•
December 14, 1907.]
Mr. F. X. d'Almada e Castro (of Messrs Almada and Smith) appeared for the plaintiff, and Mr. E. J. Grist (of Messrs. Wilkinson and Grist) for the defendant.
Mr. Almada said he understood the defence was that the document was a forgery. He called the plaintiff who put in a document which set forth that defendant promised to pay his client $625.
CHINA OVERLAND TRADE REPORT. hands of the higher officials, which the provincial government of Canton strove by every means in its power to centre with itself; provincials, who were not content to see all the and this excited the jealousies of the other profits to be derived from the most valuable constituent of the foreign trade going to neighbour in what was practically an outer province of the Empire When the cry arose amounts of silver required in payment for the opium were impoverishing the country, the cry met with
that the
enormon
a
Mr. Grist-I think the document can neither go in nor be sued upon. It is not stamped.
Mr. Alma a—I will undertake to stamp it. Mr. Grist-if it is anything, it is a promis-ready support. All this while the Emperor, or sory note to pay within a month.
His Lordship-I don't know what it is. Mr. Almada-It is an undertaking. If it is a promissory n ts it cannot be stamped.
Mr. Grist-The defence is tha we deny the document in toto. We know nothing at all
about it.
His Lordship I think it is a promissory note. Mr. Grist-It is an unconditional promise to pay $625 within a month.
His Lordship-The note cannot go in. Mr. Grist—The only possible way my friend can sue is for accounts in respect of this share in the partnership, which, we admit, this man had at a certain time.
His Lordship (to Mr. Almada)-You've got the wrong form of action, and the only thing I can do for you is to non-suit you.
The hearing was ›djourn‹ð.
EVOLUTION OF HONGKONG.
[Written for the Hongkong Daily Press.¦
(Continued from last week.)
XI,
Trade under such conditions could hardly be expected to be sound or profitable, and such we find to have been actually the case. As we have stated before, the entire apparatus of foreign trade had to be created; as carried on by the Company the outer trade of Canton was, perhaps, not a monopoly in the ordinary sense of the word so much as a series of monopolies, one within the other. Navigating officers, pursers, supracargoes, and indeed simost all grades in the service had their well understood perquisites and indulgences, all carefully guard- ed under the general monopoly from outside interference. The Company made comparatively small profits, with which the holders of India Stock had to be content, but to the individual in the service, whether as a director or in lower capacity it frequently, gen rally if managed with ordinary prudence, proved a wealth.
mine of
The Company confined its corporate opera. tions almost to the staple of tes; in its lordly way it left the main articles of export from India- opium and raw cotton to the private enterprise of the natives of India, who were permitted so far to
own or charter their own vessels
known as country ships, which, however required a Company's license, and so far were under control. In their outward voyage the Company's ships carried small quantities of woollen and cotton piece goods, principally the former, but their proceeds did not nearly balance the cost of the teas exported. At the earlier period of the trade "silver WBS actually imported from Jaya and Manila, whither it had been carried in the old-time galleons from the Spanish colonies, bat by degrees, with the increasing import of opium and raw cotton, especially the former the necessity of importing bullion ceased. This "country trade though professedly beneath the diguity of the lordly Company. was really affording it its life-blood, When the Company's monopoly was abrogated, and the trade thrown open, many of the old abuses for a time survived, and amongst others the principal British houses found it necessary to become agents for the native Indian merch- ants in the distribution of the opium; the opium being a strictly ready money trade supplying in the absensos of banks the necessary funds to pay for exports, of which by far the most important was tes.
Opium at the time stood in a peculiar relation to the Government; nominally its import was forbidden, actually it was a monopoly in the
rather the parasites who composed his court ledge of the treatment of the opium. Notwith were euphemistically presumed to have no know. stauding this presumption of ignorance, the appointments at Canton were assessel at a higher figure than any other of the provincial growing extravagances of the Court. offices, and in fact were the main support of the Nor were the officials of the Company any more disposed to enlighten the subject of its counec- tion with the trade, so that on all sides there any Machi vellian policy on the part of the was a conspiracy of silence; and this, and not British Government, which apparently had being tabooed at the negotiations at Nanking, none, was the reason for all meation of opium Following the abrogation of the monopoly and the high expectations almost universally prevailing as to the immediate expansion of trase under the spur of what was rather euphemistically called freedom, merchauts both the spot and in England committed the error of overva ning its capacity. The trade as carried on by the Company could hardly ba denominated expansible: no trade could prosper in fact, could scarcely exist unless to the most limited extent under the extravagant conditions of working that prevailed.
on
CORRESPONDENCE.
CONFUCIUS: AN ANNIVER 'ARY.
[TO THE EDITOR OF THE DAILY PRZEB”.]
SIR.-To-day, Sunday-according to the Chinese the fourth day of the eleventh moon - is kalendared as the birthday of Confucius, and following random notes, which I hope you will I have spent the evening jotting down the find a corner for. Confucius was teacher, sage, philosopher, and above all, gentleman. Son of his birth and life, like that of other eminent a ripe Soldier-hero, aud of a wise young mother, men, has been made the subject of much myth love-child as prodigy has not spared even his and legend. The popular weakness for the legitimacy. He was delightfully human, with all his precocious and unusual wisdom. He was a willing teacher at twenty-two, and even then he knew better than our modern educationalists, who treat children as uniform vessels in which
corner of A
to oram uniform measures of knowledge.
When I have presented one subject to any one, and he cannot from it learn the other three, I do not repeat my lesson.” At 29, he had all the cooksureness of modern
thirty. He claimed then that all his convictions were fixed. In such a shrewd mind we can well afford excuse a youthful pose or two. Also, like other historical characters, he suffers from the frequent misunderstandings and misreport- ings of disciples, just as like others, he suffers again by having some of his finest maxims s'ereotyped on the tongues of pseudo-admirers— of a puple who patter rather than practise. How many "boys" and servants thanklessly take au unearned monthly "camsha " who have learned to repeat that "a superior man will We have had a glance at the almost family only receive reward for services which he has relations under which the profits of the trade doue." Some of his teachings are, according to were shared amongst the officers of the Com-the sophists who are common to all moral cults, pany, while the expenses were borne by itself,
"too extreme," too impracticable to be observed as a consequence, extravagance ruled in every department.
as anything more than a worthy ideal. Even Practically tea was the only in his time he experienced the type of the young article of export, and it was expected th t with man that had great possessions. The Duke of the abrogation of the monopoly, and the opening Tx's pladed : I am old; I cannot use his of the Trade to private hands a very greal doctrines, increase in the export was to be looked for. This terity that other sages have had, generations Confucius has moreover the pos- was to a large extent the case, but the increase that cheerfully emphasise palatable portions of by no meaus came up to the hopes formed. his teaching and ignore others. Filial piety, 1 here were various reasons for this. In the like sabb tarianism, has been overworked; and first place the traditions of the Company out-
the comment of Confucius on the father who had lived the monopoly. The private and office expenses of the merchants were in excess of background by Chinese parents and teachers. not taught his son to be filial is kept in the what ко oumparatively limited could
staple la adversity Confucius bore himself like Job fairly be called Ou to bear, and this was capped by enormous home charges, Legge was not favourably impressed by the and the gentleman he was, and though Dr. and heary freights, The duty reached as
details of his general demeanour, it is impossible much as a hundred per cent on the value of
to read them without forming a picture of a the finest teas, on lower qualities it was prohibithorough geatleman, who could appreciate the tive. The opening of the ports raised to the
little iceties of life even while so much con- highest p int the hopes of the pieco goods c-raed with greater matters.
“Fall of awO, manufacturers of Lancashire, and cotton
runs the modern ritual of his worshippers, wares, not always suitable for the market, werd sound our drums and bells," but it is to be shipped in ever increasing quantities. As in feared he gets a great deal of lip-service. Good those prestesmer days it took many months, sayings may be echoed so often that the sometimes almost a year to get replies to advices, and no proper statistics of exports were overlooked, in which particular, of course, translation of them into coaduct is apt to be kept, this was equivalent to lanaching each shipment into outer darkness, trusting to a sorely tempted providence for the retara. did the evil end here, as the apparatus of trade, as abore explained, was in a state verging on primeval chao, barter universal rule, and the book entries of sales and was the almost purchases were for the most part merely nomiuai; added to this was the custom of hold. ing stocks at both en is, a pornicious habit acquired from the Company, which resulted in no one at either end knowing eren approxima- tely how their accounts stood, and the condition of the trade can be surmised. Confined almost to two staples and with returns hardly possible within two years at least, hope reigned supreme, with the almost i evitable result that on both sides ventures proved unremanerative, if they did not, as in perhaps the majority of cases, prove disastrous, We have spoken of the heavy charges imposed on tea by a professedly free trade government: the fault was probably as much the fault of the merobant as the minister; in view of the extravagant manner in which the trade was conducted the temptation to raise the duties was too great to be resisted.
(To be continued).
Nor
16
"
neither the Confucian cult nor the Chinese people is singular. Even the Sage himmelf, with a bumility that I fondly hope was not that he had not attained to the character of merely an explanation and an exonse, aimitted
For ordinary men, it cannot be too often carrying out in his conduct what he professed. pointed out, the meekness of such a plon should not be too
readily soospted in justification of what is obvious. It is to be noted, by the way, that Confusius never aimed too high, never presohed what could not be practised. He taught politics—never “hitched his w ggon to a star"; or, as Dr. Legge quotes it, "he taught letters, ethics, devotion of soul, and truthfulness.” toiling of thought amid uncertainties seemed “To his practical mind the worse than useless." Dr. Legge complains that he did not “oandidly tell his res! thoughts on so interesting a subject" as the one on which you hare reosatly quoted 8.r Oliver Lodge in the Daily Press. .—Yours da
AN ADMIRER OF K'UNG. Kowloon, Deo. 8th. [Our correspondent will doubtless appreciate our reason for omititng the concluding portion of his reflections.—Ed.]
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