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216
different from that provided for in the Imperial Act.
On referring to the date of the Ordinance, which passed the 3rd of March 1855, it will be observed that -5467 of the Merchant Shipping Act 1854 advantage could not be taken as that Act did not come into force until 14 May 1855.
547
I am glad to observe that the objections of the Committee of Trade were made. Subject to the existence of special circumstances justifying, in this instance, the departure of the Colonial Legislature from the Imperial policy; for it can only be owing to extremely special circumstances, & to prevent abuses which might lead to dangerous consequences, that this Ordinance was enacted. The Colony of Hongkong, with a population exceeding at the present time 60,000, hardly contains Chinese who can legally be called British subjects, for it has not been deemed advisable to naturalize the Chinese here, & the recent settlement of the colony prevents the possibility of their having become Subjects by birth. The great proportion of the respectable part of this population have, however, constituted themselves bona fide British Subjects, by becoming Crown Tenants of Leaseholds for long terms of years (a tenure of which an alien is incapable) & by permanent settlement have shown the clearest intention of perfecting themselves, in the persons of their descendants, British subjects secundum leges as well de facto. I therefore, as law adviser to the Crown, deemed it my duty to
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