THE COLONY OF HONG KONG
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keen on the east. I see this island the natural outlet to all Europe, and by the Pacific lines to the United States, for the mineral wealth and various produce of one half the great Empire. I see itself the home of a happy population, three times more numerous than the present, and foreigner and Chinese dwelling together in mutual appreciation. I see in its harbour a forest of smoking tunnels, with hardly a white-winged sailing vessel among them; opium is a phantom of the past. The emigration of the poor goes on from it on principles approved and guarded by the Chinese and other governments, while the enterprise and integrity of its merchants, the kindness, forbearance, and purity of all its inhabitants are spoken of with delight from Peking to Hai-nan, from the farthest west of Sze-ch'uen to the borders of the Eastern sea.