h--war is declared against an insidious enemy
that has long been exhausting the resources of China and sapping
the strength of her people. She has resolved to rid herself at
once and forever of the curse of opium. The home production of
the drug, and all the ramifications of the vice stand condemned
by a decree from the throne, followed by a code of regulations
designed not to limit, but to extirpate the monster evil.

In this bold stroke for social reform there can be no doubt that
the Government is supported by the best sentiment of the whole
country. Most Chinese look upon opium as the beginning of their
national sorrows. In 1839 it involved them in their first war with
the West; and that opened the way for a series of wars which issued
in their capital being twice occupied by foreign forces.

Their first effort to shake off the incubus was accompanied by
such displays of pride, ignorance and unlawful violence that Great
Britain was forced to make war--not to protect an illegal traffic,
but to redress an outrage and to humble a haughty empire. In this
renewed onslaught the Chinese have exhibited so much good sense
and moderation as to show that they have learned much from foreign
intercourse during the sixty-seven years that have intervened.

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Without making any appeal to the foreigner, they courageously resolved
to deal with the evil in its domestic aspects. Most of the mandarins
are infected by it; and the licensed culture of the poppy has made
the drug so cheap that even the poor are tempted to indulge.

The prohibitory edict asserts that of the adult population 30 or
40 per cent. are under the influence of the seductive poison. This,
by the way, gives an enormous total, far beyond any of the estimates
of foreign writers.

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 commercia