There was reason to suppose that these might eventually force the Canton trade down to Hongkong. The expectations arising out of the sudden release from all embarrassments may, even then, have been exaggerated; but the Treaty of Nanking in 1842, by opening other ports besides Canton, produced a total change in the prospects of the Colony, dependent as these were upon a state of things not improbable at the port of Canton, the only one to which we had had access.
This change was overlooked by Sir Henry Pottinger, by Sir John Davis, even in 1845; up to the end of 1844, merchants were still eager for good positions; and in particular, one eminent merchant who in 1845 went so far as to build an Exchange.
When Mr. Bonham arrived in 1848, there were still persons enthusiastic about the great benefits to be reflected on the Colony by certain changes. Bonham did not depreciate the position, but observed that its original prospects were altered and that its development must be gradual.
It would be vain to complain of the treaty as infusing Hongkong as a centre of trade, when it had opened a thousand miles of the Coast of the producing districts. Fault is to be found with those who have persisted, since the Treaty changed its prospects, in expectations hardly warranted before the change.
The Colony never could have shared in the trade between Great Britain and China, once...
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