CHAP. viii] RELATIONS OF THE HOUSES 623
claim which he put forward, while the offer made to him
was sufficient to meet any claim arising from any misunder-
standing regarding the permanency of his employment.
In replying on February 21, 1879,! the Secretary of State
said that he had been unable to advise Her Majesty in respect
to the prayer of Mr. Gordon’s petition, it being one which lay
within the jurisdiction of the Governor and Executive Council.
Mr. Berry, on arrival in England, addressed the Secretary
of State on February 26, 18792 in a letter in which he
criticized the Secretary of State’s dispatch of October 1,
1878,% expressing his views that no cause had been shown
for the intervention of the Imperial Parliament. He said
that, in view of the position taken up by the Council, which
would make no concession, Her Majesty’s Government would
no doubt be willing to interpose to solve the difficulties which
were otherwise arising. He also made representations to the
Secretary of State, who indicated his decision on the whole
question on May 3, 1879.4 to the Marquess of Normanby.
In that dispatch he declined to propose Imperial legislation ;
he considered that there was no desire in the Colony to
reduce the Council to a sham and give the Assembly a com-
plete practical supremacy, uncontrolled even by the sense
of sole responsibility which might exert a beneficial influence
on the action of a single Chamber.
He pointed out that the difficulties had arisen with regard
to finance, but this difficulty would not arise if the two
Houses of Victoria were guided in this matter, as in others,
by the practice of the Imperial Parliament, the Council
following the practice of the House of Lords and the Assembly
that of the House of Commons. The Assembly, like the
House of Commons, would claim and in practice exercise
the right of granting aids and supplies to the Crown, of
limiting the matter, manner, measure, and time of such
grants, and of so framing Bills of Supply that these rights
* Parl. Pap., C. 2339, p. 13. Cf. Mr. Gaunt’s case, C. 2173, pp. 78, 84.
Ibid., p. 13, ¢ Parl. Pap., C. 2217, p. 20.
! Parl, Pap., C. 2339, p. 20. Cf. South Australia Assembly Debates.
1911, p. 103
