written of him in his public capacity as a public servant. He should also produce evidence to prove that the paragraph which formed the ground of this action was not written by him, and he was absent from the colony at the time it was written; that it appeared without his knowledge or consent. There was no malice, and he thought the law was that if no malice were made out, there was no case to go to the jury, but as the case had been brought forward be thought it was as well that it should be well reutilated. Though Mr Francis had put in a number of copies of the Hongkong Telegraph að. versely oriticising Mr. Frice, he had omitted to put in very many that had spoken highly of him and of the works be bad carried out. He had the copies of those papers, and should produce them presently. As to the constructions which were put upon the different parts of the paragraph in question by the prosecution, he con. touded that they were twisted in a manner to bear a meaning which no ordinary reader would put upon them; it was for the jury to consider only the meaning any ordinary person would put upon the paragraph in reading it. He then road through the whole paragraph in small sections, arguing that there was nothing of the least objectionable character excepting that sentence in which it stated the subordinates of the Surveyor-General's Department acou sed Mr. Price of wishing to appropriate "all the good things to his own obeak.' This might possibly be argued to be libellous to a private in. dividual though he should contest that; he had not said that Mr. Price appropriated any of the good things. It was only the publication of a re- port going round the Colory which it was to the interest of Mr. Price should be made know to him. He thought the interpretation which Mr. Francis had sought to put upon the use of the expression "O tempora, O mores” was a most strained one; the expression was a common one, and was in English simply" Oh, the times, Oh, the manners," and it was a very appropriate thing when the subordinates were making such secusa- tious against the beads of their departments. Mr. Franois bad accused him of inventing his facts and writing upon his inventions, but he should prove to the jury that sacb was not the case. As to his complaint about Garden-road, it was well founded, and his second complaint was not as to its being made up, but to its being widened foar or five feet all the way from Mr. Kennedy's stables to the Roman Catholic Chapel, which he considered to be an unnecessary waste of public money. There was nothing libellous about it, nor was there anything libellons about his com. ments on the Tytam Water Works, nor upon the Causeway Bay works, which were perfectly legi- timate comments. As to the quarantine matter, all he had said was perfectly true, and he had only been endeavouring to secure the protection of the colony from a visitation of cholera.
was
to the latter by Hudibras, which appeared in the Hongkong Telegraph, it was a stupid letter, and be had suffered a good deal of trouble in conse- quence of it, and he was sorry his learned friend had seen fit to introduse it into the case. Still he thought there was no offensive reference to Mr. Price in it. He had never had animus against Mr. Prion, and he had stated when he appeared in the Police Court that the article was intended to bring no accusation against him, and as that was published in all three papers in the olony, Mr. Price could not be much injured by the statements. He said so when he first ap- peared as he thought it only fair to that gen. tleman to do so. It lay with the jury to decide whether the press of this colony to be mazzled by the Government
or by anybody else, and he contended the press was at perfect liberty to comment honestly on all mat- ters of public interest without being laid open to prosecutions of this character. He thought the jarg would see that it was to the public ad- rautage that the press should be protected in the performance of the duties it owed to the public. In the exercise of that duty he was sware it had been necessary for him to offend men whom he privately esteemed, but he had sacrificed his personal feelings to his pablio duty. In a small place like Hongkong, where there were 9 many abuses, a newspaper could not be con. ducted in an independent manner without giving! offence to many people. As to the meaning of the word "jobbery," he read extracts from Macaulay's History of England, and other wri ters to show the sense in which it was used, and | argued that jobbery and bribery were two dis-
tinct terms, and could not possibly be taken to have the same meaning. He also alluded to accusations of jobbery against Mr. Gladstone, by the London World, and other cases, to show that jobbing was a very common accusation to bring against even higher authorities than the Surveyor-General of a third-rate solony. The defendant then detailed a conversation which took place between him and a member of tho Surveyor-General's Department sworn
to in the evidence given below, to the effect that he should make something out of the Tytam Water Works, but that he would have to be careful as the Surveyor-General looked sharply after his subordinates, and liked to keep all the good things to his own cheek. It was therefore but right that he should publish the statement, when such things went abroad in the colony. He also alluded to a paragraph which appeared in the Hongkong Telegraph of the 26th May, 1882, stating that the Government contractors were complaining of not being paid for their work months after their contracts had carried out, and advocating that they should be paid at once. He said he should prove that the contractors said they were not paid because they did not pay certain squeeyes. He also put in a copy of the China Mail of the 20th February in which there was a paragraph alleg.
in
that government work was done at a cost of 50 per cent over that which private individuals paid for their work. As to the copies of his paper which spoke highly of the abilities of Mr. Price, he thought it hardly worth while to trouble the jury with them then.
The defendant, after an adjournment for tin, addressed his Lordship on the legal aspect of the question, quoting a number of authorities on the privilege of the press. He submitted that the onus lay on the prosecutor to prove malice,; and if he had not made that out to bia Lordship's satisfaction, there would either be no pase to go to the jury, or his Lord. ship would direct them to find a verdict of not guilty. He contanded that this had not been done, and he asked his Lordship whether it would be necessary for him to go into the oase further than that point.
His Lordship-I am afraid I cannot go with you, Mr. Fraser-Smith.
The defendant again addressed the jury, and asked them to dismiss from their minds any. thing they might have heard outside the Courts, such things as the bet he had heard of 100 to one that he would be sent to gaol for twelve months. In his oriticisms, though he might have spoken hardly, he had spoken honestly, never from malise, and if he had erred it was merely from error of judgment. He had never slanderad anyone unless it had been in what he considered the execution of his publio duty. He alladed Lo the reasons the counsel for the prosecution had suggested for malice on his part, and energeti- cally repudistei them, he had no envy of Mr. Price, and as to the suggestion that he had been paid to make these attacks-for Francis bad sag. gested that he was sorry that the learned barris ter should have made such an insinuation. The subject matter of the libel bad not been written by bim; he was at Macao when it was pablished, but as he was the editor of the paper, he was responsible for it, and it was on that account that the present criminal charge was brought against him. He intimated that be intended to call evidence to substantiate what he had said, including Mr. Pries and Dr. Stewart. The defendant then applied that all witnesses should be requested to leave the court, including Mr. Price.
is Lordship said Mr. Price was the prosecn- tor, but the difficulty could be avoided by calling that gentleman first.
Mr. Price was then sworn sud examined by the defendant. He said-Iam Surveyor-General to this colony.
Defendant-Are you aware of say personal feeling of malice on my part towards you?
Witness-I have never given you any cause for malice.
Is it not a fact that we have never met nor exchanged a word till this time?-It is a fact.
Being personal strangers to each other, can you give any reasonable explanation of the extra- ordinary toalice your counsel ascribes to me?—I cannot, unless it arises from the fact that I have refused to admit your paper into my office, and have told you to discontinue sending it.
You have told me to discontinue sending it -I gave orders to my clerk to write to yon re.
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