2. FIRST CHARTER.
FIRST CHARTER.
CHARTER for erecting the Island of Hongkong into a separate Colony,
and for providing for the Government thereof.
LETTERS PATENT, 5TH APRIL, 1843.
[Revoked by Letters Patent, 19th January, 1888.]
I-VICTORIA, by the Grace of God of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, Queen, Defender of the Faith. To all to whom these Presents shall come, Greeting. Know ye that We, of Our especial Grace, certain knowledge, and mere motion, have thought fit to erect, and Do hereby erect, Our Island of Hongkong and its Dependencies, situate between 22° 9′ and 22° 21′ North Latitude, and 114° 6′ and 114° 18′ East Longitude from the Meridian of Greenwich, into a separate Colony, and the said Island and its Dependencies is hereby erected into a separate Colony accordingly, to be known and designated as the Colony of Hongkong.
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3.-LEASE OF KOWLOON.
A DEED OF LEASE.
20th March, 1860.
Between Laou, wearing a decoration of the first rank, a Director of the Board of War, Censor of the Right, Governor General of the Provinces of Kwang-tung and Kwang-se, and Commander-in-Chief of the same, on the part of the Chinese Government, and Harry Smith Parkes, Esquire, one of the Allied Commissioners for the Government of the City of Canton on the part of the British Government, to hold in proof of the under-mentioned agreement.
WHEREAS Tseem-sha-tsuy and its neighbourhood situated in the sub-district of Kowloon in the District of Sun-on and consisting for the most part of barren hills that cannot be cultivated, has hitherto formed a place of resort for thieves and outlaws, who, availing themselves of the immediate proximity of the City of Victoria, constantly cross to Hongkong, and commit depredations in that settlement to the serious injury of British Subjects who can obtain no redress against these marauders, THEREFORE Laou, the Governor General, and Harry Smith Parkes, the Commissioner, aforesaid, have AGREED and DETERMINED that all that