Certain Police and Lighting Rates should be paid at this Treasury—that such error is greatly to be deplored I admit and unequivocally regret it as having led to a correspondence which otherwise might have been avoided. Therefore, I have nothing to say in palliation of a clerical mistake for which I am solely responsible.
But considering the intrinsic phases of the case, I am at a loss to conceive how it is that the Colonial Acting Secretary's letter of the 18th of October No. 1240 should attribute to me expressions and sentiments which it is impossible to trace in my letter of the 13th October No. 55, and for which I can discover no rectitude by what principle my veracity could have been brought into doubt, as is substantially the case. I have cited No. 1240—in the letter of the 18th instant.
The letter No. 1240 from the Acting Colonial Secretary's office called, in my opinion, for an indignant refutation of the matters laid to my charge, and I endeavoured to convey my defence in terms that should not, by any possibility, afford any ground of displeasure. But the reply, No. 1281, not only does not acknowledge my plea of guilty but goes so far as to accuse me of "persistently misunderstanding" the letter addressed to me of the 16th October No. 1245, and further threatens me in unmistakable terms with the consequences of some improper course it is, by anticipation, apprehended I may be betrayed into. I had pledged my word to Mr. Mercer, in the presence of the Acting Colonial Secretary, on the 17th instant.