# Crime and Government at Hong Kong/The Registrar-General and Protector of Chinese

THE REGISTRAR-GENERAL AND PROTECTOR OF CHINESE, AND LICENSER OF CHINESE BROTHELS.
The Registrar-Generalship of Chinese, formerly an inferior office in the Superintendency of Police, was made, in 1846, a department of co-ordinate power; and the functions of Justice of the Peace and Protector of Chinese were annexed to it.
During the Bridges' administration, in 1857, it was raised, by ordinance, into a distinct department, and one of superior emolument to that of the Superintendency itself; and the visitatorial, and other arbitrary powers ​of the above office, were so largely increased, in favour of the individual then recently raised to them, as to attract the notice of Downing Street, and to cause the disallowance of the most dangerous of those new provisions; but not until they had done much mischief, in the manner in which he had exercised them.
A new Ordinance, omitting those provisions, was accordingly prepared in the following year; and it passed into a law, on the very day, when the first discussion on the malpractices of the individual, who still retained those offices (Mr. Daniel Richard Caldwell), with regard to Brothels' Licenses took place in the Legislative Council;—that is to say, on the 10th May, 1858.
In the interval, however, his other office, that of Crown Licenser of Brothels, had been specially created for him. I was known to be wholly opposed to the measure; and once already I had defeated the attempt to carry it through the Legislative Council. I had no objection to sanatory regulations, for purposes, strongly and conclusively urged, by our naval and military commanders in those regions, for many years past; and I had even proposed a measure, for the indemnity of such as submitted themselves, to such regulations, against prosecution under the local law. But, to any system of Crown Licenses for Brothels, upon payment of Crown Fees, I was altogether hostile.
Dr. Bridges, therefore, urged the occasion of my absence on sick-leave, during the autumn of 1857, to make one last attempt to pass his measure; remarking ​to a member of Council, who was doubtful as to its details, that, unless it were passed quickly, it would not pass at all; "For you know," he added significantly, "who is coming back next month." About a fortnight before I did come back, it had passed into a law; and Mr. Caldwell had added the Crown Licensership of Chinese Brothels to his other enormous prerogatives, having under him a Portuguese named Grandpré, a friend and partner, as Assistant.
Mr. Caldwell himself is a native of St. Helena, and apparently of mixed blood. His father, a common soldier in a local militia corps, brought him, when young, to Pulo Penang, where, and at Singapore, his youth was passed in various inferior occupations ashore and afloat. His character was, to say the least of it, not high at that time;—and, when Sir George Bonham, then administering his Straits' government, was promoted to that of Hong Kong, it was with difficulty, it is said, that His Excellency was induced to tolerate, even in a comparatively inferior post in the police of Hong Kong, the man who had left behind him, at Singapore, a very damaging notoriety; and who had taken shelter in Canton and Hong Kong, only to acquire a worse.
It was stated, by a friendly witness, recalled for the purpose by Mr. Caldwell himself, before the Commission hereafter to be mentioned, that his (the witness's) former partner, Mr. Innes, employed Mr. Caldwell "to smuggle opium in the Canton river." This was before the first Chinese war. None but the ​most daring and atrocious of Chinese outlaws were employed; for none others were qualified to enter into the service of the Europeans, on board of the fast boats so employed. They were, in fact,—nearly all without exception,—river pirates of the most desperate character. This circumstance alone does not seem to have prejudiced him overmuch with the Canton community; for such was "the custom of several merchants at that time;" and, consequently, "as a shipmaster, he was as much respected as the generality of the class."
But there was a graver report, according to another witness, concerning him, which "threw him under a cloud entirely with the community in China;—that he had not accounted for the proceeds of some opium which had been entrusted to him for sale. This was in 1840."
Mr. Caldwell himself admits, that, in that same year, he left the Canton river and trade, and took service (as an interpreter) under the Commissariat at Chusan, where Colonel Caine, then a captain, and whom he had accompanied thither, was commandant. In 1843, he says, after some intervening cruises on the coast, he entered the service of the Hong Kong government, as magistrate's clerk; Colonel Caine having then been from May 1841, chief magistrate there.
Colonel Caine's opinion of his fitness for office was entirely founded on "his being a smart person, and possessing an excellent knowledge of the (vulgar or colloquial) language." There were all sorts of "rumours" and "complaints" against him, it appears. ​But "they made no impression on him (Colonel Caine);" for, since they were not "official complaints," he thought that "he could not place reliance upon them." What was their nature he would not tell;—would rather decline answering, as to what he had heard about Mr. Caldwell, from his (Colonel Caine's) acquaintance with this part of the world, to the present time. He was not aware of any connection between Mah Chow Wong and Mr. Caldwell, except by hearing of this, seeing it in the newspapers, and hearing it stated in the Council Room on one occasion—perhaps on more than one occasion."
Here the Lieutenant-Governor's revelations ceased. He objected that he was not at liberty to reveal the secrets of the Executive Council. The objection was allowed. It was an untenable objection, in the face of the Governor's mandate to all officers to appear and give evidence; and this was the only instance in which it had been allowed. The objection and the allowance thereof are carefully omitted from the Government printed minutes!
The "connection" with Mah Chow Wong, nevertheless, was a quite notorious fact, and it lasted from the beginning of Caldwell's humble employment in the police court, in 1843, down to the final departure—is it final?—of that pirate from the shores of Hong Kong, in 1858, a convict under sentence of transportation for fourteen years.
In the meantime, Caldwell had risen in the public service to the ranks, successively, of Inspector of Police, Assistant Superintendant of Police, Interpreter to the Supreme Court, Registrar-General and Protector of Chinese, Justice of the Peace, and Licenser of Chinese Brothels.
During a few months only of those sixteen years— ​namely, from towards the end of 1855 to about the middle of 1856—he had been out of Government employment;—seduced it seems, by the large profits and exciting adventure of a life on board of the armed steamer "Eaglet," the common property of himself and Mah Chow Wong. It was not long, however, before the embarrassment of his own affairs, and the flight from Singapore of his brother Henry—the defaulter and fraudulent trustee, from whom his capital is supposed to have been derived—compelled him to sell his interest in the "Eaglet" and return into the Government service.
But, amid all these vicissitudes, and at every stage of his career, the "connection" with Mah Chow Wong, and the gang or clan of that miscreant, was maintained unrelaxed. It may have been, as the Superintendent of Police, in his evidence alleges it, the bond of friendship; or even—if an older resident, and a senior officer in the public service, the marine magistrate and governor of the gaol, is to be credited —that of affinity, through a woman named Awoong, by concubinage and adoption, according to Chinese law and usage, which cemented that "connection." But it was at least sufficiently well-founded, on the basis of a common interest, to need none of those supports from the affections.
The Governor's own Commissioners of Enquiry have not been able to ignore the fact. There can be no doubt, they say, that the "connection" has existed; that it has been "long and intimate;" and that it has ripened into, at least, one "partnership in ​a lorcha;" for that is "even admitted by Mr. Caldwell." That all this while, Mah Chow Wong was a "notorious" pirate, is what Mr. Caldwell "must have known."
Those only who are familiar with the History of Jonathan Wild in all its details, can fully comprehend the part, which this "connection" of Chinese pirate and European officer of police, has had in the Reign of Terror, as I have called the administration of government, under Sir John Bowring, at Hong Kong.
But, even to those not so prepared by study, I do not despair, representing, from the records published, in a moment of infatuation, by the Hong Kong Government itself, such a picture of their proceedings as shall leave no doubt, even in the most sceptical mind, as to the quality of that "connection," their designs, and their acts; and the consequent and necessary duty, of all honest men, whether in the service of the Local Government, or enjoying a position of independence, to do their utmost to detect and expose the guilt, and bring down conviction and punishment upon the confederacy, and all who abetted or protected it.
An experience, acquired by thirteen years of service, as Superintendent of Police, Magistrate, and Coroner, entitles Mr. May's evidence on this head to great consideration and respect. He tells the Government Commissioners:—
"I have for many years known Mah Chow Wong. … I knew that that man was Mr. Caldwell's principal and most relied-upon informant. … My knowledge of Mah Chow Wong arose from my knowing that ​Mr. Caldwell used him as an informer. Every person connected with the Police Department, and the Chinese community generally, knew of the position in which Mah Chow Wong stood to Mr. Caldwell. Up to the date of my letter of the 20th July [1857], I believed, as I therein expressed, that Mr. Caldwell was the dupe of Mah Chow Wong. I judged this partly from believing, that Mr. Caldwell was under family influence. … When I found out, from the examination of Mah Chow Wong's books and papers, the extent and variety of the villanies of Mah Chow Wong, I was, very much against my will, and led by common sense, necessitated to alter my opinion about his being a dupe."
Mah Chow Wong, that is to say, "Horse-boy Wong,"—for his true name is Wong Akee,—was first known to the British community as a stable servant;—next, as a small shop-keeper;—and, at length, as a rich merchant and ship-owner at Hong Kong.
It is a saying of the Chinese Mandarins, that "so long as a thief does not leave the empire, he can be traced and caught:—but let him once get to Hong Kong, and you lose him for ever." He settles down under the rule of a Bowring, a Caine, or a Bridges, and, enjoying the protection of the Caldwell of the day, pursues his avocations in peace and confidence.
That was the true source of Mah Chow Wong's prosperity. The notoriety of his character was no hindrance to him. He enjoyed the protection and alliance of Mr. Caldwell.
He commanded a secret ​society, and made himself the master of his clan. Their members were to a man police-informers—and pirates; and, ashore or afloat, his purposes were equally well served. Even the European police of the island were indirectly, yet almost entirely, placed at his disposal. He was the Jonathan Wild of Hong Kong;—he received tribute from the hordes of the pirates of the China seas, who infested our trade, and robbed and murdered our people;—he levied black-mail from those who were spared;—he equipped piratical expeditions on his own account;—he sheltered those of his friends, and betrayed those of his enemies:—he denounced as pirates those who were innocent of piracy, and his denunciation was destruction; for the Hong Kong Government, having his simple assurance, needed no further proof to set in motion the forces of Her Majesty;—and the finding of the Commission itself confirms, to the letter, the statement of the official witnesses, that, almost as he thought fit, numbers of the Hong Kong Chinese were arrested or liberated, boats and property seized or restored; and yet, on no occasion could any of his victims be found to appear openly against him, and demand justice for those misdeeds; for the Chinese were "in terror of their lives." And wherefore? Let one of those witnesses explain the reason.
"During the whole of that time, whenever reference was made to Ma-chow Wong, either by subordinate officers of police, by old European residents, or by Chinese, they always coupled his name with some epithet having reference to his bad character. As a ​matter of repute and notoriety, I know that Ma-chow Wong has, for years, been considered an extortioner, a recipient of bribes from gambling-house keepers, a confederate of pirates, and a receiver of stolen goods. I also know, that, because of his well-known position with regard to Mr. Caldwell, which every Chinaman in the colony very well knew, Ma-chow Wong was supposed to be in possession of great power, and was held in great dread. Of the extent of the dread I became fully aware, when it was my duty to investigate the cases against him. I spoke to very many Chinese of standing and property, and they all exhibited a knowledge of his evil character, but a reluctance to do more than own it.
"As an instance,—at the time that an appeal was made to his Excellency for the pardon of Ma-chow Wong, I knew that a Chinese petition, numerously signed, had been presented in his favour. Late one evening, one of the wealthiest, perhaps the wealthiest, Chinaman in the colony came to me, and said, that he also represented the feelings of another wealthy Chinaman. The man said in broken English, 'I am almost afraid to come to you, I come all same thief; but I want you to tell the Governor, that the Chinese who signed the petition dared not refuse to do so; but, if the Governor really wants to know, what those people mean, who signed it, let him give each of them one black ball, and one white one, and there won't be very many in favour of Ma-chow Wong.' I told him, 'I can't tell the Governor any such nonsense. If you are a race of cowards, you must bear the consequences.'"
​And it was with this man that, according to Mr. Caldwell himself,—who reluctantly admits the fact after it had been proved by many witnesses, a partnership, in at least eight Chinese lorchas, subsisted,—from the beginning of 1855, if not earlier, down to the end of 1856, if not later;-for the Colonial Register of the "Kee-loong-poo-on" lorcha was not cancelled in the Colonial Secretariat before April, 1857;—at all events, during a period, ominously contemporaneous with the period of the well-known story of the piratical lorcha "Arrow!"
All of these lorchas, as I gather from the same tardy confession, "carried the 'Eaglet's' flag;"— the armed steamer, already mentioned;—which was also part owned by Mah-Chow Wong, commanded by Mr. Caldwell in person, and "principally engaged," confesses her engineer, "in conveying Chinese merchant junks up and down the coast," or, as he elsewhere more emphatically calls it, "the convoy business."
In such a connection, it is easy to conceive that it became a very profitable business. Mr. Caldwell himself incidentally speaks of as many as ninety-two Chinese junks, being under his convoy at one time. To Mr. May, on another occasion, his words were; "Such is the fame and terror caused by the 'Eaglet,' that many vessels have applied to us; and we are thinking of granting the 'Eaglet's' flag as a pass of protection." That flag would have been a more effectual "protection" against the trembling Chinese—whatever the character of the vessel bearing it—than Mr. Caldwell's illegal certificate, under his office seal, at a subsequent period, was able to afford to ​suspicious vessels, attempting to break the blockade of the Canton River, against the vigilance of our cruisers employed to enforce it.
The "convoy business" unhappily needs no explanation now; since the horrid events of the last two years in the Ningpo and Min rivers, have shed their blood-red light to illustrate its meaning.
It is no longer permitted, to any man, to doubt the truth of Dr. MacGowan's solemn denunciations from Ningpo, about a year after the last cruise of the "Eaglet."
"Being personally cognisant of the severe and protracted sufferings of the people, among whom I dwell, necessity is laid upon me of exposing the cruelties inflicted on them, and of appealing for sympathy in their behalf.
"One disastrous result of the late war with England was the discovery by the Chinese of the impotence of their rulers. Multitudes were, consequently, soon arrayed against the Government, particularly on the seaboard, where weakness and incapacity were most palpable. Piratical fleets became so numerous, as almost to destroy the coasting trade; poor fishermen, even, were not exempt from spoliation. It was seldom, however, that great cruelties were practised. Instead of acting on the maxim of western pirates, that 'dead men 'tell no tales,'—they seemed to hold, that 'dead men can furnish no more spoil;' and, accordingly, captured seamen and vessels were always redeemable by money. A deputation of the captors repaired ​to port, negociated for the highest obtainable sum, and then returned with the ransom to release their prizes.
"As a corrective of this growing evil, merchants and traders paid liberally for foreign convoy: an arrangement which for a time was mutually advantageous. As the junks sailed in fleets, a moderate contribution from each vessel secured it exemption from a heavy black-mail; while the foreigner was merely delayed a few days on his voyage. Even the imperial navy profited by it;—admirals put to sea in fair weather, going out with the ebb and returning by the flood, and performing a cruize in safety. Those were halycon days; but, unhappily, they were brief; in so much that they are now well nigh forgotten.
"Convoying became an object of competition. The proximity of the Macao Portuguese, with their simple lorchas or sloops, manned to a great extent by Manilamen or Cantonese, enabled them to underbid those who sailed square-rigged vessels; and soon the Lusitanian colours displaced all others from this line of business. Abuses quickly sprang up; causing mariners, fishermen, and coastlanders to sigh for the times, when native pirates pursued their comparatively harmless vocations. The poor people were formerly chastised with whips; now with scorpions. Smuggling, also, the never-ceasing vice of foreigners, assumed a systematic form at the non-consular ports.
"Lorchamen often dictated, to Custom-house officers, the amount of duty to be paid for the whole fleet; reserving to themselves the sum abated. While intimidating mandarins ashore, they prac​tised extortions on their protégés. It became no longer optional with the native craft to employ convoys; they were not at liberty to decline protection, nor were they consulted as to the amount they were to pay. From this, the transition to piracy was easy; and robbery and murder at sea were followed by like crimes on land. Whole villages were reduced to ashes, the men butchered, and the women violated; some being carried off to the lorchas, and retained in purchased exemption, from such treatment, by paying large sums of money. No sum, however, was sufficient to redeem a mother or daughter, whom the fiends determined to take to their vessels. Chinese officers, who attempted to thwart these buccaneers, were killed on the spot or captured and held to ransom. The number of unoffending natives who have been put to death—some of them tortured in a most diabolical manner—would not be credited if told. Much of my surgical practice in China has been due to these piracies and forays. Of course, the loss of the Chinese in property has been proportionably great. No device that could be employed, for raising money or supplies, was left untried. The store of yams, dried fish and fuel laid up for winter's use in the hut of the solitary peasant, the only goat, and last fowl of the farmer, were (and still are, for the evils yet exist) carried off by the foreign marauder. The fisheries were subjected to heavy charges, for this coercive protection.
"Adventurers, who could not command a lorcha, fitted up native boats, carrying on depredations in estuaries and rivers. Others opened offices in the small towns, for the sale of passes, which boats, ​crossing from headland to headland, were compelled to possess, in order to escape greater exactions when under weigh.
"Not a small part of the wrongs, perpetrated by these boats were by natives, under the cover and protection of foreign habiliments. In such great fear are foreigners held, that few possess the courage to withstand even their effigies. A bold and unscrupulous man may do almost anything with impunity. In illustration of this, I shall be excused in briefly adverting to an incident, the particulars of which I made public, at the time of the occurrence. At the mouth of the Ningpo river is a small village of saltmakers, at which the salt commissioner stations a deputy. This officer, after being beaten and compelled to swallow excrement, was driven away by Portuguese, who came and collected the salt gabel in the name of his Consul. A copy of the proclamation, issued by the miscreant, I myself copied, and sent to that Consul at Ningpo.
"About nine-tenths of these sanguinary harpies were Portuguese. The balance consisted of vagabonds from every maritime state under heaven, representing almost every class in Society. I have known a Cossack, from the Lena, rob a Chusan fisherman of the leavings of one of my piratical townsmen, a former member of the New York bar, at that time in the Portuguese service. …
"What course, it will be asked, did the local authorities pursue towards the invaders? They simply remonstrated. When, for a brief period, the duties of U. S. Consul at this port were imposed on me, I was frequently applied to, by H. E., the ​Tautai, for information as to the nationality of the parties, who, in boats and lorchas, were oppressing the people. Chinese officials, on the coast, are in constant dread of provoking the ire of any foreign power; they believe that we are all linked together, and that any one would resent the least resistance which another might experience. … With the exception of the intimation furnished by the case of a score of Japanese pirates, who were publicly boiled to death in the streets of Ningpo (1406, a.d.), by order of the envoy of that country at Peking, the natives have have been led to suppose, that foreigners are amenable to no law:—and they submit to this havoc, as to the pestilence, typhoon, or earthquake—the irresistible powers of nature.
"For the past few weeks the coastlanders have enjoyed comparative peace, owing to foreign intervention;—an intervention made, be it observed, under circumstances which absolve the Chinese from any obligation of gratitude. The circumstances were briefly these.—Cantonese pirates, regarding their Christian rivals with envy, have long been endeavouring to supplant them in convoying and levying black-mail. Many were the conflicts, and varying the success, of these interesting belligerents, and great was the loss of life and property. In almost every instance, however, such respect had one party for the ability of the other to inflict harm, that these losses were on the part of the unfortunate clients.
"More formidable rivals to the Portuguese were some Frenchmen, who opened an office at Chinhai, for transacting business in the protecting line, and ​became successful competitors for guarding—that is, plundering—the Chusan fisheries. Being few in number, they were soon put hors de combat by the jealous Portuguese, who demolished the dwelling, destroyed the boats, and mangled the bodies of the new firm. The French and Cantonese then united against the common enemy, but suffered a bloody defeat in the first encounter. To avenge them selves on the triumphant Macao-men, the Cantonese portion of the coalition raised a powerful fleet, and engaged a number of Frenchmen, a few English men and Italians, and a couple of Americans, to lead on the assault. Meanwhile, complaints from the discomfited French, were received by the Macao authorities, who forthwith authorized H. I. M. ships-of-war to apprehend the offenders. When, in pursuance of her commission, the Capricieuse came up the river, the massacre of the unfortunate Portuguese had already been, in part, accomplished, by their foreign and native enemies. On that, and the following days, between forty and fifty poor wretches, some of them innocent of any offence, were barbarously murdered; and under circumstances, it must be confessed, little creditable to some of the foreign residents.
"It is owing to the hurricane thus briefly described, that the present calm exists; and it is probable, that, in consequence of the attention which the case has excited, a considerable period of repose will now be enjoyed. Yet similar transactions, to those recited, must recur frequently, so long as Chinese and foreign relations remain on the present basis.
"I have already expressed my conviction, that the ​evils, which afflict this land from without, are mainly owing to the concession of extra-territoriality to Europeans and Americans. This abdication of authority is rendered more incompatible with the well-being of the empire, by the presence of foreign colonies, in one of her most important provinces. Hong Kong and Macao, can appear to Chinese statesmen in no better light than plague spots, and to no inconsiderable extent. Such, it must be admitted, they have proved. Thence sail the lorchas, which defy and lay waste the country. There collisions are to be expected and provided against; and towards them must be exercised eternal vigilance, to thwart the aggressive barbarian.
"The abuses, to which those possessions on the coast of this now only semi-independent empire give birth, are, as regards the English colony, restrained to no small degree, by wholesome correctives. The local press is eagle-eyed in detecting official remissness, and fearless in animadverting on all acts of public or private oppression. The coolie traffic, though capable of being made a source of profit to the port, is constantly reprobated by the colonial press. Moreover, the Hong Kong executive has, on various occasions, adopted active measures for redressing wrongs inflicted on the Chinese. But,. above all, and more to be relied on, is that public "pinion in England, which sympathises with suffering in every clime."
On the part attributed to the "Eaglet," in some of these buccaneering forays, there will be found, in the Minutes of the Commission, so often referred to, traces of some very imperfect examinations of persons ​then serving on board, with their equivocating and unsatisfactory answers.
But the direct, frank, and unequivocal written confession, drawn up subsequently by the Chief Magistrate, from the mouth of one of her engineers, not examined before the Commission, will, no doubt, receive in Downing Street and Parliament all that attention, which, even to the extent of an acknowledgement of its reception from the Magistracy, has been—so I am informed by the Chief Magistrate himself—hitherto denied to it, on the part of Sir John Bowring's Government.
As if these connections with the head of Chinese pirates were not sufficient for Mr. Caldwell's purpose, whatever that purpose may have been, we next find him contracting, according to Chinese law and usage, a marriage with his concubine Ayow, a singing girl from a Chinese brothel, and the reputed sister, by adoption, (or "sworn sister") of another Chinese girl, Shap Lok, inmate and keeper of a brothel at Hong Kong; and who,—such is one of the reluctant findings of the Caldwell Commission,—in the year ​1858, received from a Chinese pawn-broking firm, a large bribe, avowedly for having tampered with the administration of criminal justice.
There had been made, through Mr. Caldwell, a most improper, yet most successful, application to Dr. Bridges' Government,—for the remission of the sentence of transportation, passed by the Supreme Court, on one of their partners,—who had been convicted of the offence of receiving stolen goods, under very aggravated circumstances; and against which application the Chief Justice, the jury, and the Attorney-General, had strongly protested.
This Shap Lok was the go-between, who negotiated the business, and the hand to receive the bribe;—only a small portion of that bribe being intended for her own recompense;—at least, so it was understood between her and the Chinese applicants.
The punishment of fourteen years' transportation was altogether remitted;—and the short term of imprisonment for three years—certainly not more than three—was substituted.
The bribe was thereupon duly paid. With reference to these deplorable facts, the Commissioners' Report is as follows:–
"It has also been proved that a Chinese female ​named Shap Lok, who had been in frequent communication with Mr. Caldwell (and is reported, but not proved, to be a sister, by Chinese usage, of Mrs. Caldwell), received from the Foo Tai pawnshop, the sum of four hundred dollars; because the sentence on a pawnbroker, belonging to the said shop, had been mitigated, as was supposed, through her influence; and that she received a further sum of fifty dollars, for her personal trouble in the matter."
It would have been well for the Commissioners to have found, more distinctly, the object for which the first of these sums was levied.
But, as they distinctly do state that this is one of their unanimous findings, "in support of the inference that Mr. Caldwell is unfit to be a Justice of the Peace;" but from which inference from the facts so found, they, by a bare "majority" dissented, the public are left to suppose that, in the unaminous opinion of that Commission,—as the fifty dollars, were appropriated to the personal compensation of Shap Lok, for her agency and "frequent communication" with Mr. Caldwell in the matter—so the four hundred dollars were appropriated, in some manner, to the benefit of the agent, through whom the purport of these communications had been so successfully pressed, upon the depositary of the Queen's Prerogative of Grace.
If so, it adds to the gravity of the case, that it is of a date so recent as the spring of 1858—a period ​posterior by many months to the conviction of Mah Chow Wong, to the discovery of the entries in his trade books and private papers, so seriously inculpating Mr. Caldwell, and compromising his official accomplices, and to the terrible warning, which those parties received, in the production—before the several public departments, the Executive Council, and even the community at large (for the Government organ, the China Mail newspaper, had published them as widely as its own circulation extended),—of the proofs and evidences of their guilty connivances and procurements on the behalf of, at least, that one convicted criminal,—of, at least, that one member of the great Chinese gang.
I say, that it adds to the gravity of the case. For it shows the sense they still entertained of their personal security, strength, and pre-eminence, even on the very eve of the mock enquiry, into what is called the Caldwell Case.
In that point of view, I think it a more instructive example, than many instances of older date, which the witnesses against that man adduced, to justify their opinion of his character; but all of which the Commissioners have silently—
"Doff'd aside, And bid them pass,"—
without "finding" or notice!
I here allude to the atrocious part which Mah Chow Wong himself and his other confederates had, in the capture, in 1857,-under the false imputation of being pirates, of upwards of seventy "longhaired" Chinese rebels, some on the high seas, others relying peaceably on British protection,—and in their surrender, without a ​trial, to the cruellest of deaths, at the hands of the Imperialists on the opposite shore to Hong Kong;—and this at a time when, under the supposition that we were at war with the latter, as we then professed to be, the murdered men had been soliciting our alliance with the Tai Ping Wang, and offering their help in the common quarrel, as they imagined it.
I allude to the charges brought against him by Mr. May, J.P., Superintendent of Police, imputing complicity with Mah Chow Wong in the celebrated "Gold Dust Case;" where the latter culprit, with his aid, deceived Mr. May into the surrender, into the hands of a false claimant, belonging to the Mah Chow Wong, of the portions of the stolen property which Mr. May's vigilance had recovered, and of which he had taken custody, on behalf of the absent owner.
I allude to the evidence of the Assistant Police Magistrate, Mr. Mitchell, on the pending accusations of Mr. May, J.P., against Mr. Caldwell and Mah Chow Wong, in connection with the felonious removal of tin slabs, belonging to Sic-Qua, of Canton, committed at Hong Kong some years ago, and commonly called the "Tin Case." I At the request of his friends, the firm of Messrs. Gilman and Co., Mr. Mitchell acted, he says, in that matter for Sic-Qua, and employed Mr. Caldwell, then Assistant Superintendent of Police, to aid in the recovery of the goods. That firm was then represented by Mr. Hudson, now re sident in England, as is his senior partner, Mr. Gilman, ​and able to give his evidence as to what was the character of the assistance so rendered. "The impression," according to Mr. Mitchell, "left on his mind, was one highly unfavourable to Mr. Caldwell, as to want of honesty."
I allude to the audacious but too successful attempts to defeat justice, of which, according to the same two last-named justices of the peace, Mr. Caldwell was guilty, so recently as the end of 1856, and whilst still commanding the "Eaglet,"—in favour of his partner, the same Mah Chow Wong;—then under charge of forcibly obstructing the police, with intent to prevent, and with the effect of preventing, the arrest of a Chinaman there present, on a well founded charge of robbery. The robber escaped. But, in the absence of Mr. May, Mah Chow Wong was released, and the charge against him dismissed, through the personal interference of Mr. Caldwell, with a court uninformed of the circumstances.
And finally—not to multiply instances, for they are many—I allude to the vindictive prosecution—quite unsuccessful to convict, but quite successful to terrify him into leaving the jurisdiction—of Tongakii, the best and most honest of all the Chinese interpreters, employed in the public service—upon a false charge of felony:-a prosecution, coincident in date with the conviction of Mah Chow Wong, promoted by the gold-dust convict himself, and by Pang-poi-ying ("a teacher from Government House"), and brought into action, with Mr. Caldwell's aid, by the sudden arrest of the man; whose innocence was immediately after established to the satisfaction of a jury, and whose real ​offence consisted in his having stood in the way of his two accusers, in their attempts to procure their pardons. For it was through his great local know ledge, that all attempts, to throw discredit upon the conviction of the first had been defeated; and it was he, whose translation of the books and papers of the other convict, Mah Chow Wong, had armed Mr. May with the means of withstanding the shameless efforts, in which Mr. Caldwell and his associated Executive Councillors were then (October, 1858) engaged, to make out a plausible pretext for the pardon of the last-named convict.
And yet, there is one incident, connected with Mah Chow Wong, on which the Commission have come to two findings of a most remarkable character—too remarkable, indeed, not to deserve to be noticed together, and under one separate head, in the present classification.
They say, that "they think it unnecessary to make any other observation, regarding the charge [against Mr. Caldwell], of audaciously denying, that the books and papers of the pirate's Hong contained any evidence of Mah Chow Wong's guilt, of having deceived the Executive Council in the inquiry had, relative to Mah Chow Wong (!), and of being convicted of falsehood by Mr. May—than that there is no evidence of Mr. Caldwell having deceived the Executive Council." From which, I presume, we are to infer, that there is evidence of the truth of all the other particulars contained in the recited charge; as to which, however, there is no finding at all; "further observation" being "unnecessary".
And yet, in the very next page, they say, they do think it not "unnecessary," and, by way of continua​tion of this bungling and often contradictory "obserservation," return to the subject, and "state" as follows:—
"In the course of the Inquiry, it has come to our knowledge, that, previous to the appointment of the Commission, certain papers, connected with Mah Chow Wong's trial, and which might have been of service to the Commission, have been destroyed."
It is true, that they absurdly add—for they had only the guilty party's word, for the palliation of that gross outrage on the public records of the Supreme Court and Superintendency of Police,—and, above all, on the course of public justice,—that;—
"It has been clearly proved, that their destruction was ordered solely because they [occupying in all the space of a cubic foot] encumbered the Chinese Secretary's office;"—[to which, not being a Colonial office at all, they did not, in any way, belong; being there merely on the Plenipotentiary's request, as will be presently seen, to have the loan of them from their proper departments above mentioned, for a special purpose and for a limited period]; "while it appeared that they were then of no value, and could not be required."
But, as upon the subsequent trial of the Queen v. Tarrant, the Chairman of the Commission, after having heard the cross-examination, upon oath, of both the persons, upon whose evidence the above apology was received by the Commission, did himself declare, upon his own cross-examination, that, as compared with their former unsworn testimony, their ​latter and sworn testimony really amounted to "new evidence" on this point, it would be unfair in me to criticise further this awry excuse, offered in good nature, and upon an erroneous belief,—produced by direct mis-statement—of an utterly inexcusable crime.
I shall, therefore—rejecting this superadded matter —confine myself to the "observation" and "statement" which together form, in fact, one substantial "finding."
And I proceed to do so under the next following head.
* ↑ Compare the two Ordinances in question:—Ord. No. 6, of 1857, and No. 8 of 1858.
* ↑ Ordinance No. 12, of 1857 (24th November, 1857).
* ↑ Printed Minutes of Evidence before the Caldwell Commission of Enquiry Hong Kong, (pp. 44, 47; see pp. 61, 79, 82).
* ↑ Printed Minutes of Evidence before the Caldwell Commission of Enquiry. Hong Kong, (p. 90. Compare p. 82.)
* ↑ Mr. May, J.P. The frequency of these references to the printed and unprinted documents makes citation laborious.
* ↑ Mr. Inglis, J.P.
* ↑ Printed Report, p. 2.
* ↑ The family connection with Chinese people is here alluded to.
* ↑ Report, etc., pp. 2, 3.
* ↑ Mr. May, J. P.; Evidence, ubi supra, pp. 29, 40.
* ↑ Evidence, etc., pp. 90–95; Report of Commission, p. 2.
* ↑ Ibid., p. 75.
* ↑ Ibid., 95–140.
* ↑ Evidence, etc., pp. 31–91.
* ↑ "Remarks on Chinese Foreign Relations," Parts I. and II., pp. 2, 3 (Shanghae, October, 1857).
* ↑ Both Mr. Caldwell, and Ayow his wife (whom he called as a witness), admit the character of "singing girl," but deny that the domicil was a brothel. But the direct evidence of her early friend, Mr. Inglis, J.P., and that of Mr. May, leaves no doubt of the fact. Compare Minutes, pp. 18. 22.
* ↑ Report, p. 2. It is true that, in their ignorance of the English law, by which alone they conceived themselves bound strictly to govern their enquiries, into the fitness of Mr. Caldwell for the Commission of the Peace, the Commission, whilst they find the "reputation," of sistership and affinity, find that there is no other proof of the fact; as if there were need of any! In the same mistaken notion of the effect of reputation in matters of pedigree or character, they rejected the testimony of a score of witnesses, who came to prove the family-connections of Mrs. Caldwell. It is curious that she, and even her husband, in denying her own sistership with Shap Lok, admit that of their respective mothers (pp. 27, 29), and that "Chinese connections" were only thrown off by her after her "conversion" to, and marriage in, the Church of England, some years after their first intercourse, and they do not deny that, even now, Shap Lok "frequently" sees him officially at his own house and, on those occasions, sees Mrs. Caldwell also (p. 96).
* ↑ See the preceding note.
* ↑ Sworn by their Chairman, on cross-examination, at the subsequent trial of the Queen v. Tarrant, to have been a majority of One only.
* ↑ Minutes, pp. 47, 52, 88, 95. And see the contemptuous terms, in which this surrender is spoken of by the Imperialists, in the papers printed in the Hong Kong Gazette, April, 1857.
* ↑ Minutes, pp. 38, 45.
* ↑ Ibid, pp. 43, 56—78.
* ↑ See notice of Motion, by E. James, Esq., M.P. Article 7.
* ↑ Compare Mr. Mongan's evidence in the Queen v. Tarrant, as to the volume of these documents.