means of obtaining the object proposed, their Lordships request that I will advise them what steps should be taken in the matter. The enclosures in the Colonial Office letter, consist of an Extract from Despatch which has been received from the Governor of Hong Kong, and copies of a memorandum by the Colonial Secretary and of the Ordinance in question.
It would seem from these Documents that by reason of the very heavy expenses attending proceedings in the Vice Admiralty Court, private property recaptured from Pirates in the China Seas, cannot be restored to its rightful owners except at a Cost in many cases wholly disproportioned to its value, and that such property is in consequence generally distributed in violation or neglect of the law. Accordingly the Ordinance in question was passed, giving power to the Court of Petty Sessions, and to the Stipendiary Magistrate of Hong Kong, to decide all such cases, where the value of the property does not exceed 250 Dollars, and as provided by the 2nd Clause of which no difficult question of Law is involved.
In transmitting these Documents, Sir Fred Rogers observes that the ordinance, being in apparent conflict with the Imperial Statute before referred to, cannot be allowed to remain in force, but he adds that it appears to His Grace the Duke of Newcastle most desirable to remove the serious practical inconvenience resulting from the present state of the Law.
If the facts be as stated by the Colonial Authorities, and of which I think there can be...