618 PARLIAMENTS OF THE DOMINIONS [PART 11 
was no real possibility of a settlement of the situation. 
The Council took an opportunity of pressing for the presence 
in the Council of two or, if possible. more ministers, so as 
to ensure the harmonious working of the Houses and tend 
to prevent the danger of collisions. 
The departure of the delegation was postponed owing to 
further attempts to settle the matters by discussion, and 
when sent it consisted only of Mr. Berry, the Premier, and 
of Professor C. H. Pearson, a member of the Assembly. 
The Governor, in a dispatch of November 22, 1878, 
expressed much regret at the disapproval which had been 
conveyed to him in the Secretary of State’s dispatch of 
August 25, 1878.2 He argued at length that his action had 
been entirely in accordance with the principles of seli- 
government. He had understood that he was expected to 
act on those principles, though of course, had he known 
that he was intended to resist the proposals of the Assembly 
he would readily have done so. The action he had taken had 
been entirely in accord with the instructions which he 
had received as Governor of Queensland from the Duke of 
Newcastle, which he quoted as follows :— 
The general principle by which the Governor of a Colony 
possessing responsible government is to be guided is this : 
that when Imperial interests are concerned, he is to consider 
himself the guardian of those interests ; but in matters of 
purely local politics he is bound, except in extreme cases, 
to follow the advice of a Ministry which appears to possess 
the confidence of the Legislature. But extreme cases are 
those which cannot be reduced to any recognized principle, 
arising in circumstances which it is impossible or unwise to 
anticipate, and of which the full force can in general be 
estimated only by persons in immediate contact with them. 
The Duke of Newcastle further defined the ‘extreme 
cases ’ referred to by him as 
such extreme and exceptional circumstances as would 
warrant a military or naval officer in taking some critical 
step against or beyond his orders. Like such an officer, the 
Governor who took so unusual a course in the absence of 
Parl, Pap., C. 2217, p. 42. 4 Ibid., C. 2173, p. 99.