authority. We should, however, conceive that persons of the liberal principles which belong to the character of military officers, and who must know that the whole criminal justice of the settlement will stand still if they should refuse to serve in the Criminal Court, would be too much influenced by a sense of the service which they can render to their country by performing this civil function, in addition to their military duty, to render it necessary to remind them of the nature of their duty in this instance, as pointed out by charter and by Act of Parliament.'
The refusal of one of the officers to sit ended by Phillip sending for them all, 'in order,' he writes, 'to point out to them the consequences which would follow their refusal of so essential a part of their duty, and the officers I saw on that occasion assured me that they had never doubted its being a part of their duty after they heard the Act of Parliament and the commission read, which established that court; but Major Ross, afterwards, on the 6th of May, telling me that he was still of opinion that many of the officers did not think the sitting as members of the Criminal Court any part of their duty, I desired that he would assemble the officers, that their separate opinions might be taken on that head.'
In the despatch from which the above is extracted there are some further statements which show how much Ross was responsible for hampering the public
