the lieutenant-governor in council should not have felt himself
authorized to communicate to the House the despatch of the Right
Honourable the Secretary of State for the Colonies, of January 5th,
1845, relative to the appropriation of the surplus civil list, in answer
to the address of the House of Assembly of March 14th, 1845, whereby the
House was prevented from representing, by an humble and dutiful address
to Her Majesty, that such appropriation was not in accordance with the
despatch of the Right Honourable the Secretary of State for the Colonies
of August 31st, 1836.

"2d. _Resolved_, As the opinion of this committee, that any funds
necessary to carry out the fourth article of the Treaty of Washington,
being a national treaty with a foreign power, ought not to be chargeable
upon the funds of this province; and that the House should, by an humble
and dutiful address to Her Majesty, pray that any appropriation made for
that purpose from the surplus civil list fund may be refunded to the
same."

CHAPTER IX

THE VICTORY IS WON

The session of 1848 was destined to be a memorable one in the history of
responsible government in New Brunswick. It was evident that with the
House as then constituted no progress could be made unless a change were
brought about in the views of some of its members by outside pressure.
In this instance the pressure came from the imperial government, which
desired to bring the political condition of New Brunswick into line with
that of Canada and Nova Scotia. In March, 1847, Earl Grey, the colonial
secretary, addressed a despatch to Sir John Harvey, the governor of Nova
Scotia, in which he laid down the principles which he thought should
control colonial administration. The most important feature of this
despatch was its declaration with reference to the composition of the
executive council. With regard to office-holders in general, Earl Grey
thought that they ought not to be disturbed in consequence of any change
of government, but he was of opinion that a different rule should apply
to such officials as were members of the executive council. On this
point he adopted the language of Mr. Poulett Thomson (Lord Sydenham),
who, in a despatch to Lord John Russell, written at Halifax, in the
year 1840, said:--

"The functions of the executive council, on the other hand, are, it is
perfectly clear, of a totally different character; they are a body upon
whom the governor must be able to