51. The head partners of the Houses reside in Hongkong; and their subordinates carry on the business at Shanghai and the other ports under instructions from this centre; in like manner the Banks have their Chief Manager here, and their Sub-Branches elsewhere on the coast.
52. Surely if in a distant part of his estate a landed proprietor shall discover a valuable mine, the worth of his mansion-house is not diminished but increased thereby; and as he must have some position from which to manage the affairs of his whole property, he will hardly think it expedient to abandon his house, ready made to his hand, and fix his abode in a locality, which for purposes of general management is, to say the best, not a whit more convenient.
55. If a new Colony were founded by us in these seas—and of this there is no rumor, and I may add for it no necessity—it might in time be a greater place than an insalubrious rock like