252 A COLONIAL AUTOCRACY. 



having treated him with much more lenity than his mutinous, 

 seditious conduct deserved. 



" If, however, it should appear hereafter that I have acted 

 illegally towards Mr. Vale, I am aware of the high responsibility 

 I have incurred thereby, as also of the personal risk such illegal 

 conduct exposes me to, as intimated by your Lordship, and 

 with all deference to your Lordship I must add that I cannot 

 possibly subscribe to the inference drawn from my conduct 

 towards Mr. Vale, that it has the effect of 'diminishing my in- 

 fluence among the more respectable part of the community in 

 this Colony,' for I believe there is not one . . . who did not 

 highly disapprove and execrate the mutinous, seditious and 

 insolent conduct pursued towards me by that depraved, hypocri- 

 tical, unprincipled man." * He proceeded " with great submis- 

 sion to your Lordship's superior judgment," to state that his 

 charges against Vale were fully warranted by the Articles of 

 War, for Vale's conduct in seizing the American vessel in the 

 capacity of the meanest excise officer was not only " insolent 

 . . but also derogatory to the sacred character with which he 

 was invested as chaplain and consequently scandalous and 

 vicious . . . your Lordship has mistaken my motives in sup- 

 posing that in my conduct to Mr. Vale, I acted under the 

 influence of sentiments of irritation or passion. ... I have 

 been bred in the school of subordination too long not to re- 

 spect it ; and your Lordship must be fully aware how necessary 

 it is to support it, in a distant Colony like this, and composed 

 of such discordant materials ; assured at the same time that 

 your Lordship would not wish to see me degraded by tamely 

 submitting to the subversion of my authority as Governor-in- 

 Chief of this Colony, either by Mr. Vale or any other seditious 

 unprincipled person." 



Turning then to Moore he continued : " It is with sentiments 

 of real concern that I feel myself compelled, from a sense of 

 public justice and the respect due to my own high station in 

 this Colony, to decline being in any way instrumental to the 

 reinstating Mr. William Henry Moore in the appointment he 

 held in the Colony as solicitor. This man has acted in a most 



1 .*., Vale. 





