CHAP. 1] ORIGIN AND HISTORY 43 
~ This vigorous protest induced the Duke of Buckingham 
in his reply of December 9, 1867, to promise that in view 
of the financial difficulties of the Colony no steps should be 
taken to insist on payment in respect of the year 1868, and 
the matter was for the moment shelved. But it was revived 
in 1869 by a dispatch of July 2, 1869,2 in which the Governor 
requested the Imperial Government to consider and adopt 
some general policy with regard to the South African 
territories and their administration. In reply, Lord Gran- 
ville in a dispatch of December 9 2 placed before the Governor 
two alternatives. He pointed out that the Governor had 
been unable to induce the Legislature to bring order into 
the finances of the country, while again their proposals for 
financial changes had not met with his approval. The 
Imperial Government were not willing to continue to bear 
the cost of the military defence of the Cape, and would with- 
draw one regiment in 1870-1 and another in 1871-2, leaving 
one regiment only for the protection of Simon’s Bay. The 
Governor was therefore asked to place before the Legislature 
the alternatives of placing more power in the hands of the 
Executive or of adopting the system of responsible govern- 
ment. 
On January 17, 1870,1 the Governor replied. He expressed 
very strongly the view that the present constitution was 
unsatisfactory, but he deprecated responsible government, 
which he deemed to be an absolute contradiction in terms. 
How could a ministry responsible to its own constituencies 
render obedience to the permanent power ? The issue 
between them might be shirked or postponed, but it must 
come. Responsible government he had always held to be 
applicable only to communities fast advancing to fitness for 
absolute independence, and he thought that the course of 
events in British North America, Australia, New Zealand, 
and Jamaica had gone very far to establish that view. He 
looked upon the country as entirely unsuited for indepen- 
dence, and he could not satisfy himself of the justice or 
* Parl. Pap., H. C. 181, 1870, p. 13. * Thbid., p. 14. 
* Ibid., p. 15. * Ibid., pp. 17, 18 seq.