246 TlMEHRI. 
proprietor of estates called to a seat in the coloniaj 
council. All the members were, during all that period, 
agents of owners, of mortgagees, and of societies of 
share-holders residing and established in the mother 
country ; and, if the so-called representation of the 
inhabitants, as organized in 1815, was but a pitiful sem- 
blance of political liberty, the organization of 1832 was 
worse. The Koloniale Raad, intended to be a legislative 
assembly, was composed of paid agents and attornies of 
absentees, having themselves no fixed and permanent 
interest in the welfare of the colony or in the prosperity 
of her population. A whim of their employers did away 
with their status and their eligibility. Changes were 
frequent, placing incessantly new members in vacated 
seats. Some aimed at and succeeded in making large 
fortunes, and, in their turn, became absentees, breaking 
off all ties with the colony. 
The Koloniale Raad was composed of the Governor, 
President ; the Attorney General, the Administrator 
General of Finances, and six members. The above- 
mentioned government officials were permanent mem- 
bers. The other members were, on the first occasion 
appointed by the Crown ; their term of office expired 
after a year, and on a nomination of three eligible persons, 
possessed of the necessary qualifications, the Governor- 
General elected a new member to fill the vacated seat, 
but only provisionally ; his election had to be confirmed 
by the Crown ; the retiring member was re-eligible ; he 
then became the junior member of the Raad. The 
powers of the members were nil. The Governor-General 
w r as under no obligation but to ask for the advice of the 
Raad, in matters of legislation, and it was entirely left 
