detail, the terms on which he would consent to
prorogation. Bills for the registration of voters and for the
prohibition of fraudulent assignments and gifts by leaders should be
enacted, and certain supplies obtained.

Mr. Brown criticized both these declarations. It was not necessary for
the governor-general to say that he gave no pledge in regard to
dissolution. To demand such a pledge would have been utterly
unconstitutional. The governor was quite right in saying that he would
deal with the proposal when it was made by his advisers. But while he
needlessly and gratuitously declared that he would not pledge himself
beforehand as to dissolution, he took exactly the opposite course as
to prorogation, specifying almost minutely the terms on which he would
consent to that step. Brown contended that the governor had no right
to lay down conditions, or to settle beforehand the measures that must
be enacted during the session. This was an attempt to dictate, not
only to the ministry, but to the legislature. Mr. Brown and his
colleagues believed that the governor was acting in collusion with the
ministers who had resigned, that the intriguers were taken by
surprise when Brown showed himself able to form a ministry, and that
the Sunday communication was a second thought, a hurriedly devised
plan to bar the way of the new ministers to office.

On Monday morning before conferring with his colleagues, Brown wrote
to the governor-general, stating that his ministry had been formed,
and submitting that "until they have assumed the functions of
constitutional advisers of the Crown, he and his proposed colleagues
will not be in a position to discuss the important measures and
questions of public policy referred to in his memorandum." Brown then
met his colleagues, who unanimously approved of his answer to the
governor's memorandum, and agreed also that it was intended as a bar
to their acceptance of office. They decided not to ask for a pledge as
to dissolution, nor to make or accept conditions of any kind. "We were
willing to risk our being turned out of office within twenty-four
hours, but we were not willing to place ourselves constitutionally in
a false position. We distinctly contemplated all that Sir Edmund Head
could do and that he has done, and we concluded that it was our duty
to accept office, and throw on the governor-general the responsibility
of denying us the support we were entitled to, and which he had
extended so a