§ MR. ADDERLEYsaid, he had understood the noble Earl at the head of the Colonies to have said, that with the additional information now before the Government he saw no difficulty in preparing draught ordinances to be passed at the Cape, which he hoped speedily to transmit to that colony, and that the Governor, with these draught ordinances, would be relieved from the real responsibility of deciding on the matter, and with a council of eight would feel no difficulty in getting two additional members to give to him the necessary technical and formal power to pass the Ordinances. He begged to ask the noble Lord opposite if he were right in understanding that to mean that the draught constitution now about to be sent out to the Cape was to be sent out complete in all its details, and according to any scheme laid before the House in papers already presented to it; if not, whether he would lay it before the House before the Session closed? Whether it contained anything relating to a change of the seat of Government at the Cape, or a separation of the eastern and western provinces of South Africa? Whether it had to pass through the usual several stages in legislation in the Council, or be merely submitted to their acceptance or rejection by one vote? Whether it might be discussed and altered 1318 in the Legislative Council? Whether it must be referred home for final sanction? Whether it was to be postponed till after the conclusion of the Kaffir war?
§ LORD JOHN RUSSELLstated, in reply, that the draught constitution would be sent out complete in all its details, not literally according to any particular scheme contained in papers presented to the House, but combined from various suggestions that had been made, and from various papers that had been received. He did not think that it would be completed in time to be laid upon the table of the House before the close of the present Session. The change of the seat of Government was a matter for the prerogative of the Crown, in which the Governor would act according to the instructions which he might from time to time receive. There would not be any provision for the separation of the eastern and western provinces of South Africa, but it would be left to the discretion of the colonists themselves, acting through the Representative Assembly. It would be passed through the several stages, and perhaps might be discussed and altered in the Legislative Council, but he did not expect that any material alteration would be made. It must be referred home for final sanction. He could not say anything more with respect to its being postponed until after the Kaffir war, than he had already stated to the House at different times. It would depend upon the circumstances of that war, and its probable duration.