to preserve between the different branches of the provincial Parliament that harmony which is essential to the peace, welfare, and good government of the province, the chief advisers of the representative of the Sovereign, constituting a provincial administration under him, ought to be men possessed of the confidence of the representatives of the people; thus affording a guarantee that the well-understood wishes and interests of the people, which our gracious Sovereign has declared shall be the rule of the provincial Government, will on all occasions be faithfully represented and advocated.'

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They have lately understood that His Excellency took a widely different view of the position, duties, and responsibilities of the Executive Council from that under which they accepted office, and through which they have been enabled to conduct the parliamentary business of the Government, sustained by a large majority of the popular branch of the Legislature. Had the difference of opinion between His Excellency and themselves, and, as they have reason to believe, between His Excellency and the Parliament and people of Canada generally, been merely theoretical, the members of the late Executive Council might and could have felt it to be their duty to avoid every possibility of collision which might have a tendency to disturb the tranquil and amicable relations which apparently subsisted between the Executive Government and the provincial Parliament. But that difference of opinion has led not merely to appointments to office against their advice, but to appointments and proposals to make appointments of which they were

not informed in any manner until all opportunity of offering advice respecting them had passed by, and to a determination on the part of His Excellency to reserve for the expression of Her Majesty's pleasure thereon, a bill introduced into the. provincial Parliament, with His Excellency's knowledge and consent, as a Government measure, without an opportunity being given to the members of the Executive Council to state the probability of such a reservation. They therefore felt themselves in the anomalous position of being, according to their own avowal and solemn public pledges, responsible for all the acts of the Executive Government to Parliament, and at the same time not only without the opportunity of offering advice respecting those acts, but without the knowledge of their existence, until informed of them from private and unofficial sources. When the members of the late Executive Council offered their humble remonstrance to His Excellency on this condition of public affairs, His Excellency not only frankly explained the difference of opinion existing between him and the Council, but stated that, from the time of his arrival in the country, he had observed antagonism between him and them on the subject; and, notwithstanding that the members of the Council repeatedly and distinctly explained to His Excellency that they considered him free to act contrary to their advice, and only claimed an opportunity of giving such advice, and of knowing before others His Excellency's intentions, His Excellency did not in any manner remove the impression left upon their minds by his avowal that there was an antagonism between him

and them, and a want of that cordiality and confidence which would enable them in their respective stations to carry on public business to the satisfaction of His Excellency or of the country. The want of this cordiality and confidence had already become a matter of public rumour, and public opinion not only extended it to acts upon which there were apparent grounds for difference of opinion, but to all measures of Government involving political principles. His Excellency, on the one hand, was supposed to be coerced by his Council into a course of policy which he did not approve of, and the Council were made liable to the accusation of assuming the tone and position of responsible advisers of the Government, without, in fact, asserting the right of being consulted thereupon. While His Excellency disclaimed any intention of altering the course of administration of public affairs which he found on his arrival in Canada, he did not disguise his opinion, that those affairs would be more satisfactorily managed by and through the Governor himself, without any necessity of concord amongst the members of the Executive Council, or obligation on their part to defend or support in Parliament the acts of the Government. this opinion of His Excellency, as one of theory, the members of the Executive Council might not have objected; but when on Saturday last they discovered that it was the real ground of all their difference with His Excellency, and of the want of confidence and cordiality between His Excellency and the Council since his arrival, they felt it impossible to continue to serve Her Majesty as Executive

To

Councillors for the affairs of this province, consistently with their duty to Her Majesty or to His Excellency, or with their public and oft-repeated pledges in the provincial Parliament, if His Excellency should see fit to act upon his opinion of their functions and responsibilities."

REPLY OF HIS EXCELLENCY TO THE

ABOVE.

"The Governor observes with regret, in the explanation, which the gentlemen who have resigned their seats in the Executive Council propose to offer in their places in Parliament, a total omission of the circumstances which he regards as forming the real grounds of their resignation; and as this omission may have proceeded from their not considering themselves at liberty to disclose those circumstances, it becomes necessary that he should state them. On Friday, Mr. Lafontaine and Mr. Baldwin came to the Government House, and after some other matters of business and some preliminary remarks as to the cause of their proceeding, demanded of the Governor-General that he should agree to make no appointment, and no offer of an appointment, without previously taking the advice of the Council; that they should recommend others at discretion, and that the GovernorGeneral in deciding, after taking their advice, should not make any appointment prejudicial to their influence. In other words, that the patronage of the Crown should be surrendered to the Council for the purchase of Parliamentary support: for, if the demand did not mean that, it meant nothing, as it cannot be imagined, that the mere form of taking advice without re

garding it was the process contemplated. The Governor-General replied that he would not make any such stipulation, and could not degrade the character of his office, nor violate his duty, by such a surrender of the prerogative of the Crown. He appealed to the number of appointments made by him on the recommendation of the Council, or of the members of it in their departmental capacity, and to instances in which he had abstained from conferring appointments on their opponents, as furnishing proofs of the great consideration which he had evinced towards the Council in the distribution of the patronage of the Crown. He at the same time objected, as he always had done, to the exclusive distribution of patronage with party views, and maintained the principle that of fice ought, in every instance, to be given to the man best qualified to render efficient service to the State, and, where there was no such pre-eminence, he asserted his right to exercise his discretion. He understood from Messrs. Lafontaine and Baldwin, that their continuance in office depended on his final decision with regard to their demand; and it was agreed that at the Council to be assembled the next day the subject should be fully discussed. He accordingly met the Council on Saturday, convinced that they would resign, as he could not recede from the resolution which he had formed, and the same subject became the principal topic of discussion. Three or more distinct propositions were made to him over and over again, sometimes in different terms, but always aiming at the same purpose, which, in his opinion, if accomplished, would

have been a virtual surrender into the hands of the Council of the prerogative of the Crown; and on his uniformly replying to their propositions in the negative, his refusal was each time followed by Then we must resign,' or words to that purport, from one or more of the Council. After the discussion of the question at so much length, being, as he has hitherto conceived, the one upon which the resignation of the Council rested, he is astonished at finding that it is now ascribed to an alleged difference of opinion in the theory of responsible government. In the course of the conversations which, both on Friday and Saturday, followed the explicit demand made by the Council regarding the patronage of the Crown, that demand being based on the construction put by some of the gentlemen on the meaning of responsible government, different opinions were elicited on the abstract theory of that still undefined question as applicable to a colony, a subject on which considerable difference of opinion is known everywhere to prevail. But the Governor-General, during these conversations, protested against its being supposed that he is practically adverse to the working of the system of responsible government which has been established, which he has hitherto pursued without deviation, and to which it is fully his intention to adhere. The Governor-General subscribes entirely to the resolution of the Legislative Assembly of the 3rd of September, 1841, and considers any other system of government than that which recognises responsibility to the people and to the Representative Assembly as impracticable in this province. No man is more

satisfied that all government exists solely for the benefit of the people, and he appeals confidently to his uniform conduct here and elsewhere in support of this assertion. If, indeed, by responsible government the gentlemen of the late Council mean that the Council is to be supreme, and the authority of the Governor a nullity, then he cannot agree with them, and must declare his dissent from that perversion of the acknowledged principle. But if they mean that responsible government as established in this colony is to be worked out with an earnest desire to ensure success, he must then express his surprise at their arriving at conclusions which he does not consider to be justified by any part of his conduct, and which he conceives his repeated declarations ought to have prevented. Allusion is made, in the proposed explanation of the gentlemen of the late Council, to the Governor-General having determined to reserve for the consideration of Her Majesty's Government one of the bills passed by the two Legislative Houses-that is, the Secret Societies Bill. If there is any part of the functions of the Governor in which he is more than in any other bound to exercise an independent judgment, it must be in giving the royal assent to Acts of Parliament. With regard to this duty he has special instructions from Her Majesty's Secretary to reserve every Act of an unusual or extraordinary character. Undoubtedly the Secret Societies Bill answers that description, being unexampled in British legislation. The gentlemen of the late Council had his sentiments on it expressed to them. He told them that it was an arbitrary and un

wise measure, and not even calculated to effect the object it had in view. He had given his consent to its being introduced into Parliament, because he had promised, soon after his assumption of the government, that he would sanction legislation on the subject as a substitute for executive measures, which he refused to adopt on account of their proscriptive character, although he deprecates the existence of societies which tend to foment religious and civil discord. The gentlemen of the late Council cannot fail to remember with what pertinacity those measures were pressed on him, and can hardly but be aware of what would have followed at that time, if, in addition to rejecting the proscriptive measures urged, he had refused to permit any legislation on the subject. Permission to introduce a bill cannot be properly assumed as fettering the judgment of the Governor with regard to the royal assent, for much may happen during the passage of the bill through the Legislature to influence his decision. In this case the bill was strongly opposed and reprobated in the Assembly; but when it went to the Legislative Council, many of the members had seceded, and it did not come up from that House with the advantage of having been passed in a full meeting. Taking these circumstances into consideration, together with the precise instructions of Her Majesty, and the uncertainty of Her Majesty's allowing such a bill to go into operation, the Governor-General considered it to be his duty to reserve it for Her Majesty's consideration, as it was much better that it should not go into operation until confirmed by Her Majesty's Government, than