3
2
THE CHINA REVIEW.
in this code to the local peculiarities of each individual Colony, are a clear proof that this code is but the natural and progressive out- growth of practical life, un a posteriori deduction from a complex mass of facts, not au a priori theory super-imposed upon the Colonies.
The very absence of a predetermined Colonial policy, the very disregard of the old exploded theory that schemes of policy and legislation are omnipotent and that things will go right when laws and re- gulations are made to make them go right, and finally the very diversity of systems tried by individual Governors in view of the special peculiarities of individual Colonies, secured a healthy atmosphere of liberty in the Colonial nurseries, where, powerful as the Governors might be, the governed had bat to stand together and howl una voce to make the Imperial Government indulge them to any reasonable extent, if but for the sake of peace and quietness. The liberty thus given to emotional individuality, in both the governing and the governed, secured full play for the development of character in the administration of the several Colonial com- munities. That great lesson, taught by modern Sociology, that forms of government are valuable and successful only where they are vitalized by national and local character, is palpably verified and is the real explana- tion of the secret of success exhibited by the English Colonies in general and the Colony of Hongkong in particular.
This Colony of Hongkong, if any one asked her how she came into existence-how her executive, administrative, judicial, educa- tional and even mercantile establishments were formed, would have no better answer to give than that of Topsy, "I specs I growed." The abolition of the East-India Company, the obstinate hatred of the Chinese and the blind folly of the Macao Governments, unitedly compelled the Eng- lish trade to take refuge in Hongkong; the Island was ceded to Great Britain, as wench almost against the wishes of the English as
the Chinese Governmente, in 1841, the cession being confirmed by the treaty of Nanking in 1842, and under the pressure of cireum- stances subsequently enlarged by the cession of a small slice of the opposite mainland, the Peninsula of Kaulung, by the treaty of Tientsin in 1861. This small barren island of Hongkong, counting but a few hundred inhabitants before 1841, rapidly became peopled by settlers from all parts of the world, English, Americans, Germans, French, Portuguese, Parsees, Hindoos, but principally by Chinese from the adjoining districts of the Canton and Fuhkien Pro- vinces, amounting now to a total of 132,524 persons exclusive of the Naval and Military establishments. Nevertheless members of Parliament, as well as leading newspapers in England, are occasionally not quite sure whether Hongkong is one of the open ports of China, with a British Consul to represent English interests there, or actually a British Colony. The Colonial Office List, until a few years ago, used specially to state that "Hongkong perhaps comes more under the designation of a trading etation than that of a Colony," and the ordinary Englishman at home has but a hazy notion that Hongkong is somewhere near Timbuctoo or Timbuctoo somewhere near Hongkong.
These popular facts are but exponents of the truth, that the Colony of Hong- kong came into the world like an uncalled- for and unwelcome addition to the family circle of English Colonies, that it was sup- plied with Governors, Magistrates, Judges, Schools and I'risons and all the other para- phernalia of government simply because, having once come into being, it had to be done something to, but all the same it was systematically ignored as long as possible. Thus this precocious baby, nailed Hongkong, was first helped into the world by Sir Charles Elliot (1841), nursed and kept barely alivo by the reticent Sir Henry Pottinger (1842- 1844), painfully taught its A B C of govern- ment and administration by the learned Sir John Davis (1844-1848), then after a quiet
3
CHINESE STUDIES AND OFFICIAL INTERPRETATION.
reference to official interpretation in the Courts of Justice; and finally I shall venture to suggest some remedies.
spell of rest under Sir George Bonham (1848- 1838) it was taken to the schoolroom by that sham-Sinologist Sir John Bowring (1854- 1859); at last having grown to years of dis- cretion, there came the age of enlightened reason, with Sir Hercules Robinson and Mr. William T. Mercer (1859-1866); then ful- lowed some years of steru discipline and training at the hands of Sir Richard Mac- Donnell (1866-1871), until the youthful Colony of Hongkong enjoyed the blissful happiness of being actually made love to, though in a very quiet and diguified style, by "the good" Sir Arthur Kennedy (1872- 1877).
By the preceding brief sketch I intended to give prominence to the lesson derived from history that British Colonies flourished because, and in so far as, the special require- ments of each individual Colony received their due share of consideration by the re- presentatives of legislation and government. If this proposition is granted, it will be easy to prove the necessary sequel, that in a Colony like Bougkong, where 95 per cent, of the population are Chinese, severed by an im- mense abyss from the governing classes in raanners, customs, religion and ways of thinking, being moreover totally ignorant of the language, laws and modes of procedure of the governing classes, that in such a Colony successful government depends upon the measure in which the governed classes, the Chinese, and the governing classes, the English, understand each other. In other words, English education among the Chinese people of the Colony, and Chinese kuow- ledge among the English officials of Hong- kong, are the two factors upon which the emocess of the general scheme of English colonial policy to a great extent depends as far as the Colony of Hongkong is concerned. To make good this proposition I propose in the first instance to review the progress of Anglo-Chinese studies in Hongkong from the foundation of this Colony to the pre- sent day; next I shall endeavour to state the present condition of affairs, with special
I. The early history of Hongkong (from 1842 to 1859) reveals a most distressing pic- ture of official incapacity in high places and of immorality, rowdyism and general law- lessness among the great mass of the people. The successive governors of Hongkong wore all men of high moral character, well mean- ing and intelligent, some even enjoying a European reputation as scholars of first rank, yet Ordinance after Ordinance was passed during the first fifteen years of the Colony, based either on a thorough misunderstanding or thorough disregard of the peculiar wants of the Colony, so that in January 1859 the legal advisers to the Secretary of State for the Colonies had to censure the local legislature for the careless manner in which British Acts of Parliament had been adopted in Hongkong," The heads of departments, during this period, were with soarcely a single exception men of culture and unim- peachable integrity, yet even so high an officer as a Colonial Secretary (Dr. Bridges) had to be put on his trial for bribery and corruption, an Attorney General (Mr. Austey) f admitted in his letters to the Secretary of State that bribes had more than once been offered to himself," referring to which a Registrar Conoral (Mr. Caldwell) publicly stated in his self-defence (p. 22) that there were (in 1882) "some wealthy officers still in the police who are not strangers to the latter practice." Again and again native interpreters, employed at the Magistracy and in other departments, were dismissed for corrupt practices, but the cases of detection were probably few as compared with the amount of rascality carried on undetected. As to the native population, it is sufficient to state that Hongkong was up to the time of Sir Hercules Robinson (1859) the chief re- sidence of smugglers and pirates, the paradise of gamblers, thieves, robbers and incendia- ries. In 1846 an official notification "ad- vised" all European residents to carry arms
12
144