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that you
propriety
will state to the Lords of the Treasury in the first place, that although this Lordship fully concurs with their Lordships in the, of obtaining Parliamentary sanction for any expenditure which may be incurred for letter of the above mentioned series, this Lordship is entirely at a loss to form any estimate of what is required for the purposes of superintending British Trade, and that until he shall have received Sir Henry Pottinger's reports of the establishments to be maintained at the several Ports of China, and the salaries which should be assigned to the persons therein employed, it will be out of his power to form a proximate Estimate of the amount which Parliament should be moved to grant for the portion of the service in China.
With regard, however, to the suggestion that means for defraying the charges of the formal establishment to be maintained in China might be derived from the Trade of British subjects, Lord Aberdeen requests that you will call the attention of the Lords of the Treasury to the fact that such a course was contemplated in the year 1833, and that an order in Council was actually issued in that year imposing duties on British Ships and Cargoes entering the Port of Canton; which order was however cancelled in March 1834 : and Lord Aberdeen conceives that the propriety of reverting to that course at the present time would be a matter of very serious consideration.
With regard to any restrictions to be