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Strong claims to and fitness for promotion are already officially on record in your department. In addition to the Despatches quoted by Mr. Mercant, if I remember rightly I addressed the Duke of Newcastle upon the subject in a letter written from Ireland in either January or February last year when returning Confidential Report upon the Public Officers of Hong Kong which had been transmitted for my perusal.
It only remains therefore in recommending the present application to your favorable consideration to observe that Mr. Mercant's elevation to the highest post in this Colony would in my opinion be a very encouraging and appropriate recognition of his long faithful and efficient services in this trying climate, and that one provision has been made for such a fitting termination to a lengthened career of local usefulness by the 5th Section of the Hongkong Pension Minute.
I have the honor to be,
Sir,
Your most obedient Servant,
Robert S. Robinson