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details of Major Caine's long Military Services, I know that those details have been forwarded to your Lordship by Major General D'Aguilar Commanding H.M's Land Forces in China; but I may perhaps be permitted to bear the strongest testimony to the unceasing zeal and laborious exertions combined with great judgement, and the most praiseworthy temper and forbearance, with which Major Caine discharged the arduous and important duties of Chief Magistrate of Hong Kong, from the moment that Colony was taken possession of by my Predecessor in May 1841, till the day I quitted it in June 1844.
Those duties, though strictly coming under the Civil Department, were in many instances purely such as would have been required from a Military Commander; and I do not hesitate to record my opinion, that up to the conclusion of the war, the safety and well-being of H.M's Subjects, who had located themselves on the island, were mainly owing to Major Caine's individual efforts and example.
I am sure I need not say more to induce His Grace the Duke of Wellington to look as favourably as may be consistent with the rules of the service on Major Caine's claims. I will therefore only add that this recommendation in favour of that Officer springs from the purest public motives, and from the sense I must ever cherish of the assistance he rendered.