NLASURY 9418
623
REGE 17 JUN 96,
point out the house in which the coining was carried on.
After a month's time the Viceroy sent the Consul a report from the local authorities asserting that they could find no proof of any such practice. No attempt was made to utilize the constable's knowledge.
It will, I think, be evident to the Yamên that if the Viceroy had really wished to put down illicit coining, he would at once have asked that the long-Kong constable should go with the local magistrate's runners to the place indicated, when the coiners would probably have been detected and punished.
But the Viceroy preferred not to adopt the plan most conducive to this end, and it would seem therefore that he is not in agreement with Your Highnesses/Your Excellencies as to the desirability of stopping the practice.
(Signed)
I avail myself,
W. N. Beauclerk,