Appalled by the signs of social decadence the more patriotic of China’s statesmen were not slow to perceive that all attempts at reform in education, army, and laws must prove abortive if opium were allowed to sap the vigour of the nation.  “You can’t carve a piece of rotten wood,” says Confucius.  Every scheme for national renovation must have for its basis a sound and energetic people.  It was this depraved taste that first made a market for the drug; if that taste can be eradicated the trade and the vice must disappear together, with or without the concurrence of Great Britain.

Great Britain was not, however, to be ignored.  Besides her overshadowing influence and her commercial interests vast and varied, is she not mistress of India, whose poppy-fields formerly supplied China and are still sending to the Chinese market fifty thousand chests per annum?  No longer an illegal traffic, this importation is regulated by treaty.  Concerted action might prevent complications and tend to insure success.  The new British Government was approached on the [Page 304] subject.  Fortunately, the Liberals being in power, it was not bound by old traditions.

A general resolution passed the House of Commons without a dissentient voice, expressing sympathy with China and a willingness to adopt similar measures in India.  “When asked in the House what steps had been taken to carry out the resolution for the abolition of the opium traffic between India and China, Mr. Morley replied, that he understood that China was contemplating the issue of regulations restricting the importation, cultivation, and consumption of opium.  He had received no communication from China; but as soon as proposals were submitted he was prepared to consider them in a sympathetic spirit.  H. B. M.’s minister in Peking had been instructed to communicate with the Chinese Government to that effect.”

The telegram containing these words is dated London, October 30.  The imperial edict, which initiated what many call “the new crusade,” was issued barely forty days before that date (viz., on September 20).  Let it also be noted that near the end of August a memorial of the Anti-Opium League, suggesting action on the part of the Government, was sent up through the Nanking viceroy.  It was signed by 1,200 missionaries of different nations and churches.  Is it not probable that their representations, backed by the viceroy, moved the hand that sways the sceptre?

The decree runs as follows: 

“Since the first prohibition of opium, almost the whole of China has been flooded with the poison.  Smokers of opium have wasted their time, neglected their employment, ruined their constitutions, and impoverished their households.  Thus for several decades China has presented a [Page 305] spectacle of increasing poverty and weakness.  It rouses our indignation to speak of the matter.  The Court is now determined to make China powerful; and it is our duty to urge our people to reformation in this respect.