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ordinary rank, or to the shrewd supposition of Dr. Bridges, who by this time had succeeded to office, that inexperienced strangers from England, too much engrossed, moreover, with the concerns of a difficult expedition elsewhere, to addict themselves to colonial affairs, were little likely—absent or present—and three weeks at least in the month they were sure to be absent—to exercise a vigilant control over the proceedings of the Local Executive;—or to both of those causes.
But I cannot help thinking, that the supersedeas was illegal—those officers, albeit superior in rank to the commanding officers at Hong Kong, not being themselves in actual command there, within the spirit and meaning of the Royal Instructions.
And I feel persuaded, that the very letter of those Instructions was violated, by the omission to resume the seat in Council, and restore it to the Hong Kong Commander, when the same was actually again vacated by the departure of his General from the Colony to Canton, leaving him again in the possession of his pristine military command within the Colony.
There now remains, therefore, the third and last seat in the Executive Council:—that of the Colonial Secretary.
For rather more than a twelvemonth after my arrival, and again for about two months before my departure from the Colony, a man of honour and worth, the Honourable W. T. Mercer, Esq., filled that office. Unhappily for the Colony, the interval was one of sick-leave; and the acting appointment to all his offices, being vacant, was bestowed, as I have said, on Dr. Bridges.
Thus, during the period to which the gravest of the incidents of the present case belong,—this was the composition of the Executive Council:—
