section 20, which said, "The only conduct of the bankrupt in the management of his busi- ness which appears to me open to blame is his remittance of money to his brother Amin at Shiraz, the acceptance of Carrim's bill for a shipment of opium, and the useless defence set up against the Imperial Bank of Persia." These were the only three points which were in any way against the debtor.
As regarded the remittance of money to the debtor's brother, the debtor bad had many dealings with his brother, and he remitted the money to him to send opium. He had no reason for believing his brother was not a perfectly honest and straightforward man, and if a man could not trust his own brother it was very difficult to say whom he possibly could trust.
The Chief Justice-He was not very prudent. He seems to have trusted him a little too far.
Mr. Grist said he did, but he had no reason at that time for not trusting him. Then, again, the acceptance of this bill of Carrim's, which was the subject of an action in respect to the Imperial Bank, the debtor had had
many dealings with this man before. He had been recommended by a very good firm. It was
possible the debtor was a little careless In accepting these bills before he actually saw the opium. His Lordship would find in section 2 the following reference to the remittance to the debtor's broker:-"I find that the debtor had had previous transactions with his brother to the extent of $14,000 and upwards; that his brother bad duly made the remittances required by the bankrupt up to January, 1894.' Although there was only a very small dividend-one of 30 cents-in view
of the circumstances he would ask his lordship to suspend the order for discharge only a nominal time. He would ask for an order of discharge, but that the operation be suspended. The Chief Justice-You see the court must suspend the order.
Mr. Grist said the order must be suspended for such time as his lordship thought fit. but he would submit that this was a case in which his Lordship should only fix a nominal time, because of the conduct of the man during the whole of the proceedings. There was whatsoever to the order.
no opposition
The Chief Justice said he had been through the papers in this case, including the full and careful report of the Official Receiver. It appeared there were three points which re- quired and received consideration from the Official Receiver. The first was the conduct of the debtor in his dealings with his half-brother at Shiraz. It appeared the principal debt put
THE HONGKONG WEEKLY PRESS AND
a question only of suspending the order. He would, therefore, make the order of discharge, and suspend its operation for four months. In making this order he had regard to the fact that these proceedings had been pending now since March last.
ADJUDICATED BANKRUPT.
Mr. Grist applied on behalf of a creditor that the Po Wa firm, carrying on business at 92, Jervois Street, should be adjudicated bank. rupt and that Mr. Bruce Shepherd be appointed the trustee.
The Chief Justice granted the application.
THE CAINE ROAD MURDER.
TRIAL OF OZORIO.
VERDICT: WILFUL MURDER. At the Supreme Court on 24th June, before Sir John Carrington (Chief Justice) and a special jury, the trial of Joan de Matta Ozorio for the murder of Francisca Xavier de Jesus on the evening of May 9th was resumed.
The Attorney-General asked that Miss Gla- fira Portario might be recalled so that she might be further questioned as to the date when pri-
soner commenced to take liberties with her.
Mr. Francis, however, objected. The Chief Justice upheld the objection. Mr. Francis then addressed the jury on be- half of prisoner. He said that in his short opening the previous day he pointed out to them that there was no question as to the fact that prisoner had killed Ozorio. The defence was two-fold. First that prisoner at the time be committed the act was insane. The second portion of the defence started with the as- sumption that if of opinion that prisoner was Possessed of that amount of reasoning power and of intelligence and judgment at the time he committed the act that he must be held responsible in law for his act, that the circum- stances under which the act of killing was com mitted by him were of such a character as to justify them in finding that the act was not wilful, was not premeditated, was of such a character that would justify them in return. ing a verdict of manslaughter-that was simply a finding that there was an unlawful killing. Broadly, with reference to the first of these points: as to what was the state of mind of the prisoner at the time of his committing the act. Because prisoner showed no symptoms of in- sanity when examined by the medical men they would be asked to draw the inference that he was not insane on the 9th of May last; but he asked down as an asset in the statement of affairs was
them to bear in mind that except in that in- the sum of $13,000 alleged to be due to the
direct way the medical evidence had no direct debtor from his half brother. It was doubtful bearing on the question before them. They had whether that amount could be recovered. It
not given any evidence, and were not in a posi- seemed that the debtor and his half-brother tion to give any evidence, as to what was the had had dealings for some time, and apparently state of prisoner's mind either before or after those dealings had been satisfactory. But it the time of the commission of the offence, also appeared that for some
and therefore the whole question of pri- time past the half brother had not. been acting soner's sanity or insanity at the time of in a business-like way, and he was inclin- the commission of the offence and in connection with that offence had to be dealt with by them mainly on the facts arising out of the whole circumstances which put together constituted the history of the offence, the his- tory of the acts of his life which immediately led up to that offence. They had heard from the medical men that it was possible a man might have been insane when he committed au offence and might have shown no signs of insanity before, and that after he committed the act might appear to be perfectly sane, and although, as the medical men put it, it was improbable that he should not show some signs of insanity at a later period, still they had to admit that such cases had existed. They had to consider and decide whether or not this was one of those cases. All the evidence of prisoner's life history went to show not that he was insane and should have been locked up in a lunatic asylum, but simply to show them the probability, the liability of a man with such a life history doing acts of insanity and behaving as he had behaved. They were enquiring into a case of mental disease precisely similar to bodily disease only that the symptoms were far more obscure. Although in bodily disease up to a certain period of life it might not have shown itself as something which could be diag nosed or described, nevertheless the tendency to that disease might exist and might have existed
ed
to think that the
debtor was
not prudent in continuing the remittances and in continuing dealings with his half-brother under the circumstances. The next point was with regard to the acceptance of bills by the debtor as against opium which was supposed to be sent to him on his order by a man named Carrim, That was somewhat worse than the other matter, because although Carrim had been re- commended by a Bombay firm with whom the debtor had had dealings for some time, still the debtor himself did not know this man, and it certainly was far from a prudent thing for him to accept bills to the amount of $7,000 against opium which had not arrived and which never was bought. The third and last point was in respect to the defendant's defence to the suit of the Imperial Bank of Persia in re- spect to these particular bills, which had found their way into the hands of the Imperial Bank of Persia. He was not going to blame him on that point. He believed the defence was set up under the advise of the solicitors and connsel, and he did not know that he could be blamed for that. The main fact remained that the dividend to be paid would probably be a matter of only 30 cents per cent, and that was very small & merely nominal dividend, However, he thought this was not à Case where the Court should refuse the order; it was
[July 2, 1898
for many years, and might have shown itself by slight signs thought to be of no importance at the time and yet read and understood when the. disease had actually shown itself. The same thing precisely existed and must exist in mental disease-a tendency might exist in a human subject to mental disease. Who was prisoner as far as they knew him from the evidence P. As a boy he was of a very violent temper and was known to his school fellows as Crazy Joan." That, it might be said, was no evidence that he was crazy, but what was it evidence of? Although the witnesses were not able to detail his words or acts, to which they gave no attention at the time, it testified to the fact that his conduct at that time was such as to earn for him that name. They found that later in life-since 1888, here in Hongkong-bis temper had been uncertain, his actions so eccentric that many of his intimate friends had entertained precisely the same opinion about him and had ceased to be intimate with him or had unhesitatingly expressed their opinion to him that his was in lanatic asylum. Proper place
Mr. Francis went on to deal at con- siderable length with the details obtained from the witnesses. He added that, prisoner had got
it into his head that his sweetheart had been nnfaithful to him and he had been brooding reduced to a state of mental prostration and over this mouth after month. He had been weakness as the result of that cogitation, and was frequently known to weep. He put it to the jury that the man was a monomaniac on the evening of the 9th of May and had been for two or three months, and if a man had a mind diseased with reference to one matter and they found him acting as a monomaning with refer- ence to that matter, who could possibly tell when dealing with such a delicate structure as the mind how far and to what extent that disease had extended or how far and to what extent the mind in the other regions in which it operated had or had not become diseased? Where they found a mind seriously diseased on one point could they without the strongest and clearest evidence come to the conclusion that it was sound and hale and perfect with reference to all other matters ? He was not alleging that prisoner was insane before February or March; he was alleging, and he put it to the jury that the man might have had a tendency that way. The question before the jury was not whether prisoner was insane before this occurrence, or whether he was insane after the occurrence, but whether he was insane at the time of the shooting, and whether he was insane in connection with the events which were then occurring. He put it delusion with reference to Miss Portario, and to the jury that the man was the victim of a that as the result of that delusion he became a victim as regarded her of an utterly causeless jealously, one of the most violent, one of the most, dangerous passions which could affect or afflict the mind of man; that that jeal- onsy was not founded on
one single iota of fact to which the smallest suspicion could attach. It was based entirely upon the extra- ordinary delusion-semi-medical, semi-erotic which prisoner had conceived in his own mind with reference to the sigus of virginity. He put it to them that that delusion excited in pri soner's mind this feeling of the most passionate jealousy, that that jealousy had absolutely no tangible object on which to fix itself, that he did not believe or seriously suspect de Jesus of having betrayed him. De Jesus might have been mentioned as a possible person, but so was the medical man; and so far as prisoner had any fixed jealousy of any person it was more the medical man than de Jesus. He submitted that the shooting of de Jesus was not the result of jealousy, that the act of shooting de Jesus was an insane impulse arising out of pri soner's diseased state of mind evidenced
by this monomania, evidenced by this in- sane jealousy, evidenced by prisoner's whole conduct towards Miss Portario and towards others during these two previous months, and probably influenced and brought to a head by an actual personal assault upon him by de Jesus, when de Jesus came into the House and heard that his mother had been knocked down by prisoner, or if not by an actual assault a commencement of an assault or again by the fear of an assault. Prisoner must have heard