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[Page 2]
Governor is not dead neither is he absent, from the Colony. The consequence therefore is, that as His Majesty has not delegated his authority to any other Individual, in this Territory at present, in the exercise of such authority to issue a Precept, for the purpose of convening a Court of Criminal Jurisdiction: that no authority whatsoever exists in any person or body of Men, in this Country to convene and constitute any Court of Criminal Jurisdiction, nor can such Court so convened and constituted having any existence in Law. But if the Governor even was absent, the Law has made no provision, for the present case, not taking into its view, that any man or body of Men would attempt to depose, as it does not allow His Majesty's Governors to be deposed from their authority on any pretence whatsoever by people over whom His Majesty has placed them as his Governors.
Admitting however that you were a lawfully convened and constituted Court, you cannot I assert conscientiously discharge the sacred duty with which the Law would have entrusted you, it being my undoubted privilege as a British Subject to exercise my right of challenge which I do peremptorily on the following unanswerable Grounds