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And I do further declare and proclaim, that, pending Her Majesty's further pleasure, such rules and regulations as may be necessary from time to time for the Government of Hongkong shall be issued under the hand and seal of the person filling the office of Chief Superintendent of the Trade of British subjects in China for the time being.

And I do further declare and proclaim, that pending Her Majesty's further pleasure, all British subjects and foreigners residing in, or resorting to, the island of Hongkong, shall enjoy full security and protection, according to the principles and practice of British law, so long as they shall continue to conform to the authority of His Majesty's government in and over the island of Hongkong, hereby duly constituted and proclaimed.

Given under my hand and seal of office, on board of Her Majesty's Ship Wellesley, at anchor in Hongkong Bay, this second day of February, in the year of Our Lord one thousand eight hundred and forty-one.

God save the Queen.

(Signed) CHARLES ELLIOT.

NOTE. This proclamation has often been considered by the Courts as if it were a fact of the Law of the Colony, or in support of the theory that Chinese law and customs are in some instance part of the law of the Colony.

Doubts are frequently expressed as to the correctness of the views of the Courts in these matters.

Appendix No. 11.

Extracts from Despatch from the Right Hon. the Earl of Kimberley to the Governor, Sir J. Pope Hennessy, K.C.M.G.

Downing Street,

1st March, 1882.

SIR,

15. But if children bought for adoption do not become slaves it is still true that there is in Hongkong a certain and perhaps a considerable number of children who have been the subject of what purported to be transactions of sale. I cannot doubt that in the majority of these transactions the sellers have believed they have validly sold, and the buyers that they have validly bought that for which money has passed, and the children themselves can scarcely help believing that they are in bond to their possessors. Such a system evidently requires most careful consideration, especially if Dr. Eitel's opinion be accurate (p. 14) that there is cause to believe that the abuses naturally connected with it tend to encourage kidnapping.

16. I put aside for the present the question of brothel girls. Their condi- tion and the means by which the supply is kept up are well known, and I do not find that any additional light is thrown upon them by these papers. The Ordin- ance No. 2 of 1875 has already made the sale or purchase of any woman or child, or the bringing into the Colony of any woman or child sold or purchased for purposes of prostitution, or the receiving or harbouring of any woman or child known to have been so sold, a misdemeanour. I have also directed you in my Despatch of July 26, 1881, to register brothel houses, and facilitate inspection of them, so that the inmates may have full opportunities of appealing in cases of wrongful treatment, or of their detention against their will, and I shall at any time be most ready to consider any practical measures for bettering the condition of this unfortunate class which your local knowledge or that of any other gentleman on the spot may device.