that as soon as he left the Colony on furlough (April 12, 1870) complaints of the demoralisation of the police recommenced, both on the part of the Chief Justice and on the part of the public. When the Police Report for 1869 was published (April 11, 1870), declaring the establishment of a detective force to be impracticable, public opinion read it as indicating that bribery rather than any other difficulty stood in the way of detecting crime. The action of the Chief Justice also incited public dissatisfaction with the organisation of the police. By his remonstrances, addressed to the Government, he secured the offer of substantial encouragement to police officers willing to acquire a knowledge of the Chinese language (May, 1870), but he failed in his crusade against the separate control exercised by the Registrar General over a distinct force of 69 district watchmen. The unofficial Members of Council also expressed their dissatisfaction with the police and asked that a Commission of Inquiry be appointed, whereupon the Chief Justice laid on the table of the Legislative Council (November, 1870) a memorandum inveighing against the inefficiency and corruption of the Force and suggesting that, to avoid the constant friction between the Superintendent of Police and the Registrar General, the district watchmen be embodied in the Police Force under one head. The Chief Justice continued his adverse criticisms of the Police in 1871, and the community sided with him in the matter. The general dissatisfaction with the organisation of the Police Force rose to the highest pitch when a greatly popular public officer (G. L. Tomlin) was robbed and knocked down on a public road close to the Central Police Station (August 28, 1871). A deputation of unofficial Justices of the Peace waited forthwith on the Lieutenant-Governor (H. W. Whitfield) and urged him to take immediate steps to improve the Police Force. Major-General Whitfield's reply, referring to 40 additional constables having been ordered from Glasgow and promising that Sir Richard would, on his return, deal with the question of police reforms, was viewed by the public as a mere evasion of the points insisted on by the whole community, viz. that an
