No. 25

The eleventh clause of Her Majesty's Royal Instructions
"direct and require" me "to frame and propose" to the
Legislative Council "for their adoption such Standing Rules
and Orders as may be necessary to ensure punctuality of
attendance of the Members of the said Council and to prevent
Meetings of the said Council being holden without convenient
notice to the several Members thereof, and to maintain order
and method in the despatch of business, and in the Conduct of
all debates in the said Council and to secure deliberation in
the passing of Laws. All which Rule and Order not being
repugnant" to my Commission and Instructions, or to any other
Instructions with which I may be honored by Her Majesty "shall
at all times be followed and observed, and shall be binding
upon the said Council" unless the same, or any of them shall
be disallowed by Her Majesty.

2. I felt that very great power was given to me by
this Instruction and I trust that I have exercised it to
your satisfaction. I had to bear in mind that an elected
Assembly will in all probability ere long Legislate in this,
as in most of the Colonies, and therefore that the more
Independence I could give to the Council the more popular
would our present form of Government be, and the more advanced
the education of the people in the art of Self Government.
Any appearance of straining the vast power which the Governor
now possesses would, I felt, dispose the people to clamour
for representative Institutions for which the Colony is not
yet ripe. I am happy to say that the Standing Orders I
have the honor to enclose have worked extremely well and
that there is every prospect of the Session closing without
a single expression, even in the local press, of a wish for
a change in the Legislative Constitution.

3. The Standing Orders are mainly taken from those I
assisted in framing for the House of Assembly of British Honduras.