6
321
always probable that two or more members of the Executive and Legislative Councils may be away from the meetings owing to illness or absence from the Colony. In past years it has sometimes been found difficult to secure a quorum of the Executive Council when it consisted of only four or five members. Seven members (including the Governor), as proposed, are certainly not too many to secure the constant presence of the quorum required by the Queen's Instructions! I might have added that, during Sir Arthur Kennedy's Administration, the General then commanding Her Majesty's Troops refused to attend the Executive Council because he considered that his office had been degraded by his exclusion from the Legislative Council and from the Administration of the Government in the event of the absence or death of the Governor. Similar feelings will certainly be entertained.
The Hon Sir Francis Colborne, KCB, Major-General &