20. In 1813, however, it was made lawful for private merchants to trade to India; but this right was not extended to the trade with China, which was still confined to the Company till 1833, when a new law was made with regard to that also, and any person then was at liberty to go to China for tea, silk, and other commodities, which have since been much cheaper in consequence. Tea is little more than half the price it used to be, which is a great benefit and comfort to the poor. 21. But this had nothing to do with the war in China, which arose from a dispute about the British merchants selling opium to the Chinese, who were forbidden by their emperor to buy it, because it injures the health of those who take it, like drinking spirits. 22. Still the merchants continued to carry opium to China, and the people to buy it; so the governor at Canton, the only Chinese town in which foreigners were allowed to trade, seized and burnt some ship-loads of opium, for which he would not pay the owners; and this was the cause of the war. 23. There were several battles fought, in which the Chinese were always defeated, for they were not much acquainted with the present art of war; but, at last, after three years of warfare, peace was made with the British; and the Chinese emperor agreed to pay a sum of money, and to cede, or give up, to the British government, the Island of Hong Kong; besides agreeing that English ships might land goods for sale, at five ports, instead of one only, and that British merchants might have warehouses, and reside at those places. A treaty to this effect was signed in August, 1842. 24. The war in India, was much more serious, and lasted a great deal longer. It was begun for the purpose of restoring to his throne an Indian prince, the king of Caboul, who had been deprived of his kingdom by another prince. 25. The wars occasioned by this usurpation being likely to endanger the safety of the British possessions, the Governor General thought it necessary to interfere; and from the year 1839 to that of 1846, the British armies in India were engaged in terrible and destructive wars with the Affghans, and other nations in the north and west of India. 26. These calamitous strifes were happily ended by two great victories gained on the banks of the Sutlej, at the beginning of 1846, the one by General Sir Harry Smith, the other, by General Sir Hugh Gough. By the conquests made during these wars, the British empire is extended over the greater part of India. 27. Among the important inventions of this reign, may be mentioned that of the Electric Telegraph, by means of which communications can be made between places a hundred miles apart in one moment, or indeed to any imaginable distances.