Page:Crime and government at Hong Kong.pdf/74

 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