2.
I notice that Your Lordship disapproves of Section 15 of that Ordinance on the ground that branding can be justified only in rare cases, where it may be of vital importance to be able to identify a Criminal, but Her Majesty's Government cannot sanction it as a punishment.
3. I am very anxious that before Your Lordship arrives at a final decision in a matter of such extreme importance, you should have before you my despatch No. 160 of the 23rd last November, announcing the state of the Gaol at Stone Cutters' Island, and entering very fully into the whole subject of the position of this colony unavoidably brought, as it is, face to face with such a moving mass of Crime and vagabondage, caused by its immediate proximity to millions of the worst population of the Chinese Empire.
I apprehend that no description can more fully point out the necessity for adopting means of identifying Offenders than Your Lordship's definition that they should only be employed where it may be of vital importance to be able to identify a "Criminal". And that it should "not be sanctioned as a punishment."
5. I would respectfully suggest that Paragraphs 8, 9, 10, and 11, together with...