ve Council, composed of wealthy men, who had been
elected by the wealthier part of the community, thought, after careful
decision, that any such plan would ruin the commerce of the colony
without much benefiting its industries. They therefore rejected the
proposed bill.

M'Culloch tried to persuade them to pass it, but they were obstinate. He
then resorted to a trick which is in itself objectionable, but which is
perhaps excusable when the great body of the people wish a certain thing
and a small body like the Legislative Council are resolved to thwart
them. It is part of our constitutional law that all bills dealing with
money matters must be prepared in the Lower House; the Upper House can
then accept them or reject them as they stand, but is not allowed to
alter them.

Now, once a year Parliament has to pass a bill called the Appropriation
Act, by which authority is given to the Government to spend the public
money in the various ways that Parliament directs. In 1865 M'Culloch put
the whole of the Protective Tariff Bill into the Appropriation Act as if
it were a part of that Act, though really it had nothing to do with it.
The Legislative Assembly passed the Appropriation Act with this
insertion. The Legislative Council now found itself in a most unlucky
position. If it passed the Appropriation Act it would also pass the
Protective Tariff Bill, which it detested. But if it rejected the
Appropriation Act, then the Government would have no authority to pay
away any money, and so all the officers of the State, the civil
servants and the policemen, the teachers, the gaolers, the surveyors
and the tide-waiters, would all have to go on for a year without any
salaries. There was no middle course open, for the Council could not
alter the Appropriation Act and then pass it.

Whether was it to pass the Act and make the protective tariff the law of
the land; or reject it, and run the risk of making a number of innocent
people starve? It chose the latter alternative, and threw out the bill.
The whole country became immensely excited, and seemed like one debating
club, where men argued warmly either for or against the Council.

Matters were becoming serious, when the Ministry discovered an ingenious
device for obtaining money. According to British law, if a man is unable
to obtain from the Government what it owes him, he sues for it in the
Supreme Court; and then, if this Court decides in his favour, it orders
the money to be