leave for about five months.
I think I have strong claims to their indulgence I will briefly state.
I am now in my Colonial service, and this is the first time that I have had leave.
I was ordered direct from Antigua to Hong Kong in 1859, and on arriving suffered from upwards of five quick successes in the West Indies, and was informed by Lord Carnarvon that it was with very great regret that Sir Edward Lytton found himself unable on "public grounds" to comply with my request for leave of absence to recruit my health which has suffered.
"My request, but be considered at that time peculiarly unreasonable, as Hong Kong was then in great want of efficient management, and he "feared that the difficulty of dealing with the alleged errors and abuses in the Civil Administration...