by the Individuals who have signed it that the late Sale by Public Auction will prove to have been of a fictitious and delusive character : In that opinion.
# Leen no cause
I have as yet, concurring to be seen. I am not aware
Lien No Ne for test
and at all events it remains whether it is correct or not...
of any other test that could have been possibly applied to the value of Land in this Colony, and Her Majesty's Government will have
from Enclosure No 3 of my Despatch No 3 of the 22nd of January last, that the Proprietors of all lots of Ground which had been sold or granted by Captain Elliot or Mr. Johnston
were offered in future at the option of holding them at the average rate of sale by Public Auction of similarly situated lots, but that not one person availed himself of this proposal.
I am very sorry to be obliged to trouble Her Majesty's Government with these references, but I have no alternative. I have had a most difficult and invidious duty to perform, and I may conscientiously declare that I have striven to fulfil it with rigid impartiality towards the Public and Private interests committed to my charge.
Long before I came to China, Captain Elliot had not only sold Lands under the most formal Proclamations, but had officially announced to the purchasers of them his intention to move Her Majesty's Government to confirm those Lands on a tenure which with every deference