CHAP. viii] RELATIONS OF THE HOUSES 571
1864, and though they had received a dissolution the result
had not encouraged them. Moreover, the moment the new
Parliament was opened a vote of want of confidence was
carried by a majority of forty-two to fourteen. But he laid
stress upon the argument that it was essential to maintain
the strength of the Council, which otherwise would cease to
have any independent position. A Governor should have
a recognized independent discretion ; the nominations to the
Upper House ought not to be viewed as mere appointments,
the refusal to sanction which might justly be considered an
interference with proper ministerial action and responsibility.
Her Majesty’s Government and the people of the Colony
were entitled to hold the Governor responsible for securing
the preservation of the Legislative Council as an efficient
branch of the Legislature. The number had been fixed in
1861 at twenty-seven, not as absolutely rigid but as meeting
the deliberate opinion of ‘all parties then, and implying
a sound principle. The Secretary of State in a dispatch of
May 6, 1865, approved entirely the action of the Governor.
On September 29, 1868,! the Governor, Lord Belmore, re-
ported that he had added three members to the Council owing
to the difficulty of making up a quorum. In acknowledging
the receipt of this dispatch on December 18, 1868, Lord
Granville approved his action, but said that any increase of
the number of the Council was likely to be used as a prece-
dent for further additions, and was therefore to be regretted,
and that he should have been glad to be assured that the
addition was not in fact politically material as altering the
balance in any important degree in favour of the Ministry
by which it was suggested. Lord Belmore submitted this
dispatch to his Prime Minister, who drew up a memorandum 2
on the question, in which he laid down that the dispatch was
based on a misapprehension, and that the Government could
not admit that the responsible ministers of the Governor
might not advise an increase in the numbers. In law the
Number was unlimited, and the Secretary of State must have
overlooked that fact, or he would not have questioned any
* Parl. Pap., H. C. 198, 1893-4, p. 71. ? Ibid., p. 79.
I)
