the hurtful whisky, do you think
heaven, seeing all this waste going on, is likely to hear your
petitions and increase the supply of what you now waste so large a
proportion? If you bought food for your child, and he ate only half
and threw the other half to the pig, would you be likely to buy him
more just then, even though he might say he was hungry?" This
reasoning seems quite satisfactory and convincing to them, and
never fails to secure their expressed assent.

'As to opium I never find it necessary to say much. All admit it to
be only and wholly bad. Yet the quantity grown in the district is
immense. In the early spring the very first movement of cultivation
is the irrigation and working of the opium land, and at the season
nearly all the best land blazes with bloom of the poppy. It is a
sight to see the country people going to the markets with the
"_milk_" in bowls and basins, and the buyers and sellers of it
riding along, each with a weighing-balance stuck in his belt.
Government restriction there is none, the duty imposed is not very
heavy, and public opinion raises no voice against it. It was
originally grown, say the natives, so as to keep money from going
out of the district in buying imported opium, but the more it was
grown the more it was used, and now the quantity raised and smoked
is immense. There is a small proportion of farmers who have good
land, suitable for growing opium, but who do not grow it. But these
men are few, and as a general rule the very best pieces of land are
set apart for the cultivation of opium. The common conscience of
the people tells them this is a wrong thing. When therefore they
ask how to get a good harvest, they themselves acknowledge that
the reply is just, which says, "First leave off the waste of
heaven's grace involved in the growth and manufacture of opium,
whisky, and tobacco, and then, and not till then, will it be
reasonable for you to ask heaven for more bountiful harvests."

'In connection with all this, there is another fact that must not
be forgotten. Drinkers of whisky, and smokers, especially of opium,
the better the year is, the more they indulge. In a poor year they
use less whisky and opium; the better the year, and the cheaper
tobacco, whisky, and opium are, the more they use, so that