fool, and she has really quite something of a
character after all;" and Arthur never dared
to hint a jealous thought or to give a gloomy
look when Cousin Hal and his wife—née Miss
Vaughan of Croft—came over to Thornivale,
and when Cousin Hal made "Gerald" laugh
till the tears ran over her eyes, or quoted
her before all the world as "the bravest and
best little woman living."

OPIUM.
CHAPTER THE SECOND. CHINA.

We have briefly traced the course of the
opium question in India, as far as concerns
the native cultivators, the East India
Company, and the merchants at Calcutta and
Bombay. We now direct attention to China,
where the matter presents itself for notice
under many different aspects.

Among various tribes and nations on the
eastern margin of Asia, opium is readily saleable
without bar or hindrance from the
governing authorities. Thus, the chests
exported from India find their way to the
Malay peninsula, Sumatra, Borneo, Celebes,
and other islands of the Eastern Archipelago;
the augmentation of price is enormous, for
either the article pays a heavy duty, or, as at
Java, the native princes monopolise the sale,
and farm it out to the Dutch at an annual
rental. In China, however, the government
in a formal manner prohibits the traffic and
indulgence in opium; we say in a formal
manner, for much discrepancy exists touching
the sincerity of this course of policy.
Certain it is, that prohibitory regulations have
now existed for sixty years, and that the
trade in opium on the Chinese coast has,
during this period, been nothing less than
contraband—in violation of the expressed
laws of the empire. Nothing but the
extraordinary corruption of the Chinese authorities
can account for the recent vast increase
of a trade prohibited by the laws; this
increase in one among many proofs of the
difficulty of putting in force, regulations at
variance with popular habits and tastes; and
it at the same time shows the probability
that the Emperor's servants like the forbidden
indulgence itself, as well as the bribes
administered by others.

Let us see, however, in what way the trade
is managed.

The English merchants, and to a smaller
extent the American, in whose hands the
trade is principally centred, keep a fleet of
opium clippers, or runners, remarkable for
their complete appointments and great
swiftness—scarcely paralleled by any sailing ships,
except the liners between Britain and the
United States. These clippers convey the
chests of opium from Calcutta or Bombay
to the China coast; and as there is an
atmosphere of illegality surrounding them,
they are armed for self-defence, like
smugglers' or pirates' ships. Early in the
present century, the opium clippers were
accustomed to proceed as far as Whampoa,
and there anchor, fifteen miles below the city
of Canton, but far up Canton river. The
opposition offered by the Chinese authorities,
however, was such, that the merchants abandoned
Whampoa, and established a rendezvous
at Macao, some miles lower down;
here, they encountered Portuguese jealousy,
which was effective enough to drive them to
the Bay of Lintin, near the mouth of the river.
In that Bay, the opium was transferred to
ten or twelve stationary vessels called receiving
ships; and the clippers, perhaps with
cargoes of silk or tea, returned to India.
This system lasted until the change in the
East India Company's charter, in eighteen
hundred and thirty-four; the Company's own
servants then ceased to manage the trade,
which was thenceforth carried on by the
independent English, and American, and
other merchants above adverted to. Another
change was at the same time made;
instead of proceeding to the mouth of the
Canton river only, the opium clippers—
strong, swift, well commanded, and well
armed—were despatched to various points on
the south-east coast of China, where receiving
ships were at anchor, ready to receive
the opium and to serve as market depôts for
the smuggling purchasers.

At Canton, the head quarters of foreign
trade with the Chinese, various European
and American nations have trading posts, or
factories, in a particular part of the suburbs
of the town appropriated by the authorities
to that purpose. A select number of dealers,
or brokers, called Hong merchants, are alone
permitted to conduct the negotiations between
the natives and the barbarians; these negotiations
relate, fairly and openly, to tea and
other Chinese produce on the one hand, and
to European and American goods and
manufactures on the other; but they also include,
illegally, if not secretly, dealings in the
forbidden opium. Or, if the Hong merchants
may not venture to do this, there are other
Chinese dealers who will, and with whom the
English and American agents make bargains.
When a purchase has been thus made at
Canton, an order is given to a Chinese smuggler,
the captain of a swiftly rowed and
strongly armed junk; he descends the river
to the depôt, gives the order, receives the
opium, and ascends the river with it to Canton.
Every step of his progress is illegal;
but there are certainly two reasons why the
imperial war-junks seldom attack him—
because his crew are determined fellows,
well paid and well armed; and because
the officials have been bribed to keep
quiet. There may be other reasons on the
part of a Government so full of chicanery
and evasion as the Chinese. The mandarins
and the smugglers occasionally concoct a
sham fight, to give the former an appearance
of obeying the imperial mandates. Some-