should be brought to it, a door lay wide open for evasion of the law,
and for a return into the service, in defiance of its plain
intention,--that is, by resigning to avoid removal; by which measure
this provision of the act has proved as unoperative as all the rest. By
this management a mere majority may bring in the greater delinquent,
whilst the person removed for offences comparatively trivial may remain
excluded forever.

[Sidenote: Council-General]

The new Council nominated in the act was composed of two totally
discordant elements, which soon distinguished themselves into permanent
parties. One of the principal instructions which the three members of
the Council sent immediately from England, namely, General Clavering,
Colonel Monson, and Mr. Francis, carried out with them was, to "_cause
the strictest inquiry to be made into all oppressions and abuses_,"
among which _the practice of receiving presents from the natives_, at
that time generally charged upon men in power, was principally aimed at.

Presents to any considerable value were justly reputed by the
legislature, not as marks of attention and respect, but as bribes or
extortions, for which either the beneficial and gratuitous duties of
government were sold, or they were the price paid for acts of
partiality, or, finally, they were sums of money extorted from the
givers by the terrors of power. Against the system of presents,
therefore, the new commission was in general opinion particularly
pointed. In the commencement of reformation, at a period when a
rapacious conquest had overpowered and succeeded to a corrupt
government, an act of indemnity might have been thought advisable;
perhaps a new account ought to have been opened; all retrospect ought to