ABSTRACT
For more than a century past, – ever since our relations with India became a matter of popular interest, – it has been a subject of speculation or observation why there was so little war in the heart of Asia, among those steppes which, according to all analogy, would be supposed likely to be the scene of constant or ever-renewed warfare. There is no regular army in China, – not because the Chinese are ignorant of armies and war-policy, but because they dread a military sovereignty, and military contests for the throne. One of the great branches of the trade of the East India Company was in opium with China; and, when the company’s charter expired in 1834, the trade was vigorously pushed by private merchants, who purchased the article from the company. The Chinese government had long desired and endeavored to stop the opium-trade, as purely mischievous to the people.
