GENERAL HISTORY. 



[409 



and preclude the possibility of its 

 being attributed to inattention to 

 the great concerns, which call for 

 the increased vigilance and activity 

 of the House of Commons, or any 

 dereliction of its sacred duties." 



This amendment was opposed 

 by the Chancellor of the Exche- 

 quer, and not being persisted in, 

 the motion for adjournment was 

 put and agreed to. 



On March 22nd, Mr. Golbourn, 

 rose in the House of Commons to 

 move for leave to bring in a bill 

 to amend an act of the 22nd of the 

 king, which went to provide, that 

 no office in any of the colonies of 

 the united kingdom should be en- 

 trusted to any person who had not 

 resided for a specified time in the 

 settlement. He said, that certain 

 abuses had crept in which ren- 

 dered these salutary provisions al- 

 together nugatory. One of the 

 chief defects was, that the go- 

 vernors and councils of colonies 

 were empowered to grant leave of 

 absence to pei'sons without limi- 

 tation of time or other restriction. 

 It was his intention to propose 

 certain restrictions on governors in 

 granting such licences, and also to 

 limit the time to which the leave 

 which could be granted should ex- 

 tend. He also meant that it 

 should be enacted, that annual lists 

 should be laid on the table of the 

 House, containing the names of 

 those officers of colonies who were 

 absent from the places to which 

 their offices were attached. Leave 

 was then given to bring in a bill 

 intituled, " An Act to prevent 

 the granting in future any patent 

 office to be exercised in any colony 

 or plantation now or at any time 

 hereafter belonging to the crown 

 of Great Britain for any longer 



term than during such time as the 

 grantee thereof, or person appoint- 

 ed thereto, shall discharge the 

 duty thereof in person, and behave 

 well therein." 



After a second reading of the 

 bill, the question for going into a 

 committee upon it came on April 

 18th, when Mr. Creevey rose to 

 oppose any farther progress. He 

 said, it had been miscalled a bil 

 of reform, and would in effect 

 sanctify all abuses against a bill 

 of reform which had passed in the 

 22nd of the King. He produced 

 several instances of violation of 

 the law of residence established in 

 that bill ; and there being a clause 

 in the present bill, " that nothing 

 in the act should be construed to 

 extend to any existing appoint- 

 ment or leave of absence granted 

 before,"^he contended, that the pur- 

 pose was merely to support those 

 absences which were too rotten 

 to support themselves. He said, 

 if the bill was pressed he would 

 divide the House upon it, and 

 propose what he thought would 

 be a much better measure — a re- 

 solution that the law had been 

 violated in the letter, in the case 

 of the holders of colonial offices 

 by patent, and in spirit and effect 

 by the holders of them by com- 

 missions. 



Mr. Go/ftowm had not expected, 

 after the general concurrence with 

 which his bill had first been re- 

 ceived, to hear it stigmatized with 

 the purpose of perpetuating asd 

 sanctioning abuse. He thought 

 the measure proposed as a sub- 

 stitute was one of the greatest 

 cruelty and injustice, being no less 

 than to deprive those who had 

 received such offices upon the ex- 

 press understanding of noa-resi- 



