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Forfeitures in question should be accounted for and paid to Mr. John Wilkin, of No. 10, Spring Gardens, who holds the appointment of Receiver of Fines and Forfeitures for the Crown, to be by him paid into the Exchequer periodically with other Fines.
I am, therefore, to request you to move the Duke of Newcastle, to take such steps as may be necessary, in order to instruct the authorities in the British Colonies to remit the Penalties, Fines, and Forfeitures imposed there under the Acts above referred to, to Mr. Wilkin, in accordance with the instructions of the Treasury.
I am to add, that the Penalties &c., referred to in Section 26 of 16th and 17th Vict., cap. 131, include Penalties and Forfeitures under 7th and 8th Vict, cap. 112, and 8th and 9th Vict., cap. 116, as these Penalties &c., have hitherto, under 13th and 14th Vict., cap. 93, sect. 111, been payable to the Board of Trade.
H. MERIVALE, Esq.
&c. &c. &c.
Colonial Office.
I have, &c.,
(Signed,)
JAMES BOOTH.
Diplomatic Department.
His Excellency Her Majesty's Plenipotentiary and Chief Superintendent of Trade in China, having been pleased to grant Mr. Alexander Bird Twelve months' leave of absence, Mr. Horace Oakley will from this date and until further notice officiate as Her Majesty's Vice Consul at Whampoa.
By Order,
W. H. MEDHURST, Officiating Secretary to H. B. M.'s Plenipotentiary.
Superintendency of Trade, Victoria, Hongkong,
28th January 1854.
Diplomatic Department.
With reference to the Provisional Rules for the clearing of ships established at Shanghae in Septem- ber last by Mr. Consul Alcock, which were published in the Government Gazette of the 26th of that month, His Excellency Her Majesty's Plenipotentiary and Chief Superintendent of Trade in China is pleased to direct that the subjoined letters addressed to the Right Honorable the Earl of Clarendon, K. G., Her Majesty's Principal Secretary of State for Foreign affairs, by the London, Liverpool, and Manchester Chambers of Commerce, and His Lordship's replies thereto, be published for general information.
By Order,
Superintendency of Trade, Victoria, Hongkong
25th January, 1854.
W. H. MEDHURST, Officiating Secretary to H. B. M.'s Plenipotentiary.
OFFICE OF THE EAST INDIA AND CHINA ASSOCIATION.
Cowper's Court, Cornhill, November 17th, 1853.
MY LORD,-On behalf of the Committee of this Association I have the honor to transmit for Your Lordship's consideration the enclosed papers relative to the existing interruption to the fiscal operations of the Chinese Government at Shanghae: and the Committee beg leave to request that in consideration of the urgency of the case Your Lordship would by the Mail of the 24th instant send out such specific instructions for the guidance of Her Majesty's Consul at that port as may determine the important question at issue.
In making this request, the Committee would beg to draw Your Lordship's attention to the magni. tude of the amount which, should the present state of disorganization continue, may be expected to accumulate in the Consul's hands; and to pray that Her Majesty's Government will assume to itself the entire responsibility for the Sums so collected, and become exclusively the medium of its ultimate ap- propriation either in payment to the Government established, or should such course be determined on, in repayment to the respective depositors.
Lord CLARENDON, &c., &c.
I have &c.,
(Signed)
S. GREGSON,
BRITISH CHAMBER OF COMMERCE. Shanghae, September 22, 1853.
SIR, You will already from the public prints be aware of the subversion of the Imperial Government in Shanghae on the 7th instant, the abandonment of the Custom House, and the cessa- tion of the Collection of Duties by the Chinese Officials.
Consequent on this, Her Britannic Majesty's Consul has issued a Notification dated 9th instant, con- taining provisional Rules for the clearing of ships in the absence of a Custom House Establishment, and, from the enclosed Copy of this document, you will perceive the reason alleged by Her Britannic Majesty's Consul for pursuing the course he has done is, that as no Port Clearance or Grand Chop can be produced at the British Consulate, Her Britannic Majesty's Consul cannot by Treaty return to the consignee the Ship's papers, and allow the Ship to depart.
Although by the original Treaties and Regulations of Trade with China signed 1842 and 1843, Her Britannic Majesty's Consul has important duties to perform in connection with the Chinese Cus- toms' Revenue, these were abrogated by a despatch of Lord Palmerston's issued, we believe, in 1851 to the Superintendent of Trade and Consular Departments in China, which although never made public, was stated by Her Britannic Majesty's Consul as the origin of the Regulations of Trade issued by the Taou-