China, his house in India was sending armed vessels loaded with opium, along the coast of China, and selling it in open defiance of the laws of that Empire.  This information, with the names of the vessels and the parties concerned, the number of chests of opium on board, the enormous profits they were realizing, et cet., was some time ago communicated to the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, on authority which he did not and could not dispute.’

[Footnote B:  “This individual is in the new House of Commons, professedly as a reformer, and represents a borough which formerly sent to that House one of its most upright members, who has now retired from public life.]

“On the 7th of April, Sir James Graham brought forward a motion in the House of Commons, in reference to this subject, but in a manner which gave it so much of a party character, that our cruel injustice to the Chinese, and the disgraceful conduct of our Government in attacking them, was lost sight of by many, whose professed principles ought to have made them foremost in condemning these proceedings.  The Whig Ministry having intimated they would resign if Sir J. Graham carried his motion, every other consideration was forgotten in anxiety lest a political party should be injured or lose office.

“This feeling not only pervaded the supporters of the Government in the House of Commons, but also extended to many leading religious professors of various denominations; and thus no public feeling sufficiently strong could be raised to counteract in Downing-street, the combined and powerful influence of the East India Company and the wealthy opium smugglers; though public meetings were held in London and many places in the country, and petitions forwarded justly deprecating this war, as one of almost unparalleled iniquity.  At the meeting in the metropolis, which was held at Freemason’s Hall, and at which the Earl of Stanhope presided, the following resolutions were passed:—­

“’1.  That this meeting, whilst it most distinctly disavows any party or political objects, and deprecates most strongly any such construction being put upon its efforts, deeply laments that the moral and religious feeling of the country should be outraged—­the character of Christianity disgraced in the eyes of the world—­and this kingdom involved in war with upwards of three hundred and fifty millions of people, in consequence of British subjects introducing Opium into China, in direct and known violation of the laws of that Empire.

“’2.  That, although the Chinese have not been heard in their defence, the statements adduced by the advocates of the war, clearly establish the fact, that the East India Company, the growers of and traffickers in opium, and British subjects who received the protection of the laws of China, have been, throughout, the wrong doers; therefore this meeting (without reference to the conviction