214
GOVERNMENT NOTIFICATION.
Wanted a Passage to Penang for Eight Chinese Convicts.
Sealed Tenders will be received at this Office. For particulars apply to the Harbour Master.
By Order,
Colonial Secretary's Office, Victoria, Hongkong, 15th November, 1854.
W. T. MERCER,
Colonial Secretary.
Diplomatic Department.
GOVERNMENT NOTIFICATION.
His Excellency Her Majesty's Plenipotentiary and Chief Superintendent of British Trade in China, &c., &c., is pleased to notify that Frederick Howe Hale, Esq., has been appointed by Her Majesty's Principal Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, British Vice-Consul at Fao-chow-foo.
By Order,
G. W. CAINE,
In the absence of the Offic. Secretary to
Superintendency of Trade,
Hongkong, 28th November, 1854.
H. B. M's Plenipotentiary.
GOVERNMENT NOTIFICATION.
The following Act of the Imperial Parliament, applied to this Colony by the recent Ordinance No. 3. of 1854, is published for general information.
By Order,
W. T. MERCER, Colonial Secretary、
Colonial Secretary's Office, Victoria, Hongkong, 30th November, 1854.
ANNO SEXTO & SEPTIMO VICTORIA REGINÆ.
CAP. XCVI.
AN ACT TO AMEND THE LAW RESPECTING DEFAMATORY WORDS AND LIBEL.
[24th August, 1843.]
For the better Protection of private Character, and for more effectually securing the Liberty of the Press. and for better preventing Abuses in exercising the said Liberty, be it enacted by the Queen's most Excellent Majesty, by and with the Advice and Consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this Offer of an Apolo. Present Parliament assembled, and by the Authority of the same, That in any gy admissible in Action for Defamation it shall be lawful for the Defendant (after Notice in Writing Evidence in miti- of his Intention so to do, duly given to the Plaintiff at the Time of filing or deliver- gation of Damages. ing the Plea in such Action,) to give in Evidence, in mitigation of Damages, that he made or offered an Apology to the Plaintiff for such Defamation before the Com- mencement of the Action, or as soon afterwards as he had an Opportunity of doing so, in case the Action shall have been commenced before there was an Opportunity of making or offering such Apology.
that it was inserted
Amends.
II. And be it enacted, That in an Action for a Libel contained in any public. In an Action ag- ainst a Newspaper Newspaper or other periodical Publication it shall be competent to the Defendant for Libel, the De- to plead that such Libel was inserted in such Newspaper or other periodical Public- fendant may plead ation withot actual Malice, and without gross Negligence, and that before the without Malice and Commencement of the Action, or at the earliest Opportunity afterwards, he inserted without Neglect, in such Newspaper or other periodical Publication a full Apology for the said Libel, and may pay Mo- or, if the Newspaper or periodical Publication in which the said Libel appeared ney into Court as should be ordinarily published at Intervals exceeding One Week, had offered to publish the said Apology in any Newspaper or periodical Publication to be selected by the Plaintiff in such Action; and that every such Defendant shall upon filing. such Plea be at liberty to pay into Court a Sum of Money by way of Amends for the Injury sustained by the Publication of such Libel, and such Payment into Court shall be of the same Effect and be available in the same Manner and to the Extent, and be subject to the same Rules and Regulations as to Payment of Costs and the Form of Pleading, except so far as regards the pleading of the additional Facts herein-before required to be pleaded by such Defendant, as if Actions for Libel had not been excepted from the personal Actions in which it is lawful to pay Money into Court under an Act passed in the Session of Parliament held in the Fourth Year of His late Majesty, intituled An Act for the further Amendment of the Law, and the better Advancement of Justice; and that to such Plea to such Action it shall be competent to the Plaintiff to reply generally, denying the whole of such Plea.
9 & 4 W. 4. c. 42.