“Hap. vir] RELATIONS OF THE HOUSES 619
instructions from home would not be necessarily wrong, but
he would necessarily act at his own peril. If the question
were one in which Imperial interests were concerned, it would
be for the Home Government to consider whether his exceptional
 measure had been right and prudent. If the question
were one in which Colonial interests were alone or principally
concerned, he would also make himself in a certain sense
responsible to the Colonists, who might justify the course
he had taken, and even prove their gratitude to him for
having taken it, by supporting him against the ministers
Whose advice he had rejected; but who on the other hand,
if they perseveringly supported those ministers, might ultimately
 succeed in making it impossible for him to carry on
the government, and thus, perhaps, necessitate his recall.
The Duke of Newcastle added these very significant
remarks —

In granting responsible government to the larger Colonies
of Great Britain, the Imperial Government were fully aware
that the power they granted must occasionally be used
amiss, but they have always trusted that the errors of a free
government would cure themselves, and that the Colonists
would be led to exert greater energy and circumspection in
legislation and government when they were made to feel
that they would not be rescued from the consequences of any
imprudence merely affecting themselves by authoritative
Intervention of the Crown or of the Governor.
It was absolutely impossible for him to form another
Ministry in view of the strength of the governmental party,
and he had carried out in practice the conviction expressed
by Lord Elgin while Governor-General of Canada, of the
Supreme importance of keeping the Imperial Government,
at whatever cost or risk to the Governor personally, aloof
from and above the strife of Colonial parties. He did not
Pretend to approve all the measures of his Government, but
his action had been in harmony with that of Lord Elgin in
1848-511 and Lord Dufferin in 1873, and the action of the
Crown in England in removing a Ministry in the confidence
of the House of Commons in 1834 had been disapproved by
a0 eminent writer.
* Cf, Walrond, Letters and Journals of Lord Elgin, pp. 70 seq,
See above, 1. 223. 1, 2, und of. Maxwell, Century of Empire, ii. 37, 33.