UNTO HIS GRACE THE DUKE OF NEWCASTLE, HER MAJESTY'S PRINCIPAL
SECRETARY OF STATE FOR THE COLONIES;
THE MEMORIAL OF ANDREW SHORTREDE, residing in Hongkong,
Sheweth,-
THAT your Memorialist has received though the Government of Hongkong the following, as the substance of Your Grace's reply to his Memorial of the 21st July last:-
No. 262.
COLONIAL SECRETARY'S OFFICE, VICTORIA, HONGKONG,
12th December, 1853.
SIE, I have the honor to inform you, that His Excellency The Governor has received a reply by the present Mail to his Despatches of July and August last, which accompanied your Memorial to His Grace The Duke of Newcastle, on the subject of a Libel case instituted against you in this colony; and in reply thereto, I am to acquaint you, that as the case to which it relates appears to have come on for adjudica- tion in the Court of Hongkong, it is out of the power of His Grace to take any steps respecting it.
A. SHORTREDE, Esq.
I have the honor to be,
Sir,
Your most obedient Servant,
W. CAINE, Colonial Secretary.
The reply is so beside the question, that Your Memorialist must suppose that his Memorial has either been unread or misunderstood. He did not ask Your Grace to interfere with the course of the law in operation, for as it stood or might be interpreted, it must apply to any cause arising under it; but as, by the united voice of the Bench and Parliament of England the law had been condemned, as an instrument of tyranny and injustice; and as, moreover, the amended law, after being conferred on this Colony, had been taken away by a side-wind,-your Memo- rialist presumed to think, that, upon a fair and explicit statement of the circum- stances, redress would not have been sought in vain from Your Grace; and under the impression that the facts have escaped, or never been brought to, Your Grace's particular notice, another copy of the original Memorial will accompany this.
The reason assigned for not taking any steps in the matter no longer exists, for the action against your Memorialist under the old law, was dropped some months ago; but the law still exists, and so long as that is the case, Your Memorialist will not cease to use all lawful means to have it amended; and with that view, Prays,
That Your Grace will be pleased to take the premises into consideration, and restore to the Memorialist and other British subjects in this Colony and in China, the important right to which as such they are entitled, and of which they have been deprived, unjustly and without cause.
And Your Memorialist will ever pray,
HONGKONG, December 23, 1853.
AND. SHORTREDE.
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