appointed by the colony and four by the Crown.  Yet he declared that the Crown had the control of the court, which, in fact, was true enough no doubt, as the five open members were not perhaps, all of them, immaculate patriots; but on this matter poor Sir Marmaduke was very obscure.  When asked who exercised the patronage of the Crown in nominating the four members, he declared that the four members exercised it themselves.  Did he appoint them?  No he never appointed anybody himself.  He consulted the Court of Chancery for everything.  At last it came out that the chief justice of the islands, and three other officers, always sat in the court, but whether it was required by the constitution of the islands that this should be so, Sir Marmaduke did not know.  It had worked well; that is to say, everybody had complained of it, but he, Sir Marmaduke, would not recommend any change.  What he thought best was that the Colonial Secretary should send out his orders, and that the people in the colonies should mind their business and grow coffee.  When asked what would be the effect upon the islands, under his scheme of government, if an incoming Colonial Secretary should change the policy of his predecessor, he said that he didn’t think it would matter much if the people did not know anything about it.

In this way the Major had a field day, and poor Sir Marmaduke was much discomfited.  There was present on the Committee a young Parliamentary Under-Secretary, who with much attention had studied the subject of the Court of Chancery in the Mandarins, and who had acknowledged to his superiors in the office that it certainly was of all legislative assemblies the most awkward and complicated.  He did what he could, by questions judiciously put, to pull Sir Marmaduke through his difficulties; but the unfortunate Governor had more than once lost his temper in answering the chairman; and in his heavy confusion was past the power of any Under-Secretary, let him be ever so clever, to pull him through.  Colonel Osborne sat by the while and asked no questions.  He had been put on the Committee as a respectable dummy; but there was not a member sitting there who did not know that Sir Marmaduke had been brought home as his friend; and some of them, no doubt, had whispered that this bringing home of Sir Marmaduke was part of the payment made by the Colonel for the smiles of the Governor’s daughter.  But no one alluded openly to the inefficiency of the evidence given.  No one asked why a Governor so incompetent had been sent to them.  No one suggested that a job had been done.  There are certain things of which opposition members of Parliament complain loudly, and there are certain other things as to which they are silent.  The line between these things is well known; and should an ill-conditioned, a pig-headed, an underbred, or an ignorant member not understand this line and transgress it, by asking questions which should not be asked, he is soon put down from the Treasury bench, to the great delight of the whole House.