COURTS(13) Continuation.
2.61
In October 1888 news reached the Colony that owing to continued ill-health Sir George Phillippo had decided to retire and on November 10, Mr. Russell was appointed Chief Justice.
It is worthy of note at this stage that Sir George Phillippo was the last Chief Justice in Hongkong to sit as a member of the Legislative Council. All his predecessors in Justice, Mr. J. W. Hulme, were members of the Council from the date of their arrival in the Colony.
Shortly before this important appointment Mr. Russell presented a voluminous report on Child Adoption and Domestic Service among Hongkong Chinese. Like the Chief Justices before him, Mr. Russell had taken a keen interest in the mui tsai problem and his report largely guided the Government in its Ordinance for the better protection of young girls adopted in 1887.
While on leave in England in 1890, the Chief Justice was knighted and when he returned to the Colony on September 27, he received the congratulations and good wishes of the legal fraternity.
On March 23, 1892, Sir James Russell left for home for the last time. He was in very poor health when leaving the Colony and even as he sat on the Bench for the last time, listening to the farewell speeches of the Attorney General and the leader of the Bar, he was suffering the most acute pain.
The end came in the following year. Sir James Russell died on September 1, 1893, and the news reached the Colony two days later. On that day, barristers and lawyers practising in Hongkong gathered in the Supreme Court and were addressed by the Chief Justice Sir Fielding Clarke, who spoke with evident emotion.
The Attorney General (Mr. Goodman) also said a high tribute to the services rendered by Sir James Russell.
Writing to the Governor, Sir William Robinson, upon the subject of Sir James Russell's death, the Secretary of State, the Marquis of Ripon said inter alia: "In my opinion, Sir James Russell's services to the Government were of a very high order, and in him successive Governors and Secretaries of State found a wise, just and single-minded adviser, who not on the judicial bench only, but in many other ways did good and lasting work for the Colony in which his public life was spent.
Sir James Russell, it may be added, died at Strathpeffer in Scotland whither he had gone for the benefit of his health.
Probate of his will was granted on December 14 to Mr. (later Sir Thomas) Jackson as sole executor, the estate being sworn under $90,000. The Chief Justice died a bachelor.
COURTS(14)
The old photograph published a few days ago, in connection with the Coronation history showed a clump of banyan trees which grew opposite the old Supreme Court and Post Office buildings (later demolished to give place to the Queen's Theatre and China Building). The history of the Post Office has already been dealt with extensively (see 19-2-34 et seq.) and a brief summary of the history of the Court was published on 23-8-33; it will not be out of place to give the Law Courts a fuller reference at this stage.