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1st. The Governor and Acting Colonial Secretary, representing—I believe—three votes on the side of themselves;
2nd. The Lieutenant-Governor, strongly urged, as I have said, by the alternate influences of hope and fear, to give them and their measures an implicit support, under all circumstances;
And, 3rdly, The Commander-in-Chief at Canton; generally absent from the Colony, always ignorant of its affairs, and feeling himself, as military men in such cases are too apt to feel, bound, to give his unhesitating support to the Local Government in Council, whensoever present, and able to attend it.
Not that his presence was required; for Two made a good and sufficient quorum.
To such a council, so constituted, the Bridges' and Caldwell administration resorted with confidence, and all other Government servants with dismay.
The results were answerable.
For presuming to give evidence against public criminals, some of these Government servants were, by that Council, suspended—and suspended illegally—because in their absence, and without citation, hearing, or opportunity to know the evidence against them, or to adduce evidence in their own defence.[1]
For the like offence, in like manner, and with the same disregard of law and justice—and what these men might have dreaded most—the prohibitions of Downing Street,—[2] other Government servants have
- ↑ In re Willis; and in re Montagu:—E. F. Moore, Pr. C. Ca.
- ↑ The "Rules and Regulations for Her Majesty's Colonial Service" (Ed. 1856), peremptorily forbid any proceeding to suspension (except in extreme emergency), unless upon citation of the officer, "fully communicating to him the charges," and "after such an in-
