Re: C.H.E.A.P....C.I.G.A.R.E.T.T.E.S.....F2r0K5Pkc
fran...@theplanet.net
prosecution in this case."
During the year previous, 1876, Ordinance No. 2 had been passed,
depriving the Registrar General of the much-abused judicial powers
he had exercised since 1867, and transferring them to the police
magistrates.
Speaking of the incident of Tai Yau having sold her boy to pay her
fine, Governor Hennessy wrote the Colonial Office, under date of
December 6th, 1877:
"I am now informed that the Commissioners have obtained from the
records of the Registrar General's department and from Mr. Smith's
evidence the clearest proof that this practice of selling human
beings in Hong Kong was well known to the department. One of the
records has been shown to me in which a witness swears, 'I bought
the girl Chan Tsoi Lin and placed her in a brothel in Hong Kong';
and on that particular piece of evidence no action was taken by
the department."
Lord Carnarvon was Secretary of State for the Colonies at this time,
and his replies to Sir John Pope Hennessy were small encouragement to
the course the Governor had taken. He criticises his "somewhat unusual
course" in the appointment of a Commission "composed of private
persons to inquire into the administration of an important department
of the Government." He says: "I am unable to concur in the suggestion
made in your despatch as to the advisability of prosecuting Inspector
Lee." He implies that in his opinion "Inspector Lee was acting
strictly within his powers on this unfortunate occasion." "It is
quite possible," Lord Carnarvon continues, "that there may be abuses
connected with the Contagious Diseases Ordinance which ought to
be removed; but I would point out that such abuses arise from the
imperfections in the system as established by law.... While ready
to give co
fran...@theplanet.net
noted, that it has never been our manner, to observe the evening that
follows the sabbath, but that which precedes it, as part of the holy
time], and after our public lecture, to be especially the times of their
mirth, and company-keeping. But a sermon was now preached on the sabbath
before the lecture, to show the evil tendency of the practice, and to
persuade them to reform it; and it was urged on heads of families that
it should be a thing agreed upon among them, to govern their families,
and keep their children at home, at these times. It was also more
privately moved, that they should meet together the next day, in their
several neighborhoods, to know each other's minds; which was accordingly
done, and the notion complied with throughout the town. But parents
found little or no occasion for the exercise of government in the case.
The young people declared themselves convinced by what they had heard
from the pulpit, and were willing of themselves to comply with the
counsel that had been given: and it was immediately, and, I suppose,
almost universally, complied with; and there was a thorough reformation
of these disorders thenceforward, which has continued ever since.
Presently after this, there began to appear a remarkable religious
conc