A.—No. 5,

be useful to Her Majesty's Government regarding the management of affairs in the Colony, as far as they relate to the manner iv which the troops are employed. In these confidential communications I always state my opinions unreservedly, although they may occasionally be unfavorable to your Excellency and the Colonial Ministers. I shall continue to do so —and I know of no regulation which requires the Officer Commanding the Troops in a Colony to furnish the Governor of that Colony with copies of the official or private letters which he addresses to the Secretary of State for War. To do so in this Colony, whilst under your Excellency's government, would evidently be to communicate the contents of his letters to the Colonial Ministers, and through them to the whole Colony." 2. The power thus exercised by Sir D. Cameron, and which he states he continues to exercise, is to make confidential communications to Her Majesty's Government, in which he unreservedly states his opinions, although they be unfavorable to myself and my Ministers, regarding our management of affairs in the Colony, as far as they relate to the manner in which the troops are employed. 3. I find it difficult to believe that Her Majesty's Government have entrusted such powers to any officer, or that they have received from him secret reports unfavorable to my management of affairs in the Colony without acquainting me with them, which they have never yet done. But as Sir D. Cameron alleges that such is the case, I beg to be permitted to state my objections to the adoption of the course he says he has followed, and intends to continue. 4. Firstly, I would state that it was never proposed to me to exercise such a power in relation to Sir D. Cameron, nor would I for a single hour have held my office subject to the condition of making such confidential communications regarding him. No one knows better than yourself, that I have never, privately or publicly, made any communication unfavorable to him to Her Majesty's Government. The only case in which I ever even brought a difference of opinion between us under your notice, was in my Despatches Nos. 53 and 54, of the 27th ultimo, in answer to complaints he had previously Bent home against me. Those two Despatches I immediately communicated to Sir D. Cameron, before I sent them to you. To give him, therefore, a power in relation to the Governor of this Colony, which the Governor neither possesses nor would exercise in relation to the General, is to place the Governor in an unfair position. 5. Secondly, to give an officer the power of making confidential reports to Her Majesty's Government unfavorable to his superior, is almost certain to render this officer possessing the secret irresponsible power over his superior, overbearing to that superior, to prejudice him against him, to prevent him from regarding him as really being in any respect his superior officer; and as the fact of the junior exercising this power, or claiming to exercise it, in relation to his superior, is certain to become known in the Colony, it must irretrievably damage the position of the Governor, and weaken his influence. 6. Thirdly, The public service can in no way be promoted by such a proceeding. It is impossible but that opinions unfavorable to a high public servant being from time to time forwarded to Her Majesty's Government in secret and confidential communications from another high public servant, must prejudice by degrees the minds of Her Majesty's Ministers against the former, and weaken their confidence in him. The more generously he acts towards his secret censor, the more he suppresses all mention of his mistakes and shortcomings and brings his merits into notice, the more that superior officer is damaging himself, and adding weight and intensity to secret statements, unfavorable to himself, of which he knows nothing. 7. Again, if there is anything in the management of affairs in this country which is injurious either to the Imperial interests or to the troops, surely it should be remedied at once. The Governor should be at once acquainted with it; ho should not keep it secret from his Ministers, but should communicate it to them, and require an alteration in the proceedings objected to. If, on the other hand, the General Officer was wrong, then he could be told so, as well as the reasons on which this conclusion was formed, and he could openly refer the question for the decision of Her Majesty's Government. Secretly to report unfavorably to Her Majesty's Government of the Governor and his Ministers regarding the management of affairs in this country, is neither to get anything wrong remedied nor to attempt to get it remedied, but rather to paralyze the action of Her Majesty's Government, who could hardly interfere with energy and confidence on a secret report, to get what was wrong put right, —and to create unjustly an unfavorable impression against those who are ignorant of what is taking place, and who are shut out from all means of explanation. Thus such a proceeding is in itself unjust and unfair, and opposed alike to the public interests and to individual rights. 8. To say that the result of letting the Governor know that such unfavorable statements against himself and his Ministers had been confidentially made to Her Majesty's Government, would be to let the Colonial Ministers know them, and through them the whole Colony, seems to be no answer to the objections against such proceedings. 9. If the unfavorable statements are true, and what was wrong was being done by the Governor and his Ministers, it would be a shameful libel on the Colony and the General Assembly to say that they would not insist upon an alteration being at once made in the proceedings complained of. They would have every reason to do so ; first the sense of what is right, then the knowledge that they are altogether dependent upon Great Britain for assistance, and that by the British nation their proceedings must be judged and scrutinised; the more public their wrong proceedings were made, the more certainly would they be speedily put a stop to. 10. It would appear that a reasonable check upon unfavorable reflections being unfairly and unreservedly made upon the Governor and his Ministers, regarding the management of affairs in this Colony, would be that such complaints should be openly and fairly made, otherwise their standing with Her Majesty's Government depends entirely upon the temper, judgment, and self-control of an irresponsible person, against whom they seem to be entirely without protection. 11. Many other obvious arguments of equal force could be used against the course which Sir D. Cameron says he has pursued in this respect; and as he says he intends to continue to pursue it, I trust that he may be directed at once to desist from making confidential communications to Her

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DESPATCHES FROM THE GOVERNOR OF NEW