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taken by Her Majesty's Government of the question which forms the subject of this despatch, they will be prepared to give the best consideration to any observations which you may see occasion to offer with the view of inducing them to come to a different conclusion."
November 18, 1844.
In a subsequent despatch to Mr. Davis, he was To Mr. Davis, No. 94; told that Lord Aberdeen had no objection to Mr. Rickett trading on his own account if no inconvenience was likely to result from his doing so, but that he should be apprised that if at any time such inconvenience should be felt, he might be required to give up either his Consular Agency or his trade, without any claim to compensation for the abandonment of the one or the other.
On the 24th January, 1844, an Ordinance (No.1) Hertslet's Treaties, vol. 6. p. 270, was issued by the Governor of Hong Kong relative to the trial and punishment of offences committed by British subjects in China, or within a certain distance at sea from the Chinese coast, the fourth and concluding paragraph of which ran thus :—
"And for the prevention of doubts upon the subject, be it enacted that the Peninsula of Macao shall, for the purposes of this Ordinance and of all other Ordinances made by virtue of the power hereinbefore mentioned, be deemed and taken to be within the dominions of the Emperor of China.”
In sending this Ordinance home Sir H. Pottinger said :-
"The only doubt I have is with regard to the 4th clause, providing for the Portuguese Settlement of Macao being 'deemed and taken to be within the dominions of the Emperor of China.'
"The measures which I have adopted to have this question arranged and defined between the Governments of England and Portugal I have already laid before my colleagues in Council, and I should be disposed to await the result of the reference that has been made to Her Majesty's Government, but it is obvious that the Ordinance which we are now considering will be eminently defective without the clause to which I allude, and further, that its omission will be, on our part, an admission of the sovereignty of Macao being vested in the Government of Portugal, whilst all facts that have come to my knowledge lead me to pronounce to the contrary.
Sir H. Pottinger, No. 12; January 1844.
Mr. Davis, No. 8; May 23, 1844.
In Mr. Davis' No. 115; December 10, 1844.
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"On the whole, then, I beg to propose that the Ordinance shall pass as it is drafted, that it shall be communicated for the information of his Excellency the Governor and Senate of Macao, and that they be informed that the 4th clause will not be acted on, unless in cases of British subjects committing crimes in other parts of China and flying for refuge to Macao, until instructions regarding it shall be received from Her Majesty's Ministers."
After consultation with the Law Officers, this Ordinance was approved by Her Majesty's Government, but on the 10th December following the Portuguese Governor of Macao officially protested against it in the following despatch to the Governor of Hong Kong
"I have received with the utmost surprise and wonder your Excellency's official letter of the 21st ultimo, together with a copy of a law made at Hong Kong, in which it is said that the Tribunals of Justice of that Colony are authorized to proceed against any British subject who may come to commit any criminal or civil offence in Macao; and I cannot conceive how, without breach of the dignity and independence of the Portuguese nation, can a measure taken at Hong Kong produce any effect in the Portuguese Settlement of Macao, save if to this end we may wish to employ, not the moral but the physical force—a proceeding which can never be expected from the enlightened English nation, the most ancient ally of Portugal, and to whom this kingdom is bound by Treaties, and by close bonds of peace and friendship.
"Under these circumstances, it behoves me to inform your Excellency that the Government of Her Majesty has already decided upon this same subject, by a 'Portaria from the competent Department, a copy of which I have the honour to transmit to your Excellency. And in the presence of such a conclusive order, which it is my bounden duty to execute faithfully, neither I, in the capacity of Governor of Macao, nor the Justices of this Portuguese Settlement, will in any way consent that the national dignity and independence may suffer the least breach by permitting anything to be practised against the law of nations and against the laws of Portugal, it being at the same time reasonable and just to await the decisions and the adjustment
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