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that it is due to myself, and likewise proper to prevent disappointment on the part of Her Majesty's Government - not to allow the first opportunity that offers, of a Vessel sailing for Bombay - intending to overtake the November overland Mail - to pass, without explaining more fully than I have hitherto had occasion to do, the great and manifold difficulties with which I am surrounded, and the hopelessness I feel of being able to extricate myself from them until the means of doing so shall be sent out from England. Her Majesty's Government will have seen from all my recent despatches to Lord Aberdeen, that I have considered that my duties as Plenipotentiary should take precedence of all others, and even had that position not been self-evident, the very nature of those duties would have left me no option, because the High Offices of the Government of China on the one part, and the Mercantile Community on the other, neither would, nor could, admit of delay.
The rapid, and I trust satisfactory, conclusion of the Tariff and other commercial arrangements, has led to a state of affairs which at this moment urgently demands my exclusive and unremitting attention, and which would be more than sufficient, without any other call upon them, to fully occupy my time and thoughts, especially when combined with my still pending important Negotiations with the Imperial Commissioner, and the almost daily communications I have to make to, or receive from, His Excellency and other Chinese High Offices, whilst my anxiety and ability to