# Europe in China/Chapter 18

CHAPTER XVIII.
The Administration of Sir Hercules Robinson.
September 9, 1859, to March 15, 1865.
t the close of Sir J. Bowring's administration, the condition of the Colony and its reputation in England were such that the selection of a new Governor was as difficult a matter as it had been when Sir H. Pottinger or Sir J. Davis vacated the post. It was evident, on the one hand, that now a man was wanted who possessed not only common sense but combined with the firmness of a strict disciplinarian the fine tact and large views of a man whose mind is seasoned with humanity and able to bring into ripening maturity what seeds of goodness had been sown. But, on the other hand, the sanitary, social and moral reputation of Hongkong was so bad that the offer of the governorship of Hongkong afforded no encouragement to a man of such high abilities as were required for this office. Sir Hercules Robinson was precisely the man that was wanted to clear out this redoubtable Augean stable in China. Though he occupied at the time an insignificant governorship on the opposite side of the globe, he probably did not feel in the least flattered by the offer of the Hongkong appointment, unless he looked at it as implying, under the peculiar circumstances of the case, a compliment to his abilities. Sir Hercules had originally served in the 87th Fusiliers and, on his retirement from the Army, found civil employment during the Irish famine (1846 to 1849) under the Commissioners of Public Work and Poor-Law Board in Ireland. He had subsequently (1852) acted as Chief-Commissioner to inquire into the fairs and markets of Ireland and, in recognition of his services, been promoted to the Presidency of Montserrat (1854). Then he became ​Governor of St. Christopher (1854) and combined with the latter post the dormant commission of Governor-in-chief of the Leeward Islands. Consequent upon his courageous acceptance of the governorship of Hongkong, he was created a Knight Bachelor in June, 1859.
Sir H. Robinson, destined by Providence to reap where his predecessors had sown, arrived in Hongkong on September 9th, 1859, and took on the same day the oaths of his office as Governor and Commander-in-chief and Vice-Admiral, being the first Governor of Hongkong entirely dissociated from the Superintendency of Trade and from the diplomatic duties of H.M. Plenipotentiary in China. During his tenure of office. Sir Hercules was twice absent on furlough, first for a brief visit to Japan (July 17 to September 8, 1861), and subsequently for a longer term (July 12, 1862, to February 11, 1864), during which he visited England and transacted (in autumn, 1863) some business for the Colonial Office as a Member of the Commission appointed to inquire into the financial condition of the Straits Settlements. On leaving Hongkong on the latter occasion (July 12, 1862), after but three years of his administration, so great was the change already wrought in the commercial, financial and administrative condition of Hongkong affairs, that he was presented on his departure with enthusiastic addresses from the local Volunteers, the Bishop and all the Members of Council, congratulating him on the undoubted success achieved. During his absence from Hongkong, the government of the Colony was on both occasions, as well as after his final departure, administered by the Colonial Secretary (W. T. Mercer) who faithfully and successfully continued the line of policy initiated by Sir Hercules. The recognition of the improved status which the Colony had gained by this time found expression in the permission now (January 23, 1863) given to the Governor of Hongkong to wear the uniform of the first class.
By the time when Sir H. Robinson arrived in Hongkong (September 9, 1859), the Superintendency of Trade had already been removed to Shanghai where Sir F. W. Bruce (since June, ​6, 1859), as H.M. Minister in China, was waiting for instructions, after the defeat of the British fleet at the Peiho (June 25, 1859). British and French relations with China were at a standstill. The U.S. Minister Ward had attempted (June 27, 1859) to get the start of the Allies and to be the first to obtain an audience of the Emperor, but found himself treated in the precise form of a barbarian tribute bearer and retired discomfited. After much delay, a plan of action was agreed upon between England and France, and by order of Lord John Russell (November 10, 1859) a mild form of an ultimatum was presented to the Chinese Authorities (December, 1859). Whilst this ultimatum was under the consideration of the Chinese Ministers, the Viceroy of the two Kiang Provinces in Central China (Ho Kwei-sin), pressed by the Taiping rebellion, urged his Government to make peace with England and France and actually asked the Allies (March, 1860) for military assistance against the Taipings. But the moment this became known in Peking, an order went forth for his arrest and he was punished as a traitor. A defiant reply to the ultimatum of the Allies was now issued (April 8, 1860), such as left no room for further negotiations. The Chinese Government bluntly declared that they had never intended to carry out the provisions of the Tientsin Treaty. The Allies were not prepared for an immediate resumption of the war, but the Island of Chusan was meanwhile (April 21, 1860) occupied by the British fleet. Happily, in spite of renewed protests against the war policy initiated by Lord Palmerston and regardless of the fresh denunciations of Sir J. Bowring's action, hurled against him by Mr. Bright and Mr. Sidney Herbert (March 16, 1860). Parliament decreed that the honour of Great Britain was at stake. Lord Elgin had to return to China with a new army to do over again the work he had botched by his misplaced meekness. As soon as the re-inforcements arrived in China, the Taku forts were carried by assault and Tientsin occupied (August 26, 1860). Finally, after a shocking demonstration of Chinese official treachery and barbarity, Peking was taken (October 13, 1860), the Imperial summer palace burnt by way ​of retribution (October 18, 1860), and the Peking Convention (October 24, 1860) secured at last the ratification of the long dormant Treaty of Tientsin. In accordance with the demand of the Allies, the conduct of international affairs was now transferred from Canton to Peking and the Tsungli Yamen was created (January, 1861) as a special department for foreign affairs. After the death of the irreconcilably hostile Emperor Hienfung (August 22, 1861), Prince Kung came to the front and by a coup d'état (November 1, 1861) made himself virtually Prime Minister of a new regency, the heads of which were the Empress Dowager and the Empress Mother of the infant Emperor Tungchi. Next, Prince Kung established the Foreign Maritime Customs Service which was ably organized by Mr. H. N. Lay with the assistance of Mr. (subsequently Sir) Robert Hart. During Mr. Lay's absence in England (1862 to 1863) to bring out a flotilla of gunboats under Captain Sherard Osborne, R.N., Sir R. Hart gained the entire confidence of the Chinese Government. Mr. Lay was, owing to his imperious refusal to place that flotilla under the orders of the Provincial Authorities, dismissed by Prince Kung (July 19, 1864) and Sir R. Hart obtained the supreme control of the Foreign Customs Service. With the aid of the Allied Forces (since February 21, 1862) Shanghai was delivered from a threatened attack of the Taipings and, thanks to the services of the Ever-Victorious Army under General Ch. Gordon (January 6, 1863, to June 1, 1864), the Taiping rebellion was crushed by the capture of Nanking (July 19, 1864) and peace restored in the Empire for awhile.
During this time the relations of Hongkong with the Chinese Government had steadily improved. As long as the occupation of Canton by the Allied Forces continued (January 5, 1858, to October 21, 1861), Hongkong was virtually the port of supply for Canton city. The renewal of the war with China, in 1860, also gave a fresh stimulus to Colonial activities in various directions and the commissariat and transport services, required by the Allied Forces from October, 1859, to the close of the year 1860, caused the shipping interests of the Colony to ​develop enormously for a time, whilst the war itself raged at a distance.
The principal benefit of a lasting character that Hongkong derived from this second war with China consists in the acquisition of the Kowloon Peninsula. The first official suggestion of the great importance attaching to Kowloon appears to have originated with a naval officer. On 2nd March, 1858, four months before the conclusion of the Tientsin Treaty, Captain W. K. Hall, of H.M.S. Calcutta, forwarded to the local Government copy of a letter addressed by him to the Earl of Hardwicke. In this letter. Captain Hall represented that the present opportunity of obtaining the cession of Kowloon Point and Stonecutters' Island should not be lost, especially as another Power might occupy these vantage points to the great detriment of Hongkong. Captain Hall argued that the Kowloon Peninsula would afford much needed sea-frontage for commercial building lots and additional barrack accommodation; that the British occupation of Kowloon would remove the danger with which the mercantile shipping, anchored during the typhoon season in close proximity to the settlement of lawless Chinese vagabonds at Tsimshatsui, was threatened; that H.M. Naval Yard ought to be transferred to Kowloon and its present side utilized for barracks; and that Stonecutters' Island would be useful for a quarantine establishment and for the strengthening of the defences of the Colony. It seems that General Ch. van Straubenzee at once took up Captain Hall's suggestion and reported to the War Office (in March, 1858) that he had forwarded to Lord Elgin a recommendation to include among the claims to be made at the conclusion of the war the cession of Kowloon Peninsula. Lord Elgin, who never did anything for Hongkong that he could help and did not even take the trouble to conceal his aversion to the Colony, refused to entertain the suggestion of the annexation of Kowloon. He said he had no instructions on the subject. Accordingly the Treaty of Tientsin (June 28, 1858) left Hongkong in the exact position in which it was under the Treaty of Nanking. Sir J. Bowring, however, drew the ​attention of the Colonial Office to the importance of Kowloon, and in the following year (March 29, 1859) distinctly recommended its annexation by cession in the following words. 'The possession of the small peninsula opposite the Island is become of more and more importance. To say nothing of questions of military and naval defence, it would be of great commercial and sanatory value, while to the Chinese it is not only of no value, but a seat of anarchy and a source of embarrassment. I hope therefore that measures will be taken for obtaining a cession of this tract of land.' In October, 1850, the Downing Street Authorities urged this recommendation upon the consideration of the War Office in connection with the renewal of the war with China, and on March 12th, 1860, Mr. Sidney Herbert (then Secretary of State for War), agreeing with this proposal, dispatched to Hongkong a memorandum on the military occupation of Kowloon. Strange to say, on the very same day (March 12, 1860) Sir H. Robinson forwarded to Sir P. W. Bruce, at the urgent suggestion of Sir H. Parkes, a memorandum on; the civil occupation of Kowloon. Sir H. Parkes had been urging the Governor to take the peninsula on a lease which he, as Chief of the Commission in occupation of Canton, believed he could easily obtain from the Cantonese Viceroy Lao Tsung-Kwong. Sir Hercules was at first unwilling to ask for a lease because the charter of the Colony made no provision for such an arrangement. He shrank from asking the Chinese Government to grant, as a favour, ground which at the moment was needed for the prosecution of the war. Indeed a part of the peninsula had, with the Governor's sanction, already been informally utilized (since February, 1860) as camping ground. Nevertheless Sir Hercules forwarded Sir H. Parkes' proposition, to Sir F. Bruce on March 12th, 1860. The next day (March 13, 1860) a new advocate of the annexation of Kowloon, and one who afterwards claimed to have originated the idea, arrived in Hongkong, in the person of General Sir Hope Grant, G.C.B., the commander of the English expedition. His statement is as follows. 'On the opposite coast, and within three-quarters of ​a mile, was the promontory of Kowloon, a spot of which I was most anxious to gain immediate possession—firstly, because its occupation was absolutely essential for the defence of Hongkong harbour and the town of Victoria; secondly, because it was an open healthy spot, admirably suited for a camping ground on the arrival of our troops; thirdly, because at the conclusion of the war it would be a salubrious site for the erection of barracks required for the Hongkong garrison; and lastly, because, if we did not take it, the French probably would. This tract was about two miles in breadth and was particularly healthy, owing to its being exposed to the south-west monsoon. There were, however, difficulties in the way. Mr. Bruce, our Plenipotentiary, had sent an ultimatum to the Chinese Government allowing them a month to reply and war had not yet been actually declared; so the forcible seizure of the promontory would not have been quite legal.' From Sir H. Parkes' journal it appears that on March 16th, 1860, he had a consultation with Sir H. Robinson and General Grant, and this is what he says of it. 'After hearing what I had to say, both Sir H. Robinson and Sir Hope Grant came round to my way of thinking as to the desirability of getting a lease of Kowloon, although they had already begun to land troops … Sir H. Robinson is all eagerness that it should be settled forthwith and that I should get back to Canton to arrange it as speedily as possible.' As soon as it was found that Sir F. Bruce also approved of the proposed lease Sir Hercules formally authorized Sir H. Parkes to arrange a lease. Viceroy Lao made no difficulty and on March 21st, 1860, signed, sealed and delivered a lease which granted the Kowloon Peninsula 'in perpetuity to Harry Smith Parkes, Esquire, Companion of the Bath, a Member of the Allied Commission at Canton, on behalf of Her Britannic Majesty's Government.' On March 24th, 1860, Colonel Macmahon gave notice to the Chinese occupants of Kowloon that no further settlers would be allowed to come there in future but all orderly people already located there would be protected and outlaws driven away. When Lord Elgin arrived (June 21, 1860), the occupation of ​Kowloon was happily an accomplished fact which he could not undo. Accordingly he arranged in his Peking Convention (October 24, 1860) that the lease of Kowloon should be cancelled and that the peninsula should 'with a view to the maintenance of law and order in and about the harbour of Hongkong, be ceded to H.M. the Queen of Great Britain and Ireland, Her heirs and successors, to have and to hold as a Dependency of Her Britannic Majesty's Colony of Hongkong.' It was further stipulated in this Convention that Chinese claims to property on the peninsula should be duly investigated by a Mixed Commission and payment awarded to any Chinese (whose claims might be established) if their removal should be deemed necessary. In pursuance of these stipulations a Commission was appointed (December 26, 1860) and the ceremony of handing over Kowloon Peninsula to the British Crown was solemnly performed (January 19, 1861) in the presence of a large assembly and some 2,000 troops. One of the Cantonese Mandarins delivered a paper full of soil to Lord Elgin in token of the cession. Sir Hercules and Lady Robinson and Sir H. Parkes assisted at this function and the royal standard was hoisted amid the cheers of the assembly and the thunders of salutes fired by the men-of-war in the harbour and by a battery on Stonecutters' Island. This was the last official act performed in China by Lord Elgin who with unfeigned relief left Hongkong forthwith (January 21, 1861) for England by way of Manila and Batavia. His name was perpetuated in Hongkong by its being given to a terrace which at the time was a fashionable quarter of the town. Sir H. Robinson had appointed Mr. Ch. May to act as British Commissioner in conjunction with some Chinese deputies to adjust native claims and to mark out the boundary, for which purpose he was assisted by Mr. Bird of the Royal Engineers' Department, who surveyed and mapped out the whole peninsula. But now arose the question how to allot the ground between the Colony, the Army and Navy. Sir Hercules appointed for this purpose a Board in which Mr. Ch. St. G. Cleverly represented the Civil Government, Colonel Mann, R.E., the Army, and Captain Borlase, R.N., the ​Admiralty. But this Board reported (March 7, 1861) their inability to come to any agreement. The matter had to be referred home. Sir Hope Grant claimed—that the idea of appropriating the peninsula had originated with the Military Authorities; that the Colonial Office had approved of the occupation of Kowloon for military purposes; that the lease had been obtained by his own authority; that the peninsula ceded by the Peking Convention should therefore be converted into a purely military cantonment separate and apart from the Government of Hongkong; that at any rate the highest and healthiest ground of the peninsula should immediately be utilized for the erection of barracks. Plans for the latter were forwarded by General Grant without delay (April, 1861) and approved, with some alterations, by the War Office (March 13, 1862). On the other hand, Sir H. Robinson represented to the Colonial Office (February 13, 1861)—that the idea of appropriating Kowloon did not originate with the Military Authorities; that the Hongkong Government, in originally mooting the acquisition of Kowloon, had in view the necessity of providing for the wants of the general population as well as of the military garrison; that the lease was obtained under his own authority; that the Peking Convention expressly declared the peninsula to be ceded as a Dependency of the Colony of Hongkong; that the peninsula is indispensable to the welfare of the Colony, it being required to keep the Chinese population at some distance and to preserve the European and American community from the injury and inconvenience of intermixture with the Chinese residents; that the peninsula is further needed by the Colony to provide storage accommodation, room for docks, for hospitals, for private residences and for air and exercise; that the site specially claimed by the Military Authorities is indispensable for the foregoing purposes and that, without that site, it would be almost worthless to the Colony to have Kowloon at all. Strange to say, these incontrovertible arguments of Sir H. Robinson, which the subsequent history of Kowloon proved to have been based on truth, were brushed aside by the simple fiat of the Imperial ​Government. The wants, the welfare and the development of the Colony were mercilessly sacrificed to Imperial military interests which after all were soon found to be ill-served by this unrighteous appropriation. But that, in addition to the serious and permanent injury thus inflicted upon the Colony, an annual military contribution was likewise demanded, can be explained only by the assumption that Her Majesty's Government was kept in ignorance of the serious blow which the prosperity of Hongkong received by being deprived of the advantages which the civil occupation of Kowloon would have afforded. The dispute dragged on until 1864, when the Military Authorities got the lion's share and certain prescriptive rights over the remainder, which was divided between the Colony and the Navy. At a land sale, held in 1864 (July 25 to 29), some 26 marine and 39 inland lots were sold, on short leases, at a premium of $4,050 and an annual rent of $18,793 (of which sum hardly one-fourth was ever paid). The one portion which was of essential value for the Colony was retained by the Military Authorities.
In spring, 1860, a novel proposition was under discussion.. The idea was mooted of appointing a Governor-General of H.M. Insular Possessions in the East, who should combine the civil and military government of Mauritius, Ceylon, the Straits Settlements and Hongkong. Nothing further came of this amalgamation scheme, however, beyond the appointment of a Colonial Defence Commission.
The relations of the Colony with the Cantonese Authorities were, after the evacuation of Canton (October 21, 1861), under the care of H.M. Consul at Canton, subject to the control of the British Minister at Peking. Nevertheless, when any pressing case occurred, this circumlocutory process was occasionally set aside. To give but one instance, it happened in January, 1865, that a Chinese resident of Hongkong was kidnapped from a boat in the harbour and held for ransom in a village near Shamtsiin in the Sun-on District. The new Registrar General (C. C. Smith), without loss of time, obtained the use of H.M.S. Woodcock and proceeded to Deep Bay. A party of ​blue-jackets, under the command of Captain Boxer, of H.M.S. Hesper went inland with the Registrar-General and captured, happily without resistance, both the kidnapper and his prisoner who were brought to Hongkong.
One of the earliest subjects that engaged the attention of Sir H. Robinson in Hongkong was Civil Service reform. Very wisely he commenced his labours in this direction with an attempt to revise official salaries. But when the draft of an Ordinance (13 of 1860) for establishing a revised Civil List came under discussion in Legislative Council (December 26, 1859), the unofficial Members (J. Jardine, J. Dent and Geo. Lyall) urged that, although the salaries of most of the Civil Servants were inadequate, there were at present no available funds for effecting a general increase of salaries. They recommended, however, to increase the salaries of four subordinate officers whom they named. There was also thrown out a suggestion that Hongkong officials, instead of having their salaries increased on account of length of service, should have a chance of promotion to other Colonies. Sir H. Robinson, though foiled to some extent in his Civil List reforms, succeeded in establishing a Pension Scheme (May 5, 1862) under Ordinance 10 of 1862 by which he definitely fixed the rate of pension payable to officers of long and approved service.
Several new offices were established by Sir H. Robinson. For the benefit of the mercantile marine, the Governor established a Marine Court of Inquiry (Ordinance 11 of 1860) and a Board of Examiners for granting certificates of competency to masters and mates (Ordinance 17 of 1860). The first certificate so issued was obtained by Mr. Samuel Ashton of the schooner Vindex (August 31, 1861) and between July, 1863, and June, 1864, as many as 48 masters and 28 mates were passed by this Board of Examiners. Sir Hercules also re-organized the Police Court (Ordinance 6 of 1862) by substituting (July 23, 1862) two magistrates with equal power (Ch. May and J. Ch. Whyte) for the former chief magistrate and his assistant. At the same time (July 7, 1862) a Court for Summary Jurisdiction, under ​a Puisne Judge (H. J. Ball) was established by Ordinance 7 of 1862 as a branch of the Supreme Court.
But the principal and most beneficial addition to the Civil Service machinery, devised by Sir H. Robinson, was undoubtedly the series of reforms, culminating in his Cadet Scheme, which he introduced for the better government of the Chinese population of the Colony. Sir Hercules, who appeared to have taken Sir Harry Parkes' dealings with the Chinese for his model, took special pains to make sure of two things, first, that the Chinese should be fully and correctly informed of the nature, purport and details of every Government measure affecting their interests, and, secondly, that in every case the Governor should be accurately informed of what the Chinese in any case, public or private, really wanted or needed or wished to say. In harmony with the first part of this programme, Sir Hercules organized a translation office and secured the publication of correct translations of every decision he made in Chinese affairs. He first recognized this need in connection with the resistance offered by the Chinese pawnbrokers and cargo boat people to firmer supervision by the Government and had forthwith careful translations of the respective Ordinances published (May 5 and November 24, 1860). But he went farther and established (March 1, 1862) a separate Chinese issue of the Hongkong Government Gazette. He not only arranged that every Government measure affecting the Chinese residents should be published in this Gazette, but took great pains personally to .test the fulness and correctness of the translators' work. In pursuance of the second part of this programme, Sir Hercules took a bold step. He deliberately discarded the attempt to govern the Chinese directly through their own headmen (Tipous), summarily dismissed all the Tipous (June 30, 1861) and made the Registrar General exercise, with regard to the Chinese population, the same functions which the Colonial Secretary performed in relation to the European population. This measure was virtually a return to the original bifurcation of government which Captain Elliot ​aimed at when the Colony was formed in 1841. The first number of the Chinese issue of the Hongkong Government Gazette (March 1, 1862) introduced this new policy by the simple notification, which really constituted a revolution in the government of the Chinese population, that thenceforth all applications to the Government, on the part of Chinese residents, must be made by petition (pien) to the Registrar General. Sir Hercules, however, clearly foresaw that for the success of this measure it was indispensable that the Registrar General's office should thenceforth be entrusted only to men who were not only acquainted with the Chinese language and Chinese modes of thought and life, but in sympathy and touch with the Chinese people. It was, in the first instance, for this purpose that he established his Cadet Scheme. On the model of the system organized by Sir J. Bowring for the training of Consular interpreters, Sir Hercules launched (March 23, 1861) a scheme to provide the Colony with a staff of well-educated interpreters who should study the Chinese language in Hongkong and be eligible, when qualified, for promotion to the headship of several departments. They were not intended to act as Court interpreters but to fill eventually those of the higher offices in the Service in which a knowledge of the Chinese mind and character afforded some special advantage. This scheme having met with the approval of H.M. Government, three such cadets (C. C. Smith, W. M. Deane and M. S. Tonnochy) were appointed (April 3, 1862) student interpreters, and underwent two probationary examinations in the year 1863. Mr. (subsequently Sir) C. C. Smith was the first cadet who acted as Registrar General, that is to say as Colonial Secretary for the Chinese population (October 24, 1864), Mr. Tonnochy taking his place in the same capacity later on (November 1, 1865).
The inquiry into the Civil Service abuses of the preceding administration was entrusted by the Secretary of State to the Governor in Executive Council and commenced on 13th August, 1860. As these meetings of Council were held in public and all the records and evidence were printed and published, this terribly ​protracted investigation served only to stir up once more the mud of old animosities and produced renewed mutual incriminations between the Registrar General (who resigned and withdrew from his office) and the Superintendent of Police. Moreover, the excessive latitude which the Governor allowed to all parties in the case gave to the editor of the Daily Press fresh opportunity to raise side issues and to produce even prisoners from the gaol to aid him in hunting down the object of his hatred. The final result of this distressing inquiry (continued until September 24, 1861) was that the Colony permanently lost the services of the man who was indisputably the best Court interpreter the Colony ever possessed, and who was never equalled in efficiency as a detective police officer. But the rancour of the editor of the Daily Press was not satisfied with the scope of the inquiry. He clamoured for further investigations and desired the former Acting Colonial Secretary to be impeached. When Sir H. Robinson resisted any re-opening of the inquiry, the irate editor appealed to the Secretary of State, hurling various charges against the Governor and (in his absence) against the Administrator (W. T. Mercer). After a lengthy correspondence, the Duke of Newcastle at last (in autumn 1862) informed the complainant that, as he had five times been prosecuted for libel, he was not entitled to any consideration and that the Colonial Office would henceforth receive no more communications from him. The same Secretary of State regulated also, by Circular of August 20, 1863, the extent to which public officers might write for or to the public papers. The Duke of Newcastle laid down the rule that, whilst there is no objection to public servants furnishing newspapers with articles signed with their names on subjects of general interest, they are not at liberty to write on questions which can properly be called political, nor to furnish any articles whatever to newspapers which, in commenting on the measures of the Government, habitually exceed the bounds of fair and temperate discussion.
In the Legislative Council, Sir H. Robinson introduced an important change by the inhibition now put, by order of the ​Home Government, on the independence of vote formerly allowed to official Members. A set of standing orders and rules bad been framed (July 12, 1858) and, using these as a curb rein. Sir Hercules ruled his Council as with a rod of iron, confining its functions strictly to legislation, allowing no criticism of the acts of the Executive, and reducing public influence upon the deliberations of the Legislative Council to the lowest possible minimum. He acted on the principle that legislation should not be influenced by the opinions of irresponsible parties outside the Government. The only point in which he allowed much latitude to the unofficial Members was the discussion of questions of expenditure and taxation.
As to the legislative enactments of this period, the regulation of commercial transactions received a large share of attention. Hardly any other Governor bestowed so much care on commercial legislation. Eleven Ordinances were passed bearing on exclusively commercial matters, such as Chinese passenger ships (6 of 1860), fees to be taken under the Merchant Shipping Ordinance (10 of 1860), exportation of military stores (3 of 1862), protection of patents (14 of 1862) and trade marks (8 of 1863), the law of debtor and creditor (4 of 1863 and 5 of 1864), bills of sale (10 of 1864), bills and promissory notes (12 of 1864), commercial law (18 of 1864) and finally the incorporation, regulation and winding up of Trading Companies (1 of 1865). The Ordinance empowering the Governor to prohibit the export of military stores was caused by the abandonment of that attitude of neutrality which the British Government had occupied in relation to the Manchu Government and the Taiping Rebels until February 21, 1862, when (as above mentioned) the Taipings threatened Shanghai once more. The subsequent issue of a proclamation prohibiting the export of arms and ammunition was intended to stop the supplies which the Taipings had been drawing from Hongkong, but was bitterly complained of as unjust because no similar prohibition was extended to ports in England and India. The consequence was a partial derangement of the operations of firms hitherto connected with this trade in ​military stores, and numerous confiscations were made by the Harbour Master in February, 1863. In 1862, the discovery of an extensive system of issuing false certificates for opium deposits (June 14th) opened the eyes of the public to the imperfect formulation of the law of debtor and creditor. The Attorney General (J. Smale) drafted accordingly a Bankruptcy Ordinance (November 16, 1863) specially adapted to local circumstances, but it was set aside by the advisers of the Colonial Office who sent out another (5 of 1864) for acceptance by the Council. In connection with that same opium case, it was decided by a jury (August 7, 1863) that a delivery order, though sold and paid for, does not free the vendor from risk in case a mishap should occur to the article sold after the order had changed hands. When the draft of the Companies' Ordinance (1 of 1865) was under the consideration of the Council (in 1864), the question of incorporating companies with limited liability, which measure the Governor at the time viewed as fraught with danger for Hongkong, gave rise to much animated discussion. The position which the Governor took in this matter was such as to provoke a spirited protest by one of the unofficial Members of Council (J. Whittall) whose language the Governor censured as offensive to the Council.
Chinese trade also received a fair share of the Governor's attention, and Sir Hercules was the first Governor who understood how to deal with the common practice of the Chinese of offering seditious resistance to a weak Government by combining to strike work in order to mark their sense of irksome or imperfect legislation. Unaware what stuff Sir Hercules was made of, the Chinese resorted to this practice three times within four successive years but gave in on each occasion when they encountered, on the part of the Governor, calm but rigidly uncompromising firmness. The Pawnbrokers' Ordinance (3 of 1860) evoked a general closing of pawnshops and the Ordinance remained for a long time a dead letter whilst the pawnbrokers agitated for certain concessions. They submitted, however, when they found that the Governor turned a deaf ear to all their representations. ​In order to provide a remedy against the habitual plundering to which goods were subjected in transit between ship and shore, an Ordinance (15 of 1860) was passed for the registration and regulation of the men employed on cargo-boats. As soon as this Ordinance came into force (1861), a general strike ensued on the part of cargo-boat people, but by unflinching firmness on the part of the Governor and the community they were soon brought to submit to registration. The chair coolies also resorted to a strike (in 1863) when they were for the first time to be brought under a system of regulating and licensing public vehicles by Ordinance 6 of 1863. They also yielded, after nearly three months' passive resistance, and the new Ordinance proved a great boon to the public.
An interesting trial (Moss versus Alcock) was concluded in the Supreme Court on 27th December, 1861. A British subject, having assaulted a Japanese officer at Kanagawa, had been sentenced to fine and imprisonment by a British Consul whose sentence was confirmed by Sir Rutherford Alcock, then H.M. Minister at Tokyo. But when the prisoner was lodged in the Hongkong Gaol, he appealed to the Supreme Court and obtained a verdict for $2,000 damages, as the Consul had power only to inflict either a fine or imprisonment. It was in consequence of this case that subsequently (July 10, 1863) letters patent were issued conferring upon the Chief Justice of Hongkong appellate jurisdiction in respect to Consular decisions made in Japan. In the course of the trial (Moss versus Alcock) there occurred (December 12, 1861) the first of those lively but indecorous scenes of bickerings which for years after periodically recurred whenever Mr. (subsequently Sir) John Smale, as Attorney General or Chief Justice, was confronted in Court by the leading barrister of the time (E. H. Pollard). A fruitless attempt was made (April 23, 1859) by Dr. Bridges to induce the Governor in Council to modify Sir J. Bowring's Amalgamation Ordinance (12 of 1858) so as to permit barristers to form partnerships with a view to enable them to recruit health in Europe without breaking up their practice. So far from ​extending the scope of this Amalgamation Ordinance, Sir H. Robinson repealed it altogether to the infinite regret of the public (by Ordinance 12 of 1862). It seems he was instigated to this retrogressive act by the new Chief Justice (W. H. Adams) and the new Attorney General (J. Smale) who, like the Governor, knew little of the sad condition in which the legal profession in the Colony had been before the introduction of this Ordinance. The beneficial effects it had produced were now considered a proof that it was no longer needed. In vain did the community, who heard of this measure only a few hours before it was read in Council, protest against the repeal. In vain did the unofficial Members of Council (F. Chomley, C. W. Murray, A. Perceval) demand that at least an inquiry be instituted into the working of the Amalgamation Ordinance and into the necessity for a repeal. The Governor was going away on furlough and had made up his mind to settle this matter before leaving, 'on the basis of the opinions of high legal officers, whose credit was at stake in the utterance of their opinions, rather than on the views of irresponsible outsiders.' The Chief Justice (W. H. Adams) and the Attorney General (J. Smale) thought the repeal necessary to preserve the purity of the higher branch of the profession. The public interest had to yield to that. But the impetuous haste with which the Governor rushed the Bill through Council (July 3, 1862), and the inexorable predetermination with which he brushed aside all objections whilst refusing any inquiry or consideration, caused the general public to stigmatise the conduct of Sir Hercules in this case, as in some others, as marked by 'mulish obstinacy.' As to other legal enactments of this period, the principal Ordinance of permanent value was that (7 of 1860) which gave authority to two Commissioners, H. J. Ball, Judge of the Summary Jurisdiction Court, and W. H. Alexander, Registrar of the Court, to compile an edition of the Ordinances in force in the Colony and to consolidate particularly the criminal law. This important work, by the starting of which the Governor complied with one of the recommendations of the Parliamentary ​Committee of 1847, was satisfactorily completed in October, 1864, under the sanction which the Privy Council had given (February 20, 1864) to the introduction in the Colony of the criminal law of England with such adaptations as circumstances might render advisable.
Owing to the above-mentioned disturbances in the Canton Province, the population of Hongkong made great strides in the first few years of this period. In 1860 the population increased by 8,003 persons. In 1861, when the cession of Kowloon also contributed to swell the population, the increase amounted to 24,404 persons, having risen from 94,917 people in 1860 to 119,321 in 1861. After that year, however, the population increased but slightly in 1862, retrograded in 1863 and stood in 1864 at 121,498 people.
The finances of the Colony, though severely strained by liberal expenditure on public works, constitute one of the brightest features of this administration. The revenue of the year 1860 exceeded that of 1859 by £28,958. The expenditure of the same period, however, increased by £6,281. In consequence of the transfer of the Hongkong Post Office to the local Government (May 1, 1860), the Post Office receipts appeared for the first time in the accounts for the year 1860. But the largest increase of the revenue of that year was under the head of land revenue, which exceeded that of 1859 by nearly £17,000 in consequence of the great rise in the value of land. The revenue of 1860 was thus the largest ever raised, up to that time, in Hongkong, and four times greater than that of the year 1851. The Colony had now at last become fully self-supporting and commenced the year 1861 with an excess of assets (over liabilities) amounting to nearly £4,300. The revenue of the year 1861 (£33,058) was nearly double of the revenue of 1859, but owing to the large public works now taken in hand and to the augmentation of the establishment, the expenditure rose to £37,241. The returns for 1861 shewed an increase under almost every head of revenue but particularly so the items of land rents and licences, the rapid increase of the population, and the extensive purchases of land ​connected with an attempt to develop the resources of Bowrington, having caused an enormous further increase in the value of land. Following the example of Sir J. Bowring, Sir H. Robinson deposited year by year all surplus funds in the local Chartered Banks at five per cent, and £61,550 were thus deposited in 1861. Since 1st July, 1862, the accounts of the Colony were kept in dollars. The increase ($20,502) in the revenue of the year 1862 was ascribed chiefly to the increased yield of postage, police and lighting rates, opium farm and pawnbrokers' licences, whilst the increase ($61,400) of expenditure was caused by public works and additions to the strength of the Police Force. The same items caused the expenditure of the year 1863 to exceed (by $10,000) the revenue which had decreased by $54,884 as compared with the preceding year. In the year 1864, postage and profits made on subsidiary coins (procured from England) caused the revenue to increase by $61,471, whilst, on the other hand, the expenditure of the same year increased by $176,742, owing to the erection of the Mint and the investment of $250,000 in the purchase of land and houses at Kowloon. But, owing to a commercial depression which now set in, the difference between receipts and expenditure continued. On 4th March, 1865, Sir H. Robinson stated in Legislative Council that the total revenue for the preceding year had come to $637,845 and the actual expenditure to $763,307, an ominous indication of bad times in store for the Colonial finances.
As soon as the flourishing condition of the Colonial finances became known at home, a claim was set up for a military contribution. There was strictly speaking no surplus, as all available surplus funds were urgently required to provide additional gaol accommodation, additional water-works and most particularly a comprehensive drainage scheme for the town, which one Colonial Surgeon after the other urged as the indispensable preliminary basis of sanitary reform, and which, owing to the demand for a military contribution. Governor after Governor postponed for want of funds. On 15th August, 1864, Sir H. Robinson stated in Legislative Council that the Secretary of State insisted upon payment of a military contribution of £20,000 per annum for ​five years as a reasonable and just return for the protection of life and property afforded by the military garrison, the amount charged being one-fifth of the Imperial military expenditure incurred in the Colony. It appeared that Mr. Mercer, as Administrator, as well as Sir Hercules had strenuously objected to this demand when it was first mooted. Their arguments were virtually those that thenceforth were repeated at every successive period of Hongkong's history: that Hongkong is not a producing Colony but a mere intermediate station of the China trade; that this station, being anyhow very profitable to India and to the Imperial Exchequer, ought not to bear the burden of military expenditure incurred for the benefit of British trade in China and Japan; that the settlement is a struggling one and needs no garrison for its local protection; that the Colony has, to the great detriment of local revenue and commerce, been deprived of so much building ground, appropriated for Imperial military uses, that it ought to be considered to have paid, in land, its quota towards a military contribution. But in this case, as on all subsequent occasions, the Home Government confined itself to the simple assertion that, as the Colony can afford to pay, it must pay what is demanded. A public meeting, the largest, it was said, that had been held yet, assembled in the Court House (August 23, 1864) and unanimously resolved to memorialize H.M. Government to protest against the measure. The senior unofficial Member of Legislative Council (C. W. Murray) acted as chairman and the proposers and seconders of the several resolutions to be embodied in the Memorial were—E. H. Pollard, Th. Sutherland, A. Turing, J. Whittall, U. Brand, H. B. Lemann, T. G. Linstead, G. J. Helland, R. S. Walker, H. Noble, C. H. Storey and W. Schmidt. The Chamber of Commerce and the Chinese community followed the example and likewise presented protests in form of Memorials. When the estimates for 1865, including the sum of $92,000 as military contribution were laid before the Legislative Council, this item was passed only by the Governor's casting vote, as even the Colonial Treasurer (who was afterwards severely censured by the Secretary of State) joined ​with the unofficial Members in voting against it. Moreover, with the single exception of the Chief Justice (W. H. Adams), all the Members of Council, both official and unofficial, agreed forthwith in passing a resolution stating 'that the maintenance of troops in Hongkong is not necessary purely for the protection of Colonial interests or the security of the inhabitants, and that the Colonial revenue cannot fairly be charged with any contribution towards the Imperial military expenditure in China and Japan.' In communicating to H.M. Government the unanimous protest of the colonists, Sir H. Robinson (September 7, 1864) suggested that, if there must be a military contribution, it had better be imposed by an Order of Her Majesty in Council.' The Secretary of State (Mr. Cardwell) subsequently agreed to take this course (August 11, 1865) if the Legislative Council should insist upon it. But when the point was discussed in Council (November 10, 1865), the Members agreed to appropriate the amount by annual vote of the local legislature.
It has been stated above that Sir J. Bowring recommended to the Lords Commissioners of H.M. Treasury the establishment in Hongkong of a Mint and the issue of a British dollar. This suggestion was publicly taken up again during Sir H. Robinson's administration and the Governor was urged (October 4, 1860) to remedy the embarrassing fluctuations in the value of the Mexican dollar, and the constant complaints of the insufficiency of small silver coins procured from England, by the local establishment of a Mint. Sir Hercules, however, hesitated to move in the matter, owing to the refusal which his predecessor's recommendations had met with. Meanwhile the currency question became more pressing. In July, 1861, clean Mexican dollars bore a premium of 7 per cent., above their intrinsic value as compared with bar and sycee silver, and subsequently reached a premium of nearly 12 per cent. which, however, fell again to 8 per cent. in spring 1863. It was felt that these excessive fluctuations of the common medium of exchange in China and Japan must tend to embarrass the operations of commerce. Sir Hercules obtained, in 1862, the sanction of the Colonial Office ​for the principle on which he proposed to base a reform of the currency of the Colony, viz. the official re-establishment of a silver standard based on the Mexican dollar. By a Royal proclamation, dated January 9, 1863, but not published until May 2, 1863, it was determined that, from a date thereafter to be notified, the former currency proclamations of 1845, 1853 and 1857 (mentioned above) should be wholly or partially cancelled, and Mexican or other silver dollars of equal value should, together with those silver coins (of Mexican standard) and bronze cents and cash (being hundredth or thousandth parts of the Mexican dollar) which were to be issued by H.M. Mint, be the only legal tender of payment in the Colony. The date here referred to was, however, not fixed until the Hongkong Mint was established (1865). But meanwhile Sir Hercules did two things: he obtained from England a supply of subsidiary coins (June 26, 1863) and set to work to move the Home Government to sanction the immediate establishment of a Mint at Hongkong. In April, 1863, the first consignment of subsidiary coins arrived. They consisted of silver ten-cent pieces, bronze cents and bronze mils (cash). The intrinsic value of the silver ten-cent pieces was such as to make $3 face value equal to $2·987 intrinsic value. With direct reference to the arguments previously advanced by the Treasury Board in condemnation of Sir J. Bowring's proposal, Sir Hercules represented to H.M. Government—that Mexican dollars now passed current in large quantities even in Shanghai; that the dollar had already been declared the only legal tender of payment in Hongkong; that the supply of Mexican dollars had become quite insufficient in consequence of the new demand for Japan; that even in the silk districts of Central China payments, formerly settled in sycee, had now to be made in undefaced Mexican dollars which were at a high premium; that consequently a British dollar of a value equal to that of the Mexican was urgently required. In consequence of these representations the Lords Commissioners of H.M. Treasury approved (April 10, 1863) of the proposal of Sir Hercules and suggested that the proposed Mint should be established in Hongkong by local ​enactment to be approved by the Queen and that it should be placed under the control and supervision of the Master of the Royal Mint with a view to assay and verification of the coin to be issued from it. Arrangements were accordingly made by Sir Hercules, the site now occupied by the East Point Sugar Refinery was appropriated for the purposes of the Mint, additional land reclaimed from the sea at a cost of £9,000, a water supply secured at a cost of $3,550, buildings commenced which cost $25,000, and a staff ordered from home. Several Ordinances were also issued, providing for the conversion of British currency in all payments by or to the Government (1 of 1864) and for the organisation of the Mint service (2 of 1864). The former of these two Ordinances ordained, with reference to the abovementioned proclamation of January 9, 1863, that, as soon as the date referred to could be fixed, all payments due in British Sterling to or by the Government should be made in dollars, cents or cash, to be issued from H.M. Mint at the rate of 4s. 2d. to the dollar.
As regards public works, the principal undertaking of this period was the so-called Victoria water-works scheme which had been under discussion during the preceding administration. Sir Hercules took it up with the vigour which characterized all his doings. He commenced by offering (October 15, 1859) a prize of $1,000 for the best plan. Several competitors entered the lists (S. G. Bird, J. Walker, S. B. Rawling) and sent in elaborate plans. The Governor referred the papers to a Committee (Lieutenant-Colonel G. F. Mann, R.E., J. J. Mackenzie, Ch. St. G. Cleverly) and adopted on their recommendation the scheme of Mr. Rawling, Clerk of Works to the Royal Engineers. This scheme proposed to construct a large reservoir at Pokfulam, to connect it by an aqueduct with two large tanks above Taipingshan and to provide thus, before the close of the year 1862, a supply of water for the western and central parts of the city at a cost of about £30,000. Tenders were immediately called for and the work commenced in 1860 under Mr. Rawling's supervision. An Ordinance (12 of 1860) was passed to empower the Governor in Council to appropriate from current revenues ​the sum of £30,000 as the works proceeded and to supply any deficiency of funds, if necessary, by mortgaging; the water rate, which anyhow was to be levied, at the rate of 2 per cent, on the gross annual value of house property, according to assessment. An imperfect estimate of the cost of the materials ordered out from England, and the substitution of cement for mortar (ordered by the Colonial Office), caused an excess over the original estimate by a considerable sum. It was not till the close of the year 1863 that the works were completed so far as to allow of the water rate being levied. The scheme was, at the time, believed to have proved a great success. But the experience of subsequent years revealed defects of construction. Moreover, as the scheme did not provide for a sufficient quantity of water (during the dry season) to provide for the wants of a rapidly growing population, and left the town east of the clocktower entirely without water, it was even at this time foreseen that this scheme afforded but temporary relief.
The Praya works were, in public estimation, considered unsatisfactory. These works, which had been commenced in a desultory way by Sir J. Bowring, and in the face of obstructions of all sorts, were energetically pushed on by Sir H. Robinson and carried out in conjunction with the Crown tenants under special arrangements with reference to the land reclaimed. Landing piers for cargo boats were also provided. The sections extending for a mile and a half west of the parade ground and for a quarter mile east of the arsenal (there being a break between) were completed in 1862. The construction having, however, proceeded piecemeal, and under incompetent (Chinese) overseers, the work was palpably deficient in solidity and, although no typhoon had touched it yet, much of the work had to be done over again in 1863. Sir H. Robinson accordingly determined to rebuild the whole Praya wall and to use this opportunity to extend the Praya seawards by reclaiming from the sea a further strip of land 100 feet in width. The Surveyor General (W. Wilson) addressed the holders of marine-lots to this effect (August 15, 1864) stating the ​necessity for re-constructing the defective and dilapidated seawall and offering to the lot-holders the land to be reclaimed in front of their respective lots free of premium, in compensation for the reclamation expenses to be borne by them. But this offer met with the same obstructiveness which had hampered Sir J. Bowring's scheme. A public meeting of lot-holders, held on 13th September, 1864, resolved to protest against the proposal of burdening the lot-holders with the reclamation expenses and declared the existing sea-wall to be good enough for public purposes. A letter to this effect was addressed to the Colonial Secretary (September 20, 1864). Controversy ensued. The Colonial Secretary not only contested that the sea-wall needed rebuilding but that its original defective construction had been caused by the obstructions which the lot-holders had placed in the way of expenditure. This charge having been energetically rebutted by the lot-holders (November 18, 1864), Sir H. Robinson announced (November 20, 1864) that the extension of the Praya wall would not be enforced where not desired by the lot-holders. Meanwhile other public works had not been neglected. A Lock Hospital was erected in 1861, close to the Civil Hospital. Shaukiwan was supplied with a police station and a school-house. A new gaol was commenced, also in the year 1861, on Stonecutters' Island. By the year 1864 a new Central Police Station, the reclamation and building works connected with the Mint, a carriage road to Shaukiwan, and the construction of Stonecutters' Island Gaol were all completed.
Police and gaol management did not advance, even in this period of general administrative vigour, beyond the stage of unsatisfactory experiments. At the close of the year 1860, the personnel of the Police Force was considered as showing no improvement and though no very great fault was found with the Police as a preventive force, the whole question was felt to be one that baffled the wits of all who were responsible for the manifestly unsatisfactory condition of the Police. Bombay and Madras were tentatively resorted to (February 8, 1861) as recruiting grounds. In January and May, 1862, ​drafts of recruits arrived from those places and the entire force was placed under the command of Captain W. Quin who had previously served in the Army and in the Bombay Police. For the convenience of the Water Police a ship was bought (April 1, 1862) to serve as a floating Police Station. In spring 1864, the Colonial Secretary, while acknowledging the intelligence and zeal of the new superintendent (W. Quin) and his assistant (J. Jarman), stated that the men of the corps, whether European or Indian, were wanting in most of the essentials of a Police Force. Bribery and corruption were particularly considered ineradicable among the Indian contingent. The right of the Police to use fire-arms, in the case of suspects refusing to stop when challenged, was judicially inquired into (July 28, 1864) when a constable, who had shot a boatman trying to escape search, was put on his trial on a charge of murder. The verdict of the jury, who viewed the case as one of justifiable homicide, was satisfactory to the Police. To stimulate zeal, regulations were made (October 25, 1864) awarding gratuities in case of special merit. Wholesale deportation of crowds of professional beggars was resorted to in summer 1864, to believe the streets from these people, who were accordingly sent back to Canton.
Before the building of the new gaol at Stonecutters' Island was sufficiently advanced to occupy any portion of it, it became necessary, in 1862, owing to the inhibition now laid on transportation to the Andaman Islands and the pressing need of a separate debtors' ward, to relieve the congested state of Victoria Gaol. Some 280 long sentence prisoners were accordingly lodged on board a hulk (Royal Saxon) anchored close to Stonecutters' Island, the quarries of which afforded occupation for the prisoners. At the same time the rules of Victoria Gaol were revised (Ordinance 4 of 1863) and an expert was obtained from England to act as gaol superintendent (Ch. Ryall). Owing to repeated escapes of gangs of prisoners, principally through the gaol drains (January 12 and March 14, 1863), a Commission was appointed (May, 1863) to inquire into the condition and working of Victoria Gaol. The convict hulk ​at Stonecutters' Island was equally unsatisfactory. Things went on well enough so long as a gunboat and a military guard were provided to guard the hulk, but when these were withdrawn, frequent attempts at rescue were made by outside associates of the prisoners. A sad accident also occurred by the upsetting of a boat, when 38 prisoners were drowned (July 23, 1863). Later on (April 21, 1864) a body of about 100 prisoners made good their escape in junks, after disabling their guards. The working of Victoria Gaol, however, appeared to improve, after the dismissal of the expert, when a new superintendent (F. Douglas) was appointed (December 12, 1863). The gaol was thenceforth popularly referred to as 'Douglas Hotel.'
The criminal history of this period presents some novel features. In January, 1860, one of the most popular compradors, Tam Achoy, distinguished himself by collecting in Hongkong an armed corps of Puntis, officered by some foreign seamen, whom he dispatched by the S.S. Sir Jamsetjee Jeejeebhoy to the San-ning District, S.W. of Macao, with a considerable supply of arms and ammunition. On arrival at San-ning, this corps of Hongkong freebooters took an active part in the internecine war going on at that time between the Punti and Hakka clans of that District. When the Hongkong Police learned that two of the foreign leaders of this buccaneering expedition had been killed in battle, Tam Achoy was arrested and charged with murder. It appeared, however, that, before sending off that expedition, Tam Achoy had given formal notice to a Government officer of his intentions and received no warning of the illegality of his proceedings. The indictment having broken down for want of evidence, Tam Achoy was advised to plead guilty of misdemeanour and was discharged with a reprimand. The peninsula of Kowloon presented for several days in August, 1862, the novel aspect of an animated battle field, as the Punti inhabitants of the neighbouring villages were engaged in a bloody warfare with the Hakka settlers at Tsimshatsui. But the most renowned crime of this period was the so-called ​opium swindle, above referred to, which was perpetrated by an Indian merchant who, with the assistance of an Englishman in charge of the opium stored in the receiving-ship Tropic, defrauded the Chartered Mercantile Bank and others of some two million dollars (July, 1862) by means of forged opium certificates. Many daring burglaries and murderous attacks were made, during this period, by armed gangs, such as the attack on the signal station at Victoria Peak (July 27, 1863), the assault made on some men in the Artillery Barracks (October 11, 1863), the murder of an Indian and his wife (January 29, 1864) and an attack made on the offices of Holliday, Wise & Co. (May 11, 1864). Hongkong was now in daily communication with Canton by American river-steamers which took Chinese passengers at 20 cents a head in 1863 and 1864. These cheap fares caused the Colony to be inundated with Chinese ruffians who considered Hongkong, with its indulgent laws and humane treatment of criminals, to afford a temptation they could not resist. But the most novel feature of the depredations resorted to by Chinese burglars at this period was the ingenuity and engineering skill displayed by the so-called drain gangs. The godowns of Smith, Archer & Co. (January 30, 1864), the jewellery store of Douglas Lapraik (May 10, 1864), and the treasure vaults of the Central Bank of Western India (February 5, 1865) were successively attacked by burglars who used the subterraneous storm-water drains as the basis of their operations and drove from these tunnels by which they undermined the floors of treasure stores. The Central Bank was in this way robbed of $63,000 in notes and £11,000 in gold ingots, some of which were found strewn about in the street on the morning of February 6, 1865.
A most deplorable series of riots, resulting in the murder of two soldiers, three seamen and a boarding-house clerk, took place on three successive days in September (12th to 14th), 1864, between Malay seamen, a body of policemen, and men of the 99th Regiment. The excitement was intense and it seemed impossible to restrain either the soldiers or the police from ​renewing the contest. The Volunteers were called out to patrol the streets (September 14, 1864), and at the request of the Governor the 99th Regiment were ordered at three hours' notice to move forthwith over to Kowloon (September 15, 1864) where a camp was hastily erected. This was done in the face of a strong medical protest and the result was that a most extraordinary amount of mortality decimated the troops encamped on the site of which the Military Authorities had robbed the Colony.
Piracy flourished throughout the administration of Sir H. Robinson and the number of cases in which the pirates, disdaining the less remunerative attacks on native junks, successfully plundered foreign vessels, appears to be rather a distinguishing feature of this period. The Taiping rebellion was by this time extinguished in South China and the Cantonese coastguard resumed again its former function as a preventive force, but it was unable to make headway, without steam cruisers, against the better equipped piratical fleets. Numbers of piracies were reported in Hongkong in autumn (September to November) 1859, by owners of native junks. Few piracies occurred in 1860. But in May, 1861, the brig North Star was attacked some four miles off Hongkong. The captain, some of the officers and crew, and a passenger were murdered. Seven months later, the Dutch schooner Henriette Louise was plundered, just outside the Lyee-moon, by pirates who wounded the captain and some of the crew (January 2, 1862). Three weeks after this outrage, the British brig Imogene was plundered and burned (January 23, 1862) by pirates, five of whom were subsequently (March 6, 1862) convicted of murder and executed. Next, the British schooner Eagle was plundered near Green Island by pirates, who were under the leadership of an Englishman (April 18, 1862). The captain and some of the crew were murdered. Soon after, the S.S. Iron Prince when on her way to Macao, was attacked by pirates disguised as passengers. They murdered two of the crew. The captain, officers and European passengers were all wounded in a protracted fight, at close quarters, for the possession ​of the steamer. Happily the pirates were finally overpowered and four of them captured, the vessel owing her safety principally to the foresight and heroic conduct of her master, Captain Harris. Next year (April 8, 1863) the Government offered a reward of $1,000 for information leading to the arrest of certain lawless persons, English and American, employed on hoard of piratical junks in the neighburhood of Hongkong and Formosa. This notification had no effect. The American barque Bertha was unsuccessfully attacked by pirates near Stonecutters' Island (July 22, 1863); six months later (January 28, 1864) some pirates attacked the Danish brig Chico and murdered some of her crew, and on February 5th, 1865, the Spanish brig Nuevo Lepanto was captured by pirates near Lantao.
As to the commercial history of this period, one of its principal landmarks is the formation (May 29, 1861) of the Hongkong Chamber of Commerce. It was to be the aim of this institution, to guard the liberties and interests of local commerce and to procure, without any interference with the freedom of the port, reliable commercial statistics. Various nationalities were represented among the members of the Chamber, and the Committee elected at the first annual meeting (April 23, 1862) included American (D. Delano), German (D. Nissen) and Parsee (T. B. Buxey) merchants. One of the first topics which occupied the attention of the Chamber of Commerce was a subject which for some years previous had been a burning question of the day, viz. the establishment by the Chinese Government of the Imperial Maritime Customs Service, under Mr. H. N. Lay. When this scheme was first mooted, four Hongkong firms (Dent, Fletcher, Turner and Birley) protested strongly against what they considered a needless superaddition upon the Consular Service and from the working of which, under Chinese supervision but in separation from the native Chinese Customs Service, they expected interference with the freedom of commerce to result. Some Canton firms joined this protest under the supposition that the effect of the scheme would be to drive the import trade from Canton to Hongkong and to confine the export trade to Macao. ​When Mr. Lay commenced the operation of the new Customs Service at Canton (October 14, 1859), the United States Consul (O. H. Perry) objected to Mr. Lay's regulations, or rather to certain threats of penalties contained in their original edition, as an illegal interference with the American river-steamers. Those regulations were, however, at once revised, approved by the British and American Ministers and sullenly submitted to by the mercantile communities of Canton and Hongkong. The seizure by the new Customs Office of the Portuguese S.S. Shamrock (November, 1859), on a charge of smuggling, renewed the excitement. So great was the general antipathy prevailing in Hongkong against this Chinese Customs Service (from the control of which, however, the junk trade of Hongkong remained exempt), that the forcible and unlawful resistance which the captain of the barque Chin Chin offered to seizure by the foreign Customs Officers in Swatow (March, 1860) was unhesitatingly justified by a Hongkong jury, although a native employee of the Customs was killed in the mêlée. Shortly after the Hongkong Chamber of Commerce had been established, a special meeting (August 2, 1861) took the whole subject of the Tientsin Treaty and the new Inspectorate of Customs into consideration, and eventually memorialized H.M. Minister at Peking who soon after (October 30, 1861) issued regulations regarding transit dues, exemption certificates and coast trade, which conceded the main points for which the Chamber of Commerce had contended.
Local Post Office regulations also attracted the watchful eye of the Chamber. Some transitory excitement was caused by proceedings taken (September, 1862) against the master of the American S.S. Firecracker, who was fined for detaining a portion of the mail brought on by him from Mauritius. More serious was the attempt made by Sir H. Robinson (early in 1863) to secure the sanction of the Legislative Council for a Bill intended to give to the Post Office the right, not only to compel vessels of all nationalities to carry mails without compensation, but also to search and detain any vessel on account of contraband letters. The Chamber stoutly resisted this Bill as an interference ​with the spirit of free trade and the view thus taken by the Chamber met even with the support of the Chief Justice. Thanks to the energetic remonstrance addressed to the Governor in Council by the chairman of the Chamber (J. Macandrew), the Bill was thrown out (February 5, 1863) by a majority. The introduction of postage stamps (December 8, 1862) was hailed by the community with little satisfaction. On the contrary, serious apprehension of inconvenience and confusion, supposed to be the inevitable consequence of the compulsory use of postage stamps, filled the mind of the community. This first issue of Hongkong postage stamps consisted of stamps of the respective value of two, eight, twelve, eighteen, twenty-four, and forty-eight cents, reckoned at twenty-four cents to the shilling. Some confusion did arise, at first, as the previous practice of keeping running accounts with the Post Office had to be discontinued; but the Postmaster-General (F. W. Mitchell) did everything in his power to smooth matters and the community quietly submitted to this very unpopular innovation. As regards the conveyance of mails, the Secretary of State gave satisfaction to the community by making an order (October, 1862) that thenceforth no contract mail packets should, under any circumstances, be detained, except on the authority of the Governor, acting on his own responsibility, upon occasions of special urgency. An attempt, made by the Superintendent of Native Customs (Hoppo) at Canton, to induce the Foreign Customs Service to levy duties on cargo shipped in Hongkong for England, by vessels which, after partially loading in Hongkong, proceeded to Whampoa to fill up, was successfully resisted by the Chamber of Commerce (December, 1860), through the energetic action of H.M. Consul at Canton (Ch. A. Winchester).
Several new commercial ventures, started during this period, gave expression to the enterprising spirit which animated the community, both native and foreign. The native boat-building trade particularly, rose, during the year 1850, sevenfold over what it was in 1858, and fishing junks increased from 2,000 to 2,500. In the year 1860 a movement was set on foot to ​light the city with gas through a Company formed in London. Next year, however, a hitch occurred in the negotiations between the local promoters of the Gas Company and the directors in London, and doubts were entertained of an understanding being arrived at. The Colonial Secretary (W. T. Mercer) subsequently stated that interested individuals had misled the community and caused opposition but that he set the community right on the subject and removed all obstacles. The city was for the first time lighted with gas on November 12, 1864. There remained, however, a general complaint that the directors in London had allotted an unduly small number of shares (70 only) to local applicants, and this emphazised the regret felt by the public that the gas works had not been started by a purely local Company. In January, 1863, the first strong timber pier in Hongkong was erected, at Spring Gardens, for the godowns of McGregor & Co. All former piers had been built of bamboo. This timber pier, jutting out into Wantsai Bay to a distance of 250 feet, gave at low water a depth of 26 feet. The Aberdeen Docks, which were commenced under the preceding administration, were kept fully at work from 1860 to 1863. A new Dock for the use of H.M. Navy having been approved by the Admiralty (January 22, 1863), a site was purchased (November 16, 1864) at Hunghom, on the Kowloon Peninsula, for the nominal sum of $50, by a Union Dock Company which was formed to work the existing and projected docks and proved the beginning of a large establishment, growing in importance from year to year. But there is yet another institution, of equal importance, to be mentioned which likewise originated during this fruitful period. In July, 1864, the firm of Dent & Co. issued the prospectus of the newly formed Hongkong & Shanghai Banking Company (to be incorporated by charter) with a capital of five million dollars in 20,000 shares of $250 each. The fact that this new venture was undertaken when there were already six Banking Institutions in the Colony, viz. the Agra and United Service Bank (Henry Noble), the Central Bank of Western India (W. M. Davidson), ​the Chartered Bank of India, Australia and China (A. Hay Anderson), the Chartered Mercantile Bank of India, London and China (W. Ormiston), the Commercial Bank of India (P. R. Harper), and the Oriental Bank Corporation (W. Lamond), indicates the views then taken of the growing prosperity of Hongkong. The broad international basis on which this new banking enterprise was constructed is observable from the names of the merchants who formed the provisional committee of the Hongkong & Shanghai Bank, viz. F. Chomley, A. F. Heard, Thomas Sutherland, G. F. Maclean, D. Lapraik, W. Nissen, H. B. Lemann, W. Schmidt, A. Sassoon, R. Brand, Pallanjee Framjee, W. Adamson, G. J. Helland, and Rustomjee Dhunjeeshaw. This new bank, whose first manager (V. Kresser) entered upon his duties on January 1, 1865, was the first to profit by the Limited Liability provisions of the Trading Companies' Ordinance (1 of 1865).
During the first four years of this period (1859 to 1862) the stream of Chinese emigrants, paying their own passage, continued to flow forth from Hongkong at an average rate of 12,166 emigrants per annum. Contract emigration was, since the year 1859, almost entirely confined to Macao or Whampoa, the only exception being the shipment of Chinese coolies to British Colonies. In September, 1861, an attempt was made to ship coolies under contract to some other place, but the Police seized the ship and liberated the coolies. The emigration agent for the British West Indies (J. Gardiner Austin) succeeded in securing (November 15, 1859), through the influence of Protestant missionaries, numbers of Chinese families for Demerara, whereas it had previously been asserted that Chinese women could not be induced to emigrate. As many as 2,756 respectable Chinese women were (with their husbands and children) shipped from Hongkong during those four years, and mostly to the West Indies. Unfortunately, however, San Francisco took advantage of this new departure and sent thenceforth for annually increasing numbers of single Chinese women, most of whom were probably required for immoral ​purposes. In August, 1862, the Hongkong Office of the British West Indies' emigration agent was closed and the business transferred to Canton, to admit of more searching supervision of the modes in which the coolies were procured. But, owing to this measure, the number of Chinese emigrants, annually shipped from Hongkong, fell from 10,421 in 1862, to 7,809 in 1860, and to 6,607 in 1864. In the year 1863 the number of emigrants leaving Hongkong was equalled by the number of those who returned from abroad. These returning emigrants generally brought considerable quantities of gold or gold dust into the Colony. In the year 1861 one single ship (Minerva) brought from Melbourne 350 Chinese coolies possessing gold of the aggregate value of £43,000. In the same year as many as 2,370 Chinese were shipped, as free emigrants, to India, and emigration to Tahiti commenced as a new venture.
The shipping returns of the year 1861, shewing a decrease of 217,003 tons, as compared with the returns of the preceding year, do not indicate any real falling off of the shipping trade of the Colony. On the contrary, those returns show an increase of 31,660 tons when compared with the returns of 1859. The difference is explained by the extraordinary increase of the shipping business occasioned, in the year 1860, by commissariat, and transport services connected with the war in North China. It may also be noted that the American tonnage decreased in 1861 while British shipping took a proportionate bound in advance, owing to the effects of the Peking Convention which extended the scope of British commerce in China. Owing to the frequency of ships being wrecked on the Pratas Shoals, application had been made in 1860 to the Home Government regarding the erection of lighthouses on those rocks, but the Board of Trade declined (May 2, 1861) to move in the matter.
The somewhat Utopian scheme of connecting Calcutta with Canton and Kowloon by a railway, was brought under the consideration of the Chamber of Commerce (June 30, 1859) by Sir MacDonald Stephenson who subsequently, after the completion of his railway undertakings in India, visited ​Hongkong and exhibited (February 28, 1864) a wall map illustrating his scheme of connecting Calcutta, Hongkong and Peking by a railway. The question whether such a railway would benefit or injure the interests of the Colony was much debated. Sir M. Stephenson's scheme was, however, entirely premature and met with no encouragement on the part of the Chinese Government. At the close of the year 1861 arrangements were made to get the commerce of the Colony worthily represented at the Crystal Palace Exhibition of 1862. A Committee (Dr. Ivor Murray, J. J. Mackenzie, J. D. Gibb, W. Walkinshaw, and Dr. W. Kane) was officially appointed and forwarded to London a considerable number of articles fairly illustrating the principal features of local trade. The starting of the French Messageries Maritimes line of mail steamers (January 1, 1863) caused a material increase in the facility and rapidity of communication with Europe. The monopoly which the Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company had held as mail carriers was now ended and the competition benefitted the public in a variety of ways. Communication with Canton was also improved, during this period, by the enterprise of two local American firms (Russell & Co. and Augustin Heard & Co.) which vied with each other, since 1859, in providing for the Hongkong and Canton trade roomy palatial river-steamers which ran both night and day (White Cloud and Kinshan). Since December, 1863, Hongkong was also placed in regular steam communication with North-Borneo and some business was done by importing coal from Labuan. In the tea trade a new departure was made in 1864 by forwarding, as an experiment, 5,000 pounds of tea by the overland route to England.
The problem involved in the sanitation of the Colony was left by Sir H. Robinson in the hopeless condition in which he found it. The outbreak, in Hongkong, of several epidemics and the fear of cholera invading the Colony from abroad necessitated some action. But it led to nothing further than the appointment, in 1862, of a health officer of the port (Dr. L. Richardson), the allotment of Green Island as a ​quarantine station, and the appointment of a Commission productive of reports which led to nothing. In the year 1859 a mild epidemic of ophthalmia appeared in the gaol and rapidly spread throughout the Colony, attacking both natives and Europeans. As it also appeared at Canton, Amoy and Foochow, it was thought that it had been caused by atmospheric rather than local agencies, But in November, 1859, the Colony was threatened by an epidemic of diphtheria which, however, was happily limited to 10 cases and of these only two proved fatal. It was noted that the summer of 1859 was unusually severe as there was, previous to 4th June, a continuous drought of almost eight months' duration and the thermometer was for several weeks at an average height of 90 degrees. During the next two years (1860 and 1861) the health of the Colony was exceptionally good, and it is noteworthy that both years were stated to have been conspicuous for the absence of violent extremes of temperature. The long talked-of scheme of a medical sanatorium, to be established on Victoria Peak, was at last carried out but did not receive a fair trial. At the recommendation of the principal medical officer of the station, the Military Authorities opened, in spring 1862, a well-built sanatorium on the plateau below the flag-staff and filled it with patients (of an unsuitable class). But, before the close of the year, the military doctors condemned the scheme as a manifest failure, on the ground that nearly every case sent up had been attacked with diarrhoea of an intractable nature and that all medical cases had been aggravated rather than improved. The fate which had pursued the Island as a whole, and the Kowloon Peninsula in particular, asserted its power also as to the first settlements on the Peak: the first occupation produced disease, and patience and discretion were required to overcome the difficulty. It took years before Peak residence, strongly advocated by Mr. Granville Sharp, who took a lease of the deserted sanatorium, rose into favour. A small epidemic of cholera (25 cases) broke out in the gaol on October 17, 1862, but did not spread farther. Owing to the outbreak of cholera ​in Shanghai, the Governor appointed (December 29, 1862) a Sanitary Commission (Chief Justice Ball, Colonel Moody, Surveyor General Cleverly, Hon. J. J. Mackenzie, Doctors Murray, Home and Mackay, with H. Holmes as Secretary). This Commission was in session all through the year 1863. The Commissioners became the object of much ridicule when they offered (March 9, 1863) a prize of $400 for the best scheme for the drainage of the town, without fixing a limit of expenditure. It was generally considered that the paltry reward offered was on a par with the understanding the Commissioners appeared to have of the gigantic nature of the problem involved. The year 1864 afforded, however, evidence, satisfactory to the Government, of the continued healthiness of the Colony, and it was pointed out that the Police Force, though more exposed than any other body of men in Hongkong, enjoyed remarkable immunity from disease.
The paralysis which, during the preceeding period, had come over the educational movement among Protestants and Catholics, was succeeded, from the commencement of the administration of Sir H. Robinson, by an extraordinary revival of energy. On the Protestant side. Bishop Smith started (in 1859) the Diocesan Native Training School, which had a prosperous career until the close of the present period and was located (in autumn, 1863) in the newly-erected buildings on Bonham Road. St. Paul's College also received a new lease of life under the tuition of Mr. (subsequently Dr.) J. Fryer and prospered as long as he remained in charge. Quite a new branch of educational work was started (in 1861) by Miss Baxter who, beside much Samaritan activity among all classes of the community and valuable zenana-work among Chinese women, commenced to labour for the education of the Eurasian children in the Colony. For this purpose Miss Baxter established, in Mosque Terrace and in Staunton Street, schools which were subsequently amalgamated and located in Baxter House on Bonham Road (now No. 8 Police Station). At the same time Miss Magrath laboured in a similar direction, while Miss Legge and the ladies of the Berlin Foundling House ​were engaged in the education of Chinese girls. Taking a more prominent position, and striking out a new path, Dr. Legge came forward as an educational reformer. During the preceding administration he had closed his Anglo-Chinese College as an acknowledged failure in the line of religious Anglo-Chinese education. He now set to work, with the support of Sir H. Robinson, to convert all the Government Schools, which had hitherto been conducted in the interest of religious education, into professedly secular institutions. To begin with, the Government Gazette announced (January 21, 1860) the formation of a new Board of Education for the management of the Government Schools. Dr. Legge was thenceforth, though Bishop Smith retained the nominal chairmanship, the presiding spirit of this Board and ruled it with the ease and grace of a born bishop. In the absence of Bishop Smith, and after obtaining the resignation of the missionary Inspector of Schools (Rev. W. Lobscheid), the new Board took up (July 3, 1860) Dr. Legge's plan of merging the Inspectorate of Schools in the Headmastership of a grand Central School, which was to become the centre of secular education, and delivering the Government Schools from the bondage of St. Paul's College and its Bishop. It was essentially a non-conformist liberation scheme which preferred secularism to episcopalianism. Sir H. Robinson approved (January 9, 1861) this plan of Dr. Legge, which Sir J. Bowring had previously refused to take up. The Legislative Council also endorsed the scheme (March 25, 1861) and sanctioned the purchase and enlargement of premises (in Gough Street). These were forthwith filled with some 200 Chinese boys, by the amalgamation of three existing Government Schools which thus constituted the new Government Central School. A Headmaster and Inspector of Schools, who was to be kept for some years in the leading strings of the Board, was procured (February 18, 1862) in the person of Mr. (subsequently Dr.) F. Stewart, from Scotland, with the approval of Bishop Smith. Dr. Stewart thenceforth laboured, for the next sixteen years, as the faithful disciple of Dr. Legge, to maintain the reign of secularism in the sphere of ​local education. Under his disciplinarian regime the Government Central School gradually became a highly popular institution and retained its hold upon public favour so long as it bore the impress of Dr. Stewart's own personality. But the establishment of this Central School was the ruin of the once equally popular St. Andrew's School, latterly under the tuition of Mr. J. Kemp. On the site of St. Andrew's School, closed in 1861, Dr. Legge erected his new Union Church which was removed thither from Hollywood Road in July, 1863.
This remarkable revival of educational zeal among the Protestant leaders was aided, and to some extent outstripped, since 1860, by a contemporaneous renewal of educational energy on the Roman Catholic side. The newly arrived Father (subsequently Bishop) T. Raimondi occupied at once among Catholic educationists the same prominent and fruitful position which Dr. Legge, whom he much resembled also in character and shrewdness, occupied among the Protestants. Bishop Raimondi, however, became the strongest opponent in the Colony of that educational secularism which Dr. Legge had established and to which the Protestant missionaries meekly submitted for many years thereafter. From the time of Bishop Raimondi's arrival, the English R. C. Schools, which had previously commenced to supply local offices with English-speaking Portuguese clerks, redoubled their efforts. The Italian and French Convents also extended their operations in the line of female education and an industrial Reformatory for vagabond children and juvenile offenders, which the Chief Justice (January, 1863) had pointed out as one of the great wants of the Colony, was started by Bishop Raimondi (September, 1864) and removed in the following year to more commodious premises erected on ground granted by the Government (March 24, 1865) at West Point.
The Hongkong Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society was felt (in 1859) to be in a moribund condition. After some ineffectual attempts made by Dr. Legge to revive a general interest in sinological studies, the local Branch was wound up and its ​valuable library embodied in that of the equally moribund Morrison Education Society. Both libraries were stored at the London Mission Printing Office. The Morrison Education Society continued to exist for a few years longer in the form of a Committee administering, for purposes of religious education, the funds ($13,000) still in hand, and distinguished itself (December, 1860) by a narrow partisan spirit in excluding from support the schools of a missionary (Dr. A. Happer) who had given offence to a member of the Committee (J. Jardine) by inaccurate statements concerning the percentage of opium smokers in China. Dr. Legge made a last but futile effort to extend the scope of the Society by appealing to the public (December 27, 1861) for additional subscriptions.
St. John's Cathedral was enriched (in 1860) by the erection of a good organ which was inaugurated (December 25, 1860) under the direction of the newly arrived organist (C. F. A. Sangster) who soon after organized and trained an efficient choir which has been maintained ever since. Consequent upon the retirement of Bishop Smith, the Legislative Council voted (September 13, 1864) for the Bishop of Victoria a pension of £300 per annum. A suggestion was, however, embodied in this vote to the effect that the Home Government should pay half of the sum on the ground that the Bishop's services had been devoted as much to Imperial as to local interests. The charity of the community was strongly manifested (in 1862 and 1863) by a unanimous endeavour to afford all possible relief to the Lancashire and Cheshire operatives thrown out of employment in consequence of the cotton famine caused by the outbreak of the American war. All classes of foreign residents agreed to give, in addition to special donations, a regular monthly contribution of $2 per head. Special collections were made in all places of worship and concerts were given by amateurs of all nationalities to swell the funds. In this manner a sum of $15,000 was raised and forwarded to the Mansion House Committee in London in September, 1862, and further contributions amounting in the aggregate to $11,162 were ​dispatched in January and March, 1863, Mr. D. Lapraik acting as Honorary Treasurer. On the other hand an official appeal by the London Committee of the Shakespeare Memorial Fund (October 16, 1863) for monetary contributions met with scant response on the part of the community, although Sir H. Robinson strongly supported the movement. The community of Hongkong, while holding Shakespeare's memory as sacred as a king's, had their own ideas as to how to pay tribute to the English King whom no time or chance or Parliament can dethrone and how to preserve the memory of the one who is 'a monument without a tomb and is alive still while his book doth live.' It was noteworthy, but not noticed at the time, that this appeal to the community was signed by Richard Graves MacDonnell, as one of the London Committee's Secretaries, who perhaps himself did not anticipate the fact, any more than the colonists, that he was to be their next Governor.
Hongkong's social life was, in the early part of this period, more or less affected by the excitements and the influx of strangers connected with the renewal of the war with China. The defeat of the British fleet at the Peiho (June 25, 1859), while it depressed the foreign community of Hongkong, appeared to evoke no feeling of any sort among the Chinese population. Indeed, those Chinese who gave any thought to the matter, seemed rather to regret this temporary success of Mandarin treachery. But the capture of Peking in 1860 and particularly the flight of the Emperor, whose tablet has ever since been removed from the altar of his ancestors, was felt by all but Triad Society partisans as a national disgrace. In the early part of the year 1860, the Kowloon camp with its military parades, and most particularly the war games and evolutions performed by Probyn's Horse, were an object of general attraction for sightseers, both native and foreign. The return of the Allied troops in November and December, 1860, gave to Hongkong society for a while quite a martial aspect. By a grand levée held by Lord Elgin at Government House (January 10, ​1861), and by the ceremony of handing over Kowloon Peninsula to the British Crown (January 19, 1861), the leading spirits of the war period bade farewell to the Colony. Before the close of January, 1861, the expedition had departed and when the small force left in occupation of Canton city (until October 21, 1861) likewise left for Europe, the social life of Hongkong resumed its ordinary aspects. Club life, however, encountered during this period some lively disturbances. The Hongkong Club had been established to promote the interchange of good feeling among the representatives of the Civil Service, the Army and Navy, and the mercantile community, and to receive strangers visiting Hongkong. Nevertheless it happened occasionally, and in the years 1859 and 1860 with distressing frequency, that persons were blackballed who from their social or official position had a claim to admission. This caused much animated dissension. In April 1860, the Club Committee made a rule, requiring cash payment in the case of naval officers, which might have remained harmless, but when a public paper indiscreetly discussed the matter and stated that this rule had been occasioned by an enormous amount of bad debts burdening the Club finances, a little tempest arose. The naval officers on the station assembled in full force (April 18, 1860) and demanded of the Committee the names of naval officers, whose bills remained unpaid, with a view to their liquidation. When the Committee refused to give up the names, the naval officers withdrew from the Club in a body, the military officers also threatened to withdraw, and dissensions dragged on till the close of the year, when the dispute was at last amicably settled (December, 1860). A fresh disturbance of Club life arose, in 1864, in connection with the riots between sailors, soldiers and police. The Volunteer Corps was called out to take the place of the military in patrolling the streets. It so happened, on the evening of 14th September, 1864, that the Volunteer Corps, on returning from patrol duty, was made to fall out in front of the Club. Some of the members of the Club invited their friends among the Volunteers to join them in some ​refreshments. It was a breach of the rules, which the patriotic duties of the Volunteers might have excused, but when the intruders from among the Volunteers were forthwith hooted out of the Club, there ensued an extraordinary amount of animosities which for a long time after this incident lacerated social life within and without the Club.
Sports flourished during this period. The Victoria Regatta Club, which had been virtually extinct, was revived (June 28, 1860), under the leadership of Mr. T. G. Linstead. The Racing Club was also re-animated by the interest that Sir H. Robinson took in the annual races which, in February 1861, closed with a Government House Ball in addition to the usual subscription Ball. In January, 1862, racing men were much stirred up by the question of excluding from the annual races all professional riders or jockeys. Renewed excitement was called forth, in October, 1864, by a request which Sir H. Robinson addressed to the Racing Club Committee, to rail off a box in the Grand Stand for his own use at the next meeting. After much discussion, this request was refused by the Committee as unusual and out of keeping with the democratic spirit and purpose underlying the national institution of horse racing. Athletic sports for sailors and soldiers were first held on a large scale on the race course on 16th March, 1860, and by the encouragement which Lady Robinson gave to this movement it became, like the Garrison Sports, a popular annual festival. At the instance of some members of the German Club, which, under the directorship of Mr. W. Nissen became a popular factor of social life, an international Gymnasium Committee was formed (November 24, 1862) and a matshed gymnasium was erected near the. racket court on military ground. A novel and most singular sport was occasioned (February 1860) by the appearance in the harbour of a stray whale which was forthwith chased with improvised harpoons and pursued far out to sea by crowds of amateur whalers.
Dramatic and musical pursuits were not neglected. The Garrison Theatre was, as during the preceding period, frequently ​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 ​(March 21, 1863), and the public rejoicing (February 29, 1864) which the news of the birth of the Prince of Wales' first son occasioned.
Chinese social life was, at the beginning of the year 1861, much agitated by a general mania for gambling, which occasioned grave dissensions. Clan fights even were indulged in, owing to gambling house quarrels. The evil was so widespread that the mass of local shopkeepers petitioned the Governor (June, 1861) to suppress the extensive gambling which, they said, was going on in every part of the town with the connivance of the Police. Chinese servants in European employ were likewise giving an unusual amount of trouble in connection with this gambling mania. Sir H. Robinson, shrinking from the idea of grappling with the source of the evil in the line proposed by Sir J. Bowring, and knowing no solution of this knotty social problem, publicly suggested (in 1862) that a remedy for the systematic dishonesty of native domestics be sought in the establishment of a registry of servants. An attempt was actually made in this direction, but, as on all subsequent occasions, registration was resisted by the natives and failed to gain the confidence of the public. An attempt made (March 31, 1864) to remove the general complaints against Chinese washermen by the establishment of a French laundry met unfortunately with persistent opposition on the part of Chinese dhobies and with insufficient encouragement on the part of the public.
One of the healthiest and most useful exhibitions of public spirit that Hongkong ever witnessed was the Volunteer movement of the year 1862. Two years before, the idea of starting a rifle corps had been suggested by a letter published in the China Mail (January 31, 1860). But it was not till January, 1862, that active steps were taken, resulting in a public meeting held at the Court House (March 1, 1862). This meeting resolved to establish a Volunteer Corps and moved the Government to sanction by Ordinance (2 of 1862) the enrolment of any resident of Hongkong, irrespective of nationality. Captain (subsequently Lieutenant-Colonel) F. Brine, R.E., was appointed ​commandant and the first officers elected by the members of the Corps were W. Kane, R. B. Baker, J. M. Frazer, and J. Dodd. A battery of artillery was first organised. Later on (December, 1862) a band was formed. In spring, 1863, a rifle corps was added and in December, 1864, Volunteers were enrolled from among the foreign residents at Canton in a rifle company attached to the Hongkong Corps. The Government sanctioned (February 7, 1863) an annual outlay of £195 on condition of there being at least 75 effective Members of the Corps. The Volunteers made their first festive appearance in public on 16th February, 1863, on the occasion of the presentation of colours (by Mrs. W. T. Mercer) and of a silver bugle (by Mrs. Brine), when Bishop Smith acted as Honorary Chaplain of the Corps. The ceremony was followed by an inauguration dinner held at St. Andrew's school-room and presided over by the Administrator (W. T. Mercer). To keep up the enthusiasm, in spite of the discouragement arising from the apathy which the heads of mercantile firms displayed towards the movement, rifle competitions were organized (April 6 and 7, 1865), when the first medal of the British National Rifle Association was won by Mr. H. J. Holmes and testimonials were presented to the Honorary Musketry Instructor, Lieutenant K. D. Tanner, and to the Drill Instructor, Corporal Goodall, R.A. The Corps also took part in the Queen's Birthday Parade in May, 1863. The spirit of the Corps increased with its numbers throughout the years 1863 and 1864. Subscription cups were frequently shot for. A march-out to the Happy Valley, with firing practice in the presence of the Governor and a large assembly (March 8, 1861) and particularly an armed expedition to Macao (November 19 to 21, 1861) undertaken in response to a courteous invitation by the Portuguese Governor (Isidoro F. Guimaraes), infused fresh life into the Corps. On 5th December, 1864, Lady Robinson distributed at the Public Gardens the prizes won at a public rifle competition, including the National Rifle Association medal (won by Sergeant Moore). At the close of this period the strength of the Corps was as follows, viz. Band 25, Artillery ​84, Rifles (including the Canton detachment) 91, honorary members 67, total 267 men. The officers of the Corps at this time were Major Scott (22nd Regiment), A. Coxon, H. J. Tripp, H. Cohen, H. J. Hohnes, W. J. Henderson, F. I. Hazeland and T. G. Linstead.
The erection of a Clock Tower, a City Hall and a Sailors' Home constitutes another exhibition of the public spirit that animated the community at this time. At the suggestion of Mr. J. Dent, a public meeting (July 28, 1860) took into consideration the proposal to erect by public subscription a clock tower (80 feet high) with town clock and fire bell, the tower to be connected with a drinking- fountain, and arrangements were also to be made for the dropping of a time ball. A Committee was appointed (J. Brodersen, J. H. Beckwith, D. Lapraik, G. Lyall, C. St. G. Cleverly) to collect subscriptions, which at first flowed in generously. Delay in the execution of the scheme soon caused the enthusiasm to cool down, subscriptions stopped, the scheme had to be curtailed, all the decorative features of the original pretty design had to be abandoned, and the result was an ugly tower obstructing the principal thoroughfare. Mr. D. Lapraik came generously to the rescue of the Committee and provided, at his own cost, the town clock, which sounded for the first time on new year's eve (December 31, 1862), ushering in the year 1863. Mr. J. Dent also stepped in and erected, apart from the Clock Tower, a drinking fountain (December 15, 1863) which now graces the front of the City Hall. The dropping of a time ball had to be indefinitely postponed. The Government, however, took over (May 22, 1863) the maintenance of the tower and its clock. At the close of the year 1861, the erection of a 'Theatre and Assembly Room' was publicly discussed, a provisional Committee was appointed to make all preliminary arrangements and plans were exhibited at the Club in October 1862, calculated on an expenditure of $34,000. The name of the 'City Hall,' and the combination in one building of a theatre, a library and a suite of assembly rooms, having been agreed upon, the Government ​made a free grant of the site (February 23, 1864). At a public meeting (May 19, 1864) it was stated that a sum of $20,000 had been obtained by donations, subscriptions and concerts; that, a further sum of $80,000 being required, shares had been offered at $100 each; that Mr. Robert Jardine had generously taken up shares to the amount of $50,000, and that there remained shares of the face value of $30,000 to be taken up by the public. As in the case of this City Hall, so in the case of Sailors' Home, the heads of the firm of Jardine, Matheson & Co. distinguished themselves by their princely liberality. Recognizing the duty incumbent on those who mainly benefit by the sailor's industry and toil, to consider and care for his welfare, Mr. Joseph Jardine, seconded by his brother, Mr. Robert Jardine, started a scheme for the erection of a Sailors' Home and set aside for the purpose at first $20,000. The community of Hongkong supplemented this sum by liberal donations and the Government eventually (July 5, 1861) gave a fine site at West Point. A public meeting, held at the Club (February 4, 1861), elected Trustees (A. Fletcher, C. W. Murray, J. D. Gibb, J. Heard, W. Walkinshaw, D. Lapraik, R. H. Reddie, H. T. Thomsett, Rev. W. R. Beach) and called for further subscriptions. After an attempt to obtain the site of the present Horse Repository had failed, building operations commenced in 1862 at West Point. Meanwhile, however, public interest slackened and subscriptions ceased flowing in. By the time the building was opened (January 31, 1863) by Sir H. Robinson and Mr. J. Whittall, the funds were exhausted. The Government refused (May 14, 1863) to give a grant and difficulties multiplied. In autumn, 1864, Mr. Robert Jardine gave a further donation of $25,000 in aid of the fund and undertook to carry on the Home at his own expense for three years. It was hoped that by the end of that time the public would once more come forward and maintain the institution by annual public subscriptions.
The successful expansion of private and public enterprise by which this period is distinguished, and the extraordinary prosperity which the Colony in general enjoyed at this time, ​resulted in a considerable extension of the city in size and beauty, Hongkong having now no equal in China with regard to health and comfort. Most of the vacant building lots within easy distance of the city were now built over and, though the city did not extend further to the eastward, the western suburbs were considerably expanded and numerous European residences were erected on the hill side near West Point. In 1860 and 1861 the Chinese settlement at Shaukiwan grew largely in importance as a depot for the exportation of salt fish. Owing to the delay in the settlement of the Kowloon land dispute, and in consequence of the doubts entertained as to the sanitary aspects of Peak residence, general attention was directed to Pokfulam where an ornamental villa settlement had been started by this time (1862) around Douglas Castle, in the vain hope of securing there a public health resort. Sir H. Robinson, however, had more faith in the Peak. He had a path cut (December, 1859) which led to the top of Victoria Peak and. after recovering from the Military Authorities the site of their abandoned Sanatorium, arrangements were made, in March 1860, for the erection on that site of a bungalow for the use of the Governor. The laying out of the Public Gardens, on the rising ground directly south of Government House, was undertaken by the Surveyor General's Department at the sole expense of the Government. Mr. Th. Donaldson was appointed (October 7, 1861) Curator, seeds and plants were procured from Australia and England and, on the completion of the work, the Gardens were thrown open to the public under certain regulations (August 6, 1864). In October, 1864, the military band commenced giving promenade concerts in the Public Gardens at stated intervals. It was noticed, in 1864, that a general increase had taken place in the vegetative surroundings of the town, and that the increased attention, given to the cultivation of trees along the public roads and around European dwellings on the hill side, had already done very much to displace the pristine barrenness of the site on which the city was built by patches of beautiful shrubbery.
​The literary activities of the Colony were manifested by the publication, in Hongkong, of Sir T. Wade's Hsin-ching-lu, a work on the Mandarin Dialect (June, 1859), by the issue of a Chinese edition of the Daily Press (1860), and especially by the appearance, through the liberal patronage of the firm of Jardine, Matheson & Co., of the first volume of Dr. Legge's translation and commentary of the Chinese Classics (May, 1861). The botany of Hongkong was scientifically explored by Mr. G. Bentham, who published the results (in 1861) in a volume entitled Flora Hongkongensis and dedicated to Sir H. Robinson. A few years later (in 1865), Mr. T. W. Kingsmill published, in the Journal of the North China Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, a detailed notice of the geological features of the Island.
The administration of Sir H. Robinson encountered a moderate number of public disasters. A typhoon which passed (August 15, 1859) to the S.E. of Hongkong, causing but slight damage in the Colony, was succeeded two months later (October 13, 1859) by another typhoon which destroyed most of the wharves and piers, caused some collisions in the harbour, and damaged the roofs of many houses, but it was not accompanied by loss of life. The disappearance, about this time, of the schooner Mazeppa, which was lost with every soul on board (October, 1859), led to a judicial inquiry, on the basis of an action for libel preferred by the owners, into the allegation that the vessel had left Hongkong in an unseaworthy condition. The allegation was proved to be false, though, owing to the contradictory nature of the evidence, not without causing social altercations which at the time convulsed a section of the community. A terrible rain storm broke over the Colony in the following year (August 18, 1860) and not only burst most of the drains, but caused the collapse of some houses in the Canton Bazaar (in Hawan) which involved the death of five persons. A typhoon, suddenly passing the Colony on 27th July, 1862, caused a considerable loss of life, and by an extraordinarily heavy rainfall, occurring on June 6, 1864, many lives were lost through ​the collapse of houses, and property was destroyed to the value of $500,000. Fires in town were comparatively rare during this period, which is, however, in respect of the European quarter, distinguished by the somewhat unusual occurrence of an extensive conflagration which destroyed (October 19, 1859) the Roman Catholic Church in Wellington Street and a number of European business establishments in Queen's Road and Stanley Street, viz. the stores of Mrs. Marsh, Mrs. Rickomartz, the Victoria Exchange, the Commercial Hotel and others. Among further disasters of this period may be mentioned the fire on board the S.S. Cadiz (January 10, 1863), the drowning of four deserters from the ship Oasis (May 1, 1863), the drowning (above referred to) of 38 Chinese convicts at Stonecutters' Island (July 23, 1863), and the death by suffocation (March 8, 1865) of three soldiers engaged in excavating the hillside at Scandal Point. The year 1860 was distinguished by the death of four public officers, viz. the Harbour Masters Newman and Gunthorpe, the Assistant Surveyor General Walker, and the Crown Solicitor Cooper Turner. To this list may be added the name of Dr. Enscoe, Surgeon of Seamen's Hospital, who died a few years later (September 30, 1863).
Sir H. Robinson left Hongkong on 15th March, 1865, having been promoted to the Governorship of Ceylon. His departure was marked by two complimentary public entertainments, viz. by a dinner given at the Club by the members of the Civil Service (March 11, 1865) and by a Ball given in the Theatre Royal by the community (March 13, 1865). Among the guests was the Duke of Brabant, then crown prince of Belgium, a first cousin to Queen Victoria.
The verdict of public opinion on the merits of Sir H. Robinson's administration, as expressed in the local papers, was to this effect,—that Sir Hercules was exceedingly favoured by fortune in respect of the all-important fact that his term of administration happened to coincide with a period of irrepressible prosperity (not at all of his making), such as was without a parallel in the history of the Colony; that the most remarkable ​feature in this season of prosperity was the wonderful advance in the value of building land by which many individuals, as well as the Colony as a whole, found themselves rich in an unexpected manner; that Sir H. Robinson turned these adventitious circumstances to good account for the benefit of the public weal and of his own reputation; that nevertheless he left the residents heavily taxed, the town undrained, the sanitation of the place neglected, owing to his paying more attention to laboured balance sheets and the accumulation of a surplus than to public works and the most vital interests of the Colony; that his duties carried him to the extreme verge of his abilities and that he would certainly have been infinitely less successful as a Governor if he had not enjoyed the assistance of Mr. W. T. Mercer who, as Colonial Secretary, so ably assisted him in every respect and maintained his policy, as Administrator, during the long period of the Governor's absence; that Sir H. Robinson, while naturally affable and possessed of pleasing social manners, treated the Colony, especially during his first few years, with a certain amount of contempt; that he habitually displayed towards the unofficial Members of his Council much self-willed obstinacy, and affected towards his official subordinates a tone of dignified reserve and disciplinarian rigour which was rather humiliating to the officials at the head of the different departments; that the former bitterness between officials was kept quiet, and that the amount of social engineering required on the Governor's part to keep matters smooth, was perhaps the most creditable feature in his tenure of office; that Lady Robinson exercised in private society a most extensive and beneficial influence which went a long way to atone for the Governor's social shortcomings; but that taking all in all, Sir H. Robinson had been the most fortunate and successful Governor the Colony was so far ever ruled by.
After leaving Hongkong, Sir H. Robinson served as Governor of Ceylon (1865 to 1872) and, whilst administering the government of New South Wales (1872 to 1879), arranged the cession to England of the Fiji Islands (1874). He next became Governor of New Zealand (1879 to 1880), Governor ​of the Cape of Good Hope and Griqualand West and H. M. High Commissioner in South Africa (1880 to 1889), President of the Royal Commission for the settlement of the affairs of the Transvaal (1881), Governor of Bechuanaland (1885), was sent on a special mission to Mauritius (October, 1886), resigned office in 1889, and acted as a Director of the London and Westminster Bank (until March, 1895) when, though an octogenarian by this time, he resumed office in South Africa to rectify the confusion which had arisen there since his retirement.