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"it is subject, I merely do so on the grounds that Sir George Bogaum's practical opinion, upon such a point, derives great weight from the fact, that he himself, without a professional education, discharged the office of Police Magistrate for nearly a quarter of a century, over the Chinese and Malay races in our Straits Settlements.
As the question for solution by the Secretary of State, is, I submit, purely one of relative capacity, that is to say, between my thirteen years' experience of the subtleties of Chinese character, quickened by some five years' discharge of actual Magistracy, and no experience at all but the advantage of legal education, I would submit that I am entitled to all the support I can collect towards a solution in my favor.
4. I entered the public service, in the month of April 1850, as Assistant Magistrate of this Colony, and the Records of this Department show that during that period I have investigated no less than 5080 - five thousand and eighty causes, civil and criminal, computed by actual reckoning, up to this date, and though the whole of that mass, both ministerial and judicial, was governed from first to last by writ of certiorari, and with Barristers and Attorneys practising in this Court, yet, and one I claim credit for, with pride, that not one solitary decision of mine has been appealed into the Supreme Court, over all that long period.
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