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it, shall be as concise as possible. I am indebted to Your Lordship for the information and assurances
made an incorrect report to Her Majesty's Government is a matter of no importance, but however true it may be that the Board of
Ordnance will be "well informed as to the fact of Colony, I imagine
a want of Barracks in this
this letter will show both Her Majesty's Government and that Board, that they must look to something else than the subject having
escaped discovery.
Whatever may be the nature, or object, of the secret and confidential reports, to which Your Lordship has felt yourself at liberty to call my notice, they are to me a matter of the most perfect indifference - I leave my motives and feelings to be judged of by my acts, and I am
always ready and, please God, shall always be able to explain my conduct, under all circumstances to the satisfaction of any Superiors, to whose approbation and support I alone trust and look
In declining to deprive the Chinese Inhabitants of Chuck-Chu of their houses, or to lay hands on those belonging to British subjects residing in this Colony on the terms proposed by Major Aldrich and seconded by Your Lordship, I have only obeyed the gracious Commands of Her Majesty conveyed to me under the Royal Sign Manual. I do not assent to any private ordinance whatever whereby the property of any individual may be affected, and in the first of these two matters, a still higher motive, if any such can be imagined, when speaking of justice weighed with me, since the recommendation of the Committee was not only unjust, but was calculated, in my estimation, to be attended with the most baneful