Why, then, does China, while she protests against the importation of a drug which a Governor of Canton, himself an opium-smoker, described as a "vile excrementitious substance" ("Barrow's Travels," p.

153), sanction, if not foster, with all the weight of the authorities in the ever-extending opium-districts the growth of the poppy?
To the Rev.G.Piercy (formerly of the W.M.S., Canton), we are indebted for the following explanation of this anomaly: China, it appears, is growing opium in order to put a stop to opium-smoking.
"Moreover, China has not done with the evils of opium, even if our hands were washed of this traffic to-day.

China in her desperation has invoked Satan to cast out Satan.

She now grows her own opium, vainly dreaming that, if the Indian supply lapse, she can then deal with this rapidly growing evil.

But Satan is not divided against himself; he means his kingdom to stand.