deliberately deprived of their rights and remedies under a Couvention which, as has already been pointed out, does not apply to this part of the world or to cargo-carrying steamers, and which Convention has never been sanctioned by your Majesty's Parlia ment in England and could not, as appears from the decision in the case of the Parle- ment Belge, be enforced in any part of the United Kingdom, although especially applicable there.
18. Your Petitioners further most humbly point out to Your Majesty that in the self-governed colonies of Australia the Postal Convention of 1856 is not and would not be recognized and enforced, that in Caleutta it appears to be unknown, that Your Majesty's loyal subjects in Singapore, Penang, Rangoon, Colombo, Madras and Kurra- chee feel equally aggrieved with your Petitioners at the unusual privileges conferred on French and German mail steamers, and concur with your Petitioners in their prayer; as appears from the letters from the Chambers of Commerce of these ports, which your Petitioners humbly crave leave to annex.
19. Your Petitioners humbly submit that this exemption from legal liabilities and restraints, this freedom from port regulations, not only confers upon the cargo. carrying steamers of the Messageries Maritimes and Norddeutscher Lloyd Companies, prestige and standing in the eyes of the Chinese, but so facilitates their business as to militate seriously against the interests of your Petitioners as shipowners and carriers of cargo; and your Petitioners are informed and believe that no similar privileges and advantages save and except exemption from seizure are, in French ports conferred on the steamers of the Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company, or on any other line of mail-carrying steamers subsidized by Your Majesty's Government. There is therefore no complete reciprocity.
20. In conclusion your Petitioners most humbly represent that the rights, privi- leges and immanities conferred upon the French Mail steamers and German Mail steamers by the localfordinances are entirely unwarranted by the Postal Convention of 1856, which they purport to carry into effect; that they may at any time seriously interfere with the administration of public justice in this Colony, and that they do in fact deprive Your Majesty's loyal and faithful subjects of their right to resort to Your Majesty's Courts in certain cases; that facilities are thus given to foreign traders which Your Majesty's subjects ought not to be called upon to give in these days of strong competition and bounty-foed-trade; and that the reasonable demands of the French und German Governments for certain privileges may be fully provided for without con- ferring rights so extensive in their nature as those now granted.
And Your Petitiouers therefore hnably pray,
That Your Majesty will be graciously pleased to disallow Ordinances No. 18 and No. 19 of 1888, passed by the Legislative Council of Hongkong on the 28th day of August 1888, copies of which are hereunto annexed,
On behalf of the Commuter
8. Ruris
Chainman
APPENDIX I.
EXTRACTS FROM THE
FRENCH POSTAL CONVENTION.
Dated September 24, 1856,
ARTICLE I
There shall be a regular exchange of letters, newspapers, and printed papers of all kinds, between the Post Offiou of Great Britain and the Post Office of France,
by means of two lines of steam-packets which shall continue to be maintained or subsidized, the one by the British Government, and the other by the French do- vernment, on the line between Dover and Calaie.
The British Post Office and the French Post Office shail regulate, by mutual consent, and in accordance with the well-understood interest of the two countries, the days and hours of departure and arrival of the above-mentioned packets.
ARTICLE H.
Independently of the correspondence which shall be exchanged between the Post Offices of the two countries by the route pointed out in the preceding Article, those Offices may mutually forward from one to the other letters, newspapers, and -printed papers of all kinds, by the several routes hereinafter enumerated :—
1. By the packets, which the British Government and the French Government may respectively think it right to maintain, to freight, or to subsidize, for the cou- verance of correspondence.
2. By merchant ships plying between the British and the French Porta
ARTICLE HI,
The commanders of merchant ships before sailing from the ports of France or Algeria for the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland on the one part, and the cowmanders of British or Frenots merenant ships before sailing from the ports of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland for France or Algeria, on the other part, shall be bound tu tako oharge of the mails which the Post Offices at the ports of departure may have to deliver to them.
No merchant steamer leaving one of the ports of France or Algeria for the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland shall receive its clearance unless the commander present to the authorities empowered to issue that document a certificate from the director or chief officer of the posts, proving the delivery of the mails addressed to the place of the ship's destination, or that there were no mails to deliver to them.
ARTICLE IV,
The payments on account of the sea-conveyance of letters contained in the mails exchanged between the British and French Post Offices by means of merchant ships, shall be made to the commanders or owners of those vessels by the Post Offices of the ports of destination, at the rate of ten centimes, or one penny per latter.
The British Post Office and the French Post Office shall divide equally the pay- ments made to the commanders or owners of the merchant ships in accordance with the stipulations of this Article.
ARTICLE V.
When the packets employed by the British Post Odise or by the French Post Office in execution of Articles I and 1f of the present Convention are national vessel, the property of Government, or vessels chartered or subsidized by Government, they shall be considered and treated as vessels of war, in the ports of the two countries at which they regularly or accidentally touch, and be there entitled to the same honours and privileges.
These packets shall be exempted in the said ports, as well upon their entrance as upon their departure, from all tonnage, navigation, and port dues, excepting, however, the vessels freighted or subsidized by Government, which must pay such dues in those ports where they are levied on behalf of corporations, private com- panies, or individuals,
They shall not on any secount be diverted from their espesial duty, or be liable to seizure, detention, embargo, or arrêt de Prince.
ARTICLE VI.
The packets of the two Offices shall be at liberty to take on hoord or land et the ports of the two countries at which they tonoh, whether regularly or accidentally, specio and gold and silver bullion, as well as passengers, of whatever nation they may be, with their wearing apparel or luggage, on condition that the captains of thane packets shall submit to the sanitary, police, and customs' regulations of those ports concerning the arrival and departure of travellers.
Nevertheless, the passengers admitted on board those packets who do not think fit to land during the stay at one of the said ports, shall not, under any pretext, be removed from on board, he liabic to any search, or be subjected to the formality of a vise of their passports.
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