George took, however, prompt measures to afford to the British
community at Canton all possible protection in the event of
the outbreak of those disturbances which the literati of Canton
wantonly threatened but wisely refrained from in the presence
of a British gunboat . That Sir G. Bonham, in resorting to
the waiting game he played in this case, acted upon his own
convictions and not merely under pressure of his instructions,
is evident from the fact that about this same time (April 20 ,
1849 ) Lord Palmerston , in replying to a Memorial of the
Manchester Chamber of Commerce (of October 12, 1848 )
concerning the unsatisfactory position of trade with China,
quoted Sir G. Bonham as having stated that it is necessary to
allow time to work an improvement in China.'
Nevertheless Sir George did not rest idly on his diplomatic
oars. In March, 1850, he protested so vigorously against an
attempt made by the Hoppo of Canton to prevent Hongkong
river-steamers carrying Chinese cargo between Hongkong and
Canton, that the Canton Authorities yielded the point . But as
he despaired of obtaining any radical concessions in the matter
of Treaty rights from any of the provincial magnates, Sir George
endeavoured to gain for his representations the Imperial ear
and proceeded for that purpose in H.M.S. Reynard (June,
1850) to the Peiho with the intention to proceed to Tientsin
17
258 CHAPTER XV.
and Peking. Circumstances, however, prevented his reaching
Tientsin and compelled him to rest satisfied with the forwarding
of a dispatch to the Emperor's advisers by the hands of
Mr. Medhurst. Although no tangible result was obtained,
H.M. Government marked their sense of Sir G. Bonham's
discreet diplomacy by promoting him (November 22 , 1850 ) from
the third to the second rank of the Order of the Bath (K.C.B. )
and bestowed on him at the same time a baronetcy.
Though highly thought of, Sir G. Bonham was not always
victorious with his representations to the Foreign Office . Being,
like most common -sense Europeans in China, of opinion that
the close attention indispensable for a successful study of the
Chinese language warps the mind and imbues it with a defective
perception of the common things of real life, he systematically
promoted men, having no knowledge of Chinese, over the heads
of interpreters to the more responsible posts of Vice- Consul or
Consul. But when he did this in the case of Mr. (subsequently
Sir) Harry Parkes in Canton (autumn, 1853) , there ensued what
was thenceforth called the Battle of the Interpreters . ' In this
battle Sir George was worsted . Sir Harry Parkes ' case was
indeed an exceptional one. He had just gained special kudos.
as an uncommonly shrewd man by his prudent dealing with
the fracas which occurred at Canton (March, 1853 ) between
the European residents and the French Minister M. de Bourbillon
over the erection of a French flagstaff in the garden of the
factories. On appealing therefore against Sir G. Bonham's
decision to Lord Clarendon, Sir Harry Parkes gained a complete
victory by an immediate reversal of Sir George's system of
withholding promotion from Consular interpreters.
In the sphere of British diplomacy in China, there was at
this time specially gool reason for the waiting policy which
Sir G. Bonham initiated and which even Dr. Bowring, during
his brief term as Acting Plenipotentiary in 1852 , continued .
The fact was, a serious rebellion, preceded by sporadic dis-
turbances in several districts of the Canton province, broke out
in 1850 in the adjoining province of Kwangsi, under the
THE ADMINISTRATION OF SIR G. BONHAM. 259
leadership of a religious fanatic, Hung Siu-tsuen, who had come
under Christian influences in Canton. This rebellion , which was
for the first time mentioned in the newspapers of Hongkong on
August 24, 1850, had originally the powerful support of the
secret Triad societies. A split , however, took place, and while
the adherents of Hung Siu-tsuen commenced, in 1852 , their
devastating march through the central provinces of China and
established, in 1853, the short-lived Taiping Dynasty at Nanking ,
the Triad societies ' bands of insurgents pillaged independently
town after town in the maritime provinces of southern China .
As these marauders gained power, and gradually drew nearer
to Canton city, the Colony of Hongkong began to reap the
harvest which invariably falls to its lot whenever the adjoining
districts of the Canton province are in a disturbed state. A
flood tide of emigration set in towards Hongkong (and Macao)
and thence to the Straits Settlements, to California and the
West Indies. For San Francisco alone as many as 30,000
Chinese embarked in Hongkong in the year 1852, paying in
Hongkong, in passage money alone, a sum of $ 1,500,000 .
Various branches of Chinese industry were established in
Hongkong. The population increased rapidly, and Chinese
capital, seeking a safe refuge from the clutches of the marauders,
commenced to flow into the Colony for investment .
Although the British Government determined at first to
observe strict neutrality, the question soon arose which of the
two contending Dynasties, the Taiping rebels (favoured by the
Missionary party) or the Manchu rulers (supported by the
mercantile community) would be more likely to bring about
that moral regeneration of the nation without which China
could never fully enter into the comity of nations. This
important question became more pressing when Taiping armies
approached or took possession of Treaty ports ( 1852 and 1853)
threatening a cessation of trade. Sir G. Bonham therefore
took the bold step of proceeding (April, 1853) to the
headquarters of the Taiping rebels enthroned at Nanking. His
object was to explain to the rebel leaders, as he had done to
260 CHAPTER XV.
the Imperialists, the principles of British neutrality, to demand'
of them a strict observance of the Nanking Treaty of 1842,
and to inquire what elements of stability there might be in-
the rebel government then established at Nanking. The
result was complete disillusion on both sides. The rebels
understood thenceforth what they had to expect from the British
Government. Sir G. Bonham, on the other hand, was now able
to satisfy the Foreign Office that the Taiping Dynasty was a
mere bubble, that their policy was as anti-foreign as that of the
Manchus, and that even less was to be expected from the former
than from the latter for an eventual repression of that cancer
of corruption which is gnawing at the vitals of China's political
organism . Sir George's action, in visiting the rebel leaders, was
afterwards severely and adversely criticized, but the mercantile
community of Hongkong were unanimous in their applause
of his proceedings. In the farewell address presented to Sir
George on 7th April, 1854, the leading merchants of Hongkong
specially praised him for having acted with prompitude in
restoring confidence and relieving the public mind at Shanghai,
at a moment of great alarm and excitement, by his bold, well-
judged and successful movement up the Yang-tsze to Nanking
in April, 1853.'
Now this same patient but practical and determined common
sense, which marked Sir G. Bonham's policy as H.M. Plenipo-
tentiary in China, characterized also his administration of
Hongkong's local affairs. It appears from the last dispatch
which he penned in Hongkong, that he from the first considered
himself bound by the opinions expressed by the Committee of
the House of Commons in the session of 1847 , but that he
was by no means satisfied with the conclusions which the
Committee arrived at . However, the constitutional questions
of popular representation in Legislative Council and municipal
organisation were among the first subjects which occupied
Governor Bonham's serious attention.
In January, 1849 , the leading merchants signed a Petition
to the House of Commons soliciting attention to the fact that
THE ADMINISTRATION OF SIR G. BONHAM. 261
the Colonial Office had, with the exception of the land tenure
which it seemed inclined to offer in perpetuity, not attended
as yet to the recommendations of the Report of the Parliamentary
Committee of 1847, and stating that the expenditure of the
Colony should not in any great degree be thrown on local
commerce : that a system of municipal government of ordinary
and local affairs ought to be established ; and that some short
code of law ought to be drawn up. The petitioners particularly
complained that the inhabitants had no share in the legislature,
neither by elective representatives nor by nominees selected by
the Governor, and that the forms and fees of the Supreme Court
were unduly heavy. There is no record shewing that this
Petition was ever presented to Parliament. Sir George, however,
forwarded (January 30 , 1849 ) a copy of the Petition for the
information of the Colonial Office. Nine months later, he
selected fifteen of the unofficial Justices of the Peace and
summoned them to a conference (November 3 , 1849 ) . He
informed them that Earl Grey had sanctioned his proposal for
the admission of two members of the civil community into
the Legislative Council, that the nomination rested with him,
but that he thought it better for the Justices themselves to elect
two of their number. A meeting of the Justices of the Peace
was accordingly held at the Club on 6th December, 1849 , and
Messrs . David Jardine and 'J. F. Edger were nominated as the
first non-official Members of the Legislative Council. The fact
that their election had to be approved by the Colonial Office
and that they could not be sworn in until the Queen's warrants
arrived (June 14, 1850) , did not detract from the general rejoicing
over this first step gained in the direction of representative
government .
At that same conference (November 3, 1849 ) Sir G. Bonham
had also stated , that, whilst agreeing with the principle of giving
taxpayers some sort of municipal government, he doubted the
practicability of the scheme in the case of Hongkong. He
-quoted the words of Sir James Mackintosh (regarding the
Bombay municipality) that men of standing, engaged in their
262 CHAPTER XV.
own absorbing pursuits would possess neither time nor inclination
to devote to the interests of the public .' However, he requested
the fifteen Justices of his selection to consult on the organisation
of a 6 Municipal Committee of Police Commissioners." The
Justices thereupon passed, at their meeting of 6th December,
1849 , the following resolutions,-first , that no advantage can
be derived from having a Municipal Council , unless the entire
management of the Police, of the streets and roads within the
precincts of the town, and of all other matters usually given
to corporations are confided to it, and secondly that , whereas
the mode of raising so large a revenue from land rents is only
retained as being the most convenient and is in lieu of assessment
and taxes, consequently the amount raised from that source,
together with the £ 3,000 or 4,000 raised from licences and
rents, should, with the police assessments, be applicable, as far as
may be required, for municipal purposes. If the Justices had
been satisfied to begin, in a small way, as a mere Committee
of Police Commissioners, looking to future improvement of the
revenue to provide the means for extending the scope of their
functions, Hongkong would not have remained for fifty years
longer without municipal government. As it was, they demanded
a full-blown Municipal Council under impossible financial
conditions. Governor Bonham, earnestly desiring to meet the
wishes of the community as far as possible, made later on some
fresh propositions (January 10 , 1851 ) . He offered to place the
whole management of the Police under a Municipal Committee
on condition that the entire expense of the Police Force be
provided by an adequate police tax. He further proposed to
hand over to this Committee the management of streets, roads
and sewers, on condition that the requisite funds be provided
either by an assessed tax on real property (as proposed formerly
by a Draft Ordinance of Sir J. Davis), or by a tax upon horses
and carriages. Sir George was evidently determined on reserving
the land rents to meet the establishment charges and, at great
risk to his popularity, strove not only to raise the general revenue
by increased taxation but to make the Colony as soon as possible
THE ADMINISTRATION OF SIR G. BONHAM. 263
independent of those Parliamentary Grants on which the
community meant to lean for ever. To reconcile these conflicting
purposes was impossible. A breach in the Governor's good
relations with the community seemed inevitable. The virulent
odium which Sir J. Davis bad incurred threatened to overwhelin
Sir G. Bonham also. What saved his policy and popularity
from shipwreck, was his persistent habit of taking the leaders
of the community into his confidence, of consulting public
opinion about his difficulties, and most of all his evident
sincerity in seeking not only to establish the coveted Muni-
cipal Council, but to carry into effect the whole programine
sketched out by the Parliamentary Committee of 1847. That
programme constituted the political creed of the community
and the Governor had made it his own. The Justices could
not be angry with a man who did this and who moreover
treated them as a sincere friend . In their replies (January 31
and March, 1 , 1851 ) they declined good -humouredly both of
the Governor's offers . Whilst again expressing their willingness
to undertake the duties of a Municipal Committee , they objected ,
first, that any further taxation would be injurious as the cost
of living was already exorbitant, and secondly that the police
tax would not be sufficient to provide the necessary funds because,
whilst the Colony remained a rendezvous for pirates and outlaws,
making even the harbour unsafe for native traders, the Police
Force was too small and composed of too untrustworthy and
ill-paid material. Addison would have said of the points in
dispute that much might be said on both sides. The discussion
closed with the Governor's declaration (March 15, 1851 ) that, as
the Justices objected to any further taxation, and as application
to the Home Government for further grants of money would, in
view of recent discussions in the House of Commons, be of no
avail, it was impossible for him to meet the views of the Justices .
Greek had fought Greek on the arena of common sense views of
finance and both parties were pleased to terminate the conflict .
The finances of the Colony were indeed in a desperate
state. When the Governor published (January 8 , 1849) a
264 CHAPTER XV.
statement of income and expenditure for the year 1848, shewing
£23.509 local revenue (apart from the Parliamentary Grant)
and £ 62,308 expenditure, a local paper summed up the position
of affairs by saying, the Colony is now in a state of insolvency,
the public works are suspended and the officials only paid a
portion of their salaries.' The difficulty was enhanced by the
fact that a public loan was out of the question , that the
Parliamentary Grant for 1849 had been reduced to £ 25,000,
and that but little could be saved by retrenchment of the civil
establishment without committing an act of injustice or impairing
efficiency. Sir George was, indeed, even then of the opinion
which he expressed later on , that, were this Colony taxed in
the same way as are the Settlements in the Straits under the
government of the East India Company, it would in a year
or two be made to pay its own expenses.' But he also knew
that any attempt at additional taxation would be violently
resisted by the community as injurious to trade. All eyes
were therefore directed to the Imperial Exchequer. Sir George
himself appears to have considered the temporary continuance
of a small annual grant from the Exchequer a reasonable
measure. Seeing,' he wrote ( April 2 , 1850) , ' that the trade
of the Colony benefits the British Exchequer and the Indian
Government conjointly to the extent of upwards of seven millions
Sterling, an expenditure on the part of the mother country of
from £ 12,000 to £ 15,000 annually, to uphold the establishment
of a Colony which is the seat of the Superintendent of British
trade with China, ought not to be considered excessive.' This
was, however, a question to be decided by Parliament, and
public opinion in England declared that the Colony was now
out of its swaddling clothes and ought to learn to stand on
its own legs.
Sir G. Bonham did his best to bring about this desirable
result by revising taxation as far as practicable and enforcing
retrenchment in every possible direction . For the ad valorem
duty on goods sold by auction , he substituted increased
auctioneers' licence fees . He introduced a tax on the exportation
THE ADMINISTRATION OF SIR G. BONHAM. 265
of granite which was at the time largely used as ballast for
tea ships. He shrank from reviving the opium monopoly, but
stimulate the revenue from the opium retail licences which
had been substituted (since August 1 , 1847 ) for the farming
system . He left the police tax assessment untouched at the
low rate of 5 per cent. but reduced the expensive European
contingent of the Police Force to the lowest possible minimum.
Finally he restricted public works (with the exception of the
erection of a new Government House) to the bare maintenance
of existing roads and buildings . By these and other minor
forms of retrenchment, he produced at the close of the year
1849 an immediate reduction of £ 23,672 on the expenditure
of the preceding year. He thenceforth maintained this low
rate of expenditure ( £ 38,986 in 1849 ) which averaged £ 34,398
per annum during the next three years and rose in 1853 to no
more than £36,418 . He was unable, indeed , to bring about any
great improvement of the local revenue, which, though it rose
temporarily, by the rigorous exaction of arrears of land rent in
1849 , to £ 35,536, fell again to £ 23,526 in 1850, and produced
during the next three years ( 1851 to 1853 ) an annual average
of £23,254. However, at the close of his administration he was
justified in saying ( April 7, 1854) that he had brought the Parlia-
mentary Grant from £25,000 in 1849 down to £ 8,500 (correctly
£9,200) in 1853, and that he had reduced the expenditure of
the Colony, within six years, from £ 62,658 to £ 36,418 .
During a period of such financial difficulties, the vexed
question of land tenure could not possibly be solved in the way
in which the mercantile community desired it to be settled .
The merchants were not satisfied with perpetuity of leases . They
desired an entire revision of the terms on which they had
originally bought their land . Instead of fixing an annual rental
and putting up to auction only the rate of bonus to be paid once
for all, Elliot had ( in the absence of a reliable standard of
land values) initiated the system of putting up to auction the
rate of the crown rent to be paid from year to year. In the early
times of keen competition , of booms and speculations, land
266 CHAPTER XV.
jobbing forced up the crown rents to a maximum commensurate
with inflated values. But this maximum, which at the time of sale
seemel reasonable enough, appeared in after years of commercial
stagnation to be a monstrously oppressive rate. Moreover, just
when these rents pressed most heavily on the land owners, the
Government , whose revenues suffered likewise under commercial
depression, was leas: inclined , nor indeed in a position , to reduce
the income from land rents. At a public meeting , principally
representing the land owners, a Memorial to the Government
was agreed to (January 19, 1849 ) , complaining that the land
rents were a burden too heavy to be borne. The memorialists
suggested, that the expenses of the civil establishment should
be made to fall on trade generally (the Imperial trade) and
not on local owners of land and that the crown rents should
be materially reduced or abolished . Sir George was in no hurry
to take up a problem which could not be solved under the
circumstances of the time and left it as a legacy to his successors.
After appointing (October, 1849) a Commission of Inquiry to
report on the land tenure of the Colony for the information of
Her Majesty's Government, he informed his select committee
of Justices of the Peace, at the conference of November 3 ,
1849, that any general reduction in the ground rents would be
immediately followed up by the Home Government with the
imposition of some general scheme of excise or assessment which
would be found much more oppressive and vexatious, besides
requiring a cumbersome and costly fixed machinery .' Fifteen
months later (February 14, 1851 ) the Colonial Secretary , in
reviewing the merits of Sir G. Bonham's administration (by
order of the Governor ) , stated that the petty sources of revenue
alleged to have been oppressive, had been abolished and for
the consideration of the chief source, said to be oppressive , a
Committee of five was appointed and their report forwarded
to Her Majesty's Government . No more was heard of this
troublous question during this administration .
The legislative activity of Governor Bonham's regime
centered in reforms of the administration of justice. When
THE ADMINISTRATION OF SIR G. BONHAM. 267
it was found, in October 1848 , that there were only 23 persons
in the Colony capable of serving on juries, the Governor reduced
the property qualification of common jurors from $ 1,000 to
$500 . According to his habit of consulting the community
about difficult problems, Sir G. Bonham published, in January,
1849, with a view to elicit an expression of public opinion , a
Draft Ordinance to regulate the flogging of criminals. Little
accustomed, as the residents then were, to being consulted by
their Governors, they imagined that Sir George had no definite
views on a subject on which the whole community, convinced
of the absolute necessity of applying exceptional severity to the
treatment of Chinese criminals, felt very strongly. Nevertheless,
the Governor deemed it prudent to shelve the question, while-
weightier matters pressed for settlement. To remove the friction
between the Police Magistrates and the Chief Justice, which
had troubled the preceding administration, Sir George created
(December 17 , 1850) a bench of Magistrates , perfectly independent
of the Government and having powers considerably greater than
those ordinarily accorded to similar bodies, by the establishment
of a Court of Petty Sessions . Unofficial Justices of the Peace
were to sit once a week with the Police Magistrates to hear
cases which otherwise would have been remitted to the Supreme
Court for trial by jury. The aim of this new measure ( Ordinance
5 of 1850 ) was to provide a more speedy settlement of small
debts, misdemeanours and minor crimes. But it expected, on
the part of the Justices, a greater readiness to sacrifice their time
and more legal acumen, than subsequent experience proved that
they possessed. Hence this measure did not give permanent
satisfaction. Further, as the Governor, in his capacity as
Plenipotentiary, extended at the same time the judicial powers
of Consuls in Treaty ports at the expense of Supreme Court
jurisdiction, many of his critics (and seemingly the Chief Justice
himself) saw in this creation of a Court of Petty Sessions an
objectionable encroachment upon the criminal jurisdiction of
the Supreme Court . An opposition paper went so far as to
impute to Sir G. Bonham the intention of eventually abolishing
268 CHAPTER XV.
the costly Supreme Court altogether by the appointment of civil
-officers combining judicial and administrative functions under
a system of plurality of offices which would save expenditure.
However, the Governor made no such attempt . On the contrary,
he extended the summary jurisdiction of the Supreme Court
to civil cases not involving more than $500, and pleased the
community considerably in giving effect to another suggestion
of the Parliamentary Committee of 1847 by publishing, for
the protection of suitors, a table of fees chargeable by attorneys.
The question of the form of oath to be administered to Chinese
witnesses occupied public attention in December, 1851 , the
Chief Justice having stated that he was greatly afraid that
fully half the cases adjudicated summarily had been determined
on false testimony. Originally the practice had been adopted
of making Chinese witnesses cut a cock's head in Court.
Subsequently the breaking of an earthen-ware basin was sub-
stituted and latterly it had been customary to burn a yellow
paper with oath and imprecation inscribed on it or signed by
the witness. The modern practice of a simple (though generally
unintelligible) oral affirmation in place of oath was now (in)
1852 ) adopted. Among the minor Ordinances passed during
this administration was an Ordinance to restrain the careless
manufacture of gunpowder by Chinese (August 31 , 1848 ) , and
a Marriage Ordinance ( March 16 , 1852 ) the operation of which
was, however, confined to the registration of Christian marriages ,
leaving the polygamic marriage system of the Chinese unregulated .
Sir G. Bonham's common sense administration is naturally dis-
tinguished by the paucity of itslegal enactments . The strained
relations which formerly existed between the Governor and Chief
Justice Hulme (who was restored to office on June 16 , 1848 )
were ended. But the Chief Justice's relations with Governor
Bonham, though never unfriendly, were not marked by cordiality.
Among the community, however, Chief Justice J. W. Hulme
was extremely popular. On his departure (April 7, 1854) the
leading residents presented him with an address testifying to
the high character he had always maintained on the bench, to
THE ADMINISTRATION OF SIR G. BONHAM. 269
his satisfactory administration of the law under perplexing
difficulties, and to his undeviating impartiality and uprightness .
During the first two years of Sir G. Bonham's adminis
tration , crime was still rife in the Celony, but from the year
1850 there was, with the exception of piracy, a sensible
decrease of serious offences. Occasional outbursts of a grave
nature were, indeed, not wanting, but the number of felonies,
674 in 1850, fell during the next two years to an average
of 505 cases per annum, and was reduced in 1853 to 471
cases. An attempt was made by Chinese, on July 8 , 1848 ,
to poison 25 men of the Royal Artillery. This was followed
by a fight in the harbour between the police, assisted by boats
of H.M.S. Cambrian, and some junks ( October 15 , 1848 ) . Three
Chinese junkmen and a policeman were shot . The Coroner's
jury, however, acquitted the junk people and public opinion.
blamed the police . Next came an attempt (December 24, 1848 )
to fire the Central Market. Soon after (February 28, 1849)
occurred the murder at Wongmakok (near Stanley) of Captain
da Costa , R.E., and Lieutenant Dwyer of the Ceylon Rifles,
by the pirate chief Chui Apou , who was subsequently ( March 10 ,
1851 ) convicted of manslaughter but committed suicide in jail .
In September, 1849, a foolish rumour gained currency among
the native population to the effect that the Chinese Government
had offered a reward for the assassination of Governor Bonham.
The suggestion was, however, seriously made, and subsequently
acted upon, that in his carriage drives the Governor should
always be attended by an escort of armed troopers, During
September, 1850, some street fights occurred owing to the
carpenters' guild intimidating independent journeymen who
refused to submit to the guild regulations. With the exception
of a murderous attack made upon the Rev. Van Geniss (August ,
1852 ) , on the road between Little Hongkong and Wongnaichung,
the latter years of this administration were remarkably free
from highway robberies and burglaries.
But piracy lifted up its head high during this period , in
spite of the periodical destruction of piratical fleets by British
270 CHAPTER XV.
gunboats. By a series of hotly contested engagements ( September
28 to October 3 , 1849 ) , Commander J. C. Dalrymple Hay,
with H.M. Ships Columbine, Fury, and Medea, destroyed the
entire fleet of Chui Apou, consisting of 23 junks, carrying 12
to 18 guns each and manned by 1,800 desperadoes . Two piratical
dock-yards were also destroyed on the same occasion . A few
weeks later (October 19 to 22, 1849 ) , Commander Hay, having
under his orders H.M. Ships Phlegeton, Fury, Columbine, and
a large party of officers and men from H.M.S. Hastings,
destroyed the greater part of the fleet of the other pirate chief,
Shap-ng-tsai . Out of 64 junks, manned by 3,150 men with
1,224 guns, as many as 58 junks were destroyed . Commander
Hay officially reported that these successes were obtained on
the information given by that invaluable officer Daniel R.
Caldwell.' So intense was the rejoicing in commercial circles
of Hongkong over these wholesale massacres of pirates, that
a public subscription was raised and each of the captains present
at the destruction of Shap-ng-tsai's fleet, was presented with
a service of plate of the value of £ 200 . A third piratical fleet
of 13 junks, collected by Chui Apou, was destroyed (March 4,
1850) in Mirs Bay, close to Hongkong, by H.M.S. Medea
which had on board Mr. Caldwell and a Mandarin from Kowloon.
Finally, on May 10, 1853, another piratical fleet was destroyed
by H.M.S. Rattler. Nevertheless , sporadic cases of piracy
continued to increase in the neighbourhood of Hongkong. On
February 20, 1851 , a pitched battle was fought in Aberdeen
Bay between some piratical junks and 8 Chinese gunboats. A
week later ( February 28, 1851 ) a conspiracy to loot the river-
steamer Hongkong on her way to Canton , was discovered by
Mr. Caldwell. In the year 1852 some 19 cases of piracy were
reported as having occurred in the waters of Hongkong.
During the summer of 1853 piracies occurred at an average
rate of 14 per month . As many as 70 cases were reported
during the year 1853, the most shocking case being the murder
(August 5 , 1853 ) of the captain, officers and passengers of the
S.S. Arratoon Apcar, by the Chinese crew .
THE ADMINISTRATION OF SIR G. BONHAM. 271
The Government was almost helpless in the matter of piracy.
Sir G. Bonham did what he could to organize a detective
department and appointed for this purpose the best colloquial
linguist Hongkong ever possessed , Mr. D. R. Caldwell, as
Assistant-Superintendent of Police ( September 1 , 1848 ) . His
services were highly effective, particulary in connection with
piracy cases. The patent failure of the Police, with regard to
the prevention of crime, was unavoidable, as this extraordinary
activity of Chinese criminals on land and sea was the natural
corrollary of the Taiping and Triad rebellion, and as the Police
Force was deficient in numerical strength so long as financial
considerations prevented its re-organisation on a proper footing.
Governor Bonham, who thought the Force was quite sufficient
for the policing of the town, stated at the close of his
administration that, while the Colony had been improving in
every respect, and contentment prevailed throughout the entire
population, the only subject of regret was the extent to which
piracy prevailed in the neighbouring waters. To suppress it , '
he added, ' is impossible without the co-operation of the Chinese
Government. This co-operation I have repeatedly requested
without avail, and in the present disorganized state of the
sea-board part of the Empire it is now useless to expect it.'
It has already been stated that to the Taiping rebellion
is due the great advance ( 81 per cent. ) which the population
made during this period . Even the proportion of males and
females commenced now to improve, as the disturbances in
the neighbouring districts drove whole families to seek refuge
in Hongkong. In 1848 the population numbered 21,514
residents. In 1849 it rose to 29,507 and by the year 1853 it
numbered 39,017 residents . In 1848 one fifth and in 1853
one third of the population were females.
The development of the Colony's commercial prosperity
kept pace with the increase of the population . The fresh streams
that stirred the stagnant pool of local commerce into renewed
life came, however, not merely from the rebellion-fed source
of Chinese emigration, but to a great extent also from the
272 CHAPTER XV.
discovery of the Californian gold- fields, from the development
of the North-Pacific whale and seal fisheries, from the progress
made by the Australian Colonies and from the opening up of
Japan to British trade and civilization . It may be said, in fact ,
that it was during this period that the Pacific Ocean commenced
to rise into that commercial importance, which, as it has
increased ever since, including also the smaller islands of Oceania,
is bound to make the Pacific ere long one of the most important
centres of the world's commercial politics.
The fresh life infused into the arteries of local commerce
naturally manifested itself in the first instance by an increase in
the shipping trade. The number of square-rigged vessels regularly
frequenting the port increased during this period from 700 to 1,103,
while their tonnage was nearly doubled . Ship-building went on
briskly at J. Lamont's patent slip at East Point and from 16 to
30 European vessels were annually registered in the Colony. The
native junk trade, though restrained by piracy, also increased
considerably. The system of employing small British steamers
to convoy and protect by force of arms fleets of native junks,
continued so long as the coast of China was infested with
swarms of piratical fleets. Of course this practice had its atten-
dant evils. The Chinese Authorities protested against it and
British naval commanders were its sworn enemies. One of the
latter arrested the little steamer Spec and prosecute her captain
and crew in the Consular Court at Shanghai on a charge of
piracy, for having fired into junks which were mistaken for
pirates. The prosecution, however, fell to the ground when
tried in the Supreme Court of Hongkong (September, 1848 ) .
Governor Bonham was averse to the convoying system, but
Her Majesty's Government permitted its continuance as it had
its justification in the fact that the spasmodic efforts, made by
the few British men -of-war on the station to suppress piracy, were
practically of no avail so long as the Chinese rebellion continued .
Lord Palmerston also informed the Governor (in 1848 ) that
Chinese vessels in tow of British merchant vessels have a right
to British protection .
THE ADMINISTRATION OF SIR G. BONHAM. 273
The opening of the gold- fields in the Sacramento valley
in 1848 and the organisation of the new State of California
in 1850 caused a new line of commerce to connect Hongkong
with San Francisco. It commenced (July, 1849 ) with large
orders for slop clothes and wooden houses (shipped in frame)
which were made in Hongkong . Next, Chinese artizans were
sent to California to set up those houses. These were followed
by an annually increasing stream of Chinese emigrants embarking
at Hongkong for San Francisco and a steadily developing trade
in all sorts of articles . In the year 1851 forty-four vessels left
Hongkong for California and this line of connection has been
maintained ever since.
In December, 1848 , a few American whalers put into
Hongkong to refit and were so pleased with the resources of
the Colony that for many years after they repeated their visits
in increasing numbers. Thirteen such vessels arrived at the
close of the year 1849. Between December 1850 and March
1851 , fifteen vessels arrived laden with oil, of which a considerable
portion was shipped in British bottoms to England under the
navigation laws. As each of these vessels spent about £ 500
in the Colony, their visits were hailed with satisfaction, apart
from the incipient oil trade connected with them. During the
next season as many as 37 whalers arrived (December 2, 1851
to February 21 , 1852 ) with 616,203 gallons of oil, of which
however only a small portion was shipped from Hongkong to
London.
Coolie emigration to Peru and Cuba , though chiefly conducted
at Macao, because the crimping and kidnapping system connected
with it would not have been tolerated in Hongkong, benefitted
the Colony at first to some extent (in 1852 ) . But the frequent
mutinies which occurred among the coolies shipped on that
system soon caused British skippers to eschew the Peruvian
coolie trade. Properly regulated coolie emigration to Guiana
commenced in 1853 under the direction of Mr. J. Gardiner
Austin, the Immigration Agent - General of the Government of
British Guiana. Emigration to Australia commenced in a small
18
274 CHAPTER XV.
way, in 1853, with three vessels carrying 268 Chinese settlers .
The restrictive policy which in after years, when pushed to an
extreme, banished coolie emigration from the Colony, was initiated
by Governor Bonham in a proclamation (January 4, 1854)
which, however, did not go beyond regulating the provisioning
and dietary scale of coolie ships.
At the close of Sir G. Bonham's administration, the
conviction forced itself upon Hongkong merchants that the
Nanking Treaty, though it improved British relations with China,
had commercially but little effect, and that the expansion of
trade that took place since the year 1843 would anyhow have
resulted from purely natural causes. The returns of the Board
of Trade shewed that the import of British manufactures into
China was, at the close of the year 1850 , less by nearly three-
quarters of a million sterling, compared with what it was in 1844.
Exports of tea and silk increased indeed enormously, but this
increase was chiefly owing to opium and specie and not to the
vast trade in manufactured goods which had been expected to
result from the Nanking Treaty. It was seen at last that what
restrains the influx of British fabrics into the interior of China
is not the paucity of open ports but the fact that the industry
of China can beat British power- looms with regard to both the
cost of production and the durability of the fabric.
The opium trade of the Colony, which Sir Robert Peel's
Government had at one time (in 1846 ) intended to suppress
by the imposition of a prohibitive tax, entered in spring 1853
into its present state of legitimate commerce, through the decision
of the Chinese Government to legalise the importation of opium.
The published raison d'être of this decision was the inefficiency
of the laws against opium by reason of their excessive severity.'
In reality, however, Chinese statesmen, as they had been induced
by financial considerations to prohibit the importation of opium
in 1839, now legalised its importation in 1853 on purely financial
grounds. In 1839 they excluded Indian opium because it
drained China of its silver. In 1853 they imposed a heavy
import duty on Indian opium to provide funds for the
THE ADMINISTRATION OF SIR G. BONHAM. 275
suppression of the Taiping rebellion. But whatever treatment
they accorded to Indian opium, they all along permitted the
cultivation of native opium in the inland provinces .
Questions of currency were much debated in Hongkong
during this period, since October, 1850, when the comparatively
rare Spanish dollars commanded a high premium in the market
at Canton, where at the time the bulk of Hongkong exchange
operations was conducted. Rather sudden fluctuations occurred.
in 1851 , placing Mexican dollars, rupees and English money
at an enormous discount. Various schemes were propounded
to smooth matters, but all proved futile. In 1852, the coinage
of a British dollar was first mooted in connection with the
resolution of a public meeting held at Singapore (January, 1852 )
which suggested the coinage of an East India Company's dollar
with divisions of half, quarter and eighth dollars for circulation
in the Straits. Unfortunately the proposal was shelved for years .
By notification of April 27 , 1853, Sir G. Bonham published a
Royal proclamation of October 16, 1852 , to the effect that, where-
as hitherto the silver coins of the United Kingdom had passed
current in Hongkong (and some other British Colonies) as an
unlimited tender for payments, they should henceforth (as in
England) not be a legal tender in payment of sums exceeding
forty shillings due by or to the Government. This proclamation ,
artificially bolstering up a theoretical gold standard, which had
no commercial reality in the Colony, came into force on October
1 , 1853 , and delayed the rehabilitation of Hongkong's original
silver (dollar) standard. Meanwhile contention arose in
Hongkong through contradictory official decisions . In January,
1854, the Chief Justice ruled that, when an agreement runs
for dollars of any denomination, such dollars must be paid
with - in English money-whatever premium they command in
the Hongkong market,' and again, that Court fees must be
paid in dollars, but that it is not proper to refuse English money
in payment of costs.' On the other hand, the Colonial Treasurer
(W. T. Mercer) made an order (February 9 , 1854 ) that ' all
Government land rents must for the future be paid in dollars
276 CHAPTER XV.
according to the terms of the lease. ' As the Colonial Treasurer
refused the Queen's sovereigns, which about this time had been
declared by the Lords of the Treasury to be a legal discharge
for the sums they represented throughout Her Majesty's
dominions ' and to require no further Colonial enactment for
their legalisation, complaints were made on all sides . The
contention was accentuated by the fact that the Colonial
Treasurer took dollars at a fixed rate of four shillings and
twopence though the market value might be five shillings.
Steam communication between Hongkong and Canton was
placed on a satisfactory basis by the establishment ( October 19 ,
1848) of the Hongkong and Canton Steam Packet Company.'
The first Hongkong Directors of this Company were Messrs .
D. Matheson, A. Campbell , T. D. Neave and F. T. Bush. They
commenced operations in spring 1849 with two small steamers
(of 250 tons each) built in London. The Peninsular and
Oriental Steam Navigation Company commenced in 1849 running
a steamer (the Lady Mary Wood) regularly between Hongkong
and Shanghai, but failed in an attempt, made in December 1850,
to induce local merchants to pay a monthly subsidy in lieu of
postage. The same Company established, in January 1853 ,
a regular monthly mail between Hongkong and Calcutta, giving
thereby the Colony the advantage of regular fortnightly
communication with England . Telegrams had to be sent through
intermediary agents at Gibraltar or Trieste, the latter route
becoming now the favourite. The increased facilities thus
provided, were not much relished by Hongkong merchants,
because they accentuated the keenness of competition. The
leisure with which business was formerly conducted in the time
of monthly mails, was now supplanted by an annually increasing
high- pressure rate of communication with all parts of the world .
In other respects also local trade had by this time undergone
an alteration. The profits of the China trade, formerly enjoyed
by a few, were now divided among the many. The days of
the merchant princes were now a dream of the past . Fortunes
were still made but it took some decades of years now to make
THE ADMINISTRATION OF SIR G. BONHAM. 277
them. However, the commercial prospects of the Colony were
certainly extending and assuming a character of greater
permanency. When (in summer 1850 ) the great firms in India
were prostrated one after the other, the China firms dealing
with India bore the shock firmly with but one exception .
But it took years before Hongkong's commercial reputation
was rehabilitated in England. The Economist, which had
maligned the good fame of the Colony (in 1846), continued even
in 1851 ( March 8 ) to belittle the progress which had been
made meanwhile. How very little was thought or known of
Hongkong at this time even by those in authority in England,
is evidenced by the fact that the Royal Commissioners of the
International Exhibition of 1851 gave no place to Hongkong
as a Colony. They merely invited the merchants of Hongkong
to join in an exhibition representing China. Naturally resenting
this slight, the Committee, appointed at a public meeting that
was held on June 24, 1850, resolved to leave it to the Canton
Committee, which had already appointed numerous Sub-Com-
mittees, to take action . But the latter also threw up the project
and it was left to a few enthusiastic individuals in Canton
and Shanghai (chiefly Consuls) to collect and forward to
London specimens of Chinese produce and manufactures. China
merchants in London were the principal contributors. The only
exhibits representing Hongkong in that fair temple of the world's
commercial competition at Hyde Park consisted of a tiny
pagoda, a jade cup and two silver race cups exhibited by
Mr. W. Walkinshaw, and a North-China walking stick added
by Mr. F. S. Carpenter of St. John's Wood . The Royal
Commissioners further demonstrated the prevailing popular
ignorance of Hongkong's position by labelling and cataloguing
the Canton Consul's exhibits of specimens of Chinese coal as
•
collected by H.M. Consul at Hongkong.'
The sanitary record of this period presents a remarkable
illustration of the vagaries of Hongkong fever and of human
inability to restrain or even account for them. It had previously
been customary to attribute the origin of Hongkong fever to
278 CHAPTER XV.
exhalations from disturbed virgin soil arising after exposure
to sun and rain. In 1848, the Colonial Surgeon traced it to
the prevalence of electricity in the atmosphere. But during
the next few years fever put in a sudden and equally malignant
appearance in places where the soil had not been disturbed
and at times when electricity in the atmosphere was particularly
scarce. At a former period Hongkong fever attacked Indian
troops when it spared European troops . During the adminis-
tration of Sir G. Bonham fever raged epidemically in the
garrison, both European and Indian, while it left the civilian
population untouched . Thus it was particularly in July and
August, 1848 , when, after several months of excessive heat,
fever decimated the garrison to an alarming degree. The same
epidemic recurred among the garrison in July and August , 1850,
when no excessive heat but an unusually prolonged winter season
had preceded it. In the short interval of six weeks, the 59th
Regiment was more than decimated, 43 men having died (thought
many more were stricken with fever) between 14th July and 23rd
August, 1850, whilst the health of the civilians in Hongkong
continued generally good. It is noteworthy also that, after that
unusually prolonged winter of 1849 to 1850, an epidemic, having
all the appearances of the plague (black death) which devastated
London in 1665 , broke out in Canton in May, 1850, but, though
it raged there for several months, it did not spread to Hongkong-
In autumn ( 1850 ) , when the fever had ceased ravaging the
garrison of Hongkong, it broke out among the Chinese population .
It was then ascribed to long continued drought . From 1850 to
1853 the average annual death rate among the civilian European
population was 8 per cent. and among the Chinese 3 per cent .,
while among the troops it varied considerably. In 1850 the
death rate among European troops was 23 per cent. and among
the Indian troops 10 per cent. The case was reversed in 1852 ,
when the death rate of European troops was 3.6 per cent. and
that of the Indian troops 10.02 per cent. In 1851 and 1853
the death rate was the same among both classes of troops. But
whilst in all the preceding years fever appeared principally in
THE ADMINISTRATION OF SIR G. BONHAM. 279
the summer months, it made its appearance among the garrison
in 1854 as early as April, when 73 men were stricken with fever
and dysentery in one month. Six cases of Beriberi, a disease
previously unknown in Hongkong, occurred at this time among
the Indian troops .
Great as the vagaries of disease were during this period ,
the divergencies of public opinion on the subject were still
greater. While English newspapers denounced Hongkong as a
pest-hole, while the music-halls in London resounded with the
popular refrain You may go to Hongkong for me, ' Governor
Bonham grew eloquent (in his annual reports ) on the salubrity
of the climate of Hongkong which he considered to be as well
adapted to the European constitution as other places similarly
situated within the tropics.' Equally great was the variation
of opinion among military and civilian surgeons as to the utility
of Peak sanatoriums. These were first recommended in 1848
by the Colonial Surgeon (Dr. Morrison), who suggested the
erection of a Government sanatorium at an altitude of 1,774 feet
above the sea.
The Colonial church was at last completed and formally
opened (March 11 , 1849 ) on the anniversary of the day on which
Sir J. Davis had laid the foundation stone. Unfortunately this
ceremony revived for a moment the community's bitter feelings.
against their former Governor, because his coat of arms, including
a bloody hand, was observed emblazoned over the porte cochère.
The indignant community assumed , probably without good
grounds, that this apparent impropriety, for which the Surveyor
General (Ch. St. J. Cleverly) was responsible, was due to instruc-
tions left by Sir J. Davis. The building was neatly fitted up.
As the cost of erection, even after leaving the tower without
a steeple, exceeded the funds available ( £ 4,600 ) , power was
given to the Trustees by a special Ordinance ( 3 of 1850 ) to
raise a loan to cover the deficit ( $ 2,500 ) . Advantage was taken
of this Ordinance to transfer the management of the Church
from the Colonial Chaplain to the Lorl Bishop of Victoria.
For letters patent had meanwhile been issued ( May 11 , 1849 )
280 CHAPTER XV.
declaring the Colony to be the diocese of a Lord Bishop and
constituting St. John's church as a cathedral church and bishop's
see. It appeared that a fund of £ 18,000 had been raised in
England for the endowment of a Hongkong bishopric, that an
annual grant of £ 6,000 from the Colonial Bishoprics' Fund had
been promised by the Bishop of London, and that an additional
sum of £2,000 was available for the special purposes of St. Paul's
College. The latter institution was to be (like Dr. Legge's
Anglo-Chinese College) a school for the training of Chinese
ministers, and the Bishop was appointed its warden under
statutes approved (October 15 , 1849 ) by the Archbishop of
Canterbury. The College received later on also a small Parlia-
mentary grant to train interpreters for the public service.
With the arrival (March 29, 1850) of the Bishop, G. Smith,
who consecrated the new cathedral in September, 1850, a period
of increased missionary and educational activity set in, for Bishop
Smith possessed stimulating energy and looked upon the whole
of China, as well as Hongkong, as his diocese. The Jewish
Colony at Kaifungfoo (in North- China ) received a share of
the Bishop's attention, a curious testimony of which is exhibited
in the City Hall Library in the shape of a portion of the Hebrew
pentateuch recovered from Kaifungfoo. The Taiping rebellion
and the missionary politics connected with it occupied much
of the Bishop's time. For the benefit of seamen passing through
Hongkong, the lorcha Anne was converted into a floating Bethel
in charge of a seamen's chaplain (Mr. Holdermann ) . The
Government Grant-in -Aid Schools were soon brought under the
supervision of the Bishop as chairman of the Educational
Committee, and worked as feeders of St. Paul's College. The
latter was taught (until 1849 ) by Mr. J. Summers (afterwards
Professor of Chinese Literature at King's College, London) and
subsequently by the Bishop himself and his chaplains . Though
the College produced not a single native minister, nor any
official interpreter, many of the best educated native residents
of the Colony received their training there. The same may
be said of Dr. Legge's Anglo -Chinese College which also failed
THE ADMINISTRATION OF SIR G. BONHAM. 281
to produce any native preacher or teacher but trained some
eminent English-speaking Chinese. While Bishop Smith was
great in religious politics, Dr. Legge made himself a European
reputation as the translator of the Chinese classics. On the
other hand, some of the scholars of the Morrison Institution ,
of the Anglo-Chinese College and of St. Paul's College, gained
at different times an unenviable notoriety in Police Court cases.
Hence the public drew the inference that, in the case of Chinese
youths, an English education, even when conducted on a religious
basis, fails to effect any moral reform, and rather tends to draw
out the vicious elements inherent in the Chinese character. The
mercantile community, which had hitherto munificently supported
missionary institutions, commenced about this time to withdraw
their sympathies from the missionary cause altogether. The
Morrison Education Society's School on Morrison Hill had
to be closed, in spring 1849 , for want of public support.
Mr. Stanton's English Children's School , under Mr. Drake,
also collapsed in 1849 and the attempt made by Miss Mitchell
to revive it resulted , in 1853, in complete failure . Dr. Gützlaff's
Chinese Union of native colporteurs, which had for many years
made a greater stir in Europe than in China, ended in October
1849 , during the temporary absence of Dr. Gützlaff, in a
miserable fiasco. The London Mission Hospital for Chinese,
having for some years past lost its hold on public sympathy,
was closed in October, 1850. The London Missionary Society
opened, however, a chapel in Queen's Road ( May, 1851 ) where
out-patients were occasionally attended to. As the mercantile
public became severe critics of the labours of the missionaries,
the latter now came to look upon Hongkong as a stumbling-
block to the progress of christianity and civilization in China. '
The Roman Catholic Missions, seeking on the quiet the support
of Government rather than of the public, continued the even
tenor of their way. They started several small schools which
gave to Portuguese youths an elementary English education
and thus commenced the work which eventually filled commercial
and Government offices with Portuguese clerks. The Chinese
282 CHAPTER XV.
population, who were still in the habit of sending their sons
to be educated outside the Colony, in Canton or in their
respective native villages, cared little for local education . Public
spirit among the Chinese vented itself in guild meetings,
processions and temple-committees . Among the latter, the
Committee of the Man-moo temple (rebuilt and enlarged in
May, 1851 ) now rose into eminence as a sort of unrecognized
and unofficial local-government board (principally made up by
Nampak-hong or export merchants) . This Committee secretly
controlled native affairs, acted as commercial arbitrators, arranged
for the due reception of mandarins passing through the Colony,
negotiated the sale of official titles, and formed an unofficial
link between the Chinese residents of Hongkong and the Canton
Anthorities.
With the advent of Sir G. Bonham, who possessed the
secret of making himself thoroughly popular without surrendering
a vestige of his dignity as Her Majesty's Representative, and
who was fortunate in having for his co-adjutors popular and
hospitable men like the Major-Generals Staveley and Jervois,
a great change came over the social life of the Colony . From
the very commencement of this administration , Hongkong society
began to take its tone from, and was thenceforth held together
by, the spirit that prevailed at Government House. The
transition, from the state of things in the days of Sir
H. Pottinger and Sir J. Davis, when Government House was
virtually under a self-imposed ban of social ostracism , to the
time of Sir G. Bonham, when the social life of the Colony
gathered round Government House as its pivot, was too sudden
and too great to pass off smoothly. When Sir George (November,
1849) selected fifteen of the unofficial Justices of the Peace,
summoned them to a conference, and thenceforth frequently
consulted them collectively or individually, he virtually created,
in succession to the merchant princes of former days, an untitled
commercial aristocracy. Unfortunately, this select company
had no natural basis of demarcation. Merchants, formerly of
equal standing with some of the chosen fifteen, resented their
THE ADMINISTRATION OF SIR G. BONHAM. 283
exclusion from the charmed circle. Hence (particularly in
summer 1850 ) the epithets of flunkyism and toadyism were
freely applied to the attitude of the Governor's commercial
friends. Even among the latter, there arose occasionally
acrimonious questions of precedence at the gubernatorial dinner
table. Moreover the gradations of social rank thus originated
in the upper circles reproduced themselves in the middle and
lower strata of local society, which accordingly became subdivided
into mutually exclusive cliques and sets. The revival of the
Amateur Dramatic Corps (December 2, 1848 ) , the formation
of the Victoria Regatta Club (October 25, 1849) and the
establishment of a Cricket Club (June, 1851 ) , served, together
with the annual race meetings (transferred since 1850 from
January to February) , and the growing popularity of the Masonic
fraternity (which gave its first ball on February 1 , 1853 ) , to
contribute some powerful elements of social redintegration . The
presence, in 1852 and 1853 , of the U. S. Squadron , consisting
of seven vessels, under Commodore Perry, was also helpful to
level down invidious social distinctions . The sympathy which
always interconnected the mercantile community and the local
garrison, became specially conspicuous when , in 1848 , sickness
made such frightful ravages among the troops. The kindness