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been completed, whether the child be stolen or not, it sanctions the transaction to this extent: that whereas the man or woman who would be liable on a criminal charge of "receiving,"knowing the goods to have been stolen, were the goods ordinary chattels, is in a different category when he or she buys a child which may have been abducted. On proof of the abduction being established the child may be withdrawn from the possession of the purchaser, but no proced- ings could be taken against him unless there be direct evidence of his complicity in the abduction. So far as there is any direct, or indirect sanction by the law of this traffic in children in the Colony, it is highly desirable that an alteration should be made, but it is not likely to be made until public opinion is focussed on this point and articulate expression is given to the desire that this should no longer be allowed.
THE HONGKONG WEEKLY PRESS AND
THE DEPOSITION OF THE
SULTAN.
(Daily Press, May 6th.) The opening years of the Nineteenth Century found Europe presided over by a batch of sovereigns the most intellectual of whom hardly reached the standard of bare mediocrity, and it was on account mainly of this low intellectual capacity of those who were intrusted with the interests of the Continent that a young French Lieutenant of Artillery succeeded in not only entering every capital; but in submitt ing the whole to his own private rule, and in establishing a Napoleonic family régime from the Atlantic to the Vistula. In curious contrast with this unpropitious beginning the close of the century found the interests of Europe in the hands of a number of monarch, many of whom were distinguished by personal characteristic- as individuals, and the wh le of whom, almost without exception, were possessed of abilities far above those usually apper. taining to the wearers of crowns. Perhaps it was only a case of natural action and reaction, and the simple effect of that rul- ing yet mysterious law of Nature that ever seeks to reduce things mundane to average; yet whatever the cause the effect ig outside the reach of controversy. Strangely, too, the phenomenon has not been confined to Europe, but has shown a distinct tendency to become world-wide.
an
It is fairly well known with what object boys and girls are stolen from their parents and sold. The boy may be brought up as an adopted son by some Chinaman eager to obtain those posthumous honours aud attentions which bulk so largely in the belief of the Chinese, or he may be trained by some tradesman with a view to making money by disposing of him as a skilled artisan of some sort, or he may be simply held to rausom. The girl may be kept as a sérvant or perhaps sold into houses where she enters on a life of degradation. The trafficking in human lives is much more common in China than here, but it is not eatisfactory to know that this degrading
If our own boorish King GEORGE III, for business is carried on under the British whom the nation could find no fitter appall. flag. It is the proud boast that all who come
ation than " Farmer George", had at the und er the protection of the Union Jack are
close of the eighteenth century succeeded free but an exception is found at Hongkong, in almost bringing about the break-up of where numbers remain in what is nothing the British Empire; it curiously remained less than bondage. Slavery is not a nice for his Grand-daughter, Queen VICTORIA, word, but none the less it can be truthfully to be the first to restore the lost prestige or applied to the conditions which obtain in
the ruling houses. Gifted with a mental many cases in the colony. Parents and capacity rather above the average, the main guardians in Hongkong, it is known, have feature in her character was that, rarest to take more than ordinary precautions to amongst the rulers of the day, of an intense guard their children or their wards. The devotion to duty. The example set by her little ones cannot be trusted to go to school fortunately commended itself to her fellow by themselves, not because of ordinary monarchs, so that the latter half of the street risks, but because the fear of abduction century was marked by an almost entirely is constantly before them. During the last
new class of sovereigns, of whom more week or so many reputable Chines- citizens especially may be mentioned, the Emperor have lost their children, and the kidnapping FRANCIS JOSEPH, King VICTOR EMANUEL has become so extensive that the opinionRe Galantuomo) and King OSCAR. is generally entertained that a large kiduap ping gang must be operating in the colony. That is not for us to say. The matter is one for the police, who are faced with a difficult task in attempting to track those malefactors and restore the stolen children to their distraught parents. The task however, is one which should not be bevond their re-
The
destructive wars of the beginning of the century had had a sedative effect, and the nations were bent rather on recuperation than on expansion; almost the only exception having been the TSAR NICOLAS I. of Russia. Not only the moral qualities were advance, but towards the end of the century, and nore so in the opening years of the twen- sources. In some instances they have been tiet, the intellectual grasp of the Rulers, successful, and doubtless they would be more be they in this respect crowned heads or so if the law afforded them greater assist-presidents of Republics. ance. In this connection it is interesting The improved intellectual grasp in Europe to recall the extraordinary stories that are was apparently accompanied by a tendency circulated, apparently by the kidnapping to patronise the less advanced sovereigns gangs, so as to stifle inquiry. When any and people of the East. Egypt fell under great undertaking is commenced, such for the protection of Great Britain; while instance as the construction of large docks, Turkey, it was taken for granted, would it is not infrequently stated that success under the benevolent aegis of a unitet will not be achieved until children have Europe of her own account take the road been thrown into the water to appease the towards more civilised administration. But devil who is playing the mischief with the the weak and incapable ABDUL ASIz allowed foundations. Consequently when a child himself to become the minion of a Russian disappears from that locality, the parents representative, who stood by with com- invariably refrain from making inquiries placency while he saw that Sultan knawing because the "people say the devil has taken the vitals out of the land, and the people it." Thus the people's superstition is at last in desperation deposed their exploited by these nefarious gangs and the incapable ruler. A new sovereign placed practice of kidnapping continues, but we hastily on the throne proved equally help may venture to express the hope that once less, and after a few months, disorder, in public attention is directed to the subject the
August 1879 the late Sult in ABDUL HAMID needed reforms will not long be withheld.
was placed on the throne. As an intellectual1
[May 10, 1909.
ruler, HAMID WAS no advance on his predecessor; as an administrator he proved little better, and Russia taking the opportunity to declare war, Turkey was reduced by the treaty of San. Stefano, to the brink of extinction. Taking up the stand- point that the substitution of Russian rule for Turkish would be merely an exchange of King Loo for King STORK,—of Russian for Turkish barbarism,-the public opinion of Europe intervened, aud Sultan ABDUL HAMID under the ordinance of the Congress of Berlin got a brand new tenure of the Sultanate, this time, it was understood, to be administered during good behaviour.
But HAMID, although of as low mental calibre as his predecessor, and as little tormented with any conscientious scruples, possessed what often accompanies a low grade of intellect, a highly developed animal cunning. He soon saw that the mutual jealousies of the Powers would prevent the uniting for any effective measures of control; so, adroitly taking advantage of this weakness, and playing one against the other, he determined to rule as his momentɩry whim dictated, regardless of any expression of public opinion to the Germany, who had extensive contrary. schemes of her own regarding railways in Anatolia, now played the part formerly acted by Russia, and championed the Sultan in his reactionary policy; so that affairs, 80 fir from improving went steadily from rad to worse, until last year disorder became so rampant in Bulgaria that the Powers found it actually necessary to establish an interna- tional constabulary. ABDUL HAMID though nominally coinciding in the arrangement made use of all his powers of intrigue to rend- er the new force inutile, so that the disorders instead of abating actually grew worse. The disorders were not confined by any means to Bulgaria, but were spreading through the empire, in all parts of which disaffection was becoming rampant. It was under these circumstances that the more advanced party, finding remonstrance utterly use- less,
and the old reactionary party growing, becoming every day more influen tial with the Sultan, determined to make a bold stroke, and fiuding that the army at large was in favour of reform of the adminis tration, rose en masse and demanded parlia mentary government. Sultan HAMID at ouce saw that he bad no power of resistance, so seemingly accepting with a good grace the juevitable he for a few days posed as a full-fledged constitutional monarch, and swore to accept the new Constitution. The foreign Powers, though they well knew the character of the sovereign with whom they were dealing, affected to believe the profes- sibus of the Sultan, and acknowledged with new parliamentary congratulatious the régime.
But the leopard does not naturally change his spots, nor will any amount of washing turn the Negro white; so Sultan HAMID, while openly acknowledging the Parliament was all the while in secret plotting with the reactionaries its destruction, and doing his best to bring to Constantinople a sufficient number of troops devoted to the old régime. It was this that brought down on him the chiefs of the new army, who at once deter- mined to march on Constantinople, and seize the Sultan before he had succeeded in re- establishing the old order. It is character- istic of the new state of affairs that the march on Constantinople was accomplished with- out any disorder; perfect discipline was maintained, and though a good deal of blood has been spilled, and an actual state of war existed for some days, fighting has all been above board and no private plunder bas to be deplored. It had become patent to all
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