The right and caution with which the fort at Passallião was garrisoned; the numerous pieces of artillery which were mounted on all the surrounding eminences, from that point as far as beyond the Caza Branca; the large bodies of armed men who were assembled at the several posts near Macao; and other measures taken in anticipation. And can it still, in presence of all this, be doubted that the Chinese authorities had entered into the plan, perhaps laid down by themselves, and countenanced its execution? By what other means can the adoption of these measures be explained, all of them preventive ones, as was better seen on the 25th day of August, if their object had been other than an attack on Macao, for which undoubtedly the murder of the Governor was to have been the signal agreed upon? and, had not the plan been frustrated by the promptitude and energy with which the blow was prevented, God knows how far it might have extended! a circumstance which certainly will not be reputed trivial, if the disposition with which it had been premeditated be considered.
The post at the Barrier, or the Barrier Gate, had been abandoned by the Chinese Guard the same evening of the murder, three individuals only being found there, who afterwards stated they belonged to the same Guard, and who, as they were eye-witnesses of the act, were detained here to give evidence respecting it, and be adduced as witnesses in the investigation.
Under these circumstances, and in contemplation of the evident danger of an impending invasion with which the settlement was threatened, in the presence of a considerable armed force that at every moment was increasing around it, it was indispensable for the Portuguese Government of Macao to take those precautionary measures which necessity and prudence pointed out as the most urgently demanded for safety and self-defence, by which they were abundantly justified. Of these measures the most provident of all was perhaps the temporary occupation of the Barrier by a Portuguese Force, which the Government ordered to be posted there on the morning of the 28th August, in order that that pass might not be left open to the invasion which threatened the settlement; and the efforts that the Chinese immediately made to dislodge us from that point showed well enough the importance they attached to it, and how anxious they were that their passage through it might not be cut off. The contest which took place on that day, and which terminated successfully for us, was provoked by the aggression on the part of the Chinese, who first opened a fire upon the Portuguese, both from the Fort at Passalhão and various points which were then seen to be fortified on the neighbouring heights, and which was kept up without flagging from 10 o'clock in the morning until 4 in the afternoon, when it became necessary for the Portuguese Force to silence it, and, in order to be able to maintain their post, as the safety and defence of the settlement urgently required, to proceed to dislodge the Chinese from all their positions, returning immediately to their post at the Barrier, which they continued to occupy whilst it was necessary. It was during this contest that the treacherous intentions of the Chinese were most clearly manifested; in proportion as our small force marched forward, means of aggression were discovered, which with so much precaution they had prepared beforehand.
Hitherto it has been seen with perfect clearness that the assassination of Governor Amaral was but the result of a plan of vast design, previously laid down, for the development of which that outrage was merely the first step taken; it being also evident (from the facts established) that the presumption that the Chinese Authorities, being aware of it, lent the necessary aid for its complete execution, was well founded. It remains now to be seen how far the subsequent conduct of the same Authorities has justified that presumption; and finally, to establish their immediate and direct responsibility for the crime afterwards consummated.
If the conduct of the Chinese Authorities prior to that act evinces the previous knowledge which they had of it, their participation and concurrence in it are certainly not less evident when their subsequent conduct is considered. The subtleties and contradictions so palpable in all their correspondence, which strongly displays an excessive anxiety to disfigure and even to deny public and notorious facts, and to prevent as much as possible the exact knowledge of those which depended upon enquiries, abundantly reveal all their ill-will in an affair so serious and of so much gravity; and their immediate interest that the truth should never appear, doubtless because in this they had pledged themselves to keep it back, manifests also their own criminality.
The simple perusal of the Documents herein referred to is sufficient to show the little fairness and good faith which have presided over all the acts of the aforesaid Authorities in this affair, especially from the time of the capture of the pretended criminal Sen-chi-leong, until the refusal to restore the members robbed from the illustrious deceased. However, this Council cannot refrain from pointing out in this place some of the most remarkable circumstances, in order that the justice and truth of their assertions may be the better seen.
On the 12th September, twenty-one days after the crime had been committed, one of the criminals is apprehended at Shon-tak, and the head and hand discovered buried at Sam-Tim (Doc. D, 3 in 48) and three days have hardly elapsed, when the criminal is executed on the morning of the 15th, a copy of his confession being transmitted to this Council, (Doc. E, 8 in 90) which being erroneous and false, as it did not agree with the circumstances of the crime, is deficient in all forms and particulars necessary in order to be accepted as sufficient proof of the criminal's guilt.
It was however upon the strength of this same informal confession that the Viceroy Seu signed his sentence, by virtue of which Sen-chi-leong was executed, all justice being thus disregarded, and all laws trampled upon, not excepting even the Chinese. The illegality of this proceeding is sufficiently demonstrated in the Despatch from this Council of the 25th September (Doc. V, 4 in 98) and although the Viceroy in his letter of the 28th of the same month (Doc. Q, 9 in 98) endeavours ineffectively to maintain that all legal formalities required in such cases were observed, nevertheless his reasons have nothing better than mere assertions to support them, contradicted as they are by the facts established by himself.
The Viceroy states that the criminal Sen-chi-leong, apprehended on the 12th September, was first examined by the Mandarin of Shon-tak, who took down his depositions—that from thence he was taken to the Tribunal of the Town, and from this to that of the City—that he was afterwards brought before that of the Criminal Judge, and thence to that of the Lieutenant-Governor,—lastly, that after being tried by the Viceroy himself, conjointly with the last named functionary, he was by His Excellency sentenced to suffer the extreme penalty of the law, which was carried into effect on the morning of the 15th, he being taken bound to the scaffold. Now, even admitting that all these proceedings are in conformity with the Laws of the Empire to which His Excellency appeals, as if he had conformed to them, how is it possible to believe that in the short space of three days, not all the formalities of a criminal process of so much importance, but those only which are above enumerated, could have been complied with? All that is seen of so many interrogatories, examinations, depositions, &c., is, that the mere confession of the criminal himself, upon which his sentence was grounded, constitutes the sole proof of his guilt. Sen-chi-leong, therefore, was not a convicted criminal, and even supposing that he was the real assassin, he cannot be regarded legally as such. The confession of the criminal himself is not sufficient proof to condemn him, as justice requires that evidence of the crime should be obtained solely from facts and the depositions of witnesses, and not from a confession, which has all the appearance of being apocryphal, and which, if it proves anything in the present case, it is surely, that the end of all this fictitious process was rather to draw up a long chapter of accusations against the late Governor, than to take cognizance of the abominable and atrocious crime, of which he was the victim; it being worthy of remark that, by a singular coincidence, these are the same accusations that, having first appeared in the Placards posted at Canton, were repeated in the first Despatch from the Viceroy—that of the 27th August—and afterwards arranged for the confession of Sen-chi-leong, from which they were further adopted in that of Ko-A-long (Doc. V, 17 in 98).
The precipitate execution of Sen-chi-leong could alone satisfy the real criminals, and the Authorities who so summarily sentenced him, and ordered him to be executed in such an informal manner, evidently promoted and served the interests of the real authors of the crime, hindering the means of these being known and the whole truth of the case discovered, as was the better manifested by the capture of Ko-A-long. Between this man's confession, which is another tissue of palpable falsehoods, as was demonstrated by this Council in their Despatch of the 7th instant (Doc. 7, 2 in 110) and that of Sen-chi-leong, remarkable contradictions are met with in several essential points, and the confronting of the criminals, which is the means pointed out of arriving in such cases at the truth of the facts, was rendered impossible by the execution of Sen-chi-leong beforehand, to the grave prejudice of Justice, and the violation of Law.
Proceeding with the facts in their regular order, we have now to examine the unjust detention of the mutilated members of the deceased Governor; and, indeed, of all the acts of the Chinese authorities on the occasion of this deplorable event, this is the one in which their extreme bad faith is most conspicuous, and which affords the most convincing proof of their connivance and participation in the crime.
If these authorities could by any means succeed in removing from themselves the responsibility which attaches to them in consequence of their proceedings prior to this occurrence, this act of theirs would alone be sufficient to condemn them. Could they even prove that the death of Governor Amaral was the work of mere assassins, the retention of the revered members by the Viceroy is no longer the work of these, nor do they share the responsibility of the abject and degrading advantage that was intended to be gained thereby.
The Viceroy, if he were sincere, should have forthwith said in his letter of the 16th September, that the delivery of the three Chinese detained here must be a sine qua non condition for the restitution of the head and hand: but he did not act so; he informed the Council that he had sent those remains in charge of a deputed officer, merely pointing out the release of the three Chinese abovementioned, not as a condition, but as a consequence of the restitution of the same remains; at the same time that he gave positive orders to the deputed officer not to deliver up his charge as he had written to the Council, but to traffic with it on his behalf, and to purchase in exchange for it the release of the said Chinese.
This stipulation was for the first time introduced in the chop from the Tsotang of the 20th September (Doc. G, 8 in 98) in which he says that, in order to show good faith, it was proper that the three men should be first given up; but although in his chops (Doc. I, J, M, O, P in 98) subsequent to the reply made to him on that occasion by the Procurador of the City, (Doc. H, b in 98) he always alluded to the delivery of those individuals, it is nevertheless evident from the terms of the same chops, and from the very explicit and positive declaration contained in the answer from the Procurador, that the tone of that demand was greatly modified, and the Tsotang, no doubt to show good faith, no longer insisted upon it as an indispensable condition to the delivery of the head and hand; and it was only repeated in the above sense in his second chop of the 26th September (Doc. M, 6 in 98) forwarded however at daybreak on the 27th, and a little before the hour that had, at his request, been fixed for him to deliver up the remains at the Barrier Gate.
From this moment all the artifice of this infamous intrigue was known, and no time was lost in pointing out to the Tsotang, in the letter that was written to him on the morning of the 27th (Doc. N, b in 98), the irregularity of his proceedings. But this Council, wishing still to afford the Viceroy an opportunity of escaping from the grave position in which he had inconsiderately placed himself, wrote to him the following day (Doc. I, 5 in 98) acquainting him with what had happened, and attributing all the responsibility of that act to the Mandarins, his subordinates; but what was their astonishment when they found, amidst the circumlocutions and contradictions with which the letter that the Viceroy addressed to them in reply on the 30th September (Doc. S, 10 in 98) abounds, that His Excellency not only confirmed and acknowledged the condition insisted on by the deputed officer, but also expressed for the first time the opinion that the affair was already terminated by the payment of life for life!
The subtlety with which it was sought in this letter to confound the question of the murder of the Governor of the Province, with that of the retention of his mutilated members, for the obvious purpose of taking advantage of it in support of the argument already adduced in a previous letter, that the three Chinese belonging to the Barrier Gate detained at Macao have nothing to do with this question, is indeed astonishing; but from this subtlety nothing resulted but a palpable contradiction; inasmuch as, it being evident that the question alluded to in the letter is that of the retention of the head and hand, and the Viceroy acknowledging that the three Chinese detained have nothing to do with it, it is nevertheless His Excellency himself who pretends that its termination is dependent upon their release. This is arguing reasonably, as His Excellency says should be done, and not according to one's mere inclinations!
The object of the Viceroy being, as is easily seen, to elude the principal point of the question, so as to avoid a precise answer, and this Council being desirous of cutting off all pretext for new cavils, which the want of perfect clearness in the correspondence might afterwards afford, further addressed to the Viceroy their Despatch of the 3d October (Doc. T, 11 in 98) in which they required of him an explicit and categorical declaration, whether he would deliver up the heart and hand retained in his possession, or whether he persisted in keeping possession of those remains, in order to traffic with them, as was his original intention. But His Excellency having maintained a perfect silence up to the 14th, wrote on that day to the Council, (Doc. U, 17 in 98) informing them of the capture of Ko-A-long, and transmitted the confession of this man, without however making the slightest allusion to the Despatch from this Council of the 3d, on which account a Duplicate of it was sent to him, with another Despatch of the 22d (Doc. X, not lent), to which His Excellency at last replied on the 1st November (Doc. Y, 2 in 20), not with the clearness and precision which had been required of him, but with new evasions entirely foreign to our question, persisting still on this occasion to regard the case as dealt with, that is to say, to regard the case as settled and concluded, and still requiring the release of the three men detained; by which it is easily seen that the Viceroy is excessively interested from motives which must be well known to His Excellency.
The necessity of occupying themselves with the present task has been extremely disagreeable to this Council, but they feel it to be imperative on them not to leave unpreclaimed manifest and irrefutable, although pungent and bitter, truths, which had been unjustly provoked, in order to establish and fix by unquestionable facts the responsibility of that iniquitous outrage on the head of him to whom it belongs; the expositions and documents brought forward in this Manifesto appearing to them sufficiently to prove,—
1st, That the treacherous and barbarous assassination of the Councillor Joao Maria Ferreira do Amaral, Governor of this Province, was nothing else than the consequence of a premeditated plan of aggression, for the development of which this act was the first step agreed upon.
2dly, That if this plan was not concocted with the concurrence of the Chinese authorities, its execution was countenanced by them.
3dly, That the same authorities, by refusing to satisfy the just demands made on them, and with which they were bound to comply, and by committing other acts in violation of the Law of Nations, constituted themselves participators in the crime which by the same law they were bound to punish.
4thly, That, in conclusion, all the responsibility of this atrocious crime, and of all its consequences, attaches to the same authorities, for which responsibility this Council again protest, renewing all their former protests, which they hereby ratify, in the hope that this responsibility will one day be made effective for the satisfaction and redress of outraged Rights trampled under foot, of violated Laws, and of so many and so sacred
Macao, 26th November, 1849.
JERONIMO, Bishop of Macao.—JOAQUIM ANTONIO DE MORAES CARNEIRO.—LUDGERO JOAQUIM DE FARIA NEVES.—MIGUEL PEREIRA SIMÕES.—JOZE BERNARDO GOULARTE.—MANOEL PEREIRA.
Page 418
right and caution with which the fort at Passallião was carrisoned; the numerous pieces of artillery which were mounted on all the surrounding eminences, from that point as far as beyond the Caza Branca; the large bodies of urined then who were assembled at the several posts near Macao; and other measures taken in anticipation. And can it still, in presence of all this, be doubted that the Chinese authorities bad entered into the plan, perhaps laid down by themselves, and countenanced its excention? By what
other means can the adoption of chose measures be explain- ed, all of them preventive ones, as was better seen on the 25th day of August, if their object had been other than an attack on Macao, for which undoubtedly the murder of the Governor was to have been the signal agreed upon? and, had not the plan heen frustrated by the promptitude and energy with which the blow was prevented, God knows how far it night have extended! a circumstance which certainly will not he reputed trivial, if the disposition with which it had been premeditated be considered.
The post at the Harrier, or the Barrier Gate, bad been abandoned by the Chinese Guard the same evening of the nurder, three individuals only being found there, who after- wards stated they belonged to the same Guard, and who, as they were eye-witnesses of the act, were detained here to give evidence respecting it, and be adduced as witnesses in the investigation.
Inder these circumstances, and in contenaplation of the evident danger of an impending invasion with which the settlement was threatened, in the presence of a considerable Amed force that at every moment was increasing around it, it was indispensable for the Portuguese Government of Macao to take those precautionary measures which necessity and prudence pointed out as the most urgently demanded for safety and self-defenec, by which they were abundantly justitied. Of these measures the most provident of all was perhaps the temporary occupation of the Barrier by a Portuguese Force, which the Government ordered to be posted there on the morning of the 28th August, in order that that pass might not be left open to the invasion which threatened the settle- ment; and the efforts that the Chinese immediately madu to dislodge us from that point slew well enough the in- portance they attached to it, and how anxious they were that their passage through it might not be cut off. The eontest which took place on that day, and which terminated successfully for us, was provoked by the aggression on the part the Chinese, who first opened a fire upon the Por- tuguese, both from the Fort at Passalhão aud various points which were then seen to lie fortitled on the neighbouring beights, and which was kept up without fagging from 10 o'clock in the morning until 4 in the afternoon, when it became necessary for the Portuguese Force to silence it, and, in order to be able to maintain their post, as the safety and defence of the settlement urgently required, to proceed to dislodge the Chinese from all their positions, returning immediately to their post at the Barrier, which they con- tinned to occupy whilst it was necessary. It was during this contest that the treacherous intentions of the Chinese were most clearly manifested; in proportion as our small force marched forward, means of Aggression were discovered, which with so much precaution they had prepared beforehand.
Hitherto it has been seen with perfect clearness that the assassination of Governor Amaral was but the result of a plan of vast design, previously laid down, for the development of which that outrage was merely the first step taken; it being also evident (from the facts established, that the presumption that the Chinese Authorities, being aware of it, lent the necessary aid for its complete execution, was well founded. It remains now to be seen how far the subsequent conduct of the same Authorities has justified that pre- sumption; and finally, to establish their immediate and direct responsibility for the crime afterwards consumimated.
If the conduct of the Chinese Authorities prior to that act evinces the previous knowledge which they had of it, their participation and concurrence in it are certainly not less evident when their subsequent conduct is considered. The subtleties and contradictions so palpable in all their cor- respondence which strongly displays an excessive anxiety to disfigure and even to deny public and notorious facts, and to prevent as much as possible the exact knowledge of tluse which depended upon enquiries-abundantly reveal all their ill-will in an affair so serious and of so much gravity; and their immediate interest that the truth should never appear, doubtless because in this they had pledged themselves to keep it back, manifests also their own criminality.
The simple perusal of the Documents herein referred to in sufficient to slew the little fairness and good faith which have presided over all the acts of the aforesaid Authorities in this affair, especially from the time of the capture of the pretended criminal Sen-ebi-leong, until the refusal to restore the members robbed from the illustrious deceased. IIow- ever, this Council cannot refrain from pointing out in this place some of the most remarkable circumstancer, in order that the justice and truth of their assertions may be the
better seen.
On the 12th September,-twenty-one days after the crime had been committed,-one of the Criminals is apprehended at Shon-tak, and the head and hand discovered buried at Sam-Tim (Doc. D, 3 in- 48 and three days have hardly elapsed, when the criminal is executed on the morning of the 15th, a copy of his confession being transmitted to this Council, (Doc. E, 8 in 90 which being erroneous and false, as it did not agree with the circumstances of the crime, is deficient in all forms and particulars necessary in order to be accepted as sufficient proof of the criminal's guilt. Ik
was however upon the strength of this same informal con- fession that the Viceroy Seu signed his sentence, by virtue of which Sen-chi-leong was executed, all justice being thus disregarded, and all laws trampled upon, not excepting even the Chinese. The illegality of this proceeding is sufficiently demonstrated in the Despatch from this Council of the 25th September (Doc. V, 4 in. 98 ) and although the Viceroy in is letter of the 28th of the same month (Doc. Q. 9 in 98, endeavours ineffectively to maintain that all légal formalities required in such cases were observed, nevertheless his reasons have nothing better than mere assertions to sup- port them, contradicted as they are by the facts established by himself.
The Viceroy states that the criminal Sen-chi-leong, ap- prehended on the 12th September, was first examined by the Mandarin of Blon-tak, who took down his depositions-that from thence he was taken to the Tribunal of the Town, and from this to that of the City-that he was afterwards brought before that of the Criminal Judge, and thence to that of the Lieutenant-Governor,- lastly, that after being tried by the Viceroy himself, conjointly with the last named fane- tionary, he was by His Excellency sentenced to suffer the extreme penalty of the law, which was carried into effect on the morning of the 15th, he being taken bound to the scaffold. Now, even admitting that all these proceedings are in conformity with the Laws of the Empire to which His Excellency appeals, as if he had conformed to them, how is it possible to believe that in the short space of three days, not all the formalities of a criminal process of su mucli importance, but those only which are above enumerated, could have been complied with? All that is seen of so many interrogatories, examinations, depositions, &c., is, that the mero confession of the criminal bimself, upon which his sentence was grounded, constitutes the sole proof of his guilt. Sen-chi-leong, therefore, was not a convicted criminal, and even supposing that he was the real assassin, he cannot be regarded legally as such. The confession of the criminal himself is not sufficient proof to condemn him, as justice requires that evidence of the crime should be obtained solely from facts and the depositions of witnesses, and not from a confession, which has all the appearance of being apocryphal, and which, if it proves anything in the present case, it is surely, that the end of all this fictitious process was ratlier to draw up a long chapter of accusations against the late Governor, than to take cognizance of the abominable and atrocious crime, of which he was the vietim; it being worthy of remark that, by a singular coincidence, these are the same accusations that, having first appeared in the Placards posted at Canton, were repeated in the first Despatch from the Viceroy-that of the 27th August-and afterwards ar ranged for the confession of Sen-chi-leong, from which they were further adopted in that of Ko-Along (Doc. V, 17 in 98.) The precipitate execution of Sen-chi-leong could alone satisfy the reat criminals, and the Authorities who so sum- marily sentenced him, and ordered him to be executed in such an informal manner, evidently promoted and served the interests of the real authors of the crime, hindering the means of these being known and the whole truth of the case discovered, as was the better manifested as the capture of Ko-Ahong. Between this man's e fession, which is another tissue of palpable falsehooda, as was demonstrated by this
Council in their Despatch of the 7th instant (Doc. 7,2m 110) and that of Sen-chi-leons, remarkable contradictions are met with in several essential points, and the confronting of the criminals, which is the means pointed out of arriving in such cases at the truth of the facts, was rendered impos- sible by the execution of Sen-chi-leong beforehand, to the grave prejudice of Justice, and the violation of Law.
Proceeding with the facts in their regular order, we have now to examine the unjust detention of the mutilated members of the deceased Governor; and, indeed, of all the acts of the Chinese authorities on the occasion of this deplorable event, this is the one in which their extreme bad faith is most conspicuous, and which affords the most can- vincing proof of their connivance and participation in the crime.
If these authorities could by any means succeed in re- moving from themselves the responsibility which attaches to them in consequence of their proceedings prior to this oc- currence, this act of theirs would alone be sufficient to condemn them. Could they even prove that the death of Governor Amaral was the work of mere asseins, the re- tention of the revered members by the Viceroy is no longer the work of these, nor do they share the responsibility of the abject and degrading advantage that was intended to be gained thereby.
The Viceroy, if he were sincere, should have forthwith said in his letter of the 16th September, that the delivery of the three Chinese detained here must be a sine quá non condition for the restitution of the head and hand: but he did not act so; be informed the Council that he had sent those remains in charge of a deputed officer, merely pointing out the release of the three Chinese abovementioned, not as & condition, but as a consequence of the restitution of the same remains; at the same time that he gave positive orders to the deputed officer not to deliver up his charge as he had written to the Council, but to traffic with it on his behalf, and to purchase in exchange for it the release of the said Chinese.
This stipulation was for the first time introduced in the chop from the Tsotang of the 20th September (Doc. G, Sin 98 in which he says that, in order to shew good faith, it was pro- par that the three men should be first given up; but although in his chops (Doc. 1, J, M, 0, f in
-98) subsequent to
the reply made to him on that occasion by the Procurador of the City, (Doc. II, b in 98 he always alluded to the delivery of those individuals, it is nevertheless evident from the terms of the same chops, and from the very explicit and positive declaration contained in the answer from the Procurador, that the tone of that demand was greatly modified, and the Tsotang, no doubt to show good faith, no longer insisted upon it as an indispensable con- dition to the delivery of the heat and hand; and it was only repeated in the above sense in his seennd chop of the 26th September (Doc. M, 6 im-98 forwarded however at daybreak on the 27th, and a little before the hour that had, at his request, been fixed for him to deliver up the remains at the Barrier Gate
From this moment all the artifice of this infamous in- trigue was known, and no time was lost in pointing out to the Tsotang, in the letter that was written to him on the nyerning of the 27th (Doc. N, bin. 98 ), the irregularity of his proceedings. But this Council, wishing still to afford the Viceroy an opportunity of escaping from the grave position in which he had inconsiderately placed himself, wrote to him the following day (Doc. 1,5 in 98 nequainting him with what had happened. and attributing all the responsibility of that act to the Mandarins, his subordinates; but what was their astonishment when they found, aruidst the circum- loentions and contradictions with which the letter that the Viceroy addressed to them in reply out the 30th September (Doc. 8, 10 in 98) abounds, that is Excelleney not only confirmed and acknowledged the condition insisted on by the deputed officer, but also expressed for the first time the opinion that the affair was already terminated by the payment of life for life!
The subtlety with which it was sought in this letter to confound the question of the murder of the Governor of the Province, with that of the retention of his mutilated mem- hers, for the obvious purpose of taking advantage of it in pport of the argument already adduced in a previous letter, that the three Chinese belonging to the Barrier Gate detained at Macao bave nothing to do with this question, is indeed astonishing; but from this subtlety nothing resulted but a palpable contradiction; inasmuch as, it being evident that the question alluded to in the letter is that of the reten- tion of the head and hand, and the Viceroy acknowledging that the three Chinese detained have nothing to do with it, it is nevertheless His Excellency himself who pretends that its termination is dependent upon their release. This is arguing reasonably, as His Eseelleney says should be done, and not according to one's more inclinations!
The object of the Viceroy being, as is easily seen, to elude the principal point of the question, so as to avoid a precise answer, and this Council being desirous of cutting off all pretext for new cavils, which the want of perfect clearness in the correspondence might afterwards afford, further ad- dressed to the Viceroy their Despatch of the 3d October (Doc. T, // ing) in which they required of him an ex- plicit and categorical declaration, whether he would deliver
up the heart and hand retained in his possession, or whether he persisted in keeping possession of those remains, in order to traffic with them, as was his original intention. But is Excelleney having maintained a perfect silence up to the 14th, wrote on that day to the Council, (Doc. U, 17 in 98) informing then of the capture of Ko-along, and transmitted the confession of this man, without however naking the slightest allusion to the Despatel from this Council of the 3d, on which account a Duplicate of it was sent to him, with another Despatch of the 22d (Doc. X, not lent, to which IIis Excellency at last replied on the 1st November (Doc. Y, 2 in 20), not with the clearness and precision which had been required of him, but with new evasions entirely foreign to our question, persisting still on this oceasion to regard the case as dealt with, that is to say, settled and concluded, and still requiring the release of the three men detained; by which it is easily seen that the Viceroy is excessively interested from motives which annst be well known to His Excellency.
The necessity of occupying themselves with the present task has been extremely disagreeable to this Council, but they feel it to be imperative on them not to leave unpre- claimed manifest and irrefutable, although pungent and bitter, truths, which had been unjustly provoked, in order to establish and fix by unquestionable facts the responsibility of that iniquitous outrage on the head of him to whorn it belongs; the expositions and documents brought forward in this Manifesto appearing to them sufficiently to prove,-
1st, That the treacherous and barbarous assassination of the Councillor Joao Maria Ferreira do Amaral, Governor of this Province, was nothing else than the consequence of a premeditated plan of aggression, for the development of which this act was the first step agreed upon.
zdly, That if this plan was not concocted with the concur- rence of the Chinese authorities, its execution was counten. anced by them.
3dly, That the same authorities, by refusing to satisfy the just demanda made on them, and with which they were bound to comply, and by committing other acts in violation of the Law of Nations, constituted themselves participators in the crime which by the same law they were bound to punish.
4thly, That, in conelusion, all the responsibility of this atrocious crime, and of all its consequences, attaches to the same authorities, for which responsibility this Council again protest, renewing all their former protests, which they hereby ratify, in the hope that this responsibility will one day be mada effective for the satisfaction and redress of outraged Rights trampled under foot. Justice, of violated Laws, and of so many and so sacred
Macao, 26th November, 1849.
JERONIMO, Bishop of Macao.-JOAQUIN ANTONIO DE MORAES CARNEIRO.-LUDGERO JOAQUIM DE FARIA NEVES. -MIGUEL PEReira Simões-Jozs BERNARDO GOULARTE. -MANOEL PERKIRA.
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