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order to preserve harmony between the organ of the Crown and the Representatives of the people,he resolved to comply with the wishes of the House. But that resolution on his part was limited by the condition that, when fully admitting the principle, he should give immediate effect to it so far only as he could do so constitutionally. On an examination of the Constitution Act with this especial view, it became manifest, in the first place, that the Act of the Imperial Parliament makes no specific provision for Ministerial Responsibility in the exercise of the Governor's functions ; and, secondly, that it does contain a provision whereby the same validity is given to certain existing Royal Instructions as if they had been part of the Act itself. Throughout the discussions on this subject, whether in the Houses of the Legislature or in the Executive Council, the constitutional force of these Royal Instructions has been taken for granted by everybody. The Officer administering the Government was led to believe that those Instructions absolutely preclude him from establishing Ministerial Responsibility in a complete form, and, in particular, by forbidding him to disturb any tenure of office derived from her "Majesty's Sign Manual, until he shall receive from her Majesty express direction or permission to set aside appointments made by Herself. Accordingly, when the Officer administering the Government held communication with gentlemen supposed to enjoy the confidence of the House, with a view to the introduction into the lixecutive Council of some members of the House of Representatives, he made them fully and distinctly acquainted with his opinion as to the limits of his power with regard to actual holders. In that opinion he supposed those gentlemen to concur without qualification or reserve ; and, on the basis of that opinion, Ministerial arrangements were made, which are described by the correspondence that took place at the time, a copy of which, numbered 4 and 5, is appended to this Message. Those documents were laid before the House of Representatives, who, after ample discussion of the new Ministerial arrangements, expressed to the Officer administering the Government, by a formal address (No. 6 in the appendix) the high satisfaction and deep sense of obligation towards him with which they regarded his prompt and unreserved compliance with their desire that Ministerial Responsibility in the conduct of Legislative and Executive proceedings by the Governor should be established without delay. The practical limits of the concession of the principle were as cordially accepted by the House as by the new Ministers themselves. This arrangement, completed on the 14th of June, appeared to give universal satisfaction, until, on or about the 2!) th June, the Ministers asked the Officer administering the Government to exceed that arrangement, by adding to the Executive Council a member of the Legislative Council, who might thus represent the Government in the latter body. In order to facilitate the transaction of Legislative business, the Officer administering the Government instantly complied with this request; and in doing so he exceeded the original Ministerial arrangement by giving to the new advisers of the Governor a majority in the Executive Council. Again, when Mr. fell, the member of the Executive Council who had been so appointed, was called away by domestic circumstances immediately after having appeared in the Legislative Council as a responsible adviser of the Crown, the Officer administering the Government instantly .and cheerfully assented to the appointment of Mr. Bartley as a member both of the Executive and of the Legislative Councils. So far as the Officer administering the Government was ever informed, these arrangements were satisfactory, and effectual for the purposes with which they were made, until about the beginning of last week, when observations were orally addressed to him by some of the new members of the Executive Council, which implied that they were discontented with their actual position, and desirous of some change in the direction of that complete Responsible Government, which exists when all the members of the Executive Council belong to one party and are liable to removal on party grounds. But it was at* U v Saturda y last, the 29th July, that any precise intimation of the new desire of Mr. Fitzgerald and his colleagues was conveyed to the Officer administering the Government. On that day they were requested to state their wishes precisely in writing. On 1 uesday, the Ist of August, they sent to him the Memorandum (which not being dated is marked A), which calls upon him to establish Responsible Government in the most complete form, and instantly, or to expect that the four gentlemen by whom the Memorandum is signed, will immediately resign their seats in the Executive Council. lhat document, he must confess, caused him surprise as well as much regret. Though the Ministerial arrangements of the 14th of June had then lasted about eight weeks, he had never till about a week before, and never at all in any precise manner, been informed that there existed any such difficulties and troubles as those described in the memorandum ; and least of all was he conscious that, as is stated in the memorandum, the House of Representatives was disposed to adopt that last resouice of a representative body when wronged by the Executive—that of stopping the supplies. He alludes with reluctance to these farming, not to say threatening, passages in the memorandum, lest the