RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1986 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/jq08c7063 24 WALTER GREENWOOD He was himself once a party when he made a complaint against one Wong Ayow who he found cutting grass in his garden. The defendant said he supplied milk to Francis and thought he could take the grass. However he was convicted and fined twenty-five cents. His views about the organisation of the legal profession appear from a letter he wrote to the Daily Press in 1878 in reply to an editorial critical of barristers' fees. Hong Kong originally had a single profession but later adopted a divided one and he wrote "Now as everybody knows barristers are paid as a rule at a higher rate than attorneys and properly so, as they profess to give and as a rule do give a higher quality of advice and advocacy. Mind, I do not say that all barristers are better advisers and advocates than any attorney. There are attorneys who as advisers and advocates are more skilful and experienced than many barristers. The fact is there ought not to exist in a colony like this a division between the two branches of the profession. It was so here once and ought to be again. The retrograde step was taken through the efforts of a clique as most things are done here”. In 1892 he expressed opposition to making the Attorney General a full time salaried official, saying that there would be a loss of independence and that “no amount of study, no amount of theory will make a lawyer. Nothing but the actual work of the Courts will enable a man to conduct cases. Francis held a number of acting judicial appointments from 1878 to 1880. Because of long absences of officials on leave, or through illness, it was necessary to have a system of acting appointments and from time to time civilians were used. His first appointment was as Police Magistrate in September 1878. The reports of his cases indicate that he was positive and in charge of the proceedings but inclined to be impatient. There was a letter of complaint to the press about him for telling a defendant to stop making signs to witnesses and disbelieving him when he said he had St. Vitus's dance. Another letter urged that non-legally qualified magistrates be brought back. However when he sat again as a magistrate in 1880 his sentences were compared favourably with those of Ng Choy who was more lenient, and there was complaint of the termination of his appointment. In April 1879 he was appointed Puisne Judge of the Supreme Court (stigmatised by The Times of 1863 as the greatest nuisance in the East) and in February 1880 he presided over the Criminal Sessions. In one case he sentenced... ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1986 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/jq08c7063 26 WALTER GREENWOOD specially selected to reorganise and run the Registry (there had been some unhappy experiences in the past), "The worst of it," he wrote, "will be that this appointment of Mr. Ackroyd will constitute a precedent. He will be constantly vibrating between the Bench and the Registrar's Office. Succeeding Registrars will deem themselves entitled to the same chances, and instead of devoting themselves wholly to their work will be constantly on the look-out for acting appointment”. He ended by saying that he had no personal interest in the matter and would decline either office if offered it, and had not the slightest ill-will towards Ackroyd. The Government went ahead and appointed Ackroyd who does not appear to have taken any offence. It may be convenient at this point, before turning to his life outside the law, to deal with other aspects of his character and situation. If his public statements and actions are a true guide he was a man of faith: faithful to his church and religion, to his native country and fellow countrymen and to his monarch. He was one of the leading Roman Catholic laymen in Hong Kong and regularly attended church services and functions. In 1878 he wrote to the press in defence of Bishop Raimondi who had been attacked in an editorial. The same year, speaking on a public occasion, he said that Roman Catholics did not expect favours but expected not to meet with prejudice and ignorance. He went on "If there has been any difficulty, and there sometimes have been difficulties attending Catholics in Hong Kong, it has arisen, I will not say from any want of goodwill, but a certain amount, I do not like to say of prejudice, but of pre-judgment, a certain feeling of hostility to Catholics almost inevitable in English non-Catholics. At the same time I have spoken to missionaries and they all join in saying that nowhere, under no government, are they so free, are they so well treated, are they so perfectly certain that they will not be interfered with in the legitimate exercise of their office than under Her Majesty's Government”. In 1894 after the death of Bishop Raimondi he described him as a dear friend and said "for the past twenty-five years he has been to me an educator in the path of duty". In 1891 when his re-marriage was announced (he married a German lady in Colombo in December 1890) he was described as Knight of St. Gregory the Great, but I have not been able to trace his appointment. In 1880 speaking at a St. Patrick's Day Soiree he ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1986 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/jq08c7063 28 WALTER GREENWOOD fervent supporter of representative government. He was ever an outspoken critic of the Government. The Hong Kong Telegraph in its obituary described him as “an entertaining and instructive companion and full of anecdote. At public functions he joined in heart and soul, ever ready with a cheery word for all. Many were helped by him financially and with advice. He never made a parade of charity but anyone who went to him in trouble seldom left without help. He was a staunch friend and a generous enemy". The Daily Press said of him that he had a genial breezy presence, a ready eloquence and a cheerful willingness to assist in the promotion of any public measure or social institution. He met with many rebuffs and suffered many reverses but always met them manfully and never bore malice". The China Mail observed that true to the instincts of his race he was always best in opposition. A coincidence which affected his life and career was that Hennessy, a fellow Irish Roman Catholic, arrived to take up his appointment as Governor shortly after he was admitted to the Hong Kong Bar. He admired Hennessy describing him as “probably the most eloquent of Irishmen" and supported him. The Daily Press said in its obituary that Francis "obtained his acting appointments through the influence of Hennessy whose side he consistently espoused in his long quarrel with the British and Foreign Community, and that on the whole his friendship with Hennessy cost him more than he gained by it, and there was little reason to impute to him self-interest as a motive for his advocacy of the Hennessian regime”. In May 1877 Francis was presented to Hennessy at a General Levee at Government House (though his wife was not presented to Mrs. Hennessy) and that may have marked his arrival in society. He took Hennessy's part at the public meeting held in October 1878 to consider the existing state of insecurity of life and property and in effect to censure Hennessy. Francis was against putting the blame on Hennessy's policies. He said his present house had been burgled three times but the remedy was to amend the law and reorganise the police force. He caused much offence by saying that there was opposition to Hennessy even before he arrived in Hong Kong. His support for Hennessy on this occasion was remembered against him for many years. (In 1880, appearing for a man charged with libel in that he had carried on a bitter, active and ceaseless opposition to the ! Page 45 Page 46 ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1986 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/jq08c7063 30 WALTER GREENWOOD due from him for some sharpness with which he might have addressed the men (there was cries of “not at all”). If he had done so it had been with the best intentions. A gentleman from Shanghai who had recently witnessed them at seven pounder gun drill had expressed the opinion that the Shanghai artillerymen could not hold a candle to them. In May the Governor congratulated the Volunteers on their smartness at the Queen's Birthday parade. In November the Daily Press noted “The Volunteers are very fortunate in the officers they have elected to command them, for since the time they were appointed they have shewn an enthusiastic interest in the welfare of the Corps. During the past week Captain Francis has been busily engaged in getting up a field day at Kowloon so as to give the men a good introduction to the new equipment of small arms and mountain guns which were sent out in the Telemachus, with the additional attraction of a knife and fork drill at Mr. Chater's bungalow afterwards”. In June 1884 a volunteer complained to the press of having to drag guns up and down the parade ground for over an hour. However Francis seems to have been absent from the colony at that time. In 1886 and again in 1887 he was acting Commandant but his active participation in the Corps was coming to an end. He was absent from the Annual Meeting and there was a critical letter in the press about that. He tendered his resignation and in 1888 was placed on the retired list as an honorary member with the rank of captain. However that did not end his contributions to the Corps. In December 1892 he was a member of a committee formed to re-establish the Corps on a new basis and in January 1893 he was chairman of a recruiting committee which met at his chambers on Tuesdays and Fridays at 4-5p.m. In 1897 he contributed to prizes for a firing competition. The firing point was on an eminence near Wong Nei Chong Gap and the target at Deepwater Bay. Common and shrapnel shells were used and “some good practice was made”. Francis presented a cup for competition known as the "Francis Cup" but it seems to be no longer in the possession of the Volunteers. And as one of his obituaries noted he "took a keen interest in military matters and was seldom absent from any important parade or display in his uniform". Francis himself said "I would rather any day attend a military parade or march in front of a military band than march in a procession in Westminster Hall headed by the Lord Chancellor and the Lord Chief Justice. If I have one proclivity more than any ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1986 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/jq08c7063 34 WALTER GREENWOOD Foreign Community. Self interest as well as sympathy attached him to Hennessy" (reference was then made to his acting judicial appointments and that of A.D.C.). "Mr. Francis is a clever reasoner and skilful logician but he cannot persuade the community that their memories play them false. Either he endorsed the policy of Hennessy or he did not act with independence of mind and judgment. Whichever impeachment he chooses to admit the Justices will reject him". Francis wrote in answer to this that he was not in collusion with Hennessy and did not support him on the issue of corporal punishment. “I stood up for fair play for him in the face of a very hostile meeting of my fellow citizens on whose goodwill I was mainly depending for my bread". He said he was at odds with Hennessy over corporal punishment when he sat as a magistrate and was very nearly removed for that. His appointment as Puisne Judge was on the recommendation of the Chief Justice. His acceptance of the appointment of A.D.C. was purely personal, Hennessy being in difficulties with the military authorities, and it was the temporary filling of a gap. “Although Hennessy honoured me with some degree of his friendship and patronage and I sympathised and fought for him in some things I never hesitated publicly to dissent from his policy when I was not in accord with it". When the Justices met Francis was proposed by P. Ryrie who said "the meetings of the Council will be made very much more interesting by his presence". In the event Chater was elected by 35 votes to 15 and afterwards said of Francis "I admire his abilities. His fluency in addressing meetings is undoubted”. The Daily Press had the last word saying that the majority in favour of Chater was even larger than expected. In 1887 Francis seconded A.P. MacEwan as the member for the Chamber of Commerce. In January 1888 Chater was again elected as the Justices member, Francis being out of Hong Kong at the time. In May 1888 Ryrie proposed Francis as the Chamber of Commerce member saying that the unofficial members felt the need for someone who could advise them on legal points of order. However B. Layton, a merchant, won the contest by 20 votes to 16. The Daily Press in an editorial said that Francis was a man of wide experience outside ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1986 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/jq08c7063 36 WALTER GREENWOOD member, being re-elected in 1891 and 1894, until his resignation in 1895. It was a substantial commitment, involving fortnightly meetings and reading papers in-between meetings. Considerations of space allow reference only to certain events in 1894 and 1895 for which Francis is best known. Suffice it to say that he appeared to try to dominate the proceedings of the Board but at the same time had an ambivalent attitude to it because he considered that it did not have sufficient powers and independence to make it an effective body. For example, in March 1894 he seconded a proposal that it be reconstructed on a popular basis but also argued that that was premature until its powers had been enlarged. Prior to the election in June 1891 the Daily Press said that he had rendered good service and that his keen and ever-ready criticism, sometimes perhaps degenerating into captiousness, had exercised a wholesome influence both on the Board and its officers. The China Mail in its obituary said that he was not an unqualified success and his performance as a member of the Board might have deprived him of support for a place on the Legislative Council. In May 1894 plague struck Hong Kong, and a Permanent Committee of the Sanitary Board, comprising three members with Francis as Chairman, was set up to cope with the emergency. It met daily at his chambers at 4 p.m. Its actions were not universally popular. It was in conflict with the Government on occasion, and at one stage was said to be daggers drawn with the Governor. The business community complained that its activities had an adverse effect on commerce, and its relations with the Chinese community were not assisted by wild rumours such as that pregnant women were cut open and children's eyes were gouged out to make medicines for the treatment of the plague. There were recriminations as to whose fault had led to the outbreak and whether the right steps were taken to combat it. Francis bluntly laid the blame on gross mismanagement by the Public Works Department. Whatever the rights and wrongs of particular matters, there were many tributes to his work. The Governor in a dispatch to the Secretary of State, Lord Ripon, in June said that the Permanent Committee acted with extraordinary energy and efficiency and that the Government was indebted to him and others. The acting Attorney General paid tribute to his great assistance, at enormous sacrifice of time, and his wonderful and rapid grasp of any subject and great ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1986 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/jq08c7063 40 WALTER GREENWOOD His letter received wide publicity. The Daily Press wrote "The community will sympathise with Mr. Francis in the treatment to which he has been subjected. It was generally understood that he would at least be made a C.M.G., and to ask him to accept a paltry inkstand while conferring a C.M.G. on Mr. F.H. May can only be construed as a marked intentional insult. The explanation is perhaps not far to seek. In the first place Mr. Francis is not an official and in Crown Colonies the Government is very chary of conferring honours outside the charmed circle; and in the second place he has on certain points deemed it his duty to oppose the Government sometimes with what may have been considered unnecessary warmth. Whoever is at fault the omission of his name is a disappointment to the whole Colony”. In a letter signed Honoris Causa (anonymous letters have always been a feature in Hong Kong) a correspondent wrote “In common, I fancy, with most of the Hong Kong community I thoroughly agree with the letter of Mr. Francis to the Governor except that knowing some of the men the honour of C.M.G. is bestowed on I must congratulate him in not having been created a Colonial Made Gentleman”. The expectation that Francis would be honoured was not confined to Hong Kong. The Straits Times wrote "The great public services of Mr. Francis would entirely warrant a C.M.G.” Indeed it was believed at first in Singapore that he had got one because the official telegram reporting the award to May read "Francis May Hong Kong Companion Michael”. However there was reaction the other way. A piece in the Straits Times said “Mr. Francis has succeeded in making what is almost a record in bad taste. The provocation was no doubt great but it was inexcusable for him to publish his letter to the Governor. He had no right to an honour, he only did his duty. The habit of living in small societies tends to throw men off their balance. Mr. Francis lacks self-restraint, dignity and a saving sense of humour. He has taken himself so seriously that no-one else can do ought but smile". The Japan Mail wrote "There is one thing that no man has ever succeeded in achieving with grace; it is a return of a gift on the ground of its inadequacy. Mr. Francis has made the essay and has accomplished it after a fashion not certainly wanting in ability but altogether wanting in grace. We may infer from the Governor's extolling the beauties of the gift that he had doubts of its suitability for Mr. Francis' most substantial and praiseworthy services. It is impossible not to sympathise ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1990 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299 179 the profession as a means to solve problems related to the management of the troupe and the theatre. Eventually such management rules were overwhelmed by the profession's religious sentiments and transformed to become an essential part of the employees' religious beliefs. Hsu Francis L.K. 1983 REFERENCES CITED Exorcising the Trouble Makers. Magic, Science and Culture, Westport: Greenwood Press. Chiao, Chien 1986 "Beating the Petty Person: A Ritual of Hong Kong Chinese" (in Chinese), in New Asia Academic Bulletin (Volume VI): Special Issue on Anthropological Studies of China, Hong Kong: New Asia College, The Chinese University of Hong Kong. Ward, Barbara E. 1979 "Not Merely Players: Drama, Art and Ritual in Traditional China," in Man, March 1979. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1994 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zk522640g 205 Kendall, Elizabeth Kimball, A Wayfarer in China, Boston New York Houghton Mifflin, 1913 Kerby, Philip, Beyond the Bund, New York Payson Clarke, 1927 Knox, Thomas Wallace (1835-1896), Overland Through Asia. Pictures of Siberian, Chinese, and Tartar Life, Chicago FS gilman, etc, 1871 The Boy Travellers in the Far East Part just. Adventures of Two Youths in a Journey to Japan and China etc, New York and London Harper, 1898 Kranzler, David H, Japanese, Nazis and Jews. The Jewish Refugee Community of Shanghai 1938-1945, New York Yeshiva University Press, 1976 Lamberton, Mary, St John's University Shanghai, 1879-1951, New York United Board for Christian Colleges in China, 1955 Lamont, Florence, Far Eastern Diary 1920, New York Horizon Press, 1951 Latourette, Kenneth S, A History of Christian Missions in China, New York Macmillan, 1929 - Beyond the Ranges, an Autobiography, Grand Rapids. William Erdman Publishers, 1967 + Le Coy, Albert von, Buried Treasures of Chinese Turkestan, London Allen and Unwin, 1926 (Hong Kong Reprint. Oxford University Press) Levy, Howard Seymour, Chinese Foot Binding, London Neville Spearman, 1970 Lewisohn, William, China's Wild West A Road Trip of 5,000 Miles in a Motor Car, Shanghai North China Daily News and Herald, 1937 Leys, Simon, Chinese Shadows, London Penguin, 1974 Li, Anthony C, The History of Privately Controlled Higher Education in the Republic of China, Washington DC Catholic University of America Press, 1954, Westport, Conn Greenwood Press reprint, 1977 Liddell, T Hodgson (B1860), China Its Marvel and Mystery, London Allen, 1909 Lin-ch'ung (1791-1846), A Wild Swan's Frank the Havels of a Mandarin, translated by TC Lai, Hong Kong, 1978 Lau, Alicia Helen Neva (Bewicke) (d. 1926), My Diary in a Chinese Farm, Shanghai Kelly and Walsh, 1892 74pp - The Land of Blue Gown, London Unwin, 1902 + AMAMT 11 41 DL/ ================================================================================