27. With reference to this statement
I have to observe, in the
The first instance,
that the words here used as a summary
of the admissions I was compelled
to make seem to me going
a little further than
my admissions went.
A reference to my letter to Mr. Hayller of the 28th November, given in the enclosures to Mr. Johnson's letter, will show that
the words I used were these, -
"I do now, from the view I have now of the case,
unhesitatingly admit that the substance of the
allegations against yourself, as
specified in the petition, is not
true." Here are qualifications
as to time, as to extent
and particulars, and as to form of
specification overlooked in Mr. Jpherson's
summary of my admissions. I did not admit that those allegations
were "wholly without foundation":
28. In the second instance, however, I have now to explain how it came about that, after making
statements, in September,
to Mr. Johnson,
which I then believed to be true, I
had to admit, in November, that the
substance of those statements specified in the petition, was not true. In explanation of this fact I beg
to observe that the Governor had, after
his return from Peking and through
him by pressure brought upon
Mr. Low, gradually to modify what he had told me before and finally to withdraw the most material part of the circumstances
he