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OPIUM-TRAFFIC IN INDIA AND CHINA. There have been indications during the year of a renewed effort on the part of the authorities of China to suppress or at least to circumscribe the traffic in opium, with a view to restricting its consumption in that empire. At the same time the agitation has been continued in England in favor of the policy of discouraging the exportation of the drug from India. The difficulties in the way of this movement arise from the fact that both the Indian Government and China derive no inconsiderable part of their revenue from this trade, and indulgence in the opium-habit among the Chinese has become so prevalent as to suggest an almost universal resistance to measures calculated to interfere with it. Originally the product of the opium poppy, which was cultivated most successfully in Asiatic Turkey and Persia, was used exclusively as an article of medicine. There are evidences of the practice of opium eating and smoking among the Persian magnates of some centuries ago, and the example seems to have been imitated by some of the Hindoo princes of Rajpootana, and a few of the later emperors of the Ming dynasty in China; but the habit was not at all common until within a comparatively recent period. During the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries the total supply in the East was very small, and derived chiefly from Asiatic Turkey and Persia. A small quantity of an inferior grade was produced in the Chinese province of Yunnan, which was either consumed locally or sent abroad for medicinal purposes. The Portuguese were the first to introduce Indian opium into China, which they did in small quantities through their possessions of Goa and Macao. The amount up to the year 1767 did not exceed 200 chests annually. The use to which it was put is not

known, but it is believed to have been indulged in to some degree as a luxury by the mandarins of Canton. It was after this that the taste for the drug was revealed in a marked degree among the official classes in China. After 1767 the traffic rapidly increased to about 1,000 chests annually, and the profit which accrued from it, notwithstanding heavy import duties, induced the British East India Company to enter into competition with the Portuguese in supplying the Chinese markets. Its first venture was made in 1773, and was followed by another on a larger scale three years later. By this time the traffic had been made contraband by imperial edicts, and two vessels were left at anchor in Larks Bay, to the south of Macao, to serve as depots through which it could be carried on. At this time, it is said, the drug, which cost 500 rupees a chest at Calcutta, was sold in China at a profit of about 100 per cent. The trade increased until in 1794 the importation of Indian opium through English agents had risen to 1,500 chests.

It was about the end of the last century that the practice of indulging in opium had made such progress as to be regarded as a national evil, and to evoke vigorous efforts to suppress the trade in what was officially called "the flowing poison." In the year 1800 Hea King, who had recently succeeded his grandfather, the illustrious Keen Lung, issued a formal proclamation, not only forbidding the importation of the drug, but absolutely prohibiting its cultivation in Yunnan. This was followed by severe edicts against all who cultivated, imported, or consumed opium; but the mandarins of Canton, for whom the trade was a prolific source of revenue, continued to connive at it, and it went on increasing. In 1827 it had risen

to 10,000 chests annually, and ten years later amounted to more than 40,000. This progress had been made under all the difficulties, inconveniences, and dangers of carrying on a purely contraband traffic. More vigorous efforts for its suppression led to the so-called "Opium War" with England in 1840, which ended with the treaty of Nanking in 1842. This and the subsequent treaty of Peking presented the first recognized basis of traffic between the English and Chinese, and gave opium a place among the legal imports into China, thereby removing the obstacles to the development of the traffic. The importation from India had reached 70,000 chests in 1856, and is now computed at about 90,000. Meantime the cultivation of the poppy-seed had continued in Yunnan, and extended to the neighboring province of Sech

uen.

Even after the treaties which followed the "Opium War," the Emperor of China refused to recognize the traffic as a legitimate source of national revenue. He said: "It is true that I can not prevent the introduction of the flowing poison; gain-seeking and corrupt men will, for profit and sensuality, defeat my wishes; but nothing will induce me to derive a revenue from the vice and misery of my people.' This sentiment controlled the avowed policy of the Government until after the second foreign war, which closed with the treaties of Tien-tsin and Peking in 1858, after which a party gained the ascendant which took a practical view of utilizing the inevitable traffic as a source of revenue. The new tariff issued at that time recognized opium as a legal import, and subjected it to a tax of 30 taels per picul, or about £10 sterling per chest. It was also made subject to transit dues after being removed from the port.

Not only has imported opium become a fruitful source of revenue to China, but it is a very important article of taxation and profit for the British Indian Government. The poppy is grown and the drug manufactured chiefly in two special districts, the valley of the Ganges, about Patna and Benares, and a fertile tableland in Central India, which corresponds to the old kingdom of Malwah and is for the most part still under the rule of native princes, foremost among whom are Scindia and Holkar. The cultivation of the poppy in the Malwah district is free, but a duty of £65 per chest is raised on it as it passes through British territory. In Bengal, on the other hand, the production of opium is a government monopoly. Outside of these two districts, with the exception of Rajpootana and a few places in the Punjab, the cultivation of the poppy is pro

hibited in India. The manufacture of the opium of commerce from the juice of the poppy grown in British territory is performed at Patna and Ghazepoor, while that from the product of the Malwah district is made at Indore and Gwalior. In 1878-79 the total product was 91,200 chests, of which the export value was £12,993,985, and it was officially com

puted that the state derived from it a net profit of nearly £8,000,000, about one half of which came from the Bengal monopoly. Perhaps a million pounds in value of the product was destined for Burmah and the Malay settlements, but nearly eleven million pounds' worth was sold to the Chinese. The difficulty of reinstating the policy of prohibiting or materially restricting the opium-traffic is manifestly rendered very great by its importance for revenue purposes to both the Chinese and British Indian Governments. So far as it depends on negotiations with Great Britain, the difficulty is further magnified by the fact that that nation does not share, to any appreciable degree, the evil consequences it is desired to check, while its share of the financial benefit is very great. To strike opium from the sources of revenue for the Indian Government would necessitate a difficult readjustment of the finances of India. Another obstacle which the Chinese Government is likely to encounter is to be found in the remarkable increase in the home production of opium in the provinces of Yunnan and Sechuen, and the almost universal prevalence which the habit of opium-smoking has attained in a large part of the empire. While it is evident, from recent utterances of the minister Li Hung Chang, that negotiations are likely to be opened with a view to restricting the importation, there is little prospect of immediate success, either in the effort to suppress the traffic from abroad or that within the empire, or to circumscribe the use of the drug which is regarded as so pernicious, so long as such powerful interests and such wide-spread popular tastes are arrayed against the policy, and the means of enforcing it are so inadequate in consequence of the character and attitude of a large part of the official and influential classes in China.

OREGON. The Oregon State Woman Suffrage Association met in Portland on the 8th of February. The following resolutions were adopted:

Whereas, The social relations between men and women are mutual, their individual needs equal, and their conjugal interests identical; and,

Whereas, Man, by virtue of the law-making power, as expressed through the ballot, has supreme advanin providing for his individual needs, and in controltage over woman in reaching exalted social positions, ling the individual interests of mutual conjugal relations; and,

Whereas, This advantage of one over the other is

both unwise and unjust, and not to be continued;

and,

Whereas, The era of physical force is rapidly giving way to the era of intellectual and moral influence between men and men: therefore,

Resolved, 1. That this same era of force should be abolished wherever it exists between men and women. 2. That the ballot is the key to men's advantage over women; and women, who are by nature equal with men, ought by right of law to be equally free and independent with men in all things pertaining to their domestic, civil, and political rights.

3. That what the ballot has done for man, native or foreign-born, it is equally capable of doing for woman, and we demand it for her as a means of self

improvement, social advantage, and moral power, as well as political equality.

4. That the present phase of the woman movement does not arise from domestic grievances, but from governmental injustice.

5. That woman suffrage is a question of human right, in exact accordance with the fundamental principles of a republican form of government.

6. That we demand the ballot as a practical application of those principles of liberty and justice which are taught in every district school-among girls as well as boys.

7. That the present phase of the woman movement is practical, and it is woman's duty to assume the responsibilities of citizenship whenever possible.

8. That the Executive Committee shall have the power to appoint picked men and women in every county as committees upon political action, whose duty shall be to attend primary meetings and nominating conventions, and secure woman-suffrage planks and resolutions in party platforms.

9. That it is the sense of this convention that universal suffrage is both a civil and a natural right, and as such it recognizes neither sex nor previous condition of servitude.

10. That as universal suffrage is a civil as well as natural right, it carries with it the duties and obligations of citizenship.

11. That it is the sense of this convention that God made it a law of this universe that justice is the highest expediency.

12. That we heartily concur in the recent act of the State Legislature in granting equal property rights to

women.

13. That we thank the Legislature of 1880 for its just and generous act in passing a resolution for so amending the State Constitution that it may be legally possible for the next Legislature to submit the proposition for a constitutional woman-suffrage amendment to the vote of the people in 1884.

14. That we will use all honorable means to elect men to the Legislature of 1882 who are pledged to sustain the woman's suffrage resolution passed by the Legislature of 1880.

The Oregon State Temperance Alliance met in Portland on the 16th of February. The following are the resolutions adopted:

Resolved, That the Oregon State Temperance Alliance takes this the earliest opportunity afforded of expressing its profound disappointment and regret at the course the Legislature of this State pursued in refusing to pass a civil damage act for this State, or any act whatever to check the growth of the terrible Scourge-intemperance.

Resolved, That we renew our pledges never to cease our work and labors until the organic law of the State of Oregon is so amended as to for ever banish all kinds and classes of intoxicating liquors from the State; and to the end that this object may be attained, we favor submitting to the voters of the State at as early a day as possible, an amendment to the Constitution providing for the entire prohibition of the manufacture, importation, sale, or giving away as a beverage any intoxicating liquor whatever.

Resolved, That as an efficient means to the accomplishment of all the ends had in view by this alliance, we look to and rely upon the assistance of the Christian Church and Christian people, as well as the united and hearty co-operation of all other organizations of the State whose object is to reclaim and reform the inebriate, and build up a strong and healthy temperance sentiment among the people.

Resolved, That we invite all lovers of temperance and sobriety, of all political parties, and all branches of the Christian Church, to join in the grand work of redeeming our State and nation from the curse of

strong drink.

Whereas, The liquor interest in Oregon is organized and consolidated as a political force, demanding and

VOL. XXI.-45 A

receiving consideration from the political parties: therefore,

Resolved, That while in the judgment of this Alliance no separate political party should be formed, yet we should be consolidated in political action.

Resolved, That a balance-of-power party should be now formed, whose members shall be pledged to concerted action not to vote for any but temperance men. Resolved, That a committee of twelve men be appointed to outline and organize this work.

Resolved, That we will unite our efforts, and we call upon all the friends of temperance in Oregon to unite with us in petitioning the next Legislature at Salem (1882) to enact a stringent civil damage law at that time.

held in the same city, on the 30th of July, it At a meeting of the Executive Committee, was determined to circulate petitions and take other measures to induce the Legislature at its next regular session to adopt the following constitutional amendment:

ARTICLE I, SECTION 1. That the manufacture, sale, or the giving away, or the offering to sell or give away, of any or all kinds of spirituous, vinous, malt, or any other intoxicating liquor, within the State of Oregon, is prohibited, except for medicinal, scientific, or mechanical purposes.

SEC. 2. The Legislative Assembly shall enforce this article by appropriate legislation forthwith after the adoption of said amendment.

The exports to foreign countries of wheat and flour from Portland, for the last four calendar years, have been as follow:

YEAR.

Bushels,

1878..

1879..

1880.

1881..

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$1,976,772

102,943

$491,199

2,789,115

161,141

805,885

180,663

891,872

1,885,556
2,414,716
1,762,515 1,845,587
4,076.508 3,765,232 874,480 1,484,811

503. From Astoria there were exported durThe value of all exports in 1881 was $5,324,ing the year 474,336 centals of wheat, valued at $739.170; 49,652 barrels of flour, valued at $248,752; and 342,149 cans of salmon, valued at $1,736,993. The total value of wheat and flour exported from the two ports was $6,312,425; and of all articles, $8,124,368. The imports to Portland amounted to $639,316; and to Astoria, $220,218; total, $859,534. The entire shipments from the Columbia River for the year amounted in value to fully $14,000,000. Adding to foreign exports shipments to San Francisco, consisting of wheat, flour, wool, salmon, and other products, the value of which at a moderate estimate would be $6,000,000, we have the total above indicated. Salmon alone shipped to San Francisco reached a total of 222,000 cases, valued at $1,100,000. Wheat shipments to that city were about 400,000 centals, valued at $600,000; and flour shipments, 320,000 sacks, valued at about $400,000. Of wool, 27,762 bales were shipped, having a value of about $1,400,000.

Oats, flaxseed, potatoes, hides, hops, etc., would make up another half million of value.

The Willamette Valley yields an average of 150,000 tons of wheat in excess of the demands for seed and home consumption. There has been little gain for four or five years, owing to

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The census returns of 1880 show, on the Columbia River, twenty-nine canneries, having a capital of $1,100,000; product, 539,587 cases, and 25,900,176 pounds, in one-pound tins, valued at $2,697,930; hands employed, 6,500.

The following are the principal towns and cities, with their population, in 1880: Baker City, 1,258; Corvallis, 1,128; Oregon City, 1,263; Astoria, 2,803; Eugene, 1,117; Albany, 1,867; Salem, 2,538; Portland, 17,578; East Portland, 2,409; Dalles, 2,232.

The gold product of the State for the year ending June 30, 1880, was $1,090,000; silver, $15,000.

The following statement shows the amount of State taxes due from the several counties in the State, as levied for the year 1881, together with the total amount of taxable property:

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The number of patients in the Asylum for the Insane is rapidly increasing, and was as follows: Number of patients on June 1, 1881, 304; admitted during the quarter, 33; returned, 3; under treatment, 340; number discharged during the quarter, 23; died, 6; number of patients in hospital August 31, 1881, 311. The admissions during the quarter were much larger than ever before, and the sum paid by the State for their care and treatment during the quarter amounted to $20,282.85.

The total expenditure on account of the School for Deaf-Mutes, for the year ending May 1, 1881, was $3,619.48; number of pupils enrolled, 31; average attendance, 27.

At the beginning of the year, the Oregon Railway and Navigation Company owned the following lines of road in Oregon and Washington: From the Dalles to Walla Walla, one hundred and fifty-eight miles; Blue Mountain extension from Whitman Junction to the State line, fourteen miles; Cascade Portage, six miles.

During the year the company has acquired by a lease of ninety-nine years the following lines: Narrow-gauge line from Ray's Landing to Brownsville, seventy miles; narrow-gauge line from Fulquartz's Landing to Airlie, fiftythree miles; narrow-gauge line from Sheridan Junction to Sheridan, seven miles; narrowgauge line from Perrydale to Smithfield, four miles.

The same company has constructed the following lines during the year: From Walla Walla to Texas Ferry, sixty miles; with Dayton branch from Bolles's Junction, thirteen miles; grade-work on line from the Dalles to the Cascades, forty-six miles; grade-work from Umatilla to Pendleton, thirty miles.

During 1882 the company will build the following lines: From Umatilla toward Baker City as far as possible-probably one hundred miles; from Portland on to a point on the Oregon side of the Columbia two miles below Kalama, forty-three miles; to extend the Colfax road from Rebel Flat to a point on the Northern Pacific Railroad, forty miles east of Ainsworth, fifty miles.

The Oregon and California Railroad Company now owns two lines of road-from Portland to Roseburg, two hundred miles; from Portland to Corvallis, one hundred miles. During 1882 it will extend the east side line toward the junction with the California end of the line as far as possible.

The Oregon Pacific Company during 1882 propose to build a line from Yaquina Bay eastward toward Boisé City as far as possible, probably one hundred and fifty miles.

The relations of the Northern Pacific Railroad and the Oregon Railway and Navigation Company are set forth in the report of President Villard to the stockholders of the latter, dated September 15th, in which he says that his operations "resulted in the concentration of a controlling interest in the stocks of the two companies in an association of individuals, includ

ing the principal stockholders of our company. This control over both corporations is now transferred to a third corporation, the Oregon and Transcontinental Company, with an authorized capital of $50,000,000, of which, however, only $30,000,000 is to be issued at present, and is now in process of being paid in. The large proprietary interest of this company in the other companies is the very best guarantee to the latter that its power will only be exercised to promote their legitimate development to the fullest extent. Or, in other words, the new company can only promote its own interest as a great holder of Oregon Railway and Navigation and Northern Pacific stocks by taking the best care of every other stockholder in both companies."

The State elections and the sessions of the Legislature are held biennially. The next occurs in 1882. (See "Annual Cyclopædia" of 1880.) The population of the State by counties in 1880, as compared with 1870, was as follows:

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OVERCOMERS. A new sect of Christian believers has sprung up near Chicago, Illinois,

and has made a considerable number of conversions among persons who are described as belonging to the "comfortably situated and more intelligent classes of society." It is commonly known as the sect of the "Overcomers," the name being derived from the application of the word "overcome as it is used in the following passages in the second chapter of Revelation and in other parts of the New Testament: "He that overcometh shall not be hurt at the second death" (Rev. ii, 11); "To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the hidden manna, and will give him a white stone, and in the stone a new name written, which no man knoweth saving he that receiveth it" (Rev. ii, 17); "He that overcometh, and keepeth my words unto the end, to him will be given power over the nations: and he shall rule over them with a rod of iron" (Rev.

* In 1875, from part of Jackson.

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ii, 26, 27). The sect was founded by M. H. G. Spafford, formerly a ruling elder in the Presbyterian Church, who was engaged in the revival meetings that were held in Chicago a few years ago under the preaching of Mr. D. L. Moody. Mr. Spafford was led, by the studies which his participation in the revival meetings incited him to make, to the acceptance of the doctrine, which was at variance with the confession of his own church, that only those who "overcome," or wholly converted Christians, are immediately saved, while all others, including the mass of the persons regarded in the Orthodox churches as converted," are "hurt at the second death," and cast into the lake of fire, where they remain and suffer till they are purified; and that punishment is not eternal, but "age-abiding," and lasts only until the purification is accomplished. He was excluded from his church for heresy, when he, together with a number of other church-members who, having adopted his views, had withdrawn from their churches, organized a new congregation. The Overcomers believe that the Scriptures are the inspired word of God, and accept the doctrine of the Trinity; and they claim that their church was organized with Abraham, and has since that time been buried away as a church, but that the religion to which it testifies has been represented by sanctified persons in the corporate Church throughout the intervening ages. At the same time, they renounce church organizations, and teach that the true children of God, who constitute the "Bride of Christ," are called to step out and show the world in their lives-in every movement of their lives -a higher type of absolute holiness, urging a complete and entire consecration of the whole being to the service of God. They hold that all souls will finally be restored through the atoning blood of Christ, but that, if a soul is not entirely consecrated to the service of God in this life, it must suffer severe purgatorial punishment. Some of the sect are said to believe that they possess a degree of inspiration and gifts of healing, such as were exercised by the apostles on the day of Pentecost. A congregation of Overcomers has been organized another, a larger one, at Valparaiso, Indiana. at Lake View, near Chicago, Illinois, and A party of seventeen persons of this sect tine, where, they believe, they had a divine started during the summer of 1881 for Palesmission to gather the Jews into the land of their inheritance, and rule over them.

The

failure of the oyster-beds of the New England OYSTER-BEDS, DETERIORATION OF. and Middle States, the deterioration of those lying in Southern waters, and the necessity of governments or by individuals, to maintain some efforts, either upon the part of the State the supply of oysters in sufficient numbers to satisfy the large and increasing demand of the

consumers, have of late excited much attention. There is no doubt that the natural beds

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