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and have today received their reply, copy of which I have the honor to enclose. The Fortuna's came into Port on the 9th Instant after I had written to Messrs Lyme & Co.
I await your Excellency's instructions as to the further steps to be taken in the matter; and meanwhile I beg to submit the following observations in reference to the present and similar cases.
The Master of the "Fortuna" in neglecting to proceed to Hongkong and obtain the documents, as well as enter into the Bond required by the Chinese Passengers Act, clearly infringed the letter of the Act in regard to those particulars;
but the Act was framed to meet cases to which that of the "Fortuna" bore hardly any analogy, and accordingly the parties concerned might perhaps be excused for thinking that her proceedings did not contravene its intention, nor lay them open to the penalties it prescribed.
The Earl of Clarendon in his Circular to the British Consuls in North America and elsewhere, dated 29 January 1856, and published in a Notification from the Superintendency of Trade of 29 April, says
"The object of this Act is to prevent the occurrence on board British ships engaged in...
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