[ { "id": 205068, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1966", "page_number": 24, "title": "RAS-1966", "content_text": "REGIONAL APPROACH TO CHINESE HISTORY\n\n19\n\nBetween 1842 and 1849, Canton and its environs seemed to have been rocked by a series of violent anti-foreign disturbances. Three of these were full-scale riots in which the foreign factories were either directly attacked or seriously threatened. In one case six young Englishmen were murdered while strolling in the countryside. Throughout the period foreigners, either singly or in groups, were subjected to attacks and insults. In 1849 a massive demonstration succeeded in forcing Great Britain to abandon its demand that British subjects be permitted direct access to the city.27\n\nThe 1849 demonstrations were particularly impressive. Organized by members of the upper levels of the gentry class and aided and abetted, if not actually inspired by, the local authorities, they served to convince Sir George Bonham, then Governor of Hong Kong, that should he seek to force an entrance into the city, which Britain had always claimed as her right according to the terms of the Treaty of Nanking, his troops would be met by massive resistance on the part of the populace.\n\nNow, no one would deny that all this reflected a certain degree of anti-foreign spirit on the part of the people of Canton and its environs. After all, foreigners were attacked and their property was stolen or destroyed.\n\nBut what happens when these incidents are examined more closely?\n\nIn the cases of attacks upon the foreign factories, each episode was provoked by an ill-considered act of the foreigners themselves. In perhaps half, or more, of the attacks on individuals or groups of foreigners, robbery was the primary motive. Some \"attacks\" were not really \"attacks\" at all. One involved some small boys who threw stones at a group of passing barbarians (and were severely reprimanded by their parents for doing so).28 Yet Sir John Davis made this an occasion for a formal protest to the Chinese high authorities. Another \"incident\" concerned the looting of the house of the Reverend I. J. Roberts by a \"ruthless gang of Chinese\". Investigation shows that the ruthless gang was really Roberts' own congregation, who fell to fighting among themselves over the distribution of coins which the Reverend used to reward them for attending his services.29 As to the murder", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1966.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/bz60k0811", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205702, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1969", "page_number": 8, "title": "RAS-1969", "content_text": "2\n\nJ\n\nnumbers. The complete set of the volumes now 8 in number with the 9th in the press is now being regarded as of increasing value. Vol. 1 is long out of print, but we expect to have sufficient demand for a limited new issue to justify reprint as soon as possible.\n\nAs to our Library we can now say that we have a considerable number of books upwards of 300 volumes but unfortunately no library room of our own to accommodate them. One section including some of the rarer volumes and the growing number of exchange journals is kept in the library of the University of Hong Kong; the remainder are housed in the library of the British Council in the Gloucester Building. The library of the original branch of the Society founded in 1847 was the first library organised in Hong Kong, with the exception of that of the Medico-Chirurgical Society founded in 1845 whose members with their small collection of books—mainly professional joined the new branch of the Royal Asiatic Society in 1847.* The Society's library of 400 volumes was housed at the old Court House where the Society had been granted by Sir George Bonham a room to hold its meetings: but in 1859 when the Society became defunct the whole of its library was handed on trust to the Morrison Educational Society which later in 1869 presented its own and the R.A.S. library to the City Hall. Now we are back where we started in 1847, with a library of 400 books gradually increasing but with no generous benefactor to give us a room in which we can house them.\n\nFrom the Hon. Treasurer's Report you will see that the Society's finances are in a reasonably healthy condition. There appears to have been an excess of income over expenditure, but that was partly due to a greatly increased income from the sale of journals and the bank interest and dividends received. The annual subscriptions amounted to $11,590 but the expenditure was $17,398. The gap was bridged mainly by interest from investments, bank interest, and the sale of journals.\n\nSince the last general Meeting there have been several changes within the Council of the Society. Mr. Robert Bruce left Hong Kong on retirement in March 1968 and his place on the Council was filled by his successor as Representative of the British Council, Mr. G. A. Bridges. Professor K. E. Robinson resigned from the\n\n* See page 154.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1969.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/9g553n20d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205854, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1969", "page_number": 160, "title": "RAS-1969", "content_text": "154\n\nNOTES AND QUERIES\n\nEARLY HONG KONG LIBRARIES\n\nVol. VIII of the Society's Journal contained an introduction to Hong Kong's library history under the heading of \"Notes on Hong Kong Libraries in the Nineteenth Century\". It mentioned as foremost of the early libraries in the Colony the Victoria Library and Reading Rooms which had been privately organised in 1848. There was, however, a still earlier library—that of the Asiatic Society of China which was founded in January 1847 and later became the China Branch and, still later, the Hong Kong Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society. Some of the founders of the Society had belonged to a Medico-Chirurgical Society founded in Hong Kong in May 1845 and to a Philosophical Society of Hong Kong formed shortly before the Asiatic Society. Both these societies were merged in the Asiatic Society in January 1847, and the books of the Medico-Chirurgical Society were handed over to the Asiatic Society to form part of the new Society's library on the understanding that members of the Medico-Chirurgical Society be admitted as members of the Asiatic Society without ballot or entrance fee.\n\nThe Asiatic Society's library was kept from 1849 in a room at the Court House which had been granted for the use of the Society for its meetings by Sir George Bonham. When the Society ran into difficulties in 1858 it handed over its valuable library of 400 books on trust to the Morrison Education Society which had been formed in Canton in 1835 and which, from 1855, had also kept its library in the Old Court House.\n\nWhen the demand for a proper public library grew on the building of the City Hall the Morrison Education Society presented its own library and that of the Royal Asiatic Society to the City Hall Library which was visited by the Duke of Edinburgh when he opened the City Hall on 2 November, 1869,\n\nHong Kong, 1969.\n\nJ. R. JONES\n\nDEFENCE WALL AT PASS BETWEEN KOWLOON CITY AND KOWLOON TSAI\n\nThis item on one of the antiquities of Old Kowloon City is taken from a pencilled note in one of Mr. Walter Schofield's note-books, dated 15th April, 1928. It is clearly a contemporary description. The note is reproduced", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1969.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/9g553n20d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205931, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1970", "page_number": 11, "title": "RAS-1970", "content_text": "the Society included the hierarchy of the Government, Military, Medical and Mercantile communities.\n\nIn his Inaugural Address as President of the Hong Kong Branch, Sir John Davis stressed the importance of directing the Society's attention to practical projects and to natural history, geology and botany, as well as to literary pursuits, and suggested that he could get the sanction of the Colonial Office to the grant of a moderate piece of ground for a Botanical Garden. Sir John left the Colony in 1848; but, as the result of a stirring appeal by the Rev. C. Gutzlaff at a meeting of the Society in August 1848, the project was approved, although it was not carried into effect until the governorship of Sir John Bowring, and then the Garden was placed under Government control and not under that of the Society.\n\nThe Society was fortunate in enjoying influential Government and press support, including that of the China Mail, and continued under Sir George Bonham who gave the Society a room in the old Supreme Court building to hold its meetings and to house its library.\n\nWith the departure of Sir John Bowring in May 1859, and the death in the September following of the Branch's devoted Secretary, the Society collapsed. The efforts of Dr. James Legge, as well as those of Sir Hercules Robinson, the new Governor, as President, of the Bishop of Victoria and of the Acting Chief Justice as Vice-Presidents and of Harry (later Sir Harry) S. Parkes were of no avail.\n\nThe collapse of the Society came at an unfortunate time and deprived it of the prestige and momentum which it would undoubtedly have gained from the work of some of its famous members. Legge was on the eve of publishing his famous translation of the Chinese Classics, which eventually appeared only through the generosity of Joseph Jardine (and his successor Sir Robert Jardine) and of John Dent, the heads of the two largest merchant houses in the Colony. A little later, in 1865, T. W. Kingsmill had to resort to the aid of the Shanghai Branch for the publication of his studies on the geology of Hong Kong.\n\nIt was thus with a deep sense of responsibility, and also of duty, that it was decided to revive this Society in 1959 after the lapse of a century.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1970.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ww72j0241", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205933, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1970", "page_number": 13, "title": "RAS-1970", "content_text": "and last Monday's lecture by Dr. Hu on Flowering Trees. The most popular activities each year are the annual symposia held under the Chairmanship of Dr. Topley and the occasional excursions, such as the tour of Old Shau Kei Wan organised last year by Mr. J. W. Hayes. These tours, as well as being studies in the history and social life of Hong Kong, are popular and prove of great service in bringing members together, giving them an opportunity of knowing each other and welding them into one Society of common interest and purpose. In accord with the objects of the parent society and the principles enunciated by Sir John Davis, we have tried to direct attention to practical projects and to natural history as well as to literary pursuits. Thus, a week-end symposium was organised in 1968 under Professor Dwyer of the University of Hong Kong on the subject of The Changing Face of Hong Kong, and recently another week-end symposium was organised by Professor Thrower, as mentioned above. A record of these studies is being edited and will in due course be published by the Society and so make a valuable contribution to the natural history of the Colony.\n\nThe Journal of the Society maintains its high academic standard and interest under the Editorship of Mr. J. W. Hayes. The tenth volume is in the press and will be out later this year. Vol. I, which had long been out of print, has now been reprinted and is now available to meet the increasing demand of members and of scholars and readers overseas for a complete set of the Society's publications, which are now becoming very valuable and much sought after by libraries and learned institutions as well as by individual readers all over the world.\n\nOur greatest problem is our library, and our great sorrow is that our resources do not enable us to rent a room to house our books, let alone to pay a librarian. The original society in Hong Kong had been granted by Sir George Bonham a room in the old Supreme Court to hold its meetings and to house its library. When the Society ran into difficulties in 1858, it handed over its valuable library of 400 books on trust to the Morrison Education Society, which also kept its library in the Old Court House, and in 1869 the Morrison Society presented its own library and that of the Royal Asiatic Society to the City Hall Library. I feel, therefore, that the Government is not without obligation to the Society in respect of the housing of its present library. In Shanghai", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1970.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ww72j0241", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206392, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1971", "page_number": 209, "title": "RAS-1971", "content_text": "THE COLONY OF HONG KONG\n\n183\n\nthe Governor, and many members of the community, in what was long afterwards called, in commemoration of the affair, K'e-ying house. His visit, no doubt, had reference to the evacuation of Choosan by our troops, and the opening of Canton city, for at that time the Governor of Hongkong was also superintendent of trade in all China;—an unfortunate arrangement, which continued till provision was made for the residence of an ambassador in Peking by the treaty of Teen-tsin in June, 1858. The wily Manchoo was more than a match for Sir John Davis. Choosan was evacuated, but Canton was not opened. K'e-ying had promised that it should be opened on the 31st March, 1847, and that not being done, as well as to avenge other injuries, Sir John made his famous raid upon the city, and on the 5th April dictated a convention, stipulating among other things, that Canton should be opened: --not immediately, but in two years, on the 1st April, 1849. It was an unhappy concession; but Sir John Davis somehow wanted \"the stalk of carl-hemp.\" Speaking after the manner of men, the refusal to open Canton was a sufficient casus belli, and I could wish that our second war with China had been fought upon it, rather than on the affair of the lorcha Arrow, nearly ten years later. The Cantonese, from the Viceroy of the Kwang provinces downwards, were encouraged in their insolent contempt for foreigners, and various outrages were perpetrated in consequence.\n\nI may mention that in 1846 a little steamer called the Corsair began to run between Hongkong and Canton, people being doubtful whether the enterprise would pay. The foundation of the Cathedral, then a church merely, was laid in January, 1847. The old Union Church had been opened in 1845.\n\nI returned to Hongkong in the summer of 1848, and found that Sir John Davis had resigned the government of the Colony, and that his successor was Sir George Bonham, whom I had known as governor of the Straits' settlements, when I was in Malacca. I remember, as he was about to proceed in the spring of 1849 to an interview with the governor of Canton at the Bogue, asking him whether he was going to insist on the opening of the city on the 1st April. He replied, \"How can I? My instructions are to keep the peace, and by no means bring on another war with China.\" He did keep the peace,—kept it with China, and kept it among the members of the government of", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1971.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/z029vt43g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206393, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1971", "page_number": 210, "title": "RAS-1971", "content_text": "184 \n\nREV. JAMES LEGGE\n\nthe Colony, which his predecessor had not done, and which his successor was still less able to do. During all his time the Colony was in a dead-alive state. What trade had sprung up during its first years had rather decreased under Sir John Davis, and it was not till about 1854 that it received a fresh impulse. I remember walking, in 1849, one afternoon with old Mr. Holliday—so we should call him now with his stalwart sons among us—and having a gloomy conversation with him on the state and prospects of the place. Taking our stand at a point a little beyond what is now St. Paul's College, where we had a good view of the harbour, we counted 28 square-rigged vessels in it, storeships and all, with hardly a steamer among them. \"After all,” said Mr. Holliday, \"there must be some trade, else those vessels would not come to the place.\" By and by came the emigration to California, and afterwards that to Australia, but though these produced some excitement, they did little to the furtherance of trade. In 1850 the T'ae-p'ing rebellion began to be talked of, and, Sir George Bonham going on a visit to England, Dr. Bowring came down from his consulate in Canton to take his place, which finally became his own, when the other vacated his office in 1854, leaving his name in the Bonham Strand.\n\nAbout this time Yeh, whose name ere long became notorious all over the world, and who had for some time been governor of Canton province, was appointed viceroy of the two Kwang. The T'ae-p'ing rebels made themselves masters of Nanking, and the south and seaboard of China began to heave with rebellion. One body made itself master of Fat-shan, and Canton was threatened. Yeh, however, maintained himself there, keeping his executioners busy. The numbers put to death in 1852 and 1853 were very many every month, and they greatly multiplied, as the insurgents were gradually got under. It has always seemed to me that this was the turning point in the progress of Hongkong. As Canton was threatened, the families of means hastened to leave it, and many of them flocked to this Colony. Houses were in demand; rents rose; the streets that had been comparatively deserted assumed a crowded appearance; new commercial Chinese firms were founded; the native trade received an impetus which it had not lost till it was arrested by the superfluous vigour of some of Sir Richard MacDonnell's early ordinances.\n\nPage 210\nPage 211", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1971.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/z029vt43g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206878, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1973", "page_number": 155, "title": "RAS-1973", "content_text": "NOTES AND QUERIES\n\n149\n\nragés par le gouvernement, y accouraient en grand nombre. Beaucoup de Chinois venaient s'y établir et y construire des maisons. C'est ainsi que furent jetés les fondements de la nouvelle ville de Vittoria, avant la ratification du traité de Nankin, qui porte la date du 5 avril 1843.\n\nL'administration de l'île, comme il fut arrêté à cette époque, est confiée à un gouverneur. Il est assisté d'un conseil exécutif composé du secrétaire de la colonie, du commandant de la garnison et du procureur de la couronne, et d'un conseil législatif dont le gouverneur est le président. Ce conseil est composé d'un juge, du secrétaire de la couronne, du trésorier, de l'auditeur général, de l'inspecteur général et de trois des principaux négociants de l'île, nommés par la couronne, sur la présentation du gouverneur.\n\nLa police emploie 60 Européens, 382 Indiens et 180 Chinois qui forment un personnel respectable de 550 personnes.\n\nSous les cinq gouverneurs qui se sont succédé depuis 1843 jusqu'à 1863, la colonie s'est formée et accrue comme par enchantement, en sorte que, sur ces rochers, presque déserts en 1839, on comptait, en 1863, 3,080 habitants européens ou américains, et plus de 121,900 Chinois, dans la ville et dans les villages, avec une entrée de 120,028 livres sterling et une sortie de 121,880 livres. Elle avait un grand palais pour le gouvernement et un autre palais pour le gouverneur.\n\nLa nouvelle ville de Vittoria, avec ses édifices somptueux, offre tout le confort de la vie, toute la propreté et tout le luxe anglais : des rues larges et souvent bordées d'arbres, des trottoirs, des portiques. Elle renferme des hôpitaux, des casernes, des théâtres, des clubs, une cathédrale protestante, une loge maçonnique inaugurée anno lucis 5854 (1852), des mosquées, des pagodes et des chapelles réformées. Toutes ces récentes constructions s'échelonnent, du rivage de la mer au sommet de la colline, sur une étendue de plus de cinq kilomètres. La mer elle-même, refoulée sur plusieurs points,\n\n3 Gouverneurs de l'île:\n\nSir H. Pottinger, du 28 juin au 7 mai 1844.\n\nSir John Davis, de mai 1844 au 1er mars 1848.\n\nSir George Bonham (sic) de mars 1848 à avril 1854.\n\nSir John Bowring, d'avril 1854 à mai 1859.\n\nSir Hercules Robinson, de septembre 1859 au 15 mars 1865. Sir F. MacDonnell (sic) de 1865 à 1872.\n\nSir A. Kennedy.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1973.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8910rj06r", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206990, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1974", "page_number": 61, "title": "RAS-1974", "content_text": "ADVENTURERS IN HONG KONG\n\n55\n\nnot serve his full sentence because he was released on grounds of ill-health. But, as Des Voeux notes, the day after his release from Victoria Gaol he was seen avidly betting at the Happy Valley Race Course. He was, clearly a great card and popular with drinking circles in Hong Kong. The Telegraph was an evening newspaper. After Fraser-Smith's death, J. J. Francis became publisher and Chesney Duncan its editor.\n\n28 John Joseph Francis (1839-1901) was educated in Dublin and intended for the Catholic priesthood. But instead of entering the Church he enlisted in the Army, coming out to China in the Royal Artillery during the Second China War. He took his discharge in Hong Kong and commenced the study of law in the office of a Mr. Owens, solicitor. He was admitted to practise as an attorney in 1869 and entered into partnership with another solicitor and soon acquired a lucrative practice. Ambitious, he gained admission to Gray's Inn and was called to the Bar of the Supreme Court of Hong Kong in 1877. By 1888 he was the Colony's leading barrister. Francis was extremely touchy and truculent: in 1895 he returned to the Governor a silver inkstand, given to him in recognition of his work during the plague, on the grounds that the gift did not sufficiently acknowledge his services. He died of apoplexy at Yokohama's Grand Hotel in 1901. A fitting end: he was an apoplectic soul. Francis lived at 'Shirley House' in Bonham Road, a commodious residence with extensive grounds.\n\n29 A. Macmillan, Seaports of the Far East, London, 1923, p. 366.\n\n30 22 November, 1888. The Hong Kong Hotel, situated in Pedder Street, was originally managed by Parsees; in 1866 it came under European management and soon became a first-class hotel with all the facilities of a good West End hotel.\n\n31 7 January, 1889.\n\n32 Soulié states that Mayréna on his way to Hong Kong marooned Afong on Hainan Island but that the intrepid Chinese took passage on a junk and appeared in Hong Kong to haunt the King of the Sedangs.\n\n33 China Mail, 7 January, 1889.\n\n34 George Murray Bain (1842-1909) was born and educated at Montrose, Scotland. He joined the China Mail as a sub-editor and reporter (some say printer) in 1864. In 1875 he became sole proprietor of the China Mail and in 1879 took over the editorship of the paper himself. With N. B. Dennys he started the China Review in 1872. The China Mail was edited from Wyndham Street, a short distance away from the Hong Kong Telegraph on Pedder's Hill. Bain, unlike Fraser-Smith, appears to have been pious, temperate, and acutely respectable.\n\n35 Hong Kong Telegraph, 27 December, 1888.\n\n36 'Drey' was the name of a Sedang locality.\n\n37 China Mail, 24 January, 1889.\n\n38 Hong Kong Telegraph, 25 January, 1889.\n\n39 7 January, 1889.\n\n40 Sir Hugh Clifford, Heroes of Exile, London, 1906, pp. 69-70. Clifford states that it was the Hong Kong merchants 'who had paid his (Mayréna's) passage and had supplied his Majesty with a little ready money' and that they had been actuated partly by a desire to remunerate one from whom they had derived so much entertainment'. Sir Hugh Clifford (1866-1941), a colonial administrator, who served in Pahang from 1887 to 1899, was, apparently, in Hong Kong in late 1888; it is possible that he had taken local leave but I have been unable to confirm the fact.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1974.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/x633mp077", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211804, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1989", "page_number": 219, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "194\n\n6.5.1852 (Thur)\n\nJ.M. MORTON: \"Attic Story\" (1842)\n\nT: Farce (1 act)\n\nR.B. PEAKS: \"The Haunted Inn\" (1828)\n\nT: Farce (2 act)\n\nC: Amateurs\n\nF: Music, i.a. selections from Mozart's “Le Nozze di Figaro\" and other operas. Epilogue.\n\nTh: New Theatre Royal (A)\n\nN: Last performance of the season\n\nR: Again there was a new drop scene. \"A View near Palermo, a very pleasing view of an Italian villa with the bay and hills in the background\". The pieces were \"well performed and excited much merriment, especially the mistakes of the Attic Story\" (NCH 8.5.1852).\n\n27.1.1853 (Thur)\n\nD. BOUCICAULT & C. MATHEWS: \"Used Up\" (1846)\n\nT: Comedietta (2 acts)\n\nG.A.A. BECKETT: \"The Turned Head\" (1834)\n\nT: Farce (1 act)\n\nC: Amateurs\n\nTh: Imperial Theatre (B)\n\nN: First performance of the season\n\nR: After not a little uncertainty about the state of affairs respecting the theatre, finally the management for the new season was laid in the hands of Horatio BUSKIN (a compound pseudonym: Horatio, from Hamlet; Buskin, the boot worn by Greek actors) who succeeded \"Doldrum\".\n\nFor a \"very good attendance graced by many of the beau sexe\" the evening \"came off with great éclat\" (NCH 22, 29.1.1853).\n\n23.3.1853 (Wedn)\n\nJ.M. MORTON: \"Betsey Baker\" (1851)\n\nT: Farce (1 act)\n\nW. BROUGH: \"Apartments\" (1851)\n\nT: Farce (1 act)\n\nC: Amateurs\n\nF: Prologue; comic songs\n\nTh: Imperial Theatre (B)\n\nR: In the presence of the British Superintendent of Trade and Governor of Hong Kong, Sir George Bonham, Betsey Baker turned out to be \"a most decided and palpable hit, received throughout with shouts of laughter and applause\". Bonham was in Shanghai on his way to Nanking which had been taken by the Taipings on March 19. The Rebellion had a profound effect on the foreign community and although the Taipings enjoyed for some time a lot of sympathy, on this occasion they were satirised in a **most original and witty Prologue**: \"The Manager appeared before the curtain, in a state of intense excitement, informing the audience of mutiny in the corps! Dreadful consequences!! No performance!!! What could be done!? Then arose such a \"Row and Bobbery\" [Bobbery: an Anglo-Indian word meaning 'noise, disturbance' - JH] led by those who were in the secret and poor Horatio BUSKIN could scarcely be heard amidst the crash of broken glass and was almost unable to face the shower of oranges aimed at his devoted head. An amiable conspirator elevating himself on a bench expressed most loudly and eloquently his indignation at this state of affairs; however, after a parley with the Manager, he proposed a compromise, and the curtain was drawn up exposing the corps evidently in a state of 'Rebellion'. Fortunately they would listen to reason and the 'refractory members' agreed to 'go on' for this occasion, and the Manager retired with...", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213947, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1997", "page_number": 17, "title": "RAS-1997", "content_text": "Accommodation\n\nDuring the past few years our Branch's stock of Journals and other items have been kept at the Main Library in the Chinese University. In the autumn of 1997 we moved this stock to the new Public Records Office, in Kwun Tong. We are grateful to both these establishments for their assistance. As a small token of our appreciation we presented to both bodies a full set of RASHKB Journals.\n\nWe have for a number of years been talking about obtaining permanent Branch accommodation. In the middle of the last century Sir George Bonham, then Governor of Hong Kong, provided the RAS with a room in the old Supreme Court Building. When our Branch visited Shanghai, at Easter 1997, we were able to see the building which was erected originally by the old North China Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, in the 1930s. This was, unfortunately, commandeered by the Communists in 1949. It now serves as a bank. The books in the Shanghai RAS Library and the exhibits in the RAS Museum (said by some to have been the first museum in China) were also requisitioned.\n\nAt present our Office Bearers, some of whom put in several hours of RAS work a week on a voluntary basis, often find it more convenient to work from their homes. Caution is obviously needed before our Branch buys or rents a 'home of its own'. During 1997 Branch overheads ran at HK$13,750.00 a month. If we had our own premises, with expenses like maintenance, services and rates, this figure would increase considerably.\n\nPossessions\n\nDuring the past year we also made a survey of our archives which are on permanent loan to other institutions, such as to the University of Hong Kong. They include items like the Nixon Buddhist Scroll and photographs of Nestorian Crosses. Also, during the year, a number of our files have been placed on permanent loan with the Public Records Office. The same applied to an interesting collection of photographs and papers, from the estate of the late Arnold Graham, which gave an account of his long life in Shanghai and Hong Kong. We are grateful\n\nxvi", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1997.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/wp98g7579", "rank": 0 } ]