WEST INDIES. 
CHAP. I.] 
175 
Mr. Long is of opinion that a president of the 
council, taking upon him the government on the 
demise or absence of a governor or lieutenant-go¬ 
vernor, cannot legally dissolve the house of assem¬ 
bly, nor issue writs for calling a new one ; because 
he has no express commission from the sovereign 
under the great seal of Great Britain, giving autho¬ 
rity for that purpose. 
THE COUNCIL. 
The members of this board are severally appoint¬ 
ed by the royal mandamus, directed to the govern¬ 
or, and countersigned by the secretary of state, and 
the names of the several members for the time be¬ 
ing are inserted in the governors instructions. In 
Jamaica their full complement is twelve: in some 
of the smaller islands ten, and in case of as many 
vacancies, by death, absence, or suspension, as re¬ 
duce the board under seven, the governor or com¬ 
mander in chief is impowered to fill up to that num¬ 
ber, but no further. Their privileges, powers, and 
offices, are these: 
First. They are by courtesy severally addressed, 
in the colonies, honourable; they take precedency 
the same inconveniency it complained of before, with the burthen of 
providing £.1000 a year fora person who neither resides within the 
island, nor has any other connection with it j for the fort is generally 
commanded by his deputy’s deputy, with whose very name, it is pro¬ 
bable, the principal himsejfis unacquainted. 
