Another regulation was made in the act, which has a tendency to render
the control of delinquency or the removal of incapacity in the
Council-General extremely difficult, as well as to introduce many other
abuses into the original appointment of Counsellors. The inconveniences
of a vacancy in that important office, at a great distance from the
authority that is to fill it, were visible; but your Committee have
doubts whether they balance the mischief which may arise from the power
given in this act, of a provisional appointment to vacancies, not on the
event, but on foresight. This mode of providing for the succession has a
tendency to promote cabal, and to prevent inquiry into the
qualifications of the persons to be appointed. An attempt has been
actually made, in consequence of this power, in a very marked manner, to
confound the whole order and discipline of the Company's service. Means
are furnished thereby for perpetuating the powers of some given Court of
Directors. They may forestall the patronage of their successors, on whom
they entail a line of Supreme Counsellors and Governors-General. And if
the exercise of this power should happen in its outset to fall into bad
hands, the ordinary chances for mending an ill choice upon death or
resignation are cut off.

In these provisional arrangements it is to be considered that the
appointment is not in consequence of any marked event which calls
strongly on the attention of the public, but is made at the discretion
of those who lead in the Court of Directors, and may therefore be
brought forward at times the most favorable to the views of partiality
and corruption. Candidates have not, therefore, the notice that may be
necessary for their claims; and as the possession of the office to which
the survivors are to succeed seems remote, all inquiry into the
qualifications and character of those who are to fill it will naturally
be dull and languid.