the
Empire are involved, or that the Act is any way repugnant to Imperial
legislation. It is asserted, indeed, that the contract disposes of
assets of the colony over which its creditors in this country have an
equitable, if not a legal claim; but, apart from the fact that the
assets in question are mainly potential, and that the security of the
colonial debt is its general revenue and not any particular property
or assets, I cannot admit that the creditors of the colony have any
right to claim the interference of Her Majesty's Government in this
matter. It is on the faith of the Colonial Government and Legislature
that they have advanced their money, and it is to them that they must
appeal if they consider themselves damnified.

"No doubt, if it was seriously alleged that the Act involved a breach
of faith or a confiscation of the rights of absent persons, Her
Majesty's Government would have to consider it carefully, and consider
whether the discredit which such action on the part of a colony would
entail on the rest of the Empire rendered it necessary for them to
intervene. But no such charge is made, and if Her Majesty's Government
were to intervene whenever the domestic legislation of a colony was
alleged to affect the rights of residents, the right of
self-government would be restricted to very narrow limits....

"The fact that the constituencies were not consulted on a measure of
such importance might have furnished a reason for its rejection by the
Upper Chamber, but would scarcely justify the Secretary of State in
advising its disallowance even if it were admitted as a general
principle of constitutional government in Newfoundland that the
Legislature has no right to entertain any measure of first importance
without an immediate mandate from the electors."

The passing of the particular Bill by no means brought the Reid
controversy to an end. In fact, the General Election in Newfoundland,
of which the result was announced in November 1900, was fought
entirely upon this absorbing question. The issue arose in the
following way. The contract contained a clause providing that Mr Reid
should not assign his rights over the railway without the consent of
the Government. Mr Reid applied to the Government of Sir James Winter
for such consent, but when that Government was defeated in February
1900, no answer had been received. Mr Reid wished to turn all his
holdings in the colony over to a corporation capitalized at 25