RESPONSIBLE GOVERNMENT [PART I 
making the Colonies pay for their own defence had been 
adopted elsewhere and should be applied to the Cape, nor 
could the financial difficulties of the Cape be regarded as 
excusing the payment for their own defence. It was 
therefore intended at once to diminish the forces in the Cape 
to three battalions and to support them for the year 1867 
free of charge. In 1868 two battalions only would be 
supported free of cost, and for the third the Colony must be 
willing to pay at the Australian rate of £40 a man. In 1869 
one battalion only would be supplied without charge; in 
1870 all soldiers must be paid for, and in 1871-2 the full rates 
of £40 for an infantryman and £70 for an artilleryman would 
be payable, and the whole arrangement would be recon- 
sidered after 1872. The terms offered were recommended 
for acceptance with a distinct intimation that they were the 
best which would be accorded. 
Sir P. Wodehouse replied on J uly 16, 1867.1 He forwarded 
resolutions from the whole House of Parliament, in which 
they protested against the withdrawal on the ground that 
the policy of the Government was not within their control, 
and that the measures taken by the Government were the 
cause of the military dangers from the natives which rendered 
necessary the maintenance of the troops. The Governor 
criticized the representations of the Legislature unfavourably, 
but he advanced other grounds for the retention of the troops 
at the Imperial expense. Responsible government was not 
really desired by the Colony, but the position of the Execu- 
tive Government under the present form of constitution was 
such that nothing could be weaker or more objectionable, 
and without Imperial troops no Governor not supported 
by a responsible ministry could regulate the affairs of the 
country at all. He referred to the difficulties existing 
between the two races in the Colony, and he declared that 
if the troops were to be entrusted to the dominant party in 
the Legislature the whole of the troops should be withdrawn, 
and not left to be disposed of by a Government which the 
Imperial Government could not in any way control. 
! Parl. Pap., H. C. 181, 1870, 1. 3. 
£9