colony, but the nature of their powers and
the proper mode of their exercise were subjects of dispute. Wilmot
maintained that they were assisting in "a council of advice" on subjects
submitted to their judgment, and were not qualified to question the
general policy of the executive. All beyond a simple aye or no he deemed
usurpation. Thus when they demanded papers, called for committees, and
obstructed obnoxious measures by the artifices of parliamentary debate,
they were charged with forgetting the duties of their office. These
gentlemen, however, maintained that it was their duty to hold the
executive in check on behalf of the people, and that whatever was not
abstracted from their supervision by specific laws was proper for their
consideration. The governor claimed a deliberate and casting vote; and
thus one non-official member, by concurring with the executive, or even
by abstaining from voting, neutralised the voice of the rest. The
official members had no discretion allowed. Lord Stanley had ruled that,
choosing to assume relations disqualifying them to vote with the
governor, they were perfectly free to do so; but having done so, they
could not retain their employment. He alleged that there would be an end
of official subordination, and that the public service would be brought
into serious discredit by allowing a different course. He admitted that
exceptions might occur, but their force was left to the judgment of the
governor.[245] This decision reduced the official debates to a mere
pantomime, and a seven-fold vote would have better expressed the real
character of the legislature than the disguise of separate suffrages.
The chief justice was alone independent.

Having resigned their office, the _six_ sent a letter of explanation to
Lord Stanley. In summing up their complaints they asserted that they
were called on to vote an expenditure the colony could not bear,--to
anticipate a revenue higher than the customs department calculated on
receiving; that they were denied information, although they were bound
to deliberate; that they were expected to augment an alarming debt, and,
when crime was increasing, to diminish police protection; that they were
told by the governor he would carry the estimates by his casting-vote,
before they refused to pass or had examined them; that the governor
claimed power to borrow and spend without legislative consent; and
finally, that discussion and enquiry were denounced as factio