Lordship's pardon,
I have the honor in reply to Your Lordship's letter to submit with all deference the following detail, calling the charitable consideration of Your Lordship to my actual position. It is with great regret I am compelled to state, that, in consequence of my serious illness, fees to Medical Advisers and other equally heavy expenses have so crowded themselves upon me, that I am totally unable at present to comply with Your Lordship's desire, that payment of the Sum of £90... (Ninety pounds) be forthwith made to The Colonial Agent General on account of my passage from Hong Kong to Southampton. When I state the smallness of my Half pay which amounts only to £150.0.0 and at the same time mention that I am compelled to impose myself in a great measure on my Relatives, I feel confident Your Lordship will at once discern my unfortunate situation and afford me due consideration.
I beg to impress upon Your Lordship that the act of my returning to England was not one of impulse, nor for the purpose of gratifying any trivial personal motives: but purely and solely one of imperative and absolute necessity - for the purpose of preserving my life, in confirmation of which assertion I most respectfully beg to call the attention of Your Lordship to the Medical Certificates which I furnished to the Colonial Office on 4th August and 13th December last. Under these circumstances I venture to urge that, in the event of there being no fund or other resource by which I may possibly be relieved from the Amount of my passage to England, that Your Lordship will be pleased to secure me time for...
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