in Command, before the work is begun
You will see letters No. 86 and 87, that I have permitted Messrs Jardine Matheson to purchase from the Chinese Proprietor the Hope Island on which their private Houses are built, and have granted Mr. Mercer, who had the misfortune to have his house at Macau burnt down lately, Land. Both these arrangements are, you will observe, subject to whatever regulations and rules Her Majesty's Government may be pleased to prescribe.
You are aware that I have had applications for locations on which it was proposed to create two patent Slips, and eventually to form Docks for repairing and building Ships. I consider it very desirable to encourage these undertakings, which are fraught with public good, and I have therefore given my ready assent to them, and informed the applicants that the spots they have fixed on (one at this Harbour, and one at "Shek-pai-wan") are at their disposal, whenever they like; but, in the absence of positive intimation from Her Majesty's Government that this Island is to be permanently retained, I fancy there will be some demur to incurring the heavy expense that will attend the erection of the Slips (which have been ordered from England).