1046 ADMINISTRATION AND LEGISLATION [PART V 
would involve the Imperial Government in liability for 
matters of the control of which it has divested itself, and for 
which the Colony has accepted full responsibility. 
17. In the present circumstances of Newfoundland there 
are special reasons of the greatest importance which preclude 
Her Majesty’s Government from taking such a departure 
from recognized constitutional principles and usage as the 
memorialists desire. 
18. You have stated in your dispatch of the 30th of April 
last, that the language used by the responsible Finance 
Minister of the Colony, in the speech in support of the Con- 
tract which he delivered from his place in the Assembly, 
implied clearly that if the measure was rejected the Colony 
would be unable to meet its immediate financial obligations. 
19. Neither in your dispatches nor in the memorials is 
this assertion challenged, and it is obvious that if Her 
Majesty’s Government were to annul a measure seriously 
declared by the person who is in the best position to know 
to be essential to the continued solvency of the Colony, the 
creditors of Newfoundland would not fail to fasten on Her 
Majesty’s Government responsibility for the consequences 
of their action. 
20. As I have already said, the debts of the Colony have 
been incurred solely on the credit of the Colony, and any 
step which would transfer responsibility for them in the 
slightest degree to the Imperial Government would entail 
consequences which would not be confined to Newfoundland, 
and which Her Majesty’s Government would not under any 
circumstances be justified in contemplating. 
21. The considerations which preclude me from advising 
Her Majesty to disallow the Act apply equally to the alter- 
native request, that I should defer tendering advice to Her 
Majesty in regard to it until the people of the Colony have had 
an opportunity of expressing their views upon the measure. 
22. The Act is already in force, and the Contract to which 
it gives effect has been in part already performed, and the 
continuing obligation of the Contractor would not be sus- 
pended until Her Majesty's pleasure was finally declared. 
It remains in full force till the Act is disallowed or repealed. 
It would be unjust therefore to the Contractor, and would 
only add to the already heavy liabilities of the Colony, to 
accede to the prayers of the petitions. 
23. The question of the propriety of a dissolution is not 
one upon which I can advise ; it is entirely a matter for the 
Governor and his advisers.