I beg to protest against the proceedings of the Executive Council in the matter of my suspension, and to declare that I do not consider that they had, or have, jurisdiction in the matter.
4. That protest extends to every act done or to be done by the Executive Council in the matter. The same having deprived the members of the jurisdiction they had not acquired under the Queen's Regulations, where they began to enquire into the matter upon its merits, and this for the following reasons:
6. I defer a further explanation.
"Regulation 80 was not completed in time to be considered by the Governor, it not having been delivered to the Colonial Secretary before the close of his office for the day, Saturday the 31st; and therefore the summoning of the Council for Monday morning the 2nd instant, to consider the propriety of proceeding with the suspension, must have been ordered before it could be known to the Excellency whether my explanation would be satisfactory or not.
79, 80. "To obviate the necessity" of that step, General Sir C. J. Van Straubenzie being then at Canton, and in fact, not arriving from that place to attend the Council meeting for which it had been summoned. The Council, having naval and military affairs to transact besides my case, met at noon, and sat till half past three. The interval was short, and the rapidity of action, which would not have been irregular and improper had this Tribunal been a Council of War or Court Martial, and the occasion a sudden emergency.
After the other business of the day had been decided, His Excellency submitted to the Council "Observations" of his own, and a paper containing Resolutions; some of which were related to the matter in question; the others brought forward a quantity of new charges, not communicated to myself.
Upon these Resolutions, the Council proceeded unanimously, the Acting Colonial Secretary abstaining only from the formal vote, being ignorant of the grounds on which those Resolutions were grounded.
I have inspected the papers laid before the Executive Council in the Government Office. They consisted of Despatches, Extracts of despatches, and Letters. The matter was the second item on the agenda. I was refused leave to read them, though entitled to do so by the Regulation 80.
The Letter of the 30th July 1858 (in common justice, and in their context, written immediately preceding or following, as all Extracts should be read) was not among the documents laid before the Executive Council. Their only materials of judgment were the papers before them, and I had not been allowed to see them all.
Neither my letter of the 30th July 1858, nor an extract thereof, was included among the documents. In the margin of the Minute of the Council's Resolutions are noted - correctly, I presume - all papers laid before the Council on that occasion, and the letter in question is not in the list.
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