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of His Excellency's delegate, the same obedience as to the official mandates of the Governor himself.
It would be difficult to overrate the evil impression which these proceedings produced on the minds of the Chinese of Hong Kong and the empire.
They had always known that Mah Chow Wong, the great Hong Kong pirate, was the partner of Mr. Caldwell, the magistrate; and that the latter had made himself useful to Dr. Bridges, in the way of his profession of lawyer, and his trade of money lender amongst the Hong Kong Chinamen.
But now they saw the latter, wielding all the prerogatives of the Queen, hoisting the viceregal flag, demanding royal salutes, and taking precedence of her generals and admirals.
They saw men, to use the authoritative language of one of themselves respecting him, (I quote from the Report of the Opium Farm Monopoly Committee of the Legislative Council as printed by authority),[1] "doing anything he likes with the Government, making a law one day, and tearing it to pieces the next."
They saw him investing himself with the tremendous powers, which the Queen had conferred on the governor of Hong Kong, for the destruction of Chinese pirates, taking counsel of their confederates for the employment of those powers, and associating them to himself in the conduct of every enterprise undertaken against persons proclaimed as pirates, on no better evidence than the denunciations of Mr. Caldwell and Mah Chow Wong.
It was the "reign of terror" at Hong Kong, spread-
- ↑ Votes and Proceedings, &c., in the Hong Kong Government Gazette, of the 6th July, 1858.
c
