subject, and much in
the
same terms,
and as I declined that account to
you subscribe their letter, I returned it as
they requested.
ant N.10.
Upon the 26th I received an application from the Council administering the Provisional Government, requesting that I would send troops to assist them in repelling attack threatened by the Chinese. Upon referring to Sir John Davis's correspondence in October 1846, with Commodore MacDougall R.N., when a similar loan was made by the Macao Government, I found that his proceedings on that occasion had been entirely approved of by your Lordship,
and in my reply, I of course, declined to act any but a neutral part, in accordance with the instructions which had guided my predecessor.
Victoria, Hongkong,
20th August 1849
No.12.
By the Medea which brought over the letter of the Council, I also received one from Captain F.T. Troubridge, stating that the Council had written to him, first, to inform him that Siew's reply to them was so unsatisfactory that their troops had taken a fort which they intended to hold and again, to request that he would immediately assist them, as a Chinese fort had fired on their troops. He therefore requested my instructions. In my reply, I expressed a hope that the presence of two British Men of war would deter the Chinese mob, within Macao, from any acts of violence which might place in jeopardy the lives or property of British residents,
and recommended that he should confine himself to the protection of