We naturally admire a mau who having arrived at certain convictions which he knows to be nupalateable to a Inrge and influential portion of the public to which be addresses himself, has nevertheless the courage to declare them.
Strict honesty is probably becoming therefore the British official who on a question still open tries to stifle the shriek that he hears around him instead of to make it more strident, is sure to raise enemies while the chances are that be won't conciliate friends, We are all the more anxious therefore to mark the approval of reasonable people in the manly protest lately made by Consul Gardner of Chefoo against the nonsense talked and written by the members of the Anti-Opium Society. Opponents of the Government of the day may find it convenient to have an additional stone to fling at the administration. Any stick is good enough to beat a dog with. But no party has, while in power, ever seriously proposed
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.