be consumed within the walls of the
imperial palace at Pekin,--I confess I see no reason for the clamorous
indignation with which this traffic has of late been assailed by
European moralists. I have said, that the Chinese Government derives a
considerable revenue from the opium trade; and I will prove it. A
Mandarin who pays for his situation, and is left to make the most of it
by squeezing the inhabitants of his district, will give a great deal
more for an appointment where an extensive opium-trade is carried on,
than he would for any other. Knowing the handsome sums paid by the
dealers in the drug, to "make Mandarin shut eye," he hesitates not for a
moment about paying his Imperial Master in proportion for the situation
which puts him in the way of reaping so rich a harvest. What is more;
his said Imperial Master knows perfectly well what makes the situations
in certain districts so much coveted, and enables the parties to pay so
high for them. Away, then, with all the mawkish cant about corrupting
the morals and ruining the health of the Chinese by selling them poison!
The Chinese are just as capable of taking care of themselves as their
would-be guardians are; and as for their morals, many of them lead lives
that might be copied with advantage to themselves and families, by
thousands of gin-drinking Englishmen. China is decidedly an
over-populated country. Opium-smoking checks the increase, and thereby
does good; a view of the question not altogether unworthy of attention.
Checking the increase of population in this way is, at all events,
better than adopting the plan of drowning female infants; not an
uncommon one in China.

The importance of Hong Kong in the event of another Chinese war, (an
event, in the opinion of many, not very improbable,) cannot, I conceive,
for a moment be doubted. Should our merchants again be expelled from the
ports of China, they will here find a safe asylum for their persons and
property, while their ships may ride in the harbour under the protection
of two or three of Her Majesty's ships in perfect security, in defiance
of all the marine of China. Here also Her Majesty's Government may have
_depots_ of military stores, provisions, coals, &c., all stored in
perfect safety, in place of being kept, as they were during the late
war, in transports hired at an enormous expense for the purpose. Now
that passages along the coast of China are made, even by sailing
vessels, at all seasons of the