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much hesitation that I express
a.
Lorett as the course pursued by you in this matter but it appears that, unbecoming as the language adopted by the shareholders was, it would have been more advisable not to have resisted their remonstrance on that ground alone, but to have called upon them in the first instance to specify the provisions to which they objected, and after those objections had been considered by the Council and decided on, to have further the opportunity of pointing out to the shareholders the impropriety and intemperance of their language.
Nevertheless I readily admit that Society in Hong Kong is very different from what exists in this Country, that the line of conduct which would be advisable here, might be quite inapplicable in that Colony, and I feel every confidence in your discretion and in your acquaintance with the habits & feelings not only of British Residents in China, but also of the Native Chinese.
In regard to the Ordinance which accompanies your dispatch No. 70, I had expected from your previous dispatch that you would in transmitting it have furnished me with a full report of the objections.
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