To make the change it was necessary to hold a meeting of the municipal board, consisting of the three consuls, each backed by an assessor.

And for some time these meetings had been evaded or refused by the German consul.

As long as it was agreed to continue Martin, Becker had attended regularly; as soon as Sewall indicated a wish for his removal, Becker tacitly suspended the municipality by refusing to appear.

This policy was now the more necessary; for if the whole existence of the municipality were a check on the freedom of the new government, it was plainly less so when the power to enforce and punish lay in German hands.
For some while back the Malietoa flag had been flown on the municipal building: Becker denies this; I am sorry; my information obliges me to suppose he is in error.

Sewall, with post-mortem loyalty to the past, insisted that this flag should be continued.