e Council to His Excellency
the Governor.

TO HIS EXCELLENCY SIR GEORGE FERGUSON BOWEN,
KNIGHT GRAND CROSS OF THE MOST DISTINGUISHED
ORDER OF ST. MICHAEL AND ST. GEORGE, and Commander-in-Chief
in and over the Colony of Victoria and its Dependencies and Vice-Admiral
of the same, etc.

May it please your Excellency,

We her Most Gracious Majesty's most dutiful and loyal subjects, the
members of the Legislative Council of Victoria, in Parliament assembled
beg leave to approach Your Excellency with renewed assurances of
unabated loyalty to Her Majesty's Throne and Person.

We desire to draw Your Excellency's attention to the answer given by the
Hon. the Post-Master General during the sitting of the Council on the
1st instant to the question put by one of our members, viz.:--Whether it
is the intention of the Ministry to afford this House the opportunity of
considering the propriety of renewing or discontinuing the payment of
members of Parliament by submitting the measure by Bill as heretofore.

The answer was as follows:--In reply to the Hon. Member the Cabinet
desire me to state that it is unusual and inexpedient to state the
intention of the Government otherwise than by the due presentation of
business to Parliament; but in this instance there is an additional
serious objection to the question of the hon. member. It deals with the
appropriation of revenue which is the exclusive privilege of the
Legislative Assembly, and it is highly undesirable that the Legislative
Council should interfere even by a question with appropriation, the
initiation of which is by message from the Crown, on the advice of the
responsible Ministers and is further controlled by the exclusive
privileges of the Assembly.

This being the opinion of Your Excellency's advisers, were we to
continue silent it might with some show of reason be inferred that we
were satisfied with the answer of the Government, and would accept their
dictum as representing the true position of the matter as between the
two Chambers.

We have thought it incumbent upon us to lay before Your Excellency the
following circumstances connected with the question of payment of
members:--In the session of 1860-1, a separate Bill for payment of
members was introduced into the Assembly, but was lost in the Council.
In the session 1861, Sir Henry Barkly, who was then Governor, was warned
by the Legislative Council of the inevitable consequences of a sum being
included in the a