Page:Europe in China.djvu/183

Rh known, from time to time, gradually extending, by special Ordinances and executive Regulations, the sphere of English forms of government and the application of English Law. This was, however, done cautiously and gradually, in proportion as the two local communities, European and Chinese, were, by the slow process of the interaction of English and Chinese modes of thought, life and education, brought a little nearer to each other. This process (though hardly perceptible) is still going on at the present day, but executive regulations and legal enactments have all along proved utterly futile whenever they went too far ahead of the successive stages reached by this extremely slow process of race amalgamation which depends more on the silent influences of English education, English speaking and English modes of living than on the exercise of the rights and powers of the Crown. The Chinese, though the most docile people in the world when under fair government, proved utterly intractable whenever the Executive or the Legislature of the Colony rushed into any unreconciled conflict with deep-seated national customs of the Chinese people.

By a second proclamation—issued conjointly by Sir J. J. Gordon Bremer, Commander-in-Chief, and by Captain Elliot, as Her Majesty's Plenipotentiary, on February 1, 1841—all natives of China, residing in Hongkong, were informed that they were all, by the fact of their residing on the Island, which was now part of Her Majesty's Dominions, subjects of the Queen of England, to whom and to whose officers they must pay duty and obedience. Moreover, it was added, that 'the inhabitants are hereby promised protection, in Her Majesty's gracious name, against all enemies whatever and they are further secured in the free exercise of their religious rites, ceremonies and social customs, and in the enjoyment of their lawful private property and interests.' It must be noted that, in the case of this stipulation, not only is the usual reservation 'until Her Majesty's further pleasure' omitted, but for it is substituted the positive affirmation that this promise was given 'in Her Majesty's gracious name.' Anyhow, Her Majesty never,