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No. 23. Lord Lyttelton to R. M. Martin, Esq. 20 April 1846.
No. 24.
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CORRESPONDENCE RELATIVE TO THE RESIGNATION
I am unwilling to believe, that Her Majesty's Government really mean to treat me thus—that they intend to deprive me of employment in Her Majesty's service because I refused to be silent when silence would have been a crime; because I preferred risking office rather than not timely endeavour to correct errors of great national consequence; because I deemed integrity and a vigilant watchfulness to prevent waste and mismanagement ought to be a paramount consideration in a public officer, especially in a distant and novel portion of the empire. I therefore, respectfully ask the application of the principle of justice to me, as if I had been the steward of a trust confided to me by a private individual.
R. M. Martin, Esq., to Lord Lyttelton.
16 April 1846.
Should this unfortunately be denied me, I have to express an earnest hope that you will not refuse me permission to justify my conduct in not having hastily resigned the commission with which my Sovereign was graciously pleased to invest me, and to enable me to demonstrate, that I am not deserving the censure which an acceptance of a resignation thus tendered may by implication convey.
And as you desire to be apprized in a more definite manner of the nature and proposed aim of my intended application to Parliament, I beg to state, that the motion which it is proposed to submit to the legislature is, that there be laid before Parliament copies of the correspondence connected with my resignation of the office of Her Majesty's Treasurer for Hong Kong.
I humbly hope that this not unreasonable request will be conceded, and which is made without the slightest intention of attempting to embarrass Her Majesty's Government.
No. 23.
—
I have, &c.
(signed)
R. M. Martin.
COPY of a LETTER from Lord Lyttelton to R. Montgomery Martin, Esq.
Sir,
Downing-street, 20 April 1846.
I AM directed by Mr. Secretary Gladstone to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 8th instant, in which you enter into an explanation of the causes which led to your resignation of the office of Treasurer of Hong Kong, and state that the motion which it is proposed to submit to Parliament is for copies of the correspondence connected with such resignation.
Mr. Gladstone desires me to inform you in reply, that he anticipates no advantage from prolonging this correspondence; but that, if any Member of Parliament should move for the production of the correspondence to which you refer, Her Majesty's Government will raise no objection to the production of so much of it as could be so produced without injustice to individuals or prejudice to Her Majesty's service.
No. 24.
—
I have, &c. (signed) Lyttelton.
COPY of a LETTER from R. Montgomery Martin, Esq. to Lord Lyttelton. Mansfield House, near Uxbridge, My Lord,
16 April 1846. PERMIT me to remark, in reference to the observation of Mr. Secretary Gladstone, contained in your Lordship's letter of 15th instant, that I most fully acknowledge the principle, that "it is not the duty of a subordinate officer to repair to this country without the consent of the Governor;" yet, as every rule has its exception, I venture to hope, that on further examination and reflection, it will be seen a departure from the principle in the present case was not only justifiable, but rendered imperatively necessary, from my strong conviction that national interests of the highest importance required immediate and serious investigation, which could only effectually be done by my repairing to England; and that I was bound by the highest obligations to risk even life itself for the accomplishment of the great objects in view.
Supposing,
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OF MR. M. MARTIN, TREASURER OF HONG KONG. Supposing, however, that the exception to the rule be not admitted, I trust that the motives which influenced the procedure, and strenuous exertions for 25 years, to promote the public good, as exemplified in the accompanying memorandum of services, will have their due weight with Her Majesty's Government.
No. 25.
I have, &c. (signed)
R. M. Martin.
COPY of a LETTER from Lord Lyttelton to R. Montgomery Martin, Esq.
Sir,
Downing-street, 22 April 1846.
Vide p. 19.
No. 25.
I AM directed by Mr. Secretary Gladstone to acknowledge the receipt of Lord Lyttelton to your letter of the 16th instant, in justification of your proceeding in returning R. M. Martin, Esq. to this country from Hong Kong without the consent of the Governor; and 22 April 1846. I am to inform you, in reply, that he must regard the correspondence on this subject as having reached its close.
I have, &c. (signed)
Lyttelton.
— No. 26. —
COPY of a LETTER from R. Montgomery Martin, Esq. to Lord Lyttelton.
My Lord,
29, Bloomsbury-square, 21 April 1846.
No. 26.
I HAVE the honour to acknowledge the receipt of your Lordship's letter of R. M. Martin, Esq., 20th instant. All hope of inducing Mr. Secretary Gladstone to consider my to Lord Lyttelton. resignation of office as an act which it was imperatively the duty of a trustworthy servant of the Crown to perform being now at an end, it is not my wish or intention to prolong this correspondence.
I beg to return my thanks to Mr. Gladstone for granting my request respecting the production before Parliament of the correspondence connected with my resignation; and as my "Reports on Hong Kong and on Chusan," transmitted to Governor Davis, formed the basis of my resignation, and were enclosed with the correspondence, there will not, I presume, be any objection to their production before Parliament. I am not aware that any of my correspondence involves "injustice to individuals."
I have stated openly that the leading Government officers of the past and present administration in Hong Kong had private and personal pecuniary interests at total variance with the public welfare relative to Hong Kong, the true nature of which is now in the course of being fully evinced by the intelligence received by the last mail from China (27 February 1846) stating that the merchants are abandoning the settlement, which is rapidly hastening to "ruin." I am ready to prove the truth of every portion of my reports on Hong Kong and on Chusan; and I may here be permitted to observe, that my earnest entreaties for the retention of Chusan, even after the payment of the last instalment of the Chinese indemnity money, and until the completion of the treaty of Nankin, have now been adopted.
I therefore respectfully submit, that I have stated nothing which can by publicity in the slightest degree be "prejudicial to Her Majesty's service," or be unjust to individuals."
My quiescence for the last five months in England, proves that I have not the slightest idea of doing aught that may embarrass Her Majesty's Government; and my whole conduct shows, I trust, that the public good has ever been the paramount motive of my actions; but I cannot forget there is some degree of justice due to myself, and that it is my duty, in the fulfilment of an important trust, to enable my friends and the public fully to examine into the whole of the causes which compelled me to tender my resignation.
I therefore confidently hope that Mr. Gladstone will, in the full meaning and spirit of the concession contained in your Lordship's letter of the 20th instant, not object to my "Reports on Hong Kong and on Chusan," or to any other documents which may not be really prejudicial to the public service, being laid
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