Chinese Government at the intervention of the British Minister at Peking, to mitigate the penalty and consenting.
lighth of the value at which the owner had estimated his vessel, and permitting him to redeem it on payment of the comparatively small sum of $4,000, they acted, in my opinion, with great liberality and in a very lenient spirit; considering the notoriously large smuggling trade on the West Coast, the headquarters of which, they believe, whether rightly or wrongly, to be Obengthing, and carried on chiefly by means of vessels of the class of the Prince Albert, under Design Flags and in some cases colours conferred by the Colonial Authorities.
It was fully within their competence either to confiscate or to mitigate the penalty. It is idle to question their right to take this action against the complainants. The argument in this case, which he has been ill-advised enough to put forward, that either the Chinese Authorities should confiscate the ship or...
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