1RE concluding passage of it, I trust Your Lordship will pardon me for respectfully reporting, that I have, after full consideration, resolved not to make any Communication to the Portuguese Authorities until I am honored with Your Lordship's further Commands.
Your Lordship will, I doubt not, perceive that I could only make such a Communication to the Portuguese Authorities attended with an Admission, however carefully worded, that they were deemed to be entitled by Treaty to such assistance or interposition, although neither could be afforded without special Orders from England; and looking to the general tone and style of the local Government of Macao, and to the class of persons who compose the majority of the Members of the Senate, I am decidedly of opinion that a very dangerous use might, and most probably would, be made of such an admission, by divulging it — perhaps in intentionally vague or exaggerated terms — to the Chinese Authorities, thereby exciting their natural alarm and suspicion to the great injury of British Interests in this mighty Empire, in which the confidence of all ranks (from the Emperor downwards) in good faith and rigid observance of engagements is daily gaining ground, and in which, as I have had frequent occasion to remark, the commonest rules of international Law are utterly unknown.
In addition to this primary reason for withholding any communication to the Macao Authorities, I likewise humbly take leave to say — which I do with great deference to the legal Authorities whose opinion was sent to H.E. Lord Stanley — that I am forced by mature reflection to question the right of Portugal to call for our assistance or interposition between her and China, under any Circumstances. She does not hold, or pretend to hold, the semblance of Sovereignty over subjects of the Chinese Empire residing...
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