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thousand eight hundred and fifty six made and passed. On the Twenty-first day of June one thousand eight hundred and fifty-six by His Excellency Sir John Bowring Knight Governor and Commander in Chief of Her Majesty's Colony of Hongkong and its dependencies with the advice of the Legislative Council of Hong Kong entitled "An Ordinance for the admission of Candidates to the rolls of Practitioners in the Supreme Court and for the Regulation of Costs" it was enacted and Ordained.
"From and after the passing of this Ordinance, any Person who shall have actually and exclusively (for Three years or upwards, and bona fide served for the period of Three years whether computed from any time previous or subsequent to the passing of this Ordinance) as Registrar, deputy Registrar, Clerk of the Supreme Court or of a Judge thereof, Clerk to the Attorney General or Interpreter to the said Court or as a Clerk of the Peace, or as an Articled Clerk to any actual practising Attorney, Solicitor or Proctor of the said Court, or for any one portion of the said period in one of the said capacities and for the residue thereof in some other or others of them, but not in two or more at the same time; or who shall have been duly admitted as an Attorney, Solicitor or Proctor in some one of Her Majesty's Colonies or in any other of Her Majesty's Courts at Westminster, shall be eligible for admission to practise as an Attorney, Solicitor and Proctor of the said Supreme Court, but only upon the Conditions hereinafter specified."
That by the said Ordinance it was further enacted and ordained, "That in the Fourth Term of the present and every succeeding year, the Attorney General, a Barrister or Registrar of the Supreme Court of this Colony, and two actual practising Attornies of the said Court shall be by Rule of Court appointed to be the Examiners for the then ensuing Twelve months, to examine into the Fitness of Candidates of the classes described in Section one of this Ordinance, as Attornies, Solicitors and Proctors for Admission to practise under this Ordinance; and the said Examiners, or any two of them, of whom the said Attorney General, Barrister or Registrar shall be one, shall at such reasonable times as the said Court shall appoint and notify, proceed to examine into the fitness of the said Candidates in that behalf, having due regard to their character, conduct, learning, and length and assiduity of service, and their other credentials and circumstances, and conforming themselves as far as may be practicable to the regulations by which the examinations of Candidates for admission to practise as Attornies and Solicitors of the Courts of Westminster are governed."
That by the said Ordinance it was further enacted and ordained, "That no person bona fide domiciled within this Colony, and who shall comply with the provisions of this Ordinance, shall be disqualified from obtaining such admission as aforesaid merely by reason of Alienage, or that he is by birth a Chinese."