THE EXECUTIVE AND THE JUDICIARY. 191 



reached 2,000 and the amounts recovered 59,000. The 

 growing importance and complexity of the work necessitated, 

 he thought, an additional judge, and lawyers to conduct the 

 pleadings. 



He suggested also that some restrictions should be laid on 

 the right of appeal from this court to the Privy Council. 



In the Criminal Court he urged that Trial by Jury should 

 replace the present system, and that prosecutions should be 

 conducted by a Crown solicitor. 



Finally he reviewed the commission, status, and functions of 

 the Judge- Advocate, and recommended a complete change in 

 his position. 



His commission was a military one while his duties were 

 civil. It placed him under the orders of the Governor, while at 

 the same time he was sworn to administer the law of England. 

 "... I can assure your Lordship," wrote Bent, " that the 

 comfort and happiness of any Judge- Advocate, nay, even the 

 proper discharge of his duty, must depend entirely upon the 

 personal character of the person in whose hands the executive 

 power of the Colony happens to be vested." 



The duties of the office he considered too heavy for one 

 man, and in many ways inconsistent with one another. Thus 

 in the Criminal Court he acted as judge in cases for which he 

 had himself prepared the indictment, and in which he had the 

 conduct of the prosecution. 



This letter of Bent's was accepted in its entirety by the 

 Committee on Transportation of 1812, and they embodied its 

 proposals in their Report But Lord Bathurst, the new Secre- 

 tary of State, held different views. He described in a letter to 

 the Governor, in I8I2, 1 the reforms which were to take effect in 

 a new Charter of Justice to be issued for the Colony. 



He agreed that thorough changes were necessary in the 

 Civil Court, that the cases required " more elucidation than what 

 the parties, as they have no professional assistance, are able to 

 produce," and that the decisions " are frequently too summary, 

 while they are at the same time not sufficiently conclusive, and 

 from most of them an appeal to His Majesty in Council is al- 

 lowed ". 



1 D. 13, 23rd November, 1812. R.O., MS. 



