534 HISTORY 



govern their conduct in accordance with tlie prevailing temper of the majority 

 in the House of Assembly. The management of it was as unscrupulous as it 

 Avas vexatious. Its effects were manifest in the election that had just passed, 

 and no less in others before this one. It also became a factor in determining 

 the attitude of members of the House who were officials, towards measures that 

 came up for consideration. For five years, however, the imniinence of this 

 danger had been removed, as a result of the grant of salaries for that period 

 obtained by Balfour in 1835.°"" Francis Cockburn now desired to have such a 

 vote again, and if possible to secure the grant for the whole reign of the 

 Queen.^"' He had almost accomplished his object when the defection of two 

 members of the House, on whose support he had relied, defeated the plan and 

 made the grant for only seven years.°°* The matter was not allowed to rest with 

 this. During the same session Cockburn applied for and secured an amend- 

 ment by which the grant was changed from seven years to the whole reign of 

 the Queen.''"" This seems to have been an example of confidence in the Crown 

 that was almost without precedent in the British West Indies.''" There was no 

 longer any immediate anxiety as to the control of the salary list. 



Separation of the Councils. 



The nucleus of the support received by the Executive of the Bahamas from 

 the colonial people, lay in the Advisory Council. In all the struggles with the 

 local people during the previous twenty years this body had stood with the 

 Executive with few exceptions. It was often a lukewarm support that some of 

 the members gave, and there was sometimes a determined minority of the 

 opposition in it. It usually acted in harmony with the wishes of the Gov- 

 ernor, with whom it was closely allied in the affairs of government. After it 

 had been remodeled by Sir James Smyth it had become a source of strength to 

 the government. In this Colony one body of men had acted as a Legis- 

 lative Council and as a Privy (Executive) Council to the governor, its mem- 

 bers being thus excluded from the membership of the House of Assembly. It 

 was a custom to appoint to seats in the Council men of the first rank for mod- 

 eration and general worth. There were two vacant seats in the Council in 



="'■■ Balfour to Rice, No. 43. The Assembly had been compliant during that year. 



''°' Cockburn to Russell, Nos. 5 and 8. 



="« Loc. cit.. No. 8. 



^""Loc. cit.. No. 1.5 (Feb. 14, 1840). 



^^^ Loc. cit. 



