of Headmen
There are in the villages, he answers ______ shopkeepers and inhabitants of that kind in Hongkong, to whom I would entrust the power. I would constitute them a petty bench. The truth is that many of the respectable inhabitants are in the control of their countrymen employed in Hongkong, to whom I would entrust the power. Enough perhaps has been produced to place this evidence in the same category with what the Edinburgh Review has called, the precious statistics of Mr. Montgomery Martin.
The other extraordinary evidence is that of Mr. A. Matheson. "Before I left China in 1846, I had a serious consultation with my partners as to the expediency of abandoning this property, (their numerous buildings), to its fate, and removing our establishment from the Colony. We decided, that as I was coming home, it would be better to wait and see what could be done with the Home Government for the amelioration of the place; and that if nothing could be done, that we would then abandon it."
"While uttering this, Mr. Matheson must have known the firm were then erecting the most expensive dwelling house in the whole colony, estimated to have cost 50,000 Dollars, and they have since built round the outer boundary of their extensive premises a solid stone wall with handsome stone gateways. I shall be very glad to see many substantial indications of the abandonment and ruin of Hongkong, where Jardine, Matheson & Co. still continue to go on in the old way, though nothing whatever has been done by the Home Government; and Mr. A. Matheson remains in England, complaining of the heavy losses he incurred by the misgovernment of Hongkong, leaving his partners very willing to follow his example. The same firm has lately completed the enclosed by the factor perfect the mother "the erection of an expensive Patent Slip, for hauling up vessels, to which refusal I am obliged to attribute the striking change.
It is satisfactory to find W. A. Matheson, who is of necessity, a better judge of the matter
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