CO885(1-2) — Page 142

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

Reference :-

TLC.O.

885

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO

his Excellency be justified in setting by and watch-

ing the progress of events?

are

2nd. Is it not the business of Government to warn the leaders of this movement that they pursuing an irregular course, not sanctioned by the law of the land, and that neither the urgence des choses nor any other pretence will give to their institution any stability, or the least weight of cor- porate authority either with the home or the local Government; and is it not incumbent in the local authorities to take legal measures for quashing the proceedings at the outset ?

3. Or is it your opinion still regarding the mea- sures in progress, as being not only irregular but illegal, that Government should wait till they have further pronounced themselves before it proceeds to enter its protest against them?

4. Or, thirdly, is his Excellency in your opinion

in error in regarding the proceedings announced as

in agitation, as being contrary to law, or likely to

lead to unwarrantable assumption of authority by

unqualified parties?

5. In either of these latter cases, his Excellency begs to be favoured with an intimation of the grounds upon

which you rest your opinion.

I have, &c.

(Signed) G. F. DICK,

Colonial Secretary.

To his Excellency Lieutenant-General Sir W. M.

Gomm, K.C.B., &c.

Sir,

Procureur and Advocate-General's Chambers,

October 6, 1848.

In obedience to the directions conveyed to me through the Colonial Secretary, in his letter dated the 4th instaut, I have the honour to bring to your Excellency's notice the proceedings of the meeting held yesterday at Luciany's Hotel, and to submit my opinion as to the measures I think it advisable previously to take, in consequence of the resolutions which have been there voted.

2. Those resolutions, embodied in twelve several articles, have been inserted in "The Mauritius Times," and the "Mauricien." I suppose the origi-

nal text of the same to be in the French language.

5

3. Were it the intention of that assembly that their resolutions for the formation of a political association, be previously submitted to the sanction of your Excellency, as prescribed by law, such a course (the meeting having been authorized) would be regular and legal; and it would rest with your Excellency to consider whether or not your Excel- lency's approbation is to be given to the proposed plan of association, or any part of it.

4. But it is evident that such is not the course intended to be pursued in the present circumstance, since measures have been taken in some of those resolutions, namely, the 6th, 7th, and 8th, towards carrying the same into immediate execution, and the formation of the Association upon the basis and conditions agreed to at the meeting; without any mention of the sanction to be, according to law, obtained from the Governor for the legal existence of such Association.

5. This first attempt alone, independently of the character and conditions of the Society, would not only be inconsistent with, but a flagrant violation of, the law of the colony, constituting at the same time

an unlawful assumption of power and an encroach- ment upon the authority vested in the Governor.

6. The law on such matter is clear and precise: "No Association of more than fifteen persons, of which the object shall be to meet every day, or on fixed days, for the consideration of any religious or political subject, can be formed, unless with the sanction of Government, and under such conditions as the public authority shall deem necessary to im- pose upon such Society." (P.C. Art. 210.)

"No meeting, the object of which shall be, either

to draw up a petition to Government, or to discuss any object of general interest, can take place, unless with the sanction of the local Government, and un-

der conditions which it shall think necessary to impose." (P.C. Art. 211.)

7. I do not, for the present, think it necessary to enter into any particular consideration of the nature and bearing of the several resolutions referred to. At the very first sight, numerous and very serious objections arise against some of them, which might, perhaps, be construed as an illegal assumption of the power vested in the legislature, such as the fixing of a mode of election, the capacities required for C

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