I am aware of rebutting the presumption out of the fact of the ship being where she had no right to be. I cannot see any reason for impeaching the fairness of the decision arrived at by the Chinese Authorities in conjunction with Mr. Robertson.
As to the Complainant's argument that either the Chinese Authorities should confiscate the ship, or restore her and pay him damages for detention, it is altogether untenable. The decision of the Authorities in the first instance condemned her and decreed confiscation. Through the intervention of the British Minister at the instance of the Governor of a British colony, they expressed their willingness to mitigate the penalty and permit the owner to redeem his ship on payment of a fixed sum. It is idle to question their perfect right to do so.
It was fully within their competence to add no... my opinion arises utterly untenable result can from urging so an argument. It might have been wiser in them (as they may now very probably see) to have resolutely refused to depart from or in any way modify their original act of condemnation, but as this was done in deference to my intervention and in the interest of the Complainant only, it is certainly not Her Majesty's Government that can make such departure a subject of reproach, or a ground for urging them to...