ar, together with an estimate of the sums
required to be expended, as well for ordinary as extraordinary services,
respectively, and also a particular estimate of the principal amount of
revenue for the ensuing year." To this an amendment was moved by Mr.
Partelow that "Whereas the present mode of appropriation, tested by an
experience of more than fifty years, has not only given satisfaction to
the people of this province, but repeatedly attracted the deserved
approbation of the colonial ministers as securing its constitutional
position to every branch of the legislature, therefore resolved, as the
opinion of this committee, that it is not expedient to make any
alteration in the same." This amendment was carried by a vote of
eighteen to twelve.

{AN ABUSE UPHELD}

Such an amendment as that passed by the House of Assembly of New
Brunswick in 1842 would now only be an object of ridicule, because, as a
matter of fact, the financial condition of the province showed that the
system of appropriation which prevailed was based on false principles,
while the alleged approval of the colonial ministers of which so much
account was made, had been extended to the most illiberal features of
the constitution. There was, however, some excuse for the reluctance of
the members of the House of Assembly to surrender the initiation of
money votes to the executive, because the executive council of that day
was not a body properly under the control of the legislature, or in
sympathy with the people.

When the House met in 1843, it was seen that the friends of responsible
government were still in the minority. Yet they brought up the subject
of the appropriation of the public moneys by a resolution which sought
to fix the responsibility of the expenditure on the government. This was
met by an amendment moved by Mr. J. W. Weldon, that the House would not
surrender the initiation of the money votes. The amendment was carried
by a vote of twenty-four to seven, which showed that the friends of
Reform had still much leeway to make up before they could hope to
impress their views upon the legislature.

{SPEECH ON APPROPRIATIONS}

As it was hopeless to expect that a House of Assembly thus constituted
would vote in favour of the transfer of the initiation of money grants
to the executive, Wilmot did not bring up the subject again during the
remainder of its term; but by the operation of the Quadrennial Act,
which came into force in 1846, a new