Rensselaer Republican, Volume 27, Number 38, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 28 May 1896 — Opium. [ARTICLE]

Opium.

The conflict known as the “Opium War,” ,ljy which the Chinese government was compelled to fiennit tlx: entrance of foreign opium within its limits, began in 1840 and continued two years. The circumstances leading to it dated from the last century, when Warren Hastings, fhen Governor General of India, determined to find a market for the,, opium of -the Ganges Valley. For many years it was smuggled into .China,. bub the Emperors, discovering the evil it w - as doing, took rigid measures to prevent this. From time to time, however, cargoes of opium found their way inland, until in 1839 a special Commissioner was sent to Canton, where the British had a foothortl. with Orders to exterminate the business. He did so thoroughly, drove out the British merchants and destroyed $10,000,000 worth of opiuln then in stock. The British government took up the catise of the merchants, sent a fleet and niilitary force from India, and in the war that followed the Chinese were worsted, were compelled to pay a large indemnity, to reimburse the owners of the Opium destroyed, and to open certain ports to all English products, opium among the rest.