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Convened specially for this object, with a dissolution certain at a very early period, it will appear improper that the Council should entertain any larger or more permanent measure than the immediate circumstances demand."

The Superintendent is of opinion that it is the duty of the Council to advise on any subject involving the interests of the Province, and he regrets to find that the opinion entertained by the Council appears to be so widely different. He thinks that the objects to be attained by a meeting of the Council were those:—

1st. To enquire into, and fully to discuss and consider the financial circumstances of the Province, in order that the whole community might be thoroughly informed on the subject.

2nd. To consider the proper mode of meeting outstanding liabilities.

3rd. To determine the best way of meeting contingent liabilities.

The first object has been fully attained. With regard to the second, the Council has approved of a mode, which the Government had adopted to a limited extent and authorised the payment of interest on such claims, a course which the Government was scarcely authorised to take in absence of the sanction of the Council. On the 30th June, these outstanding liabilities were about £30,000.

With reference to the contingent liabilities which are estimated at £135,000, gradually falling due in the next three or four months, in Message No. 5, the Superintendent, stated what he believed it to be simply a fact, that the only practicable proposal for meeting these, had been made by the Provincial Treasurer, and that the Council rejected the proposal; he therefore requested the Council to suggest some other mode of meeting those liabilities as it disapproved of the mode, which had been submitted for its consideration.

This advice, the Council declines to give—first on a point of punctilio, as a matter beyond the sphere of its duty; and next, to quote the words of the answer, because "the Council having failed to establish any satisfactory connection with the Executive Government, and being therefore deprived of any effective control over the expenditure, it would be unwilling to entrust to a Government in which it has ceased to have confidence any power, not absolutely necessary for the conduct of the business of the Province, during the short interval for which it will control them."

It is of importance to ascertain the reasons, on account of which the Council has failed to establish any satisfactory connection with the Executive Government. It should bear in mind that in the beginning of the Session of February, 1864, the question of relative power of the Superintendent and the Executive were keenly discussed in the Council. After a tedious discussion, and various messages and communications, the Council agreed on the 22nd February, to a resolution embodying the following terms:—

—"That it is the opinion of this House that under the provisions of the Provincial Government Ordinance No. 3, 1862, all power that can be legally conferred by the said Ordinance should be administered by the Superintendent only, with the advice and consent of an Executive Council; more especially it is the opinion of this Council that all monies appropriated by it should be expended under the supervision of an Executive Council chosen from its members, who will be responsible to this Council."

To the propositions contained in this resolution, the Superintendent agreed, as expressed in his Message of 23rd February, 1864; and on the basis of this agreement an Executive was formed without delay. By a reference to the reply of the Council to the address of the Superintendent in February, it will be seen that the Council at first made extreme claims for entire control, which, after discussion and consideration, it waived, and finally agreed to the terms of the resolution above quoted. In the present session, however, it has, in disregard of its own resolution, reverted to the extreme views which were held in the beginning of last session, which were opposed by the Superintendent, and which were modified in order to produce an agreement between the parties.

The Council must have been fully aware that a reversion to those views would necessarily lead to a difference of opinion with the Superintendent. It does not appear to think that it is bound to adhere to the Resolution above quoted. On the other hand the Superintendent does not consider that he is released from the obligation of observing it, and his memoranda to Mr. Pearson in July, will be found to harmonize with it.

If the Council should adhere to the opinion expressed in the resolution, the Superintendent knows of no valid reason to prevent the formation of an Executive Council now, any more than existed when an Executive was formed, after the resolution was agreed to, and if in this session the Council had desired in all sincerity to form an Executive in conformity with that resolution, the Superintendent is convinced that it would have