Moat Honourable Gentlemen,—It is with a feeling of unfeigned satisfaction and thankfulness to God the King Almighty, that have learned that you have memo-realized Sir Rutherford Alcock respecting the woeful evils which accompany the opium trafic in reference to China and to India;—which trafic, in opposition to the wishes of the Chinese nation, has been unrighteously obtruded upon them. I desire to assure you that the best citizens and Christians of England, who are virtually the stay and life of the country, under God, aco, when their attention is closely applied to this subject, deeply,—some of them poignantly,—alfected by a view of the iniquity and misery attendant on the history and practice of opium cultivation in the East, and of the opium trafic with China.
Honourable Gentlemen, one of the best things you could do would be to send a deputation of Chinese persons of rank, high education, and moral worth, to Eng-Jand,—to appeal personally in our large towns to the respectable inhabitants and you with us, would, I doubt not, thus produce a great effect for good;—and a new condition of things for China would be inaugurated. By the grace of God I stood up before the British Association, held in Bradford in Yorkshire, (10 miles from the town where reside), and with intense rnestuess pleaded the cause of righteous-as in your behalf and ours, and that indeed of all men,—and declared our shame. No man gainsay'd me. They could not. They would not, They dare not. A greater than they all was present unseen,—the King of Heaven and Earth, ortal and invisible—overshadowing—for He keepeth the fect of his saints, and watcheth over His peop!
Lose no time, Most Honourable Gentlemen, but come. "I feel sure you will be well treated by the respectable people of England; and that you will be as glad you 4 have' visited na, as are now the Shak of Persia and his suite,—the Japanese Ambassadora,—and the Burmese Ambassadors, These visits tend tly tothe civilization of the world; and the producing of a good understanding between th 1 and peoples of the whole globe. Probably you are aware that there has been a change of Ministry in England Intely; so that 1 advise you to follow up your movement with all vigor and promptitude. Mr. Making, the English Missionary, believe at Pekin, knows me, by having amer me at Leeds many years ago; and by some correspondence, Yours most truly, (Esquire).
England, March Ist, 1874.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.