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into a Government monopoly, and put up for farm to the highest bidder by tender. A certain day was appointed, beyond which no tenders could be received. At the end of that day, the highest bidding was ascertained, and declared in the Secretariat.
Nevertheless, two days afterwards, a new bidder offered himself, in the person of a Chinese convert, Chun-tai-kwong, whose name had been shortly before mentioned by his bishop with much honour in Exeter Hall. The bidding, a still higher one, was received, and the grant of the farm ordered to be made out in his favour, as soon as his sureties and himself should have perfected their recognisances.
This was done at the Secretariat some days later; and, in the meantime, an undertaking had been come to between the intended grantee and a Chinese servant of the Acting Colonial Secretary, by virtue of which Chuntai Kwong prepared himself to retain the latter, as counsel for his monopoly, when granted.
This retainer took place in the office of Dr. Bridges at the Secretariat, and the time chosen was that of the perfecting of the recognizances, and immediately before the grant of the farm. The offer of a fee of four hundred dollars—a large fee for a retainer on behalf of a monopoly which could not exceed a year, and might be earlier determined—is admitted by Dr. Bridges himself to have been accepted on that occasion; and the money was paid over that night to the before-mentioned Chinese servant.
What else passed at that interview has been variously stated, and will never be fully made known. The sureties had been ordered out of the room before it had commenced, and the chief clerk of the Secretariat, the only other person who might have wit-
