R. M. Martin, of course, came once more to the front. According to him, Sir J. Davis erred, first, in raising undue expectations of the future of Hongkong by assuring Her Majesty's Government that Hongkong would be the Carthage of the East, that its population would equal that of ancient Rome, and that commercially Hongkong would ultimately supersede Canton. He further erred, according to Mr. Martin, in that he, having raised such expectations, endeavoured by measures forced upon the Colony to fulfil his predictions. 'The constant endeavour to realize those expectations led ta a continued system of taxation, an unfortunate desire for legislation, and an unnecessarily expensive system of government. This produced irritation on the part of the merchants who, smarting under their losses, felt more irritable at every transaction; and thus there has been produced an unfortunate state of. feeling between the community and the Governor.' Mr. Martin thought that Sir J. Davis would have exercised a sound discretion if he had represented to Her Majesty's Government that it was not possible to raise a revenue without diminishing the commerce or injuring the merchants in their endeavours to make the place more available for trade.
But a more serious and weighty condemnation of the policy maintained by Sir J. Davis, is contained in the evidence given before that Select Committee of the House of Commons and particularly in the final report of the Committee. Whilst Mr. Martin's criticisms, particularly as embodied in his famous report of July 24, 1844, were too sweeping to carry conviction and have in part been contradicted by the events of history, the evidence given by Mr. A. Matheson, whilst freely exposing the evil results of Sir J. Davis' policy, bore the stamp of a mature and sober judgment, and contained, moreover, a prophecy which history has fulfilled. 'The whole of the British merchants,' said Mr. A. Matheson (May 4, 1847), 'would abandon Hongkong, were it not for the very large sums they had sunk in buildings in the early days of the Colony and which they were reluctant to abandon, though I believe doing so would have been the
