301
As information there is to the practice of Foreign Governments and instructions given to their Consuls and Agents, and the instructions to our own Consuls and Agents, but as promised to read, they have not been... perhaps for some count of asking... I am sending an official letter asking for them.
For China, I can only state generally that they are authorised, I believe under several different Acts of Parliament, to relieve and send to their destination Shipwrecked Seamen of "British Vessels" and Shipwrecked distressed British Subjects.
The authority to relieve distressed subjects is given by 6 Geo. 4th Cap. 87. The latter are to be relieved as far as possible, and the former are to be relieved by drawing, I believe, on the Lords of the Admiralty for the amount of relief given to Seamen, and on the Lords of the Treasury for that given to subjects not Seamen.
Colonial Vessels and Colonial Subjects are, I believe, entitled to relief under the Acts and Instructions. I gather that our Consuls...