Magistrate in 1845. I was nominated a member of both the Executive and the Legislative Council in 1846. I became Colonial Secretary and Auditor General, and in 1854 Lieutenant Governor.
I am now sixty years of age. In entering upon the following details, I feel, Sir, that I have to bespeak your most indulgent forbearance.
The exposition of personal services, and of claims founded upon them, is a graceless task, and one that involves an almost prejudicial egotism. But, Sir, how could I possibly avoid it? For unless I exhibit special services which cannot be shown in a schedule, and legitimate grounds to justify the benevolent consideration I am about to claim, it would be a presumption upon my part to entreat the aid of Her Majesty's Government towards extricating me from those difficulties in which my desire to maintain the dignity of Her Majesty's Service has unhappily involved me.
When it pleased My Most Gracious Sovereign to entrust to me the Government of this Settlement in the Spring of 1854, the normal position of Affairs in the South of China was undisturbed, and, had that condition of things continued, I should have been spared the necessity of this present appeal.
It happened, however, that at that very period, we were just entering upon a series of events, which, while they served prodigiously to aggrandize the interests of the Colony itself, had precisely the opposite effect upon the public servant of every grade.