John Strachey and Sir Evelyn Baring, a wonderful
improvement has been effected; but their efforts would have been crippled
and their far-sighted policy paralyzed, if it had not been for the
magnificent revenue derived from the sale of opium, which has indeed
proved, as it has been called, "the sheet anchor" of Indian finance. And
if this revenue _be_ badly acquired, there is no question but that it has
been splendidly applied; and if the Chinese will have opium, as there is
no doubt they will, the superfluity of their wealth cannot be better spent
than in the amelioration of the lot of the Indian ryot. This is the very
class which would suffer most severely from any increase of taxation,
and, as Sir Evelyn Baring says, "to tax India in order to provide a
cure--which would almost certainly be ineffectual--for the vices of the
Chinese would be wholly unjustifiable." In doing a little right to China,
let us beware lest we do a great wrong to India.

As to the effects upon Indian commerce of a large diminution of the opium
trade, India would lose her present large profits on a product of which
she owns a natural monopoly. She would also be obliged to increase her
exports largely, the value of which would consequently be depreciated;
except that the Indian tea-trade would be benefited by a disturbance of
the China trade. Further, India would be forced to reduce her imports,
however necessary these may be. Lastly, there is a prospect of a fall in
the rate of exchange, and a further depreciation of silver, which would
increase her liabilities and imperil her financial position.

Such, then, are the difficulties which are inseparably connected with any
sudden cessation of the opium trade; but it remains for us still to notice
one proposal emanating from the supporters of the anti-opium policy, which
is remarkable for its naivete. It recommends that England should demand
from China other privileges as an equivalent for the renunciation of a
formal right, and as an indemnification of a great loss sustained. This
equivalent would no doubt take the shape of commercial concessions, such
as the opening up of the interior of China to foreign intercourse, the
working of the mines in China, which are numerous and valuable, and the
construction and working of railways by English engineers. There is no
doubt that China offers a large and virgin field to the commercial
activity of England, and the result that followed the opening of ports