in Article IX that : If lawless natives committed crimes against their Government, shall flee to Hongkong or to the English ships of war or English merchant ships for refuge, they shall, if discovered by the English officers, be handed over at once to the Chinese Officers for trial and punishment; or if before such discovery be made by the English officers, it should be ascertained or suspected by the officers of the Government of China, whither such Criminals and offenders fled, a communication shall be made to the proper English Officer, in order that the said Criminals and offenders may be rigidly searched for, seized, and, on proof or admission of their guilt, delivered up." No regular system has however as yet been laid down prescribing the mode in which this engagement shall be carried out, and on a recent occasion it was intimated to me
I Writ that it was not impossible that a Habeas Corpus might be applied for to the Supreme Court to liberate certain Pirates who had been brought to this Colony and whom having been applied for by the Chinese authorities, I intended to hand over to them, I consequently consulted the Legislative Council as to the best mode of proceeding in future cases, so that the act of rendition on the part of the Executive Government might not be questionable in a legal point of view from want of form, when it was agreed that it would be advisable to set the question at rest by legal enactment.
The Ordinance, which I now transmit was in consequence drawn and passed; and as it appears to be analogous, as far as local circumstances and the differences in the Treaties will admit, with the Act 8 and 9 Victoria cap. 120, I trust Your Lordship will