SUBJECT UEVIEWED, 



107 



fingers' ends the colonial histoiy of Macao ; and because^ 

 two simpler points were clear to mc : — first, tliat the 

 outrage wa^ 3ndofi}nBible luidcr mt^ law ; secondly, that, 

 whether tlie prison stood on Portuguese or on Clunese 

 territorj, the prisoner was my countryman, and entitled 

 to mj help. At the same time, I do not forego an argu- 

 ment which I have every right to advance, and which is 

 supported by authontics of the highest order. I have not 

 had time to ask the formal permission of Sir Henrj 

 Pottinger, late Plenipoteutiai'y in China, and now Governor 

 of Madi-as, to make this use of a note wHch I received 

 from liim last year ; but I have no apprehension that he 

 will object to my subjoining the following passage ; — 



**Mj opinion always has been, and will be^ tliat you 

 acted quite right in rescuing a Bntish subject from the 

 Portuguese at Macao. Thc^ have no sort of rights of 

 sifterdqnfi/ (here; and I told the Governor, in my day, 

 tliat if any of Iler Majesty's subjects took refuge or were 

 detained there, I irould make him deUvor them up. 

 Lord Aberdeen approved of my decision ; and my friend 

 Keying issued an edict declaring Macao to he on the 

 footing of the five prnis opened to trade. Thai I tliink 

 is conclusive/' 



I have a^umed, as I liope I may, that my own state- 

 ment of the Jiimuter facts of this case , will be received 

 as the correct one. Some of the pubhshed accounts, 

 —gathered, perhaps, with every desire for accui'acy, 

 yet from unauthentic or prejudiced sources, — are just 



