CHAP. 1] ORIGIN AND HISTORY 47 
votes in favour of responsible government. The Bill was 
carried in the Lower House by thirty-five to twenty-five 
votes, and the Governor was delighted by the result. But 
the eastern members of the Council were so naturally indig- 
nant at the acceptance of so important a measure by so 
narrow a majority—they had cleverly managed, by placing 
one of the majority who passed the second reading in the 
chair, to compel the majority to carry all motions in com- 
mittee by the chairman’s casting vote—that they entered a 
weighty protest against the acceptance of responsible govern- 
ment as far as the eastern province was concerned. To tell 
the truth, it was clear that a general election might properly 
have taken place, not that it would have reversed the result, 
but that it would have placed it on a basis more secure than 
the very slight majority obtained in the Council! 
The Bill was a brief one, and merely made it possible 
for officers of the Government in certain positions to sit in 
either House of Parliament, and provided that the Crown 
should fix pensions for officers who would retire on political 
grounds, viz. the Colonial Secretary, the Treasurer, and the 
Attorney-General. The Secretary of State gladly secured 
the royal assent to the reserved Bill, and issued new letters 
patent re-appointing Sir H. Barkly to be Governor. The 
Colonial Secretary was not prepared to face an attempt 
at election to Parliament, and the Governor sent for the 
leader of the movement in favour of responsible government, 
Mr. Porter, who, however, was unable on grounds of age to 
form a ministry, and accordingly the Governor selected 
Mr. Molteno for the task, which he successfully carried out. 
At the same time the Governor, following the precedent he 
himself had set in Victoria, retained as an executive councillor 
the officer commanding the troops in the Cape, who was 
destined to succeed to the administration in the absence or 
incapacity of the Governor. The party opposed to respon- 
sible government continued to petition the Crown, but the 
Secretary of State declined? to accept their views in favour 
* Parl. Pap., C. 732, pp. 8 seq., 21 seq., 60 seq. 
* Thid., pp. 161 seq. ; H. L. 286, 1872.