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"I will direct to be published in the next Boletim (of Monday, the 8th instant) sundry Documents which will prove the incorrectness of the Statement that the Coolies were kidnapped by the Master of the Vessel or embarked by force and without knowledge of what they were doing, and will forward the saine to Your Excellency to make such use of them as you may think best.
"God preserve Your Excellency.
Enclosure
4
Macao, 5th May, 1871.
(Signed,)
ANTONIO SERGIO DE SOUZA, "Governor of Macao.”
"His Excellency
"Major-General WHITFEILD,
"Lieut.-Governor of Hongkong,
"He.. &c., fe."
After the receipt by this Government of the above Letter, I proceeded to Macao where I had the honor to communicate personally with His Excellency Governor DE SOUZA and with the Officials of the Colony; and the particulars which 1 obtained left no doubt on my mind that the seizure of the Nouvelle Penelope was the result of a plot organized by Pirates, of whom the Prisoner was one of the Leaders, and that there is not a shadow of a pretence for saying that any of the Emigrants had been kidnapped or detained against their will, by any one connected with the Vessel or with the Emigration Department at Macao, or that any Deception whatever had been practised upon them.
Upon my return to Hongkong, I was informed by the Crown Solicitor that the Chief Justice had issued another Writ of Habeas Corpus with the view of discharging the Prisoner from custody on the ground that he had been committed for Trial by the Chief Magistrate of Police for the same Offence for which he had been previously delivered by Habeas Corpus, and that such Committal was illegal under Section VI of the Habeas Corpus Act 31, ch. II.
I immediately gave notice of motion for a Rule absolute to quash the Writ on the ground,-
1st. That the Prisoner KwOK-A-SING had been committed for Trial at the next Criminal Sessions of the Supreme Court for Felony plainly expressed in the Warrant of Commitment.
2nd. That subsequently to the said Commitment and previously to the making of the Order for the Issue of the said Writ the said Prisoner was duly served with an Information signed by the Attorney General under the Provisions of Section III of Ordinance No. 2 of 1869, wherein the Prisoner is charged with the Crime of Piracy with Violence.
Upon the hearing of this motion, I pressed numerous authorities upon the Chief Justice to show that no Prisover could be delivered on Habeas Corpus if committed for Felony by a Court of competent Jurisdiction.
I pointed out that the Prisoner had never been tried and therefore had not, on the previous occasion, been delivered by Habeas Corpus of the offence of murder which was then charged, inasmuch as the Chief Justice could not himself try a charge of Murder, especially the Murder of a Foreigner out of the Jurisdiction; that the Prisoner bad simply been delivered from custody under the Treaty of Tientsin, and from his commitment under Ordinance No. 2 of 1850, but that he had not been "delivered of any offence" within the meaning of Section VI of the Habeas Corpus Act, in which the word "Offence" can only refer to offences for which a man can obtain his delivery by Habeas Corpus.
I urged moreover that the previous offence charged was 'Murder in French Jurisdiction of a portion of the Crew of the Nouvelle Penelope, while the present charge was that of Piracy jure gentium accompanied by violence to the Captain, LE VIGOUREUX, and therefore was not "the same offence." I cited REG. v. MORRIS, 1, Law Reports, Crowu Cases reserved, p. 90.
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Enclosure
M. 3.
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Finally I argued that assuming the case to come within Section VI of the Habeas Corpus Act, the Prisoner had a personal remedy provided by the same Section, and that the Court had no power to prevent his being tried in due course
of Law.
The Chief Justice, however, on Monday the 22nd instant delivered his Judgment, a copy of which accompanies this Report. That Judgment again declares the Prisoner KwOK-A-SING to be an innocent and praiseworthy character, and to enjoy perfect immunity from the Law in respect of the killing of the Master and Crew of the Nouvelle Penelope, in which he admittedly took so conspicuous a part. The Prisoner at the conclusion of the Proceedings was set at large, to his infinite surprise.
The evidence for the Prosecution, had the Trial been allowed to proceed, would have been the same as that produced before the Magistrate on the occasion of the demand by the Chinese Government for his Extradition, with the additional testimony of another Seaman of the Nouvelle Penelope named KÉRIVEL and of the Officials connected with the Emigration Departinent at Macao.
The French Consul informed me that the Chinese Witness CHUN-APEW, whose evidence will be found in the former Depositions would be sent down by the Vice-Roy of Canton to be examined at the Trial. I would draw attention to
the following Extract from that man's evidence :--
"I saw five men go on to the poop and attack the Captain who was unarmed.
The Interpreter who had a foreign made straw hat on, threw off the hat and ran away immediately. I knew by name all the five men who attacked the Captain. The Prisoner was one of the five men. Prisoner had a hardwood belaying pin The other four were named Tai-tow-hee A, Kow-kung-mahn
in his hand.
狗巡睌Wong Akuin 黄金; and Apong 亞炳.1 noticed that Kow-kung- mahn had sword and that Apong had a piece of wood. I did not notice what the two others had. I saw that the Captain was knocked down. The Prisoner
pushed the Captain on the back and he fell down. The Captain got up again, and after fighting for some time was again pushed down by the Prisoner and Wong Akum. I saw Kow-kung-mahn wound the Captain by cutting him on the lower part of his back, and when he was down Apong beat him about the head.
"I saw that he appeared to be dead, and the five men threw him overboard." The liberation of this Criminal without a Trial, and the views expressed by the Chief Justice have caused no little amazement generally, and, as may be supposed, have excited great indignation among the French and l'ortuguese in Hongkong and Macao.
The "Atrocities of the Coolie Trade" against which the Chief Justice in- veighs, are due to the plots and conspiracies of Pirates and Murderers such as the Prisoner Kwok-A-SING, who surreptitiously einbark on board of Coolie Ships in the guise of Emigrants for the purpose of seizing and plundering the Vessel, and although I entirely concur with those who desire the abolition of Emigration under contracts or of the "Coolie Traffic" as it is called, I do not hesitate to express my conviction that the utmost efforts are made by the Authorities of Macao to prevent the occurrence of any malpractices, and that the vehement denunciations of the Chief Justice against that Government are most unjust and unfounded.
The Coolies who emigrate from Macao, are driven to do so by poverty and often by the desire to obtain an immediate advance of money to pay off some pressing obligation. They consider it a disgrace and degradation to be compelled to become Coolie Emigrants, and by their own countrymen they are nicknamed "Pigs." It follows, therefore, that from a feeling of shame they frequently pretend that they were kidnapped or deceived by their own Countrymen, "but all admit having expressed to the Macao Authorities their willingness to emigrate, when interrogated, as they invariably and repeatedly are by the Officials, on this subject.
With reference to the allusions made by the Chief Justice in his Judgment. to the case of the Dolores Ugarte, I wish to mention that His Excellency Admiral De Souza, the Governor of Macao, informed me that he personally visited the Einigrants by that ship before their departure and that having assembled the
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