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of your Despatch to state verbally my perfect concurrence as to the instant necessity of providing remedy to the great evils which Piracy is causing in the neighbourhood of Hong Kong and Macao, and of expressing my opinion, both upon the merits of the measures provided in the Ordinance of 14th August last to that effect, and upon the possibility of analogous measures being established at Macao.
Without failing to admit that the carrying out of such measures of control over the employment of vessels might, for a time, cause some impediment to those vessels which are habitually engaged in piratical operations, I assure your Excellency that I entertained fears as to the long duration of that impediment, for the Pirates would, by trying to comply with the requirements at the Ports, still continue their depredations on the high seas, without running a greater risk than that which they previously incurred; namely, that of being found in flagrant acts of Piracy, or affording sufficient evidence of having committed them.
With regard to the adoption of similar measures at Macao,