represents the law to which he is amenable; forgets or neglects to
deliver the mail, and sails away.
After two months he returns, and hands over the letters which have been lying on board his vessel!
It must be remembered that communities at Bangkok, Canton, Swatow, Amoy, Foochow, the Formosan Settlements, Ningpo, Shanghae, the ports on the Yangtse, Japan, and the new Port to be opened in Hainan are wholly or almost wholly dependent on just such private steamers as the Cheviot for their postal facilities (except that the contract mails serve Shanghae and Yokohama) and that at all these places the Masters enjoy exterritorial privileges and are only under Consular jurisdiction.
Considering the increasing importance of the subject I trust that something will be done to obtain a clear exposition of the law, which will not, I am certain, be used in a harassing or vindictive manner. Under the Colonial Ordinance prosecutions have been very few, the rule having been that whenever the offence seemed to have been inadvertent, and was admitted, a proper expression of regret should be