is not a member, and cannot therefore be expected to be well informed as to its workings) – that the time – official members are commonly sent to the Council from the knowledge of the Colony which they possess and communicate, that the attendance of one of the two Members (M. Eelger) is constant, – and if that of the other (Mr. Jardine) has been less so, it is, as I have been assured by himself, attributable to the fact that the business submitted to the Legislative Council seldom is of a character sufficiently interesting or important to justify the dedication of valuable time to attendance at the Sittings of the Council. But Mr. Jardine has, I believe, almost invariably been present when matters of gravity have been discussed.
Whatever may be the merits or defects of the present Unofficial Members of the Council, I think their appointment altogether undesirable, and that absolute independence of the control of the popular sentiment is quite incompatible with that responsibility for the discharge of public duty, which ought to be held to attach to every member of a Legislative body. A functionary he might be deemed responsible to his superordinates, – an elected member to those who elected him; in either and in both cases