may be most acceptable to the bulk of her subjects; and in order to ascertain their wants upon this point, the commissioner will be instructed to invite the unreserved expression of their opinions and wishes, in respect to the judicial and other local institutions under which they may desire to be placed, and he will be authorized to assure them that such expressions, when submitted to Her Majesty, will receive Her Majesty's most favourable consideration, as I am empowered to say that the contentment of the emigrants, rather than the abstract merits of these institutions, will guide the decision of Her Majesty's Ministers.

"It is, however, to be distinctly understood that, upon the question of legislation, Her Majesty reserves to herself the most entire freedom of action.

be sanctioned upon the natives residing beyond the limits of the colony, under any plea whatever, by any private person or any body of men, unless acting under the immediate authority and orders of the Government.

"3rd. That slavery in any shape, or under any modification, is absolutely unlawful, as in every other portion of Her Majesty's dominions.

"So essential, indeed, to the mind of Her Majesty's Government, are these conditions, that I am instructed to take especial care for it to be distinctly understood, that they are indispensable preliminaries to the permission which it is proposed to give to the emigrants to occupy the territory of Port Natal, and to enjoy therein a settled government under British protection.

'In the course of a few days my arrangements will be completed for the appointment of the commissioner, when I shall be enabled to promulgate by proclamation the general view taken by Her Majesty's Government, and of the mode of dealing with the Natal district, and which I have now communicated to you. In the mean time, I cannot too plainly make known through you, that I am positively restricted, for the present, from the disposal of any land at Natal; and I am further instructed to discourage, to the utmost of my power, any speculative emigration which may be likely to arise on the first intimation that Natal is to be adopted and taken under British protection.

(Signed)

"GEORGE NAPIER, Governor. "Government House, Cape Town, May 4, 1843."

[U]

to preserve between the different branches of the provincial Parliament that harmony which is essential to the peace, welfare, and good government of the province, the chief advisers of the representative of the Sovereign, constituting a provincial administration under him, ought to be men possessed of the confidence of the representatives of the people; thus affording a guarantee that the well-understood wishes and interests of the people, which our gracious Sovereign has declared shall be the rule of the provincial Government, will on all occasions be faithfully represented and advocated.'

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They have lately understood that His Excellency took a widely different view of the position, duties, and responsibilities of the Executive Council from that under which they accepted office, and through which they have been enabled to conduct the parliamentary business of the Government, sustained by a large majority of the popular branch of the Legislature. Had the difference of opinion between His Excellency and themselves, and, as they have reason to believe, between His Excellency and the Parliament and people of Canada generally, been merely theoretical, the members of the late Executive Council might and could have felt it to be their duty to avoid every possibility of collision which might have a tendency to disturb the tranquil and amicable relations which apparently subsisted between the Executive Government and the provincial Parliament. But that difference of opinion has led not merely to appointments to office against their advice, but to appointments and proposals to make appointments of which they were

not informed in any manner until all opportunity of offering advice respecting them had passed by, and to a determination on the part of His Excellency to reserve for the expression of Her Majesty's pleasure thereon, a bill introduced into the provincial Parliament, with His Excellency's knowledge and consent, as a Government measure, without an opportunity being given to the members of the Executive Council to state the probability of such a reservation. They therefore felt themselves in the anomalous position of being, according to their own avowal and solemn public pledges, responsible for all the acts of the Executive Government to Parliament, and at the same time not only without the opportunity of offering advice respecting those acts, but without the knowledge of their existence, until informed of them from private and unofficial sources. When the members of the late Executive Council offered their humble remonstrance to His Excellency on this condition of public affairs, His Excellency not only frankly explained the difference of opinion existing between him and the Council, but stated that, from the time of his arrival in the country, he had observed antagonism between him and them on the subject; and, notwithstanding that the members of the Council repeatedly and distinctly explained to His Excellency that they considered him free to act contrary to their advice, and only claimed an opportunity of giving such advice, and of knowing before others His Excellency's intentions, His Excellency did not in any manner remove the impression left upon their minds by his avowal that there was an antagonism between him