347
Donovan, the Officer in command of Her Majesty's Troops in China who___ takes his seat at the Table.
The minutes of the last meeting of Connoil
are read and confirmed.
His Excellency
states that this meeting had been specially convened to consider
the case.
of Cheung.
_A_Sin, a prisoner. convicted of murder at the last_ Criminal Sessions and sentenced to
undergo the extreme penalty of the -law, and he reads Paragraph 33 in the Royal Instructions laying down. the course to be adopted by the
Governor in Conneil in
dealing
with such cases.
Adverting to the trial of the
prisoner Cheung_a Sin, His Excelleney draws attention to a letter written by
-Chief Justice Sir John Smale last
in which two Europeans
year,
accused of murder
were
given by
the Supreme Court the benefit of the aid of a Solicitor and Counsel a week or ten days before the trial. In his letter dated the 19th September
1877 the Chief Justice had said.
"t
"
The elucidation of innocence
effectually attained only by the
assigning
Counsel and solicitor
for the prisoner, with ample
discretion to them.
Merely to
be