Being such as I am, I have great sympathy for these poor, oppressed people. I have seen the constantly increasing degradation of India, through opium and liquor. Year by year it is becoming worse and worse through the fostering help of this so-called Christian Government. Years ago, one might travel through the length and breadth of the country, and not see a man drunk with opium or liquor, now he can see and hear them everywhere, and the end is not yet. The seed has been sown, and the harvests are coming. Every native, and all Europeans, who are not in the service, and have not their own selfish interests at stake, will lay the blame where it properly belongs, on the Government. All the blessings that England has conferred upon India, will never outweigh this curse of drunkenness, directly caused by Government authority. As I had an experience in regard to the cultivation of opium, so I had to thwart a plan for the introduction of liquor. Anyone could see, at a glance, that these villagers of mine were prosperous, and had money to spend; so the greedy eyes of the agents of the Abkari Department did not overlook them. One of these men, in one of the villages, by his oily tongue, and the offer of a big rent, had nearly obtained the lease of a house, for the sale of liquor and opium. This was at once reported to me, and I was soon upon the ground. The opportunity afforded me a chance for a temperance lecture. The people were all collected one evening under the big tree in front of the school-house. I explained to them that their ancestors had never used opium or liquor; that their religion was opposed to the use of these things; that it would be a violation of their caste and custom, to degrade them all, and make them mlecchas or outcasts; that the use of them would be a waste of money. I portrayed all this with explanations, and begged of them that they would not degrade themselves, and destroy the good name they had got among the surrounding people. I wanted to touch their pride, as well as to encourage their feeling of moral responsibility. I saw that I had gained my point, and might have rested, but I reminded them of what I had done for their improvement and happiness, and as they well knew that I had never done anything to their hurt, they should trust me still, but if they should allow the sale or use of these injurious things, contrary to my wishes, I would have less interest in helping them in the future. Instead of this method, I might have given an order, forbidding the sale, and it would have been obeyed, but it was not my way of treating these people. I wanted them to take the responsibility, and to make them feel they had done the work, not I, by an order.