Page:Europe in China.djvu/223

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THE ADMINISTRATION OF SIR H. POTTINGER.
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faith with the mercantile community after he had, from 1841 to 1843, used every endeavour, both by facilities temporarily offered to early occupants of land, and by the threat of the penalty of forfeiting their purchases to all who did not commence building, to induce British merchants of Macao and Canton to remove to Hongkong; (3) that, in negotiating the Nanking Treaty, he studiously neglected to provide for any extension of the ground allotted to the foreign community in Canton, or indeed for adequate facilities for building on the space they formerly occupied in Canton, and this with a view (at one time openly avowed) of forcing the British merchants at Canton to settle in Hongkong; (4) that, with a view to make the Colony pay its own expenses, he imposed on the colonists all sorts of financial and commercial restrictions and taxation, whilst giving the British community no municipal powers nor any representation in Council; (5) that, in the case of the Supplementary Treaty, acting as Plenipotentiary, he signed away the freedom of the port and betrayed the commercial and maritime interests of the Colony by giving the Canton Mandarins every facility to strangle the young commerce of Hongkong; (6) that, acting as Governor, he may have sought to further the interests of the Crown but failed to identify himself with the interests of British trade in Hongkong, being too proud to consult the views of the leading merchants, deaf to the voice of the press and callous to the wants of the people; (7) that, influenced by prejudices against the opium traffic and ignorant of the complexity of the commercial problem involved in it, he was in a fog as to the real requirements of the commerce of Hongkong and mistakenly assumed the rôle of a coast-guard officer of Chinese revenue, counteracting in every respect those free trade principles on which the commercial prosperity of the Colony in reality depended; (8) that, whilst doing everything to foster the illusion that Hongkong would immediately become a vast emporium of commerce and lavishly spending money on official salaries and buildings, he neglected the commonest sanitary measures and, instead of increasing the force of 28 police