agreed to collect duties by promissory notes. Sir John having informed the Chamber of Commerce of Earl Clarendon's decision, the British merchants handed in their bonds for arrears of duties down to July 12, 1854. After making an arrangement with the U.S. Minister that a European Inspector should be appointed to collect temporarily the duties payable to the Chinese Government, Sir John returned to Hongkong (August, 1854) and, to his great surprise, found there a dispatch awaiting him in which the Foreign Office, acting under the advice of the Crown Lawyers, instructed him to return the bonds to the parties by whom they were given. Sir John forthwith ordered restoration of those bonds which covered the period from September to February, but retained the other bonds, as he interpreted his instructions to authorize his doing so. But when the Shanghai Chamber once more appealed to the Foreign Office, Earl Clarendon told a deputation of the East India and China Association (November, 1854) that Sir J. Bowring had received positive instructions not to interfere in any way with the collection of duties. Sir John now suffered unmerited obloquy as the Shanghai merchants, supposing him to have acted throughout in a manner contrary to his instructions, censured his action in the matter as markedly insincere and autocratic. So much more does it redound to the credit of those same merchants, that they, as soon as the news of the Parliamentary condemnation of Sir John's character and conduct in connection with the Arrow War reached Shanghai (April, 1857), immediately passed resolutions enthusiastically defending his character and justifying his general conduct and policy.
The commerce of the Colony flourished throughout this administration. The conclusion of Sir John's treaty with Siam caused, since May, 1855, large shipments of Siamese produce to pour into Hongkong. This caused an immediate revolution of the rice trade which now fell largely into foreign hands, whence resulted a welcome reduction of prices, as famine rates had been ruling in Canton. The opening of Japan, by the Convention concluded (October 14, 1854) by Admiral Sir James
