pressly for smoking. The poorer classes generally resort to these shops, but the wealthier orders smoke more privately, in their own dwellings. It is stated that in Amoy there are more than one thousand of these shops, and almost every man who can afford to buy the drug, is in the habit of smoking it. More than 2,700 chests are sold annually at Chusan, valued at almost two millions of dollars, and a considerable larger quantity is imported into the city of Foochow, part of which finds its way into the interior. One of the principal articles of commerce carried on at Hong Kong is opium. The drug is now landed without encountering much opposition all along the coast of China, and smoked publicly in the chief cities. The trade was never in a more vigorous state than at the present time. According to the most recent intelligence, it is estimated that the sale will reach 60,000 chests the present year, and the Indian government was taking measures to increase hereafter the growth of the poppy. Notwithstanding the supply has rapidly increased, the demand more than keeps pace with it; and such, in all probability, will continue to be the case for many years to come, unless Divine Providence should interpose to arrest its progress.

The plan of sending opium from Bengal to China was first suggested by a Mr. Watson, in the year 1767, to a council of Representatives of the East India Company, held at Calcutta. Mr. Wheeler, at that time an officer, and an influential member of the company, advocated the plan, and after being favorably entertained, it was adopted as a happy expedient towards raising a revenue for supporting government. Previously to this time, a small trade in opium, rarely exceeding 200 chests per year, had been carried on with the Chinese by some Portuguese merchants, who brought their opium from Turkey.

From 1767 to 1774, the East India Company made several adventures of opium to China, which, for various causes, were not very successful. In 1794, the English succeeded in stationing one of their ships, laden exclusively with opium at Whampoa, where she lay unmolested for more than a year, selling out her cargo. This city continued about 25 years to be the principal market for the sale of the drug, though the trade encountered considerable opposition on the part of the Chinese. Macao also furnished somewhat of a market, but in 1821, the opium merchants, on account of the difficulties attending the sale at these places, withdrew entirely from the harbor of Whampoa and Macao, and stationed their vessels under shelter of Lintin Island, in the bay at the entrance of Canton River. Henceforth this place became the seat of extensive trade. The Merope, Capt. Parkyns, in the same year, was the first ship that commenced the system of delivering opium at different cities along the coast of China, and from that time the trade increased with wonderful rapidity. Eligible places also on the east and north-east coast of China were selected, to station receiving vessels, to which the Chinese might easily have access, and become participators in the trade. From 1794 to 1820, the amount of opium exported to China varied from 3,000 to 7,000 chests each year. In 1824 it increased to 12,639 chests, and in 1831 to 21,785 chests, valued at $14,454,193. In 1837 it amounted to between 39,000 and 40,000 chests, valued at $25,000,000. In 1838-39 the trade was seriously interrupted by the more decided and efficient measures of the Chinese to break up and suppress entirely the smuggling in of opium. After a series of altercations between the parties representing each government, as well as some more violent exhibitions of hostility, the Chinese forced the merchants to surrender what opium they had on hand, and destroyed the

whole, amounting to more than 20,000 chests. This step led to a war between the two nations, and the negotiations for settlement were not entirely brought to a close till August, 1842. During these years a much smaller quantity of opium was brought into the market, and the demand being so much greater than the supply, it sold for almost double its former prices, bringing from $1,000 to even $1,600 per chest. Mr. Tiffany, in his work on China, states that the members of one English house made in this way, at the close of the war, from four to eight hundred thousand pounds sterling apiece.

But no sooner was peace declared between the two nations, than again commenced brisk operations in this traffic. By referring to the preceding tables, it will be seen that since the war there has been a constant increase in the trade.

The principal use made of opium by the Chinese is in the form of smoking, and one great object in the trade is to furnish an article adapted to their peculiar tastes. This depends somewhat upon the cultivation of the poppythe quality of its seed-the goodness of the soil-the manner of collecting and converting the juice into a dry extract, or balls, convenient for transportation. The Chinese value any sample of opium in direct proportion to the quantity of hot-drawn, watery extract obtainable from it, and to the purity and strength of that extract when dried, and smoked through a pipe. Sometimes the native cultivators, in order to increase the weight of the article, and consequently their profits in its sale, have resorted to adulterating the juice of the poppy, by mixing with it sugar, catechu, molasses, cow-dung, soft clayey mud, pounded poppy seed, as well as the juice of various plants; but these adulterations are generally detected by the government agents; and the Chinese themselves, having often been imposed upon in this way formerly, are careful to test its purity before purchasing.

After the arrival of the drug in China, it is subjected to a process of heating, evaporation, filtering, &c., in order to increase its strength and improve its flavor. The class and number of persons addicted to this practice may be inferred from the following facts. One of the chief officers belonging to the Chinese Court, in a memorial to the Emperor, says: "At first the use of opium was confined to the pampered sons of fortune, with whom it was an idle luxury, but still used with moderation, and under the power of restraint. Since then its use has extended upward to the officers and belted gentry, and downwards to the laborer and tradesman, to the traveler, and even to women, monks, nuns, and priests. In every place its inhalers are to be found; and the implements required for smoking it are now sold publicly in the face of day." It includes, therefore, among its votaries officers of high rank and dignity, wealthy men, merchants and bankers, as well as the common mechanics and laborers. But it has been the general opinion of writers on this subject, that opium smoking was most prevalent among the higher classes of the Chinese, inasmuch as the habit is a very expensive one, and this class of persons are most exposed to the temptation. As to the number persons addicted to the vice, it must exceed four millions. From a careful and somewhat extended enquiry made by persons having the best means of knowing as to the exact amount of opium daily used by those in the habit of smoking, it was ascertained that, on an average, each person consumed upwards of 17 grains per day. According to this data, 10,000 chests would supply one million of persons; and for the last six years, there have been over 40,000 chests of opium annually consumed in China in this way.

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The quantity of opium daily used depends very much on the habits of the smoker. At first he cannot inhale more than from three to six grains at a time, but will go on gradually increasing the dose, till in a few years some consume even 300 grains daily. The expenses attending this habit are very great so great that in most instances it regulates the quantity used, each one consuming as much as he can possibly command means to obtain. Mr. Smith, of the Church Missionary Societies, while visiting the opium-smoking shops at Amoy, questioned ten persons, indiscriminately, as he met them, most of whom were laborers, as to the formation, effects, expense of the habit, &c. Five of these individuals consumed a mace, or sixty grains daily, and it cost them, on an average, two-thirds of their daily earnings to purchase the article! This fact shows how amazingly expensive is the habit, and what a fearfully impoverishing effect it must have upon all those who, for any length of time, give themselves up to the vice. Besides, it is calculated by Mr. Martin, and other writers well acquainted with the evil, and competent to form a correct judgment in the matter as any other individuals that can be found, that the victims of this vice do not live, on an average, more than ten years after they have once given way to the habit. It brings on a train of diseases which make rapid work of destruction on all the vital organs of the body. By means of this vice, then, according to the above data, and estimating the number of opium smokers at 4,000,000, more than 400,000 human beings in China find annually a premature grave! What other vice in the whole history of the world ever produced such appalling ravages on human life?

Reserving for another article some further observations upon the effects of opium-smoking, the connection of the British government with the traffic, and its influences, financially and politically, on the Chinese nation, we close by quoting the following extract from the "Friend of India," for July 26th, 1849, a paper printed at Serampore, and of the highest authority in matters of this kind:

"The clear profit of the British government of India from the consumption of opium by the Chinese, at the end of the official year 1848-49, including, of course, the tax on Malwa opium at Bombay, will be found to have fallen little short of three crores and twenty lakhs of rupees, or three millions two hundred thousand pounds sterling ($15,488,000.) It is the most singular and anomalous traffic in the world. To all appearances, we should find it difficult to maintain our hold of India without it; our administration would be swamped by its financial embarrassments. Its effects on Chinese finances must be as disastrous as it is beneficial to our own. The trade is not legalized in China, and the drug is paid for in hard cash. The annual drain of the precious metals from China, through this article, is, therefore, between, five and six millions sterling. No wonder that the Cabinet at Peking are struck dumb by this 'oozing out' of silver, and that we hear from time to time of the most resolute determination to extinguish the trade. But with more than a thousand miles of sea-coast to guard, and so small a protective navy, and nine-tenths of the officers in it venal to a proverb, that Cabinet is helpless."

Art. III-COMMERCIAL CITIES AND TOWNS OF THE UNITED STATES.

NUMBER XXI.

BALTIMORE.

BALTIMORE, the most southern of the four great "commercial cities" on the Atlantic seaboard of our country, from its position, the rapidity of its growth, and its prospective greatness, is entitled to a more extended notice than is usually given to the cities sketched in this series. It is the largest and most striking instance yet presented to the world of the rapid centrali zation and development of all the elements of commercial greatness, which characterize the New World. Barely fifty years old as a city, it already takes rank, in population and trade, with those across the water which have been struggling up toward importance for centuries, and with all the vigor and elasticity of early youth is pressing on hopefully to a bright and strong manhood.

It is located upon an estuary, or small bay, which makes up for about two and a half miles on the north side of the Patapsco River, about ten miles from the entrance of this river into the Chesapeake Bay, of which it is for this distance an arm. By ship channel it is about 200 miles from the ocean, in 39° 17′ 23′′ north latitude, and longitude 0° 26' east from Washington.

The city contains about 10,000 acres of land, extending about four and a half miles from east to west, and three and a half from north to south. It consisted originally of more than fifty elevations or hills, separated by abrupt valleys or ravines, and in a few instances by formidable marshes; while nearly in the center it is divided by a rapid stream of water, known as "Jones' Falls." This stream has on three occasions-October 5, 1786, August 9, 1817, and June 14, 1837-overflowed its banks and done great damage to both life and property. The city has, in consequence, been at great pains to remove all obstructions from its bed, and have the numerous bridges by which it is crossed sprung by a single arch, and at such hight as to remove all further danger from this source. The division east of the falls is again nominally subdivided into two parts-Fell's Point and Old Town. The Point is the most easterly portion of the city, has the advantage of greater depth of water than the upper harbor contains, is the resort of seamen and immigrants, and the place where the greater part of the ship-building and manufactures of the city are carried on. Old Town lies north and west of this, and is principally inhabited by mechanics and laborers.

The portion west of the falls is, in like manner, divided into two partsthe City Proper and Spring Garden section. The former is the center of trade, and contains most of the residences of the more wealthy of the citizens; while the latter, which is the extreme south-western quarter, is the residence of many mechanics and laborers. It is the lowest and most unhealthy portion of the city, being subject, to a considerable extent at certain seasons every year, to bilious and intermittent diseases. While the uneven and broken nature of the ground, with the exception of this quarter, has severely taxed both public and private resources and enterprise, it has been made to obviate, to a great degree, the necessity of extended sewers, (the whole amount of which is less than two miles,) and greatly conduced to the healthfulness of the city. Indeed, in this most important respect Baltimore

will not suffer by comparison with the most highly favored cities of our land. The following table will exhibit the aggregate and per centage of mortality of the whole city for the last fourteen years :

During the last year, when many parts of the country were so severely afflicted by the Asiatic cholera, Baltimore entirely escaped, and although there might have been indications of cognate diseases, yet, on the whole, the mortality, as compared with other years, was hardly affected thereby. The following is the monthly aggregate of deaths for 1849:

The first settlers on the shores of the Chesapeake Bay seem to have moved, for a long time, almost at random in the selection of the sites of their future towns, and to have been blindly experimenting with the laws of nature, or attempting capriciously to produce a factitious determination of wealth and population to points never designed for such a fortune by their Maker. Hence, some places for which they mapped out future greatness, and which they tried to nurse up to it, are now almost as much a wilderness as when they were first discovered; while other spots, in which they saw no comeliness, are now thriving marts.

In this way the almost unrivalled advantages of the location of Baltimore were long quite overlooked, and when, as late as the year 1729, they attracted attention, and the town was laid out, only a part of it was under cultivation, and that as a farm, while the rest was a wilderness.

The part thus first laid out (60 acres in extent) was the central southern portion, about the head of what is now familiarly called "the Basin." Three years subsequent, in 1732, ten acres east of "Jones' Falls," a part of the present" Old Town," were laid out under the name of Jonestown, and the two became united as the town of Baltimore in 1745. For some years its growth was by no means rapid. It was surrounded by older and jealous rivals, and was obliged to contend with all the obstacles which they could throw in its way. An authentic sketch of it, made in 1752, by Mr. John Moale, is in the rooms of the Maryland Historical Society, from which it appears that it then contained about twenty-five houses, four of which were built of brick, while the rest were quite primitive in their structure. Sixteen years later, in 1768, it became the shire town of the county, and arrangements were made for the erection of a court-house and jail, which had previously been located at Joppa, a place now known only in history. Its first newspaper, "The Maryland Journal and Baltimore Advertiser," weekly, was issued on the 20th of August, 1773, and a second, “ Dunlap's Maryland Gazette," in 1775. It was not deemed a port of entry till 1780, when first a custom-house was opened, and a naval officer appointed. Until that time all vessels trading to and from the port entered, cleared, and obtained their registers at Annapolis. None of the streets were paved till 1782, when a