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my departure, because I hope by that time to have consolidated the various Reforms and Changes which I have originated here, or at least to have witnessed the close of the most important discussions relating to them.
This is my fourth Summer in Hongkong, and, as I have been obliged to undergo a great amount of intrinsically fatiguing work, it has told severely that I should not face another hot season in China without some prolonged relaxation from labor.
That, however, is a very secondary Consideration in comparison with what I owe to Lady Robinson who, I fear, in her anxiety to attend to her duties here, has remained longer than it now appears was safe. It is too late to send her to Europe, voyage by the Red Sea, and it would be almost equally dangerous to let her attempt a journey home by California or round the Cape without me, as she could not survive a ...
I must therefore accompany her to England myself, but hope to be able to defer doing so till next Spring. If, however, I cannot obtain leave for that purpose, and if circumstances should then demand her instant return, I will evidently have no other course open to me than to resign my office.
I do not, however, anticipate such a result of my application, because