  | LECTURE I. | | Objects of the Lectures.—Lectures based upon principle and not upon grounds of expediency.—Lecturer’s knowledge of the Opium question derived from actual acquaintance with the facts, acquired during nearly fifteen years’ residence in Hong Kong.—Opium smoking as practised by the Chinese perfectly innocuous, beneficial rather than injurious.—Opinion of Dr. Ayres.—Charges made by the Anti-Opium Society and its supporters false and unfounded.—Alleged knowledge of the members and supporters of the Anti-Opium Society founded on hearsay evidence of the worst and most untrustworthy character.—Lecturer not acting in the interests of the British merchants in China, nor of any other party or person.—Has no personal interest in the Opium question, and is actuated only by a desire to dispel the false and mischievous delusions spread abroad in England by the Anti-Opium Society.—British and other foreign residents in China hold opposite views to those disseminated by the Anti-Opium people.—British merchants as a body have no interest in the trade.—China a great Empire as large as Europe, with a much greater population.—Country and people of China described.—Impossible to demoralize and debase such a people.—Opium smoking a general custom throughout the eighteen provinces of China.—Reasons for the prolonged existence of the Anti-Opium Society.—False charges of the Anti-Opium Society respecting the Indo-China Opium trade more fully formulated.—Petition to the House of Commons of the Protestant Missionaries at Peking.—Refusal to sign it of the Rev. F. Galpin.—If half those charges were true the British residents in China would be the first to raise their voices against the Opium trade.—Official Yellow Book published by Sir Robert Hart, the Inspector-General of Chinese Customs, negatives the allegations of the members of the Anti-Opium Society and the Protestant Missionaries.—Roman Catholic Missionaries make no complaint against the Indo-China Opium trade.—Allegations of the Anti-Opium Society that British trade with China has suffered from the alleged forcing of Opium upon China untrue.—Friendly relations between the British merchants in China and the Chinese people.—Englishmen more esteemed by the Chinese than any other nation.—Hong Kong described.—Government of China described.—Hong Kong the head-quarters of the Indo-China Opium trade, Chinese residing there have better means of procuring the drug than elsewhere—no sufferers from Opium smoking found there.—Exposure by Dr. Ayres, the Colonial Surgeon of Hong Kong, of the fallacy that Opium smoking, although indulged in for years, cannot be dropped without injury to the system.—Fallacy of comparing the Chinese with the savages of Central Africa by the Secretary of the Anti-Opium Society exposed.—Archdeacon Gray, a resident for twenty years at Canton, silent, in his recent work on China and her people, as to the alleged iniquity of the Indo-China Opium trade.—Character of the Chinese as described by various authors.—Chinese a frugal and abstemious people.—Opium smoking less injurious than beer or tobacco.—Charges of the Anti-Opium Society based upon fallacies; those fallacies detailed.—Alleged objections of the Chinese to receive the Gospel on account of the Indo-China Opium trade the merest subterfuge, and utterly absurd and untenable.—The opinion of the late John Crawfurd, Esq., F.R.S., formerly Governor of the Straits Settlements.—His Dictionary of the Indian Islands and Adjacent countries. | | Pages1-49 | | | LECTURE II. | | Hearsay testimony upon which charges of the Anti-Opium Society founded explained.—Chinese a polite people and treat Missionaries courteously, but despise Christianity, and will not tell Missionaries the truth about Opium.—Respectable Chinese would become an object of scorn and disgrace to their fellow-countrymen if they embraced Christianity.—Professing Chinese Christians in most cases impostors.—Heathen Chinese as a rule more trustworthy than so-called Christian converts.—Missionary clergymen in China have not the confidence of the Chinese people, and draw their information as to Opium smoking from polluted sources.—Difference between Missionary clergymen in China and the clergymen of all denominations in England as regards knowledge of the people they live amongst.—Missionaries in China wholly responsible for the imposture prevailing in England as to Opium smoking in China.—Although the Chinese are a spirit-drinking people, they never drink to excess.—Drunkenness unknown amongst Chinese.—Chinese-American treaty a sham as regards Opium.—Sir J. H. Pease, M.P., duped by the “bogus” clause as to Opium.—His speech on the Opium question in 1881.—Chinese smoke Opium wherever they go.—As much Opium imported into China now as before the sham treaty.—Opium a luxury which only the well-to-do can freely indulge in.—Explanation of the means by which unfounded statements respecting Opium are propagated.—Apologue by way of example.—Proof of the state of things explained by the apologue furnished by the Rev. Storrs Turner and Dr. Ayres.—First fallacy, that the poppy is not indigenous to China, but has been recently introduced there, presumably by British agency, and the second fallacy, that Opium smoking in China is now and always has been confined to a small per-centage of the population, but which, owing to the importation into the country of Indian Opium, is rapidly increasing, refuted and the truth fully stated.—Testimony of Mr. W. Donald Spence and Mr. E. Colborne Baber, and Sir Rutherford Alcock. | | Pages50-100 | | | LECTURE III. | Third and fifth fallacies upon which the members of the Anti-Opium Society and its supporters are misled.—Opium eating and Opium smoking contrasted with spirit drinking.—Valuable curative properties of Opium.—Spirit drinking produces organic and incurable diseases, is a fruitful cause of insanity, and leads to ruin and destruction.—The like effects admittedly not due to Opium.—Opium eating and Opium smoking totally distinct.—Whatever the effects of Opium eating, Opium smoking perfectly innocuous.—Anti-Opium advocates cunningly try to mix the two together.—Disingenuous conduct in this respect of the Rev. Storrs Turner—Mr. Turner so great an enthusiast as not to be able to see the difference.—Testimony of Dr. Eatwell as to the use of Opium.—Difference between Opium eating and Opium smoking explained in the case of tobacco smoking.—Tobacco taken internally a deadly poison, harmless when smoked.—Medical testimony as to the poisonous quality of tobacco and its alkaloid, nicotine.—Opium a valuable medicine, without any known substitute.—Anti-Tobacco Smoking Society, once formed the same as the Anti-Opium Society, put down by the common sense of the community, the like fate awaits the Anti-Opium Society.—Testimony of Dr. Sir George Birdwood, Surgeon-General Moore, Sir Benjamin Brodie, Dr. Ayres, and W. Brend, M.R.C.S., as to Opium.—Small quantity of Indian Opium imported into China.—Enormous amount of spirits consumed in the United Kingdom.—Anti-Opium Society blind to the latter, energetic as to the former a purely sentimental grievance.—Fallacy of Anti-Opium Society that supply creates demand refuted and exposed.—Remaining fallacies refuted.—Effects of suppression of Indo-China Opium trade.—Missionaries detested in China.—Indian Opium welcomed.—Saying of Prince Kung.—Treaty
THE TRUTH ABOUT OPIUM.
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