and slavery for the purposes of prostitution. The three cases now
awaiting the sentence of the Court are specially provided for by
Ordinances of 1865 and 1872, prohibiting kidnaping and illegally
detaining men, women, and children; and no difficulty ever arose
in my mind as to the crimes of which these prisoners are severally
convicted, or as to the sentences due to such crimes; and there is
no question as to crimes or punishment of cases where women are
smuggled into brothels, some licensed and others unlicensed, or
otherwise dedicated to immoral purposes. But the enormous extent
to which slavery in this Colony has grown up has called into
existence a greatly increasing traffic, especially in women and
children. The number of Chinamen in this Colony has increased and
is increasing rapidly, whilst their great increase in wealth has
fostered licentious habits, notably in buying women for purposes
sanctioned neither by the laws nor customs on the mainland. I hold
in my hand a placard in Chinese, torn down from the wall of the
Central School, Cough Street steps, in this city. The translation
appears at length in the Hong Kong _Daily Press of_ August
15th, 1879. The pur****t 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, h
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