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add to the weight of the present state, adducing in support observations and arguments of things, and adducing that opinion which appears cogent and of weight.
It appears to Lord Aberdeen that he is still in communication with Sir Henry Pottinger and the Chinese Authorities with the view of effecting the legalization of opium trade in some way, and that he does not despair of success.
A reference to the instructions to Sir Henry Pottinger on the subject of the opium trade, contained in Lord Stanley's despatch of the 4th of January last, which was communicated to the Colonial Office that month, will show the terms in which the question of the admission of Opium Vessels to Hongkong was treated in that despatch.
But, on further consideration of the subject, Lord Aberdeen conceives that it might be expedient to pay due regard to the observations of Sir Henry Pottinger on this point, and to authorize him to suspend for the present any measures for the exclusion of Opium Vessels from the Waters and Harbour of Hongkong, if he shall deem it...