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A case occurred some weeks ago. In the belief that a certain vessel coming from Hong-Kong was laden with paupers, convicts, and rebels, transported from the country by sagacious mandarins, the authorities of San Francisco tried to send these undesirable settlers back to China.
Taking the mail steamer in charge, they prevented either man or woman from landing, and required the company to carry their cargo back to Hong-Kong.
The company refused.
The San Francisco courts affirmed the right of the mayor and sheriffs to reject this cargo: but they were overruled by the Circuit Courts, acting in the name, interpreting the principles, of the United States.
Nearly every woman who obtains a licence to leave Hong-Kong comes over as a slave, the property of masters, who sell her in the city very much as a planter used to sell his quadroon in New Orleans.
A case is now before the courts which proves so much, if not a great deal more.
Ah Lee, a man of good repute and decent means, lived with Low Yow, a woman who was erroneously supposed to be his wife.
They had some words and parted company, on which Ah Lee
1875.
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