over our own!.
Governor has authorised replies to be sent from Hong Kong on the ground that the Treaty of Peking is not a matter of right as well as voting, I think the Chinese Gov. May justly refuse trade until we appoint a Consular Officer to exercise necessary control over our own arrangements and subjects. The exterritorial privilege embodied in Art. XV of the Treaty of Peking gives a plain hint to the Chinese that we are to be coprotected as an equivalent to the power they relinquish. And we are not, at the same time, in a position to claim the advantage without providing for the performance of the corresponding duty. Hitherto no Consular Officer or Agent has been nominated, the interests which might arise there appearing very trifling.
Messrs Adamson & Co. seem to have made a beginning and found employment, profitable it is to be presumed, for the firm. And it will be proper to consider whether there is sufficient encouragement for a Consular Establishment. As regards many large firms at Canton who have hitherto proceeded there under existing circumstances, the expediency of allowing merchants domiciled at Canton to trade there depends on whether the right does not exist until a public notification from the Chief Superintendents declares it to be opened. And as a matter of policy and justice, it would be inexpedient to encourage foreigners to trade where no Consular authority is established. Either the British
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