women, they have armed them with
obvious powers, which they would not otherwise have possessed,
and there is consequently reason to apprehend that Government
supervision accentuates in some respects rather than relieves the
hardships of the servitude of the inmates."

The records furnish many instances to prove that the Registrar
General's Department was not operated with the least idea of relieving
the slave from her bondage. These are culled from the court records.
We will condense some of them.

1. Three sisters were brought by their foster-mother from Macao
to Hong Kong, on the promise of a feast; they were taken to the
house of an old brothel-keeper, to whom the foster-mother sold the
girls, receiving ten dollars apiece for them, to bind the bargain,
and she went away, leaving the girls with this old woman, who
began immediately to urge them to become prostitutes; they cried
and refused, asking to be allowed to go to their foster-mother who
had brought them up,--not suspecting that they had been already
sold by her into shameful slavery. The old woman locked them up,
and beat one of the girls, who had resisted her cruel fate. Their
meals were all taken into the room where they were kept close
prisoners from that time. Brought into court, the foster-mother
was set at liberty, although the history was fully set forth, and
the old woman declared: "She pledged the girls in my house, by
receiving thirty dollars from me.... I have a witness who saw the
money paid." The brothel-keeper was convicted only of assault for
beating the girl, and sentenced to three months' imprisonment with
hard labor. No reference was made to her own admissions as
to buying these girls, and endeavoring to force them into
prostitution. Ten days later, her case was brought up again, an