AN ERA OF CONSTITUTIONAL STRUGGLE, 1864-1868 143 



again on the 18th. The Governor sent a message to both Houses 

 on the 2nd of October recommending them to concur in the vote to 

 Lady Darling, because Sir Charles had thrown up his appointment 

 in reliance upon receiving it, the implication being that a refusal 

 would look unpleasantly like repudiation. The Council declined to 

 be directed, but replied that if the grant was submitted in a separate 

 Bill it would receive their most earnest consideration. There is 

 evidence that the Governor urged this course upon his advisers, and 

 that more than one of his Ministers regarded it favourably, but it 

 was recognised that the majority in the Assembly were not amenable 

 to discipline on this point. So by the middle of October the Appro- 

 priation Bill reached the Council in the old form, and was rejected. 

 Another temporary Supply Bill was proposed, and the Chief Secretary 

 suggested the dissolution of the Assembly on the understanding that 

 the decision of the people should be final. Several of the members 

 expressed their dissent. They asked why they should be penalised 

 by going to the country when they had never been given a chance 

 of voting for the grant in a separate Bill. They declared that they 

 were sacrificed to keep the Ministry in office. The temporary Supply 

 Bill was brought in for 500,000. The Ministry, though urged by 

 the minority, and specifically charged with illegality by Mr. Duffy, 

 refused to specify the services for which the money was required. 

 They relied on the Council repeating their forbearance of last ses- 

 sion. Mr. McCulloch fiercely declared that he would compel the 

 Council to give way, and he boisterously applauded a supporter who 

 declared that the Assembly was quite prepared to govern the colony 

 without the other Chamber. Mr. Higinbotham pooh-poohed the 

 fictitious importance attached to an Appropriation Bill, which he said 

 was after all " nothing more than a form ". 



The Council was indignant that its concession to expediency 

 in the last session should be turned into a precedent. On the 

 5th of November, by twenty votes to eight, the Bill was rejected. 

 Three days later Parliament was prorogued with a view to its 

 dissolution, which was gazetted on the 30th of December, the 

 general election to take place in February, 1868. The suspension 

 of Government payments in the interim had been met by a revised 

 use of the Crown Remedies Statute. The former practice of getting 



