§ MR. R. N. FOWLERasked the Under Secretary of State for the Colonies, Whether his attention has been called to the circumstance that a Bill for giving responsible Government to the Cape Colony was passed by the casting vote of the chairman of the Committee of the Legislative Council; if he can inform the House, whether Sir Henry Barkly will dissolve the Cape Parliament, in order to ascertain the feeling of the Colony on the question; and, whether it is the intention of the Home Government to advise Her Majesty to withhold Her Royal Assent pending such dissolution?
§ MR. KNATCHBULL-HUGESSENI should be very unfit for the position which I hold if my attention had not been called to a most important event which has occurred in one of our most important Colonies. The Bill for conferring responsible government upon the Cape was last year negatived in the Legislative Council by a majority of 1. This year it has been carried by a similar majority, the fact being that in the interval two Members who had op- 1754 posed the Bill last year consulted their constituents, and, finding a preponderating feeling in favour of responsible government, supported the Bill this year. In the Lower House the Bill was last year passed by a considerable majority, which has been increased in the present year. Her Majesty's Government see no reason for advising a dissolution of Parliament, or for taking any other course than recommending the sanction of the Crown to be given to a measure properly and constitutionally passed.