34
the Statute 1 Vic. c. 88 (an Act to amend certain Acts
relating to the crime of piracy), and as I read this part
of the Judgment it is clear that the Court had jurisdiction
to deal with offences under that Statute. Section 2 of the
Statute provides that any person who with intent to commit
or at the time of or immediately before or immediately after
committing the crime of piracy shall assault with intent to
murder any person being on board of or belonging to any
vessel or shall stab cut or wound any such person or unlawfully
do any act by which the life of such person may be end angered
shall be guilty of felony and being convicted there of shall
suffer death.
As I understand the facts of the case, the persons who
were unsuccessfully indicted for piracy in the Courts of
Hong Kong were caught red-handed in an attack on a vessel, shots
were fired by the attacking party, who chased the cargo junk for
over half an hour. In these circumstances I should have thought
that any person concerned in that attack was clearly guilty of
unlawfully doing some act by which the life of a person belong in g
to a vessel might be endangered; I cannot imagine any more
dangerous proceeding than firing point-blank at the crew of a
ship.