Minister to the Chinese Court. The Treaty of Peking, besides providing for the making of reparation for the outrages upon British subjects and the payment of an indemnity of eight million taels to cover the expenses of the war, amplified and extended in important directions the facilities for trade. One of its clauses threw Tientsin open to foreign trade; another provision ceded to the British the Kowloon peninsula at Hongkong, which, as has been noticed, was already leased to the Hongkong Government; and a further stipulation which was to have a powerful influence on British trade was that there should be freedom granted to Chinese subjects to emigrate to British colonies. But, of course, the greatest achievement of all of the Treaty was to settle for ever the long discussed question of direct diplomatic intercourse with the Chinese Government. The liberty granted by the Treaty to send representatives to Peking was not confined to the Allies. Like other concessions wrung from the Chinese Government by force of arms it was of general application, and it was not long before Mr. Bruce and his French colleague had to keep them in countenance in the Chinese capital representatives of other foreign powers. A new era, in fact, was opened up by the Treaty—an era fraught with much prosperity for foreign trade, and not a little peril for the imperial Chinese authority.
CHAPTER XIV.
Progress of Hongkong—Popular Element introduced into the Legislative Council—Stormy closing days of Sir John Bowring's Administration—Sir Hercules Robinson's Administration—The Kowloon Peninsula—Prosperous Days followed by a Period of Depression—Sir R. G. MacDonnell's Administration—Financial Reform—The Stamp Act—Disputes with the Colonial Office over the Gambling Licences—"The Blockade of Hongkong"—Prosperous Trade—Sir A. E. Kennedy's Administration—Sir J. Pope-Hennessy's stormy Rule.
In tracing the history of Anglo-Chinese relations in the important period which concluded with the ratification of the Treaty of Peking, we have necessarily had to overlook the development of the great colonial experiment which was entered upon with the occupation of Hongkong. Our last glimpse of the Colony was a sombre one. A small community was maintaining an arduous struggle against heavy odds with only a faint prospect of ultimate success. The commercial position, which, as we have seen, was gradually improving in 1847, continued to gain strength, though slowly, in the administration of Sir George Bonham. In other respects progress was made. It is to this period that is to be dated the introduction of the popular element into the government of the Colony. At the end of 1849 Sir George Bonham selected fifteen of the unofficial Justices of the Peace and summoned them to a conference. He informed them that Earl Grey had sanctioned his proposal for the admission of two members of the civil community into the Legislative Council, that the nomination rested with him, but that he thought it better for the justices themselves to elect two of their number. At a meeting of the justices held at the club on December 6, 1849, Messrs. David Jardine and J. F. Edger were nominated as the first unofficial members of the Legislative Council. Another important matter discussed at the same conference was the question of Municipal Government. Sir G. Bonham, while agreeing with the principle that taxpayers should have control of their municipal affairs, doubted whether such a scheme was practicable in Hongkong. However, he requested the justices to consult on the question of a Municipal Committee of Police Commissioners. The justices passed a resolution to the effect that no advantage could be derived from having a Municipal Council unless the entire management of the police of the streets and roads within the limits of the town, and of all other matters usually given to corporations, were confided to it, and that the amount raised in land rents, together with the sums derived from licences and rents, should, with the police assessments, be applicable as far as possible for municipal purposes. The demands made were impossible ones in the then circumstances of the Colony, and they were rejected. But in January, 1851, Sir George Bonham offered to place the whole management of the police under a Municipal Committee on the condition that the entire expense of the police force was defrayed by an adequate police tax. He also agreed to hand over to a municipal authority the management of streets, roads, and sewers on condition that the requisite funds were provided either by an assessed tax on real property or by a tax upon horses and carriages. Both offers were declined by the justices, and here the matter ended for the time.
Sir John Bowring's administration witnessed the steady growth of the community in influence and importance, but unhappily during the later years of his term of office the Colony was torn with internecine disputes—"an internal chronic warfare, the acerbities of which beggared all description" is Dr. Eitel's picturesque but absolutely accurate description of the condition of affairs. The initial disturbing element was a newspaper published under the title of The Friend of China and edited by a discharged civil servant. This journal delivered a series of attacks spread over a long period on the official classes and particularly on the Lieutenant-Governor, against whom an allegation of complicity in corruption was not obscurely advanced. For years these insinuations were made without any action being taken, but ultimately the editor was prosecuted, and on September 21, 1859, sentenced to a term of imprisonment for libel. Before this drastic retribution had been meted out a charge had been made by another paper—The Daily Press—against the Registrar-General, who was accused of being the tool of unscrupulous conspirators and in league with pirates. The Registrar-General, consequent upon the charge, sent in his papers, but the Government, having perfect confidence in him, induced him to withdraw his resignation. This event happened in 1856. Less than two years later The Daily Press again distinguished itself by charging the Governor with corruptly favouring the firm of Jardine, Matheson & Co. in the matter of public contracts, but this time it had reckoned too much on the official tolerance of scurrility, for Sir John Bowring caused a prosecution to be instituted against the paper, with the result that the editor was sent to gaol for six months. An Attorney-General, a politician who had been sent out from home for the not uncommon reason that he was a nuisance there, added to the liveliness of the situation by quarrelling with nearly everybody, and capping all by charging the Acting Colonial Secretary with collusion with the new opium farmer, from whom he accepted a retainer. A commission appointed to inquire into the matter exonerated the accused official of any dishonourable conduct, though it held that some slight blame attached to him. Fresh charges arising out of this incident were brought by the Attorney-General, notably one which attributed to him the burning of the account books of a convicted pirate to screen himself and the Registrar-General from a charge of complicity with pirates. The outcome of the business was the suspension of the Attorney-General by the Governor and the reference of the matter to England. The Secretary of State in his reply exonerated the Acting Colonial Secretary, but that officer voluntarily resigned his office on August 28, 1858. An action subsequently brought against The Friend of China for libel in connection with the repetition of the charge anent the burning of the pirate's books, resulted in a verdict of not guilty and the awarding of costs against the Government. An incident which heightened the public interest in the proceedings was the hurried departure of Sir John Bowring to Manila to avoid service of a subpœna in the case. The scene of the conflict was now transferred to England, where the Attorney-General started an agitation with a view to compelling the Government to take action for the vindication of the national honour, which was supposed to have been impugned by the conduct of the Registrar and the Acting Colonial Secretary. The movement, though skilfully directed, came to very little. The Government spokesman in the House of Commons, while promising a careful inquiry into the facts, stated that a dispassionate consideration of the papers induced the Government to come to the view that the Governor's decision as to the suspension of the Attorney-General must be confirmed.
