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Swaneyer General, which, if you believe there are grounds for it, may be referred to the decision of a Board of Law-
I have the honor to be, Sir,
Your Most Obedient Servant
(Signed) W. T. Mercer,
Colonial Secretary.
A. R. Hudson, Esq.
Copy No.3.
Hongkong, 24th September 1856.
The Honorable W. J. Mercer, Esq.
Colonial Secretary
Sir,
I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your letter No. 681 of this day's date, in which His Excellency refers me to the decision of a Court of Law; that is to say, Mr. Caunter first passes a law confiscating my lawful property, legalizing that confiscation, and then calls upon me to appeal to a local court, in which he well knows that all redress is for the present impossible.
I decline to prosecute His Excellency's Surveyor General, but I pledge myself, failing full compensation and redress out of the hands of the Imperial Government, to prosecute His Excellency himself at the bar of the British Parliament.
I have the honor to be, Sir,
Your Obedient Servant
(Signed) A. Hudson
Copy
The Honorable
Hongkong, 25th September 1858.
The Colonial Secretary
Sir,
In concluding my correspondence with the Local Commandant, and before addressing myself to the Imperial Government, I am advised that it is necessary for me to make the following proposition, and which I request accordingly may be submitted to His Excellency Governor Bowring.
I claim at His Excellency's hands the sum of Six thousand dollars ($2000) as compensation for damages occurring from the operation of a new Law which he brought suddenly upon me on the 18th of April last, the specifications or requirements of which I could not procure by home authorities before I commenced my works prior to its promulgation.
If the Secretary thinks proper to entertain this claim and holds me fairly entitled to reimbursement out of the Colonial Chest, I am prepared to authenticate the actual amount of the loss and damage sustained by me, and to accept that amount in adjustment of my claim.
However, holding, as I do, that the outrage committed in affecting not merely myself as an individual, but every faithful subject of the British Crown in this Colony, no settlement of my claim by His Excellency may hereafter operate as a compromise of the duty that I owe to myself, to my infinite reluctance, namely, to lay bare this outrage before Her Majesty's Government, and if necessary before a higher tribunal.
I have the honor to be, Sir,
Your most obedient Servant-
(Signed) A Hudson