For the answer to this question, we must not merely consider civil and social improvements, but we must consider the Christian character of our trust, and I fear it will be found, that instead of holding it as a stewardship from God, we have treated India as if it were our own, holding it in the pride of our own power, and making use of it for the purpose of our own aggrandizement. Consider some of the acts of _Government_, and in the first place, the trade in opium. The use of this drug is of comparatively recent date in China. In 1767, there were only 200 chests imported there, whereas now there are above 60,000. And this has been done in defiance of the Chinese Government. The opium used to be carried in fast vessels, fully armed, so that our opium merchants were in fact armed smugglers. The determination to force the trade on China, was the simple cause of the former Chinese war. But the Chinese Government has been utterly unable to contend against British enterprise, and the result is that thousands and tens of thousands are at the present time falling victims to the scourge. You may see all along the coasts of China innumerable cases of constitutions broken, intellects impaired, hopes blasted, homes desolate, and whole families sunk into the lowest state of degradation and distress, and all through the opium which we Englishmen have supplied from India. The effect is also most injurious in India itself. It is stated that there are 100,000 acres of the finest land in Central India, besides the alluvial valley of the Ganges, now devoted to opium, which were once productive of sugar, indigo, corn, and other grain for the sustenance of man. And who are the parties to this great crime? If they were simply private individuals, it might be exceedingly difficult to check the trade by legislation, and it might possibly be beyond the power of Government to prevent it. But what are we to say when the Government itself is the great offender? When, instead of putting the smallest check on the traffic or the growth, they interpose their mighty power, and claim to themselves the sole monopoly of the trade. In this respect the East India Company is a vast monopolist, and in order to increase the profits of their monopoly, they adopt a system of advances which forces the growth of the poppy on the ryots or cultivators of the soil. Oh, who can wonder that God has brought a scourge on India!