Page:Europe in China.djvu/250

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232
CHAPTER XIV.

the Chief Justice now severely reprimanded the Magistrate for sentencing the men under an Act which had locally been superseded by Ordinance 14 of 1845 and discharged the prisoners forthwith. When, some time later, the Chief Justice complained to the Governor that the Magistrates appeared to pass sentence in cases which ought to have been remitted to the Supreme Court, the two Magistrates commenced systematically to commit for trial at the Supreme Court the most trivial offences. This became so painfully evident during the criminal session of February, 14th to 19th, 1847, that the jurors addressed a formal complaint to the Court of having their time wasted on cases of petty larceny which ought to have been summarily dealt with by the Magistrates. The Chief Justice agreed with them and addressed the Government accordingly. During the same sessions it was stated in evidence that the Police, who had refused to protect a citizen against an assault by a soldier, had been ordered by the Government not to interfere with soldiers, and that a general order was read in barracks informing the soldiers of the instructions given to the Police. The Chief Justice, commenting adversely on this point, remarked that the general order referred to was waste paper, as only an Act of Parliament could exempt soldiers from being amenable to the civil authorities. The Adjutant General thereupon wrote to the papers denying that any such general order had been issued, but the truth soon leaked out, viz. that, what the evidence before the Court had referred to as a general order, was a speech addressed to the regiment by the Major-General. After this the relations between the Governor and the Chief Justice became marked by personalities. On April 16, 1847, the Governor had an altercation with the Chief Justice, as the former claimed the right to fix the sittings of the Vice-Admiralty Court for any day he pleased, and as the latter claimed that he should be addressed as His Lordship, which title the Governor refused to allow. It was stated that the Governor had threatened the Chief Justice with suspension. A lull now ensued, but on November 22, 1847, the Chief Justice was tried by the Executive