🚀 go-pugleaf

will be enforced by
all Her Majesty's officers, civil and military, within this Colony,"
he asks:

    "Have all Her Majesty's officers, civil and military, enforced
    these Acts within this Colony? I think they have not; I confess I
    have not. Our excuse has been in the difficulty of enforcing these
    Acts, but mainly in our ignorance of the extent of the evil. What
    is our duty, now that we know that slavery in its worst as in its
    best form exists in this dot in the ocean to the extent of say
    10,000 slaves,--a number probably unexceeded within the same space
    at any time under the British Crown, and, so far as I believe, the
    only spot where British law prevails in which slavery in any form
    exists at the present time?"

Then he deals with the pretext that this slavery is Chinese custom,
in words we have already quoted in the first chapter of this book. He
passes on to consider and affirm the propriety of the Chief Justice
directing the Attorney General to prosecute these cases, and answers
some of the objections raised by the latter officer, concluding this
portion of his remarks with the words: "What I have said has been
said to meet arguments, doubts, and difficulties which have paralyzed
public opinion and public action here; which arguments, doubts and
difficulties are the less easy to combat because they have been rather
hinted at than avowed."

The Chief Justice then sentenced several prisoners for enticing,
kidnaping or detaining children with intent to sell them into slavery,
to penal servitude for terms ranging from 18 months to 2 years.

On October 20th, Sir John Smale wrote the Governor:

    "I cannot understand why such classes should as classes increase
    in this Colony at all, unless it be that (in addition to the
    Chinese demand for domestic servants and brothels) there be an
    increased foreign element increasing t