CHAPTER XXI.
The Administration of Sir John Pope Hennessy.
April 22, 1877, to March 7, 1882.
r (subsequently Sir) John Pope Hennessy, C.M.G., arrived in Hongkong on 22nd April, 1877, too late in the evening to take the oaths of office on the same day. He was welcomed on board by Major-General Sir F. Colborne, and by the Administrator, the Hon. J. G. Austin, and on landing, at Murray Pier, by the Heads of Departments, Members of Council, Bishop Raimondi, and a number of the leading residents. Mr. Hennessy's reception in Hongkong was not an enthusiastic one, but it could not be said that public prejudice welcomed him. There was, indeed, a presentiment that troublous times might ensue, but there was also, on the part of the European community, the honest determination to judge of his administration as they might find it. Mr. Hennessy had enjoyed various opportunities of gathering experience. He had sat, as Member for King's County, in the House of Commons (1859 to 1865), and he had served as Governor of Labuan and Consul-General for Borneo (1867), as Governor of the West African Settlements (1872), of the Bahamas (1873), and of the Windward Islands (1875). Pending the issue of Letters Patent, Mr. Hennessy had now been appointed provisionally (March 12, 1877) as Lieutenant-Governor of Hongkong, and accordingly he was sworn in as such (April 23, 1877), on the day after his arrival. On this occasion, Mr. Hennessy volunteered the announcement that he would endeavour to follow the footsteps of his distinguished predecessor, Sir A. Kennedy, and that the main policy of his administration would be to protect the mercantile interests of this Colony which, he said, rivalled in
