§ COLONEL SYKESsaid, he rose to ask the Under Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, Whether Mr. Consul Swinhoe has made a Report that the British Merchant Steamer Elphin, while loading sugar at Takao, was hired by the Local Mandarin to go out of port and attack junks said to be piratical on the agreement that captured junks should belong to the captain of the Elphin and crew; that the steamer went out and attacked a junk pointed out, which did not made any resistance; nevertheless she was fired into and one of the crew killed, and the remainder of the crew, twenty-one in number, taken prisoners and lodged in the Hong of Messrs. Lester and Co., and the junk carried into Takao; that Mr. Consul Swinhoe tried the Captain, a Prussian subject, and condemned him to a penalty of 600 dollars, afterwards reduced to 400 as sufficient penalty for the murder; and, in case Consul Swinhoe's Report has not been received, whether it will be sent for, and whether the Hong Kong Ordinance, No. 1, of January 1855, which prohibits British Subjects from giving military aid to the Chinese Government and the Rebels, will or will not be enforced, and Commanders of British Merchant Vessels, or other offenders, be suitably punished for shedding blood for profit?
§ MR. LAYARDsaid, in reply, that no notice upon the subject mentioned by his hon. and gallant Friend had been received 889 at the Foreign Office, nor did he think it necessary to send to Consul Swinhoe for a Report. It was that gentleman's duty to report only upon matters requiring special attention. No doubt if this subject had demanded any unusual notice it would have been duly reported upon. With regard to the latter part of the question of his hon. and gallant Friend, he could add nothing to what had already been stated on two occasions by the hon. and learned Attorney General. The law would, of course, be enforced if proper evidence were adduced and proper proceedings laid before the Consular Courts in China.