At the present time, volumes are written proving my attachments to England.
For five years I sojourned at Hong Kong, and the correspondence which I enclose for Your Lordship's perusal, between Sir Michael Seymour, now in Parliament, and one whom all delight to honor, Commodore Elliott of H.M.S. The Sybille, and myself, are in proof. If the course I pursued was in accordance with the instructions I received, I was the constant correspondent of Sir John Bowring, the Governor of Hong Kong, during the whole time I resided there, and was governed by his advice and wishes in every official act of the Consulate, in which he took a deep interest.
It was my practice to consult him, and I found his opinions in correspondence with my own. After a residence there of several years with Sir John Bowring, I communicated with Admiral Stirling and other high officers, and did not imagine that I had, during that entire time, done one act contrary to their wishes and interests, or those of Her Majesty's Government.
Your Lordship can judge of my feelings of pain and astonishment when, six months after my departure from Hong Kong, I was informed by M.J. Mercer, Esquire, Colonial Secretary, that Your Lordship had withdrawn the Exequatur granted to me by Sir John Bowring as the New Granadian Consul, without reason being assigned. When this news reached me in Europe, I applied to the New Granadian Minister, who stated that he had heard nothing of it and presumed it was in consequence of his not having obtained for me Her Majesty's Exequatur, for which he had applied in London.