it was found, in October 1848, that there were only 23 persons in the Colony capable of serving on juries, the Governor reduced the property qualification of common jurors from $1,000 to $500. According to his habit of consulting the community about difficult problems, Sir G. Bonham published, in January, 1849, with a view to elicit an expression of public opinion, a Draft Ordinance to regulate the flogging of criminals. Little accustomed, as the residents then were, to being consulted by their Governors, they imagined that Sir George had no definite views on a subject on which the whole community, convinced of the absolute necessity of applying exceptional severity to the treatment of Chinese criminals, felt very strongly. Nevertheless, the Governor deemed it prudent to shelve the question, while weightier matters pressed for settlement. To remove the friction between the Police Magistrates and the Chief Justice, which had troubled the preceding administration. Sir George created (December 17, 1850) a bench of Magistrates, perfectly independent of the Government and having powers considerably greater than those ordinarily accorded to similar bodies, by the establishment of a Court of Petty Sessions. Unofficial Justices of the Peace were to sit once a week with the Police Magistrates to hear cases which otherwise would have been remitted to the Supreme Court for trial by jury. The aim of this new measure (Ordinance 5 of 1850) was to provide a more speedy settlement of small debts, misdemeanours and minor crimes. But it expected, on the part of the Justices, a greater readiness to sacrifice their time and more legal acumen, than subsequent experience proved that they possessed. Hence this measure did not give permanent satisfaction. Further, as the Governor, in his capacity as Plenipotentiary, extended at the same time the judicial powers of Consuls in Treaty ports at the expense of Supreme Court jurisdiction, many of his critics (and seemingly the Chief Justice himself) saw in this creation of a Court of Petty Sessions an objectionable encroachment upon the criminal jurisdiction of the Supreme Court. An opposition paper went so far as to impute to Sir G. Bonham the intention of eventually abolishing
