occasions to divest themselves of the soldier, and to judge as the citizen.  Without meaning to impugn the general impartiality and justice of their decisions, it may be easily imagined that an individual might happen to be traduced before a court, of which all, or part of the members, might from various causes be his enemies.  No one has mixed much in military society, without witnessing that esprit du corps which is so common in regiments, and which, however much it may contribute to their union and happiness, is, in a community of this nature, of the most dangerous tendency to the individual, against whom its collected fury may be levelled.  It must be remembered that this colony is not like a country town from whence a regiment may be removed the moment its conduct becomes obnoxious to the inhabitants.  There the regiments necessarily remain for many years, and from this very circumstance, disputes of a much more serious and rancorous nature are apt to arise between the inhabitants and the military, than are known in this country.  And this observation applies more particularly to the officers and the superior class of the colonists:  since the disputes and contests which take place between the lower orders of the inhabitants and the common soldiery, generally arise on the spur of the moment, and evaporate with the immediate cause of the provocation; while the others are more frequently the effect of cool and deliberate insult, and consequently settle into a fixed and inveterate hostility.  Under these circumstances, therefore, it is not to be wondered at, that no person should feel himself in perfect security.  The respectability of the higher order of the colonists may indeed shield the generality of them from any likelihood of their being ever arraigned before this tribunal; but still it might happen to them to be traduced before a court composed of their bitterest foes, not only on charges of a mixed nature, such as assault, battery, libel, etc. but also on others of a much weightier responsibility.  The probability of such a contingency would be still further increased if the governor should happen to have imbibed the same spirit of hostility against the accused, which I have supposed actuating the military.  For although the present governor, in order to render the administration of justice as unimpeachable as the nature of this court will allow, has invariably appointed the members of it according to the roaster furnished by the commanding officer of the regiment, his predecessors did not, I believe, invariably observe the same delicacy, nor is it incumbent on his successors to imitate his example.  Any person therefore, who may unfortunately become obnoxious to the governor and the officers of the regiment, or indeed any part of them, should he be accused of any offence within the pale of the criminal court, might be thus forced to take his trial before his selected and implacable enemies.