But their Lordships adhere to their recorded opinion against the order of the acting Governor of Kong Hong, for the receipt of the notes at the Treasury, on the ground that the Bank was incorporated by Royal Charter, in pursuance of the Act 7 & 8 Victoriæ Cap. 110 "for the regulation of Joint Stock Companies in England", and that therefore the powers "to carry on the business of Banking" and to "issue Notes" in the Colonies were, "if they be conferred by the Charter, unintentionally conferred, under cover of a term, the object of which was not avowed".
I am instructed by the Board of Directors to respectfully submit for the consideration of the Lords Commissioners of the Treasury, "that their conduct and objects in applying for the Charter granted to the Bank were open and explicit, and I am to enclose for their Lordship's information, a copy of a letter addressed to the Lords of the Committee of Privy Council for Trade, under date December 1855, by the Chairman of the local Committee of the Bank, in which the nature and extent of the powers desired were clearly stated. I may be permitted to quote the following extract from paragraph 11: 'It is desired by the said Bank, that the Charter to be obtained for it, shall authorize the business of Banking generally to be carried on where it is now empowered to do so - namely in the East Indies, and in China or elsewhere to the east of the Cape of Good Hope, as also in England'.
The Directors, unwilling to trouble the Lords Commissioners of Her Majesty's Treasury with further correspondence confirmative of their position, believe the letter submitted will satisfy their Lordships that...