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 eighty 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]