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1858) to the Secretariat; where, unless burned, they now are. I regret to add, that my own well-meant recommendation of their prayer received the usual answer—that the Government "saw no occasion for its interference."
The case was, nevertheless, a hard one; and the language of the petitions very striking. They were well-known to the Hong Kong authorities, as the representatives of the Tung family,—crown tenants, under the emperor of China, of all the arable and pasture lands of Hong Kong, at the date of the cession of that island to Her Majesty. They had held their lands for about thirty years before the cession, paying rent to the emperor. The Crown lease had been granted in perpetuity ("infinite") to the original lessee and his assigns; and they were assignees for valuable consideration.
The Colonial Government, however, took possession of the lands themselves, on the cession in 1842-3, supposing that by virtue either of the cession itself, or the law of "prize," all private properties became vested in Her Majesty. They had at that time no law advisers in the colony,
No compensation was made to the dispossessed Tung family. A branch of it is living at Hong Kong in great poverty. The elder branch retired to the opposite coast, within the sight of Hong Kong, but in the Empire of China; where they had still an estate, called Tsim Shar Choy.
Some time back, however, it became notorious in Hong Kong that these unhappy men had lost even that estate, and that a number of pirates and re-setters of such were in possession, under title from the redoubted Mah-Chow Wong.
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