and in these respects he simply gave to Hongkong the same position which Macao had so long maintained.
The Island of Hongkong having been formally taken possession of, for the purposes of a trade station, in the name of Her Majesty Queen Victoria (January 20, 1841), Captain Elliot, as Chief Superintendent of the trade of British subjects in China, and holding full powers under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom, to execute the office of Her Majesty's Commissioner, Procurator, and Plenipotentiary in China, issued on January 29, 1841, his first local proclamation (the original of which is, however, dated February 2, 1841). In this proclamation. Captain Elliot, after making due reservation of Her Majesty's rights, royalties, and privileges, declared that the Government of the Island should be exercised, pending Her Majesty's further pleasure, by the person filling the office of Chief Superintendent of the trade of British subjects in China. The next point in Captain Elliot's proclamation of January 29, 1841, was that it established two different systems of government and two separate codes of law for the administration of justice in Hongkong. Natives of the Island, and all natives of China resorting to Hongkong, were to be governed, pending Her Majesty's further pleasure, according to the laws and customs of China, every description of torture excepted. But all persons other than natives of the Island or of China, should fall under the cognizance of the Criminal and Admiralty jurisdiction at the time existing in China and enjoy full security and protection according to the principles and practice of British Law. This natural bifurcation reflected, at the first formation of the settlement, the fundamental incompatibility of the Chinese and European systems of civilization, by creating two separate forms of government and two separate codes of law, corresponding with the two separate communities, Chinese and European, which were about to settle at Hongkong and which immediately proceeded to divide the town into separate European and Chinese quarters. But regarding this bifurcation, thus provisionally introduced, the pleasure of Her Majesty was subsequently made
