# REGINA v. LOGAN.
not only the obligation rests upon us which rests upon every one else connected with the administration of justice to see that justice done, but we are here to fulfil a national obligation. We as a nation have entered into an obligation with the Chinese that when an offence is committed by one of our nation against the Chinese, that offender shall be tried according to the laws of England. The Crown does not require it, and no circumstances will justify you in swerving in the slightest degree from administering justice. If you are in danger of yielding to a generous impulse, and making concession to external influences, you must disabuse your minds of anything of that kind. You are to treat the prisoner exactly as if he were in England, and as if the deceased were not a Chinaman but an Englishman. So much we have bound ourselves to do: the death of a Chinaman is the same as the death of an Englishman, and you by your oaths have bound yourselves to deal with it as such, one way or another. There then only remains for me to deal with the question of a doubt. If you have a reasonable doubt, such as would operate upon your minds, such as would lead you to act in a particular way in some of your own most important concerns, then you can give the prisoner the benefit of it. But you are not to look out for peculiar possibilities, or to look out for anything which may possibly have happened, unless there is a probability as well as a possibility there is no doubt in the case. The doubt must be a reasonable one, and no other doubt can operate.
It may be taken into consideration when the question is whether he intended to do what he did, but when a man commits murder with a deadly weapon that excuse will scarcely avail him. For such a defence to avail, a man must be not only under the influence of liquor, but in a state in which he is no longer master of himself at all, and this amounts to a condition of temporary insanity. Now, gentlemen, if the circumstances of the case are shown you as I believe they will be; if the prisoner was excited, the excitement did not amount to such an excitement as to render him unaccountable for his actions. It did not render him unaccountable for using a deadly weapon. I think you will find he was in such a state as to know that by firing the gun into a crowd he was likely to wound someone. Seeing that he had already wounded a woman he could see that his act was such as would be likely to cause death.
Subject to any correction of his Lordship, that no words, however opprobrious they might be, and nothing that the deceased might have said, nor the people around him, will be sufficient to reduce the crime from murder to manslaughter. The law is that no provocation is sufficient to so reduce the crime if the killing be inflicted with a deadly weapon, and the intention be to do some grievous bodily harm. In this case there is no provocation shown which will thus reduce the crime if the facts are as I have stated. The prisoner did not stand on the defensive at all, he chased the people first in one direction and then in another, and therefore any excuse he making that his life was in danger will not avail him in this case. It is the duty of any man, when his life is in danger, to save it if he can by any means. The prisoner, however, was not on the defensive, for he chased the people, running first one way and then another—he had already wounded a woman, and then he goes deliberately in another direction and chases the people.
The following evidence was then taken—
Mr. J. Dyer Ball, of the Hongkong Supreme Court, was sworn in as Chinese interpreter.
Pak Akun was then called by the prosecution, and having been declared in the Chinese manner by the ceremony of burning his own name, said—I have a boat for removing rubbish, and I live at a village called Shek Tong, which is some forty Chinese li from Hongkong. I remember the 12th August last; early on the morning of that day my boat was anchored at the Put Yau Temple, where I was scavenging. I and my son Pak Wa Kung were in the boat. My son was 12 years old, and he was also a scavenger. I was scavenging, and my son went to the chief street in Nam Ngon to buy salt fish. This street is in Honam, at Chan Tau Tsui. I did not see my son alive again after he went to buy the fish. He went at six o'clock, and I heard that he was killed at half-past six. I saw my son's body at ten o'clock; he was dead. I saw by the wounds on his body that he had been struck on his back, and the substance which inflicted the wound had passed through the body and out at the stomach.
Witness—There were some men who put up their hands, and they called out something.
What happened then?—The Chinese then came running past my house, and the foreigners pursued them. I saw that myself, and I then saw that one of the foreigners had a firearm in his hand, and I quickly went in and shut the door. The foreigners passed my shop pursuing the men, going westward. I then went upstairs to look out of the window. I saw the three foreigners returning towards the east, and I saw that one of them had a firearm, and one had a leather bag. The firearm was a six-chambered revolver about six inches long.
In answer to a further question from Mr. Wilkinson, the witness said he was by his son's body up till the time of the inquest, crying and watching.
Cross-examined by Mr. Wise—The deceased's name was Pak Wa Kung; he was my own born son, and not my nephew.
Was there anyone following the men back?—There was a Chinswoman following them who had been shot.
Why do you say she had been shot?—She had blood on her shoulder, and was pointing to it.
Wong Shan Shan, similarly sworn, examined by Mr. Francis, said—I am the master of the Ti Kai shop, and am a Chinese subject. The shop is at Nam Ngon Chan Tak Tsai, which is not the general name of the place. I was not acquainted with the prisoner, but I have seen him before; his house is a few doors from mine on the same side of the street. I remember the 12th August; about half past six that morning I was sitting in my shop, in such a position near the door that I could see into the street. I saw three foreigners pass the house; my dog was inside; they were walking together and were not doing anything. I saw one of them had a stick in his hand, a thick one with thorns on it. (Witness represented a diameter of about an inch and a half for the stick with his hand.)
Had that man anything in his hands in the street that morning?—He was walking along and I was sitting in the shop, and I could not say.
You say that one man was carrying a revolver, and you cannot say whether that was the man?—The man carrying the stick was a tall man; it was the prisoner who had the revolver, and he was a stout man who had the leather bag. The prisoner was not the man I saw with the stick; he is not the tall man; I do not know the tall man's name, nor where he lives.
The Court Constable here produced a revolver, which being loaded, he was instructed to take it out, and remove the cartridges.
Mr. Francis to witness—Where did the woman follow the foreigners to?
Witness—She followed them to Logan's door.
Mr. Francis—Look round the court and see if there are any of those three men here.
Witness—One is here (pointing out the prisoner in the dock).
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