Among the regulations drawn up by the Council of State are these:
That all smokers of opium be required to report themselves and to take out licenses.
Smokers holding office are divided into two classes. Those of the junior class are to cleanse themselves in six months. For the seniors no limit of time is fixed. Both classes while under medical treatment are to pay for approved deputies, by whom their duties shall be discharged.
All opium dens are to be closed after six months. These are places where smokers dream away the night in company with the idle and the vicious.
No opium lamps or pipes are to be made or sold after six months. Shops for the sale of the drug are not to be closed until the tenth year.
The Government provides medicines for the cure of the habit.
The formation of anti-opium societies is encouraged; but the members are cautioned not to discuss political questions.
The question no doubt arises in the mind of the reader, Will China succeed in freeing herself from bondage to this hateful vice? It is easy for an autocrat to issue a decree, but not easy to secure obedience. It is encouraging to know that this decisive action is favoured by all the viceroys—Yuan, the youngest and most powerful, has already taken steps to put the new law in force in the metropolitan province. A flutter of excitement has also shown itself in the ranks of Indian traders—Parsees, Jews, and Mohammedans—who have presented a claim for damages to their respectable traffic.
On the whole we are inclined to believe in the good faith of the Chinese Government in adopting this measure, and to augur well for its success. Next after the change of basis in education, this brave effort to suppress a national vice ranks as the most brilliant in a long series of reformatory movements.
W. A. P. M.