questionable. I nevertheless feel that the effort whether eventually successful or not to embody in payment all charges on Foreign Goods, and the agreement to establish a Commercial code, and several other provisions in the Convention of last October, are useful progressive steps. For much that has been done the Mercantile Community is grateful to Sir Rutherford Alcock, who however seems least fortunate in arrangements which affect the interests of Hongkong.
As to questions affecting the latter I have received a Memorial on the part of this Community addressed to Her Majesty's Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, which I endorse. I consider it a document of great ability and in what relates to suppression of smuggling at the Treaty Port in Whampoa, and the appointment of a Chinese Consul at Hongkong, I regard it with one or two omissions to be noted hereafter as embodying the complete argument, in as condensed and clear a form as the subject admits. I therefore trust that Your Lordship will give your best personal considerations to its reasonings.
As to the proposed appointment of a Chinese Consul at Hongkong I am more aware than the Memorialists of Sir Rutherford Alcock's views, and the explanation which he
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