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No. 13.
R. M. Martin, Esq.
to S. H. Northcote, Esq. 30 January 1846.
No. 14
R. M. Martin, Esq., to James Stephen, Esq.
3 February 1846.
16 CORRESPONDENCE RELATIVE TO THE RESIGNATION
- No. 13.
COPY of a LETTER from R. Montgomery Martin, Esq. to S. H. Northcote, Esq.
Sir,
29, Bloomsbury-square, 30 January 1846. In reply to your note of yesterday, I beg to inquire whether Mr. Secretary Gladstone will sanction there being laid before Parliament my Report on Hong Kong (24 July 1844), Report on Chusan (30 August 1844), and Minute on the British Position and Prospects in China (19 April 1845). These were all transmitted officially to Governor Davis, with accompanying letters, and were forwarded by the Governor to Her Majesty's Ministers.
As I have been kept nearly three months in suspense in England, an early reply will add to the obligations conferred on, Sir,
- No. 14.
Yours, &c.
(signed)
R. M. Martin.
Copy of a LETTER from R. Montgomery Martin, Esq, to James Stephen, Esq.
Sir,
29, Bloomsbury-square, 3 February 1846.
I AM favoured with your letter of 31st January, enclosing copy of a letter from the Hon. Lieut.-colonel Wilbraham, and informing me that Mr. Gladstone considers the correspondence closed as regards my resignation of the Treasurership of Hong Kong.
I am equally unwilling to prolong this correspondence, and regret having caused so much already; but I cannot, in justice to myself, avoid the reply I now make, without, however, seeking from Mr. Gladstone any alteration of the decision at which he has arrived.
1st. I never said a word to Lord Stanley respecting Chusan in my interview of 28th November; I referred solely to Hong Kong, which was in his Lordship's department, and on which I sent that morning a memorandum offering to prove in detail that Hong Kong could never be a colony, a commercial emporium, a military post, or a political station. Lord Stanley, holding that memorandum in his hand, said (as I understood him) "I cannot discuss this with you, as it has been resolved to make your statements a subject for the consideration of the Cabinet." On hearing this I remarked, "then I have nothing more to say."
2d. Lord Stanley misapprehended me, if he supposes I said, "I knew I had committed faults, and must bear the penalty of them."
The words I used were, "I fear I have incurred your displeasure, Lord Stanley, in coming to England, but I feel assured that had your Lordship been placed in my situation, and seen the waste of public money, and our impolicy in China, you would have acted as I have done. If I am to pay a penalty for this fault, and make a sacrifice which I cannot afford, let me at least have the satisfaction of knowing that the sacrifice will produce some good to the country."
I declare on my honour that these were as nearly as possible the words used; and I certainly did think that, if my views respecting the British position and prospects in China were worthy the consideration of the Cabinet either in part or in the whole, that I would not be required to make the (to me) great sacrifice of forfeiting my employment in Her Majesty's service.
The best proof I can give of a conviction that I do not deserve the penalty inflicted is, by reiterating my earnest solicitation that Mr. Gladstone will permit me to have my Reports, &c. laid before Parliament,
I cannot conclude without expressing my misfortune at having misunderstood Lord Stanley, and of being misapprehended by his Lordship. May I beg you will do me the favour of placing this explanatory letter before Mr. Gladstone, who I fervently hope will not add to my penalty, by denying me the means of justifying myself before the public.
I have, &c. (signed) R. M. Martin.
-No. 15.-
OF MR. M. MARTIN, TREASURER OF HONG KONG.
- No. 15.-
Copy of a LETTER from Lord Lyttelton to R. Montgomery Martin, Esq.
Sir,
Downing-street, 6 February 1846.
17
No. 15.
Lord Lyttelton, to
I AM directed by Mr. Secretary Gladstone to inform you that your letters of the 30th ultimo to Mr. Northcote, and of the 3d instant to Mr. Stephen, have R. M. Martin, Esq. been laid before him. In answer to your inquiry whether Mr. Gladstone will 6 February 1846. sanction there being laid before Parliament your Report on Hong Kong of the 24th July 1844, your Report on Chusan of the 30th August 1844, and your Minute on the British Position and Prospects in China of the 19th April 1845, I am directed to inform you, that Mr. Gladstone cannot ascribe any official character to any report made by you, excepting only as far as such reports related to the discharge of the duties of your office as Treasurer of Hong Kong, in which capacity alone you were employed by Her Majesty's Government. Mr. Gladstone thinks that he should establish a precedent full of inconvenience, if he concurred in the production to Parliament, and the printing, at the public expense, of reports or minutes drawn up by you on subjects with which you had no official concern, and on which you were not invited by Her Majesty's Government to enter. For these reasons, any motion for the production of those papers to either Houses of Parliament would be resisted by the Ministers of the Crown.
Sir,
-No. 16.-
I have, &c. (signed) Lyttelton,
COPY of a LETTER from R. Montgomery Martin, Esq. to S. H. Northcote, Esq.
29, Bloomsbury-square, 2 March 1846.
No. 16. In reply to your communication of 27th February (just received), stating R. M. Martin, Esq., that Mr. Gladstone would wish me to reserve any request for an interview to S. H. Northcote, until after I had placed before him "a statement of my conduct in China Esq and present circumstances, irrespective of the general discussion which I thought 2 March 1846.
I am,
it my duty to raise with respect to Hong Kong," I beg to forward herewith an "Abstract of my proceedings in China," which I confidently hope will, on a detailed examination, prove that I was a faithful and diligent servant of the Crown, and an honest steward of the important trust reposed in me. therefore, anxious to have the most searching scrutiny into my conduct in every point of view, public and private; and this I earnestly solicited from Lord Stanley previous to his acceptance of my resignation, in a letter of 8th July last, which I requested Governor Davis to forward to his Lordship.
With reference to the second point-my" present circumstances or position, I beg to state, that it will be seen in my correspondence with Governor Davis in June and July last, that the tendered resignation of my office was in obedience to what I conscientiously believed to be an urgent sense of public duty; that the resignation was constrained, because Governor Davis refused me six months' furlough (which it was in his power to grant) although I offered to resign all salary, and yet preserve my heavy securities to the Queen; and that my resignation was conditional, and dependent on my conduct being disapproved in England.
The acceptance of a resignation thus compulsorily wrung from me without any inquiry or investigation, may be deemed tantamount to a declaration that my conduct, and the motives in which it originated, did not justify the step which I felt compelled to take. I am, therefore, subjected to a severe pecuniary loss, which I cannot afford, after an untiring devotion of 20 years in laborious and expensive exertions for the national weal (as shown in the accompanying memorandum); and, what is of still greater consequence to me, my conduct in China is rendered questionable.
I respectfully entreat Mr. Gladstone to permit a committee of three gentlemen to examine the whole of my proceedings in China, to scrutinize, so far as human beings can do, the originating motives for my conduct, and to report
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