be fettered with
as
any
such restriction
that recommended by my Predecessor, and I have accordingly
decided that the Attorney
General
shall continue upon the present
arrangement of £1,000 a year Salary,
with private practice.
2.
I have been led to this decision by the following considerations.
3.
In the first place the example advanced by Sir John Bowring
in recommendation of, or in support namely, the
Care of appeals from
the Consular Courts, has been
rendered inapplicable to this Government by the separation which has since taken place
between the Governorship of Hongkong and the Superintendency of Trade in China. It may, perhaps, be
considered desirable that the Ambassador in China when acting
in a Judicial
Capacity
should
have the advice
of a Law Officer
professionally unconnected with any of the litigant parties; but it would not be fair to call upon this Colony to effect
this object by
paying £500 a year for
an arrangement which would be - as I shall show - disadvantageous
to itself.
4. The duties of the Attorney
General to this Government consist
simply in
conducting criminal