however sanguinary, will be able to stem the torrent. In Penang, excessive duties have only increased the thirst for opium; and what is worse, they have quadru- pled the number of murders and other crimes committed in order to obtain the means of procuring the drug.

[Note. We have extracted the preceding remarks just as they stand in the Medico-Chirurgical Review. We wish Mr. Smith would pursue his investi- gations upon this subject, and especially direct his attention to those smokers who have reformed;-what means they made use of to overcome the habit, what success attended their first efforts, and how many failed in the attempt at reformation. We should be glad also to know if privation of the drug, except in those cases where the functions of the whole animal system are completely disorganized by long and excessive use, does result in death. The Chinese say that a man can safely break off the habit, if he has the deter- mination and courage to let the pipe alone.-There are a few points in the paper which are not quite clear. We suppose the 18221. to be the income de-