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to a member of Council, who was doubtful as to its details, that, unless it were passed quickly, it would not pass at all; "For you know," he added significantly, "who is coming back next month." About a fortnight before I did come back, it had passed into a law; and Mr. Caldwell had added the Crown Licensership of Chinese Brothels to his other enormous prerogatives, having under him a Portuguese named Grandpré, a friend and partner, as Assistant.[1]
Mr. Caldwell himself is a native of St. Helena, and apparently of mixed blood. His father, a common soldier in a local militia corps, brought him, when young, to Pulo Penang, where, and at Singapore, his youth was passed in various inferior occupations ashore and afloat. His character was, to say the least of it, not high at that time;—and, when Sir George Bonham, then administering his Straits' government, was promoted to that of Hong Kong, it was with difficulty, it is said, that His Excellency was induced to tolerate, even in a comparatively inferior post in the police of Hong Kong, the man who had left behind him, at Singapore, a very damaging notoriety; and who had taken shelter in Canton and Hong Kong, only to acquire a worse.
It was stated, by a friendly witness, recalled for the purpose by Mr. Caldwell himself, before the Commission hereafter to be mentioned, that his (the witness's) former partner, Mr. Innes, employed Mr. Caldwell "to smuggle opium in the Canton river."[2] This was before the first Chinese war. None but the
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