as though it were a Nemesis,
too long delayed, for her crimes.[54] If we may believe De Quincey,[55]
opium-eating was by no means an uncommon thing among the upper classes,
even in his day; and Dickens, in his description of an opium-den in
_Edwin Drood_, draws no doubt upon his stores of personal knowledge
acquired in his youthful rambles among the streets of London. However, we
cannot think there is any real danger of the English people deliberately
taking to opium. Tobacco answers every purpose. But it is an undoubted
fact that the mortality among children in large towns like Bradford and
Manchester is due, in a great measure, to their being unwittingly dosed
with opium, which enters largely into the composition of soothing syrups,
cordials, and elixirs of all kinds.[56] It has been estimated that 300,000
lbs. of opium are imported annually into the United Kingdom, only a part
of which can be used medicinally.[57]

Before speaking more particularly of the political agitation against our
policy with regard to opium, it will be necessary to state shortly what
that policy has been in the case of India. The opium from which India
derives her revenue is of two kinds, called respectively Bengal and Malwa
opium. The former is that grown by the Government agencies at Patna and
Benares; the latter, that grown by the native states of Scindia and
Holkar, which has to pay a heavy duty in passing through our territory.
With regard to the Government monopoly of Bengal opium, our policy has
been very vacillating in past time; and mainly to this cause may be
ascribed the fluctuations in the revenue derived from this source. The
opium revenue amounted in 1838 to L1,586,445 net, which by 1857 had risen
to L5,918,375. In 1871 the large total of L7,657,213 was reached, and this
has been still further increased in the last decade to eight and a half
millions. The constancy of increase noticeable in the revenue for the last
few years has been due in great measure to the adoption of a plan proposed
by Sir Cecil Beadon in 1867 that a reserve stock of opium should be formed
from the abundance of fruitful years to supply the deficiencies of lean
ones; so that a certain fixed amount of the drug might be brought into the
market every year. This reserve stock, which amounted in 1878 to 48,500
chests, by constant demands upon it has diminished to 12,000 chests. The
amount sold yearly has, in consequence, been lowered from 56,400 to
53,700 chests,