The Sun.
London, England, 1845-11-06 00:00:00

HONG-KONG.

The British merchants at Hong-Kong have been com-
plaining very bitterly of the sacrifice of their interests by
the Government., and have memorialized Lord Stanley in
the " confident hope" of getting redress for their grievances.
The parties to the memorial are somewhat sanguine to ex-
-pect relief from the Colonial Secretary on a plain statement
of facts being laid before him; and as the local authorities
have already discountenanced the application of the mer
chants, they are not likely to excite the sympathy of the
Home Government. The Colonial-office appears to have a
facility of making itself obnoxious to those whose interests
are intrusted to its care, and it almost habitually supports
the measures and the men that are most distasteful to the
colonists. The grievances under which the merchants of
llong-Kong are labouring arise chiefly from a breach
of faith, by which they. _have been required to pay a
comparatively high price. for land, after an expectation of
obtaining it at a very moderate rate bad been distinctly held
out to them. When the island of Hong- Kong was first
taken possession of by Her Majesty's Plenipotentiary in
China everything was done to induce the British merchants
to remove from Macao to the new settlement. Having got
them there, it is alleged that nothing has been done to pro-
mote their interests ; and the result is, that the merchants
are complaining of being subjected to very heavy burdens in
a place they cannot conveniently quit, on account of the out-
lay they have incurred, and where it will not be profitable to
remain unless something is done to give life and vigour th the
already languishing trade of the new settlement. It is to very
little purpose that colonial possessions are acquired if the policy
of the Government cripples their facilities for trade, the peaceful
and mutually advantageous interests of which are the only wise
and legitimate objects of distant acquisitions. The general
sense of this country in the present day repudiates the idea
of conquest for its own sake, and the termination of the war
with the Chinese was not valued as a victory over that
people, but as the opening of a new and important channel
for English trade to flow into. This was the sole ground of
congratulation when it was agreed that there should be a
British settlement in China; but it is evident from the com-
plaints of the merchants of Hong-Kong that the hopes of all.
parties have not been realised.
The grievances to which the memorialists have called
the attention of Lord Stanley are numerous, but the hard
terms forced by the local Government on the landowners
may be regarded as the chief cause of the diseontentent pre-
vailing in the. settlement. It is clear from the cor-
respondence, which we give at length elsewhere, that a pro-
mise was held out officially in 1841, that lands would be
granted in fee simple for one or two years' purchase, or that
they should be charged only with a nominal quit-rent ; but
in 1843 it was notified that " Her Majesty's Government did
not see fit to recognize sales or grants of lands that had been
made by any authority whatsoever up to th period of the
exchange of the ratification of the treaty of Nankin." This
repudiation of the former acts of "any authorit7 whatso-
ever " may have been convenient to the existing Executive.
but must have been very injurious to those who, relying on
the promise of the authority for the time being, had taken
their measures accordingly. It is allowable enough to change
a general system, but to fly off from a particular promise
which, when acted upon by one of the parties should
be as binding as a contract, is utterly inex-
cusable. The only answer that is given on the
part of the local Government to this accusation of a breach
of faith is, that the lots when sold fetched very high prices,
and that "it would be difficult to apply any better test of
value than sale in a fair and open market." If it were a
mere question of value, this answer would be fallacious ; for
we need only instance the very recent example of the railway
mania to prove that a thing is not always worth what people
are sometimes willing to give for it. The "stagging" system
appears to have been operating in the distribution of land at
Hong-Kong as well as in the allotment of shares at home,
and the allegation that the price offered for an article is a
test of its value receives from the merchants in China an
answer that would apply almost equally well to some recent
cases at the Stock-Exchange :
" We may, however, observe, in further explanation, that
in June 1841, when the first sale was held, 100 lots having
water frontage And 100 suburban lots were advertised for
sale; but, owing to the very unfortunate selection of the site
of the new town—a matter in which the merchants had no
voice—sufficient available ground could be found to admit of
only 50 lots being put up, and great competition was the
natural consequence. As no money was paid, or penalty
beyond forfeiture of the land incurred by non-completion of
the purchase, it is not a hatter of surprise that when a num-
ber of lots, insufficient for one-third of the intending buyers,
were brought to sale, the biddings should have been unusually
high."
The Government advertise more lots than they have to Sell;
just as the directors of a bubble company advertise for ditstri;•
bution more shares than they mean to issue and the result,
in both cases, is an eagerness to make extravagant offers, and
undertake heavy liabilities, for the sake of a preference. But
the premium is only temporary, for the value is forced and
fictitious—a case precisely in point to that of the land at
Hong-Kong, which was so eagerly sought after, and subse-
quently unpaid for by those who fiad agreed to purchase it.
The merchants of Hong-Kong remind the Government of
that fact in the following passage of their letter to the offici-
ating Colonial Secretary :
" But of the purchases Made at that sale, you. Sir, must be
well aware that many of the lots remain unoccupied, and are
likely to continue so, as the Government have, we believe,
no security under which they can enforce the completion of
the agreements."
The settlement of Hong-Kong is evidently a failure as far
as trade is concerned, and the place seems only to be of, im-
portance as a military and naval station. The Chinese po-
pulation is very scanty, and is likely to be rendered more so,
unless certain harassing taxes are removed, which it is the
object of the memorial of the merchants to protest against
The Americans and other foreigner, remain at Macao, and
Canton rather than resort to the much-vaunted "free settle-
ment" of Hong-Kong, where the merchants- are likely to
find themselves soon with only each other to traffic with.
'The establishments in which they have embarked their ca-
pital are too valuable to abandon, and yet are not a source
of profit commensurate with the outlay incurred. Their
appeal to the Government at home is their only chance,
however desperate, of changing Hong-Kong from a mere
military station, as it now is, into a thriving settlement, as
it might and ought to be.— Times.

-
FOREIGN Msyys.—The folloming are the postal
arrangements for the transmission of foreign mails :—" General
Post-office, St. Martin's-le Grand.—The next mails for Gibraltar,
Malta, Greece, the lonian Islands, Egypt, India, &c., via South-
ampton, will be dispatched hence on the morning of the 20th inst.
The next mails for the Mediterranean, Egypt, Ceylon, India, and
China, via Marseilles, will be dispatched hence on the evening- of
the 7th Inst.
ALARMING Cowstort .—The brig Luvius, Captain
Cox, from Cardiff for Cork, in running up the harbour at six
o'clock last night, was run down by the steam ship Sirius, and sunk
in five minutos afterwards. The whole of this crew were saved by
the steamer.-I,4rrpool ,Standard.

TRIAL BY JURY.
.F.I.FTY-F,IRST,ANNIIIIERSARY DINNER TO COMME-
MORATE THE ACQUITTAL 'OF HORNE TOOKE
AND _HARDY. ,. 1
Yesterday about one hundred gentle Men assembled atalin-
net at the Crown and Anchor Tavern, in the Strand, to com-
memorate the fifty-first anniversary of the acquittal of Ilorne
Tooke and Hardy. Dr. Bowring, M.P., presided.
When the cloth was removed,
The CHAIRMAN proposed, as the first toast, " The Sove-
reignty of the People." In doing so,. lie said he proposed
that toast first. because the multitude were • not made for the
monarchs, but the monarchs for the multitude.
'ln proposing the health of " The Queen," he expressed a
hope -that the Sovereign who was placed at the summit of
the Government of this great empire would cause, her reign
to be marked by. a desire to consult the happiness of the com-
munity over which she ruled.
The CHAIRMAN said the next toast was " Trial by Jury."
—(Cheers.) He would observe, in offering this toast to tte
assembly, that all experience had taught mankind that very
often great events arose out of discouraging circumstances;
and the history of man could point to as many results of
great importance arising from light causes, as could the his-
tory of philosophy for its most valuable discoveries.—(Hear,
hear.) What the discovery of attraction and gravitation
was in the world of matter, the importance of trial
by jury was in the world of mind.—(Hear, hear.)
It was the victory of political philosophy that gained ,
for the people of this country that glorious pri-
vilege which they knew so well how to value; and
which they would never surreuder.—(Cheers.) The
great institution of trial by jury was an invaluable boon to
the people, and was so regarded by the enlightened portion
of the community.—(Hear.) It was that battering-ram
which protected individuals against tyrannical penal laws,
and which eventually broke them down.—(Cheers.) With
these observations, he begged to give them the inviolable
privilege of " Trial by Jury."—Drank with all the honours.
Time CHAIRMAN, in proposir's the next toast, said he had
now come to the great toast of the day, the object of which
was to bring back their recollections to bear upon the me-
mory of those great and immortal men who, in the dark days
of danger and persecution, had braved the storm, and were
prepared to suffer all the consequences of penal enactments in
the great cause of public liberty.—(Cheers.) Removed as
those whom he now saw around him were from the times in
which those illustrious men lived, they could scarcely appre-
ciate the many hardships, vexations, and persecutions they
underwent in their efforts to assert a great principle.—(Hear,
hear.) But they-endored all those because they were sup-.
ported by public opinion's and. with that, to baci them they
were prepared even to " walk through the valley of the
shadow of death," 'rather than abandon the position they
had taken.--(Cheers.) But the present age was beginning
to do them justice ; the future would certainly do so, because
time ever tame. to the aid of the grateful recollection of the
virtuous and patriotic.—(Cheers.) In the present day there
was no doubt en. the public mind as to the positions which
Sydney and Hampden should occupy in the estimation of
their country. (Hear, hear.) Inquiries had been made
as to - Whether - 'Cromwell should have a statue ; but
be the result • of that • what it might, no man could
deny a statue to John Milton, for he was enshrined in the
hearts of the people, and regarded as deserving of a place
amongst the best of men, both by Parliament and by people.
-,(ClieerS.) On the death of John Milton, a certain writer
said that the fame of that great man had gone out like the
snuff of a candle, and left no agreeable odour after it; but he
(the Chairman) begged to say, that so far from the result
verifying that assertion, that "candle" had illuminated the
whole world, and the memory of it was held as sacred as that
of a consecrated saint. He (the Chairman) had made'
those observations in order to show that the people of this
country were not slow to consecrate the memory of the
great who had passed away, and they looked with a deep
and fervid intent upon those who still lived, and who had
been associated with them.—(Hear, heir.) There were some
few in that room who still well remembered the memorable day
they had thisevening met to commemorate, and who had taken
a part in the proceedings then going forward ; and it would
be the boast and the privilege of the youngest now in this
room, to be able to declare, at a future day,.that though they
had not the good fortune to live in the times of Hooke and
-Hardy, and those other illustrious men, they at least could
say those who had mingled with them were not unknown to
them, and that they hung with delight upon the accounts
they had heard of the manner in which these great men
bore up against adversity, had struggled with the waters
which were about to overwhelm them, and had arisen from
the ordeal invigorated and resolute.—(Cheers.) Such lie
trusted would be the conduct of the young men of the pre-
sent day at any moment when the liberties of the country
should be imperilled, or tyrannical laws be attempted to be
enforced.—(Loud cheers.)
Mr. PARRY was called upon to speak to the next toast, which
was " The memory of the three juries who, in 1797, accquitted
Hardy, Tooke, and Thelwell on a charge of high treason, and of
Erskine and Gibbs, the able and gratuitous counsel of the
accused." In rising to propose the toast, he said he felt
honoured by having been chosen for the performance of so
agreeable a duty. He had only been attending those meet-
ings for a few years, but he felt convinced that a more im-
portant public duty he could not discharge, and he also felt
gratified for the manner in which he bad always been received
at them by those who now surrounded him.—(Hear, hear.)
The toast entrusted to him to propose was one which might
easily have fallen to the lot of some one more competent to
do justice to its merits than lie was. There might be some in
that room to-night who still preserved a vivid recollection of
all the painful circumstances attending those extraordinary
trials—who had witnessed the anxious attention of those
three remarkable juries while they were addressed in the
powerful and forcible eloquence of the Attorney-General
of that day, who called the accused " those great
State criminals."—(Hear hear.) The excitement in-
separable from all the circumstances attending these
trials—the crowded and . concerned audience by which the
juries and the prisoners were surrounded—the excitement
arising from the naturally intense anxiety that existed in
the public mind to know what fate awaited men who were
on trial for their lives—the excitement of the able counsel
who defended the prisoners, and who denounced, as odious
and infamous, that law which would jeopardise the lives of
men by what was called " constructive treason"—(Cheers)
—instead of having laws so plain that no man could mistake,
and all might shun the breach of--(Cheers)—that state of
excitement which even amongst the jury was so strong, that,
when the foreman came into Court to return his verdict, he
could scarce articulate it, and when he had done so, fainted
away—an unprecedented circumstance—but thereby stamped
that verdict as the result of a state of insecurity to the liber-
ties of the people the memory of which should never die
away—(Cheers)—the excitement attendant upon the
fact that Erskine and Gibbs, the prisoners' counsel, had de-
fended them gratuitously, as if to say there never was a time '
when a lawyer could do anything for nothing.—(Laughter.)
It was not even all these circumstances combined that made
him look back with pleasure to the result of these trials, but
it was the additional one, namely, the assertion of that great
and eternal principle for which those men had risked all to
uphold.—(Cheers.) Men of the present day were so much
absorbed by other matters, and had given themselves so
little trouble about this, that one would almost imagine the
people lived under the very best form of 'government it was
possible to have—(Laughter)—and he would venture to as-
sert that even the present Government • had not•yet deemed
the consideration of this great principle of importance.— ,
(Cheers.) "However, he would beg to remind this meeting
that if those assemblies were to be of any real value, they
should not only express their approbation of the men whose
memories they had met to commemorate, but they should also
never lose sight of the necessity for upholding the principle
those men fought for. Yes, there would be no use in their
meeting there unless they were resolved to folio* up the
assertion of that principle, and to adopt the example of those
great men who had fought for it so bravely, even unto the
very threshold of martyrdoths4Loud cheers: )
The toast was then put from the chair, and hailed with
all the honours and protracted applause.
Mr. W. J. Fox was called upon to propose the next
toast. He said he had been anticipated in a great deal he
had intended to say by Mr. Parry, in his very able speech.
He concurred with him that if they meant to carry out
their object, they should not,only do honour to the men, but
to the principle.—(Hear, hear.) The men were bound up
with the principle; and though the men whose memory they
had met that night to honour were no longer living, yet
there were young men rising up around them who, like Mr.
Parry, stood as it were in the place of those who were gone,
and had the same duty to perform.—(Hear, heat.) He
(Mr. Fox) was not present at those trials during that event
ful period, but he remembered it well. He was living at
Norwich at the time, and the news of the acquittal arrived
in that town on the day after it was made known in Lou
don. It was announced in one of the churches while a clergy-
man was in the act of delivering a discourse; and it was
hailed by a psalm of thanksgiving, that could not have been
'surpassed in the loftiest cathedral, or by the grandest aspi-
rations of consecrated eloquence.—(Cheers.) He remem-
bered well that at that time men who, in their own locality,
were esteemed good and virtuous men, were regarded as
men of very different character at the seat of Government—
as if the change of place changed their character; and they
were dragged from their homes and their. beds without being
permitted to put on their shces, as if there might be some•
thing treasonable even in contact with those articles.—
(Laughter.) Tooke, and those who were tried with him,
were very near being hanged for saying that the Govern-
ment was corrupt; and yet, in a little time after, the same
bady 'reformed themselves, and in a way, too, that most
corrupt bodies effect reformation.—(Cheers, and laughter.)
The speaker next alluded to the discussions that had ap-
peared-in the public prints about certain statues which were
to be placed in the new Houses of Parliament; but he
trusted that the time was coming when the people would
have a Parliament that would not be held in any palace in
which there should not be a statue erected to honest Tom
Hardy.—(Loud cheers.) He next adverted to aspeech re-
ported of Lord John Russell upon his receiving the liberty of '
Edinburgh, and commented in a very humorous strain
' upon his Lordship's expressions, to the effect that he was
anxious to give the people extensive immunities, bat that
lie wished to do it " constitutionally ;" but he (Mr. F.) con-
tended that no extension of the people's privileges would be
worth having while they were still compelled to submit to
ecclesiastical tyranny, or be servile to a monarchy. He
concluded by proposing the toast, " Radical reform of
all abuses, and a fair representation of • the people of
the British empire in Parliament,": which was drank with
loud applause.
Mr. TAYLOR proposed the " Memory of the martyrs who
suffered in Scotland in 1794," which was drunk in solemn
silence, and which was followed by .several other toasts,
and the company separated, after having protracted their
sitting to a late hour, and spent a very agreeable evening.