the attention of her greatest statesmen, and they have devised various schemes for remedying the evil. One recommends, that opium be admitted on the payment of regular duties, in order that the clandestine trade may be stopped, and the practice be brought under the control of government. This would increase the public revenue, and by raising the price to the consumer, would place the drug out of the reach of the poor. The emperor has hitherto resolved to reject this plan, and thinks that increased rigour in prohibiting the article will avail. But the Chinese laws are already sufficiently severe, and yet the traffic increases at the rate of four thousand chests per annum. The remedy, then, is not with them, and if neither the East India Company nor the British government interfere, the British public must be appealed to; the cry of "no opium" raised, and be made as loud as the cry of "no slavery," until the voice of humanity prevail, and end in the abolition of the whole system.
But to return to the population, we shall find, that though checked in its growth, it is still immensely great, and claims the attention of the Christian evangelist, as much, or even more than other parts of the heathen world. In attempting to do good, we should do it on the largest scale, and to the greatest number of persons. The physician is most needed where the malady is most distressing, and the diseased most numerous; and so the missionary is principally required where the heathen most abound. Upon this principle, China requires our first attention, and will exhaust our most strenuous efforts. There, all the disposable labourers in the Christian church may employ their energies, without fear of over working the field,
