The very trade which it controls and the shipments which it orders, are for the most part conducted many hundreds of miles away from Hongkong. It is a depôt, which may be regarded as maintained for the general convenience of Her Majesty's Government and of British merchants largely connected with the trade of China. I would therefore advocate the policy of leaving to it, as far as possible, the liberty to expend on improvements and works all the available local Public income that can be raised from the Community for those purposes, because the prestige and the preference given to it greatly depend on the advantages it continues to offer as a residence and as a convenient Depôt.
86. Nothing can be more admirable than its geographical position at the South Eastern extremity of China, offering equal facilities to vessels bound North, South, East, and West, and as lately proved in the case of the Pacific Mail Steam Company, affording greater conveniences than any other place in China as a central station for the traffic between California and China. Nevertheless, it is impossible to foresee what changes, by operation of Telegraph and Railway or other circumstances, may yet affect its prosperity, and I should gladly see the interval actively employed in making sanitary ...