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of the Annamese who were abducted by violence, and of the Coolies on the banks of the Yangtsze who were insnared into a piratical lorcha, were carried to the chief seat of the traffic, and there sold into slavery, or in other words were compelled to enter into contracts for labour abroad, when far from home and friends, starved, destitute, and surrounded by cruel men whose language even they did not understand, As soon as these Contracts had been rendered formal and irrevocable by governmental seal, the price of the miserable victims' persons was duly paid over to their villainous captors,
6. Your Excellency knows well that the horrible picture which we have just essayed to draw, is under rather than over-coloured. You are fully aware that did we possess access to the prison-houses whose proximity to the shores of this Colony we deplore, we should be enabled to disclose an aggregate of cruelty, wretchedness, and misery, possibly at the present day unequalled in the world. Your Excellency will sympathize with us when we proclaim aloud that we should lie to our consciences did we not protest in the strongest language against the maintenance of a traffic which is characterized by many of the worst features of that old slave trade so earnestly crushed by our country. We call upon the Imperial Government to render penal the conveyance under the British Flag of persons held to labour or service as such, first because that enactment would deal a heavy blow against an iniquitous system; and second, because England would thereby with clean hands be enabled to enlist the co-operation of all other civilized powers towards its suppression.
7. And it is of national importance that Great Britain, the queen power of the East, should not continue to witness the existence of a wicked wrong, within forty miles of one of her own Colonies, without at least remonstrating against it. But for the footing for foreigners gained in China by British and French Arms, the Coolie Trade would never have arisen, and would at once be swept away by the Chinese Government. As Englishmen, therefore, we feel our country to be directly responsible for the continuance of this stain upon civilization, and we earnestly pray that Her Gracious Majesty's advisers will do their best to speedily free her subjects from such a reproach.
8. There exist yet other grounds, pertinent to Englishmen, upon which we desire to see participation in the conveyance of persons held to service under contract rendered penal, no matter how good the accommodations or conveniences provided. These grounds are; the dangerous and degrading nature of the occupation, and the fact, as we believe, that all contracts for labour being voidable while one of the parties is within British jurisdiction, it is therefore false and wrong to place persons so situated in the custody and restraint of a British shipmaster. The danger and degradation to which we have alluded we are anxious to see British seamen no longer exposed to. That the employment is dangerous, is a fact to which a score of Coolie mutinies on board ship, accompanied by every circumstance of bloodshed and loss of life, bear dreadful testimony. That it is degrading cannot be denied, when it is known that the live cargo which never committed any crime, but which was only cruelly deceived, must be watched by armed men, as well for its own safety, as for that of those who are paid to conduct it into slavery. We ask that the British flag may be saved from further such dishonour.
9. From one point of view do we deeply regret that we should feel compelled to make this appeal to Her Majesty's Government. We are grieved that we should find ourselves taking a step inimical to the interests of our West Indian fellow-subjects, to whom we believe a supply of Chinese agricultural labour to be an unmixed benefit, and who, we also understand, have administered the trust thus devolved upon them, wisely, justly, and conscientiously. We sincerely deplore the misfortune which the deprivation of Chinese agricultural labour would prove to colonies which have already suffered so greatly in support of our common country's renown; but we dare not, upon that account, refrain from exposing and denouncing the evils and horrors of a traffic which, for one poor Chinese Coolie that it may send to possible happiness, consigns ten to a life of unspeakable wretchedness,
10. We have written strongly in deprecation of the afflictions to humanity which originate in and result from the conveyance abroad of Chinese hired emigrants, but it must not therefore be understood that we view with feelings other than those of unmingled approbation the encouragement of free emigration from this empire. Let voluntary emigration, pure and simple, be as uncontrolled from China as from Ireland, but let it be made criminal for British subjects to aid, abet, or in any way subserve, contracts of servitude for a term of years.
11. We conclude with an earnest expression of our hope that by means of Your Excellency's assistance and endeavours, the suppression of Chinese Coolie Emigration may be achieved. It is an object which lies very close to our hearts, and should Your Excellency bring it about, it will hereafter be a source of extreme gratification to us, to remember that your name in connection with the administration of this colony, has been associated with the overthrow of a system which is at once a disgrace to civilization at large, to foreign and to British intercourse with China.
AND YOUR MEMORIALISTS WILL EVER PRAY, &c.
HONGKONG, 27th June, 1867.
320
(Signed) John Lisle Chief Justice (Dr) Jas. Whittall.
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of the Annamese who were abducted by violence, and of the Coolies on the banks of the Yangtsze who were insnared into a piratical lorcha, were carried to the chief seat of the traffic, and there sold into slavery, or in other words were compelled to enter into contracts for labour abroad, when far from home and friends, starved, destitute, and surrounded by cruel men whose language even they did not understand, As soon as these Contracts had been rendered formal and irrevocable by governmental seal, the price of the miserable victions' persons was duly paid over to their villainous captors,
6. Your Excellency knows well that the borrible picture which we have just essayed to draw, is under rather than over-coloured. You are fully aware that did we possess access to the prison-houses whose proximity to the shores of this Colony we deplore, we should be enabled to disclose an aggregate of cruelty, wretchedness, and misery. possibly at the present day unequalled in the world. Your Excellency will sympathize with us when we proclaim alond that we should lie to our consciences did we not protest in the strongest language against the maintenance of a traffic which is characterized by many of the worst features of that old slave trade so carnestly crushed by our country. We call upon the Imperial Government to render penal the conveyance under the British Flag of persons held to labour or service as such, first because that enactment would deal a heavy blow against an iniquitous system; and second, because England would thereby with clean hauds be enabled to enlist the co-operation of all other civilized powers towards its suppression.
7. And it is of national importance that Great Britain, the queen power of the East, should not continue to witness the existence of a wicked wrong, within forty miles of one of her own Colonies, without at least remonstrating against it. But for the footing for foreigners gained in China by British and French Arms, the Coolis Trade would never have arisen, and would at once be swept away by the Chinese Government. As Englishmen, therefore, we feel our country to be directly responsible for the continuance of this staiu apon civilization, and we earnestly pray that Her Gracious Majesty's advisers will do their best to speedily free her subjects from such a reproach.
8. There exist yet other grounds, pertinent to Englishmen, upon which we desire to see participation in the conveyance of persons held to service under contract rendered penal, no matter how good the accommodations or conveniences provided. These grounds are; the dangerous and degrading nature of the occupation, and the fact, as we believe, that all contracts for labour being voidable while one of the parties is within British jurisdiction, it is therefore false and wrong to place persons so situated in the custody and restraint of a British shipmaster. The danger and degradation to which we have alluded we are anxious to see British seamen no longer exposed to. That the employment is dangerous, is a fact to which a score of Coolie mutinies on board ship, accompanied by every circumstance of bloodshed and loss of life, bear dreadful testimony. That it is degrading cannot be denied, when it is known that the live cargo which never comunitted any crime, but which was only cruelly deceived, must be watched by armed men, as well for its own safety, as for that of those who are paid to conduct it into slavery. We ask that the British flag may be saved from further such dishonour.
9. From one point of view do we deeply regret that we should feel compelled to make this appeal to Her Majesty's Government. We are grieved that we should find ourselves taking a step inimical to the interests of our West Indian fellow-subjects, to whom we believe a supply of Chinese agricultural labour to be an unmixed benefit, and who, we also understand, have administered the trust thus devolved upon them, wisely, justly, and conscientiously. We sincerely deplore the misfortune which the deprivation of Chinese agricultural labour would prove to colonies which have already suffered so greatly in support of our common country's renown; but we dare not, upon that account, refrain from exposing and denouncing the evils and horrors of a traffic which, for one poor Chinese Coolie that it may send to possible happiness, consigns ten to a life of unspeakable wretchedness,
10. We have written strongly in deprecation of the afflictions to humanity which originate in and result from the conveyance abroad of Chinese hired emigrants, but it must not therefore be understood that we view with feelings other than those of unmingled approbation the encouragement of free emigration from this empire. Let voluntary emigration, pure and simple, be as uncontrolled from China as from Ireland, but let it be made criminal for. British subjects to aid, abet, or in any way subserve, contracts of servitude for a term of years.
11. We conclude with an carnest expression of our hope that by means of Your Excellency's assistance and endeavours, the suppression of Chinese Coolie Emigration may be achieved. It is an object which lies very close to our hearts, and should Your Excellency bring it about, it will hereafter be a source of extreme gratification to us, to remember that your name in connection with the administration of this colony, has been associated with the overthrow of a system which is at once a disgrace to civilization at large, to foreign and to British intercourse with China.
AND YOUR MEMORIALISTS WILL EVER PRAY, &c.
HONGKONG, 27th June, 1867.
320
(Signed) John Lisle Chief Dustice (Dr) das: Whittall.
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