113
I have done the Chief Justice very great injustice, for I was much surprised to find that he had immediately replied to Mr Mercer's note of the 12th, and represented that in his opinion very great caution was necessary in making the appointment, and that it should be under the hand of the Governor and the seal of the Colony.
It is true that he does not now suggest any such precautions are necessary, but whether his doubts were originally well or ill founded, it is clear he sought to put them at once before the Executive. Such caution, even if an excess of authority, could have worked no detriment.
12. The Colonial Secretary, however, is under the impression that the Chief Justice's private note of the 12th Instant, and one from Mr Ball, commenting on that note, were before me yesterday, but I can confidently say that I never saw either till yesterday, and that there is some misunderstanding on that point.... As Mr Smale now concurs in Mr Ball's views as to the sufficiency of the latter's appointment, his note is only important as showing that he was early anxious that his views ought therefore to have been promptly laid before me, and I need scarcely say that I would not have hesitated to confer on Mr Ball even superfluous powers, so as to make his views known to the Executive, and therefore that I had for a time entirely misunderstood his action in the matter.