im'i'y^r;!^::. r- ■( ■.,-.,_■■,. ,i; If",'!',;..:-' ,..;:.V .<;::■■'/ iSM- - , ■, .- ' .' 1 ' ■ ' ' ■ ' ■ .:--t ';/;■• /^ EUROPE IN CHINA w^ i EUROPE IN CHINA THE HISTORY OF HONGKONd FROM THE BEGINNING TO THE YEAR 1882 E. J. EITEL, Ph.D. (Tubing.) IXSPKCTOR OF SCHOOLS, HONGKONG Tli«f acf.ial well s>een is the U\(>u\.—Ca)i>jle. tTNlVERsiTY! LONDON I.UZAC \ What the Mediterranean and Adantic were while civilization moved from East to West, the Pacific is bound to become now^ since the tide of progress runs from West to East. Africa is evennow_bein^ broug ht-into the sphere of modern civilization by^y/ the combined powers of Europe. The turn of South- America will come next There is not a first-class- Vl PREFACE. power in the world that has not possessions on the shores of the Pacific. Great Britain and the United States, Russia and France, Germany and Italy, vSpain and Portugal, all vie with each other in the -co htro l_oi countries bordering on, or islands situated in, the PacrFTc~^ba^in. It requires no prophet's gift tQ see that the politics of the near future centre in the East and that the problems of the Far East will be solved on the Pacific main. Cojitests will be sure to arise and in these contests Honofkono: will be one of the stations most important for the general strength of the British Empire, Here, even more than in Its bearing upon the Asiatic problem, lies the real importance of Hongkong. Such is the position of this Colony in relation to the destinies •of the Far East: Hongkong will yet have a pro- minent place in the future history of the British Empire. The foreofoinof conslderatons will commend the subject of this book to the attention of the general J*eader. As to its treatment, the endeavour of the writer has been to combine with the aims of the historian, writing from the point of view of universal history, the duties of the chronicler of events such as are of special interest to European residents in the East, so as to provide at the same time a hand- book of reference for tliose who take an active interest in the current affairs of this British Colony PREFACE. Vll as well as in British relations with China. This volume brings down the story of Hongkong's rise and progress to the year 1882. The more recent epochs of its history are too near to our view yet to admit of impartial historic treatment for the present. E. J. EITEL. College Gardens, Hongkong, August 2, 1895. CONTENTS. Page •Chap. I. Commencement of British Trade with China, A. D. 1625 to 1834, ,. ... 1 II. International Relations, A.D. 1025 to 1834, 12 III. Monopoly versus Free Trade, 19 IV. The Mission of 1x)rd Napier, 26 V. Dissensions and a Quiescent Policy, A.D. 1834tol83G, 42 VI. The Search for a Colony, 53 VII. Change of Policy,..'. 02 VIII. The Opium Question and the Exodus FROM Canton (1830), 75 IX. Exodus from Macao and Events Leading UP to THE Cession of Hongkong, 1839 to 1841, 96 X. Pre-P>ritish History of the Island of Hongkong, 127 XI. Confirmation of the Cession of Hong- kong, 1841 to 1843, 135 -XII. The Administration of Captain Elliot, January I'C to August 10, 1841, 103 CONTENTS. Page- Chap. XIII. Thk Admixistratiox of Sir H.'Pottixger, August 10, 1841, to May 8, 1844, 171> XI Y. The Administration of Sir J. F. Davis, May 8, 1844, to March 18, 1848, 211 XV. The Administration of Sir S. G. Bonham, March 20, 1848, to April 12,. 1854, 258 XVI. A Brief Survey, 288 XVII. The Administration of Sir J. Bowrinc, April 13, 1854, to May 5, 1859, 208 XVIII. The Administration of Sir Hercules Robinson, September 9, 1851), to March 15, 1865, 853 XIX. The Interregnum of the Hon. W. T. Mercer, and the Administration of Sir R. G. MacDonnell, March 15, 18C5, to April 22, 1872, 408 XX. The Administration of Sir A. Kennedy, April IG, 1872, to March 1, 1877, 477 XXI. The Administration of Sir J. Popf, ^ Hennessy, April 22, 1877, to March 7, 1882, 522 XXII. A Short Summary, 5C8 Index. XTNIVERSIT HISTORY OF HONGKONG. -ted by nature in every respect for commercial purposes, would promptly produce every effect we desire.' If Sir George B. Robinson had been a prophet, he could not have anticipated more distinctly the future origin of our Colony, the battle of Chuenpi and the occupation of the Island of Hongkong as accomplished seven years later, in January 1841. Lord Palmerston, hov\^ever, was not prepared yet to express an opinion as to any suggestion leading up to the permanent establishment of a British station or colony in the East. Neither did the Duke of Wellington's ideas go beyond the establishment of a Consul-General in a Chinese port, backed by a stout frigate and a smaller vessel of war. Lord Palmerston had all along been little inclined to listen to Sir George Robinson's expositions of the Duke's notions or to pay any attention to his monotonous dithyrambics on the subject of the quiescent line of jDolicy. As to the positive and definite instructions regarding future measures, for which the Superintendents were waiting in vain from 1834 to 183G, it was not until Lord Palmerston's views had gained the ascendancy in the public mind over those of the noble Duke, that the Minister vouchsafed to give Sir George any instructions as to his policy. And when (June 7, 183G) he at last did so, 52 CHAPTER V. he curtly informed Sir George that there was no longer any necessity for maintaining the office of Chief-Superintendent which was hereby abolished, and that Sir George's functions should cease from the date of the receipt of this dispatch. Accordingly he instructed Sir George to hand over the archives of his office to Captain Elliot whom he requested to consider himself as Chief of the Commission. Sir George, nothing daunted, remained at his post and appealed for reconsideration (probably looking to the Duke of Wellington for rescue), but it was all in vain. The Cabinet had begun to see that the quiescent policy had failed. Four months afterwards Lord Palmerston repeated his instructions and Sir George returned to England. Thus ended the reign of the quiescent policy of Mr. Davis and Sir George Robinson. A more active policy was to be inaugurated as soon as public attention in England could be aroused to a sense of the dishonour heaped upon British merchants and officers by Chinese autocracy. CHAPTER VI. The Search for a Colony. IR George B. Robinson was by no means the first discoverer (5^ of the need of a British Colony in the East. Nor was Lord Palmerston the only statesman that shrank from the idea and found liimself unable to form hastily a final opinion upon such a suggestion until the force of events had actually accomplished it. So far back as 1815, Mr. Elphinstone, then President of ^^ the Select Committee of the East India Company's Supercargoes at Canton, recommended to the Court of Directors, that they should establish a high diplomatic Plenipotentiary 'on a convenient station on the eastern coast of China,' and as near the capital of the country as might be found most expedient. He further recommended that this Plenipotentiary sliould be y iittended by a sufficient maritime force to demand reparation of ^ the gi'ievances from which the trade was suffering. The Directors of the Company, with all their statesman-like sagacity, did not see their way to follow up this suggestion, the carrying out of which would have anticipated the sound basis of commercial relations which was eventually obtained some thirty-six yeara later, by the very course of action first recommended by Mr. Elphinstone. The next person to take up and develop Mr. Elpinstone's idea of a station on the east coast of China as a iwint cTapimi for a naval demonstration, intended to compel China to redress grievances and to make some commercial concessions, was "^ Sir George Staunton, the famous translator of the original .statutes of the Tatsing Dynasty (Penal Code of China), who had \ v) j :also been a trusted servant of the East India Com^^any in China. Having returned to England, he entered Parliament. In the course of a debate which took place in the House of 54 CHAPTER VI. Commons (Juno, 1833) concerning the arbrogation of the East India Company's trade monopoly, Sir George Staunton moved a series of resokitions, one of which (No. 8) ran as follows : *That, in the event of its proving impracticable to replace the influence of the East India Company's Authorities by any system of national protection, directly emanating from the Crown, it will be expedient (though only in the last resort) to withdraw altogether from the control of the Chinese Authorities, and to establish the trade in some insular position on the Chinese coast where it may be satisfactorily carried on beyond the reach of acts of oppression and molestation, to which an unresisting submission Avould be equally prejudicial to the national honour and to the national interests of this country.' Whilst this important subject was under discussion, the House was counted out, and on a subsequent resumption of the debate the resolutions were negatived without a division, indicating the general indifference as regards Chinese affairs which then prevailed in England. At the time when Sir George Staunton drafted the foregoing resolution, the project of stationing in Canton three Superintendents of British trade in China was definitely placed before the country by the Bill above mentioned which passed into law two montlis later. In speaking of ' a system of national protection directly emanating from the Crown,' Sir George Staunton referred to Lord Napier's proposed mission, the failure of which he appears to have foreseen. In suggesting a remedy for this expected failure, the establishment of the Commission »*in some insular position on the coast, beyond the reach of acts (of oppression and molestation,' Sir George Staunton may not have had in his mind more than the establishment of a trade station after the fashion of the East India Company's factories, but he evidently came very near the idea of a British Colony. He had to advantage studied the history of the East India Company and drawn from it lessons which Cabinet Ministers failed to master. Speaking before the House of Commons in support of the above resolution, he argued that the port of THE SEARCH FOR A COLONY. 55* Canton was one of the least advantageous in the Chinese dominions, either for exports or for imports, that the trade of Canton was wholly abandoned to the arbitrary control of the Local Authorities, and was by them subjected to many and severe and vexatious burdens and to various restrictions and privations of the most galHuo- and oppressive nature, and finally that those evils were wholly attributable to the nature and character of the Chinese Government. About the time when these sage counsels were urged in the House of Commons upon an apathetic audience, another former servant of the East India Company, Sir J. B. Urmston, who had been at the head of the British Factory in Canton in the years 1819 and 1820, published (London, J^3) a pamphlet under the title ' Observations on the Trade of China' (printed for private circulation only). In this pamphlet, S.ir J. B. Urmston impressed upon the British Government the necessity of removing the trade entirely from Canton to some other more northern port of the Empire. His argument was that British trade at Canton had always been at the mercy of the caprice and rapacity of the Cantonese Authorities and their subordinates, and that Canton was one of the worst places in the Empire which could have been chosen as an emporium for tha British trade. Accordingly Sir J. B. Urmston named Ningpo- and Hangchow as central and convenient places for British commerce, but gave it as his decided opinion that an insular situation, like Chusan, would be infinitely more so. We see, therefore, that Mr. Elphinstone, Sir George Staunton and Sir J. B. Urmston were of one and the same way of thinking, having correctly drawn the lessons of the past history of British trade in China, but that, as former employees of the East India Company, they thought of a factory rather than of a Colony. It is remarkable, however, that Cabinet Ministers profited so little from the advice thus tendered in Parliament and in the Press, as to commit the blunders which characterized, a few months later, their design of Lord Napier's mission and the instructions by which they frustrated it. 56 CHAPTER VI. When an echo of the foregoing discussions reached Canton at the close of the year 1833, a writer in one of the local publications, signing himself 'A British Merchant,' made some further suggestions. Canton, he said, should no longer be the base of operations, be they of negotiation, of peace, or of war. An Admiral's station should be selected, and, for the sake of resting on some point, Xingpo might be adopted or the adjacent island of Chusan. The writer then goes on discussing the annexation of Formosa, the seizure of the island of Lantao (close to Hongkong), the cession of Macao to be obtained from the Portuguese, but finally rejects the seizure of any portion of Chinese territory as impolitic and the cession of Macao as impracticable. The author of this letter thereupon labours to I recommend the idea of negotiating a treaty Avitli China under 'which some port of the east coast of China should be opened to British trade, free from the restrictions in force at Canton. A treaty port with a British Consulate seemed to him preferable to a Colony, but how such a treaty could be negotiated without compulsion by force of arms, he did not explain. The honour of having first discerned and directed attention to the peculiar facilities afforded by the Island of Hongkong belongs to Lord Napier. In a dispatch addressed to Lord Palmerston (August 14, 1834), in which he urged the necessity of commanding, by an armed demonstration, the conclusion of a commennal treaty to secure the just rights and interests of European merchants in China. Lord Xapier distinctly recommended that a small British force ' should take possession of the Island of Hongkong, in the eastern entrance of the |€auton River, which is admirably adapted for every purpose.' ! It is possible, however, that Lord Napier, as subsequently Captain Elliot, thought of Hongkong as a future Chinese treaty port rather than as a British Colony. The next advocate of a similar policy was Sir George B. Robinson, who, as stated above, urged upon Lord Palmerston (in 1836) to withdraw from Canton .and to occupy 'one of the islands in the neighbourhood (of Lintin) so singularly adapted by nature in every respect for THE SEARCH FOR A COLONY. 57 commercial purposes.' At the same time when Sir George Robinson sought to impress upon the Foreign Office the advantages of an island station, away from Canton, another former resident of China appealed to the British public, commending the same policy, seeking to arouse public opinion in England and to turn it in favour of the project first advanced by Mr. Elphinstone. In a pamphlet, entitled 'The Present Condition and Prospects of British Trade with China,' and published in London in 18:^&, Mr. James Matheson of Canton, expounded and expanded Mr. Elphinstone's advice of sending a Plenipotentiary to China, who should take his station on one of the islands on the east coast of China and thence negotiate, by the demonstration of a small naval foi'ce, a commercial I treaty, the object of which should be to secure for British trade in China an insular location beyond the reach of Chinese officialdom. This clearly pointed to a British Colony to be established on the coast of China. \ Mr. Matheson, however, was no advocate of war with China, i ... ! Neither did he imagine that China would readily consent to | the establishment of a British Colony at her very gates. Mr. j Matheson argued that a state of preparedness for war is the surest preventive of war, especially in our deanngs witli a nation like China, and that a firm policy, plainly supported by a strong fleet, ready for war, might, if judiciously pressed home, be all that would be absolutely necessary. Tlius Mr. Matheson struck,- in 183G, the key-note of the poHcy which eventually procured the establishment of the Colony of Hongkong. What Mr. Matheson thus urged upon the home country as a whole by his pamphlet, he impres.sed especially also upon the various Associations and Chambers of Commerce within reach of his influence in England and Scotland. In the course of the year 1836, several memorials were accordingly presented at the Foreign Office from various parts of Great Britain, requesting that immediate and energetic measures should be adopted for the extension and protection of commerce in China. Among them was a memorial of the Glasgow East India 58 CHAPTER VI. Association, addressed to Lord Palmerston. This document siio:o:ested, no doubt at the instigation of Mr. Matheson, 'the obtaining, by negotiation or purchase, an island on the eastern coast of China, where a British factory may reside, subject to its own laws and exposed to no collision with the Chinese.' When the Glasgow^ merchants thus recommended to seek, by negotiation or purchase, the cession of an island for the establishment of a factory, they did not mean a factory like the trade stations of the East India Company, but a factory of British and notably Scotch free traders, in the Canton sense of the word. They forestalled thus in principle the future cession of Hongkong, although their thoughts then turned, with Mr. Matheson, more in the direction of Chusan than of Hongkong. The idea which Mr. Matheson thus prominently brought, by his pamphlet, before the general public, and by the Glasgow memorial before the Cabinet, to desert Canton and to seek, somewhere on the east coast, an island where British trade with China might be conducted under the British flag, on British ground, and under British government, was not left without its ^>ponGnts. Mr. H. Hamilton Lindsay, also a former Canton resident and ex-member of the East India Company's Select Committee, published, in 1836, a Letter addressed to Lord Palmerston under the title ' British Relations with China.' In this pamphlet, whilst recommending the adoption of a belligerent policy in opposition to Mr. Matheson's armed peace procedure, Mr. Lindsay advocated the formation, on the coast of China, of two or three depots Avith floating warehouses, like the above mentioned hulks anchored at Lintin. Each of those depots, he suggested, should be guarded by a stout frigate and thrown open for the resort of merchant vessels to trade there. As to the project of- forming a Colony, Mr. Lindsay added that he would on no account advocate the taking possession of the smallest island on the coast. Another opponent of the Colonial policy came forward anonymously, by a pamphlet published in London, in 1836, by THE SEARCH FOR A COLONY. 59' a resident in China, under the title 'British Intercourse with Cliina.' The anonymous author of this pamphlet represented the Mssionary view of the question and suggested that the Government should choose a pacific policy towards China on grounds of expediency, humility and generosity, and confine its political action to the establishment of a Consulate at Canton together with a small fleet for the protection of trade. To combat the foregoing opponents of his scheme. Sir George Staunton now came forward again and published, in 1836, a pamphlet entitled 'Remarks on British Relations with China.' Sir George had, however, but little to say that was new. He argued, as before, that Canton was the very worst station to select for trade purposes, but he now advocated the occupation of an island on the coast without previous negotiation with the Chinese Government. He stated that there were many islands on the coast over which the Chinese Government exercised no act of jurisdiction, and that such an island might easily be taken possession of with the entire consent and good-will of the inhabitants if there were any. Moreover he now pointed,! y very aptly, to the precedent afforded by the Portuguese Colony! ^ on the island of Macao, the original occupation of which was an act precisely of that description which Sir George Staunton advocated, and not the result of any previous authentic cession by the Chinese Authorities, as pretended by the Portuguese. So far, however, this general search for a Colony in the^ East was more a groping about for an island on the east coast \ of China than in the neighbourhood of Canton. Chusan was most in favour. Next came Ningpo and Formosa. But other places also were mentioned. At the close of the year 1836,. when this war of the pamphleteers was transferred from England to Canton, the general divergence of views was increased. Mr. G. Tradescant Lay, a naturalist who had accompanied Captain Beechy's Expedition to the Bonin Islands, strongly advocated, in the Canton newspapers and by a pamphlet published in 1837, the occupation of one of those islands for the purpose of a British Colony. Hongkong was almost out of the running. / y ru ^60 CHAPTER VI. However, the annexation of Hongkong was under the consideration of the Canton free traders early in the year 1836, when a correspondent of the Canton Register made the following prophetic remarks (April 25, 1836). 'If the lion's paw is to be put down on any part of the south side of China, let it be Hongkong; let the lion declare it to be under his guarantee a free port, and in ten years it will be the most considerable mart east of the Cape. The Portuguese made a mistake: they adopted shallow \vater and exclusive rules. Hongkong, deep water, and a free port for ever!' his anticipation of the future was but the view of a minority t Canton. Most of the British merchants continued to cling to the notion that the inner waters of Canton afforded a special vantage ground, that the lion's share was there where their trade was acknowledged by the Chinese Authorities, that at Canton therefore the uritish representative should reside and that, unless he were to reside there, he would be simply nowhere, whether for the Chinese Government or for his countrymen. At the time when the discussion as to the best location of the British trade waxed hottest in the Canton /papers, there was published in the same papers (December, 1836) ^a detail description of the coast of China for the benefit of I Boariners, and in these papers, entirely unconnected with the above-mentioned search for a Colony, we find Hongkong referred to in the following words : — 'On the west of the Lamma channel is Lantao (about '60 miles S.E. of Canton) and on the east are Hongkong :and Tiamma. North of Hongkong is a passage between it and the main, called Ly-ee-moon, with good depth of water •close to the Hongkong shore, and perfect shelter on all sides. Here are several good anchorages. At the bottom of a bay on the opposite main is a town called Kowloon and a river is said to discharge itself here (a statement the incorrectness of which is palpable, unless by the word river a little creek is meant). On the S.W. side of Hongkong, and between it and Lamma, arc several small bays, fit for anchorage, one of THE SEARCH FOR A COLONY. 61 which, named Heang-keang, probably has given name to the island. Tytam harbonr is in a bay on the S.E. side of the island, having the S.E. point for its protection to the eastward, other parts of the island on the N. and W. and several small islands off the entrance of the bay to the sonth. It is roomy and free from danger.' It was unfortunate that the search for a Colony had met with opposition in Canton and developed in England into a war of pamphleteers. This conflict confused instead of forming public opinion. At any rate nothing definite was accomplished. Parliament would not take up the question, and Lord Palmerston, whose mind was by this time made up, preferred to wait until he was sure as to the drift of public opinion. No one, it will be observed, took a share in this search for a Colony except persons directly connected with the China Trade past or present, unless we except a crude concoction by a WTiter of the East India House (a Mr. Thompson) who, in a pamphlet published under the title * Considerations representing the Trade with China ' (London, 183G), deprecated war for commerce only. Neither public opinion nor the Cabinet approved of or took more than a languid interest in the measures discussed. However, attention had been called to the subject in prominent places, and the public mind was now, in some measure at least, prepared to accept, reluctantly though it be, the idea of establishing a British Colony in the East, when, four years later, this project was suddenly presented to the nation as an accomplished fact by the news of the cession of Hongkong brought about by the force of events rather than by any continuation of this search for a Colony. CHAPTER Vir. Chance of Policy. 18S6 to 1838. 'N June 1836 a marked change commenced in the policy of the British Cabinet. Previous to that time the Duke of Wellington's Memorandum of March 24, 1835, had, as above mentioned, suggested that the British Chief-Superintendent of Trade in China should not proceed to or reside at Canton, that he should not adopt high-sounding titles, that he should not depart from the accustomed mode of communication with the Chinese Government, that he should not assume a ])0wer hitherto unadmitted, but keep, by the support of a stout frigate, the enjoyment of what little had been got, and leave it to the future to decide Avhether any effort should be made at Peking or elsewhere to improve our relations with Chin^, commercial as well as political. This quiescent line of policy initiated by the Duke and expounded in China, after Lord Napier's defeat, by Mr. Davis and Sir George Robinson, ended on June 7, 1886, for it was now to be substituted by Lord Palmerston's own diplomacy, hitherto restrained by the indolence of public opinion and by the divergent views of the Duke of Wellington. The merchants at Canton, though disappointed in their expectation that the Government would take steps to obtain redress for the insulting treatment accorded to Lord Napier, soon had reason to perceive that a different policy was about to be inaugurated. When the firm of Jardine, Matheson & Co. introduced (September 20, 1835) the first merchant steamer Jardine to ply on the Canton River, Captain Elliot, then still under the sway of the quiescent policy, protested against such a proceeding as contrary to the laws and usages of China, and, under the orders of Sir George Robinson, placed an interdict CHANGE OF POLICY. 63 on the employment of the steamer in Chinese waters. Bub now (July 22, 1836) Lord Pahnerstoii wrote to Captain ElHofc warning him that, whilst avoiding to give any just cause of offence to the Chinese Authorities, he should at the same time be very careful not to assume a greater degree of authority •over British subjects in China than that which he in reality possessed. Another indication of the change of policy that had now taken place, was a direction Lord Palmerstou gave, plainly intimatino- that free trade and free traders were now viewed bv the Cabinet in a light different from that in which the Duke of Wellington had looked at them. What had constituted in the eyes of Canton merchants the most galling element of the Duke's quiescent j^olicy was his determination, expressed in his Memorandum, ' to control and keep in order the King's subjects,' implying that the British community at Canton consisted of a set of smugglers, pirates and ruffians, requiring that the Superintendents be armed with the strongest powers for their coercion rather than protection. Mr. Davis, Sir George Robinson and even Captain Elliot, had hitherto been under the impression that all the powers and authorities formerly vested in the Supercargoes of the East Lidia Company, including the i:]ower to arrest and deport to England unlicensed or otherwise objectionable persons, might be lawfully exercised by the Superintendents of British Trade in China ; but now (Xovember 8, 183G) Lord Palmerstou informed Captain Elliot that, as no license from His Majesty was now necessary to enable His Majesty's subjects to trade with or reside in China, such power of expulsion had altogether ceased to exist with regard to China. To avoid recurrence of the difference of opinion between co-ordinate Authorities, which had hampered the Commission during Sir George Robinson's tenure of office, Lord Palmerston abolished the office of Third Superintendent, and, whilst confirming Captain Elliot as Chief, and Mr. Johnston as Second Superintendent, now (Xovember 8, 183G) placed the latter under the orders and control of the former. The suite, salaries and 64 CHAPTKR VII. ^ contingent allowances of the Commission were also reduced at the same time, and the two Superintendents were given to Tiuderstand that their appointments were only provisional and temporary. This was unfortunate, for it caused doubts, both among the British community and among the Chinese Authorities, as to the official status of the two Superintendents. Some years later Captain Elliot, with a view to control the conduct of lawless British subjects, carrying on (in daily conflict with Chinese revenue cruizers) a forced contraband trade between Lintin and Whampoa, established (April 18, 1838) a system of police regulations exclusively applicable to the crews of British-owned vessels under the British flag. Lord Palmerston, after keeping the Regulations submitted to him unnoticed for a whole year, wrote at last, on the day when the whole foreign community were already under rigorous confinement in consequence of those lawless doings, a dispatch in which he suddenly came forward with notions of international law which ought to have entirely vetoed the former mission of, and Privy Council instructions given to. Lord Xapier. Lord Palmerston then (March 23, 1839) informed Captain Elliot that the Law Officers of the Crown were of opinion that the establishment of a system of ship's police at Whampoa, within the Dominions of the Emperor of China, would be an interference with the absolute right of soA^ereignty enjoyed by independent States, which could only be justified by positive treaty or by implied permission from usage. Accordingly Captain Elliot was instructed to obtain, first of all, the written approval of the Governor of Canton for those Regulations. By the time this curious dispatch reached Elliot, British trade had been driven out from Canton, thanks to Lord Palmerston's inaction. But, whilst thus curtailing the powers and restricting the official standing and jurisdiction of the Commission, Lord Palmerston sought to uphold their position in other respects in relation to both the Macao and Canton Authorities. It appeared to British observers that the Macao Governoi-s had, ever since Lord Napier's arrival, played into the hands of CHANGE OF POLICY. 65 the Chinese Authorities and seci'etly professed tlieniselves as their allies aoaiust the British. Latterly, when the Chinese Government, and even some of the British merchants, openly disowned and defied the authority and jurisdiction of the British Superintendents, the Macao Governor had the hardihood of declining to recognize His Majesty's Commission, going even so far as to omit returning answers to their letters. After making strong representations on this subject to the Government of Portugal and causing proper instructions to be sent from Lisbon to the Governor of Macao, Lord Palmerston now (December G, 183G) informed Captain Elliot that measures had been taken to recall the Governor of Macao to a proper sense of the respect which is due to Officers acting under His Majesty's Commission, and that orders had been issued for a ship of war to be stationed in Chinese waters with special instructions to watch over the interests of British subjects at Macao. The firm attitude thus assumed towards the Government of Macao, Lord Palmerston desired also to apply to the regulation of Captain Elliot's relations with the Cantonese Authorities. In direct opposition to the Duke of Wellington's Memorandum, Lord Palmerston repeatedly (July 22, 1830, and June 12, 1837) instructed Captain Elliot to decline every proposition to revive official communication through the customary channel of the Hong Merchants, to communicate with none but Officers of the Chinese Government, under no circumstances to give his written communications with the Chinese Government the name of petitions, and to insist upon his right, as an Officer commissioned by the King of England, to correspond on terms of equality with Officers commissioned by any other sovereign in the world. ' It might be very suitable,' wrote Lord Palmerston, *for the servants of the East India Company, themselves an association of merchants, to communicate with the Authorities of China through the Merchants of the Hong, but the Superintendents are Officers of the King, and as such can properly communicate with none but Officers of the Chinese Government.' 5 ^6 CHAPTER VII. It seemed afc tliis moment as if the British Lion was beginning to wake up, but the Chinese cared nothing for his growl from a distance. When Lord Palmerston, however, discovered (Xovember 2, 1837) that Elliot could not possibly •communicate with the Chinese Authorities otherwise than as a tributary barbarian petitioner, he shrank from the simple <3xpedient of a naval demonstration which, by the destruction of the Bogue forts, would, in a couple of hours, have prevented years of misery. Nevertheless, Lord Palmerston once more enjoined Captain Elliot to continue to press, on every suitable opportunity, for the recognition, on the part of the Chinese Authorities, of his right to receive, direct from the Viceroy, sealed communications (not orders) addressed to himself withouD the intervention of the Hong Merchants. AV'hilst anxious that Elliot should have a distinct official position and gain it by the logic of plausible arguments, he left him unsupported by a sufficient fleet to apply the only logic the Chinese would have respected, the demonstration of power. When Elliot urged (November 19, 1837) that Lord Palmerston should at least write a letter to the Viceroy of Canton, as the Directors of the East India Company had done on several occasions, or send a Plenipotentiary to present, at the mouth of the Peiho, an auto- graph letter of Queen Victoria, claiming a settlement of all the grievances of British trade in China, Lord Palmerston explained that, in such a case, the question of the opium trade would have to be taken up, but that Her Majesty's Government did not yet see their way towards such a measure with sufficient clearness to justify them in adopting such a course at the moment. What hampered Captain Elliot, next to his want of a fleet, was the undefined state of his jurisdiction which prevented both the Chinese Government and the foreign community in Oanton understanding or recognizing his authority. Lord Palmei-ston sought to amend this defect by means of the China Oourts Bill which was before Parliament at the end of the year 1838, but it was arrested in its progress, mainly in consequence of objections raised by Sir George Staunton. CHANGE OF TOLICY. 67 The British community of Macao and Canton were, nnder these circumstances, very much thrown upon their own resources. They established (N'ovember 28, 183G) a General Chamber of Commerce, but the mixture of nationalities in it caused a good -deal of friction. Nevertheless the Committee (re-elected, November 4, 1837) succeeded in redressing sundry grievances by arbitration, built a clocktower, arranged a Post Office, fixed the regulations of the port and supervised the sanitary arrangements of the factories. An attempt was made (January 21, 1837) to form a representative Committee of British merchants for the purpose of providing an official channel of communication between the British community and their Superintendents, and also in order to ensure joint action in any emergency, but the attempt failed for want of unity among the leading British merchants. However, they were not wanting in loyalty. On •the demise of AVilliam IV, a public meeting was held (November 27, 1837) and an address was agreed upon, expressing condolence with Queen Victoria, and prayiug that Her Majesty's reign might be long and glorious and that Her Majesty's name might be associated to the end of all time with things religious, enlightened and humane. What troubled the peace of British merchants in Canton most of all at this time, was the insolvent condition of most of the Hong [Merchants. The foreign free traders had not, like the East India Company, the command of an unlimited treasury, enabling them to give long credits and to sustain a long privation of large portions of their trading capital. Nor were they in a position to adopt the former policy of the East India Company's Select Committee and distribute their business among the different Hong Merchants in proportion to their respective degrees of solvency and thus maintain a command •of the market. Nearly all the thirteen Hong Merchants were more or less involved at the beginning of the year 1837 ; four were avowedly insolvent ; one, Hing-tai, was formally declared bankrupt, his indebtedness to foreigners amounting to over two million dollars ; and another, King-qua, was on the verge 68 CHAPTER VII. of bankiiipbcy. The Viceroy of Cauton sanctioned, in the case of Hing-tai's bankruptcy, an arrangement to be made with his foreign creditors, bub the latter rejected the terms oifered. As the Chinese Government had originally appointed the Hong Merchants on the principle of mutual responsibility, had repeatedly insisted upon the payment of such debts, and imposed for many years past a special tax on foreign commerce in order to create a guarantee fund for their liquidation, the British merchants had both law and prescription on their side. Moreover, on a similar occasion {A.T>. 1780), an officer in the service of the East India Comj)any (Captain Panton) had succeeded, by means of a letter addressed to the Viceroy of Canton by a British Admiral (Sir Edward Vernon) and forwarded by a frigate (the Sea-horse), in obtaining (October, 1780) an Imperial Decree ordering partial repayment of a similar debt. Naturally enough, therefore, the British creditors of Hing-tai now argued that the simple interv^ention of the British Cabinet with the Imperial Government at Peking would facilitate the adjustment of the whole of their claims against the bankrupt Hongs. In this sense a memorial was addressed (March 21, 1838) to Lord Palmerston, signed by the following firms, viz. : Dent, Turner, Bell, Lindsay, Dirom, Daniell, Cragg, Layton, Henderson, Stewart, Rustomjee, Fox Bawson, Xanabhoy Framjee, Eglinton Maclean, Bib by Adam, Gibb Livingston Gemmell, Macdonald, "Wise Holliday, Kingsley and Jamieson How. Nevertheless, foreseeing the unwillingness of Lord Palmerston to press their claims with due promptitude upon the Chinese Government, the above-mentioned firms meanwhile applied directly to the Cantonese Authorities, without the intervention of Captain Elliot. A long and exasperating correspondence ensued, the upshot of which was that the British merchants obtained payment of their claims against the Hing-tai Hong at a i-educed rate but by instalments secured by the Chinese Government, and further the Viceroy sanctioned, at their reciuest, the liquidation of King-qua's debts. In fact, through firmness of purpose combined with a nominal submission CHANGE OF POLICY. 69 to the absolntism of Chinese officialdom, the British merchants gained concessions which the British Government conld not have gained for them, whilst claiming international equality, except by an armed demonstration. Captain Elliot's relations with the Cantonese Authorities were, throughout his whole tenure of office, characterized by an unceasing battle for a formal recognition of his official status and for the ordinary courtesies of official intercourse, which China never conceded until they were wrung out of her at the point of the bayonet by the Nanking Treaty. On the ground of what on the surface seemed to be petty questions of official etiquette, Elliot had, single-handed and unsupported, to fight the battle between China's stubborn assertion of supremacy over all barbarian potentates, Queen Victoria included, and England's •quiet but deliberate claim of international equality. Elliot's position in this conflict was extremely difficult. On the one hand, the Cantonese Authorities argued that for two centuries British merchants had acknowledged, with abject servility, China's claim of supremacy and consented to take the orders of the Governor or the Hojipo at the hands of the Hong merchants ; that Lord Macartney and Lord Amherst had brought tribute from the Kings of England; that Imperial Decrees, Avhich admitted of no alteration, had fixed the mode of governing foreign trade at Canton ; and that there was no intellio:ible difference between a Roval Superintendent like Elliot and a Supercargo of the former East Lidia Company, the latter having wielded, in the ■experience of Chinese officials, more authority and ])0wer over their countrymen than Lord Napier or Captain Elliot ever possessed. On the other hand. Lord Palmei*ston, with equal justice, persisted in giving Captain Elliot reiterated instructions, based on an assumed equality of the British and Chinese nations, and, on account of the barbarities of the Chinese Penal Code, virtually amounting to a claim of extra-territorial criminal jurisdiction over British subjects trading at Canton. The mistake was that he, at the same time, left Elliot without 70 CHAPTER VII. a sufficient fleet to enforce these just and proper claims. It is hard to say what Captain Elliot ought to have done under the circumstances. Had he carried out Lord Palmerston's instructions literally, had he adopted the unusual mode of communication enjoined upon him, and assumed the high- sounding title of the King's Officer, boldly insisting upon equality of official intercourse, he would have courted the fate and condemnation that fell on Lord Napier. Had he informed Lord Palmerston the thing was impossible without having recourse to arms, and advised him to adopt the only remaining alternative of retiring from Canton and establishing a British Colony on one of the beautiful islands in the neighbourhood, say Hongkong, he would probably have been dismissed with as little ceremony as Sir George Robinson. What Captain Elliot actually did remains to be told. He commenced his duties with the determination not to protract the interruption of official communication between the Superintendents and the Cantonese Authorities by any demand of redress for the insults offered to the King and the country by the treatment accorded to Lord Napier, but to exhibit a conciliatory disposition, by respecting Chinese usages, and refraining from shocking the prejudices of the Chinese official mind. Accordingly, in his first communication to the Viceroy of Canton (December 14, 188G), he did not refer to the events connected with Lord Napier's death, but on the contrary explained that all he desired was ' to maintain and promote the good understanding which has so long and .80 happily subsisted.' This letter, written at Macao and delivered at Canton by the hands of two Agents of the East India Company (J. H. Astell and H. M. Clarke) and two- British free traders (AV. Jardine and L. Dent) to the Hong Merchants, was conveyed to the Governor of Canton as a humble petition of the barbarian headman Elliot. Looking to the tenor of this letter and to the form of its delivery, tlie Viceroy justly concluded that the old policy of the East India Company was to be resumed by the cowed barbarians. CHANGE OF POLICY. 71 To make sure, he sent a deputation of Hong Merchants to interview Elliot at Macao, to question him as to his official status and policy, and to impress upon him that he must first of all send a humble petition begging for a passport, and then remain at Macao until Imperial permission had been obtained for him to visit Canton, from time to time, during each business season. The result of the interviews that took place was that Elliot did as he was told. He applied, in form of a petition, for a passport and dutifully waited at Macao until a report had been sent to Peking stating that the hatchet had been bni-ied in Napier's grave, that Elliot was virtually but a Chief-Supercargo with a different name and a smarter uniform, and that things would go on as of yore. Accordingly, three months later (March 18, 1837) the Hoppo informed the Hong Merchants that ' Elliot having received a public official commission for the control of foreign merchants and seamen, although his title be not the same as that of the Chief-Supercargoes (tai-pan) hitherto sent, yet in the duty of controlling he does not differ, and that therefore it is now the Imperial pleasure that he be permitted to repair to Canton, under the existing regulations applicable to Chief-Supercargoes, and that on his arrival at the provincial capital he be allowed to take the management of affairs.' In forwarding a passport for Elliot to the Hong Merchants, he instructed them to give Elliot particular orders that *as regards his residence, sometimes at Macao, sometimes at Canton, he must in this also conform himself to the old regulations, nor can he be allowed to loiter (at Canton) beyond the j^roper period.' Thus the official status of the King's Officer was fixed : subject to the control of the Hong Merchants and under the orders of the Hoppo, let him obey tremblingly ! Captain Elliot accepted this humiliating position with- out further remonstrance and promised (December 28, 1836) to remain in Macao until further instructed. In March 1837 an Imperial edict was received at Canton authorizing Elliot's Tt, 72 CHAPTER VII. proceeding to Canton. Accordingly be removed (April 12, 1837) to Canton with Mr. Johnston, the Second Superintendent, and took with him his whole suite, consisting of a Secretary (Mr. Elmslie), two Interpretei*s (Mr. Morrison and ^Ir. Giitzlaif), two Surgeons (Mr. Colledge and Mr. Anderson), and a Chaplain (the Rev. Mr. Vachell). On arrival at Canton, Captain Elliot at once set to work to obtain a modification of his official status. He counnenced (April "ll^ 1837) by protesting that he could not possibly continue sending any further communications to the Viceroy through the Hong Merchants, but, on meeting with a curt refusal, yielded this point five days later, on being graciously allowed to send his petitions through the Hong Merchants under a sealed cover addressed to the Viceroy. But the Canton Authorities communicated with Elliot only through the Hong Merchants, to whom they addressed their ordei-s. Thus things went on, quietly enough, for about seven months, whilst the Viceroy (September, 1837) repeatedly instructed the Hong Merchants to order Elliot to send the receiving ships away from Lintin, and Elliot persisted in declaring that he had no power to do so, although he had informed the British merchants (December 31, 1836) that Macao and Lintin were included in his jurisdiction over British subjects and ships. On receiving, however, renewed instructions from Lord Palmerston to maintain the dignity of an Officer of the British Crown, Captain Elliot humbly informed the Viceroy of Canton (Xovember 23, 1837) that, with all respect for His Excellency's high dignity, he must discontinue the use of the character Pkn on his addresses to the Governor. When the Viceroy peremptorily declined making the slightest concession ou this point, Elliot plucked up courage, hauled down his flag and retired to Macao (Xovember 29, 1837). The Canton Authorities, not in least moved by this proceeding, took no notice of Elliot's departure, but recommended to the Emperor (December 80, 1837) to stop the regular foreign trade until the receiving ships at Lintin had taken their departure. Meanwhile all official intercourse with Captain Elliot remained suspended. CHANGE OF POLICY. 73 Lord Palmerston approved of Elliot's proceedings (June 15, 1838) and seufc Admiral Maitland, who arrived on July 12, 1838, in H.M.S. WelJesley, to cheer him up. Here was an opportunity for Captain Elliot, and the Chinese unwittingly improved upon it by foolishly firing on a boat of the Wellesh//. But Captain Elliot missed his chance and allowed the Chinese to cajole him. Admiral Maitland was satisfied with a mild apology by the Chinese Admiral and the usual exchange of empty civilities between the two Admirals took place. Thus the commander of the WeUeslef/ was induced to sail away peacefully (September 25, 1838), but under circumstances which justified the assertion on the part of the Chinese that they had ordered him off. This palpable mismanagement of the Admiral's visit to China also met with Lord Palmerston's unqualified approval. But the Chinese Authorities, having by this time taken the measure of Captain Elliot's position, now reduced his official status to an even lower level. They induced him actually to yield (December 31, 1838) the very point for the sake of which he had struck his flag a year before, and to communicate with subordinate officers of the Governor of Canton, by means of humble petitions. The British newspapers in Canton now overwhelmed him with a torrent of abuse, and even meek Lord Palmerston regretted it and mildly suggested, six months later, (June 13, 1830) as a remedy, that Elliot should not omit to avail himself of any proper opportunity to press *for the substitution of a less objectionable character than the character Pien.' But the real degradation in this move Lord Palmerston did not understand. The concession which Captain Elliot made, in December 1838, aud the price he paid for the re-opening of official communications, involved far more than the use of an objectionable character. For the official status now assigned to Her Majesty's Commission and accepted by Elliot (December 26, 1838) was this: whilst previously receiving, from the lips of the Hong Merchants, the orders of the Viceroy and the Hoppo, the latter being next in rank to the Viceroy, he was henceforth to receive throusrh the Hontr Merchants the orders of the local IffKIVERSITT CALIFORNIA. 74 CHAPTER VII. Governo]''s subordinate officers, the Prefect of Canton city and the Commandant of the local constabulary. Well might the^ English newspapers of Canton cry shame at the fresh indignities heaped upon British honour by placing the Queen's Commission in China on a level below that of subordinate police officers, in a position far lower than that of the former Supercargoes. But, on the other hand, it must also be considered that Elliot made these concessions at a time when, through the lawless- proceedings of foreigners engaged in the opium traffic between Lintin and Whampoa, the life and property of the whole foreign community had been placed in jeopardy and a dreadful catastroplie was believed to be impending. Elliot believed that this humiliating mode of communication with the Chinese Government would only be of brief duration, pending the succour he expected to receive from the home country. In this he was mistaken. The public mind of England did not care for or understand these things, or at any rate the nation was not prepared yet to redeem the honour of the British flag in China. Stronger measures had to be taken by the Chinese to arouse- public opinion in England, and the occasion for such measures was furnished by the opium trade itself. (5 Of CHAPTER VIII. The Opium Question and the Exodus from Canton. 1839. The tasfce for opium is a congenital disease of the Chinese- race. At the beginning of the Christian era, the uses and effects of opium were the secret of the Buddhist priesthood in China. Priests from India secured for themselves divine honours by performing feats of ascetic discipline, fasting and mental absorption, sitting for instance motionless for months at a time indolently gazing at a black wall. These feats were performed by means of opium. Buddhist and Taoist priests peregrinated through the whole of China performing astounding medical cures by means of opiates. Centuries before European medical science discovered the uses of opium, there was all over China a large and constantly increasing demand for this drug, and, though opium Avas grown in China from the earliest times, most of the supply was imported into China by Arab traders at Canton and Foochow. Nevertheless, while numbers of individuals taking opium in excess were physically and morally ruined by it, the use of opium never affected the health of the race to any perceptible extent. When the smoking of opium and the consequent practice of introducing opium vapour into the lungs commenced in China^ is not known. As early as A.D. 1G78 a regular duty on foreign imported opium was levied ab Canton, but for 77 years after that date the annual import did not exceed 200 chests. By the year 1790, however, the annual rate of importation had risen to 4,100 chests and the rapid spread of a taste for opium smoking, and the consequent demoralisation of individuals who smoked opium to excess, attracted the attention of the Government. Accordingly the importation of 76 CHAPTER VIII. opium was formally prohibited (A.D. 179C) by an Imperial Edict, the regular levy of a duty ou opium ceased, and for it was substituted, with the connivance of the Cantonese Authorities, -a system of secret importation under a clandestine levy of official fees. The effect of this Imperial prohibition was an immediate rise in the selling price of opium, and a consequently increased supply. Chinese historians report that by the year 1820, the annual clandestine sales of opium at Canton had reached a total of nearly 4,000 chests. But we have exact statistics of the annual exportation of opium from India, most of which found its way to Canton, while the remainder which went elsewhere was balanced by imports of opium into China from other countries. These Indian Government statistics show that the exportation of opium from India continued, from A.D. 1798 to 1825, with very little variation, at an average rate of 4,117 chests per annum; that it rose in the year 182G, at a bound, to 6,570 chests, and •continued until the year 1829 at an average annual rate of 7,427 chests; that in the year 1880 the export suddenly rose to 11,835 •chests and continued, until the year 1835, at an average annual rate of 12,095 chests. But in the year 1837, on account of the enhanced demand caused by the general expectation entertained in 183G that the trade would be legalised, the exportation of •opium took another sudden bound, rising to 19, GOO chests, in -consequence of which the total amount of opium, accumulated in the hands of opium merchants at Canton and Macao during the period 183G to 1837, reached a total of 30,000 chests. Of these, some 20,000 chests were sold in 1836, to the value of about two million pounds sterling, of which sum £280,000 Avent into the pockets of the High Authorities. The trade in •opium was all along carried on at Canton in the foreign factories, where the Hong Merchants and their privileged clients and •even Chinese officials openly purchased — from the various foreign merchants, representing English, Anglo-Indian (chiefly Pai*see), Portuguese, American, French, Spanish, Danish, and Dutch iirms — written orders (chops) for opium to be delivered by ships THE OPIUM QUESTION. 77 aucliored in the outer waters of the Canton River. The opium was not stored at Canton, but at first it was warehoused in Macao, subsequently it was kept on board ships anchored at Wharapoa (the port of Canton), until, with the year 1830, a new practice arose. Foreign ships now used, on arrival from India, to anchor first at the mouth of the Canton Eiver, viz, at Kam-sing-moon during the S.AV. monsoon (April to September) or at Lintin during the N.E. monsoon (October to March), and there to discharge their opium into stationary receiving hulks, whereupon the ships proceeded with the remainder of their cargo to Whampoa to engage there in the legitimate trade. In the year 1830, there were only five such receiving ships in Chinese waters, but by the year 1837 their number had increased to 25, most of which were either English or temporarily transferred to the English flag, though some were openly under the American, French, Dutch, Spanish and Danish flags. These receiving ships, anchored at Lintin or Kam-sing-moon, were heavily armed and strongly manned, so much so that no Chinese fleet could possibly interfere with them successfully. They were readily supplied with provisions by native boats (known as bumboats) and during the business season the officers in command of these receiving ships were in daily communication with their respective agencies at Canton and Macao by means of fast foreign cutters or schooners, manned by Indian lascars, and known as European passage-boats. Since the winter of 1836, when foreign ships were forbidden to anchor at Kam-sing- moon, and the prohibitions enforced by the erection of a shoro battery guarded by a naval squadron, the opium ships were (1837 to 1841) confined to the station at Lintin. But whenever the Cantonese Authorities made a special show of interference with the opium traffic, as carried on at Lintin, some of the most powerfully armed opium ships would be sent away to the eastern and north-eastern coasts of China, to sell opium wherever practicable along the coast, in a manner similar to that practised at Lintin. In the year 1826 the commanders of the receiving ships anchored at Lintin made an arrangement "78 CHAPTER YIII. • with the revenue cruizers established by the Viceroy Li Hung-pan, under which these cruizers, for a monthly fee of Taels 3G,000, allowed the opium to pass freely into the ports of Whampoa and Macao. And in the year 1837, when strict orders had been issued by the Emperor to stop all opium traffic at Lintin, the Commodore Hou Shiu-hing, in command of the Viceroy's cruizers, arranged with the commanders of the opium ships at Lintin, to convoy or actually to carry by his vessels the opium from Lintin to its destination, for a fixed percentage of opium. Some of the opium which he thus received, the wily Commodore then presented to the Viceroy as captured by force of arms, and on these meritorious services being officially reported to the Throne, the Emperor bestowed on the Commodore a peacock's feather and gave him the rank of Rear-Admiral. The Annals of the present Manchu Dynasty (partly translated by Mr. E. H. Parker), from which the foregoing statements are taken, allege that the opium annually stored in the original five receiving ships did at first not amount to more than 4,000 or 5,000 chests, but that later on (1826 to 1836) there were, on the 25 receiving ships, some 20,000 chests of opium in any one year. The extraordinary dimensions which the opium trade thus assumed, with the connivance of the Chinese Authorities, as a forced trade (neither legal nor strictly speaking contraband), especially during the decade from 1826 to 1836, naturally aroused anxious attention both on the part of the English and Chinese Cabinets. The English Government viewed with apprehension the annually increasing importance which the East India Company's opium monopoly assumed, since 1826, as a source of public revenue. The extent to which the income of the Indian Government had gradually become dependent upon the cultivation and export of opium, likewise caused the English Cabinet much anxiety and perplexity. Parliament also took the matter up and appointed a Select Committee to investigate the questions involved, both in 1830 and 1832. In the latter year, however, THE OPIUM QUESTION'. 79 * the Committee, though by no means approving of the opium traffic, gave it as their opinion that it did not seem advisable to abandon so important a source of revenue in the East India "Company's monopoly of opium in Bengal. Captain Elliot, the Government's representative in China, personally abhorred the opium trade, root and branch, and did not diguise his views either in his relations with the merchants in Canton or in his communications to the Government. He stated the j^erfect truth when he wrote to Lord Palmerston (November 16, 1830) that, if his private feelings were of the least consequence upon questions of a public and important nature, he might assuredly and justly say that no man entertained a deeper detestation of the disgrace and sin of this forced traffic on the coast of China; that he saw little to choose between it and piracy; and that in. this place, as a public officer, he had steadily discountenanced it by all the lawful means in his power, and at the total sacrifice of his private comfort in the society in which he had lived for years. But he also stated perfect truth, and in this respect Chinese history supports him, when he wrote to Lord Palmerston (February 2, 1837), that the opium trade commenced and subsisted only by reason of the hearty concurrence of the Chief Authorities of the southern provinces of China and indeed also of the Court at Peking; that no portion of the foreign trade to China more regularly paid its entrance duties than this opium traffic ; and that the least attempt to evade the fees of the Mandarins was almost certain of detection and severe punishment. Captain Elliot further stated, on the same occasion, that a large share of these emoluments reached not merely the higher dignitaries of the Empire, but in all probability, in no very indirect manner, the Imperial hand itself. The fact that, for centuries past, the principal trade revenue office at Canton (that of the Hoppo) has always been, as it still is, the monopoly of officers of the Imperial Household, lends force to this surmise. But what prevented Elliot's taking official proceedings against the opium trade, which he personally loathed, was the same consideratiou 80 CHAPTER YIIL "which had prevented the Parh'amentaiy Committee of 1832 disavowing it altogether. The evil had already gone on too long. The opinm trade had, by its financial operations, become so intertwined with the legitimate trade, that separate dealing with it was impossible. The import of opium into China, as it gradually expanded, gave an enormous impetus to the export of tea and silk from China to the European markets, and the whole opium trade had imperceptibly become a necessity both for China and for Europe; for China, because the craving for opium was so widespread among the Chinese people, that the demand for it defied the severest criminal enactments ; for Europe, because the sale of opium, which had by this time come to form three- fifths of the whole British imports into China, provided a very large portion of the funds required for operations in Chinese produce destined for European markets. Indeed, as Elliot put it (February 21, 1837), the movement of money at Canton had come to depend, by the force of circumstances, almost entirely upon the deliveries of opium at Lintin. The tares could not be rooted out now, without destroying the wheat. Lord Palmei-ston, and the other members of the Cabinet, whilst unanimous in their dislike of the opium trade, could not yet agree to any definite solution of the problem. On one point Lord Palmerston was perfectly clear, viz. that Her Majesty's Government could not possibly interfere for the purpose of enabling British subjects to violate the laws of the country to which they trade, and that therefore any loss ' which such pei-sons may suffer in consequence of the more effectual execution of the Chinese laws on this subject, must be borne by the parties who have brought that loss upon themselves by their own acts. He wrote to Elliot to this effect (June 15, 1838), but at the same time declared that the Cabinet did not feel sufficient confidence in their apprehension of the opium problem to enter upon any negotiations with the Chinese Government regarding the repression or legalisation of the trade in opium. Nevertheless there are indications that Lord Palmerston had, in his own mind, already settled the leading THE OPIUM QUESTION. 81 principles of that policy which he formulated later on (February 2{], 1841), in the following words. 'It is evident,' he wrote to Rear Admiral Elliot and to Captain Elliot, ' that no exertions of the Chinese Authorities can put down the opium trade on the Chinese coast, because the temptation both to the buyers and to the sellers is stronger than can be counteracted by any fear of detection and punisliment. It is equally clear, that it is wholly out of the power of the British Government to prevent opium from being carried to China, because even if none were grown in any part of the British territories, plenty of it would be produced in other countries, and would thence be sent to China by adventurous men, either British or of other nations. The present state of Chinese law upon this matter makes the trade illegal ; and illegal trade is always attended with acts of violence. Battles between Ch inese war- junks and British smugglers have a necessary tendency to produce unfriendly and embarrassing discussions between the British and Chinese Governments, or at all events to keep alive hostile feelings between the British and the Chinese people. It would seem, therefore, that much additional stability would be given to the friendly relations between the two countries, if the Government of China would make up its mind to legalise the im23ortation of opium upon payment of a duty sufficiently moderate to take away from the smuggler the temptation to endeavour to introduce the commodity without payment of duty. By this means, also, it is evident that a considerable increase of revenue might be obtained by the Chinese Government, because the sums which ai-e now paid as bribes to the custom- house officers would enter the public coffers in the shape of duty.' The policy of the Chinese Government was for a long time equally undecided, wavering between legalisation and extirpation of the opium trade. The counsels of the leading statesmen of China were divided until the close of the year 1838. But, whilst divided in their opinions as tO the desirability of stamping out the use of opium, and as to the possibility of 6 32 CHAPTER VIII. preventing smuggling effectively, all the principal statesmen of China were singularly unanimous in looking at the opium question not, as we might suppose, from a moral point of view, but simply and solely as a financial problem. Their objection to the opium trade was not that it fostered a vice ffnawins: at the vitals of the nation, but that it caused the balance of the trade to turn against China and that it accordingly drained China of silver and impoverished the nation. The Chinese author of the above-mentioned Annals of the Manchu Dynasty, whilst personally holding the same views of the opium traffic which Elliot held, and occasionally indulging in elaborate tirades concerning the immorality of the traffic in opium, gives, as the reasons why the Chinese Government condemned -the trade, purely financial arguments. Formerly, he says, a rule had been in force, that no silver was to be exported and that the whole foreign trade should be conducted by barter, which compelled foreign merchants annually to import half a million dollars, but, he adds, with the expansion of the opium trade it came gradually to pass that a balance of silver had annually to be made up by China. Thus also a Memorial to the Throne, by Wong Tseuk-tsz, which contributed much to the victory eventually scored by the anti-opium party in Peking, argued that the growing consumption of opium was at the root of all China's troubles, because silver was becoming scarce and relatively dear, the value of the tael having advanced from 1,000 to 1,C00 cash in price. But since the year 1832, and especially all through the year 1836, the counsels of the pro-opium party were decidedly in the ascendant at Peking and in the provinces. A joint Memorial, presented to the Throne in 1832 by the ex-Viceroy and the Governor of Canton, boldly recommended the licensing of the opium trade on the ground that such a measure would reduce the price of opium and thereby diminish the export of silver, and secretly hinted that the encouragement of the growth of native opium would still further impede the avaricious plans and large profits of THE OPIUM QUESTION. 83 the foreigners. Anothei* Memorial, presented to the Throne in spring 1836, further argaed that the legalisation of the opium trade would bring it under the rules of barter; that thereby the baneful effects of the trade, consisting in an annual loss of over ten million taels inflicted on the currency of the realm, would be entirely obviated ; but that for this purpose the Hong Merchants must be made personally responsible for the conduct of the whole opium trade and for the entire abolition of the traffic carried on at Lintin ; and that the success of the scheme depended upon levying such a small duty (seven dollars a chest) as to cut off all inducement to smugglers to risk their lives. When the Emperor remitted this Memorial (June 12, 183G) for further report, it was generally assumed at Canton that it was now only a question of framing the regulations for the detailed organisation of the legalisation scheme. Elliot gave utterance to an opinion generally entertained at the time in the best informed official circles of Peking and Canton, when he wrote to the Foreign Office (October 10, 1830), that he expected soon receiving the final orders from Peking for the legalisation of the opium trade. "When, a few weeks later (October 28, 1836), the Viceroy issued orders for the expulsion from Canton of twelve foreign opium merchants, eight of. whom were British subjects, it was still thought that this measure, though rigidly insisted on (November 23 and December 13, 1836), was only meant as a blow directed against the Lintin trade. This surmise was confirmed when an Imperial Edict (dated January 26, 1837) appeared, which declared the baneful effects, arising from a prevalence of opium throughout the Empire, .to consist in a daily decrease of fine silver, and consequently placed a strict interdict on the exportation of sycee silver, without prohibiting the trade in opium. On February 2, 1837, EUiot wrote to Lord Palmerston, that he was still of opinion that the legal admission of opium may be looked for. That the Lintin trade was the principal, if not exclusive, cause of objection, was further demonstrated by another Imperial Edict with reached Canton in August, 1837. This Edict stated 84 CHAPTER Vlir. that, whereas the illicit trade, the importation of opium and exportation of sycee, depended entirely on the receiving ships- stationed at Lintin, the resident foreigners mnst immediately be ordered to send those ships away. Elliot accordingly had four successive demands made upon him to order those shijDS to leave China, and finally he was directed to write to his- King and request him to command those ships to leave, and to prohibit their return to China. Captain Elliot declined ta interfere on the ground that his duties were at Canton and that he had no power, and he hinted that the Chinese Authorities were themselves at fault in not recognising him properly as a Government Officer. But towards the close of the year the hopes of the legalisation of the opium trade grew fainter and fainter and Captain Elliot now (December 7, 1837) reported to Lord Palmerston, that things were in such a condition of uncertainty that it was impossible to divine what the Chinese Authorities meant, as they Avere wandering from project to project and from blunder to blunder, and that the protection of British interests demanded that a small naval force should immediately be stationed in Chinese waters. Lord Palmerston must have seen the reasonableness of Captain Elliot's request. But he had by this time determined upon applying to Chinese affairs his favourite policy of masterly inaction. So he deliberately left Elliot and the British community to their fate, unprotected by any fleet, and waited to see what the Chinese Government would really do. Whilst the British and Chinese Cabinets hesitated as to the course to be taken, the hanoers on of the Lintin trade pushed matters to a crisis. During the first few months of the year 18^8, the number of foreign cutters and schooners carrying opium from Lintin to Whampoa increased enormously, and the deliveries of opium were now frequently accompanied by conflicts in which fire-arms were used freely. Elliot discovered that many of these craft were owned by British subjects, but he was powerless. When he devised (as above THE OPIUM QUESTION. 85 mentioned) some police regnlations for the purpose, Lord Palmerston informed him thafc he had gone beyond his powers in doing so. The Cantonese Authorities, irritated by this incomprehensible inactivity of Elliot, desired to give foreigners in general a warning, and caused a native, convicted of smuggling opium and sycee, to be executed under the walls of Macao (April 18, 1838). Trade continued, though under gloomy apprehensions, as everybody felt that a crisis was approaching. Things went on, however, quietly enough, until the close of the year, when (December 3, 1838) some boxes of opium, that had been brought up to Canton, presumably from an American ship anchored at Whampoa, were seized in front of the house of Mr. Innes and discovered to be his property. The Chinese Authorities immediately ordered both Mr. Innes and the ship in question to leave Canton waters Avithin three days (subsequently extended to ten), whilst the Hong Merchant, who was security for the ship, was at once oxposed in the stocks with a heavy wooden collar round his neck. This caused great excitement, the more so as the other Hono- Merchants sent Mr. Innes a written Avarnino; that they were going to pull down his house over his head. The threat was, however, not carried out, and the excitement had well nigh subsided, Avhen (December 12, 1888) the Chinese Authorities, resolved to give the foreigners another lesson to intimidate them, brought a criminal, condemned to death on a charge of selling opium, and made arrangements to execute him in the square, right under the windows of the factories. Some of the foreigners at once protested against the erection of the tent which w^as to accommodate the officials, others pulled down what scaffolding had already been put up, while a mob of some six thousand natives that had collected stood by and at first applauded the proceedings of the foreigners, laughing at the discomfiture of the Chinese police. But when some foreigners imprudently pushed in between the mob, and assaulted some of the crowd with sticks, popular feeling turned against them and the cry 36 CHAPTER YIII. Ha, ta' (kill them) was raised on all sides. Showers of stones now forced the foreigners into their houses; the doors were hastily barricaded; a shot was fired, happily without doing any injury ; the mob were about making preparations- for the entire demolition of the factories, and the life of every foreigner in Canton was in imminent peril, when the Authorities sent troops at the last moment and restored quiet. But the Hong Merchants, whom the Authorities held responsible for the disturbance, now declared that trade must be suspended altogether, unless the traffic carried on in small craft between Lintin and Whampoa were immediately put a stop to. Elliot would have gladly exceeded his legal powers- to do so, but Lord Palmerston had left him without sufficient naval support to clear the waters of Canton of an armed traffic, carried on by the riffraff of every foreign nation,, supported by the Chinese people and secretly participated in by Chinese officials. All he could do was to make an appeal to the conscience of the foreign community and to warn the offenders. He called a public meeting (December 17, 1838) and asked the merchants to co-operate with him in his efforts to stop the traffic between Lintin and AYhampoa. But the reckless foreigners on board the boats down at Whampoa cared neither for the threatenings of Elliot or the Chinese Authorities, nor for the general reprobation in which all the respectable foreign merchants at Canton held this traffic. Elliot exhausted all his executive powers by serving a notice upon all British subjects eugaged on those boats, which warned them that, unless they at once left the Canton River^ he would consider them as outlaws and leave them to be dealt with by the Chinese Authorities. When Elliot issued this notice (December 18, 1838), his communications with the Chinese Government had been interrupted for nearly a year. It was at this juncture, believing some dreadful calamity to be im^xinding upon the whole foreign community at Canton, that Elliot resolved to resume official intercourse with the Chinese Government at any cost, and accordingly he made THE OPIUM QUESTION. 87 the liumiliatiiig concessions above mentioned, consenting to address the Cantonese Authorities as a humble petitioner and to receive communications, which really were orders, from the subordinates of the Governor of Canton city. He sacrificed his personal and official dignity, because he saw no other way of preventing a massacre. However, the Cantonese Authorities were too well aware of the advantages connected with the continuance of the foreign trade at Canton, to resort deliberately to any extreme measures. They had no wish to stop trade altogether, or , even to suppress the fair opium traffic at Canton, but they were determined to stop the forced traffic between Lintin and, Whampoa, because it evaded the exactions of the higher officials. The new year (1839) opened with gloomy forebodings, for on the day when trade was re-opened (January 1, 1839),. a rumour spread in Canton that the party at Peking, opposed to the legalisation of the opium trade, had gained a decided ascendency in the Imperial councils. And, indeed, while Elliot was penning a dispatch to Lord Palmcrston (January 2, 1889),. imploring the Foreign Office for some support under his embarrassing circumstances, stating also that there was no time to be lost in providing for the defined and reasonable control of Her Majesty's subjects in China, the former Viceroy of Hukwang, Lam Tsak-sii, better known as Com- missioner Lin, was already on his way, armed with extraordinary powers as Special Lnperial Commissioner and High Admiral. Lin had previously distinguished himself as an uncompromising anti-opium agitator and now, whilst travelling along the wearisome route from Peking to Canton, he concocted an elaborate scheme to entrap all the opium dealers and to extirpate the whole opium traffic by one fell blow, besides bringing the Cantonese Authorities once for all to book for their connivance at, and share in, the opium trade. The news of his approach caused, indeed, all the local officials, from the Viceroy down to the Hong Merchants, to quake in their shoes. Accordingly the opium traffic was actually stopped SS CHAPTER VIII. for several months before Lin's arrival, and the Authorities bestirred themselves to make a show of serious repressive measures. They now (January 10, 1839) issued a notification ;strictly prohibiting the conveyance of opium from Lintin to Whampoa, and further (January 16, 1839) called upon all foreii^n merchants to pledge their word that they wonld have nothing whatever to do with the smuggling of opium or with the exportation of silver. Again, acting upon advance oi'ders sent on ahead by Commissioner Lin, the Viceroy now ordered the backdoors of the factories to be blocked up and set a watch in front. Having thus shut in the foreign community, the Viceroy and the Governor issued (January 30, 1839) a joint proclamation addi'essed directly, without the intervention of the Bono: Merchants, to all foreio'u merchants. lu this proclamation foreigners were told that the Lnperial Commissioner Lin, sent from Peking to extirpate the whole opium traffic, was hourly expected to arrive in Canton. The Viceroy and Governor even added, in their zeal, what was entirely against Lin's plan, that the foreign merchants must at once send all the warehousing vessels, anchored in the outer seas, away. These orders were enhanced by the threat that, in case of disobedience, trade would be brought to an end for ever. The real sting of the proclamation was, however, when read in the light of the newly established blockade of the factories, in the words 'thus are the lives of all you foreigners in our grasp.' This blockade of the factories and the imprisonment of the whole foreign connnunity was, indeed, the indispensable preliminary to the execution of Lin's deeeply laid scheme. Having thus caught the whole of the foreign merchants in his net, Lin, to keep them busy, allowed the legitimate trade to continue unmolested for the present, and proceeded first of all to examine the high officials and the gentry of Canton as to the detailed history of the opium traffic, censuring some and cashiering othei*s. But he at once ordered measures to be taken to intimidate the foreign merchants further by the strangling THE OPIUM QUESTION. 80 of a Chinese opium dealer (February 20, 1839). in front of the factories and in the presence of a formidable array of Chinese troops. Further, to cut off their eventual retreat to Macao, he ordered the Bogue forts to be guarded by a fleet, and a blockade of Macao to be commenced by land and sea. To prevent a collision, now imminent, Elliot ordered (March 7, 1839) all English-owned passage boats to remain outside the Bogue. But, thinking English residents at Macao to be at the moment in greater peril than those at Canton, Elliot proceeded, with the permission of the Chinese officials (March 10, 1839) to Macao, where, to his great relief he found H.M. sloop Lame which had just arrived. On passing through the Bogue, Elliot had noticed that large numbers of fire-rafts and war junks were being collected there, in evident preparation of an attack on the foreign merchant shipping anchored at Lintin, and on arrival at Macao he found active measures in progress for an ■effective blockade. After making all necessary arrangements with Captain Blake, the commander of the Lame, for the protection of British residents at Macao, and ordering all British ships in Chinese waters immediately to rendezvous, for mutual protection, in the harbour of Hongkong, Elliot hastened back to Canton, and, although finding every outlet of the Canton River guarded by Chinese cruizers, he pushed resolutely on. Having heard, en route, of fresh perils of his countrymen at Oanton, and believing that some desperate calamity would ensue unless he reached Canton at once, he pluckily forced his way, unarmed, in a small but fast-sail iug gig of the Lame, manned by four blue-jackets, through the successive cordons of Chinese soldiery, until, he reached, at the imminent risk of his life, the British factories. Elliot's arrival (March 24, 1839) revived the drooping spirits of the foreign community who were at the moment in sore i3erplexity, and the sight of the English flag waving proudly and defiantly from the factory tower, where, in place of the demolished flagstaff, the ensign staff of the Larne^s gig had been put up by Elliot's order, inspired every heart with fresh courage. 90 CHAPTER Till. During Elliot's absence, the Imperial Commissioner Lin bad sent to the foreign merchants (March 18, 1839) a demand for the surrender of all opium stored on board sbips in Chinese waters, tbreatening them with their lives if the order were not obeyed forthwith. While the merchants were deliberating what to do, the Hoppo, acting under Lin's orders, prohibited foreigners, some of whom now sought to get away, retreating- to Macao (March 19, 1839) and took measures to cut off all communication with Whampoa and the outside shipping. At the same time the factories were surrounded by a stockade and a triple cordon of Chinese troops on land, and by a semi-circular bridge formed by war junks on the river side. When these measures were complete (March 21, 1839), the demand of the surrender of all opium was repeated. The General Chamber of Commerce now sought to appease the x\uthorities by an offer to surrender 1037 chests of opium, but the offer was^ contemptuously rejected, and IMr. Lancelot Dent, being supposed to have under his orders six thousand chests of opium, was now (March 22, 1839) summoned to appear in person before the Lnperial Commissioner and to surrender himself forthwith at the city gate. Naturally, all the foreign merchants made common cause with him and it was unanimously resolved that he should not go. Thereupon all Chinese servants were ordered to leave the factories, and all supplies of fresh water and provisions were cut off. Moreover, the senior Hong Merchants (How-qua, senior, and Mow-qua), loaded with iron chains fastened round their necks, were n^w (March 3, 1839) sent to the factories, under the charge of the Prefect of Canton, with orders, under pains of immediate decapitation, to bring Mr. Dent with them into the city. The whole foreign community, however, declared that he should not go, and when the Hong Merchants affirmed that it would really cost them their lives if they went away without him, Mr. Inglis pluckily volunteered to go in place of Mr. Dent, if three others would accompany hiu). This offer, readily accepted by the Prefect as a happy compromise, was at once acted upon by three other gentlemen, THE OPIUM QUESTION. 91 Thorn, Slade and Fearon. The four heroes proceeded accordingly,, with the Prefect and the Hong Merchants, into the city and were examined, at the temple of the Queen of Heaven, by a Committee of the higliest local officers, under the Governor's- orders, viz. the Chief Justice, the Treasurer, the Grain Intendanfc and the Commissioner of the Salt Gabelle. These high officials were so struck with admiration of the bravery of the four Englishmen, that, after briefly examining them, they allowed them to return to the factories unmolested. Next day, however, the demand for Mr. Dent's surrender was renewed aud the foreign community were just deliberating what was to be done now, when Elliot arrived in their midst, took Mr. Dent under his arm and carried him off to his own room, informing the Chinese officers that he would rather surrender his own life- than that of any Englishman under his charge. On the following day (March 25, 1839), whilst the foreign merchants signed bonds, pledging themselves not to deal in opium nor to introduce it in China in any way, Captain Elliot applied to the Viceroy, respectfully claiming passports for all English ships and people at Canton, adding that, unless these passports were granted within the space of three days, he would be reluctantly driven to the conclusion that the men and ships of his country were forcibly detained, and act accordingly. The Chinese Authorities took no notice of this covert threat, well knowing that H.M. sloop Lame could not engage the Bogue forts single-handed. If anything were wanted to prove that, even in this opium contest, the real question at issue was the absolute supremacy of China over England, the reply, which Elliot now received from the Viceroy Tang Ching-ch'ing, would prove it. Elliot had, at the close of his letter, expressed a regret that the peace 'between the two countries' (meaning of course China and England) was placed in imminent jeopardy by the late unexplained and alarming proceedings of the Chinese Authorities. The Viceroy, in reply, stated that he could not understand what Elliot meant by 'the two countries'; that of course he could not possibly mean to comj^are England with China, which would. 92 CHAPTER VIII. be absolutely preposterous, because all regions under heaven were in humble submission to the Government of China, while the heaven-like goodness of the Emperor overshadowed all ; and that the Ensiish nation and the Americans had, bv their trade in Canton, of all those nations in subjection, enjoyed the largest measure of favour. 'Therefore,' argued the sarcastic Viceroy, -* I presume, it must be England and America, that are conjointly named "the two countries," but the meaning of the language is greatly wanting in perspicuity.' However, Elliot's application for passports was peremptorily refused, as also another application he made on the same day, begging that servants, water and food supplies might be restored to, the foreign community. He was reminded in reply that Mr. Dent had not yet been surrendered and that the Imperial Commissioner was determined to get possession of all the opium ■now in China. The foreign community, thus officially informed that they were prisoners, calmly prepared for the worst. But they were in a sad plight, for they were absolutely without any servants, without fresh water, without fresh provisions, and had to live, at short rations, upon what they had in their cupboards. During the next few days, sundry Chinese officials overwhelmed Elliot with complaints that he was the cause of all the troubles, that Mr. Dent would have surrendered if Elliot had not nppeared on the scene, and that Elliot's preposterous notions of international equality had caused the present refractoriness of the foreign merchants and the delay in the delivery of the opium. When these complaints were found to be of no avail, the officials used threats, informing Elliot that the Imperial Oommissioneu Lin had hitherto taken no action because 'he cannot bear to destroy ere he has instructed,' and that therefore Elliot had been allowed a few days' grace, but he should not have servants or provisions, and the opium must be delivered 4it once. These were no idle threats. The factories were surrounded hj masses of Chinese soldiery, all longing for plunder; THE OPIUM QUESTION. 93- combustibles of all sorts were brought to the spot, and on the evening of March 26, 1839, there was not a foreigner in' the factories but was convinced that the Chinese were ready to do the worst. After an anxious night, spent in deliberation, and feeling constrained by paramount motives affecting the safety of the lives and liberty of all the foreigners at Canton, Elliot issued, at o'clock, on the morning of March 27, 1831), a public notice to British subjects, requiring them to deliver up to him all British-owned opium, either in their possession or under their control, holding him, on behalf of Her Majesty's- Government, responsible, and leaving it to Her Majesty's Government hereafter to define the principles on which the proof of British property and the value of British opium should be determined. Two days later (March 28, 1839),. Elliot informed the Imperial Commissioner, that he was prepared to deliver up 20,283 chests of British-owned opium- In reply, Elliot was ordered by the Prefect of Canton to give further detailed information as to the places where the several amounts of opium were stored, and he was supplied with various instructions as to the arran^'ements to be made for the delivery of the opium. When Elliot, however, once more requested that servants and food supplies be restored to the prisonei's, the Prefect informed him that no such indulgence could be allowed until the delivery of the opium had commenced,. After several days sj^ent in discussions of the mode of securing the delivery of all the opium on board the different ships, it was finally agreed by Commissioner Lin (April 2, 1889), thafe Mr. Johnston, the Second Superintendent, should proceed under a guard of Chinese officials and, armed with written orders of Captain Elliot, bring all the ships up to the anchorage of .Lankeet, in sections of two ships at a time, to discharge the opium there. Commissioner 'Lin then promised, that on completing delivery of one-fourth of the opium, the compradores and servants should be restored to the prisoners; that on completing delivery of one-half of the opium, the passage boats- should be allowed to resume communication with the ships;. 94 CHAPTER VIII. " that on delivery of three-fourths of the opium, trade should be re-opened ; and, he added pompously, on delivery of the whole being completed, everything should return to the ordinary condition and a request should be laid before the Throne that encouragements and rewards might be conferred. But Lin further added, that, if there should be any erroneous delay for three days, the supply of fresh water should be cut off ; if for three days more there should be like delay, the supplies of food should be cut off, and if such delay should continue still three days longer, the criminal laws should forthwith be maintained and enforced. Mr. Johnston having left Canton, the imprisonment of the foreign community, numbering over two hundred persons, •continued as rigorously as before, until April 17, 1839, when the servants were tardily allowed to return to the factories and food supplies were again obtainable. Meanwhile, however, the prisoners were still guarded day and night by Chinese soldiers, posted at their doors with drawn swords and instructed to cut down any one who should make an attempt to escape. Both the merchants and Captain Elliot were repeatedly worried by • demands to sign a fresh bond handing over to capital punishment any of their countrymen who should hereafter deal in opium, and professing abject submission to China's claim of supremacy. No one signed the bond and the confinement continued. The above detailed promises of Lin were by no means faithfully adhered to. The servants were not restored as soon as one-fourth of the opium was delivered ; the boats were not permitted to run when one-half was delivered ; and the promise that things should go on as usual on completion of the opium delivery was falsified by reducing the factories to a prison with one outlet, by the perpetual expulsion of sixteen merchants, some of whom had never dealt in opium at all (as some clerks and a lad were included), and by the introduction of novel and unbearable regulations. Not until May 4, 1839, did the / imprisonment of the foreign community at Canton come to an end. On that day, trade was declared re-opened and two days THE OPIUM QUESTION. 95 later fifty foreign merchants, known to have had no direct dealings in opium, were allo«'ed to depart for AVhampoa en route ^ for Macao. Elliot, however, and the other merchants were still detained in custody as hostages until the delivery of the opium was completed (May 21, 1839). Then Elliot was graciously allowed to leave, but the permission was coupled with the demand now made that sixteen of the principal British merchants should remain in custody as a punishment for dealing in opium. Elliot refused to leave without them, and, after protracted negotiations, he at last (May 27, 1839) obtained their discharge on their signing a bond, guaranteeing that they would never return to China. By the end of May the exodus of British merchants and British shipping from Canton waters was complete. American merchants remained and became a favoured class. Lin had gained a victory. He had succeeded in stopping for a time the trade in opium. But his seeming success had been gained only by driving British trade aw^ay from Canton in a manner eventually resulting in the establishment of a British Colony at Hongkong, which in turn deprived Canton of all its former commercial importance. He had also succeeded in obtaining forcible possession of over twenty-four million dollars worth of British-owned opium which it took him weeks (until June 1, 1839) to destroy with quick-lime in pits dug on the 1/ sea shore at Chinkau, near the Bogue, and the full value of which China had to repay a few years later. *This affair has been well managed,' wrote the Emperor to Lin, but the verdict of the vermilion pencil is not always the verdict of history, and six months later Queen Victoria stated, in her Speech from the Throne (January, 1840), that ' events had happened in China which deeply affected the interests of her subjects and the dignity of her crown.' s CHAPTER IX. Exodus fro3i Macao axd Events Leading up to the Cession of Hongkong. 1839 to 1841. fjp'HE Imperial Commissioner Lin had been insfcrncfced by ^^ the Government of Peking to do two things, both of which were equally impossible, viz. to extirpate the opium traffic, root and branch, but at the same time to secure the continuance at Canton of. the legitimate foreign trade under the old legime. When Lin arrived in Canton, he found the opium trade stagnant and its worst features, the forced trade between Lintin and Whampoa, entirely cut off through the vigorous action, resorted to at the last moment, of the Cantonese Authorities. Had he confined himself to do the only thing possible, viz. to seek to initiate measures tending to bring about, in course of time, a moral regeneration of the Chinese nation, so as to reduce the demand for opium to the lowest possible minimum, and at the same time to introduce a moral reform of the mode of conducting the opium trade, so as to prevent the recurrence of its glaring abuses, he might have done some good and paved the way for an eventual peaceful solution of this complicated opium problem. But his instructions, based as they were on his own original violent recommendations to the Throne, pledged him to an extreme policy, impossible to carry out and necessarily resulting in giving the opium trade a new^ impetus, besides convincing at last even the people in England that, apart from the opium question, the legitimate trade itself could not be carried on, in a manner compatible with England's dignity, mider the old conditions. EXODUS FROM MACAO AND CESSION OF HONGKONG. 97 For four months before Lin's arrival at Canton (February,. 1889), the opium market had been overstocked and hardly any sales had taken place. The great bulk of the supply of 1838 had remained unsold, owing to the energetic measures taken in the inland districts, all through the southern provinces, to repress the consumption. The immense stock of the year 1839 was just commencing to arrive from India where, on the very day Avhen over 20,000 chests were surrendered in Canton, sales were either impossible or ruinous, because the pi'ices in China had fallen to between two or three hundred per cent, below the cost of production and charges. Under these circumstances, to rob the holders of opium of the stock which glutted the market, and to destroy over 20,000 chests of opium for which Elliot paid the owners at the rate of £120 a chest, by twelve months' bills on the Lord-s Commissioners of the Treasury, was not to extinguish the trade but to give it a fresh fillip by relieving an overglutted market from the depressing weight of stocks. After March 24, 1839, when 20,283 chests of opium, which the holders could not have sold without ruin, were surrendered to Lin, prices recovered and the opium traffic was carried on with greater vigour and yielded larger profits than ever. By binding sixteen men, among whom were some of the foremost English merchants, gentlemen of high culture and refined' feelings, to abstain from all future participation in the opium trade, which promise they all adhered to honourably, Lin merely helped to drive the opium trade into the hands of a lower and less scrupulous set of merchants. Lin's opium policy "was an utter failure. His policy with regard to the legitimate foreign trade was, moreover, equally unfortunate, because based on an utter mis- conception of the character and power of the English, whom Lin, like Napoleon, supposed to be nothing but a nation of shopkeepers, whose lives and fortunes depended upon the supply of Chinese tea, silk and rhubarb. His utter disregard of the sacredness which Britain attributes to the life, the liberty and the property of others, his reckless assumption that civilised 7 98 CHAPTER IX. foreigners, temporarily residing in China, mnsfc submit themselves to the barbarous code of Chinese penal laws and to the corrupt judicial process of Chinese tribunals, his open and undisguised determination to hold one set of foreign merchants responsible with their lives for the doings of others not under their control, his absurd affirmation of the sovereignty of China over Great Britain and other foreign nations, and finally his persistent refusal to give to Her Majesty's Representative in China a dignified official status, all these measures of Lin, as the typical representative of Chinese mandarindom, served only to force upon the English people, aroused at last from their apathy by the startling news of the imprisonment of the whole foreign community, the conviction that some serious alterations in British relations with the Chinese Empire were necessary and that British commerce could never be safely carried on, and certainly could never flourish in a country where British property are alike at the mercy of a capricious, corrupt and inordinately conceited Government. Driven out from Canton, and feeling that British trade with China must henceforth be carried on within sight of British shipping and close to the sea, on which Great Britain can hold her own against all comers, both Elliot and the British merchants now turned a deaf ear to all Lin's proposals for a reopening of trade, even under new regulations, at Canton or Whampoa. Forty-two British firms signed (May 23, 1889) a Memorial addressed to Lord Palmerston, in which they complained of the insincerity of the Canton Authorities in their dealing with the opium trade which these Authorities had themselves encouraged and supported for so many years, and of the violent measures of Commissioner Lin which made it a matter of pressing necessity to place the general trade of British subjects in China upon a secure and permanent basis. British merchants had no wish now to return to Canton under any circumstances. Their eyes were turned in the direction of Macao. Even before the imprisonment of the foreign community at Canton had come to an end, Elliot had managed, with great difficulty and risks, to send a message from Canton (April 13, EXODUS FR0:M MACAO AND CESSION OP HONGKONG. 99 1839) to the Governor of Macao^ throwing himself and all Her Majesty's subjects by anticipation under the protection of the Portuguese Government, and offering at the same time, on behalf of the British Government, immediate facilities on the British Treasury for the purpose of putting Macao in a state of effectual defence and of equipping some armed vessels to keep the coast clear. The Portuguese GoA^ernor, A. A. da Silveira Pinto, in reply (April 13, 1839), declined this offer on the ground that his very peculiar position compelled him to observe a strict neutrality as long as possible or until there should be evidence of the imminent peril which, he said, Elliot seemed to fear. Governor Pinto failed to understand that the imprisonment of the foreign community and of Her Majesty's Ilepresentative in China was in itself tantamount to a declaration of war. As soon as the Canton imprisonment came to an end. Captain Elliot (May G, 1839) wrote to Lord Palmerston stating that access to Macao was now a matter of indispensable necessity for British trade in China, and that the settlement of Macao could easily be placed in a state of effective defence. He recommended that Lord Palmerston should conclude an immediate arrangement with the Government of Macao, either for the cession of the Portuguese claims to the place, or for its effectual defence and its appropriation to British uses by means of a subsidiary convention. By the time the Canton prisoners Avere free to leave and began to take refuge at Macao, Governor Pinto had reason to observe that Commissioner Lin's policy was as hostile to the interests of Portuoruese as to those of the British merchants. Governor Pinto had ordered off all opium stored at Macao and sent it (3,000 chests) to Manila, where it was safe from Lin's clutches ; but the revenue of Macao, previously amounting to $100,000 a year, chiefly levied on the opium trade, had now dwindled down to next to nothing, and, besides, the Chinese now began to blockade Macao on the land side and Commis- sioner Lin coolly proposed to take charge of the Portuguese fortifications. Under the influence of these circumstances 100 CHAPTER i.IX. Governor Pluto gave the British refugees at first a cordial welcome. It seemed, indeed, as if the Government of Macao Avould make common cause with the British in their hour of distress. But Commissioner Lin interfered. As soon as ElHofc requested Lin to send a special deputy to Macao to confer with him as to the continuance of the trade, and asked for j)ermission to make Macao henceforth the headquarters of British commerce in China, Liu set to work to turn the mind of Governor Pinto against the British. Lin now relinquished his claim to occupy the forts of Macao and promised the Governor to leave him in undisturbed possession of the settlement, on condition that the Macao Government should aid him in the suppression of the opium traffic and in driving out the English from the place. Lin was determined to force British trade back ta AVhampoa and Canton, because he had pledged his word to the Emperor that, after extirpating the opium trade, he would soon be able to report the peaceful resumption of the regular British trade at Canton. There is no evidence to show that Governor Pinto entered into any definite understanding with Lin on the subject, bat within three months after the arrival of the British refugees at Macao, they all felt more or less that they had ceased to be welcome guests, and that the Governor had fallen back upon his original position of strict neutrality. Lin was massing troops around Macao and had also ordered a camp to be erected opposite Hongkong on the point called Tsimshatsui, which, as part of the Kowloon peninsula, protrudes- into the harbour of Hongkong. Lin's object was, whilst driving out the British from Macao, to disturb at the same time their shipping in Hongkong harbour, so as to compel the British merchants to come back into his loving arms at Canton. Whilst these measures were in course of preparation, an event happened, which caused a great deal of trouble to Elliot. Some American sailors and British lascars, belonging to the merchant ships which, for mutual protection and defence, had taken refuge in Hongkong harbour (since March 24, 1839)> EXODUS FROM MACAO AND CESSION OF HONGKONG. 101 weiifc Oil shore one evening (Jnly 7, 1839) at Tsimslmfcsui, and gob into a drunken fray with the Chinese, in the course of wliich a Chinaman, named Lin Wai-hi, was killed. Elliot at once hastened to Hongkong and held a strict inquiry, terminating in the criminal trial of some lascars by a British jury. But there was no evidence whatever bringing home the charge of manslaughter to any one. The Chinese Government had been invited by Elliot to send some officers to witness the trial, but Lin claimed the jurisdiction for himself, sent no officer to watch the case and made a great clamour demanding of Elliot, again and again, that he should surrender the murderer or some British subject in his place. Lin, moreover, now demanded, in the most peremptory terms, that Elliot and all British merchants should at once sign a bond declaring that hereafter British subjects charged with any crime should at once be handed over to the Chinese Grovernment to be tried according to Chinese forms of proceeding (involving examination by torture both of the accused and his witnesses) and to be executed according to the methods in vogue in China. Poor Lin, he could not understand that the day for making such demands had entirely gone by, and that, by insisting upon them, he effectually defeated his own scheme of bringing British trade back to Canton. But he blindlv rushed on in his mad career. He now ordered the Chinese sub-Prefect of Macao to withdraw all Chinese servants from British residents at Macao - Anne. These dastardly deeds, for which a Manchu Brigadier called Tahunga was chiefly responsible, were reported to the Emperor, and gloated over all through the Empire as great victories gained in battle, and Tahuuga was promoted in consequence. On receiving the news of the fall of Tinghai, Chinhai and Xingpo, the Emjxiror immediately ordered the defences of Tientsin and Taku to be strengthened (Xoveraber 1, 1841) and -a])pealed to the whole nation to rise against the English and continue unsparingly the war of extermination (November 15, 1841). Kishen was now pardoned and called into service again as assistant to Yikking, who was dispatched (December 1, 1841) as Imperial Commissioner to recover Chinhai at any cost. A lull now ensued in the proceedings. The Chinese felt that the supremacy of China over the rest of the world was :at stake and carefully prepared for the struggle which was to decide the question for ever. The British expedition also was waiting for reinforcements, as sickness had made great havoc among the troops. Sir H. Pottinger meanwhile returned to Hongkoni»: and Macao where he learned that the Cantonese had, for months past, been straining every nerve to prepare for an •early renewal of hostilities. The Imperial Commissioner Yikshan had enrolled (October 8, 1841) large bodies of piid village volunteers for the defence of Canton city, to the great annoyance 150 CHAPTER XI. of the citizens. Stoiieboats had been scuttled at Howqua's Folly and in Blenheim Reach, to obstruct access to Canton. The Chinese gunpowder factories — one of which, near Canton city,, blew up by accident (January 12, 1842) — were working extra time. The cannon foundries at Fatshan were turning out superior kinds of brass guns of a foreign pattern. Six new forts had been constructed under foreign advice, and an army of 30,000 men was under instruction in the use of musket and bayonet. Sir H. Pottinger stopped the seizure of Chinese vessels which had been ordered by the officer (Captain Xias) who, after the death at Hongkong of Sir Humphrey Le Fleming Senhouse (June 13, 1841), had succeeded to the post of Senior Xaval Officer. But Sir H. Pottinger at the same time warned the Cantonese Authorities repeatedly that the least attempt to rebuild the Bogue Forts would bring upon Canton a most severe chastisement. During the month of J\Iarch, 1842, the struggle was to be renewed. For months previous to that date the Provincial Authorities up and down the coast made extensive preparations ■with a view to resume the combat, in March, by simultaneous- attacks upon the British positions at Hongkong, Chinhai and Ningpo. As to Hongkong, it appears from Chinese records that Yikshan had secretly reported to the Emperor, that Hongkong had but a feeble garrison of Indian troops, and that among the large Chinese population that had flocked to that Colony, he had secured the services of 3,000 Chinese residents of Hongkons: who had promised to rise against the foreigners at the proper time, whilst the remainder of Chinese residing in the Colony were all desirous to return to their Chinese allegiance. To provide a popular leader for this movement, the Emperor selected Kiying for the purpose of organizing a sudden massacre of all foreigners at Hongkong. At the same time, a Censor, Soo Ting-kwai, reported to the Throne, that the moment was propitious for a general attack on the British positions in China, because the Nepaulese had commenced war against them in CONFIRMATION OF THE CESSION OF HONGKONG. - 151 India and the British commanders in China had thereby beeu compelled to send many of their ships to India to rescue their countrymen there. Kiyini^ was accordingly ordered by the Emperor to proceed immediately to Canton, with a view to direct the attack to be made on Hongkong, but soon after he had started he was recalled again, because the Emperor had learned that Nanking was threatened by the British forces. The preconcerted attack on the British positions at Ningpo and Chinhai was now made at once (March 10, 1842) but failed. Xot only were the assaults immediately repelled, but the British forces now resumed the offensive, capturing the district cities of Tszeki (March 15, 1842) and Chapu (May 18, 1842) and moving northward in the direction of Nanking. Through the recall of Kiying and the advance of the British forces, the intended rising in Hongkong came to nothing. Rumours of a proposed attack on Hongkong were repeatedly referred to in the local papers (April 21 and July 28, 1842) but found no credence among the European community. Nevertheless Admiral Cochrane and General Burrell deemed it prudent (about the middle of July) to make a counter-demonstration by proceeding with a small squadron up the Canton River as far as Whampoa. This measure had the desired effect. But the British residents of Hongkong never knew what a serious danger they had escaped. Yikshan and the Viceroy of Canton commenced (since February, 18i2) negotiations with the French, or, if the Mancbu Annals (partly translated by Mr. E. H. Parker) are to be trusted, had offers to build war-ships for use against the English thrust upon them. Yikshan and Kikung had several interviews with M. de Challaye, the French Consul at Canton, and Colonel de Jancigny (the latter having just arrived on a commercial mission to China). Possibly, the aim of M. de Challaye was merely to tender the mediation of the French Government with a view to arrange teniis of peace, whilst M. de Jancigny was looking for orders for French manufacturers of warlike stores. Yikshan reported to the Emperor the offers of assistance he had received from the French, but added, ' the enemy's designs 152 CHAPTER XI. are unfathomable and possibly they are really assisting the English in an underhand way and acting as spies on us for them.' The Manchu Annalist further states that * the French hung on from February to June (1842) awaiting our commands a,nd at last, in June, proceeded to "VVusung, but the English were already far up the Yangtsze.' But, whilst the Cantonese officials distrusted this first syndicate represented by Colonel de Jancigny, a wealthy private citizen of Canton, Poon Sze-shing, received permission from the Emperor to employ Colonel de Jancigny to order out from France a number of war vessels, guns, and torpedoes (then quite a novelty), for use against the English, and to re-organize, with de Jancigny's advice, the whole Cantonese navy. These intrigues were, however, too late in the field. AYhilst the Cantonese were wasting public and private funds in purchasing new and expensive munitions of war, the English expedition in Central China made a S}3eedy end of the war. After the fall of Wusung (June 16, 1842) and Shanghai (June 19, 1842) the Chinese Commissioners offered terms of peace. Sir H. Pottinger, w^ho had rejoined the expedition (June 22, 1842), informed them what the demands of England w^ere, but declined entering upon any negotiations with the Commissioners until they had received the authority of the Emperor to concede those demands. Sir H. Pottinger also issued a public proclamation (July 5, 1842) in which he informed the Chinese people of the real points at issue between England and China. This proclamation brought forward four complaints and three demands. The complaints were, (1) that, whilst English merchants had for two centuries patiently suffered continuous ill-treatment at the hands of Cantonese officials, this systematic ill-usage exceeded all bounds when Commissioner Lin, in 1839, instead of seizing the actual offenders, Chinese and foreign, implicated in the opium traffic, forcibly confined an English officer and English merchants and threatened them with death, so as to extort from them what opium there might be in China at that time, in order to gain favour with the Emperor; (2) that CONFIRMATION OF THE CESSION OP HONGKONG. 153 the Ministers at Peking, *men without truth or good faith,' after conchiding a truce and sending Kishen to Canton to arrange terms of peace, suddenly changed their minds, replaced Kishen by Yikshan and commenced a Avar of extermination, thus compelling the English to take the Bogue Forts, to bring Canton itself to submission, and to take from it a ransom for the punishment of such ill faith ; (3) that the High Commissioner Yuekien and other high officers, like Tahunga, had tortured and killed shipwrecked Englishmen, reporting such brutal outrages committed on defenceless individuals to the Emperor as victories gained in battle ; and finally (4) that the Cantonese Authorities, seeking to confine to themselves the profits of the foreign trade and extorting, through the Hong Merchants, illegal payments from the foreign merchants, disguised everything under false statements to the Emperor. The demands which the English nation was thus in justice entitled to make were (1) compensation for losses and expenses, (2) a friendly and becoming intercourse on terms of equality between officers of the two countries, and (3) the cession of insular territory for commerce and for the residence of merchants and as a security and guarantee against future n;newal of offensive acts. This appeal to the conscience of the nation, and this impeachment of the Manchu Government at the bar of public opinion in China, had a very great effect. It was, as many Chinese themselves acknowledged, a truthful exposition of the real issue of the conflict between China and England, caused by the treatment accorded to foreigners at the hands of Chinese officials, who acted on the supposition of China's absolute supremacy and in defiance of international equality. Moreover, this proclamation, whilst justifying the cession of Hongkong and the occupation of Chusan, gave to the opium question that accidental and extraneous position which it really occupied in the history of this first Anglo-Chinese war. Whilst the British forces were steadily advancing towards Chinkiang and Nanking, the minds of the Chinese officials and people in the North were filled with dread. The superiority 154 CHAPTER XI. of British strategy, arms and discipline, over the best (Chinese military resources and efforts, were painfully obvious to the whole nation. All through the maritime provinces, public opinion now began to turn in favour of making peace with the English, the people having to their surprise noticed that the English confined their warlike operations to retributive dealings with the Government troops and spared the people themselves as much as possible. Yiksban now wrote to the Emperor that the Cantonese were all in league with the foreigners. A feeling of despair began to take possession of the statesmen, officials and military leaders of China, and a positive panic fell on them when a total eclipse of the sun, the usual presage, according to Chinese superstition, of national disaster, occurred (July 8, 1842) during the advance of the English fleet on Nanking. With the capture of Chinkiang (July 21, 1842) the key to the Grand Canal, the principal channel of the food supply of North-China, fell into the hands of the English. Kiying, Eleepoo and Niu Kien now (July 22, 1842) offered terms of peace again, but were once more told to go and get first of all the Emperor's approval of the British demands as a whole, and then they might come and discuss details. The expedition steadily continued its onward move towards Nanking. On August 9, 1842, the troops were landed a few miles from Nanking, a reconnaissance was made, and two days later everything was in readiness for an assault on Nanking city (August 11, 1842), when an armistice was applied for and granted for the purpose of obtaining the Emperor's sanction of the formulated British demands, in order to conclude on that basis a formal treaty of peace. The stipulations were forwarded (August 13, 1842) to Peking by special messenger, and, on his return with the Emperor's approval, the Treaty of Nanking, between Her Majesty the Queen of England by Sir H. Pottinger on the one side, and the Emperor of China by the Commissioners Kiying, Eleepoo and Niu Kien on the other side, was solemnly concluded (August 29, 1842). Major Malcolm started next day for London, with one copy of the Treaty, to lose no time in obtaining Her Majesty's signature^ CONFIRMATION OF THE CESSION OF HONGKONG. 155 whilst another copy was immediately forwarded to Pekinof and returned thence with the Emperor's signature a fortnight later (September 15, 1842). The demands agreed to by the Treaty of Nanking were: (1) peace and friendship between China and England; (2) the opening of five ports, Canton, Amoy, Foochow, Ningpo, and Shanghai, for the residence of British merchants, and their families, under the extra-territorial jurisdiction of British Consular officers ; (3) the cession of Hongkong ; (4) payment of an opium indemnity of six million dollars ; (5) payment of the Hong Merchants' debts, amounting to three million dollars ; (G) payment of twelve million dollars war expenses ; (7) all payments to be made, with interest at 5 per cent., within fixed periods ; (8) release of all prisoners of war ; (9) a general amnesty^ in favour of all Chinese who had served the Eno^lish durino: the war ; (10) a fair and regular tariff of export and import duties and transit charges; (11) fixed terms of equality to be used in official correspondence ; (12) withdrawal of British troops from jNanking, Chinkiang, Chinhai, Chusan, and Kulangsoo on certain conditions; (13) ratifications of the Treaty to be exchanged as soon as possible. This Treaty is more noteworthy for the stipulations omitted than for those included in it. The prohibition or legalisation of the opium trade was not referred to. The war had not been undertaken for the sake of opium. China was therefore justly left free to settle the opium question at her own sweet will. ^lore remarkable is the omission ta secure for Chinese settlers on Hongkong freedom of commercial intercourse with the mainland of China, in the sense of the Foreign Office instructions of February 3, 1841. Mandarindom was left unaccountably free to make or mar the fortunes of Hongkong as a settlement for Chinese. AVhilst negotiating the provisions contained in the third article of the foregoing Treaty, Sir H. Pottinger was informed by the Commissioners, that the cession of Hongkong had some time ago been approved by the Emperor, and needed no further confirmation. Sir H. Pottinger, however, wished the cession 156 CHAPTER XL of Hongkong to be discussed de novo, and informed the Commissioners, as he himself subsequently (January 21, 1843) stated in writing to a Committee of Ih'itish merchants, that, *the British Government holding Hongkong could not in any way disadvantageously affect the external commerce of China, because the English Government had no , intention of levying any kind of duties there,' and that * Hongkong was merely to be looked upon as a sort of bonded warehouse in which merchants could deposit their goods in safety until it should ■suit their purposes to sell them to native Chinese dealers or to send them to a port or place in China for sale.' This is a point of considerable importance, as it indicates that the free-port character of Hongkong was the preliminary understanding on which the third article of the Nankino; Treaty and the cession of Hongkong to the British Crown was now based. The future discontinuance or continuance of the freedom of the port of Hongkong is therefore by no means an open question left to the discretion of the Colonial or Imperial British Governments, but the latter is absolutely bound by the Nanking Treaty, as negotiated by Sir H. Pottinger, to maintain the freedom of the port from all export or import duties of any sort. It was on this understanding that the Chinese Govern- ment issued, with Sir H. Pottinger's express approval, an edict allowing free and unrestricted intercourse to all vessels from treaty ports in China to Hongkong, and vice versa, on payment of the export or import duties, as well as anchorage or harbour charges, legally due at the ports to which goods may be carried or from which they may be shipped within the Chinese Empire. The Chinese Government having thus acted on the promise of "Sir H. Pottinger that Hongkong should remain a free port, the British Government would seem to be bound in good faith to maintain the freedom of the port inviolate. The Article referring to the cession of Hongkong runs thus : * It being obviously necessary, and desirable, that British subjects should have some port whereat they may careen and refit their ships when required and keep stores for that purpose, CONFIRMATION OF THE CESSION OF HONGKONG. 157 His Majesty the Emperor of China cedes to Her Majesty the Queeu of Great Britain, &c., the Island of Hongkong, to be possessed in perpetuity by Her Britannic Majesty, her Heirs and Successors, and to be governed by such laws and regulations as Her Majesty the Queen of Great Britain, &c., shall see fit to direct.' The reason here given why Hongkong should be ceded is rather curious. It appears to be rather Elliot's than Pot- tinger's view of the raison cVeire of a British possession called Hongkong. We should not be surprised to find that the English rendering of this third Article of the Nanking Treaty is a literal translation of the Chinese text of the corresponding Article of the Chuenpi Treaty. If it was ' obviously ' necessary in 1843, that English merchants should have dockyards and dockyard stores in a separate locality on the Chinese coast, ifc is very strange that Lord Palmerston and the Cabinet, that Parliament and the nation, could not be brought to see it, though the Mathesons, and Stauntons, and Eobinsons and others did everything to demonstrate that necessity and desirability from 1833 to 1836. Moreover, it was obviously a sort, of bonded warehouse, with dwelling houses, out of the reach of the avarice, corruption and oppression of Chinese officials that was needed, far more than dockyards and dockyard stores. And it was a Colony rather than a mere trade station or dockyard that Hongkong had become by the time, when this curious third Article of the Nanking Treaty was drafted. Chastised and humbled as China was by the terms of the Treaty of Nanking, one might suppose that now at last the Chinese had been taught to surrender, once for all, their claim of supremacy over all foreign nations. But the popular Chinese theory, that *as there is but one sun in the heavens, so there can be but one supreme ruler over all under heaven,' which proposition all mankind ought indeed to be ready to assent to in a rehgious sense, was so ingrained in the diplomatic mind and language of China, in the sense of China's political supremacy, that, within four months after the conclusion of the Nanking Treaty, the Emperor issued an Edict (December 24, 158 CHAPTER XI. 1842), ordering Eleepoo 'to meet Pottiiiger and immediately explain to him that the Celestial Dynasty has for its principle, in (joverning all foreigners without its pale, to look upon them with the same feeling of universal benevolence with which she looks upon her own children.' To this noti plus ultra of diplomatic cant — for cant it seemed to be in view of the Emperor's rejoicing over the destruction of life caused in Hongkong by the typhoon, and in view of the w^holesale murders committed by Tahunga and approved by the Emperor — Sir H. Pottinger replied in good earnest. He at once informed the Emperor, that his Koyal Mistress, the Queen of England, * acknowledges no superior or governor but God, and that the dignity, the power, and the universal benevolence of Her Majesty are known to be second to none on earth and are only equalled by Her Majesty's good faith and studious anxiety to fulfil her Royal promises and engagements.' After this castigation, thus quietly administered by Sir H. Pottinger, the Chinese officials were not only careful to exclude from diplomatic correspondence their usual stock phrases of Chinese political supremacy, but the Viceroy Kikung actually employed the phrase 'the two countries' which, in Elliot's time had provoked the ire and sarcasm of Viceroy Tang, and wrote to Pottinger (April 16, 1843) frankly admitting that ' the two countries are now united in friendship.' The news of the conclusion of the Nanking Treaty was received throughout China with a sigh of intense relief. Everywhere the preparations for war were immediately dis- continued. In fact the official measures taken everywhere along the coast indicated plainly that the Provincial Authorities were sincerely determined to abide by and carry out the provisions of the Treaty in good faith. In Canton, the militia was disbanded (October 13, 1842) and all temporary forts were dismantled. There was indeed a brief popular outburst of excitement in Canton (November, 1842), when it was rumoured that building lots in the Honan suburbs would be appropriated for dwelling houses for foreign merchants and their families, CONFIRMATION OF THE CESSION OF HONGKONG. 159 and a mob made an attack upon the factories and partially burned them (December 7, 1842). But the excitement was all over the very next day, when Sir Hugh Gough Avent up to Canton to investigate the state of things. Within a fortnight after this ebullition of popular temper, it was so evident that China meant to abide by the Nanking Treaty, that the military and naval forces were sent back to England, and over 50 transports and ships of war left Hongkong harbour (December 20, 1842) homeward bound. The war was over. The piping times of peace had come, and now it was the mission of Hongkong to smooth down the animosities of the past and to cement friendship between the two countries in the future. Sir H. Pottinger at once set to work (January, 1843) to complete the remainder of his successful diplomatic mission, by settling the details of tariif duties and trade regulations. For this purpose he had frequent consultations with a representative •Committee of British merchants consisting of Messrs. A. Matheson, G. T. Braine, W. Thomson, D. L. Burn, and W. P. Livingston. After the death of Eleepoo (March 4, 1843), Kiying w^as appointed Chief of the Imperial Commission, and it was at once foreseen that he would heartily work together with Pottinger in settling all details. The Viceroy of Canton (Kikung) also kept up friendly relations and cordially accepted Pottinger's •offer (April 10, 1843) to co-operate with him in putting down the wholesale smuggling (partly in English craft) then going on, with the connivance of the Hoppo's underlings (as the Viceroy himself admitted), on the Canton River. Previous to Kiying's arrival, the two other members of the Imperial Commission, Wang An-tung and Hienling, visited Hongkong (May 11, 1843) were freely introduced to Hongkong society, dined twice with Sir H. Pottinger, drove out in a carriage (the first that passed the gap) to the Happy Valley, sj^ent an evening at the Morrison Education Society's Institution (on Morrison Hill), attended a parade of artillery under Major Knowles, witnessed the investiture of Sir W. Parker, by Sir H. Pottinger, as Knight Grand Cross of the Bath, and returned to Canton thoroughly charmed with 160 CHAPTER XI. English civilization. Immediately after Kiying's arrival (June 4, 1843), Lieutenant-Colonel Malcolm, who had meanwhile returned from London with Her Majesty's signature and the Great Seal of England affixed to the Nanking Treaty, proceeded to Canton (June G, 1843) and invited Kiying to exchange the ratifications of the Treaty at Hongkong. Kiying acceded to the request, repaired to Hongkong (June 23, 1843), with Hienling and AVang An-tung, and the exchange of ratifications was solemnly performed (June 2G, 1843) at Government House (then situated on the spur above the Gaol). A guard of honour was in attendance, a large number of residents was present, and at the moment when the ratifications were exchanged, a royal . salute was fired and responded to from the forts and shipping. Next, Her Majesty's Proclamation, declaring Hongkong to be a possession of the British Crow^n, was read by Lieutenant-Colonel Malcolm, in the presence of the Imperial Commissioners. Subsequently, Kiying having retired, the Royal Warrant was r«ad, appointing Sir H. Pottinger Governor of Hongkong and its Dependencies. A large dinner party, given in the evening, concluded the festivities. Four months afterwards a Supplementary Treaty, concluded by Sir H. Pottinger and the Imperial Commissioners, was signed (October 8, 1843) at the Bogue (Foomoonchai), by Kiying and Sir H. Pottinger on behalf of their Majesties, the Emperor of China and the Queen of England. Besides providing all the detailed trade-regulations to be observed at the five open ports of China, this Supplementary Treaty, the stipulations of which were to be as binding and of the same efficacy as if they had been inserted in the original Treaty of Nanking, contains several articles specially referring to Hongkong. The extradition of criminals was provided for by Article IX, which stipulated that all Chinese criminals and offenders against the law, who may flee to Hongkong or to British ships of war or to British merchantmen for refuge, should be delivered up on proof or admission of their guilt. Article XIV provided, for the purpose of effectually preventing piracy and smuggling, that CONFIRMATION OF THE CESSION OF HONGKONG. 161 ail officer of the British Government should examine the resristers and passes of all Chinese vessels visiting Hongkong to buy or sell, and that any Chinese vessel arriving in Hongkong without such register or pass should be considered an unauthorized or smuggling vessel, forbidden to trade, and to be reported to the Chinese Authorities. x\rticle XV provided for the recovery of debts, incurred by Chinese residents of Hongkong, through the English Court of Justice, or, if the debtor should flee into Chinese territory, through the British Consul at an open Treaty port. Article XVI provided that the Hoppo of Canton should furnish the corresponding British officer in Hongkong with monthly returns of jwsses granted to Chinese vessels to visit Houskoun', and that the British officer in Hongkong should forward similar monthly returns to the Hoppo. Article XVII provided for small craft plying between Hongkong, Canton and Macao, being exempt from all port charges if they carried only l)assengers, letters or baggage, to the exclusion of all dutiable articles. Those of the foregoing articles, which referred to a British officer doing in Hongkong the work of the Chinese revenue preventive service, and which would have practically confined Chinese trade with Hongkong to trade between the five open ports and Hongkong, were disapproved by the Home Government as much as by the local mercantile community. No such British officer was ever appointed, and fifteen years later (June 20, 1858) the whole Supplementary Treaty was formally abrogated. The object aimed at by those two Articles (XIV and XVI), the Chinese Government sought later on to attain by the so-called Custom's Blockade of Hongkong, and the duties, assigned by those two Articles to a British officer, are at the present day discharged by the English staff of the Kowloon Imperial Maritime Customs Office, established in Hongkong. As regards that Article of the Nanking Treaty which provided for the payment by the Chinese Government of an opium indemnity amounting to six million dollars, the London Gazette of August 25, 1843, gave notice to those entitled to II 162 CHAPTER XI. compensation, being holders of the certificates given, in 1839, by Captain Elliot for British-owned opium, that they might apply, on or after August 30, 1843, for payment at the Treasury Chambers, at the following rates, per chest, viz. : Patna, £6Q 7s. ly..; Malwa, £64 lis. 2^.; Benares, £61 lis. 3^^. ; and Turkey, £43 3s. 5^/. This arrangement, based on the average prices realized in Canton during 78 days, from September 11 to November 27, 1838, caused much dissatisfaction, as it was alleged that the merchants thus received, after four years' delay, scarcely one half of what they originally had paid for the opium directly to the East India Company, besides losing four years' interest on their capital. But on the other side it might have been urged, that, at the time when the opium was taken possession of by Commissioner Lin, the market ^vas overstocked, sales impossible, and, if Lin had not destroyed the opium but returned it to the merchants, they could not have sold it for anything like what they finally received for it. CHAPTER XII. The Admixistratiox of Captain Elliot. January 26 to August 10, 1841. gpr^AYING. in the preceding chapter, given an- outline of the ^^ poHtical events connected with the cession of Hongkong to the British Crown, we now take up the thread of its internal history. On the very day when the Treaty of Chuenpi was conchided (January 20, 1841), Captain Elhot issued a circular at Macao, addressed to Her Britannic Majesty's subjects, informing them that the Island and Harbour of Hongkong had been ceded to the British Crown. The news of the cession of Hongkong wa^ conveyed to England by the steamship Enteiyrise which left China on January 23, 1841. Captain Elliot explained in his circular of January 20, 18-41, that Her Majesty's Government had sought for no privilege in China for the exclusive advantage of British ships and merchants, and that he therefore only performed his duty in offering the protection of the British flag to the subjects, citizens and ships of foreign Powers that might resort to Her Majesty's Possession at Hongkong. A general invitation was thus given to all the merchants of other countries to utilize the proposed new British trade station for commercial purposes. At the same time, Captain Elliot expressly stated that all just charges and duties to the Chinese Empire were to be paid as if the trade were conducted at Whampoa. The Chinese Government was left at liberty to deal with Hongkong by levying, outside the port and boundaries of the Colony, charges and duties on exports from or imports into Chinese territory. This was probably all that Elliot intended,* 1(34: CHAPTER XII. and in these respects he simply gave to Hongkong the same position wliich Macao had so long maintained. The Island of Honsrkontr haviuoj been formally taken possession of, for the pnrposes of a trade station, in the name of Her Majesty Queen Victoria (January 2C, 1841), Captain Elliot, as Chief Superintendent of the trade of British subjects in China, and holding full powers under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom, to execute the office of Her Majesty's Com- missioner, Procurator, and Plenipotentiary in China, issued on January 29, 1841, his first local proclamation (the original of which is, however, dated February 2, 1841). In this proclamation. Captain Elliot, after making due reservation of Her ^Majesty's rights, royalties, and privileges, declared that the Government of the Island should be exercised, pending Her Majesty's further pleasure, by the person filling the office of Chief Superintendent of the trade of British subjects in China. I'vThe next point in Captain Elliot's proclamation of January 29, f 1841, was that it established two different systems of o-overnment and two separate codes of law for the administration of justice in Hongkong. Natives of the Island, and all natives of China I resorting to Hongkong, were to be governed, pending Her ' Majesty's further pleasure, according to the laws and customs of China, every description of torture excepted. But all persons other than natives of the Island or of China, should fall under the cognizance of the Criminal and Admiralty jurisdiction at the time existing in China and enjoy full security and protection according to the principles and practice of British Law. This natural bifurcation reflected, at the first formation of the settlement, the fundamental incompatibility of the Chinese and European systems of civilization, by creating two separate forms of government and two separate codes of law, corresponding with the two separate communities, Chinese and European, which were about to settle at Hongkong and which immediately proceeded to divide the town into separate European and Chinese ^ quarters. Bub regarding this bifurcation, thus provisionally .introduced, the pleasure of Her Majesty was subsequently made THE ADMINISTRATION OF CAPTAIN ELLIOT. 1^5 known, from time to time, gradually extending, by special Ordinances and execntive Regnlations, the sphere of English forms of government and the application of English Law. This was, however, done cautionsly and gradually, in proportion as the two local communities, European and Chinese, were, by the slow process of the interaction of English and Chinese modes of thought, life and education, brought a little nearer to each other. This process (though hardly perceptible) is still going on at the present day, but executive regulations and legal enactments have all along proved utterly futile whenever they went too far ahead of the successive stages reached by this extremely slow process of race amalgamation which depends more on the silent influences of English education, English speaking and English modes of living than on the exercise of the rights and powers of the Crown. The Chinese, though the most docile people in the world when under fair government, proved utterly intractable whenever the Executiye or the Legislature of the Colony rushed into any unreconciled conflict with deep-seated national customs of the Chinese people. ^^ By a second proclamation — issued conjointly by Sir J. J. Gordon Bremer, Commander-in-Chief, and by Captain Elliot, as Her Majesty's Plenipotentiary, on February 1, 1S41 — all natives of China, residing in Hongkong, were informed that they were all, by the fact of their residing on the Island, which was now part of Her Majesty's Dominions, subjects of the Queen of England, to whom and to whose officers they must pay duty and obedience. Moreover, it was added, that '*the inhabitants are hereby promised protection, in Her Ma- jesty's gracious name, against all enemies whatever and they are further secured in the free exercise of their religious rites,\ ceremonies and social customs, and in the enjoyment of their lawful private property and interests.' It must be noted that,, in the case of this stipulation, not only is the usual reservation * until Her Majesty's further pleasure' omitted, but for it is substituted the positive affirmation that this promise was given *in Her ^Majesty's gracious name.' Anyhow, Her Majesty never, 166 CHAPTER XII. I in the whole history of the Colony, made her pleasure known f J contrary to the just principles of religious and social toleration ! i here guaranteed to Chinese semi-civilized pagans, who were \ii thereby, more than by anything else, induced to flock tOr jji Hongkong and settle on the Island. The same proclamation added, to the statement of the previous proclamation concerning the rule that Chinese in Hongkong should, until Her Majesty's further pleasure, be governed according to Chinese la^\'s, customs and usages (every description of torture excepted), the idetailed provision that, pending Her Majesty's further pleasure, the Chinese in Hongkong should be governed by the elders of villages (Tipos), subject to the control of a British Magistrate. Regarding this point Her Majesty's further pleasure was made known many years after (Ordinance 8 of 1858), when an attempt was made to improve the working of the Tipo system by giving them official salaries. Some years later, when this measure proved fruitless, the Government discarded the Tipo system altogether. Yet, although this system is now officially not recognized and has been replaced by the Registrar General's Office, the Chinese secretly adhere to their own system faithfully. The Chinese people in town are at the present day under the sway of their own headmen (the Tungwa Hospital Committee), and the people in the villages are ruled by their elders, as much as ever. ^ As regards commerce, this same proclamation stated that * Chinese ships and merchants resorting to the port of Hongkong for purposes of trade, are hereby exempted, in the name of the Queen of England, from charge or duty of any kind to the British Government,' but, it was added, that the pleasure of the Government would be declared from time to time by further proclamations. According to a (seemingly incorrect) statement resting on the authority of Commander J. Elliot Bingham, who was at this time First Lieutenant of H.M.S. Modesie, the terms of the Chuenpi Treaty included also the surrender by the Chinese, as neutral ground, of 'the peninsula of Kowloon' meaning OP THE ^'y^. university) THE ADMINISTRATION OF CAPTAIN ELLIOT. 167 probably only Tsimsliatsui). Mr. Bingham also states that, when the Chuenpi Treaty was disavowed by the Imperial Government^ it was seized by the British troops * by right of conquest/ a garrison being kept in * Fort Victoria' (probably on the site of the present Barracks), where many commissariat and other stores were deposited. During the course of February, 1841, numerous parties of British and foreign merchants and missionaries came over from Macao to prospect the capabilities of Hongkong and to select sites for warehouses and residences. By the end of March and the beginning of April, 1841, shanties, labourers' matsheds, roughly-built store-houses (called godowns), Chinese shop-keepei*s* booths, European bungalows and houses of all descriptions began to rise up. The first buildings erected in Hongkong are said (on the evidence of Mr. "VY. Rawson) to have been the so- called Albany godowns (near Spring Gardens) of Lindsay & Co. Next rose up the buildings at East Point, where Jardine, Matheson & Co. established themselves. Later on buildings were erected in the Happy Valley and here and there along the hill side as far as the present centre of the town. While the Military and Naval Authorities commenced settling at West Point, erecting cantonments on the hill side (on the site of the present Reformatory and later on above Fairlea) and lartre Naval Stores (near the shore in the neighbourhood of the present Gas Company's premises), the Happy Valley was at first intended by British merchants for the principal business centre. However, the prejudices of the Chinese merchants against the Fungshui (geomantic aspects) of the Happy Valley and the peculiarly malignant fever which emptied every European house in that neighbourhood almost as soon as it was tenanted, caused the business settlement to move gradually westwards. Hill sites, freely exposed towards the South-west and South-east, as well as to the North, were soon discovered as being less subject to the worst type of malarial fever, and were accordingly studded with frail European houses mostly covered at first with palm- leaves. A number of wooden houses were imported from 168 CHAPTER XII. Singapore aud erected on lower storeys of brick or stones. Bub at first the only substantial buildings erected by private parties were a bouse and godowns built at East Point bv order of Mr. A. Matheson who foresaw the permanency of the Colony at a time when most people doubted it. The native stone masons, brick-layers, carpenters and scaffold builders, required for the construction of roads and barracks (by the Engineer corps of the Expedition) and for the erection of mercantile buildings, were immediately followed by a considerable influx of Chinese provision dealers (who settled near the site of the present Central Market, soon known as 'the Bazaar'), and by Chinese furniture dealers, joiners, cabinet makers and curio shops, congregating opposite the present Naval Yard, and along the present Queen's Road East, then known as the ' Canton Bazaar.' The day labourers settled down in huts at Taipingshan, at Saiyingpun and at Tsimshatsui. But the largest proportion of the Chinese population were the so-called Tanka or boat people, the pariahs of South-China, whose intimate connection with the social life of the foreign merchants in the Canton factories used to call forth an annual proclamation on the part of the Cantonese Authorities warninor forei2:ners against the demoralisinii: influences I of these people. These Tan-ka people, forbidden by Chinese law (since A.D. 1730) to settle on shore or to compete at literary examinations, and prohibited by custom from intermarrying 1 with the rest of the people, were from the earliest days of the 1 — .East India Company always the trusty allies of foreigners. They furnished pilots and supplies of provisions to British men-of- war, troopships and mercantile vessels, at times when doing so was declared by the Chinese Government to be rank treason, unsparingly visited with capital punishment. They were the hangers-on of the foreign factories of Canton and of the British shipping at Lintiii, Kamsingmooii, Tungku and Hongkong Bay. They invaded Hongkong the moment the settlement was started, living at first on boats in the harbour with their numerous families, and gradually settling on shore. They have maintained ever since almost a monopoly of the supply of pilots aud ships' THE ADMINISTRATION OF CAPTAIN ELLIOT. 169 crews, of the fish trade and the cattle trade, but unfortunately also of the trade in girls and women. Strange to say, when the settlement was first started, it was estimated that some 2,000 of these Tan-ka people had flocked to Hongkong, but at the present time they are about the same number, a tendency having set in among them to settle on shore rather than on the water and to disavow their Tan-ka extraction in order to mix on equal terms with the mass of the Chinese community. The half-caste population in Hongkong were, from the earliest days of the settlement of the Colony and down to the present day, almost exclusively the off-spring of these Tan-ka people. But, like the Tan-ka people themselves, they are happily under the influence of a process of continuous re-absorption in the mass of the Chinese residents of the Colony. I^In addition to this spontaneous influx of Chinese provision- dealers, artizans, labourers and boat-people, there commenced also, early in 1841, a natural trade movement, which, if war-times had been protracted or if the Chinese Mandarins and the policy of the Hongkong Government had permitted its continuance, would have resulted in the gradual transfer to Hongkong of the larger portion of the Macao and Canton junk-trade and made Hongkong the trade centre of the whole coast of the Canton Province and the great depot of the entire China trade. We have on this point the valuable evidence of Mr. A. Mathesoii (given before the Select Committee of the House of Commons on May 4, 1847). ' Prior to our taking possession of Hongkong, and for some time after, all the native traders between Canton and the East Coast passed through the harbour, and generally anchored there. When the first Europeans settled in Hongkong, the Chinese showed every disposition to frequent the place; and there was a fair prospect of its becoming a place of considerable trade. The junks from the coast made up their cargoes there, in place of going to Canton and Macao; these <;argoes consisted of opium, cotton shirtings, a few pieces of camlets, and other woollens, and Straits produce, such as pepper, betel-nut, rattans, &c.' Mr. William Scott, another former Cantoa 170 CHAPTER XII. and Hongkong merchant, gave simillar evidence (May 18, 1847) to the effect that, in the first instance, there was no disinch* nation whatever on the part of the respectable Chinese shopkeepers, and other useful people, to come to the Colony. Lieutenant- Colonel Malcolm's evidence (June 1, 1847) confirms the foregoing statements. ' In a few months,' he said, ' an extensive trade sprung up and immense quantities of piece goods were sold on the island, which were transported to the mainland in native boats. Small vessels were passing hourly between Canton and Hongkong carrying the goods which were sold by sample at the former place, and daily vessels were coming from the north to obtain supplies for the other ports.' Both Mr. A. Matheson and Lieutenant-Colonel Malcolm further stated that this prosperous state of things, brought on rather suddenly, continued until an equally sudden reaction set in about two years later (in 1843). In our own opinion, this early trade movement was simply the natural result of the interference caused by the war of 1841 with the junk trade of the Canton river. The junk trade having once gravitated towards Hongkong, it took some time, after the declaration of peace in 1842, to return to its original channel. But, certainly, had the free trade policy been maintained in Hongkong, a large share of the junk trade might have been retained in the Colony. With the return of the troops from Chusan, the harbour of Hongkong began to be crowded again with men-of-war and troopships, and a Naval Court of Inquiry was held in Hongkong, (April 25, 1841) to accertain the causes of the extraordinary rate of mortality which had decimated the troops stationed at Chusan in 1840. An augury of the rapid progress which the new settlement of Hongkong was expected to make, was the appearance (May 1, 1841) of the first Hongkong Government Gazette. In the first number of this Gazette (printed yet at Macao) Captain Elliot, as charged with the Government of Hongkong, notified that, pending Her Majesty's farther pleasure, he had appointed (April 30, 1841) Captain W. Caine (2Gth Cameronian Regiment) Chief THE ADMINISTRATION OF CAPTAIN ELLIOT. 171 /f Magistrate of the Island of Hongkong to exercise authority, for the preservation of the peace and the protection of Hfe and property, over all non-Chinese inhabitants (those of the Army and Navy excepted) according to the customs and usages of 1 British police law, and over all Chinese inhabitants according to I the laws, customs and usages of China, as near as may be, i every description of torture excepted. But nil cases requiring ^punishments exceeding a fine of $400, or imprisonment of over 3 months, or, in case of flogging, more than 100 lashes, or capital punishment, were to be remitted to the judgment of the Head of the Government. Captain Caine was at the same time appointed Superintendent of the Goal, which had been hastily constructed, but as all minor offences committed by the Chinese were punished by a free resort to bambooing, the Gaol, small as it was, was never crowded while this rough and ready system of adminstering justice by means of the bamboo continued in force. The next Gazette (May 15, 1841) published the first Census of Hongkong. By some clerical blunder, however, the hamlefc of Stanley, whhich never counted more than a few hundred iphabitants, was put down as having 2,000 Chinese inhabitants, and accordingly received the false description of * the capital (of Hongkong>, a large town.' It never was anything of the sort. Correcting this first Census table accordingly, we find that there were in Hongkong, in May 1841, altogether 5,650 Chinese residents, viz. 2,550 villagers and fishermen, scattered over 20^ hamlets among which Shaukiwan and Wongnaichung take a prominent place, 800 Chinese in the Bazaar, 2,000 Chinese living in boats on the harbour, and 300 labourers from Kowloon. The Census also states that at that time the population of Tsimshatsui (not included in the Census) amounted to 800 Chinese. One of the most important measures of Captain Elliot's^ regime was the declaration of the freedom of the port whick constituted in fact the most powerful incentive to bring trade to Hongkong. By a proclamation issued at Macao (June 7, 1841), Captain Elliot informed the merchants and traders at 172 CHAPTER XII. €auton and in all parts of the Empire, that they and their ships liave free permission to resort to and trade at the port of Hongkong where they will receive fall protection from the High Officers of the British nation and that, ' Hongkong being on the shores of the Chinese Empire, neither will there be any charges on imports and exports payable to the British Government/ By these words Captain Elliot appears to assign, as a rahoti d'etre of the port of Hongkong, the topographical fact that Hongkong is situated within the waters of China. It is jusb possible, though we have no further grounds for the inference, that ElHot may have cherished the notion that the Chinese Government were justified in levying, outside the limits of Hongkong, in Chinese waters, duties on all goods entering or leaving the harbour of Hongkong. H" so, he virtually treated Hongkong as an open port of China, whilst admitting the Island to be Her Majesty's Possession. Sir Henry Pottinger subsequently rectified this assumption by a clear distinction of the British Possession of Hongkong from the five ports of •China, opened by the Nanking Treaty. That Elliot now had reason to believe that a permanent ^settlement on Hongkong Island would eventually receive the formal sanction of the Home Government, appears from the fact •that he now advertized (June 7, iS-tl) a sale, by public auction, 'of the annual quit-rent of 100 lots of land, having water frontage, on Saturday the 12th instant, as also of 100 town or :suburburban lots.' As many merchants had purchased land from natives. Captain Elliot notified them at the same time that ■arrangements with natives for the cession of laud were to be made only through an officer deputed by the Government and that all native occupiers of land would be constrained to establish -their rights. It was originally intended to dispose by this first land sale of a sufficiently large number of lots, situated both North and South of the present Queen's Road, which had been already roughly staked out by this time. But it was found impossible to survey and stake out, in time for the sale (though l^ostponed from 8th to 14th June), more than 40 lots, all situated THE ADMINISTRATION OF CAPTAIN ELLIOT. 173 along the shore, North of Queen's Road, and having each a sea frontage of 100 feet. Six of tliese lots were reserved for the Crown, one remained unsold, but the remaining 33 lots, put up at an upset price of £10, were sold (June 14, 1841) at an average rate of £71, prices ranging from £20 to £2G5 per lot. Those 33 lots amounted in the aggregate to an extent not much exceeding nine acres. The annual payment bid for them was £3,032. This amounts to an average of £7 8s. G^/. per 1,000 square feet, a price which is equal to a rate of more than £323 per annum for the acre. The principle of the sale was somewhat undefined, but it was understood to be an annual rate of quit rent, if that tenure should be sanctioned by the Home Government, coupled with the condition of prepayment of one year's rent, and a deposit of $500 (which, however, was never claimed by the Government) as a guarantee that the purchaser would, within six months, spend at least $1,000 on buildings or other improvements of the lot. There are on record several criticisms of this first land sale. Sir H. Pottinger stated (March 27, 1841) that the tenure which Captain Elliot proposed to obtain was wholly unprecedented and untenable, and later on (November 19, 1844) he added that Captain Elliot had not been armed with any authority to dispose of the public lands. Mr. A Matheson (May 4, 1847) gave ib as his opinion that, had a sufficient number of sea frontage lots been put up for sale, the rate would not have much exceeded the upset i:>rice of £10, but that, owing to the number of lots being quite disproportionate to the number of competitors, a keeii- competition drove the price up to £100 and upwards, for some lots, and that the average of this was afterwards (unjustly) retained by the Government as the standard of value. The purchasers, somewhat sanguinely but honestly believed themselves entitled to receive eventually a perpetual lease at the prices afc which they had bought the land, because Captain Elliot wrote (June 17, 1841) to Jardine, Matheson & Co. and to Denfc & Co., declaring his purpose 'to move Her Majesty's Goveru- ment either to pass the lands in fee simple for one or two years purchase at the late rates or to charge them in future with 174 CHAPTER XII. no more than a nominal quit rent, if that tenure continues to oltain' When later on (April 10, 1843) it was undei-stood that the Government would only grant leases for 75 years, the Hongkong merchants had a real grievance which they thenceforth nursed industriously until they brought it before Parliament in 1847. The purchasers of those lots, who may be considered as the first British settlers on Hongkong, were the following firms or individuals, viz. : Jardine, Matheson & Co. ; Heerjeebhoy Bustomjee ; Dent & Co. ; Macvicar & Co. ; Gemmel & Co. ; John Smith ; D. Rustomjee ; Gribble, Hughes & Co. ; Lindsay & Co. ; Hooker and Lane ; Holliday & Co. ; F. Leighton & Co. Innes, Fletcher & Co. ; Jamieson and How ; Fox, Rawson & Co. Turner & Co. ; Robert Webster ; R. Gully ; Charles Hart €aptain Larkins ; P. F. Robertson ; Captain Morgan ; Dirom & Co. ; Pestonjee Cowasjee ; and Framjee Jamsetjee. This sale was followed by the erection of godowns and houses, and the building of a seawall, the road alongside of which was thenceforth {in imitation of Macao parlance) called the Praya. The following places were the first to be utilized for commercial buildings, and private residences of merchants, viz. : West Point, the Happy Yalley, Spring Gardens, the neighbourhood of the present Naval Yard (Canton Bazaar) ; the sites now occupied by Butterfield and Swire, by the Hongkong Hotel, by the China Mail, by the Hongkong Dispensary (which can trace back its history to 1841); the slope below Wyndham Street ; Pottinger Street, Queen's Road €entral (the Bazaar) ; the site below Gough Street enclosed by a ring fence (Gibb, Livingston & Co.); Jervois Street (where the first Chinese piece goods trade settled), ending in the Upper Bazaar ; the Civil Hospital site ; and Saiyiugpun. Captain Elliot, whose attention and presence was required by the troubles brewing at Canton, consequent upon the disavowal of the Chuenpi Treaty, appointed Mr. A, R. Johnston, the Second Superintendent of Trade, to be Acting Governor of the Island of Hongkong. Mr. Johnston accordingly assumed charge of the local Government on behalf of Captain Elliot THE ADMINISTRATION OF CAPTAIN ELLIOT. 175 (June 22, 1841), assisted by Mr. J. R. Morrison, the Chinese Secretary. How little these three men, trained in the East India Company's service, understood the important bearing which the maintenance of free trade principles had on the future welfare of the new Colony, appears from the fact that in one of his earliest dispatches Mr. Johnston forwarded (June 28, 1841), with Captain Elliot's approval, a recommendation framed by Mr. Morrison to impose in England a differential duty of a "penny per pound on tea imported from Hongkong. Happily the sinister suggestion was not listened to. But a mournful time now set in at Hongkong. With the progress made in terracins: the hill sides, in road makinsf, and excavatinsr sites for houses, a peculiar malarial fever spread everywhere, thence- forth known as Hongkong fever. This fever arose wherever the ground, having been opened up for the first time, was exposed for some time to the heat of the sun and then to heavy rains. The troops encamped at West Point, above the present Fairlea (where the cantonment lines can still be traced) and below it, suffered most particularly. But the Chinese settlei*s at the foot of the same hill in the district called Saiyingpun (lit. Western English Camp) suffered likewise severely. Deaths now became frequent occurrences also among the European community, hospitals had to be hastily constructed, and the first cemetery (near the present St. Francis' Chapel, above Queen's Road East) began to fill. The death, by fever, of the Senior Naval Officer, Sir H. le Fleming Senhouse (June 13, 1841) cast a gloom over the whole community. Moreover, this outburst of sickness was but the precursor of a terrific typhoon which soon after swept over the Colony. During the night from July 21sfc to 22nd, 1841, the harbour and the new settlement on shore presented a weird scene of heart-rending disasters. The overcrowded and badly built hospi- tals were all levelled to the ground, mat houses, booths and shanties were shattered and their fragments whirled through the air. Almost every bungalow or house on shore was unroofed, 6 foreign ships were totally lost, 4 were driven on shore, 22 176 CHAPTER XII. i were dismasted or otherwise injured, and the loss of life among: the Chinese boat population was very great. The general impression among foreign residents daring that dreadful night was that ' the last days of Hongkong seemed to be approaching/ Nevertheless, as soon as the typhoon was over, everybody set to work with unabated energy to repair the damages. The sick were sent on board improvised floating hospitals, the barracks, mat houses, bungalows, godowns, booths and huts were speedily made habitable again. When the typhoon recurved and, during the night of 25th to 2Gth, again bui*st over Hongkong, and levelled once more to the ground every fi'ail structure, the residents of Hongkong had learned a valuable lesson : they now commenced to build a new style of godowns, such as should stand a typhoon, and houses which combined with spacious verandahs also strong walls and substantial roofs. There was little loss of life daring the two typhoons among the Euroj^ean community. The Chinese boat people were the principal sufferers. Nevertheless His benevolent Majesty, the Emperor of China, rejoiced when he heard the news. Kikung and Eliang, the Viceroy and Governor of Canton, sent a hasty memorial to Peking, stating that at Hongkong innumerable foreign ships had been dashed to pieces, that innumerable foreign soldiers and Chinese traitors had been swept into the sea, that all their tents and matslieds, the new Praya, and so forth, had been utterly annihilated and that the sea was literally covered with corpses. On receipt of this news, the Emperor went forthwith in festive- procession to the temple of the dragon god of the seas, and solemnly returned thanks for the destruction of Hongkong. An Imperial Edict, published with rejoicing all over the Empire^ also proclaimed the judgment that had fallen on Hongkong, with the same display of inhumanity, contrary to the leading principle of Confucian ethics which declares humaneness to b& the essential characteristic of civilized humanity. This typhoon, by which Captain Elliot and Commodore Bremer were overtaken on their way (in the cutter Louise) from Macao to Hongkong, and themselves shipwrecked and THE ADMINISTRATION OF CAPTAIN ELLIOT. 177 well-nigh captured by the Chinese, was followed a few weeks later by a conflagration (August 12, 1841) which destroyed the greater part of the Bazaar. The very first period in the history of Hongkong brought thus to the front the three great enemies of local prosperity, fever, typhoons and conflagrations. Never- theless the settlers persevered and the number of inhabitants steadily continued to increase from month to month. The provisional Government also continued to perfect its organization. A Harbour blaster and Marine Magistrate was now appointed, in the person of Lieutenant W. Pedder, R.N., with Mr. A. Lena as Assistant Harbour Master. The hill, on which the Harbour Master established his quarters, has ever since been known as Pedder's Hill. The Public Works Department was organized by the appointment of Mr. J. R. Bird as Clerk of Works. Finallv arranoements were made for the catablisliment of a Civil Hospital for foreign seamen. This was done under the influence of the generous offer of a donation of $12,000 by Mr. Herjeebhoy Rustomjee (June 23, 1841), and the arrangements were placed under the direction of a Committee consisting of Messrs. A. Anderson (x\ssistant Surgeon to H.M. Superintendents), James Matheson and J. R. Morrison. Unfortunately, however, the Committee neglected to secure payment of the donation. On July 29, 1841, H.iM.S. PhUfjeton arrived in Hongkong with dispatches informing Captain Elliot of the disapproval of the Chuenpi Treaty by Her Majesty's Government and of the appointment of Sir H. Pottinger as Plenipotentiary. Captain Elliot's administration ended on August 10, 1841. A fortnight later he left Macao, with his family, accompanied by Sir J. J. Gordon Bremer, en route for Europe (August 24, 1841). As he embarked on the Atalanta, a Portuguese fort fired a salute of thirteen guns, but we read of no public address presented to him, nor of any honours bestowed either by the Honofkone: communitv or by the Government on the man who found Hongkong a barren rock and left it a prosperous city. The new settlers on Hongkong, feeling the grievances they had in connection with Elliot's attitude towards the opium trade 12 178 CHAPTER XII. trade and his dishonoured Treasury bills, and subsequently learning the disavowal by the Government of his land sales, were unable at the time to do justice to Elliot's real merits. They indeed gave to what was once the most romantic glen on the Island the name * Elliot's Yale,' but in later years, when it was shorn of much of its beauty, called it ' Glenealy.' Early in 1842, Sir Robert Peel, who soon after appointed Elliot as Consul- General for Texas (June 1, 1842), did some tardy justice to Elliot's memory by stating in the House of Commons, *tliat, without giving any opinion on the conduct or character of Captain Elliot, during the occupancy of his difficult and embar- rassing position at Canton, he nevertheless was disposed, from his intercourse with him since he returned home, to repose the highest confidence in his integrity and ability.' -I4> -T~^t *" CHAPTER XIII. '>^ The Administration of Sir Henry Pottinger. Aiifjust 10, 1841, to May 8, 1844. ,IR Henry Pottinger arrived (August 10, 1841) in Macao after what was then called * an astonishingly short passage * of sixty-seven days, by the overland route. It is stated that his arrival was warmly hailed by all the British residents. No wonder, for with his advent as Her Majesty's Sole Plenipotentiary and Minister Extraordinary to the Court of Peking (charged also with the duties of the Chief Superintendency of Trade) doubts, as to the permanency of the British occupation of Hongkong, began to vanish. iSot that he proclaimed the Queen's approval of the cession of the Island, or that he came to undertake the Government of the new settlement. But Sir Henry at once gave to those that met him the impression that the days of vacillation and yielding to Chinese cunning and duplicity were over, and that England was going now simply to state its grievances, formulate its demands and insist upon immediate redress. Sir H. Pottino^er did not disturb Mr. Johnston in his office of Acting Governor, and that meant a good deal. As the latter had now ceased to be Superintendent of Trade, Sir Henry appointed him Deputy Sui^erintendent. But what confirmed the general belief now gaining ground that Hongkong would never be surrendered by the British Government, was an announcement which Sir H. Pottinger made in a Notification issued at Macao (August 12, 1841) stating that 'the arrangements which had been made by his predecessor (Captain Elliot), connected with the Island of Hongkong, should remain in force until the pleasure of Her Majesty regarding that Island and those 180 CHAPTER XIII. arrangemonts slionld be received.' Mr. Johnston accordingly continued his duties as Acting Governor, whilst Sir H. Pottinger went North with the expedition, and occupied towards Sir Henry the same position which he had previously held in relation to Captain Elliot. In fact, Mr. Johnston acted 'on behalf of Sir H. Pottinger as Governor of the Island until Sir Henry himself assumed the Government of the Colony. About noon on August 21, 1841, Sir H. Pottinger arrived in Hongkong by the steam-frigate Queen. He landed immediately,, visited all the departmental offices, inspected the public works and expressed himself much pleased with the appearance and evident progress of the new Colony. In consequence of dispatches which arrived just then, he directed Mr. Johnston to discontinue all further grants or sales of land, but allowed Captain Elliot's arrangements to remain as he found them. He gave orders for the expedition to start for the North at once, leaving behind seven war-vessels, with the steamer Hooglily under the command of Captain J. Nias, C.B., to guard the harbour and mouth of thc^ Canton River, whilst Major-General Burrell, with a garrison consisting of a wing of the 49th Regiment, the 37th Madras Native Infantry and the Bengal Yolunteers, was to see to the defence of the Colony. Literally overwhelmed and oppressed with the variety of affairs that demanded instant attention. Sir H. Pottinger returned in the evening on board the Queen, paid another hurried visit to some of the Govcriunent offices next morning and then started (August 22, 1841) to overtake the expedition, having spent in the Colony barely twenty-four hours. The work of organizing the administrative machinery of the Government now continued unchecked. A Colonial Surgeon's Department, under Mr. H. Holgate, was established (August, 1841) but subsequently disallowed. A Notary Public and Coroner was appointed (September, 1841) in the person of Mr. S. Fearon, who acted also as Interpreter and Clerk of Court. Captain G. F. Mylius took charge of the Land Office (September, 1841), with the able assistance of Lieutenant Sargent wdio acted as land surveyor and made the first map of building lots. A small THE ADMINISTRATION OF SIR H. POTTINGER. 181 granite Gaol building, on the site now occupied by Victoria Oaol, was completed, and the erection of a Court House near the site of the present Masonic Hall was commenced (October, 1841). At the same tmie Colonel Burrell constructed a fort on Kellett Island for the protection of the eastern section of the harbour, destroyed two masonry forts erected by the Chinese afe Tsimshatsui in 1839, and constructed in their place two batteries for heavy pieces in the same locality. On the arrival of the French Frigate Erigone (December 8, 1841), which brought •Colonel de Jancigny on a commercial mission to China, the port was for the first time saluted. The American men-of-war delayed this courtesy for several years longer. The. progress of Hongkong was furthered by disturbances which occurred at Canton (December 14, 1841), causing a number of European merchants to remove their offices from Canton to Hongkong, and by the blockade of the Canton River by Captain Nias' Squadron (December 1, 1841) which caused numbers of salt junks to resort to Hongkong and to make the Colony, for some time after, the centre of a considerable trade in salt. On his return from the North (February 1, 1842), Sir H. Pottinger at -once countermanded this blockade and ordered restoration to be made to the Chinese whose junks and cargoes had been sold by auction. He also discovered to his great annoyance, that the Acting Governor, Mr. A. R. Johnston, under a misconception of the hurried instructions given to him on August 22, 1842, had framed rules for fresh grants of Crown-land and had allowed additional lands to be assigned to applicants. Sir H. Pottinger, therefore, now renewed his prohibition against granting land to general applicants. Nevertheless, he did make some grants to persons chiefly in the employ of the Government and also to some of the charitable institutions such as the Morrison Education Society, the Medical Missionary Society (Dr. Hobson), the future St. Paul's College, and the Roman Catholic Church. Without reference to Elliot's former declarations of the freedom of the port. Sir H. Pottinger issued (February G, 1842) a proclamation notifying that, pending the receipt of the Queen's- 182 CHAPTER XIII. gracious and royal pleasure, fclie harbour of Hongkong (like that of Chusan) should be considered a free port and that no manner of customs, port duties or any other charges, should be levied on any ships or vessels of whatever nation or on their cargoes. [ He then proceeded (February 15, 1842) to Macao and removed the whole establishment of the Superintendency of Trade from thence to Hongkong (February 27, 1842). The staff of this Department (under Mr. A. R. Johnston, as Deputy Superin- tendent), consisted of E. Elmslie (Secretary and Treasurer),. J. R. Morrison (Chinese Secretary and Interpreter), L. d'Almada e Castro, A. W. Elmslie, and J. M. d'Almada e Castro (Clerks), Rev. Ch. Giitzlaff and R. Thom (Joint Interpreters), J. B.. Rodriguez, W. H. Medhurst, and Kazigachi Kiukitchi -(Clerks). These two measures of Sir Henry, the removal of the Superin- tendency to Hongkong, and the encouragement he held out, by the confirmation of the freedom of the port, to Chinese and foreign vessels to resort to Hongkong, Avere generally viewed, in combination with the purchase of the Commissariat Buildings, and the large sums now spent in the erection of barracks,, hospitals, naval and victualling stores, as an indirect intimation that the settlement on Hongkong would sooner or later receive official recognition as a British Colony. Even the news of the debate which took place in the House of Commons on the subject (March 15, 1842), unsatisfactory as it was, did not shake the faith now generally placed in the future of Hongkong. For the words of Sir Robert Peel (who had meanwhile stepped into the place of Lord Palmerston) 'that, really, during the progress of hostilities in China, he must decline to commit the Government by answering the question as to what Avere the intentions of the Government regarding the Island of Hongkong,' were read by the residents, in the light of the above measures of Sir H. Pottinger. Ever since this belief in the permanency of the British occupation of Hongkong gained ground, some of the leading British merchants, instead of merely opening branch offices at Hongkong, began to break up their establishments at Macao THE ADMINISTRATION OF SIR H. POTTINGER. 183 and Canton and to remove their offices to tlie new settlement.. Contrary to the views of a minority which stnbbornly preferred Canton, they ex^Dected that Chinese trade would speedily gravitate towards Hongkong, if but the freedom of the port were strictly and vigorously maintained by the Government. Indeed, the experience of the Colony's first eighteen months fully bore out the soundness of their views. As soon as the rumour of the; expected permanency of the new settlement began to spread [ abroad, there set in a rapid and steady influx of Chinese traders/ as well as artizans and labourers flocking together in Hongkong from all the neighbouring districts, and business was flourishing. In October 1841, the total population of Hongkong, including both the troops and residents of all nationalities, was estimated to amount to 15,000 people, three times the amount at which the population stood six months previous. With the advent of the cool season (October, 1841) sickness was noticed to decline all of a sudden and the spirits of the community were considerably cheered by the appearance, on the new Queen's Road, of the first carriage and pair imported from Manila, a;^ a sign of the coming comforts of civilization. A fresh indication of the intentions of the Government to retain permanent possession of Hongkong, was given by a Notification of Sir H. Pottinger, which appeared in the first locally printed newspaper, the Friend of China and Honghong Gazette, issued on March 24, 1842, under the editorship of the Rev. J. L. Schuck and Mr. James "White (subsequently M.P. for Brighton). In this Notification (dated Hongkonsr Government House, March 22, 1842) Sir H. Pottinger announced his intention of appointing a Land Committee to investigate claims, to mark off boundaries, to fix the direction and breadth of the road, now for the first time called ' Queen's Road,' and other public roads, to order the removal of encroachments, and to assign new locations for dwellings of Europeans and Chinese. At the same time, Sir H. Pottinger expressly notified that no purchases or renting of ground from the natives, formerly or now in possession, would be recognized or confirmed* 184 CHAPTER XIII. unless the previous sanction of the constituted Authorities should have been obtained, 'it being the basis of the footing on which the Island of Hongkong has been taken possession of and is to be held pending the Queen's royal and gracious commands, that the proprietary of the soil is vested in and appertains solely to the Crown.' The same principle was also applied to reclamations of foreshore. But the fact that Sir H. Pottinger referred in a public document to an officially recognized and defined footing on w^hich the Island had been taken possession of, convinced everybody now that the formal recognition of Hongkong as a British Colony had already been decided upon and was only delayed pending diplomatic and war-like dealings with the Peking Governnient. The promised Land Committee, consisting of Major Mal- colm, Captain Meik, Lieutenant Sargent, Surgeon W. Woosnam, and Captain J. Pascoe, was appointed (March 29, 1842) and instructed to recommend the amount of remuneration to be given to native Chinese, for ground which was in their possession previous to the British occupation of the Island and which had been appropriated, to select spots for public landing places, to define the limits of cantonments, to fix the extent of the ground to be reserved for H.M. Naval Yard and for private commercial ventures in the shape of patent slips, and finally to recommend a watering place with a good running stream of water to be reserved for the shipping. The points previously mentioned and not now included in the instructions of the Committee were no doubt left to the discretion of the Land Officer, Captain Mylius, who had been provided with a new Assistant, Mr. E. G. Reynolds. The separation of the Land Office from the Public Works Department was, however, soon after disapproved (May 17, 1842) by the Home Government. Another important problem which Sir H. Pottinger now took in hand was the regulation of the currency of the settle- ment. For this purpose he took the dollar for a standard and fixed the rate at which Indian coins and Chinese copper cash were to be accepted as legal tender. A proclamation (March THE ADMINISTRATION OF SIR H. POTTINGER. 185 29, 1842) stated, that two and a quarter Company's rupees should be equal bo one dollar; one rupee and two annas (or half a quarter) equal to half a dollar ; half a rupee and two annas equal to a quarter dollar; 1,200 cash equal to one dollar; 600 cash equal to half a dollar; 300 cash equal to a quarter dollar ; 538 cash equal to a rupee; 26G cash equal to a half a rupee; and 133 cash equal to a quarter of a rupee. Subsequently (April 27, 1842) Sir H. Pottinger issued, at the suggestion of the leading English firms, a further proclamation declaring Mexican or other Republican dollars to be the standard in all matters of trade unless otherwise particularly specified. Sir H. Pottinger organized also a Post Office (under Mr. Fitz Gibbon, succeeded by Mr. Mullaly and R. Edwards), which was to receive and deliver, free of any charge, letters or parcels. This office was located on the hill just above the present Cathedral, and the communication between the office and the ships was under the charge of the Harbour Master. The erection of substantial barracks on Cantonment Hill (S. of present Wellington Barracks) and at Stanley and Aberdeen, was also taken in hand and pushed on vigorously. All these measures of Sir H. Pottinger contradicted the rumour which was persistently going about that the cession of Hongkong was not officially recognized and that the Government was prepared to relinquish Hongkong in case the Chinese Government should, in the coming negotiations, raise any serious objection on that score, and to be satisfied in that case with the opening of some treaty ports. That the Home Government liad at this time, in order not to prejudice the pending negotiations with the Chinese Government, left the question of the permanency of the new Colony in abeyance, is evident from the fact that in June, 1842, just before leaving Hongkong to rejoin the expedition, Sir H. Pottinger received a dispatch from the Earl of Aberdeen 'directing that this Island should be considered a mere military position and that all buildings &c., not required in that light, should be discontinued.' Sir H. Pottinger, however, knew perfectly well that the necessities of British trade would 186 CHAPTER XIII. be sure to bring sooner or later a ratification of the cession of Hongkong, regarding which he stated in a dispatch to Lord Stanley (July 17, 1843) that he had always been of opinion that the sole or at least chief object of it was to secure an emporium of trade. The fact that Sir H. Pottinger's measures all rested on the assumption that the occupation of Hongkong would never be annulled, gave a fresh impetus to the growth of the settlement. In March, 1842, the population, then estimated at over 15,000 people, was stated to include 12,361 Chinese, mostly labourers and artizans, attracted to Hongkong by the high wages obtainable here, and numbers of large buildings were reported to be in course of erection. The Central Market, then South of Queen's Road, opposite its present site, was formally opened (June 10, 1842) and farmed out to a Chinaman (Afoon); all the roads were improved and extended, a good road, in the direction of Stanley, completed as far as Taitamtuk (June, 1842), and a picnic house built at Little Hongkong by Mr. Johnston, Major Caine and a number of other private subscribers. Apart from all these signs of material progress, there are also evidences of the higher interests of religion and education receiving now recognition and attention in Hongkong. The building of a Roman Catholic church was commenced, in June 1842, on a site in Wellington Street granted by Government. A Baptist cha|3el was opened in Queen's Road (July 7, 1842) by the Rev. J. L. Schuok, by subscriptions obtained from the foreign residents and visitors. The Morrison Education Society of Canton and Macao, which for years past had supported various Mission Schools in the Straits and in China by money grants and (in 1841) started at Macao a training school (under Mr. and Mrs. Brown), now arranged to remove its establishment to* Hongkong and commenced (October, 1842) building a large house on Morrison Hill on a site granted by Sir H. Pottinger {February 22, 1842), who became the patron of the institution (April 5, 1842). In autumn 1842, a Naval Chaplain, Mr. Phelps and Mr. A. R. Johnston started a subscription by means of which a room was erected on the site of the present Parade ground THE ADMINISTRATION OF SIR H. POTTINGER. 187 for occasional services in connection with the Church of England or any other Protestant denomination. When the news of the conckision of the Nanking Treaty and the consequent confirmation of the cession of Hongkong reached the settlers (September 9, 1842), no particular rejoicing took place, for the recognition of the cession had all along been to the local community a mere question of time or of official etiquette. The merchants were yet unaware of the serious crisis now at hand for the commerce of the Colony in consequence of the cessation of the war and the opening of five Chinese ports. On the contrary, the expectation appears to have been entertained that these measures would forthwith enhance the prospects of the Colony. ' We are nearly bewildered,' apostrophized the Editor of the Friend of China (^e\-)temhev 22, 1842), 'at the magnificence of the prosperous career which seems now l)efore us. Our Island will be the single British possession in China. What more in praise of its prospects can we say than this ? Already we hear of teeming projects fraught with good for our Island.' The conclusion of the war and the departure of the fleet and troops, which considerably desolated the harbour, aifected for the present the social life of the communitv far more than its commerce, which continued in its old grooves yet for a little while longer. With the return to Europe of the expeditionary forces, which left behind (December 24," 1842) only 700 men as a garrison, the settlement now entered at last upon its normal condition of a purely commercial community. Consequent upon the conclusion of the Treaty of Nanking, the British Govei-nment took immediate steps for the formal organisation of a distinctly Colonial Government at Hongkong, bv transferrincr the manaofement of local affairs from the Foreign Office to the Colonial Office. The Superintendency of Trade and the direction of the new Consular Service in China, subject to the Foreign Office, were, however, for the present combined with the office of Governor and Commander-in-Chief of the Colony. On this basis an Order in Council was issued (January 4, 1843) establishing in Hongkong the Court of Justice, with 188 CHAPTER XIII. Criminal and Admiralty Jurisdiction, which nominally had existed, since the time of Lord Xapier, in Chinese waters, under an Order of the Privy Council of December 0, IS^ijThis Court was now endowed with jurisdiction over British subjects residing within the Colony or on the mainland of China or on the high seas within 100 miles of the coast thereof. Three months later (April 5, 1843), the Privy Council issued Letters Patent, under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom, erecting the settlement •on the Island of Hongkong into a Crown Colony by Charter, and on the same day a Royal "Warrant was issued, under the Queen's Signet and Sign Manual, appointing the Chief Superin- tendent of Trade, Sir Henry Pottinger, Baronet, K.C.B., as Governor and Commander-in-Chief of the Colony of Hongkong and its Dependencies, to enact laws and to govern the Colony with or without the assistance of a Council. A erand ceremonv •was performed at Government House on May 20, 184:o, when Sir ^\'illiam Parker, by order of the Queen, invested Sir H. Pottint'er with the insio^nia of a Knio'ht Commander of •the Order of the Bath. AVhen the ratifications of the Nanking Treaty were exchanged (June 26, 1843) between Sir H. Pottinger •and the Chinese Commissioners who had come to Honsfkong for the purpose, the Charter of Hongkong and the Royal Warrant were read out at Government House before a large assembly of residents, and subsequently published • (June 20, 1843) by proclamation in the Gazette. The same proclamation fixed the name of Her Majesty's new possession as ' the Colony of Hongkong,' (not Hong Kong, as previously used), and the name of the city as * Victoria.' The Governor, having previously (June 17, 1843) sworn in Mr. Johnston (Deputy Superin- tendent of Trade), Major Oaiue (Chief Magistrate) and Mr. 0. B. Hillier (Assistant Magistrate), as the first Justices of the Peace, now appointed 43 more persons, among whom there where 15 officials, as additional Justices of the Peace. As these unofficial Justices represent the leading merchants of Xhis earliest period of the Colony, we append their names. They were, A. Jardine, A. Matheson, W. Morgan, TV. Stewart, THE ADMINISTRATION OF SIR H. POTTINGER. ISO* O. Braine, J. Dent, F. C. Drnmmond, D. L. Burn, W. Le Geyt, P. Dudgeon, T. W. L. ^lackean, H. Dundas, C. Kerr,. J. F. Edger, A. Fletcher, J. A. Gibb, W. P. Livingston, W. Gray, H. R. Parker, J. Holliday, J. Wise, J. A. Mercer, P. Stewart, J. White, A. Wilkinson and J. M. Smith. The- office of Deputy Superintendent of Trade having been abolished, Mr. Johnston was now appointed Assistant and Registrar to the- Superintendent of Trade, with about the same staff as before. The Colonial Governmenc was now organized as follows : — Sir H. Pottinger (Governor), Captain G. T. Brooke (Military Secretary and A.D.C.), Captain T. Ormsby (Extra A.D.C.)^ Major-General G. C. D'Aguilar (Lieutenant Governor), Lieuten- ant-Colonel G. A, Malcolm (Colonial Secretary), R. Woosnam (Deputy Colonial Secretary), Ch. E. Stewart (Treasurer and Financial Secretary), J. R. Morrison (Chinese Secretary and Interpreter, afterwards succeeded by Rev. Ch. Giitzlaff), Rev. V. Stanton (Colonial Chaplain), R. Burgass (Legal Adviser), A. Andei*son (Colonial Surgeon), L. d'Almada e Castro (Chief Clerk), D. Stephen (Book-keeper), Major W. Caine (Chief Magistrate), Ch. B. Hillier (Assistant Magistrate), D. R. Caldwell (Interpreter), Lieutenant W. Redder (Harbour MasLer)^. A. Lena (Assistant Harbour Master), A. T. Gordon (Land Officer and Civil Engineer), Ch. St. George Cleverly (Assistant. Surveyor), W. Tarrant (Assistant to Land Officer), M. Bruce (Inspector of Buildings), and F. Spring (Postmaster). An Executive Council was formed, consisting of the Hon. A. R. Johnston and the Hon. AV. Caine, and a Legislative Council, from which for the present unofficial members were shut out, was constituted. It consisted of the Hon. A. R. Johnston, the Hon. J. R. Morrison (who died soon after, greatly lamented), and the Hon. W. Caine, with R. Burgass (the Governor's legal adviser) as Clerk of Council. A public seal was supplied to the Colony from England (September 5, 1843) and Her Majesty's approval was obtained (December 6, 1843) for the above-mentioned appropriation of the name Yietoria for the rising city of Hongkong. 190 CHAPTER XIII. During the year 1843, the religious and missionary agencies in the Colony bestirred themselves considerably in the general interest. Funds bad been raised in 18-1:2 for the erection of a Colonial Church, at first intended to be a sort of Union Church for both Churchmen and Nonconformists. A Colonial Chaplain having been appointed in England at the request of the local Government, which disapproved the proposed union, services were conducted (since June, 1843) by Naval Chaplains in a temporary structure now called the ' Matshed Church,' and a building (the present St. John's Cathedral) was ordered to be commenced at Government expense and meanwhile dedicated to St. John (October 17, 1843), though building operations were delayed for several years as the Home Government postponed its sanction. It was, however, locally decided that the Colonial Chaplain should have sole charge of the Church. The Chaplain, Eev. V. J. Stanton, preached his first sermon in the Colonial Matshed Church on December 24th, 1843. The R. C. Prefect Apostolic, Fra Antonio Feliciani, consecrated the building erected by him at the corner of- Wellington and Pottinger Streets as the R. C. Church of the Conception, on June 18th, 1843, when a Seminary for native clergy was opened in connection with it. The Mohammedans built (in 1843) a Mosque on the hill thence- forth called Mosque Gardens (Moloshan). The Chinese, who had already four temples from 75 to 100 years old, viz. one at Aplichow (dating from 1770 A.D.), one at Stanley, one in Spring Gardens (Taiwongkung), and one at Tunglowan (Causeway Bay), commenced building their City Temple (Sheng-wong-miu) on the site of the present Queen's College. The American Baptist Mission, under Dr. Deane and Dr. Ball, started in 1843 a Chinese (Tiechiu) Church in the Upper Bazaar (Sheungwan Market). In addition to the establishment of the Morrison Education Society's School on Morrison Hill (opened November 1, 1843), Dr. Legge of the London Missionary Society transferred to Hongkong the Society's Malacca College, opening (November, 1843) a Pre- paratory School and a Seminary for the training of Chinese ministers, which was (in autumn 1844) located on the Loudon THE ADMINISTRATION OF SIR H. POTTINGER. 191 Mission premises in Aberdeen and Staunton Streets as the Anglo- €hinese College (Ying-wa Shii-iin). The Colonial Chaplain, Rev. Y. J. Stanton, immediately on his arrival (December 22, 1843), made preparations for the opening of a Training School for native ministers in connection with the Church of England, on a site previously granted for the purpose by the Government {May 2G, 1843), under the name of St. Paul's College. In autumn 1843, the Protestant Missionaries of Hongkong (Legge, Medhurst, Milne, Bridgman and J. Stronach) commenced the work which eventually resulted in a new Chinese translation of the Bible, known as the Delegates Yersion, the best in style and diction (though not in literal accuracy) that has ever been produced to the present day. Several Hospitals also were established during this year. The Medical Missionary Society of Canton and Macao (originally established in 1838 through the efforts of Dr. Peter Parker, and largely aided by the London ^lissionary Society) opened a Hospital (June 1, 1843), under Dr. Hobson of the London Mission, on the hill now occupied by the Naval Hospital (above Wantsai). The Seamen's Hospital (on the site of the present Civil Hospital), started (as above-mentioned) at the instigation of a promise of a donation by Mr. J. Eustomjee (which was never paid), was built by means of a public subscription of ^6,000 and with additional funds generously advanced by Jardine, Matheson & Co., and opened by the Committee, in August, 1843 (with 50 beds), under the charge of Dr. Peter Young (of the Hongkong Dispensary, then located in the 'Bird Cage,' South of its present location), who gave his services gratuitously. These Hospitals, together with the Naval and Military Hospitals (on the site of the present Barracks near Hawan) were soon overcrowded Avith patients. For in summer 1843 occurred an extraordinary outbreak of Hongkong fever which, during the six months from May to October, carried off by death 24 per cent, of the troops, and 10 per cent, of the European civilians. It was noticed that this virulent fever ravaged chiefly the extreme eastern and western ends of the settlement, whilst 192 CHAPTER XIII. the central parts of the city and especially the Gaol escaped almost untouched. At "Westpoint Barracks (above Pokfulam Road), where the Indian troops had lost nearly half their number in 1842, sickness was so universal in 1843, that the European troops stationed there were hastily removed (July 20, 1843) on board ships in the harbour. In the year 1843, the total strength of the European and native troops was only ],52(), but, as 7,893 cases were treated in the hospitals during the same year, it appears that on an average ench man passed through hospital more than five times during that dreadful year. The deaths among the troops on the Island amounted to 440, out of 1,520 men, or 1 in 3 J, the cause of death being fever in 155 cases, dysentery in 157 cases, diarrhoea in 80 cases. The number of men invalided or unfit for duty was such that frequently no more than one half of the men of a company were able to attend parade and sometimes there were hardly five or six men, out of 100, fit for duty. The sanitation question was now at last taken up by the Government, and a Committee of Public Health and Cleanliness was appointed (August IG, 1843) with authority to enforce I'igid sanitary rules among all classes of residents, but no effective measures were undertaken. Those rules were subsequently formulated by Ordinance No. 5 of March 20, 1844. The land policy of the Government caused considerable dissatisfaction among the merchants. There was no objection on the part of the mercantile community to a revenue being- derived from laud; on the contrary they were of opinion that, Hongkong being guaranteed to be a free port, long leases and annual rents should be the sole source of revenue, to the exclusion of all other forms of taxation, such as duties on goods sold by auction, auctioneers' licence fees, registration fees, market farms, etc. Mr. A. Matheson expressed the unanimous views of Hongkong merchants when he stated that it was a most unadvisable course for the Government to attempt raising any other revenue than the land rents, at any rate until the Colony should have advanced considerably in wealth and population. THE ADMINISTRATION OF SIR H. POTTINGER. 193 But the o^reat grievance of the merchants was that the conditions of Captain Elh'ot's sales of land had not been fulfilled by the Government, and that merchants who, trusting in the good faith of the Government, had bought land and expended large sums on buildings in the expectation to have a permanent property at an annual quit rent, did not get the land granted to them in perpetuity but were peremptorily called upon to take leases of 75 years only or to surrender their land. There were minor complaints, that some of the sales of January, 1844, were fictitious, that there was a great deal of deception practised in the purchase of land in 184:3 and 1844 by parties who bought land without really intending to hold it, and that such practices had been encouraged by negligence on the part of the Government in enforcing the conditions of sale and in collecting the land rents. The Colonial Treasurer (R. M. Martin) corroborated some of these statements by the allegation he made that, out of the whole amount of land-sales from June 1841 to June 1844, amounting to £3,2*24 per annum, only £G41 had actually been paid. Land jobbing, in fact, was at that early time already one of the great evils of Hongkong. But it was not confined to merchants only, for the same Colonial Treasurer alleged that^ with the exception of the Attorney General (P. J. Stirling) and himself, almost every individual connected with the Government was identified with the purchase and sale of building land in the Colony. In fact it is evident that the land sales of 184;> and 1844 gave rise to the first local outburst of the gambling mania. ' Men of straw,' said Mr. A. Matheson, ' gambled in land and raised the price of it upon those people who were bond fide purchasers.' Proceeding on the legally correct but historically false and unjust assumption that the lawful land tenure of Hongkong dated from the exchange of treaty ratifications, the Secretary of State had laid down the following principles as a basis for the future land policy of the Government, (1) that the Governor should abstain fron alienating any laud for any time greater than might be necessary to induce tenants to erect substantial ^3 194 CHAPTER XIIL building's, (2) that no grants or sales of land tbat bad taken place previous to the excnange of the Treaty ratifications should be deemed valid, (o) that all equitable claims and titles of land-holders should be inquired into with a view to confirmation, (4) that the payment of rents should commence from the day when the Treaty ratifications were exchanged, and (5) that henceforth no lanil should be sold except by public auction, afc a reserved minimum price, equal to the value of the annual rent. On this basis, the Governor appointed (August 21, 1843) II Committee, consisting of A. T. Gordon, Land Officer and Colonial Engineer (Head of the new Public Works Department), ■Captain de Havilland (Assistant Surveyor), Ch. E. Hewarfc (Financial Secretary), assisted by R. Burgass (Legal Adviser). The instructions of this Committee were, (1) to inquire into the equitable claims and titles of all holders of land, (2) to define the classes to which particular lots should henceforth belong, (3) to fix their annual rent, and (4) to arrange for the sale of further lots. The Committee accordingly inquired into and settled all claims on land previously sold, and granted leases of 75 years in all cases of proved ow^nership. It was on the basis of the above-mentioned principles, that the land-sale of January 22, 1844, was held, wdien about 25 acres of land, divided into 101 lots, each ab^ut 105 feet square, v\'ere sold for £2,502 annual rental, prices ranging from £11 to £88 annual rental, at an average rate of £20 per lot or £100 per acre. The solution of the land question was pushed a step further by the establish- ment of a Registry Ofiice (Ordinance N'o. 3 of 1844), which provided ready means for tracing all titles to landed property. It was laid down by law that thenceforth all deeds, wills, oonveyanccs and mortgages relating to land, should be registered within a certain time after execution. But what kept discontent rankling in the minds of many was the fact that the Crown had i-efused and in spite of all remonstrances persisted in refusing to confirm, as a matter of right. Captain Elliot's land sales, disavowing in fact any grants of land made prior to the signing of the Treaty, and prohibiting the granting of perpetuities. THE ADMINISTRATION OF SIR H. POTTINGER. 105 The newly-established Lcgishifcive Council commenced its •sittino's on Janmiiy 11, 1844, and displayed an extraordinary amount of energ'y. AVithiii fonr months the Council compiled, •considered and passed twelve Colonial and five Consular Or- dinances, that is to say about one Ordinance each week. The Council began its labours by grappling, boldly rather than wisely, with one of the congenital diseases of the Chinese social organism, which has survived to the present day, viz. Chinese bond- servitude^ a contractual relationship which, from a moral point • of view, is indeed but a form of slavery but which differs widely from that kind of slaverv to which the Acts of Parliament had reference. Ordinance Xo. 1 of 1844, intended to define and promulgate the law relating to slavery in Hongkong, was promptly launched by the Council (February 28, 1844), but wisely disallowed by the Secretary of State on the ground that the English laws as to slavery extend by their own proper force and authority to Hongkong and require no further definition or jDromulgation. Among six other Ordinances passed on the same busy day (February 28, 1844), there was one (No. 2 of 1844) intended to regulate the printing of books and papers and the keeping of printing presses, which the conununity considered needless and premature bnt which remained on the statute book until 188G. Another (Xo. 3 of 1844), organising the Land Registry, above mentioned, also became law. A third (Xo. 4 of 1844), intended to obviate an evil which, to the present day, troubles the Colony in connection with the practice of shipmasters 'to leave behind destitute seamen (locally called beachcombers), was unfortunately disallowed. Another batch of five Ordinances was passed on March 20, 1844. One of them (Xo. 5 of 1844) dealt with the preservation of order and cleanliness and was subsequently repealed by Xo. 14 of 1845. Another (Xo. G of 1844) provided that, pending the arrival of Chief Justice Hulme, all civil suits should be settled by arbitration. Another Ordinance (Xo. 7 of 1844) limited legal interest to 12 per cent., whilst again another prohibited the unlicensed distillation of spirits (Xo. 8 of 1844). Three more Ordinances were passed on 196 CHAPTER XIII. April 10 and two on May 1, 1844, dealing with the illegitimate trade with ports North of'32° N. L. (No. 9 of April 10, 1844). with the regulation of summary proceedings before Justices of the Peace (No. 10 of April 10, 1844), with the licensing of public houses and the retail of spirits (No. 11 of May 1, 1844) and with the establishment and regulation of a Police Force (No. 12 of May 1, 1844). Unfortunately, however, the zeal of the Government io" organizing the various departments of the Civil Service, in push- ing on the erection of costly public buildings, and in legislating for a Colony which was yet in its swaddling clothes, appeared now to the colonists to outrun, not only the actual growth of the community, but even its prospective future for years to come. There were indeed twelve large English firms established in Hongkong, representing numerous constituencies in the United Kingdom. There were further half a dozen Indian firms,, chiefly Parsees, but ever since the Treaty of Nanking and the- introduction of steam navigation, the share of the Parsees in the China trade had commenced to dwindle down rapidly,. Ixjing gradually pushed out by Jewish firms from Bombay, and those Parsees who remained preferred to conduct their business at Canton. There were further some ten or so private English merchants of smaller means. Then one might point to the many brick godowns, commercial offices and private residences scattered along the shore. There were shipwrights (Kent and Babes) and even a patent slip at East Point, where Captain Lamont launched (February 7, 1843) the fii-st Hongkong-built vessel (the Celestial, 80 tons). There were, besides the Friend of China (established March 17, 1842), actually two other newspaper offices, the Eastern Globe and the Canton Reijister, The former of these papers published (January 1, 1843) a long list of local buildings and a series of lithographs of public edifices was published in London about the same cinie. In spite of this architectural activity. Sir H. Pottinger reported (January 22, 1844) that the erection of houses could by no means keep pace with the demand for them. Even so late as November 19, 1844, Lord Stanley pointed THE ADMINISTHATIOX OF SIR H. TOTTINGER. 19 J out that the terms fixed for the disposal of land bad evidentlj been no diseoarale interpreters, there would have been a chance for him to do a great work for the expansion of British trade, opening new markets, new trade routes, tapping Yunnan and Kwangsi, and keeping the French out of Annam and Tungkino-. But beini^ without anv diplomatic link of connection whatever and having neither agent nor friend at the Annamese Court, where French influence was already at work to keep off British intervention, nor even a capable interpreter, he naturally failed as signally with the Annamese officials as he had failed with Chinese diplomatists. Leaving Hongkong on October G, 1847, he in vain attempted to THE ADMINISTRATION OF SIR J. DAVIS. 219^ open lip negotiations with the officials on the coast near Hueh. Every Annamese officer appealed to refused to take any message. Leaving a letter addressed to the sovereign of Annam deposited on the beacli, he at last received a message by subordinate officials, declining all negotiation and refusing admittance to Hueh. Sir John gave up any further attempt to thwart French influence in Cochin-China and returned to Hongkong (October 30, 1847) disappointed. Sir John's relations with the neighbouring Colony of Macao were peaceful but by no means of the happiest sort. As the fortunes of the Colony of Hongkong were visibly declining, the Macao Government thought there was a chance of retrieving the mistakes of the past and bringing back to Macao the discontented free tradei's of Hongkong as well as the American, Butch, French and Parsee mercliants established at Canton. Accordingly a decree was obtained at Lisbon (November 20, 1845) which, thongh far from being a complete free trade measure, reduced the harbour dues and custom house exactions to the lowest possible minimum and virtually made trade at Macao less cumbersome and more propitious than it was at Hongkono;. The measure failed to re-establish the former for- tunes of Macao : it came too late for that. But it contributed its quota towards a further diminution of the commerce of Hongkong and a considerable increase of the discontent felt by Hongkong merchants. An assault that was committed on Sir John Davis (April 11, 1845), whilst on a visit to Macao, was without any political significance, but indicative of tliat turbulent character of the Macao Chinese which was so fatally to manifest itself against the next Governor of Macao (Senhor Amaral) who, within a year after his arrival (April 18, 1840), ordering a road to be cut through the Campo and interfering thereby with Chinese graves, had subsequently to pay with his life for this disregard of Chinese religious superstition. Li March, 1847, the prospects of Macao were as discouraging as those of Hongkong and a cession of ^lacao to France was talked of, but the movement, if it ever had any reality, came to nothing. 220 CHAPTER XIY. Turning now to Sir J. Davis' gubernatorial measures, we find that the expansion of the Civil Service and reforms in the constitution of the Councils occupied much of his time. He brought with him, on his arrival (May 7, 1844) a Colonial Secretary (Hon. F. Bruce), a Colonial Treasurer (M. Montgomery Martin), a Court Registrar (R. D. Cay), a Private Secretary (W. T. Mercer), an Auditor General (A. E. Shelley), a Civil Engineer (J. Pope, to whom we owe the designs of Government House, Colonial Offices, and Cathedral) and a warrant appointing Major Caine (the Chief JMagistrate; as Sheriff and Provost Marshal of the Supreme Court. The Chief Justice (J. W. Hulme) <;ame a month later (June 0, 1844) and the first Hongkong Barrister (H. Ch. Sirr) arrived on July 1, 1844, but as the Colonial Office postponed the appointment of an Attorney Oeneral (P. I. Stirling) till August 5 and made some other important omissions, the Supreme Court could not be opened until October 1, 1841. Two yeai's later (November 18, 1847) •the present Court House was obtained by purchasing from Dent & Co. the so-called Exchange Building. The working of the Supreme Court, which held its first criminal sessions oii October 2, 1814, was gradually perfected by a series of legislative enactments, dealing with the constitution of the Court (No. 6 ^f 1845 and 2 of 1846), trial by jury (No. 7 of 1845), criminal procedure (No. 8 of 1845 and IJ of 1840), summary jurisdiction (No. 9 of 1845), insolvency (No. 8 and 5 of 1846) and coroner's juries (N'o, 5 of 1847). A Vice- Admiralty Court was established (March 4, 1846) and held its first session on January 14, 1847. The division of the town into the present three districts (Sheungwan, Chungwan, Hawan), the lines of demarcation being- Aberdeen Street in the West, and Elliot's Vale (the present Glenealy ravine) in the East, dates from July 24, 1844, when the previously existing popular terms were officially adopted. By the opening of a new market (July '2b, 1844) at Taipingshan, the congested state of the Chungwan and Sheungwan markets was considerably relieved. Owing to the dearth and high rents ■of houses suitable for Civil Servants, the Government provided THE ADMINISTRATION OF SIR J. DAVIS. 221 {Augiisfc IG, 1844) special Civil Service Buildinos (now knowit as Alhauy) ■ which were, liowever, later oil (May 15, 1847) transferred to the ^lilitary Antborities. Two new offices were established by Sir J. Davis, viz. tlie office of Registrar General and Collector of the land-tax (S. Fearon) who commenced his dnties on January, 1845, and the office of Marine Magistrate (March 15, 1845) the duties of which were, however, durint^ Mr. AV. Pedder's absence ou leave, temporarily discharged by Mr. S. Fearon, whilst Mr. A. licna at^ted as Harbour Master- A paid Coroner (Ch. G. Holdforth was substituted (October 11, 1845) for the popular voluntary Coroner (E. Farncomb) who bad joined the opposition against certain Government measures. After various changes in the constitution of the Councils, and in spite of the continuous demands of the British community for adequate representation in the Legislative Council, at least through the nomination by the Crown of an equal number of official and unofficial Members, this burning question was temporarily decided by Sir John Davis refusing all popular representation. AYarrants were issued (December 1, 1845} for the Lieutenant-Governor, Colonial Secretary and Police Magistrate to be Members of Executive Council, and for the Lieutenant- Governor, the Chief Justice and Attorney General to constitute,, with the Governor, the Legislative Council of the Colony. For some inscrutable reason the Surveyor General's title was reduced to that of Colonial Surveyor (August 8, 1846) on the occassioii of the abolition of the office of Assistant Surveyor General, and by the amalgamation of the duties of Auditor and Colonial Secretary (September 15, 184G) the audit of local official accounts- was reduced to a mere formality. These two measures were but equalled in want of foresight by the decision of the Military Authorities (March 8, 1847) to erect defensible barracks — * soldiers' grave-yards' they ought to have been called— at Stanley. The legislative labours of Sir John Davis commenced with the knotty problem of regulating the Chinese population. Th& humble attempt to control the Chinese in Hongkong quietly 222 CHAPTER XIY. by means of their own elders on the basis of the Pocheung and Pokap system (Ordinance 13 to May 31, 1844) was one of the legacies handed over to Sir John Davis by his predecessor. Sir John Davis, however, disliked such . a non-antocratic measure, having his own ideas on the subject. Although he got that- Ordinance passed by the Council, he practically disregarded ib and set to work to devise a measure of his own which, by means of registration, should immediately purge the Colony of the bad blood imported into it by the continuous influx of criminals^ from the neighbouring districts, as if registration would keep them away or reveal their habits. The cure proved to be worse than the evil. On August 21, 184^, the Legislative Council, intending to check the indiscriminate influx into Hongkong of the scum of the population of the neighbouring mainland and at the same time anxious to avoid class legislation, passed a Bill to establish a registry of all the inhabitants of Hongkong without distinction of nationality. Xeither the European nor the Chinese mercantile communities were consulted in the matter, nor was anything done, after passing the Bill, until Sir J. Davis returned (October 18, 1844) from a visit to the Consular ports, wheu the Ordinance was made public and it was notified that it was to come into force on 1st November. Then the European community I woke up to the startling discovery that a poll-tax was to be 1 levied not only on Chinese vagabonds but on all the inhabitants \ without exception, that all British residents, as well as Chinese, \ were to appear once every year before the Registrar General, \answer questions as to birth, parentage, age, income and so forth, /being liable to be deported if the answers were not satisfactory, [and that the only distinction between a British merchant and a Chinese coolie was the enactment that the former should jjay five dollars and the latter one dollar a year for his registration ticket. The reception by the British residents of such an Ordinance may well be imagined. They rose up like one man in wrathful indignation, feeling their personal self-respect, their national honour, the liberty of the subject trampled under foot THE ADMINISTRATION OF SIR J. DAVIS. 223 even more ruthlesslv than in the davs of the Co-Honsf bondage at Canton. Accordina^lv, the fii-st Public Meeting^ of Honjrkon? was lield (October 28, 1844) at the residence of Mr. A. Carter. This meeting, after nnanimonsly condemning the Bill as iniqnitons, unconstitutional and un-English in principle, appointed a Committee (J. D. Gibb, D. Matheson, S. Rawson, Pat. Dudgeon and A. Carter) to memoiialize the Government accordingly. On the same day the Government published an obscurely-worded Chinese translation of the Ordinance which onlv added to the excitement and misunderstanding that prevailed among the -Chinese, giving them the impression that the poll-tax to be levied from 1st November was monthly and not annnal. *The Celestials,' said the Friend of China a few days later, 'are a passive race and will bear squeezing to any ordinary extent, but when this blundering translation would squeeze one half of their monthly wages out of them, then they thought it was time to return to their own country, nor would we blame them had they left in a body.' On the oOth October there was a universal suspension of all forms of Chinese labour. The sliojis and markets wei'e shut, cargo boats, coolies, domestic sei'vants, all went on strike simultaneously and all business was at a standstill. The Chinese made preparations to desert Hongkong ^)i masse on the next dav, if the Government should enforce this hiw, but there was no rioting of any sort. At 4 p.m. the deputation of the European community waited on the Governor to present a Memorial dated October oO and signed by 107 British subjects. This Memorial stated that the principles of the Ordinance were as unjust as they were arbitrary and unconstitu- tional, because taxing unrepresented British subjects in the most iniquitous of forms; that the provisions of the Ordinance violated the Treaty with China ; that they interfered with labour and consequently with the prosperity of the Colony and that it would be found impracticable to work this Ordinance. Unaware ab the time of the strong language of the Memorial, which was handed by the deputation to the Clerk of Councils, the Governor told them that the Ordinance would not be enforced for two ^24 CHAPTER XIV. or more months to come and that it would then be carried out but partially. Sabsequently, however, the Memorial was returned to. the Committee by the Clerk of Councils, as disapproved on the o-round that the huwuatt^e of the Memorial was of a character directly opposed to respect for the constituted authorities of the Colony and it was requested that the document be properly worded. But before this message could be delivered, the Committee, observing the alarming state of affairs in town, had drafted a second Memorial, dated October 31, 1844, drawing attention to the suspension of all business and the stoppage of provisions, and begsmg that some official notification be immediately promulgated to allay the excitement prevailing among all classes. After forwarding this second Memorial, the Committee wrote to the Clerk of Councils, saying that the language of the first Memorial, though strong, represented their sentiments and was imperatively called for by the urgency of the occasion, but at the same time they disavowed the remotest intention of addressing the Governor in Council in any other than the most respectful terms. But this letter did not reach the Governor till 1st November. Meanwhile, in reply to the second Memorial, the Clerk of Councils informed the Committee (October 31) that, whereas all seditious rioting on the part of the Chinese had been easily suppressed, the Governor and Council were now prepared to receive properly-worded suggestions. Thereupon the Committee at once suggested (October 31) the- ultimate abrogation of the Ordinance, but, as meanwhile an exodus of some 3,000 Chinese had taken place and business was for several days at a complete standstill the Committee summoned another Public Meeting on Saturday, 2nd November. Before that meeting, the Committee received a letter from the Clerk of Councils (dated November 2, 1844) censuring the unbecoming reiteration in their last letter of those disrespectful sentiment* and stating that, while the Committee continue to maintain such views, all further communication between the Government und the Committee must cease. At the same time an official notification (November 2, 1844) was issued in which the THE ADMINISTRATION OF SIR J. DAVIS. 225 Governor, on the ground that the comprador of a leading firm was reported to have called a meeting of Chinese who used tUe same disrespectful language, accused the British community of * having, by unworthy practices, tampered with an ignorant and unfortunate Chinese population by instigating them to passive resistance.' An enthusiastic Public Meeting, however, unanimously endarsed forthwith the procedure and the views of the Committee, as all residents looked upon the ticketing and labelling of British subjects as an inequitable if not iniquitous procedure. The speakers congratulated each other upon their escape from a system of petty tyranny whiuh, however, they admitted was not really contemplated by Government in passings the objectionable Ordinance. A standing Committee was appoiiited to co-operate with the Government in remodelling the Ordinance, and the formation of a Chamber of Commerce was suggested. But a threat was also expressed that British merchants mio'ht return to Macao where, under a foreisfn flag, they would not be subjected to laws repugnant to their feelings and utterly opposed to the enjoyment of that personal freedom which was their inalienable birthright. One of the speakers quoted Blackstone's commentaries to prove that without representation there can be no legal taxation of British subjects. This made a great impression. Representative and juunicipal government was thenceforth frequently but vainly demanded. The Public Meeting having thus abstained from condemning the registration of Chinese and confined itself to a protest against the taxation connected with it and against the application of the proposed Ordinance to British subjects, 'as putting Europeans upon a par with the canaille of China,' there was a way open for reconciliation with the Government. Accordingly, on November 4, 184:4:, the standing Committee (T. A. Gibb, Don. Mathesoii and A. Carter) wrote to the Clerk of Councils expressing regret as to the strong language use 1 by them and disavowing any motive of disrespect. Thereupon the Governor in Council, accepting this declaration, made his peace with the community. But the British residents of Canton (most of whom were representatives 226 CHAPTER XIV. of firms established in Hongkong) sent to the Governor (November 6, 1844) a stately remonstrance, sis^aied by W. Leslie, W. Bell and 38 other British subjects, recording ' their respectful but firm remonstrance against a measure unexampled in modern British legislation, fraught with great and certain mischief, 'Calculated in no ordinary degree to interfere with and restrict the rights and liberties of Her Majesty's subjects, and utterly subversive of that confidence, cordiality and co-operation which ouoht to subsist between Governors and the Governed, and are so essential to the tranquillity and prosperity of every Colony, and which, if forced into operation, will reduce apparently the Island of Hongkong to the level of a Penal Settlement.' lb was also proposed in Hongkong to memorialize Her Majesty's •Government to say that the Colonists had lost faith in the local Government. However, after a few days, moderate counsels prevailed, and the whole excitement gradually subsided. On November 13, 1844, the Legislative Council passed an amended Registration Ordinance (IG of 1844), applying registration only to the lowest classes, abandoning the idea of any poll-tax of Chinese residents, and exempting from registration ^ all civil, military and naval employees, all members of the learned professions, merchants, shopkeepers, householders, tenants of Crown property and persons having an income of ^500 a year. In fact, this Ordinance uranted all that the British community had contended for, and if the Governor had consulted the leading merchants or allowed them representation in Council, the whole conflict between the communitv and the Government, and the defeat and consequent humiliation and degradation of the Government, in the eyes of the astounded Chinese population, would have been avoided. On January 1, 1845, this Ordinance came into force and worked so smoothly that, on December 31, 1840, it was possible to modify it (No. 7 of 1840) so as to provide also for a periodical census of the whole population. An outgrowth of the mistaken autocratic attitude which Sir John Davis assumed towards the community was the severity with which he enforced (since July '2b, 1844) the ejectment /^ THE ADMINISTRATION OP SIR J. DAVIS. 227 of house owners to make room for new improvements, and| particnlarly bis ^Martial Law Ordinance (20 of 1844) which hO' passed through Legislative Council on Xovember 20, 1844, in •order to give the Executive the power of declaring the Island to be under martial law without the concurrence of that Council. Never in the whole history of Hongkong was there, nor is there ever likely to be, any need for such a drastic measure. The characteristic attitude towards any enlightened and strong government, w'hich Chinese residing on British soil display in every part of the world, gives a complete denial to the supposition which called forth this enactment. Yet the accomplished sinologue misread the character of the Chinese so completely that he passed this Bill which, when it became known to the •Chinese that Her Majesty's Government curtly disallowed it, only served to lower him in the eyes of the Chinese people as a defeated would-be autocrat. . But there is worse to tell. Mandarin misrule of the neighbouring provinces of China had at this time reached such a pitch that throughout South China the population was honey- combed with secret political societies, the principal of which was called the Triad Societv. The aim- of these secret associations was to act on the first suitable occasion upon the recognized right of rebellion, a right plainly taught in the authorized national school-books. To drive out the Manchus and to re- establish a Chinese dynasty, was the secret desire of almost every energetic Chinaman unconnected with mandarindom. When the first mutterings of the coming storm of the Taiping Rebellion, which in the providence of God was destined to re-establish the waning fortunes of Hongkong, were observed by the Cantonese Authorities, they shrewdly availed themselves •of the known fact, that the Chinese in Hongkong were as much influenced by that secret political propaganda as those in the interior of China, to strike another blow at the success of Hongkong as a Colony for Chinese. So they persuaded Sir J. Davis into passing an Ordinance (No. 1 of 1845) the effect of which was that the Hongkong Police should search out and' 228 CHAPTER XIV. arrest political refugees as being members of fche Triad and other secret societies, who, after a term of imprisonment, should be branded each on the cheek and then be deported to Chinese territory where of course the Mandarins would forthwith arrest, torture and execute them. That a British Governor should ever have enacted such a monstrously barbaric and un-English 'law is hardly credible. It is a strange fact that with all his experience of Chinese, philanthropic Sir John Davis allowed himself to be so duped by Chinese diplomatists as to become the unconscious tool of Mandarin oppression in its worst form. It was not merely an unwise disregard of the sound principle formulated bv Gladstone, that 'England never makes laws to benefit the internal condition of any other State'; it was not merely a drastic denial of the world-wide assumption that British I soil is a safe refuge from political tyranny and oppression ; but ■ it was also a positive assertion, in the face of all China, that Hongkong Governors would pledge themselves to co-operate with the Manchu conquerors of China in arresting, imprisoning, branding on the cheek (as the life-long mark of the outlaw) and delivering into the hands of Mandarins for execution any hapless Chinese patriot that should be fool enough to put his foot on British soil. By order of the Home Government this barbaric Ordinance (No. 1 of 1845) was modified nine months later (October 20, 1845) by substituting, in an amendment (No. 12 of 1845), branding under the arm for that mark on the cheek which would have made reform even in the case of ij a criminal absolutely impossible. Not quite so bad, but based on an equal ignorance of the utter inapplicability of European enactments to the peculiar features of the social and i3olitical organism of China, Avas the interference with local Chinese bond-servitude which Sir H. Pottinger had attempted in his Slavery Ordinance (No. 1 of 1844), the disallowance of which Sir John Davis had now (January 24, 1845) to proclaim. He announced by a proclamation that the said Ordinance was null and void, and gave notice 'that the Acts of Parliament for the abolition of THE ADMINISTRATION OP Sill J. DAVIS. 229 slave trale and slavery extend by tlieir own proper force and ^authority to Hongkong-, and that these Acts will be enforced by all Her Majesty's officers civil and military within the Colony/ The secretly nnderlying insinuation that Hongkong bond- servitude belongs to the category of slavery as defined by the Slave-trade Acts was a pure fiction, put forward only to gloss over the defeat of the Government in attempting to meddle with Chinese national customs. The general question as to what English laws were in force in Hongkong was dealt with by Ordinance (August 11), 1845, and ^fay 0, 184C) when it was laid down somewhat vagnely that all laws of England that existed when Hongkong first obtained a local legislature (April 5, 1843) should be deemed in force in the Colony * when applicable.* Unfortunate as the Governor was as a leo-islator, ridinj^ rough-shod over the whole community, both European and Chinese, he was even more unfortunate in his dealings with the local representatives of British judicature. From the time of the arrival of the Chief Justice (J. W. Hulme) and the establishment of a Supreme Court, there was a standing feud between the Governor and the Chief Justice. It arose first of all out of the mistaken view of their position, adopted by the local Police Magistrates (Major Caine and Mr. Hillier) who supposed themselves to be rather executive officers nnder the direct orders and control of the (Governor, than independent expositors of the law. The Chief Justice did not conceal from the Governor his disapproval of this anomalous connection cxistin*' between the Mauistrates and the Head of the Executive. The result was for the first few years merely a straining of the relations between the Chief Justice on the one hand and the Governor and the Magistrates on the other hand. Soon the oommunitv becran to take sides with the former against the latter. Great indignation was expressed by the Avhole J^ritish community when the Police Magistrates, at the order of the Governor who apjxjared to be simply desirous of obliging the Macao Governor by complying with an informal request of the latter, signed a svvarrant (August 25, 184G) for the arrest and extradition. 230 CHAPTER XI Y. without ^m prima facie evidence, of three Poitug-nese gentlemen,, who, after being sent to Macao as prisoners bj a British gunboat (H.M.S. Young Hele) were, when tried at Macao, found not guilty in the suit (a civil one) which they had sought to post- pone by coming to Hongkong. A similar case occurred sooib after (October 23, 184G), when some Portuguese slaves, vainly supposing that British Slavery Acts were in force in Hongkong (for others than Chinese), fled to the Colony. Their masters,, however, brought against them, in Macao, a charge of theft.. Although there was no extradition treaty to rely on, the MacaO' Governor forthwith requested Sir John Davis to extradite those slaves, and as the Magistrates again complied, without the formality of a trial, with the orders of the Governor, the latter forthwith informed Senhor Amaral, that the slaves were in* custody and would be delivered on application. Soon after this,, the conflict between the Governor and the Chief Justice became more pointed. A prominent British merchant at Canton, Mr. Ch. Sp. Comptou, happened one day (July 4, 184<0 to- overturn a huckster's stall, obstructing one of the Factory lanes, and two days afterwards he pushed a coolie out of his way, telling Consul Macgi"egor, who was close by, that he had done- so. On July 8, 184G, one of those periodical riots occurred for which Canton mobs were notorious. Three months later, the Consul informed Mr. Compton that Sir John Davis, as- Sui^erintendent of Trade, had (without trial) fined him £45 for upsetting a huckster's stall, intimating that this circumstance- had caused the riot of 8th Jul v. Further, on November 12, 184(), a local paper published a dispatcth by Sir J. Davis to Kiying, in which Mr. Compton was referred to as 'the exciter of the riots.' As the whole European community of Canton supported Mr. Compton in his contention that the Canton riots had no connection with his doings, Mr. Compton appealed to- the Supreme Court against Sir John Davis' sentence. Chief Justice Hulrae tried the case, and, on giving judgment in favour of appellant, pronounced the sentence of the Consul {i.p. the decision of Sir John Davis) as ' unjust, excessive and illegal " THE ADMINISTRATION OF SIR J. DAVIS. 231 and as 'evincinfi^ a total disregard for all forms of law and for law itself.' Moreover, the Chief Justice added that 'in this first Consular appeal (;ase the whole proceedings were so irregular as to render all that occurred a perfect nullity.' The whole British community applauded this decisiou, but the Governor interpreted it as a personal affront. At the same time the differences between the Chief Justice and the Magistrates became accentuated. On October 27, 1840, a typical case was tried in the Supreme Court and attracted general attention. Two Chinese junks had collided in the harbour, and as the^ junk which was manifestly at fault attempted to sail away, I the crew of the injured junk fired their muskets to attract ( attention. A police boat, supposing the runaway junk to be I a pirate, fired into her and in the melee 5 men were drowned/ and 13 captured. The Police Magistiate, dealing with the easel in his usual off-hand manner, flogged the 13 men and then\ handed them over to the Kowloon Mandarin to be further dealt) with. But the Coroner's jury, after three days' investigation, returned a verdict of manslaughter jigainst the Police and (by implication) declared the innocence of the 13 men who had been flogged and deported by the IMagistrate. The Supreme Court now set aside the verdict on the ground of the irregularity of the whole proceedings, the prisoners having been sworn to the truth of their depositions, thus making them to incriminate themselves. The community, convinced for some time past that a reform in the Police Court peisonnel was needed, drew the conclusion that ^lagistrates should have a legal training. The following day (October 28, 1840) another case, heard in the Supreme Court, strongly confirmed them in this conclusion. The Magistrate had sentenced nine men to three months* imprisonment on a charge of intent to commit a felony, but when, on appeal to the Supreme Court, the intent of felony was clearly disproved, the Magistrate explained to the Chief Justice that he, in reality, had sentenced the prisoners under the Vagrants' Act of George IV. This practice of the_j Magistrates had often been complained of by the public, and 232 CHAPTER XIV. 'the Chief Justice now severely reprimanded the Magistrate for sentencing the men under an Act which had locally been superseded by Ordinance 14 of 1845 and discharged the pi'isoners forthwith. When, some time later, the Chief Justice complained to the Governor that the Magistrates appeared to pass sentenc.-e in cases which ought to have been remitted to the Supreme Court, the two Magistrates commenced systematically to commit for trial at the Supreme Court the most trivial offences. This became so painfully evident during the criminal session of February, 14th to 19th, 1847, that the jurors addressed a formal complaint to the Court of bavins: their time wasted on cases of petty larceny which ought to have been summarily dealt with by the Magistrates. The Chief Justice agreed with them and addressed the Government accordingly. During the same sessions it was stated in evidence that the Police, who had i-efused to protect a citizen against an assault by a soldier, had been ordered by the Government not to interfere with soldiers, and that a general order was read in barracks informing the soldiers of the instructions given to the Police. The Chief Justice, commenting adversely on this point, remarked that the general order referred to was waste paper, as only an Act of Parliament could exempt soldiers from being amenable to the civil authorities. The Adjutant General thereupon wrote to the papers denying that any such general order had been issued, but the truth soon leaked out, viz. that, what the evidence before the Couro had referred to as a general order, was a speech addressed to the regiment by the Major-General. After this the relations between the Governor and the Chief Justice became marked by personalities. On April 16, 1847, the Governor had an altercation w^th the Chief Justice, as the former claimed the right to fix the sittings of the Yice-Admiralty Court for any day he pleased, and as the latter claimed that he should be addressed as His Lordship, which title the Governor refused to allow. It was stated that the Governor had threatened the Chief Justice with suspension. A lull now ensued, but on November 22, 1847, the Chief Justice was tried by the Executive THE ADMINISTRATION OF SIR J. DAVIS. 233 'Council on certain charo^es of private misconduct which, it appeared, Sir John Davis had detailed in a confidential com- munication to Lord Palmerston. The latter, disre^ardino- the private character of the document, had sent it to the Colonial Office, which forthwith ordered an Executive Council inquiry into the charges as formulated in tlie (xovernor's original letter. Major-General D'Aguilar, as Lieutenant-Governor, protested indignantly against the whole inquiry. Two members of the Council (Major Caine and Mr. Johnston) gave evidence in support of the charges, but all the other witnesses exonerated the Chief Justice. Nevertheless the Governor in Council pronounced his suspension from office. The moment this became known in town, the whole British community (apart from the officials) called and left their cards at the Chief Justice's residence. Once more, as in the registration days, a unanimous outcry of indignation was raised against the Government. Three days later, the local solicitors (N. D'E. Parker, R. Coley, W. Gaskell, P. C. McSwyney, and E. Farncombe) presented to the Chief Justice (November 25, 1817) an address denouncing the Governor's action as an 'attack of enmity,' and a gold snuff- box bearing the inscription iiidiguante inviiUa florehit Justus. Later on (November 30, 1847) the community presented a sympathizing address signed by 110 residents, and on December 2, 1847, all the special jurors addressed the Chief Justice, expressing their respect for his character and their sympathy and regret with reference to his suspension and temporary retirement. By this time the Governor had already sent in his resignation and the dispatch accepting it (dated November 18, 18-47) was then on its way. The news of the Governor's resignation having been accepted served to blunt the edge of popular excitement and the Colonial Office, which considered the charges not proved, immediately removed the suspension and reinstated the Chief Justice. In his endeavours to improve the revenues of the Colony, which naturally constitute one of the most anxious cares of a Colonial Governor, Sir John Davis ran counter to the deepest 234 CHAPTER XIV. feeliug"S and most inveterate principles of the mercantile community. "Whilst the mercantile community contended that Hongkong was simply a depot for the neighbouring coasts, a mere post for general influence and for the protection of the general trade in the China Seas, benefitting Imperial rather than local interests, and that therefore Great Britain onght naturally to bear the greater share in the expenses of the Colonial establishment, Sir John Davis acted on the assumption that Hongkong was a Colony in the ordinary sense and should not only bear the whole burden of its own civil government but contribute also, as soon as possible, towards the military expenses of the Empire. Whilst the merchants therefore still looked to free trade principles to further the growth of Hongkong, Sir John Davis thought only of license-fees, farms and monopolies. Compromise or reconciliation was out of the question. Free trade Avas officially derided, and protection gained the ascendancy. On the day when Sir John announced his fatal intention of extending registration to all the inhabitants of the Colony in the interest of good order (July 24, 1844), he declared alsa his determination to establish a quarry farm, a salt farm and an opium farm for the purpose of raising a revenue, and on the day when he passed his obnoxious Martial Law Ordinance (November 20, 1844), he launched his first Revenue Ordinance (No. 21 of 1844) by licensing the retail of salt and levying a duty of 2J per cent, on all goods sold by auction. In connection with these purposes he regulated also local weights and meas'ires (No. 22 of 1844). The British community growled at the auction duty (though on January 15, 1845, it was decided to remit it in certain cases), derided the salt and opium farms, and made fun of the tax imposed on marriage licenses, coupling them with the new burial and tombstone fees (January 15,. 1845). The quarry farm yielded (September 1, 1845) only £702. When the Governor (February l^3 and May 23, 1845), proceeded to introduce police rates (Ordinance 2 of 1845) and to ascertain the rateable value of all house property, the- merchants declared the ruin of Hongkong to be complete and THE ADMINISTRATION OF SIR J. DAVIS. 235' began to talk seditiously of united resistance. So p^reat was the popular excitement that the Governor became afraid and announced his willinoness to reduce tlie assessment made bv the two official valuators (Tarrant and Pope) by 40 per cent. (July 14, 1845). In spite of this concession the leading paper of the Colony declared this tax to be a most tyrannical and intolerable encroachment upon the rights of the inhabitants, because passed by a Council in which the community was not represented. However the Ordinance received Her Majesty's consent (December 25, 1845), and the people soon learned to submit to it gracefully. Xot satisfied with the financial results of these measures. Sir John added, by Ordinances 3 and 4 of 1845, duties on the retail of tobacco and fermented liquors (July 7,, 1845). So great was his craving for monopolies that he persisted in farming out the monopoly of fishing in Hongkong waters, thouo-h it brought in onlv 17 shillinos for the vear 1845. His great grief and trouble was ' the total absence of a custom house establishment ' in the free port of Hongkong. He was decidedly of opinion that, as most of the available spots for building purposes had already been disposed of (thanks to the gambling mania v/hich his pi'edecessor and himself had unconsciously fostered), no great expansion of the land revenue could be looked for in the future. Consequently he turned his attention to licenses and excise farms and among these he commended to- Her Majesty's Government the opium farm as being * the most productive source of revenue and one that should increase with the progress of the place.' AVhen the Leoislative Council passed the first Hongkong Opium Ordinance (November 20, 1844), the Colonial Treasurer, R. M. Martin, strong^ly protested against this Government measure on the ground that private vice should not be made a source of public revenue. Finding his protest disregarded, he forthwith applied for leave of absence. When this application was refused, he resigned his office and returned to England (July 12, 1845), where he thenceforth laboured, with a pen dipped in gall, to prove that Hongkong, whose majestic peak he compared* 236 CHAPTER XIV. wiuli a decayed Stilton clieese and whose charming surroundings he likened to the back of a negro streaked with leprosy, was an utter failure, and that the Colony ought to l)e removed to Chusan. The exclusive privilege of selling opium in quantities less than a chest for consumption in the Colony, was put up to auction (February 20, 1844), and notwithstanding the machina- tions of a ring of Chinese opium dealers, purchased by an Englishman (G. Duddell) at a monthly rental of §720. But the purchaser soon found himself outwitted by the Chinese who, taking advantage of the loose wording of the Ordinance, openly retailed opium in the Colony 'for exportation' and gained the protection of the Court in doing so. The faulty Ordinance was thereupon amended (July 12, 184r>) and the opium farm put up to auction again (August 1, 1845) when it was bought by a Chinese syndicate for $1,710 a month. Next year, a re-sale having been offered (May 24, 184()), fui-ther powers were demanded by the farmers ; the monopoly was once more offered for sale (June 30, 1846), but no bids were made to obtain further concessions. At last the farm was sold (July 2, 1840) at the reduced rate of |1,5()0 a month. However, it soon became apparent that the powers extorted by the farmers, who employed constables and even an armed cruizer for the protection of their revenue, seriously interfered with the legitimate junk trade and the freedom of the port. Even the Chinese themselves 13etitioned the Governor (January 27, 1847) for the abolition of the opium monopoly. The Governor hesitated and substituted licences for this troublesome opium farm (August 1, 1847) after it had yielded £4,118 in 1840, and £3,183 in 1847. It is remarkable that this first experiment in opium farming at once brought to the surface the evils which ever afterwards characterized the system in Hongkong, viz. unscrupulous circumvention of the law, organized withholding of a just rental and vexatious interference with the native trade and with the freedom of the port. The revenues of the Colony improved considerably under the Governor's assiduous care. By enforcing the recovery of THE ADMINISTRATION OF Sill J. DAVIS. 237 an:eai"s of rent on land and bnildino^s, the income of the Colony- was raised, at a bound, from £0,584 in 18-44:, to £22,242 in 1845. The opium farm caused the revenue of 184G to mount up to £27,842 and by charging higher fees on boat registry (Ordinance 7 of 1846) the revenue of 1847 came to £31,078. On the other hand the attention paid to public works caused the expenditure to rise, from £49,901 in 1845, to £6G,72G in 1846. But it was reduced again in 1847 to £50,959. What assisted the Governor in his efforts to improve the finances of the Colony, in spite of the fearful odds that were against him, was the fact that, though the foreign trade was- staonatinsr, the native iunk trade held its own, and that the population of the Colony, though decimated by removals ta the Treaty ports of China, remained for several years wonderfully steady. During the three years from 1845 to 1847, the population numbered respectively 28,748, 22,453, and 28,872 souls. In the year 1848, tlie population was indeed reduced to 21,514 persons. But the Governor attributed this decrease,. not to the alleged decay of local commerce, but to a more careful registration ' which, while giving a truer account of the actual number, relieved the Colony from those who hung loose on and only applied for registration tickets to make a bad use of them.' In his efforts to repress crime. Sir J. Davis found himself handicapped, like every successive Governor of Hongkong, by the continuous influx of criminals from the neighbouring mainland of China, by the untrustworthiness and inactivity of native constables, by the dissolute character of European sailors or soldiers enlisted in the local Police Force, who were ignorant of the native language and consequently dependent on truculent native interpreters, by the costliness of importing trained British constables, and finally by the inherent inapplicability to Asiatics of British laws and British modes of punishment. Sir J. Davis was, however, fortunate in obtaining (September 6, 1844), from London, the services of an Inspector of the Metropolitan Police, n Ch. May, who did the best possible with the imperfect material: 238 CHAPTER XIV. supplied to him and reorganized the Police Force of Hongkong on the model of the Irish Constabulary with due adaptations to local circumstances. With the aim of suppressing the system of private night-watchmen, kept by every European house-owner on the model of the old practice in vogue in the Canton and Macao days, Major-General D'Aguilar (acting as Lieutenant- Governoi' in the temporary absence of Sir J. Davis) passed (September 11, 1844) the unpopular 'Bamboo Ordinance* {17 of 1844) prohibiting the use of the bamboo-drums by which those watchmen used to make night hideous in order to prove {not merely to their employers as the Ordinance alleged) that they were on the alert. But whilst securing by this premature measure the peace and quiet of the town during the night, he rather encouraged, in the absence of an efficient Police Force, nightly depredations by native burglars. Highway robberies and burglaries continued to be of almost daily occurrence. Government House was once more robbed (July IG, 1844) and some of the Governor's valuables carried off. No house in the Colony was safe without armed watchmen and no one ventured out after dark except revolver in hand. The Police Magistrate issued (August '25, 184G) a notice warning residents ' not to go beyond the limits of the town singly nor even in parties unless armed.' In 1847 European householders were ordered to supplement the imperfect street-lighting system by suspending lamps before the doors of their houses. The Police Force possessed as yet neither the training nor the moral tone that w^ould have inspired the community with confidence and prevented collusion between native constables and criminals. As to the latter it seemed as if English law, though ever so severely administered, was unable to provide penalties sufficiently deterrent. Flogging was indeed resorted to very freely and even for comparatively shadowy offences such as vagrancy. The House of Commons occupied itself, rather needlessly, with this point (in autumn, 1846) at the motion of Dr. Bowring, the Member for Bolton, who drew the attention of the Ministry to the allegation that 54 natives had been floofo^ed in Honokong: 'oo THE ADMINISTRATION OF SIR J. DAVIS. 239 in one day for not having tickets of registration. The •consequence was that the criminals of Hongkong had an easier time for a few months, as public flogging was suspended from January 23 to May 8, 1847. The most predominant form of crime at this period was piracy. The whole coast-line of the Canton and Fohkien provinces was virtually under the control of a pii-atical -confederacy under the leadership of Cheung Shap-ng-tsai and Chui A-pou, to whom trading and fishing junks had to pay regular black-mail. The waters of the Colony swarmed with pirates, and Hongkong-registered junks were, on escaping the pirates and entering the Canton River, subjected to all sorts of lawless plunderings on the part of the crews of the gunboats under the orders of the Canton revenue farmers. Hence the peaceful trading junk of this period had to sail heavily armed, so much so that there was frequently nothing but the cargo to distinguish a trading junk from a pirate. The worst feature of the case was the fact that lawless European •seamen occasionally enlisted in the service of the native pirates and that the leaders of piratical fleets made Hongkong their headquarters, where native marine-storekeepers not only supplied them with arms and ammunition and disposed of their booty, but famished them also, through well-paid spies in mercantile offices and Government departments, with information as to the shipments of valuable cargo and particularly as to the movements of the Police anl of British gunboats. A Colonial gunboat, manned by the Police, was procured (June 5, 1846) to cruize in the watei'S of the Colony and did some little service until the vessel was wrecked (September 1, 1848). Deportation of convicted criminals inspired the Chinese with no terror, as it offered innumerable chances of eventual escape. The last convict ship of this period, the ' General Wood,' which sailel for Penang on January 2, 1848, was piratically taken possession of by the convicts most of whom made gool their escape. The European commerce of the Colony appeared to decline or to stagnate during this administration. Tl:e trade in Indian 240 CHAPTER XIV. opium, driven away from Hongkong by the measures of Sir H. Pottinger, was for some time conducted at Whampoa and,, on being forced away thence, by a crusade instituted through the Canton Consuls at the instance of the Canton monopoHsts of the sulphur trade, took refuge at Kapsingmoon near Macao. The Kapsingmoon anchorage being unsafe during the X.E. monsoon, the Hongkong merchants were hoping to procure the return of the trade to their port, when the establishment of an opium farm by Sir J. Davis frustrated their design. Arrangements had been made by some merchants to introduce silk-weaving establishments into the Colony, but the scheme was abandoned in despair "when it became apparent that the Governor, with his passion for fiscal exactions, would certainly tax the looms. Competition and trade rivalries, between the merchants estab- lished in the Treaty ports of China and those who remained at Hongkong, became intensified by bitter feelings of jealousy.. It was publicly stated (August 1, 1846) that Canton merchants had been for some time instructing their correspondents in England to stipulate that vessels by which they shipped goods for the different Treaty ports of China should first come to Whampoa and there discharge goods for Canton before proceeding to Hongkong. In retaliation for this measure, and in their despair- at seeing free trade principles overwhelmed by a flood of Government monopolies, Hongkong merchants now broke faith with the established free trade creed of their predecessors and began themselves to look out for protectionist measures to re-establish the decaying commerce of the Colony. Free trade was now looked upon as a bright dream of the past, and it was seriously proposed to agitate, as Captain Elliot had done in June 1841, for an xVct of Parliament declaring that for ten years all teas shipped at Hongkong would be protected in Great Britain by a differential duty of one penny per pound on congous and twopence on the finer sorts. This scheme was urged upon the Secretary of State by Hongkong merchants' residing in London, and several letters appeared in the Times (December 9 and 24, 1846) advocating the imposition of a- THE ADMINISTRATION OF SIR J. DA.VI8. 241 differential duty of twoixjnce farthing on all teas shipped at Hongkong. The sinister expectation of the promoters of this- measure avowedly was that 'the death-blow would be struck to the trade of Canton ' (and Foochow). Of course this- fratricidal plan of reviving the commerce of Hongkong by kiiling that of Canton (or any other Treaty port) had no chance of even a hearing in a Parliament the previously divided counsels of which had just converged towards the adoption, from a conscientious recognition of economic truths, of positive free trade principles by the abrogation of the corn laws (June 25, 1846). Lord Stanley emphatically refused (September 4, 1846) to entertain the proposal of a differential duty. x\s a last refuge, the community addressed (February 27, 1848) a Memorial to Earl Grey praying for a reduction or abolition of the land rent. They were informed in reply (July 17, 1848) that Earl Grey was wilUng to extend the terms of the leases or even to grant them in perpetuity. The fact of a serious decline having overtaken the European commerce of Hongkong gradually forced itself upon public recognition and Avas interpreted by extremists to involve the Colony in absolute ruin. On August 13, 1845, all the leading- British firms (^^1 in number) memorialized Lord Stanley on the subject. Sir J. Davis viewed their statements as gros& exaggerations and replied by a series of arguments propounded by the Acting Colonial Secretary (W. Caine). Thereupon a deputation (A. Matheson, G. T. Braine, Gilbert Smith, and Crawford Kerr) presented (August 29, 1845) a second Memorial, in the course of which they stated that ' Hongkong has no trade at all and is the mere place of residence of Government and its officers with a few British merchants and a very scanty and poor population.' The Governor remained unconvinced, and later on (January 6, 1846) published an exhaustive trade report from the pen of Dr. Giitzlaff, intended to refute the allegations of the local merchants, who, however, disputed the correctness of Dr. Giitzlaff 's statistics. This official report contains a rather remarkable admission of the failure of Sir i6 ;242 . CHAPTER XIV. H. Pottinger's commcrci:il polic-y, in statinc? thab 'in spite of the discouragement afforded by the Supplementary Treaty, the Chinese trade appears to be rather on the increase.' The dispute was continued in the liome papers and on April 0, 1846, the Times gave expression to the melancholy views of the European community in the following: words. ' Hongkong has quite lost caste as a place for mercantile operations. Many of the merchants have already abandoned the Island. Since the beginning of the present year two firms have given up their •establishments, two more of old standing have expressed their determination to quit the Colony, and two others are hesitating ^bout following their example or at most of leaving a clerk in possession to forward goods or letters.' The climax was reached when an American contributor to the Economist (August 8, 184G) incisively declared that 'Hongkong is nothing now but a depot/ for a few opium smugglers, soldiers, officers and men- of-war's men.' These sensational statements, however, represented merely the feelings of disappointment aroused by a natural bub unusually prolonged period of depression consequent upon previous unnatural inflation. While friends and foes of the Colony debated the extent and causes of its ruin, Hongkong itself stood smiling like Patience on a monument bearing the bold legend ' lieswr/am.' As regards tlie native trade of Hongkong, there were were held every Sunday in a bungalow immediately behind the present Club House. A mortuary cha])el was erected, in 1845, in the new cemetery in the Happy A^alley. THE A[)MINISTUATION OF SIR J. DAVIS. 247 Iq addition to the three Aiio:Io-Chiiicse Schools (the Morrison Institution on Morrison Hill, the Anglo-Chinese College of the London Mission and St. Paul's College) started under the preceding admiuistratiou, a number of smaller Schools was established under the fostering" care of Sir J. Davis. An ' English Children's School' was opened, in 1845, by the Colonial Chaplain (V. Stanton), and in emulation of it the Propaganda Society started at once a similar School for Roman Catholic children, which was, however, discontinued in 1847. For the benefit of the Chinese population, which had at this period nine Confucian Schools at work, the Governor devised, early in 1847, in imitation of the English religious education grants then hotly discussed in Parliament, a Government Grant-in- Aid Scheme to provide non-compulsory religious education in Chinese Schools under the direction of an Educational Committee (gazetted on December 6, 1847), consisting of the Police Magistrate, the Colonial Chaplain and the Registrar General. That Sir J. Davis was to some extent a religious visionary, may be inferred from a dispatch (March 13, 1847) in which he commended his scheme to the Colonial Office by saying that, ' If these Schools were eventually placed in charge of native Christian teachers, bred up by the Protestant Missionaries, it would afford the most rational prospect of converting the native population of the Island.' Sanr.ta smplin'fas! The social and general progress of the Colony during this period centf^red principally in the year 1845. The erection in 1844 of the Seamen's Hospital (September 30, 1844) and the formation of an Amateur Dramatic Corps (December J 8, 1844) were succeeded bv the following events of the fruitful veai* 1845, viz. the first issue of the China Mail newspaper (February 20), the completion of a carriage road round the Happy Valley (March 1), establishment of an Ice House Company (April 17), building of a Picnic House at Little Hongkong (April 26), estabHshment of a Medico-Chirurgical Society (May 13), organisation of Freemasonry and starting of Zetland Lodge (June 18 and December 8), commencement of a monthly line 248 CHAPTER XIV. of mail steamers by the Peninsular & Oriental Steam Navigation Company (August 1) and completion of a temporary Government House (November 1). The Hongkong Club, also planned in 1845. was opened on May 2G, 184(), in a stately building erected, •opposite the new Court House, at a cost of £15,000 by 'reat degree be thrown on local commerce; that a system of municipal government of ordinary and local affairs outrht to be established : and that some short €ode of law ou^ht to be drawn up. The petitioners particularly complained that the inhabitants had no share in the legislature, neither by elective representatives nor by nominees selected by the (lovernor, and that the forms and fees of the Supreme Court were unduly heavy. There is no record shewing that this Petition was ever presented to Parliament. Sir (ieoi*ge, however, forwarded (January oO, 1841)) a copy of the Petition for the information of the Colonial Office. Nine months later, he selected fifteen of tlie unofficial Justices of the Peace and summoned them to a conference (Xovember o, 1840). He infoiMiied them that Earl Grey had sanctioned his proposal for the admission of two members of the civil community into the Legislative Council, that the nomination rested Avith him, but that he thought it better for the Justices themselves to elect two of their number. A meeting of the Justices of the. Peace was accordinglv held at the Club on Cth December, 1849, and Messrs. David Jardine and 'J. F. Edger were nominated as the first non-official Members of the Legislative Council. The fact that their election had to be approved by the Colonial Office and that they could not be sworn in until the Queen's Avarrants arrived (June 14, 1850), did not detract from the general rejoicing over this first step gained in the direction of representative government. At that same conference (November ij, 1840) Sir G. Bonhani had also stated, that, whilst agreeing with the principle of giving taxpayers some sort of municipal government, he doubted the practicability of the scheme in the case of Hongkong. He quoted the words of Sir James Mackintosh (regarding the Bombay municipality) that 'men of standing, engaged in their 262 GHAPTEll XT. own absorbing pursuits would possess neither time nor inclinatioiti to devote to the interests of the pubHc' However, he requested the fifteen Justices of his selection to consult on the organisation of a 'Municipal Committee of Police Commissioners,' The Justices thereupon passed, at their meeting of 6th December,. 1840, the following resolutions, — first, that no advantage can be derived from having a Municipal Council, unless the entire manasement of the Police, of the streets and roads within the precincts of the town, and of all other matters usually given to corporations are confided to it, and secondly that, whereas the mode of raising so large a revenue from land rents is only retained as being the most convenient and is in lieu of assessment and taxes, consequently the amount raised from that source, together with the £o,000 or 4,000 raised from licences and rents, should, with the police assessments, be applicable, as far as may be required, for municipal purposes. If the Justices had been satisfied to begin, in a small way, as a mere Committee . of Police Connnissioners, looking to future improvement of the revenue to provide the means for extending the scope of their functionis. Hongkong would not have remained for fifty years longer without municipal government. As it was, they demanded a full-blown Municipal Council under impossible financial' conditions. Governor Bonham, earnestly desiring to meet the wishes of the community as far as possible, made later on some fresh propositions (January 10, 18r>l). He offered to place the whole management of the Police under a Municipal Committee on condition that the entire expense of the Police Force be provided by an adequate police tax. He further proposed tO' hand over to this Committee the management of streets, roads and sewers, on condition that the requisite funds be provided either by an assessed tax on real projxirty (as proposed formerly by a Draft Ordinance of Sir J. Davis), or by a tax upon horses . and carriages. Sir George was evidently determined on reserving the land rents to meet the establishment charges and, at great risk to his popularity, strove not only to raise the general revenue ■ bv increased taxation but to make the Colon v as soon as possible ■ THE ADMINISTRATIOy OF SIR G. BOXHAM. 26^ independent of those Parliumentarv Gmnts on which the- conimunitv meant to lean for ever. To reconcile these conflictino; pnrposes was impossible. A breacli in the Governor's j>ood rebitions with the communitv seemed inevitable. The virnlent odium which 8ir J. Davis had incurred threatened to overwhelm Sir G. Bonham also. What saved his ])olicy and ])opnlarity from shipwreck, was his persistent habit of taking- the leadem of the community into his confidence, of consultiuii' ])ubhc opinion about his difficulties, and most of all his evident sincerity in seekinjj- not onlv to establish the coveted Muni- cipal Council, but to carry into effect the whole programme sketched ont bv the Parliamentarv Committee of 1^^17. That programme constituted the political cree;l of the community and the Governor had made it liis own. The Justices could not be angry with a man who did this and who moieover tre:ited them as a sincere friend. In their repl'es (January ol and March, 1, 18.") 1) they declined goo:l-humouredly both of the Governor's offers. Whilst again expressing their willingness to nndertake the duties of a Municipal Committee, they objected, first, that any further taxation would be injurious as the cost of living was already exorbitant, and sectondly that the polico tax would not be sufficient to provide the necessary funds because,, whilst the Colony remained a rendezvous for pirates and outlaws, making even the harbour unsafe for native traders, the Police Force was too snail and composed of tof> nntrnstworthy and ill-paid material. Addison would have said of the j)oints in disjinte that much might be said on both sides. The discussion closed with the Governor's declaration (iMarch 1.'), 1 «;")!) that, a& the Justices objected to any further taxation, and as application to the Home Government for fiu'ther grants of monev would, in view of recent discussions in the House of Commons, be of no avail, it was impossible for him to meet the views of the Justices. Greek had fought Greek on the arena of common sense views of finance and both parties were pleased to terminate the confli(;t. The finances of the Colony were indeed in a desperate state. When the Governor published (January 8, 1841)) a 264: CHA1»1'ER XV. statement of income and expeuditiire for the year 1848, shewing £23.509 local revenue (apart from the Parliamentary Grant) :iiid £02,308 expenditure, 'a local paper summed up the position of affairs by saying, 'the Colony is now in a state of insolvency, the public works are suspended and the officials only paid a portion of their salaries.' The difficulty was enhanced by the fact th:it a public loan was out of the question, that the Parliamentary (Jr.int for 1849 had been reduced to £25,000, and that but little co-iM be saved by retrenchment of the civil ■establishment without committing an act of injustice or impairing ■efficiency. Sir George was, indeed, even tlien of the opinion which he expressed later on, that, 'were this Colony taxed in the same way as are tlie Settlements in the Straits under the government of the East India Company, it would in a year or two be made to pay its own expenses.' But he also knew that any attempt at additional taxation would be violently resisted by the community as injurious to trade. All eyes were therefore directed to the Imperial Exchequer. Sir George himself appears to have considered the temporary continuance of a small annual grant from the Exchequer a reasonable measure. 'Seeing,' he wrote (April 2, 1850),* that the trade of the Colony l)enefits the British Exchequer and the Indian Government conjointly to the extent of upwards of seven millions Sterling, an expenditure on the pirt of the mother country of from £12,000 to £15,000 annually, to uphold the establishment of a Colony which is the seat of the Superintendent of British trade with China, ought not to be considered excessive.' This was, however, a question to be decided by Parliament, and public opinion in England declared that the Colony was now out of its swaddling clothes and ought to learn to stand on its own legs. Sir G. Bonham did his best to bring about this desirable result by revising taxation as far as practicable and enforcing retrenchment in every possible direction. For the ad valorem duty on goods sold by auction, he substituted increased auctioneers' licence fees. He introduced a tax on the exportation THE ADMINISTRATION OF SIR G. BONHAM. 265 of granite which was at the time laro^oly used as ballast for tea ships. He shrank from reviviiitj the opium monopoly, but stimulate:! the revenue from the opium retail licences which had been substituted (since August 1, 1847) for the farming system. He left the police tax assessment untouched at the low rate of 5 per cjnt. bat reducad the expensive Earopean contingent of the Police Force to the lowest possible minimum. Finally he restricted public works (with the exception of the erection of a new Government House) to the bare maintenance of existing roads and buildings. By these and other minor forms of retrenchment, he produced at the close of the year 1849 an immediate reduction of £23,672 on the expenditure of the preceding year. He thenceforth maintained this low rate of expenditure (£:^8,98() in 1849) which averaged £84,898 per annum during the next three years and rose in 1858 to na more than £8(5,4 18. He was unable, indeed, to bring about any great improvement of the local revenue, which, though it rose temporarily, by the rigorous exaction of arrears of land rent in 1849, to £85,580, fell again to £28,520 in 1850, and produced during the next three years (1851 to 1858) an annual average of £28,254. However, at the close of his administration he was justified in saying (April 7, 1854) that he had brought the Parlia- mentary Grant from £25,00(1 in 1849 down to £8,500 (correctly £9,20(1) in 1858, and that he had reduced the expenditure of the Colony, within six years, from £62,658 to £80,418. During a period of such financial difficulties, the vexed question of land tenure could not possibly be solved in the way in which the mercantile community desired it to be settled. The merchants were not satisfied with perpetuity of leases. They desired an entire revision of the terms on which they had originally bought their land. Instead of fixing an annual rental and putting up to auction only the rate of bonus to be paid once for all, Elliot had (in the absence of a reliable standard of land values) initiated the system of putting up to auction the rate of the crown rent to be paid from year to year. In the early times of keen competition, of booms and speculations, land 266 CHAFfER XV. johbintr forced uj) the crown rents to a maximum commensurate- with inflated values. But this maximum, which at the time of sale seemel reasonable enough, appeared in after years of commercial stagnation to be a monstrously oppressive rate. Moreover, just when these rents pressed most heavily on the land owners, the Government, whose revenues suffered likewise under commercial depression, was leas^ inclined, nor indeed in a position, to reduce the income from land rents. At a public meeting, principally representing the land owners, a Memorial to the Government was agreed to (January 19, 1849), complaining that the land rents were a burden too heavy to be borne. The memorialists suggested, that the expenses of the civil establishment should be made to fall on trade generally (the Imperial trade) and not on local owners of land and that the crown rents should be materially reduced or abolished. Sir George was in no hurry to take up a problem which could not be solved under the circunistances of the time and left it as a legacv to his successors. 4-fter appointing (October, 1849) a Commission of Inquiry to- report on the land tenure of the Colony for the information of Her Majesty's Government, he informed his select committee- of Justices of the Peace, at the conference of Xovember 3, 1849, that 'any general reiuction in the ground rents would be innned lately followed up by the Home Government with the inipositi<^i of s mie general scheme of excise or assessment which would be found mucb more oppressive and vexatious, besides requii'ing a cumbersome and costly fixed machinery.' Fifteen months later (February 14, 1851) the Colonial Secretary, in reviewing the merits of Sir G. Bonham's administration (by order of the Governor), stated that the petty sources of revenue alleged to ha\e been oppressive, had been abolished and for- the consideration of the chief source, said to be oppressive, a Committee of five was appointed and their report forwarded to Her Majesty's Government. No more was heard of this troublous question during this administration. The legislative activity of Governor Bonham's res^ime centered in reforms of the administration of justice. When THE ADMINLSTKATIOX OF Sill (i. BONHAM. 267 it was found, ill October 1848, that tliere were only 23 persons in the Colony capable of serving on juries, the Governor reduced the property qualification of common jurors from ^1,000 to $500. According- to his habit of consulting the community about difficult problems, Sir G. Bonliam published, in January,. 1-84:0, with a view to elicit an expression of public opinion, a Draft Ordinance to regulate the flogging of criminals. Little accustomed, as the residents then were, to being consulted by their Governors, they imagined that Sir George had no definite views on a subject on which the whole community, convinced of the absolute necessity of applying exceptional severity to the treatment of Chinese criminals, felt very strongly. Nevertheless, the Governor deemed it prudent to shelve the question, while weightier matters pressed for settlement. To I'emove the friction between the Police Magistrates and the Chief Justice, which had troubled the preceding administration. Sir George created (December 17, 1850) a bench of ^fagistrates, perfectly independent of the Government and having powers considerably ureuter than those ordinarilv acLiordcd to similar bodies, bv the establishment of a Court of Petty Sessions. Unofficial Justices of the Peace were to sit once a week with the Police Magistrates to hear cases which otherwise would have been remitted to the Supreme Court for trial by jury. The aim of this new measure (Ordinance 5 of 1850) was to provide a more speedy settlement of small debts, misdemeanours and minor crimes. Bnt it expected, oh- the part of the Justices, a greater readiness to sacrifice their time and more legal acumen, than subsequent experience proved that they possessed. Hence this measure did not give permanent satisfaction. Further, as the Governor, in his capacity as Plenipotentiary, extended at the same time the judicial powers of Consuls in Treaty ports at the expense of Supreme Court jurisdiction, many of his critics (and seemingly the Chief Justice •himself) saw in this creation of a Court of Petty Sessions an objectionable encroachment upon the criminal jurisdiction of the Supreme Court. An opposition paper went so far as to- impute to Sir G. Bonham the intention of eventually abolishing 268 CHAPTER XV. the costly Supreme Court altoge'.her by the appointment of civil officers combinincr judicial and administrative functions under •^ system of plurality of offices wliich would save expenditure. However, the Governor made no such attempt. On the contrary, he extended the summary jurisdiction of the Supreme Court to civil cases not involving more than ^500, and pleased the community considerably in giving eflfect to another suggestion of the Parliamentary Committee of 1847 by publishing, for •the protection of suitors, a table of fees chargeable by attorneys. The question of the form of oath to be administered to Chinese witnesses occupied public nttention in December, 1851, the •Chief Justice having stated that he was greatly afraid that fully half the cases adjudicated summarily had been determined on false testimony. Originally the pi-actice had been adopted of making Chinese witnesses cut a cock's head in Court. Subsequently the breaking of an earthen-ware basin was sub- stituted and latterlv it had been customary to burn a vellow paper with oath and imprecation inscribed on it or signed by the witness. The modern practice of a simple (though generally unintelligible) oral affirmation in place of oath was now (in 1852) adopted. Among the minor Ordinances passed during this administration was an Ordinance to restrain the careless manufacture of gunpowder by Chinese (August ol, 1848), and a Marriage Ordinance (Mar(;h 10, 1852) the o^jeratiou of which was, however, confined to the registration of Christian marriages, leaving the polygamic marriage system of the Chinese unregulated. • Sir G. Bonham's common sense administration is naturally dis- tinguished by the paucity of its legal enactments. The strained relations which formerly existed between the Governor and Chief Justice Hulme (who was restored to office on June KJ, 1848) were ended. But the Chief Justice's relations with Governor Bonham, though never unfriendly, were not marked by cordiality. Among the community, however, C]\ief Justice J. ^Y. Hulme • was extremely popular. On his departure (April 7, 1854) the leading residents pi-esented him with an address testifying to "the high chara(;ter he had alwavs maintained on the ben(;h, to THE ADMINlSTIlATIOy OF SIR G. BONHAM. 269 his satisfactory administration of the law under jx^rplexing- difficulties, and to his undeviating impartiality and uprightness. Durino- the first two jears of Sir €r. Bonham's adminis- tration, crime was still rife in the Colony, but from the year 1850 there was, with the exception of piracy, a sensible decrease of serious offences. Occasional outbursts of a arave nature were, indeed, not wanting-, but the number of felonies, G74 in IS.jO, fell during the next two years to an average of 505 cases per annum, and was reduced in 1853 to 471 cases. An attempt was made by Chinese, on July 8, 1818, to poison 25 men of the Royal Artillery, This was followed by a fight in the harbour between the police, assisted by boats of H.M.S. Camhriaii, and some junks (October 15, 1818). Three Chinese junkmen and a policeman were shot. The Coroner's jury, however, acquitted the junk people and public opinion blamed the police. Next came an attempt (December 24, 1848) to fire the Central IVIarket. Soon after (February 28, 1849) occurred the murder at Wongmakok (near Stanley) of Captain da Costa, R.E., and Lieutenant Dwyer of the Ceylon Rifles, by the pirate chief Chui Apou, who was subsequently (March. 10, 1851) convicted of manslaughter but committed suicide in jail. In September, 1849, a foolish rumour gained currency among the native population to the effect that the Chinese Government had ofl:"ered a reward for the assassination of Governor Bonham. The suggestion was, however, seriously made, and subsequently acted upon, that in his carriage drives the Governor should always be attended by an escort of armed troopers, During September, 1850, some street fights occurred owing to the carpenters' guild intimidating independent journeymen who refused to submit to the guild regulations. With the exception of a murderous attack made upon the Rev. Van Geniss (August, 1852), on the road between Little Hongkong and Wongnaichung, the latter years of this administration were remarkably free from highway robberies and burglaries. But piracy lifted up its head high during this period, in spite of the periodical destruction of piratical fleets by British' 270 CHAPTER XV. gunboats. By a series of hofcly contested engaojements (September 28 to October 3, 1849), Commander J. C. Dalrymple Hay, with H.M. Ships Columbine, Ftfr//, and Medea, destroyed the -entire fleet of Chui Apon, consisting of 2o junks, carrying 12 to 18 guns each and manned by 1,800 desperadoes. Two piratical 'dock-yards were also destroyed on the same occasion. A few weeks later (October 10 to 22, 1849), Commander Hay, having under his orders H.M. Ships Fhlefjeto/i, Fury, Columbine, and ~a large party of officers and men from H.IM.S. Hastings, -destroyed the greater part of the fleet of the other pirate chief, ^hap-ng-tsai. Out of G4 juuks, manned by 3,150 men with 1,221: guns, as many as 58 junks were destroyed. Commander Hay officially reported that these successes were obtained on tthe information given 'by that invaluable officer Daniel R. Caldwell.' So intense was the rejoicing in commercial circles -of Hongkong over these wholesale massacres of pirates, that a public subscription was raised and each of the captains present iit the destruction of Shap-ng-tsai's fleet, was presented with a service of plate of the value of £200. A third piratical fleet of 13 junks, collected by Chui Apon, was destroyed (March 4, 1850) in Mirs Bay, close to Hongkong, by H.M.S. Medea which had on board Mr. Caldwell and a Mandarin from Kowloon. Finally, on May 10, 1853, another piratical fleet was destroyed by H.M.S. Tiattler. Xevertheless, sporadic cases of piracy continued to increase in the neighbourhood of Hongkong. On February 20, 1851, a pitched battle was fought in Aberdeen Bay between some piratical junks and 8 Chinese gunboats. A week later (r^bruary 28, 1851) a conspiraay to loot the river- steamer Hnn'/kon/j on her way to Canton, was discovered by Mr. Caldwell. In the year 1852 some 19 cases of piracy were reported as having occurred in the waters of Hongkong. During the summer of 1853 piracies occurred at an average rate of 14 per month. As many as 70 cases were reported during the year 1853, the most shocking case being the murder (August 5, 1853) of the captain, officers and passengers of the •S.S. Arratoon Apcar, by the Chinese crew. ; THE ADMINISTRATIOX OF SIR G. BONHAM. 271 The Gov^ernment was almost helpless in the matter of piracy. Sir G. Bonham did what he could to organize a detective •department and appointed for this purpose the best colloquial linguist Hongkong ever possessed, Mr. D. R. Caldwell, as Assistant-Superintendent of Police (September 1, 1848). His services were highly effective, particalary in connection with piracy cases. The })atent failure of the Police, with regard to the prevention of crime, was unavoidable, as this extraordinary activity of Chinese criminals on laud and sea was the natural •corroUary of the Taiping and Triad rebellion, and as the Police Force was deficient in numerical strength so long as financial •considerations prevented its re-organisation on a proper footing. Governor Bonham, who thought the Force was quite sufficient for the policing of the town, stated at the close of his administration that, while the Colony had been improving in ^very respect, and contentment prevailed throughout the entire population, the only subject of regret- was tlie extent to wiiicli piracy prevailed in the neighbouring waters. 'To suppress it,' he added, 'is impossible without the co-operation of the (i!hinese Government. This co-operation I have repeatedly requested without avail, and in the present disorganized state of the sea-board part of the Empire it is now useless to expect it.' It has already been stated that to the Taiping rebellion is due the great advance (81 per cent.) which the population made during this period. Even the proportion of males and females commenced now to improve, as the disturbances in the neighbouring districts drove whole families to seek refuge in Hongkong. In 1848 the population numbered 21, 5 14 residents. In 1841) it rose to 29,507 and by the year 1853 ib numbered 30,017 residents. In 1848 one fifth and in 1853 •one third of the population were females. The development of the Colony's commercial prosperity kept pace with the increase of the population. The fresh streams that stirred the stagnant pool of local commerce into renewed y, life came, however, , not merely from the rebellion-fed source " of Chinese emigration, but to a great extent also from the / 272 CHAPTER XV. discovery of the CHliforiiian gold-fields, from the developraerit of the North-Pacific whale and seal fisheries, from the progress made by the Australian Colonies and from the opening up of /Kjapan to British trade and civilization. It may be said, in fact, that it was during this period that the Pacific Ocean commenced to rise into that commercial importance, which, as it has increased ever since, including also the smaller islands of Oceania, ; is bound to make the Pacific ere long one of the most important?, centres of the world's commercial politics. The fresh life infusei into the arteries of local commerce naturally manifested itself in the first instance by an increase in the shipping trade. The number of square-rigged vessels regularly frequenting the port iucreased during this period from 700 to 1,103, while their tonnage was nearly doubled. Ship-building went on. briskly at J. Lament's patent slip at East Point and from IG to 30 European vessels were annually registered in the Colony. The native junk trade, though restrained by piracy, also increased considerably. The system of employing small British steamers to convoy and protect by force of arms fieets of native junks, continued so long as the coast of China was infested with swarms of piratical fleets. Of course this practice had its atten- dant evils. The Chinese Authorities protested against it and British naval commanders were its sworn enemies. One of the latter arrested the little steamer Spec and prosecuted her captain and crew in the Consular Court at Shanghai on a charge of piracy, for havinu: fired into junks which were mistaken ffor pirates. The prosecution, however, fell to the ground when tried in the Supreme Court of Hongkong (September, 1848). Governor Bonham was averse to the convoying system, Jbut Her Majesty's Government permitted its continuance as it had its justification in the fact that the spasmodic efforts, made by the few British men-of-war on the station to suppress piracy, were practically of no avail so long as the Chinese rebellion continued. Lord Palmerston also informed the Governor (in 1848) that Chinese vessels in tow of British merchant vessels have a right to British protection. THE ADMINISTRATION OF SIR G. BONHAM. 273 The opening* of tbe gold-fields in the Sacramento valley in 1848 and the organisation of the new State of California in 1850 cansed a new line of commerce to connect Honfjfkong- with San Francisco. It commenced (July, 1849) with large orders for slop clothes and wooden houses (shipped in fi-arae) which were made in Hongkong. Next, Chinese artizans were ,sent to California to set up those houses. These were followed by an annually increasing stream of Chinese emigrants embarking at Hongkong for San Francisco and a steadily developing trade in all sorts of articles. In the year 1851 forty-four vessels' left Hongkong for California and this line of connection has been maintained ever since. In December, 1848, a few American whalers put into Hongkong to refit and were so pleased with the resources of the Colony that for many years after they rejiented their visits in increasing numbers. Thirteen such vessels arrived at the close of the year 1841). Between December 1850 and March 1851, fifteen vessels arrived laden with oil, of which a considerable portion w^as shipped in British bottoms to England under the navigation laws. As each of these vessels spent about £500 in the Colony, their visits were hailed with satisfaction, apart from the incipient oil trade connected with them. During the next season as many as 37 whalers arrived (December 2, 1851 to February 21," 1852) with 616,203 gallons of oil, of which however only a small portion was shipped from Hongkong to London. Coolie emigration to Peru and Cuba, though chiefly conducted at Macao, because the crimping and kidnapping system connected with it w^ould not have been tolerated in Hongkong, benefitted y the Colony at first to some extent (in 1852). But tlie fjequent mutinies which occurred among the coolies shipped on that syitem^-soon caused British skippers to eschew _the__ Peruvian coolie trade. Xrojoerly regulated coolie emigration to Guiana commenced in 1853 under the direction of Mr. J. Gardiner Austin, the Immigration xlgent-General of the Government of British Guiana. Emigration to Australia commenced in a small i8 \ \ / ^74 CHAPTER XV. way, in 1853, with three vessels carrying 268 Chinese settlers. The restrictive policy which in after years, when pushed to an •extreme, banished coolie emigration from the Colony, was initiated by Governor Bonham in a proclamation (January 4, 1854) which, however, did not go beyond regulating the provisioning 4ind dietary scale of coolie ships. At the close of Sir G. Bonham's administration, the •conviction forced icself upon Hongkong merchants that the Nanking Treaty, though it improved British relations with China, had commercially but little effect, and that the expansion of trade that took place since the year 184:3 would anyhow have resulted from purely natural causes. The returns of the Board of Trade shewed that the import of British manufactures into China was, at the close of the year 1850, less by nearly three- quarters of a million sterling, compared with what it w^as in 1844. Exports of tea and silk increased indeed enormously, but this increase was chiefly owing to opium and specie and not to the vast trade in manufactured goods which had been expected to result from the Nanking Treaty. It w^as seen at last that what restrains the inflax of British fabrics into the interior of China is not the paucity of open ports but the fact that the industry of China can beat British power-looms with regard to both the cost of production and the durability of the fabric. The opium trade of the Colony, which Sir Kobcrt Peel's Government had at one time (in 1840) intended to suppress by the imposition of a prohibitive tax, entered in spring 1853 into its present state of legitimate commerce, through the decision of the Chinese Government to legalise the importation of opium. The published ralson cVetre of this decision was ' the inefficiency of the laws against opium by reason of their excessive severity.' In reality, however, Chinese statesmen, a;^ they had been induced by financial considerations to prohibit the importation of opium in 1831), now legalised its importation in 1853 on purely financial grounds. In 1839 they excluded Indian opium because it drained China of its silver. In 1853 they imposed a heavy import duty on Indian opium to provide funds for the THE ADMINISTRATION OF SIR G. BONHAM. 275 suppression of the Taipin^ rebellion. Bnb whatever treatment they accorded to Indian opium, they all along permitted the cultivation of native opium in the inland provinces. Questions of currency were much debated in Hongkong during this period, since October, 1850, when the comparatively rare Spanish dollars commanded a high premium in the market at Canton, where at the time the bulk of Hongkong exchange operations was conducted. Rather sudden fluctuations occurred in 1851, placing Mexican dollars, rupees and English money at an enormous discount. Various schemes were propounded to smooth matters, but all proved futile. In 1852, the coinage of a British dollar was first mooted in connection with the resolution of a public meeting held at Singapore (January, 1852) which suggested the coinage of an East India Company's dollar with divisions of half, quarter and eighth dollars for circulation in the Straits. Unfortunately the proposal was shelved for years. By notification of April 27, 1853, Sir G. Bonham published a Royal proclamation of October 10, 1852, to the effect that, where- as hitherto the silver coins of the United Kingdom had passed current in Hongkong (and some other British Colonies) as an unlimited tender for payments, they should henceforth (as in England) not be a legal tender in payment of sums exceeding forty shillings due by or to the Government. This proclamation, artificially bolstering up a theoretical gold standard, which had no commercial reality in the Colony, came into force on October 1, 1853, and delayed the rehabilitation of Hongkong's original silver (dollar) standard. Meanwhile contention arose in Hongkong through contradictory official decisions. In January, 1854, the Chief Justice ruled 'that, when an agreement runs for dollars of any denomination, 'such dollars must be paid with— in English money — whatever premium they command in the Hongkong market,' and again, 'that Court fees must be paid in dollars, but that it is not proper to refuse English money in payment of costs.' On the other hand, the Colonial Treasurer (W. T. Mercer) made an order (February 9, 1854) that 'all Government land rents must for the future be paid in dollars i/ 276 CHAPTER XV. according to the terms of the lease.' As the Colonial Treasurer refused the Queen's sovereigns, which about this time had been declared by the Lords of the Treasury to be a legal discharge for the sums they represented 'throughout Pier ]\Iajesty's dominions' and to require no further Colonial enactment for their legalisation, complaints were made on all sides. The contention was accentuated by the fact that the Colonial Treasurer took dollars at a fixed rate of four shillings and twopence though the market value might be five shillings. . Steam communication between Hongkong and Canton was placed on a satisfactory basis by the establishment (October 11), 1848) of the 'Hongkong and Canton Steam Packet Company.' The first Hongkong Directors of this Company were Messrs. D. Matheson, A. Campbell, T. D. Xeave and F, T. Bush. They commenced operations in spring 1849 with two small steamers (of 250 tons each) built in London. The Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company commenced in 1849 running a steamer (the Lady Mary WoocX) regularly between Hongkong and Shanghai, but failed in an attempt, made in December 1850, to induce local merchants to pay a monthly subsidy in lieu of postage. The same Company established, in January 1853, a regular monthly mail between Hongkong and Calcutta, giving thereby the Colony the advantage of regular fortnightly communication with England. Telegrams had to be sent through intermediary agents at Gibraltar or Trieste, the latter route becoming now the favourite. Tlie increased facilities thus provided, were not much relished by Hongkong merchants, because they accentuated the keenness of competition. The leisure with which business was formerly conducted in the time of monthly mails, was now supplanted by an annually increasing high-pressure rate of communication with all parts Of- the world. In other respects also local trade hud by this time undergone an alteration. The profits of the China trade, formerly enjoyed by a few, were now divided among the many. The days of the merchant princes were now a dream of the past. Fortunes were still made but it took some decades of years now to make THE ADMINISTRATION OF SIR G. BONHAM. 277 ^tliora. However, tlie commercial prospects of the Colo'ny were certainly extending and assuming a character of greater permanency. When (in summer 1850) the great firms in India Avere prostrated one after the other, the China firms dealing with India bore the shock firmly with but one exception. But it took years before Hongkong's commercial reputation was rehabilitated in England. The Economist, which had maligned the good fame of the Colony (in 1846), continued even in 1851 (March 8) to belittle the progress which had been made meanwhile. How very little was thought or known- of Hongkong at this time even by those in authority in England, is evidenced by the fact that the Royal Commissioners of the International Exhibition of 1851 gave no place to Hongkong as a Colony. They merely invited the merchants of Hongkong Xo join in an exhibition representing China. Naturally resenting Xhis slight, the Committee, appointed at a public meeting that was held on June 24, 1850, resolved to leave it to the Canton .) between the East India Company and the Chinese Government. But this international union carelessly entered upon was characterized, in the course of the next two centuries, by a deep-seated and growingly manifested incompati- bility of temper, such as made Anglo-Chinese international life at Canton a burden too heavy to be borne by either nation. British free trade notions based on the assumption of international equality could not remain in wedlock with China's iron rule of monopoly based on the claim of political supremacy over the universe. The crisis came when that claim was confronted ^9 290 CHAPTER XVI. (A.D. 1833) by an Act of Parliament establishing British authority in the East and by the substitution (A.D. 1834) of an independent community of lusty free traders for the servile and effete East India Company. The domestic alliance contracted after A.D. 1G34 between Europe and Asia on terms so hurailiatina: for the former, was bound to result in a temporary divorce. That divorce was solemnly and emphatically pro- nounced, though with patent unwillingness, by Commissioner Lin (A.D. 1839) acting on behalf of Asia, whereupon Captain Elliot, acting as the representative of Europe, secured Hongkong as a cradle for the offspring of that unhappy union (born A.D. 1841), that is to say for the Colony whose divine destiny it is to reconcile its parents hereafter in a happier reunion by a due subordination of Asia to Europe. The elder shall serve the younger and be taught to love and obey — such is the historic problem which Hongkong has to solve in the dim future. This conception of Hongkong as the vantage point from which the Anglo-Saxon race has to work out its divine mission of promoting the civilization of Europe in the East, and establishing the rule of constitutional liberty on the continent of Asia and on the main of the Pacific, is not a mere fancy. However imperfectly the problem may have been stated here, the foregoing remarks undoubtedly contain an approximate formulation of a true historic lesson which he who runs mav read. Now this lesson, however it may be modified and amended by a critical reader, provides the student of the history of Hongkong with a definite standard by which he can measure the progress of the Colony and judge the merits of its Governors at any successive period. If the reader is once clear as to what it is that the past history of Hongkong shews the purport of the establishment of Hongkong to have been in the providence of (iod, liKi will have no difficulty in determining, with regard to the public measures or public men of any period, w^hether they marred or promoted the Colony's progress towards fulfilling its divine mission. A BRIEF SURVEY. 291 It appears then from this point of view that the Colony of Hongkong, the offspring of a union batween Europe and Asia, ushered into the world in the year 1841, was nursed by brave Captain Elliot in the cradle of liberty and free trade, solemnly christened at Nanking, in 1842, by the despotic autocrat, Sir H. Pottinger, weaned from 1844 to 1848 by pedantic Sir J. Davis amid an amount of tempest and strife which made the empoverished Colonial nursery resound with cries for representative government and with groans condemnatory of monopoly, until Parliament stepped in (in 1847) and laid down the programme on which the schooling of the young fledgeling Avas accordingly conducted by Sir G. Bonham, who gave the Colony its first common-sense instructions in the A-B-C of constitutional government. In other words, of the first four Governors of Hongkong only Captain Elliot and Sir G. Bonham appear to have read aright the lessons of the past history of British intercourse with China and to have applied those lessons correctly to the establishment of the Colony of Hongkong. To begin with Captain Elhot, he seems to have recognized or at any rate acted upon the following principles — (1) that Hongkong must be regarded in the first instance as a point from which should radiate the general influence of Europe upon Asia ; (2) that it is therefore of primary importance to maintain at Hongkong British supremacy vis a vis Chinese mandarindom ; (3) that the settlement on Hongkong must be treated rather as a station for the protection of British trade in the Far East in general than as a Colony in the ordinary sense of the word, that is to say that Hono-kono* is in truth neither a mere Crown Colony ac(]uired by war nor a Colony formed by productive settlement ; (4) that the Colony of Hongkong can be made to prosper only by keeping: sacredly inviolate its free trade palladium and by governing the colonists on principles of constitutional liberty. Unfortunately Captain Elliot was recalled before he could give full effect to these fundamental principles. But that he estabhshed the Colony on this basis redounds to -his honour. 292 CHAPTER XVI. It was even more unfortunate that Captain Elliot's successors,. Sir H. Pottinger and Sir J. Davis, pursued a policy whiclv while theoretically accepting* the first of those propositions, virtually ran counter to all of them. It is quite possible that the recall of Captain Elliot implied a condemnation on the part of the Colonial Office of the above stated propositions rather than of his Palmerstonian war policy, and that the contrary principles adopted by Elliot's successors originated with the- Downing vStreet Authorities rather than with themselves. But if so, it is remarkable that both Sir H. Pottinger and Sir J. Davis apixiar to have carried out con amore those pernicious instructions and to have personally identified themselves with the autocratic and protectionist spirit that must have governed the authors of those instructions whoever they were. Sir H. Pottinger, indeed, gloriously maintained, while the British army and navy were at work, the ascendancy of Europe in Asia, but, the moment the sword was sheathed, he allowed Mandarin duplicity and arrogance to cajole him so as to surrender one and all of the principles established by Captain Elliot. Sir H. Pottinger thought so highly of Chinese officials and so badly of British merchants that, for verv fear of furtherino- the interests of opium dealers and smugglers, he shrank from maintaining free trade principles. In result, he preferred to allow the Cantonese Authorities to frame regulations for Hongkong's commerce which effectually strangled it. Moreover, whilst thus sacrificing the liberty and prosperity of British commerce, Sir H. Pottinger, though in the Nanking Treaty he had defined Hongkong as a mere naval station for careening and refitting British ships, governed the settlers as if Hongkong were a regular Colony bound to maintain by taxes an extrav- agantly expensive official establishment, and yet refused to give them any representation or voice whatsoever in a Council which autocratically disposed of the taxpayer' money. Sir J. Davis, specially selected as the trained tool of ISIandarin autocracy and monopoly, not only followed in the footsteps of his predecessor, but went even farther in violation of the principles A BRIEF SURVEY. 293 which had guided Captain Elliot. By his Triad Society's 'Ordinance he sacrificed the rndiineiitary principles of European •civilization and the British axiom of the liberty of the subject :to a cringino- subservience of the aims of Mandarin tyranny in its most barbaric aspects. By his buccaneering expedition •of April, 1847, he injured British prestige in the East even more than his predecessor had ever done. By his monopolies and farms and petty regulations he hampered and injured the foreign and native commerce of the Colony and nullified the freedom of the port. The result of the misgovernment, initiated •by Sir H. Pottinger and contiimed by Sir J. Davis, was that Parliament had to step in to warn the Colonial Office against 'the mischievous policy pursued at Hongkong, and to rescue the Colony from plaiidy and imminently impending ruin by a return 'to the principles established by Captain Elliot. Let the reader who doubts the soundness of the above analysis of Hongkong's early history ponder the incontrovertible fact that the policy of autocracy, monopoly and protectionism, pursued by Sir H. Pottinger and Sii* -J. Davis, not only drove commerce away from Hongkong and made the Colony contemptible in the eyes of the Cliinese, but brought the settlement to the verge of commercial and financial ruin and delivered l^ritish commerce at Hongkong, under the shadow of the British flag, into a bondage of Chinese mandarindom, as effective, as despicable and as galling as that under which the East India Company and the British free traders ever groaned whilst located at Canton. AVhat staved off the impending rniu was a reversion to the principles of Elliot. The foregoing remarks mav serve to show that the formula- tion, by the Parliamentary Committee of 1847, of the programme essential for Hongkong's prosperity, was but a comprehensive re-statement of the principles which led to and guided the original establishment of the Colony. Those principles, discarded for a while by Sir H. Pottinger and Sir J. Davis to the Colony's manifest injury, were re-introduced l)y Sir G. Bonham who conformed his administration to those principles, though he vdid not agree with all the propositions which the Parliamentary 294 CHAPTER XVI. Committee had deduced therefrom. Sir G. Bonham's administra- tion stands thus connected positively with tliat of Captain Elliot and neo:atively with that of Sir H. Pottinger and Sir J. Davis. This view comprehends, in one organic process, the whole period from 1841 to 1854 as the first epoch in the pragmatic history of Hongkong. It also gives its due importance to the administration of Sir G. Bonham which, as it was with regard to the misrule of his two predecessors, the grave of the past, "was at the same time, by the restoration of Elliot's .vital principles, the cradle of the future. What constitutes, therefore, tbe close of Sir G. Bonham's administration as one of the great turning points in the history of the Colony is this, that by this time both the colonists and ■ the Colonial Office had attained to the clear consciousness of" j Hongkong's mission as the representative of free trade in the iEast and of the need of some sort of representative government. An eqnally clear apprehension of the difficulties standing in the way of a practical realisation of this ideal was not wanting. But the recognition of the ideal itself was now established. This was for the young Colony what the first effulgence of personal self-consciousness is in the evokition of the human mind. Autocratic despotism, protectionism and monopoly, were now doomed, in principle at least. The commercial and financial prosperity of Hongkong was now, though not perfected yet, virtually established. A definite prospect of the Colony becom- ing soon absolutely self-supporting, Wiis now looming within measurable distance. And as to Hong-kono-'s exercisinof, on behalf of Europe, a civilizing influence upon the adjoining continent of x\sia, the colonists and their rulers could well trust to the natural course of events to work out that problem. A British Colony thus firmly established in Asia, on the root principles of European liberty, was and is sure to play, in the drama of the future, such a part as will illustrate, in the sight of Asia, the superiority of British over Chinese forms of civilization and government and make Hongkong for all times the bulwark "of the cause of Europe in the East. CHAPTER XVII. The Administration of Sir John Bowring. A2)rU IS, 1854, to May 5, 1859. \URING the ten months of Sir G. Bonham's absence on furlough (1852 to 1853), while Major-General Jervois administered the government of the Colony, the affairs of the Superintendencj of Trade were, as mentioned above, separately attended to by H.M. Consul of Canton who, for this purpose, temporarily resided at Government House, Hongkong. That Consul and Acting Chief-Superintendent of British Trade in China was Dr. Bowring. He had previously gained for himself a measure of Euro^Dean renown and the verdict of public opinion was, to use the words of his own epigrammatic critique of Byron, that more could be said of his genius than of his character. Dr. Bowring's natural abilities were marked by great versatility but appeared to lack in depth. Starting in commercial life and having occupied several responsible posts on the Continent, he distinguished himself as a linguist, as a racy translator of foreign literature, as the author of promiscuous pamphlets on commerce, ifinance, and political economy, and as a member of numerous Literary Societies. So great was his literary and political i-eputation, that, when the Westminster Review was started (1824) to expound the doctrines of the so-called philosophical radicals, headed by Jeremv Bentham, and to advocate the views of the advanced liberal party, he was chosen as first editor and successfully held the office for many years in conjunction with H. Southern. During Earl Grey's Ministry, the Government also recognized his abilities and employed him repeatedly, firat as Secretary to a Commission for investigating the public accounts, and 296 CHAPTER XVII. on snbsaquent occasions in connection with Commercial Treaties concluded with France, the Zoll-Verein, the Levant and Holland. Whilst in Holland, he received (1829) from the Academy of •Groningen the honorary title of Doctor Literarum Humanioriim. In the year 1833 he entered Parliament as Member for Kilmarnock (1833 to 1837) and, after three unsuccessful contests for Blackburn and Kirkcaldy, sat for seven years for Bolton. (1841 to 1840). During this period he directed (in 1846) the attention of the Ministry to alleged illegal flogging in Hongkong and took, as a member of the Parliamentary •Committee of 1847, a prominent part in the inquiry into Hono^kono^ affairs and British relations with China. He was also for a number of years President of the Peace Society (established since 1816) which labours to procure universal disarmament and the substitution of international arbitration for war. Earl Clarendon and Lord Palmerston thought highly of Dr. Bowring and always remained his staunch supporters. Owing to financial reverses, however, Dr. Bowring had to seek a lucrative post and accepted, in January 1849, a Consular appointment. ' Lord Palmerston,' he says in his autobiography, * offered me the Consulship of Canton where diplomatic questions with the Central Kingdom were discussed.' His actual occu- j)ations in Canton were, however, of a disenchantiugly humble 4) in a pitched battle at Whampoa, the proud Viceroy, in liis hour of distress, condescended lo ask Sir John to protect Canton city against the impending assault of the Taipings. Sir John hastened to Canton with Admiral Stirling (January, 1855) and, under the pretext of protecting the lives and property of British residents at Canton, took with him a larue force (H.M. Ships Winchester^ Ikirracouta, Comiis, . Battler and Sti/x). This move had the desired effect of over-awing the Taiping fleet which forthwith retired. But when Sir John jiow once more asked Yeh for an interview and alluded to the THE ADMINISTRATION OF SIR J. BO WRING. 305 unfulfilled promise of the opening of Canton city, the nngratefnl Viceroy was as intractable as ever. The Earl of Clarendon had. when giving Sir John his instructions (February 13, 1854-)^ specially warned him, ' to treat all questions of unrestricted inter- course with the Chinese with much caution, so as not to imperil commercial interests which, with temperate management, would daily acquire greater extension.' But this policy of waiving at Canton the rights granted to British residents and condoning the insults incessantly offered to them by that proud city, did no good with people like the Cantonese gentry. It merely postponed the impending crisis and put off for a brief interval! the day of reckoning for years of continued breaches of Treaty rights. Canton was now the only j)ort in China where the Nanking Treaty was systematically disregarded, and this was done at Canton simply on account of the proximity of Hongkong. The establishment of a British Colony at the mouth of the Canton river was to the haughty Cantonese what German Alsatia is to sensitive Frenchmen : a festering wound in their side, a source of constant irritation. Yell Ming-shen, the successor of Sen Kwang-tsin in the Imperial Commissionership and Viceroyalty at Canton and the most faithful exponent of that Manchu policy which heeds none but forcible lessons and is bound by none but material guarantees, was the very man to bring the existing popular irritation to a crisis. He was the idol of the gentry and literati of Canton who had (in 1848) erected, in honour of Sen and Yeh, a stone tablet recording their anthropophagous hatred of Europeans in the following memorable words, 'whilst all the common people yielded, as if bewitched, to all the inclinations of the barbarians, only we of Canton, at Samyuenli (1841) have ever destroyed them, and at Wongchukee (1847) cut them in pieces : even our tender children are desirous to devour their flesh and to sleep upon their skins.' Viceroy Yeh, the representative of this party, hated the power, the commerce, the civilization of Europe even more than any of his predecessors. He was not. aggressive, however, nor did he think it worth while to strengthen his 20 ;^06 CHAPTER XVII. •defeuces or his aniiv. Yet he was determined to maintain the supremacy of China over all barbarians. He blamed Sen for having had too much parleying with Plenipotentiaries and Oousnls. He would have no interviews of any sort. He would simply dictate his terms to them. As a matter of Jfact he never granted an interview to any foreigner, though Sir John plied him with arguments and Sir M. Seymour bombarded his residence to obtain one, and he never met a European face to face until that memorable day (January 5, IHoS) when his apartments were unceremoniously burst into by the blue-jackets of H.M.S. SaiisjuiTpil and he was, while climbing over a wall, caught in the strong arms of Sir Astley Cooper Key whilst Commodore Elliot's coxswain 'twisted the august tail of the Imperial Commissioner round his fist.' But I am anticipating. From the time of Yeh's assumption of office, the anti- foreign attitude of the literati at Canton became more and more pronounced. There was a brief lull in 1855 and 1856 Avhile the Taipings hovered around Canton city. But when the rebels retreated, the gentry of Canton resumed their hostile demeanour. Inflammatory anti- European placards and handbills were distributed broadcast over the city and suburbs in summer 185G. Englishmen w^ere stoned if they shewed themselves anywhere outside the factories. It was felt on both sides that an explosion was imminent. Yet neither side prepared for the <3oming struggle. Such was the position of affairs when, on 8th October, 185C, the little incident occurred which gave rise to the famous Arrow War. The Chinese Annalist tells the story in the following words. *The difficulty arose through a lorcha (named the .-Irro/r), having an English captain and a Chinese crew,. anchoring off Canton with the Russian (sic) flag flying. Now the Nanking Treaty provided for the surrender of such Chinese as shall take refuge in Hongkong or on board English ships. When the Chinese Naval Authorities became aware that the crew was Chinese, a. charge of being in collusion with barbarians was preferred and twelve Chinese seamen were taken in chains into THE ADMINISTRATION OF SIR J. BOWRING. 307 ^Oautoii.' Ill reality, the facts were briefly these. Some Cliineso •CTOwn-lessees of Hongkong had legally purchased in Chinese territory and from Chinese officials a small clipper-bnilt vessel v(lorcha) which those officials had re-captured from Chinese pirates. The j)urchasers, residents of Hongkong, brought the ■vessel to the Colony, gave her the name Arrow, and in due form •obtained for her (in October, 1855) a Colonial register under •Ordinance Xo. 4 of 1855. As the original owners of the vessel (whose rights the Chinese officials had set aside) brought an -nction against the purchasers in the Supreme Court of Hongkong, the ownership of the vessel was judicially established. The Arrow was then employed in the legitimate coasting trade, open to British ships, and thus visited the port of Canton, flying the British flag, on 8th October, 1850. Although the renewal of her register happened to be several days over-due, that did ^lot in law deprive her of her privileges as a British vessel. Xor >, 185G) put a price of §30 on English heads. He now raised the rcwaixl to taels 100 per head, called upon the Chinese population of Hongkong- 'to leave the Colony immediately, and placarded the streets of Hongkong- and Canton with appeals to the people to avenge his wrongs by any means wliatever. In response to this appeal, Avhich had at lii'st no effect in Hongkong, the Canton mob set tire to the European factories at Canton (December 14, 1850) and later on (January, 1857) to the British docks and stores at Whampoa. In Hongkong, where Taiping- rebels and professional pirates and brigands had been making common cause under the aegis of the local Triad societies, the European community was, ever since the Arroir incident, pervaded by a growing sense of insecurity. On 10th October, 1850, a public meeting, summoned to consider matters seriously affecting the interests of the Colony, bitterly complained of the total inefficiency of the Police Force for the protection of life and property. Vai'ious forms of registering the Chinese residents, so as to exclude all Chinese whose honesty was not vouched for, were proposed and urged upon the Government with the utmost confidence. Sir John, however, put no trust in the vouchers that would have been produced and shraidv from a measure the thorough execution •of which would have involved the forcible deportation of the vast majority of the local Chinese residents. His refusal to -sanction any of the popular measures proposed by the British. 310 CHAPTER XVII. coinmnnity gave great offence and the irritation increased when:' the fleet retreated from Canton, foiled by Yeh's obstinacy, and more particularly when his placards apj^eared at every street corner calling upon all loyal Chinese residents of Hongkong to avenge his wrongs and to make war against all Europeans which they could do only by dagger, poison or incendiarism. The European community now felt the enemy lurking in their midst, . the British flag successfully insulted, the navy defeated, the Governor indifferent to their danger. What measures the Governor did take, served only to increase the excitement which now commenced to take hold of the community. On oOth- December, 1850, a general rising of the mob being apprehended. H.M.S. Aeojvi was anchored near the Central ^larket to overawe the Chinese rowdies congregating in that neighbourhood. On the same day an auxiliarv Police Force was ori>-anized and an attempt was made to enrol volunteers as special constables. The new-year opened with the news that the S.S. Feima, having been attacked by Chinese soldiers, was hulled in several places, and that in(;endaries had been at work in different parts of the town. The Governor now issued (January 0, 1857) in great haste a draft Ordinance for better securing the peace of the Colony. But the measures it resorted to, greater stringency as to night-pass regulations, deportation of suspected emissaries or abettors of enemies and compulsory co-operation for the extinction of fires, gave no satisfaction to the community in the absei}ce of a Draconic form of compulsory registration. It was once more suggested that every Chinaman not carrying on his person an official badge and registered voucher of his honesty should be deported. The feeling of insecurity increased. Jardine Matheson and Company found it necessary to obtain a detachment of blue-jackets and marines to guard their premises, and the local papers now jmblished a 'daily chronicle of Chinese atrocities.' Within the first fortnight of 1857 this chronicle contained daily items of local outraores such as 'shootins; of four men with fire balls upon them ; temporary stupefaction of three Europeans- after eating poisoned soup ; discovery of a headless body in the- THE ADMINISTRATION OF SIR J. BOWRIXG. 3.11 Wongnaicliang valley ; firing matsheds on Crosby's premises in Queen's Road Central ; capture of S.S. Thistle (January 13, 1857) by Chinese soldiers disguised as passengers, who murdered eleven Europeans and several Chinese and burned the vessel.' On the morning of January 15th, 1857, a few hours before the mail carrying to England the foregoing budget of news left the harbour, the foreion communitv was seized bv a general panic, as at every European breakfast table there arose the- simultaneous cry of 'poison in the bread.' Some 400 Europeans,, partaking that morning of bread supplied by the E-sing bakeiy, owned by a Heungshan man called Ah-lum, suffered more or less from arsenical poisoning. Every 4 lb. loaf of white bread, subsequently analysed at Woolwich (by F. A. Abel), contained grains '92 per cent, of white arsenic. Toasted bread contained the smallest proportion (-15 grains per cent.) of poison, yet 4 ounces of it were found to contain 2^ grains of arsenious acid. Brown bread contained abont 2^ times and Avliite bread about 6 times the quantity found in the toast. Those Avho ate least suffered the most. Some, Lady Bowiing for one, were delirious for a time ; many had their health permanently injured ; all received a severe nervons shock by the sudden consciousness of being surrounded bv assassins. No immediate death was caused by this poisoning incident but some, as for instance Lady Bowring, who had to return to England and failed to recover, were evidently hurried into the grave by it. Even after the lapse of a year (January 17, 1858) the local papers asserted, with reference to the death of a Mr. S. Drinker and Captain Williams of the S.S. LiJ//, that their deaths had been medically traced to the arsenic swallowed by them on the great day of poisoning. On that memorable morning the excitement was of coarse most intense. The medical men of the Colonv, whilst personally in agonies through the effects of the poison, were hurrying from house to house, interrupted at every step by frantic summons from all directions. Emetics were in urgent request in every European family. Ah-lum, the baker, who for some weeks previous had been worried by messages from the 312 CHAPTER XVIT. Heungsliau Mandarins to remove from Hongkong, bad left for Macao that morning with bis wife and children, but they also found themselves poisoned, and Ah-lum was returning voluntarily to Hongkong when he was arrested. Strange to say, his work- men did not run away even after the poison had taken effect, but remained at the bakery until the police, after a delay of many hours, came and arrested 51 men. As many as 42 of them were kept for 20 consecutive days and nights on remand, in an underground police cell, 15 feet square by 12 feet high. It was thenceforth justly termed 'the Black Hole of Hongkong.' The local papers seriously urged the Governor ' to have tbe whole of the poisoning crew of E-sing's bakery strung up in front of the shop where tbe scheme was concocted.' Justices of the Peace, sbrinking from the application of lynch law, entreated the Governor to proclaim forthwith martial law and to deport <3very Chinaman whose loyalty could not be vouched for. Though every member of his family suffered from the poison, Sir John remained calm and rejected all suggestions of hasty measures. But to the eyes of the terror-stricken community his firmness bore at the time the aspect of callous indifference. AVhen, by the end of the month, the excitement had somewhat abated, the .European residents still complained that nothing was done by the Governor to assure public confidence against the recurrence of a similar or worse catastrophe, aiid that the deportation (to Hainan) of 123 prisoners, released owing to the overcrowded state of the gaol, increased the general feeling of insecurity. The result of the criminal prosecution instituted against Ah-lum and his workmen was equally unsatisfactory to the public mind. There was no evidence incriminating the persons arrested, and Ah-lum, who was defended by the Acting Colonial Secretary (])r. \V. T. Bridges), was acquitted by the verdict of an impartial jury. He was, however, re-arrested as a suspicious character and detained in gaol until July 31st, 1857, when he was released, by order of the Secretary of State, on condition of his not resorting to the Colony for five years. THE ADMINISTRATION OF SIR J. BOWRING. 313 A civil action had meanwhile been brought against Ah-kim by the editor of the Friend of China (W. Tarrant) who obtained (June :?4, 1857) 1 1,000 damages for specific injuries, that resulted from eating the poisoned bread sold to him by Ah-lum. The latter was, however, by this time reduced from affluence to bankruptcy. He may have been innocent of any direct complicity, but the community, which unanimously attributed the crime to the instigations of Cantonese Mandarins, would not believe otherwise but that Ah-lum had, in some measure, connived at the diabolical attempt to poison the whole of the foreign residents of Hongkong. When the news of the outbreak of hostilities at Canton reached England, the several political parties in opposition formed a coalition with a view to censure the Ministry. Lord Derby, supported by Lord Lyndhurst in the House of Lords (February 24, 1857), and Mr. Cobden, supported by Mr. Gladstone and Mr. Disraeli in the House of Commons (February 26, 1857), heroically espoused the cause of that innocent lamb-like Yeh and condemned the proceedings initiated by Sir John Bowring in the most unsparing terms. It was said that the Goverimient had one rule for the weak and another for the strong, and that the conduct of Sir John Bowring had been characterized by overbearing insolence towards the Chinese Authorities. Lord Falmerston warmly defended the action of Sir John but, as the debate proceeded, it soon became evident that the question involved was not merely the proposed appointment of a Committee to investigate British relations with China, nor even the recall of Sir John, but the fate of the Ministry. However, Avhen Mr. Cobden's vote of censure was carried in the Commons by a majority of IG votes, the Ministers, instead of resigning, announced (March 5, 1857) that, after passing certain urgent measures, they would dissolve Parliament in order to appeal, on the Chinese question, to the nation. They added that mean- while the policy of the Government with regard to China would continue to be what it always had been, viz. a policy for the protection of British commercial interests, and that the question of the continuance or recall of Sir John Bowring was one that 314 CHAPTER XVII. had been and still was under the grave consideration of the Cabinet. Without waiting for the result of the coming elections^ Lord Palmerston sent orders to Mauritius and Madras to mobilize troops for service in China, and forthwith selected the Earl of Elgin and Kinkarrline to proceed bj the mail of April 2G, 1857, as special Plenipotentiary to China. A supplementary force of troops, steam -vessels and gun-boats was immediately dispatched from England. The Viceroy's placards and the poisoning of the Hongkong community, which the Cantonese Mandarins had considered a master stroke of their policy, exercised, at the general elections, a considerable influence towards bringing about tlie deliberate adoption by the nation of the warlike- policy of Lord Palmerston. He returned to power stronger than ever. However, so far as Sir John Bowring was concerned, the debate in Parliament blasted in one fell swoop all his> ambitious hopes. Lord Clarendon indeed wrote to him sym- pathetically, saying, ' I think that you have been most unjustly treated and that in defiance of reason and common sense the- whole blame of events which could not have been foreseen and which had got beyond your control was cast upon you.' But there was no comfort to Sir John in such a private declaration of his innocence, seeing that it was accompanied by the official announcement that he had been superseded in his office as H.^L Plenipotentiary in China. This measure virtually left him hut the Governorship of Hongkong. But what was that in the eyes of the man who had been accustomed to say. ' I have China, I have Siam, I have no time for Hongkong' ? Moreover, the loss of personal friends like Cobden and others, who could not get over the fact that the late President of the Peace Society had been the originator of the latest war, cut him to the (juick. Fame now seemed to him but a glorious bubble and honour the darling of but one short day. Owing to the outbreak of the Lidian Mutiny (May, 1857) nearly a year passed by before the troops sent out to China and ()pi)ortnnely diverted to India, were ready to recall the Chinese Government to a sense of Treaty obligations. Meanwhile THE ADMIXISTRATIOX OF SIR J. BOWRING. 315 Vicerov Yeli continued bis irregular warfare. The S.S. Queen suffered (February 2o, 1857) the same fate as tbe Thistle and her captain and* European crew were assassinated. Incendiarism flourished in a petty way in Hongkong-, and Duddell's bakery, inaccessible to poisoners, was fired (February 28, 1857). Man- darin proclamations once more (March, 1857) peremptorily ordered all Chinese to leave Hongkong on pain of expatriation, but as yet with little result. A vast conspiracy was discovered (April ]5, 1857) to have been organized in Canton to make war in Hongkong against British lives and property. Attacks on British shipping and even on British gunboats were of frequent occurrence until Commodores Elliot and Keppel (May to June, 1857), by a series of dashing exploits, drove Yeh's war-junks out of the delta of the Canton River and, by a brilliant action near Hyacinth Island, destroyed Yeh's naval headquarters in the Fatshan creek. On 2nd July, 1857, Lord Elgin arrived in Hongkong. Reluctantlv he condescended to i-eceive an address from the British community, but departed presently for Calcutta. He left upon Sir John and the leading residents, whose suggestions he treated in supine cavalier fashion, the impression that his sympathies were rather with poor old Y"eh than with his own countrymen. He shewed plainly that he looked w^on iXia Arrow incident as a wretched blunder. Hongkong residents rejoiced to learn that his instructions (of Api-il 20, 1857) included, besides the demands for compensation, for a restoration of Treaty rights and the establishment of a British Minister at Peking, also 'permission to be secured for Chinese vessels to resort to Hongkong from all parts of the Chinese Empire without distinction.' But this hope, like every other local expectation centering in Lord Elgin, was doomed to disappointment. Before his departure he would not even listen to Sir John's urgent advice that the reduction of Canton was a necessary preliminary to an expedition to the Peiho. But when he returned from Calcutta (September 20, 1857), together with Major-General C. van Straubenzee and his staff, he yielded the point as it 316 CHAPTER XVII. was then too late in the year for operations in the Nortli. A further delay was necessary to await the arrival of the French Plenipotentiary, Baron Gros, and his forces, as the French, under the pretext of having the murder of a missionary to avenge, •desired to co-operate in the humiliation of China. Meanwhile the Canton River had been blockaded (August 7, 1857) by the British fleet and a Chinese coolie-corps of 750 Hakkas had been organized. When all was ready at last, fully a year had passed by since the British retreat from Canton. At last the formulated demands of the Allied Plenipotentiaries were forwarded (December 12, 1857) to Yeh. After ten days' consideration, Yeh calmly replied by a lengthy dispatch, full of what even his friend Lord Elgin characterized as sheer twaddle. He promised nothing buD was willing to go on as of yore. An ultimatum was now presented (December 24, 1857) giving him 48 hours to yield or refuse the demands of the Allies. Meanwhile 5,000 English and 1,000 French troops moved into position in front of Canton city without 02:)position. Yeh had notified the people that, as the rebellious English had seduced the French to join them in their mutinous proceedings, it was now necessary to stop the trade altogether and utterly to annihilate the barbarians. But this appeal to a people without popular leaders was fruitless. Yeh replied to the ukimatum by a reiteration of his trite arguments. So the bombardment of Canton, or the ' Massacre af the Innocents ' as Lord Elgin termed it, commenced (December 28, 1857). The lire w^as, as on former occasions, exclusively directed against the (untenanted) official buildings and Tartar quarters and against the city wall and forts. Lin's fort blew up by accident. Yeh quietly continued ordering wholesale executions of (Chinese rebels. Next day (December 29, 1857) Magazine Hill, which commands the whole town, was captured and the city walls occupied without much loss. Yeh remained obstinate. At last, after a strange pause in the proceedings, detachments of British and French troops entered the city simultaneously from different points (January 5, 1858) and, after a few hours of unopposed search, Yeh as THE ADMINISTRATION OF SIR J. BOWRING. 317 well as the Civil Governor (Pih Kwei) fell into the hands of British marines, while the French captured the Tartar General. Tlie question now arose what to do with Canton citj and its captured officials. Lord Elgin rehictantly admitted that a successful organisation of the government of Canton city was impossible so long as Ych was on the scene. So he sent him to Hongkono^ en route for Calcutta where he died two vears later. Whilst Yeh was in Hongkong, Sir J. Bowring had at last (February 15, I808) the long desired pleasure of an intervicAV with Yeh on board H.M.S. Inflexible, but Yeh would not enter into any conversation and referred him to his interpreter (Ch. Alabaster). Meanwhile the government of Canton city had been settled by the appointment (January 10, 1857) of a Mixed Commission consisting of Consul Parkes, Colonel Hollowav of the Royal Marine Light Infantry, Captain Martineau des Clienez of the French Navy and Governor Pih Kwei. This Commission, thanks to Sir IT. Parkes' organizing genius, succeeded, with the aid of a small force of Anglo-French police and by means of re-instating all the executive and administrative officers under Pih Kwei, in restoring fortlnvith public confidence and in maintaining perfect order. These arrangements were made by Lord Elgin, at the suggestion of Consul Parkes Avho was the head and soul of the Commission, contrary to the advice of Sir J. Bowring. The latter opposed such a mixed form of government on the ground that a dual administration of this sort, containing so many elements of discord, would fail to inspire public confidence, produce mutual distrust and clashing of authority, and give the Chinese in other provinces the idea that the barbarians did not really conquer and govern Canton city. Events disproved these vaticinations. For several years, the most turbulent city of the Empire was successfully and j^eacefully governed by the Allied Commissioners. Trade was immediately resumed and the industries of Canton carried on as usual. The village volunteers in the adjoining districts, with whom Pih Kwei was secretly in league, were kept in check by occasional military expeditions, organized at the suggestion of Consul Parkes :318 CHAPTER XVII. and dispatched to Fatsban and Kongtsun (January 18, 18.")8), to Fayen (February 8tb) and far up the West River to a distance of 200 miles (February 19th to March Srd). The government of Canton city and these mihtary expeditions into the interior of Kwang-tnng Province were indeed the only operations in the whole Arrow War that made a good and lasting impression upon the Chinese people. These measures shewed conclusively ■the ease with which lar<>:e masses of Chinese can be controlled by a moderate but firm display of European power. They demonstrated also the benefits that would accrue to the Chinese tis well as to foreign trade by a real opening up of South-China to the civilizing influences of British power. Lord Elgin, with his maudlin misconception of the true (character of the Manchu Government, proved a signal failure. Like Sir H. Pottinger, he did well so long as warlike operations proceeded, but the moment parleying commenced he allowed himself to be duped. After sending the demands of the Allies to Peking (February 11, 1858) and finding them to his surprise \/' treated with contempt, he took the Taku forts (May 20, 1858) and occupied Tientsin with ease. But, instead of pushing on to Peking and dictating his terms there, he stopped at Tientsin and negotiate;! a Treaty (June 2G, 1858) void of any material guarantees apart from money payments. Instead of retaining at least possession of Tientsin until the ratification of this ■compact, he retreated forthwith to Shanghai to settle commercial regulations. Xext he yielded the main point of his own Treaty (permanent representation of Europe in Peking) and returned to England (March, 1850) only to find, three months later, when the Treaty ratifications came to be exchanged, that the wily ('hinese had fooled him. The success with which Yeh had for years disregarded the Nanking Treaty in the South, naturally encouraged the xVIandarins in the North to signalize their disregard of the Tientsin Treaty by their action at Taku (June 25, 1851)) which permanently injured British prestige in China. In Hongkong the turmoil continued in one way or other to the end of Sir J. Bowring's administration. On the day when THE ADMINISTRATION OP SIR J. BOWRING. 319 the bombardment of Canton commenced (December 28, 1857), there was among Europeans in Hongkong a serious apprehension of an emeute which found expression in a startling Government notification to the effect that 'in case of fire or serious dis- turbance' notice would be given by beat of drum and residents would find 100 stand of arms ready for volunteers willing to •assist the police. Owing to the freijuency of conflagrations, ascribed to a gang of incendiaries headed by the famous pirate chief Chu A-kwai, the Governor offered (May 17, 1858) rewards ■of ^500 for the arrest of the man and JlOO for each of his accomplices. This appeal to sordid cupidity in order to further the ends of justice naturally appeared to the Chinese as on a par Avith Yeh's system of retaliating for the bombardment of C^anton by offers of head-money to private assassins and patriotic incendiaries in Hono-kon":. That barbarous mode of warfare against the Colony was steadily continued by the Mandai'ins of -the neighbouring districts who, in spite of the occupation of Canton by the Allies and even after the conclusion of the Tientsin Treaty, continued to worry Chinese residents of Hongkong into hostile attitude against Europeans. In January, 1858, the Legislative Council had represented to Lord Elgin the continued exactions practised by the Chinese Authorities at Heungshan and especially at Casa Branca '(near Macao) on the Chinese in the employ of Europeans in Hongkong, but Lord Elgin would not listen to the suo-gestion of the Council that a forcible demonstration be made against those Authorities. When the Mandarins found how comparatively fruitless their pro- clamations were, they moved the rural militia-associations to <.'Oinpel all village elders to cut off the market supplies of tbo Colony and to send word to their respective clansmen in Hongkong to leave the Colony immediately on pain of their relatives in the country being treated as rebels (including muti- lation and forfeiture of property). This popular measure had its effect. Many Chinese in the Colony now resigned lucrative employment for very fear. A sensible exodus of individuals of all classes commenced and by the middle of July European 320 CHAPTER XVir. residents began to feel themselves boycotted. A public meetinf]^ was therefore held (July 29, 1858) to discuss the extensive departure of Chinese from the Colony and the stoppage of food supplies. In accordance with the urgent resolutions unanimously passed by this meeting, Sir John boldly departed from Lord Elgin's line of policy and issued (July 31, 1858) a proclamation emphatically threatening the Heungshan and Sanon Districts^ with the retributive vengeance of the British Government if servants and food supplies were withheld any longer. Copiea of this proclamation were successfully delivered at Heungshan by a party of British marines, but when H.M.S. Starling conveyed copies of the same proclamation to Sanon, a boat's crew, while under a flag of truce, were fired upon by the braves of Xamtao. Thereupon General C. van Straubenzee and the Commodore (Hon. Keith Stewart) proceeded to Sanon with a small military and naval force and took the walled town of Xamtao by assault, with the loss of two officers and three men. This measure had its effect in an immediate restoration of the market supplies of the Colony and an altered attitude of the Mandarins. In addition to all the excitement which the Arrow War and its by-play of poisoning, incendiarism and boycotting involved, the public life of Hongkong was, throughout this administration, convulsed by an internal chronic warfare the acerbities of which beggared all description. It is not the duty of the historian to drag before the public eye the private failings of individuals nor is it proposed here to enter upon all the details of the mutual criminations and recriminations in which the public men of the Colony and the local newspapers indulged during this liveliest period in the history of Hongkong. But as- the eruptions of volcanoes reveal to us the secrets of the interior of the earth, so these periodical explosions of feeling in the Colony give us an insight into the inner workings of local public life. It is necessary therefore to characterize, and trace the real cause of, these dissensions which disturbed the public peace, the more so as these matters became subjects of debate in Parliament to the great injury of the reputation of Hongkong, THE ADMINISTRATION OF SIR J. BOW RING. 321 When Sir John arrived in the Colony (April, 1854), the public mind had for some years been, and still was, in a state of tolerable tranquillity, and peace reigned within the Civil Service. The only disturbing* element was a local newspaper, the Friend of China., edited by a discharged Civil Servant, who generally criticized the Government and most public officers with some animus and repeatedly insinuated that the Lieutenant-Governor (whilst Chief Magistrate) had been in collusion with his com- prador's squeezing propensities. The fact that the Lieutenant- Governor allowed five years to pass before he stopped these unfounded cilumnies by the appeal to the Court which, as soon as made, consigned that editor to the ignominious silence of the gaol (September 21, 1859), encouraged in the Colony a vicious taste for journalistic personalities. The more wricked a paper was, the greater now became its popularity. Soon another local editor {Daily Press) who, in certain business transactions in connection with emigration, had been crossed by the Registrar General, outstripped in scurrility his colleague of the Friend of China, and commenced to insinuate that the Registrar General was the tool of unscrupulous Chinese compradors and in league with pirates. The Registrar General sent in his resignation (June 11, 1855) but the Government, as well as the Naval Authorities, having perfect confidence in him, he was later on (December 6, 1850) induced to resume his office. The next source of trouble was the system of Petty Sessions devised by Sir G. Bonham and continued by Sir J. Bowring who appointed (October 4, 1855) 13 non-official Justices of the Peace (subsequently increased to 15) to assist the stipendiary Magistrates. The non-official Justices, however, did not attend the Sessions unless they were specially sent for and the Chief Magistrate, as a rule, sent for them only when he had a difficulty with the Executive. In spring 1856, the Governor several times took occasion to remonstrate with the Chief Magistrate (T. W. Davies) regarding his interpretation of the. new Building Ordinance (No. 8 of 1856) in cases of encroachments on Crown land. The Magistrate, disregarding the minutes of the Executive 21 ^22 CHAPTER XVII. Council on the subject of that Ordinance, twice (May 23rd and June 3rd) sent for non-official Justices to assist him in cases in which the Crown was prosecutor, and these Justices, representino^ the interest of liouse owners, emphatically concurred in his interpretation of the Buildino- Ordinance. Thereupon the Governor addressed (August 19, 185G) a severe remonstrance to the Justices of the Peace, blaming all for habitual neglect of their duties in not giving regular attendance at the Petty Sessions (at which half of them had never attended at all) and <;ensuring four Justices with having (May 23rd) concurred iu a decision by which the obvious intent of the law was abrogated, 4ind with having (June 3rd) supported the Magistrate in his ^letermination not to give effect to the law. An angry ■correspondence ensued, in the course of which the Justices, alleging that they had attended in Court whenever they were requested to do so, claimed the right to frame their decisions according to their own convictions and characterized the ilovernor's action as an attempt to intimidate the stipendiary Magistrate. ' The question at issue,' they wrote, ' is in effect this, whether the law is to be administered according to the judgment of the Magistrates who are sworn to dispense it according to the best of their knowledge and ability, subject to correction by appeal to the Supreme Court, or according to the dictation of the Governor and Executive Council.' The dispute culminated in a passionate public meeting (October IG, 185G). This meeting complained of the retrospective <;haracter of the new Building Ordinance (8 of 18r)G) and the insufficiency of the Surveyor General's staff, of the right given to the Crown to recover costs at common law (Ordinance 1-1- of 185G), of the exclusion of the public from the meetings of Legislative Council and of the absence of a Municipal Council. Jn his reply the Governor clearly had the best of the argument but promised a reconstruction of the Legislative Council. He added, however, that this reconstruction would not be based on a representative jjrinciple, 'to which the circumstances of Hongkong are, in the judgment of Her Majesty's Government THE ADMINISTRATION' OP SIR J. BOWRING. o23 ^aiicl of a majority oi' the members of the Executive Council^ I'ar from adapted.' But now a more potent element of discord appeared on the -scene in the person of a testy Attorney General who for some i-eason or other had been sent out, fresh from the House of <^ommons where he had represented the electors of Youghal (1847 to 1850). While considering- it his mission in life to set things right in Hongkong, he seemed to combine, with thorough uprightness of character, a lamentable want of self- -restraint. He was hardly a month in the Colony before be (juarrelled with both Magistrates, and scenes of mutual re- crimination were enacted in the Supreme Court (June, IHiji)). This was followed, two months later, by an action for defamation brought by the junior Magistrate against the Attorney (Jeneral. With the exception of an allegation of defalcations in the Colonial 'I'reasury, which had been placed (in 1854) in charge of its -chief clerk (R. Kienacker) and necessitated the appointment (June 18, 1801) of a Commission of Inquiry, there was a brief lull in this internal turmoil, while the public mind was occupied with, and wrought up to great nervous tension by, the Arrow War and its local consequences. In spring 1858, however, the shattered nerves of the community were thrilled ;anew with a series of Civil Service disputes. The editor of the Dailt/ J*rfiss^ having gone so far as to accuse the Governor ■of corruptly favouring the firm of Jardine, Matheson & Co. in the matter of public contracts, was ])romptly brought to book and ..sent to gaol for six months (April 11), 185S). About the same time the Acting (Colonial Secretary Avho, being a Imrrister, had taken over the office ou condition of his being allowed private practice, was charged by the Attorney General with collusion with the new opium farmer (an ex-teacher of St. Paul's College) from whom he had accepted a retainer. A Commission (H. T. Davies and J. Dent) inquired into the charge (April, 1858) but, though .some slight blame was laid on the Acting Colonial Secretary, Jiis honesty and honour were held unimpeached. Xext the Attorney General resigned the Commission of the Peace unless 324 CHAPTER XVII. tlie Registrar General were excluded from it (May 14, 1858).. The Governor at once asked the Justices to nominate a Committee of Inquiry. The Justices declined to do so but, when the Committee appointed by the Governor (Ch. St. G. Cleverly, H. T. Davies, G, Lyall, A. Fletcher, John Scarth) advised the retention of the Registrar General in office (July 17, 1858). four of the Justices (J. D. Gibb, P. Campbell, J. Rickett, J. Dent) published their dissent from the verdict of the Com- mittee. Now in the course of this inquiry side-issues had meanwhile been raised which carried the conflict still further. The Attorney General not only impeached the Acting Colonial Secretary's integrity by insinuating that he had burned the account books of a convicted pirate (Machow Wong) to screen himself and the Registrar General against a charge of com- plicity with pirates, but the Attorney General also, publicly divulged an unfavourable opinion, as to the character of the Acting Colonial Secretary, which the Governor had expressed in. confidential consultation with the Attorney General. Naturally, the Governor now suspended the Attorney General, and referred the case to the Home Government. Although the Secretary of State, in reply, expressed himself satisfied with the conduct of the Acting Colonial Secretary, the latter voluntarily resigned his office (August 28, 1858). However, when he commenced an action for libel (with reference to the burning of the books of Machow Wong) against the editor of the Friend of China, the jury brought in a verdicD of not guilty and the Court awarded costs against the Government (November, 1858). The conduct of the Governor who, to avoid a subpoena served on him in this case, had hurriedly departed for Manila (November 29, 1858) being too ill to attend, provoked much criticism at the time. But unfortunately matters did not stop here. Elated by this measure of success, the editor of the Friend of China, and the suspended Attorney General, commenced an agitation in England which only served to- bring upon the Colony greater odium and the contempt of the nation. THE ADMINISTRATION OF SIR J. BO WRING. 325 In January, 1850, a public meetinof held at Xewcastle-on- Tyne, in the belief that the books of Machow Wong had been burned to screen a public officer from conviction of complicity with pirates, petitioned Parliament to direct such an incjuiry as would vindicate the honour of the British Crown and do justice. This example was followed by meetinos held at Tynemouth, Macclesfield and Birmingham, and at some other towns public meetings were convened for the same purpose. On March 3rd, 1850, Earl Grey brought the Newcastle petition before the House of Lords, while Sir E. Buhver-Lvtton dealt with the matter before the Commons. The latter stated, that the documents in the case had been referred to a legal and dispassionate adviser of the Crown ; that he discovered in them hatred, malice and uncharitableness in every possible variety and aspect; that the documents might consequently be considered a description of •official life in Hongkong : that the mode in which the Attorney (xeneral had originated and conducted the inquiry, and the breach of official confidence which occurred in the course of the trial, had led the Governor to suspend him ; that, after a dispassionate •consideration of the papers, he could come to no other conclasion than that the Governor's decision ought to be confirmed ; that •it was, however, his intention, as soon as possible, to direct a most careful examination into the whole of the facts. Of course the public press treated the whole case in a variety of ways, but the verdict of public opinion in England was, no doubt, that to which the Times gave utterance (March 15, 1850) in a scathing article of which the followino- is a brief digest. ' Hongkong is always connected with some fatal pestilence, ,some doubtful war, or some discreditable internal squabble, so much so that, in popular language, the name of this noisy, bustling, quarrelsome, discontented little Island may not inaptly be used as a euphenious synonym for a place not mentionable to «ars ]X)lite. Every official's hand is there against his neighbour. The Governor lias run away to seek health or quiet elsewhere. The Lieutenant-Governor has been accused of having allowed his servant to squeeze. The newspaper proprietors were, of late. 326 CHAPTER XVII. all more or less in prison or going- to prison or coming out of prison, on prosecntions by some one or more of the incriminated and incriminating officials. The heads of the mercantile houses- hold themselves quite aloof from local disputes and conduct themselves in a highly dignified manner, Avhich is one of the chief causes of the evil. But a section of the community deal in private slander which the newspapers retail in public abuse. The Hongkong press, which every one is using, prompting,., disavowing and prosecuting — the less we say of it the better.. A dictator is needed, a sensible man, a man of tact and firmness. AVe cannot be always investigating a storm in a teapot where each individual tea-leaf has its dionitv and its o-rievance.' Black as the case thus put before the home country was, it did not cover the whole extent of Hongkong's internal war- fare. The dissensions which, as above recounted, disgraced the ])ublic life of the Colony, invaded also the Legislative Council.. In the first instance the Members of Council, both unofficial and official, frequently overstepped during this period the limit of their proper functions, occupying themselves with matter.-^ having no concern with legislation, and reallv trenching on the powers of the Executive. Next, the official Membei-s,. and notably the Attorney General and the Chief Magistrate, claimed an extraordinary measure of independence. On more than one occasion, and without any previous communication to the Governor or Colonial Secretarv, these officials censured the E.Kecutive in strong terms. The Attorney General, with whose advent the character of the Legislative Council under- went a marked change, often repudiated the authority of the sui)erior Law Officers of the Crown when their opinions, formally conveyed to the local Government, differed from his.. With ecpial nonchalance he declared that he took his seat in Council as an independent legislator, not as a servant of the- Crown, and that he was there, if he thought fit, to criticize^ and op])08e the views of the Executive. Naturally the unofficial Members felt under these circumstances justified in claiming- equal liberties. THE ADMINISTRATION OF Sill J. BOWKINff. 327 When Sir J. Bowrino: became Governor, the Legislative Council was presided over by the Lientenant-Governor and consisted of Members of whom 2 were non-officials. In 185;> Sir John submitted to the Secretary of State (Mr. Labonchere) a proposal to enlarcte the basis of the Council by introducing 4 additional official and 8 non-official Members, giving a total of 13 Members exclusive of the Governor. Mr. Labonchere disapproved of so great an enlargement but sanctioned a moderate addition. This was given effect to by the introduction of the Colonial Treasurer, the Chief Magistrate and one non- official Member, the relative pro^^ortions being thus preserved and the Legislative Council then consisted of (I officei's of the Government and 8 members of the connnunity. Sir John however added (in 1857) the Surveyor General and in November. 1858, probably with a view to secure the passing of the Praya Ordinance, he further introduced the Auditor General, so that there were 8 official to 8 non-official Members. Against tiiis^ measure the ' unofficial Members at the bottom of the table.^ as Sir John humorously styled them, put in a formal protest (November 20, 1858) and suggested that the nomination of the Auditor General should remain in abeyance until the original number of (5 offi2ials be returned to by the occurrence of vacancies or that the original proposition of Sir J. Bowring as to the number of non-official Members should also be carried out. A memorial impeaching the Governor was talked of, just before he left for Manila, but after furtlier consideration the idea was abandoned. From after the close of the session of 1857 the proceedings of the Council were regularly published and from March 25th, 1858, the Governor allowed the public to be present at the debates. The principal bone of contention between the Governor and his liCgislative Council was the construction (^f a Prava or sea-wall which was to extend along the whole front of the town from Navy Bay to Causeway Bay and to be named Bowring Praya. The Council heartily approved of the (jompletion (October 1, 1855) of the new Government House (at a total 328 CHAPTER XVII. <30st of £15,318 spread over many yeai-s), tb€ erection of a number of water tanks (1855) and the completion (in 1857) of two Police Stations (Central and Westpoint Stations) and four new Markets. But the projected Praya and particularly its proposed name aroused determined opposition. Sir John's scheme had the support of an official Commission appointed by him to weigh all the objections which could be urged against it, and he assiduously hoarded the surplus funds of several years to provide the means for carrying out his pet scheme. The scheme was published (November 10, 1855) with the announce- ment that the Governor had power to enforce it under the alternative, offered to unwilling lot-holders, of resumption according to terms of lease. Most of the Chinese lot-holders appeared to be willing to come to terms with the Government, but a public meeting of European owners passed (December 5, 1855) resolutions to the effect that the Governor's plan was -amition was further snpported by a letter addressed l^y ;jO local firms to the Attorney General, 4ind even the leading attorneys (Cooper-Turner, Hazeland, Woods) were either in favour of amalgamation or remained neutral. But the other attorneys raised a powerful opposition. The ([uestion was under the consideration of Sir J. Bo wring for .six months and he gave both sides full and patient hearing. When the Amalgamation Bill was considered by the Legislative Council (June 24, 1858), Mr. Parsons was heard and examined • on behalf of the attorneys but, when he claimed to represent also the local Law Society, it was proved that he had received no authority from that body. After the most painstaking inquiry, the Bill was passed by seven votes against two and exercised tliereafter a beneficial influence as long as it remained in force. The mimp celebre (apart from the actions for lil)el above referred to) of this period was a dispute I'aised by General ..f. Keenan who, since Julv 11, 1803, officiated in Hongkons: as U.S. Consul. After some animated correspondence with the Colonial Secretary (in October, 1855), concerning his views as to Consular rights and jurisdiction over American subjects •on lK)ard American ships in harbour, the gallant General forciltly took the law into his own hands. In result, he had to answer (November Li, 1855) a charge of rescuing a prisoner (American) from the Civil Authorities charged with assault and battery. The -cvse was, however, amicably arranged and General Keenan became a. very popular man in the Colony. The finances of the Colony gave Sir J. Bowring much .anxiety. Finance was supposed to be one of his strong points. i^uD he was hampered in every way and could no^ achieve much. THE ADMINISTRATION OF SIR J. BOWHING. 335 He succeeded, indeed, in increasing the revenue by the sale of <^rown-laud, principally marine lots. He was aided in this respect by the surrender (in 18r)4) of the o;round at Westpoint previously occupied by the Xavy Department for stores which were removed to Praya East. Sir John succeeded in doubling the revenue within the five years of his administration and the ilast year of it, when compared with the reveuue of the last year ^)f his predecessor, presented an increase of £o7,77G. But he could not keep the expenditure within the limits of the revenue, •although he restrained public works as much as possible. Con- serpiently he had to fall back once more upon Parliamentary grants, obtaining £10,000 per annum for the years 1857 and 1858. These grants were made for hospital and gaol buildings. But by an advantageous exchange with the Rhenish and Berlin Missions he obtained a new hospital at little cost, and by reducing Ihe proposed limits of gaol extension he made some further savings, so that the greater part of the Parliamentary grants, laid out at interest, could be left to accumulate for the purposes of his great Praya scheme, which however broke down at the last moment. After raising the police rate to 10 per cent.. Sir John reduced it again (in 1857) to 8 J per cent., only to find that it after all proved insufhcient to pay the cost of the police and gaol departments owing to the extra expenses caused by the ■disturbances consequent upon the Arrotr War. \\\ spring 1858, Sir John stated that he had intended to claim from the Chinese •(jrovernment compensation fui" the increased expenditure caused by the disturbed state of the neighbouring Districts, but that the appointment of Lord Elgin had taken the power out of his hands. As a matter of fact, the Colony never received any -compensation when the accounts between England and China were settled at Canton, at Nanking or Tientsin. The Imperial Exchequer ap|)ropriated in each case the whole amount of war -compensation paid by China. Sir John deserves credit for having initiated the practice of depositing the surplus funds of the Government in local chartered Banks, paying interest, instead of leaving large sums of money lying idle in the vaults of the 336 CHAPTER XVII. Treasury. The opium monopoly was re-instated by Sir Johtt (April 1, 1858) to swell the revenue, but failed to fetch its true- price, being let at $33,000 a year. Sir John removed one impost, the productiveness of which, he said, was small whilst its annoyances and inconveniences were great, viz. that upon salt. Sir John claimed credit for having wholly freed salt from taxation, as it became thereby an article of increased commercial importance. He seems, however, to have been oblivious of the fact that, as salt is a heavily taxed Imperial monopoly in China, his action in abolishing the salt tax in Hongkong merely gave a fillip to the Chinese contraband trade carried on by the salt smugglers in the Colony- Sir J. Bowring paid much attention to the condition of the Police Force. Being at first dissatisfied with its organisation, he appointed (August, 1855) a Commission to inquire into the police system of the Colony and invited the public to give evidence verbally or in writing. Some changes were made in the constitution of the Force (in 1857) and at the close of his administration Sir John considered the outward appearance, discipline and general efficiency of the Police Force to have greatly improved. He stated that the complaints under this head, which formerly were frequently addressed to the Govern- ment, were in 1858 much diminished in number. Considering the indifferent materials from which the selection, for economical reasons, had necessarily to be made. Sir John considered the state of the Force to be satisfactory and creditable to its Superintendent (Ch. May). It could not be expected that crime Av^uld decrease during a period of such extraordinary commotion. Yet the criminal record of Sir John's regime compares, with the exception of the unique attempt to poison the whole foreign community, by no means unfavourably with that of other periods of the history of Hongkong. Indeed, although Hongkong was at this time more than ever the recipient of the scum of Canton and of the vilest and fiercest of the population of South-China, the experienced Superintendent of Police (Ch. May), himself an ex -Inspector of THE AD^riNISTRATION OF SIR J. BOWRING. 337 Scotland Yard, reported in 1857 that the proportionate number and gravity of offences committed in Honokong was considerably less than that of the British metropolis. The execution (in 1854) of two Europeans, who had murdered a Chinese boy on the ship Alasfiff, greatly impressed the Ohiuese residents with the equality of justice dealt out by British tribunals. In 1854 and 1855, gangs of robbers, having their lairs on the hillside or on the Peak, engaged in occasional skirmishes with the police (A])ril 24, 1855) and made a daring attack (November, 1855) on some shops in Aberdeen, when several constables were wounded while the robbers sailed away with their booty in a junk. The conviction (June, 1854) of a Chinese boatman and his wife of the murder of a Mr. Perkis, the attack made by an armed gang on the comprador's office of Wardley & Co. (December, 1855), a similar attack made on shops at Jardine's Bazaar (January 1, 185G), when several private policemen of Jardine, Matheson & Co. were wounded, and finally the murder (April 1, 1857) of Mr. Ch. Markwick by his Chinese servant, were the principal crimes, unconnected with the war, that attracted public attention during this period. In the latter case, the Registrar General (D. R. Caldwell) pursuing the murderer with the assistance of a gunboat to his native village, obtained his surrender by the threat of bombarding the village. The Secretary of State subsequently expressed his disapproval of this measure. Nevertheless the District city of Namtao was (March 19, J 859) actually bombarded by H.M.S. Cruiser (Captain Bythesea) to compel reparation for the sum of ^4,500 which, as the comprador of the Registrar General's Office alleged, had been stolen by Xamtao braves from a Hongkong passage-boat in which he had an interest. These were high-handed measures inspired by the war-spirit of the time rather than by justice. Sir J. Bowring believed that the spot where almost all crime was concocted in Hongkong was to be found in the unlicensed gambling houses of Taipingshan. In conue(;tion with this belief, and in view of the apparent impossibility 'of finding constables who would not wink at and profit by existing 22 338 CHAPTER XVII. abuses rooted in the inveterate Chinese habit of gambling. Sir J. Bowring boldly proposed to Lord John Russell (September 4, 1855) and subsequently to Mr. H. Labouchere (February 11, 185()) to regulate the vice that could not be suppressed and to adopt the system in vogue at Macao of •controUinof Chinese gambling houses bv licensing a limited number of them. The Lieutenant-Governor (W. Caine), the Acting Colonial Secretary (Dr. Bridges) and the Attorney General (T. Ch. Anstey), strongly supported the Governor's arguments, which were fortified by a considerable array of favourable reports, received from Lidia, the Straits, the Dutch Possessions and the Governor of Macao (L F. Guimaraes) as to the good results of siich a control of Chinese gambling. Xone but the Superintendent of Police (Ch. May) and the Chief ^lagistrate (C. H. Hillier) raised a voice of warning. Accor- dingly a draft Ordinance, 'relating to public gaming houses and for the better suppression of crime,' prepared by Dr. Bridges and assented to by all the Members of Council (Mr. Hillier excepted), was submitted to H.M. Government (April 17. 1850). Although the measure met with a blank refusal on the part of Mr. Labouchere, who would not even consider it. Sir J. Bowring again and agaiu, but in vain, represented to Mr. Labouchere's successors (Lord Stanley and Sir E. B. Lytton) his ardent eonviction that the system of licensing vice for the purpose of controlling it was as legitimate in the case of gambling as in the case of prostitution and opium smoking, and that the existing state of things resulted in general corruption of the Police. The problem was left to be taken up ten yeai-s later by Sir Richard MacDoimell. That piracy was specially rampant during this period was natural. The periodical onslaughts which Biitish men-of-war made on the pirates swarming in the neighbourhood of Hongkong appeared to make little impression. Captious critics, both m the Colony and in Parliament, and particularly Euroi^ean friends of the Taiping Government, occasionally threw out doubts whether all the junks destroyed by British gunboats were actually THE ADMINISTRATION OF SIR J. BOWRING. 3ol> piratical craft or Taiping^ rebels or peaceful but in self-protection -heavily armed traders, officially traduced by Chinese informers as pirates. H.M.S. Battler made a successful raid against pirates at Taichow (May 10, 1855). H.M. Brig Bittpni burned 23 junks and killed 1,200 men at Sheifoo (September, 1855) with the loss of her own commander killed and 19 men wounded. H.M.S. Surprise, assisted by boats of H.M.S. Camhrian, captured a whole pirate fleet at Lintin (May, 1858) and in result of this action as many as 1:54 large cannons were sold in the Colony by public auction and purchased by Chinese (probably confederates of jMrates) at the rate of $'2?A a pair. H.M.S. Mafjkienne, Inflexible, Plover, and Alger ine, destroyed (September, 1858) 40 junks, oO snake-boats, a stockaded battery and several piratical •villages. H.M.S. Fury and Bustard captured 12 junks near Macao (December, 1858) and in the same neighbourhood H.M.S. Nifjer, Janus, and Clown burned 20 junks and killed some 200 jmen (March, 1859). Mr. Caldwell, by whose information and guidance all these expeditions were undertaken, enjoyed the fullest confidence of the Authorities but incurred, at the same time, much obloquy and animosity on the part of European friends of .the Taipings and particularly among the Chinese friends and ^abettors of the pirates. On 1st June, 1854, a foolish rumour gained credence among the local Chinese population that an immense piratical fleet was coming to attack and plunder the -Colonv. After the outbreak of the Arrow War such rumours ft/ were frequently in circulation owing to the general increase of piracy. As many as o2 piracies were reported in Hongkong between November 1st, 1850, and 15th February, 1857. After that they decreased in frequency. Only 5 cases of piracy were reported in March, 5 more in May and June, and 11 cases between June 28th and August 17th, 1857. One of the foreign associates of pirates, Eli M. Boggs, an American, was convicted (July 7, 1857) of piracy and sentenced to transportation for life, and a notorious pirate chief, Machow Wong, was sentenced (September 2, 1857) to 15 yeai*s' transportation (to Labuan). In October, 1857, the schooner Neva was attacked by pirates who 340 . CHAPTER XVII. murdered the captain and two of the crew. Piracy continued to worry the junk trade until March 18c8, and the capture of a Hongkong passage-boat (Winr/sim) made some stir (January 17, 1858), but after that time the number of piracies sensibly decreased and no further attack on European vessels occurred until the day preceding the Governor's departure, when the S.S. Cumfa was plundered by pirates (May 4, 1859). Ovviuf^ to the Ion 2:-con tinned disturbances in the Canton Province, the population of Hongkong increased, with some strange fluctuations (in 185G and 1858), from 5G,011 people in the year 185-1 to 75,503 people in 1858, the average annual increase, during the five years of Sir J. Bowring's administration, being only 0,915, though in the years 1851 and 1855 the annual increment amounted to 16,954 people. Sir John explained these fluctuations bv savin^' that the returns of 1857 and 1858 were under-estimated by error and that the ambulatory habits of the Chinese residents might account for the inaccuracies of the census of 185G which reported 71,730 persons residing in the Colony (exclusive of troops). Referring to the year 185G, Sir John reported an increase in the respectability of the Chinese population and stated that a better class of people had com- menced settling in Hongkong. It was also noticed in 1857 that the average proportion of Chinese females residing in the Colony was far higher than it had ever been before. In his report for the year 1854, the Colonial Surgeon (J. Carroll Dempster) urged upon the Government the necessity of securing drainage and ventilation for Chinese dwellings. He stated that smallpox was the principal scourge of the Colony in 1854. In spring 1855, fever raged among the Chinese population, some 800 deaths being reported between 6th February and 28th April. Increased activity of the sanitary department caused, in October 1856, just after the commencement of the Arrow War, much excitement among the Chinese residents owing to the heavy fines imposed by the Magistrates under the new Nuisance Ordinance (8 of 1856) and mobs of turbulent Chinese paraded the streets. The year 1857 was rejwrted upon by the THE ADMINISTRATION OF SIR J. BOWRING. 341 next Colonial Surgeon (Dr. Menzies) as having been distinguished by more than average unhealthiness consequent npon the faihire of the nsual amount (»(' rain. But the next year was positively disastrous. When Dr. Hai-hxnd (tlie successor of Dr. Menzies) died of fever in the year 1858, it was noticed that he was the fourth Colonial Surgeon who had fallen a victim to the climate. His successor, Dr. Chaldecott, reported, as a novel appearance in the Colony, the outbreak of true Asiatic cholera and hydro- phobia. AVhilst insisting upon the urgent need of improving the sanitary condition of the Colony, repeatedly pointed out by his predecessors. Dr. Chaldecott stated that this first appearance of Asiatic cholera 'was, if not entirely owing to, at least fearfully aggravated and extended by, the neglect of proper drainage and ■cleanliness, the results of which must act with double force in a community so crowded together as that of Victoria, and in a climate so favourable to the decomposition of animal and vegetable products.' He reported that Asiatic cholera in Hongkong first attacked the worst lodged and worst fed part of the Chinese community, then some Indian servants, next the European seamen both ashore and afloat and at the same time some of the soldiers of the garrison and the prisoners in the gaol, and that it finally, in three cases, attacked the higher class of European inhabitants of the Colony and in one of those cases ])roved fatal. The residents of Macao suffered at the same time from the disease and cases occurred among the Allied Forces at Canton and in some of the men-of-war in the River. The • disease afterwards visited the East Coast, reached Shanghai and then raged with great virulence over a large part of the Japanese Empire. The erection of waterworks was repeatedly mooted during this period and particularly in the year 1858. Sir J. Bowring ])ublicly stated that some of the opponents of his Praya scheme (Members of Council) had openly avowed their purpose of •swamping the surplus revenue, accumulating for Praya purposes, by diverting it to other and hitherto unauthorized public works, and that it was for this sinister purpose that the construction of 342 CHAPTER XVII. waterworks was prominently put forward. One of the principal, advocates of the waterworks scheme was the Colonial Secretary (W. T. Mercer). Observing that the paucity of the bill streams, on tlie northern side of the Island renders the procural of a sufficient water supply for the city a matter of extreme difficulty, and noticing also that this want is specially felt in the winter season wben conflagrations are most frequent among the Cbinese houses, he suggested to lead the water from Pokfulam round the side of the hill, attracting at tbe same time the smaller rivulets crossing the course of the proposed aqueduct. Tbe Surveyor General estimated the cost of tbis undertaking at £25,000. Sir J. Bo wring, however, opined that it was not the business of the Government to furnish individuals with water any more than any other necessaries of life and tbat therefore tbe annual income of the Colony was not fairly applicable to such specula- tions. Sir John suggested the formation of a joint-stock company, but pointed out, at tbe same time, the difficulty of collecting a water rate from the Cbinese population. In tbe sphere of commercial affairs, Sir J. Bowring was. unfortunate in comino", almost immediatelv after bis arrival in China, into collision with' the Sbangbai Cbamber of Commerce. Wben tbe capture of Shanghai by tbe Taipings brougbt tbe Imperial customs office of tbat port to a standstill (September 7, 1853, to February 9, 1854), Sir G. Bonham bad suggested tbat British merchants continuing trade there should deposit, in the Consulate, bonds for the eventual payment of customs dues.. The merchants demurred, on tbe ground that tbe Cbinese Government could not claim duties, as it had ceased to exercise authority and to afford protection, and tbat American, Prussian and Austrian vessels actually came and went without paying duty oil their cargoes. Sir J. Bowring bad, before leaving London,, discussed tbe matter with Earl Clarendon and understood biin to say tbat those duties must be paid. By tbe time Sir Jobn reached Sbangbai, the Cbinese customs office bad been re- establisbed (February 10, 1854), but, after working irregularly, ceased again (March 28, 1854;, whereupon the foreign Consuls- THE ADMINISTRATION OF SIR J. BOWRING. 343 agreed to collect duties by promissory notes. Sir John having informed the Chamber of Commerce of Earl Clarendon's decision, the British merchants handed in their bonds for arrears of duties down to July 12, 1854. After making an arranoement with the U.S. ^Unister that a European Inspector should be appointed to collect temporarily the duties payable to the Chinese Govern- ment, Sir John returned to Hongkong (August, 1854) and, to his great surprise, found there a dispatch awaiting him in which the Foreign Office, acting under the advice of the CroAvn Lawyers, instructed hirn to return the bonds to the parties by whom they were given. Sir John forthwith ordered restoration of those bonds which covered the pei-iod from September to February, but retained the other bonds, as he interpreted his instructions to authorize his doing so. But when the Shangliai Chamber once more appealed to the Foreign Office, Earl Clarendon told a deputation of the East India and China Association (Xoveinber, 1854) that Sir J. Bowring had received positive instructions not to interfere in any way with the collec- tion of duties. Sir John now suffered unmerited obloquy as the Shanghai merchants, supposing him to have acted througliout in a manner contrary to his instructions, censured his action in the matter as markedlv insincere and autocratic. So much more does it redound to the credit of those same merchants, that they, as soon as the news of the Parliamentary condemnation of Sir John's character and conduct in connection with the Arroir War reached Shanghai (April, 1857), immediately passed reso- lutions enthusiastically defending his character and justifying his general conduct and policy. • The commerce of the Colony flourished throughout this administration. The conclusion of Sir John's treaty with Siam caused, since May, 1855, large shipments of Siamese produce *to pour into Hongkong. This caused an immediate revolution of the rice trade which now fell largely into foreign hands, whence resulted a welcome reduction of prices, as fann'ne rates, had been ruling in Canton. The opening of Japan, by the Convention concluded (October 14, 1854) by Admiral Sir James ^44 CHAPTER XVII. Stirling, had no sucli immediate effect upon the trade of Hongkong, but hiid the bdsis of an important though slowly •developing branch of commerce. So also the trade with the Philippine Islands, materially furthered by the opening (June 11, 1855) of the ports of Saul, Iloilo, and Zamboanga (on the island of Mindanao), waited only for the establishment of regular steam communication to benefit Hongkong more extensively by an annually increasing demand for British manufactures. Chinese emigration continued to develop from year to year. An emigration officer was appointed by Sir John (May, 1854) with good effect. The fii*st ship-load of emigrants to Jamaica was reported (Xo vein her, 1854) to have arrived safely at Kingston. The efflux of emigrants to California and Australia {especially to Melbourne) continued to increase. As many as 14,683 Chinese emigrants were shipped fiom Hongkong in the year 1855, and 13,856 in 1858. The prohibition placed at one time (September 1, 1854) on the coolie trade to the Chincha Islands, when that trade was believed to result in the most aggravated form of slavery, was withdrawn again (February 3, 1855) as measures had meanwhile been taken for the better treatment and regular supervision of Chinese labourers on those Islands. About the same time new reo:ulations concernino: the , 1854), and a decision given by the Supreme Court (May 2, 1855) to the effect that the Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company must forward parcels without unnecessary delay and have no right to leave any of the parcels for Europe behind, at any point on their route, to make room for other cargo. The fact that the commercial reputation of the Colony had, even by this time, not yet been re-established in England, became painfully evident by an article which appeared (December 17, 1858) in the Times and caused much comment in the Colony. Hongkong was there represented as feeling humiliated and dis- placed by the opening of so many Treaty ports in China. It was alleged that all the success of British arms in China, so valuable to the rest of the world and so important to the great interests of humanity, was rather carped at by Hongkong merchants, owing to their natural tendency towards their own individual THE ADMINISTRATION OF SIR J. BOWRING. 347 interests. The notion of the writer was apparently that of Mr. M. ^lartin, whose influence came here once more (for the last time perhaps) to the fore, that the Colony was misplaced at Honokontr and should be removed to Chusan, if a British Colonv was at all wanted in China. All the advantaoes of Hon^kono- were said to consist exclusively in its proximity to the single privileged port of Canton, the writer labouring nnder the supposition that Hongkong's successes were merely derived from. Canton's difficulties. The educational history of this period is characterized by a sensible decline of the voluntary schools. The Anglo-Chinese College, numbering from 30 to ^b scholars, was closed at the end of the year 185G owing to the results not justifying its continuance. Though it had trained some useful clerks fur mercantile offices, it had failed from a missionary and educational point of view, and, recognizing the failure, Dr. Legge courageously closed this College. St. Paul's College continued for some years longer, but Sir J. Bowring, weighing its results in the official scales, pronounced it likewise a failure. ' For the last six years' he said, ' 2r)0 pounds a year has been voted by Parliament to the Bishop's College for the education of six persons destined to the public service, and not a single individual from that College hns iKien yet declared competent to undertake even the meanest department of an interpreter's duty, though I have no doubt of the Bishop's zeal and wish to show some practical and beneficial result from the said Pailiamentarv orant. To the missionaries alone I can at present look for active assistance, and their special objects do not usually fit them for the direction of populai- and general education.' A new educational movement was initiated. (March 0, 1855) by a public meeting which, complaining that Hongkong was still without a Public School for English children, who were educationallv less cared for than the Chinese, esta- blished amid general enthusiasm a school (thenceforth known as St. Andrew's School) nnder a representative and highly popular Committee (the Hon. J. F. Edger, A. Shortredc, James Smith, B. C. Antrobus, C. 1). "Williams, Douglas Lapraik, F. W. Jil. Green, 348 CHAPTER XVII. and Geo. Lya!l). But thon^'h this School was well started and continued under the fosterinir care of Mr. Shortrede, tlie conviction soon forced itself upon public recognition that the •Committee's original idea of confining the School to the tuition of the children of British residents was impracticable. AVeighed in the popular scales, this School was also found wanting, though jt lingered on for a few years longer. But while the princijial voluntary schools thus declined during this period, and the smaller day schools established by the Protestant and Catholic missions for the benefit of the Chinese also continued in a lan- guishing condition, the 13 Government Schools, giving a purely Chinese education, flourished and developed both in attendance and in organisation, through the appointment (May 12, 1857) of an Inspector, the Rev. \V. Lobscheid. The Acting Colonial Se(!retary (Dr. "W. T. Bridges), while stating (March, 1857) that .nothing could well be at a lower ebb than the local educational movement, recognized distinct signs of healthy vitality in the Government Schools (small as they were) which he personally visited. There is but little to record concerning the religious affaire •of this period. Great indignation was aroused when Sir J. Bowring declined (May 25, 1855) the request of Bishop Smith that the Governor should appoint the (Jth June, 1855, as a day of fast and humiliation, with reference to the Crimean War and in imitation of the popular action taken in England. Sir John incurred the unjust condemnation of most religiously inclined jKiople in the Colony, but his action was strongly approved by die Colonial Office because the proclamation of a public fast day is a prerogative which even the Sovereign, as the head of the 'Church of England, may exercise only in the form of an Order •in (council. A few years later, Bishop Smith came (October 18, 1858) again to the front by the ])ublication of a stirring letter addressed to the Archbishop of Canterbury in review of the Tientsin Ti*eaty as favoumbly affecting the prospects of Chris- tianity in the East. This letter, in which the zealous Bishop Appealed to the Church for renewed missionary efforts in China, THE ADMINISTRATION OF SIK J. BOWUING. 34^ liuil considerable effect both in Eiiglund and on the Continent. In May, 1858, a pnbHc subscription was raised in Hongkontr to- obtain, under the advice of Sir F. G. Ouselev. the Oxford Professor of Music, an organ (to cost £125) and a first-clasa organist. In result a highly trained and taleuted musician (C. F. A. Sangster) was sent out (in 1800) and he conducted the Cathedi'al choir for 35 years with great success. While the social life of Hongkong continued on the whole to center in Government House, Sir J. Bowring occupied to some extent the position held by his literary confrere and one of his gnbernatorial predecessors, Sir J, Davis. Both men were about equal in genius and equally unpopular in Hongkong. It was often remarked that the friends and admirers of Sir J. Bowring — and that he had such, there is ample testimony — were mostly lion-English. A correspondent of the Xew York Times (January 4, 1859) represented in glowing coloui-s Sir Johu Bowring's sociability and intellectuality, alleging that one secret of Sir John's unpopularity ' iu the detestable society of Hongkong ' was the democratic simplicity he adhered to in his style of living. Among the occurrences which gave colour to the social life of this period, the following incidents may be enumerated, viz. the arrival (August 1, 1854) of the U.S. store-ship Siqyply, the officei-s of which had just surveyed extensive coal beds iu Formosa ; the arrival (August 14, 1854) of the American ship Lady Pierce with her owner Silas E. Burrows ; the strike (September 12, 1854) of local washermen who demanded better pay ; the presentation (September 14, 1854) by the American community of Canton and Hongkong of a service of plate to Commodore Perry in command of the U.S. Squadron ; the arrival (November 1, 1854) from the Arctic Ocean of the discovery-ship Enterprise ; a public farewell dinner given (November 20, 1858) to the officers of the 51)th Regiment (2nd Nottinghamshire) which had been nine years in China; the series of theatrical entertainments (since January, 1859) given by the officei's of the 1st or Roval Regiment who issued season tickets for the purpose. 350 CHAPTER XVII. The following facts may be mentioned as indicative of the progress made by the Colony during this period, viz. the form- ation, at the instance of Mr. W. Gaskell, of a local Law Society (October 28, 1854) ; the organisation of a volunteer fire brigade (January 28) and a Chinese fire-brigade (March 7, 1856) ; the improved lighting of the town, including now also Praya East and AVantsai, 100 oil lamps being added (October 1, 1856) to the previously existing 250 oil lamps, and the lighting rate providing for the whole expenditure (Ordinance 11 of 185G) ; the establishment at Pokfnlam of a number of villas for use as sanatoriums and of farms laid out to grow ginger and coffee (June, 1856) ; the establishment by Mr. Douglas Lapraik and Captain J. Lamont of new docks at Aberdeen (June, 1857). The measure of turmoil which the Colony underwent, during this i^riod, through warfare without and within, was added to by •accidental calamities. Even before the emissaries of Cantonese Mandarins invaded Hongkong as patriotic incendiaries, some serious conflagrations took place in the central part of the town (Febrnary 16, 1850), in Taipingshan (January 27, 1856) and at the western market (February 23, 1856), A harmless shock of earthquake was felt in Hongkong (September 28, 1854), heavy rains did a great amount of damage to drains, roads and Chinese houses (June 22, 1855), and a typhoon passed. very near to the -Colony (September. 1855) causing much injury to the shipping und tlie piers, besides burying a number of houses at Queen's Uoad West by a land-slip, the immediate consequence of tlie heavy rain which accompanied this typhoon. The obituary of this period includes, among others, the names of Mrs. Trwin (July 21, 1857), Colonel Lugard (December 1, 1857), Dr. W. A. Harland (September 12, 1858), and Acting Attorney General J. Day (September 21, 1858). Since the death of J. R. Morrison (in 1843), no event in Hongkong was mourned so generally and so deeply as the death of Dr. Harland, who since 1844 had acted as Resident Surgeon at •Seamen's Hospital and latterly as Colonial Surgeon, and died of fever contracted while charitably attending on the Chinese poor. THE ADMINISTRATION OF SIR J. BO WRING. 351 Sir J. Bowriiig's administration terminated at a time (May 5, 1859) when the passionate comments of thej English press, reviewing the Parliamentary discnssions of Hongkong's misdeeds, reached the Colony and thereby reproduced a consider- able amount of popular excitement. Sir J. Bo wring departed, like Sir J. Davis, amid the execrations of a large portion of the European community and the blustering roar of farewell condemnations poured forth by local editors. In one respect 8ir J. Bo wring fared even worse than his predecessors. Neither Sir* H. Pottinger, nor Sir J. Davis, nor in fact any Governor of Hongkong before or after him, not even Sir J. Pope Hennessy, was so extravagantly abused as Sir J. Bo wring. The venomous •epithets and libellous accusations, continuously hurled at him by the public press {China Mall excepted) until the very moment of his departure, are untit to be mentioned. It clearly was his pei*sonal character rather than his policy that provoked the ire of his political opponents. As in the case of Sir J. Davis, so now the European community marked their dislike of the Governor by lavishing extra favours on the departing Admiral while ignoring the Governor's exit. On IGth March, 1850, the leading merchants presented to Sir Michael Seymour, K.C.B., a magniloquent address and a draft on London to the amount of :i,000 guineas for the purchase of a service of plate, to mark the sense of the Hongkong community of his great services and of the respect entertained for him personally. In his reply. Sir Michael gracefully referred to the advantages he had enjoyed .in having had, previous to the arrival of Lord Elgin, the advice iiud experience of Sir J. Bowring to aid him. But when, a few weeks later, the Governor left the Colony, the European community pi-esented neither address nor testimonial, sullenly ignoring his departure, until the rare event of a public auction held at Government House (May 20, 1859) drew the European communitv together in sarcastic frolics over their ex-Governor's goods and chattels. The Chinese community, however, stolidly indifferent to ihe dissentient views of foreign public opinion, came forward 352 CHAPTER XVII. right loyally. Two stately deputations of Chinese waited on Sir J. Bowring at the last moment of his departure and expressed the genuine esteem in which he was held among all classes of the native population, by presenting him with some magnificent testimonials including a mirror, a bronze vase, a porcelain bowl and a bale of satin which bore the names of 200 subscril)ei-s. The spontaneous character of these presentations was undoubted and did much to cheer the departing Governor's heart. On his way home by S.S. Pekin^ Sir J. Bowring had the^ misfortune of being shipwrecked in the Red Sea, but he reacted England in safetv. He, the advanced Liberal, received the thanks of a Conservative Ministry for his faithful and patient services in Hongkong, but he was, on the other hand, given the^ cold shoulder in the lobby of the House of Commons by some^ of his former political friends. After his retirement from the public service on a liberal pension, he lectured frequently on Oriental topics ; wrote papers on social, economical and statistical questions; gave addresses at meetings of the Social Science Association, the British Association, the Devonshire and other Societies; studied Chinese and composed religious poems, some of which jwssess enduring value. Calmly looking back at the close of his life over all the varied events of his chequered history, and viewing his career in China as but a small portion of his life work, Sir J. Bowring penned, in his auto-biographical recollections, the following memorable words. 'My career in China belongs so much to history, that I do not feel it needful to recoi*d its vicissitudes. I have been severely blamed for the policy 1 pui-sued, yet that ix)licy has been most beneficial to my country and to mankind at large. It is not fair or just to suppose that a course of action, which may be practicable or prudent at home, will always succeed abroad.' Sir J. Bowring died peacefully on 2ord November, 1872, having just completed his eightieth vear. .f» « CHAPTER XVIII. The Administratiox of Sir Hercules Robinson. Sepfemher 9, 1859, to March 15, 1865. ISI'^ the close of Sir J. Bowring's administration, the condition ^^ of the Colony and its reputation in England were such that the selection of a new Governor was as difficult a matter as it had been when Sir H. Pottinger or Sir J. Davis vacated the post. It was evident, on the one hand, that now a man was wanted who possessed not only common sense but combined with the firmness of a strict disciplinarian the fine tact and large views of a man whose mind is seasoned with humanity and able to bring into ripening maturity what seeds of goodness had been sown. But, on the other hand, the sanitary, social and moral reputation of Hongkong was so bad that the offer of the governorship of Hongkong afforded no encouragement to a man of such high abilities as were required for this office. Sir Hercules Robinson was precisely the man that was w-anted to- clear out this redoubtable Augean stable in China. Though he occupied at the time an insignificant governorship on the opposite side of the globe, he probably did not feel in the least flattered by the offer of the Hongkong appointment, unless he looked at it as implying, under the peculiar circumstances of the case, a compliment to his abilities. Sir Hercules had originally served in the 87th Fusiliei*s and, on his retirement from the Army, found civil employment during the Irish famine (184G to 1849) under the Commissioners of Public Work and Poor-Law Board in Ireland. He had subsequently (1852) acted as Chief- Commissioner to inquire into the fairs and markets of Ireland and, in recognition of his services, been promoted to the Presidency of Montserrat (1854). Then he became Lieutenant- 2J 354 CHAPTER XVIII. Governor of St. Christopher (1854) and combined with the latter post the dormant commission of Governor-in-chief of the Leeward Islands. Couseqnent upon his courageous acceptance of the governoi-ship of Hongkong,* he was created a Knight Bachelor in June, 1859. Sir H. liobinson, destined by Providence to reap where his predecessoi-s had sown, arrived in Hongkong on September 9th, 1859, and took on the same day the oaths of his office as Governor and Commander-in-chief and Vice- Admiral, being the first Governor of Hongkong entirely dissociated from the Super- intendency of Trade and from the diplomatic duties of H.^I. Plenipotentiary in China. During his tenure of office. Sir Hercules was twice absent on furlough, first for a brief visit to Japan (July 17 to September 8, 1861), and subsequently for a longer term (July 12, 18G2, to February 11, 1864), during which he visited England and transacted (in autumn, 1863) some business for the Colonial Office as a Member of the Commission apjwinted to inquire into the financial condition of the Straits Settlements. On leaving Hongkong on the latter occasion (July 1*2, 1862), after but three years of his administration, so great was the change already wrought in the commercial, financial and administrative condition of Houirkono^ affairs, that he was presented on his departure with enthusiastic addresses from the local Volunteers, the Bishop and all the Members of Council, congratulating him on the undoubted success achieved. During his absence from Hongkong, the government of the Colony was on both occtisions, as well as after his final departure, administered by the Colonial Secretary (W. T. Mercer) who faithfully and successfully continued the line of policy initiated by Sir Hercules. The recognition of the improved status which the Colony had gained by this time found expression in the permission now (January 28, 1863) given to the Governor of Hongkong to wear the uniform of the first class. By the time when Sir H. Robinson arrived in Hongkong (September- 9, 1859), the Superintendency of Trade htwl already been removed to Shanghai where Sir F. W. Bruce (since June, THr: ADM[XISTRATION OF SIR H. ROBINSON. 355 •0, 1859), as H.M. Minister in China, was waitino-for instructions, after the defeat of the British fleet at the Peiho (June 25, 1859). British i\\id French relations with China were at a standstill. The U.S. Minister "Ward had attempted (June 27, 1859) to get the start of the Allies and to be the first to obtain ^u audience of the Emperor, but found himself treated in the precise form of a barbarian tribute bearer and retired discomfited. After much delay, a plan of action was agreed upon between England and France, and by order of Lord John Russell (Xovember 10, 1859) a mild form of an ultimatum was presented to the Chinese Authorities (December, 1859). Whilst this ultimatum was under the consideration of the Chinese Ministers, the Viceroy of the two Kiang Provinces in Central China (Ho Kwei-sin), pressed by the Taiping rebellion, urged his Govern- ment to make peace with England and France and actually asked the Allies (March, 18G0) for military assistance against the Taipings. But the moment this became known in Peking, an •order went forth for his arrest and he w^as punished as a ti'aitor. A defiant reply to the ultimatum of the Allies was noAv issued (April 8, 18G()), such as left no room for further negotiations. The Chinese Government bluntly declared that they had never intended to cari-y out the provisions of the Tientsin Treaty. The Allies were not prepared for an immediate I'esumption of the war, but the Island of Chusan was meanwhile (April 21, 18G0) occupied by the British fleet. Happily, in spite of renewed protests against the war policy initiated by Lord Palmerston and regardless of the fresh denunciations of Sir J. Bowring's action, hurled against him by Mr. Bright and Mr. Sidney Herbert y< v(March 10, 18G0). Parliament decreed that the honour of Great Britain was at stake. Lord Elgin had to return to China with a new army to do over again the work he had botched by his misplaced meekness. As soon as the re-inforcements arrived in "China, the Taku forts were carried by assault and Tientsin occupied (August 2G, 18G0). Finally, after a shocking demonstration -of Chinese official treachery and barbarity, Peking was taken ^(October 13, 18G0), the Imperial summer palace burnt by way n 356 CHAPTER XVIII. of retribution (October 18, 18G0), and the Peking Convention (October 24, 18G0) secured at last the ratification of tbe Ion dormant Treaty of Tientsin. In accordance witb tbe demand of tbe AUies, tbe conduct of international affairs was now transferred from Canton to Peking and tbe TsungU Yamen was created (January, 18G1) as a special department for foreign affaii's. After tbe deatb of tbe irreconcilably bostile Emperor Hienfung (August 22, 1861), Prince Kuno: came to tbe front and by a coup cTetat (November 1, 1861) made bimself virtually Prime Minister of a new regency, tbe beads of wbicb were tbe Empress Dowager and tbe Empress Motber of the infant Emperor Tungcbi. Next, Prince Kung establisbed tbe Foreign Maritime Customs Service wbicb was ably organized by Mr. H. N. Lay witb tbe assistance of Mr. (subsequently Sir) Robert Hart. During Mr. Lay's absence in England (1862 to 1863) to bring out a flotilla of gunboats under Captain Sberard Osborne, R.N., Sir R. Hart gained tbe entire confidence of tbe Cbinese Govern- ment. Mr. Lay was, owing to bis imperious refusal to place tbat flotilla under tbe orders of tbe Provincial Autborities, dismissed by Prince Kung (July 19, 1861:) and Sir R. Hart obtained tbe supreme control of tbe Foreign Customs Service. Witb tbe aid of tbe Allied Forces (since February 21, 1862) Sbangbai was delivered from a threatened attack of tbe Taipings and, tbanks to tbe services of tbe Ever- Victorious Army under General Ob. Gordon (January 6, 1863, to June 1, 1864), tbe Taiping rebellion was crushed by tbe capture of Nanking (July 19, 1864) and peace restored in tbe Empire for awhile. During this time tbe relations of Hongkong witb the Cbinese Government bad steadily improved. As long as the occupation of Canton by tbe Allied Forces continued (January 5, 1858, to October 21, 1861), Hongkong was virtually tbe port of supply for Canton city. Tbe renewal of tbe war witb Cbina, in 1860, also gave a fresb stimulus to Colonial activities in various directions and tbe commissariat and transport services, required by the Allied Forces from October, 1859, to the close of the year 1860, caused tbe shipping interests of tbe Colony to» THE ADMINISTRATION OP SIR H. ROBINSON. 357 ■develop enormously for a time, Avliilst the war itself raged at a distance. The principal benefit of a lasting character that Hongkong derived from this second war with China consists in the acquisition of the Kowloon Peninsula. The first official sug- gestion of the great importance attaching to Kowloon appears to have originated with a naval officer. On 2nd March, 1858, four months before the conclusion of the Tientsin Treaty, Captain AV. K. Hall, of H.M.iS. Calcutta, forwarded to the local Government copy of a letter addressed by him to the Earl of Hardwicke. In this letter, Captain Hall represented that the present opportunity of obtaining the cession of Kowloon Point and Stonecutters' Island should not be lost, especially as another Power might occupy these vantage points to the great detriment of Hongkong. Captain Hall argued that the Kowloon Peninsula w^ould afford much needed sea-frontage for commercial building lots and additional barrack accommodation ; that the British occupation of Kowloon would remove the danger with which the mercantile shipping, anchored during the typhoon season in olose proximity to the settlement of lawless Chinese vagabonds at Tsimshatsui, was threatened ; that H.M. Naval Yard ought to be transfen-ed to Kowloon and its present side utilized for barracks ; and that Stonecutters' Island would be useful for a (juarantine establishment and for the strengthening of the defences of the Colonv. It seems that General Ch. van Straubenzee at once took up Captain Hall's suggestion and reported to the AVar Office (in March, 1858) that he had forwarded to Lord Elgin a recommendation to include among the claims to be made at the conclusion of the war the cession of Kowloon Peninsula. Lord Elgin, who never did anything for Hongkong that he could help and did not even take the trouble to conceal his aversion to the Colony, refused to entertain the suggestion of the annexation of Kowloon. He said he had no instructions on the subject. Accordingly the Treaty of Tientsin (June 28, 1858) left Hongkong in the exact position in which it was under 'the Treaty of Nanking. Sir J. BowTing, however, drew the 358 CHAPTER XVIII. attention of the Colonial Office to the importance of Kowloon,. and in the following- year (March 20, 1859) distinctly recom- mended its annexation by cession in the following Avords. 'The possession of the small peninsula opposite the Island is become of more and more importance. To say nothing of questions of military and naval defence, it would be of great commercial and sanatory value,, while to the Chinese it is not only of no value, but a seat of anarchy and a source of embarrassment. I hope therefore that measures will be taken for obtaining a cession of this tract of land.' In October, 1850, the Downing Street Authorities urged this recommendation upon the consideration of the "War Office in connection with the renewal of the war with China, and on March 12th, 18G0, Mr. Sidney Herbert (then Secretary of State for War), agreeing with this proposal, dispatched to Hongkong a memorandum on the military oc- cupation of Kowloon. Strange to say, on the very same day (March 12, 1860) Sir H. Robinson forwarded to Sir F. AV. Bruce, at the urgent suggestion of Sir H. Parkes, a memorandum on. the civil occupation of Kowloon. Sir H. Parkes had been urging the Governor to take the peninsula on a lease which he,_ as Chief of the Commission in occupation of Canton, believed he could easily obtain from the Cantonese Viceroy Lao Tsung- Kwong. Sir Hercules was at first unwilling to ask for a lease because the charter of the Colony made no provision for such an arrangement. He shrank from asking tbe Chinese Govern- ment to grant, as a favour, ground which at the moment was needed for the prosecution of the war. Indeed a part of the peninsula had, with the Governor's sanction, already been informally utilized (since February, IHOO) as camping ground. Nevertheless Sir Hercules forwarded Sir H. Parkes' proposition to Sir F. Bruce on March 12tli, 18G0. The next day (March 13, 18G0) a new advocate of the annexation of Kowloon, and one who afterwards claimed to have originated the idea, arrived in Hongkong, in the person of General Sir Hope Grant, G.C.B.^ the connnander of the English expedition. His statement is as follows. 'On the opposite coast, and within three-quarters of THE ADMINISTRATION OF SIR H. ROBINSON. 351) a mile, was the promontory of Kowloon, a spot of which I was most anxious to gain immediate possession — fii*stly, because its occupation was absolutely essential for the defence of Hongkong- harbour and the town of Victoria ; secondly, because it was an open healthy spot, admirably suited for a camping ground on the arrival of our troops ; thirdly, because at the conclusion of the war it would be a salubrious site for the erection of barracks required for the Hongkong garrison ; and lastly, because, if we did not take it, the French probably would. This tract was about two miles in breadth and was particularly healthy, owing to its being exposed to the south-west monsoon. There were, however, difficulties in the way. Mr. Bruce, our Plenipo- tentiary, had sent an ultimatum to the Chinese Government allowing them a month to reply and wjir had not yet been actually declared ; so the forcible seizure of the promontory would not have been quite legal.' From Sir H. Parkes' journal it appears that on March IGth, 1860, he had a consultation with Sir H. Robinson and General Grant, and this is what he says of it. 'After hearing what I had to say, both Sir H. Robinson and Sir Hope Grant came round to my way of thinking as to the desirability of getting a lease of Kowloon, although they had already begun to land troops... Sir H. Robinson is all eagerness that it should be settled forthwith and that I should get back to Canton to arrange it as speedily as possible.' As soon as it w^as found that Sir F. Bruce also approved of the proposed lease, Sir Hercules formally authorized Sir H. Parkes to arrange a lease. Viceroy Lao made no difficulty and on ^larch 21st, 1860, signed, sealed and delivered a lease which granted the Kowloon Peninsula 'in perpetuity to Harry Smith Parkes, Esquire, Com- panion of the Bath, a Member of the Alhcd Commission at Canton, on behalf of Her Britannic Majesty's Government.' On March 24th, 1860, Colonel Macmahon gave notice to the Chinese occupants of Kowloon that no further settlere would be allowed to come there in future but all orderly people already located there would be protected and outlaws driven away. When Lord Elgin arrived (June 21, 1860), the occupation of 360 CHAPTER XVIII. Kowloon was liappily an accomplished fact which he could nob undo. Accordingly he arranged in his Peking Convention (October 24, 18 GO) that the lease of Kowloon should be cancelled and that the peninsula should ' with a view to the maintenance of law and order in and about the harbour of Hongkong, be ceded to H.M. the Queen of Great Britain and Ireland, Her heirs and successors, to have and to hold as a Dependency of Her Britannic Majesty's Colony of Hongkong.' It "was further stipulated in this Convention that Chinese claims to property on the peninsula should be duly investigated by a Mixed Commission and payment awarded to any Chinese (whose claims might be established) if their removal should be deemed necessary. In pursuance of these stipulations a Commission was appointed (December 26, 1800) and the ceremony of handing over Kowloon Peninsula to the British Crown was solemnly performed (January 19, ]8C1) in the presence of a large assembly and some 2,000 troops. One of the Cantonese Mandarins delivered a paper full of soil to Lord Elgin in token of the cession. .Sir Hercules and Lady Robinson and Sir H. Parkes assisted at this function and the royal standard was hoisted amid the cheers of the assembly and the thunders of salutes fired by the men-of-war in the harbour and by a- battery on Stonecutters' Island. This was the last official act performed in China by Lord Elgin who with unfeigned relief left Hongkong forthwith (January 21, 1861) for England by way of Manila and Batavia. His name was perpetuated in Hongkong by its being given to a terrace which at the time was a fashionable quarter of the town. Sir H. Robinson had appointed Mr. Ch. May to act as British Commissioner in conjunction with some Chinese deputies to adjust native claims and to mark out the boundary, for which purpose he was assisted by Mr. Bird of the Royal Engineers' Department, who surveyed and mapped out the whole peninsula. But now arose the question how to allot the ground between the Colony, the Army and Navy. Sir Hercules appointed for this j^urpose a Board in which Mr. Ch. St. G. Cleverly represented the Civil Government, Colonel Mann, R.E., the Army, and Captain Borlase, R.N., the THE ADMINISTRATION OF SIR H. ROBINSON. 361 Admiralty. Bub this Board reported (March 7, 1861) their inability to come to any agreement. The matter had to be referred home. Sir Hope Grant claimed — that the idea of appropriating the peninsula had originated with the Military Authorities ; that the Colonial Office had approved of the occupation of Kowloon for military purposes ; that the lease had been obtained by his own authority ; that the peninsula ceded by the Peking Convention should therefore be converted into a purely military cantonment separate and apart from the Government of Hongkong ; that at any rate the highest and healthiest ground of the peninsula should immediately be utilized for the erection of barracks. Plans for the latter were forwarded by General Grant without delay (April, 1861) and approved, with some alterations, by the War Office (March 13, 18G2). On the other hand, Sir H. Robinson represented to the Colonial Office (February 13, 1861) — that the idea of appropriating Kowloon did not originate with the Military Authorities ; that the Hongkong Government, in originally mooting the acquisition of Kowloon, had in view the necessity of providing for the wants of the general population as well as of the military garrison ; that the lease was obtained under his own authority ; that the Peking Convention expressly declared the peninsula to be ceded as a Dependency of the Colony of Hongkong ; that the peninsula is indispensable to the welfare of the Colony, it being required to keep the Chinese population at some distance and to preserve the European and American community from the injury and inconvenience of intermixture with the Chinese residents ; that the peninsula is farther needed by the Colony to provide storage accommodation, room for docks, for hospitals, for private residences and for air and exercise ; that the site specially claimed by the Military Authorities is indispensable for the foregoing purposes and that, without that site, it would be almost worthless to the Colony to have Kowloon at all. Strange to say, these incontrovertible arguments of Sir H. Robinson, which the -subsequent history of Kowloon proved to have been based on truth, were brushed aside by the simple fiat of the Imperial XTNIVERSITT 362 CHAPTER XVIII. Government. The wants, the welfare and the development of tlie Colony were mercilessly sacrificed to Imperial military interests which after all were soon found to be ill-served by this nnrighteons appropriation. But that, iu addition to the serious and perminent injury thus inflicted upon the Colony, an annual military contribution was likewise demanded, can be explained only by the assumption that Her Majesty's Government was kept in i^^norance of the serious blow which the prosperity of Hongkong received by being deprived of the advantages which the civil occupation of Kowloon would have afforded. The dispute dragged on until 1804, when the Military Authorities got the lion's share and certain prescriptive rights over the remainder, which was divided between the Colony and the Xavy^ At a land sale, held in 18G4 (July 25 to 29), some 2G marine and ;>i) inland lots were sold, on short leases, at a premium of ^4,050 and an nnnual rent of $18,708 (of which sum hardly one-fourth was ever paid). The one portion which was of essential value for the Colony was retained by the Military Authorities. In spring, 1860, a novel proposition was under discussion. The idea was mooted of appointing a Governor-General of H.M. Insular Possessions in the East, who should combine the civil and military government of Mauritius, Ceylon, the Straits Settlements and Hongkong. Nothing further came of this amalgamation scheme, however, beyond the appointment of a Colonial Defence Commission. The relations of the Colony with the Cantonese Authorities were, after the evacuation of Canton (October 21, 1801), under the aire of H.M. Consul at Canton, subject to the control of the IJritish Minister at Peking. Nevertheless, when any pressing- case occurred, this circumlocutory process was occasionally set aside. To give but one instance, it happened in January, 1805, that a Chinese resident of Hongkong was kidnapped from a boat in the harbour and held for ransom in a village near ►Shamtsiin in the Sun-on District. The new Registrar General (C. C. Smith), without loss of time, obtained the use of H.M.S. Woodcock and proceeded to Deep Bay. A party of 25- THE ADMINISTRATION OF SIR H. ROBINSON. 363 blue-jackets, under the command of Captain Boxer, of H.M.S. Ifesper, went inland with the Registrar General and captured, happily without resistance, both the kidnapper and his prisoner who were brought to Hongkong. One of the earliest subjects that engaged the attention of Sir H. Robinson in Hongkong was Civil Service reform. Very wisely he commenced his labours in this direction with an attempt to revise official salaries. But when the draft of an Ordinance (13 of 18G0) for establishing a revised Civil List came under discussion in Legislative Council (December 26, 185t)), the unofficial Members (J. Jardine, J. Dent and Geo. Lyall) urged that, although the salaries of most of the Civil Servants were inadequate, there were at present no available funds for effecting a general increase of salaries. They recommended, however, to increase the salaries of four subordinate officers whom they named. There was also thrown out a suggestion that Hongkong officials, instead of having their salaries increased on account of length of service, should liave a chance of promotion to other Colonies. Sir H. Robinson, though foiled to some extent in his Civil List reforms, succeeded in establishing a Pension Scheme (May T), 18G2) under Ordinance 10 of 186*2 by which he definitely fixed the rate of pension payable to officers of long and approved service. Several new offices were established by Sir H. Robinson. For the benefit of the mercantile marine, the Governor established a Marine Court of Inquiry (Ordinance 11 of 1860) and a Board of Examiners for granting certificates of competency to masters and mates (Ordinance 17 of 1860). The first certificate so issued was obtained by Mr. Sanuiel Ashton of the schooner Viiidex (August 31, 1861) and between July, 1863, and June, 1864, as many as 48 masters and 28 mates were passed by this Board of Examiners. Sir Hercules also re-organized the Police Court (Ordinance 6 of 1862) by substituting (July 28, 1862) two magisti'ates with equal power (Ch. ^lay and J. Ch. Whyte) for the former chief magistrate and his assistant. At the same time (July 7, 1862) a Court for Summary Jurisdiction, under -364 CHAPTER XVIII. a Puisne Jnclo'e (H. J. Ball) was established by Ordinance 7 of J8G2 as a branch of the Supreme Court. But the principal and most beneficial addition to the Civil Service machinery, devised by Sir H. Robinson, was undoubtedly the series of reforms, culminating in his Cadet Scheme, which he introduced for the better government of the Chinese population of the Colony. Sir Hercules, who appeared to have taken Sir Harry Parkes' dealings with the Chinese for his model, took special pains to make sure of two things, first, that the Chinese should be fully and correctly informed of the nature, purport and details of every Government measure affecting their interests, and, secondly, that in every case the Governor should be accurately informed of what the Chinese in any case, public or private, really wanted or needed or wished to say. In harmony with the first part of this programme, Sir Hercules organized a translation office and secured the publication of correct translations of every decision he made in Chinese affairs. He first recognized this need in connection with the resistance offered by the Chinese pawnbrokers and •cargo boat |>eople to firmer supervision by the Government and had forthwith careful translations of the respective Ordinances published (May 5 and November 24, 18G0). But he went farther and established (JMarcli 1, 18G2) a separate Chinese issue of the Hongkong Government Gazette. He not only arranged that every Government measure affecting the Chinese residents should be published in this Gazette, but took great pains personally to test the fulness and correctness of the translators' work. In pursuance of the second part of this programme. Sir Hercules took a bold step. He delil)ei*ately discarded the attempt to govern the Chinese directly through their own headmen (Tipous), summarily dismissed all the Tipous (June 30, 18(11) and made the Registrar General exercise, with regard to the Chinese population, the same functions which the Colonial Secretary performed in relation to the European population. This measure was virtually a return to ■the original bifurcation of government which Captain Elliot THE ADMINISTRATION OP SIR H. ROBINSON. 365 aimed at when the Colony was formed in 18-41. The first number of the Chinese issue of the Hon<>:kong Government Gazette (March 1, 1862) introduced this new policy by the simple notification, which really constituted a revolution in the government of the Chinese population, that thenceforth all applications to the Government, on the part of Chinese residents, must be made by petition (pien) to the Registrar General. Sir Hercules, however, clearly foresaw that for the success of this measure it was indispensable that the Registrar General's office should thenceforth be entrusted only to men who were not only acquainted with the Chinese language and Chinese modes of thought and life, but in sympathy and touch with the Chinese people. It was, in the first instance, for this purpose that he established his Cadet Scheme. On the model of the system organized by Sir J. Bowriug for the training of Consular interpreters. Sir Hercules launched (March 23, 1861) a scheme to provide the Colony with a staff of well-educated interpreters who should study the Chinese language in Hongkong and be eligible, when qualified, for promotion to the headship of several departments. They were not intended to act as (^ourt interpreters but to fill eventually those of the higher offices in the Service in which a knowledge of the Chinese mind and character afforded some special advantage. This scheme having met with the approval of H.M. Government, three such cadets (C. C. Smith, W. M. Deane and M. S. Tunnochy) were appointed (April 3, 1862) student interpreters, and underwent two probationary examinations in the year 1863. Mr. (subsequently Sir) C. C. Smith was the first cadet who acted as Registrar General, that is to say as Colonial Secretary for the Chinese population (October 24, 1864), Mr. Tonnochy taking his place in the same capacity later on (November 1, 1865). The inquiry into the Civil Service abuses of the preceding administration was entrusted by the Secretary of State to the Governor in Executive Council and commenced on 13tli August^ 1860. As these meetings of Council were held in public and all the records and evidence were printed and published, this terribly 366 CHAPTER XYIIL O protracted investigation served only to stir up once more the mud of old animosities and produced renewed mutual incrimina- tions between the Registrar General (who resigned and withdrew from his office) and the Superintendent of Police. Moreover, the excessive latitude which the Governor allowed to all parties in the case gave to the editor of the Daily Press fresh opportunity to raise side issues and to produce even prisoners from the gaol to aid him in hunting down the object of his hatred. The final result of this distressing inquiry (continued until September 24, 1861) was that the Colony permanently lost the services of the man who Avas indisputably the best Court interpreter the Colony ever possessed, and who was never equalled in efficiency as a detective police officer. i3ut the rancour of the editor of ^the Daily Press was not satisfied with the scope of the inquiry. He clamoured for further investigations and desired the former Acting Colonial Secretary to be impeached. AVhen Sir H. Robinson resisted any re-opening of the inquiry, the irate editor appealed to the Secretary of State, hurling various charges against the Governor and (in his absence) against the Adminis- trator (W. T. Mercer). After a lengthy correspondence, the Duke of Newcastle at last (in autumn 18G2) informed the •complainant that, as he had five times been prosecuted for libel, he was not entitled to any consideration and that the Colonial Office would henceforth receive no more communications from him. The same Secretary of State regulated also, by Circular of August 20, 18Go, the extent to which public officers might write for or to the public papers. The Duke of Newcastle laid dow^ii the rule that, whilst there is no objection to public servants fnrnisliing newspapers with articles signed with their names on subjects of general interest, they are not at liberty to write on questions which can properly be called political, nor to furnish, any articles whatever to newspapers which, in commenting on the measures of the Government, habitually exceed the bounds of fair and temperate discussion. . In the Legislative Council, Sir H. Robinson introduced an important change by the inhibition now put, by order of the THE ADMINISTRATION OF SIR H. ROBINSON. 367 Home Government, on the independence of vote formerly allowed to official ^lembers. A set of standing- orders and rules bad been framed (July 12, ]858) and, using these as a curb rein, 4Sir Hercules ruled his Council as with a rod of iron, contininof its functions strictly to legislation, allowing no criticism of the acts of the Executive, and reducing public influence upon the deliberations of the Legislative Council to the lowest possible minimum. He acted on the principle that legislation should not be influenced by the opinions of irresponsible parties outside the "Government. The only point in which he allowed mucli latitude to the unofficial ^lembers was the discussion of questions of expenditure and taxation. As to the legislative enactments of this period, the regulation of commercial transactions received a large share of attention. Hardly any other Governor bestowed so much care on commercial legislation. Eleven Ordinances were passed bearing on ex- clusively commercial matters, such as Cliinese passenger ships (6 of 18G0), fees to be taken under the ^lerchant Shipping Ordinance (10 of 18G0), exportation of military stores (3 of 18G2), protection of patents (14 of 18(52) and trade marks (8 of 18G8), the law' of debtor and creditor (4 of 18()8 and 5 of 18G4), bills of sale (10 of 18G4), bills and promissory notes (12 of 18G4), commercial law (1:> of 18G4) and finally the incor- poration, regulation and winding up of Ti'ading Companies (1 of 18Gr>). The Ordinance empowering the Governor to prohibit the export of military stores was caused by the abandonment of that attitude of neutralitv which the British Government had <>ccupied in relation to the Manchu Government and the Taiping Rebels until February 21, 18G2, when (as above mentioned) the Tai pings threatened Shanghai once more. The subsequent issue of a proclamation prohibiting the export of arms and ammunition Avas intended to stop the supplies which the Taipings had beeii drawing from Hongkong, but was bitterly complained of as unjust because no similar prohibition was extended to ports in England and India. The consequence was a partial derangement of the operations of firms hitherto connected with this trade in 368 CHAPTER xvni. military stores, and niimero'as confiscations were made by the Harbour Master in February, 1863. In 1862, the discovery of an extensive system of issuing false certificates for opium deposits (June 14th) opened the eyes of the public to the imperfect ^ formulation of the law of debtor and creditor. The Attorney General (J. Smale) drafted accordingly a Bankruptcy Ordinance^ (November 16, 1863) specially adapted to local circumstances, but it was set aside by the advisers of the Colonial Office who sent out another (5 of 1864) for acceptance by the Council. In connection with that same opium case, it was decided by a jury (August 7, 1863) that a delivery order, though sold and paid for, does not free the vendor from risk in case a mishap should occur to the article sold after the order had changed hands. "When the draft of the Companies' Ordinance (1 of 1865) was under the consideration of the Council (in 1864), the question of incorporating companies with limited liability, which measure the Governor at the time viewed as fraught with danger for- Hongkong, gave rise to much animated discussion. The position which the Governor took in this matter was such as to provoke a spirited protest by one of the unofficial Members of Council (J. Whittall) whose language the Governor censured as offensive to the Council. Chinese trade also received a fair share of the Governor's attention, and Sir Hercules was the first Governor who understood Low to deal with the common practice of the Chinese of offering seditious resistance to a weak Government bv combininor to strike work in order to mark their sense of irksome or imperfect legislation. Unaware what stuff Sir Hercules was made of, the Chinese resorted to this practice three times within four successive years but gave in on each occasion when they encountered, on the part of the Governor, calm but rigidly uncompromising firmness. The Pawnbrokers' Ordinance (3 of 1860) evoked a general closing of pawnshops and the Ordinance remained for a long time a dead letter whilst the pawnbrokers agitated for certain concessions. They submitted, however, when they found that the Governor turned a deaf ear to all their representations. I ' . THE ADMINISTRATION GF SIR H. ROBINSON. 369* III order to provide a remedy against the habitual phinderinor to whicli o^oods were subjected in transit between ship and shore, an Ordinance (15 of 18(50) was passed for the registration and regulation of the men employed on cargo-boats.i.i.' As soon as- this Ordinance came into force (18G1), a general strike ensued on the part of cargo-boat people, but by unflinching firmness on the part of the Governor and the community they were soon brought to submit to registration. The chair coolies also resorted to a strike (in 1863) when they were for the first time to be brought under a system of regulating and licensing public vehicles by Ordinance G of 1863. They also yielded, after nearly three months' passive resistance, and the new Ordinance proved a great boon to the public. An interesting trial (Moss versus Alcock) was conchided in the Supreme Court on 27th December, 1861. A British subject, having assaulted a Japanese officer at Kanagawa, had been sentenced to fine and imprisonment by a British Consul whose sentence was confirmed by Sir Rutherford Alcock, then H.M. Minister at Tokyo. But when the prisoner iwas lodged in the Hongkong Gaol, he appealed to the Supreme Court and obtained a verdict for ^2,000 damages, as the Consul had power only to inflict either a fine or imprisonment. It was in .i consequence of this case that subsequently (July 16, 1863) letters patent were issued conferring upon the Chief Justice of Hongkong appellate jurisdiction in respect to Consular, decisions .; made in Japan. In the course of the trial (Moss versus'.Waock) V..: there occurred (December \'2^ 1861) the first of those lively but indecorous scenes of bickerings which for years after periodically t*ecurred whenever Mr. (subsequently Sir) John Smale, as Attorney General or Chief Justice, was confronted in Court by the leading barrister of the time (E. H. Pollard). A fruitless attempt was made (April 23, 1859) by Dr. Bridges to induce the Governor in Council to modify Sir J. Bowring's Amalgama- tion Ordinance (12 of 1858) so as to permit barristers to form partnerships with a view to enable them to recruit health in Europe without breaking up their practice. So far from 24 ■•• r 370 CHAPTER XYIII. •extending the scope of Ihis Amaliramation Ordinance, Sir II. Robinson repealed it altogether to the infinite regret of the public (by Ordinance 12 of 1862). It seems he was instigated to this retrogressive act by the new Chief Justice (W. H. Adams) and the new Attorney General (J. Smale) who, like the Governor, knew little of the sad condition in which ihe legal profession in the Colony had been before the introduction of this Ordinance. The beneficial effects it had produced were now considered a proof that it was no longer needed. In vain did the community, who heard of this measure only a few hours before it was read in Council, protest against the repeal. In vain did the unofficial Members of Conucil (F. Chomley, C. W. Murray, A. Perceval) demand that at least an inquiry be instituted into the working of the Amalgamation Ordinance and into the necessity for a repeal. The Governor was going away on furlough and had made up his mind to settle this matter before leaving, *on the basis of the opinions of high legal officers, whose credit was at stake in the utterance of their opinions, rather than on the views of irresponsible outsiders.* The Chief Justice (W. H. Adams) and the Attorney General (J. Smale) thought the repeal necessary to preserve the pnrity of the higher branch of the profession. The public interest had to yield to thit. But the impetuous haste with which the Governor rushed the Bill through Council (July 8, 1862), and the inexorable predetermination with which he brushed aside all objections whilst refusing any inquiry or consideration, caused the general public to stigmatise the conduct of Sir Hercules in this case, as in some others, i\s marked by 'mulish obstinacy.' As to other legal enactments of this period, the principal Ordinance of permanent value was that (7 of 1860) which gave authority to two Commissioners, H. J. Ball, Judge of the Summary Jurisdiction Court, and W. H. Alexander, Registrar of the Court, to compile an edition of the Ordinances in force in the Colony and to consolidate particularly the criminal law. This important work, by the starting of which the Governor complied with one of the recommendations of the Parliamentaiy THE ADMINISTRATION OF SIR H. ROBINSON. 371 Oommittee of 1847, was satisfactorily completed in Octolxir, 18G-i, under the sanction which the Privy Council had given (February 20, 1804:) to the introduction in the Colony of the criminal law of Eno:land with such adaptations as circumstances might render advisable. Owing to the above-mentioned disturbances in the Canton Province, the population of Hongkong made great strides in the first few years of this period. In 1800 the population increased by 8,003 persons. In 1801, when the cession of Kowloon also contributed to swell the population, the increase amounted to 24,404 persons, having risen from 94,917 people in 1800 to 119,821 in 1801. After that year, however, the population increased but slightly in 18G2, retrograded in 1803 and stood in 1804 at 121,498 people. The finances of the Colony, though severely strained by liberal expenditure on public works, constitute one of the brightest features of this administration. The revenue of the year 1800 exceeded that of 1859 by £28,958. The expenditure of the same period, however, increased by £0,281. In consequence of the transfer of the Hongkong Post Office to the local Government (May 1, 1800), the Post Office receipts appeared for the fii*st time in the accounts for the year 1860. But the largest increase of the revenue of that year was under the head of land revenue, which exceeded that of 1859 by nearly £17,000 in consequence of the great rise in the value of land. The revenue of 1800 was thus the largest ever raised, up to that time, in Hongkong, and four times greater than that of the year 1851. The Colony had now at last become fully self-supporting and commenced the year 1801 with an excess of assets (over liabilities) amounting to nearly £4,300. The revenue of the year 1801 (£33,058) was nearly double of the revenue of 1859, but owing to the large public works now taken in hand and to the augmentation of the establishment, the expenditure rose to £37,241. The returns for 1801 shewed an increase under almost every head of revenue but particularly so the items of land rents and licences, the rapid increase of the population, and the extensive purchases of land 372 CHAPTER XVIII. connected with an attempt to develop the resources of Bowrington,.. having caused an enormous further increase in the vahie of land. Following the example of Sir J. Bowring, Sir H. Robinsou xleposited year by year all surplus funds in the local Chartered Banks at five per cent, and £61,550 were thus deposited in 1861.. Since 1st July, 1862, the accounts of the Colony were kept in dollars. The increase (J;20,502) in the revenue of the year 1862 was ascribed chiefly to the increased yield of postage, police and lighting rates, opium farm and pawnbrokers' licences, whilst the- increase (^61,400) of expenditure was caused by public works and additions to the strength of the Police Force. The same items caused the expenditure of the year 1868 to exceed (by $10,000) the revenue which had decreased by $54,884: as compared with the preceding year. In the year 1864, posfeage and profits made on subsidiary coins (procured from England) caused the revenue to increase by $61,471, whilst, on the other hand, the expenditure of the sanie year increased by $176,742, owing to the erection of the Mint and the investment of $250,000 in the purchase of laud {^nd houses at Kowloon. But, owing to a commercial depression which now set in, the difference between receipts and expenditure continued. On 4th March, 1865, Sir H. Robinson stated in Legislative Council that the total revenue for the preceding year had come to $687,845 and the actual expenditure to $763,307, an ominous indication of bad times in store for the Colonial finances. As sopu as the flourishing condition of the Colonial finances became .Isuown at home, a claim was set up for a military con- tribution. <. There was strictly speaking no surplus, as all available surplus funds were urgently required to provide additional gaol accommodation, additional water-wOrks and most particularly a comprehensiive drainage scheme for the town, which one Colonial Surgeon after, the other urged as the indispensable preliminary basis of sanitary reform, and which, owing to the demand for a military contribution. Governor after Governor postponed for want of funds. On 15th August, 1864, Sir H. Robinson stated in Legislative Council that the Secretary of State insisted upon payment of a. iiiilitary contribution of £20,000 per annum for THE ADMINISTRATION OF SIR H. ROBINSON. 373 five years as a reasonable and just return for the protection of Jife and property afforded by the military garrison, the amount charged being one-fifth of the Imperial military expenditure •incurred in the Colony. It appeared that Mr. Mercer, as Administrator, as well as Sir Hercules had strenuously objected to this demand when it was first mooted. Their arguments were virtually those that thenceforth were repeated at every successive period of Hongkong's history : that Hongkong is not a producing Colony but a mere intermediate station of the China trade; that this station, being anyhow very profitable to India and to the Imperial Exchequer, ought not to bear the burden of military •expenditure incurred for the benefit of British trade in China and Japan ; that the settlement is a struggling one and needs no garrison for its local protection ; that the Colony has, to the great detriment of local revenue and commerce, been deprived •of so much building ground, appropriated for Imperial military nses, that it ought to be considered to have paid, in land, its quota towards a military contribution. But in this case, as on all subsequent occasions, the Home Government confined itself "to the simple assertion that, as the Colony can afford to pay, it must pay what is demanded. A public meeting, the largest, .it was Siiid, that, had been held yet, assembled, in the Court House (August 28, 18G4) and unanimously resolved to memorialize H.M. Government to protest against the measure. The senior unofficial ^lember of Legislative Council (C. W. Murray) acted as chairman and the proposers and seconders of the several resolutions to be embodied in the Memorial were — E. H. Pollard, Th. Sutherland, A. Turing, J. Whittall, K. Brand, H. B. Lemann, T. G. Linstead, G. J. Helland, R. S. Walker, H. Noble, C. H. • Storey and W. Schmidt. The Chamber of Commerce and the Chinese community followed the example and likewise presented protests in form of Memorials. When the estimates for 1865, including the sum of $92,000 as military contribution were laid before the Legislative Council, this item was passed only by the 'Governor's casting vote, as even the Colonial Treasurer (who was afterwards severely censured by the Secretary of State) joined 374 CHAPTER XVIII. with the unofficial Members in voting against it. Moreover,, with the single exception of the Chief Justice (W. H. Adams), all the Members of Council, both official and unofficial, agreed forthwith in passing a resolution stating ' that the maintenance of troops in Hongkong is not necessary purely for the protection of Colonial interests or the security of the inhabitants, and: that the Colonial revenue cannot fairly be chai-ged with any contribution towards the Imperial military expenditure in China and Japan/ In communicating to H.M. Government the unanimous protest of the colonists, Sir H. Robinson (September 7, 18G4) suggested that, if there must be a mihtary contribution, it had better be imposed by an Order of Her Majesty in Council. The Secretary of State (Mr. Card well) subsequently agreed to take this course (August 11, 1865) if the Legislative Council should insist upon it. But when the point Avas discussed in Council (November 10, 1865), the Members agreed to appropriate the amount by annual vote of the local legislature. It has been stated above that Sir J. Bo wring recommended to the Lords Commissioners of H.M. Treasury the establishment in Hongkong of a Mint and the issue of a British dollar. This suggestion was publicly taken up again during Sir H. Robinson's administration. and the Governor was urged (October 4, 1800) to remedy the embarrassing fluctuations in the value of the Mexican dollar, and the constant complaints of the insufficiency of small silver coins procured from England, by the local- establishment of a Mint. Sir Hercules, however, hesitated ta move in the matter, owing to the refusal which his^^redec6slbr%. recommendations liad met with. Meanwhile the currency ques- tion became more pressing. In July, 1801, fllean Mexican dollars bore a premium of 7 per cent., above tMr intrinsic value as compared with bar and sycee silver, and subsequently reached a premium of nearly 12 per cent, which, however, fell again to 8 per cent, in spring 1863. It was felt that these excessive fluctuations of the common medium of exchauire in China and Japan must tend to embarrass the operations of commerce. Sir Hercules obtained, in 1862, the sanction of the Colonial Office THE ADMINISTRATION OF SIR H. ROBINSON. 375 for the principle on which he proposed to base a reform of the currency of the Colony, viz. the official re-establishment of a silver standard based on the Mexican dollar. By a Royal pro- clamation, dated January 9, 1863, but not published until May 2, 1863, it was determined that, from a date thereafter to be notified, the former currency proclamations of 1845, 1853 and 1857 (mentioned above) should be wholly or partially cancelled, and Mexican or other silver dollars of equal value should, together with those silver coins (of Mexican standard) and bronze cents and cash (being hundredth or thousandth parts of the Mexican dollar) which were to be issued by H.M. Mint, be the only legal tender of payment in the Colony. The date here referred to was, however, not fixed until the Hongkong Mint was established (1865). But meanwhile Sir Hercules did two things : he obtained from England a supply of subsidiary coins (June 26, 1863) and set to work to move the Home Government to sanction the immediate establishment of a Mint at Hongkong. In April, 1863, the first consignment of subsidiary coins arrived. They consisted of silver ten-cent pieces, bronze cents and bronze mils (cash). The intrinsic value of the silver ten-cent pieces was such as to make ^3 face value equal to $2'dS7 intrinsic value. With direct reference to the arguments previously advanced by the Treasury Board in condemnation of Sir J. Bowring's proposal. Sir Hercules represented to H.M. Government— that Mexican dollars now passed current in large quantities even in Shanghai ; that the dollar had already been declared the only legal tender of payment in Hongkong ; that the supply of Mexican dollars had become quite insufficient in consequence of the new demand for Japan; that even in the silk districts of Central China payments, formerly settled in sycee, had now to be made in undefaced Mexican dollars which were at a high premium; that consequently a British dollar of a value equal to that of the Mexican was urgently required. In consequence of these representations the Lords Commissioners of H.M. Treasury approved (April 10, 1863) of the proposal of Sir Hercules and suggested that the proposed Mint should be established in Hongkong by local 376 CHAPTER XVIII. •enactment to be approved by the Queen and that it should be placed under the control and supervision of the Master of the Royal Mint with a view to assay and verification of the coin to be issued from it. Arrangements were accordingly made by %Sir Hercules, the site now occupied by the East Point Sugar Refinery was appropriated for the purposes of the Mint, additional land reclaimed from the sea at a cost of £9,000, a water supply secured at a cost of ^3,550. buildings commenced which cost $25,000, and a staff ordered from home. Several Ordinances were also issued, providing for the conversion of British currency in all payments by or to the Government (1 of 1864) and for the organisation of the Mint service (2 of 1864). The former of these two Ordinances ordained, with reference to the above- mentioned proclamation of January 9, 1863, that, as soon as the date referred to could be fixed, all payments due in British Sterhng to or by the Government should be made in dollars, cents or cash, to be issued from H.M. Mint at the rate of 4s. 2d. to the dollar. As rejjards public works, the principal undertaking of this period was the so-called Victoria water-works scheme which had been under discussion during the preceding administration. Sir Hercules took it up with the vigour which characterized all his doings. He commenced by offering (October 15, 1859) a prize of ^l-OOO for the best plan. Several competitors entered the lists (S. G. Bird, J. Walker, S. B. Rawling) and sent in elaborate plans. The Governor referred the papers to a Com- mittee (Lieutenant-Colonel G. F. Mann, R.E., J. J. Mackenzie, Ch. St. G. Cleverly) and adopted on their recommendation the acheme of Mr. Rawling, Clerk of Works to the Royal Engineers. "This scheme proposed to construct a large reservoir at Pokfulam, to connect it by an aqueduct with two large tanks above Taipingshan and to provide thus, before the close of the year 1862, a supply of water for the western and central parts of the city at a cost of about £30,000. Tenders were immediately called for and the work commenced in 1860 under Mr. Rawling's supervision. An Ordinance (12 of 1860) was passed to empower the Governor in Council to appropriate from current revenues THE ADMINISTRATION OF SIR H. ROBINSON. 377 the sum of £30,000 as the works proceeded and to supply any deficiency of funds, if necessary, by mortgaging the water rate, which anyhow was to be levied, at the rate of 2 per cent, on the o^ross annual value of house property, according to assessment. An imperfect estimate of the cost of the materials ordered out from England, and the substitution of cement for mortar (ordered by the Colonial Office), caused an excess over the origifial estimate by a considerable sum. It was not till the close of the year 18G3 that the works were completed so far as to allow of the water rate being levied. The scheme was, at the time, believed to have proved a great success. But tlie ■experience of subsequent years revealed defects of construction. Moreover, as the scheme did not provide for a sufficient quantity of waber (during the dry season) to provide for the wants of a rapidly growing population, and left the town east of the xjlocktower entirely without water, it was even at this time foreseen that this scheme afforded but temporary relief. The Praya works were, in public estimation, considered unsatisfactory. These works, which had been commenced in a desultory way by Sir J. Bowring, and in the face of obstructions of all sorts, were energetically pushed on by Sir H. Robinson and carried out in conjunction with the Crown tenants under special arrangements with reference to the land reclaimed. Landing piers for cargo boats were also provided. The sections extending for a mile and a half west of the parade ground and for a quarter mile east of the arsenal (there being rft break between) were completed in 1862. The construction having, however, proceeded piecemeal, and under incompetent (Chinese) overseers, the work was palpably deficient in solidity and, although no typhoon had touched it yet, much of the work had ta be done over again in 1863. Sir H. Robinson accordingly determined to rebuild the whole Praya wall and to use this opportunity to extend the Praya seawaixis by reclaiming from the sea a further strip of land 100 feet in •width. The Surveyor General (W. Wilson) addressed the holders of marine-lots to this effect (August 15, 1864) stating the 378 CHAPTER XYIII. necessity for re-constrncting the defective and dilapidated sea- wall and oifering to the lot-holders the land to be reclaimed in front of their respective lots free of premium, in compensation for the reclamation expenses to be borne by them. But this offer met with the same obstructiveness which had hampered Sir J. Bowring's scheme. A public meeting of lot-holders, held on 13th September, 1864, resolved to protest against the proposal of burdening the lot-holders with the reclamation expenses and declared tbe existing sea-wall to be good enough for public purposes. A letter to this effect was addressed to the Colonial Secretary (September 20, 1864). Controversy ensued. The Colonial Secretary not only contested that the sea-wall needed rebuilding but that its original defective construction had been caused by the obstructions which the lot-holders had placed in the way of expenditure. This charge having been energetically rebutted by the lot-holders (November 18, 1864), Sir H. Robinson announced (November 20, 1864) that the extension of the Praya wall would not be enforced where not desired by the lot-holders. Meanwhile other public works had not been neglected. A Lock Hospital was erected in 1861, close to the Civil Hospital. Shaukiwan was supplied with a poUce station and a school-house. A new gaol was commenced, also in the year 1861, on Stonecutters' Island. By the year 1864 a new Central Police Station, the reclamation and building works connected with the Mint, a carriage road to Shaukiwan, and the construction of Stonecutters' Island Gaol were all completed. Police and gaol management did not advance, even in this period of general administrative vigour, beyond the stage of unsatisfactory experiments. At the close of the year 1860, the personnel of the Police Force was considered as showing no improvement and though no very great fault was found with the Police as a preventive force, the whole question was felt to be one that baffled the wits of all who were responsible for the manifestly unsatisfactory condition of the Police- Bombay and Madras were tentatively resorted to (February 8, 18G1) as recruiting grounds. In January and May, 1862, i THE ADMINISTRATION OF SIR H. ROBINSON. 379 drafts of recruits arrived from those places and the entire force was placed under the command of Captain W. Quin who had previously served in the Army and in the Bombay Police. For the convenience of the Water Police a ship was bought (April 1, 1862) to serve as a floating* Police Station. In spring 1864, the Colonial Secretary, while acknowledging the intelligence and zeal of the new superintendent (W. Quin) and his assistant (J. Jarman), stated that the men of the corps, whether European or Indian, were wanting in most of the essentials of a Police Force. Bribery and corruption were particularly considered ineradicable among the Indian contingent. The right of the Police to use fire-arms, in the case of suspects refusing to stop when challenged, was judicially inquired into (July 28, 1864) when a constable, who had shot a boatman trying to escape search, was put on his trial on a charge of murder. The verdict of the jury, who viewed the case as one of justifiable homicide, was satisfactory to the Police. To stimulate zeal, regulations were made (October 25, 1864) awarding gratuities in case of special merit. "Wholesale deportation of crowds of professional beggars was resorted to in summer 1864, to I'elieve the streets from these people, who were accordingly sent back to Canton. Before the building of the new gaol at Stonecutters' Island was sufficiently advanced to occupy any portion of it, it became necessary, in 1862, owing to the inhibition now laid on transportation to the Andaman Islands and the pressing need of a separate debtors' ward, to relieve the congested state of Victoria Gaol. Some 280 long sentence prisoners were accord- ingly lodged on board a hulk {Royal Saxon) anchored close to Stonecuttei*s' Island, the quarries of which afforded occupation for the prisoners. At the same time the rules of Victoria Gaol were revised (Ordinance 4 of 1863) and an expert was obtained from England to act as gaol superintendent (Ch. Ryall). Owing to repeated escapes of gangs of prisoners, principally through the gaol drains (January 12 and March 14, 1863), a Commission was appointed (May, 1863) to inquire into the condition and working of Victoria Gaol. The convict hulk .380 CHAPTER XVIII. ac Stonecutters' Island was equally unsatisfactory. Things went on well enou2:h so lon.i^ as a gunboat and a military guard \vere provided to guard the hulk, but when these w^ere withdrawn, frequent attempts at rescue were made by outside associates of the prisoners. A sad accident also occurred by the upsetting of a boat, when 38 prisoners were drbWned (July 23, 18G3). Later on (April 21, 1864) a body of about 100 prisoners made good their escape in junks, after disabling^ their guards. The working of Victoria Gaol, however, appeared to improve, after the dismissal of the expert, when a new superintendent (F. Douglas) was appointed (December 12, 1863). The gaol was thenceforth popularly referred to as * Douglas .Hotel.' The criminal history of this period presents some novel features. In January, 1860, one of the most popular compradors, Tarn Achoy, distinguished himself by collecting in Hongkong an armed corps of Puntis, officered by some foreign seamen, whom he dispatched by the S.S. Sir Jamsefjee Jeejeehhoy to the San-ning District, S.W. of Macao, with a considerable supply of arms and ammunition. On arrival at San-ning, this corps of Hongkong freebooters took an active part in the internecine war going on at that time between the Punti and Hakka dans of that District. When the Hongkong Police learned that two of the foreign leaders of this buccineering expedition had been killed in battle, Tam Achoy was arrested and charged with murder. It appeared, however, that, before sending off that -expedition, Tam Achoy had given formal notice to a Government officer of his intentions and received no warning of the illegality of his proceedings. The indictment having broken down for want of evidence, Tam Achoy was advised to plead guilty of misdemeanour and w^as discharged with a reprimand. The peninsula of Kowloon presented for several days in August, 1862, -the novel aspect of an animated battle field, as the Punti inhabitants of the neighbouring villages were engaged in a. bloody warfare with the Hakka settlers at Tsimshatsui. But '.the most renowned crime of this period was the so-called THE ADMINISTRATION OF SIR II. ROBINSON. 381. opium swindle, above referred to, which was perpetrated hy an Indian merchant who, with the assistance of an EngUshman in charge -of . the opium stored in the- receivino-ship Tropic,. defrauded the Chartered Mercantile Bank and others of some two milHon dollars (July, 18G2) by means of forced opium certificates. Many daring- burglaries ^and murderous attacks were made, during this period, by armed gangs, such as the attack on the signal station at Victoria Peak (July 27, 18G3), the assault made on some men in the Artillery Barracks (October 11, 18G3), the murder of an Indian and his wife (January 29, 3 8G4) and an attack made on the offices of Holliday, Wise & Co. (May 11, 1804). Hongkong was now in daily oommunioation with Canton by American river-steamers which took Chinese passengers at 20 cents a head in 18X')3 and 1804. These cheap fares caused the Colony to be inundated with Chinese ruffians who considered Hongkong, with its' 'indulgent laws and humane treatment of criminals, to afford' a 'temptation they could not resist. But the most novel featiire of the depredations resorted to by Chinese burglars at this period was the ingenuity and engineering skill displayed by the so-called drain gangs. The godowns of Smith, Archer & Co. (January 30, 18^4), the jewellery store of Douglas Lapraik'(May' 10, 1804),, and; the treasure vaults of the Central Bank of Western India (February 5, 1805) were successively attacked by burglars who used the subterraneous storm- water drains as the basis of their operations and drove from there tunnels by which they; under- mined the floors of treasure stores. The Central Bank was in this way robbed of g03,000 in notes and £11,000 in gofd ingots,. 8ome of which were found strewn about in the street'' on the morning of February 0, 1805. >/ A most deplorable series of riots, resulting in the liljttrder of two soldiers, three seamen and a boarding-house crerkr, took place on three successive days in September (12th to 14th), 1804,. between Malay seamen, a body of policemen, and men Of the 99th Regiment. The excitement was intense and it seemed, impossible to restrain either the soldiers or the police from. „382 CHAPTER XVIII. renewing the contest. The Volunteers were called out to patroF the streets (September 14, 18G4), and at the request of the • in 18G3, and to 6,007 in 1864. In the year 18Ga the number of emigrants leaving Hongkong was equalled by the number of those who returned from abroad. These returning emigrants generally brought considerable quantities of gold or gold dust yj^ into the Colony. In the year 1861 one single ship {Minerva) brought from Melbourne 350 Chinese coolies possessing gold of the aggregate value of £43,000. In the same year as many as 2,370 Chinese were shipped, as free emigrants, to India, and emigration to Tahiti commenced as a new venture. The shipping returns of the year 1861, shewing a decrease of 217,003 tons, as compared with the returns of the preceding- year, do not indicate any real falling off of the shipping trade of the Colony. On the contrary, those retui-ns show an increase of 31,060 tons Avhen compared with the returns of 1859. The diiference is explained by the extraordinary increase of the shipping business occasioned, in the year 1800, by commissariat and transport services connected with the war in North China. It may also be noted that the American tonnage decreased in 1861 while liritish shipping took a proportionate bound in advance, owing to the effects of the Peking Convention which extended the scope of British commerce in China. Owing to the frequency of ships being wrecked on the Pratas Shoals, application had been made in 1800 to the Home Government regarding the erection of lighthouses on those rocks, but the Board of Trade declined (May 2, 1801) to move in the matter. The somewhat Utopian scheme of connecting Calcutta with Canton and Kowloon by a railway, was brought under the consideration of the Chamber of Commerce (June 30, 1859) by Sir MacDonald Stephenson who subsequently, after the completion of his' railway undertakings in India, visited THE ADMIXISTRATIOX OF SIR H. ROBINSON. 389 "Hong-kong and exhibited (February 28, 1804) a wall map ; illustrating his scheme of connectiuo^ Calcutta, Hongkong- and Peking by a railway. The question whether such a railway would benefit or injure the intei-ests of the Colony was much debated. Sir ]\I. Stephenson's scheme was, however, entirely premature and met with no encouragement ou the part of the Chinese Government. At the close of the vear 1801 arranoements were made to get the commerce of the Colony worthily represented at the Crystal Palace Exhibition of 1802. A Committee (Dr. Ivor Murray, J. J. Mackenzie, J. D. Gibb, AY. AValkinshaw, • and Dr. AV. Kane) was officially appointed and forwarded to TiOndon a considerable number of articles fairly illustrating the principal features of local trade. The starting of the French ^_Messageries Maritimes line of mail steamers (January 1, 1803) caused a uiaterial increase in the facility and rapidity of communication with Europe. The monopoly wliich the Penin- suja r and Or ierj^al-Steam-Xavigation Company had held as mail carriers was now ended an d_tlie, competition benefitted the public in a variety of_ ^£ay&^- Communication with Canton was also improved, during -this period, by the enterprise of two local American firms (Russell & Co. and Augustin Heard & Co.) which vied with each other, since 1850, in providing for the Hongkong and Canton trade roomy palatial river-steamers which ran both night and day (White Cloud and Kinshan). Since December, 1803, Hongkong was also placed in regular steam communication with North- Borneo and some business was done by importing coal from Labuan. In the tea trade a new departure was made in 1804 by forwarding, as an experiment, 5,000 pounds of tea by the overland route to England. The problem involved in the sanitation of the Colony was left by Sir H. Robinson in the hopeless condition in which he found it. The outbreak, in Hongkong, of several epidemics nnd the fear of cholera invading the Colony from abroad necessitated some action. But it led to nothing further than rthe appointment, in 1802, of a health ofticer of the port t(Dr. L. Richardson), the allotment of Green Island as a 390 CHAPTER XVIII. qnarantine station, and the appointment of a Commission productive of reports which led to nothing. In the year 1851) a mild epidemic of ophthalmia appeared in the gaol and rapidly spread throughout the (Colony, attacking both natives and Europeans. As it also ap])eared at Canton, Amoy and Foochow, it was thought that it had been caused by atmospheric rather than local agencies. But in November, 1859, the Colony was threatened by an epidemic of diphtheria which, however, was happily limited to 10 cases and of these only two proved fatal. It was noted that the summer of 1850 was unusually severe as there was, previous to 4th June, a continuous drought of almost eio-ht months' duration and the thermometer was for several weeks at an average height of 90 degrees. During the next two years (18 GO and 1861) the health of the Colony wa& exceptionally good, and it is noteworthy that both years were stated to have been conspicuous for the absence of violent extremes of temperature. The long talked-of scheme of a medical' sanatorium, to be established on Victoria Peak, was at last carried out but did not receive a fair trial. At the recom- mendation of the principal medical officer of the station, the Military Authorities opened, in spring 18G2, a well-built sanatorium on the plateau below the flag-staff and filled it with patients (of an unsuitable class). But, before the close of the year,, the military doctors condemned the scheme as a manifest failure,. on the ground that nearly every case sent up had been attacked with diarrhoea of an intractable nature and that all medical' cases had been aggravated rather than improved. The fate which had pursued the Island as a whole, and the Kowloon Peninsula in particular, asserted its power also as to the first settlements on the Peak; the first occupation produced disease,, and patience and discretion were required to overcome the difficulty. It took years before Peak residence, strongly advocated by Mr. Granville Sharp, who took a lease of the deserted sanatorium, rose into favour. A small epidemic of cholera (25 cases) broke out in the gaol on October 17, 18G2, but did not spread farther. Owing to the outbreak of choleras THE ADMINISTRATION OF SIR H. ROBINSON. 391 in Shanghai, the Governor appointed (December 29, 1862) a Sanitary Comnussion (Chief Justice Ball, Colonel Moody, Surveyor General Cleverly, Hon. J. J. Mackenzie, Doctors Murray, Home and Mackay, with H. Holmes as Secretary). This Commission was in session all through the year 1803. The Commissioners became the object of much ridicule when they offered (March 9, 1863) a prize of Ji-tOO for the best scheme for the drainage of the town, without fixing a limit of expenditure. It was generally considered that the paltry reward offered was on a par with the understanding the Commissioners appeared to have of the gigantic nature of the problem involved. The year 1864 afforded, however, evidence, satisfactory to the Government, of the continued healthiness of the Colony, and it was pointed out that the Police Force, though more exposed than any other body of men in Hongkong, enjoyed remarkable immunity from disease. The paralysis Avhich, during the preceeding period, had come over the educational movement among Protestants and Catholics,. was succeeded, from the commencement of the administration of Sir H. Kobinson, by an extraordinary revival of energy. On the Protestant side, Bishop Smith started (in 1859) the Diocesan Native Training School, which had a prosperous career until the close of the present period and was located (in autumn, 1863) in the newly-erected buildings on Bonham Road. St. Paul's College also received a new lease of life under the tuition of Mr. (subsequently Dr.) J. Fryer and prospered as long as he remained in charge. Quite a new branch of educational work was started (in 1861) by Miss Baxter who, beside much Samaritan activity among all classes of the community and valuable zenana-work among Chinese women, commenced to labour for the education of the Eurasian children in the Colony. For this purpose Miss Baxter established, in Mosque Terrace and in Staunton Street, schools which were subsequently amalgamated and located in Baxter House on Bonham Road (now No. 8 Police Station). At the same time Miss Magrath laboured in a similar direction, while Miss Legge and the ladies of the Berlin Foundling House 392 CHAPTER XVIII. were engaged in the edncatioii of Chinese girls. Taking a more prominent position, and striking out a new path, Dr. Legge came forward as an educational reformer. During the preceding administration he had closed his Anglo-Chinese College as an acknowledged failure in the line of religious Anglo-Chinese education. He now set to work, with the support of Sir H. Robinson, to convert all the Government Schools, which had hitherto been conducted in the interest of religious education, into professedly secular institutions. To begin with, the Govern- ment Gazette announced (January 21, 1860) the formation of a new Board of Education for the managen>ent of the Government Schools. Dr. Legge was thenceforth, though Bishop Smitli retained the nominal chairmanship, the presiding spirit of this Board and ruled it with the ease and grace of a born bishop. In the absence of Bishop Smith, and after obtaining the resignation of the missionary Inspector of Schools (Rev. AY. Lobscheid), the new Board took up (July 3, 1860) Dr. Legge's plan of merging the Inspectorate of Schools in the Headmastership of a grand Central School, which was to become the centre of secular education, and delivering the Government Schools from the bondage of St. Paul's College and its Bishop. It was essentially a non-conformist liberation scheme which preferred secularism to episcopalianism. Sir H. Robinson approved (January 9, 1861) this plan of Dr. Legge, which Sir J. Bo wring liad previously refused to take up. The Legislative Council also endorsed the scheme (March 25, 1861) and sanctioned the purchase and enlargement of premises (in Gough Street). These were forthwith filled with some 200 Chinese boys, by the amalgamation of three existing Government Schools which thus constituted the new Government Central School. A Headmaster and Inspector of Schools, who was to be kept for some years in the leading strings of the Board, was procured (February 18, 1862) in the person of Mr. (subsequently Dr.) F. Stewart, from Scotland, with the approval of Bishop Smith. Dr. Stewart thenceforth laboured, for the next sixteen years, as the faithful disciple of Dr. Legge, to maintain the reign of secularism in the sphere of THE ADMINISTRATION OF Sill H. ROBINSON. 393 local education. Under bis disciplinarian reo;inie the Government Central School oradnally became a liio:hly popular institution and retained its hold upon public favour so long as it bore the impress of Dr. Stewart's own personality. But the establishment of this Central School wtis the ruin of the once equally popular St. Andrew's School, latterly under the tuition of Mr. J. Kemp. On the site of St. Andrew's School, closed in j8(>1, Dr. Leofge erected his new Union Church which was removed thither from Hollywood Road in July, 1868. This remarkable revival of educational zeal amono- the Protestant leaders w^as aided, and to some extent outstripped, since 1860, by a contemporaneous renewal of educational energy on the Roman Catholic side. The newly arrived Father (subsequently Bishop) T. Raimondi occupied at once among Catholic educationists the same prominent and fruitful position which Dr. Legge, whom he much resembled also in character and shrewdness, occupied among the Protestants. Bishop Raimondi, however, became the strongest o})ponent in the Colony of that educational secularism wliich Dr. Legge had established and to which the Protestant missionaries meekly submitted for many years thereafter. From the time of Bishop Raimondi's arrival, the English R. C. Schools, which had previously commenced to supply local offices with English- speaking Portuguese clerks, redoubled their efforts. The Italian and French Convents also extended their operations in the line of female education and an industrial Reformatory for vagabond children and juvenile offenders, which the Chief Justice (January, 1863) had pointed out as one of the great wants of the Colony, was started by Bishop Raimondi (September, 1864) and removed in the following year to more commodious premises erected on ground granted by the Government (^larch 24, 1865) at West Point. The Hongkong Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society was felt (in 1859) to be in a moribund condition. After some ineffectual attempts made by Dr. Legge to revive a general interest in sinological studies, the local Branch was wound up and its 394 CHAPTER XVIII. valuable library embodied in that of the equally moribund Morrison Education Societv. Both libraries were stored at the London Mission Printing Office. The Morrison Education Society continued to exist for a few years longer in the form of a Committee administering, for purposes of religious education, the funds (:$1 3,000) still in hand, and distinguished itself (December, 18G0) by a narrow partisan spirit in excluding from support the schools of a missionary (Dr. A. Happer) who had given offence to a member of the Committee (J. Jardine) by inaccurate statements concerning the percentage of opium smokers in China. Dr. LeggQ made a last but futile effort to extend the scope of the Society by appeah'ng to the public (December 27, 18G1) for additional subscriptions. St. John's Cathedral was enriched (in 18G0) by the erection of a good oi"gan which was inaugurated (December 25, 1800) under the direction of the newly arrived organist (C. F. A. Sangster) who soon after organized and trained an efficient choir which has been maintained ever since. Consequent upon the retirement of Bishop Smith, the Legislative Council voted (September 18, 18G4) for the Bishop of Victoria a pension of £800 per annum. A suggestion was, however, embodied in this vote to the effect that the Home Government should pay half of the sum on the ground that the Bishop's services had been devoted as much to Imperial as to local interests. The charity of the community was strongly manifested (in 1862 and 18G8) by a unanimous endeavour to afford all possible relief to the Lancashii'c and Cheshire operatives thrown out of em})loyment in consequence of the cotton famine caused by the outbreak of the American war. All classes of foreign residents agreed to give, in addition to special donations, a regular: monthly contribution of $2 per head. Special collections were made in all places of worship and concerts were given by amateurs of all nationalities to swell the funds. In this manner a sum of ^15,000 was raised and forwarded to the Mansion House Committee in London in September, 1862, and further contributions amounting in the aggregate to ^11,162 were THE ADMINISTRATION OF SIR H. ROBINSON. 395" dispatched in January and March, 1803, Mr. D. Lapraik acting as Honorary Treasurer. On the other hand an official appeal by the London Committee of the Shakespeare Memorial- Fund (October IG, 1863) for monetary contributions met with scant response on the part of the community, although Sir H. Robinson strongly supported the movement. The community of Hongkong, while holding Shakespeare's memory as sacred as a king's, had their own ideas as to how to pay tribute to the English King whom no time or chance or Parliament can dethrone and how to preserve the memory of the one who is 'a monument without a tomb and is alive still while his book doth live.' It was noteworthy, but not noticed at the time, that this appeal to the community was signed by Richard Graves MacDonnell, as one of the London Committee's Secretaries, who perhaps himself did not anticipate the fact, any more than the colonists, that he was to be their next Governor. Hongkong's social life was, in the early part of this period, more or less affected by the excitements and the influx of strangers connected with tlie renewal of the war with China. The defeat of the British fleet at the Peiho (June 25, 1859), while it depressed the foreign community of Hongkong, appeared to evoke no feeling of any sort among the Chinese population. Indeed, those Chinese who gave any thought to the matter,, seemed rather to regret this temporary success of Mandarin' treachery. But the capture of Peking in 1860 and particularly the flight of the Emperor, whose tablet has ever since been removed from the altar of his ancestors, was felt by all but Triad Society partisans as a national disgrace. In the early part of the year 1860, the Kowloon camp with its military parades, and most particularly the war games and evolutions performed by Probyn's Horse, were an object of general attraction for siglitseers, both nati\'e and foreign. The return of the Allied troops in November and December, 1860, gave to Hongkong society for a while quite a martial aspect. By a grand levee held by Lord Elgin at Government House (January 10,; ,396 CHAPTER XVIII. 3 8G1), and l»y the ceremony of handing over Kowloon Peninsnla to tlie British Crown (Jannary 19, 18G1), tlie leading spirits of the war period bade farewell to the Colony. Before the close of January, 180 1, the expedition had departed and when the small force left in occupation of Canton city (until October 21, 1861) likewise left for Europe, the social life of Hongkong resumed its ordinary aspects. Club life, however, encountered during this period some lively disturbances. The Hongkong Club had been established to promote the intei'change of good feeling among the representatives of the Civil Service, the Army and Navy, and the mercantile community, and to receive strangers visiting Hongkong. Nevertheless it happened occasionally, and in the years 1850 and 18('.0 with distressing frequency, that persons were blackballed who from their social or official position had a claim to admission. This caused much animated dissension. In April 1860, the Club Committee made a rule, requiring cash payment in the case of naval officers, which might have remained harmless, but when a public paper indiscreetly discussed the matter and stated that this rule had been occasioned by an enormous amount of bad debts burdening the Club finances, a little tempest arose. The naval officers on the station assembled in full force (April 18, 1860) and demanded of the Committee the names of naval officers, whose bills remained unpaid, with a view to their liquidation. When ■the Committee refused to give up the names, the naval officers withdrew from the Club in a body, the military officers also threatened to withdraw, and dissensions dragged on till the close of the year, when the dispute was at last amicably settled (December, 1860). A fresh disturbance of Club life arose, in 186-J-, in connection with the riots between sailors, soldiers and police. The Volunteer Corps was called out to take the place of the military in patrolling the streets. It so hai)pened, on the evening of 14th September, 1864, that the Volunteer Corps, on returning from patrol duty, was made to fall out in front of the Club. Some of the members of the Club invited their friends among the Volunteers to join them in some THE ADMINISTRATION OB^ SIR H. ROBINSON. 397 refreshracnts. It was a breach of the rules, which the patriotic duties of the Yohinteers luioht have excused, but wlien the intruders from among the Yohinteers were forthwith hooted out of the Club, there ensued an extraordinary amount of animosities which for a lont»- time after this incident lacerated social life within and without the Club. S]K)rts flourished during this period. The Victoria Regatta Club, wiiich had been virtually extinct, was revived (June 28^ 18G0), under the leadership of Mr. T. G. Linstead. The Racing Club was also re-animated by the interest that Sir H. Robinson took in the annual races which, in February 1801, closed with a Government House Ball in addition to the usual subscription Ball. In January, 1802, racing men were much stirred up by the question of excluding from the annual races all professional ridei's or jockeys. Renewed excitement was called forth, in October, 1804, by a request which Sir H. Robinson addressed to the Racing Club Committee, to rail off a box in the Grand Stand for his own use at the next meeting. After much discussion, this request was refused by the Committee as unusual and out of keeping with the democratic spirit and purpose underlying the national institution of horse racing. Athletic sports for sailors and soldiers were first held on a large scale on the race course on IGth March, 1800, and by the encouragement which Lady Robinson gave to this movement it became, like the Garrison Sports, a popular annual festival. At the instance of some members of the German Club, which, under the directorship of Mr. AV. Xissen became a popular factor of social life, an international Gymnasium Committee was formed (November 24, 1802) and a matshed gymnasium was erected near the racket court on military ground. A novel and most singular sport was occasioned (February 1803) by the apjx'arance in the harbour of a stray whale which was forthwith chased with improvised harpoons and pursued far oat to sea by crowds of amateur whalers. Dramatic and musical pursuits were not neglected. The Garrison Theatre was, as during the preceding period, frequently 398 CHAPTER XVIII. utilized by the officers of the garrison for the entertaiument of tlie community in general. But considerable irritation arose during the last few months of 1859 when it was found that the issue of season tickets, though offered to the public at fixed rates, was restricted to certain classes of society. The exclusion of Parsee merchants gave special offence and had to be withdrawn. The consequence was that the officers of the garrison, after making, during the next year's season, another attempt to discriminate between upper and lower strata of Hongkong- society, entered, in December, 1862, into a sort of amalgamation with the civilia)! Amateur Dramatic Corps. This measure resulted later on (June 13, 1804) in the re-construction of the old Royal Theatre,, a humble matshed structure which by this time had fallen into a hopeless state of dilapidation, xi Choral Society, a revival of the old Madrigal Society, was formed, in 1802, at the impulse and under the directorship of Mr. C. F. A. Sangster and gave its first public concert (July 10, 1803) in aid of the fund then being raised for the building of a City Hall. A curiosity, if not a nuisance, in the musical line appeared in Hongkong in the form of a hurdy-gurdy worked by an Italian. Among the public festivities of this j^eriod, the most note- worthy entertainment was a Ball Avhich the Prussian Minister to China, Count Eulenburg, gave (November 28, 1801) to the Governor and the community of Hongkong. The Hon. A. Burlingame, U. S. Minister, was also present. The starting of the Messageries Maritimes line of mail steamers was celebrated (December 22, 18C2) with considerable eclat by a magnificent public Ball given on board the S.S. Imperatrice. As to other prominent incidents of the social life of this period, there may be mentioned the gloom cast over society by the premature death of the Prince Consort (December 14, 1801), the arrival of the widow of the famous Arctic explorer. Lady Franklin (April, 1802), the vote passed in Legislative Council (February 0, 1863) to congratulate H.M. the Queen on account of the approaching marriage of the Prince of Wales, the presentation of a farewell address on the occasion of the departure of Chief Justice Adams THE ADMINISTRATION OF SIR H. ROBINSON. 399 (March 21, 1863), and the public rejoicino- (February 29, 1804) which the news of the birth of the Prince of Wales' first sou occasioned. Chinese social life was, at the beginning of the year 18G1, much agitated by a general mania for gambling, which occasioned grave dissensions.' Clan fights even were indulged in, owing to gambling house quarrels. The evil was so widespread that the mass of local shopkeepers petitioned the Governor (June, 18G1) to suppress the extensive gambling which, they said, was going ■ on in every part of the town with the connivance of the Police. Chinese servants in European employ were likewise giving an ■unnsual amount of trouble in connection with this gambling- mania. Sir H. Robinson, shrinking from the idea of grappling with the source of the evil in the line proposed by Sir J. Bowring, and knowing no solution of this knotty social problem, j^ublicly suggested (in 1862) that a remedy for the systematic dishonesty •• of Jiative domestics be souo-ht in the establishment of a reoistrv of servants. An attempt was actually made in this direction, but, as on all subsequent occasions, registration was resisted by /the natives and failed to gain the confidence of the public. An attempt made (March 81, 1804) to remove the general complaints against Chinese washermen by the establishment of a French laundry met unfortunately with persistent opposition on the part of Chinese dhobies and with insufficient encouragement on the part of the public. One of the healthiest and most useful exhibitions of public spirit that Hongkong ever witnessed was the Volunteer movement of the year 1802. Two years before, the idea of starting a rifie corps had been suggested by a letter published in the Cklaa Mail (January 31, 1800). But it was not till January, 18()2, that active steps were taken, resulting in a jjublic meeting held at the Court House (March 1, 1802). This meeting . resolved to establish a Volunteer Corps and moved the Govern- ment to sanction by Ordinance (2 of 1802) the enrolment of any resident of Hongkong, irrespective of nationality. Captain '(subsequently Lieutenant-Colonel) F. Brine, R.E., was appointed 400 CHAPTER XVIII. commandaDfc and the first officers elected by the membei-s of the Corps were AV. Kane, R. B. Baker, J. M. Frazer, and J. Dodd. A battery of artillery was first organised. Later on (December, 18G2) a band was formed. In spring, 18G3, a rifle corps was added and in December, 18G4, Volunteers w^ere enrolled from among the foreign residents at Canton in a rifle company attached to the Hongkong Corps. The Government sanctioned (February 7, I8G0) an annual outlay of £195 on condition of there being at least 75 effective Members of the Corps. The Volunteers made their first festive appearance in public on IGth February, 18G3, on the occasion of the presenta- tion of colours (by Mrs. ^Y. T. fiercer) and of a silver bugle (by Mi's. Brine), when Bishop Smith acted as Honorary Chaplain of the Corps. The ceremony was followed by an inauguration dinner held at St. Andrew's school-room and presided over by the Administrator ("W. T. Mercer). To keep up the enthusiasm, in spite of the discouragement arising from the apathy which the heads of mercantile firms displayed towards the movement, rifle competitions were organized (April G and 7, 18G3), when the first medal of the British National Rifle Association was won by Mr. H. J. Holmes and testimonials were presented to the Honorary Musketry Instructor, Lieutenant K. D. Tanner, and to the Drill Instructor, Corporal Goodall, R.A. The Corps also took part in the Queen's Birthday Parade in ^lay, 18G3. The spirit of the Corps increased with its numbers throughout the years 18G3 and 18G4. Subscription cups were frequently shot for. A march-out to the Happy Valley, with firing practice in the presence of the Governor and a large assembly (March 8, 18G4:) and particularly an armed expedition to Macao (November 19 to 21, 18G4:) undertaken in response to a courteous invitation by the Portuguese Governor (Isidoro F. Guimaraes), infused fresh life into the Corps. On 5th December, 18G4, Lady Robinson distributed at the Public Gardens the prizes won at a public rifle competition, including the National Rifle Association medal (won by Sergeant Moore). At the close of this period the strength of the Corps was as follows, viz. Band 25, Artillery THE ADMINISTRATION OF SIR H. ROBINSON. '401 84, Rifles (iiiclndino- tlie Canton detachment) 91, honorary members 07, total 207 men. The officers of the Corps at this time were Major Scott (22nd Regiment), A. Coxon, H. J. Tripp, H. Cohen, H. J. Hohnes, W. J. Henderson, F. I. Hazeland and T. G. Linstead. The erection of a Clock Tower, a Citv Hall and a Sailors' Home constitutes another exhibition of the public spirit that animated the community at this time. At the suggestion of Mr. J. Dent, a public meeting (July 28, 1800) took into consideration the proposal to erect by public subscription a clock tower (80 feet high) with town clock and fire bell, the tower to be connected with a drinkinu" fountain, and arrano-ements^ were also to be made for the dropping of a time ball. ■ A Committee was appointed (J. Brodersen, J. H. Beckwith, D. Lapraik, G. Lyall, C. St. G. Cleverly) to collect subscriptions,, which at first flowed in generously. Delay in the execution of the scheme soon caused the enthusiasm to cool down, subscriptions stopped, the scheme had to be cnrtailed, all the decorative features of the original pretty design had to be abandoned, and the result was an ugly tower obstructing the principal thoroughfare. Mr. D. Lapraik came generously to the rescue of the Committee and provided, at his own cost, the town clock, which sounded for the first time on new year's eve (December 31, 1802), ushering in the year 1803. Mr. J. Dent also stepped in and erected, apart from the Clock Tower, a drinking fountain (December 15, 1803) Avhich now graces the front of the City Hall. The dropping of a time ball had to be indefinitely postponed. The Government, however, took over (May 22, 1803) the maintenance of the tower and its clock. At the close of the year 1801, the erection of a 'Theatre and Assembly Room ' was publicly discussed, a provisional Committee was appointed to make all preliminary arrangements and plans were exhibited at the Club in October 1802, calculated on an expenditure of ^34,000. The name of the ' City Hall,' and the combination in one building of a theatre, a library and a suite of assembly rooms, having been agreed upon, the Government 26 402 CHAPTER XVIII. made a free grant of the site (February 23, 18G4). At a public meeting (May 19, 1864) it was stated that a sum of pO,000 had been obtained by donations, subscriptions and concerts ; that, a further sum of $180,000 being required, shares had been offered at ^100 each ; that Mr. Robert Jardine had generously taken up shares to the amount of ^50,000, and that there remained shares of the face value of J30,000 to be taken up by the public. As in the case of this City Hall, so in the case of Sailors' Home, the heads of the firm of Jardine, Matheson & Co. distinguished themselves by their princely liberality. Recog- nizing the duty incumbent on those who mainly benefit by the sailor's industry and toil, to consider and care for his welfare, Mr. Joseph Jardine, seconded by his brother, Mr. Robert Jardine, started a scheme for the erection of a Sailors' Home and set aside for the purpose at first ^20,000. The community of Hongkong supplemented this sum by liberal donations and the Government eventually (July 5, 1861) gave a fine site at West Point. A public meeting, held at the Club (February 4, 1861), elected Trustees (A. Fletcher, C. W. Murray, J. D. Gibb, J. Heard, W. Walkinshaw, D. Lapraik, R. H. Reddie, H. T. Thomsett, Rev. W. R. Beach) and called for further subscriptions. After an attempt to obtain the site of the present Horse Repository had failed, building operations commenced in 1862 at West Point. Meanwhile, however, public interest slackened and subscriptions oeased flowing in. By the time the building was opened (January 31, 1863) by Sir H. Robinson and Mr. J. Whittall, the funds were exhausted. The Government refused (May 14, 1863) to give a grant and difficulties multiplied. In autumn, 1864, Mr. Robert Jardine gave a further donation of $^5,000 in aid of the fund and undertook to carry on the Home at his own expense for three years. It was hoped that by the end of that time the public would once more come forward and maintain the institution by annual public subscriptions. The successful expansion of private and public enterprise by which this period is distinguished, and the extraordinary prosperity which the Colony in general enjoyed at this time, THE ADMINISTRATION OF SIR H. ROBINSON. 40S resulted in a considerable extension of the city in size and beauty, Hongkong having now no equal in China with regard to health and comfort. Most of the vacant building lots within easy distance of the city were now built over and, though the city did not extend further to the eastward, the western suburbs were considerably expanded and numerous European residences were -erected on the hill side near West Point. In 18G0 and 1861 the Chinese settlement at Shaukiwan grew largely in importance as a depot for the exportation of salt fish. Owing to the delay in the settlement of the Kowloon land dispute, and in consequence of the doubts entertained as to the sanitary aspects of Peak residence, general attention was directed to Pokfulam where an ornamental villa settlement had been started by this time (1862) -around Douglas Castle, in the vain hope of securing there a public health resort. Sir H. Eobinson, however, had more faith in the Peak. He had a path cut (December, 1859) which led to the top of Victoria Peak and, after recovering from the Military Authorities the site of their abandoned Sanatorium, arrangements were made, in March 1860, for the erection on that site of a bungalow for the use of the Governor. The laying out of the Public Gardens, on the rising ground directly south of Government House, was undertaken by the Surveyor General's Department at the sole expense of the Government. Mr. Th. Donaldson was appointed (October 7, 1861) Curator, seeds and plants were procured from Australia and England and, on the completion of the work, the Gardens were thrown open to the public under certain regulations (August 6, 1864). In October, 1864, the military band commenced giving pro- menade concerts in the Public Gardens at stated intervals. Ifc was noticed, in 1864, that a general increase had taken place in the vegetative surroundings of the town, and that the increased attention, given to the cultivation of trees along the public roads and around European dwellings on the hill side, had already done very much to displace the pristine barrenness of the site on which the city was built by patches of beautiful shrubbery. 404 CHAPTER XVIII. The literary activities of the Colony were manifested by the publication, in Hong-kon^, of Sir T. Wade's Hsin-ching-lu, a work on the Mandarin Dialect (June, 1859), by the issue of a Chinese edition of the Daily Press (1860), and especially l:>y the appearance, through the liberal patronage of the firm of Jardine, Matheson & Co., of the first volume of Dr. Legge's translation and commentary of the Chinese Classics (May, 18G1). The botany of Hongkong was scientifically explored by Mr. G. Bentham, who published the results (in 18G1) in a volume entitled Flora Hongkongensis and dedicated to Sir H. Robinson. A few years later (in 18(55), Mr. T. W. Kingsmill ]Dublished, in the Journal of the North China Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, a detailed notice of the geological features- of the Island. The administration of Sir H. Robinson encountered a moderate number of public disasters. A typhoon which passed (August 15, 1859) to the S.E. of Hongkong, causing but slight damage in the Colony, was succeeded two months later (October 13, 1859) by another typhoon which destroyed most of the wharves and piers, caused some collisions in the harbour, and damaged the roofs of many houses, but it was not accompanied by loss of life. The disappearance, about this time, of the schooner Mazeppa, which was lost with every son I on board (October, 1859), led to a judicial inquiry, on the basis of an action for libel preferred by the owners, into the allegation that the vessel had left Hongkong in an unseaworthy condition. The allegation was proved to be false, though, owing to the contradictory nature of the evidence, not without causing social altercations which at the time convulsed a section of the community. A terrible rain storm broke over the Colony in the following year (August 18, 1860) and not oidy burst most of the drains, but caused the coUaj^se of some houses in the Canton Bazaar (in Hawan) which involved the death of five persons. A typhoon, suddenly passing the Colony on 27th July, 1862, caused a considerable loss- of life, and by an extraordinarily heavy rain- fall, occurring ou June 6, 1864,' many lives were lost through THE ADMINISTRATION OF SIR H. ROBINSON. 405 the collapse of bouses, and property was destroyed to the value of ^500,000. Fires in town were comparatively rare during this period, which is, however, in respect of the European quarter, distinguished by the somewhat -unusual occurrence of an extensive conflai]:ration which destroyed (October 10, IB')!)) the Roman' Catholic Church in "Wellington Street and a number of European business establishments iii Queen's Road and Stanley Street, viz. the stores of Mrs. Marsh, Mrs. Rickomartz, the Victoria Exchange, the Commercial Hotel and others. Amons: further disasters of this period may be mentioned the fire on board the S.S. Cadiz (January 10, 1803), the drowning of four deserters from the ship Oasis (May 1, 18G3), the drowning (above ■ referred to) of o8 Chinese convicts at Stonecutters' Island (July 23, 1803), and the death by sufifocation (March 8, 18G5) of three soldiers engaged in excavating- the hillside at Scandal Point. The year 1800 was distinguished by the death of four public officers, viz. the Harbour Masters Newman and (xunthorpe, the Assistant Surveyor General Walker, and the Crown Solicitor Cooper Turner. To this list may be added, the- name of Dr. Euscoe, Surgeon of Seamen's Hospital, who died a few years later (September 30, 1803). Sir H. Robinson left Hongkong on loth March, 1805, having been promoted to the Governorship of Ceylon. His ■departure was marked by two complimentary public enter- tainments, viz. by a diuner given at the Club by the members of the Civil Service (March li; 1805) and by a Ball given in the Thentre Royal by the community (March 13, 1805). Among .the guests was the Duke of Brabant, then crown prince of Belgium, a first cousin to Qaeen Victoria. The verdict of public opinion on the merits of Sir H. Robinson's administration, as expressed in the local papers, wtis *o this effect,— that Sir Hercules was exceedingly favoured by fortune in respect of the all-im])ortant -fact that his' term of administration happened to coincide with- a period of irrepressible prosperity (not at all of his making), such as was without a parallel in the history of the Colony ;that the most remarkable 406 CHAPTER XVIII. feature in this season of prosperity was the wonderful advance- in the value of building land by which many individuals, as well as the Colony as a whole, found themselves rich in an unexpected manner ; that Sir H. Robinson turned these adventitious, circumstances to good account for the benefit of the public weal and of his own reputation ; that nevertheless he left the residents- heavily taxed, the town undrained, the sanitation of the place neglected, owing to his paying more attention to laboured balance sheets and the accumulation of a surplus than to public works^ and the most vital interests of the Colony ; that his duties carried him to the extreme verge of his abilities and that he would certainly have been infinitely less successful as a Governor if he had not enjoyed the assistance of Mr. W. T. Mercer who,, as Colonial Secretary, so ably assisted him in every respect and. maintained his policy, as Administrator, during the long period, of the Governor's absence ; that Sir H. Robinson, while naturally aifable and possessed of pleasing social manners, treated the Colony, esi3ecially durins: his first few years, with a certain amount of contempt; that he habitually displayed towards the unofficial Members of his Council much self-willed obstinacy, and affected towards his official subordinates a tone of dignified reserve and disciplinarian rigour which was rather humiliating to the officials at the head of the different departments ; that the former bitterness between officials was kept quiet, and that the amount of social engineering required on the Governor's part to keep matters smooth, was perhaps the most creditable feature in his tenure of office ; that Lady Robinson^ exercised in private society a most extensive and beneficial influence which went a long. way to atone for the Governor's social shortcomings ; but that,- taking all in all, Sir H. Robinson had been the most fortunate and successful Governor the Colony was so far ever ruled by. After leaving Hongkong, Sir H. Robinson served as- Governor of Ceylon (1865 to 1872) and, whilst administering the government of New South Wales (1872 to 1879), arranged the cession to England of the Fiji Islands (1874). He next became Governor of New Zealand (1879 to 1880), Governor- THE ADMINISTRATION OF SIR H. ROBINSON. 407 of the Cape of Good Hope and Griqualand West and H. M. High Commissioner in South Africa (1880 to .1889), President of the Royal Commission for the settlement of the affairs of the Transvaal (1881), Governor of Beehuanaland (1885), was sent on a special mission to Mauritius (October, 1886), resigned office in 1889, and acted as a Director of the London and Westminster Bank (until March, 189o) when, though an octogenarian by this time, he resumed office in South Africa, to rectify the confusion which had ari&eii there since his retirement. Z'4'-f r CHAPTER XIX. The Interregnum of 'i;he Hon. W. T. Mercer and THE Administration of Sir Richard Graves HacDonnell. March 15, 1866, to April 22, 1872. |W|FTER the departure of Sir H. Robinson (March 15, 18Go) ^g there ensued au interregnum, the government of the Colony being administered for a whole year by the former Colonial ♦Secretary, the Hon. \Y. T. Mercer, who continued, with fidelity and ability, the policy of Sir H. Robinson. The work and events of this year, which was commercially and financially marked by a rapidly growing stagnation and depression, have been sum- marized by Mr. Mercer (May 30, 186G) in a dispatch published by Parliament. He stated, — that the Companies' Ordinance (1 of 181)5) was the principal legal enactment of the year (1805), next to the series of Ordinances consolidating the criminal law for which the Colony was indebted to Judge Ball and Mr. Alexander; that the summer of 18.05 -was a specially unhealthy season, distinguished by much sickness and serious mortality, 80 much so that it attracted the attention of Parliament aQ^j|fl| occasioned the appointment of a Committee to inquire into the^| mortality of troops in China ; that the water supply of the Colony, though materially improved, remained manifestly inade- quate, requiring further provision to be made ; that piracy was, in 18G5, as rife as ever and likely to continue so until the Chinese Maritime Customs Service (under Sir R. Hart) could be induced to co-operate with the British Authorities for the suppression of piracy in Chinese waters; that the Indian con- tingent of the Hongkong Police Force had proved a failure but that the Superintendent of Police (Ch. May), who condemned the proposal of trying once more the Chinese Force, thought THE INTERREGNUM OF THE HOV t>3 fr'ffff>ft N;\^^>**^ 409 that the Indian Police had not had a fair trial ; and, finally, that a deputation of Cliinese merchants had urged upon Sir Rutherforth AicocU, H.M. Minister in China, when he passed •through Hongkong in autumn 18G5, that the support of H.M. Cxovernment should be given to Sir M. Stephenson's railway stjheme (connectiHg Calcutta with Canton and Hongkong), but that the question, whether such a scheme would eventually benefit or injure the interests of Hongkong, was a knotty problem. There is but one incident of this interregnum which requires detailed mention. A native of the Poon-yii District (E. of CiUiton city), carrying on business in Hongkong under the name How Hoi-low aUaf^ How Yu-teen, was claimed (April 21/ 1805) by the Viceroy of Canton, in virtue of the Treaty of' Tientsin, as having committed robberies in China. The Viceroy addressed the usual communication to the Governor (Mr. Mercer) and on 1st May, 1805, the accused was brought before the police magistrate (J. C. Whyte) under Ordinance 2, of 1852 (above mentioned), defended by counsel (E. H. Pollard) and committed to gaol pending reference to the Governor, a prima- Jacie case having been clearly made out. Under the advice of the Attorney General (H. J. Ball), Mr. Mercer directed (May 3, 18i)5) the rendition of the prisoner who was forth- with handed over to the Chinese Authorities and executed in Canton in the usual manner by decapitation. On May 30th, 1805, the editor of the Dalltj Press, by his overland issue {Trade Report), gave currency to the allegation which had not • been made at the trial, neither by the prisoner nor by his counsel, that the unfortunate man was neither robber nor pirate,, but a political refugee, the veritable Taiping prince known as Mow Wang, that he was unjustly surrendered by the; British Government and executed by the Chinese in a manner involving actual cannibalism. Although it was known at the- time, and stated by a Canton journalist, that the real Mow Wang had, according to General Gordon's testimony, been mur-i dered by the- other Taiping Wangs on November 21)th, 18C3, 23revious toi the surrender of Soochow, this sensational fiction* 410 CHAPTER XIX. found credence in England. The London Standard (July 22. 1865) took it up and the redoubtable Colonel Sykes, M.P., moved the House of Commons (February 8, 186G) to ask for the production of documents bearing on the subject, which were accordingly published (March 20, 1866). Although these documents clearly shewed the unfounded character of the allegations made against the Hongkong Government, the inquiry served a good purpose, as it directed the attention of H.M. Government to the fact that such renditions had all along been conducted by direct re*] nests addressed by the Cantonese Authorities to the Hongkong Government and that the exclusion of any supervision, on the part of the British Consul at Canton,, of the treatment accorded by the Chinese Mandarins to prisoners rendited by the Hongkong Government, exposed them to inhuman barbarities. Orders were therefore made by the Colonial Office, that thenceforth all communications betweea the Hongkong Government and the Chinese Authorities must,, in every case, be conducted through H.M. Diplomatic Agent ill China or through H.M. Consul (August 19, 1865), and further that no prisoners should thenceforth be surrendered by the Government of Hongkong to the Chinese Authorities unless guarantee be given that the rendited prisoner be not subjected to any torture (September 11, 1865). But this interregnum was not merely a period of insignificant transition. Its real character was that of a woeful reaction and general disillusion. During Sir H. Robinson's administration,. the Colony had taken a bound in advance, both in wealth and population, so sudden and so great, that now, in the face of au equally unexpected and extensive decline of its commerce,, prosperity and finances, it was generally felt that Sir Hercules' system of administration required retrenchment and re-adaptation to vastly altered circumstances. As the financial sky became more and more overcast with clouds, even former admirers of Sir Hercules' policy admitted that he had taken too roseate a view of the resources of the Colony. -Trade and commerce were now labouring under a heavy depression. The whole commercial THE INTERREGNUM OF THE HON. W. T. MERCER. 411 world was passing through a crisis. Great houses were falling on all sides. Hongkong, connected now with every great bourse in the world, was suffering likewise and property was seriously depreciated. Credit became instable. Men were everywhere suspicious, unsettled in mind, getting irritable and economically severe. Yet great public works, the Praya, the new Gaol, the Mint, the Water- Works, the sea wall at Kowloon, commenced or constructed in a period of unexampled prosperity, had now to be carried on, completed or maintained, from the scanty resources of an impoverished and well-nigh insolvent Treasury. New laws were clearly needed for the regulation of the Chinese whose gambling habits were filling the streets with riot and honey- combing the Police Force with corruption. Crime was rampant and the gaols overflowing with prisoners. Piracy, flourishing as ever before, was believed to have not only its secret lairs among the low class of marine-store dealers but the support of wealthy Chinese firms and to enjoy the connivance of men in the Police Force. A sense of insecurity as to life and property was again, as in days gone by, taking possession of the public mind. The cry among the colonists now was for a strong and resolute Governor, one who would give his undivided attention to the needs and interests of the Colony and govern it accordingly^ undeterred by what the foreign community of Hongkong now called *the vicious system of colonial administration in vogue at home.' Sir J. Bowring, they said, had attended to everything under the sun except the government of the Island. Sir H. Robinson, they opined, had governed the Colony to please his masters in Downing Street and with a view to advance himself to a better appointment. And as to Mr. Mercer, everybody agreed that he deliberately Met well enough alone.* The sort of man the colonists now desired for their next Governor was a dictator rather, with a strong mind and will, than a weak faddist or an obsequious henchman of the machine public. The cry was for a Caesar. As Providence would have it, it so happened that it was just such a man, a Caesar every inch of him, that the Colonial Office t- 412 CHAPTER XIX. •Ir. C. C. Smith, then sitting as Acting Colonial Treasurer, ti-eated Mr. Ryrie's remarks as involving a charge against himself and retorted with some vehemence. Mr. Keswick supported his colleague by criticizing the plurality of the Reu'istrar General's functions and demanded that the duties of his office should be defined. At the next meeting (October 18, 1871) the discussion was renewed and some days. later the. Colonial Secretary (J. Gardiner Austin) wrote to Mr. Ryrie, formally calling upon him to substantiate his charge against the Registrar General. In reply, Mr. Ryrie, who had all along contended that he preferred no charge but merely asked for information, now demanded that at next Council meeting a protest should be heard against the invasion of privilege involved in. requesting him to explain out of the Council room what he had said in it; At the next meeting Mr. Ryrie gave notice of his protest but no discussion was allowed. Seeing in the whole affair an illustration of the old grievance of defective -• representation in Council, the public now stigmatized the action of the Lieutenant-Governor (W. Whitfield) in deferring the debate, as an unwarrantable attempt to burke free discussion. On November 15, 1871, Mr. Ryrie's protest, concerning the breach of privilege of which he complained, was read in Council and recorded in the minutes. Mr. Ryrie justly contended that freedom of speech in Council was absolutely necessary. Sir Richard's financial measures were the source of both the. greatest trouble and the greatest triumph of his adminis- tration. For some time before his arrival, the Colony had been steadily dropping from a state of comparative affluence .into a condition of growing insolvency. At the beginning of the year 1865, the Treasury accounts shewed a surplus of. assets (over liabilities) amounting to ^298,000. At the commencement THE ADMINISTRATION OF SIR R. (i. MvcDONNELL. 425 of the next year (18G.6) this surplus was reduced to ^184,000, aud in January, 1867, there was but an imaginary surphis of $24,000 made up in part by a stock of $00,000 in unavailable coins (bronze cents and mils) which no creditor could have been compelled to accept. The Colony was therefore practically insolvent. Moreover, the expenditure had for some time gone on increasing in proportion as the revenues continued to diminish. In the vear 1805, duriuo: the interreo:num of Mr. fiercer, the expenditnre exceeded the revenue by 3134,801, and in 1800, when Sir Richard had just stepped in, by $107,877. But now a change came. Sir Richard at once reduced the expenditure from $930,954 in the previous year (1800) to $780,910, though not without leaving for a while the Military Contribution in arrear. At the same time (1807), the revenue was permanently raised, by means of Sir Richard's Stamp Ordinance, which came into operation at the close of the year (October 9, 1807). Therewith the finances of the Colony began to right themselves slowly, though at this very time the commercial depression, which had made itself felt in 1800, liad been much aggravated and the tradal interests of the Colony were passing through a crisis such as had never before occurred in the history of the Colony. The expenditure of the year 18,07. was kept v.ithin the limits of the revenue to the extent of -,$128,584 aud next year (1808) to the extent of $142,794, though in, the latter year all the arrears of the Military Contribution were paid off. The revenue of the year 1808 amounted to the astounding sum of $1,184,105 and yielded, a^ the expenditure stood at $991,811, a surplus of $140,000. Instead of rejoicing over this result, the mercantile community, engulfed at the- time; in a slough of despond, expressed great dissatisfaction at the heaviness of the taxation and pointed with groans to the yield of the Stamp Ordinance which had taken $101,000 out of the pockets of the merchants in tha,t one year. The revenue of 1809 shewed an apparent decrease of £43,811 as compared with 1808, but in reality there was spme increase, as credit was erroneously taken in 1868 for £55,660 gambling. 426 CHAPTER XIX. revenue which had to be refunded. In 1870 the revenue decreased slightly (by £1,791) and somewhat more in 1871 (by £14,711). But Sir Richard could boast of having so regulated the finances, that, during a period of unexampled commercial disasters in China, the Colony emerged from a state of insolvency to one of assured financial stability, without leaving a single claim unsatisfied or borrowing a fn\ctioQ from the Special Fund which had unavoidably accrued from the gambling licences. It has already been shewn that this financial success was achieved principally by means of the Stamp Ordinance (12 of 1866). When Sir Richard first announced (August, 1866) his intention of introducing a Stamp Act, the foreign community seemed to be rather at a loss, at first, what to think of the measure. But when the second reading of the Bill was carried in Council (September, 186G), one local paper {China Mail) boldly supported the principle of the Bill, whilst another paper {Dc/ih/ Press) opposed it and complained that the Bill was hurried through whilst the unofficial Members of Council were ignorant of its contents and bearings. A jHiblic meeting was held (September, 1866) and, in pursuance of the resolutions passed, a Memorial protesting against the confirmation of the proposed Ordinance was accordingly signed by almost every firm in the Colony. The principal objections which the foreign community had against the Bill consisted in the following allegations. (1) that stamps would seriously obstruct commerce, a surmise which subsequently proved unfounded; (2) that the measure was of such an expansive character as to encourage extravagance on the part of the Government, an imputation born of distrust which subsequent events contradicted; (3) that the incidence of this form of taxation would fall principally on foreign commerce, whilst the Chinese would manage to evade it. The force of this latter allegation, which appears to have been a correct forecast of the subsequent working of the Stamp Ordinance, was enhanced by the statement, which was made in a public paper at the time, that, as things then stood, the f THE ADMINISTRATION OF SIR R. G. M.vcDONNELL. 427 Chinese community were taxed $4 per head, and the British- and foreign community ^250 per head. Although Sir Richanl willingly modified details of the Bill to meet minor objections of the community, he failed to give satisfaction, as a strong majority of the public objected to the Bill in toto, A second public meeting was held, resulting in the presentation of another Memorial condemnatory of the whole measure. When it was announced (early in March, 1867) that H. M. Government had ratified the Bill, the temper of the community was aroused and Sir Richard was publicly accused (March 15, 1867) of having induced Lord Carnarvon to believe that the Governor's arguments had reconciled the community to an impost which, in reality, was all but unanimously felt to be deeply injurious to the true interests of the Colony. However, by the time tl>e Stamp Ordinance came into operation (October 9, 1867), the feeling of the community, though maintaining strong objections to the measure and subsequently re-iterating its condemnation of it by another public meeting (March 17, 1868), had changed, so far as the Governor's connection with the Ordinance was concerned. It was then generally believed that the Stamp Ordinance would never have been brought into operation if the Governor had been allowed free hand in his dealing with the gambling problem, and that the determination of H. M. Gov'ernment to insist, in spite of all arguments and remon- strances, upon the payment of the Military Contribution, had made the enforcement of the Stamp Ordinance a matter of sheer necessity. By order of Sir Richard, several prosecutions- were instituted with a view to compel the Chinese population to comply, in some measure, with the provisions of the Stamp- Ordinance. These prosecutions, however, served only to- invigorate the general dissatisfaction felt with the working of this measure. With the exception of receipts to be given to foreigners, Chinese tradesmen and merchants disregarded the Ordinance and stamped commercial documents only in aises in which they apprehended the possibility of litigation. Anxious to improve the working of the Ordinance, Sir Richard appointed 428 CHAPTER XIX. (March, 1868) a Commission and invited the public to bring before that Commission their complaints against the operation of the Ordinance and suggestions for its improvement. The Chamber of Commerce accordingly passed (April, 1808) a series of resolutions which were forwarded to the Commissioners. In pursuance of their recommendations, the Stamp Ordinance was subsequently amended (May 28, and November 21, 18G8) and the community, finding eventually that the Ordinance did not materially injure the prosperity of the trade of the Colony, became in course of time reconciled with this measure which has ever since proved to be one of the most important sources of revenue. • It is necessary in this connection to refer to the measures adopted by Sir Richard for the regulation of Chinese gambling liouses, as these measures, though originally projected rather as a solution of an intricate social problem and as a preventive at', corruption in the Police Force, resulted in a considerable augmentcUion of the Colony's temporary and special revenues. The administration of Sir R. MacDonnell is, indeed, specially distinguished by the fearless attempt he made, in bold defiance of public opinion and official restraints, to solve the problem, which had troubled all his predecessors in office, connected with the well-known Chinese mania for gambling. This national vice, like opium smoking and prostitution, but more wide- spread and powerful than either, is rooted in an ineradicable, because congenital, disease of the Chinese social organism. Sir Richard was quite right in stating that the passion for gambling, as' observed in European nations, is nothing compared with thesame craving as it appears among all classes of Chinese, and that iii Hongkong it presents, through the corruption of the Police Force, necessarily resulting from a legal prohibition of it, a problem which it is easy to ignore but, for a Governor, imperative to solve in some form or other. It has been mentioned above that Sir J. Bowring, the first Governor who I'ecognized the importance of the problem, proposed to deal with it b}' 'licensing; as in Macao, a few gaming houses and THE ADMINISTRATION OF SIR R. G. MacDONNELL. 42^ enlisting thereby the interests of the licensees in the suppression of all unlicensed houses. From a remark in one of Sir Richard V dispatches, it would seetu that Sir H. Robinson shared the views of Sir J. Bowring. But neither of them succeeded in obtaining the sanction of H. M. Government for so daring an innovation. Sir R. MacDonnell, before resorting to this poHcy which he knew to be not only repugnant to the feelings of H. M. Government and condemned by several successive Secretaries of State, but likely to arouse strong opposition on the part of public opinion in England, did his very best, while sounding the Colonial Office on the subject of licensing, to purify the police and to suppress all gambling houses by the strongest measures of discipline and legislation. As soon as he had, by pei'sonal investigation, ascertained the seriousness and extent of the evil, and the nature of the difficulties which stood in the way of its abatement, he set to work to weed the Police Force of its suspects and to inspire the remainder with a whole- some terror of his determination to bring to book every defaulter. For a time the corrupt members of the Force dared not take bribes and the keepers of gambling houses curtailed their operations and redoubled their precautions. Sir Richard soon added legislative to his executive and detective measures. He had not been many months in the Colony, before he introduced an amended Registration Ordinance (7 of 18()6) with many novel and important provisions. Amongst them was the application of the principle of vicarious responsibility, making registered householders i'es]wnsiblc for the payment of fines incurred by residents or lodgers in houses for certain oifences, more especially gambling, but giving householders a remedy over against the original oifenders if they could catch them. The Chinese householders considered this essentially Chinese principle a great hardship, and the managers of gambling associations were so driven into a corner that they offered the Governor first $200,000 and then $365,000 per annum for a licence to open a limited number of gaming houses. They shewed thereby what an immense sum they could afiford to 480 CHAPTER XIX. spend ou bribing the Police if measures of repression were con- tinued. Sir Richard, however, continued his policy of repression which at first seemed so effective that, on January 7, 1867, he reported to the Earl of Carnarvon, that the Police Force was greatly improved, that crime was more rare than it had ever been, that a prospect was begiiming to open of almost suppressing gambling, that gambling was already diminished to less than one-fifth of the amount at which he had found it, that for many Aveeks past none of the Police had received any regular allowances from the gambling societies, but that street gambling still continued, and that, unless the Police continued 4iheir vigilance, the evil would again break out as before. But hardly had a week passed, after this roseate report Avas -dispatched, when circumstances came to his knowledge which caused him to report (January 14, 1867) that the progress made by the Police in suppressing gambling was not so great :as he had thought. Three months later (April 29, 1867), he had further to report that circumstances had led to a partial renewal of the old demoralisation among the Police. On May 9, 1867, Sir Richard found that he had come to the end of his I'esources and that he had failed. On that day he informed 4ihe Duke of Buckingham and Chandos, that he now saw no reasonable grounds for expecting that the Government could -ever succeed in suppressing gambling in Hongkong and that the present mode of dealing with it (by prohibition) is destructive ■of the morals of the Police and ineffective for the purpose sought. Sir Richard now determined to try the system of licensing ix small number of gaming houses with a view to control gambling and suppress it by degrees. He had thought of it before. As iiarly as August, 1866, he had privately sounded the Members of Council with regard to the draft of an Ordinance (8 of 1866) entitled * for the maintenance of order and cleanliness ' but con- 4iaining provisions for the regulation (i.e. 'Ucensing) of gaming houses, which, he hoped, would obviate the necessity of resorting *o the Stamp Ordinance then under discussion. This was the foait offered to the unofficial Members of Council. By their THE ADMINISTRATION OF SIR R. G. MacDONNELL. 431 taking it, they were deprived of their freedom of action in relation to both Ordinances. On 28th August, 1866, 8ir Richard, in forwarding to the Earl of Carnarvon the draft of Ordinance 8 of 1866 (for the maintenance of order and cleanliness), proposed that the Governor in Council should be authorized *to adopt a system hitherto discountenanced by H.M. Government and derive a large revenue from the alteration.' He added that ' the Members of Council all advocate such change of system both as a police and a revenue measure.' Instead of sending to the Governor the reply which had been given to Sir J. Bowring when he made the same proposal, the Earl of Carnarvon, admitting that the case of Hongkong was peculiar and justified exceptional measures, approved of Sir Richard's proposal of bringing a limited number of gaming houses under the control of the police, by licensing them, with a view to the eventual suppression of all gambling. He added, however, one all- important, and to Sir Richard disastrous, condition, viz. that the licence fees must not be farmed out but treated as mattere of police and by no means as revenue. Sir Richard forthwith set to work to remove or circumvent this condition, not because revenue was his real object but because the Chinese farmers of the gaming licence would, if paying a heavy fee, be compelled by their own interests to form a detective police for the suppression of all unlicensed gambling, and these detectives would then co-operate with the Police Force for the arrest and detention of dangerous characters who flock to gambling houses as moths to the light. Accordingly he informed * the Earl of Carnarvon (January 14, 1867) that it would be impossible to proceed by any other mod« than farming the licence for establishing gaming houses, because in no other way could the Government secure Chinese co-operation, and he suggested to leave to the Governor in Council a discretion to exercise his powers under the Ordinance as circumstances might render expedient. As regards the financial aspects of the measure, which were so distasteful to H. M. Government, he further stated (May 9, 1867) that any pecuniary advantage, which the 432 CHAPTER XIX. Colony might derive from the change, ought not for a moment be regarded as his motive for introducing it, but that a sura exceeding $200,000 'per annum could easily be derived from that source, and, if the Mint were closed, the Colony would then be able to resume payment of its Military Contribution and alsa to dispense with the Stamp Act. Meanwhile, however, the Duke of Buckingham and Chaudos had succeeded to the Earl of Carnarvon, and he, while fully concurring in his predecessor's instructions, abstained from entering into any discussion of the Governor's arguments, gave no discretionary power to the Governor such as he sought, and expressly dechned (April 1, 1867) to sanction the farming system. Subsequently he specified (July 18, 18G7) that the licence fees should be limited to an amount covering police arrangements connected with the system. It was on this basis that the Duke informed Sir Richard (August 28, 1867) that Her Majesty had graciously confirmed and allowed the proposed Ordinance (8 of 1866, now re-enacted as 9 of 1867) for the maintenance of order and cleanliness. Now it must be pointed out that, up to July, 1867, the Hongkong community, though well aware that the Governor had energetically attempted to suppress gambling and to purge out corruption in the Police Force and that he had failed, knew nothing of the Governor's secret discussions with his Council nor of the sanction given by the Earl of Carnarvon and by the Duke of Buckingham to the proposed licensing of gaming houses. Moreover, those paragraphs of Ordinance 9 of 1867 which gave the Governor power to make regulations for 'the better limitation and control of gambling ' were so worded that the uninitiated reader would not suspect, what the Council and the Secretary of State well knew, viz., that gambling was to be regulated and suppressed, by licensing it, under this Ordinance. As soon as Sir Richard learned by telegraph that Ordinance 9 of 1867 would be confirmed, he disclosed his scheme (July 10, 1867) to the public, arranged forthwith the licensing of eleven gaming houses (afterwards increased to sixteen) and opened THE ADMIXLSTRATIOX OF SIR R. G. MacDONNELL. 43 »^ tbem on 15th September, 1807. The revenue from the licences, distasteful to the Governor himself but an indispensable concomitant of his scheme, had to be seo^regated, by order of H.M. Government, in a distinct Special Fnnd, which amounted to 8155,000 on 23rd May, 1868, to 8221,783 on 28th June, 18G1), and to $277,334: on 31st December, 1869. The Government oraming houses were at first open to all except women, but foreiijners were not allowed to play. After some time, none but Chinese and Malays were admitted (July 27* 18G8). Then it became expedient to exclude Chinese servants, shroffs, cashiers and bill collectors (September 16, 1868). Sir Richard closely watched the returns of crime and honestly believed that his system, of providing a vent for the irrepressible Chinese passion for gambling, was steadily reducing crime in the Colony. Numbers of dangerous characters, long wanted by the police or released from gaol and deported on condition of their never returning to the Colony, were ari'ested at the gaming houses. He reported (March 6, 1860) that the good results of the licensing system included complete extinction of improper relations between the police and the gambling societies, extra- ordinary diminution of theft among servants, and effectual aid given by the licensees in apprehending dangerous characters. He also demonstrated by statistics that a general diminution of crime had taken place in the Colony since the opening of the gaming houses. The first disclosure of this remarkable scheme (July 10, 1867) took the whole Colony by surprise. The few Members of Council, who had been initiated into the secret, had kept the secret faithfully from the public whom they were supposed to represent. Sir Kichard reported (July 20, 1867) that the new arrangement had met with the general if not unanimous concur- rence of the community, with the exception of ' a few gentlemen of the clerical profession who felt it their duty to protest.' As to the unofficial Members of Council, Sir Richard stated (October 15, 1867) that * the testimony of every one of them had from the first been in favour of the measure with the exception of one 28 434 CHAPTER XIX. acting Member' (F. Parry). The principal opponent of the measure was the Rev. F. S. Turner, of the London Mission, who wrote some stirring letters to the papers, published a pamphlet for distribution in England, and induced four other missionaries (Ch. J. Warren, J. Piper, R. Lechler, J. Loercher) and the Minister of Union Church (D. B. Morris) to join in the (jrusade. These objectors, thenceforth known as ' the moral six,' presented to the Governor (July 24, 18G7) a brief Memorial, complaining that the measure had been introduced in an under- hand and un-English way, and that it was calculated to lead to a large increase of gambling. The Memorialists further alleged that the measure was objectionable to a large section of the Ohinese community, and illegal by both British and Chinese law. They finally averred that the Govprnment had no right to coun- tenance and sanction vice. The Registrar General (C. C. Smith) had to do his best, by means of a contemptuous reply he sent to the missionaries in the Governor's name, to refute their arguments. He also wrote reports supporting the Governor's contention that the system had produced good results and gained the approval of the Cbinese community. 8ir Richard attributed at first no importance to the opposition of the missionaries, and the Duke of Buckingham also declined (September 2G, 1807) to express any opinion on their Memorial, merely asking the Governor to report more fully. But the moral six, undismayed by the apathy of the community and the Secretary of State, appealed to the home country in a manner which speedily influenced the British press, re-echoed in Parliament and caused Sir Richard to complain (January r>0, 1808) that those clerical gentlemen had elsewhere gone the length of enforcing their reasoning by designating him Anti-Christ and accusing him of wilful untruthfulness. Subsequently, when public opinion in Hongkong also commenced to turn against his scheme (May 23, 1808), Sir Richard at last combatted the position of the moral six as that of a lazy and easily satisfied morality which folds its arms and, while doing nothing to repress acknowledged evils and nurseries of crime, cries out atrainst the Government THE ADMINISTRATION OF SIR R. G. MacDONNELL. 435 attempting fit least to control the evil which cannot be repressed, arguing that the Government is bound rather to ignore the existence of the vice than to control what is irrepressible. There was much truth in this remark. Meanwhile, however, the protest of the moral six had aroused public opinion at home, stirred up the Social Science Association and made itself heard in the only place where Colonial protests, if based on a genuine grievance, produce a tangible effect, viz. in Parliament. As to the action of the Social Science Association little need be said. That Society disgraced itself in the matter by becoming the unconscious tool of the two men who, in Sir J. Bowring's time, had poisoned the social life of the Colony, viz. the former Attorney General and the former editor of the Daily Press. These two men, having learned that the victim of their animosities, the Registrar General of Sir J. Bowring's time, was the officially recognized agent and adviser of the licensees in Hongkong, receiving from them a handsome salary (J;20,000 during the first year), managed to renew their persecution by assailing Sir Richard's policy under the aegis of the Social Science x\ssociation. At an interview which Earl Granville granted (March 27, 18G9) to a deputation of that Society, the former Attorney General, who actually introduced the deputation, and the former editor of the Bailt/ Press were the pi'incipal speakers. They suggested, as if Sir Richard had not tried this very principle and failed, that the only way to enforce any laws against gambling houses was by enforcing the Chinese laws of collective and mutual responsibility by means of the tithing (Kap) and the hundred (Pao), insti- tutions W'hich had been recognized by the Hongkong Legislature in Ordinances passed between the years 1844 and 1857, but never put into execution. However, this interview and the several Memorials presented by the Secretaries of the Association (August 1, 18G8, and January 14, 18G9), as also Sir Richard's official reply (October 20, 18G8) which the Secretary of State declined to forward, as immaterial, had no effect whatever. The remarks of the Duke of Buckingham on the subject are rather 436 CHAPTER XIX. instructive as to the importance which the Colonial Office generally attaches to Memorials. He told Sir Eichard (December 8, 1868) that, though he might properly defend himself and liis Government from accusations made in Parliament, or which have been officially made, it was hardly necessary for him to do so in the case of a private Society. As to the parliamentary debates on the subject of the Hongkong gambling houses, they did not contribute any real help towards a better solution of the important social problem, involved. For a general understanding of Sir Richard's dis- interested effort to seek a solution of it, even at the risk of the bitterest obloquy, it was rather helpful that the official documents, bearing on the whole question, from the time of Sir J. Bowring down to Sir Richard's latest dispatch, were printed and published (June 15, 1868 and August 0, 1869) at the request of Parliament. The only serious difficulties which Sir Richard encountered arose out of his relations with the successive Secretaries of State. Shortly after Sir Richard had opened licensed gaming houses,, the Duke of Buckingham expressed his surprise (October 14, 1867) that reports were reaching him from several quarters to the effect that the licence fees were being made a source of revenue. That the Duke had imperfectly understood Sir Richard's policy,, appeared clearly from a statement which he made in the Honse- of Lords when lie said (December 3, 1867) that 'Sir Richard did not propose to put gambling houses down but to obtain a large revenue from them and to extirpate the evil in a very short time.' Sir Richard had to explain his aims more fully, but when the Duke, who was about to vacate his office, at last grasped the real drift of Sir Richard's policy, he used rather strong language (December 2, 1868), expressed his 'entire disapproval of the proceedings' and threatened 'to stop the licensing altogether.' Sir Richard naturally considered himself unfairly treated and, in writing to the Duke's successor (Earl Granville), referred (March 6, 1860) to the Duke's dispatch as containing 'sweeping comments which implied a general censure on the Hongkong Government.' But this made matters worse. Earl Granville THE ADMINISTRATION OP SIR R. G. MacDONNELL. 437 Tlow, standino- up for his predecessor, censured Sir Richard (May 1, 1809) for the peculiarly unbecoming tone of his remarks. The embroglio became intensified when Earl Granville complained (October 7, 1809), in view of Sir Richard's independence of action, that the clearest instructions addressed to him seemed insufficient to prevent misunderstanding, and actually threatened 8ir Richard by saying (October 8, 1809) that he would view very seriously any further attempt to escape from a strict execution of his instructions. Later on (January 7, 1870) Earl Granville -again censured Sir Richard for unwarrantably assuming that he (the Secretary of State) would sanction the proposal to charge against the Special Fund all expenditure of the Colony on police and education in excess of a fixed normal standard. The Gover- nor was sternly ordered to repay into the Special Fund all unauthorized appropriations, amounting to ^129,701, and was compelled thereby to sell the Colonial gun-boat and to devise other forms of retrenchment to the great dismay of the Colony. The differences between Sir Richard and his superiors in Downing Street admitted of no compromise and his whole scheme was wrecked thereby. He had thought only of securing the <30-operation of the Chinese licensees to suppress crime and to prevent the corruption of the police. They had been thinking only of their inability to defend in Parliament the raising of any revenue from vice. What Sir Richard fought for, was the farming system. What they objected to, was the raising of a revenue. * Let the money be thrown into the sea as soon as it is paid, but - signatures and representing every class of society, to express the community's protest ngainst Sir Richard's scheme. Even the Chinese community, well knowing that the Registrar General (C. C. Smith) was the strongest supporter and defender of the system, presented him with a Memorial strongly condemning it. These popular demonstrations were immediately followed up by the Chief Justice with a judicial declaration (February, 1871) to the effect that, in the absence of a special Ordinance, the licensing of gaming houses in the Colony was illegal. More effectual was a renewal of the agitation in England, when the House of Commons, at the motion of Mr. Bowring, asked (March 31, 1871) for the production of further documents on the ^ambling house licensing system, which were accordingly published (July 24, 1871). To all the Memorials of the people of Hongkong the Earl of Kimberley re- turned the laconic reply that, on the return of Sir R. MacDonnell to the Colony, instructions would be given him to consifler the whole matter with a view to the termination of the system of licensing gaming houses. Sir Richard's fight was over. The battle was lost. But, though the system was abandoned im- mediately after the Governor's return (December 8, 1871), no positive gain resulted from the abolition of the gaming houses. Gambling and police corruption continued thenceforth unchecked. THE AJJMINISTRATION OF SIR R. (I. MacDONXELL. 441 The Government thereafter simply io^norecl the problem which is still waiting for a master hand to solve it. Allnsioii has already been made to another, exclusively financial, question which also troubled Sir Richard's adminia- tratiou as a legacy of the past, viz. the Mint established by his predecessor, Sir H. Robinson. When the Mint was first opened (April 7, 1800), it had already cost |400,000, and an additional annual expenditure of ^70,000 was required for its maintenance, at a time when the Colony was virtually insolvent. An unusually low rate of exchange told at once unfavourably against the Mint's prospects. The Chinese were prejudiced against the new dollar by the false rumour that chopping the Queen's coin would involve liability to criminal procedure. Hence the local demand for minting operations was so small that it appeared to the (Jovernor to be incommensurate with the working expenditure ■of the establishment. The Mint actually earned from May, 1800, to February, 1808, only about ^20,000 in seignorage. Sir Richard, foreseeing this unsatisfactory result and pressed by financial difficulties, appointed a Commission (October, 1806) to inquire into the working of the Mint. The report presented by the Commissioners (January 1, 1807) was greatly discour- aging, as they merely recommended to keep the Mint open for twelve months longer on the ground that the arrangements made with the Mint staff, regarding compensation in the event of the establishment being broken up, would anyhow make it just as expensive for the Colony to close the Mint at once as to keep it at work for another year. Six months later (August, 1807) when the Legislative Council considered the estimates of the Colony, it was considered necessary to reduce the estimate of seignorage, likely to accrue from the Mint in 1808, from S^0,000 to ^15,000. The Lords of the Treasury were consulted as to the advisability of continuing the working on public works, and nearly half of that sum was devoted to water-works. On 17th September, 18G9, he stated that a further sum of £11), GOO was required for the extension of the Pokfulam reservoir and for repairs of the dam, but that the work was only half completed. He explained, that the original estimate of the work was ^100,000, whereas it would now cost double, and that the history of these water-works shewed how heavily the Colony may lose, when attempting the most iiecessary public works, by the incompetence of its employees, and how" seldom the THE ADMINISTRATION OF Sill H. G. MacDONNELL. 443 most obvious deficiencies of such persons cao restrain them from projecting schemes beyond their strength . For these reasons. Sir Richard had obtained from England the services of a specially competent engineer (T. Kydd) who acted as Superintendent of Water-works and Avould have re-constructed also the Praya wall, if the marine-lot holders bad not proved so obstreperous. A typhoon having demolished the frail Praya wall (August 8, 18G7), Sir Richard determined to rebuild the whole Praya in a substan- tial manner. But unfortunately be encountered, on the part of the lot-holders, the same unflinching opposition which defeated the efforts of his predecessors, Sir J. Bo wring and Sir H. Robinson. Sir Richard nevertheless renewed the combat. As the Military Contribution absorbed available funds, he informed the lot-holders concerned in the ruins of the Praya, that they must contributc- a fair and reasonable proportion towards the cost of rebuilding the sea-wall of their respective lots. When they refused this request, he invited them to a conference with the Colonial Secretary (C. C. Smith), who informed them (November 2, 18G7) that the Attorney General had given an opinion to the effect that each lot-holder was, by virtue of the wording of his lease, under a legal liability to provide for the maintenance of the sea-wall. The lot-holders, who previous to the conference had agreed (October 29, 1807) to resist the demand and came armed with legal opinions, contended that the clause in question had reference to roads, drains, &c. within their respective lots and not to the Praya wall ; that, when the first sea-wall was built, they had paid the expenses on the distinct understanding that the subsequent maintenance was to be a burden on the Colony : that they were not answerable for the defective condition of the wall nor bound to repair it. The conference broke up in con- fusion. Sir Richard sent the lot-holders a letter (November 10, 18G7) arguing that it was their fault that the former wall was badly built and that the construction of an insufficient wall had not relieved them of their original obligation. When this proved fruitless, he ordered legal proceedings to be instituted. A test case was selected and a marine-lot holder (R. 0. Webster) was 444 CHAPTER XIX. -sued in Court for the cost of rebuilding his part of the Praya Avail. ' The great Praya case,' as it was called, was tried before a special jury (R. Lyall, G. F. AVeller, A. Coxon, E. Mellish, J. Arnold, J. M. Yickers, C. Mackintosh) and the verdict was given for the defendant (February 7, 1868) to the great discom- fiture of the Governor. The decision was based on the view taken by the Chief Justice that, under the terms of his lease, the defendant Avas bound to repair all public quays piers and roadways in or 'requisite to the premises,' but that the sea-wall was not requisite to the defendant's premises. The legislative work of this period was largely occupied with matters affecting police and crime, commerce and emigration, and the government of the Chinese population, all of which are referred to elsewhere. A few ordinances of general interest were introduced bv Sir Richard such as regulated the Fire Brigade (4 of 1868), the preservation of birds (1 of 1870), :and the Public Gardens (8 of 1870). Improvements in the •administration of justice received a large share of Sir Richard's attention. Ordinances were passed modifying the law of jurors and juries (7 of 1868), criminal law procedure (2 of 1861) and 3 of 1872), promissory oaths (4 of 1860), the administration of the estates of deceased persons (9 of 1870), the enrolment of barristei*s and attornies (3 of 1871), Court vacation (1 of 18CI)), and so forth. But the most important measure, yet •one that was two years later i-epealed by Sir Richard's successor, was Ordinance 1 of 1871, which regulated the procedure of the Summary Jurisdiction Court by providing that cases, involving sums over ^.'iOO and under ^2000, might be heard, with a jury, by the Chief Justice sitting in Supreme Court in Sulnmary Jurisdiction. Two interesting decisions were given during this period. In the case Regina v. Souza, Sir J. Smale laid it down (July,' 186*.)) that no criminal action can be instituted in Hong- kong for the pnbliciition of a libel against an undistinguished foreigner resident out of the Colony. And in the case of the Nouvelle Penelope^ a French coolie ship which, having sailed from Macao, was seized by the coolies under the leadership THE ADMINISTRATION OF SIR R. G. MacDONNELL. 445- of one Kwok Asiiig-, who murdered the captain and crew and fled to Hongkong, Sir J. Sraale ruled that the oifence was committed against France, that the ship was a slave ship, and tliat the mnrders committed with the object of regaining liberty were no crime. The administration of justice was, during this period, frequently disfigured by unseemly disputes between the Chief Justice (J. Smale) and the senior Queen's Counsel (E. H. Pollard). These disputes culminated in a painful scene (July 2,. 1867) when Mr. Pollard was lectured and pronounced guilty of six distinct contempts of court, fined ^200 and suspended fron> practice for fourteen days. The tone and manner in which the Chief Justice on this occasion addressed the troublesome but highly popular barrister, whom he kept standing before him while he lectured him, aroused the indignation of the whole community. The fine was forthwith provided for by a public subscription list, signed by more than a hundred persons of all classes of local society. Mr. Pollard appealed to the Governor who declined to interfere and advised him to petition Her Majesty the Queen. In August, 1808, the decision of the Privy Council was received, indicating a complete defeat of the Chief Justice, as not one of the six acts charged against Mr. Pollard was held to amount to contempt of court. The fine was remitted and the sentence reversed, but the Chief Justice was not silenced but continued the legal warfare in a more subdued form. The Police Force was during this period subjected to the closest scrutiny it ever received and to severe criticisms on the part of both the Governor and Chief Justice, and by the community. It has been mentioned above that Sir Richard,. after satisfying himself by personal investigations of the inefficiency and corrupt character of the Force, attempted, in 18GG and 1867, to purify and reform the corps by disciplinarian measures and failed. On 20th October, 1867, he assured the Secretary of State that he did not remember to have seen in any Colony a body of men so ineffective in proportion to the number, or so corrupt generally, as the Police Force which he found in Hongkong, ^id which then consisted of 89 Europeans, 446 CHAPTER XIX. .•^77 Indians (chiefly Bombay sepoys) and 132 Chinese. But, after introdncinu- the system of licensing o-aming houses, Sir Richard reported, in 1860, that the Pohce Force had been greatly reformed by virtue of this measure. No doubt, there was a marked improvement, noticeable in 18G8 and 18(19. Bat it seems probable that this improvement was not so much due to the licensing of gaining houses, which of course vastly diminished bribery, as to Sir Richard's searcliing surveillance of the personal affairs of the police officers and his daily vigilance in ascertaining the steps taken in all special cases for the detection of crime, and in the second instance to the several measures he introduced with a view to police reform. These measures consisted of the substitution of Scotch for English and Sikh for Bombay constables ; the appointment of a Deputy Superintendent of Police conversant with Hindo- stanee (C. V. Creagh) ; the allowance, out of the Special Fund, of §20,000 jier annum for good conduct pay ; the classification of the Chinese contingent, opening up to Chinese constables the prospect of promotion (March 1, 1870); the increase of police stations and their interconnection by telegraph; the establishment of the Police School (18G9) and the encouragement thereby given to Sikhs and Chinese to learn English. The establishment of a separate Naval Yard Police under the exclusive control of the Admiralty (by Ordinances 2 and 13 of 18G7) was also an improvement. Up to March 30, 1870, when Sir Richard produced statistics shewing increased efficiency of the Police Force, the public were satisfied that great improvements had been made, and sided with the Captain Superintendent of Police (W. M. Deane) when he energetically rebutted (September 15, 1869), as wanton distortion of statistics, the disparaging remarks, as to the inferiority of the Hongkong Police to that of Shanghai, made by the Secretary of the Municipal Council of Shanghai (A. J. Johnston) in a letter to the London & China Express (July 8, 1869). But that the reform of the Hongkong Police was principally due to 8ir Richard's personal vigilance, may be iiiferred from the fact THE ADMINISTRATION OF SIR R. G. MacDONNELL. 447 that as soon as he left the Colony on fiirlongh (April 12, 1870) complaints of the demoralisation of the police recommenced, both on the parL of the Chief Justice and on the part of the public. When the Police Report for 1SG9 was published {April 11, 1870), declaring^ the establishment of a detective force to be impracticable, public opinion read it as indicating that bribery rather than any other difficulty stood in the way of detecting crime. The action of the Chief Justice also incited public dissatisfaction with the organisation of the jDolice. By his remonstrances, addi-essed to the Government, he secured the offer of substantial encouragement to police officers willing to acquire a knowledge of the. Chinese language (May, 1870), bub he failed in his crusade against the separate control exercised by the Registrar General over a distinct force of 69 district watchmen. The unofficial Members of Council also expressed their dissatisfaction with the police and asked that a Commission of Inquiry be appointed, whereupon the Chief Justice laid on the table of the Legislative Council (November, 1870) a memorandum inveighing against the inefficiency and corruption of the BV)rce and suggesting that, to avoid the constant friction between the Superintendent of Police and the Registrar General, the district watchmen be embodied in the Police Force under one head. The Chief Justice continued his adverse criticisms of the Police in 1871, and the communitv sided with him in the matter. The general dissatisfaction with the organisation of the Police Force rose to the highest pitch when a greatly popular public officer (G. L. Toinlin) was robbed and knocked down ou a public road close to the Central Police Station (August 28, 1871). A deputation of unofficial Justices of the Peace waited forthwith on the Lieutenant-Governor (H. W. Whitfield) and urged him to take immediate steps to improve the Police Force. Major-General Whitfield's reply, referring to 40 additional constables having been ordered from Glasgow and promising that Sir Richard would, on his return, deal with the question of police reforms, was viewed by the public as a mere evasion of the points insisted on by the whole community, viz. that an 448 CHAPTER XIX. efficient bead should be provided for the Police Force which they considered to be in a disoro^auized state and that a Commission should be appointed without delay to inquire into- he real causes of the defective state of the Force. A public meeting (September, 1871), attended by upwards of 350 residents, gave expression to the general sense of insecurity under which the community laboured, and to their strong disapprobation of the neglect which, it was alleged, had characterized the action of the Executive with regard to the police. A Memorial was forwarded to the Colonial Office, praying for the appointment of a Commission of Inquiry. Before Earl Kimberley's reply,, negativing this request, reached the Colony, Sir Richard had, immediately upon his return, appointed (December, 1871) a Com- mission according to the wishes of the community (T. C. Hayllar, W. Keswick, F. W. Mitchell, F. Stewart, H. Lowcock, W. Lenmnn, George Falconer, and A. Lister). One of the principal subjec^ts of inquiry was the question whether the plan of divided authority, by leaving the district watchmen under the separate control of the Registrar General, should be continued. It was principally on this point that the views- of the Commission and of the Governor were divided, and the bifurcation had to continue. Whilst leaving a reform of the police to his successor. Sir Richard started, before leaving the Colony, what was virtually a new department for the suppression of gambling, by relieving the Police Force from this duty and handing it over to personal efforts to be made by two former Cadets, the Registrar General and the Superintendent of Police.. This appointment of two gentlemen detectives, with which was connected a handsome remuneration, was viewed bv the community as a mere excuse for filling the pockets of the Governor's 'boys.' Sir Richard's energy and severity as a disciplinarian was bound to exercise a deterrent influence as regards crime. There never was any Governor in Hongkong who inspired the criminal classes with such a genuine dread of his personal vigilance and of his measures. They soon found that the licensed gaming houses- THE ADMINISTRATIOX OF SIR R. G. MacDOXNELL. 449 were a trap set to catch tbeni and it became quickly known that confinement in ^aiol was now a real punishment. But the most marked effect attaclied to those measures of Sir Richard's administration by which he applied whipping and solitary con- finement to cases of armed or violent assault, kidnapping- and child-stealing (Ordinances 12 of 18G5 and 3 of 18G8) and to criminals returning from deportation (Ordinance 7 of 1870). Compelled by financial considerations to abandon the newly built gaol on Stonecutters' Island, he brought all prisoners under a uniformly rigorous system of discipline in Victoria Gaol, reduced the dietary scale, made gaol labour more severe, and ordered gaol offences to be punished with the cat instead of the rattan. By these measures he made imprisonment a real deterrent. He was so determined to keep the number of prisoners within the limits of the accommodation afforded by the old gaol, that he resorted to and, when checked by the Colonial Office, persevered in the application of other measures which were evidently illegal. In autumn 180G, he introduced a system under which prisoners were induced to petition, that they might be liberated on condition of their voluntarily submitting to be branded and deported with the understanding that, if they were thereafter again found in the Colony, they would be liable to be flogged by order of a Magistrate and remitted to their original sentence. He sought to give to this system a colour of legality by that Or- dinance 8 of 18GG (for the maintenance of order and cleanliness) which has been referred to above, in connection with the equally illegal system of licensing gaming houses. When this Ordinance (in its original form) was disapproved by H.M. Government, Sir Richard abandoned the system of bringing branded and depoited criminals, who returned to the Colony, before a Magistrate, but continued the original system of branding and deporting prisoners, before the expiration of their sentences, in accordance with those illegal engagements voluntarily entered into by prisoners and ratified in each case by the Executive Council. Criminals thus liberated and deported were, on being found again in the Colony, remitted to their original sentences 29 450 CHAPTER XIX. and then flos::ged in ji^aol as a matter of gaol discipline. This system was continued nutil ^Joth Mav, 1870. It has been alleged that this rigorous system of branding, deporting and flogging was applied also to hundreds of prisoners convicted merely of being suspicious characters, I'ogues and vagabonds, az:d that the Colony was thus delivered of the very class of men whose habitual occupation, as professional touts, trainers, aidors and abettors of criminals, formed the hotbed of prospective crime. This severely deterrent treatment of Chinese criminals met with the unqualified approval of the community. The Chinese and European residents as well as the unofficial Members of Council (September 11, 1871) gave at sundry times expression to their conviction of the absolute necessity of such measures in order to make Hongkong and its humane gaol less attractive and comfortable for the gaol birds of Canton. That experienced police officer and magistrate, Ch. May, gave it as his opinion that 'corporal punishment is absolutely requisite for the well- being of the Colony.' That these measures, initiated by Sir Richaid, served to - removal to the mainland. This institn- tion was established, in the centre of Taipin,(2:shan, unbeknown to the Government. In May, 18()1), accident led to the discovery that sick persons were dumped there and left to die like doo-s, untended and uncared for, except that there were coffins ready for them. When the foreign community raised an outcry, the Chinese came forward with liberal subscriptions towards the erection of a Chinese Hospital, and, as it was a clear case for the application of the Special Fund, Sir Richard at once offered a grant of ^l^^^O^ iii addition to a free site near Possession Point. The I-tsze was forthwith converted into a temporary hospital -conducted on Chinese principles, as nearly all Chinese in the Colony would rather die like dogs than enter the Government Civil Hospital. It was originally proposed that the piece of land •granted by Government should be vested in trustees and that the permanent hospital, to be built there, should be carried -on under a trustdeed. But the Attorney General (J. Pauncefote) wisely suggested to form a corporation which would build and manage the hospital through a board of Chinese directors under proper supervision by the Government. Thus the Tungwa Hospital was established by Ordinance (3 of 1870) as an eleemosynary corporation. By the special order of Sir Richard, a provision was included in this Ordinance to make sure that, if the corporation should fail to carry out in a satisfactory manner the objects and purposes of the Ordinance, the incorporation should be repealed and the property of the hospital, subject to the ])aymeut of debts, should then vest in the Crown. The new hospital was speedily erected and opened by Sir Richard on February li, 1872, when he announced that the Government had voted (out of the Special Fund) a further sum of ^115,000 for the purposes of the hospital. He also praised the Chinese for their liberality in guaranteeing annual subscriptions to the •extent of $7,000, but warned them that, if any abuses should THE ADMINISTKATION OF SIR 1{. (;. .MacDOXXELL. 463 ■<;reep in, the Govenimenfc would tike the itianaoeineiit of the hospital out of their hands. This was a fair specimen of Sir Riehard's way of deahno- with the Cliinese community. He invarial)ly treated them with unwearied consideration but with rigid strictness. The result was that, by the time of Sir Richard's departure, his administration left upon the Chinese people rather a favourable impression. Though they dreaded him at first as a stern disciplinarian, they always respected him iind finally he became rather a popular hero in their eyes. The population of Hongkong increased, during this admini- stration, from 117,471 souls in the year 18(50 to 124,198 in the year 1871. But this is no progi-ess when it is compared with the state of the population (125,504) in the year 1865, tind indicates that the general influence of Sir Richard's administration did not tend to encourage Chinese to settle in Hongkono^. The sanitation of the Colony was at a low ebb in January, 1800, when the mortality among the troops reached an extra- ordinary rate, supposed to.be caused by the severe n4ght duties thrown upon European soldiers in consequence of the withdrawal of Indian regiments. Hongkong, once more, gained an unenviable notoriety through exaggerative descriptions of the insalubrity of its climate published in home papers in ISOG and 18(17, and particularly in the Times and in the Ann// d' Navy Gazette. In April, 1861), it was locally reported that the sanitary conditions had been steadily improving and that, with the exception of the case of the troops, the rate of mortality among European residents had steadily decreased since 1863. Indeed a table of the mortality of Hongkong inhabitants from 1858 to 1868 shewed that in no year registered had the mortality been so low (2 per cent.) among Europeans as during the year 1869. The Colonial Surgeon, in his report for 1861), reported a rise in the death rate, which he ascribed to the longer duration 'of the sunnner heat, but declared Hongkong to be remarkably healthy for the tropics. Great importance was now attached to the extension of afforestation coupled with the unsparing removal 464 CHAPTER XIX. of all undergrowth. Carbolic acid was freelj used to disinfect drains. The sudden and startling death of a number of prominent members of the foreign community, guA'e to the year 1870 the aspect of a specially unhealthy year. It was- pointed out that in the early part of summer and up to 3rd August, 1870, there was an unusually small rainfall, and an unusual increase of fever, accompanied by a tendency to relapse which caused great prostration and in some cases assumed the character of typhus. Most practitioners attributed the cause to earth cutting on the hill sides. r>r. J. T. Murray, however, persisted in tracing the disease to the paucity of rain but he also complained thnt the drains of the town remained what they ever had been (in the absence of rain), the source of disease^ and urged that they be run out into deep watei' and frequently flushed. An epidemic of smallpox having broken out in December 1870, and the temporary matsheds erected near the Civil Hospital being overcrowded (January, 1871), the deserted Gaol-buildings on Stonecutters' Island were converted into a smallpox hospital which answered all expectations. Among 101 cases treated (73 civilians and 28 soldiers), there were only 9 deaths. The subject of contagious disease engaged Sir Richai'd's attention soon after his arrival. He found fault with the CD. Ordinance of 1858, as its penal provisions were directed exclusively against indoor prostitution, also against the keepers of illicit establishments only and not against the inmates. Believing that the existing system failed to check disease, Sir Richard forthwith inaugurated a more vigorous policy. A new Ordinance, passed on 23rd July, 18G7, subjected accordingly both the keepers and the inmates of unlicensed houses to fine and imprisonment, prohibited solicitation in the streets, extended the application of medical examination and detention in the Lock Hospital, gave the Police power to break into suspected houses without a warrant, and conferred upon the Registrar General judicial as well as executive powers, in order to remove prosecutions under the Ordinance from the publicity of the THE ADMINISTRATION OF SIR R. G. MacDONNELL. 465 Police Court. It was, however, u00 and forthwith doubled by the Government, Bishop Alford secured also the erection of a ncw^ chancel (November 21), 1870), which was enriched by the erection of a memorial window by the executors of the late Douglas Lapraik. But the tower of St. John's Cathedral was left as before waiting for its spire. Sir 468 CHArTER XIX. Richard made, shortly before he left the Colony, an order (February, 1872) to the effect that no fees whatever should be- charged for any ecclesiastical service connected with St. JohnV Cathedral. The principal events of the social life of this period were the- festivities connected with the visit to Hongkong of H.R.H. Prince Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh, and particularly the opening of the new City Hall, the foundation stone of which had been laid on 23rd February, 18G7, by Sir R. MacDonnell. For weeks, preparations had been made for the Duke's reception, on the basis of a programme devised by Sir Richard and published in the Government Gazette. From the moment when H.M.S. Galatea arrived (October 31, 1869) with the Duke on board, until 16th November, when he finally left the Colony, Hongkong society, both foreign and Chinese, was revelling in incessant festivities. Immediately on his arrival, the Duke landed privately and dined at Government House with .the Governor and Admiral KeppeU his former chief. Next evening he privately attended a dinner given by the Hon. W. Keswick at the mansion of Jardine,, Matheson & Co., and then inspected incognito the illuminations, fire works and dragon processions, which kept the whole town ins a blaze of light till the early morning. On 2nd November, three liours before the time fixed for the official landing of the Duke, Admiral the Hon. Sir H. Keppel, K.C.B., whom the Colony had honoured with a farewell-banquet as the embodiment of the true British policy in China, having to leave for England, came down at 8 a.m. to embark at Murray Pier, when, to his surprise,. he found there a barge manned by the officers of the Galatea who* rowed him to the mail steamer, the Duke himself at the stroke oar and Commodore Oliver J. Jones acting as coxswain. At 11 a.m. the Duke landed with due ceremony at Pedder's AVharf, attended by Sir H. Kellett and his two equerries. Sir Richard, having formally bid him welcome, conducted him in great state to the City Hall which the Duke opened and inspected. Some 300 gentlemen were then introduced to the Duke, wha graciously replied also to four addresses presented to him, viz. by THE ADMINISTRATION OF SIR R. G. MacIX)NNELL. 469 IVIr. Tb. Pyke for the general community, by Mr. D. liuttiinjee for the Parsee merchants, and by Chinese deputies of the native merchants and Government schoolmasters, whose gorgeous uni- forms and elaborate kotows gave to the scene a picturesque Oriental •<)olouring. In the evening the Duke was present at a banquet given at Government House and followed by a reception held by Lady MacDonnell. On 3rd November, the Duke drove out with the Governor to the Happy Valley, and attended in the evening the first |x;rformances given, at the new City Hall Theatre, by •the Amateur Dramatic Corps and by the members of the German 'Club Concordia. A grand ball held next day at the City Hall, and a magnificent performance given, on the following day, by '<]!hinese actors at the Tunghing theatre and followed by a Chinese •dinner, concluded the first part of the programme. AVhilst the Duke paid a visit to Canton and Macao, by means of the river-steamer Kinshan which the H. C. & M. Steamboat Company had placed at his disposal, the Chinese festivities and dragon processions continued Tii Hongkong. After his return (9th November), the Duke visited Major-General Whitfield who was laid up witli •sickness, dined with Colonel Milles and the officers of the 75th Regiment and subsequently with Commodore Jones. He further attended two more banquets and public receptions at Government House, received two additional addresses (by the clergy and the masters of the mercantile marine), attended a cricket match, took part in a game at bowls at the Oriental Bowling Alley, acted ;as conductor of the orchestra at a theatrical performance given by the officers of the Galatea in the City Hall Theatre, entertained the Governor and Lady MacDonnell on board his ship, and finally laid, immediately before his departure, the first stone of the new chancel of St. John's Cathedral (November, 16th). The Duke's courtesy and gracious bearing on every •occasion won for him the greatest popularity, whilst the success ■which attended all the festivities given in his honour was a -source of much pride and pleasure to the whole community. Among the many signs of healthy social life and progress :manifested during this period stands out prominently the 470 CHAPTER XIX. formation (November 12, 18G7) of the Association for securing parliamentary influence on behalf, of the Colony. It was hoped that relief might by this means, rather than by appeals to the Colonial Office, be obtained for the most pressing grievances under which the community laboured. Mr. A. P. Sinnett acted as secretary for the society until July, 18GS. On 23rd Decem- ber, 18G7, a meeting of the Association adopted a Memorial to be presented to the House of Commons. It AA'as a forcible protest against the levy of the Military Contribution. During the following year the influence of the Association was strengthened by the formation in London (April, .18G8) of a corresponding. Association of former colonists, and the Hongkong Association received same recognition by a Committee of the Legislative Council, consulting the Association in the matter of the Building Ordinance then under discussion. However, the Petition to the House of Commons fell to the ground owing to the inaction of the London branch of the Association. Moreover, the action. of the local 4ssociation was paralysed for the tinft (July 8, 18G1)) by internal dissensions as to ^he question whether the scope of the Association was confined to local grievances or included the general tenor of British policy in China and Japan. Another semi-political but less aspiring association was that, formed by Mr. W. N. Middleton, and supported by other talented local artists (Mr. J. C Coughtrie and Mr. E. Beart), who humorously but most effectively criticized and caricatured, . to the intense amusement of the community, local politics and. manners, celebrities and oddities, by means of the China Ptmch,. published at irregular intervals from . 28th May, 18G7, until, 28th May, 18G8. In the Public Gardens, where the Parsee. community erected a handsome Bandatand, great improvements- were made by the new Curator (Ch. Ford) and public interest was enlisted for the time in the management of the Gardens (January 10, 1872) by withdrawing the Gardens and Afforestation. Department from the supervision of the Surveyor General and placing it under a representative Advisory Committee. The re- opening of the Seamen's Hospital which Jardine, Matheson & Co.. THE ADMINISTRATION OF SIR R. 0. .M.vrDONNKLL. 471 (May, 18GG) had rebuilt at a co3t of $oO,000,- the transformation of 'the old Victoria Library and Reading Rooms into a Club (August 15, lath (June, 18GC), of ocean yacht race3 (December, 18(!8) and of bicycle races (February lo, 187(>), provided new incentives an:l facilities for public recreation. Complaints were made at the Wongnaichung races of March, 18()1), that the Americans present forsook the Grand Stand for the superior attractions of a private shed belonging to the leadiiig American firms (Rnssell & Co. and A. Heard & Co.). Bub harmony was soon restored. On 28tli FebruaiT, 1870, an address signed bv the entire communitv was presented to Admiral Rowan in command of the U. S. Asiatic Squadron, to express the sympathy universally felt in the Colony, with the sufferers from the shipwreck of the U.' S. Corvette Oneida in the gulf of Yeddo, caused by collision with the P. & 0. S. S. Bomhcnj on 24th January, 1870. The departure of the U.. S. flagship Delaware (June 19, 1870), the officers of which had been general favourites in lo.ml society, was much regretted. The anniversary of Washi niton's birthday was celebrated (March, 1871) by the whole foreign community as the guests of the officei-s of the U. S. S. Colomdo who enlivened their entertainment by an improvised regatta. The German community was, in 1870 and 1871, much exercised bv the successive events of the Franco-German war. Tiarge sums were collected in Hongkong and forwarded for the relief of the sick and wounded of both belligerents. At one single concert (December, 1870) a sum of ^2,{)0() was raised. The Ciiimi Mail was for some time ostracized by the German f ^7^ CHAPTER XIX. residents who saw unfairness in the unfriendly criticisms which- the editor passed on the measures taken by Germany after the battle of Sedan. The restoration of peace was celebrated (March^ 1871) by a public banquet. In November, 1871, the German Olul) raised, by a concert, a considerable sura in aid of the relief fund which was organized in Hongkong as soon as the news of the great conflagration at Chicago was received. The new building erected for the German Club in Wyndham Street, a iine structure of Gothic design, was opened on 2nd February, 1872. About the same time, a collection was organized for the foundation of a new library at Strassburg (February 8,. 1872) and a considerable number of Chinese w^orks, including some rare manuscripts from Formosa, were secured for the Blew library. Among the minor events of the social life of this period may be chronicled the dedication of the new Masonic Hall (December 27, 1865), a public farewell dinner given to Dr. Kane (May, 18G7), the opening of the new Hongkong Hotel building (February 29, 18G8), the arrival of the Austro- Hungarian expedition under Admiral Baron Petz, with Professor 8cherzer (June, 18G9), the public dinner given to Commodore -Jones (April, 1870), the arrival of Mr. George Francis Train (September 8, 1870), a series of public lectures given by Dr. liCgge on Confucianism and by Dr. Eitel on Buddhism (Decem- ber, 1870 to February, 1871), the celebration of Beethoven's centenary by a concert given in the City Hall (Deceml)er 20, 1870), the arrival of the Hon. Mrs. Yelverton (Lady Avanmore) from San Francisco (September 15, 1871), and a public lecture on Knox by Dr. Legge (December, 1871). Fifteen different countries were by this time represented in Hongkong by officially recognized Consufe, viz.: Austria by G. von Overbeck (March 19, 18G7); Belgium by H. Nicaise (August 29, 1871); Denmark, Sweden and Norway by G. J. Helland (December 2G, 1865) ; France by H. du Chesne (January U, 1865) ; Germany by A. Eimbke (August 7, 1869); Italy and Hawaii by W. Keswick (April 28, 1868, and April 10, 1869).; THE ADMINISTRATION OP SIR R. G. MacDONNELL. 473 the Netherlands by L. Beyer (June 4, 1870) ; Portugal by J. J. dos Remedios (January 19, 1872) ; Russia by J. Heard (April 16, ^ 1802); Siam by J. Fraser (May 26, 1868); Spain by F. Ortufio^ (February 11, 1867); the United States by Lieutenant-Colonel Ooulding, succeeded by I). H. Bailey (October 21, 1870). As regards public calamities, the period of Sir Richard's administration is characterized by an extraordinary frequency of serious typhoons. On 30th June, 1865, a typhoon, which did comparatively little damage in the Colony, engulfed two Hongkong steamers, Corea and Chanticleer, which had left Swatow on that day for Hongkong in company and disappeared, leaving no trace behind. The edge of a typhoon touched Hongkong on 7th July, 1866, and did considerable damage. During the next year (1867), three successive typhoons (8th August, 8th September, and 1st October) caused serious disasters both ashore and afloat, particularly the first of them, by which four large vessels in liarbour were driven on shore, two sunk, and innumerable junks wrecked. On 2()th September, 1870, great damage to life and property was occasioned by a typhoon, the Praya AYall was broken up in places, the S.S. Walter and a yacht were sunk, and on board the junks whose wrecks covered the Praya hundreds of lives were lost. The same scenes were enacted on 2nd Septem- ber, 1871, when, beside the injuries caused to houses in town, many vessels in harbour were damaged or stranded, and the French barque Nancy and the German barque Hans became total wrecks. Few conflagrations occurred during this period, but one of them (November 28, 1867) was of extraordinary magnitude, as nearly 500 houses were destroyed. The year (1867) in which this disaster occurred, and which is also marked by the occurrence of three serious typhoons, is further distin- guished by a gunpowder explosion and by two serious landslips. On 17th January, 1867, the barque Themis was lying near Stonecutters' Island alongside the powder-hulk Zephyr, which had 200,000 pounds of gunpowder on board, and a gang of coolies was at work moving barrels of powder, when suddenly an explosion occurred which blew both vessels to pieces, caused the death 474 CHAPTER XIX. of some forty persons, and shook most houses in town. In the mouth of October, two laiidsHps took place, one destroying the gas mains at Westpoint and leaving . the whole Colony in darkness for one iiiulit, while the other converted a row of eight Chinese houses at Taipingshan into a heap of ruins, involving also the loss of some lives, whereupon a jury. blamed the Surveyor General for not having foreseen the accident. On 8th May, 1870, the singular spectacle occurred of a vessel, the Dunmall^ sailing into harbour and being wrecked in the act of anchoring witliin a few hundred yards from trie Docks, on the rocks near Hunghom. The obituary of this period is particularly distinguished by the death, at Headquarter House, of Mrs. Brunker (July 1, J 808) and Major-General Brunker (March 23, 18(11)), and further includes the names of Mrs. Smale (October, 1808), Assistant Surveyor-General Clark (October, 1808), Mr. Margesson (July, 1801)); G. J. Barber, R.N. (December 28, 1809), Dr. A Cochran (March 7, 1870), H. P. Austin (;September 14, 1870), Mrs. Kresser (September, 1870), Captain J. B. Endicott (November 0, 1870), Th. Doniddson (November, 1870), J. Donoval, Elec- trician of the Telegraph Company (Febrnary 1), 1871), F. T. irazebnd. Crown Solicitor (February 21, 1871), Bishop Snn'th, who died in England (December 14, 1871), and Mrs. Hugh Hughes (January 5, 1872). By the time when Sir Richard's term of administration came to an end, in April 1872, the whole community of Hongkong sincerely regretted his departure. Besides a farewell- dinner given in his honour by the members of the Civil Service (April .')), the foreign community gave him a magnificent banquet (April D), and the Chinese merchants presented a grandiloquent but genuine laudatory address (April 11) together with a Memorial against the coolie trade. Sir Richard left the Colony on- 11th April, 1S72, by Fren(;h mail-steamer, having for his fellow-passengers the Portuguese Governor of Macao- and the Spanish Governor-General of the Philippine Islands., After his return to England, he retired from the service, occupied himself. THE ADMIXISiTRATlOX OF SIR R. G. M.U DOXXHLL. 47 fh for some years with various literary studies and died ou 5th February, 1881. That Sir U. MacDonnell had understood the real position and needs of tlie Colony better than most of its Governors, appears clearly from the following extracts taken from one of his published dispatches (October 29, 18G7). 'The circumstances of the Colony of Hongkong are so entirely exceptional and l^ecnliar, that it is difficult for the Executive to derive from the experience of other Colonies, or the precedents established by the practice and traditions of P]urope, any adequate system foi* its government and legislation...! would advoc^e the policy of leaving the Colony as far as possible the liberty to expend, on local improvements and works, all the availai)le public income that can. be raised from the community for these purposes, because the prestige and the preference given to it, as a depot, depends greatly on the advantages, as a residence and as a convenient depot, which it may continue to offer... I should gladly see more activity in making sanitary improvements and in rendering the loading and discharge of vessels more easy and less expensive than at present.' The general feeling of the community, at the time of Sir Richard's final departure, was — that he was an emphatically sincere and, though a stern character, by no means an acrid man ; that he was an able ruler, one of the most able, if not the best, of Hongkong's Governors ; that he failed to please everybody becanse he, on principle, strove to do only what he himself thought best in the interests of the Colonv, without fear or favour of any man ; that he improved the police, the roads and the water- works of the Colony ; that he was nob only careful in the man- agement of the Colonial finances but established prosperity in place of positive insolvency ; that he succeeded where every preceding Governor had failed, viz., in suppressing the local haunts and resources of piracy; that he knew how to govern the Chinese and gave them their proper subordinate place ; that the best and most popular trait of his administration was the true English jealousy with which he guarded the honour and position 476 CHAPTER X)X. ■of the Colony, the f re adorn of the port and its tradal interests, against Hongkong's enemies, both Chinese and British. In short, the verdict of the community on the value of Sir R. MacDonnell's administration may be summed up in the words of Shakespeare : Here goes a Caesar I When comes such an other i 3 CHAPTER XX. Thp: a dminist ration of 8ir Arthur E. Kennedy. April 16, 187.2, to March J, Un. ^gJR Arthur E. KenDedy, k.c.m.g., c.b., who had previously ^^ acted as Governor of several Colonial Possessions (West- coasb of Africa, "Western Australia, Vancouver's Island, and West African Settlements), arrived in Hongkong, as Governor and Commander-in-chief of the Colony and its Dependencies, on 16bh April, 1872. During his tenure of office. Sir Arthur was absent from the Colony bat twice. On 15th October, 1874, lie left for England but, hearing in Singapore of Lady Kennedy's death, he immediately returned to Hongkong (November 5, 1874). Again, on 11th March, 1875, Sir Arthur left the Colony on furlough and returned on 2nd December, 1875. On both occasions the Government v^as administered during his absence by the Colonial Secretary, the Hon. J. Gardiner Austin. AVhen Sir Arthur was sworn in as Governor and Commander- in-chief, an error was made in the oath tendered to him by the Acting Chief Justice (H. J. Ball) and consequently he had to be sworn in again as to the part in which the wrong oath had before been administered. Major-C eneral Whitlield, who had administered the Government previous to Sir Arthur's arrival, remained in command of Her Majesty's Forces in China and the Straits until April 1874. A public address was presented to him, on his departure from the Colony, testifying to the respect in which he was held among the community, on account of the conscientiousness and the unassuming geniality he displayed in the discharge of his several offices. Sir A. Kennedy had hardly anything to do in the way of diplomatic negotiations with foreign Governments, but a great 478 CHAPTER XX. deal by waj of hospitable entertain meiifc of the representatives of i'oreit'-n Powers. The oiilv dii)lomatic note the Governor was called upon to write was a mild remonstrance addi'essed to the Governor of Macao when ^Ir. AV. H. Forbes' yacht had been iired upon (April 27, 1870) by Portuguese soldiers. The ^lacao Govern- ment forthwith tendered a sa'isfac^tory apology. Another Macao (Governor, Seidior C. C. da Silva, visited Hongkong (December 29, 187G) and received quite an ovation from the local Portuguese residents and the friendliest reception from the Governor. As regards the Imperial Government of China, Sir Arthur was indeed for many years occupied with an international diplo- matic question, in the shape of the Hongkong Customs Blockade, but he discussed it exclusively with the Colonial Office in Downing Street and not witli the Authorities at Peking. The Governor's communications with Chinese officials were therefore confined to visits h€ received from the Canton Hoppo, Tsun Kai (August 11, 1870) and from Kwoh Sung-tao (December 0, 1870), China's first Ambassador to London, and to tlie publication in the (Jovcrnment Gazette (May 24, 1872) of a Dispatch from the Tsungli Yameii at Peking to the Viceroy of Canton, requesting the latter to order the issue of proclamations calling upon the Chinese people to treat foreigners with politeness because it was necessary for China that the friendly relacions with foreigners should be firmly and closely knit. "When the Emperor of China, reigning under the style Tungchi, died of smallpox (January 12, 1875) and was succeeded by the infant Tsai Tien, placed under a regency formed by the two Empresses under the style Kwongsui (February 2;'), 1875), Sir Arthur took no official notice of either of these events, although H. M. ^Minister at Peking sent him telegraphic information on both occasions. The Chinese popu- lation of Hongkong likewise evinced no interest whatever in those events, although they consider themselves to be still subjects of the Empire of China, whilst enjoying in Hongkong all the essential privileges of British subjects. Among the representatives of foreign Powers to whom Sir Arthur had the honour of shewing hospitality on behalf of the THE ADMINISTRATION OF SIR A. K. KENNEDY. 470 Colony, there was the King: of C:i!nb)dja, who arrivefl (Jnly lO, 1872) in "the Frcncih Corvette Boarai/iie and was entertained by the Governor with royal honours. There was farther H.I.H. the Grand Dnke Ale.xis, third son of the Czar, who arrived (September 13, 1872) as an officer of the Russian Corvette Suetlcma. He held a levee on board (September IC, 1872), followed by a reception given in his honour, on the same evening, at Government House. After a visit to Japan, he returned to Hongkong (January 15, 1873) and attended various enter- tainments given in his lionoui', visiting also the race-conrse on ' every race day (20th to 22nd Februaiy, 1873). Finally there were two German Princes, Philip and Augustus of Sachse-Cobnrg Gotha, cousins of Her Majesty, who stayed at Government House for some days (21st to 25th December, 1872) en route to Shanghai. The constitution of the Colonial Government was amended during Sir Arthur's administrati'on by the issue of Tjetters Patent (Jnne 8, 1875) granting a Supplementary Charter, by which the administration of tlie Government, in the case of the Governor's death, incapacity or absence, was vested in tlie Lieutenant-Governor or Colonial Secretary for the time being. The same document enlai-ged also the Governor's power of granting pardons to criminals. Sir Arthur continued the work of his predecessors in perfecting the organisation of the 'various Departments of the Civil Service. In the Colonial Secretary's Department he amalgamated the office of Auditor General with that of Colonial . Secretary (December 10, 1872), a measure aoainst which the Hon. Ph. Ryrie made a protest in Legislative Council, but, as the motion was left unsupported, ic fell to the ground. Sir Arthur created also the post of Assistant Colon inl Secretary (February 10, 1875), appointing Mr. A. Lister to the post, but when the latter was soon after removed to another office, 5 this new post was not continued. The Supreme Court organi- : zation was modified during this period (Ordinance 12 of 1873). -A codeof €ivil procedure was established (Ordinance 13 of 1873) 480 CHAPTER XX. and the Summary Court was abolished by conferring upon tlie Supreme Court, under a Judge and Puisne Judge, a summary jurisdiction at law and in equity (Ordinance 14 of 1873). The effect of this reconstitution of the Hongkong Supreme Court was to assimilate it to that which had been established in Shanghai for British subjects in China and Japan under an Order in Council. The Registrar General's Department also underwent some changes. The establishment of a system of registering all births and deaths' (Ordinance 7 of 1872) necessitated the addition of a new registration branch, whilst by another measure (Ordinance 2 of 1876) the Registrar General was divested of the judicial functions he had hitherto exercised in connection with the working of the Contagious Diseases Ordinance. But the powers of the Registrar General to order persons to undergo periodical medical examinations and to be subsequently detained in hospital were still reserved to that officer. The Survey Department was not considered to work satisfactorily for some time previous to the resignation of Mr. L. H. Moorsom (October 5, 1872), provisionally succeeded by Lieutenant McHardy, R.E., who was succeeded (July 21, 1873) by Mr. J. M. Price, as Surveyor General. This Department was now enlarged by constituting the Public Gardens and Afforestation office as a Sub-Department (December 15, 1873) under the Surveyor General, assisted by that Advisory Committee (thence- forth known as the Public Gardens Committee) which had been appointed in January, 1872, and by the appointment of an Assistant Surveyor General (September 9, 1874) in the person of Mr. E. Bowdler. The office of the Head of the Survey Department, the principal spending branch of the Civil Service, was enhanced in importance by appointing the Surveyor General (by warrant of 17th February, 1877) a member of both the Legislative and Executive Councils. Li the Medical Department under Dr. R. W. McCoy (since May 30, 1872), succeeded, after his death, by Dr. G. Dods (April 10, 1873) and subsequently by Dr. Ph. Ayres (since November 4, 1873), there was at first some friction which culminated in the THE ADMINISTRATION OP SIR A. E. KENNEDY. 481 resignation (September G, 1872) of the Superintendent of the Civil Hospital. Dr. R. Young, whose place was temporarily taken by Dr. Scanlan and Dr. Drew and permanently (February 22, 1878) by Dr. C. J. Wharry. When the Hon. Ph. Ryri'e asked, according to previous notice, a question in Legislative Council concerning that resignation, the reasons for which had been stated in a pamphlet circulated by Dr. Young among his friends in the Colony, the question was ruled out of order on the ground that it was not within the functions of the Legislative Council to constitute itself a Court of Appeal. To' encourage and direct the study of the Chinese Language on the part of Government officers, Sir Arthur established (in 1872) a Board of Examiners, charged with the duty of examining Government officers drawing Chinese teachers' allowance, and issuing certificates of proficiency in Chinese Colloquial to- European or Indian police constables Sir Arthur connected also with this Board an office of Superintendent of Chinese Studies (A. Lister, succeeded by E. J. Eitel), but the names of the members of this Board (F. Stewart, E. J. Eitel, J. Russell, Wong Shing, A. Lister) were not published till four years after its establishment (March 17, 1870). At the suggestion of this Board, proper Chinese titles were fixed for all the various Government offices and buildings and published in Government Gazette (December 28, 1874), and the Regulations for Cadetships were also revised (September 3, 1872). Even questions of precedence and etiquette occupied the Governor's attention occasionally and it was formally decided that the Commodore on the Station should take precedence next after the Chief Justice (September 3, 1872), the Puisne Judge immediately after the Colonial Secretary (October 10, 1873), and that official Members of Council only are entitled to wear the civil uniform (April IG, 1873). The constitution of the Legislative Council was not modified by this administration, during which the unofiicial element in the Council was represented by the Hon. Ph. Ryrie, R. Rowett^ W. Keswick, H. Lowcock, J. Greig and J. Whittall, of whom, 3^ 482 CHAPTER XX. Jiowever, no more than three oflRciated at any one time. The Governor amended, however, the standing orders and rules for the guidance of the Council (July 2, 1873), which had not been revised since 12th July, 1858. An important rule was also made, in connection with a protest which the Hon. Ph. Ryrie had made (August 2C, 1873), complaining of the short time -allowed to Members of Council to consider the Estimates before •they were to be discussed in Council, when it was stated (April 16, 1874), that the Secretary of State had acknowledged that protest as reasonable. One of the features of this administration was the attention bestowed on le2:islative measures. Among the many new Or- •dinances passed during this period, the following deserve special mention, as dealing with Relief for Trustees (7 of 1873), Dangerous Goods (8 of 1873), Emigration (5 of 1874 and 5 •of 187()), Steam Launches (8 of 1875), Rates (12 of 1875), Magistrates (IG of 1875), Contagious Diseases (2 of 187G), Gambling (1) of 187G), Post Office (10 of 187G) and River- Steamers (11 of 187G). But whilst thus multiplying legislative •enactments. Sir Arthur aimed also at reducing the chaos of local Ordinances by several efforts at consolidation and especially by the appointment of a Commission (September 11, 1876) for the purpose of preparing a ncAv edition of the Ordinances of Hongkong. In this quiet legislative activity the unofficial Members of Council, though generally in a minority, took an active share. In June 1873, the Chief Justice, Mr. (subsequently, since March 27, 1874, Sir) John Smale, having appointed the Judge of the Summary Court, who was in feeble health, to try some criminal biases, the unofficial Members of Council, together with other leading residents and lawyers, addressed to the Governor a request that the i30wcr of appointing persons to preside at the Supreme •Court should be taken out of the hands of the Chief Justice and placed in the hands of the Governor. This was accordingly done in connection with the reconstitution of the Supreme Court, which was then under consideration. On 19th August, 1873, THE ADMINISTRATION OF SIR A. E. KENNEDY. 48^ 'the Hon. R. Rowefcfc, supporfced by the Hon. Ph. Rjrie, and by a letter (August 7, 1873) signed by various merchants and ■bankers, moved, that for the convenience and in the interest of the public, it was desirable that all Barristers at Law, admitted to practise as Advocates of the Supreme Court in this Colony, should 'be permitted to take business from clients personally without 'the intervention of attornies in all cases except those in which ilitigation has actually commenced in the Supreme Court. The Attorney General, however, supported by the Hon. J. Whittall and all the official Members of Council, objected to this revival •of the old amalgamation question. Accordingly a compromise was resorted to in the shape of Ordinance 15 of 1873 (confirmed January 31, 1874), which slightly modified the existing practice but did not go far enough to satisfy the community. In November 1873, the Coroner took to selecting three out of five jurors instead of leaving the selection to be decided by ballot. This measure caused the burden of Coroner's juries to fall 0!i tije more inteHigent portion of them. The unofficial Members of ■Council took the matter up and in consequence of their represen- itations (made privately) the ballot was thenceforth resorted to, but doubts were freely and generally expressed as to the utility of <]oroner's juries altogether. There is yet another case on record .in which the influence of unofficial Members of Council mani- ifested itself. On 22nd April, 1870, a Bill, to allow the China Traders' Insurance Company to subdivide its shares, was under the discussion of the Council. The three unofficial Members >(Ryrie, Keswick and Lowcock) strongly objected to the principle of the Bill. But the Bill was passed and all they could do -was to lodge a formal protest against the confirmation of this •Ordinance (4 of 187G). The result was that the Secretary of State disallowed the Ordinance (July 25, 187G) on the ground that it would be better that any measure dealing with the -question of subdivision of shares should have a general application. As the Secretary of State, however, approved of tbe general ^principle of the Ordinance which he disallowed, the Legislative •Council (September 21, 187C) substituted for it an amendment j^^ CHAPTER XX. of the Companies' Ord'inance of 18G5 by introducing into it the principle of allowing subdivision of shares. But now the Chief Justice joined with the unofficial Membei-s in their opposition to- the Bill, and it was accordingly withdrawn by the Government. Among the cases tried in Court, during the jDcriod under review, there are a few which call for record. On 4th April,. 1872, the French mail-steamer Ava, having collided with the British S.S. Rona, was detained under a w^arrant, issued by the Registrar of the Vice-Admiralty Court, and executed by an armed detachment of police. The French Consul forthwith protested asfaiust the arrest, which he declared to be a violation of the- Postal Treaty concluded between Great Britain and France. The matter was brought before the Acting Chief Justice Ball,, who heard the case at his own residence at 9 o'clock at nighb and ordered the warrant to be cancelled. The following year, when the same ship was sued for damages caused by collision, the Admiralty Court (February, 1873) decided ithat the ship was not amenable to the jurisdiction of the Court, because she had the status of a man-of-war. Previous to this case, the local Agents of the French mail-steamers had always waived their privileges as mail-steamers under such circumstances. Iq October, 1872, the Judge of the Summary Court refused to allow the managing Clerks of Solicitors to plead, although it had been the practice of the Court for over six years, and refused to give leave to appeal. Application was made to the Supreme Court, when the Acting Chief Justice, the Hon. (subsequently Sir) Julian Pauncefote, who had lately been appointed to the post by order of the Secretary of State (October 7, 1872), refused bo grant a formal judgment but expressed an opinion adverse to the ruling of the Court below. About the same time the^ French Consul (October, 1872) charged the Superintendent of Sailors' Home, in the Police Court, with harbouring deserters. The case was dismissed by the Magistrate, but it called attention bo the fact that the Government claims a right to prohibit the commanders of foreign vessels, whilst in Hongkong waters, from putting men in irons for breaches of ship's discipline. THE ADMINISTRATION OP SIR A. E. KENNEDY. 485 In November, 1874, the question was raised, in connection with the finding of the Marine Court in the case of the 8.S. White Cloud, lost in the typhoon of 1874- by negUgence of the Master, whether the Governor has power to alter or add to the finding of the Marine Court of Inquiry. No decision was however obtained to solve the question. Turning now to the subject of the local population, it appears that, during the first year of Sir Arthur's administration, there was a slight falling off, as the population of Hongkong decreased, from 124,198 people in 1871, to 121,985 people in 1872. During the next four years, however, the population increased by 17,159 people, as the Census of 187G„ proved the population to amount to 139,144 souls. It is noteworthy that the foreign population received proportionately the greatest increase, as, after the typhoon of 1874, which destroyed so many houses at Macao, hundreds of Portuguese families removed from Macao to Hongkong. The I'evenues of the Colony did not advance during this period. The revenue of 1872 rose indeed to £192,714, constitu- ting an increase of £10,752 as compared with the revenue of the preceding year, but during the following years it fell off again -:aud amounted in 1870 to no more than £184,405. Nor did the expenditure vary much from year to year, that of 1871 being £180,075, while that of 1870 amounted to £187,509. In facL a small deficit in any one year was succeeded during this administration by a small surplus in the next year. The same sluggishness is observed in the annual produce of the stamp tax and of rates, the former decreasing from £24,574 in 1872 to £21,034 in 1870, and the latter increasing from £38,002 in 1872, ito no more than £38,439 in 1870. Special pains were taken by Sir Arthur to stimulate the revenue from opiujn. He appointed (June 8, 1872) a Commission (Ph. Ryrie and Ch. May) to inquire into the working of the opium monopoly, because there was very good reason to suppose that the amount received from Kthis farm was far short of what it ou^t to have realized. The ^Commissionei-s, however, failed to ascertain the real value of the 486 • CHAPTER XX. monopoly, as they could nob obtain satisfactory information ; bub they recommended (Xovember 9, 1872), that the farm should thenceforth be let by public auction for three years at a time.. This was done, but, owing to combinations among the competitors, for the farm, the opium revenue, which stood at £25,500 in 1872^ increased but slightly, as it amounted in 187G to £27,708. The- same standstill occurred in the yield of the land leases, which reahzed £24,602 in 1872 and £24,512 in 1876. Land sales^ were frequent during this period, and the value of land gradually increased in the central districts, especially since 1876. But while the value of land was steadily rising in the most populous parts of the town, most suburban lots, and especially those in* the neighbourhood of Eastpoint, had become so reduced in value that many lease-holders could not afford to pay the crown rents, and consequently wholesale re-entries by the Crown took place from time to time. Land at Kowloon began to rise steadily into importance since 1874, and by the year 1876 great plans were entertained for creating a new town, with public park, churches and schools, at Tsimshatsui. The limitation of Kowloon, garden leaseholds to 14 years (August 9, 1873), and of the com- pensation for lots built upon and then resumed, before expiry of the lease, for public purposes, at ^1,000 per lot, caused much dissatisfaction among the holders of Kowloon garden lots. As to marine lots, a special Commission (Ch. May, E. Sharp, M. S. Tonnochy) was ap^winted (November 1, 1873) to investigate the title of all claimants to foreshore reclamations and to define the boundaries. Eighteen* months later another Commission (J. Bramston, Ch. May, Ph. Ryrie, H. Lowcock, J. M. Price) was appointed (May 3J, 1875) to inquire into complaints made that crown rents on lands, situated in the less populous parts of the Colony, were out of proportion to the real value of such lands, and to investigate the scale of rents properly chargeable. The report of this Commission (published November 27, 1875) stated that at "Wantsai and Bowriugton the tenants of the Crown were- suffering from a general depreciation of property, that from 1865 ■to 1875 rents had fallen there 40 or 50 per cent., that this THE ADMIXISTRATIOX OF Sill A. K. KKNNKDV. 487 depreciation was caused by tlie withdrawal of business houses from the ^ast, and by their concentration in tlie central and western parts of the town, and by the silcinoj up of the harbour to the eastward. But, owing to the great and constant fluctua- tion of Colonial values, the Commissioners did not see their way to recommend any general remission of rents either there or in the case of numerous speculative purchases of land made on Robinson Road and other high levels. With the exception of the completion of the works con- nected Avith the Pokfulam reservoir and dam ^.commenced in 1871), the new Harbour Master's Office (1872) and the new Civil Hospital (commenced in 1874), no public works of any magnitude were undertaken during this administration. Sir Arthur had under consideration two great projects, the Taitam Reservoir and the re-construction of the Prava, both of which he left to his successors to undertake. On 1st November l87o, the Surveyor General (J. M. Price) proposed to secure, at the- cost of £300,000, an efficient supply of water (18 to 30 gallons per head) to be brought into the city by an acpieduct (with a tunnel) from a large reservoir to be constructed at Taitam. As objections were raised to the costliness of tliis plan, a reduced scheme was proposed (March 4, 1874) to supply daily 15 gallons per head at a cost of £280,000. This reduced plan was con- sidered in Legislative Council (March 5, 1874), when a sum of §5,000 was voted to make a detaile<:l survey and borings which were entrusted to Mr. AV. Danby. On the basis of this survey* Mr. Price proposed a new plan (July 10. 1875), consisting of an alternative scheme, viz. a high level project to cost £39,085, and a low level project at an estimated cost of £122,590. But nothing further was done in this matter for the present. Another great undertaking, the proposal to substitute a new and more durable Praya wall for the one destroyed by the typhoon of 1874, was reported upon (May 20, 1875) by a Commission (C. C. Smith, Ch. May, Ph. Ryrie, H. Lowcock, J. M. Price), which recommended that the Government should, at an outlay of ^212,000, build a new and stronger wall from White's Lane ' 488 CHAPTEll XX. (near Fire Brigade Stafcion) fco Murray Pier, repair the old wait from the Gasworks to White's Lane and from th€ Arsenal to East Point, but increase the width of the Praya all along. This work was also left to the next administration to consider. But the minor typhoon repairs were executed in 1874 and 1875 at n total cost of £15,(525. As re^rards crime, the annual Police Reports of this period give proof positive that from 1872 down to 1875 (inclusive) there was a steady annual decrease in crime, and especially as resfards burglaries and piracies. It is specially pointed out that, since the cessation of coolie emigration from Macao (1874), •even kidnapping diminished sensibly. But in the year 187G crime ciommenced again to increase slightly, and piracies began to multiply. A change in the kiw was suggested so as to bring marine hawkers under it, and the transfer, from the Registrar •Oeneml's office to the Police Department, of the licensing of hawkers and chair-coolies, was also suggested. At the criminal session of 18th January, 1877, the Chief Justice was presented with a pair of white gloves, emblem of a session, the first since 1866, free from crime. On this occasion the Chief Justice stated that during the past ten years crime had wonderfully , 1878), the closing of the Pier and Godown Company (September 17, 1873), the failure of Augustine Heard & Co. (April, 1875), the winding up of the Victoria Fire Insurance Company (May 25, 1875), form the most conspicuous milestones of the pei-iod of commercial decline which commenced in 1872, but reigned particularly from 1873 to 1875. The annual amounts of liabilities set forth in Bankrupts' Schedules filed in Supreme Court tell the same tale, for in the successive years from 1873 to 187G these amounts were respectively as follows, in 1873 $108,390, in 1874 $121,707, in 1875 $1,990,31)1, and in 1870 $75,070. The only puzzle is that in 1872 the respective amount was |1 10,743, which would indicate that the depression had already commenced ia 1872. Proceeding now to mention particular questions which agitated commercial circles during the period under review,, precedence is claimed by the brokers who came largely to the- 4:92 CHAPTER XX. front all throiigli tbc year 1872. Tbe system of doing bnsiness- tbrongh foreign brokers bad for many years quietly made its way, cutting out tbe Cbinese compradors wbo formerly were tbe only medium of settling transactions between foreign bouses and native buyers. Yet, even in 1872, tbere were still influential foreign merchants in Hongkong who saw no need for European brokers except for bullion and exchange operations, and wbo stubbornly adhered to the comprador system. In January, 1872, -it was publicly urged that the system of foreign brokers, having now obtained a recognized footing, should be subjected to Government control, or that the brokers should themselves establish an exchange and frame their own regulations. As nothing was done in the matter, the Chamber of Commerce (April 25, 1872) fixed a scale of brokerage charges, but the brokers, not having been consulted, defiantly resolved to adhere *to their former rates. At last a Bill was framed, which met the views of the leading foreign brokers, and it was read a first time in Legislative Council (July 9, 1872). The Bill was then referred to a Select Committee (Th. C. Hay liar, H. Lowcock, -J. Greig), published in Government Gazette (July 18, 1872), and tbe hrokei*s received an invitation to communicate their views to the Committee. This Bill proposed to enact a rule that no person should act as a broker without having obtained -a Hcence ; that licences, subject to an annual fee, be granted by the Governor in Council: that brokers, in taking out a licence, rshould file a declaration not to trade, buy or sell, on their own account, and that any one committing a fraud or acting in con- travention of that declaration, should be disqualified acting as broker. Whilst the Bill was under tbe consideration of the •Committee, tlie brokers held a meeting (August, 1872), condemned 'the Government measure, resolved to incorporate themselves as a Brokers' Association, and appointed a Committee to frame by-laws. W-ben the Bill came up in Council for its second reading, the Select (committee reported tlmt there was a difficulty in applying the Ordinance to Chinese brokers (who in most of ■their tra-nsactions arc both principals and- parfcrrcrs), that the THE ADMINISTRATION OP SIR A. E. KENNEDY. 49t'^ Oi-dinanee was favourably regained by a majority of bill and bullion brokers, but that the proposed Ordinance would not affect €xchange brokere in any way, and that therefore the object of the Government would be. better fulfilled by means of an Association invested with certain powers of regulation over its members. Legislation was accordingly postponed, in order to* give the brokei*s time and opportunity to form such an Association, and the Bill was withdraw-n. This was virtually the end of the- Avhole movement, for the proposed Association was not formed,. and although a spasmodic effort was made a year later (December 18, 1873), to start an open stock exchange, where shares were to be sold by public auction, the attempt was a conspicuous failure. Another set of questions, which troubled the mind of the commercial community off and on, from 1872 down to 187(5, was connected with the systematic adulteration of grey shirtings in England and of tea leaves in China and in England. What, in the history of British manufactures, is known as the sizing question, troubled the minds of Hongkong merchants, particularly since 1872, under the name of the mildew question, sizing and mildew being related as cause and effect. During the American War, the British manufacturers of cotton goods had to use bad and short-fibred cotton, w^hicli required proportionately more sizing with flour and tallow. But when the Russian War raised the price of tallow, the practice arose of substituting, for tallow, the cheaper China clay which increased the weight of the fabrics considerably. Now to counteract the destructive effects of the clay on the fibre of the cotton stuffs, it became necessary to use certain dehquescent salts which, while invisible in the fabrics before shipment in England, developed mildew whilst in the hold of steamers in transit through the Suez Canal. But what irritated Honorkono^ merchants in the matter was further this, that, whilst they looked upon this system of sizing, as a fraud practiced by the manufacturers, the advocates of the latter repre- sented sizing as a practice resorted to by order of British merchauta in China, who asked for cheap and inferior goods, necessarily 494 CHAPTER XX. requiring more sizing than superior qualities. The use of steam in the manufacture of the yarns and the imperfect ventilation of steamers' holds and of godowns in China were also named as subordinate causes of mildew. Mr. (subsequently Sir) John Pender, of Manchester, recommended (October 30, 1872) a formal investigation and a Committee, representing both China merchants and Manchester manufacturers, was appointed to inquire into the matter with a view to remove all cause of complaint. The problem was, however, too complicated to admit of a ready solution. Strange to say, it was also found (February, 1873) that goods which, on arrival in Hongkong, were found, by official inspection, to be badly mildewed, condemned and returned to England, were, on arrival there, when inspected by official surveyors, found perfectly free of mildew. The mildew^ had ■evidently been developed by the tropical temperature and re- absorbed on return to a temperate climate. On 27th January, 1873, the Hongkong Chamber of Commerce resolved to co-operate with the Shanghai Chamber in making representations to Mr. Pender's Committee, both Chambers being convinced that the remedy must be found at Manchester. No tangible solution of the difficulty was, however, found and it appeared to all concerned, that the evil had to be left to work its own cure. Oversizing and dressing was continued by Lancashire manufacturers with little abatement, and in consequence Hongkong merchants en- <30uutered occasionally losses which kept up the irritation, whilst Chinese buyers began to take up Indian cotton goods in place of the Manchester fabrics. The same process went on in the tea trade, especially since 187-4, when the import duties on tea were reduced in England by about one half, and when increased exports from China were accompanied by increasing complaints of the admixture of strange leaves and other materials and an undue proportion of tea dust. It was the mildew question over again, only in another form. The complaints were the same and the evidence equally conflicting, the blame being laid by one party upon the other, by the consumers in England on the retail •dealers, by the retail dealers on the merchants, and by the THE ADMINISTR^VTIOX OF SIR A. E. KENNEDY. 495 merchants on the Chinese packers who in turn blamed all the others. But the results of this practice of adulterating tea were curiously like the consequences of oversizing. As the ikildew in Manchester goods caused the Chinese buyers to take up with Indian fabrics, so the systematic adulteration of Chinese tea leaves induced the English consumer to give the preference to Indian teas. India reaped the advantage in both cases. Two minor questions were much discussed during the year 1873, viz. different forms of bills of lading and ocean racing. On 27tli January, 1873, the Chamber of Commerce adopted the homeward bill of lading known as Xo. 4, drawn up, after much public discussion, by a Committee of London merchants, and resolved that shippers should, whenever practicable, give preference to steamers agreeing to make .use of this form. Subsequently, however, much discussion and dissension arose in the Colony as to the comparative position of shippers under the so-called eastern bill of lading and that of Holt's line of steamei*s which at the time (April, 1873) commenced running on the Yangtsze also. Another subject, connected with rates of freight rather than bills of lading, but equally the subject of public tittention in 1872 and 1873, was the practice of ocean racing, frequently indulged in between fast tea steamers. The loss of ■the S.S. Drummond Castle (May 31, 1873) having been attributed to this previously rather popular practice, the Hongkong Insurance Company addressed (July, 1873) a letter to Lloyds, pointing out the tendency which the system of graduating rates of freight, in proportion to the speed of the vessel, had towards encouraging ocean racing at dangerous speed, and thus needlessly adding to the risks of -the underwritei-s. In consequence of this action, the P. & 0. Company gave up the system of a differential scale of rates for freight, in order to avoid even the appearance of encouraging the practice of preferring speed to safety. The currency question engaged the attention of the mercantile community and of the Government frequently during this period. The dollar had practically been the unit of value for the European community from the earliest days of the Colony and 496 CHAPTER XX. the Mexican dollar had been made (January 9, 18G9) a legal tender. But, side by side with the dollar, the local Chinese eommunity had all along employed the national Chinese tael standard (0.717 taels' weight of sycee silver being counted equal to one dollar), and European merchants, in dealing with Chinese in Hongkong or with any merchants in the open ports of China, had likewise to use the tael standard, side by side with the dollar standard in which they kept their own accounts. The Chinese, having no faith in foreign dollars, bored and cut them for purposes of testing and stamped or, as it is locally called, chopped them for purposes of identification. Every dollar became thus after a short time terribly defaced and mutilated or, as it was called, a chopped or chop dollar. Moroever, as the Chinese looked upon every coin, even when known to be genuine, only as so much sycee silver, they took dollars, clean or chopped,, only by weight, broke chopped dollars into pieces, and used broken particles of dollars in place of small coins. Chop dollars, in different stages of laceration, and broken pieces of silver,, weighed out from hand to hand and re-assayed (shroffed) by experts in every transaction, were thus the medium of business. Undefaced dollars, fancied for special purposes, were always at a premium. For small transactions, the Chinese used their national copper cash, but these cash had likewise a fluctuating value and the proportion of clean and defaced, whole and broken cash, intermixed in every hundred, also affected the value of every string of cash. At the beginning of this period there was thus, apart from banknotes, virtually no fixed money cuiTcncy in the Colony, and it is one of the merits of his administration that it partially remedied this defect. The annual circulation of local banknotes (from five dollars upwards) averaged, from 18G4 down to 1872, about two and a half million dollars. But although these notes were popular among the Chinese, the experience of the past had shewn that the Chinese mercantile community are liable to sudden panics. For twelve months after the collapse of the Agra mid Commercial Banks, which was followed by a run upon the Oriental and THE ADMIXISTRATION OF SIR A. K. KENNEDY. 497 (Jharterecl Banks, the circulation of banknotes in Honjrkonsr averaged only one and a bait" million dollars. Now in June 1872, tbc Hongkong and Sbangbai Bank obtained the CJovernor's permission to issue one dollar notes and thus to supply a much felt want. The Bank accordingly issued (October, 1872) such notes, of which there were, twelve months later, about |1 75,000 in circulation. This raised the total of banknotes in circulation in 1878 to three and one fourth million dollars, and in 1874 the circulation of banknotes reached three and a half millions. But in December, 1873, the Governor received an intimation that the Lords Commissioners of Her Majesty's Treasury disapproved of the issue of one dollar notes on the ground that these notes would be largely in the hands of the poorest Chinese who might be even more subject to panics than the mercantile- classes. The Governor was instructed to order the withdrawal of these notes unless serious public inconvenience should I'esult from such a course. When the Governor accordingly called upon the Bank (February, 1874) to show cause why the one dollar notes should not be called in, the \vliole communitv took up the matter and a numerously signed Memorial, supported by a special resolution of the Chamber of Commerce, was forwarded to H.M. Government (March, 1874) in favour of" the retention of these one dollar notes. There were, at the beginning of this period, three new silver dollars competing for public favour, viz., a new Mexican dollar, the American trade dollar and a Japanese dollar (yen). The Chinese shroffs and traders of Hongkong and Carjton havings formed a combination, with a view to reject the new Mexican dollar, the Viceroy of Canton had it assayed (March 13, 1872) and issued (November 30, 1872) a proclamation which was. published in the Hongkong Government Gazette (December 7^ 1872). It was thus officially announced, that the new Mexican dollar consisted of 9 parts pure silver and 1 ptirt alloy; that to pay 100 taels' weight of pure sycee, it would be necessary to pay 111*11 in new Mexican dollars; that 100 new Mexican dollai*s are equal to 101*41 old Mexican dollai-s, the new Mexican dollar 3^ CHAPTElt XX. l)eiiig, within a fraction of 1.5 per cent., better than the old. Next vear the Chinese Government likewise had the American trade dollar assayed (September 27, 1873), when it was found to •{ionsist of 8,'JGl parts of pure silver and 1,039 alloy, and it was stated that to pay 100 taels' weight of pure sycee, it would be necessary to pay 11 TO taels' weight of American trade dollars, and that 100 American trade dollars are w^orth 100*07 new Mexican dollars or 101*48 old Mexican dollars, .the American trade dollar being, within a fraction of 15 per cent., better than the old Mexican dollar. In consequence of the publication of these assays, the new Mexican dollar jmssed into favour with the Chinese of Hongkong. The foreign mercantile community, though practically accepting the new Mexican dollar, was anxious to obtain an English ^lollar which should be guarded, by special prohibition, against defacement by stamping. At a meeting of the Chamber of (Jommerce (January IG, 1874) a strong feeling was manifested in favour of doing away with chopjxjd dollars altogether. A , and found to be visible at a distance of 21 nantical miles. The position of the lighthouse was calculated to be in 22° 12' 14" Lat. N. and 114° 15' 44" Long. E. The lighthouse erected (July 1, 1875) on Green Island was furnished with a fixed dioptric red light of the fourth order, visible at a distance of 14 miles.. The third lighthouse, that on Cape Collinson (between Cape D'Aguilar and the Lyeemoon), was completed eight months later (March 1, 1876). It was supplied with a fixed dioptric apparatus of the sixth order, shewing a white light visible at a distance of 8 miles. Light dues were forthwith (March 30, 1875) levied on every ship, entering the waters of the Colony, at the rate of one cent per ton ; men-of-war, Chinese junks, and river-steamers entering the harbour in daytime only, were exempt, and river- steamers entering by night had (since September 1, 1875) to pay only one third of a cent per ton. It appears that, previous to Sir Arthurs arrival, the British Cabinet addressed some remonstrance to the Lisbon Government with reference to the undeniable horrors of the Macao coolie trade, whereupon the Portuguese Government replied, that the coolie emigration referred to, whether slave trade or not, flourished as much in Hongkong as in Macao. This was rather a home thrust. But whilst one unofficial Member of Council (J. Whittall) denied this insinuation and stated in Council (February 11, 1873) that English merchants in Hongkong had no interest in the Macao coolie trade, another unofficial Member (R. Rowett) subsequently alleged that London commercial houses and banks of the highest standing, as well as certain men and firms in Hongkong, had derived large profits from. « THE ADMINISTRATION OF Sill A. E. KENNEDY. 501 the Macao coolie trade. The Chief Justice (J. Smale), now itook occasion to announce from the Bench (April, 1873), that he held the coolie trade to be a slave trade, and that any one in Hongkong taking part in it, either directly or indirectly, would be liable to be punished for felony under the Imperial Act for the suppression of slavery. The result of all this agitation was that, with special reference to the fact that two Spanish ships (the Buena Ventura and Yrurac Bat) had been fitted up in Hongkong before proceeding to ^lacao to load coolies, an Emigrant-ship Fittings Ordinance (3 of 1873) was passed (April 24, 1873) and came into force a few months later (August 2, 1873). The effect of this Ordinance was to prevent any person in the Colony in any way supplying stores or fittings to vessels in the harbour destined to carry emigrants from any place outside of Hongkong. Not content with this Ordinance, the Governor brought before the Council (April 17, 1873), with special reference to the ship Fatclioij, which had taken emigrants to Cuba, another Bill for the repression of abuses in relation to Chinese Emigration. Messrs. Ph. Ryrie and J. Whittall strongly opposed this Bill (April 28, 1873), on the ground that the Fittings Ordinance was perfectly sufficient to rectify and prevent all abuses connected with coolie emigration, and that the present Bill was too sweeping. The protest of the .two unofficial Members having been disregarded, they absented themselves from the meetings of Council until the Bill, after >niany alterations and additions, had passed as Ordinance 5 of 1873. When the Macao coolie trade had been entirely closed (March 27, 1874), both Ordinances were repealed (September 7, 1874) by the consolidated Emigration Ordinance (5 of 1874). This Ordinance, once more, placed the issue of warrants in connection with emigrant ships exclusively in the hands of the Governor, who was instructed to allow contract emigration only :to countries where a British Magistrate could control the •enforcement of the contracts. To stop abuses connected with emigration, the Committee of the Tungwa Hospital applied for and received permission from the Governor to employ special 502^ CHAPTER XX. detectives to discover kidnappers, and in May, 187o, whilst the Macao coolie trade was still going on, these detectives brought almost every day some two or three cases into Court. Two years later a deputation of Chinese merchants agreed (August 9, 1875) with the U.S. Consul, D. H. Bailey, to form a Committee to assist him in ascertaining the moral character of women' wishing to emigrate to America, with a view to stop the manifest abuses connected with voluntary emigration from Hongkong to San Francisco. The Dutch Government at Batavia also made an attempt to start Chinese emigration, under Dutch official management, from Hongkong to Acheen (August 20,. 1875), but the Governor refused to sign a warrant or to sanction such emigration, although it was eventually proposed to do away with contracts altogether. In the old question of the Customs Blockade of Hongkong,, the mercantile community had a fertile source of constant irri- tation. A report of the Chamber of Commerce, published (April 30, 1872) within a fortnight after Sir A. Kennedy's arrival, stated that a Memorial to the Secretary of State, in course of preparation, had not yet been completed, because the Chinese were afraid to give evidence, but that a system of espionage within and a blockade outside the Colony existed. The Chamber also expressed a hope that Sir A. Kennedy would institute a strict inquiry with a view to prevent Chinese in the Government Service from rendering assistance to the Chinese Blockade officers.. It was an open secret at the time that these remarks j^ointed again at the Registrar General's Office, a Chinese clerk of which resigned soon after (June, 1872). What gave the blockade question sj^ecial importance in the eyes of Hongkong merchants, was the general behef that Sir R. Hart encouraged the Chinese to believe that eventually the English Government might be brought to consent to the surrender of all ex-territoriality rights over Hongkong and to include the Colony in the list of Chinese Treaty ports. Sir Arthur was very slow in taking up this grievance of Hongkong merchants, but at last (December 15, 1873) he appointed a Commission (Ph. Ryrie, H. G. Thomsett, M. S. THE ADMINISTRATION OF SIR A. K. KKNNEPV. 503 Tonnochy) to inquire into abuses connected witli ilie action of the Chinese Maritime Customs in the ueishbourhood of Honcr- kong. Whilst this Commission was sitting, the Harbour Master (H. G. Thomsett) stated, in his official report for tlie year 1873, that the junk trade of Hongkong had diminished in consequence of the interference of Chinese cruisers. Moreover the latter, seizing a junk bound for Hongkong, the Kamhnpsing, in the Lyeemoon pass (January 19, 1874), aptly ilhistrated the truth of the Harbour Master's statement. Tlie report of the Commission (April 28, 1874) entirely confirmed the vie\Ys of the community, but the Governor refused to publish it until the decision of the Secretary of State on the report was received (May 10, 1875). Meanwhile a fresh outrage occurred. A Chinese revenue junk was arrested near Cape D'Aguilar (May, 1874) in the act of firing into some fishing boats in British waters. The crew of the junk were tried in the Supreme Court on a charge of piracy, but the Viceroy of Canton wrote to the Governor claiming the vessel as a Government cruiser, acknowledging that she had no right to fire in British waters and promising to punish the men. Thereupon the Attorney General was ordered by the Governor to enter a nolle 2^^'o^equi. The men were accordingly discharged to the great regret of the Chief Justice and the whole community. The Chinese community also presented (June 24, 1874) a petition to the Queen, and this petition was followed up by a decision of the Chamber of Commerce (August 3, 1874) to memorializ.e the Secretary of State, and by a public meeting (September 14, 1874) which condemned the blockade as an organized invasion of the freedom and sanctuary of the port and harbour of Hongkong. In reply to a Memorial agreed to at this meeting, Lord Carnarvon, in a dispatch published 11th May, 1875, admitted tliat abuses and excesses had occurred in con- nection with the action of the Chinese revenue cruisers, but pleaded that the exercise of the right of search, in close proximity to Hongkong, for the purpose of defeating attempts on the part of Chinese subjects to defraud the revenue of their country, did not affect the freedom of the port, and afforded no valid ground 504 CHAPTER XX. for diplomatic remonstrance. As a remedy of the existing state of thintrs, Lord Carnarvon revived (March 22, 1875) the old susrirestion of Sir R. Alcock, to entrust to a Chinese Consul in Hongkong the privilege of collecting from junkmasters the receipts for export duty levied in China and issuing to them in the Colony similar receipts for duty payable on account of importation into China. Lord Carnarvon's reply caused much discontent in Hongkong, as the position taken by him was honestly believed by Hongkong merchants to impair British prestige in China. Considerable excitement was caused soon after by the news that the British steamer CarisbrooJc had been fired into (June 13, 1875) when, crowded with Chinese passengers and (^ptured by the Chinese Customs cruiser Pengchaulioi (officered by Englishmen in the Hoppo's pay) for landing passengers at Hainan when that island was not yet opened to foreign trade. Great rejoicing, however, took place in Hongkong, when a dispatch from Mr. Herbert, the Under-Secretary of State, was read in Council (January 7j 1876) announcing that Lord Carnarvon had formally renounced the views of Sir Brooke Robertson and come round to see that the community of Hongkong really had a grievance and were entitled to protection and relief. Sir Arthur now at last took up the matter and recommended three proposals, intended to solve the knotty ])roblem, viz. (1) that all Chinese revenue cruisers should be prohiljited interfering with Hongkong junks with the exception of those of the Hoppo ; (2) that a definite Chinese tariff of import and export duties, applicable to Hongkong junks, and fixed regulations for the Hoppo's dealings with Hongkong junk- masters l)e published and adhered to ; (3) that a joint Board should be appointed to investigate all complaints of illegal seizure. The Chamber of Commerce endorsed these proposals (February 3, 187G) and addressed Lord Carnarvon accordingly (February 10, 187()). The matter now passed into the hands of the Foreign Office and became the subject of negotiations between H.M. Minister at Peking (Sir Thomas Wade) and the Tsungli Yameu. The latter, of course, denounced the first and second THE ADMIXISTRATIOX OF SIR A. K. KENNEDY. 505 of Sir Ai'thiir's proposals as utterly impracticable, but adopted a shadow of the third by including in the Chefoo Convention (September 17, 187G) a stipulation providino- that a Mixed Commission, consistino; of a British Consul, a Hongkong Officer and a Chinese Official, should ari-ange a set of regulations •calculated to benefit the revenue collection of China without interfering with the commercial interests of Hongkong. AVhen it was rumoured later on, that Sir Brooke Robertson was to be appointed a Member of the proposed Commission, the Chamber of Commerce at once passed a unanimous resolution (February 12, 1877), protesting against such a measure as -^lefeating the ends of justice and common fairness. Besides harassing the junk masters and subjecting the local junk trade to severe exactions, the Customs Blockade caused a portion of the Chinese trade, formerly confined to junks, to be conducted bv means of foreign-owned steamers and sailing vessels. The Hoppo at Canton, whose revenues accrue ex- clusively from the junk trade, found his monopoly seriously impaired by the preference which Chinese merchants now gave to the employment of foreign vessels. Accordingly he did everything in his power to counteract this movement and sought even to draw away from foreign steamers goods which for years l)ast had always been conveyed by them. It was discovered (July, 1874), that the Hoppo had for some time charged attracted mnch attention. The amount of property destroyed in Honokung within those six terrible hours was estimated at five million dollars. A fire that broke out while the typhoon was at its height was actually put out by the force of the wind. Her Majesty sent (November 18, 1874) a message expressing her 'sincere regret for the suffering which this sad calamity -occasioned.' The brothei*s Tauffer, who had specially distin- guished themselves by daring and successful efforts to save lives, were presented (January 7, 1876), at the hands of the Governoi-, with a testimonial by the Royal Humane Society. 15ut very little was done to utilize the lessons taught by this typhoon. Meanwhile another typhoon swept over the Colony (May 31. lH7r>). It did little damage, however, though Macao and Canton suffered severely, as evidenced by the wreck of the rivei-- steamer Poyany^ on her way from Canton to Macao, when some 100 lives were lost; A Humane Society was now formed in Hongkong (July 20, 1875) for the special pur{X)se of preventing the frequent loss of life in tlie harbour and particularly to give assistance during cyphoons. This Society, under the presidency of the Hon. Ph. Ryrie, entered upon its labours with great enthusiasm, officers were appointed and stations fixed, funds weixj raised and left, after the purchase of the needful apparatus, a large sum in hand (June G, 1876). A life-boat was talked of, additional funds were voted by Legislative Council (December 11, 1876), and after that the whole scheme was allowed to drop. The social life of the ixiriml under review is notable for two sensational incidents. In March, 1872, Mr. D. Welsh, a highly talented and respected English merchant, head of the firm MacGregor & Co., having freely commented, in a local paper, on the public conduct of the Acting Chief Justice Ball, was sentenced, without the option of a fine, to fourteen days' confinement for contempt of Court. The whole foreign com- munity, filled with indignation, petitioned the Governor to remit 4ihe sentence. The Acting Chief Justice, having thereupon 516 CHAITER XX. suggested that the petition to the Governor should first be- withdrawn and an appHcation for clemency made to the Court by prisoner's Counsel, released Mr. Welsh as soon as these conditions were complied with. To mark its sense of the proceedings, the Chamber of Commerce, at its next meeting, elected Mr. Welsh as Member of the Chamber. Another sensational event of the same year was a duel fought with pistols- (July 2i>, 1872), on Kowloon Peninsula, on account of some- card debt dispute between the Consuls for Spain and Peru,, the latter being wounded in the arm. Warmnts for the arrest of every person present at the affair were issued, but bail was- allowed. The two duellists were tried in Supreme Court (August 25, 1872) and, having pleaded guilty, were fined each in the sum of |200. Quite a luimber of new institutions brightened social life in the Colony during this period, the year 1872 being specially productive in this respect. The Philharmonic Society (Choral Society) which had been established in July 1872. gave concerts every winter, including also a choral festival held at the Cathedral (April 18, 187(5). A Debating Society was established in July 1872 but came to an end in the following-^ year. A series of lectures given at the City Hall found considerable favour with the public. The undertaking was inaugurated in the presence of the Governor (November 5^ 1872) by a lecture on Hongkong i-eminiscences by I)r. Legge,. and followed by four other lectures, by Dr. Dennys on Folklore- (November 19, 1872), by Dr. Eitel on Fengshui (December C» 1872), by Mr. J; J. Francis on Jesuitism (December 19, 1872> and by ^Ir. J. W. Torrey on American Humourists (February 4, 1873). Another institution of the vear 1872 is the Victoria Recreation Club which was formed (May, 1872) by the amalgamation of the Boat Club, Gymnasium and Swimming Bath, and OjX'ned in its new form on 30th November, 1872- The publication of the China Punch was resumed on 5th November, 1872, and continued at irregular intervals until 22nd November, 187G, when its talented editor (Middleton) left THR ADMINISTRATION OF SIR A. K. KENNEDY. 517 the Colony. Subsequent years produced a few additional new institutions. The Horticultural Society, which for many years thereafter held an annual flower and vegetable show at the Public Gardens, was established (February 13, 1873) by the official Garden Committee. Three years later (November 23, 1876) the Government formally witlidrew its control of the Hor- ticultural Society which, under unofficial management, continued to exist for some years longer. The members of the German Liedertafel gave their first performance on 4th November, 1873, and continued to enliven winter evenings under the direction of Dr. Cloath, whose departure from the Colony (April, 1874) was felt as a public loss. Another institution of the year 1873 was the opening of the first Good Templars' Lodge in Hongkong (September 25, 3873), which was followed by a steady spread of the Temperance movement in the Colony and led <3ventua41y to the opening of a Temperance Hall in Stanley Street (April 17, 187G), subsequently removed to Queen's Road East. During the time of Sir Arthur's administration the relations, always friendly, which existed between the American and English -sections of the foreign community, were particularly cordial. This was specially evidenced by the success of a reception given by Admiral Jenkins, in 1872, on board the U. S. Flagship Colorado, when the Governor and all leading residents attended, and especially by a grand promenade concert and supi)er, given, at the City Hall, ])y the American residents (July 4, 1870) on the occasion of the centennial celebration of American Indeixin- dence. The Yacht Club attracted si^ecial attention in 1875 by an ocean yacht race (January 27, 1875) from Hongkong to Macao and back, won by the Wave, by the yiixjht race for thu American cup (December 4, 1875) won by Xaomi, and by the entliusiastic farewell demonstration made on the occasion of the departure (January 27, 1870) of the Yacht Club's Commodore (W. H. Forbes) when the whole of the Club's yachts escorted the mail steamer as far as Long Island. The annual regattas and races were largely patronised during this period. The Amateur Dramatic Corps gave very frequent 518 CHAPTER XX. performances between 26th January, 1872, and 19th February,. 1877. The District Grand Lodge of Freemasons invaded, in 1875, the Cathedral when a Masonic sermon was preached (De- cember 23, 1875) by the Grand Chaplain, the Rev. H. H. Kidd. The arrival of the Flying Squadron (April 7, 1876), consisting of four frigates, gave a new zest to social life in 1876. The %ter year is also distinguished by the lii-st loan exhibition of wjgrks of art, held in the City Hall (July 18, 187()). This exhibition became eventually the parent of the Sketching CUib. In addition to the foregoing general description of the progress made by the Colony during Sir A. Kennedy's adminis- tration, the following particulars have yet to be mentioned. The sphere of Hongkong's commercial operations was considerably extended during this period by the opening up of new countries atid ports and by the starting of new lines of communication^ The famous expedition, under M. Dupuis and M. Millot, which , eventually led to the opening of Tungking (the North-east of Annam) to foreign trade, started from Hongkong on 25th October, 1872. The direct object of the expedition was to-, convey, on behalf of the Chinese Government, munitions of war ; tQ the Chinese army operating in the South of Yunnan against the Mahomedan rebels. But the personal aim of M. Dupuis was to demonstrate, in the eyes of France, the importance of northern Annam as possessing, in the Red River, an artery of trade by . which the commerce of South-western China might conveniently : l)e tapjied and directed to the Gulf of Tonquin. The expedition returned to Hongkong (July 2, 1873), having successfully pushed . its way by the Red River route from Hanoi by way of Laokai to-; Talifoo in Yunnan. That the Hongkong Chamber of Commerce, also looked to the opening up of South-western China is evidenced . by the above mentioned exploration of the commercial capabilities r of the West River, undertaken by Mr. Moss in 1872. Quite a luimber of ports in different countries were opened to Hongkong , commerce during this period. The commercial ports of Legasbi ; in Albay (Island of Luzon) and Taclobau (Island of Leyte) were apeued by the Spaniards (December 3, 1873) and so also the} THK AI)M1N[8TKATI0N OF SlU A. E. KENNKDY. 5 it) Tuiigkiiig jK)rts of Hanoi and Haiphong- (September 15, 1875) under French profceetiou, the Chinese port of Hoihow (on Hainan Island) forming the harbour of Kiungchow (April 1, 1870), and the Annamese port of Quinhon (November 1, 1870). New- steamship lines also were established daring this time. The China Trans-Pacific Steamship Company (December 30, 1873) brought Hongkong and San Francisco still nearer together and was succeeded on this line by the Pacific; ^lail Steamship Company (March 25, 1875) and the Oriental and Occidental^ Steamship Company (May 27, 1875). On the Canton River, Messrs. Butterfield and Swire started (Jidy 20, 1875) a new line of large river-steamei's to run side by side with the older Company's steamers between Canton and Hongkong. The progress made by the Colony in the direction of ship-building, is indicated by the completion (October, 1875) of the_l^osmo~ IX)litan Docks, where forthwith a small steamer \FooJcien^ o\ 20(> tons was constructed and by the launching ot' twogunboaLs (January, 1877) which were built for the Chinese Customs . Service, one by Messrs. Inglis & Co., at Spring Gardens, and*: one at Captain (I. U. Sands' Patent Sh'p at Westpoint. The:' invention bv Dr. Dennvs, of a hvdraulic cofferdam, for the: purpose of facilitating repairs to the hulls of ships (Jnne 12,!* 1873), must also be mentioned in this coimection. Further indications of progress are the establishment (Feli-i ruary, 1872) of a new Bank, the Comptoir iVEscompte, the^ formation of a Volunteer Fire Brigade (April 11, 1873) under; the auspices of the Hongkong Fire Insurance Company, the establishment of the exchange of Post Office money ordered between Hongkong and India (August 28, 1875), the reduction of postal rates on letters to England (July 1, 1876) and the entry • of Hongkong into the Postal Union on payment of £3,150 per annum (September 21, 187G), and finally the establishment of a steam laundry (January, 1877). The Rev. J. Lamont, pastor of Union Church, collected in Hongkong and forwarded to the British Museum (April 25. 1874) a collection of 1,100 ditferenfc Hongkong plants, among which there were as many iis 90 different O20 CriAPTER XX. species of Hongkong ferns. The Government also published (January, 1877) a complete alphabetical catalogue, compiled by Mr. C. Ford, of the plants in the Public Gardens. The Chinese community shared in the general progress of the Colony. Whilst previously the Chinese newspapers of the Colony were exclusively under foreign management, the Chinese started (March, 1873) a Company, in which no foreigner was allowed a share, for the purchase of the London Mission type foundry, and published forthwith in Chinese a newspaper of their own (Universal Circulating Herald). Another instance of Chinese enterprise is the attempt made, in July 1873, to run steam-ferries between Hongkong and Kowloon city, though the movement was stopped at the time through the action of the British Consul in Canton, who represented to the Viceroy that the ferry-boats were merely intended to bring customers from Hongkong to the Kowloon gambling houses. That Hongkong- had risen in the estimation of China, is evidenced by the fact that the Imperial Government of China condescended, in December, 1874, to contract a loan of £600,000 at 8 per cent, with the Hongkong and Shanghai Bank and pledged as security for the loan the whole of the revenues of the Imperial Maritime Customs. The obituary of this period includes, among many, the following most promiment names : — Lady Kennedy, who died in England (October 1874) highly revered by Hongkong residents jis she had always given a tone of gentleness to the sterner rule of even the least severe Governor of Hongkong ; F. Douglas (June, 1874), for over 12 years Superintendent of the Gaol; 0. B. Falconer (died in London, August 5, 1875), the founder of the jewellers' firm of the same name ; D. R. Caldwell (October 2, 1875), formerly Registrar General and latterly agent and general adviser to the leading members of the Chinese community by whom he was greatly trusted and respected ; the Hon. W. H. Alexander, Registrar of Supreme Court, who died in Chefoo (February 22, 1876) ; Inspector O'Brien (July 21, 1876); Thomas Green, of the P. & 0. Company (August 4, 1876) ; THE ADMINISTRATION' OF STll A. E. KENNEDY. 521 A. Dalgarno, of the Ordnance Store Department (September 14, 187G). When the time came for Sir A. Kennedy's departniv, ■entlinsiastically laudatory addresses were presented to him by the Protestant Missionaries, by the Membei*s of Council, and by the Cliinese residents. The whole community testified to the regard in which they held their Governor by a public dinner given (Februai'y 27, 1877) in his honour at the City Hall. Sir Arthur started from Hongkong (March 1, 1877) to take up the Governorship of Queensland, leaving behind a kindly message to the Police Force and a farewell address to the whole community, published in the Gazette. When the news of his death (June 3, 1883), on board the mail-steamer in the Red Sea, reached the Colony, a public meeting resolved' (July 14, 1883) to erect in his memory the statue which now decorates the Public Gardens. Sir A. Kennedy indeed was in the estimation of the Colony one of those few men who deserve a statue because they do not need one. It was acknowledged that he had not done much, but he had made himself pleasant to all and his memory was cherished by the Colonists who looked upon him as the Governor * who I'uled them always with their own consent.' CHAPTER XXL Thk Admin istratiox of Sir Johx Pope Henx^j^y. Ajml 22, 1877, to March 7, 1882, l^^R. (subsequently Sir) John Pope Henuessy, C.M.G., arrived ^A ill Hongkong on 22nd April, 1877, too late in the evening to take the oaths of office on the same day. He was welcomed on board by Major-General Sir F. Colborne, and by the Administrator, the Hon. J. G. Austin, and on landing, at Murray Pier, by the Heads of Departments, Members of Council, Bishop Raimondi, and a number of the leading residents. Mr. Hennessy's reception in Hongkong was not an enthusiastic » one, but it could not be said that public prejudice welcomed : him. There was, indeed, a presentiment that troublous times • might ensue, but there was also, on the part of the Eurbpeau . connnunity, the honest determination- to judge of his adminis- ■ tration as they might find it. Mr. Hennessy had enjoyed;> various opportunities of gathering experience. He had sat, as Member for King's County, in the House of Commons (1850 to 1805), and he had served as Governor of Labuan and Consul-General for Borneo (18G7), as Governor of the West African Settlements (1872), of the Bahamas (1873), and of the Windward Islands (1875). Pending the issue of Letters Patent, Mr. Hennessy had now been appointed provisionally (March 12, 1877) as Lieutenant-Governor of Hongkong, and accordingly he was sworn in as such (April 23, 1877), on the day after his arrival. On this occasion, Mr. Hennessy volunteered the announcement that he would endeavour to follow the footsteps of his distinguished predecessor. Sir A. Kennedy, and that the main policy of his administration would be to protect the mercantile interests of this Colony which, he said, rivalled in THE ADMINISTRATION OF SIK J. P. HENNESSY. 523- its fcransactions the greatest Colonies of the world. Six weeks later, the Ijetters Patent (dated April 10, 1877) having arrived, Mr. Hennessy was sworn in, with the usual solemnities, as Governor and Commander-in-Chief of Hongkong and its Dependencies (June 6, 1877). With the exception of a visit to Japan (May 31, to Sep- tember C, 1877) and a trip to Peking (September 11, to October 24, 1881), the Governor spent his whole term of office in Hongkong. During his absence in Japan, the Hon. ^Y. H. Marsh, and, during his trip to Peking, the Hon. M. S. Tonnochy administered the Government temporarily. On 22nd April, 1880, Her Majesty was pleased to confer on Mr. Hennessy the honour of knighthood, which fact was published in the Hongkong Government Gazette by anticipation on 21st April, 1880. Apart from private correspondence with a few distinguished diplomatists in China and Japan, Sir John Pope Hennessy lind, like his predecessor, no diplomatic correspondence with the. representatives of other Governments, beyond one brief exchange, of notes with the Governor of Macao. A Chinese junk having- properly cleared from Hongkong (November 29, 1877) with a cargo of- gunpowder for Macao, was stopped by the officers of the Chinese Customs Blockade on issuing from the harbour and forced to return to Hongkong. AVhen the owners of the- junk complained to the Governor, they were informed (June 29, 1878) that the Governor could not interfere, because the Cantonese Authorities considered ]\Iacao to be a part of China. This reply having been noticed in the public pajxji-s, the Go- vernor of Macao forthwith addressed an official protest to Sir John, asserting the sovereignty of the King of Portugal over Macao and pointing to the fact that all the nations of F^urope had hitherto recognized it, and so also the Chinese officials,, while the flag of Portugal had waved over the peninsula for 300 years. Sir John replied that he did not lend any countenance to the Chinese pretensions to the sovereignty of Macao. During this administration, the Colony had unfortunately, repeated occasions of expressing sympathy with the inroad ^vhick 524 CHAPTER XXI. -death made among the Courts of European nations. The flags of the Colony were at half-mast, and minute guns were fired, on the decease of the Queen of the Netherlands (January 13, 1877), the King of Italy (January 15, 1878), Princess Alice (December 18, 1878), Czar Alexander II (March 14, 1881) and President Garfield (September 20, 1881). In striking contrast with his predecessor, who took no notice of the death of the Emperor of China, Sir John ordered the flags of the Colony to be lowered and 21 minute guns to be fired (April 23, 1881) on the death of the Chinese Empress Dowager, the event being solemnly announced in the Gazette. Sir John also attended officially at celebrations, in honour of the birthday of the King of Portugal (October 31, 1878) and of the second anniversary of the coronation of Pope Leo XIII (March 3, 1880), held at the Roman Catholic Cathedral. In the way of hospitable entertainment of the representatives of foreign Powers, Sir John had even more to do than his prede- cessors. Of Chinese officials, there came the Hoppo Tsun Kai (May 11, 1878); Chen Lan-pin, Minister to the United States, Spain and Cuba (June o, 1878); Chung How, the Ambassador to St. Petersburg (November 11, 1878 and November 20, 1870); Liu Wan-shung, Minister to Germany (November 11, 1878); the Canton Viceroy, Liu Kwan-yih (January 25, 1880): finally, the new Hoppo Chung Kwan (April 10, 1881). There were also a good many foreign dignitaries whom Sir John had the honour to entertain in one way or other. General U. S. Grant, the hero of the American Civil War, arrived in Hongkong (April 30, 1879), was entertained at a state dinner at Government House (May 3, 1870), spent a few days in Canton and Macao (5th to 10th May), was presented with an address by the Chinese (May 12, 1879), but had to leave Hongkong before the garden party, nvith illuminations and fire-works, which the foreign community liad arranged in his honour, could come off. The next visitor was Prince Thomas of Savoy (Duke of Genoa) who arrived in the Frigate Vittore Pessani (June 23, 1879, and again in 1880). Prince Heinrich of Prussia arrived in the Yv\g?itQ'Prinz THE ADMINISTRATION OF SIR J. P. HENNESSY. 52(> Adalbert (May 1, 1880), assisted at the unveiling of the portrait of the Prince Consort at Government Honse (May 7, 1883) and acted as joint host with the Governor in receiving the Duke of Genoa and the community of Hongkong- at Government Honso on the occasion of Her Majesty's birthday (May 24, 1880). Next year King Kalakan, of the Hawaiian Islands, arrived in Hongkong (April 12, 1881), and stayed at Government House. Mr. C. P. Chater gave a public banquet in his honour (April 18* 1881) at Kowloon, and a public reception was held on the same evening at Government House. The King left for Bangkok a few days later (April 21, 1881), not without having had a taste of the bitter feeling existing at the time between the Governor and the British community. The greatest event, however, was the arrival (December 20, 1881) of the Detached Squadron with the Princes Albert Victor and George of Wales on board the Bacchante. A ball was given in honour of the Royal visitors at Government House (December 22, 1881) and the town was festively illumined (December 24, 1881), but the public had no opportunity of seeing the Princes, until December 30, 1881, when, after calling at Government House, and taking lunch there, the Princes attended in the evening a public subscription ball given at the City Hall. The Princes, having previously visited Canton (26th to 29th December), left Hongkong on the last day of the year. The visits of the ex-Governor, Viscount de Paco d'Arcos, of Macao (October 31, 1879), of his successor Senhor da Gra9a (November 2G, 1879), and of the Brazilian Embassy to Peking (May 28, 1880) conclude the list of foreign represen- tatives entertained at Hongkong during this period. A new Charter, issued by Letters Patent (April 9, 1877), revoked the Supplementary Charter of June 8, 1875, and defined the constitution, power and authorities of the office of Governor, stated that Members of Executive Council may be appointed by "Warrant or by Instructions, and added to the power of granting pardons also that of remitting fines. The new Charter further revoked Article XI. of the Charter of 1843 and stated that, in case of death, incapacity or absence \526 CHAPTER XXT. •of the Goveriiov, the Govern menfc should be administered bj the Lieutenant-Governor or by an Administrator appointed for the purpose, or by the CJolonial Secretary for the time being. One new Sub-Department, that was much needed and did good work thereafter, was established by Sir John (February 1, 1881), viz. that of the Government Marine Surveyor . (J. S. Brewer), under the ^Icrchant Shipping Consolidation Ordinance (8 of 1879). The attempt (November IG, 1878) to form a new office of Chinese Secretary to the Governor and Translator to the Colonial Secretary (E. J. Eitel) failed to gain • the approval of the Secretary of State, and the office which the latter substituted for it, viz. that of Supervisor of Interpreters and Translator for the Supreme Court (N'ovember 25, 1881) hardly outlasted this adaiinistration. To the management of the Government Gazette, Sir John gave much painstaking attention. He combined the separate editions of the English aod Chinese: issues of the Gazette into one (January 1, 1870) ajid had every document, that could be of any interest to the /.Chinese, translated in the Gazette, the English and Chinese texts being placed side by side in parallel columns. In the Police Department, the vacant office of Assistant Superintendent of Police was abolished by the Secretary of State (January ?»0, 1879). A more important change was made by Sir John (March 17, 187.9), by ordering two-thirds of the Police Force io be always placed on night duty. The Superintendent of Police himself reported three months later (July 1, 1879) that this measure had a decidedly beneficial effect in diminishing the amount of crime. The employment of steam-launches (1879), .the removal of the Water Police from the rotten hulk in tlie harbour to the new Tsimshatsui Station (1881), together with the numerical increase of the Force, were steps of progress which the Governor reluctantly conceded to the demands of .the Sui3erintendent. The subject of competitive examinations was a favourite topic with Sir John, who announced (May 28, •1877), shortly after his arrival, that, as a general rule, all .appointments at his disposal in the Civil Service of this Colony THE ADMINISTRATION OF SIR J. V. HENXK.S.SY. 527 would be given by a system of competitive examinations, , similar to tliat which had been established for the Civil Service of the United Kingdom by Her Majesty's Order in Council of June 4, 1870. To stimulate the study of the Chinese language, Sir John published (February 4, 1881) an extract from an old dispatch by Sir. (xcorge Grey (April 28, 1855) stating that, as a rule, subject only to very s^iecial exceptions, no application for increase, of, salary in the Civil Service of Hongkong was to be made for. any person who had not learnt •Chinese. He also published a notification issued (July 2, 1855) by order of Sir J. Bowring to the effect that, in claims foi- promotion, a knowledge of Chinese would be considered a . reconmiendation. But the Board of Examinei*s, specially appointed by Sir A. Kennedy, was quietly shelved by Sir .). Pope Htinnessy. At first, indeed, he recognized the existence of the Board, by publishing (April 27, 1877) the names of the . Members (C. 0. Smith, F. Stewart, J. Russell, E. J. Eitel and A. Lister), but a month later lie ignored the existence of the Board by appointing, without apparent reason, for the first of the new competitive examinations (June 2, 1877) a separate Board (Bishop Burdon, C. C. Smith, and Xg Choy), and did so again for the next examination (June 19, 1877) when three exam inei*s • (Bishop Burdon, Ch. May, and Ng Choy) were appointed. AVhen the original Board thereupon sent in their resignation . (July 18, 1877), it was not accepted, but a separate Board was thenceforth appointed for every competitive examinatif»n. The Gardens and Afforestation Department, which in 1872 had • l3een treated as a separate Department, but in 1873 placed under the joint control of the Surveyor General and a Garden Committee, was (February .S, 1877), before Governor Hennessy's ■ arrival, again made a branch of the Survey Department by the dissolution of the Garden Committee. The result was considerable friction, which continued until the management of the Gardens . and Plantations was once more constituted a sejxirate Department • (March 15, 1879). A report, giving a history of the former .dissensions, was published in the Gazette (October 16, 1879) 528 CHAPTER XXI. o bub subsequently (February 5, 1881) cancelled by order of the- Secretary of State. An Order of the Privy Council (October 23^ 1877) directed that the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court should include crimes and offences committed by, or disputes existing between, British subjects at any place on land being within 10 miles of any part of the Colony. The defalcations of the Deputy Registrar of the Supreme Court, discovered in October 1878, gave a sudden and painful shock to the com- munity, because the investigation revealed a total absence of control and audit in the Supreme Court Department, for which the latter blamed the Executive, while the Executive sought to lay the blame on the Court. Sir John appointed (September 14, 1878) a Commission (Ch. May, G. Philippo, A. Lind, W. Wotton) to inquire into the management of all* monies or securities coming into the hands of any officers attached to the Supreme Court, but substituted, for this Commission, later on (November 7, 1878) another (Ch. May, G. Philippo, Th. Jackson, W. Wotton), instructed to inquire whether or not greater precautions may be adopted for the security and distribution of moneys or securities received by the Supreme . Court. In accordance with some of the recommendations made by this Commission (May 25, 1879), the office arrangements of the Supreme Court were remodelled and a new Registrar (H. Gibbons) was sent out (April 14, 1880) by the Secretary of State. But internal friction now arose in the Court, through continuous misunderstandings between the Chief Justice and the new Registrar, which culminated in a lamentable public scene (July 2C, 1880), and put a stop to the business of the Court until the Registrar was interdicted (July 80, 1880) from the performance of his duties. After the great fire of 25th and 26th December, 1878, which destroyed 301 houses in the centre of the town, and which, in the opinion of the community demonstrated the absence of all system in the management of the Fire Brigade, Sir John promised (January 18, 1870) various reforms. But nothing of any moment having been done, the foreign community deputed a Committee (W. Keswick, Ph. Ryrie,„ THE ADMlNLSTltATION OF SIR J. P. HKNNKSSY. 52& Th. Jiic-kson, W. H. Forbes, H. Hoppins, AV. Reiners, *\. B. Ooughtrie and E. F. Alford) to urge upon the Governor the appointment of a skilled liremaster, the employment of jiaid fire- men, and the desirability of an adequate supply of \vat(!r. Sir John promised to get a skilled liremaster from England and to provide, if possible, high level tanks and lire brigade mains. The question of the water supply was, however, a financial one, and j)euding the consideration of the two alternative schemes thus put forward, viz. the Taitam reservoir scheme and this new project of tanks for fire brigade mains, the re-organization of the Fire Brigade was suspended, and meanwhile neither of the two water supply projects was carried out. Beyond the pur(;hase of a new tire-bell for the Clock Tower (July 12, 1880), the supply of new uniforms for the brigades in town and villages (July 19, 1880), and the publication, in English and Chinese, of the old Fire Brigade Ordinance (4 of 18()8) and a series of rcjfulations issued under that Ordinance (October 5, 1880), the Fire Brigade question was left in ."^tatu qw). There were other Departments of the Pnblic Service, between the Heads of which and the Governor there was said to be constant friction, but the disputes did not force themselves upon pnblic attention, thounrh as early as October 7, 1880, one of the resolutions of the public meeting of that date specially desired a Commission from outside the Colony to be appointed, . in order to inquire, among other things, 'into the relations between the Governor and his officials.' The Legislative Council Chamber was the arena of almost perpetual strife. \\\ several ciises even the election, by the Governor, of new Members of Council impressed the British community as an intended affront. In October, 1878, when the Surveyor General (J. M. Price) applied for leave of absence, and the Registrar General (C. C. Smith) proceeded (October 17, 1878) to Singapore to take up the appointment of Colonial Secretary of the Straits Settlements, the foreign community of Hongkong, whilst wondering how Sir John would reply to the damnatory resolutions of the public meeting of 7th October, 1878, were 34 ,530 CHAPTER XXI. Startled by the news thtit.' Mr. J. A. xla Carvallio, a worthy Portuguese clerk in l^lie Treasury, had been appointed Actini^ Colonial Treasurer with a seat on the Council. The appointment had, however, to be revoked, as it was found that Mr. Carvalho, Ji)eino- an alien, could not take the oath of alle.iiiance. A similar surprise was sprang upon the Colony on 22nd January, 1880. The Hon. H. B. Gibb left the Colony on that day and, in the ordinary course of events, his seat in the Council would have been given again to Mr. H. Lowcock, who had returned from England: but, to the surprise of the community, Sir John gave ifche appointment to a Chinese barrister, Mr. Ng Choy (January 22, 1880). These two appointments were interpreted by the English community as attempts to gain the favour of the Portu- guese and Chinese sections of the community, to create an anti-English party feeling, and to strengthen pei-sonal government. 8omc years later another vacancy in the Council was tilled, in an unobjectionable manner, by giving a seat in the Council to Mr. E. R. Belilios, one of the two leading Indian opium merchants of the Colony, who had favourably distinguished himself as a Director of the Honskong and Shan o'hai Iknk. A proviso was added (May 23, 1877y to the Companies' Ordinance of 18G5, that the amount to Avhich shares may be reduced by subdivision shall in no case be less than one-fourth of the original share. With the approval of Lord Carnarvon the Bill (I of 1877) was passed (June 21, 1877). This was the only legislative measure of the year 1877. Next year three very brief Ordinances were passed, viz. a Chinese Enn'gration (Special Licenses) Ordinance (1 of 1878), a Gaol Amendment Ordinance consisting of one paragraph (2 of 1878) and a Markets' Ordinance (3 of 1878). More work was done in the year 1879. Two Opium Excise Ordinances (1 of 1879 and 7 of 1879), an Amend- ment of the Emigration Ordinance (G of 1879) and a bulky Merchant Shipping Consolidation Ordinance (8 -of 1879) were passed in 1879, but had to be further amended in the year 1880. lu the latter year a short Ordinance (6 of 1880), giving the French mail-steamers the status of men-of-war for twelve months. THK ADMIXISTllATIOX OF SIR J. P. IIENXESSV. 531 was passed and thenceforth annually re-enacted. A Naturali- zation Ordinance (4 of 1880), giving a European resident (E. J. Eitel) the privileges of a British subject within the Colony but not elsewhere, having been approved by the Queen, was in .subsequent years followed by an annual batch of such Ordinances, as Chinese residents now began to attribute great value to such naturalization, limited as it is. A few more Ordinances were passed in the year 1881, dealing with Macao Extradition (1 of 1881), the Census (2 of 1881), the naturalization of Chinese (5 to 10 of 1881), banishment and conditional pardons (12 of 1881) and a fresh Amendment of the Companies' Ordinance (14 of 1881). Finally, in January, 1882, a Tramway Ordinance (1 of 1882) provided for liberty to establish tramways all along from "Westpoint to Shaakiwan and from St. John's Place to A^ictoria Gap. Bat although the legislative work done by the (^ouncil • during this period pi'oduced comparatively little fruit, thci-c was much in the way of leives and the leaves were prickly. The Council meetings were not frequent but lengthy, the •attention of the Members being largely occupied by Sir John with exhaustive laudations of the financial, commercial and industrial progress of the Colony. Frequently also the time of the Council was monopolized by polemical debates on .assumed local race prejudices, on the proper treatment of Chinese criminals and on the general principles of Sir John's policy. Instead of making the most of those points on which all were agreed, these discussions only served to bring into prominence, and to widen year by year, the breach which • the Governor had created in the relations existing between him and the European community. As to the constitution -of the Council, the Hon. Ph. Ryrie (February 20, 1880) brought forward the question whether the Governor would recommend an addition to the number of unofficial Members, on the ground that the proportion of three unofficial to five official Members (beside the Governor) was unsatisfactory. Sir John ..stated that he had already made the same recommendation to tS2 CHAPTER XXI. the Secretary of State, suggesting that the number of uuoffieiaf Membei-s be raised to four or five. Next year (August 8, 1881) another unofficial Meml)er was accordingly added (E. R. Belilios)^ The old complaint of insufficient time being allowed to unofficial Members, to examine the Estimates, was once moie brought forward (August 31, 1880), and it was further arranged that^ if any general discussion were thought desirable, it might be raised on the motion to go into Committee. The question of a proper system for reporting the' debates in Council was^ also raised (August 23, 1881") by the unofficial Memlx?rs who suggested the employment of an official short-hand reporter. Sir John promised to take the matter into consideration, but no such appointment was made. Another much needed snsrgestion was made bv the Actinor Chief Justice who moved (June 13, 1881) that the repeal, amendment and consolidation of a laro^e number of the Ordinances in force in the Colonv had become a work of urgent necessity. Sir John stated that he had placed the matter some time ago into the hands of tlie Attorney General, and stejis would soon be taken to revise and consolidate the Ordinances. As regards judicial matters, the admission to the local bar (May 18, 1877) of the first Chinaman (Ng Choy) who had adopted the law as his profession, deserves special mention.. Tlie admission to the bar of Mr. J. J. Francis (April 16, 1877) added new zest to the loc-al displays of forensic elociuence. On the other hand, the departure from the Colony of the Chief Justice. Sir John Smale (April 11, 1881), and of the Queen's Counsel, :Mr. Th. C. Hayllar (January 23, 1882) who had repeatedly served iis Attorney General and Puisne Judge, deprived the Colony of two of its brightest legal luminaries. Among the cases tried in Court during this period, the interest of the community was specially attracted by the trial of two engineers^ of the coast steamer Yesso who were convicted (January 29. 1878) of manslaughter on account of the explosion of a boiler : by the Kate Waters case, in which three Malays wefe convlct^l ttud sentenced to death (May 13, 1879) iiavrng murdered their T}IE ADMIXISTKATIOX OF .Sill J. P. HENXESSY. 533 -captain, mates and Chinese crew on the high sea; and by a Club •th December, 1878- which laid a large area of houses in the overcrowded centi-al portion of the town in aslies, it was strongly urged upon Sir John that he should use this opportunity for widening, and improving the direction of, the streets of that district, but the suggestion was rejected as too costly. The erection of a new- Gaol on the separate system, though indispensable for the effectiveness of the Governor's scheme of repressing crime without flogging, was indefinitely i)ostponed by Sir John for financial reasons. The construction of new Central School buildings, for which a costly site had been purchased and cleared of houses, was postponed from year to year under various pretexts, and left untouched. The Taitam waterworks, the plans for which had been elaborated and approved under the previous administration, Sir John fought shy of for years, and when at last the Colonial Office sent out peremptory orders that the work should be commenced at once, Sir John, for purely financial reasons, took it upon himself to disregard the commands he received from Downing Street, and the work was not commenced until 1882, on the eve of his dcptirture. The same was the case with the Kowloon Observatory. This scheme was first mooted in spring 1877, when some shipmasters and the manager of the P. & 0. Company circulated for signature a petition ret^uesting the Government to aiTange for the daily \ \ 4)40 CHAPTER XXI. dropping of a time ball. The movemeut was taken up by the Surveyor General (J. M. Price) who elaborated the very plan on which the Observatory was subsequently established and suggested the construction, on mount Elgin at Kowloon, of an Observatory, which should be placed under the charge •of a professional man to be recommended by the Astronomer Royal, and, whilst procuring storm warnings and meteorolo- gical observations, secure the daily dropping of a time ball in front of the Water Police Station. Apart from the subsequent demand for astronomical observations, every essential feature of the present Observatory s(;heme was proposed in detail by Mr. Price, On 30th October, 1877, Admiral Ryder wrote a letter, warmly supporting Mr. Price's suggestions and adding the recommendation that the observation of tides and currents should also be included in the scheme. Both papers were published in the G-overnment Gazette of 17th November, 1877, and in his Estimates for the vcar 1878 Sir John included the sum of ^5,000 for the construction of an Observatory. Xothing was, however, done in the matter until some three years later, when another series of papers was published in the Gazette (September 2, 1881), propounding a seemingly liew scheme, which, though being merely an expansion of the -details of Mr. Price's scheme by Major H. S. Palmer, R.E., with the superadditioii of some recommendations concerning astronomical observations to be taken, not only omitted all mention of Mr. Price, but gave the credit of the scheme to Sir J. Pope Hennessy. Xevertheless the construction of the Observatory was left to the next administration, though Major Palmer took great pains in making stellar observations (published in the (Jazette of March 4, 1882), by means of which he ■n 14th July a third woman was murdered at Taipingshan. On 8th August a Portuguese was murdered by a European. Then, on 2r)th September, from -40 to 80 armed burglars attacked 41 shop in Winglok Street, when these marauders took forcible possession of the thoroughfare, held it for some time against armed ]*olice and finally escaped with their booty in a steam- launch. When the news of this night attack spread in town next morning, public indignation, which had been gathering for some time, owing to the palpable increase of serious crime, burse out into strong condemnation of the Governor's systematic lenity to criminals and of the encouragement thus given, to <;rime. A public indignation meeting was called for. Before it could 1)0 lield, another crime occurred which added fuel THE ADMJNLSTRATIOX OF SIR .1. F'. TIEXNESSY. 540 to the flame,- for ji Enropean liouse in Seymour Terrace was • attackied (October :>, 187S) by armed biirj^lars. • On 7th October, 1878, the great public meeting of this jxTiod was lield on the cricket ground. The following resolutions were, with hardly any opj)osition, passed. It was resolved, (1) that life and property had been jeopardized by a jxilicy of undue leniency towards the criminal classes: (2) that flogging in public had been found the only really deterring punishment, and that to its suspension was due 'the daring boldness which had lately characterized crime; (3) that a Commission of medical men should be appointed to inquire into the alleged injui'ious effects of flogging on the back: (4) that the almost total abolition of deportation was injurious and would cause the criminal ])opulation of South China to overcrowd the Hongkong Gaol ; (5) that a Commission from outside the Colony should be appointed to inquire into the application of criminal laws, the carrying out of sentences of the Courts, and the relation between the Governor and his officials, and Anally (G) that a copy of these resolutions should be forwaixled to the Secretary of State through the Governor. Mr. H. B. Gibb was in the chair, and the movere and secondei-s of the foregoing resolutions were ^lessrs. W. Keswick, W. Reiners, W. H. Forbes, G. Sharp, I). Ruttonjec, ^y. S. Young, H. H. Nelson, A. MacClymont, H. Lowcook, X. J. Ede, A. P. McEwen and G. D. Bottomley. The senior unoflicial Member of Council (Ph. Ryrie) was conspicuous by his absence. Stron? as the indictment contained in the above resolutions was, both in argument and in the sup[)ort it receiveil from the British and foreign community of Hongkong, the Secretary of State left the Memorial embodying those resolutions unanswered for nearly a year. Moiinwhile the Chinese Committee (rf the Wato Dispensary at Wantsai canvassed the loAver classes of Chinese shopkeepei-s in the interest of Sir John, whose impeachment at the bar of public opinion was resented by them as ain attack on a Governor whose policy was characteristically pro^Chinese. cAccoi'dingly they produced an address to the 544 CHAPTER XXI. Queen (October 21)> 1878) signed by 2,218 shop-keepers. It was practically an expression of confidence in the Governor, intended as a set-off against the views of the British and foreign community, and couched in the usual inflated style of exaggerated flattery, common in China. After some significant hesitation, the Committee of the Tungwa Hospital, representing most of the Chinese merchants, also presented (November lo, 1878) a Memorial, deprecatory of the resolutions passed at the public meeting. On 5tli May, 1879, the Chinese were informed that Her Majesty was 2)leased to receive their address. On the same day Sir John re-appointed the gentleman (H. B. Gibb), who- had acted as chairman of the great indignation meeting, to a seat in the Council. On olst May, 1879, the movers and seconders of the resolutions of that meeting addressed bo the Secretary of State (Sir Michael Hicks-Beach) a complaint on account of their Memorial having been left unanswered. A few months later (September 17, 1879), Sir John, deeming himself to have scored a victory, had the satisfaction of publish- ing in the Gazette the resolutions of the public meeting and a series of documents connected with it, including the reply of Sir Michael (dated July 17, 1879) to the Memorial of the European community. In this reply the Secretary of State quoted statistics showing a great increase of serious crime having taken place in 1877 and 1878, admitted also that during those two years the criminal classes of Hongkong had advanced in audacity, combination and the habit of carrying arms, and acknowledged the reasonableness of the alarm felt by rosidents^ in the Colony, but declined sending out a special Commission, iKilieving that meanwhile all cause for fear had been removed by the action of the Governor. Nevertheless crime had continued to flourish for a little longer. On 22nd October, 1878, a coolie was beaten to death in High Street and on 17th January, 1879, an armed attack was made on Hunghom. In January, 1879, the general sense of insecurity was such that a rumour spread among the Chinese and gained credence that preparations were being made by a fleet of pirates to descend upon Hongkong- THE ADMINISTRATION OP SIR J. P. HENNESSY. 545 and to sack the whole town. The rumour was so strono- that the Police took accordinoly precautions. However, with the year 1879 Sir John commenced a system of increased strictness of i^aol discipline. The system of deportation also was resumed in 1879 and a rule was made that all old offenders should be tried in Supreme Court, where they might receive sentences commensurate with habitual indulg-ence in crime, instead of the frequent short sentences inflicted by the Police Magistrates. These measures served to disperse the illusions which Chinese offenders had entertained concerning the regime of 'the merciful man ' and crimes began to decrease, both as regards their type and their frequency. Unfortunately the annual reports of the Superintendent of Police for the four yenrs from 1878 to 188] were suppressed and for them were substituted, by order of the Governor, bare statistics of crimes committed. But even these tables show that there was in 1877 an increase of serious crimes^ amounting to 12.80 per cent., which the Superintendent ascribed to famine and floods in China and to the unusually high price of rice in Hongkong. In 1878 there followed a further enormous increase of serious crimes amounting to 32.31 per cent. The year 1879 brought a decrease of 8.19 per cent, but, whilst in 1880 there was a further decrease of 14.43 per cent., there was a fresh increase of serious crimes in 1881, amounting to 13.55 per cent. Whether successful or not in the reduction of crime. Sir John gained his main points in the treatment of Chinese criminals. Almost all that he had been seeking in this respect since he made the first declaration of his philanthropic policy in the Legislative Council in 1877, he obtained in November, 1880, when Lord Kimberley sanctioned the final abolition of all branding of criminals, permanent discontinuance of public flogging, repeal of all Ordinances providing for the flogging of Chinese, prohibition of all flogging except in cases where it would be inflicted in the United Kingdom, and finally an order that flogging of Asiatics should in all cases be on the breach and not on the back. In September, 1881, notice was given that the Prison Amendment JS ,546 CHAPTER XXI. Reonlation Ordinance (7 of 1880) was disallowed, whereby tlie old law (2 of 1878 and 4 of 1863), which this Ordinance had been intended to modify, revived. In May and July, 1878, the attention of the Government was directed to the custom prevailinjy amouk^ the Chinese com- ■inunity of Hongkong, as througbout the whole Empire of China, •of buying- and selling girls for the purpose of domestic servitude. I'his custom was generally practised in Hongkong by means of nominal adoption connected with the payment of money to the parents in return for the privilege of using the child's services. The Attorney General (G. Phillippo) distinctly declared (June 21, 1878), in contradiction of the Governor's original views, that this practice did not constitute a criminal offence (May :)0, 1878) : that parties entering into a transaction of this nature in England would in no way bring themselves within the operation of the criminal law (June 21, 1878), and tlia*"; the Police Magistrates had no jurisdiction in the matter. At the same time the Chinese communitv observed that, since the abolition of the Macao coolie trade, the practice of kidnapping young (Chinese girls for exportation to the Straits Settlements, California and Australia, had enormously increased. As the kidnappers were believed to be chiefly people of the Tungkoon District, a Committee of Tungkoon merchants, headed by Mr. Fung Ming- shan, was appointed by the Chinese community to devise some means to stop these kidnapping practices. Mr. Fung Ming-shan and others accordingly petitioned the Governor (Xovember {), 1878) for permission to form an Anti-kidnapping Association with ])Ower to employ detectives. Sir John appointed an official Ooramittee (C. V. Creagh, J. J. Francis, W. M. Deane, E. J. Eitel) to investigate the matter, and this Committee recommended that the sanction of the Government be given to the constitution of the proi)osed Association on the basis of definite statutes (Gazette of February 4, 1880) drafted by Mr. J. J. Francis. The Asso- <3iatioD, which adopted the name Poleung Kuk, was accordingly formed and received (June 24, 1880) the formal approval of the ♦Secretary of State. Later on (Gazette of August 5, 1882) rules THE ADMINISTRATION OF SIR J. P. HENNESSY. 547 for fche working- of the Poleuno- Kuk were published, differing i'rom the statutes framed by Mr. Francis in that they did not require the Association to be incorporated under the Companies' Ordinance of 18G5, nor did the new rules give to the Government that tio'ht hold on, and constant insight into, the working of the Poleung Kuk which Mr. Francis' draft scheme had devised. Meanwhile, however, the Chief Justice also noticed that the ^jiractice of kidnapping, for purposes other than the coolie traffic, was alarmingly on the increase, and, making no distinction between the sale of girls in connection with domestic servitude uni in connection with exportation (for immoral purposes), repeatedly denounced from the Bench, in summer 1871), the .system of purchasing or adopting girls for employment as domestic servants as a forui of slavery. The Chief Justice alleged that thei'c were from ten to twenty thousand female slaves in the Colony, and tha^ this form of slavery flourished only throm>h the failure of Government officers to enforce the existing laws. This action of the Chief Justice caused at first great alarm and •excitement among the Chinese. A deputation called on the Governor (September 24, 1879), and, while asking for permis- sion to form the above mentioned Anti-kidnapping Association, suggested to regulate Chinese domestic servitude by means of registering all purchased servant girls. The fears of the Chinese -community were, however, considerably allayed, when the Gover- nor, who had previously been anxious to institute prosecutions vtigainst the purchasers of servant girls, now assured them that he would not allow of any hai-sii measures dealing with an established (vhincse national custom. ]5ut on Oth October, 1870, the Chief •Justice again denounced the female servitude system of Hongkong as strongly as ever, called it down-right slavery, and addressed ^\ few weeks later (October 20, 1870) a letter to the Governor. in which he requested that the Police should be instructed to bring every person, known to have a purchased servant, before .fche Magistrate, to be dealt with mildly. The Chief Justice at the same time alleged that kidnapping was encouraged by the social habits of foreigners in Hongkong, that a class of mean whites 548 CHAPTER XXr. was springiDg np in Hongkong and living in abject misery, and he claimed that it was the dnty of the Government to put down a system which, by debasing all moral tone, tended to crime. To rebnt the argnments of Sir John Smale, Dr. Eitel wrote- (October 25, 1870) an exhaustive report on the origin and charac- teristics of Chinese slavery and domestic servitude in Hongkong. The whole dispute was thereupon referred to the Secretary of State, and reviewed in a debate in the House of liords (June •21, 1880), when Lord Stanley of Alderley, favourably criticizing Dr. Eitel's report, stated that the Attorney General had been wrong in his exposition of the law, but that, on the other hand, the Chief Justice had rushed into wild exaggerations. Lord Kimberley remarked, on the saine occasion, that the custom of adoption was deeply interwoven with the forms of Chinese society, and that care must be taken not to confound the habits and institutions of the Chinese with what prevailed in other parts of the world. After this, the brief turmoil caused by the local slavery question disappeared as quickly as it had arisen. The Poleung Kuk, however, did good woi'k in bringing kidnappers to justice, and on 2'4th March, 1881, the Chief Justice, having observed a steady decrease in kidnapping crimes, complacently ascribed it to his own efforts. He stated from the Bench that Chinese public opinion now appeared to have been educated to a great sense of the evils of kidnapping and the worst of the evils arising out of domestic servitude, that his denunciations of these crimes had produced an aAvakening of the Chinese conscience, and that a large proportion of the Chinese community now desired to- improve the tone of social thought in China. ' Slavery of every kind,' he said, *is doomed in China ; it is merely a question of education through discussion and time.' The ({uestion of Colonial defence was agitated for several years during this administration. All through summer 1878. rumours of war with Russia were current. Whilst this war fever lasted, the Volunteer Ordinance (2 of 1862) was re-published (May 4, 1878) and a new Volunteer Corps was formed and placed (May 16, 1878) under the command of Captain Dempster, THE ADiriNISTRATIOX OF SIR J. P. HEXNESST. 549 subsequently succeeded by Captain A. Coxon, under whom Mr. W. Danby served as Lieutenant. J3y 1st June, 1878, the names of 142 gentlemen, who had been enrolled in the Volunteer Force, were published in the Government Gazette. Torpedoes w'ere constructed at the Xaval Yard and torpedo practices w^ere held in the Lyeemoon. The batteries also were put in a temporary state of defence and guns w^ere mounted in some. In January, 1870, the Governor received instructions to proceed with the necessary works in order to place several batteries, thrown up during the preceding year, in a condition of per- manent defence, and operations were immediately commenced at North Point. The Home Government, having at last woke up to a recognition of the need of a comprehensive system of •Colonial defence, appointed (September 8, 1879) a Royal Oommission, headed by the Earl of Carnarvon, to inquire into the state of the defences of the Colonies. The instructions of this Commission were published in Hongkong (December 17, 1879) and, at the request of the Commission, a local Committee set at once to work to report on questions connected with the defences, armament and provisioning of Hongkong. The rumours of an impending war between Russia and China gained in probability in spi'ing 1880 and thus kept up public interest in the matter of Colonial defences. In summer. General Gordon, known as Gordon Pasha, spent a week in Hongkong and Canton (3rd to 9th July, 1880) and made various suggestions as to the defences of Hongkong, advising especially the removal of the Naval Yard, Barracks and Military Stores, to Causeway Bay. On his return from a visit to Li Hung-chang in Tientsin, he published in the China Mail the main part of the advice he had given to the Chinese Government, and made a brief, but fruitless, attempt to interest t)ie leading Chinese merchants of Hongkong in a proposal to concert measures towards the expulsion from China of the Manchus and the restoration of -a Chinese Dynasty. The war fever was now dying out and dissensions arose in the Volunteer Corps. The Commandant, •Captain A. Coxon, and Lieutenant W. Dauby resigned (July 550 CHAPTER XXL 1;^, 1880) and were succeeded by Captain J. J. Francis ancT Lieutenant J. McCallnm. A turret ironclad, the Wiveni, with whose seagoing qualities fault had been found in England, was sent out to Hongkong (June 2, 1880) at the suggestion of the Governor, to be permanently stationed here for harbour defence.. The last flickering up of the dying war spirit was observed on the occasion of a grand naval review held at Tsimshatsui (December 30, 1880), but by the beginning of the year 1881 the war cloud had passed away, by the consent of Russia to restore Xuldja to the Chinese, and the Avhole question of Colonial defences was shelved. The year 1877 was on the whole a fairly good one for mercantile men. Business, although rather restricted in extent^ was of a healthy character. Shares were steadily rising, though there was little speculation, and real proi3erty became more valuable. But a change took place in 1878. Freights now commenced to fall, profits on goods of all descriptions became smaller and smaller, and wild speculation took possession of the share market, with the usual result of inflation followed by subsequent depreciation. Still, there were no bubble companies kept afloat merely by the credulity of the public, and stocks Avcre in a sound condition. But a general depression crept into all commercial branches, locally as well as in China and Japan, and several local firms of very old standing failed. At the beginning of the year 1879 freights were so low that the carrying trade ceased to be remunerative. Shipowners began to think of laying up their vessels rather than run them at a loss. Accordingly a Conference of London steamship owners formed (September, 1879) a combination to regulate the tonnage on the berth, to prevent the accumulation of cargoes, and to protect each other from loss. Through want of coherence ■ among the signatories of these Conference rules, rather than through outside competition, the combination failed and the rules were cancelled (January 5, 1880) so far as Hono^kong Avas concerned. But apart from freights, Jhe year JT8797 was in other respects also a year o]f"-gfeat depression) Arrivals of SIR J. P. HENNESSr. 551 / / ^5.28 per cent./ the greatest "^t / THE ADMINISTRATION OP SIR J. P. HENNESSY. foreign ships declined to tbe_ extent o lf 5.28 per cent./ the greatest dccltmrijeing oii tlie part of vessels under Continental flags. Money was scarce in the Colony and quotations for most stocks continued to fall, though known to offer good investment for capital. Sterling exchange declined until the dollar touched 36-. Gj^/. and the tael fell below 5 shillings. Never, it was said, was trade less profitable in Hongkong. However, with the year 1880, a general improvement set in. Trade now shewed a disposition to be more brisk and remunerative, than it had been for years before. S}x.'Culation Avas kept within reasonable- limits, time bargains, owing to the bitter lessons of 1878, were- now regarded as dangerously hazardous ventures, and stocks accordingly kept on a sounder footing. The H.C. cK: M. Steamboat Company received a new lease o! life by a friendly jirrangement with the ojjposition line of Messrs. Butterfield and Swire. In the year 1880 the sugar refining industry of Hongkong commenced to be a great source of wealth to Hongkong, and the East Point Company solidified for the time all the local sugar interests by purchasing the concerns of dangerous conipetitors. Neverthe- ' less there was room for yet another larue sugar factory, and next year (July G, 1881) ground was purchased at Quarry Hay by Mr. E. Mackintosh for Messrs. Butterfield and Swire, who immediately commenced the erection of new and extensive sugar works. The Hongkong and Shanghai Bank attained in 188(» to a commanding position in the China Trade, being content to mind its own legitimate business. Year after year, throughout this jx-'riod, the Bank made a substantial addition to its reserve fund, it being the intention of the Directors to raise the reserve fund to a level with half the amount of the paid up capital. Most noticeable was, by the end of the year 1881, the growing favour in which the Bank was held by investors. Its shares continued to rise and stood at 116 per cent, prenu'um at the beginning of 1882. The announcement iu the London Gazette (November 14, 1881) of the charter of incorporation of the British North Borneo Company, was hailed in Hongkong with great satisfaction. It was generally considered that the 552 CHAPTER XXI. new territory, though thinly peopled, was capable of g-reat development, that labour could be readily supplied from China and that the situation of North Borneo, midway between Hongkong and Singapore, was even of political and strategical importance. The old problem of the Customs blockade, the only point regarding which Sir John might have usefully redeemed his promise to protect local commercial interests, was not brought a single step nearer solution during his administration. In 1877, Sir A. Kennedy, before leaving the Colony, forwarded to the Secretary of State his recommendations with reference to that clause of the Chefoo Convention which referred to the Mixed Commission that was to settle the blockade question, and the Legislative Council recorded (February 20, 1877) its sense of obligation to the efforts of Sir Arthur to remove the impediments to commercial intercourse between Hongkong and China. But for more than two years nothing further was done in the matter, exce[)t by the blockade officers who became more audacious Lha!i ever in their interference with the trade of the Colonv, and by mild remonstrances forwarded by Sir J. Pope Hennessy to the British Consul in Canton whenever Chinese petitioners presented a specially strong grievance. For the blockade officers now attempted to levy their exactions on non-dutiable articles of daily consumption, and although this was resisted and even- tually, owing to the representations made by the Consul to the Viceroy of Canton, abandoned, the blockade officers succeeded in confining the exemption from duties to positively fresh provisions, and then went further and excluded even cattle from the (catalogue of non-dutiable articles. When Sir Thomas Wade passed through Hongkong (April 7, 1879), on his way to England, the Committee of the Chamber of Commerce told him that they considered the Convention as a retrograde measure, needing careful revision, and that, although five new ports (Wuhu, AVenchow, Ichang, Pakhoi and Hoihow) had been opened under its provisions, it was their earnest hope that Lord Salisbury would refuse to ratify it. Great was the surprise of the THE ADMINISTRATION OF SIR .1. P. HKNNESSY. 558 communitv, when it was reported that, in a debate in the House of Lords (May 9, 1879), Lord Salisbury had stated that the (joveruor of Hongkong had reported that the grievance, which i\ certain clause of the Chefoo Convention intended to remove by the appointment of a Mixed Commission, had ceased to exist and that therefore there was no further reason to appoint the Commission. This was the more puzzling as, a few weeks before this news arrived in the Colony, Sir John had< admitted in Legislative Council (May 29, 1879), in speaking of the blockade, that 'there is something pressing on the junk trade of the Colony that prevents its expansion.' When Sir Th. Wade again passed through Hongkong (December, 1879), he suggested to a Committee of the Chamber that the blockade stations would not be removed by the Chinese until the Colony devised some scheme by which the Chinese Government could collect the revenue fairly due to them. Sir John, taking the same view, now gave some hints of the plan by which he proposed to remove the blockade. He stated in Legislative Council (December 80, 1879) that, if the trade in salt were ])ut down and an undertaking ■entered into for the collection of duty on opium, the Chinese Government would be willing to remove the taxing stations. Pra(itically, therefore, the question was whether the Colouy \\as willing to sacrifice the freedom of the port in order to gain the removal of the blockade, or, in other words, whether the Colony would prefer to have Chinese Customs offices in town or Chinese blockade stations outside the harbour. Such was Sir John's plan, so far as he unfolded it. The determination «hown by him, on all occasions, to court the good-will of the Chinese Authorities, combined with his habitual disregard of the views of 'the British trader,' as he called the mercantile <;ommunity of Hongkong, caused the community to mistrust any scheme for the abolition of the blockade emanating from Sir J. Pope Hennessy. Hence there ensued now the general apathy of hopelessness, which Sir John was careful not to disturb, and thus it happened that the blockade question was allowed to .slumber all through the year 1880. On loth AFarch, 1881, the 554 CHAPTER XXL Chamber of (^'ommerce, once more apj)ealed to the Secretary of State for the abolition of the blockade and invited the principal Chambers of Commerce in the United Kingdom to support their petition, but this movement did not produce any results during (Jovernor Hennessy's term of office. The currency question entered upon a retrograde movement now, owing to the greater intiuence the Chinese gained at this time. Seeing that it had become an established custom in Hong- kong to prefer a clean currency and to accept broken silver or chopped dollars only at a discount of one per cent., the Canton Cotton and Yarn Guild passed a resolution (April, 1877) that Chinese dealers in Hongkong should suspend trade with any foreign firm refusing to accept broken silver at par value of currency. At first the European merchants made joint resistance to this attempt to force broken silver and chopped dollars upon their acceptance. But the local Chinese dealers supported the movement initiated by the Canton Cotton Guild and presented a petition to the Registrar General asking the Governor to make- broken silver a legal tender. Sir John hesitated. Unfortunately, however, individual foreign merchants yielded (May 5, 1877) to- the pressure brought to bear upon them by the Chinese, and by 19th May, 1877, the demands of the guild, through want of unanimity among the European merchants, were generally accepted. The latter now confined themselves to memorialize the Goverimient against the Chinese proposal to make broken silver (including chopped dollars) a legal tender. The memorialists did not propose to prohibit the practice of chopping dollars, but earnestly deprecated any compulsion to be brought upon merchants unwilling to accept chopped dollars as currency. A year later (March 7, 1878) the Chamber of Commerce, recognizing that there was no prospect of the proposed British dollar being coined in England by the Imperial Government, pronounced now in favour of reviving the Hongkong Mhit. It was alleged that the former closing of the Hono^kono^ establish- ment was a premature and ill-advised measure, that there were now excellent guarantees for the success of the undertaking, and THE ADMINISTRATION OF SIR J. l\ IIENNESSY. 555 that the profits derivable from the subsidiary coins alone would pay the expenses of the Mint. It was also stated that if the Government objected to undertake the raauagement of the Mint, it might be started by a private Company under Government supervision. Sir John, however, shelved the whole question. Meanwhile attention was drawn to the manufacture in the Colony, at the village of Tokwawan, of immense quantities of Annamese cash for exportation to Annam and Tungking, where no State Mint existed. Some of the manufacturei-s of these cash were tried in the Police Court (Hon. C. B. Plunket) but discharged, as no offence against English law was brought home to them. But thereupon the Colony itself was flooded with these cash, until a notification was published in the Gazette (October 29, 1879) warning the people that the circulation of these cash in the Colony was illegal. On 23rd February, 1880, the Chamber of Commerce resolved to memorialize the Government, requesting that action be taken with a view to make the Japanese yen current in Hongkong, the Chinese community having (February' 5, 1880) petitioned the Government to the same efi'ect. Altliough this was in entire accordance with Sir John's own wishes., •no action appears to have been taken in the matter by this administration. In the sphere of emigration, considerable irritation was- caused in January, 1878, by the case of two ships which took emigmnts under the belief that permission would be granted, but at the last moment Sir John refused to sign the warrant... The S.S. Perusia, the first steamer of the new China-Peru line, had thus to sail (January 13, 1878) without her cargo of emigrants, and the charterers of the Americiin ship Chnrter Oak were put to serious loss, having filled the ship with emigrants for Honolulu, but being met, at the moment of her intended departure (January ir>, 1878), with a refusal on the part of the Governor to sign the warrant, because the Tungwa Hospital Committee had repiesented to him that the emigrants would be lured into slavery. The consequence was that trade with Honolulu was for several years afterwards conducted from. 556 CHAPTER XXI. AVhampoa and taken up by the China Merchants S. N. Co., which sent one of their steamers, Ilochung (October 20, 1879), to Honolulu with a large number of emigrants, and endeavoured, through Captain C. C. Moreno, to negotiate a treaty between China and Hawaii. The only emigration that Sir John sanc- tioned was emigration to Demerara (December 23, 1878) and subsequently to Antigua. Emigration to the Australian Colonies the Governor was specially averse to and he discouraged it (in 1881) in a manner which caused strained relations between Sir John and the Harbour Master's Department. The reason was that the labouring classes of several Australian Colonies began (since 1878) to agitate for the total exclusion of Chinese labourer and artisans. In this connection, Sir John took special credit to himself for having stopped what he called deportation of criminals to Australia (November 22, 1879). It appears that for several years the practice had obtained in Hongkong of allowing Chinese prisoners under sentence of deportation to elect the country, China or otlierwise, to which they wished to go, and in case any one preferred to go to Australia, he was allowed to do so, the Police seeing him on board, to make sure that he left the Colony. Thus it happened that in several cases men left the Gaol to emigrate to Australia, and this was the practice Sir John stopped. A few years later, there was a debate in Council (August 23, 1881) which brought out the difference of opinion that separated the community from the Governor on the question of emigration, as on almost every other subject. The Hon. F. B. Johnson drew attention to the unrestricted right which persons of any nationality in Hongkong had, to go to another country, and stated that Chinese profited greatly by their sojourn in foreign countries, that trade follows wherever they go, and that Hongkong benefits largely from the passenger traffic and from the trade which that traffic gives rise to. On the other hand Sir John declared that Chinese emigration was not desired by foreign countries and that the Chinese Government was opposed to it because it took the bone and sinew out of the country. However, in spite of Sir John's opposition to Chinese emigration, THE ADMINISTRATION OF SIR J. l\ UENNKSSY. ijoj a-' the natural oiitfiow of tlie Chinese population continued, thougl in a diminished degree, to utilize the facilities for emigration offered by Hongkong in some form or other. Apart from the foregoing subjects, there were but few minor questions of commercial interest agitating the mind of the community during this period. Iii June, 1878, the Gunga case aroused some transient indignation against the Spanish authorities at Manila, the S.S. Gunga having, after striking on a reef on her way from Hongkong to Australia, put int(> Manila in distress for coal, when the Spaniards seized her on account of some informality in declaring the ship's cargo. Another matter of transient interest was the proposal made at a meeting of the Chaml)er of Commerce (March 4, 1879), to establish a general exchange and commercial sales-rooms where merchants might meet on a common platform, membershij) being open to all classes and nationalities. A few months later (May 28, 1879) the promoters of the Hongkong Commercial Exchange secured offices at the Marine House, and at a meeting held at the City Hall rules were drawn up and a Secretary (E. George) appointed to work this institution, which collapsed almost as soon as it was started. The junk trade of the Colony did not develop, but shewed rather a steady decrease, during the first four years of this period. A slight increase took place in 1881, as compared with the preceding year, but whilst in 1877 as many as 26,500 junks with 1,798,788 tons entered and cleared in Hongkong, the corresponding figures for 1881 are 24,339 junks with 1,080,025 tons, and this in spite of a considerable increase of the Chinese population. The rise and fall of the commerce of Great Britain appeai-s to exercise very little influence on the junk trade of the Colony which is more affected by the increase of the Chinese population of Hongkong, by the varying degrees of strictness exercised at the blockade stations and the variations of the policy of the Canton Provincial Authorities, than by the commercial movements of London or Manchester. As regartls the import and export trade of 558 CHAPTEll XXI. ■Chinese merchants in Hongkong, the development of the China Merchants S. X. Co. was of great moment. This Company, in which Chinese merchants of Hongkong hold a large share, and which was practically the creation of Li Huno'-chano- the Viceroy of Chihli, succeeded, after many mistakes and losses, in making good reports and paying fair dividends (10 per cent, in 1881), besides writing off a liberal sum for depreciation of its fleet. After establishing a Chinese Insurance Company, Li Hiing-chang's next step was to run steamers to Honolulu (October, 1879), and when this measure was found unremunerativc, a ne\7 departure was taken (October 11, 1881), by putting a steamer on the berth for London, with a view to commence direct trading between England and China and to establish a firm of Chinese merchants in the City of London. An association was formed for the ]»urpose in Shanghai and Hongkong with a capital of fl :)<•,()()(>. The avowed object was to wrest the China Trade from foreign hands and to carry the struggle into the enemy's camp. Sir J. Pope Hennessy encouraged this enterprise on the ground that the interests of the Imperial trade would be furthered by bringing the English manufacturer and the (Jhinese consumer nearer together, tliouoh it mii>ht be to the detriment of the British intermediaries of the trade in the Colony. But, as the Company had no experienced men .to start the business in London, and as it naturally met with uncompi'onn'sing opposition from British merchants and shippers, the attempt proved a conspicuous failure. Even more short- lived was another project, which Sir John did his utmost to encourage and which, in his farewell summary of the condition of the Colony, he triumphantly pointed to as a sign of ])rogress, viz. a proposal to start, at Belcher's l^ay, a Dock to be worked with exclusively CIdnese capital for the purpose of docking the steamers owned by the China Merchants 8. N. Co. and other Chinese firms. It was merely a paper scheme, and as Li Hung-chang naturally declined to benefit the Colony in any way, it fell to the ground. There was at THE ADMINISTRATION OF Sill .J. 1». HKNNESSY. 55'J one time a third i>i2"antir sclieme on foot. Li Hunir-chaiK»* memorialized the Throne on the subject of opinm and dispatclied (Anoust 8, 1881) tlie Taotai Ma Kien-chnng on a secret mission to tlie Viceroy of India, to ascertain how far the Indian Government would be willino; to meet his proposal that India should year ])y year gradually reduce its opium ])roduction, Avhilst China would make .2:ood from year to year the deficit of Indian opium revenue, on a sliding scale which was to terminate after a certain period, when the whole area, originally devoted to opium plantations, would have been gradually brought under cereal cultivation, thus preventing any serious injury to the revenues of India. In direct •connection with this s^liemc of the Vicerov, there was a further project, devised in Hongkong by Mr. Ho Amei, but contemptuously rejected by Sir John. jMr. Ho Amei proj)oscd to start in Hongkong, under the sanction and control of the Chinese Government, a Company with a capital of twenty million dollars, for the purjwse of purchasing all the opium required for Chinese consumption sent from India and then , 1878); the launch of the S.S. Klimgchoir^ built by W. B. Spratt & Co. (July 29>, isr8) at Spring Gardens; tlie launch of the S.S. Zephyr from Captain Sands' slip (November 23, 1878); the purchase of the late Captain Sands' slips by the H. & W. Dock Company (September 1, 1870); the starting of opposition Docks ac Shainsliuipou by the Cosmopolitan Dock Company (February o, 1880), and the purchase of these Docks by the H. & W. Dock Company (December 31, 1880). As to other local industries, there is to be recorded the estal)lishment of an iron foundry at Shnukiwan (June 0, 1878), the attempt made by the Kaiining Company to start a matcli factory at Yaumati (June 15, 1880) and. the registration (December 31, 1880) of a new Ice Company. On Ist April, 1877, postal rates were reduced (to IG cents for a letter to England) and local rates lowered by one half. A further reduction in postal ratds .(to 10 cents for a letter to any country t)f the Postal Union) was made in 1879, when an almost uniform postal tariff was 566 CHAPTER XXr. introduced, and an exchange of money orders arranored wifcb India and most of the Australian Colonies. Telegraphic cable connection was extended to Manila (May 1, 1880) and to Canton (March, 1882), whilst the town was provided with telephones, there being on one occasion (June 24, 1881) three Telephone Companies applying for permission to establish lines in the Colony. A short-lived line of- steamers was started (January 13, 1878) to connect Hongkong with Peru; the S.S. Washi com- menced to run regularly between Hongkong and North Borneo (June 13, 1878) ; the Mitsu Bishu Company started a new line of connection with Japan (October 12, 1879), and the Austro- Hungarian Lloyds extended their steamship traffic by bringing- Hongkong into regular monthly connection with Triest (April 1, 3881). To the foregoing evidences of prosperity may be added the establishment of an Anglo-Chinese Debating Society (March 4, 1880) and the starting of a third daily newspaper, the Hongkong Telegraph (June 15, 1881), by Mr. R. Frazer Smith. The obituary of this period includes an extraordinary number of prominent citizens : — H. Thorburn, Acting Manager of the Chartered Bank (April 19, 1877); W. H. Bell, lessee of the Daily Press (May IG, 1877); Captain G. U. Sands, founder of the Patent Slip and Dock Company (October 28, 1877); J. J. dos Remedies, Consul General for Portugal (July 30, 1878); John Jack, proprietor of the Hongkong Distillery (August 15, 1878); Hon. Ch. May, Colonial Treasurer (April 23, 1879); Captain E. Punchard, commander of coast steamers (July 12, 1879); Rev. H. H. Kidd, Colonial Chaplain (July 31, 1879); Hon. C. B. Plunket, Police Magistrate (December 21, 1880); Captain R. W. Hutchinson, commander and owner of several steamers (January 30, 1881); Mrs. Mclver, wife of Superinten- dent P. & 0. Company (February 11, 1881); Sir Richard Graven McDonnell (March, 1881); T. G. Lindstead, Masonic District Grand Master (April 30, 1881) ; W. R. Landstein, merchant (June 21, 1881); Pastor Klitzke of the Berlin Foundling House -'s history which opens with the administration of Sir John Bovvring (1854) and closes with that of Sir J. P. Hennessy (1882) is characterized by the severance (since March, 1857) of the ties which had nnited tlie interests of the Colony with the Imperial pohcy of Her Majesty's Government in China. When the successive powerfully eiiouLrh. The centre of his world was he himself. But with all the crowd of dark , and briiiht powers that were wrestlino- within him, he could iiot help doing some good and the Colony emerged out of the ordeal of his administration practically unscathed. No, what makes or mars the fortunes of Hongkong is not the wisdom or foolishness, the goodness or badness of its Governors. There is an indomitable vitality within and a Supreme Governor above this British Colony, and these powers irresistibly push on and control the evolution of Hongkong until its destiny be fulfilled in accordance with a plan which is not of man's making. Several important social problems were taken up during this period. In the case of the gambling question, first investi- gated by Sir J. Bowring, worked out by Sir R. MacDonnell in a spirited but unsuccessful manner, and religiously eschewed by his successors who, however, did not escape the curse of this rampant evil, all that can be said is that the Sphinx will have to solve its own riddle, for no one seems able or courageous enough to deal with the problem. As to the Contagious Diseases question, a solution was sought, in a more or less half-hearted manner, by several Governors of this epoch, but, as no great results were expected, public expectation was not seriously disappointed. Strange to say, the problem of municipal govern- ment, raised by the Parliamentary Committee of 1817, and diplomatically handled by Sir Gr. Bouham, was allowed by the mercantile community to remain dormant through the whole of this epoch. Stranger still, the only Governor who alluded to the subject was autocratic Sir R. MacDonnell who snggestetl to H.M. Government that the Colony should be allowed, as far as possible, ' the liberty to expend, on local improvements and works, all the available public income that can be raised from the community for these purposes.' But the strangest thing. ^74 CHAPTER XXII. -was that, while the foreign commnnity i*emained silent on the subject, the Chinese residents came forward of their own accord and requested the organisation of a distinctly Chinese Municipal Council for their own particular benefit, and obtained a Police *of their own and a consultative voice as to the management, by the Registrar General, of Chinese affairs. As to a British Municipal •Council, it has to be noted, that the history of this period emphatically contradicts one great objection to it, which Sir G. Bonham formulated by asserting that out here in the East there is no leisured class and that men of standing possess neither time nor inclination to devote to the interests of the public. The long continued and varied activity in purely public affairs, -displjiyed during this ])eriod by individuals like J. Dent, Ph. Ryrie, J. Whittall, W. Keswick and others, and most particularly the large share of attention and time which the Hongkong •Chamber of Commerce devoted to questions of general policy, gives the lie to the assertion that the commercial men of this ^Colony are unwilling to sacrifice their time and their strength to the management of communal affairs. As regards the general attitude of the Chinese community, it seems that, in proportion as the leading Chinese residents learned, towards the end of this epoch, to understand the principles of British communal liberty, there appeared among- them a tendency to retire into their own shell, deliberately refusing any identification Avith the European community. The persistent refusal to adopt European costume or English ways •of living, the uniform aversion to participation in local politics coupled with a deep-seated anxiety to keep on good terms with Chinese Mandarindom even when it blockaded the port to throttle their trade, the steady increase of Chinese joint-stock (companies from which foreign investors were jealously excluded, the readiness of secret combination to retaliate against unpopular- Government measures by a general strike, — all these symptoms ; of Chinese clannish esclusivism, natural enough in people whose just liberties have for centuries been invaded by despotic rulers, . 0. 88(5. Aberdeen Island (Aplichan). 127, 188, 11)0. Aberdeen Village(Shekp{vi\van). 130, 188. 887. Adams, W. H., 870, 874, 8i)8. Adanison, W.. 887. Ah-luni. 811-818. A,i,'ra P.ank, 88(5. VA. Alabaster. Cli.. 817. Ak-oek. U.. 804. 41(5. 411>. :)04. Alexander. W. H., 870. 408, .-)20. All'ord. Bishop. 4()(), 4(17. Alford, E. F., :)21>. Alice Memorial Hospital. 5()4. Almada. J. M., 182, Almada, L., 182. 181). Amalgamation Ordinance. 888. r)70. Amaral, J. M. F.. 21 J), 280. 2:>:>. Amatenr D. C, 247, 288. 898, 461), 517. Anderson, Dr., 82, 72, 177. 189. Anderson, A. H., 88-'. Anslo-Chinese College, 191, 280, 847. Annnls. Chinese. 78,82. Ill, 144, ir)l. Anson, Commodore, 18. Anstey, Ch., 880, 888. Antrobus, B. C, 847. Arbitration. 19r», 20(1. Arnold. J., 444. Arrow War, 8()(i-818. Ashton. S.. 8(58. 588. A.ssociation. 470. Astell, J. W., 82, 42, 48, 70, 102. Anstin. H. P.. 474. Austin! J. G., 278, 387, 522. Australia, 9, 278, 274, 550. Austro-Hnngarian — Expedition. 472; Llovds, 5(>(). Ayres, Ph. 480, 508. Bailey, D. H.. 478. 502. Baker. K. B.. 400. Ball, i)r., 180. Ball. H. J.. 3(;4. 370, 391, 408, 409, 423, 515. Banknotes, 244. 49(1. Barbarians, 12, 38. 84. 3f>. Barber. G. J.. 474. Barracks, 185, 221. 245. Battles— First at the Bogne (Chneu- pi), 109; Second, 121; Tliird, 137: Battle of Samvuenli. 145. Baxter. Mi. Brine, F., 399, 400. Brodersen, J., 401. Brokers, 492, Brooke, G. T., 189. Brooke, Sir J., 299. Brown, Mr., 186. Bruce, M., 189. liruce. Sir F. W., 220, 354 & Mrs., 474. Duke of, 430 358. 432. Brunker, Mr, lUickingham, 43<). Burd, J., 245. Burd(m, Bish()p.511, 512, 527. Burgass, K.. 189, 194. Burlingliamc, A., 398. I?urn, D. L.. 159, 189. Jiurrell, Major-General, 142, 151, i^urrows. Sila^s E.. 349. P.usli, F. T.. 244, 27(5. Butterticld &, Swire, 519, 551. I'.uxey, T. B., 383. ISythesea, Captain, 337. 434, 180. Cadet Sc'lieme, 300, 365, 422, 481. Caine, W., 170, 186. 188, 189, 220, 229, 233, 241, 297. 338. Calamities. 175, 177, 281, 350, 404, 473, 513, 565. Caldwell. D. R.. 189, 270, 271, 337, 339. 520. Campbell, A., 243, 276. Campbell, P., 321, Canton, 1-95, 216, 302, 304, 305, 306, 316, 459. Canton Cotton Guild, 415, 554. Canton, Occupation of, 317, 356, 362. Canton Railway, 388, 409. Canton Register, 22. 35, 60, 196, 209. Canton Ride Corps, 400. Cape Collinson, 131, 500. Cape D'Aguilar, 131, 500. Cardazo, 8., 255. Card well. Mr., 374. Carnarvon. Earl, 427, 431, Carpenter, F. S., 277, Carter, A., 223, 225, Carvalho, J. A. da, 530. Catchpoole, Mr.. 3, 27, 30. Cay, R. D., 220. Cemeteries, 175, 246, 332. Census, 171, 226, 485. Central Bank, 381. 386. Central School, 392, 466, 561, 562. Cession of Hongkong, 122-126, 155— 157, 163. Chablaye, M. de, 151. Chadwick, 0., 561. Chaldecott, Dr., 341. Chamber of Commerce — British, 35, 45, 101, 102 ; General, 67; Hong- kong, 383, 384, 421, 428, 440, 503 ; C^hinese, 560. Chartered Bank of India, 387. Chartered Mercantile Bank, 381, 387 Charter of Hongkong, 188, 479, 525. Chater, C. P., 564. Chefoo Convention, 505^. 552. Chenez, M. des, 317. Chesne. H. du, 472, China Mail, 247, 426. 471, 549. China Merchants S. N. Co., 505, 506, 556. 558. China Punch. 470. 516. Chinese, Government of the, 164, 222, 333, 364, 368, 460, 461, 574. i:sj)Ex. Ill Chinese Hatred of Foreisnerss. HOo. Chinese Periidy, 148, loS, 11)1>, 25G, 355. (Miinnerer, Mr.. 285. 406. Chomley.' F.. 370, 887. Chopped Dollars, 496, 498, 554. Choral Society. 81)8, 51G. Chnenpi, 4, 10(5, 458. Chiisan, 8, 55, 56, 5*J, 117, 118, 122. 148, 170, 204. 286, 855. City Hall, 401, 468, 568. Civil Hospital, 288, 462, 487, 510. Civil Service Abuses, 821-82(5, 865, 866, 529. Clarendon, Earl. 258, 296, 800, 805, 814, 842. Clark, Mr., 474. Clarke, H. M., 70. Cleverly, Ch. St. G., 189, 279. 824, 829, 880,. 860.-87(5, 891. Clock Tower. 401. Clouth. Dr.. 517. Club Right, 588. Coast Survey, 499. Coast Trade." 248, 454, 500. (Jochran, Dr., 474. Cochrane, Sir Th., 151, 207. Cohen, H., 401. Co-Hong, 5-8. Colborne, Sir F., 522. Coley, R., 238. College, t. R., 32, 37, 72. Collier. Sir F. A.. 285. Colonial Chaplain, 189, 190. Colonial Defence Commission, 362, 549. Colonial Ships' Register. 803, 882. Colonial Surgeon, 180, 189. Conmierce, 197, 205, 219, 242, 271, 842-84(5, 888, 410, 452-460, 490- 506, 550-560. Commercial Bank, 287, 454. Connuission, Mixed, 360, 553. Compradors, 533. Comptoir d'6sc(nnpte, 519. Compton, Ch. Sp., 280. Consolidation of Laws, 370, 408, 532. Consoo. 8. Consul (Chinese). 419, 504. Consular Student lnteri)reters. 800. Consuls, Foreign. 244, 472. Contagious Diseases Acts, 881. 464. ■Costa, Captain da. 2(59. Convoying, 248, 272, 803, Coolie Trade, 273. 844. 458, 500. Cooper-Turner, Mr., 384, 405. Coroner, 180, 221, 483. Coughtrie, J. B., 470, 529, (^owasjee, P. 174. Coxon, A., 401, 444, 549. Cragg & Co., 68 , Creagh, C. V., 446, 490, 546. Cricket Club, 288. Crime, Statistics of, 450, 488, 540, 545. Crimes, 269, 337, 380, 381, 542. Crooke, N., 85, 45, Cunha, P. A. da, 255. Currenev, 184, 244, 275, 345, 875. 87(5, 495, 554. Customs, Chinese Imperial Maritime, 356, 388, 884, 408. D'Agnilar, G. C, 189, 207, 214, 21(5, 217, 233, 288, 245, 24S. 249. Daily Press, 821, 328, 829, 8(;(;. |(i4. 409. Dalgarno. A., 521. Danby, W.. 487, 549. Daniel], & Co., 68. Davidson, W. M., 386. Davidson, W. S., 21. Davies, H. T., 821, 828, 824, 830. Davies, J. W., 256. Davis, H. W., 564. Day, J., 829, 334, 850. Deane, Dr.. 180. Deane, W. M., 365, 446, 546. Death Rate, 192, 245, 278, 463, 509, 5(50. Debating Society, 516, 566. Defences, 298. Delano, D.,.883. Dempster, Captain, 548. Dennys, N. B., 516, 519. Dent & Co., 21, (58, 119. 178. 174, 197; 203, 220, 829, 888, 8.s6. Dent. J., 189. 823, 324, 328. 829, 3(53, 401. Dent. L., 35, 70, 90. Dent, W., 106, 24(5, 286. Deportation, 239, 312, 379 449, 488, 556. Derby, Lord, 313. Detective Force, 271. 447, 489. Devereux, Subaltern. 144. Dhunjeesiiaw, R., 387. IV INDEX. Dick, Th.. 418. Ditferentiiil Duties, 17r>, 201, 240. :U(), 50') . Diocesan School, 391, 4fJ(». Diroin ct Co.. (18, ll'J. 174. District Watchmen, 208, 2H8. 447, Distillery Company, 491, '>ij(). Dixon, J.. 538. Docks, VJii, 350, 380, 453, 519, 558, 565. Dodd, J., 400. Dods. G.' 480. 508. Dollar, 184, 185, 244, 275, 345, 374, 497. 554. Donaldson, Th.. 403. 474. Donoval J.. 474. Douglas Castle. 403. Douglas, v., 380, 488, 520. Douglas Mackenzie & Co.. 35. Drainage, 391. Drain Gangs, 381. Drake, Mr., 281. Drew, Dr., 481. Drinker, S., 311. Drinking Fountain, 401. Drumnunid, F. C. 189. Drury, Admiral. 10. Duddell, G.. 315. Dudgeon, P., 189, 223. Duelling, 51(1. Duipuis, M., 5LS. Dwyer, Lieut., 2(59. Eastern Globe. 19(;. Ka- Macao, 103 ; from Hongkong. 223. 319. Extradition, 100. 213, 229. 230. 409. 410, 531. Extraterritorial Jurisdiction. 1(5, 27. 28. 101. 109. Factories (Canton). 8. 9. 23. 30. 07. 88. 92, 139. 159, 217. 230. Falconer, G. B., 448. 520. Farncomb, E., 221. 233. Fatshan. 140, 150, 302. 315, 318. Fearon, Mr., 91, Fearon, S., 18(>, 221. Feliciani. Fra A.. 190. Field. Mr., 140. Fire Brigade. 444, 528. 529. Fitz-Gibbon, Mr.. 185. Fletcher & Co.. 383. Fletcher, A., 189. 324, 402. Flint. Mr., (5. 7. Flogging. 171. 238. 207. 449. 450. 541, 545. Flora. -104, 519. Forbes, W. H.. 517, 529, 545. Ford, Cli.,470, 520. Foreigner (Meaning of the term). 248. Foreign Devil, 13. Formosa, 1, 50. 59. 34l». Forth, F. H., 329, 422. Fox Kawson & Co., 08. 174. Fox, T., 35. Framjee, N., 08. Framjee' P., 387. Francis, J. J., 510. 532, 540, 550.. Franklin. Lady, 398. Eraser. J., 473. Frazer, J. M., 400. Frazer Smith. U., 566. INDEX. Freedom of the Port. 125, 15G, IfiG, 171. 182. 202. :)0'J. Free Trade v. Monopoly, 19-25, 17. 212. 2Ii3. 294. Fremaiitle. Mr,, 499, Frencli Mail Steamers, 484, 530, 533. Freemasonry. 247. 283. 284, 472. 518. Friend of China. 183. 187, 19(j, 200. 223. 313, 321, 324, Fryer, J,. 391. Fnng Ming-Shan. 54(5. Fnrd(nijee, D.. 102. '■Ganlhlin^^ 337. 33>!. 399. 428-441, 508. 531. 53r). 573. -Oaol, 171, 378, 379, 380, 449, 450, 488. 541. . Gas Company. 380. Haskell, W.,'233. 350, Oazette, 148, 170, 183. 3()4. Gemmell & Co., ()8, 174. ■^renoa, Dnke of, 524, Geolof^A'. 404. a German Clnb. 397. 1(;9. 372, 517. ^ibb, H. B., 414, 423. 530. 543, 544. Gibb, J. D.. 324. 389. 402, Gibb, T. A., 189. 223. 225. Gibb Liviniifston iV: Co., (58, 174. Gibbons. H., 528. George— II.. 14: III.. 15: IV., 17. George, E., 557. Gillespie A: Co., 203. Ginger and Coffee Plantations, 350. Gladstone. Mr.. 313. Glenealy. 178. 220. ^lold Standard. 244, 275. Goodall. Corj)oral. 400. 'Gordon. A. T„ 189. 194. 'Gord(ni. General. 35(;. 409, 549. Gongh. Sir H.. 137, 147, 159. 'Gonlding, Mr., 473. Governor General of H. M. Insnlar Possessions, 3. Klreen, F, W.. 329, 347, 520. -Green, Th., 520. •^jreen Island, 127, 500. Greig, J., 481, 492. Grev, Earl, 28, 217. 2(51, 29.*, 325. 527, Gribble, Hnghes & Co., 11 9, 174. Gros, Barcm, 31(), Guimaraes, T. F., 255, 338, 400. Gnlly, R., 174, Gnnthorpe. Mr., 405. Gntzlaff, Ch., 72., 189, 241. 254. 281, 284, 285. Gymnasinm, 397. Hadfield, Lient,, 144. ^ Haiphong. 519. Hall, W, K., 138, 357. Hanlon. Mr., 510. Hanoi, 519. Happer. A., 394. Happy Valley (Wongnaiohnng). 1 <»7, 245. 247. Harbour Office, 177. 451. Harland, Dr.. 245, 350. Harper, P. K., 387. Harrison, Mr., <>. Hart, Ch.. 174 Rart. Sir R.. 35(;. 408. 502. Havilland, Ue. 194. Ha V.J. r. 1).. 270. Havllar. Th. C., 448, 492. 532. 5(;i. Hazeland. F. T.. 334, 401. 474. Headmoney, 115, 309, 319. Heard & Co., 389, 471, 491. Heard. A. V. 387. Heard. J., 402. 473. Heinrieh. Prince. 524. Helland. G. J., 373, 387, 472. Henderson & Co., (58. Henderson. VV. J., 401. Hennessv, Sir J. P., 522-5G7, 5(t8, 573. Herbert. Captain. 138. Herbert, Sidney, 355, 358: 504. Hewart. Ch. E.. 194. Hi7, <)8. Hitchcock, E. A., 438. Ho .\-mei, 559. Hobson, Dr., 181, 191. Hoi how, 519. Holdermaim. Mr., 280. Holgate, H., 180. Holliday, .1., 189. H.)lliday, Wise & Co., 174, 381. Tl INDEX. Hollowav, Colonel, 317. Holmes,' H. J., 891, 400, 401. Home, Dr., 81)1. Hongkong — Island of, 51, 56, 60. 100,^108, 107, 123, 124, 127-134; its name, 188, 188: pnrport, 156, 157, 185, 284, 251, 288, 290 ; pro- gramme of snccess, 252, 260, 285, 291, 475, 570 ; strategical position, 571 ; statns, 854. Hongkong Association, 470. Hongkong, Canton & Macao Steam- packet Company, 248, 276, 846. Hongkong, Canton & Macao Steam- boat Companj% 453, 457, 469, 551. Hongkong Dispensary. 174, 191. Hongkong & Shanghai Bank, 386. 458. 454, 490, 497, 520, 551. Hongkong Telegraph, 566. Hongkong 4. 287, 242, 344. 415-418. 451. 557. Jury. 220, 267. Justices of the Peace, 188. 282. 321. 322. Kalakau, King. 525. Kane. W., 389, 400, 472. Keating, A. S., 35, 45, 47. Keenan. J.. 384. Kellett, H.! 421,458. Kennedy, Sir A. E., 477-521, 572. Kent and Babes, 19(>. Keppel. Sir H.. 255. 315, 468. Kerr. C, 189, 241. Keswick. W.. 428, 424, 448, 468, 472,. 481, 528, 548, 561, 562. Key, Sir A. K.. 30(). Kidd., H. H.. 518, 666. Kikung, 140, 143, 158. 159. 176. Kimberley. Earl, 439, 440, Kingsley & Co.. dS. Kingsmill, H., 334. Kingsmill, T. W., 404. Kishen. 117-128, 135-188, 149. Kiukitchi, K., 182. Kiving, 150. 151. 154. 160, 201. 212, 214, 216. Klitzke, Pastor. 566. Knowles, Major, 159, 207. INDEX. Vll Kowloun— British. 8:)7. 880, 884. 8yr), 89(5, Wty. 1U4. 128. 802,808. 417, 520 : Peninsula, (JO. 127, 184, 1(U>. 48H. Ki-esser. V.. 887, 474. Kublai Klum. 12i>. Kunji:, Prince, 8r)(). Kwan. Admiral, l(i8. 121, 187. Kydd, T., 448. Labouchere, H.. 827, 828. 888. Ladrones, 181. Lamina Channel, (»0. 18 >. Lamma Island, (50. Lamond, W., 887. Lamont, J., IIM), 850. Lamont, J.. 51 1>. ^ Land Committee. 188. 184, 2(;(;. Land, GanihliMH' in. 1S»8, 20(5. Land Policy, 172-174, 1!)2-11>4, 265. Land Revenue. 178. 2(;5, 871, 48!;. 585. Land Sales. 172-174, 198, 2)4, 862, Landstein. VV, II., 5()(;. Lantao, 51, 5(5. 60, 117, 118, 128. Lapraik, D()u., 878, 887. Leniaun, W., 448. Lena, A., 177. 189, 221. Leslie, W., 226. Lighthouses, 499. Lighting of the City, 288. 850 886, Linieneen, A., 440. Limoges, A. de, 421. Lin. Commissioner, 87-115, 118, 140, 152. Lind A., 528. Lindsay & Co.. 167, 174, 829. Lindsav. H. H.. 9, 58, 68. Linstead, T. G.. 878. 897. 401. 56 '.. Lintin. Id. 24, Mi. 48, 64 72, 74, 77. 84. Lister. A.. 417. 4l2, 448, 479, 481, Little Huimkong (Heungkongtsai), 182, 188, 186. 247. Livin-rstou. VV. P., 159, 189. Loan Exhibition, 518. Loan. Imperial Chinese, 520. Lobscheid, W.. 848. 892. Lock Hospital, 881, 878, 510. \ Loercher, J.. 484. London Mission, 191, 281. Lopes, Mr.. 2(»8. Lowcock, H.. 448, 481. 48(5, 487, 492, 580. 548. Lukee. 208. Lvall, C., 28(). 824, 848. 368, 401. 444. Lyall Still i: Co.. 454. Lyeemoou, 60, 129. 417. liyndhur-st, Lord. 818. Lyttou. Sir E. B., 825, 888. Macandrew. J.. 885. Macao. 1 59. (55. 99, 208, 219, 229. 255, 887. 400. 528. 581. Macao. British Occupation of 15. 1(J. Macao Coolie Trade. 278, 422. 50o. Macartney, Lord. 15. Mac'Clymont. A., 548. Macdouald i: Co., iiS. MacDouuell, Sir R. G., 895, 412-47(5. 5(»6, 570. 572. Macdougall. Captain. 21(5. Ma^'gregor, Consul, 21(5, 280. Macgregor & Co.. 88(5, 515. Machow Wong. 824. 889. Mjujkav, Dr.. 891. Mackean. T. W., L.. 189. Mackenzie, J. J.. 87(5, 889. 891 . Msickintosh, C, 444. Ma(;kint()sh. E,, 551. Maclean. G. F.. 887. Mad. -hose, Mr., 208. MacMahon, Coh)nel, 859. MacQuhae, Captain, 249. Vlll INDEX. >ra. Manchester Cliamher. 257. :\Ianchus, 2, 7. 227, 259, 2S»6, 805, 8(>7. INIann. G. F., 800, 370. Marj,'ess()n, Mr., 4<57, 474. Marine Court of liKjuiry. 368, 485, Marine Magistrate, 177, 221, Marine Surveyor, 52(5. / Markets, 180. 180. 220, 328, 850. Markwick, Ch., 387. Marriage Law, 208, 512. Marsh, W. H., 523. Marsh & Co., 4(15. Martial T>a\v. 227. Martin, K. M.. li>8. 220. 25(1. 847. Massa<-r»» (Hongkong), 150. Math.'son, A., 22, 15l>, KnS, 16S), 170, 173, 188, 11)2, 241, 250. .Matheson, Donald. 228, 225, 243, 276. Matheson. J., 85. 57. 102, 110. 177. Matshed Chureh, 190. Maxwell, Captain, 14. .May, Ch., 287. 880, 338. 3()0, 808, 408, 485. 48(5, 487, 527. 528, 500. May. A. J.. 511. MeAdatn (lladstono i^ Co.. 85, 45. McCalluni, J.. 550. MeClannon, Mrs,, 19. McCoy. R. W., 480. McEiinn, J. P., 538. Mc'Ewen, A. P., 543. Me Hardy, Lieut., 480. Mclver, Mrs.. 5()(>. .McKiniioii. Dr., 501. .McLane. Mr., 301. McMiM-do, K„ 538, .McSwynev, P. C., 233. McViear & Co., 119, 174. Meadows, T. T,, 302. -Medhurst, W. H., 182, 258. Medical Missions, 181, 191, 564. •Medico -Chirnrgieal Societv, 247. 248. .Meik, Captuin, 184. Mellish, K., 444. Memorials, 08, 98. 1(^5. 124. 223, 224. 241. 200, 298, 373, 417. 420, 421. 42(>, 484, 440, 448, 470, 497, 502, 508. 548. 544. Menzies, Dr., 341. Mercer. J. A.. 189. Mercer, W. T., 220. 275, 297, 329, 342, 854. 3()(), 378, 386, 406, 408- 411, 400-425, Meritens, Baron de, 418. Messageries Maritimes, 389, 398. Michaeloff, Prince, 299. Middle Island, 127. Middleton. W. N., 470, 510. Mildew Question, 493. Milles, Col.. 409. Military Contribution, 372. 378. 470. Millot, M., 518. Mint, 372, 374, 441. 442, 498, 554, 555. Mitchell, F. W., 885, 448. Mitchell, Miss. 281, Mitsti Bishu Co., 500. Mixed Commission. 317. Monopolies. 19-25. 212. 234. 235, 293. Moody, Colonel, 391. Moore, Sergeant, 400. Moorsom. L. IL, 480. Moreno, C. C, 556. Morgan, W., 174, 188. Morris. D. B., 434. Morrison, K., 32. 400. Morrison, J. R., 32, 72, 108, 175, 177, 182, 189, 207, 400. Morrison, \\ ., 24 >. ^ Morrison Education Society, 181. ]8(>. 190. 281. 394. 4()(>. Morrison Hill, 124, 180. Morrison Scholarshii), 512. Mortuary, 240. Moss, ^C 102, 143, 309. Mosque, 190. Mountain L )dge, 279, 390. Mow(|ua. 37, 90. Mow Wang, 409. ' Mnllaly, Mr. 185. Municipal Government, 205, 225, 200-203, 322, 507, 574. Murray. J. L, 389, 391, 464. Murray. C. W.. 870, 373, 402. Mylius, G. F., 180, 184, INDEX. IX Nankin,!;. 154. Napier. Lord. 2r»-41, 5G. Naval Keview. 550. Naval Yard, 1K4. :^B5. 440. Neave, T. I),. 24(;. 27(). Nelson, H. H., 54^. Xewnmn, Mr., 405. N^' Choy. 527. 580, 582. Xicaise, H., 472. Ningpo, 55. 56. 50. Nissen. D., 3M8. Nissen, W.. 887, 81»7. Noble, H., 878, 8H(). Nordenskjold, Prof., 5()4. Notarv Public, 180. Notley, W. H., Oaths, Chinese, 208. ^)'Brien. T., 520. Observatory, 58i), 540. Ocean Racing. 495. O' Mai ley, E. L., 502. Opium Revenue, 28(;. 205, 88(5, 485, 530. Opium Trade. Ht7. 247, 110. 158. 102. 202. 'Oriental Hank. 244. 887. Oriental & Occidental S.S. Co., 51 1>. Onniston. W., 887. Ormsby, t., 18JI. Ortuno. F., 478. Ouseley, Sir F. G., 841). Overbe(;k, G. von, 472. Oxford Professorship, 512. Oxlad, Miss, 405. Pacific Mail S.S. Co., 51 1>. Pacific Ocean, 272. I'aco d'Arcos, 525. Paiva, F. J. de. 245. i'akhoi, 242, 415. Palmer, H. S., 540. J'almerston, liord. 28, 21>. 40. 51. 05, 80. 118, 215. 257, 272, 21)0, 8 J 8, 814. Paiiton, Captain, 08. Pao Pang, 120, 121. Parker, Conmiodore, 207. Parker, E. H., 7S. 151. Piirker, H. R., 189. Parker, N. D'E.. 288. Parker. P., 191. Parker, Sir W., 147, 159, 188. Parkes, Sir H., 258, 299, 800, 808, 817,858,859. Parliamentary Acts, 881, 439. I'arliamentarv Grants. 204, 205, 835. J'arry, F. 484. 407. Parsees, 19(), 470. Parsons, Mr.. 334. Pasc(v, J., 184. I'auncefote. Sir J.. 489, 402, 484. Peace Society, 290. 802. 814, Peak Residences, 279, 890, 403, 509. Redder, W., 177. 189, 221. Pedder's Hill. 177. Peel. Sir R., 178, 182, 274. Pender, Sir.. J., 494. Peninsular .t Oriental S. X. Co.. 248, 270. 840. Pension Scheme, 808. Perceval, .\., 870. l*erkis, Mr., 887. Perry, Commodore, 283. 819. Perry, 0. H., 384. Petty Sessions. 190, 207, 821. Petz, Admiral, 472. Plu'lps, Mr., 186. Philippine Islands. .744. 518. Phillippo, G., 528, 54(). IMcnic House, 180, 247. Pien (the term). 38. 84. 72, 78, 8(;5. Pier and Oodown Co., 880. 491. Pill Kwei. 317. l*into, A. A. da S.. 99-104. 112. Pil)er; J., 434. 407. Piracy. 202, 204, 239. 27(>, 271. 808, 3.38, 339, 882. 388. 408, 451, 452. Plague, 278. Plowden, W. H. Ch.. 28, 3o. Plunket, C. P., 555, 500. Pocheung & Pokap System, 222, 485. Poisoning Daj', 311. Pokfnlam, 18i, 8.50. 408. Pokfulam Reservoir, 342, 370, 442, 487. Poleung Kuk. 540, 547. Police Connuissioners, 202. Police Force. 196, 203, 237. 280, 328. 33(5. 378. 379, 408, 428, 430. 445, 489! 52«;. Police Magistracy, 188 189. 231, 363. Police School, 440. l»ollard, E. H., 309, 409, 445. C INDEX, Poll Tax, 222. Registration. 222-22(5, 310, 429. 480. Polo Club, 5G4. 508. Pope. J., 220, 236. Eeiners, W., 529, 543. Population, 134, 171, 183, 186, 197, Religion, 186, 190, 245, 279. 348, 394. 221, 237, 259, 271, 340. 371, 463, 466, 562. 485. 533, Remedios, J, J. do?, 473, 56(), Portugal, 1, 2, 6. Representative Government, 205,. Possession Point, 124. 221, 225, 260. Postage Stamps, 385. Retributive Vengeance, 320. Post Office, 185, 243, 286, 346, 371. Revenues, 233. 237, 265, 335, 371, 384, 519. 537, 565. 424, 425, 485, 534. Pottinger, E., 207. Reynolds, E. G., 184. Pottinger, Sir H., 146-162, 173, 177, Rice, Th. F., 489 179-210, 292-294. Richthofen, Baron von, 456. Pratas Shoals, 388. Rickett, J., 324. Pratt, Major, 142. Rickomartz, Mrs., 405. Praya. 327-330, 377, 443. 487. 538, Rienacker, R., 323. 539. ' River-Steamers, 381. 389, 453, 457, Precedence, 481, 482, 519. Price, J. M.. 480, 486. 487, 528, 529, Robertson. I). B.. 414. 415, 5()4, 505. 538, 540, 562. Robertson, P. F., 174. Public Gardens, 284. 403, 444, 407, Robinson, G. B.. 32. 42. 48-52. 480, 527. Robinson, Sir H., 353-407, 429, 567. Public Meetings, at Canton. 23, 35, Robriguez, J. B.. 182. 67,86; at Macao, 102; in Hong- Rolles, Captain. 16. kong, 223, 224. 225, 248, 266, K. C. Cathedral. 186, 405. 309, 320, 322, 328, 373, 378, 399, R. C. Mission, 186. 247, 281, 393. 4(11. 402, 426, 503, 51(1, 543. Rowan, Admiral, 471. Public Works, 177, 184, 442, 487, Rowett. R., 423, 438, 483, 490. 500. 538. R, A. S., China Branch, 248. 296, Pimchard, K., 5(>6. 393. Pyke. Th., 469. Russell & Co., 389, 471. Russell J.. 422. 481, 527. <.)ueen'a Road, 183. Russell, Lord John, 338. «.^leen Victoria, 67. it5, 113, 124, 5'^^f^^".^^ '^'a^??-' ., ,_. l'^^ Uustom.iee, D., 3,), 68, 1/4. guiuhon.519. Rustomjee, H., 174, 177, 191, Ruttimjee. I)., 453, 4(59, 543. llvall, Ch., 379. Races, 207, 283, 397, 471. Rvder, Admiral, 538, 540. Kail way, 388, 409. Ryrie, Ph., 418, 423, 424, 438, 44(», Kaimondi, Bishop, 393, 4(55, 511, 479,481,482,483,485,486.487, '"■>l-*. •">2-^ 489, 490, 501. 502. 510, 515, 528. Uapp, Mr., 564. 531, 543, 5(52, 567. Kanjee, B. P., 453. Kates ami Taxes, 234, 265, 335, 535, Sailors' Home, 402. "•^"- Salisburv, Lord, 533. Kawling, S. B., 376. Salt Trade, 181,' 204, 336, 553, 559. Kawson, S., 223, 284. Saltoun, Lord, 207. h'awsou. W., 1()7. Samyuenli, 145, 305. Krddie, R. H., 402. Sanatorium, 279, 390. Keforuuitory, 393, 541. Sands, G. U., 519. .565, 5(>6. Registrar General, 221, 364, 447, San Fi-ancisco, 273, 387, 519. ■^■^^' Sangster, C. F. A., 349, 394. 398. indp:x. XI tSanitation. 175, 18:}, 24.*). 278. :i4(». a8l>, 408. Sanon (Namtao), 127. 128, H20, 337, 8<;2, 4GH. r)08. aCiU. Saves. L'aptain, 1. Sargent, Lieut.. 180, 184, Sassoon, A., 387, Sean Ian. Dr.. 481. Searth. J.. 324. Seherzer. Professor. 472. Seliniidt, W., 373, 387. Schmidt, AV.. .')(J4. Schuek, J. L.. 183, 18<>. Scott, Captain, 123. Scottl Major. 4(»1. Scott, W., 102. Uil) Seal of the Colony. 189 ; of tlie Sujieriiitendent. 203. Seamen's Hospital (at Wantsni). l!il, 247, 470, .-)0i>. Senhonse, H. L. le Fleming. ll!». 138, laO, ITT). Sen Kwang-tsin, 2.~»(). 305. Seward, W. H.. 459. Seymour. Sir M., 3O()-309, 351. Shadwell, Admiral. 499. Shake.«pearf Memorial, 395. Shanghai, 342, 343. Sliares, 483, Sharp. E., 48G. Sharj). Granville. 390, 543. Shaukiwan. 130. 132, 378. Shelley, A. E., 220. Shi])ping Trade, 272, 345, 388, 550. Shortrede, A.. 347, 348. Siam, 299. 300. 343. Silva. ('. (". da, 478. Silver Standard. 185, 375. Silver, Depreciation of, 551. Sinnett, A. T.. 470. Sirr, H. Ch., 220. Sketching ("lub, 518. vSlade, J., 35, 9K Slavery Acts, 195, 229. Slavery, Domestic, 195. 228, 54(5, 547. Smale. J., 309. 370. 414, 438, 44.5. 474. 382. 501, 532, 548. Smith. Archer & Co.. 381. Smith, Bi3hop G., 280. 302, 348. 392, 394, 400, 474. Smith. Captain, lor». Smith, 0. C, 302, 3(15. 422, 423, 424, 434, 440, 443, 487,527, 529. Smith, J.. 174. Smith, J. M., 189. Snnth, G., 20, l02. 241. Snmggling, 198, 419. Social Life, 20(5, 247, 282, 395. 409. 50(), 515, 5G3. Social Science Association, 335. Solomon, 11.. 453. Souza, Adnural de, 422. Souza, Regina v., 444. Spanish Ports. 518. 557. Special Fund. 433. 437, 438, 455. 4()2. Spratt & Co., 565. Spiritual Junk. 513. Sports, 207, 283. 397, 517, 563. Spring, F., 189. Spring Gardens, 1(57. 19". St. Andrew's School. 347. 393. St. John's Cathedral, 18(1, 190, 246^ 279. 394, 467, 4(J9. St. John's Lodge, 5(53. St. Joseph's Church, 512. St. Josei)h's College, 512. St. Paul's (!olleue. 181. 191. 280. 347. 391, 4(;(;. 511.512. St. Peter's Church. 467. St. Saviour's College, 465, 512. Stamp Duties, 425. 426, 534. Standard (London). 41o. Stanley (Chikchn), 131. 171, 190. Stanlev of Alderley, Lord. 548. Staide'v, Lord, 124. 196. 241. 33S. Stanton, V. J.. 119, 189, 191, 247. Staunton. Sir (J., 53, 54, 59. <»6. Stavelev, Major-CJeneral. 248, 254. 282.' Stead, Cai)tain, 149. Steam-ferries, 520. StHi)hen, D.. 189. Stephenson. Sir M., .S88, 409. Stewart.MJh. E., 189. Stewart. F.. 392, 448, 4(»6. 481. 510, 527. 562. Stewart. Hon. K.. 320. Stewart. P.. 189. Stewart. AV., 68. 188. Stirling. P. L. 193, 22(>. Stirling, Sir J.. 298. 299, 3o4, 344^ Stonecutters' Island, 127, 357. 378. 379. 405. Storey, C. H., 373. Strachan, G., 248. Straits Settlements. 354. XIl INDEX. Stranbenzee, C. van. 315. 320, 357. Street Fi{?hts. 209. Strikes, 223, 368. 3(>9. 508. Stuart, C. J. F., 286. Subscriptions. 248-298. 394, 401, 402. 445, 472, 564. Snb^^idiary Coinage, 372, 375, 425. 499. Suez Canal, 452, 571. Sugar Factories. 491. Sunimarv Jurisdiction. 220.268, 363, 444. Summers, J., 255, 280. Sundav Labour, 245. 563, Superintendent of Trade, 27-52. 67- 74. 182, 187. 212, 230. 253, 264. 295, 297, 354. Supplementary Treaty. 160, 161. 242. Supremacy. Chinese claim of. 36,44, 65, 69," 92, 288. 569. Supreme Court. 181, 187. 220. 330. 331. 444. 479, 483, 484, 528. Siu'vevor Greneral. 194. 221. Sutherland, Th., 373, 387, 423, 453. Sykes, Colonel, 410. Taliunga. 149, 153. Taipan. 3, 26, 39, 4(5. 71. Tniping, 258, 259, 302. 356, 3(;7. Taipingshan^ 124, 168, 220, Taitam Reservoir. 487. 529, 539. Tan-ka, 168. Tanner. K. 1).. 400, Tarrant, VV., 189, 235, 313. Tatsing Dynasty. 2, 15. 128. 133. Taufter, Brothers, 515. Taylor, J. B., 423, 438. T(;a Trade, 9, 389, 494. Telegrapli, 27(5, 5(56. Telephones. 5(»6. Temperance Hall. 517. 'I'emples, 190, 282. Temjileton & Co., 35, 45. 'Terranuova, 1(5. Thoni, |{., 91, 182. Thompson, Mr., 61. Tliomsett, H. G., 402. 502. 538. Thomson, W., 159, Thorhurn, H., 566. Time Hall. 401, 540. Tiju.s (Lond(m), 240 242. 325, 346, 4(i3. Times (New York), 349. 'Tinpak, 242. Tipo, 166, 364. Tondin, G. L.. 447, 488. Tonnochv, M. S.. 365, 486, 488, 523. Torrev, J. W., 516. Towing Rights, 272. Town, Captain. 111. Train, G. F., 472. Tramways, 531. Treasury Board, 276, 345, 375, 441. Treaties— of Chuenpi, 123, 177 ; of Canton, 139 ; of Nanking, 155, 187, 274 : Supplementary. 160, 161. 198, 209, 212 ; with Annam, 218'; with Siam, 299, 300 ; of Tientsin, 318, 357, 421 ; Conven- tion of Peking. 356, 388. Treaty Ports, 155, 172, 200, 421. Treaty Revision, 420, 421. Triad Societies, 227, 259. Tripp, H. J., 401. Troiibridge, Captain, 255, 285. Tsimshatsui (Kowloon Point), 100, 101. Ill, 114, 132, l.;7, 1(58, 181, 357, 380, 486. 550. Tungku. 107, 111. Tungwa Hospital, 462, 5Ul, 507, 510, 544, 555, 567. 'Turing. A.. 373. Turner & Co., 35, 45, 47, 68, 174, 383 Turner, F. S., 434. Turner. R., 35. Typhoons, 146. 175, 176, 284, 350, 404, 573, 514. Union Chm-ch, 24(5. 393. Union Dock Co., 38(5. 453. Urmston, Sir J. B., 55. Vachell, J. H.. 32, 72. Van Geniss, 269. Vaucher, A. E., 453. Vernon, Sir E. 68. Vice-Admiraltv Court, 220, 232. Vickers, J. M., 444. Victoria Citv, 188, 189. Victoria Club, 471. Victoria P]nglish Scliool, 510. Victoria Exchange, 405. Victoria Fort, 167. Victoria Gaol v. Gaol. Victoria Gunboat, 417, 437. Victoria Library, 284, 471. Victoria Peak, 124, 1.33, 381, 403. INDEX. XIII Victoria Recreation Club, rilG. Victoria Ke,^'attil Club, 283. Volunteer Corps. 382. 39G, 399-401. 471, 549. Wade. Sir Th., 254. 308. 404, 420. 504. 552. Walker. J.. 37G, 405. Walker. K. S.. 373. Walkinshaw, W., 277. 389. 402. Wallace, W., lOG. Wan,j? An -tun I?, 159. Ward. U. S. Minister, 355. Wardley & Co.. 337. AVarner. Captain. 107. Warren, Ch. J.. 434. Waterworks. 341, 342. 370. 442, 487, 529, 539. Wato Temple, 510, 543. Watson, J.. 35, 45. Webster, R. G. 174, 443. Weddell, Captain, 2. Weller. G. F., 444. Wellinjjton. Duke of. 31. 40. 50. Welsh. D., 440, 515. Westpoint, 174, 191, 192, 403. West River. 318, 456, 518. Whale. 397. Whalers. 273. Whampoa. 3, (;4. 74, 77, 112, 137, 138, 387. Wharry, Dr., 481. White," J., 183, 189, 203. Whitrield, H. W.. 414, 421, 424. 439, 409. Whittield Station, 452. Whittall, J., 3(58, 373. 402, 453, 457, 481, 483, 490, 500. Wilkinson, A.. 189. William IV, 24, <>7. Williams. Cajjtain, 311. Williams. C. D., 347. Wills. Chinese. 332. Wilson, W., 377. Winchester, Ch. A., 385. Wise, J., 189. Wise, Holliday .*c Co., 08. Wodehouse, H. E., 49(>. Woni^^chukee. 218. 305. Won.mnak()k, 132, 209. Wongshiiii;, 481. Woods. Mr.. 334. Woosnam, R. W., 184, 189. Wotton, W.. 528. Wriffht. H., 106. Yacht Club, 471, 517. Yang Fang. 136-143. Yaumati. 131. 132. Yeh Ming-shen, 304-309, 315-317. Yen, Japanese, 538, 555. Yikking, 149. Y'ikshan, 130-144, 150, 151, 153, 154. Y^onng, Peter, 191, 245. Young, R.. 405, 481. Young, W. S., 543, 504. Yelverton, Mrs.. 472. Yue Kien. 141, 149, 153. Yue Rao-shun, 138, 147. 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