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In the latter, it was "about six weeks before the fact, of their having been burned, was made known by Government to the Commission; which appears by their minutes to have not been made known to them until the 17th June then following.
In either hypothesis, the spoliation of evidence was perpetrated, long after my conclusions and intentions were fully apprehended.
Only, if the latter hypothesis be the true one—and, since it is the latest, and also given in upon oath, and, therefore, the more mature of the twain, I am bound to assume that it is the least untrue—it will follow, that the said spoliation did not take place until about five days, at least, after the debate of the 10th May last,[1] in the Legislative Council upon the case of Mr. Caldwell's connection with Mah Chow Wong—in which debate, the Government and Dr. Bridges both admitted that the documents were, at that time, in existence and producible—about two days after my own resignation of the Justiceship of the Peace,[2] on the express ground of Mr. Caldwell's being still retained in the commission of the peace— about a day after the second debate (14th May, 1858), in the Legislative Council on the same subject, when the former admission of their existence was reiterated —about two days before the date of my appeal to the Secretary of State,[3]—and about the same number of days before the first official announcement[4] of any intention, on the part of the Bowring and Bridges'
