ies. It is greatly important to
the advancement of the country that these should be instructed."

{MONEY VOTES}

The initiation of money grants by the executive, and the responsibility
of the latter to the people, are the two corner-stones on which
responsible government must rest. From the very first, Wilmot was an
earnest advocate of both these measures; but, owing to the apathy of the
people and the disinclination of the members of the legislature to give
up what they considered their privileges, it was a difficult matter to
accomplish these objects. A reference to the journals of the legislature
will show that on numerous occasions he pressed these subjects on the
attention of the House of Assembly, and he was ably assisted by his
colleague from the county of York, Mr. Charles Fisher, who deserves a
foremost place among the men who should be honoured for their efforts to
bring about responsible government in the colonies of British North
America. It was a peculiar feature in the struggle for responsible
government in New Brunswick that, before it ended, the opposition to it
came not so much from the British government as from the members of the
provincial legislature. It was evident that the system of appropriating
money which existed in the House of Assembly was one which was wrong in
principle and resulted in getting the province into debt, because there
was no guiding hand to control the expenditure. The transfer of the
casual and territorial revenues to the provincial treasury in 1837 had
placed a very large sum, amounting to about L150,000, at the disposal of
the legislature, but this sum was speedily dissipated; and in the year
1842, when Sir William Colebrooke became lieutenant-governor of the
province, its finances were in an embarrassed condition.

Towards the close of 1841, a despatch was received from Lord Stanley,
the colonial secretary, suggesting that it was desirable that a better
system of appropriating the funds of the province should be inaugurated.
This brought up a discussion in the legislature during the session of
1842 in regard to the propriety of adopting the principle of placing the
initiation of money grants in the executive council. Mr. Wilmot moved a
resolution in committee of the whole House "that no appropriation of
public money should be made at any future session in supply, for any
purpose whatever, until there be a particular account of the income and
expenditure of the previous ye