After an experience of two years that was sufficient in your decent support, I feel myself competent to form an opinion on this subject.
This Colony has been a professional man, and I have formed an idea that the expenses of living at Hong Kong exceed any other place, although before leaving home I had formed no such idea. The fact is that it is a dearer place even than Calcutta, contrary to what was held out to you. To meet those expenses, an outlay of £120 a year in London has given me more comfort than £350 here.
As to the hopes of private practice in England, that was a matter of speculation in your case, and was shut out by the multiplicity of duties thrown open to your shoulder. They were so far from allowing you time to turn your attention to private practice that they really did not afford you time for the ordinary and necessary relaxations of life. Indeed, having tried for some time to perform all the duties on your own person, you found it absolutely impossible.
To proceed without assistance would be costly, and you had to defray this cost from your very limited income, reducing it to a scale at which it would be impossible for you to continue to pay your way. The inevitable consequence would be that you would be getting deeper into debt. I am perfectly satisfied that the only course open to you was to resign at once, rather than encounter personal discomforts that would not have been a short-term strain.
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