authority
which rendered it perfectly despotic,--constructions which if they were
allowed, no action of theirs ought to be regarded as criminal.

Armed as they were with an authority in itself so ample, and by abuse so
capable of an unlimited extent, very few, and these very insufficient
correctives, were administered. Ample salaries were provided for them,
which indeed removed the necessity, but by no means the inducements to
corruption and oppression. Nor was any barrier whatsoever opposed on the
part of the natives against their injustice, except the Supreme Court
of Judicature, which never could be capable of controlling a government
with such powers, without becoming such a government itself.

There was, indeed, a prohibition against all concerns in trade to the
whole Council, and against all taking of presents by any in authority. A
right of prosecution in the King's Bench was also established; but it
was a right the exercise of which is difficult, and in many, and those
the most weighty cases, impracticable. No considerable facilities were
given to prosecution in Parliament; nothing was done to prevent
complaint from being far more dangerous to the sufferer than injustice
to the oppressor. No overt acts were fixed, upon which corruption should
be presumed in transactions of which secrecy and collusion formed the
very basis; no rules of evidence nor authentic mode of transmission were
settled in conformity to the unalterable circumstances of the country
and the people.

[Sidenote: Removal of servants.]

One provision, indeed, was made for restraining the servants, in itself
very wise and substantial: a delinquent once dismissed, could not be
restored, but by the votes of three fourths of the Directors and three
fourths of the proprietors: this was well aimed. But no method was
settled for bringing delinquents to the question of removal: and if they
should be brought to it, a door lay wide open for evasion of the law,
and for a return into the service, in defiance of its plain
intention,--that is, by resigning to avoid removal; by which measure
this provision of the act has proved as unoperative as all the rest. By
this management a mere majority may bring in the greater delinquent,
whilst the person removed for offences comparatively trivial may remain
excluded forever.

[Sidenote: Council-General]

The new Council nominated in the act was composed of two totally
discordant elements, which soon distinguish