Your Memorialist begs leave to state that it would have been his most earnest desire to have retained his appointment until the result of an application to the Home Government for an amelioration of his position – by either an increase of Salary - granting of a public office and assistants or a lessening of Official duties - Could have been ascertained, but that, in consequence of the observations of Sir John Bowring discouraging any hope of such application being successful, your Memorialist found that his remaining in the Colony under the circumstances in which he was placed, pending the decision of the Home Government, could only have been done at a cost of not less than £5 per week in excess.
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Office accommodation and assistants were provided free of all expense to himself: with such accommodation and assistants already at his control, it is respectfully submitted that M. May possesses advantages in undertaking the offices of Deputy Sheriff & Coroner which not only did not exist but were refused in the case of Mr. Lever, supposing that credit under his circumstances was desirable or could be procured, in a portion of debt and difficulty.
Your Memorialist, who had the onerous duties of Three important Departments to discharge in the Colony without being provided with any office accommodation, save so far as such assistance and accommodation could be obtained by the appropriation (as has been shown) of at the least, the entire salary of Officials, a state of circumstances that has only been made possible by the Clerk or Bailiffs being at his disposal.
Your Memorialist earnestly directs your particular attention to the circumstances to which your Memorialist begs to state that, after the Offices he had held having been considered by the Community generally as having been discharged satisfactorily, but to his own personal disadvantage, a testimony to his having Endeavored to perform his several duties to the best of his ability was placed at his disposal on the part of the Community, entirely unsolicited - a passage to England was provided at his own expense, and to state the fact that a pecuniary assistance was also offered.
Your Memorialist would respectfully beg leave to impress upon you that in resigning his appointment and duties, onerous as they were, upon a Salary not adequate to discharge such official expenses, and consequently leaving your Memorialist in a position to which he should not have been reduced: having been considered by the Community generally as being in a position to perform his several duties satisfactorily.
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Your Memorialist begs leave to refer to the letter appended hereto, more particularly to those of Dr. Bridges (the present acting Colonial Secretary) and of Dr. Jack (your Memorialist's medical adviser) and of M. Kingsmill (the present acting Attorney General), and to state the fact that a feeling generally felt in the Colony for your Memorialist was expressed in the letters from several persons appended hereto.
By Hong Kong, he was compelled to take such a step, not by the weighty duties which he had to perform.