military stores, and numerous confiscations were made by the Harbour Master in February, 1863. In 1862, the discovery of an extensive system of issuing false certificates for opium deposits (June 14th) opened the eyes of the public to the imperfect formulation of the law of debtor and creditor. The Attorney General (J. Smale) drafted accordingly a Bankruptcy Ordinance (November 16, 1863) specially adapted to local circumstances, but it was set aside by the advisers of the Colonial Office who sent out another (5 of 1864) for acceptance by the Council. In connection with that same opium case, it was decided by a jury (August 7, 1863) that a delivery order, though sold and paid for, does not free the vendor from risk in case a mishap should occur to the article sold after the order had changed hands. When the draft of the Companies' Ordinance (1 of 1865) was under the consideration of the Council (in 1864), the question of incorporating companies with limited liability, which measure the Governor at the time viewed as fraught with danger for Hongkong, gave rise to much animated discussion. The position which the Governor took in this matter was such as to provoke a spirited protest by one of the unofficial Members of Council (J. Whittall) whose language the Governor censured as offensive to the Council.
Chinese trade also received a fair share of the Governor's attention, and Sir Hercules was the first Governor who understood how to deal with the common practice of the Chinese of offering seditious resistance to a weak Government by combining to strike work in order to mark their sense of irksome or imperfect legislation. Unaware what stuff Sir Hercules was made of, the Chinese resorted to this practice three times within four successive years but gave in on each occasion when they encountered, on the part of the Governor, calm but rigidly uncompromising firmness. The Pawnbrokers' Ordinance (3 of 1860) evoked a general closing of pawnshops and the Ordinance remained for a long time a dead letter whilst the pawnbrokers agitated for certain concessions. They submitted, however, when they found that the Governor turned a deaf ear to all their representations.
