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conceive will best enable you to carry out one of the main objects of your appointment, viz., the repres- sion and punishment of crime, without, however, entailing on Her Majesty's Government any respon- sibility as to the action or conduct of the force.
I have also to inform you that it is my wish that you should, as regards Her Majesty's Representa- tives in China and Japan, act in the same capacity as the Law Officers of the Crown act here as regards the different Departments of the State, giving your advice on questions of Law on which your opinion is required.
As regards Her Majesty's Consular officers they are, for all judicial and magisterial purposes, placed under your control, and at Shanghae Her Majesty's Consul will, as the Order in Council provides, stand in the same relation to you and to your Court, as regards judicial matters, as the High Sheriff of a county in England stands towards Her Majesty's Judges of the Superior Courts.
You are empowered by the Order in Council to visit in your official capacity the different Treaty ports in China and Japan. You will judge, after some experience, whether it is necessary that you should visit them all periodically on fixed circuit, or only occasionally as the state of business may seem to require.
I leave it also within your discretion whether it is desirable after your arrival at Shanghae to place yourself in personal communication with Her Majesty's Chargé d'Affaires at Peking, whose experience and intimate knowledge of the country and the local authorities may enable him to afford useful suggestions for your guidance.
The same observation applies to your having per- sonal intercourse with Sir Harry Parkes in Japan.
I will request the Lords of the Admiralty to give instructions to the Commanders of Her Majesty's ships on the station to facilitate, as far as possible, on your application, your visits to any of the ports under your jurisdiction.
I inclose to you copies of the despatches which I have addressed to Her Majesty's Legations at Peking and in Japan, and to Her Majesty's Consuls in those countries.
You will communicate unreservedly, and on all occasions, with Her Majesty's Legations in China
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and Japan; and you will, as far as may be com. patible with the exercise of the judicial duties confided to you, be guided by their opinions with reference to any course which may bear on the political relations of Her Majesty with those countries.
As soon as you can, I should wish you to prepare a circular letter of instructions to Her Majesty's Consuls for the purpose of assisting them in the carrying out the provisions of the Order, and explaining to them the mode in which the rules of procedure are to be observed. I think you will do well to follow the course you pursued
in the circular explanatory of the Order and Rules regulating the exercise of Her Majesty's Consular jurisdiction in the Ottoman dominions. The same object which you then had in view, I should wish you to aim at now, namely, to furnish Consuls with concise instructions as to the general conduct of judicial business, and the performance of their Magisterial duties. I am aware of the difficulties attending the communication of elementary information on such matters; but I think the attempt should be made, as I believe it may be made, with a useful and practical result. You will furnish Her Majesty's Legations at Peking and in Japan with copies of such general instructions, and also with copies of any further instructions of a general nature which you may address to Her Majesty's Consuls for their guidance; and you will
of course send to me copies of any such instructions. I cannot too strongly press upon you that it is desirable that you should cultivate the most friendly relations not only with the authorities of foreign Powers with whom you may come into contact, but more especially with the British com- munities in China and in Japan. I have every
reason to hope that the establishment of the Supreme Court will give great satisfaction to the British communities, and that they will be pre- pared to receive you with the utmost good will, and to co-operate with you for rendering the Court useful and beneficial to British interests in both countries.
You will report to me, from time to time, any matters in regard to which you may think it neces- sary that I should be immediately informed, and as
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