446
Informations filed by Acting Attorney General Mr Ball against Mr Saint for two libels of Macao.
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2. I enclose the report of Mr Pollard, the present Acting Attorney General, merely details the exact manner in which (after consultation with myself) accompanied the entrance of the Nolle Prosequi by a statement rendered as much in conformity as we could make it with the opinion of the Law Officers of the Crown given in your Lordship's despatch of the 17th July last.
3. Mr Pollard also points out the great difficulties of Mr Pauncefate's position on returning here and finding not merely that the proceedings which had been instituted by Mr Ball had advanced, but also that their validity had been so clearly confirmed by the Law Officers of the Crown. Mr Pollard seems with some apparent reason to think that the extent of that difficulty and the fairness of the policy adopted by Mr Pauncefate have not been fully appreciated by the Law Officers.
It is important however to note the extraordinary perversion of Law generally effected by the Smales Judgment; and the difficulties which Mr Pollard points out as thereby occasioned to future suitors in the Supreme Court by that Judgment, even though it may be ignored.