to the flame, for a European house in Seymour Terrace was attacked (October 3, 1878) by armed burglars.
On 7th October, 1878, the great public meeting of this period was held on the cricket ground. The following resolutions were, with hardly any opposition, passed. It was resolved, (1) that life and property had been jeopardized by a policy of undue leniency towards the criminal classes: (2) that flogging in public had been found the only really deterring punishment, and that to its suspension was due the daring boldness which had lately characterized crime; (3) that a Commission of medical men should be appointed to inquire into the alleged injurious effects of flogging on the back; (4) that the almost total abolition of deportation was injurious and would cause the criminal population of South China to overcrowd the Hongkong Gaol; (5) that a Commission from outside the Colony should be appointed to inquire into the application of criminal laws, the carrying out of sentences of the Courts, and the relation between the Governor and his officials, and finally (6) that a copy of these resolutions should be forwarded to the Secretary of State through the Governor. Mr. H. B. Gibb was in the chair, and the movers and seconders of the foregoing resolutions were Messrs. W. Keswick, W. Reiners, W. H. Forbes, G. Sharp, D. Ruttonjee, W. S. Young, H. H. Nelson, A. MacClymont, H. Lowcock, N. J. Ede, A. P. McEwen and C. D. Bottomley. The senior unofficial Member of Council (Ph. Ryrie) was conspicuous by his absence. Strong as the indictment contained in the above resolutions was, both in argument and in the support it received from the British and foreign community of Hongkong, the Secretary of State left the Memorial embodying those resolutions unanswered for nearly a year. Meanwhile the Chinese Committee of the Wato Dispensary at Wantsai canvassed the lower classes of Chinese shopkeepers in the interest of Sir John, whose impeachment at the bar of public opinion was resented by them as an attack on a Governor whose policy was characteristically pro-Chinese. Accordingly they produced an address to the
