THE FRIEND OF HINA AND HONGKONG GAZETTE.
From the CMar Mail. )
BITENUL AND RIPENI
URE OF THE COLONY OF HONGKONG,
580
28 10
13 21
NIGEL 27,047
ong, 1st 2amary, 1847.
LATEST DATES.
Velar SarON
Daci
Bray
Вер
C of G. Home
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Batavia Blugapore 18 Manila 12 Shanghai
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Nov 24 Deo. 30 Jany. Jany. 3 Jawy. 15
THE FRIEND OF CHINA AND HONGKONG GAZETTE.
VICTORIA, WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY SED. 1817.
Je alien-
Cirl Governmen
Ravenue Departn
Medical Der
Public Works and Compensati
Miscellaneous,
Total Expenditure during
1846
#6,814 28565-14-2ot
702318 #
01.
537 19 13. 454
... Sig. 60,351
*
W. T. MRRORE,
deting Colonial Treasurer.
for ground rent alone. While this new comer who has perhaps spent nothing on the colony gets there favourable terms, old settlers are allowing their lota, with all their improvements, to lapse in the All crown, because they cannot get such terms. rites cogitas be reduced to the average of the late
bu paleo, ar raiber Captain Elliot's engagement ought to be observed, and the lands made over in fee sim. ple for one or two years, purchase. Certainly the er post facto conditions ought to be disclaimed.
Again something must be done to concilinte the Chinese-they made advances first, it is our turn now. Soon after Sir John Davis entered on his duties, a deputation of the enterprising merchants of Chin Chew came to the colony to ascertain en what terms they would be allowed fo erect houses agd stores; but they met with a cold reception, and left the laland in disgust. Had they met with any
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verument.
Me vestigia terrent
Omnia to adversum spectantia nulla retrorsum. Gentle treatment is necessary to couter et this prejudice.
The British and other European residente fit them for an encounter with an infuriated mob of rioters acted. however, with a promptitude and energy that could hardly have been expected from men excha sively devoted to peaceful, occupations. To their own determined exertions they are indebted for the quelling of a riot which seemed at one timeto threaten the most serious results, for the local authorities a bear to have been in the first instance completely powerless. An officer of the Chinese Government, ivith his attendants, who had at last come to the spot, had been driven hack, and it was impossible t say if any troops would arrive, or what effect they would produce in the event of their coming. cording to the account in the Chinese Repository for
Ac
July, there was no alternative for the foreigners bat to see their factories pillaged and burnt, and then-
selves polted and chased into the river, a to step forward and disperse the rioters by such means as they chanced to have at command." It is wonder. ful that so serious an affair was terminated with so little loss of life as seems to have occurred, for it is portain that but for the promptitude of the foreigners in making a vigorous demonstration for their own defence, many must have been sacrificed.
The proclamations issued on this subject by the
encouragement, it is enpposed that some 40 of them It is our turn to send would have become sellers.
Those fiscal measures * deputation to them. which have had the effect of driving away the Chi- nese population pught to be repeated. But some thing more than this is necessary; the Chinese bave") bosh alarmed not only by what the governor has done, but still more by what he has attempted, A pretext for my additional per enn tage opon every The cruel maiming and branding act, for the local magistrates avince a disposition on the part of article sold there; and there is a fishery farm yield suppression of Triad Societies, was at once repuditho Chinese authorities to fix the blame of the dis preting to publiing, as was before mentioned, the sum of 174 4d.ated, with several other measures, by the home Coturbance most unfairly upon the English, to the ex. But the interval of suspense between clusion of other foreigners. None of them were the These four monopolies were disposed of prioxitely. which completes their resemblance to the ancient the publication of the act and the arrival of the Go-Assailants, but all acted together in their own defence, and the English felt naturally indignant at the ap patents, the rents of which were often merely agni- verament's deliverance produced as decided an im nal, while their profiis were unlimited.
pression on the Chinese mind as the sanction of the pearance of proclamations on the walls of Canton, Closoly allied to this method of raising money,
act would have done. The Chinese, in general, in which they were declared to be guilty, and desery. is that of imposing a charge for license or permis look on Hongkong with terror, as the abode of ing of punishment. A remonstrance was accordingly The Daily News" il addressed to Mr Macgregor, the British Consu), sion to sell various articles of consumption. This cruelty and oppression. system has also been adopted in Hongkong, much Instration of a "rat trap" is felicitous; for the feel who says, in reply, that be had already noted the contents and tenour of the proclamations in his cor to the detriment of the colony. Pet, there is what ing with which one of these poor proscribed ani. is called the wine and spirit license, but it is a mis- mals may be supposed to look on such an engine of respondence with the local authorities. He seems, however, to have noted them to little purpose, for nomer. No one would object to licenses such as destruction, smoared with his brethren's blood, ex-
on the following day he receives an appeal from the are universal in this country for the purpose of actly describes the feeling with which the poor
committed of foreign residents, expressing a hop checking intemperance. by limiting the sale of in- Chinaman regards the Englishman's den,-
that his remonstrance will have the effect of causing toxicating drinks, especially in China, where Hitle
the removal of the offensive "chops" from the walls We have much pleasure in callin
either of wine or spirits is drunk; but the license in
of the city. tion of our readers to an article.ch appears question extends to beer, looked on there as a neces- in our issue of to-day, extracted from the Times, sary of life-though in price it is rathor an expen sive luxury, costing 1s. 6d. a bottle, retail, mo that having particular reference to the occurrences in Canton in July last, which have thus been there is little danger of inotxication from that source, the occasion of a very accurate and descript extends even to ginger beef, which cannot be
tailed without a license, The tendency of the sys tive statement of the degraded position and tem is still further to diminish the number of shop. neglected interests of the British Residents, keepers, and depreciate the value of property. And (in breach of existing trestias) being brought it is to be observed that the depreciation conseg ent so prominently forward, that every good on such mestures, goes on nat in an arithmetical, result may reasonably he anticipated. We but a geometrical ratio. By the retirement of on are glad to remark that the conduct of the opium dealer, ou a getailer of beer, the proprietor foreign Merchants, in so ably defending them- probably loses not one but four rents; and the selves, and dispersing the rioters with no greater community loses the services of that number of loss of life than occurred, has met with well productive members. To explain this we quote meriled encomiums-which form a strange from the Friend of China: -"A retail shop in Chi contrast to the contumelious and insulting no- na is usually occupied by three or more individuals, tices taken of the same affair by Sir John Davis.
who pay equal shares of the rent. Thus a dealer in opium, a dealer in tobacco, a dealer in cotton We are glad to hear thar Steamer Pluto goods, and it may be a dealer in lacquered ware, are joint, tenauts of the same house The parties starts this morning for Canton, having a number who purchage opium are generally in quest of the of Marines on board from the Festal and Ful- other commodities, and the one article helps the Etape. She will be moored off the Factories, in sale of the others. The opium dealer is now driven. readiace to offer any assistance that may be out of the market by the monopoly; the dealer in required by the Residents, in the event of tobacco is about to be heavily taxed; the other two disturbances occurring, such as are to be ap-dealers, or at least the one w deals in British co prehended about the season of the Chinese ton goods loses his customers, and the shop is given New Year.
up. Thus, taking the proportion paid by each The intelligence that has just arrived from China man as our unit, it is evident that the loss will go furnishes an account of a riot at Canton, which was nerally be in a multiple ratio. The sum raised by very near being attended with consequences most brokers' license £464 19 3d. Auctioneers' £nation shown by the foreign residents in their own this license in 1845 was £1,154 7a. 9d. Pawn disastrous to British interests. But for the determi
73 ld. Other licences £125 9s 9d. aggregate produce of these imposts is by no means So that the great, especially compared to their pressure on ih dividuals, and their blighting influence on the ge neral prosperity. The governor bas been obliged to have recourse to a variety of other exactions, to fill up his deficient revenue. It would be tediou to edumerate the expedients successively resorted to for this purpose. În devising objects of taxation, his Excellency displayed a perseverance and inge California to the 17th Nov-from a cursory charges a handsome fee for signing his name; the nuity worthy of a better cause. For example, he glance of the papers we cannot see that any official signature of his subordinates must also be very important events had occurred in relation paid for, the rate depending on the rank or position to the war-m a skirmish between a party of of the office. Every one must pay for being allowed forty Americans, and one hundred Californians, to give his affidavit, and the amount depends on the the Americans are said to have lost 4 men kill-importance of the occasion. ed, (besides 6 Indians) with several wounded-
For permission to marry, a fee of 50 dollars is exacted, and both and the Californians about the same number, parties are obliged to swear that they are "not neither party claiming a victory:—on the 17th within the forbidden degrees, which oath costs
ember Col.Fremont left Monterey, with 280
them five dollars each additional. In consequence, mounted riflemen, expecting a reinforcement almost all marriages take place at Macao. Tomb- of 200 more, and two pieces of artillery, with
stones are taxed at the rate of 50 dollars each. In the intention of marching direct to the Pueblo
short the Governor could scarcely have shown de los Angeles. It was rumored that Commo- greater rapacity had the island been assigned to dore Blockton with his Marines and Sailors
bim as his farm, with permission to make the most ht the Californians, killed one hundred
of it.
•
We hear that the Chinese petitioners for the abolition of the Opium Farm monopoly, have received an answer to their petition from the Governor to the effect, that the monthly amount of $1,500 is required for the Revenue of the Colony, and that it could not be dispensed with, but that if they chose collectively to pay that um, he would throw open the Trade at once.
By the arrival of the Angelo from the Sand- wich Islanda, we have received a file of the Polymerion, to 26th December, and dates from
many more prisnners--the what is the object of all this taxation? why raise a We might proceed to put the question cui bons? ever were keeping up & pre- are, and had regained much of the in this infancy of its existence, consisting of a revenus of £22.242 88 1d. hat year from polony below lonterey,
single town on the side of a hill? But this inquiry would lead us into details showing how the actual property, known as the Al expenditure, £66,726 19s das been squandred
understand, has been per-
on salaries to oficiale, nine-tenths of whom are ta. the Crows, the proprietors necessary, and on publicorks which have been payments on account of the most injudiciously prosecute We would rather
conclude by pointing to some of which it is not too late to fratering property to the
AHGKONGE
First, some comp the chief sufferers, the this ser
Dedien
Wore this suggestion adopted, even the trifling loss of Id, per lb, would be immediately made up by the superior terms our merchants would be able to claim in making their purchases the Canton monopoly would be further broken down by com- petition. Americans and other foreigners woold not be perpetually enriching themselves at our ex- pense on the occurrence of a petty riot, the Chinese authorities themselves might be well pleased at
the change, as at present they cannot keep their popu lace in order.-Glasgow Constitutional, Oct. 14.
It must be allowed that it is most unfair to the British residents at Canton to leave them exposed to Were England desirous of drawing to her new colony nearly all the trade of the south of China it puch outbreaks as that which has recently happened. It is idle to talk of the service done to trade by our A simple act of Parliament,Chinese victories, if our merchants are abandoned at might easily be dene. declaring that for ten years, all teas shipped at
the end of the war to the chances of self-protection Hongkong would be protected in Great Britain, by
against the fury of a hostile population, who seem to a differential duty of one penny per pound upon tow
be under no control at the hands of their own Go, congous, and two pence upon the finer classes, and
vernment. We see no reason or excuse for the the death blow would be struck to the trade of Can-
British residents of Canton having been deprived of ton. Much might be ssid in favour of such an act.
the benefit of the treaty of peace concluded by Bir The insecurity of goods at the provincial city, and the indignities heaped upon foreign residen's, Henry Pollinger. It was there agreed that a British vessel of war should be stationed at various ports, would warrant any act which could have a tendency
including Cantou, which, on account of
its trade, to place the lives and property of British subjects amounting to more than that of all the other ports in security.
It is truly united peculiarly requires protection 00 disgraceful that this important position should be left without the necessary means of security, Our Chi- nese victories are not to be estimated by the amount of ransom that has been paid; for, however vast the sum that may be received in suck a shape, it is never to be compared with the addition of wealth that a country gains by a permanent accession to its com merce. We know at once the limits of the one but it is impossible to define the endless advantages that may accrue from the other The gain upon which we calculated by the triumphant conclusion of the Chinese war was not the reimbursement of its cost, but the opening that would be afforded for the at- vancement of our trading interests
sts These, however. as far as Canton is concerned, appear to have been shamefully neglected by our Government, which has not even acted upon the treaties exact d from the Chinese powers for the future protection of our. countrymen. Memorials have, it will be seen, been forwarded from the British residents at Camton to the proper quarters, asking, at least, for those means of security which it was part of the object of the war to obtain and which formed a portion of the stipuls- tions upon which peace was concluded. There is littlo use in obtaining advantages on paper, which for want of a lule wholesome activity on the part of the
by the Emperor's own hand, but our countrymen Executive, are never realized. The right of entering the city of Canton was conceded to British subjects
are left in such an unprotected condition by the locat
eft in eve
defence, it is certain that many of them would have enormous sacrifice of property. It seems that the lost their lives, and that there would have been an English are left unprotected alike by their own Go vernment and the local nuthorities, in the midst of a population comprising some of the most lawless and desperate of the Chinese, who add to their other dan gerous qualities an implacable hatred of foreigners. The thoroughfares in the neighbourhood of the factories are frequently blocked up by the worst des- others of a still more disreputable class, whose pre- cription of natives, including idlers, mendicants, and
perial officers These functionaries have been guilty sence has long been vainly complained of to the im. of a gross dereliction of duty in treating with con- tempt the remonstrances addressed to them. By the treaty of Wanghis, ratified in July, 1844, the Chi nese Government agreed to keepall idlers and vagrants away from the factories. In the fourth article of that treaty it is expressly stipulated that "All quacks, "fortune-tellers, beggars, and showmen, and all idlers and the like, are not permitted to pass and repass in front fod on the right and left of the fac. "tories, obstructing the way, and collecting a crowd of idlers." "Whoever violates this regulation," continues the document," shall be searched out and "pursued to the utmost" It was in consequence of the neglect of the Chinese authorities to fuldi bis We cannot doubt that the Government will yield to at at Canton, which, had it not been checked by memorialized, the Brush Consul, entreating that one part of their coutract that the riot took place in July the wish of the highly respectable persons who here." the energy of the foreigners, would have terminated of Her Majesty's shiperof was cloud be permanently in a loss of life and property that might have render-stationed off the foreign factories, so as to afford
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Government as well as their own that they are up- neighbourhood of their own factories is invaded by able to use the privilege awarded them. Even the
tion, to break out into acts of plunder and violence. mobs ready, as it appears, on the slightest I
Insult is an every day occurence, to which our coun- trymen are constantly exposed, for they
are known to be without protection from home, and without sympathy from the local authorities.
Such a state of things, if suffered to continue would prove fatal to British Interests at Canton, and would soon undo all that the last few years have ac complished in putting our relations with China upon an improved footing,
English gentlemant finds himself obstructed by a quired. Captain Talbot, the senior officer in China, ed another Chinese war whelly unavoidable. Au the means of instant protection in case of its being re vagabond in the crowd that is allowed to congregate, has declared his concurrence in the opinion that He pushes aside the native idler, is Struck, and is such an arrangement is actually necessary for the proceeding to punish the assult, when a riot ensues, protection of life and property. We can only hope and cries of Kill the foreign devils!" Beat that no more serious consequences than those which the foreign devils are raised through all the have transpired may result from the neglect which streets in the vicinity of the factories. Not only our commercial interests in Canton have hitherto the lives and property of the European mer. experienced Much anxiely must exist as to the course that will be pursued by the Chinese authori- ties with respect to the recent outbreak. It was undoubtedly caused as much by their awa imbeci lity as by the utter want of protection to which the danger in which the foreign British residents have been exposed by their own
ring the
Deurence, and Government Where both parties have been to posed, have 1 blame, there is ground for that recrimination which
tatterendor
dy, but the Chinese trandesmen were iffer from the lawless violence of the was suspected to be one of the
utes to be brought soon to
I should at once be taken, at arrenes of such untoward Canton màght have proved, Time, September 25.
ARKLY ALSS
NOE.
Anderson, South Seas, ophy, Macharlane, Cumsinginoon.
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