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charge of assault. I directed him to invite the bound to sit in the bench, soon and to say that the case could be heard as soon as possible. Mr Leslie, Justice of the Peace, being at my right hand, Mr. Keenan, the Consul, took a seat on my left.
When the case was called on for hearing before Mr. Leslie and myself, Mr. Keenan objected to the jurisdiction of the Court, saying that he, as Consul, had exclusive cognizance of such complaints. I replied, "That I knew nothing that appeared on the face of the summons, which disclosed an offence committed outside the colony," I therefore doubted its jurisdiction; but that mediating private grievance of the Plaintiff, rather than this being a public misdemeanour, it was feasible by this intervention the prosecution might be stopped. Wierdie seconded the suggestion. Mr Force, the Plaintiff's Attorney, desired to persuade his client to consent that the affair should be so settled. But Mr. Freeman continuing to affirm that the whole proceedings were illegal and improper, and the Plaintiff declaring that he could not after what he had experienced submit to the Consul's intervention, we thought it better that the business of the Court should proceed, and shortly afterwards Mr Keenan left the Bench.
The battery having been fully proved, the Consul a second time suggested arbitration by the Court and offered to delay the judgment
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