Thomas Chisholm Anstey

“ In my reply, I demanded a hearing for myself and my witnesses before the Executive Council; and,—no other attention being paid to my demand, beyond in forming me that the Council had condemned me already, and a renewal of the intimation, that Sir John Bowring was about to submit to that body the propriety of my suspension,—I lodged my protest against its jurisdiction to proceed, in so flagrant a violation of the law of the land and the Queen's regulations, already noticed. ”

“ The local press is eagle-eyed in detecting official remissness, and fearless in animadverting on all acts of public or private oppression. The coolie traffic, though capable of being made a source of profit to the port, is constantly reprobated by the colonial press. Moreover, the Hong Kong executive has, on various occasions, adopted active measures for redressing wrongs inflicted on the Chinese. ”

“ As for every other colony, so for Hong Kong, the Imperial Government, moved by a desire of preventing the recurrence of a frequent source of embarrassment and abuse had, in 1856, wisely determined that the duty and power of the officer, administering a Colonial Government, should be deemed to be such, and no other, as are "defined in Her Majesty's Commission, and the Instructions with which he is furnished." ”

“ It should not be forgotten, that it was not until long after the conviction and sentence of Mah-Chow Wong, in the Hong Kong Supreme Court, for piracy, that these poor men gathered courage to petition Dr. Bridges' Government at all. ”

“ Nevertheless, that spoliation of evidence was committed;—by the hand of Mr. Mongan, in obedience to the orders of Dr. Bridges, and with the assent—so the latter asserts—most certainly with the tacit connivance—of Sir John Bowring.
The guilty mind can rarely, with safety to its scheme of defence, condescend upon particulars, and least of all upon dates. ”

“ One of them was recorded in the Parliamentary blue books of 1857; and it was one of such gravity, that the levity with which the Chief Justice of Hong Kong treated him, when, to use his own words, "he threw himself on the mercy of the Court," [2] was still a matter of surprise to every man.
Sir John Bowring himself, in 1856, when Dr. Bridges was absent from the Colony, had made no secret,—either to the Colonial Secretary (Mr. Mercer) , whom he nevertheless replaced, or to myself, who protested from the first against his appointment,—of his Excellency's personal dislike to Dr. Bridges. ”

“ In Colonies, possessing what is called "reponsible Government," the power and responsibility of the executive Government may be, for aught I know, shared with that officer by his Colonial Secretary and other subordinate heads of departments, who are called his "Ministers." But in colonies not so governed, at all events in that of Hong Kong, the terms of his "commission and instructions" confer all the power and impose all the duty of the Supreme Administrator of Government under Her Majesty, upon the Governor or acting Governor ”

“ Hong Kong and Macao, can appear to Chinese statesmen in no better light than plague spots, and to no inconsiderable extent. Such, it must be admitted, they have proved. Thence sail the lorchas, which defy and lay waste the country. There collisions are to be expected and provided against; and towards them must be exercised eternal vigilance, to thwart the aggressive barbarian. ”

“ May, from the outset of the case to the end, complete justice would not in all probability have been done.
For Mr. Caldwell, J.P., instead of lending his services, as a detective, [1] to the Government, did his best to defeat the prosecution. It was he who found bail for the prisoner—and his own servant, one Sze-Kai, but recently out of a debtor's prison, was recommended by him to be Mah Chow Wong's responsible bailsman, and on that recommendation, accepted—a fact found by the Commission. [2] It was by him that Mah Chow Wong's witnesses were marshalled. ”

“ But the good cause, for which I have suffered, I leave to the public spirit of Englishmen, their consciences, their love of constitutional liberty, and their knowledge of law and right.
The rest I resign to fortune. ”

“ Mr. William Tarrant was Registrar of Deeds at the Land Office, Hong Kong, in the years 1846-7.
His diligence, ability, and trustworthiness in the discharge of the duties of that office, are attested by his official superior, the Honourable Mr. Cleverly, the present Surveyor-General.
The fees payable on the registration of deeds are regulated and defined by Ordinance. It was one of his duties to see that these, and these only, were paid in strict conformity with the ordinance, by persons coming to register their deeds. ”

“ Except only on Sir John Bowring. For so I interpret the astounding fact, communicated to me by the last mail, that, since my departure from the colony, his Excellency has dared to confide into his hands the responsible duty of locum tenens—for fee and reward—to the acting Attorney-General in the Supreme Court; [13] —to the renewed terror of the peaceable Chinese, and to the indignation of the British;-albeit, to the wonder perhaps of none, Chinese or British.
Hong Kong Government, at the best, is an expensive occupation—exceeding the local revenue—and demanding a yearly Parliamentary grant. ”

“ I do not remember exactly enough to speak with confidence; but I think it was at this period, that he put up the Chinese signboard, which still adorns his door-post, in the Queen's Road, informing all Chinese litigants that the inmate is "Bridges" [Bi-li-ji-si] , the distinguished graduate-in-law, and "lord of legal knowledge," who moves all courts for clients, in small and great things, in unclean and clean. ”

“ Mr. Forth had, on the morning of the 11th instant, brought into the Governor's room Mr. Gilmour, who contradicted Dr. Bridges' statement of his words used on the previous day—and said that the rent of this lot was paid, as I had asserted, in propria persona, by Mr. Caldwell, on the 26th February. Consequently, Mr. Caldwell, unable any longer to deny this fact, admitted it; but added, that he did this merely to oblige a poor Chinaman, who was ignorant of our language and customs,—which to my mind, as I told the Governor, was a confession of agency for a brothel. ”

“ For revenue purposes, the retail of opium at Hong Kong was, by one of his Ordinances of 1858, created into a Government monopoly, and put up for farm to the highest bidder by tender. A certain day was appointed, beyond which no tenders could be received. At the end of that day, the highest bidding was ascertained, and declared in the Secretariat.
Nevertheless, two days afterwards, a new bidder offered himself, in the person of a Chinese convert, Chun-tai-kwong, whose name had been shortly before mentioned by his bishop with much honour in Exeter Hall. ”

“ Caldwell and Mah-Chow Wong has been proved, but that there is no proof of any connection by affinity, according to Chinese law or custom.
That with regard to charge 7, it is proved that Mr. Caldwell has been in the habit, on Mah-Chow Wong's unsupported information, of arresting persons; but that there is no evidence as to his confiscating or restoring property.
That as regards charge 8, there is no evidence of any connivances or procurements of Mr. Caldwell; but that it is manifest that the Chinese are very averse to give evidence against him. ”

“ That the Colonial Secretary is the organ through whom the official instructions of the Government are to be communicated, and that, except on matters of daily routine, the various departments are subject to his authority as the organ of the Government. ”

“ Caldwell's illegal certificate, under his office seal, at a subsequent period, was able to afford to suspicious vessels, attempting to break the blockade of the Canton River, against the vigilance of our cruisers employed to enforce it. [14]
The "convoy business" unhappily needs no explanation now; since the horrid events of the last two years in the Ningpo and Min rivers, have shed their blood-red light to illustrate its meaning.
It is no longer permitted, to any man, to doubt the truth of Dr. MacGowan's solemn denunciations from Ningpo, about a year after the last cruise of the "Eaglet." ”

“ Caldwell made his appearance in an adjoining room, and sent in a written memorandum to Dr. Bridges, which that officer, rudely interrupting the gentleman who was speaking, insisted on reading to the Council. He observed, with an air of triumph, "There now—I thought so—Mr. Caldwell says it's a mistake; and it is a mistake;" and he read the memorandum to us, which purported to lay the blame on his lawyer, Mr. Stace, who ought to have registered the transfer of this brothel lot from Mr. Caldwell to a purchaser, but had not. He emphatically denied that he owned a single inch of land in the colony. ”

“ In one case, [14] a verdict has established the credit of witnesses, whose testimony, if good for any purpose at all, made out, against Mah-Chow Wong and his gang, one of the cases of extortion narrated by Mr. May, J.P., and myself, before the Caldwell Commission,—and against Mrs. Caldwell a participation in the same—and it cast upon Mr. Caldwell (who gave his evidence most unsatisfactorily) a very strong suspicion of having been engaged, so lately as the autumn of 1857, in an attempt to defraud. ”

“ Piratical fleets became so numerous, as almost to destroy the coasting trade; poor fishermen, even, were not exempt from spoliation. It was seldom, however, that great cruelties were practised. Instead of acting on the maxim of western pirates, that 'dead men 'tell no tales,'—they seemed to hold, that 'dead men can furnish no more spoil;' and, accordingly, captured seamen and vessels were always redeemable by money. ”

“ From the same date, down to the accidental arrival at Hong Kong, in June, 1857, of the General of the English forces before Canton, the Colonel commanding the garrison at Hong Kong was always the Second Member of the Executive Council.
His military rank made him independent of local interest and intrigue; at the same time that his Colonial station enabled him to acquire that local know ledge, without which his efficiency, as the only check upon the proceedings of his colleagues, would have been of very little worth. ”

“ Bridges, when supporting the inuendoes laid in the information of seditious libel, at the trial already referred to, [14] that, during his Secretariat, he and Sir John Bowring made up the Government of Hong Kong; but that, if any other person had been Governor, by the word "Government," the Executive Council ought to be understood; since such was the tenor of the Queen's Commission. Sir John Bowring, he said, was incapable of governing, but through some single person to whom he could surrender himself. ”

“ Dr. Bridges caused the papers—including Mr. May's "Two Memoranda"—to be submitted to that gentleman for his opinion and report. Only he forgot to inform him, that Mr. Mongan was of opinion that some of the documents had been abstracted by the friends of Mah Chow Wong, subsequently to the preparation of those "Memoranda" by Mr. May.
In Mr. Wade's possession these documents remained, down to his departure with Lord Elgin's mission to the North of China. He left behind him, in the Chinese Secretary's Office, the books and papers of the pirate's Hong, but not Mr. May's "Memoranda." ”

“ Chinese officials, on the coast, are in constant dread of provoking the ire of any foreign power; they believe that we are all linked together, and that any one would resent the least resistance which another might experience. ”

“ Bridges' government not to resent, as offences against the Queen of England, proceedings taken by the petitioners within the Chinese territory, to recover the possession of land there situate, against Chinese wrongdoers holding it by the strong hand, in the face of a decree rendered by the proper Chinese court. ”

“ Being personally cognisant of the severe and protracted sufferings of the people, among whom I dwell, necessity is laid upon me of exposing the cruelties inflicted on them, and of appealing for sympathy in their behalf. ”

“ The Governor and Acting Colonial Secretary, representing—I believe—three votes on the side of themselves;
2nd. The Lieutenant-Governor, strongly urged, as I have said, by the alternate influences of hope and fear, to give them and their measures an implicit support, under all circumstances;
And, 3rdly, The Commander-in-Chief at Canton; generally absent from the Colony, always ignorant of its affairs, and feeling himself, as military men in such cases are too apt to feel, bound, to give his unhesitating support to the Local Government in Council, whensoever present, and able to attend it. ”

“ Caldwell himself, before the Commission hereafter to be mentioned, that his (the witness's) former partner, Mr. Innes, employed Mr. Caldwell "to smuggle opium in the Canton river." [3] This was before the first Chinese war. None but the most daring and atrocious of Chinese outlaws were employed; for none others were qualified to enter into the service of the Europeans, on board of the fast boats so employed. They were, in fact,—nearly all without exception,—river pirates of the most desperate character. ”

“ Not a small part of the wrongs, perpetrated by these boats were by natives, under the cover and protection of foreign habiliments. In such great fear are foreigners held, that few possess the courage to withstand even their effigies. A bold and unscrupulous man may do almost anything with impunity. In illustration of this, I shall be excused in briefly adverting to an incident, the particulars of which I made public, at the time of the occurrence. At the mouth of the Ningpo river is a small village of saltmakers, at which the salt commissioner stations a deputy. ”

“ For these words, which, in the judgment of those spoliators of evidence, amounted to seditious libel against the Queen, Mr. Tarrant, the proprietor of the newspaper in which they appeared, was put upon his trial for that misdemeanor. It is true, that he had merited prosecution, for daring to give evidence, before the Caldwell Commission, of the early life and conversation of the Protector of Chinese and Brothels' Licenser. ”