Now as to opium, I know that a large number of Members in the House are interested in it.  Judging by the voluminous correspondence that I receive, all the Churches and both political Parties are sincerely and deeply interested in the question, and I was going to say that the resolutions with which they have favoured me often use the expression “righteousness before revenue.”  The motto is excellent, but its virtue will be cheap and shabby, if you only satisfy your own righteousness at the expense of other people’s revenue.

Mr. Lupton:  We are quite ready to bear the expense.

Mr. Morley:  My hon. friend says they are quite prepared to bear the expense.  I commend that observation cheerfully to the Chancellor of the Exchequer.  This question touches the consciences of the people of the country.  My hon. friend sometimes goes a little far; still, he represents a considerable body of feeling.  Last May, when the opium question was raised in this House, something fell from me which reached the Chinese Government, and the Chinese Government, on the strength of that utterance of mine, made in the name of His Majesty’s Government, have persistently done their best to come to some sort of arrangement and understanding with His Majesty’s Government.  In September an Imperial decree was issued in China ordering the strict prohibition of the consumption and cultivation of opium, with a view to ultimate eradication in ten years.  Communications were made to the Foreign Secretary, and since then there has been a considerable correspondence, some of which the House is, by Question and Answer, acquainted with.  The Chinese Government have been uniformly assured, not only by my words spoken in May, but by the Foreign Secretary, that the sympathy of this country was with the objects set forth in their decree of September.  Then a very important incident, as I regard it, and one likely by-and-bye to prove distinctly fruitful, was the application by the United States Government to our Government, as to whether there should not be a joint inquiry into the opium traffic by the United States and the other Powers concerned.  The House knows, by Question and Answer, that His Majesty’s Government judge that procedure by way of Commission rather than by way of Conference is the right way to approach the question.  But no one can doubt for a moment, considering the honourable interest the United States have shown on previous occasions, that some good result will come with time and persistence.

I will not detain the House with the details, but certainly it is a true satisfaction to know that a great deal of talk as to the Chinese interest in the suppression of opium being fictitious is unreal.  I was much struck by a sentence written by the correspondent of The Times at Peking recently.  Everybody who knows him, is aware that he is not a sentimentalist, and he used remarkable language.  He said that he viewed the development in China of the anti-opium