utilized by the officers of the garrison for the entertainment of the community in general. But considerable irritation arose during the last few months of 1859 when it was found that the issue of season tickets, though offered to the public at fixed rates, was restricted to certain classes of society. The exclusion of Parsee merchants gave special offence and had to be withdrawn. The consequence was that the officers of the garrison, after making, during the next year's season, another attempt to discriminate between upper and lower strata of Hongkong society, entered, in December, 1862, into a sort of amalgamation with the civilian Amateur Dramatic Corps. This measure resulted later on (June 13, 1864) in the re-construction of the old Royal Theatre, a humble matshed structure which by this time had fallen into a hopeless state of dilapidation. A Choral Society, a revival of the old Madrigal Society, was formed, in 1862, at the impulse and under the directorship of Mr. C. F. A. Sangster and gave its first public concert (July 10, 1863) in aid of the fund then being raised for the building of a City Hall. A curiosity, if not a nuisance, in the musical line appeared in Hongkong in the form of a hurdy-gurdy worked by an Italian.
Among the public festivities of this period, the most noteworthy entertainment was a Ball which the Prussian Minister to China, Count Eulenburg, gave (November 28, 1861) to the Governor and the community of Hongkong. The Hon. A. Burlingame, U. S. Minister, was also present. The starting of the Messageries Maritimes line of mail steamers was celebrated (December 22, 1862) with considerable éclat by a magnificent public Ball given on board the S.S. Impératrice. As to other prominent incidents of the social life of this period, there may be mentioned the gloom cast over society by the premature death of the Prince Consort (December 14, 1861), the arrival of the widow of the famous Arctic explorer. Lady Franklin (April, 1862), the vote passed in Legislative Council (February 6, 1863) to congratulate H.M. the Queen on account of the approaching marriage of the Prince of Wales, the presentation of a farewell address on the occasion of the departure of Chief Justice Adams
