Translation of letter from the French Coneul-General dated $8nd September, 1904.
ledge receipt of your letter of yester Sim,—I have the henodr to soho enclosed; I am extremely obliged to you for this communication which permit me to express an opin. ion based on the facts admitted by the complainant party. From this document, that is to say from the actual statement of the native interested, it appears that as matter of fact no thrast of any sort was over used towards Chou Mao-ching to induce him to give security for Ma Tob-fong. This coatirms the statomer which had been made to me by the Poli officers accused. It is therefore absolutely undeniable that no abuse of thus eliminated from this affair, I find that, all serious offence bei
myself without legal justification for tak-@ against them, as I was prepared to do.
Ihave already had the honour to inform you in my letter of the 13th instant, for a Frenchman (and I have reason to believe that the same holds good for Englishmen) to seek or obtain the release upon security of an accused person, or even of criminal already convicted and remanded, even should the prisoner thus liberated evade the ultimo Sto ends of juice, in nowise conti an illegal, illegitimate, or repre! ection." Gri this subject i msy to consult Article 113 et seq of the Criminal Code wherein you will observe that release of ajprisoner upon security is matter entirely within the discretion of the Judge of the Court upon whom alone it depends to grant or refuse it, without any responsibility being incurred by the parties who have asked for it and obtained it, other than that indicated by law.
On the other hand, if the Chinaman Obou Mae-ching—who appears to me to have been the victim chiefly of his own imprudence and of the extreme oarclessness with which the authority in charge of the prisoner consented to his release upon security—if Chou Mae-ching considers that the sation of Monsieur fair is projudi I to ithin his rights to institute it for damage against the Inspector in question under the oonditions named in Article 1389 of the Code Napoleon, which reads as follows:—Any act committed by any man which causes injury to another, obliges him who is responsible for such injury to make ro-aration for the same." Our Court is, and will always be, open even for the most humble Chinese subjects to vindicate their genuine rights. wf. Axprnson, Esq.,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.