CHAP. vir] RELATIONS OF THE HOUSES 621 
on the plea that a Protectionist Colony had nothing to 
exhibit. Land Acts had been amended so as to favour the 
capitalist class. The last Land Act of 1878 had reduced to 
six from twenty years the period within which the original 
selectors of Crown land could alienate the land so selected. 
The Assembly energetically supported the Governor, and 
claimed that he had acted in full accordance with the 
principles of popular government. 
On December 27, 18781 the Governor reported that the 
deputation was starting, but that the Legislative Council 
had declined to send a deputation. He added with pleasure 
that it showed a great change in the spirit of the Assembly 
that they should be willing to refer to the Imperial Govern- 
ment in contrast to the resolutions adopted in 1869 by 
Mr. Higinbotham, one of which had laid down — 
That the official communication of advice, suggestions, or 
instructions by the Secretary of State for the Colonies to 
Her Majesty’s Representative in Victoria on any subject 
whatsoever connected with the administration of the local 
Government, except the giving or withholding the royal 
assent to or the reservation of Bills passed by the two 
Houses of the Victorian Parliament, is a practice not sanc- 
tioned by law, derogatory to the independence of the Queen’s 
Representative, and a violation both of the principles of the 
System of responsible government and of the constitutional 
rights of the people of this Colony. 
He expressed his opinion that the Second Chamber in the 
Australian Colonies should be created by nomination rather 
than election. 
A nominated Upper House, he thought, followed the 
Practice of the House of Lords and adopted its precedents. 
Moreover, Lord Canterbury, the Governor’s predecessor in 
the Government of Victoria, who was experienced in the 
Imperial Legislature and the Colonial administration alike, 
thought that the position and mutual relations of the Council 
and Assembly should be, for all practical purposes and so 
far as the circumstances of the case permitted, analogous to 
those of the House of Lords and of the House of Commons. 
t Parl. Pap., C. 2217, p. 73.