and terminating. A report from that source at least. I was also enabled to report the triangularly orderly manner in which the houses themselves are conducted. At the same time, Your Grace will have been almost equally pleased to learn that I have reasonable grounds for expecting to get rid in a great measure of the trouble from Licenses which alone complicates this really important measure. The difficulty cannot be insuperable, though as the whole matter is so novel and experimental, each step at the commencement requires much prudence and caution till further experience shall have justified rapid action.
26. As Your Grace is aware, the reforms of local Legislation to meet the exigencies of dealing with the criminal classes were not overlooked last year. Several of the 12 Ordinances passed contained unusual provisions and of so important and wide application as to amount almost to a social revolution in our relations towards the Chinese population.
27. The great evil and the disgrace of this Port for several years before my arrival had been the undoubted fact of its being almost a depôt for the equipment of Piratical craft, the reception of booty, and the transmission of information to parties engaged in...