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DARING ROBBERY AT BEACONS. FIELD ARCADE.
THE HONGKONG WEEKLY PRESS AND
EVOLUTION OF HONGKONG.
[Written for the Daily Press.)
(Continued from last week.)
VIII.
[November 25, 1907.
minimise the concessions he agreed to make, there was nothing about opening additional ports, and as to the cession of Hougkoug it was only as a station for residence from which trade might be indeed carried on as at Maono, or in the old factories under the East India Company, but where duties were to be regularly collected in the name of the Emperor as over- lord. He was wise enough to see that there taken by violence and destroyed. could be no question about paying for the opium
on what
Three Chinese are said to have been in the gang, and the shop they broke into was situated in a part of the city where it might have been thought robbers would have feared to attempt an entrance. The shop bargled, No. 9, Beacons-
It is not necessary to enter into any details field Arcade, is an Egyptian tobacco store, and
as to the weary negotiations interrupted occa- is almost opposite the Hongkong and Shanghai sionally by petty warlike operations that Bank, round which a policeman patrols night succeeded. Suffice it to say that in the summer and day. The robbery occurred early on Sunday of 1841, a powerful fleet went up under com-
Curiously, too, a despatch from Lord morning, and apparently the gang had been mand of Admiral the Honourable Googe Elliott which Elliott's were entirely at variance crossed Palmerston defining his requirements with planning it for sometime. They evidently and Captain Elliott, who had been appointed the latter's report on its way home; so the started operations when the constable on duty joint plenipotentiaries to the North, where after a at the bank was patrolling the Des Voeux Road little preliminary brush at Amoy, they occupied
basty agreement of Chuenpee was negatived on both sides, and all that remained of it section of his beat, otherwise he must have seen
Chusao, and then entered the Gulf of Peculi. and heard them. It would appear that one of Here they were received in the most polite possession of Hongkong, though
Was that Bitish troops Waru aotully in the robbers was borne shoulder high by his
manner by Kishen, the viceroy of the presence, fellows, and succeeded in prizing a window open who succeeded in persuading them that nego-
Larms remained unsettled for more than a with a chisel. In forcing this open he knocked tiations could be carried
year. There was not necessarily ill-fsith on on with greater down a large tin can, which must have made comfort, and were more likely to be successful, the Emperor, though plainly warned by Kishen, one side or the other; on the Chinese side, considerable noise, but not sufficient to turn the
at Canton. Then plenipotentiaries accordingly who had all the instinct of a statesman, as welt three Chinese away from the booty which loomed returned as they had come, stopping on the road so near. One of the men climbed through the
as a soldier, misled by the clamour of a set of at Chasan, where meanwhile a regular govern- unmorthy parasites, determined to striko window he had opened, and must have been in ment had heen established. Here they were the shop sometime, for he appears to have
another blow for his prerogative; while the met by the viceroy of Nanking, when a tem. English having in fair fight forced the enemy examined the different brands in stook care-
porary truce was arranged, suspending hostili- fully, and taken
to surrender at discretion could hardly be away nothing but the
ties and arranging that Kished himself would expected to be content with the same terms that best. His attention apparently was first cooduct negotiations for a peace at Canton on bestowed the cash drawer, and from their ar il, they meanwhile autoning in
they were willing to accept at the beginning of this he extracted upwards of $200.
the straggle. From the commencemeat every Tue occupatia of Chusan. Commissioner Lia was there are signs that he had been tampering with
effort was made by the British officers in coin. at the same time deprived of his rauk as Command to spare life, and confine the destruction the safe which contained $2000 at the time.missioner, and his predecessor T'ang, who had The tools at his command however, fortunately been acting a double part, was degraded from and in no
of property within as narrow limits as possible. for the proprietors, were insufficient to force his immediate position as viceroy of Minche, property. The result was that while all deplored case to wantonly destroy private this, and the robber then turned his attention in while Lin, was retained for the present in the the loss of life on the part of the innocent another direction. He selected the best amber position of acting viceroy of the Liang Kwang. Chinese soldiers and seamen, who had been oigar and cigarette holders he could find,
Towards the latter part part of the year 1840 forced into a hopeless s.ruggle, there waJ also the best cigars and cigarettes, and passed a Kishen arrived at Canton; but found obstacles through the entire war not a single instance of goodly supply of these out to his partners, with
of every sort thrown in his way by the local useless destruction of life or property to be which the three made good their escape. officials instigated largely by the two worthies deplored. Detectives were called into the shop early Lin and Tang, and negotiations made no on November 24th, but the only clue they progress, till on the 6th January 1841, Capt. could discover was an exceptionally large foot-Elliott, now sole plenipotentiary owing to the print on a table on which the thief must have been departure from illness of the Admiral, sent standing; while outside the shop, secreted in
an ultimatum stating that unless some definite one of the verandah pillars, was a small chisel.
basis of agreement were come to by the next The Chinese who keeps the shop next door morning he would take possession at once of reported that he saw three natives standing the forts at the entrance of the Bogue. A outside the tobacconist shop about 2 s.m, but he fight ensued, and after a struggle of an hour did not see them break into the shop, neither did and a half, which convinced Kishen of the use- he hear the noise made by the tin which fell. It lessness of further resistance, they were entered. is estimated that the robbers have got clear with goods and money to the value of $500.
сп
MACAO.
(FROM OUR CORRESPONDENT.)
DISAPPOINTED HOPES,
One month has passed since the great Chinese festival was hold, but when we look about for the signs of that increase of trade and commerce which the Government expected to ensue from the large influx of people into the Colony, we seek in vain. Business, indeed, seems to be going from bad to worse, and even the Chinese
are much disheartened.
THE COLONY'S SOURCES OF REVENUE. The monopoly of the San-pin and Pa-cap-pia lotteries has been let for the sum of $127,000
per annum.
It is currently reported, and I believe the report is not without good foundation, that
■ Chinaman has made an offer to the Govern- ment of a sum of $20,000 per annum for a monopoly of the "houses of ill fame in the City. It is most sincerely to be hoped that H. E. Senhor Azevedo Continho will not blot the fair fame of his Governorship by giving any
to the proposal. Facilis descensus Averni! Surely the Colony has enough already to be
whatever countenance
ashamed of when we glance at the list of its sources of revenue, the bulk of the Government revenue being derived from the vice of gambling-in a priest-ridden city too! To entertain such a proposal as that now reported to have been made to the Government would be an everlasting reproach and a perpetual shame.
DROWNED IN THE BISHOP`S WELL.
A cook was drowned in the well of the kitchen at the Bishop's residence on Saturday night. The body was recovered a few hours later.
Kishen's proposals, as became the man, were eminently reasonable. He offered to hand over Hongkong to the British in perpetuity as a place for conducting their trade, to pay for the opium surrendered, and that in future the officers of the two Powers should mest on terms of equality; these formed the basis of a definite agreement a few days after arrived at, and were the ground work of the scene we have sketched out at the beginning of this notice.
But Kishen's acts did not meet the approba. tion of the Emperor, who refused to ratify his cession of Hongkong, or hear of British officials being received on terms of equality with his own; and peremptory orders were sent which, degrading Kishen from his high office, ordered him to recommence hostilities. By a oarious coincidence these orders arrived on the very day that had been appointed between the pleni- potentiaries for the discussion of the details as to the reopening of the trade at Canton. Kishen received Elliott as before with all dignity and politeness, but there plainly was something on his mind that he did not wish to mention; to enable him to come to a definite arrangement on some points regarding which differences of opinion had arisen a respite of ten days was granted by Captain Elliott, and the two parted, to all appearance, on the same friendly terms as before. Elliott noticed however, that strange preparations for some being taken all along the route, and shortly after his arrival at Macao the truth came out, and a few days after hostilities again com- menced.
hostile
measure
were
It is hardly fair to blame personally Kishen for the want of faith in all this, indeed be had no other course. His entire work was frustrat- ed, and he himself degraded, and eventually sent into banishment. He had been clear-headed enough to see at once the situation, and under- stand that Chins, as she was, could not make a stand for a single day against the power of England. He had therefore set himself to
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and pointed out to his master the hopelessness Kishen, though from the beginning he saw
of the struggle, never allowed this to appear to his subordinates, but did his best to inspire the rest with his own determination to make as good a defence as was possible; and it bas been a source of satisfaction since that all gave their lives willingly in the cause, kopeless as it must have seemed the rank and file. Kishen, himself met with to the leaders, and after a little while to
but scant reward at the hands of his imperial master, on whose memory his treatment of his too faithful servant must bring everlasting disgrace; he was recalled to Peking to stand his trial for treachery; was deprived of all his offices, stripped of his property, and banished to the wilds of the New Dominiou. Meanwhile the war dragged on.
Canton was attacked and was in the power of the British Plenipotentiary; when, to the astonishment of everyone, he accepted a ransom and withdrew his troops, re infecta; then for some reason the fleet went on a wild goose chase up north. The island of ulangsu was captured and Amoy threatened, and the fet moved on to Chassa, and Tinghai was again captured and occupied in force. But a great change in the personal of the British force of ocupancy was made by the removal of Captain Elliott whose weak amiability had more than any hing sise forced on a state of war. Sir Henry Pottinger, Major General in the i. E. 1. Co's service, was on the 15th May appointed Sole Plenipotentiary, and Chief Superintendent of Trade in Cuins, and on the 9th August arrived before Canton.
[To be continued.]
Eight Chinese midshipmen presented them. selves on board H.M.8. Flors
on Nov. 19th
enter upos a course of training in the British Navy. They will be attached to various ships of the China Squadron.
Chang Chib-tung is proposin, that the old revived. There can be to doubt that this system custom of storing grain in all the provinces be of providing for bad harvests and other dimatern which prevails throughout the East, is a very wise one, and we cannot understand how it has Chang suggests that rewards be given for every been discouraged of recent years in China. 10,000 picula of grain stored.
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