THE BERRY INFLUENCE, 1875-1882 205 



variance with the leading principles of the Government measure. 

 It was easily seen that it was not a peaceful settlement of the reform 

 question, on lines of mutual concession, at which the Government 

 aimed. Their desire was the relegation of the Council to a position 

 of servile subordination, without any representative standing or 

 effectual form of protest. 



When the Berry Eeform Bill reached the Council on 15th October 

 that body was not unmindful of the treatment that had been accorded 

 in another place to its own bantling, and no member was willing 

 to act as sponsor. Like the Sladen-Cuthbert Bill its second reading 

 was blocked, not in this case by active opposition, but by the dull 

 clog of neglect. There had been an attempt to arrive at a compro- 

 mise by a joint committee, consisting of Sir Charles Sladen, Mr. E. 

 S. Anderson and Professor Hearn for the Council, with Mr. Berry, 

 Sir Bryan O'Loghlen and Professor Pearson for the Assembly, but 

 their combined wisdom was resultless. At the outset the represen- 

 tatives of the Assembly demanded that the Council should renounce 

 its constitutional power of rejection in the case of Appropriation Bills. 

 This was declined, and Sir Charles Sladen suggested in lieu that 

 when an absolute majority of the whole Council affirmed that an 

 item was improperly included in an Appropriation Bill it might be 

 withdrawn and the Bill passed without it ; the contested item to 

 be referred to some colonial tribunal failing a settlement, or, the 

 Governor to have the power to dissolve both Houses and to take the 

 verdict of the country. In view of the improper use which had been 

 made of Appropriation Bills in the past, it did not seem reasonable 

 that all check should be abandoned. Then Mr. Berry proposed as 

 a final offer to refer the respective Eeform Bills to a plebiscite of the 

 electors, which the Council decided could not be entertained without 

 abandoning their claim to be considered representatives. 



Agreement had certainly not been expected. There were strong 

 indications that on Berry's part it was not desired. He had indis- 

 creetly committed himself to a public declaration that extension of 

 the Council's franchise would be a mistake. Popularising it would 

 give it a better vantage-ground in any contests with the Assembly, 

 whose will it must be rendered incapable of resisting. He could 

 not wait on the slow process by which under the Constitution its 



