hich he would not account), that were
he not going to be hanged so soon, he (the magistrate) would make him
say whence he got them. I have known depositions destroyed by the
magistrate."[86]

The courts were limited by the laws in force within the _realm_, but the
realm was not defined;[87] and thus what portion of the law was
applicable, was left in thirty years' doubt, until the commissioner
royal stated that the omission had prevented several executions.[88] The
same number of years were required to ascertain whether laws passed in
Great Britain subsequent to the era of colonisation were the laws of the
colony.

Law officers of the crown were permitted to define authoritatively the
import of acts of parliament, and on their official decisions the
colonial judge convicted, and the governor executed a criminal.[89]

The persons commissioned as justices constituted a court in avowed
conformity with such tribunals in England, but they adjudicated on the
orders of the governor, and inflicted the penalties he appointed; though
the supreme court, sitting concurrently with these "benches," rejected
the legislation of the governor as invalid, when the basis of an action:
one judge supported them by his moral countenance, although he knew
them to be without legal authority.[90] Judge Advocate Wylde, however,
declared the legislative authority of the governor equally binding with
acts of parliament--a doctrine never surpassed by the most subservient
advocates of an unlimited monarchy.[91]

The crown authorised the governor to grant remissions, but while he
omitted the formalities requisite to perfect those pardons, the minister
neglected to require them. For thirty years the error was undetected,
and until a fraudulent creditor evaded a bill due to an emancipist; but
several years were allowed to pass, even when the mistake was
discovered, before it was fully corrected.

The ministers authorised the governors to grant land to settlers. For
forty-six years these delegates divided the domain of their sovereign,
as if it were his personal property, and without the consent of
parliament, when a court of this colony decided that all such titles
were void in law, whether acquired by purchase or under the old
quit-rent tenure.[92]

Above two hundred thousand pounds had been levied by successive
governors since the illegality of taxation was first submitted to the
notice of the cabinet. In gathering this money, not only had prop