compensated. The parochial life is so happy and honorable that no one who has enjoyed it ought to grumble if it alone has furnished him no more than a bare subsistence. Therefore every claimant should be willing to make a full and clear statement of his assets, income, and probable outlay to the authorized committee, in order that an intelligent and relatively just appropriation may be recommended. An apparent showing of accumulated property need not operate unfairly, if the proper explanations are made, since the principles of making the estimate are not ruthlessly invariable.

Term and character of service should weigh something in arranging for the distribution; not time alone, but also efficiency, for some may accomplish more in five years than others in twenty. Yet it is a fair presumption that, the longer a man has been at work, the more good he has done. Relative merit, however, cannot be a very prominent factor in this calculation. Distinctions of this sort are painfully invidious, and often inaccurately drawn, and the conditions of the ministerial contract imply the right to an equitable share in the beneficiary proceeds. Still, the moral responsibility of claimants is subject to the most rigid scrutiny. It would ill befit one who rails at the Church to accept its proffered aid. Ministerial respectability is steadily required. The disabled preacher who cripples his superior in office, or is troublesome in the congregation where he worships, ought not to be surprised when the same result follows that would have happened had he, while in charge, been so unwary or unwise.

It cannot be expected that the claims of those on the retired list will be placed at as high a figure as are those allowed to effective pastors. The expenses of the latter are necessarily greater. More clothes, food, fuel, light, literature, and expense of travel are required for those who are active and growing in the wearing duties of the Church. Elderly persons can live comfortably on less than the young and middle-aged. Besides, the superannuate has more leisure for saving or turning an honest penny, by attending personally to home chores, caring for cow, chickens, or other stock, and cultivating the garden, which will relieve the painful tedium of increasing seniority, and will contribute much to the luxury and comfort of the patriarch's home. None can be supported in idleness.

The time of an aged preacher is just as sacred as that of the pastor, and the Conference claimant is expected to supplement his stipend, as far as practicable, by preaching, writing, colportage, manual labor, or other useful and elevating employment. But when a claim has been once established it should be scrupulously settled. All these conditions are of similar force in their application to the widows and orphans who depend on the Church for subsistence.

For this very considerable undertaking large sums of money must be obtained, and the question naturally arises, How are they to be raised? Methodism so far has proved equal to emergencies, and if this ideal is accepted as obligatory, the means will be forthcoming.

Two methods are possible, taken together or separately. (1) The claim of the Conference beneficiaries may be pooled with the estimates for pastor, presiding elder, and bishops, and collected in the general expenses of the charge. (2) A direct collection, as is customary now, for this specific purpose may be taken, a course which has been adopted in many places to secure the quotas of the district and general superintendents. The first has the argument of analogy in its favor. The second is the more popular, and possibly more practicable. At any rate, a public appeal for this cause should be made annually. For this many are inclined to give when they would refuse to contribute for other purposes. A sense of gratitude prompts them to remember some of the beneficiaries as having ministered unto them in spiritual things, breaking the bread of life, and leading them into the knowledge of that truth which has been the source of great earthly as well as heavenly good. It is universal testimony that the "fifth collection" is raised with less embarrassment than any other fund, benevolent or beneficiary.

Endowments, from either the Book Concern or the various preachers' aid societies, may serve to supplement the work, but should not be allowed to displace the annual presentation. The case of the superannuates, both for the sake of the people and their own sake, should be submitted directly to the consideration of the Church. Our aged preachers and lonely widows endure a hard lot at the best, and it would be all the more trying if they should seem to be lost sight of in the

periodical distribution. Not as a charity, but as the payment of wages at stated times, must the settlements be made, so that the Church may be reminded constantly of its relation to the workers of former years. Enough money ought to be raised by ordinary methods to meet the claims of all the preachers, so that legacies and endowments might be applied to special cases or emergencies, or for those institutions which can never command a universal popular support, such as the colleges, biblical schools, hospitals, and other benevolent enterprises of a local or limited character.

To the younger preachers is this work largely committed. Gratitude demands that those who have laid the foundation shall be invited to the comforts of the shelter. He who has planted a tree has a right, if he lives, to share in its fruits. Our fathers did noble work in the establishment of a prosperous and liberal Methodism, and those to whom the management has been intrusted would be guilty of a great wrong if they allowed the founders to suffer in neglect. We are a family. Surely the stalwart boy, who earns a little more than his bread and clothes, does not begrudge the older invalid sister or decrepit grandsire that portion which is accorded for the honor of the home, as well as of humanity. Good mothers do not estimate by weight or measure the toil and sacrifice cheerfully rendered for their children. Lovers of their race plant for other ages, and we owe to the former as well as to coming generations. One may now receive the good and another the evil things, but soon the order may be reversed. It is a part of prudent stewardship to lay a foundation of good works for the time to come. Besides, this grand possession of Methodism is not the exclusive property of the ministers now in charge. If the present pastor receives a larger stipend than another, his salary is in the nature of a commission more or less profitable as it is successfully administered, but there are other proceeds to be carefully husbanded and judiciously distributed.

Sentiment plays an inferior part in so important an enterprise. An itinerant ministry can be supported only by rigid adherence to system, and similar methods must be employed in behalf of those who have been retired from active service; but to protect those who are conscientiously faithful, unworthy

applicants must be rejected at any time when their lack of merit is clearly proven. Mutual rights are to be respected, and barnacles must not be allowed to sink the ecclesiastical ship. Let not the claimants betray too much anxiety in regard to their estimates, for excessive and ill-founded demands may lead to utter repudiation. Those who have heretofore gone to the battle may now be content to remain on the walls, and raise the shout in Zion. They may be useful still, and happy, as they cheerfully lend a helping hand or speak a hopeful word. To others is assigned the duty of bringing in the spoils. Absorbing cares preoccupy younger minds, and they may seem to be devoid of the sympathy desired or expected, but they dare not depend on spasms of gush for the succor of the declining and helpless. It is our present business, not only to create and preserve a proper sentiment in regard to ministerial support, but also insure a safe and satisfactory adjustment for the future.

ART. VI.-THE OPIUM TRAFFIC IN CHINA.

[FIRST ARTICLE.]

British Opium Policy, and its Results to India and China. By F. S. TURNER, B.A. London. 1876.

The Poppy Plague and England's Crime. By J. F. B. TINGLING, B.A. London. 1876.

The Opium Question. By Rev. ARTHUR E. MOULE, of the Church Missionary Society, Ningpo. London. 1877.

The Opium Trade. By NATHAN ALLEN, M.D. Lowell, Mass.

Our Opium Trade with China, and England's Injustice toward the Chinese. By W. E. ORMEROD. London.

The Friend of China. The Organ of the Anglo-Oriental Society for the Suppression of the Opium Trade. Vols. I to VI. London.

The Chinese Recorder. Foochow and Shanghai. Vols. I to XI.

The Middle Kingdom. By S. WELLS WILLIAMS, LL.D. Harper Brothers.

The Traffic in and the Use of Opium in our own and other Countries. A Document by the Representative Meeting of the Yearly Meeting of Friends for New England for 1881-82.

Providence. 1882.

Opium-England's Coercive Policy. By Rev. JOHN LIGGINS. New York: Funk & Wagnalls.

The Truth about Opium-Smoking. London: Hodder & Stoughton. 1882.

I. HISTORY OF THE TRADE.

It is not possible to state with certainty when opium was first introduced into China. We know that it was to be found

there as early as the seventeenth century; and there are some who think that the probable date of its introduction is about the eighth or ninth century, at which time China had a very extensive and constant intercourse with Western Asia. The Portuguese were the first among European nations to trade in the drug; but the traffic was of very small proportions, seldom exceeding 200 chests per annum, up to the year 1769. For many years subsequent to that date the maximum annual im. portation was 1,000 chests. It was undoubtedly imported and used originally as a medicine; but it is possible that the increase in the trade under the Portuguese indicates that the drug had already begun to be used as a stimulant.

It is necessary, in carrying out the purpose of this article, to review the course of the East India Company in its management of the production and sale of opium in India; and it is in place to notice the fact that, prior to sending the drug to China, the company had assumed the monopoly of the trade in India, and had entered upon a course of great oppression toward the land-holders in Bengal, in compelling them to plant their fields with poppies. The outrageous conduct of the company's representatives in these matters came under the review of Parliament in 1783; and the Committee of the House of Commons in that year stated that "very shocking rumors had gone abroad, and they were aggravated by an opinion universally prevalent that, even in the season immediately following the dreadful famine which swept off one third of the inhabitants of Bengal, several of the poorer farmers were compelled to plow up the fields they had sown with grain in order to plant them with poppies for the benefit of the engrossers of opium. This opinion grew into a strong presumption when it was seen that in the next year the produce of opium (contrary to what might naturally be expected in a year following such a dearth) was nearly doubled."

Reasons were found in the inconvenience of making remittances to China in bullion at a time when the treasury at Calcutta was very heavily drawn upon for home necessities, and in other circumstances, for monopolizing the opium trade in China. A certain Colonel Watson seems to have the bad preeminence of making the suggestion to the East India Company, in a letter to the Board of Revenue, dated March 29, 1781,