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Any observations on the contents of the Despatch now produced. I must premise that since the 18th instant, when he announced, in the House of Commons, that there was an intention to invite me, your Grace has had an opportunity of perusing, in extenso, my unanswered letter of the 3rd instant. For, as it were, by anticipation, every false assumption of material fact, contained in that Despatch appears to have been corrected, and every erroneous conclusion disproved.
It must strike your Grace that before your predecessor could arrive at a legitimate and just position, whence to judge of the charges brought by themselves against me, and in reprisal for my own accusations of positive crime against the accused Hong Kong officials, he was bound to have decided upon the truth of the latter. Not only would this be the natural order in charge & countercharge, but here the countercharge was not appreciated at all, until after an investigation into the prior charges.
"Moderation of language," says a great jurist, "is a relative term, which varies with the subject to which it is applied. Atrocious crimes are not to be related as calmly and coolly as trifling events. If there be a decorum due to exalted rank and authority, there is also a much more sacred decorum due to virtue and to human nature, which would be outraged and trampled under foot, by speaking of guilt in a lukewarm, moderate language," falsely called moderation, but in truth, a decorum due to the cause, and what I have suffered, I am entitled.