"beyond any other applicant. The buildings therefore remain in the same unfinished state, and, although the ground had not been required for Government's purposes, I was unable to receive any final decision on the point previous to my own departure from China; neither has up to the date of the last advices from thence, a period of nearly two years from the time the ground was bought by me, any been obtained.
From the preceding statement and documents (which latter are ready to be produced) the state of the case will clearly appear, and it seems unnecessary to make any comment upon them. No cause of complaint ever was, or could be made as to any of my proceedings regarding the ground, after it was transferred to me by the Government.
Sir Henry Pottinger's procedure was based on an assertion (to which the usual practice in such cases gave no foundation) that Captain Meik had forfeited his title to sell the land; and he has therefore nullified the acts of the Government Authorities constituted by himself, acting in a matter in which they specially, by public notification, authorized me to act; this leaving me, who had received the ground from the Government, as evidenced by their documents delivered to me, to suffer a heavy loss, without any indemnity and at the same time being informed that these Government Documents "do not, in the opinion of His Excellency, give me the slightest claim to the ground beyond any other applicant."
This affair gave universal astonishment in the Colony at the time, as every holder of lands felt that, however formal might be his title, it was, on the same principle, liable to be set aside by the Governor who granted it, or any succeeding...