🚀 go-pugleaf

stolen goods buys stolen property without
    due or any inquiry to verify the patent lies of the vendors. I
    have reason to believe that H.E. the Governor was desirous that my
    request should, if proper, be complied with; but on reference to
    former cases it appeared that a former Attorney-General had found
    that the system had been almost if not altogether unchecked for
    many years past, and that in particular, when His Excellency had
    desired to enforce the rights of a father to recover his child, he
    was not disposed to enforce that right because the father had sold
    that child."

He relates the details of yet another case concerning which he says:
"I took the responsibility to direct the Acting Attorney General to
prosecute this man and his wife." But the Attorney General, it seems,
did not.

"Is it possible that such a being as man can, according to law ...
become a slave even by his own consent?" asks the Chief Justice.
"I say it is impossible in law, as Sir R. Phillimore, 1 Phill.,
International Law, vol. 1, p. 316, has said in a passage I read with
the most respectful concurrence, but too long for full quotation." "It
is unnecessary for me to trace how it became the Common Law of England
that whosoever breathes the air of England cannot be a slave." After
reference to notable decisions on the part of England's highest
authorities as to the unlawfulness of slavery; to the claim that
slavery was secured to the Chinese residents by the promise not to
interfere with their customs, and reminding his hearers that the
promise was made only "pending Her Majesty's pleasure"; after quoting
the Queen's proclamation against slavery at Hong Kong, and the
assurance in that proclamation that "these Acts 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 no