31
and other matters referring to it by Dr. Bridges then member of the Council, and particularly with respect to the selection of the committee of enquiry, thereupon appointed by this Council; the conduct of its proceedings, the drawing up of its report, and the confirmation by this Council of the said report."
The honourable, the Lieutenant-Governor, Colonel Caine, then acting Governor and Chairman of the Council, refused to allow any discussion whatever on the matter. I now respectfully enter this my protest, against such refusal of the Lieutenant-Governor, with my reasons for thinking the motion a proper one to be discussed. My reasons are these:—
It is obviously desirable, unless special reasons be shown to the contrary, that this Council, which appointed the committee of enquiry, and unanimously adopted its report, should be officially and certainly informed, whether any, and if any, what communications on the subject have been sent by the local Government to the Secretary of State, and whether any, and if any, what communications in reply have been received by the local Government from the Secretary of State; and it is neither advisable nor respectful to this Council, that it should thus be left as a body in complete ignorance on the subject. It is still less advisable when many members, if not every individual member of the Council, must have heard and read in the local newspapers reports, as to the nature of the correspondence referred to. If the correspondence is such as it is reported to be, it contains a great amount of error, falsehood and slander, and it is only by the production of the correspondence that the Council can ascertain, the truth or falsehood of these reports.
I have been informed that some members of this Council have stated, and I have read on more than one occasion in the local news papers, that Dr. Bridges, then acting Colonial Secretary, and him self the party whose conduct had been under enquiry by the committee referred to; forwarded to Downing street the report of the committee immediately after it was presented to the Council before the evidence was printed, and with his answer to it, in which answer he charged Mr. Dent and myself, the only members of the committee, with injustice and falsehood and hostility to himself. He stated, it is reported, that through some management of Mr. Anstey we were appointed, because we were hostile to him, that we conducted the proceedings of the committee under Mr. Anstey's influence, and that the report, which purported to be ours, was not so, but was really drawn up by Mr. Anstey. The Council knows that