2
43°
allowed to the Colony; but it will
be seen
that the object I have kept in view in my recommendations has not been to make any profit for the Colony, but simply to establish, without loss, a subordinate Currency to the dollar on sound principles —a measure which cannot, I think, fail to give a great impetus to the trade and prosperity of the Colony.
I will also, I believe, prove a great boon to Soldiers and Europeans with small means as well as to the poorer classes of Chinese by lowering the prices of all the necessaries of life.
27
Concurrently with the withdrawal of the existing Proclamation the Lord Commissioners of Her Majesty's Treasury would have to issue instructions as to the rate at which the Dollar should be paid to the Naval and Military Services. Upon this subject I would only observe that while I admit that it would not be fair to charge to the soldier or Sailor the loss on the course of exchange which is now, and has been for some years, so far adverse to England, I do not think that the expensiveness of the articles and place forms (as has been urged) in Sir J. Bowring's Desp. 173, 174 affords any ground for issuing to those Services the Dollar at 4/2 { or any rate below the par founded