w are we to
deal with the native States which cultivate the poppy, and derive a
considerable, in some cases a principal, part of their revenue from this
source? A previous attempt to interfere with this cultivation occasioned
serious disturbances, and almost a civil war. Are we ready to go to that
length to enforce our advanced ideas of total abstinence on the
independent States of Holkar and Scindia? If they do not mean this, how
are we to prevent the cultivators in Malwa taking up the trade abandoned
by us, and instead of 45,000 chests, sending 90,000 to China yearly?
Again, if the poppy culture be strictly forbidden in _all_ India, how are
the legitimate wants of the Rajpoots and the Sikhs in the Punjaub, and the
inhabitants of Orissa and Assam, to be supplied? Shall we go to China for
our opium, thereby getting a more deleterious drug at higher prices, and
inducing our subjects to substitute for the comparatively beneficial opium
the maddening stimulus of bhang and the poisonous mixtures imported under
the name of "French brandies," but composed of such deleterious
ingredients as potato spirit and fusel oil? It would, indeed, be a strange
finale if the success of this agitation should cause China to export opium
into India as she already does into Burmah.

Apart from these contingent possibilities the financial objections to
this measure are overwhelming in the opinion of all who are or have been
responsible for the financial administration of India. The immediate
effect of the cessation of the culture of the poppy would be the
disturbance of the cultivation of land amounting to 500,000 acres in
British India alone, the readjustment of which would be a difficult and
troublesome business. But, of course, the point to be chiefly considered
is the immense loss of revenue that must unavoidably ensue. Some, no
doubt, of this loss might be made good by the cultivation of other crops
on the poppy lands, which comprise some of the best land in the
presidency; but how much would thus be recouped is uncertain. In any case
it would not amount to a tithe of the loss, and would, moreover, go mostly
into the pockets of the zemindars, or middlemen. Again, the present staff
employed in the manufacture would have to be pensioned, which would be
another item of expense. Practically we may assume, then, that the Indian
Exchequer would lose some six millions a year; and this loss would have to
be met at once. The importance of this opiu