take a brief review of the Colony from its foundation, and, glancing at it as it stood before the treaty of Nanking,
to Examine the effect of that treaty upon its position and prospects, to enquire how such prodigious expectations ever came to be formed of it
how, on what grounds they were formed, they came at all to be entertained and relied upon, long after the grounds upon which they had been formed had sunk beneath them. An introductory sketch of this kind appears to me to be necessary.
And it will enable us to estimate the real present position and prospects of the Colony, now that it has found its actual level and all excitement and expectation have passed away.
When the British flag was hoisted upon this island under Captain Elliot's convention with Keshen in February 1841, it was naturally looked upon by merchants as a future seat, not the grand centre of our general Commerce in these waters. All our old difficulties at Canton were nominally settled under that convention, and it was concluded, leaving us this island with its noble harbor, outside of and perfectly independent of Canton.
Our Merchants, however, looking back upon their old experience of the critical position of their trade in the river, and that the slightest accident might again interrupt it, that the provision made under the Convention was not sufficient to guard against these interruptions, and that every pecuniary loss would have the effect of driving the trade down to this place; looking moreover at the fact that our trade at Canton was almost strangled by the exactions of corrupt officials, looking at all this, they came at length to view the spot in which their harassed Commerce would ultimately find a refuge. They came to view it as the future seat or centre of trade in this quarter, and as the Emporium of the trade of all nations seeking the merchandise of the further East.