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126 histories of British intercourse with the Far East, that 'the English wanted Hongkong and they took it by force of arms.' But that is also an unwarranted inference which the compiler of the Colonial Year Book (1890) has drawn from his view of the cession, by the allegation that 'the annexation of Hongkong affords a remarkable example of the aptitude of the English for grasping the requirements of any given condition of circumstances and meeting them accordingly.' It is to be feared, with all respect for British quickness of perception generally, that in the present case the lesson of the above chapter points rather in the opposite direction.