rial Government may
have in the policy carried out in the responsible-government colonies,
with the liability to be recalled and disavowed whenever the Imperial
authorities think it expedient to repudiate such policy.

* * * * *

_To the Duke of Newcastle._

Quebec: February 18, 1853.

[Sidenote: Distribution of honours.]

Now that the bonds formed by commercial protection and the disposal of
local offices are severed, it is very desirable that the prerogative
of the Crown, as the fountain of honour, should be employed, in so far
as this can properly be done, as a means of attaching the outlying
parts of the empire to the throne. Of the soundness of this
proposition as a general principle no doubt can, I presume, be
entertained. It is not, indeed, always easy to apply it in these
communities, where fortunes are precarious, the social system so much
based on equality, and public services so generally mixed up with
party conflicts. But it should never, in my opinion, be lost sight of,
and advantage should be taken of all favourable opportunities to act
upon it.

There are two principles which ought, I think, as a general rule to be
attended to in the distribution of Imperial honours among colonists.
Firstly, they should appear to emanate directly from the Crown, on the
advice, if you will, of the Governors and Imperial Ministers, but not
on the recommendation of the local executives. And, secondly, they
should be conferred, as much as possible, on the eminent persons who
are no longer actively engaged in political life. If these principles
be neglected, such distinctions will, I fear, soon lose their value.

* * * * *

_To the Earl Grey._

Toronto: March 23,1850.

[Sidenote: Speech of Lord J. Russell.]
[Sidenote: Colonial existence not provisional.]

Lord John's speech on the colonies seems to have been eminently
successful at home. It is calculated too, I think, to do good in the
colonies; but for one sentence, the introduction of which I deeply
deplore--the sting in the tail. Alas for that sting in the tail! I
much fear that when the liberal and enlightened sentiments, the
enunciation of which by one so high in authority is so well calculated
to make the colonists sensible of the advantages which they derive