FURTHER STATEMENTS AND SUGGESTIONS REGARDING HONG KONG .
ADDRESSED TO THE HON. FRANCIS SCOTT, M.P.
LONDON :
TRELAWNEY SAUNDERS, 6 , CHARING CROSS ;
AND
SOTHERAN, SON, & DRAPER , 10, TOWER STREET, EASTCHEAP.
1851 .
PRINTED BY C. DAWSON, 38, GRACECHURCH STREET .
PREFACE .
In the course of the Summer of 1850, certain “ Statements
and Suggestions regarding Hong Kong," dated Hong Kong,
April 23rd, reached England, and were published before the
vote was taken for that Colony,-Government having carried
-
the vote by a small majority. The amount has been reduced this
year. The following observations do not appear inopportune :
The Estimates for the Civil Establishment and expenses of Hong Kong
will shortly be voted in Parliament. Fifteen -sixteenths of the inhabitants
are Chinese . The remainder do not exceed 1,300, whereof only 460 are of
European or American extraction .
The revenue amounts to about £21,000 per annum ; the expenditure to
about £39,000 ; leaving a balance of about £ 15,500 , to be supplied by
Parliament, provided the Commons are content to saddle this country with
such a burden.
It is not surprising that the too frequent occurrence of lavish expenditure
in the Colonies and Government by the Colonial Office, should have induced
persons to associate economy at home with local self-government in the
Colonies. The latter is more interesting to the Colonists — the former is
more important to ourselves.
Considerable reductions have been made of late years in the charge for
Hong Kong, but the Government have little cause to boast of the reduced
cost. The reduction is owing to the completion of some works, and the
abandonment of others ; the boast is merely the vaunt that a bill already paid
is not still chargeable .
The establishment remains the same, or nearly so.
In an Island smaller than Guernsey or Jersey, without a convict estab
lishment, or large military force, the charge for a few departments of
government exceeds £30,700, viz. :
Department of Governor and Aide -de-Camp ... £6,527
Colonial Secretary and Treasury 5,955
Surveyor. 1,231
Harbour Master 1,116
Justice and Police 15,953
£30,782
To which we must add £8,000 for Public Works, and other expenses,
making in all £38,986 for that small colony, of which £ 15,500 is asked
from Great Britain .
Besides this, £4,599 is asked for the Consular Establishment, making
£ 20,099 , the total charge for Hong Kong, to be paid by this country.
FURTHER
STATEMENTS AND SUGGESTIONS REGARDING
HONG KONG.
HONG KONG, APRIL 23, 1851 .
MY DEAR SIR,
The “ statements and suggestions regarding
Hong Kong ” addressed to you last year, were calculated
to afford you, and other Members of Parliament, a fair
estimate of the opinions of intelligent and impartial
residents in the Colony : and had they been read and
appreciated by all, as they were by a few, of the members
to whom copies were sent, it might perhaps have been
unnecessary again to trouble you or them on the subject.
But unfortunately, as regards everything connected with
China, there is so great an aptitude to misapprehend and
misapply facts among all classes at home- Members of
Parliament, the Press, and the public in general — that it
seems almost impossible to make them understand the
true position - even topographically - of the settlement,
-
and the wide difference between it and the consular
ports of China.
Hong Kong is an island at the mouth of the Canton
river, about twenty miles in circumference, and with
about as many acres of productive soil. For the rest, it is
“ barren, barren all, " without trees or vegetation of any
sort, except dry bent and stunted brushwood . The popu
lation is principally congregated in the town (or city, now
4
that it has a Bishop and what is called aa Cathedral), and,
according to the latest official estimate, is made up of
465 Europeans and Americans, men, women, and chil
dren ; Portuguese, natives of Macao and Goa, 415 ;
Indians and Malays, 276 ; other aliens and temporary
residents, such as seamen, 149 ; Chinese, 31,987. Total,
33,292, exclusive of military.
Upon what data the census is taken, or whether it is
made up to serve a purpose, I cannot say ; but if correct,
the population is now greater than at any former period.
In a recent correspondence between the Governor and the
Justices of the Peace, the increase of population is pointed
to by the former as a proof of growing prosperity. It is
nevertheless true that the better classes of residents are
decreasing year by year, to which melancholy truth there
is the unbiassed testimony of the Directories for 1849 and
1850. A friend who has gone over these records states,
that of English connected with trade and paying taxes, or
living in taxed premises, there were 294 in 1849, and only
159 in 1850. There is no Directory for 1851 (a proof of
the decrease of purchasers) ; but that defect is supplied
from another source equally authentic . In 1848 the Jury
List comprised 186 common, and 47 special jurors, while
this year it contains only 69 common, and 26 special.
Both lists include foreigners , Americans, Germans, Portu
guese, &c., with a competent knowledge of the English
language. And an important fact ought not to be over
5
looked, namely, that in 1819 the qualification of a common
juror, which had previously been 1000 dollars of income,
was reduced to 500 dollars .
This fact is pointed out by the Justices in the cor
respondence above referred to, and but that it is tacitly
admitted by the Governor, I should have supposed that
the Sheriff had committed great oversights in making out
his lists ; for if there be, as the census states, 321 adult
male Europeans in the Colony, as the numbers in both
Jury Lists are under 100, and Government employees may
be estimated at about 60, it is difficult to say of what the
other moiety is composed ; for except natives, and not
many of these, there is no permanent pauper, nor even
menial class here, the great majority of the English resi
dents (meaning thereby all.Europeans and Americans who
speak the English language) consisting of such persons as
elsewhere would elect or be elected to municipal councils.
They are as impatient of misgovernment, and as capable
of governing themselves here in Hong Kong, as their
brethren at home ; while the Chinese, who comprise
fifteen - sixteenths of the entire population, take precedence
in date of all other nations in municipal institutions, and
are not excelled by many in working them so as to secure
" peace, order, and good government ;" the end the
charter of the Colony proposed in clothing the Governor
with legislative powers .
In the exercise of these, he is nominally advised by his
6
council; but the members are appointed by the Crown ,
and have no power to control the Governor in enacting
what laws he chooses. A year ago two unofficial members
were added to the council (a close body consisting of the
General, the Judge, and the Attorney-General), and it
has pleased the Colonial Office folks to speak of them as
the representatives of the community,—the fact being,
that the Justices of the Peace, a small body selected by
the Governor, were permitted to recommend two of their
own body for the approval of Earl Grey, who, after a long
interval did approve of them, but without investing them
with any other powers than the official members, or giving
the public any means of watching their proceedings, or of
judging of them, until a new ordinance is promulgated by
the conclave and declared to be law.
But this has always been the way with the Colonial
Office - to give nominal, but withhold all real advantages
from the Colonists, who are treated like children in
leading strings by a step -father; the recent tender to the
Justices, to take over the Police, its heads excepted, with
the maintaining of roads, streets, and bridges, and find
the means of paying for them from the rest of the com
munity, who were otherwise not considered, is another
instance . If the intention be that they should merge all
shades of home politics in one combined discontent, it is
certainly eminently successful. This is the more strange,
since, so far as Hong Kong is concerned, with all its well
7
paid officers, I can testify that from the time the first
ridiculous and extensive staff was sent out, the vacancies
have not been jobbed from home, every appointment,
except that of the Governor and one or two inferior
clerkships, having been filled up , on the recommendation
of the Governor, by officials on the spot being promoted
to higher offices ; or where new men have been adopted,
this also has been done by the Governor, whose appoint
ments have never, I think, been set aside by the Colonial
minister. * * *
The Colonial Office cannot govern Hong Kong so well
or so cheaply for the mother country, as the Colonists
could govern themselves ; and while in the one case our
prospects become every day more gloomy, in the other, if
the Colony did not prosper, there would be none to blame
but ourselves. The Colonial Office has not succeeded
it is at least worth while to try what the Colonists could
do. In this event they would ask for no grant from Parlia
ment, the revenues of the Colony being amply sufficient
for its government, for the maintenance of a better
Police, and for the repairs of public ways, and the
adoption of other improvements, the former becoming
more inefficient, and the latter being suffered to fall into
decay or to stop,* since Parliament began to grumble
* Public works used to form the largest item in the expenditure of the
Colony, but being now stopped and left to fall to decay, the boasted reduc
tion of expenditure is unsatisfactorily accounted for.
8
about the grant. We don't want it at all, and the
Government require it; not to devote to benefitting the
Colony, but to make up the salaries of officials, the whole
revenue of the Colony being insufficient for the purpose.
The use of the establishment is chiefly to draw salaries ;
and to provide these, the income of the Colony and the
parliamentary gratuity are swallowed up. Yet, as I have
formerly explained to you , the objection is not to the
salaries, but to the existence of officials who are really of
less than no use, and make employment for each other ;
yet, having been engaged without consulting the Colonists,
they cannot fairly be turned adrift by their employers.
My proposal would be that the annual parliamentary
grant should be applied to pensioning off the government
staff, unless other employment could be found for them
a measure that would probably be satisfactory to most of
them .
Of course, except a governor, the offices would be
abolished ; and with regard to him , he would be required
only to exercise imperial functions, for which he would be
paid by the Crown. This indeed ought always to have
been the case, for he combines the offices of Plenipo
tentiary to China, and superintendent of the trade of
British subjects in China, with the Governorship of Hong
Kong ; the former two being in the department of the
Foreign Office, and by much the most important. The
administration of these has nothing to do with the Colony,
9
only the holder of them being also Governor, resides here,
and has a diplomatic establishment, the existence of
which, and the mixing up of that item and of consular
expenses in the estimates, bring a fruitful source of mis
takes on the part of M.P.'s, and is perhaps intended to be
so , in order that clever under -secretaries may thus catch
them tripping. The present Governor is reported to have
sent in his resignation, and may probably return home
within a year. That would be the proper occasion to
effect the change ; and if the Colonists are made aware
that it is to take place, other reforms might be carried
out at the same time.
Were these suggestions favourably received, a constitu
tion for the Colony could be very easily framed , giving
the Colonists the management of their own funds, with
municipal and legislative councils, and the fixing of the
qualifications for electing and being elected for each .
Much less expensive and far more efficient Courts of
Justice might be established, with suitable laws and well
defined jurisdiction, as was recommended by the Parlia
mentary Committee of 1847, but never attempted.
The whole judicial system, including Police, too often
operates in encouraging roguish Chinese, and deterring
the better classes from settling here, or even frequenting
the place for trade. These things have often been pointed
out in the local papers, of which the most recent instances
are enclosed. Surely provision could be made elsewhere
for the Judge and the Attorney -General, as well as for the
10
Registrar, whose functions are multiform , but oftener
hurtful than beneficial to the Colony. If they are to be
continued under the present system of government, the
Registrar should be paid a fixed salary for all, and account
to the Treasury for all fees that might not be done away
with, as many of them ought to be. And it might not be
amiss to get a return of all the estates administered to,
their assets, debts, and charges, and when wound up , as
well as of the property thrown into the Vice -Admiralty
Court, too often to its utter sacrifice and the ruin of its
owners . As for the droits of the Admiralty, they seldom
suffice to pay the fees ; but a return of them would also
shew how the account stands.
I am unwilling to extend this letter, as that could only
be done by lessening the chances of its being read. All
I shall at present add will be in the words of another and
most competent witness, an old resident, a J.P., and the
managing partner of a leading mercantile firm . The
following extracts are from jottings made by him a short
time ago. I omit his remarks on consular establishments
in China, and have myself avoided the subject, in order
thatmy readers, whoever they may be, should not, through
me, confound them with Colonial matters. If I treat the
others at all, it must be separately.
Believe me, very truly yours,
The Hon . FRANCIS Scott, M.P.
11
Extracts referred to.
* *
I have hopes Colonial matters will now command some atten
tion at home , and the great regret is that the interest which has
been awakened in England on the subject did not take place
long ago, nor did our Local Government, so far as Hong Kong
is concerned , add its mite by way of throwing any light on a
subject which may most justly be said to be very little under
stood at home ; on the contrary, the English home authorities
have not the means of arriving at a just or sound opinion on
Colonial policy as followed up in China.
Take for example Mr. Hawes, who in his place in the House
of Commons stated that the Hong Kong Governor had spoken
of the increasing prosperity of the Colony, by pointing to the
large amount of shipping which arrive and depart therefrom .
I admit that ships arrive at Hong Kong from England ; for what
purpose ? To receive instructions from agents, land some house
stores for the different shopkeepers, and to discharge a portion
of their cargo which may not be immediately required in Canton,
ultimately to find its way to the Port of Shanghae. Vessels
from India arrive at Hong Kong for instructions only, and pro
ceed up the river at once, or to an opium station some forty
miles from Hong Kong. Vessels from the coast deliver their
letters at Hong Kong, and soon find their way to the opium
station or Whampoa .
To us on the spot how silly it seems to hear it stated that an
increase in such tonnage at Hong Kong augurs its commercial
prosperity ; and how unfortunate it is such reports gain credit
at home from the fact that no one on the spot seems to have in
clination or power to challenge the proofofthis boasted prosperity !
Positively the Colony of Hong Kong, month by month , is be
coming of less use to the few merchants that still abide there.
Our authorities at home will not look on matters as they
really are. They take a passing glance at their official commu
nications, and it seems they consider that a great point is gained
12
if, by their estimates, the last year has not shown an increase
on the previous twelve months' expenditure.
Hong Kong has really no redeeming point at this moment.
The little trade that existed from 1843 up to 1847 has gradually
become dissolved. There is no inducement for Chinese to bring
produce there, or to settle for the purposes of trade - I mean men
who have means and some influence, and who could do business
with foreigners.
Nor can this be wondered at . We have a Court ill- suited to
Englishmen ; need I say how much worse it is fitted for Chinese,
and for Chinese wants ? It inconveniences aa merchant to bring
a case into Court; in aa pecuniary view it almost ruins a China
man .
Ground -rent is high, and a Chinaman wishing to rent a
house must pay dearly for it. A shopkeeper in Macao pays
from 26 to 36 dollars a year as rent. In Hong Kong for a
similar house he would have to pay 10 to 16 dollars a MONTH .
Police taxes are excessive, whilst the police force is not efficient.
*
A Land Committee last year was named on the suggestion of
the Hong Kong Governor, and sanctioned by Earl Grey. Have
the reports of this Committee ever been received ? If received,
have the suggestions been attempted to be carried out, or their
feasibility canvassed ? Nay, have they even received consi
deration ? The Committee consisted of three Government
Officers and two Merchants. Surely their opinions are at least
worthy of being made public, if not worthy of being confirmed
by Government ? How is it these papers have not been asked
for in the House of Commons ? It is but mocking us, our
Government volunteering an appearance of a desire to meet our
wants and wishes fairly.
In one word Hong Kong yields nothing ; it is barren, rocky,
and mountainous ; our supplies come from the mainland. The
Taxes and Ground - rents levied are extreme, say . £24,000
And to this you must add an annual grant from Home of £20,000
£ 44,000
13
To do what ? To pay salaries only of officials and police
officers ! Nothing can be more absurd.
A partial change in the management of affairs would, I think,
have but little beneficial effect on the Colony. I have looked at
the matter from every side . I am in a position to see some of
the points which bear on its prosperity or otherwise, and I do
not hesitate now to express my conviction that nothing short of
an entire overthrow of the present system of Government the
present taxes and impositions on the people on the markets
in the bazaars, can be of any avail to render Hong Kong other
than what it now is-a naval and military depôt, or rather a
military grave- yard and a depôt for the destruction of naval
stores .
As sure as the present system of Government is persevered in,
equally sure too will you see house by house withdraw from the
Colony. Already what is the state of the case ? Only some
five of the leading houses in China have establishments in Hong
Kong, where their books and treasure are kept. If the steamers
carrying the English mail would arrive at and depart from
Whampoa monthly, instead of making Hong Kong the pivoting
point, I am satisfied in my own mind the members of those few
remaining houses would leave for Canton and Shanghae, pre
ferring to abandon property in the shape of houses, rather than
to submit longer to the rule of a Government having a desire to
do nothing, save extracting every penny it can from the resi
dents, in order to make the receipts as nearly as possible square
with the expenditure.
If our Government has a real desire to see what can be made
of Hong Kong in a mercantile point of view, why not entrust
the management of its affairs to the residents, and then give it a
trial for five years, unencumbered by taxes of any kind beyond
what they found necessary ? If trade does not follow such a
course, though I think it would, then leave the buildings to
crumble to the dust, and let the place be left as a naval station
only.
1
14 1
After all, this is not so great a boon to ask at the hands of the
English Government. During the Honourable East India Com
pany's time, when we did not send so much tea to England as
we now do, a larger sum was paid by far to maintain the Com
pany's Officers and Establishment than the whole of the present
unnecessary outlay at Hong Kong, Consulates and all included.
Of this I am convinced, before many more summers go over
our heads, if some radical change does not take place, the
Government will be left to look for tenants for houses, and they
will not find them ; and then only we shall have the poor satis
faction of pointing out to those in authority that they had so
long lent a deaf ear to complaints, substantially fair in them
selves, though they may have appeared to those in office as
simply pointing to the lopping off individual salaries, while the
end and aim of those preferring such complaints had been the
welfare of the Colony, and a desire to remedy, in time, an evil
which candid men saw becoming so great that it could not long 1
be borne.
As regards our CONSULAR ESTABLISHMENTS it seems to me
they are not suited for the trade carried on in China, &c. , &c.
* *
I am sick and tired of palmy excuses to keep up establish
ments like Hong Kong, Consuls and their staffs. I am weary
and have given up complaining, expecting no redress. I think
I speak the feeling of many of my neighbours in this. There
is no use in again and again petitioning the Home Government.
We have all too much to attend to in business to be able to
afford time to discuss these questions, because we have found
no wish on the part of the Local Government to meet them fairly.
Sooner or later my predictions will be found correct or other
wise ; and I am almost content to stand aloof and see the result
of management which, I consider, not alone injurious, but leading
to the total ruin of the Colony. Had the management been
otherwise, Hong Kong might ere this have been a place of
trade, and probably one yielding Revenue to the English.
15
Justice as administered in the Supreme Court of Hong Kong.
From the “ China Mail ” Newspaper, March 6th , 1851 .
The proceedings of the Supreme Criminal Court continue to
evince the inadequacy of our forms and the inefficiency of our
staff to secure the ends of justice ; but are on the present occa
sion chiefly noticeable for the introduction of a new mode of
obtaining convictions, and of rendering juries ridiculous. We
refer to the Ordinance passed two months ago, and then reviewed
by us at some length, entitled, “ An Ordinance for the improve
ment of the Law of evidence at the trial of criminal cases before
the Supreme Court,"-a palpable misnomer. Under this law
depositions taken before a Magistrate are to be received as evi
dence on the trial, in the absence of the witnesses ; a frequent
occurrence no doubt, but the evils of which the present measure
is calculated not to remedy but to aggravate.
Having witnessed the law in operation, we are even less recon
ciled to it than when it was promulgated. Indeed it seems to us
to have nothing to recommend it but the facilities it affords the
worst class of Chinese to squeeze, and wreak their vengeance
against one another, and the saving of labour and brains it will
effect in the event of the conduct of criminal prosecutions, and
the summoning of witnesses, ever being entrusted to indolent or
incompetent hands — a contingency to which we may be exposed,
but that we are not so at present must have been felt by every
one who witnessed the unusually active zeal displayed by the
Attorney -General in smoothing and defending the measure to the
jury last week.. Some of them seemed not quite prepared to
convict a man of a serious crime on the sole production of the
depositions of witnesses whom they never saw ; but the Judge
having stated that, according to the Ordinance (of which he at
least must have disapproved in the Legislative Conclave ), the
16
depositions before the Magistrate must be received , the Attorney
General took for granted they were also to be believed ; and it
would appear that some of the jury adopted the same view, for
after being locked up for several hours they were discharged
without agreeing upon a verdict, which however was next day
obtained from a more pliable lot, -- some of the first probably,
and very properly we think, holding that it was contrary to the
law of nature, and to the instincts of humanity, to condemn a
man without seeing him and his accusers face to face . We refer
to our report of the trial, the only one at which we were present,
though there was another of the same sort. Convictions were
obtained in both instances, in some measure it may be, because
foreigners ( juries here are made up of every nation except
Chinese) may be more easily satisfied with evidence against
natives than against Europeans, but also in a great measure from
a misapprehension that, because they must listen to such notes
as the Magistrate may have made of the depositions of absent
witnesses, they are therefore bound to accept them as equivalent
to parol testimony emitted in their presence.
In England depositions are in certain extreme cases received
in evidence ; but always with great caution, and in no case
would a capital conviction be obtained there on depositions only,
without corroborative oral testimony. The cases in which depo
sitions would be permitted to be read on a trial before the Judges
of England are—when the witness is dead, or insane, or unable
to move, or kept away by the practices of the prisoner ; but in
all such cases the allegations must be substantiated to the satis
faction of the judge and jury, who would not be satisfied with
the mere ipse dixit of any Court official, be he either Attorney
General or Sheriff. The principle is thus stated in Roscoe's
Digest of the Law of Evidence :
“ So it has been said that if due diligence has been used, and it is made
manifest that the witness has been sought for and cannot be found, or if it be
proved that he was subpened ană fell sick by the way, his deposition may be
read, for that in such case he is in the same circumstances as to the party
that is to use him as if he were dead. It has, however, been obscrved by Mr.
17
Starkie, that it seems to be very doubtful whether the mere casual and
temporary inability of the witness to attend in aa criminal case, be a sufficient
ground for admitting his deposition, which affords evidence of a nature much
less satisfactory than the testimony of a witness examined, viva voce, in court,
and which might be procured at another time, if the trial were to be
postponed.”
If such be the law and practice in England where men are
tried by their own countrymen, and where depositions are taken
by educated lawyers and experienced magistrates, how much
more chary ought we to be in a place like this, where Chinese
are (illegally and unjustly we conceive) tried by a jury exclusively
of foreigners, and where our Magistrates, however conscientious
they may be, know no more of the forms and administration of
justice than they have acquired since they received their present
appointments , one of them so recently , that without unjust dis
paragement, it may be safely asserted that depositions taken by
him are not now entitled to the same weight as those of his
senior , who, besides his laboriousness , integrity and experience ,
is an excellent Chinese scholar . But whatever may be their
qualifications, we should object on trials to the substitution of
depositions taken by either or both of them, for evidence vivå.
voce, not only because it makes the empanneling of a jury a far
cical form , but because the depositions are taken privately ; the
public not being entitled to be present , and would almost cer
tainly be excluded , during such preliminary investigations in
serious cases, while to promulgate their import would be a con
tempt of Court . It is so laid down in text-books, and the prac
tice of the Hong Kong Magistrates is in accordance thereto . To
this we do not object, but do most emphatically protest against
the notes of any private inquiry whatever , unsubstantiated , except
by those engaged in making it, being thrust upon juries as suf
ficient evidence to secure a conviction . The evils with which
such a system , if established , is fraught, are many and manifest ;
as we shall endeavour to show when we return to the subject,
which we shall shortly do.
18
Law and Law -making in Hong Kong.
From the “ China Mail” Newspaper, April 10th & 17th.
We direct attention to a very brief but comprehensive ordi
nance promulgated, for restraining our courts from entertaining
suits between subjects of China, where the cause of action has
arisen out of the Colony. To those, not Chinese, who have
never visited it, it may seem strange that such an ordinance was
necessary ; for we do not imagine any court in England would
entertain an action, much less issue a writ, at the suit of one
Frenchman who in London chanced to encounter another against
whom he chose to swear a debt contracted in Paris, where both
had their domicile. But here the Judge of the Supreme Court
has held that any one, of whatever country , who comes, or is
brought to his tribunal, is to enjoy the privilege (or submit to
the yoke, as the case may be) of being adjudged by English law .
The evils that have thence arisen, especially as respects Chinese,
we believe are not exaggerated in the Preamble to the Ordinance,
which sets forth that
“ Whereas from the vicinity of the Colony of Hong Kong to the dominions
of the Emperor of China, it is of frequent occurrence that Chinese subjects
visiting the said Colony for a limited time, and for the purposes of trade,
emplead and cause each other to be arrested for causes of action arising
within the said Dominions ; and whereas such proceedings are not only
inconvenient from the difficulty of procuring proper evidence, and for other
reasons, but are frequently resorted to for the purposes of extortion, and
likewise tend to the injury of traffic within the said Colony."
We have little doubt, therefore, that while the measure willprove
a heavy blow and great discouragement to the harpies who have
acquired sufficient knowledge of the process of our Courts to
use it for the purpose of extorting money and obtaining judg
ments for false claims, it will, after becoming generally known,
have some effect in encouraging Chinese traders to visit Hong
19
Kong ; although many more impediments, both in the adminis
tration of justice and in the government of the Colony, require
to be removed, before the strong, general, and too well- founded
prejudice - dread , would perhaps be the more appropriate word
with which Hong Kong is viewed by respectable Chinese of all
classes, is dispelled.
Four years ago a Parliamentary Committee recorded its opinion
of the unsuitableness of our laws for the great majority of the
population of the Colony, and further experience has only con
firmed the opinion, without however anything being done to
remove the stigma, or rry out the recommendation of the
Committee, beyond the present small instalment, which we be
lieve is more the result of the urgent representations of an indi
vidual member of the community, than of the combined wisdom
of the Legislative Council. But while its attention is turned in
this direction, we trust it will probe and attempt to cure other
and even greater sores in the dispensation of justice, or its
forms, towards Chinese more especially. The jurisdiction of
the Supreme Court over Chinese criminals we believe to be
66
mere usurpation ; ” that it is used for purposes of oppression
in civil causes is now acknowledged by the Legislative Council.*
But great as have been the abuses and the frustration of the
ends of justice in these departments, we believe they have been
greater, if not so numerons, within the Vice-Admiralty and
Ecclesiastical jurisdictions of the Court ; where the large fees
payable to its officers certainly do not tend to mitigate the evils.
Chinese are so fully persuaded that scarcely even the shell of
the oyster will be returned to them, that they shun the Vice
Admiralty Court as they would a pestilence, and will submit in
silence to extortion from one another rather than seek such
* We have before us a return made up from ex - Sheriff Holdforth’s Books,
of a score of writs, giving the amounts of the debts and of the costs, the
latter in some cases exceeding the former . The Court Writ Book would
however show more clearly how grossly the office has been abused, without
any one , from the Judge downwards, attempting to check it.
20
redress as the Court affords. We know of an instance in which
a trading junk captured by pirates in the neighbourhood was
ransomed for half its value paid to the agent of the pirates in
the Colony, this being considered a cheaper, safer, and more
expeditious course than denouncing the guilty parties, and
bringing the junk within the tender mercies of the Vice- Admi
ralty Court . With regard to the Ecclesiastical department in
the administration of estates , the whole system of the Govern
ment, executive, fiscal, and judicial, has been such, that few
among the Chinese community have any property to leave .
an exception recently occurred -- a Chinese having died and left
some property, under a will executed according to the custom
of his country. The particulars of the case we hope shortly
to obtain : but are assured they are substantially as follows. The
heir, having occasion to borrow money to pay certain debts or
legacies of the testator, mortgaged the real property to another
Chinese, and on proceeding to register the mortgage, it was
found that neither it nor the will had been made out according
to the forms required by English law. The Registrar of the
Court thereupon pounced upon the property, repudiated the
mortgage, and for some cause or other, no doubt according to
the forms in such cases made and provided, the unlucky heir was
sent to jail, where he has since died, and his family are left in
destitution until the property is divisible according to law.
Reform in all departments of the Court is greatly needed, for
as at present conducted it is as likely to be a means of oppression
as of justice, to the largest class of suitors, and is one great
cause of the deterioration of that class within this Colony. But
by reform we do not mean, as desired, it is reported, in some
quarters, the abolition of the Court, in order to make way for a
substitute controlled by the Governor, whoever he may be. This
would render matters even worse than before. Therefore so long
as the present system of Government continues, it is indispens
able *hat we have trial by jury and an upright and independent
supreme judge , who, if he cannot, or will not, adapt the machinery
21
of his Court to the peculiar circumstances and requirements of
the inhabitants, the Legislative Council must do that for him.
The present measure, we trust, is to be looked upon as an earnest
of more and greater reforms; and as such we are willing to
overlook certain apparent defects.
No means are ever adopted by the Government to make laws
known to the Chinese, but as the present Ordinance is very short,
perhaps some philanthropic individual will get it translated and
circulated in Chinese , for the information of those who are most
concerned with its provisions.
To the Editor of the “ China Mail,”
THE CLUB , 10th April, 1851 .
SIR ,—Travellers are said to see and hear strange things. I came to
Hong Kong last Monday, and the first number of your paper published since
that day attests the truth of the saying . On reading the Government notice
[ ? Ordinance No. 2 of 1851] in that issue, I was at first rather puzzled to
make out what it meant ; but your observations on it inducemeto fancy that
this Colony must have some systein of law-giving peculiar to itself. What
power an English Judge in England, or in a Colony, can have to adjudicate
between foreigners on a subject matter which has occurred abroad, I cannot
imagine ; unless as far as regards Hong Kong , the Emperor of China has, by
some of the treaties I have heard of, delegated some such power to the
English Judge here. Is such the case ?
But stranger still,-you state that the Government here adopts no means
to make its laws known to the Chinese : Why this is surely both unjust and
impolitic , for the expense of printing cannot be very great. Hong Kong does
not seem to be a very large place, and I suppose that the Government
employs some person who understands Chinese ; if so, why not make a
translation of this and of all Notifications by which the Chinese population
can be in any way affected, and have a dozen copies or so of each notice
posted up in places where the Chinese are wont to assemble or pass.
We hear at home that this Colony costs the country too much, and does
not prosper. I am not surprised at such being the case, after the experience
one week has given me of the laws which are administered, and the little
regard paid to the interests of the Chinese who have located themselves here.
I am , Sir , intending soon to wait upon you , -Your obedient servant,
A BAGMAN .
Our Correspondent is, we understand, an intelligent specimen
of his class, but in Colonial - that is Hong Kong - affairs, is
evidently rather green . If he will only set up his staff amongst
22
us for a few months he will discover that not only in making
laws, but in administering them , “ the Colony has a system
peculiar to itself,” where neither “ the law of England is in full
force,” nor are the novelties in legislation “ applicable to the
local circumstances of the said Colony, or of its inhabitants, ” as
Her Majesty commanded, and her nominees have in Ordnance
preambles repeatedly engaged, they should be.
With regard to the particular measure which has called forth
the animadversions of our Correspondent, as we last week ex
pressed our sentiments pretty fully upon the subject, we shall
here only add that the right hitherto exercised by our courts in
actions brought by one subject of China against another for debt,
or pretended debt, contracted out of the Colony, has no sanction
whatever, either in the ordinary usage of nations, or in the
special provisions of the Treaties between Great Britain and
China.
Moreover, we have no doubt that, like some other assumptions,
the right of the Chief Justice, or of any authority whatever
within the Colony, to adjudicate in such matters, would have
been disallowed upon an appeal to England, or even a representa
tion to the Colonial Minister through the Governor ; and the
adoption of this latter course we would suggest in the case of
the subject of China now in jail by judgment of the Supreme
Court of Hong Kong, in an action for an alleged debt contracted
to a fellow countryman out of the Colony. This, it seems to us,
would have been a preferable mode of settling the question to
passing a special Ordinance denuding the Court of a power which
it never justly possessed.
Our Correspondent also expresses surprise at the fact inci
dentally alluded to by us last week, that while our Courts
make all the inhabitants of the Colony, of whatever origin,
amenable to their authority, neither they nor the Govern
ment adopt any means to make the laws known to the
Chinese, who comprise nineteen -twentieths of the entire po
pulation. Such, however, is the fact ; and it is one of a
23
numerous class to which is to be attributed the chariness
of respectable Chinese about residing in or frequenting the set
tlement. They neither know what the law requires of them ,
nor the privileges it affords, nor is the slightest pains taken to
interpret and make known the nature or reasons of any order,
judgment, or sentence ; while the heavy fees of court, and to
attorneys, to be paid beforehand, are looked upon as demands
made for the purchase of justice, and very naturally so , as the
case cannot be even heard without such preliminary bleeding of
the suitor.
Our Correspondent presumes there is someone who under
stands Chinese attached to the Government, and that he might
properly be called upon to make translations for the information
of the Chinese population. There is indeed a person with a
high salary and a high reputation as a Chinese scholar attached
to the Government ; but whether or not it is his duty to make
the law known to the Chinese, we doubt much the advantage of
his so doing. For in the first place he is a foreigner, imperfectly
acquainted with the English language, and still more so with the
principles of English law ; next, his imaginative powers are at
least equal to his attainments either in Chinese or English ; and
lastly, upwards of two years ago the community had a sample of
the sort of translations he would be likely to make of Govern
ment Regulations, showing that it were better junkmen and
others frequenting the harbour should remain in ignorance , than
be misled by paraphrastic fancies, for which the most charitable
excuse was that the original had not been understood by the
translator himself. For further information on this subject we
refer recent comers to the China Mail, No. 192, second edition,
October 19, 1848, and subsequent issues.
The Bagman expresses surprise that the Colony should cost
so much and yet not prosper. Could he contrive to penetrate
the causes and make folks at home understand them , it might
not be difficult to suggest a scheme of government not only
economical, but calculated to redeem the Colony from its present
abject condition.
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