578
obliged to state that
the conduct of the
Acting Attorney General
appears to me
to be
open to censure.
Can
I accept as
his
explanation offered in defence of that conduct as satisfactory. It is true that Mr. Hayllar
was retained
Counsel
for the French
Company, but he should
not have
been
forgotten
that, as
Acting Attorney
General
of the Colony,
in that capacity
he was
bound therefore
to advise the Executive
in a
matter of such
importance, involving
as it did the
construction of a Convention
with a Foreign Power. When therefore
it became clear, as it
did at a very early stage in these proceedings, that a question would
be raised as to the
effect of the Present
Convention,
the Governor
upon
which
he would be
entitled to require the
comes in all probability to take the opinion of the Crown Law Officer, it would
I think
have
been