fal. no abuse, hal.
poins. no abuse!
fal. no abuse, ned, in the world; honest ned, none. i dispraised him before the wicked, that the wicked might not fall in love with him; in which doing, i have done the part of a careful friend, and a true subject. no abuse, hal; none, ned, none;—no, boys, none.——king henry iv., part ii.
scarce a flower that graces the earth, or a tree waving in the forests, has had its character assailed so mercilessly as the poppy. not one of the simples or compounds of the chemist’s store, even including arsenic and strychnine, has been so strictly interrogated as to the honourable and dishonourable of its intentions. it is matter of surprise that the east india company has not been obliged, by authority of act of parliament, to imprint the decalogue, at least in the chinese language, upon every cake or ball of opium leaving their stores. take upon credit all that some men would tell you, and there would not be room for doubt, were the next informant to state that on the arrival of a cargo of opium, at such a port, on such a day,182 the entire population cut each other’s throats, on account of the pestilential miasma diffused by the said cargo. what are really the moral effects of opium-smoking, can best be collected from a statement of facts, the reader drawing his own inferences: they are, at any rate, bad enough without the aid of exaggeration.
at singapore stands a house of correction, in which, during the month of july, 1847, might be found forty-four chinese criminals; and of these, thirty-five were opium-smokers—not moderate smokers, but indulgers to excess—not confining themselves to what they could obtain with such money as they could spare from their wages, but in some instances, swallowing or smoking them all up, and in certain instances, even more than their wages.20 the aggregate amount of the monthly wages of seventeen of these men was ￡16 0s. 10d., or individually 18s. 10?d. the monthly consumption of opium of these men amounted in value to ￡20 16s. 3d., or individually to ￡1 4s. 5?d., so that each of these men, in addition to spending all his wages, begged, borrowed, or stole 5s. 7d. monthly, to make up his quantity of opium alone, without reference to any other necessaries. one of these men, who spent ￡1 5s. monthly, and whose wages only reached half of that amount, was asked to explain how it was to be accounted for. was there not some error in the calculation, or was he deceiving the person to whom the circumstances were being detailed? how was it possible that, with an income of only 12s. 6d., he could spend ￡1 5s.? the answer was a graphic one and much to the point:——“what am i in here for?” of course, the tenants of a jail can account for such discrepancies in arithmetic. the offences183 for which these persons were confined were such as would stand in a calendar under the rank of vagrants, suspicious characters, persons attempting to steal, and such like—the crimes committed being against property and not persons. this distinction deserves notice, as it will serve as the basis of some future suggestions.
in looking down the column of the table in which the above instances occur, it will be seen that one planter, whose income was twelve shillings and sixpence, expended in opium six times that amount; and another, whose income is not stated, but which would not far exceed the former, expended twelve times that amount in the drug. occasional instances occur in which, where the income reached twelve shillings and sixpence, the expenditure amounted only to a trifle beyond; and where the income was sixteen shillings and eightpence, the expenditure was only eight shillings and fourpence or ten shillings.
the inspector of the above institution states:184 “during the course of these investigations, i found some opium-smokers, who declared that their wages only equalled the value of the opium consumed, and in the majority of cases but little exceeded their consumption; yea, i found instances, and these not few, where the value of the opium consumed monthly, was more than the whole wages received. the idea then suggested itself to me, that there must be an affinity betwixt opium-smoking and crime; for when once the habit is formed, it cannot be broken off, while the desire increases with the consumption. it must happen that the wages of the individual will at last be inadequate to supply his desire, even supposing that, after a lengthened career of indulgence, he was able to earn the same amount of money as when, strong, vigorous, and unimpaired, he commenced his dissipation. i, therefore, was not at all surprised when i went to the house of correction, to find that three-fourths of the prisoners were opium-smokers.”
an examination of the prisoners in jail in july of the same year, under different sentences, showed that out of fifty-one chinese prisoners, fifteen only were not opium-smokers. seventy per cent. were addicted to the vice, each consuming quantities ranging from twelve to one hundred and eighty grains per day. the same jail was again visited, and the prisoners examined a month afterwards, several fresh criminals had entered, others had been enlarged. at this time, there were sixty-nine criminals, and of these only thirty-one were opium-smokers, being only forty-five per cent. against the seventy per cent. of the former visit.
a quantity of criminals from pinang under sentence of transportation showed, on examination, the following results:—out of twenty-one criminals, chinese and malays, eight did not smoke. the crimes of these men were murder, stabbing with intent to murder, burglary, and larceny. ten of these men were chinese, all of whom smoked but one. of these nine, eight were condemned for offences against property, one only against the person. of the nine persons out of the twenty-one who were convicted for offences against the person, four did not smoke, three smoked but little. hence the conclusion is inevitable, that the criminals of the worst degree, or those committing offences against the person, are either not smokers at all, or are so only to a moderate extent. other statistics show that, for crimes of this character, highway robbery, and burglary, forty to fifty per cent. only indulge in opium; whilst for vagrancy, misdemeanour, and petty larceny, seventy to eighty185 per cent. indulged in the use of the drug, and often to a very extraordinary extent.
why do we find that those charged with the gravest offences are the least addicted to opium? may it not be that this class of criminal requires a certain ingenuity, an amount of method and calculation, and mental vigour and excitement of the passions, greater than the debased opium-smoker is possessed of, the want of which, therefore, unfits him for carrying out any such enterprise requiring such adjuncts, leaving him only capable of being a criminal on a small scale. it is well known that the chinese are inveterate gamblers; but it is not in connexion with the pipe, but with the arrack-cup, that this vice is indulged in. the influences of opium are sedative and soothing, those of arrack stimulating and exciting; the latter, therefore, as may be supposed, is the companion of the gambler, rather than the former. there are other phases in which the two vices of opium-smoking and intoxication may be compared. the abuse of ardent spirits leads to crimes against the person; the abuse of opium leads to crimes against property. the victim of ardent spirits commits his crimes while under their influence; the devotee to opium, while under its influence, is at peace with all mankind, and dreams only of his own happiness. the drunkard, when not under the influence of liquor, may be a moral member of society, and often a contrite one; the opium-smoker at that time is often scheming the violation of moral and social laws, which, when effected, makes him a criminal, but enables him to gratify his appetite.21
186
de quincey compares the two habits, not so much for the purpose of showing the tendency of either of them to crime, but for the proving that opium does not produce intoxication any more than would a rump steak. “the pleasure given by wine is always rapidly mounting, and tending to a crisis, after which as rapidly it declines; that from opium, when once generated, is stationary for eight or ten hours. the first—to borrow a technical distinction from medicine—is a case of acute, the second of chronic pleasure; the one is a flickering flame, the other a steady and equable glow. but the main distinction lies in this, that whereas wine disorders the mental faculties, opium, on the contrary (if taken in a proper manner) introduces amongst them the most exquisite order, legislation, and harmony. wine robs a man of self-possession; opium sustains and reinforces it. wine unsettles the judgment, and gives a preternatural brightness and a vivid exaltation to the contempts and the admirations, to the loves and the hatreds of the drinker; opium, on the contrary, communicates serenity and equipoise to all the faculties, active or passive, and with respect to the temper and moral feelings in general, it gives simply that sort of vital warmth which is approved by the judgment, and which would probably always accompany a bodily constitution of primeval or antediluvian health. wine constantly leads a man to the brink of187 absurdity and extravagance, and beyond a certain point, it is sure to volatize and disperse the intellectual energies; whereas opium always seems to compose what had been agitated, and to concentrate what had been distracted. in short, to sum up all in one word, a man who is inebriated, or tending to inebriation is, and feels that he is in a condition which calls up into supremacy the merely human, too often the brutal part of his nature; but the opium-eater, simply as such, assuming that he is in a normal state of health, feels that the divine part of his nature is paramount, that is, the moral affections are in a state of cloudless serenity, and high over all, the great light of the majestic intellect.”
it is not to be wondered at that the abuse of opium should be a fertile source of poverty, when so much of the wages of many of its votaries are devoted to it. this diseased habit is progressive, and the quantity taken must be daily increased to produce the necessary effects; but the capability of furnishing the means does not keep pace with the desire of consumption. the cooly, who, when strong and vigorous, could earn twenty-five shillings per month, has only to commence opium-smoking, and in two years he will not receive more than two-thirds of that amount, whilst he still smokes his quantity of opium; and as years roll on, he finds that, mainly on account of the vice he has adopted, he can no longer endure the toil that formerly was to him only as child’s play, the amount of excitement having still to be kept up under a decreased income, he has to lessen his expenditure for clothes, and then for food, and lastly, the quantity of opium itself; until worn out, exhausted, and diseased, he finds himself the inmate of a jail or a poorhouse. a sad reflection, truly, but a history repeated over and over again, with but little188 variation, in the lives of thousands of chinamen and malays.
were poverty to be succoured in places where this description of persons most do congregate, as it is at home, thousands would become public burdens; but there the hand of charity has been closed, and the springs of compassion for the poor dried up. in singapore, it was not until the horrid spectacle of miserable chinese daily crawling in front of their doors, exposing their loathsome sores and leprous bodies, and polluting the air they breathed; it was not until these wretched beings, without food or friends, and deprived of the power of supporting themselves, laid them down to die in the streets, of disease and starvation, that by the active philanthropy of two or three individuals a shed was erected to keep these paupers out of sight. when the novelty passed away, the philanthropy declined, and the monthly contribution dwindled down to about three pounds, which was the sum total of the public charity of the european residents in behalf of the diseased poor of singapore. in this shed were to be found two classes of persons, united in the same individuals, the diseased poor. these are the only kind of poor that excite any sympathy in such places, and an examination of the inmates of the shed will give some insight into the propensities of this class. out of 125 under relief at the time, 70 were opium-smokers and 55 were not (or would not acknowledge it). of these 70, some before their admission, were reduced to the alternative of tye or samshing, or no opium at all. the total consumption of these paupers before their admission amounted to upwards of four pounds (2022 grains) daily, giving an average daily consumption to each smoker of upwards of 28 grains, being nearly the average consumption of the opium-smoker in general, under more favourable189 circumstances. the greatest consumption of any one of these individuals had amounted to 120 grains, but at that rate his finances soon failed him, and he had to be content with one fourth of that amount shortly before he became an invalid. sixty-two of these men consumed opium to the monthly value of ￡38 7s. 6d., while their aggregate income amounted in the same period to but ￡50 11s. 3d.; or, individually, the value of each man’s monthly consumption of opium was 12s. 4?d., and his income was but 16s. 6d., leaving only about 4s. monthly, or 1s. per week to feed, clothe, and house himself, and in fact, for every other purpose for which money is required. some of these did not confine themselves to this. fifteen of them (as will be seen from table xvi.) consuming all, or more than their income in opium. surely such men were worthy not only of a pauper hospital, but also of a jail.
these paupers at one time all received even more than the average amount of wages, sufficient to have clothed and fed them and their families, and kept them comfortable, whilst at that time they were dependent on a charity which allowed them to exist on the rice which was supplied to them, and five doits a day or about a shilling per month. thousands more, not incapacitated so much by disease as to be unable to work and not therefore inmates of the hospital, were no better off, for what they had they spent in chandu.
the dutch commissioners report that,190 “the use of opium is so much more dangerous, because a person who is once addicted to it can never leave it off. to satisfy that inclination he will sacrifice everything, his own welfare—the subsistence of his wife and children, and neglect his work. poverty is the natural consequence, and then it becomes indifferent to him by what means he may content his insatiable desire after opium; so that at last he no longer respects either the property or life of his fellow creature.”
a chinaman, who himself is a smoker and consumes opium to the monthly value of ￡2, says, that in one hundred chinese about hong-kong and singapore, seventy of them smoke, and that all the coolies do so more or less. if a cooly earns ￡1 monthly, 4s. goes for food, l0d. for house rent, a small outlay for a jacket and trowsers once in six months, and all the rest goes in opium. from his own experience, and what he has seen of others, he would say if a man had been accustomed to smoke opium for seven or eight years, and gives it up for a day he is attacked with diarrh?a, while during the time he is smoking the opposite is the case. and he who uses six grains a day will soon require twelve.
to give up opium-smoking, after it has once been commenced, all declare to be a very difficult achievement. a malay who was apprehended on some criminal charge some years ago, when locked up, previous to examination was, as a matter of course, deprived of opium for some days, he pined away so rapidly that, although only four or five days in the lock-up house, he could not leave it when released, but was carried out, having entered the place as strong and muscular a man as can be met with.
dr. oxley states, “that the lower class of chinese when deprived of their allowance, are very liable to become dropsical. the effect of deprivation at first appears to produce desperation, a heart-rending despondency, something like the low state of delirium tremens, but differing in many respects from that malady. death certainly does occur from deprivation, and generally by dropsy.”
a great many women smoke, generally the wives of opium-smokers. a woman was191 discovered by a surgeon in singapore in an opium shop up stairs smoking away, as she had done for three years, at the rate of thirty-six grains a day. she stated that she had two children, but that they were very sickly and always crying. and how did she stifle their cries? she conveyed from her lips to those of the child the fresh drawn opium vapour, which the babe inspired. this was repeated twice, when it fell back a senseless mass into its mother’s arms, and allowed her quietly to finish her unholy repast. this practice she had often recourse to, as her child was very troublesome, adding that it was no uncommon thing for mothers to do so.
another inveterate opium-smoker makes his “confession,” that after his quantity is consumed, he feels no desire for sleep until twelve or two in the morning, when he falls into disturbed slumbers, which last till eight or nine. when he awakes, his head is giddy, confused, and painful—his mouth is dry, he has great thirst, he has no appetite, can neither read nor write, suffers pains in all his bones and muscles, gasps for breath; he wishes to bathe, but cannot stand the shock. this state continues till he gets his morning pipe, when he can eat and drink a little, and after that attend to his business. the force of example taught him this habit, and he knows no class of people exempt from it except europeans. “look,” says he, appealing to himself, “i was, ere i gave way to this accursed vice, stout, strong, and able for anything. i loved my wife and children, attended to my business, and was happy; but now i am thin, meagre, and wretched. i can receive enjoyment from nothing but the pipe, my passions are gone, and if i am railed at, and abused like a dog, i return not an angry word.”
although opium-smoking is carried to such an excess among some of the chinese coolies, yet there192 is no gambling amongst them at the opium shops at singapore. it is true that this vice has been suppressed, but it is not secretly indulged in; and a gentleman who was formerly the opium farmer, says, “that the consumption of opium is but little affected by gambling, from arrack or samshu being the intoxicating medium used, a much better instrument for raising excitement and stimulating to excessive play than opium, whose effects are much more sedative than exciting.”
the consideration of the morals and influence of these customs leads us to a remarkable passage in one of m. quetelet’s works, it refers to the certainty of natural laws in states as well as individuals:——“all those things which appear to be left to the free will, the passions, or the degree of intelligence of men, are regulated by laws as fixed, immutable, and eternal as those which govern the phenomena of the natural world. no one knows the day or the hour of his own death; and nothing appears more entirely accidental than the birth of a boy or of a girl in any given case. but how many out of a million of men living together in one country, shall have died in ten, twenty, forty, or sixty years, how many boys and girls shall be born in a million of births; all this is as certain, nay, much more certain, than any human truth.”
the statistics of courts of justice have disclosed to us the regular repetition of the same crimes, and have established the fact—incomprehensive to our understandings, because we do not know the connecting links—that in every large country, the number of offences, and of each kind of offence, may be predicted for every coming year, with the same certainty as the number of the births and of the natural deaths. of every 100 persons accused before the supreme tribunal in france, 61 are condemned; in england, 71. the variations,193 on an average, amount hardly to 1/100th part of the whole. we can predict with confidence, for fifteen years to come, the number of suicides generally—that of the cases of suicide by fire-arms, and that of the cases of suicide by hanging.
every large number of phenomena of the same kind, which rise and fall periodically, leads to a fixed proportion. this is the law of large numbers to which all things and all events without exception, are subject. these laws have nothing to do with the essence of vice and virtue in the moral world, but with the external causes, and the effects they produce in human society. no one denies the influence of education, and of habits of labour and order on the conduct of men, but no one thinks of regarding this moral conduct as a mere result of those habits. good education and improved cultivation diminish the number of offences, as well as that of the annual deaths in our tables of mortality.
the results, therefore, of a collection of statistical information carefully arranged for singapore, one of the most inveterate of opium localities, should, on comparison with the results obtained from other quarters, show that the per centage of deaths is greater, the per centage of births less; the per centage of criminals higher, and of suicides larger, in this population of opium-smokers, than in any other equally conditioned country in which opium is indulged, or it is not proven that the habit tends to shorten life, decrease production, increase crime, and induce suicide, all of which charges have been made against it.
with this evidence we are not at present satisfactorily supplied. that opinion has an influence, though probably only a minor one, on moral and social development, is not to be denied. because man is so entirely a creature of relation, that194 nothing is unimportant to him. “if the movements of the remotest star that glitters in the heavens affect those of our earth, assist in determining its position in space, its climate, its productions, and thus influence the lot of man, who is the creature of these circumstances; what combinations subsisting upon the surface of the earth, or developing themselves in the bosom of society, can be deemed wholly indifferent to his conduct, and without power over his well being and happiness?”
if, as dr. lyon playfair recently noticed, it is worthy of observation, that the character of the nations through which dr. livingstone passed in his recent travels, depended upon the habits of the people, in the acquisition of their food, as well as upon the food itself, we may expect to find opium exerting also its influence. if, for instance, the kaffirs who lived by hunting, and were flesh-eaters, were wild and warlike; and the wampoos, who lived principally on grain, were of a more quiet and peaceable disposition. then again, the bechuanos, who lived upon grain, were more civilized than the kaffirs, and the macololas, who combined as their food both grain and flesh, did not lose the warlike character, and made incursions upon their more feeble neighbours. it was an axiom amongst the latter people, that if it were not for the gullet (alluding to their appetites) there would be no war or fighting amongst mankind. in those parts, such as loando, where the people lived upon starchy varieties of food, they had become diminutive in their stature; and this applied not merely to the natives, but also to the portuguese settlers there, for they had lost the physical characters of their ancestors, and had become feminine in their frames and habits, and this extended even to their handwriting. where more nitrogenous food was195 taken, the physical character of the people had not undergone that very marked change. if food exerts this influence upon the people of a country or district, we cannot doubt that any habit, such as smoking tobacco or opium, chewing betel or coca, must exert some influence upon the nations so indulging, whether that influence be good or bad.
who will say that tobacco has no portion in the formation of the german character? yet the subtle and profound germans exhibit no extraordinary evidence in their national character of the baneful influences on their moral and social development, by their indulgence in this habit. compare with them the turks and chinese, and let the balance be shown in favour of the most elevated in the ranks of civilization. yet the most deficient must claim the influence of other equally potent circumstances in extenuation, for neither opium nor tobacco moulds the entire national character, it is only one of many influences. let the papuan stand beside the chinaman and the turk, and in spite of opium, the papuan standard will exhibit a woeful short-coming. the waters of the great amazon river must exert some influence on the currents of the atlantic, but none will venture to assert that therefore the influx of such a body of water, vast in itself, but small in comparison to the whole, is the cause of the gulf stream. the drinking of tea will bear just such a relation to the currents in the life of nations who indulge in that luxury, but who will declare that the chinese soldiers fly from the points of the british bayonets, or are expert in the carving of ivory balls, because they indulge in a beverage admired by other old ladies who can neither run nor carve. neither because certain javanese or malays, under the influence of an over196 dose of opium, will “run amok,” or other arabs, intoxicated with “haschish,” have made the name of assassin to become an object of dread, is it to be concluded hence that all men who indulge in the use of either of these narcotics will be dangerous members of society, or that they will rush into the jaws of death without a shudder at the sight of his fangs?
is it because the scot loves whisky that he is generally so cautious and shrewd in his business transactions as to win himself a name? is it because the cockney imbibes sundry deep potations of london porter or gin, that the enterprise and commerce of those great citizens of the world have become the envy of surrounding nations? or is it because the russian persisted in his love of raw turnip and sour quass, that the malakoff and sebastopol passed into the hands of the frog-eating frenchman, and the beef-eating englishman?
may we not impute to beef and tobacco, gin and opium, porter and hemp, results infinitely in advance of their power?
dr. eatwell writes, “it has been too much the practice with narrators who have treated on the subject, to content themselves with drawing the sad picture of the confirmed opium debauchee, plunged in the last stage of moral and physical exhaustion, and having formed the premises of their argument of this exception, to proceed at once to involve the whole practice in one sweeping condemnation. but this is not the way in which the subject can be treated; as rational would it be to paint the horrors of delirium tremens, and upon that evidence, to condemn at once the entire use of alcoholic liquors. the question for determination is not what are the effects of opium used to excess, but what are its effects on the moral and physical constitution of the mass of the197 individuals who use it habitually, and in moderation, either as a stimulant to sustain the frame under fatigue, or as restorative and sedative after labour, bodily or mental. having passed three years in china, i may be allowed to state the results of my observation, and i can affirm thus far, that the effects of the abuse of the drug do not come very frequently under observation; and that when cases do occur, the habit is frequently found to have been induced by the presence of some painful chronic disease, to escape from the sufferings of which the patient has fled to this resource. that this is not always the case, however, i am perfectly ready to admit, and there are, doubtless, many who indulge in the habit to a pernicious extent, led by the same morbid impulses which induce men to become drunkards in even the most civilized countries; but these cases do not, at all events, come before the public eye. it requires no laborious search in civilized england to discover evidences of the pernicious effects of the abuse of alcoholic liquors: our open and thronged gin-palaces, and our streets, afford abundant testimony on the subject; but in china this open evidence of the evil effects of opium is at least wanting. as regards the effects of the habitual use of the drug on the mass of the people, i must affirm that no injurious results are visible. the people generally are a muscular and well-formed race, the labouring portion being capable of great and prolonged exertion under a fierce sun, in an unhealthy climate. their disposition is cheerful and peaceable, and quarrels and brawls are rarely heard amongst even the lower orders, whilst in general intelligence, they rank deservedly high amongst orientals.
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“the proofs are still wanting to show that the moderate use of opium produces more pernicious effects upon the constitution, than does the moderate use of spirituous liquors, whilst at the same time, it is certain, that the consequences of the abuse of the former are less appalling in their effect upon the victim, and less disastrous to society at large, than are the consequences of the abuse of the latter. compare the furious madman, the subject of delirium tremens, with the prostrate debauchee, the victim of opium; the violent drunkard, with the dreaming sensualist intoxicated with opium; the latter is at least harmless to all except to his wretched self, whilst the former is but too frequently a dangerous nuisance, and an open bad example to the community at large.”
