Hongkong 25th April 1867.
I have the honor to acknowledge receipt of your despatch No. 209, of 18 instant. In reply to that part of it calling upon me to give in greater detail the reason why I do not accept the solution of my case (i.e. promising $4000 to get back steamer "Prince Albert"), I would refer to the facts stated in the petitions and letters already before the Authorities and the evidence adduced by them fully corroborating those statements, and in addition, would point out that if it be acknowledged that the circumstances under which the steamer put into the harbour in which she was seized, render it inequitable to exact that penalty of confiscation which is really only intended by the Treaty to be inflicted in cases where the provisions of the Treaty are violated in meaning and intention, as by illicit trading or smuggling, the matter then becomes one...
The Acting W. H. Mercer Esquire,
Colonial Secretary.