did not expect from such rude blustering barbarians the decorum and sweet reason. ableness of the celestial family. Again and again in Chinese proclamations, addressed to the Co-Hong, for the information of foreign merchants, is the principle laid down, with brutal frankness, that barbarians should be ruled by mis-rule. We knew little about the Chinese in those days and they knew even less about us. And there is no doubt that the treatment was due to official ignorance of the outside world. Their training, their position as inheritors of an old and unbroken civilisation infinitely superior to the semi-savage states around them, made them the exclusive, self-conceited, and arrogant men they were, and believing as they did, and knowing how essential it was to their own personal advancement to keep matters among the barbarians smooth and quiet, it is not surprising to find them acting as they did. All the same, however, it was very unsatisfactory for the Canton merchants to find their persons and their property at the mercy of every whim and caprice of a Mandarin. Nous avons changé tout cela!
There was the name but in reality no freedom of trade. It was true that the monopoly of the East India Company—whose title, by the way, of "Honourable Company" is quietly adopted now-a-days by nearly every merchant who adds Co. to his firm name—had ceased three years before, but the merchants were still limited in their dealings to the thirteen merchants, a long suffering race of honourable men, on the whole, who in addition to being freely bled by the provincial authorities whenever money was wanted, were the only means of communication that foreigners had with the provincial authorities. The whole of the trade was confined to Canton; the Spaniards had a right of trade with Amoy, but it was seldom used.
On the 21st of June, 1837, the latest home date was London, Feb. 3rd. The whole amount of shipping, outward and inward, for the week ending the 20th of June, consisted of 10 vessels—3 from India via Singapore, and 2 from Java ports; 1 for the United Kingdom, 2 for Manila, and 2 for India. Letters were sent home by private ship or by the intrepid Wagner's overland route. Communication with the outside world was kept up by passage boats to Macao and Lintao. These only held eight or ten passengers, and were very uncomfortable. Messrs. Jardine, Matheson endeavoured to run a steamer, but as it was fired at when passing the Bogue forts, its time had not yet come.
There were few banking facilities in those days. Merchants paid in specie, which they kept in their own strong rooms, and obtained advances on produce from the East India Company, who were not above a little pawnbroking. The opium dispute, not to be settled till June in this year, kept the community lively. But what made all this life endurable was the immense value of the trade itself, as then estimated. It was in the hands of comparatively few. The British residents were about forty-five, many of whom doubtless were mercantile assistants, and they controlled among them the British trade, amounting to $6 millions of dollars per annum. Doubtless this is great, but it is only when we compare it with the trade of Hongkong with its outturn of forty millions sterling, and add to this the trade of the ports from Pakhoi to Newchwang and the riverine ports from Shanghai to Ichang, that we can realize the advance made in commercial matters alone during the half century.
Nor, do we think, will our rivals for this trade deny us the meed of praise, that it is to the persistent energy, aye, and to the blood of Britons, that this New World for commerce and enterprise has been thrown open to all the nations of the West.
# THE CELEBRATION OF HER MAJESTY'S JUBILEE IN HONGKONG.
Though later than other colonies in celebrating the Jubilee of the Queen-Empress Victoria, it must be admitted that in no part of Her Majesty's vast and widely scattered dominions has the event been more royally and demonstratively kept than in this the most eastern of her dependencies, and it will be worthily commemorated by the erection of a fine statue of the sovereign who for half a century has swayed the sceptre so beneficently and so well.
A gigantic programme had been arranged for Wednesday and Thursday, the 9th and 10th November, and for its complete success fine weather and a still air were necessary. The colony was fortunate in this respect; each day dawned clear, bright, and unclouded, a brilliant sun lighting with its garish beams the manifold decorations, the oriental pomp and gorgeous magnificence of the Chinese procession, and imparting life and colour to the gay and varied scenes on which it shone; while the clear bright night on Wednesday was so still, yet cool, that the million lights which flashed from tower, roof, and front, or blazed luridly from the hill tops, or sparkled on the glassy surface of the harbour scarce flickered under the zephyrs that idly played across them. All circumstances favoured the occasion, and the projected splendour of the jubilation was amply realised.
All classes of the community—usually so intently absorbed in business—gave themselves up to pleasure and display, and the good city of Victoria resounded with the beat of drum and crash of cymbal, or thunder of cannon, or hiss and bang of fireworks throughout its waking hours with scarcely a cessation during the two days' round of rejoicing.
The Jubilee of the Queen-Empress will undoubtedly remain a red-letter day, especially among its younger population, who have certainly never imagined anything like it before, while many of the children of larger growth can truly say that some of its features are unequalled in all their experience.
The picturesque and beautiful situation of Victoria, with its long and curving sea frontage and its noble background of steeply towering hills, lends itself peculiarly to well-planned decoration and it is only fair to the executive of the Jubilee Committee to say that they made the most of the opportunities afforded them, with the result that soon after darkness fell upon the land on Wednesday evening a new world of glowing beauty and fairy-like loveliness sprang into existence, and afforded such a sight as never before had been seen on these shores, and will not soon be witnessed again.
But underlying all the beauty and magnificence of their material aspect one feature, reposing in sentiment, renders the events of the past two days of special significance, namely the universality of the demonstration. It was indeed the Jubilee of Britain's Queen, but in the rejoicing upon the suspicions occasion all united; the people of every clime and every race joined hands in doing honour to the Sovereign under whose protection they live and prosper.
The people were abroad in the streets early on Wednesday full of intense expectancy, and in the Chinese quarters preparations for their huge procession commenced with dawn.
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