submitted; but two only were approved of and recommended, and these were both compounds with the Encre de Chine. China ink is supposed to be made of the dried salts obtained by evaporating certain sea waters of that country, mixed with gums or glue. Another kind of China ink, equally indelible, seems to be made of a peculiar kind of lamp-black, (as if obtained by the combustion of a peculiar substance,) mixed with gelatine, precipitated by ammonia, and scented with musk. These were for a time adopted by the French Government, (1831,) but their use was attended with such difficulty as to cause their early abandonment.

2. Stamped Papers. These were presented in great variety, containing various marks by stamp or composition, by which they might be distinguished, and purporting to be inimitable. None of these met the approval of the commission for State purposes, while several were adopted by banking houses and commercial companies. In 1848, M. Séguir informed the Academy that M. Grimpe had submitted to him a sample of bank note paper, which it was impossible to imitate, and in the same year, M. Dumas declared, in the name of the commission appointed on inks and papers of surety, that the paper presented by M. Grimpe was proof against forgery.

The manufacture of M. Grimpe's paper consists in a general vignette of both sides of the paper, with stars in relief, engraved under the microscope, and with the greatest exactitude. After adopting certain improvements suggested by M. Lemercier, the commission approved of M. Grimpe's paper, as offering the most perfect security for the purposes indicated, and it has gone into general use for banking purposes in France. In addition to this, the French Government has adopted a particular form and quality of paper for all documentary purposes, and this paper is secured by a stamp of the State as a guaranty against forgery.

Finally, as an additional security, certain substances, known as sympathetic inks, may be used as tests of genuineness, or for purposes of communication between persons liable to have their letters inspected. Sympathetic inks are substances employed for writing colorless lines, but susceptible of being rendered visible under the influence of heat or chemical agents. There are numerous substances of this character, and of such may be named the salts of cobalt, chlorine, acetates, and nitrates, mixed with one-fourth part of sea salt. These, when dissolved in water and written with, leave no visible traces upon the paper, but when the paper is slightly heated the tracings appear as if written with blue ink, and gradually fade out again on cooling. The salts of nickel, and certain of the salts of lead and of bismuth, and the juices of certain vegetable substances, may be employed in certain cases as resources of safety on papers liable to forgery, or for interlineations, under circumstances of necessary submission to surveilance, between parties in each other's confidence. The means of communication by sympathetic ink, however, may be turned to the most mischievous purposes; hence the detection of this means of intercourse is an object of no less interest to the ministers of justice than the more ordinary methods of counterfeiting; and it should. be particularly taken into account in the examination of written correspondence between criminals and leagued bands of outlaws. The agents already described, particularly iodine, are, under ordinary circumstances, equally efficacious for the discovery of communications made by the use of sympathetic ink.

Art. IV.-OPIUM TRADE OF INDIA.

ORIGIN OF TRADE-PRESENT AMOUNT-POPPY-PROCESS OF MANUFACTURE-DEALERS-CHINESE PURCHASES-AMERICAN CAPTAIN-STEAM CITIDELS-GAMBLING NATURE-LARGE CAPITAL-USE OF

OPIUM.

THE trade in opium has been one of the most important supports of the English government in India, as it has, in its incidents, had a most important influence upon the fortunes of China. A contemporary contains some interesting facts in relation to the circumstances of the trade, which is yet to have a great power over Chinese finances.

The Portuguese have the merit (if it may be so regarded) of having commenced the trade in opium between India and China. A hundred years ago it was of very trifling extent, and it was not until after the British East India Company made an adventure in 1773 that it gave promise of becoming a large trade. For many years the quantity shipped from British India did not much exceed 1,000 chests per annum, and even so late as the year 1-20 it did not quite reach 6,000 chests, or about 900,000 pounds. Since that time, however, notwithstanding that the Chinese have latterly largely cultivated the plant from which it is produced, their imports of opium have rapidly increased. At the present date it amounts to between 10,000,000 and 11,000,000 pounds annually from India, beside a small amount from Turkey. The opium produced in India is the concrete juice of the white poppy. The capsules, when green, are incised with a knife, with three or more blades, which is drawn along them during the hottest time of the day; the white juice exudes from the wounds and concretes into opium, which is scraped off the next morning. If the night dews are heavy, or if rain falls in the interval, the quality of the drug is much impaired. The opium when collected is put into jars for transportation to the factories, where it undergoes a process to purify and prepare it for the market. About the end of March, and for some weeks after, these jars begin to arrive at their destination, and the contents are thrown into large vats, from which the mass is distributed to be made into balls. When dry, the balls are packed for sale in chests, in two layers of six each, with dried stalks, leaves, and capsules of the poppy plant. A chest of Bengal opium contains 160 pounds, and one of Bombay 140 pounds. The right to manufacture opium in India is monopolized by the government. The cultivation of the plant from which it is produced is rigidly restricted to two districts in the Presidency of Bengal, and a semi-independent native State in Western India. The Bengal opium is exported from Calcutta, and the other, known in the trade as Malwa opium, from Bombay. Calcutta and Bombay are the only ports from which opium is permitted to be exported, and the quantity shipped at the former is about double that at the latter. In the favored provinces in Bengal, where the poppy plant is allowed to be grown, the government servants grant licenses to cultivators of the soil to plant certain grounds, and afterward receive the juice from these people at a stipulated fixed price. As Malwa is an inland State, and has consequently no seaport, its opium pays a duty to the British Indian Government of about $60 a chest upon exportation from Bombay. At Calcutta, there are regular periodical auction sales, where the opium is sold at so much per chest to the highest bidder; and so careful were the East India Company to keep up the character of their brand in the market, that pre

vious to sale all cases were opened by examiners appointed for the purpose, and any balls of opium that had the slightest appearance of impurity or decay were removed, replaced, and destroyed, and the box resealed. The purchasers at these auctions are of all races and countries. There may be seen the acute citizen of the United States, the portly native of Hindostan, and men in strange costumes, that have sailed in their own ships, and brought with them strange coin, from the ports on the shores of Iranistan and Arabia. You may see all creeds-Christian and Pagan, Mohammedan and Jew, and last though not least, from the importance of their presence, the brokers of English merchants who count their capital by hundreds of thousands of pounds sterling, and own lines of steamers and sailing vessels. When the opium is sold it is kept in bond by the government, and only allowed to be removed to the ship on which it is to be sent out of India under the care of a customs officer, who delivers it to another aboard, whose duty is to remain by the vessel till she finally proceeds to sea. At this stage of the traffic the government of India have finally done away with all interference or control over the article, and it may be taken wheresoever the owner may think fit.

If we were to credit the policy of the powers that rule in China, it would appear that it is their ardent wish entirely to abolish the use of opium among the 350,000,000 of people subject to their will. In that empire the importation of opium is by law strictly prohibited, and by existing treaties with America, England, and other countries, any of their respective citizens, or subjects, that may be unfortunate enough to be caught with the drug in their possession in Chinese waters, or on Chinese ground, are left entirely at the mercy of the Celestials to be dealt with by their laws. The actual practice of the trade, however, is very different from what we might suppose it to be from this regulation. There is in reality no more risk incurred in introducing opium into China than there is here in importing in a legal manner any of the articles upon which a duty is levied by the customs. To understand this more clearly, let us suppose that the government of the United States, with the double view of increasing the revenue of the country, and of affording their servants superior facilities for growing rich by extortion, were to pass a law and make treaties with foreign powers prohibiting the importation of tobacco into the Union, under the penalty of death to all who should be caught attempting to evade it, and at the same time privately permit the various collectors of customs to sell permits to those who were willing to pay highly for the privilege of landing and distributing the contraband article in safety. This supposition is a parallel case with the practice in China with regard to opium. It is quite an error to suppose, as is generally done, that the drug is smuggled or taken into China in open defiance of the authority of the executive power of the country. There are receiving ships carrying varions flags-some American-well armed and manned with Malays and natives of Manilla, moored in convenient harbors on the coasts of China, and when a steamer or "opium clipper arrives from India, it is into these storeships that her cargo is delivered, and receipts or certificates regularly granted which are sent to the owners of the drug wherever they or their agents may transact their business in China. In trade these certificates are considered unquestionable, and are transmitted from one to another with the greatest facility. Chinese dealers from ports on the coast, and the interior, when they happen to want a supply of opium, purchase scrip for what they require, and send their

own boats, or sometimes junks, or steamers of light draft of water, to take it from the receiving ship and convey it to whatever port they intend to land it. At this particular stage of the traffic, as a general rule, all foreign interference with the trade may be said to end, though a few "barbarians" are engaged in the very profitable business of distributing the opium in the country to those who directly retail it to the consumers. When a lot, of one or more chests, is purchased, and intended to be landed at some particular place, the purchaser makes arrangements with the Mandarin in authority there, and strikes the best possible bargain with him for his permission to transact the business unmolested. As may be imagined, there is no fixed rate for this permission, and it varies inch with the necessities of the case, but is always the uttermost dollar that the greedy official finds it possible to extract. The captain of an American steamer, who had been employed by the native dealers for sometime in conveying opium from the receiving ships to Canton, and who had made several profitable ventures on his own account, came to the conclusion that he could do equally well without the assistance of the government people, and that he would pay no more black mail. Without letting any of them know his intention, he took a considerable quantity of opium aboard and proceeded to Canton, where he landed it without being questioned in any way. He returned, took in a second cargo, and proceeded up the river as before, but no sooner had he anchored his vessel above the European factories, than he was boarded by two large launches with upward of eighty Chinese soldiers and two inferior Mandarins to take possession of his ship. The captain, however, was not thrown off his guard by his former good success, but was fully prepared to receive his visitors, knowing well that should they get possession, both ship and cargo would be confiscated, and himself and crew left entirely at the mercy of the captors-or in other words, that unless a large ransom were forthcoming they must pay it with their heads. Steamers engaged in this trade, and in the somewhat more precarious one of carrying Chinese passengers, have strong platforms erected across the wheel-houses, where in other vessels a plank is usually placed, called the captain's bridge. These latforms are guarded by strong bulwarks, steering apparatus is fixed on them, the arm-chests, and usually carronades placed so as to rake the deck below fore and aft; the engine-room hatches are well secured with iron gratings, and means are provided for telegraphing orders to the engineer. It is, in fact, a little citadel from which the crew of a steamer can direct her movements long after her decks are in possession of an enemy. The captain, being on the alert, and having seen the boats with the soldiers coming, had mustered all hands in this little fort, except one left below to knock out the shackle-pin and free the vessel from her anchor, when all was ready. When the last man of the two boat-loads was on the deck, the engineer received his orders to turn ahead, and away went the steamer with the whole posse, who had been so certain of their prize that in their astonishment they made no attempt at resistance. The captain proceeded straight to the Portuguese settlement at Macao, some hundred miles distant, and brought up under the guns of one of their batteries, when he descended to the angry Mandarins, and expressed a hope that they would not take for any want of courtesy toward them his absence while he was attending to the duties of his ship. He informed them that the fare down was two dollars per head for themselves and attendants, and that when his claim upon them for that amount was satis

fied, they had his permission to go about their business! The steamer had to remain at Macao till he made his peace with the offended officials at Canton; but that was not difficult when he paid the full amount which they considered themselves entitled to upon the former cargo, besides for what he bad aboard, and a fine as a caution for his future conduct.

There is, perhaps, no other commercial business in the world that excels the opium trade in facility for making or losing a fortune. The total capital employed in it is very large; and some of the mercantile firms engaged in the trade are almost fabulously rich, and enterprising to a degree that would be thought rash elsewhere. On account of the great value and perishable nature of the drug, it has always been a matter of the first importance to employ the fastest vessels procurable in its conveyance from India to China. The transit, however, is now almost entirely carried on by means of steamers. Some few years ago, when all the boats on the line belonged to one steam navigation company, and their directors thought fit to raise the freight per chest from $14 to $15 50, two mercantile firms built at once, with their own capital, superior vessels to those employed, and started a line each in opposition. These steamers must have cost $300,000 each; and perhaps it would be difficult to find elsewhere merchants who could afford, without previous preparation, to withdraw such large sums from their working capital, and not even show the slightest appearance of inconvenience. Not long ago, a firm devised a plan for sweeping the opium market, that would be no discredit to the acquisitive ingenuity of Barnum. At the time of the operation they had a considerable stock of opium in China, beside which they bought largely in India, and loaded and dispatched two of their own vessels. Ships bound from India to China in the season of opium freights, to take advantage of the prevailing monsoon in the China Sea, always pass through the Straits of Malacca and Singapore, calling at the latter place, which is a sort of half-way house for them. There is a large Chinese population at Singapore, and of course a considerable demand for opium. When the two vessels in question reached that place, on their way to China, they found orders waiting for them to unload there, and sell their cargoes by auction without reserve. The quantity of opium brought by them was many times greater than the demand, and traders at that place were quite unprepared with funds for such an unexpected contingency. Besides, the very fact of a firm like that to which these cargoes belonged trying to force a sale, at any sacrifice, convinced the most skeptical that something dire was pending over the opium market-nothing less, perhaps, than free-trade in its production in India. When the cargoes were advertised, with a due notice of sale, those who held moderate stock of opium, suited to the straits markets, hurried forward sales so as to anticipate the other and realize what they could before the market became entirely glutted. The effect of this was that opium was to be had for a mere percentage of its original cost in India, and the private agents of those who had caused the depression purchased all they could get, and afterward bought in the two cargoes at a nominal price. While this was going forward at Singapore, the firm acted a like part in China, and forced sales with the same result. When news came from Singapore of the low prices ruling there, opium was, in more senses than one, a complete drug. Very few had foresight sufficient to retain their stocks, much less to purchase, and the private agents were again at work and bought till the market was swept and the opium had nearly all found its way into the