34 RESPONSIBLE GOVERNMENT [PART 1 
of civil servants to appeal to the Secretary of State. But 
the Bill still insisted on the powers of the Supreme Chief 
being exercised on the advice of the Executive Council. 
Sir John Robinson and Mr. G. M. (afterwards Sir George) 
Sutton were sent home on a deputation to urge the accep- 
tance of the Bill on the home authorities! but the Imperial 
Government stood firm, and the Bill was modified in some 
particulars, and especially so as to leave out all claim of the 
Colonial Government to control the Supreme Chief in his 
action. At the same time, the delegates were informed that 
the Governor would be instructed to discuss his proposed 
actions with them and to secure their concurrence if possible, 
and it was anticipated that agreement would be usually 
the case. 
The Bill so amended was laid before the Legislative 
Council, and the Council then dissolved, the elections re- 
sulting in the return of ten members in favour of and 
fourteen against responsible government. But four of the 
members were unseated on an election petition, and first 
two and then two more members in favour of responsible 
government were returned; the Bill as amended by the 
Imperial Government became law as Act No. 14 of 1893, 
and responsible government was inaugurated. It has often 
been contended that the grant of responsible government 
to Natal was premature and unwise, and there is no doubt 
that the small size of the Colony, the paucity of the white 
population, which was even then vastly outnumbered by 
the native population, and the presence in the Colony of 
a large number of natives of India whose industry was 
essential for the development of the Colony, but whose 
presence was, on many grounds, not very acceptable when 
their indentures expired and they settled there, combined 
to render the experiment a difficult one, and one which 
certainly never led to the same satisfactory results as were 
manifested elsewhere in the Empire. But the grant can be 
justified on the ground that it was practically an essential 
preliminary to the possibility of the Colony joining a con- 
! Parl. Pap., C. 7013, pp. 39 seq. * Ibid., pp. 41 seq.