28rd Jan.
Tue Shanghai Consular Body held a meeting on Friday last, at which the way in which the late claim of Mr. Bock, Consul-General for Sweden and Norway on leave, was conducted in the Taotai's Court was seriously considered. We learn from the Ostasiatische Lloyd that all the Foreign Consuls have sent full particulars of the case to their respective Ministers in Peking, and have addressed a collective protest to the Tsungli Yamen against the presence on the bench of a second assessor, an English lawyer, whose presence is not provided for by the Chefoo yer so well versed in these matters as Mr. Drummond did not point out to the Taotai the mistake that he was making. Ifthis becomes a practice, the inevitable result will be that the Taotai's Court willde facto change into the Court of the lawyer who happens for the time to be favoured by the Taotai, and who by his pro-deciding influence on the Taotai's fessional superiority will exercise a
judgment. The provision in the Chefoo Convertion of 1876 is perfectly clear on this point: "It is farther understood that so lon; the laws of the two countries differ from each other, there can be but one principle to guide judicial proceedings in mixed cases in China, namely, that the case is tried by the official of the defendant's nationality; the official of the plaintiff's nationality merely attending to watch the proceedings in the interests of justice.... The law administered will be the law of the nationality.of the officer trying the case." Mr. Drummond's claim to sit on the bench even as the legal adviser of the Taotai presupposes therefore that he has a better knowledge of Chinese law than the Taotai, and is unwary ranted on any ground by the Chefoo Convention.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.