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Sz were burned by the soldiers on April 21. We cannot, of course, believe that the houses were burned and the money contribution levied because of the murder, so we must conjecture that these punishments were awarded because of the armed resistance to the British occupation. But we regard it as extremely unfortunate that any room for doubt should be left in the minds of the people of the New Territory as to the offences against British law that brought on this punishment. There is also this difficulty about the monetary levy. If it were in
the nature of a fine, why was it not paid into Court in the usual way? But if, as the natives allege, it was compensation to the murdered man's relatives, under what British law was it levied, and by whose authority? Even Chinese villagers do not rise in armed opposition, or, at a meeting of village elders, decide to kill men deliberately, without some motive,
and the most obvious motive in this matter was that their fears had been worked upon to such an extent that they believed their tenure of the land would be disturbed unjustly, and the effect of these fears on any Chinese rural community is similar in poking a stick into a wasp's nest. That these fears are not removed, the attack upon Mr Danby's party quite recently is sufficient proof. It may be that land jobbers and speculators are at the bottom of the trouble, but if so, it
was and is clearly the duty of Her Majesty's administrators to disabuse these people of their erroneous impressions and to remove their fears, just as much as it is the duty of the Government to put down disorder and to punish murderers. However much we may disagree with Sir Henry Blake's general policy in regard to the New Territory because it is impossible to say how far he is responsible for that policy,
as we are given to understand that he is enacting the role of the parliamentary "sand-bag" yet we must give him credit for his latest attempt to enlighten the inhabitants on their relation to the British Crown. Had he done so in the first instance, instead of making his ridiculous pilgrimage to Canton, he