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dangerous one and might go far towards undermining the
exterritorial principle. He asked whether I could not
instruct Mr. Blackburn to hear a dilatory plea of some
kind that would enable the Portuguese Consul-General to
refer the question to his Minister for discussion with the
Chinese Authorities in Peking.
9. I informed Monsieur de Rossi that I was quite willing
to discuss the matter with Mr. Blackburn and to ask whether
such a plea would be entertained by the Court, but I added
that I should, in my opinion, be exceeding my proper
functions if I attempted to instruct the Assessor as to
what decision he and the Magistrate should give in a
judicial matter before the Court, We had, in days past,
complained to the Chinese authorities more than once of their action in fettering the exercise of the Magistrate's
judicial discretion, and I thought that now we should be careful not to give any ground for a similar complaint by
the Chinese.
10. I subsequently spoke to Mr. Blackburn on the subject,
who thought that there would be little difficulty, on a proper application being made to the Court, in suspending execution of the judgment pending discussion between the Portuguese Minister and the Chinese Government of the
diplomatic issues involved.
11.
On the 12th instant the defendant's Counsel appeared
before the Mixed Court and applied for a stay of execution pending a reference as above stated. The application was granted and defendant was released on bail.
12.
In my opinion the judgment of the Mixed Court in all these cases is sound, and does not conflict with the attitude adopted in such cases by His Majesty's Government (see General Consular Instructions, Chapter XXII, paragraphs 13
/and
/Pro