"compliance with a demand!"
"very vague.
You Endeavor to throw back the blame on the Hong Kong...
Last a businesslike and able, and Lord you appeal to hard Granville for protection in what you seem to consider a very prominent "case" of injury/injunctive.
Lord Granville begs to consider this an totally incorrect view of your position. Believing that you were conscientiously persuaded that what you were doing was for the good of the Colony, and he trusts that the Hong Kong East will not press upon you any pecuniary responsibility on account of the course, which you have adopted.
But he instructs you that you have liberty, not authority, and that you must not disregard the plain instructions of the Foreign Office, for if you do so hereafter, you will do so at your peril.
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Ins... explanations...