Page:Europe in China.djvu/284

266 jobbing forced up the crown rents to a maximum commensurate with inflated values. But this maximum, which at the time of sale seems reasonable enough, appeared in after years of commercial stagnation to be a monstrously oppressive rate. Moreover, just when these rents pressed most heavily on the land owners, the Government, whose revenues suffered likewise under commercial depression, was least inclined, nor indeed in a position, to reduce the income from land rents. At a public meeting, principally representing the land owners, a Memorial to the Government was agreed to (January 19, 1849), complaining that the land rents were a burden too heavy to be borne. The memorialists suggested, that the expenses of the civil establishment should be made to fall on trade generally (the Imperial trade) and not on local owners of land and that the crown rents should be materially reduced or abolished. Sir George was in no hurry to take up a problem which could not be solved under the circumstances of the time and left it as a legacy to his successors. After appointing (October, 1849) a Commission of Inquiry to report on the land tenure of the Colony for the information of Her Majesty's Government, he informed his select committee of Justices of the Peace, at the conference of November 3, 1849, that 'any general reduction in the ground rents would be immediately followed up by the Home Government with the imposition of some general scheme of excise or assessment which would be found much more oppressive and vexatious, besides requiring a cumbersome and costly fixed machinery.' Fifteen months later (February 14, 1851) the Colonial Secretary, in reviewing the merits of Sir G. Bonham's administration (by order of the Governor), stated that the petty sources of revenue alleged to have been oppressive, had been abolished and for the consideration of the chief source, said to be oppressive, a Committee of five was appointed and their report forwarded to Her Majesty's Government. No more was heard of this troublous question during this administration.

The legislative activity of Governor Bonham's regime centered in reforms of the administration of justice. When