find them often very useful,
giving one some inkling of gauging public feeling and opinion, especially in the absence of any proper and adequate representation of this community in the Legislative Council?
Nevertheless, it is to be remembered that, in so small a community as that of Hong Kong, concentrated within a narrow space, the Press is sure to be at once more personal and less influential than in larger and more scattered communities. Here it is, of course, impossible to preserve that mystery which elsewhere enhances the power of the Press; for the Editorial "We" is identified with Mr. A. or Mr. B., individuals whom everybody knows and daily sees, and for whom nobody cares.
&
In the second place, there is another point of some local importance in connection with the Press on which I would also request an expression of Your Lordship's opinion. The Treasurer (Mr. Lister) recently inserted in the two older English
* See my despatch no 62 of 1883.