ng obtained, therefore, the authority to institute
a government, the crown put into commission the powers it received, but
left to the local authorities to interpret and apply them.[78]

The court of criminal jurisdiction was composed of seven officers, of
whom the judge advocate was one. It could only assemble on the summons
of the governor: his precept determined who, or whether any should sit,
and thus regulated the jury: as their commander his influence was
great--greater, as the dispenser of royal patronage.

The powers of the grand jury devolved on the judge advocate, who framed
the indictment, and determined beforehand the probability of guilt: he
thus sat in a cause which he had judged already. The prosecutor
conducted his own case: witnesses were examined in open court, and the
accused was unassisted by counsel. Nor was unanimity required: yet five
in seven were necessary in capital cases, to authorise an immediate
execution. The judge advocate deliberated with his co-jurors in secret,
and the court was re-opened only when they had agreed upon their
verdict, and determined the sentence. Thus in ordinary cases the weight
of authority in deciding guilt, as well as apportioning punishment,
usually rested with an officer officially connected with the government.
The operation of this court was liable to serious constitutional
objections. It was in the power of the governor to exclude the subject
from the protection of the law, by shutting up the court, and by the
arbitrary selection of its members to anticipate its decision.

In conducting the business of the court, its members dispensed with the
niceties of law, and gave their verdict upon what appeared to be the
substantial merits of the case. From the age of fourteen, the first
judge advocate had been employed in the royal marine service, and
whatever intelligence his writings display, they exhibit utter disregard
of rights recognised by the British constitution. His successors in
office, for two-and-twenty years, until the appointment of Mr. Ellis
Bent, were gentlemen connected with the military profession, who were
unassisted, except by such lawyers as the lottery of transportation
threw in their way: thus, while they were limited by parliament to a
jurisdiction according to the laws of the realm,[79] they were more than
usually unacquainted with their nature, and indifferent to their
observance.

Such were the inherent defects of this form of judicature, f