"
Mr. Barwell was not of the opinion of that gentleman, nor of the maker
of the motion, General Clavering, nor of Mr. Monson, who supported it.
He entertains sentiments with regard to the orders of the Directors in
this particular perfectly correspondent with those which he had given
against the original inquiry. He says, "Though it may in some little
degree save the Governor-General from personal insult, where there is no
judicial power lodged, that of inquisition can never answer any good
purpose." This is doctrine of a most extraordinary nature and tendency,
and, as your Committee conceive, contrary to every sound principle to be
observed in the constitution of judicatures and inquisitions. The power
of inquisition ought rather to be wholly separated from the judicial,
the former being a previous step to the latter, which requires other
rules and methods, and ought not, if possible, to be lodged in the same
hands. The rest of his minute (contained in the Appendix) is filled with
a censure on the native inhabitants, with reflections on the ill
consequences which would arise from an attention to their complaints,
and with an assertion of the authority of the Supreme Court, as
superseding the necessity and propriety of such inquiries in Council.
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