180
saw him a few minutes on the road,
but his view
of the prospects of
my case is not encouraging. Apart from pecuniary ruin,
dread the consequences affecting my position in the Service
Your obedient Servant
E. J. Eitel.
14. This is, doubt, the letters, which the Private Secretary relies for his allegation. But so far from proving his case, I maintain that the sentence I have underlined and, indeed, the whole letter, when fairly read and understood, proves the contrary.
This letter was written when I ceased to attend at Government House because the Governor had consented to sign and was on the point of signing important papers of retractation, to which, two days after, he did give and which, it is quasi notorious, were shown in a public manner to residents in the Colony, leading and at the Hongkong Club. But more than this, that letter was written, under Counsel's advice, to elicit from the Governor the written promise to hold me harmless against the damages which Mr. Hayllar had laid at $25,000 and which Counsel now advised me could not be avoided entirely now, though they might be mitigated, because the Governor had made it impossible.