he writer of the leader on the above the subject of been found difficult to say when it began and by whom introduced, and after discoursing fur a column and a half, we are no better uff than at the beginning. His statementaare made, supported by afore midablearcay of iguresandsume extraneous er, with an air of circumstantiality and seem to defy criticism, that in all likelihood the habit occurred atacertain time. In any serious discus: sion of this subject, this uncertain style of writing is out of place. If we compare a leader on the same subject in the issue of il, by the re shall see serious inconsistencies. There the growth and the vice of opium-the introduction of opium and the poppy seeds are traced to the Mohammedans, and a north-western origin for the habit in the time of Kien-lung is suggested; here the writer finds its origin in the south-east among the aborigines in the id of Formosa at an earlier date. We wre nowhere told where the Furmosaus obtained their opium. The Dutch had been driven out of the island* long before the period given. It is not said either that the islanders grow their own opium. Whence then did it come? Several authors are mentioned as to the date of the origin of the habit, but their staioments are neither refuted nor confirmed. Hitherto it has been- supposed that the subject was so involved in mystery that it was-vain to look for its: solution. I do not agree with the writer's views and still less with his inferences. There is of course no error or evil from which some truth or goodness may not be distilled, It ill becomes me to condenmn the bulk of the information supplied, inasmuch as it was furnished by me to the writer, not however with the view of: publication and certainly not of having it published in this crude and disjointed manner with the writer's own cogitations: and suppositions. The light which falls upon such documents is only lurid to those who fail to see perfectly. "Possessing the extract which yave body and. inspiration to the leader, it would have been an easy matter to have indicated the date of the origin of the vice "in Formosa, with some approximation to the truth, lind the welter known, who. the author of the extract was, the time when and the circumstances under which he wrote. Iehallonge him, however, to furnish this information, Diatnonds were strewn in the traveller's path, but for want of the they wore by and not recognised. A bare lation of that short extract would Hhrown more light upon the subject than any number of sich uncertain leader Opium-smoking did not begin in Formosa nor is the year given, 1720, even approxi-motively correct, It did not begin even in the century which embraces: this your. Indisputable facts in my possession prove this, When will our sinologues" giv us the correct dates of Chinese events? This writer over and over again, here and elsewhere, has given us 1730 a8 the Yung-ching. In a note to ud of China, besides misstating year as usual, he ads his own sup= opium was also The editor cent g that it me may not be so; nothing is said.about it i the edict quoted. The writer made this same so-called edict do duty in connexion Mohammedans in the N.W.; made to refer to Formosa. The second regulation of Yung-ching in 1730, incorrectly given 1731, undoubtedly refers to this island, The writer "blames the various Censors in Tao Kwang's reign for lack of research in not knowing that opium was smoked before the end of last century ud for not pointing out that opium smoke ing had been steadily increasing for fully: 50 years before the K.I.C. succeeded th Portuguese in conducting the import trade, And this accusation is not well-founded. The view at the time the writer speaks of was of very lilliputian dimensions and was contained to tivo or three ports in the south, It was absolutely unknown as a vice or luxury—the very name of it was unknown throughout the length and breadth of the Tand, It is not true that the officials in Tao Kwang'a reign did not memorialise the Throne, afraid to make known the exact facts because it would have been unpopular." Phe Chinese Repository, the Middle Kingdom, our own Blue Books and other works bearing upon China, bear witness to the clear and outspoken utterance of the officials on this subject. Let the writer turn to the memorial of the G er of Canton in 1836 or to Chao-tsun's in the same year, and listen to what the latter says about the production of the poppy in various provinces and particularly his native province of Yunnan, and about the rain the habit was creating in Formosa and enervating the soldiery. Let him also
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.