nterbury chimes ring out, every
fifteen minutes, over the opium dens of the Crown!"

At this supreme insult the Bishop leaped at his tormentor, striking a
blow into space. The youth bounded over the low rail of the verandah
and disappeared amongst the shrubbery in the darkness.

To say that the Bishop was shaken by this interview is to put it
mildly. For he was a good man in his way, and moreover, in a certain
restricted sense, a religious one. But he was lazy and not inclined to
meddle in affairs that did not concern him. And colonial politics and
the management of colonial affairs were certainly not his concern.
Nevertheless, the horrible grouping together of facts, as the young
Seditionist had grouped them for him, their adroit placing together,
with the hideous, unavoidable connection between them, upset him
tremendously. He sat on in the darkness trying to think, trying to
see his way clear, trying to excuse or to justify. He had never
thought of these things before, yet he well knew of their existence.
All sorts of injustices abounded in civilized states--it was perhaps
worse in the colonies. Yet even in the colonies, little by little they
were being weeded out, or adjusted. Yet this particular evil, somehow,
seemed to flourish untouched. Not an effort was made to uproot it. The
only effort made, apparently, was to increase and encourage it. And
with the acquiescence of men like himself. All for what--for money?
For Crown revenues! Pretty poor business, come to think of it. Surely,
if the Colony could not exist by honest and legitimate trade, it might
better not exist at all. To thrive upon the vices of a subject people,
to derive nearly the whole revenue from those vices, really, somehow,
it seemed incompatible with--with--that nasty fling about the Church!

He rang for his boy, and a lamp was brought in and placed upon the
table beside him, and the Bishop reached over for the unheeded Report,
which had been lying on the table so long. The columns of figures
seemed rather formidable--he hated statistics, but he applied himself
to the Report conscientiously. Yes, there it was in all its simplicity
of crude, bald statements, just as the young man had said. Glaring,
horrible facts, disgraceful facts. For an hour he sat absorbed in
them, noting the yearly increase in consumption as indicated by the
yearly increase in revenue. Three quarters of the revenue from
opium--one quarter from other things. He wondered vague