385
I am quite satisfied from the way in which the Acting Attorney General (Mr Ball) conducted the Case that he felt he ought not to succeed in putting in the evidence of the confession obtained by (exhorted) as they had been by the Police. I therefore in four different Letters addressed to you on the 9th, 14th and 24th of February last and the 18th of March last strenuously but ineffectually urged His Excellency to procure from Mr Ball a report of the trial before he went to England!
I did this in order that His Excellency might have such a reliable account of what had taken place as would, I felt sure, have induced him to withdraw his severe censure on me. With this view I even asked that Mr Hayllar who defended the prisoners might be referred to.
I had intended to have entered into a full statement of the various grounds on which I had rejected the evidence of the confessions but on mature consideration I feel that I should compromise my office if I submitted the grounds to His Excellency after his condemnation.
My decisions are subject to review and reversal by a judicial tribunal; but I am not aware that any ... authority to review and pass