THE TRANSITION TO RESPONSIBLE GOVERNMENT 57 



far from harmonious. The transformation of these officials, now 

 acting under the direction of the Governor who appointed them, 

 into Ministers who would owe him no responsibility, but were 

 liable to be dismissed by a hostile vote of the House they were 

 assumed to guide, was an operation requiring firmness, tact and 

 some self-surrender. Unfortunately, these qualities were conspicu- 

 ously absent on both sides. 



On the one hand, the members of the Executive were certainly 

 influenced by the interpretation they put on the thirtieth clause of 

 the Constitution Act, which safeguarded the interests of those 

 officials who under the new order of things might be called upon to 

 retire, on political grounds. If they had now to make way for the 

 new grade of Minister, their handsome life pensions were safe ; but 

 if they went on as they were until the elections, and were then 

 rejected by the popular vote, they could hardly define such a calamity 

 as a " release from office on political grounds ". The temptation 

 was great to make sure of the pensions, even if it involved in its 

 attainment a compromise of some of their differences with the 

 Governor as to his interpretation of the Act in matters bearing 

 upon his powers. 



On the other hand, the Governor was exacting in his demands 

 for a reading of the statute that was certainly widely opposed to 

 the spirit which the people had been led to believe it contained. 

 Doubtless, during the conferences he had made his views pretty 

 clear to his nominal advisers, but they were not formulated until 

 embodied in a minute addressed to the Colonial Secretary on the 

 23rd of November, the day of the proclamation, and also of the 

 meeting of the Legislative Council. The official minute is bluntly 

 explicit. The Governor will choose his Ministry because it possesses 

 the confidence of the country, and will accept their resignation 

 whenever they cannot command a majority in Parliament to carry 

 on the country's business. But he goes on to say, there is another 

 condition inherent in the representative system, which is that the 

 Ministry should possess the confidence of the Governor, because he 

 is responsible to the Queen for the good order, credit and reputation 

 of the colony ! Based upon this fantastical assumption the minute 

 further proclaims : " The Governor will always require that previ- 



