AND THE MILITARY. Ill them having declined to sit, Phillip appointed a Court of 1790 Inquiry to investigate the matter ; but the only conclusion the Court could come to was, that they did not think them- selves "competent to give an opinion on a private dispute, which appeared to them to involve in itself a point of law." coort of He then proceeded to convene the Court in the usual way, decHnw but was again met by further objections from Major Boss. How the matter ended will be seen from Phillip's statement in his despatch : — I had sent for several of the officers before the Court met, in order to point out 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 Boss, on the 6th May, telling me that he was still of opinion that many a consoita- of his officers did not think the sitting as members of the Criminal uie"offlow& Court any part of their duty, I desired that he would assemble the officers, that their separate opinions might be taken on that head. The result was that all the officers who were assembled, to the number of thirteen, gave it as their opinion that The result they were bound to sit. Boss then turned upon Phillip and charged him with being " oppressive" in his conduct, as if he had taken advantage of the officers' good nature to con- vert into a duty what they had merely volunteered to do as a matter of courtesy. But as Phillip did not continue the discussion, it came to nothing, and Major Boss was left to nu. mature some other project for the purpose of embarrassing the Governor. He was not long in doing so. In one of self (Ross) : If the above cannot possibly be done for him, do, for God's sake, endeavour at somethine else for him. An addition to his present income is not, I am convinced, his princi^ object ; what I myself wish for him, and what I am sure his own only wish is, some kind of appointment that wonld ffive him some little consequence in himself as well as in the eyes of his brother officers going with him, all of whom, with respect to length of service, are but as of yesterday. You, my dear sir, have no idea how much I am interested in this affair, nor how very severely I shall feel myself mortified if something or other cannot be done for him before we quit this country." Digitized by Google
