judicature, to be banished to one or other of the dependent
settlements: And I have heard a magistrate tell a prisoner who
was then being examined for a capital offence, and had some
things found upon him which were supposed to have been stolen,
and for which he would not account, that, were he not going to be
hanged so soon, he (the magistrate) would be d----d if he would
not make him say from whence he got them. Nor do I believe it
less true, that records of an examination, wherein a respectable
young man was innocently engaged, have been destroyed by that
same magistrate before whom the depositions were taken. These and
numerous other cases which I could enumerate, cannot admit of a
doubt but that such a regulation must tend greatly to the
preservation of the liberty of the subject, the property of all
classes of the inhabitants, and the general interest and security
of the colony at large.

I should also strongly advise, that nine or ten of the
principal officers of government should be authorized to act in
the capacity of council, to whom the governor could resort, in
all periods of difficulty and delicacy, for advice how to shape
his conduct, by which means he would not, in any future instance,
be left wholly dependent upon his own judgment. The good effects
of this arrangement must soon be evident, since the issuing of an
order of council could not fail to carry with it much additional
weight to that which would be attached to an act of the governor
alone, and would tend to the speedy suppression of any appearance
of insubordination, and discourage those who should incline so to
act as to originate a spirit of dissatisfaction in the
settlement. To a want of this council, it may not be too much to
attribute the present unsettled state of the colony, and the