It would be exceeding the limits of my principles were I to offer any opinion as to whether the Chinese fugitives this Question should be surrendered to their own authorities, and for the reasons stated at length in my despatch of the 5th April, I carefully refrain from so doing.
But it is none the less my duty to express in the plainest terms my conviction that, despite any promise the Viceroy may make to the contrary, the accused persons will, if surrendered, be subjected to torture at or before trial and, if found guilty, will certainly, in accordance with Chinese Law, be put to death by the slicing process.
Both will be tried and their punishment will take place at too great a distance from Canton to admit of the smallest hope that the ordinary course of criminal procedure will, in their case, be in the least degree departed from, and I cannot for one moment doubt that, as far as torture is concerned, their fate will be even worse than that which befell the prisoners surrendered...