Justice Hulme tried the case, and, on giving judgment in favour
of appellant, pronounced the sentence of the Consul (ie. the
decision of Sir John Davis) as unjust, excessive and illegal "
THE ADMINISTRATION OF SIR J. DAVIS. 231
and as evincing a total disregard for all forms of law and for
law itself. Moreover, the Chief Justice added that in this
first Consular appeal case the whole proceedings were so irregular
as to render all that occurred a perfect nullity.' The whole
British community applauded this decision, but the Governor
interpreted it as a personal affront. At the same time the
differences between the Chief Justice and the Magistrates
became accentuated . On October 27 , 1846 , a typical case was
tried in the Supreme Court and attracted general attention.
Two Chinese junks had collided in the harbour, and as the
junk which was manifestly at fault attempted to sail away,
the crew of the injured junk fired their muskets to attract
attention. A police boat, supposing the runaway junk to be
a pirate, fired into her and in the mêlée 5 men were drowned
and 13 captured. The Police Magistrate, dealing with the case
in his usual off-hand manner, flogged the 13 men and then
handed them over to the Kowloon Mandarin to be further dealt
with. But the Coroner's jury, after three days ' investigation ,
returned a verdict of manslaughter against the Police and
(by implication) declared the innocence of the 13 men who had
been flogged and deported by the Magistrate. The Supreme
Court now set aside the verdict on the ground of the irregularity
of the whole proceedings, the prisoners having been sworn to
the truth of their depositions, thus making them to incriminate
themselves. The community, convinced for some time past
that a reform in the Police Court personnel was needed, drew
the conclusion that Magistrates should have a legal training.
The following day (October 28, 1846 ) another case, heard in
the Supreme Court, strongly confirmed them in this conclusion.
The Magistrate had sentenced nine men to three months'
imprisonment on a charge of intent to commit a felony, but
when, on appeal to the Supreme Court, the intent of felony
was clearly disproved, the Magistrate explained to the Chief
Justice that he, in reality, had sentenced the prisoners under
the Vagrants' Act of George IV. This practice of the
Magistrates had often been complained of by the public, and
232 CHAPTER XIV.
the Chief Justice now severely reprimanded the Magistrate for
sentencing the men under an Act which had locally been
superseded by Ordinance 14 of 1845 and discharged the prisoners
forthwith. When, some time later, the Chief Justice complained
to the Governor that the Magistrates appeared to pass sentence
in cases which ought to have been remitted to the Supreme
Court, the two Magistrates commenced systematically to commit
for trial at the Supreme Court the most trivial offences. This
became so painfully evident during the criminal session of
February, 14th to 19th, 1847 , that the jurors addressed a formal
complaint to the Court of having their time wasted on cases
of petty larceny which ought to have been summarily dealt
with by the Magistrates. The Chief Justice agreed with them
and addressed the Government accordingly. During the same
sessions it was stated in evidence that the Police, who had
refused to protect a citizen against an assault by a soldier, had
been ordered by the Government not to interfere with soldiers,
and that a general order was read in barracks informing the
soldiers of the instructions given to the Police. The Chief
Justice, commenting adversely on this point, remarked that the
general order referred to was waste paper, as only an Act of
Parliament could exempt soldiers from being amenable to the
civil authorities. The Adjutant General thereupon wrote to
the papers denying that any such general order had been issued,
but the truth soon leaked out, viz . that , what the evidence
before the Court had referred to as a general order, was a
speech addressed to the regiment by the Major- General. After
this the relations between the Governor and the Chief Justice
became marked by personalities. On April 16, 1847 , the
Governor had an altercation with the Chief Justice, as the
former claimed the right to fix the sittings of the Vice - Admiralty
Court for any day he pleased, and as the latter claimed that
he should be addressed as His Lordship, which title the Governor
refused to allow. It was stated that the Governor had threatened
the Chief Justice with suspension . A lull now ensued, but on
November 22, 1847 , the Chief Justice was tried by the Executive
THE ADMINISTRATION OF SIR J. DAVIS. 233
Council on certain charges of private misconduct which, it
appeared , Sir John Davis had detailed in a confidential com-
munication to Lord Palmerston . The latter, disregarding the
private character of the document, had sent it to the Colonial
Office, which forthwith ordered an Executive Council inquiry
into the charges as formulated in the Governor's original letter.
Major-General D'Aguilar, as Lieutenant-Governor , protested
indignantly against the whole inquiry. Two members of the
Council (Major Caine and Mr. Johnston) gave evidence in
support of the charges, but all the other witnesses exonerated
the Chief Justice. Nevertheless the Governor in Council
pronounced his suspension from office. The moment this became
known in town, the whole British community (apart from the
officials) called and left their cards at the Chief Justice's residence.
Once more, as in the registration days, a unanimous outcry
of indignation was raised against the Government . Three days
later, the local solicitors (N. D'E. Parker, R. Coley, W. Gaskell,
P. C. McSwyney, and E. Farncombe) presented to the Chief
Justice (November 25, 1847 ) an address denouncing the
Governor's action as an attack of enmity,' and a gold snuff-
box bearing the inscription indignante invidia florebit justus.
Later on (November 30, 1847 ) the community presented a
sympathizing address signed by 116 residents , and on December
2, 1847, all the special jurors addressed the Chief Justice ,
expressing their respect for his character and their sympathy
and regret with reference to his suspension and temporary
retirement. By this time the Governor had already sent in
his resignation and the dispatch accepting it (dated November
18, 1847 ) was then on its way. The news of the Governor's
resignation having been accepted served to blunt the edge of
popular excitement and the Colonial Office, which considered
the charges not proved, immediately removed the suspension
and reinstated the Chief Justice.
In his endeavours to improve the revenues of the Colony,
which naturally constitute one of the most anxious cares of a
Colonial Governor, Sir John Davis ran counter to the deepest
234 CHAPTER XIV.
feelings and most inveterate principles of the mercantile
community. Whilst the mercantile community contended that
Hongkong was simply a depot for the neighbouring coasts, a
mere post for general influence and for the protection of the
general trade in the China Seas, benefitting Imperial rather
than local interests, and that therefore Great Britain ought
naturally to bear the greater share in the expenses of the Colonial
establishment, Sir John Davis acted on the assumption that
Hongkong was a Colony in the ordinary sense and should not only
bear the whole burden of its own civil government but contribute
also, as soon as possible, towards the military expenses of the
Empire. Whilst the merchants therefore still looked to free
trade principles to further the growth of Hongkong, Sir John
Davis thought only of license -fees, farms and monopolies .
Compromise or reconciliation was out of the question . Free
trade was officially derided, and protection gained the ascendancy .
On the day when Sir John announced his fatal intention of
extending registration to all the inhabitants of the Colony in
the interest of good order (July 24, 1844 ) , he declared also
his determination to establish a quarry farm , a salt farm and
an opium farm for the purpose of raising a revenue, and on
the day when he passed his obnoxious Martial Law Ordinance
(November 20, 1844 ) , he launched his first Revenue Ordinance
(No. 21 of 1844) by licensing the retail of salt and levying a
duty of 23 per cent . on all goods sold by auction. In connection
with these purposes he regulated also local weights and measures
(No. 22 of 1844 ) . The British community growled at the
auction duty (though on January 15 , 1845, it was decided to
remit it in certain cases) , derided the salt and opium farms,
and made fun of the tax imposed on marriage licenses, coupling
them with the new burial and tombstone fees (January 15,
1845). The quarry farm yielded (September 1 , 1845 ) only
£702. When the Governor ( February 23 and May 23, 1845 ) ,
proceeded to introduce police rates ( Ordinance 2 of 1845 )
and to ascertain the rateable value of all house property, the
merchants declared the ruin of Hongkong to be complete and
THE ADMINISTRATION OF SIR J. DAVIS. 235
began to talk seditiously of united resistance. So great was
the popular excitement that the Governor became afraid and
announced his willingness to reduce the assessment made by
the two official valuators (Tarrant and Pope) by 40 per cent .
(July 14, 1845) . In spite of this concession the leading paper
of the Colony declared this tax to be a most tyrannical and
intolerable encroachment upon the rights of the inhabitants,
because passed by a Council in which the community was not
represented . However the Ordinance received Her Majesty's
consent (December 25 , 1845 ) , and the people soon learned to
submit to it gracefully . Not satisfied with the financial results of
these measures, Sir John added, by Ordinances 3 and 4 of 1845,
duties on the retail of tobacco and fermented liquors (July 7,
1845 ) . So great was his craving for monopolies that he persisted
in farming out the monopoly of fishing in Hongkong waters,
though it brought in only 17 shillings for the year 1845. His
great grief and trouble was the total absence of a custom house
establishment ' in the free port of Hongkong. He was decidedly
of opinion that, as most of the available spots for building
purposes had already been disposed of (thanks to the gambling
mania which his predecessor and himself had unconsciously
fostered) , no great expansion of the land revenue could be looked
for in the future . Consequently he turned his attention to
licenses and excise farms and among these he commended to
Her Majesty's Government the opium farm as being the most
productive source of revenue and one that should increase with
the progress of the place.'
When the Legislative Council passed the first Hongkong
Opium Ordinance (November 26, 1844), the Colonial Treasurer,
R. M. Martin, strongly protested against this Government
measure on the ground that private vice should not be made a
source of public revenue . Finding his protest disregarded , he
forthwith applied for leave of absence. When this application
was refused, he resigned his office and returned to England (July
12 , 1845 ) , where he thenceforth laboured , with a pen dipped in
gall, to prove that Hongkong, whose majestic peak he compared
236 CHAPTER XIV.
with a decayed Stilton cheese and whose charming surroundings
he likened to the back of a negro streaked with leprosy, was an
utter failure, and that the Colony ought to be removed to Chusan.
The exclusive privilege of selling opium in quantities less
than a chest for consumption in the Colony, was put up to
auction ( February 20 , 1844) , and notwithstanding the machina-
tions of a ring of Chinese opium dealers, purchased by an
Englishman ( G. Duddell) at a monthly rental of $720 . But
the purchaser soon found himself outwitted by the Chinese
who, taking advantage of the loose wording of the Ordinance,
openly retailed opium in the Colony for exportation ' and gained
the protection of the Court in doing so. The faulty Ordinance
was thereupon amended (July 12, 1845 ) and the opium farm
put up to auction again (August 1 , 1845 ) when it was bought
by a Chinese syndicate for $ 1,710 a month. Next year, a
re-sale having been offered (May 24, 1846 ), further powers
were demanded by the farmers ; the monopoly was once more
offered for sale (June 30 , 1846 ) , but no bids were made to
obtain further concessions. At last the farm was sold (July 2,
1846 ) at the reduced rate of $ 1,560 a month . However, it soon
became apparent that the powers extorted by the farmers, who
employed constables and even an armed cruizer for the protection
of their revenue, seriously interfered with the legitimate junk
trade and the freedom of the port. Even the Chinese themselves
petitioned the Governor (January 27 , 1847 ) for the abolition
of the opium monopoly. The Governor hesitated and substituted
licences for this troublesome opium farm ( August 1 , 1847)
after it had yielded £ 4,118 in 1846 , and £ 3,183 in 1847. It
is remarkable that this first experiment in opinm farming at
once brought to the surface the evils which ever afterwards
characterized the system in Hongkong, viz. unscrupulous
circumvention of the law, organized withholding of a just rental
and vexatious interference with the native trade and with the
freedom of the port.
The revenues of the Colony improved considerably under
the Governor's assiduous care. By enforcing the recovery of
THE ADMINISTRATION OF SIR J. DAVIS. 237
arrears of rent on land and buildings, the income of the Colony
was raised, at a bound, from £9,534 in 1844 , to £ 22,242 in 1845 .
The opium farm caused the revenue of 1846 to mount up to
£ 27,842 and by charging higher fees on boat registry (Ordinance
7 of 1846 ) the revenue of 1847 came to £31,078 . On the
other hand the attention paid to public works caused the
expenditure to rise, from £ 49,901 in 1845 , to £ 66,726 in 1846 .
But it was reduced again in 1847 to £50,959 .
What assisted the Governor in his efforts to improve the
finances of the Colony, in spite of the fearful odds that were
against him, was the fact that, though the foreign trade was
stagnating, the native junk trade held its own, and that the
population of the Colony, though decimated by removals to
the Treaty ports of China, remained for several years wonderfully
steady. During the three years from 1845 to 1847 , the
population numbered respectively 23,748 , 22,453, and 23,872
souls. In the year 1848, the population was indeed reduced
to 21,514 persons. But the Governor attributed this decrease,
not to the alleged decay of local commerce, but to a more careful
registration which, while giving a truer account of the actual
number, relieved the Colony from those who hung loose on
and only applied for registration tickets to make a bad use
of them .'
In his efforts to repress crime. Sir J. Davis found himself
handicapped, like every successive Governor of Hongkong, by the
continuous influx of criminals from the neighbouring mainland
of China, by the untrustworthiness and inactivity of native
constables, by the dissolute character of European sailors or
soldiers enlisted in the local Police Force, who were ignorant
of the native language and consequently dependent on truculent
native interpreters, by the costliness of importing trained British
constables, and finally by the inherent inapplicability to Asiatics
of British laws and British modes of punishment. Sir J. Davis
was, however, fortunate in obtaining ( September 6, 1844) , from
London, the services of an Inspector of the Metropolitan Police,
Ch. May, who did the best possible with the imperfect material
238 CHAPTER XIV.
supplied to him and reorganized the Police Force of Hongkong
on the model of the Irish Constabulary with due adaptations to
local circumstances . With the aim of suppressing the system
of private night- watchmen, kept by every European house-owner
on the model of the old practice in vogue in the Canton and
Macao days, Major-General D'Aguilar (acting as Lieutenant-
Governor in the temporary absence of Sir J. Davis ) passed
6
(September 11 , 1844 ) the unpopular Bamboo Ordinance '
(17 of 1844) prohibiting the use of the bamboo-drums by which
those watchmen used to make night hideous in order to prove
(not merely to their employers as the Ordinance alleged) that
they were on the alert . But whilst securing by this premature
measure the peace and quiet of the town during the night, he
rather encouraged, in the absence of an efficient Police Force,
nightly depredations by native burglars.
Highway robberies and burglaries continued to be of almost
daily occurrence . Government House was once more robbed
(July 16, 1844) and some of the Governor's valuables carried
off. No house in the Colony was safe without armed watchmen
and no one ventured out after dark except revolver in hand.
The Police Magistrate issued (August 25 , 1846 ) a notice warning
residents not to go beyond the limits of the town singly nor
even in parties unless armed .' In 1847 European householders
were ordered to supplement the imperfect street - lighting system
by suspending lamps before the doors of their houses. The
Police Force possessed as yet neither the training nor the moral
tone that would have inspired the community with confidence
and prevented collusion between native constables and criminals.
As to the latter it seemed as if English law, though ever so
severely administered, was unable to provide penalties sufficiently
deterrent. Flogging was indeed resorted to very freely and
even for comparatively shadowy offences such as vagrancy. The
House of Commons occupied itself, rather needlessly, with this
point (in autumn, 1846 ) at the motion of Dr. Bowring, the
Member for Bolton, who drew the attention of the Ministry
to the allegation that 54 natives had been flogged in Hongkong
THE ADMINISTRATION OF SIR J. DAVIS. 239
in one day for not having tickets of registration. The
consequence was that the criminals of Hongkong had an easier
time for a few months, as public flogging was suspended from
January 23 to May 8, 1847 .
The most predominant form of crime at this period was
piracy. The whole coast- line of the Canton and Fohkien
provinces was virtually under the control of a piratical
confederacy under the leadership of Cheung Shap-ng-tsai and
Chui A-pou, to whom trading and fishing junks had to pay
regular black-mail. The waters of the Colony swarmed with
pirates, and Hongkong -registered junks were, on escaping the
pirates and entering the Canton River, subjected to all sorts
of lawless plunderings on the part of the crews of the gunboats
under the orders of the Canton revenue farmers. Hence
the peaceful trading junk of this period had to sail heavily
armed, so much so that there was frequently nothing but
the cargo to distinguish a trading junk from a pirate. The
worst feature of the case was the fact that lawless European
seamen occasionally enlisted in the service of the native pirates
and that the leaders of piratical facets made Hongkong their
headquarters, where native marine-storekeepers not only supplied
them with arms and ammunition and disposed of their booty ,
but furnished them also, through well-paid spies in mercantile
offices and Government departments, with information as to the
shipments of valuable cargo and particularly as to the movements
of the Police and of British gunboats. A Colonial gunboat,
manned by the Police, was procured (June 5, 1846 ) to cruize
in the waters of the Colony and did some little service until
the vessel was wrecked (September 1 , 1848 ) . Deportation of
convicted criminals inspired the Chinese with no terror, as it
offered innumerable chances of eventual escape. The last convict
ship of this period , the General Wood,' which sailed for Penang
on January 2 , 1848 , was piratically taken possession of by
the convicts most of whom made good their escape.
The European commerce of the Colony appearel to decline
or to stagnate during this administration . The trade in Indian
240 CHAPTER XIV.
opium, driven away from Hongkong by the measures of Sir
H. Pottinger, was for some time conducted at Whampoa and,
on being forced away thence, by a crusade instituted through
the Canton Consuls at the instance of the Canton monopolists of
the sulphur trade, took refuge at Kapsingmoon near Macao. The
Kapsingmoon anchorage being unsafe during the N.E. monsoon ,
the Hongkong merchants were hoping to procure the return
of the trade to their port, when the establishment of an opium
farm by Sir J. Davis frustrated their design . Arrangements
had been made by some merchants to introduce silk- weaving
establishments into the Colony, but the scheme was abandoned
in despair when it became apparent that the Governor, with
his passion for fiscal exactions, would certainly tax the looms.
Competition and trade rivalries, between the merchants estab-
lished in the Treaty ports of China and those who remained
at Hongkong, became intensified by bitter feelings of jealousy .
It was publicly stated (August 1 , 1846) that Canton merchants
had been for some time instructing their correspondents in
England to stipulate that vessels by which they shipped goods for
the different Treaty ports of China should first come to Whampoa
and there discharge goods for Canton before proceeding to
Hongkong. In retaliation for this measure, and in their despair
at seeing free trade principles overwhelmed by a flood of
Government monopolies, Hongkong merchants now broke faith
with the established free trade creed of their predecessors and
began themselves to look out for protectionist measures to
re-establish the decaying commerce of the Colony. Free trade
was now looked upon as a bright dream of the past, and it
was seriously proposed to agitate, as Captain Elliot had done
in June 1841 , for an Act of Parliament declaring that for
ten years all teas shipped at Hongkong would be protected in
Great Britain by a differential duty of one penny per pound
on congous and twopence on the finer sorts . This scheme was
urged upon the Secretary of State by Hongkong merchants
residing in London, and several letters appeared in the Times
(December 9 and 24, 1846 ) alvocating the imposition of a
THE ADMINISTRATION OF SIR J. DAVIS. 241
differential duty of twopence farthing on all teas shipped at
Hongkong. The sinister expectation of the promoters of this
measure avowedly was that the death-blow would be struck
to the trade of Canton ' (and Foochow). Of course this
fratricidal plan of reviving the commerce of Hongkong by
killing that of Canton (or any other Treaty port ) had no chance
of even a hearing in a Parliament the previously divided counsels
of which had just converged towards the adoption , from a
conscientious recognition of economic truths, of positive free
trade principles by the abrogation of the corn laws (June 25 ,
1846 ) . Lord Stanley emphatically refused (September 4, 1846 )
to entertain the proposal of a differential duty. As a last refuge,
the community addressed (February 27 , 1848 ) a Memorial to
Earl Grey praying for a reduction or abolition of the land rent .
They were informed in reply (July 17 , 1848 ) that Earl Grey
was willing to extend the terms of the leases or even to grant
them in perpetuity.
The fact of a serious decline having overtaken the European
commerce of Hongkong gradually forced itself upon public
recognition and was interpreted by extremists to involve the
Colony in absolute ruin. On August 13, 1845 , all the leading
British firms (31 in number) memorialized Lord Stanley on
the subject. Sir J. Davis viewed their statements as gross
exaggerations and replied by a series of arguments propounded
by the Acting Colonial Secretary (W. Caine) . Thereupon a
deputation ( A. Matheson, G. T. Braine, Gilbert Smith , and
Crawford Kerr) presented ( August 29 , 1845 ) a second Memorial,
6
in the course of which they stated that Hongkong has no
trade at all and is the mere place of residence of Government
and its officers with a few British merchants and a very scanty
and poor population . ' The Governor remained unconvinced,
and later on (January 6, 1846 ) published an exhaustive trade
report from the pen of Dr. Gützlaff, intended to refute the
allegations of the local merchants, who, however, disputed the
correctness of Dr. Gützlaff's statistics . This official report
contains a rather remarkable admission of the failure of Sir
16
242 CHAPTER XIV.
H. Pottinger's commercial policy, in stating that in spite of
the discouragement afforded by the Supplementary Treaty, the
Chinese trade appears to be rather on the increase . ' The dispute
was continued in the home papers and on April 6 , 1846, the
Times gave expression to the melancholy views of the European
community in the following words. Hongkong has quite lost
caste as a place for mercantile operations. Many of the
merchants have already abandoned the Island. Since the
beginning of the present year two firms have given up their
establishments, two more of old standing have expressed their
determination to quit the Colony, and two others are hesitating
about following their example or at most of leaving a clerk
in possession to forward goods or letters . ' The climax was
reached when an American contributor to the Economist (August
8, 1846) incisively declared that Hongkong is nothing now
but a depot for a few opium smugglers, soldiers, officers and men-
of-war's men.' These sensational statements, however, represented
merely the feelings of disappointment aroused by a natural but
unusually prolonged period of depression consequent upon
previous unnatural inflation . While friends and foes of the
Colony debated the extent and causes of its rain, Hongkong
itself stood smiling like Patience on a monument bearing the
6
bold legend Resurgam.
As regards the native trade of Hongkong, there were
distinct signs visible in 1846 of a speedy revival. Junks from
Pakhoi, Hoihow and Tinpak, in the south-west, commenced
in 1846 a prosperous trade with Hongkong. The fact that the
Chinese Mandarins dared not, or on account of the piratical
fleets could not, stop this trade, combined with the rising faith
in the power of Great Britain, produced by the repeated
humiliations which Sir J. Davis had inflicted on Kiying, now
gave currency to the belief that Chinese merchants residing in
Hongkong need not confine their operations (by means of native
junks) to the Treaty ports of China. Thenceforth Chinese
subjects established in the Colony rejoiced in, and commercially
took all the advantages of, the double status of residing under ›
THE ADMINISTRATION OF SIR J. DAVIS. 243
British rule and protection without forfeiting their privileges
as natives of China. Canton native merchants now took to
visiting the auction rooms of Hongkong and began, for fear
of pirates, to charter small European sailing vessels (mostly
German or Danish) for the carrying on of their own coasting
trade with the Treaty ports on the east coast. Fleets of Chinese
trading junks also occasionally engaged small English steamers
to convoy them as a protection against, pirates. Thus the
reviving native trade reacted as a fillip upon the stagnating
European commerce of the Colony.
Communication with Canton was at this period a source
of much trouble to British merchants. Endeavours which had
been made, by Mr. Donald Matheson in 1845 and by Mr. A.
Campbell in 1847, to persuade the directors of the Peninsular
and Oriental Steam Navigation Company to connect their
monthly mail steamers to Hongkong by a branch line with
Canton, failed to have any effect till the close of the year 1848 ,
when it was too late. Meanwhile some sixty merchants had
made an arrangement with the owners of the S.S. Corsair to
carry their mails to Canton for a monthly subsidy of £ 150.
In 1847 the Postmaster insisted on the steamer's carrying 6 and
delivering Post Office letters for Canton at twopence each .
When the captain of the Corsair refused to deliver the letters
to the addressees on the ground that there was no Post Office
in Canton , Sir J. Davis ordered legal proceedings to be instituted ,
which resulted (February 23, 1847 ) in the infliction of a fine of
£ 100 . Although the verdict (based on an Imperial Act ) was
accompanied by a recommendation that the fine be remitted , the
Governor declined to exercise his prerogative in the case. The
British community, feeling themselves once more sorely aggrieved,
addressed their complaints to the Postmaster General in London,
and resolved to help themselves by establishing a Hongkong
and Canton Steamboat Company as a joint-stock enterprise.
Sir J. Davis boldly attempted to reform the currency of
the Colony without consulting the mercantile community. Sir
H. Pottinger had, as mentioned above, fixed the value of the East
244 CHAPTER XIV.
India Company's rupees in relation to dollars and cash (March
29, 1842 ) and declared the dollar to be the standard medium
in commercial transactions unless it were otherwise specified
(April 27 , 1842 ) . Sir J. Davis now issued a proclamation (May
1 , 1845 ) which cancelled the foregoing proclamations and
ordained that the following coins should thenceforth constitute
a legal tender of payment in Hongkong, viz. ( 1 ) the gold, silver
and copper coins of the United Kingdom, ( 2 ) gold mohur at
298. 2d., (3 ) Spanish, Mexican or South-American dollars at
48. 2d., (4) rupees at 18. 10d. , (5) cash at the rate of 280 cash
to one shilling. This attempt to establish a uniform gold
standard in Hongkong was received by the community with
blank astonishment. But it did not affect trade in any way,
because there was no demand for gold, whilst silver, coined and
uncoined, passed current in the Colony by weight. Consequently
Indian and British silver coins were, irrespective of their Sterling
value, taken weight for weight with old chopped dollars. But
the proclamation did affect official salaries and payments to
Government. An attempt was also made in 1846 to introduce
a sufficient quantity of British coins to compete with Mexican
and Spanish dollars . At the close of the year, the Deputy-
Commissary General presented to the Governor a very favourable
report on the British coin sent out by the Treasury. He
stated that it had proved extremely useful for small payments,
that even the Chinese brought dollars to be exchanged for
Sterling, and that he had applied for more to be sent out to
the amount of £ 10,000 . Subsequent experience, however,
contradicted the hopes entertained as to the success of a British .
currency in China and the dollar continued to reign supreme.
Among the more hopeful symptoms of local commerce at
this period may be mentioned the establishment (in April, 1845 )
of a branch of the Oriental Bank Corporation, which put in
circulation in 1847 , though as yet unchartered, over $56,000
worth of bank-notes, to the great relief of local trade. The
appointment of three Consular officers is another noteworthy
feature. Mr. F. T. Bush acted (since November 12 , 1845 ) as
THE ADMINISTRATION OF SIR J. DAVIS. 245
Consul for the United States, Mr. J. Burd (since March 11
1847 ) as Consul for Denmark, and Mr. F. J. de Paiva (since
March 12 , 1847 ) as Consul for Portugal.
In the interest of sanitation, an Ordinance was passed (De-
· cember 26 , 1845 ) enforcing a modicum of order and cleanliness .
The deadly Wongnaichung Valley (Happy Valley) was drained
(April 23, 1845 ) and the cultivation of rice there forbidden.
Otherwise sanitation and cleanliness were left to take care of
themselves. The period of Sir J. Davis' administration stands
out, however, very favourably so far as mortality returns are
concerned. The Colonial Surgeon, Dr. W. Morrison, who
succeeded Dr. Peter Young on November 15, 1847, gave the
death rate of the whole population in 1847 as 114 per cent .
and that of the Europeans alone (June 1 , 1847 , to May 31 , 1848)
at 565 per cent., not including deaths from accidents which
brought up the mortality of Europeans to 6.25 per cent .
Compared with 1843 , when the return gave the European
mortality as 22.00 per cent . , this was of course a great
improvement . Fever was the most fatal malady in 1844 and
dysentery in 1845. Among the European troops the improvement
was, thanks to the new Barracks and Hospitals, the erection
of which General D'Aguilar ordered on his own responsibility,
even more striking . In 1843 the death rate among European
soldiers was 22:20 and in 1845 it was 13.25 per cent. In the
year 1845 the rate fell to 8:50 and in 1847 to 4.00 per cent .
Strange to say, the Indian troops suffered during this period
more than the Europeans. In 1847 the deaths among the
Madras sepoys amounted to 9-25 per cent. It may be mentioned ,
in this connection, that on March 8, 1848 , the first surgical
operation performed in Hongkong with the use of chloroform
(by Dr. Harland of the Seamen's Hospital) was reported as
a great novelty.
Sir J. Davis was the first Governor of Hongkong that took
a lively interest in the promotion of both religion and education.
To promote the better observance of Sunday, he issued (June 28 ,
1844) a notification ordering strict observation of a Sunday
246 CHAPTER XIV.
rest to be included in all contracts for public works . This
regulation, enforcing entire cessation of labour on Sundays so-
far as the Public Works Department was concerned, received
the full approval of the Colonial Office (October 8 , 1844 ) . Sir
John was also supposed to be engaged in wringing from an
unwilling Home Government their consent to the early erection of
the Colonial Church. Yet building operations were unaccountably
delayed from October, 1843, to October, 1846. Great was,
therefore, the indignation felt in Hongkong when it became
known, through a private letter of Mr. Gladstone (of June 27 ,
1846 ) , that the cause of the delay in the erection of a suitable
Church at Hongkong has been the want of any estimate
transmitted from the Colony, for without this preliminary step
the Treasury will not grant the public money.' It was not
till March 11 , 1847 , that, as stated in a pompous Latin
inscription on a brass plate inserted in the foundation stone,
6 The corner stone of this Church, dedicated to St. John the
Evangelist, and destined for the worship of Almighty God,
was laid by Lord J. F. Davis, Baronet, a Legate of the British
Queen in China and bedecked with proconsular dignity, on the
fifth day of the Ides of March in the tenth year of Queen
Victoria, A.D. 1847.' At a meeting of contributors to the
Colonial Church fund (April 12, 1847) an additional subscription
was raised bringing up the fund to £ 1.888 and Government
now doubled this sum . Two Trustees (Wilkinson Dent and
T. D. Neave) were elected by the subscribers , and four others by
the Government. During the progress of the building, services
were held at the present Court House opposite the Club. A
Union Chapel, in connection with the London Mission, and
intended for services in the English and Chinese languages,
was built in the present Hollywood Road, in spring 1845, by
means of a public subscription raised ( September 9, 1844) by Dr.
Legge . In 1847 and 1848 meetings for Presbyterian worship
were held every Sunday in a bungalow immediately behind the
present Club House. A mortuary chapel was erected, in 1845 ,
in the new cemetery in the Happy Valley.
THE ADMINISTRATION OF SIR J. DAVIS. 247
In addition to the three Anglo-Chinese Schools (the Morrison
Institution on Morrison Hill , the Anglo-Chinese College of the
London Mission and St. Paul's College ) started under the
preceding administration, a number of smaller Schools was
"
established under the fostering care of Sir J. Davis . An English
Children's School ' was opened, in 1845 , by the Colonial Chaplain
(V. Stanton) , and in emulation of it the Propaganda Society
started at once a similar School for Roman Catholic children,
which was, however, discontinued in 1847. For the benefit
of the Chinese population , which had at this period nine
Confucian Schools at work, the Governor devised, early in 1847 ,
in imitation of the English religious education grants then hotly
discussed in Parliament, a Government Grant -in- Aid Scheme
to provide non-compulsory religious education in Chinese Schools
under the direction of an Educational Committee (gazetted on
December 6 , 1847 ) , consisting of the Police Magistrate, the
Colonial Chaplain and the Registrar General. That Sir J. Davis
was to some extent a religious visionary, may be inferred from
a dispatch (March 13, 1847 ) in which he commended his scheme
to the Colonial Office by saying that, If these Schools were
eventually placed in charge of native Christian teachers, bred
up by the Protestant Missionaries, it would afford the most
rational prospect of converting the native population of the
Island.' Sancta simplicitas!
The social and general progress of the Colony during this
period centered principally in the year 1845. The erection in
1844 of the Seamen's Hospital (September 30 , 1844) and the
formation of an Amateur Dramatic Corps (December 18, 1844)
were succeeded by the following events of the fruitful year
1845, viz . the first issue of the China Mail newspaper ( February
20 ) , the completion of a carriage road round the Happy Valley
(March 1 ) , establishment of an Ice House Company (April 17) ,
building of a Picnic House at Little Hongkong ( April 26) ,
establishment of a Medico- Chirurgical Society ( May 13 ),
organisation of Freemasonry and starting of Zetland Lodge
(June 18 and December 8 ) , commencement of a monthly line
248 CHAPTER XIV.
of mail steamers by the Peninsular & Oriental Steam Navigation
Company (August 1 ) and completion of a temporary Government
House (November 1 ) . The Hongkong Club, also planned in
1845. was opened on May 26 , 1846, in a stately building erected,
opposite the new Court House, at a cost of £ 15,000 by
G. Strachan with funds provided by shareholders who appointed
a Board of Trustees as a Standing Committee of the Club.
Resident members were to be admitted by ballot and required
to pay an entrance fee ($30) and a monthly subscription ($4) .
A fund for the relief of sick and destitute foreigners was
established by a public meeting (July 13 , 1846 ) which passed
the remarkable resolution that the term foreigner shall include
natives of every country except China. ' This public sanction
of the local use of the word foreigner was dictated by common
sense yielding to the force of a usage which dated from the time
when Englishmen were residing, as foreigners, in Canton aud
Macao. At a meeting of the above-mentioned Medical Society
(January 5 , 1847 ) , it was proposed to establish a Philosophical
Society for China, and this proposal resulted in the organisation
(January 15, 1847 ) of a China Branch of the Royal Asiatic
Society in Hongkong, under the presidency of Sir J. Davis. A
public subscription was started (May 24, 1847 ) for the relief
of destitution in Ireland and Scotland and realised £ 1,000 .
At the close of the year 1846 and throughout the early
part of the following year, dissensions were rife among the officers
and civil employees of the garrison . Court-martials were frequent
and differences arose even between the officers constituting the
Court and Major-General D'Aguilar. Local society, centering
still in the grandees of the mercantile community, took a lively
interest in the matter adverse to the General, who, as he resented
the criticisms of civilians, was at this time as much detested
by the community as the Governor himself. But the animosities
thus aroused speedily died away. Before the close of the year
the breach was healed . The ceremony of presenting new colours
to the 95th Regiment (February 17, 1848) , on which occasion
the General's successor, Major- General Staveley, took over the
THE ADMINISTRATION OF SIR J. DAVIS. 249
command of the garrison, was a sort of public festival of
reconciliation in which the leading merchants took an active
part by presenting to General D'Aguilar a laudatory address
of farewell. Next week the community enthusiastically took
the General to its bosom again, by a stately banquet given
in his honour ( February 24, 1848 ) . The day before the great
reconciliation scene, the leading merchants presented also a public
address to the Senior Naval Officer, Captain MacQuhae, on his
departure from the station. What gave a piquant zest to these
demonstrations of popular affection for the departing commanding
officers of the Army and Navy, was the underlying thought of
the difference with which the Governor's impending departure
was to be treated by the community.
When the time came for Sir J. Davis to embark (March 30 ,
1848 ) on his homeward voyage, the community, with stolid
apathy, watched from a distance the salutes fired, the faint
cheer of a few devoted friends, the yards manned by the mail
steamer. But there was no public address, no banquet, no
popular farewell . The leading paper of the Colony gave voice
6
to the feelings of the public by stating that Sir John was
not only unpopular from his official acts but unfit for a Colonial
Government by his personal demeanour and disposition , ' and ,
with sarcastic allusion to the Governor's fondness for the Latin
tongue, closed its valedictory oration with this canstic farewell,
6
Exi, mi fili, et vile quam minima sapientia mundus hic regitur ' !
Conscious, no doubt, of having manfully and patiently done
his duty, according to his lights, by his God and his country,
and viewing the mercantile community as blinded by prejudice
and passion, Sir J. Davis could well afford to smile at all this
badinage. But he had suffered the mortification, nearly a year
before his return to England, of seeing the whole of his
administrative policy inquired into, held up to the public
gaze, and solemnly condemned by higher authorities than the
Hongkong merchants.
A Parliamentary Committee was appointed (in March, 1847)
to inquire into British commercial relations with China. Mr.
250 CHAPTER XIV.
R. M. Martin , of course, came once more to the front.
According to him, Sir J. Davis erred, first, in raising undue
expectations of the future of Hongkong by assuring Her
Majesty's Government that Hongkong would be the Carthage
of the East, that its population would equal that of ancient
Rome, and that commercially Hongkong would ultimately
supersede Canton . He further erred , according to Mr. Martin,
in that he, having raised such expectations, endeavoured by
measures forced upon the Colony to fulfil his predictions.
6
The constant endeavour to realize those expectations led to
a continued system of taxation , an unfortunate desire for
legislation, and an unnecessarily expensive system of government.
This produced irritation on the part of the merchants who,
smarting under their losses, felt more irritable at every
transaction ; and thus there has been produced an unfortunate
state of feeling between the community and the Governor .'
Mr. Martin thought that Sir J. Davis would have exercised
a sound discretion if he had represented to Her Majesty's
Government that it was not possible to raise a revenue without
diminishing the commerce or injuring the merchants in their
endeavours to make the place more available for trade.
But a more seriou and weig
s hty condemnation of the
policy maintained by Sir J. Davis , is contained in the evidence
given before that Select Committee of the House of Commons
and particularly in the final report of the Committee . Whilst
Mr. Martin's criticisms , particularly as embodied in his famous
report of July 24, 1844 , were too sweeping to carry conviction
and have in part been contradicted by the events of history ,
the evidence given by Mr. A. Matheson , whilst freely exposing
the evil results of Sir J. Davis ' policy , bore the stamp of a
mature and sober judgment , and contained , moreover, a prophecy
which history has fulfilled . The whole of the British merchants ,'
said Mr. A. Matheson ( May 4, 1847 ) , ' would abandon Hongkong ,
were it not for the very large sums they had sunk in buildings
in the early days of the Colony and which they were reluctant
to abandon , though I believe doing so would have been the
THE ADMINISTRATION OF SIR J. DAVIS. 251
wisest course and will certainly be the course adopted unless
under a change of policy the prosperity of the place revives.
Let perpetual leases be granted at a moderate ground
rent (say £20 or so for a sea frontage lot and £ 2 for a suburban
lot) and let the revenue thus levied be applied exclusively to-
the maintenance of an efficient Police Force, leaving the other
expenses to be borne by the nation, and I feel convinced that
in the course of a few years Hongkong will take a new turn
and become one of our most flourishing as well as valuable
possessions.'
The final report of this Parliamentary Committee, though
not mentioning Sir J. Davis, and aiming at reform rather than
criticism, condemned his administrative policy in toto. 'In
addition to natural and necessary disadvantages, Hongkong
appears to have laboured under others, created by a system
of monopolies and farms and petty regulations peculiarly
unsuited to its position and prejudicial to its progress . These
seem to have arisen partly from an attempt to struggle with
the difficulties of establishing order and security in the midst
of the vagabond and piratical population which frequent its
waters and infest its coasts ; and partly from a desire to raise
a revenue in the Island in some degree adequate to the
maintenance of its civil Government. To this latter object ,
however, we think it unwise to sacrifice the real interests of
the settlement , which can only prosper under the greatest
amount of freedom of intercourse and traffic which is consistent
with the engagements of treaties and internal order ; nor do
we think it right that the burden of maintaining that which
is rather a post for general influence and the protection of the-
general trade in the China Seas than a colony in the ordinary
sense, should be thrown in any great degree on the merchants
or other persons who may be resident upon it. To the revision
of the whole system we would call the early attention of the
Government, as well as to that of the establishment of the
Settlement which we cannot but think has been placed on a
footing of needless expense .' The Committee finally pressed
252 CHAPTER XIV.
upon the Government the acceptance of the following positive
recommendations, viz . ( 1 ) that regular post-office communication
by steamboats be established from Hongkong to Canton and
northern ports ; (2) that the dependence of the Governor on
both the Foreign Office and the Colonial Office be simplified ;
(3) that a short Code of Law be substituted for the present
system of general references to the laws of England ; (4) that
draft ordinances and regulations be published for three or six
months before they are enacted ; (5 ) that a share in the
administration of the ordinary and local affairs of the Island
be given, by some system of municipal government , to the
British residents ; and ( 6 ) that facilities be given in Hongkong
for the acquisition of the Chinese language and encouragement
to Schools for the Chinese.
No one ever discerned with greater clearness Hongkong's true
path to higher destinies, than this Parliamentary Committee.
After his retirement from the Governorship of Hongkong,
Sir John Davis was honoured by being appointed a Deputy-
Lieutenant of Gloucestershire (in 1852 ) , a Knight Commander
of the Order of the Bath (June 14, 1854) , and a Doctor of
Civil Law of Oxford (June 21 , 1876 ) . He died on November
13, 1890 , in his ninety-sixth year, full of days and ripe for
glory.
CHAPTER XV .
THE ADMINISTRATION OF SIR SAMUEL GEORGE BONHAM.
March 20, 1848, to April 12, 1854.
ZOR some months before the departure of Sir J. Davis, the
European community of Hongkong looked forward to
the arrival of a new Governor in the hope that he would abandon
the trade restraining system of monopolies, and revive the waning
fortunes of the Colony by carrying into effect the recommen-
dations of the Parliamentary Committee of 1847. At the same
time the Home Authorities, casting about for a successor to
Sir J. Davis, found it difficult to determine what sort of man
would be suitable for such a trying office, the more so as public
opinion in England had it that an angel for a Governor would
fail to give satisfaction in Hongkong. The choice of Her
Majesty's Government fell eventually on Sir Samuel George
Bonham, C.B. He had been brought up in the service of the
East India Company which, owing to the variety of duties-
financial, judicial and executive -generally thrown upon its higher
officers, was considered an excellent training school for a difficult
governorship. Sir George Bonham had served under the Colonial
Office for nearly ten years ( 1833 to 1842 ) as Governor of Prince
of Wales Island (now included in Queensland) , Singapore and
Malacca and had given great satisfaction. Lord Palmerston
subsequently stated that Sir George's practical common sense
was the chief cause of his appointment to the governorship of
Hongkong.
On landing at Hongkong (March 20 , 1848 ) , Sir G. Bonham
was received by the leaders of the community with a hearty cheer.
Next day he took with due solemnity the customary oaths on
assuming his double office of Chief-Superintendent of Trade and
254 CHAPTER XV.
H. M. Plenipotentiary in China, and as Governor and Comman-
der-in-chief of the Colony of Hongkong and its Dependencies
and Vice-Admiral of the same. His commissions and letters
patent were published at the same time (March 21 , 1848 ) .
Mr. (subsequently Sir) Thomas F. Wade, who had been for
some time Student- Interpreter under Dr. Gützlaff, in the
Secretariate of the Superintendency of Trade, and had acted
latterly also as Assistant-Interpreter in the Supreme Court,
was appointed Private Secretary to the Governor ( April 8 ,
1848 ) , and acted thenceforth as the Governor's adviser in all
Chinese matters.
Like his predecessors , Sir G. Bonham had to leave Hongkong
-occasionally, on tours of inspection, to visit the Consular Stations
in China, and on several occasions his diplomatic duties as
H. M. Plenipotentiary took him likewise away for brief intervals
to Macao, Canton or Shanghai . In March, 1852 , he left on
twelve mouths ' leave to recruit health by a visit to England
(on which occasion the community presented him with a
laudatory farewell address) but was back again at his post in
February, 1853. On all these occasions Sir George had either
Major-General Staveley, C.B. (till February 25, 1851 ) or Major-
General Jervois, K.G. (from February, 1851 , to April, 1854) to
act as Lieutenant-Governors in his place, and both of them gave
general satisfaction by maintaining Sir George's policy during his
absence. Major- General Jervois particularly endeared himself
to the hearts of all residents by his invariable urbanity and
cordial hospitality which effectively promoted good feeling in
Hongkong's limited society, as much as by the even tenor of
the way in which he conducted the affairs of the Colony. When
he left Hongkong, the community presented him (April 7 , 1854)
with an address testifying to the great respect and esteem in
which he was held . During Sir G. Bonham's absence in 1852.
Dr. Bowring, then H.M. Consul in Canton , came down (April
14, 1852 ) as Sir George's locum tenens in the Superintendency of
Trade and resided at Government House (until February 16,
1853 ) , confining himself, however, strictly to his diplomatic and
THE ADMINISTRATION OF SIR G. BONHAM. 255
consular duties, while Major-General Jervois administered the
government of the Colony as Lieutenant-Governor.
Throughout the six years of his tenure of office, Sir G.
Bonham maintained friendly relations with the successive Gover-
nors of Macao, J. M. F. d'Amiral (until August 22 , 1849 ) , P. A.
da Cunha (since May 27 , 1850) , S. Cardazo (since January 21 ,
1851 ) , and T. F. Guimaraes ( since November 18 , 1851 ) . Nor
were these amicable relations interrupted even by that plucky
but hasty action of the Senior British Naval Officer, Captain
H. Keppel, who (June 7 , 1849 ) landed at Macao, with Captain
Troubridge and 115 men of H.M.S. Maeander, and rescued from
the Portuguese gaol-guard a British prisoner by an act of force
which unfortunately involved the death of one Portuguese soldier
and the wounding of two others. The prisoner was Mr. J.
Summers, preceptor of St. Paul's College, who had been lodged ,
with unreasonable harshness, in the common jail at Macao for
not taking off his hat at the passing of the Corpus Christi
procession. When Captain Keppel applied for the prisoner's
immediate rendition, Governor Amiral curtly refused it because
the gallant Captain declined to ask for it as a personal favour.
Captain Keppel fancied that his forcible interference would be
held justifiable on the ground of the above-mentioned Hongkong
Ordinance, which included Macao in the dominions of the
Emperor of China. As Governor Bonham, however, took a
different view of the case, and induced the British Admiralty to
grant substantial compensation for the injuries inflicted, the
relations between the Governors of the two Colonies continued
unimpaired . Great troubles came over that unfortunate settle-
ment at Macao in connection with the anti-Chinese policy and
consequent murder of Governor Amiral (August 22 , 1849 ) by
hired Chinese assassins, and by the equally sudden death through
cholera (not poison) of his successor, Commodore da Cunha
(July 6 , 1850) . The latter had just arrived from Europe
with two frigates, demanding of the Chinese Government, as
compensation for the assassination of Governor Amiral, a
recognition of the perfect independence of Macao. As the
256 CHAPTER XV.
Chinese Authorities stubbornly resisted these claims , and not-
only incited the Chinese residents of Macao to acts of treason ,
but commenced measures of hostility, many European and
Chinese merchants, and even Portuguese families, removed from
Macao and settled on the safer shores of Hongkong.
Sir G. Bonham found the Chinese Government as oblivious
of Treaty obligations and as uncompromisingly hostile to the
essential aims of British commercial policy as ever. The retro-
grade policy of the Emperor Taokwang and his successor (since
February 25, 1849 ) Hien-fung had been demonstrated by the
degradation of every Mandarin that had had anything to do with
the Pottinger Treaties . No one was now in favour at Peking who
did not distinguish himself by marked anti-foreign proclivities.
The Imperial Commissioner Seu Kwang-tsin, the successor of
Kiying at Canton, persistently sought to undermine the position
granted by the Nanking Treaty by bringing foreign trade under
the old restrictions of the time of the East India Company. For
this purpose he set to work quietly to force one after the other
of the main staples of foreign trade into the hands of responsible
Chinese monopolists. A United States Commissioner, J. W. Davis,
plied Seu (November 6 , 1848 ) with the suavest blandishments
of cute diplomacy but met only with discourtesy and blunt
refusals to listen to any reasoning whatever. When Governor
Bonham succeeded in wringing from Seu a reluctant consent
to an interview ( February 17 , 1849 ) on board H.M.S. Hastings
near the Bogue, Seu behaved with studied sulkiness, evaded
all serious discussion of the burning question of the promised
opening of Canton city, and declined even the customary
refreshments. He knew that Sir George was not in a position
to enforce the fulfilment of the promise which Sir J. Davis had
forcibly extorted from Kiying to grant foreign merchants, from
after April 6 , 1849 , the right of entering Canton city. When
Sir G. Bonham in repeated dispatches insisted upon the
immediate opening of Canton city, Seu fell back upon Kiying's
tactics of postponing action on the ground that at the present
time it would provoke popular disturbances. Fortified by an
THE ADMINISTRATION OF SIR G. BONHAM. 257
Imperial Edict he finally declared ( March 31 , 1849 ) the opening
of Canton city impossible because the Chinese Government
cannot thwart the inclinations of its people.' Sir George's
practical common sense forbade, under present circumstances,
his taking the bull by the horns. In view of the state of public
feeling in England, and in the interest of the general commerce
with China, he deemed it prudent to abstain from using the
only argument that would have made an impression on the
Chinese mind, that of an armed demonstration. Nor did he
shrink from making a public confession of his helplessness by
notifying the British merchants at Canton (April 2 , 1849 )
that the Chinese Government has declined to carry into effect
the stipulation entered into by Kiying on April 6 , 1847. Sir