mouth. How well they spoke English too, these
educated natives.

"What is this Colony, Sir," continued the young man gaining control of
himself, "but a market for the opium your Government sells? For you
know, Sir, as well as I, that the sale of opium is a monopoly of your
Government. And we are helpless, defenceless, powerless to protect
ourselves. And do you know what your Government makes out of this
trade, Sir--the revenue it collects from selling opium to my people?
Three quarters of the revenue of this Colony are derived from opium.
Your Government runs this colony on our degradation. You build your
roads, your forts, your schools, your public buildings, on this vice
that you have forced upon us. Before you came, with your civilization,
we were decent. Very decent, on the whole. Now look at us--what do you
see? How many shops in this town are licensed by your Government for
the sale of opium--and the license money pocketed as revenue? How many
opium divans, where we may smoke, are licensed by your Government, and
the license money pocketed as part of the revenue?"

"You needn't smoke unless you wish to," remarked the Bishop drily. "We
don't force you to do it. We don't put the pipe between your teeth and
insist upon your drugging yourselves. How many shops do you say there
are--how many smoking places? Several hundred? We don't force you into
them, I take it. You go of your own choice, don't you? We Europeans
don't do it. It's as free for us as it is for you. We have the same
opportunities to kill ourselves--I suppose that's how you look at
it--as you do. Yet somehow we abstain. If you can't resist----"

The Bishop shrugged his shoulders. Yet he rather despised himself for
the argument. It sounded cheap and unworthy, somehow. The youth,
however, did not seem to resent it, and went on sadly.

"It's true," he said, "we need not, I suppose. Yet you know," he
continued humbly, "we are a very simple people. We are very primitive,
very--lowly. We didn't understand at first, and now it's too late.
We've most of us got the habit, and the rest are getting it. We're
weak and ignorant. We want you to protect us from ourselves. Just as
you protect your own people--at home. You don't import it into your
own country--you don't want to corrupt your own people. But what about
the races you colonise and subject--who can't protect themselves? It's
not fair!" he concluded passionately, "and besides, this year you have
sold us t