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the Legislature the whole of the troops should be withdrawn,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.
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