erved for the royal sanction. All such addresses, and the remonstrances
brought to him by deputations of malcontents, he received with civility,
promising to bestow on them his best consideration, but studiously avoiding
the expression of any opinion on the points in controversy. By thus
maintaining a strictly constitutional position, he foiled that section of
the agitators who calculated on his being frightened or made angry, while
he left a door open for any who might have candour enough to admit that
after all he was only carrying out fairly the principle of responsible
government.

In pursuance of this policy he put off to the latest moment any decision as
to the course which he should take with respect to the Bill when it came up
to him for his sanction. As regards a dissolution, indeed, he felt from the
beginning that it would be sheer folly, attended by no small risk. Was he
to have recourse to this ultima ratio, merely because a parliament elected
a year before, under the auspices of the party now in opposition, had
passed, by a majority of nearly two to one, a measure introduced by the
present Government, in pursuance of the acts of a former one?

If I had dissolved Parliament, I might have produced a rebellion, but
most assuredly I should not have procured a change of Ministry. The
leaders of the party know that as well as I do, and were it possible
to play tricks in such grave concerns, it would have been easy to
throw them into utter confusion by merely calling upon them to form a
Government. They were aware, however, that I could not for the sake of
discomfiting them hazard so desperate a policy: so they have played
out their game of faction and violence without fear of consequences.

The other course urged upon him by the Opposition, namely, that of
reserving the Bill for the consideration of the Home Government, may appear
to have been open to no such objections, and to have been in fact the
wisest course which he could pursue, in circumstances of so much delicacy.
And this seems to have been the opinion of many in England, who were
disposed to approve of his general policy; but it may be doubted whether
they had weighed all the considerations which presented themselves to the
mind of the Governor on the spot, and which he stated to Lord Grey as
follows:--

There are objections, too, to reserving the Bill which I think I shall
consider insurmountable, whatever obl