the commissioners' award. 1G3 arbitrators, mutually chosen, should undertake the work. They, laid down general principles, and left the details to be executed by others. According to his grace's determina¬ tion, as expressed in his own words, " It was very desirable that the commissioners should go into the inquiry unfettered by any conditions such as the assembly wished to impose." The commissioners were enjoined by his grace " to devote their efforts to framing such recommendations as should be de¬ manded by the equity of the case," and their conclusions " would possess double weight if, happily, they should be unanimous." Their recommendations and conclusions were adopted unanimously ; yet, in the estimation of his grace they, after all, amounted to nothing more than au expres¬ sion of opinion ; for, said his grace, addressing the lieu¬ tenant-governor, " I must instruct you, therefore, however unwillingly, to treat the commissioners' award only as an expression of opinion, which, however valuable as such, cannot be made legally binding on the parties concerned." If it was simply the opinion of the able men appointed as commissioners that was required, it could have been prob¬ ably obtained without the formalities of a royal commission, and unaccompanied by some of the solemnities of a judicial tribunal; and if these gentlemen had been aware that their investigations and decisions were to be so easily " put out of the way," it is certain they would never have condescended to undertake the work ; nor would the government or the legislature of the island have gone through busiuess which they thought possible to come, through no fault of theirs, to so comical a termination. But, assuming that the commissioners had mistaken the nature of their functions in one or two particulars, on what ground could all their decisions be rejected? Because an error in judgment was committed in certain cases, was that