through the Registrar a secret enquiry into a man's conduct with a view to a criminal prosecution. A man may under the operation of this Ordinance be compelled to criminate himself and to answer questions which the highest Criminal Court in the Empire has not the power to put and would not allow the Attorney General to put. A man when before the Registrar General under this Ordinance may be compelled, contrary to the very first principles of the administration of Civil Justice, to disclose his title deeds and all the defects in his title to his lands, all his books, letters, and accounts and papers, and that to a possible opponent and in anticipation of litigation. Such secret enquiries are conducive to excite against the Government in the highest degree the suspicions and distrust of the Chinese who, in their business affairs, are constitutionally secretive. The widest powers of Discovery entrusted to the highest Court in the Realm do not extend so far. No man is compelled to disclose his affairs except in a suit properly instituted, under the protection of clearly defined laws, under the supervision of trained Judges, and only in so far as such discovery can legitimately aid his opponent's case. No man is compellable to disclose his own case. The unlimited powers given by this Ordinance may be used in aid of a civil suit to which the Government is a party. The person examined has no right to legal assistance or advice and has no power of appeal to any Court for the ordinary protection afforded by the law and by every Court to persons under examination. The power is without any limitation, and it is placed in the hands of a person who may be wholly unfit to exercise it. If given to one of the Judges, it would be objectionable. The power is given to an official who may be, and who often is, without the knowledge or training necessary for the judicious exercise of such power. Comparatively junior members of the Civil Service not unfrequently find themselves in the position of Acting Registrar. The Registrar General's Department, with the mass of Chinese influence around it, is the least qualified of any Public Department to exercise such a power. It can never
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