10 RESPONSIBLE GOVERNMENT [PART I 
nearly responsible government! surrendered its legislature 
in 1866, a surrender which was accepted and ratified by an 
Act of the Imperial Parliament, it being held that the grant 
of a constitution did not include the right to destroy that 
constitution. Similarly, in 1876,2 Tobago, Grenada, and 
St. Vincent surrendered their independent legislatures, while 
in the case of the Leeward Islands, Antigua, Dominica, 
Montserrat, St. Kitts, Nevis, and the Virgin Islands, the 
process of surrender which began in the middle of the 
nineteenth century, and which was accelerated by the 
federation of the group in 1871,% became complete in 1898, 
when the financial pressure which had been the cause of 
the earlier modifications of the constitutions ended in the 
surrender by Antigua and Dominica of the representative 
character of their legislatures. British Honduras also in 
1870 consented to a modification of its constitution under 
which the legislative power was vested in a nominee Council, 
though in 1853 a Legislative Assembly had been formally 
constituted consisting of eighteen elective and three nomi- 
nated members, and replacing the informal gathering, first 
of all the people, and later of a limited number, which had 
governed a Colony which had originally existed merely on 
sufferance as a body of logwood cutters, but which eventu- 
ally was recognized as a full Colony. 
British Guiana, after long disputes with the Imperial 
Government, retains in financial matters a certain amount 
of independence, but the independence is strictly limited, 
for not only can the Crown legislate by Order in Council in 
general matters, but even in financial matters the power 
which is granted to the Legislature to criticize freely the 
estimates and generally to deal with financial questions, is 
seriously limited by the fact that it is only granted by an 
Order in Council. renewed from time to time, which renders 
! House of Lords Papers, 1864, xiii. 205; Imperial Act, 29 & 30 Vict. 
c. 12. 2 See the acceptance in 39 & 40 Vict. c. 47. 
* 34 & 35 Vict. e. 107. Originally all the islands had bicameral 
legislatures, but first they were by Act reduced to unicameral, then the 
Assemblies turned themselves into Councils nominated by the Governor.