CHAPTER IX.

Improvements at Hong Kong-Unhealthiness and its causes-Its value as a settlement not overrated-Mistaken treatment of the Cantonese and its consequences-Victoria-Walks on the mainland-Boats and their inhabitants-The Happy family" described.

We found Hong Kong greatly changed for the better on revisiting it after a year's absence; elegant and substantial buildings were springing up on all sides, handsome and well supplied shops lined the principal streets, and a bustling crowd proved that there was no lack of employment or occupation for its inhabitants. Unfortunately it still continued to be very sickly, and each day added large numbers to the list of those who had already fallen victims to its deadly fever. Oddly enough the causes of this unhealthiness were never clearly ascertained, for many of those predisposing causes to which most tropical illnesses are attributed were wanting, and although many new theories were started to meet the wants of the case, few of them had a more secure foundation than plausibility.

In the first place, at Hong Kong there was little land under cultivation, and to paddy swamps much of the illness in China had been popularly ascribed; then again the most deadly form of fever had exhibited itself on a rocky point exposed to the sea breeze, and with nothing in the locality that could be even looked upon with suspicion. To meet this state of things it was attributed by some to the miasma produced by the disintegration and decomposition of the granite, which at Hong Kong is everywhere to be seen in the form of protruding rocks, naked peaks, or boulders scattered over the surface of the hills. But this theory, though highly ingenious, does not appear to have stood the test of scientific examination, and however great the sickness and mortality which marked our first occupation of the island, the very great subsequent improvement in its sanitary state, tends to confirm the views of those, who declared that the cause was to be sought for in circumstances of an accidental, and not of a permanent, nature. Be this as it may, Hong Kong was at this time decidedly unpopular with the community at large, and most unfavourable comparisons were being constantly drawn between it and Chusan; in fact so badly was it thought of that many, and some of them men high in office, advocated the necessity of its relinquishment, and the retention and substitution of the latter island for it. Simple people thought that the terms of the treaty so lately concluded formed an insurmountable obstacle to such an arrangement, but the advocates of the scheme were prepared to shew that it could be done with strict regard to integrity and diplomatic rules and without a single principle of justice and honor being violated! Now although when the treaty was framed a false impression with regard to Chusan may have existed prejudicial to its retention, there were many other reasons why such a demand should not have It was quite possible that the Court of Peking would have delayed acceding to our demands, would have perhaps resisted them--and the expedition was so completely disorganised by sickness, that the offensive operations such a circumstance would

been made.

have rendered necessary must have been put off until the following year. Again; the right of trading at the new ports of Amoy, Foo-choo, Ningpo and Shanghae gave us at the time all that could be wished for in a commercial point of view, and established us far more firmly in the country, and drew the relations between us and the Chinese infinitely closer than if our position in the North had been to all appearance a continuation of our former hostile occupation. Besides this I cannot allow that the value of Hong Kong was overrated, for even had we retained Chusan, its possession or some similar position in the same locality would have been absolutely necessary; and when we take into consideration its easy approach, its magnificent harbour, and its commanding position with respect to the whole southern coast of China, we can but give a verdict in favour of the judgment of those who appreciated its great value and made it what it is, despite the cogent reasoning of its plausible but short-sighted defamers.

The retention of Chusan must have completely altered our relations with the Chinese, and would have been quite incompatible with the spirit in which the terms of the treaty were framed; neither did the state of China at the time warrant a step which should only be forced upon us when the disorganization of the empire and the weakness of its expiring government make it absolutely necessary that we should have some points of refuge for the various foreign communities settled at the Chinese ports. It is as well to remember that the results likely to arise from the occupation of any portion of the territory of a large empire in the state that China now is, cannot always be kept within those circumscribed limits, to which those who merely see in such an acquisition a simple act of expediency would assign it; we become like a small party of passengers embarked in a large ship, we have nothing to do with its management and have no right to interfere with the duties of the crew, but when we find that we are fast driving on the rocks and are about to be engulphed by their incapacity and ignorance, we can no longer remain idle, but rush to the helm and take possession of the ship, not as pirates, but to save all embarked in it from destruction.

It was a great mistake at the close of the war, not to have enforced upon the Cantonese the performance of the clauses of the treaty, which gave foreigners the right of entry into those towns which had been selected for commercial intercourse: not a bayonet should have been withdrawn from China until this stipulation had been carried out, and foreigners placed upon the same footing at Canton as at the other ports, in fact it was more necessary that this step should have been insisted on there than elsewhere, and we should not have waived our right for a single instant but have proceeded, without a moment's delay, to have enforced compliance by the adoption of such stringent measures as would have convinced the misguided people of Canton that our former forbearance had not proceeded from either their prowess or our own want of strength; unfortunately we were blinded by our twenty-one millions of dollars, and the future was sacrificed to the various political expediences of the moment, to a cheap war,

and an advantageous peace; and in the extremely amiable mood the country was then in, it would have been impossible to have continued or renewed the quarrel, for there is nothing so soon forgotten by the world at large, when wearied of war, than the fact of "That peace being the best which is likely to last the longest."

Hong Kong has borne such a miserable character for so many years, that I am half afraid of endeavouring to convince the public that it is not nearly so bad as it has been so often painted; I shall simply say that I liked the place, and found it infinitely more agreeable than I could possibly have anticipated from the melancholy accounts I had always received of it.

Though a very small island, for it is but nine miles long, and three broad, its irregular form and hilly surface, give a variety and boldness to the scenery, which is decidedly attractive; the highest hill, one of a range, running from north east to south west, is on the northern side, and at its base, with just sufficient space for a wide street between it and the water's edge, partly creeping up the hill side in parallel terraces, and partly built on low spurs, separated by deep ravines, projecting from it, stands the town of Victoria. It must create some little astonishment in the minds of those, who viewing it, for the first time, contrast its stately buildings, its clubs, its merchant palaces, with the dreary charnel house, that popular description had taught them to expect, for seen from the sea there are few towns of the same size, possessing so imposing an aspect; and at night with its many lights its appearance is singularly striking.

Separated only from the mainland, by a narrow channel, varying from one to three miles in width,--the harbour being at its western extremity,--the inhabitants of Hong Kong had the advantage of not being entirely dependent on their island for walks and recreation, for although roads were being made in all directions, confinement to so small a space is always detestably monotonous. For my own part, I generally preferred rambling on the Kow-loon side, where there was a wider range, and where the people were to be met with free from any admixture of European ideas; although of the same geological formation as Hong Kong, the scenery was very different, the surface of the country for some miles being one undulating mass of low conical hills of red clay with broken chains of granite rocks along the shore, and a range of high barren hills, running in a direction parallel to the high land of Hong Kong, to the north.

The people were as different as the scenery, no fawning sycophants endeavouring to attract your custom by their servility, but sturdy and industrious peasants, sunburnt-independent fellows in broad brimmed hats, who though not disposed to regard you with the same friendly eye as their brethren in the north, were generally civil and inoffensive; but once, only, had I reason to complain of their conduct, and that was when walking alone, and passing near a remote hamlet, the good people belonging to it turned out, and much to my discomfiture, hooted me in right good style. We never went armed, but walked about with the greatest confidence in every thing, and every body; yet as every rule has

its exception, so I must confess to not always possessing this confidence, or being quite devoid of bodily fear, when on walking past a herd of water buffaloes, these strange ungainly beasts, would suddenly arouse themselves from their usual docile and lethargic state, and assume an air of hostile ferocity, which would require the most threatening language and gestures, on the part of the small boy in charge of them, to keep within de bounds. These water buffaloes were evidently Chinese of the old school, possessing a very orthodox dislike to "Fanquis."

ALL IS PATENT IN THE NAVY EXCEPT ITS PAINT, ITS
LAWS, AND CUSTOMS.

MANY improvements and inventions for perfecting the building and the fitting of the several classes of our ships of war, from the three-decker of 131 guns, to the gun boat of 1 gun, have been gra dually and effectively introduced by the successive naval administra tions; and although several new-fangled alterations have proved failures on trial, or in practice, yet the interior fittings and arrange ments are greatly improved in every ship or vessel. But there is one article supplied to the ships which the British officers call "d-d bad," however polished may be their phraseology on other matters, and the French officers ex-e-cra-ble, when they compare it with that supplied to their ships. That article is the paint, or the composition of greese, chalk, clay, and colouring, which ingredients have not been changed within the memory of the oldest naval veteran.

The inferior quality of the dock-yard paint entails on the com manding officers a considerable expense, for no officer in command of any ship or vessel carrying the British pennant, will subject himself to the ridicule of the world by his ship being bedaubed with this execrable mixture, though supplied for the preservation of the wood, and the decoration of her Majesty's ships.

There are patent anchors to secure our ships, and patent rudders to steer them; patent screws and patent sails to propel them, but the paint is unpatented, and it remains in its original impurity dinginess from the reign of Queen Anne to the present of Queen

Victoria.

and

All materials in the fittings, or in the rigging of the ships, and all articles and stores are either patented, or of superior quality of late years, but the paint is permitted to remain in its grossness and inferiority as irremediable, or at least as a matter of no consequence, as the captains or the first lieutenants will mix it with superior paint, oil and turpentine purchased out of their quarterly bills to decorate their ships, the pride of the nation. Yes, the nation's pride is to be paraded to the world at the expense of its naval officers. The name of the 'hapless lieutenant who was the other day dis

C

charged from her Majesty's service by court-martial for the degrading offence of drunkenness, recalls to mind the European notoriety of the Cossack's boat under a flag of truce, which he commanded at the landing at Hango Head, of some Finnish seaman liberated, who had been previously captured in a vessel off the coast.

It may be observed that the Cossack's boat was what may be legitimately termed a cartel, though not to effect an exchange of prisoners, but for the intention to set at liberty some sea-faring persons who had been captured in the neighbourhood of Hango. Yet it must be admitted that the Cossack's boat, under a flag of truce, broke through all known international formality, and the custom of war, when on a mission of truce, as the flag displayed officially signified, by permitting the surgeon in plain clothes, and the three stewards of the captain's, lieutenants', and midshipmen's messes to accompany the lieutenant charged with the service of the flag of truce, merely for marketing purposes, the purchase of eggs and milk, salad and cream-cheese, chickens and ducklings, for their luxurious tables-by having arms in the boat, though concealed under the thwarts, and by landing before any person on the pier indicated permission to land by waving a white flag, the symbol of

truce.

Passing over the indiscriminate shooting and wounding of the unresisting officers, stewards, and the crew, and the Finnish seamen in the Cossack's boat, as an atrocious act, now chronicled in universal history, perpetrated by the inhuman command of the two Russian officers, Ensign Sswertschkoff and sub-officer Peter Pawloff, whose names should be ticketed in the memory of every British officer, that their persons may be shunned as unworthy of recognition. We may ask the question, why have not Admiralty instructions been promulgated for the guidance of naval officers who may be entrusted with the responsible duties and certain formalities of a cartel, or a flag of truce?

England, since the peace with Russia, has had ample time to arrange with the maritime nations, and to form a code of instructions which should be faithfully observed to the very letter and spirit by all naval officers who, by their commissions, are bound to avoid subterfuge or reservation on any public service, the more so when entrusted with such an honourable mission as a flag of truce.

The officers have patent illuminators to their cabin scuttles to lighten them for reading and writing, then why not patent instructions to enlighten them in the duties, responsibility, and formalities of a flag of truce?

Incontrovertibly certain it is, that some officers through ignorance or inadvertency, ambition or eye-service, commit such professional errors in judgment, or extraneous acts, which no admiralty or commander-in-chief would think of issuing instructions to prevent or controvert. For instance, was the necessity ever imagined by the Commander-in-Chief to issue a memorandum to the Baltic fleet, prohibiting the officers and their stewards in plain clothes, from marketing in the enemy's villages under cover of a flag of truce! Assuredly not, yet the officers of the -Cossack did so, and as it proved