CONTENTS.

LECTURE I.

Object-,s of the Lectures.—Lectures based upon principle and not upongrounds of expediency.—Lecturer’s knowledge of the Opium questionderived from actual acquaintance with the facts, acquired during nearlyfifteen years’ residence in Hong Kong. —Opium-smoking as practisedby the Chinese perfectly innocuous, beneficial rather than injurious.—Charges made by the Anti-Opium Society and its supporters falseand unfounded.—Alleged knowledge of the members and supportersof the Anti-Opium Society founded on hearsay evidence of the worstand most untrustworthy character. — Lecturer not acting in theinterests of the British merchants in China , nor of any other partyor person.—Actuated only by a desire to dispel the false and mis-chievous delusions spread abroad in England by the Anti-OpiumSociety.—British and other foreign residents in China hold oppositeviews to those disseminated by the Anti-Opium people.—British mer-chants as a body ha\e no interest in the trade.—China a great Empireas large as Europe , with a much greater population.—Country andpeople of China described.—Impossible to demoralize and debase sucha people.—Opium-smoking a general custom throughout the eighteenprovinces of China.—Reasons for the prolonged existence of theAnti-Opium Society.—False charges of the Anti-Opium Societyrespecting the Indo-China Opium trade more fully formulated.—Ifhalf those charges -were true the British residents in China would bethe first to raise their voices against the Opium trade.—Official YellowBook published by Mr. Robert Hart, the Inspector-General of ChineseCustoms, negatives the allegations of the members of the Anti-OpiumSociety and the Missionaries. —Allegations of the Anti-Opium Societythat British trade with China has suffered from the alleged forcing ofOpium upon China untrue.—Friendly relations between the British merchants in China and the Chinese people.—Englishmen moreesteemed 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