me with a tremendous opposition when the Assembly meet I am not alarmed. I have stood fire before to-day, and I know I have many friends as well as opponents in the Assembly.
"We have just completed a despatch for the Secretary of State upon this very matter, in reference to his instructions generally and recommending most important alterations in them. I will show him your note.—Believe me yours faithully,"Charles Cowper."
On another point we had a more serious difference with he Governor. The Opposition Press affirmed that we were making improper magistrates: the statement was quite unfunded, but at the next meeting of the Executive Council the Governor informed us that before issuing commissions to any new magistrates he felt it his duty to take the opinion of the Chief Justice on the men proposed. This was not Responsible Government, and my colleagues authorised me to draw up a minute on their behalf to the Governor on the subject, which I did, and we heard no more of the matter.
The first task the Government undertook was to carry to a successful issue the question of electoral reform, which had failed in the hands of their predecessors. Two Bills were introduced, one extending the number of members to ninety, and framing electorates as far as it was practicable to contain four thousand electors each. The increase of the population, and the difficulty of furnishing sufficient members for select committees justified this change. The measure appeared to give general satisfaction, and after undergoing the most careful scrutiny and some modifications in committee, had its third reading passed unanimously. The other was a Bill regulating elections. It had been found necessary to make the representation of minorities an open question in the Cabinet. The Bill did not provide for it, but it was arranged that an independent member should move the necessary clauses, and the members of the Government who approved of the principle were at liberty to support it with all their strength. When the Reform Bill, as the first measure was called, went to the Upper House it was encountered with a decided resistance. Some declared that ninety members
