denly quadrupled the supply,-I believe it never
would have excited that extraordinary alarm in
the Chinese authorities which betrayed them
into the adoption of a sort of coup d'état for its
suppression.” - Debates, April 4, 1843 ..
To show that the project of a gradual dis
continuance of opium cultivation in British
India is not a mere visionary suggestion of an
enthusiast, I beg to quote a few sentences from
the Minute of the 14th of May, 1841 , of pro
C2
36
bably the most distinguished authority on the
subject in this country, Mr. Henry St. George
Tucker ; who, after having passed a great portion
of his life in the discharge of most important
duties in India , has since twice filled in this
country the still more important post of chair
man of the East India Company.
“ Ever since I have had the honour of being
a member of this Court, I have uniformly and
steadily opposed the encouragement given to
the extension of the manufacture of opium ;
but of late years we have pushed it to the
utmost height, and disproportionate prices
were given for the article in Malwah. We
contracted burthensome treaties with the Raj
poot States, to introduce and extend the
cultivation of the Poppy. We introduced the
article into our own districts, where it had not
been cultivated before, or where the cultivation
had been abandoned ; and we gave our Revenue
Officers an interest in extending the cultivation
in preference to other produce much more
valuable and deserving of encouragement.
Finally , we established retail shops, which
brought it home to every man's door.
“ How different was the policy of Lord Corn
wallis , Lord Teignmouth, Lord Wellesley, and
Lord Minto, who circumscribed the produce
37
within the narrowest limits, confining the cul
tivation of the Poppy to two of our Provinces,
and actually eradicating it from districts where
it had been previously cultivated ! How fatal
have been the consequences of a departure from
this wise and humane policy ! Is there any
man still so blind as not to perceive that it has
had a most injurious effect upon our national
reputation ? Can any man be found so hardy
or perverse as to deny that it has led to the
total derangement of our Trade with China,
which was heretofore the source of wealth
and prosperity, both to India and the mother
Country ?
“ If a revenue cannot be drawn from such
an article otherwise than by quadrupling the
supply, by promoting the general use of the
drug , and by placing it within the reach of
the lower classes of the people, no fiscal con
sideration can justify our inflicting upon the
Malays and Chinese so grievous an evil.”
The war with China was raging at the time
Mr. Tucker wrote the above spirited and most
able minute ; and the war was undoubtedly
one of the fruits of the Opium Trade. But
it by no means follows that a war would have
taken place had the legitimate Trade been still
in the hands of the Company, or had the
38
Representatives of the Crown, after the Trade
was opened , been as careful as their pre
decessors, the servants of the Company , had
been, in guarding themselves from giving any
aid or countenance to this illegitimate traffic.
The opium smuggling had been carried on
most extensively on the Chinese Coast, for
many years previous to the abolition of the
Company's monopoly, yet the legitimate Trade
in Tea never sustained a day's interruption or
molestation on that account .
It is certainly idle, as well as unjust, to in
veigh against our merchants who are engaged
in this gainful but pernicious traffic, in the
Chinese Seas, while the production of the
drug continues to receive in India that extra
ordinary encouragement which has been so
powerfully denounced by Mr. Tucker. A
gleam of hope, however, exists, that the
principles advocated by Mr. Tucker may yet
ultimately be acted on , in consequence of the
recent discovery of the many advantages
that would arise from the substitution, on a
large scale, in India, of a new species of cul
tivation , that of the Tea plant. This subject
has been most ably and fully illustrated by
Mr. Ball, in his recent valuable work on the
cultivation and manufacture of Tea ; and I
39
cannot state the facts of the case better than
in his own words, referring to his book for the
details, which are so important and interesting
that they will fully repay perusal.
“ The discovery of the Tea Tree in Assam ,
and the recent successful cultivation of the
Chinese plant at Kamaon , in the Upper Pro
vinces of India, encourage a well-grounded hope
that this valuable tree may soon be enumerated
amongst the useful products of our extensive
Eastern Possessions, and thus conduce to the
comfort of the nativ ee inhabitants, as well as to
the internal prosperity and commercial relations
of the country. It is generally admitted that
the natives of India have a decided predilection
for Tea ; and , could this article be afforded
at a sufficiently low price, little doubt is
entertained that its consumption would rapidly
spread over that immense peninsula." -- p. 334 .
“ The population of British India , and its
dependencies, is computed at 114,430,000.
Supposing these to become, like the Chinese,
all consumers of Tea, the impulse which this
novel demand for labour would give to a
country mainly dependent on its agricultural
resources ; the new, ( hitherto ) unprofitable,
and otherwise unoccupied mountain lands which
would thereby be brought under cultivation ;
40
the industrial activity its manipulation and
preparation would call forth , as well as the
new and indirect demands on industry it would
develope; and lastly , though least to be con
sidered, but nevertheless of high importance ,
the new sources of revenue it would open to
the Government, are all considerations of such
vast interest, that it ought not to be a matter
of surprise, that the encouragement of the
cultivation of Tea on an extensive scale, is
daily becoming more and more a subject of
anxious solicitude on the part of the Indian
Government. Great as these immediate ad
vantages may be to India , as administering
to the comfort and happiness of the native
population , yet its remote benefits are not 9
less pleasing and important to contemplate .”.
p. 335 .
After stating some of these remoter advan
tages, Mr. Ball answers what he considers
“ the prominent argument put forth against a
successful cultivation of the 'Tea Tree in India ;"
namely, the great cheapness of labour in
China, and the erroneous supposition that the
process of manipulation was a laborious and ex
pensive art. He proves, by means of a very
curious and elaborate investigation into the
relative condition of the Hindoo and the
41
Chinese labourer, that the advantage in respect
to economic labour is decidedly in favour of the
Hindoo . This is a new and very important fact,
and it completely disproves the commonly -re
ceived notion that, owing to the excess of
population beyond the means of subsistence,
the Chinese bave been reduced to the very
lowest position in the scale of human existence.
Mr. Ball concludes by expressing his earnest
hope that the enlightened Government of
Bengal, now enjoying the blessings of peace,
will be able to turn its thoughts to the moral
and physical improvement of the people, and
give its fostering help and encouragement to a
species of cultivation so conducive to the com
fort , happiness, and sobriety of its subjects, as
well as generally to the wealth and prosperity
of Great Britain and of her Eastern Depen
dencies. Every friend of humanity must surely
desire that the revenues raised from the vast
and fertile fields of India should be derived
from a produce beneficial to man, rather than
from one which, however ingeniously defended ,
or at least palliated, unquestionably leads him,
morally as well as physically, to his destruction.
It is mere trilling, to defend the cultivation of
Opium, on the score of its utility in medicine.
The drug used in medicine, and that prepared
42
for the purposes of a vicious luxury, are well
known to be totally and essentially different.
The same may be said of the attempt to place
the abuse of opium upon the same level with
the abuse of spirituous liquors. It is the main
purpose in the former case ; but in the latter
it is only the exception . Nor can the Opium
Farms be fairly justified on the ground of their
supposed analogy to our gin -shops. It is true
that our Government tolerates gin - shops ; but,
at least , it does notbuild and maintain them !
I cannot, therefore, but think that if Mr.
Ball by his present publication shall have de
cided the Government of India to persevere
in their encouragement of the cultivation of the
grateful, and, at least, innoxious Tea shrub, in
the place of the seducing but poisonous Poppy,
he will be entitled to the cordial thanks of every
genuine philanthropist .
This most desirable consummation would re
move that, which now appears to be the only
remaining stumbling -block to the successful
and extensive diffusion in China, through our
intervention, of the blessings of pure Christi.
anity, and of all the consequent advantages of
that higher and more refined civilization which
may reasonably be expected to follow in its
train . Several imperial edicts have been is
43
sued since the Peace, expressly commending
the general principles of Christianity, and giv
ing a public and official sanction to the labours
of our Missionaries, as far as the limits assigned
to foreigners, by the provisions of the Treaty of
Nanking , extend. The difficulties, therefore,
which previously existed in an inter -national
point of view , are removed. There is now
no longer any reason why our religious and
our commercial intercourse with the Chinese
people, if governed and conducted with com
mon prudence, should not mutually aid and
promote each other ; وand , by their harmo
nious operation , realize gradually all the ad
vantages anticipated from the renewal of our
peaceful relations with this extraordinary
people.
Our chief difficulty at present lies in the
imputation to which our sincerity is unavoid
ably exposed, as long as we continue to intro
duce into China with the one hand our trans
cendantly pure Christian Gospel, but with the
other the destructive and demoralizing Opium
Drug ! If ever the enterprizing spirit of our
merchants shall succeed in breaking through
the barrier which ancient jealousies and habits
still interpose to a free intercourse with the
44
interior of this vast empire, it will be by
making the Christian Missionary his Pioneer,
and by availing himself of that powerful im
pulse which religious zeal in a righteous cause
can alone confer and sustain. The examples of
disinterestedness and universal good-will which
our Christian Missionaries and Physicians have
exhibited in union , in China , in the Free Hos
pitals already established at Canton and at Hong
Kong, are calculated to soften the most obdurate
hearts, and have not been altogether thrown
away , even upon the lawless and hostile popu
lation of Southern China. It can hardly be
necessary to add, that whatever thus raises the
moral, religious, and social character of fo
reigners in China, must tend, in an eminent
degree to a juster appreciation , amongst the
Chinese, of the advantages generally of Foreign
Intercourse .
G. T. S.
Devonshire Street ,
January 1 , 1850 .
Since writing the above, I have seen the
reports from China recently presented to the
House of Commons by command of Her Ma
jesty , and I extract the following paragraphs
45
from the report of Mr. Rutherford Alcock , our
consul at Shanghai. - p. 76.
“ For the further extension of our Trade on a
sound, prosperous, and permanent basis, I do
not believe any probable increase in our ex
ports from China, under present circumstances,
is likely to prove the efficient cause. For the
large and full development of our commerce
with the Chinese Empire, I have already sub
mitted my conviction that other conditions are
essential . Of these, access to the first markets,
the removal of the limits and restrictions to the
free circulation of our goods, and of all travel
ing limits in the interior, are amongst the most
important and influential. Additional resources
may thus be developed, other products found
for export, and new wants created ; all com
bining to promote a vigorous and profitable
extension of commerce . A mutual better un
derstanding, based upon reciprocal interests
shared by large masses of the Chinese people,
and a better acquaintance with our claims to
their respect and good- will , will follow as a
natural consequence .
“ The fears sometimes expressed , lest the
first consequence of free access to the interior
should be danger and confusion, do not ap
pear to me to be well founded, but rather to
46
arise from the conventional manner in which
for centuries we have been accustomed to regard
the Chinese. Their peculiarity of character
and habits seems but a bugbear of our own
creation, which has long given them the incon
venient licence of a privileged buffoon in
society , who, upon the strength of the conceded
indulgence, takes every kind of liberty ; a
privilege, however, which ceases the moment
we are no longer disposed to tolerate his eccen
tricities. My own limited experience of the
Chinese has strongly impressed me with the
conviction that they are very like other people,
in this respect at least, that they are prone to
take liberties only where their ignorance or their
knowledge leads them to calculate upon doing
so with impunity ; and are, on the contrary, ex
ceedingly loath to try the experiment where they
have good reason to anticipate a different result. ”
(Signed) RUTHERFORD ALCOCK .
Shanghai ; forwarded from Hong Kong,
April 14 , 1848 .
Resolutions moved by Sir G. Staunton, in the
House of Commons, June, 1833.
1. That the British intercourse with China
is the source from whence this country is ex
clusively supplied with tea , an article in such
47
universal use as to be nearly equivalent to a
necessary of life, and through the consumption
of which a revenue of between three and four
millions sterling is annually raised with greater
facility and certainty , and with less pressure on
the people, than in the case of any other tax of
equal amount ; and that this trade moreover
employs a very considerable extent of British
shipping, is the medium of the export of the
manufactures and productions of Great Britain
and the British possessions in India, to the
amount, in annual value, of some millions ster
ling, besides affording a certain and convenient
channel for the remittance to Europe of that
portion of the Indian revenues required to meet
the home charges in this country .
2. - That this branch of British commerce
being of such great importance to the interests
of this country, even while it continues, as at
present, confined to a single port, and that
port one of the least advantageous in the
Chinese dominions, either for the export of
the staple commodities of China, or the dis
persion amongst the Chinese population of the
chief manufactures and productions of Europe,
it is not easy to estimate the vast field which
would be opened to the enterprise and the in
48
dustry of the manufacturing and producing
classes in this country, if such an improved
understanding could be effected between the
governments of Great Britain and China, as
might lead to a free and unrestricted inter
course of British subjects with the ingenious
and industrious population of an empire ex
ceeding, in respect to numbers, extent, and
natural resources, the aggregate amount of all
the nations of civilized Europe.
3. — That the peculiar jealousy of foreign
intercourse which distinguishes the govern
ments of all the nations beyond the Ganges
having been fully exemplified by the exclusion
of all foreigners, the Dutch only excepted ,
from the ports of Japan , and without any
exception from several of the ports of China
to which formerly they were freely admitted,
and by the obstructions which have been found
insurmountable to any extensive beneficial in
tercourse with Cochin -China and the other
minor states, and being partially mitigated in
the single instance only of the port of Canton ,
it is of the utmost importance that all legisla
tive measures, in any manner affecting a branch
of British commerce at once so valuable and so
capable of improvement, and yet so precarious,
49
should be founded on the fullest and most im
partial consideration of all the circumstances
which have contributed to place it in its pre
sent position .
4.-That, in the first place, instead of being
regulated by international treaties, and placed
under the recognised protection of a public
minister at the capital, and an acknowledged
consul at the port of trade, as is customary in
other civilized states, it is wholly abandoned
to the arbitrary control of the Chinese local
authorities, and is by those authorities subjected
to many very severe and vexatious burthens,
and to various personal restrictions and priva
tions of the most galling and oppressive nature.
5.-That these evils, in the second place,
are wholly attributable to the nature and cha
racter of the Chinese Government, and not to
any want of proper spirit and firmness in the
agents of the East India Company, who have,
upon various occasions, opposed the arbitrary
and oppressive acts of the local government
with considerable success, and in a manner
which individuals, pursuing their separate in
terests, and unconnected by any bond of union,
never could have attempted ; and have thus re
peatedly secured , for the general interests of
the foreign trade, privileges of the most essen
D
50
tial importance, and averted from it evils of
the most serious description, solely through
the influence derived from the magnitude of
their commercial dealings.
6.-That this influence being the sole ex
isting check now in operation for the control
and counteraction of the corrupt local adminis
trators of the peculiarly arbitrary and despotic
government of China, it is indispensably neces
sary to the security of our valuable commerce
with that country, that whenever any change
shall be made in the British commercial sys
tem , having the effect of putting an end to this
influence, an equal or greater instrument of
protection be at the same time created and
substituted for it, under the sanction of a na
tional treaty between the two countries, with
out which previous sanction any attempt to
appoint national functionaries at Canton for
the protection of trade, would, in the present
state of our relations with China, not only prove
of little advantage to the subject, but be liable,
in a serious degree, to compromise the honour
and dignity of the Crown .
7. — That notwithstanding the failure, in this
respect, of all complimentary Embassies to the
Court of Pekin , however otherwise beneficial
they may have been in raising and procuring
51.
the due recognition of the national character,
the evidence of the treaties which have been
repeatedly negotiated by the Chinese Govern
ment with that of Russia, through the medium
of Commissioners duly appointed on both sides,
not only for the adjustment of boundaries, but
for the regulation of trade, prove that there is
no insurmountable obstacle to such an arrange
ment.
8. - That in the event of such expectations
not being realized, and it proving impractica
ble to replace the influence of the East India
Company's authorities, by any system of na
tional protection directly emanating from the
crown , it will then be expedient (though only
in the last resort) to withdraw the British
commerce altogether from the control of the
Chinese authorities, and to establish it in some
insular position on the Chinese coast, where it
may be satisfactorily carried on , beyond the
reach of acts of oppression and molestation ,
to which an unresisting submission would be
equally prejudicial to the national honour and
the national interests of this country .
9.-That, lastly, the state of the trade under
-
the operation of the Chinese laws in respect
to homicides committed by foreigners in that
country, calls for the early interposition of the
52
legislature, those laws being, practically , so
unjust and intolerable, that they have, in no
instance, for the last forty -nine years , been sub
mitted to by British subjects; great loss and
injury to their commercial interests accruing
from the suspension of the trade in consequence
of such resistance, and the guilty as well as the
innocent escaping with impunity ; and it is
therefore expedient to put an end to this ano
malous state of the law , by the creation of a
British naval tribunal on the spot, with com
petent authority for the trial and punishment
of such offences.
H
TIS
BRI
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