uld revert to
the Crown. A committee was appointed to prepare the bill on the subject
of the surrender by His Majesty of the casual and territorial revenues
of the province. The House of Assembly had previously passed a
resolution that the sum of fourteen thousand pounds required by His
Majesty's government as a permanent grant for the surrender of the
casual and territorial revenues of the province was greater than the
charges contemplated to be thereon required, yet that the great desire
of the House of Assembly to have this important subject finally settled
should induce them to accept the proposal contained in Mr. Stanley's
despatch. On the day after this resolution was passed, the
lieutenant-governor communicated to the House of Assembly an extract
from a despatch received the previous day by him from the Right
Honourable Mr. Stanley, dated January 4th, 1834. This extract was as
follows:--

"In your message communicating to the assembly the proposal contained in
my despatch of the 30th September, you will take care distinctly to
explain that the payments expected from the New Brunswick Land Company
are not included in the revenue which is offered to the acceptance of
the assembly." It is with great regret that an historian of this period
must record the receipt of such a despatch from an imperial head of
department to a colonial governor, for the spirit displayed in the
message was not that of an enlightened statesman, but such as might have
been expected from one who was endeavouring to drive the hardest
possible bargain with the province of New Brunswick, in order that a
number of officials, swollen with pride and enjoying enormous salaries,
might not suffer.

{NEGOTIATIONS FAIL}

A few days after the receipt of this despatch, a resolution was passed
by the House in committee, regretting that the additional condition
contained in Mr. Stanley's last despatch would prevent the committee
recommending to the House further action in the matter of preparing a
civil list bill. Thus ended the attempt to settle this vexed question in
the year 1834. The House of Assembly, however, still continued to
agitate the matter, and to make Sir Archibald Campbell's life a burden
to him. On March 7th, they addressed him, asking for accounts in detail
of the casual and territorial revenues, and calling for a number of
statements which they had not received except in such a shape that they
could not be properly understood. They als