313
5.
years.
I however told those Gentlemen that it was just possible I might receive by the Mail then daily expected your Grace's acknowledgment of my Despatch covering the Proclamation, and should the Proclamation be considered by your Grace too severe, I should be glad to modify it and, if by such modification, still more so, I could meet the views of respectable and so well introduced Merchants.
6.
The mail arriving brought us despatch on the subject from your Grace, and on the 9th, on the 14th I was given to understand verbally by M. Mackenzie that the Parsee Gentlemen were anxious for a decision.
7.
I had however in the meantime had occasion to look into the Tariff attached to the Tientsin Treaty, and by the 5th clause of the same and Rule thereunder, I not only found the question put at rest as to whether China was concerned, Saltpetre was to be considered among munitions of war, but I found that Saltpetre could not be imported into Chinese ports "save at the requisition of the Chinese Government."
8.
I may here remark that at the interview I made an offer to allow the export of the Saltpetre if...