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on the 18th of December 1876, as such predecessor and the Legislative Council for the deportation, branding and punishment of certain Criminals.
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2. From my despatch No. 44 of the 25th of June 1877, Your Lordship will see that soon after my arrival, in the month of April and throughout the month of May, I expressed great reluctance to enforce the exceptional and severe provisions of the existing law of which this Enactment is a consolidation, and declined to regard the usual recommendation of the magistrates on the subject, even when supported by the opinion of the Attorney General, as a matter of course which I was bound to sanction. I looked into each case myself, and unless I was convinced it really involved the peace of the Colony and the general safety of the residents, I refused to sign the warrant of deportation.
3. I have called for returns showing the real effect of the system on the criminal population. The returns are not yet completed, but as far as enquiries have gone they all seem to justify a statement made in October 1872 by Mr. Furlong, the late Superintendent of the Hong Kong Gaol, in a report on branding, to the effect that when a prisoner is reported ...