not be eaten.' I recently spoke in
reprobation of slavery from this Bench, and in consequence of my
remarks a gentleman who tore down this placard gave it to the
editor of the _Daily Press_, and in a letter in that paper he
stated that such placards are common, and that he had torn down a
hundred such placards. Has Cuba or has Peru ever exhibited more
palpable, more public evidence of the existence of generally
recognized slavery in these hotbeds of slavery, than such placards
as the one I now hold in my hand, to prove that slavery exists
in this Colony? The notices have been posted in a most populous
neighborhood, and have been in all probability read--they ought
to have been, they must have been read--by scores of our Chinese
policemen.

"Important as this Colony is, politically and commercially, it is
but a dot in the ocean; its area is about half that of the county
of Rutland; the circumference of this island is calculated at
about 27 miles, whilst that of the Isle of Wight is about 56
miles. The cultivated land on this island may be to the barren
waste about one-half per cent, and there is no agrarian slavery
here in nearly the total absence of farms, and on this dot in the
ocean it is estimated that the slave population has reached ten
thousand souls! I first became fully alive to the existence of
so-called domestic slavery in this Colony at the Criminal Sessions
in May last, on the trial of two cases.... But it is said that
what is called domestic slavery, as it exists in Hong Kong, is
mild, and it is said to be the opinion of a gentleman of great
experience in Chinese, that, as it exists here, it is not contrary
to the Christian religion, and that it is as general a fashion
for Chinese ladies in Hong Kong to purchase one or more girls to
attend on them as it is for English ladies to hire ladies'
maids, and that the custom is so general that it would be highly
impolitic, if not impossible, to put down the system. It may be
that slavery as it exists in the houses of the better classes
in Hong Kong is mild, and that custom among the better classes
renders servitude to them a boon as long as it lasts. It is, I
believe, an admitted duty that when the young girl grows up and
becomes marriageable she is married; but then it is the custom
that the husband buys her, and her