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HONGKONG
Robert Peel, when asked in the House of Commons whether it was the intention of Her Majesty's Government to properly colonise the place or give it up, declined to answer what he deemed an unparliamentary question during a period of open war with the country by whom its cession was both made and repudiated. The Treaty of Nanking, however, settled all doubts. On the 23rd June, 1843, Keying, the Imperial Commissioner, arrived in Hongkong, for the exchange of the ratifications of the treaty, and the ceremony took place in the Council room on the 26th of that month, and immediately afterwards the Royal Charter, dated 5th April, 1843, erecting the island into a separate colony, was read, and Sir Henry Pottinger took the oaths of office as Governor. At first progress was rapid. The Queen's Road was laid out for a length of between three and four miles, and buildings rose rapidly. But a check was received owing to the unhealthy conditions which were developed by the breaking of the malarious soil, and in 1844, soon after the arrival of Sir John Davis, who assumed the Government in June, the advisability of abandoning the island altogether as a colony was seriously discussed. Mr. Montgomery Martin, H.M.'s Treasurer, drew up a long report, in which he earnestly recommended the abandonment of a place which, he believed, would never be habitable for Europeans, instancing the case of the 98th Regiment, which lost 257 men by death in twenty-one months, and of the Royal Artillery, which in two years lost 51 out of a strength of 135, and gave it as his opinion that it was a delusion to hope that Hongkong could ever become a commercial emporium like Singapore. Sir John Davis, in a despatch dated April, 18-15, strongly combated Mr. Martin's pessimist conclusions and expressed a firm belief that time alone was required for the development of the colony and for the correction of some of the evils which hindered its early progress. Sir John (who died in November, 1890, in his ninety-sixth year) lived to see his predictions most amply verified, and in after years must have reflected with satisfaction on the fact that his views prevailed in Downing Street. On the 26th May, 1846, the Hongkong Club house was opened with a ball. Sir John Davis resigned in January, 1848, and left the colony on the 30th March of that year, Major-General Stavely administering the government until the arrival a few weeks later of Sir George (then Mr.) Bonham. During his administration, which lasted, with two intervals, until April, 1854, the colony continued to progress, but the garrison and residents still suffered severely from malaria, On the 13th April, Sir John Bowring took the oaths as Governor, and held the reins until May, 1859. Sir Jolin Bowring was the last Governor who united that office with that of Minister Plenipotentiary and Superintendent of British Trade in China. During his administration various public works were constructed, and the Bowrington Canal made. In September, 1859, Sir Hercules Robinson arrived and assumed the administration. In 1860 the peninsula of Kowloon was placed under British control, and soon afterwards became a great camp, the English and French troops of the Allied Expeditionary Force being for some time quartered there. The principal work effected during the Government of Sir Hercules Robinson was the construction of the original Praya wall, in connection with which an extensive reclamation of land from the sea was made. Prior to that time the marine lot-holders had the entire control of the sea frontage of their lots and no public road properly speaking existed along the water frontage. In 1862 the Clock Tower was completed, and the Hongkong Mint was erected, but owing to the loss attending its working it was closed early in 1864. In March, 1865, Sir Hercules Robinson left the Colony, and Mr. Mercer, Colonial Secretary, became Acting Governor until the arrival, in March, 1866, of Sir Richard MacDonnell. In November, 1867, a great fire occurred, which swept the whole district between the Queen's Road and the Praya, from the Cross Roads to the Harbour Master's Office. During Sir Richard MacDonnell's vigorous administration the revenue of the Colony, which had fallen much below the expenditure, was augmented by the imposition of the stamp duties and other measures. One of His Excellency's last official acts was to preside at the opening, in February, 1872, of the Tung Wali (Chinese) Hospital. In April, 1872, Sir Arthur Kennedy arrived and assumed the reins of Government, which he held with such dexterity that he acquired the title of good Sir Arthur," and is the only Governor whose person has been commemorated in bronze. Under his administration the Colony prospered, but the year 1874 was made memorable in Colonial annals by the most destructive typhoon which has yet visited it, causing enormous damage and the loss of thousands of lives. The peaceful reign of Sir Arthur Kennedy was followed by the stormy administration of Sir John Pope Hennessy, who arrived in April, 1877, and left in March, 1882. In this interval the trade of the Colony increased greatly and Governor Hennessy accumulated a large surplus, but public works made little progress, the Breakwater at Causeway Bay being the principal work completed during his administration, while the Observatory was projected. On Christmas