of a magistrate should be so fortified by every prudent precaution, that it may at no time, however remote, be in danger of agitation; nor would it be prudent, in another point of view, to permit these gentlemen to mingle in occupations which must have an evident tendency to distract their attention from those arduous tasks which they would be called upon to fulfil, in a country where criminals must naturally abound.  Numbers of persons are doubtless to be found in Great Britain who would gladly accept these appointments, whose educations have taught them to look above situations to which unforeseen and unavoidable calamity may have reduced them; men who have preserved their principles and integrity unshaken by the attacks of adversity, and who, consequently, must be eminently qualified to fill such offices as those which I have here suggested.  The example which these persons would hold out to the rest of the settlement, could not fail of producing very beneficial effects upon the moral conduct of those who copy the models of their superiors; and would also be of service in assisting to create a society of power and independence, which might operate as a check upon the influence of all other descriptions of persons.

As instances of the irregularities that have been practised by some of those in magisterial capacities, I need repeat none others than that I have known men without trial to be sentenced to transportation, by a single magistrate at his own barrack; and free men, after having been acquitted by a court of criminal 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