Council. Your Lordship appears to have written under the impression that Mr. Lowcock was actually in the Colony at that time. But on the receipt of Your Lordship's despatch Mr. Lowcock was not in the Colony. I have now satisfied myself that his interest in "Hongkong" (from which he is still absent) is not such as to justify his appointment.
On the other hand, the more I have considered it, the more I am disposed to doubt the sound policy of appointing a Chinese gentleman to a permanent seat on the Legislative Council; and therefore I venture to suggest that Your Lordship might reconsider this latter question.
I fear Your Lordship will think I have delayed, to an extent that is almost inexcusable, in furnishing a list of prominent members of the English Community suitable for places in the Legislative Council. The difficulty in preparing such a list arises from the extraordinary rapid changes in the commercial life of this Colony of late years.
Not a single one of the old English houses is to be found among the agents now conducting the business here. Nor is it merely that the real heads of English houses are no longer resident in the Colony, but the business itself has not remained in the same hands.