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Rh of one Kwok Asing, who murdered the captain and crew and fled to Hongkong, Sir J. Smale ruled that the offence was committed against France, that the ship was a slave ship, and that the murders committed with the object of regaining liberty were no crime. The administration of justice was, during this period, frequently disfigured by unseemly disputes between the Chief Justice (J. Smale) and the senior Queen's Counsel (E. H. Pollard). These disputes culminated in a painful scene (July 2, 1867) when Mr. Pollard was lectured and pronounced guilty of six distinct contempts of court, fined $200 and suspended from practice for fourteen days. The tone and manner in which the Chief Justice on this occasion addressed the troublesome but highly popular barrister, whom he kept standing before him while he lectured him, aroused the indignation of the whole community. The fine was forthwith provided for by a public subscription list, signed by more than a hundred persons of all classes of local society. Mr. Pollard appealed to the Governor who declined to interfere and advised him to petition Her Majesty the Queen. In August, 1868, the decision of the Privy Council was received, indicating a complete defeat of the Chief Justice, as not one of the six acts charged against Mr. Pollard was held to amount to contempt of court. The fine was remitted and the sentence reversed, but the Chief Justice was not silenced but continued the legal warfare in a more subdued form.

The Police Force was during this period subjected to the closest scrutiny it ever received and to severe criticisms on the part of both the Governor and Chief Justice, and by the community. It has been mentioned above that Sir Richard, after satisfying himself by personal investigations of the inefficiency and corrupt character of the Force, attempted, in 1866 and 1867, to purify and reform the corps by disciplinarian measures and failed. On 29th October, 1867, he assured the Secretary of State that he did not remember to have seen in any Colony a body of men so ineffective in proportion to the number, or so corrupt generally, as the Police Force which he found in Hongkong, and which then consisted of 89 Europeans,