with them this one message he would ask them to pray, and to pray continually, that as God had given them that golden candlestick, as he had called them in his infinite meray to be members of his church, he would pour upon that place and upon all their brethren, whether European or native, his most holy spirit.
During the singing of the hymn "Disposer Supreme a collection was made in aid of the Cathedral funds. The Bishop received and pre-
THE HONGKONG WEEKLY PRESS AND
days of the colony is also recorded in its proper place.
We have heard an objection made to the book on the ground that it is devoted too much to the raking up of old scandals. As a ques- tion of good manners no doubt scandal is to be eschewed, but there is a distinction between private scandals and public scandals. It is well that the latter should not be allowed to sink into oblivion, for they serve as a warning
November 19, 1809.
been appointed civil chaplain at Hong- kong. Mr. F. Peel, Under Secretary for the Colonies, in reply to Mr. Portal said that when application was made to the Colonial Office
of appointments between Mr. Stedman and Mr. Baxter the Duke of Newcastle took the usual course in such cases by addressing a letter of enquiry to the Bishop of Winchester. The correspondence was read, the Bishop's letter
containing
sented the offerings, and gave the Benediction | and prevent the growth of an unduly self-passage:"The Rev. Mr. the following
from the altar. After the Benediction the choir sang Stainer's Sevenfold Amen.
The offertories at St. John's Cathedral on Saturday and Sunday amounted to $225.
REVIEWS,
Rector of Fyfield, is highly respectable and, as far as I am aware, well qualified to perform the duties of a Colonial Chaplaincy efficiently." The reading of this passage naturally caused laughter in the House. In the meantime, pending the re- ply of Mr. Baxter to the serions charges brought against him, the Bishop of Victoria re- fused to license him or to allow him to officiate in S. John's Cathedral. The upshot was that Mr. Baxter was called upon to resign his ap- pointment and he left with his family for Melbourne.
righteous spirit. Also, it must be confessed, they make, for many people, very attractive reading. In these piping times of peace, when the officials form a happy little circle and are treated by the civil community with becoming deference and respect, when table conversation turns mainly on the day's The History of the Laws and Courts of Hong- amusements and public writers experience kong, Tracing Consular Jurisdiction in China difficulty in finding topics of interest, it seems and Japan and including Parliamentary difficult to believe that we are separated by Debates, and the Rise, Progress, and Succes-only a few years from the time when Sir E. B. sive Changes in the Various Publio Institu- Lytton, speaking in the House of Commons as tions of the Colony from the Earliest Period Secretary of State for the Colonies, said that in We are rather surprised that the author to the Present Time. With Illustrations. certain papers that had been sent home he should have deemed it necessary to give' a By WILLIAM NORTON-KYSHE, of Lincoln's discovered hatred, malice, and all uncha-certificate of good character to the legal pro- Inn, Esquire, Barrister-at-Law, Registrar of ritableness in every possible variety of aspect, fession in the colony. This occurs after
In and consequently what might be considered a reference to the the Supreme Court of Hongkong.
case of the notorious ་ Webber. "In fairness to the legal profesion two volumes. London: T. Fisher Unwin. a description of official life in the colony; Hongkong: Noronha & Co. 1898.
when the Times in an article on Hongkong in the Colony, says Mr. Norton-Kyshe, "it ME. NORTON KYSHE's history is a great affairs, said that "the newspaper proprietors is due to those members in practice at the deal less dry than its title might suggest. were all more or less in prison, or going to present time to say that in no part of the In fact it is extremely interesting, as well as prison, or coming out of prison, on prosecutions British dominions perhaps does there exist a useful. Any old resident who commences to turn
more honourable body of gentlemen than them- one or more of the incriminated over its pages casually will soon find himself officials, and the Chief Justice was trying selves. A black sheep' at distant intervals since absorbed in reading accounts of episodes that an action against the Governor" and the foundation of the colony, as has been have in former years excited his interest but when Mr. Anstey, the Attorney-General, recorded, may have gonej astray, but other- have probably been long forgotten, while to speaking in the Supreme Court, compared wise there is nothing to be found from the those who for business or professional rea- Hongkong to "a petty colony cram full mouths of the highest judicial authorities sons require to make themselves acquainted of abuses and oppression, but no man would themselves but the greatest encomiums in the history of the colony it will speak out because there was no community of favour of both branches of the profession. ove an invaluable mine of information, the feeling of wrong, there was mutual distrust, | Such an instance is probably unique in the exploitation of which is facilitated by a full index. As an illustration of the practical value of the work we may mention the complete accounts of the land questions that have arisen from time to time, including the recent change to the short lease system. Mr. Chamberlain's despatch on this subject, dated 23rd May, 1898, which has not previously been published, is given,
"Leases for 999 years," says the Secretary of State," are practically equivalent to a freehold tenare, and the grant of such leases deprives the Government of all control over the land of the colony, and of all advantage of any future enhanced value of the land." Future leases are therefore to be "for periods not exceeding seventy-five, or at the outside ninety-nine years, with suitable provision to meet the objection raised by the Land Commission of 1886-7, viz.: that the Crown should not at the expiration of the lease confiscate the whole value of the tenant's improvements."
Amongst other important subjects brought up to date is that of the Kowloon concession. In this connection Mr. Norton-Kyshe says that the principle of extending the somewhat con- aned area of the colony on the Kowloon side of the harbour had been for a considerable time re- cognised as just and reasonable, that Sir Nicholas O'Conor, when Minister in China, personally took the matter in hand, and, "it is said,”
convention was actually drawn up and agreed to, extending the colony
to
a
line to be drawn from Deep Bay to Mirs Bay, but that at the urgent solicitation of the Chi- nese Embassy in England the matter was post- poned pending the completion of the treaty with Japan.
We should like to know the precise facts of Sir Nicholas O'Conor's reported convention. Mr. Norton-Kyshe, it will be observed, does not pledge himself to the state- ment that such a Convention was actually made, but uses the term "it is said."
.
|
The more important and interesting of the trials that have taken place in the Supreme Court naturally occupy a prominent place in Mr, Norton-Kyshe's work and in connection with Witchell's case an account of the bribery scandal is given. The author confines himself to a statement of recorded facts without com- ment on the procedure adopted in regard to the public servants who were dismissed without re- gular trial, his official position no doubt impos. ing reticence upon him in reference to events of such recent occurrence. The corruption which prevailed in the police force in the earlier
of some
there was no Government, there was no society, for. Government there was anarchy and for society cœlus latronum." A great part of the book is taken up with the doings of that same Mr. Anstey, that brilliant meteor in whom fancy and imagination usurped the place of judgment and who only failed of achieving greatness by lack of a little common sense and prudence; his honesty and genius were beyond ques-
In truth tion.
Hongkong affairs Wre in those days, as they were officially des- cribed, a "mass of mud." Things have improved a good deal since then, but probably there is still a good deal of mud, only the energy or will to stir it up is lacking.
|
annals of any colony, and in recording his own experience of colonial barristers, attorneys, or solicitors in other parts of the Empire where he has himself served, it is the author's opinion that the colony may well be proud of con- of its legal practitioners, a matter gratulation both to the Bench and the numerous suitors who daily seek justice at the hands the of Bench, the Bar, the solicitors, and the officers, of the Court." We should say there is nothing at all unique about the legal! profession in Hongkong, as regards character, the gentlemen belonging to it being simply a fair average sample of the profession at large, whether in England or the colonies, at least, for the sake of the Empire and the profession, it is to be hoped so,
The way to read Mr. Norton-Kyshe's book is to begin with the index and refer back to the
In the work before us there are expressions references that attract the attention of the individual reader No one will fail to find of opinion on men and things that may form an abundance of such. In one department, the subject of controversy, but as a record of however, the author has not exhibited his facts, a concise compendium of the political. usual research. We refer to ecclesiastical history of the colony, it is deserving of the affairs. These would appropriately have fallen highest praise, and amply justifies the quotation under the sub-title of "the book, "the various from a legal decision given as a motto on the public institutions of the colony," and it fly page of each volume, namely, “A collection would have been convenient to have had a correct of records may be the result of professional legal statement of the changes that have knowledge, research, and skill, just as a collec- been effected in the position of the Church tion of curiosities is the result of the skill and of England in the colony and in the status of knowledge of the antiquarian or virtuoso." In the Bishop and Chaplain. The entries under his preface the author justly remarks that it the heading of Church" are few, but one is not astonishing, situated as is Hongkong, of them at once attracts attention, namely, with a population recruited almost from the Extraordinary conduct of the Rev. W. dregs of society, that enormous difficulties Baxter." We accordingly turn to pp. 351-2 of should have been experienced from the very vol. i. to see what Mr. Baxter's extraordinary outset in establishing a proper form of conduct was, and we there find that this government in the colony, tentative mea- Baxter, formerly Rector of Fyfield, having sures being introduced to be only shortly effected an exchange of livings with the Rev. after modified or rejected;" and Mr. Stedman, Colonial Chaplain in Hongkong, invited to " draw his own so and the reader is arrived in the colony on the 3rd August, 1854.mass of mud' in reference to which the Duke Mr. Melville Portal, member for North Hants, of Newcastle showed so much anxiety at the That conclusion will probably be the after Mr. Baxter had left for the scene of his time.” labours, rose, in the House of Commons to same as that at which Mr. Norton-Kyshe the attention of the Government arrives in his closing chapter, namely, call to matters affecting the church, ferred to in a petition entrusted to him by certain inhabitants of the parish of Fyfield, Mr. Baxter, it appeared, had suddenly absconded on a Sunday, after, morning service, deeply in debt to most of the tradesmen in the neighbour. hood and carrying with him certain parish funds and charitable monies which were in his charge. He had previously made an assignment of his effects for the benefit of his creditors, His parishioners heard nothing of him until they saw it announced that he had
88 re-
from that
"Even with a knowledge of British Leag
prise, it would be a tax upon one's cre- dulity to believe that, within the compara- tively short space of time which has elapsed since Hongkong was incorporated within the British dominions, such rapid strides in de. velopment could have taken place. All this is but the result of British energy, Britsh enter- prise, and English law, accomplished under the benign rule of Her Most Gracions Majesty, Queen Victoria, of whose possessions Hong kong, founded in Her own time, now stands pro-
1
No comments yet.
Private notes are available after approval.