cuap. 11] CONTROL OVER INTERNAL AFFAIRS 1047 
24. While I am unable to advise Her Majesty to grant the 
prayer of the petitions, this decision must not be understood 
as an expression of opinion on the merits of the Contract, or 
on the action of the Government and the Legislature in 
connexion with it. My opinion on these points has already 
been made known to the inhabitants of Newfoundland by 
the publication of my dispatch of March 23, in which I com- 
mented on the extraordinary and unparalleled character 
of the Contract, and the serious consequences which may 
result from it. 
25. My action has throughout been governed solely by 
constitutional principles, on which I am bound to act, and 
I think it desirable that it should be made quite clear that, 
in accepting the privilege of self-government, the Colony 
has accepted the full responsibilities inseparable from that 
privilege, and that if the machinery it has provided for the 
work of legislation and administration has proved defective, 
»r the persons to whom it has entrusted its destinies have 
failed to discharge their trust, they cannot look to Her 
Majesty’s Government to supplement or remedy these 
defects, or to judge between them and their duly chosen 
representatives. 
26. I have to request that you will publish this dispatch 
for the information of those who have signed the petitions. 
There is perhaps no more striking proof of the freedom 
given in local matters to the Colonies than the treatment 
of the land question. In 1840 (3 & 4 Vict. c. 35) and 1847 
10 & 11 Vict. c. 71) the Canadian Parliament received 
complete control of the lands which were situated in those 
provinces, and the plan adopted in every case of the grant 
of responsible government to the Maritime Provinces took 
the form of a grant of full rights over the lands in exchange 
for a civil list. In 1847 two Acts of Nova Scotia regarding 
Crown lands failed to obtain the royal assent, but after an 
Act of 1848 (c. 21) an Act of 1849 (c. 1) was assented to, and 
therefore the matter was disposed of. In 1851 (c. 3) the 
control of lands in Prince Edward Island was surrendered 
in exchange for a civil list. In 1852 an Imperial Act was 
passed to make good the grants in these cases, as it had been 
realized that the Crown in the United Kingdom had sur- 
rendered to the consolidated fund by the operation of the