Your Lordship that 1000 bayonets are the least number which will be requisite for the occupation upon a sufficiently extensive & secure footing. I should acquaint Your Lordship that there is no water supply in the "Hand of Manglong, and this circumstance (constraining the necessity of maintaining a hold over Chreenpe) & the feebleness of the garrison which they have been able to place on the Manglong has made it indispensable always to leave a ship of war at that point. Experience too has taught us that with the batteries at Aminghoy destroyed, Manglong will not be tenable against ships of war even if it were re-formed; but beyond the supposition that it was recoverable whenever the Ministry pleased, & that there was great advantage in unlocking the sea & land force machinery for its guard, there was not another strong reason for restoring it to the Chinese, in preference to the less objectionable destruction of the works.
There could be no doubt that the importance of its recovery would be dwelt upon to the Court as a set off against the late momentous Concessions, & by a parity of reasoning its destruction would expose the Authorities to the certainty of the sovereign's displeasure of the Emperor. Menaced then with...