The Sun.
London, England, 1870-02-15 00:00:00

()AMBLING IN HONGKONG.

A return has just been issued, by order of the House of
Commons, of all the documents relating to the licensing
of gambling houses in Hongkong. The Governor and
Legislative Council of Hongkong being desirous
of putting a check on the crimes and ex-
cesses connected with the gambling houses of
the city are resolved upon a system of licensing gaming
houses so as to keep them more within limits and under
supervision. This movement has been very strongly
opposed by a large section of the European residents of
Hongkong, and still more :emphatically by the
Social Science Association in this country by the
missionaries in China, and by the European organs in
Hongkong. The dissentients argue that the Government
has no right to countenance and sanction vice, and they
believe that licensing gambling-houses, so far from
tending to its ultimate suppression, will cer-
tainly lead to a large increase of gambling. The
objectors complain that it is contrary to public morality
that the Government should derive any part of its revenue
from the sanction of vice. The Governor, on the other
hand, maintains that he simply wishes to free gambling
from its present illegality, so far as to break up the gangs
of illegal gamblers, whose cliques are now the schnols
and nurseries of crime. He would do so if he could
without adding a cent to the public treasury ; but he
cannot make the Chinese aid in putting down illegal
gambling otherwise than by rendering it their interest to
do so. The larger that interest, the greater
and more effective their co-operation with the
Government must be, but the governor does not
intend to increase the amount paid for mere purposes of
revenue when a sufficient sum is obtained. He has no
hope of producing a moral impression against gaming on a
community formed of such changing elements as that of
Hongkong, 200,000 persons having passed to and fro the
mainland in six months, and
.he prefers addressing
himself " to the practical question of protecting property
by suppressing meetings of illegal gamblers and retrieving
the efficiency of the now corrupted police." The
arguments on both sides are repeated under every
variety of form in the parliamentary return before
us. The replies from the Colonial Office include
despatches from two colonial secretaries, the Duke of
Buckingham, and Earl Granville, both of whom appear to
look on the proceedings of the local authorities with some
doubt and apprehension, although giving them their limited
sanction. The Governor, Sir R. Mac Donnell, mentioned that
he had casually discovered that the licensees of gamblfng
houses were paying to a Mr. Caldwell, their managing
agent, whose name has been mixed up with many ques-
tionable transactions at Hongkong, the sum of twenty
thousand dollars per annum. The Duke of Buckingham,
on hearing this, declared that unless some better system
could be organised he must re-consider the whole question
of granting licenses at all. Both the late and the prseent
Colonial Secretary consistently maintain that the great
object in view is the total suppression of gambling, a
result which as we have seen the local authorities have
little hope of obtaining. Earl Granville is displeased
when he finds the Governor, in his financial statement,
treating the gambling licenses as "anew source of revenue,"
and he directs that the money derived from them
shall no longer be included in estimates of a,ctua
revenue, but shall be strictly appropriated to the
objects formerly specified, which were good con-
duct pay to the police, the increase of the
palice force, the purchase of two steam launches for police
and similar purposes. Earl Granville requests that, he
may be promptly furnished with a statement of the
revenue received from that source, and the manner in
which it has been expended. In this part of the correspon-
dence Earl Granville finds it necessary to censure Governor
Mac Donnell for the unbecoming tone in which he speaks of
the Duke of Buckingham. The latter part of the return
is occupied by the correspondence between the secretary to
the Social Science Association and the Colonial Office. The
Association were somewhat irritated by the replyof Governor
Mac Donnell to their memorial being published in the
Anglo-Chinese press, although they had never received a
copy of it. It seems from these despatches that the Duke
of Buckingham, who was unaware of the reply having
been communicated to the press, disapproved of a
governor defending himself against the accusations of o
private society.

It has been finally tiettle. that the Chtl6h Coll-
gress this shall be held at Southampton.
Mr. Charles Forster, M,P., has prepared A bill to
abolish tho forfeiture of lands and goods on convictions of
felony.
Birmingham Post says Mr. Bright's nervous
exhaustion has not diminished since his removal to Nor-
wood, and the pr esent severe weather is very unfavourable
for him.

Two miners were crushed to death on Sunday
morning at the Denaby Main Colliery. It was only the
day before that one of them was giving evidence in favour
of one of the Barnsley prisoners.
Azamat Batak, whose article in the Pall Mall
Ciaarete gave rise to the action for libel brought by Mr.
Boucicault, writes to say that his remarks apply to the
dramatist, only as a writer, and are in no way to be taken
in a literal sense.

The Globe states that " although Mr. Disraeli,
acting under the advice of Dr. Gull, has postponed his Par-
liamentary dinner on Wednesday next, there is every pros-
pect of no lengthened period elapsing before he is able to
resume his place in the House of Commons."
The meeting which was to have been held at
Thorncliffe between Lord Wharncliffe, the Mayor of Shef-
field, Moser s. Newton and Chambers, and the miners, with a
view to a settlement of the long pending dispute, has been
abandoned, Messrs. Newton and Chambers not being pre-
pared to attend.

A conference of British school teachers has been
held at Birmingham, for the purpose of considering the
pending legislation on educational matters. A resolution
was passed that a temporary association should be formed to
suggest an amendment, and, if possible, to sunuort the mea-
sure of the Government.

Colonel T. W. Milward, C. 8., Royal Artillery,
Aide-de-Camp to the Queen, has accepted the appointment
of Superintendent, Royal Laboratory Department, Royal
Arsenal, Woolwich, but the announcement will not be offi-
cially made before next April. The office of Deputy
D:rector-General of Ordnance, vacated by Col. Milward.
will be abolished.

A very remarkable change has taken place in the
general tone of public feeling in the town of Consett and
neighbouring places with reference to the claimant of the
Derwentwater estates. The farmers who occupy land under
the Admiralty Commissioners are of opinion that they have
heard about the last of the " Countess" and her bailiff, which
opinion is fast becoming general among all classes of the
district.

Mie. Blomfield, the widow of the late Bishop of
London, died on Saturday last at her residence at Richmond,
Surrey, at au advanced age, not far short of 80 years.
She was the daughter of Mr. Charles Cox; and pre-
vious to her marriage with the Bishop sho was the
rolict of a Mr. Thomas Kent. By the Bishop she had a
family of ten children, more than half of whom survive;
and almost all of, them were present at, her bedside during
her last illness. She had survived the Bishop about eleven
or twelvo years.

OBITUARY. —The death of White Hair, Chief of
the Great and Little Osage Indians, of consumption, near
the Osage Agency, Kansas, is announced,—John H.
Stephens, aged 80, and leaving property valued at
82,000,000, died at Newark, N. J., Sunday, Jan. 23. —Mr.
F. S. King, officer of the steamer America, and formerly
commander of the s'aimers Ocean Queen and Rising Star,
of the Aspinwall route, died suddenly at Yokahama, Dec.
30. His body has been embalmed, and has arrived at San
Francisco en route for New York;