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the
fact of irregularities having been committed, and fully admitting that abuses might have prevailed among
the subordinates either from excess of zeal or evil design, he could not help thinking there had been much
exaggeration. It was possible, he thought, that the Colonial Authorities lent a too willing ear to all the stories that reached them from soi-disant legitimate traders and sufferers by the rapacity or violence of Chinese Officials and Revenue Cruisers. In very many cases they came from smugglers caught in the act, who fully merited any punishment they had suffered. He hinted that China had an undoubted right to protect its revenue and adopt such measures as might be found necessary.
This, of course, I fully admitted, and said it was possible, in the state of hostile feeling into which the Colonists had been thrown by arbitrary acts and supposed designs to destroy their trade, that a ready credence had been given to all the stories and complaints of Chinese Junkmen. But what was really important now was to consider such measures as should provide against these things in future.
In the interview on the second day, this subject was again largely entered into, and much more to the main issue; only the effect was the same on both sides.