that there is among the chief English merchants in this colony, a general growing feeling of insecurity, and, as some of them phrase it, of "national humiliation, in consequence of the unprotected state of Hongkong especially in the absence at Japan of Admiral Willes with most of his ships) leaving this colony an easy prey to a coup de main on the part of either the French or the Russian naval and Military forces in the China seas. Strong representations have been made to me recently (as I reported in a despatch by the last mail, the value of British property in ships, docks, warehouses, goods, in this colony cannot be less than twenty millions sterling: while there is one million and a half sterling in specie in the Banks and mercantile Establishments. This estimate does not include the great value of the naval and Military arsenals, Barracks and stores; while the loss of power and influence to Great Britain throughout this part of the world