Cause them to be seized, examined, and delivered over to the Magistrate at Cowloon. This will be in strict accordance with the Treaty, Should Your Excellency demand any delivered up Members of the Fricid Society, refugees in Houghong, they will be in like manner. You have but to mention their names, and I will hunt them out and give them up.
The Colony of Hongking is to be possessed in perpetuity by the Britannic Majesty, to be governed by such Laws and regulations as Her Majesty the Queen of Great Britain shall see fit to direct. "No Chinese are compelled to reside here, they may retire when dissatisfied, but those, who choose to make it their abode of their own free will, have exactly the same privileges and protection as British subjects, and if they offend against the British Law, must have the same punishments.
The fundamental Laws of England are supreme and rulers of the Nation, I cannot control even the Judge in the administration of those Laws which are in the Statute books. At Houchong, the Chinese form by far the larger part of the population, and must therefore be governed by the Laws of the Colony - It would be impossible to rule it on any other terms.
In the five ports of trade it is different - British subjects are not allowed to approach any other part of China, they reside only in particular spots - and are very few in number, not one in a thousand of the population. Having also been very ill-treated at Canton in former years, it was for all these reasons, settled by treaty that they should be governed by their own Consuls.