Local Tax on opium.
I referred this letter together with your above-mentioned despatch to the proper Law Officers of the Crown, and I have to state that it appears from the inclosures contained in the letter from the Colonial Office and from Sir R. Macdonnell's letter of the 22nd of February that the smuggling at Hongkong, with which the Chinese Government has to deal, is serious and of a most aggravated character, and such as is likely to lead, as it has led, to acts of brutality on the part of Chinese Officials, falling sometimes upon legitimate traders.
Assuming the new Proclamation of the Viceroy of Canton to be bona fide conceived and executed, it is calculated to put a stop to the immediate mischief, and it does not appear to Her Majesty's Government fairly open to the criticism of double imposition of duty on goods in transit at Canton. The existing Colonial Office Regulations regarding the transhipment of goods at Hongkong appear in Revelations.
But, for the sake of the legitimate trade at Hongkong, and to put a stop to the hostile feeling that...
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(No further text is available in the original prompt for continuation or correction beyond this point, and the rest of the text seems to be heavily garbled and not coherent.)