Graying for the removal of the restrictions on Chinese Emigration to British Possessions.
I have given to this appeal the full and careful consideration to which a memorial so important in itself bearing many hundred respectable signatures is entitled. I regret, however, that I can only request you to inform the Memorialists that the British Possessions to which they refer have been granted the privilege of making their own laws, and that it is therefore not in my power to grant the prayer which they have submitted to relieve their trading business from the inconveniences to which the petition states it is subjected.