However useful it might be in diminishing crime, suffering and disease, it never fails to involve by implication Government sanction of something "malum in se," and therefore not to be tolerated.
I venture, however, now at the close of the discussion to invite attention to the printed correspondence on the subject, whether with Her Majesty's Government or with other parties, as convincingly justifying the policy of the Executive here. No reiteration of assertions by any number of journals or individuals, influenced by sordid motives, or that the system was injurious to the community, and generated crime,— assertions easily made by irresponsible and anonymous parties, can convert those untruths into facts.
At the same time, to judge by my own feeling, I need not be surprised that Her Majesty's Government should at last have sought to get rid of such perpetually reiterated misrepresentations, ever requiring fresh references and renewed refutations. Your Lordship at least instructed me, as I anticipated, to terminate the system as conveniently as I could after my return here, and I have already carried out that instruction by the very simple expedient of...