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But "they made no impression on him (Colonel Caine);" for, since they were not "official complaints," he thought that "he could not place reliance upon them." What was their nature he would not tell;—would rather decline answering, as to what he had heard about Mr. Caldwell, from his (Colonel Caine's) acquaintance with this part of the world, to the present time. He was not aware of any connection between Mah Chow Wong and Mr. Caldwell, except by hearing of this, seeing it in the newspapers, and hearing it stated in the Council Room on one occasion—perhaps on more than one occasion."
Here the Lieutenant-Governor's revelations ceased. He objected that he was not at liberty to reveal the secrets of the Executive Council. The objection was allowed. It was an untenable objection, in the face of the Governor's mandate to all officers to appear and give evidence; and this was the only instance in which it had been allowed. The objection and the allowance thereof are carefully omitted from the Government printed minutes!
The "connection" with Mah Chow Wong, nevertheless, was a quite notorious fact, and it lasted from the beginning of Caldwell's humble employment in the police court, in 1843, down to the final departure—is it final?—of that pirate from the shores of Hong Kong, in 1858, a convict under sentence of transportation for fourteen years.
In the meantime, Caldwell had risen in the public service to the ranks, successively, of Inspector of Police, Assistant Superintendant of Police, Interpreter to the Supreme Court, Registrar-General and Protector of Chinese, Justice of the Peace, and Licenser of Chinese Brothels.
During a few months only of those sixteen years—
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