15th, 1879. The purport of that translation is shortly that the
advertiser, one Cheong, has lost a purchased slave girl named Tai
Ho, aged 13 years. After a full description of the girl a reward
is offered in these terms:--'If there is in either of the four
quarters any worthy man who knows where she is gone to, and will
send a letter, he will be rewarded with four full weight dollars,
and the person detaining the slave will be rewarded with fifteen
full weight dollars.' These words are subsequently added:--'This
is firm, and the words will 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