164 THE EXECUTIVE GOVERNMENT [parTI
a Judge, he encountered as he believed this incorrect
attitude, arose out of the case of a murderer named Morgan.
The royal instructions called upon the Governor to require
the Judge who tried the case to make a written report, and,
if he thought fit, to ask him to attend the Executive Council.
Mr. Higinbotham was only willing to attend or furnish
a report provided he was asked to do so by lawful authority,
that is, by Her Majesty’s Ministers for Victoria. The Judge’s
wishes were respected, and no reference to the royal instruc-
tions was given as a reason for requiring his attendance.
His views, however, were more formally expressed in a letter
to Sir Henry Holland, Secretary of State for the Colonies,
dated February 28, 1887, in response to a request made
through the Governor that he would state confidentially his
opinion on the subject of the royal instructions given to the
Governors of Victoria and other Australian Colonies. He
insisted on pointing out to the Secretary of State that he
was addressing him in his private capacity as an English
politician interested in Colonial affairs, and not as the
ministerial head of the Colonial Office. He added that his
views were personal, and they were not generally accepted
by, or known to, any considerable class of the population.
He quoted a resolution which he had brought forward in 1869
to the effect—
"That the official communication of advice, suggestions, or
instructions, by the Secretary of State for the Colonies to
Her Majesty’s representative in Victoria, on any subject
whatsoever connected with the local government, except the
oiving or withholding of the Royal assent to or the reserva-
tion of Bills passed by the two Houses of the Victorian
Parliament, is a practice not sanctioned by law, derogatory
to the independence of the Queen’s representative, and
a violation both of the principles of the system of responsible
sovernment and of the constitutional rights of the people
nf this Colony.’
This resolution, though carried by forty votes to eighteen
against the Government of Victoria, had not. he admitted,
t Parliamentary Debates, ix. 2670, 2671. For Mr. Higinbotham’s speech
on it, see Morris, pp. 160-89. Cf. below, p. 621.
