ee

Che Examiner.

AND SEMI-WEEKLY INTELLIGENCER.

" THIS IS TRUE LIBERTY WHEN FREE-BORN MEN—HAVING TO ADVISE THE PUBLIC—MAY SPEAK FREE”

—Muirton’s Evripipgs.

HOUSE OF ASSEMBLY.

, Faipar, March 8. DEBATE ON THE AMENDMENT TO THE

ADDRESS. MR. COLES'S SPEECH CONTINUED.

Ia comarking upon the third paragraph of the Des- patch, which states that “ Her Majesty’s Government is prepared to surrender the Revenues derived from the Spirit Duties, and sale of Crown Lands, and Qhit Rents, when they revertto the Crown, tothe control of the Legisiature, on the reservation by ae of a Civil List, for the year 1849; an they had also, in an Addrags to the Queen, assured Her Majesty of their willingness and desire to make & permament provision for the payment ofan adequate Civil List, upon the

surrender by the Imperial'Government to the Colonial

Legislature in perpetuity of all claims to Permament Revenues, Quit Rents, and Crown Lands, and acced- ing to the establishment of a sound system of Respon- eible Government, applicable to the wants and circum-

wtances of the Colony; and this. essurance of their

predecessora, he believed, the majority of the present ieuse of Assembly, were fully prepared to make good

as goon as ever the Concessions, sought to be obtained

by the minority of the late House, should be made to the Colony by the Imperial Government; but.not till then. Surely it was no more than just and reasonable that the people when called upon by the Imperial Go- vernment, to defray their Civil List, should, though their Representatives in Colonial parliament, be allowed to datermine what salaries would be an adequate recom- pence for the performance of the duties connected wiih the several subordinate Government appointments. So toug as such salaries were defrayed by the Imperial Government, they had a right to make them as large as they pleased. But the moment the burthen was thrown upon the Culony, the amount of salaries to be granted io future, sould, in justice, be determined only by the decision of the Representatives of the people. And this was fully adinitted by the noble Secretary in the seventh paragraph of the Despatch, wherein he says: ‘‘ The amount of this proposed Ctvil List Her Majesty’s Government are prepated to leave wholly to the direc- tion of tho Legislature. ‘They consider the question of the salary to be attached to any particular office under your Government, paid from Colonial funds, as one which belongs to that body in the stage now reached by the community of Prince Edward Island.” Here, said the hon. member, we have fully conceded to us the privilege for which, on this point we contend—the right to determine the amount of Civil List to be paid by the Colony. How absurd, contradictory, and shufiling, is it then, in an antecedent paragraph to insist that, previ- eualy to the surrender to the Colony of the Crown Revenues, the Legislature shall establish a permanent Civil List: that is, that the Imperial Government, and wot the Representatives of the people of Prince Edward island should be constituted judges to decide the question of its adequacy or inadequacy; for, should it appear to them to be insufficient, they would at once refuse to perform their part of the compact; and in the mean time, during the pendency of the question, the iwgiaiature, as in the session of the last year, would be required to prepare a Bill authorizing a grant for the payment of the Civil List for the ensuing year. Were the Legislature, continued the hon. member, in obser- vance of the demand contained in the therd paragraph of the Despatch, to agree (as might be suggested by some) to act so temely and submissively, as annually to make provision for the defraying of the Civil List, until the Insperial Government and they could agree as to what amount should be considered an adequate perma- nent provision; it would not, he thought, be unreason- able to expect that—as the introduction of Responsible Government into the Colony, was to be made dependent upon the settlement of the permanent Civil List to the satiafaction of the Imperial Government—the long suspense might give the old obstructive party an op- portunity to attempt—and perhaps successfully—to represent the present liberal majority in the House, as a set of fellows who have deceived the country by false promises, who were incapable of effecting any good for the Colony, aud who were altogether unworthy any soager to enjoy the support or contidence of the people; pam so they might again firmly re-establish themselves ia the exercise of that power (now almost destroyed) to segisiate and rule for the benefit of one class, to the detriment of al! others. as for a long succession of years they had done. This by the way; but he was very far from anticipating ao disastrous an issue to the contest.

CHARLOTTETOWN,

‘

he fully relied upon the good sense and spirit of the liberal majority of the House, either at once to achieve & victory, or failing in that, to retire from the conflict in such a manner as would fully evince their disinterested devotion to the best interests and wéll-being of the Colony ; leaving the een inen: without the annual supplies, to manage the

best could, with nothing to deperid upon but the Crown senna The ninth paragraph of the Despatch is as

wa:

“ But. Her Majesty’s Government fee! it their duty not to assent to any terms which shall involve substan- tial injury to existing holders of office. The case of the Chief Justice appears to be one in which they are bound to recognize a strong subsisting claim on the Crown Revenues; a claim which it ia impossible in justice to disregard. The gentleman has been for more than twenty years in the public service: he states that he has recently surrendered £100 year for the furtherance of a measure fer the better administration of justice in the Island. And independently of these peculiar claims to consideration, he has for many years been maintained in the receipt of the present salary from Parliamentary sources, and has therefore had every reason, short of an actual pledge to the public faith, to expect iis. continuance. It is therefore impossible for Her Majesty’s Government to surrender the Crown Revendes, unless the Chief Justice’s present salary be secured to him by perinanent law, se long as he shall continue in office, or unless some arrangement satisfac- tory to himself should be made respecting a retiring pension.”

After the hon, member had read this paragraph, he said, that were the Chief Justice’s claim on the Crown Revenues, (which he recognized as a claim that it was impossible in justice to disregard,) the only one for which they were required .to make: provision by perma- nent law, none, he believed, would be found to object to the very strong and urgent recommendation of the noble Secretary to that effect: but he was oy no means prepared to admit that, with any show of justice, it could be maintained that it was necessary to manifest the same liberality with respect to the interests of other office holders in the Colony. Their claims differed widely from that of the Chief Justice: he came out to assume the office of Chief Justice, with a salary of £700 sterling a year; but as respects other public officers, some of them came out to the Colony without any ap- pointment at all, and the first they obtained were paltry and insignificant ; although they had risen at length to offices of very considerable emolument. The Chief Justice, like all other British Judges, was clearly entitled to the full amount of his salary, if not for life, at least so long as he should continue in office: but he (the hon. member) thought that, in his memorial to Her Majesty’s Government, he should have taken no merit to himself for the surrender of £100 a year for the furtherance of a measure for the better administration of justice in the Island. When an office holder was relieved, if not al- together, yet in a great measure, from the performance of the duties of his office, in consequence-of the obliga- tion to discharge the whole or principal part of them be- ing imposed upon another; surely he could not, 1n jus- tice, think himself as well entitled to the full amount of the salary attached to his appointment, as when its duties were discharged by himself alone. The salaries as fixed by the late House in their last Session, for the year commencing Ist April, 1849,—being £200 curren- cy for the Attorney General; £150 currency for the Colonial Secretary, Registrar, and Private Secretary ; £100 currency for the Surveyor General; and £90 cur- rency for the Clerk of the Crown,—-were amply suffi- cient; although it appeared some of these gentlemen had memorialized the Imperial Government, alleging their insufficiency. If some of these salaries appeared gmall, it ought to be remembered that they were greatly augmented by the fees of the office. The fees of the Attorney General had of late been increased £300 per cent. As for the Surveyor General, who was one of the complaining memorialists, and who had received hia appointment almost solely on account of the considera- tion thet the office had been held by his grandfather, his uncle, and his father—a consideration absurd enough —he never executed a Survey for the Government, or supplied either it or the Legislature with a Pian, without making a very sufficient charge for the service. The fees of the Clerk of the Crown annually amounted to so considerable a sum, thet in consideration of that fect, as was pretty well known, the gentleman at present holding the appointment had paid his predecessor up- wards of £1000 for vacating it in his favour. Asto the

Co'onial Secretary, he (the hon. member) thought he

airs of the Colony as they.

MARCH 16, 1850. VOL. 1.6. 13.

ought to be the very last of the Government officers to complain of the amount at which his salary was fixed. Originally, the salary of the Colonial Secretary was £150 sterling, and the fees of office so inconsiderable as to be scarcely worth taking intoaccount. In pri

of time, however, with the increase of the population of the Island, they grew and wete atigmented #0 con- siderable, that at length, in the year 1840, the Legie)s- tire deemed it advisable for the interests of the Colony, to grant the Colonial Secretary a certain fixed salary in lien of all the fees of office which were, in future, to be paid by him into the Colonial Ttreastiry, The salary, which had been originally, as he had already stated only £150 sterling, was—after the Colonial Secretary had been allowed, for several years, the full receipt, in atgmentation of his salary, of all fees of office—fixed by Law at £400 currency, perannum. When the preat advantage which had been so long enjoyed by that off- cer of Government were fully estimated and impartially considered, it would be quite evident, he (the hon. meém- ber) thought, that of all the public officers the Colonial Secretary had the least reason to complaii of, or memo - rialize against the reduction of his salary. Had the Blue Books been honestly filled up as they ought to have been, and both salaries and fees of office of the several Government officers, fairly and justly stated therein, there would have been no occasion for the no- ble Secretary, Earl (zrey, to Complain—as he indirectly does in the eleventh paragraph of the Despatch which he (the hon. member) was then reviewing—of his “ scarcely being able to give positive directions respect- ing the emoluments of our public officers, without a ful- ler knowledge of their respective cases than he posses- ses.” With this information, observed the hon. member

he ought to have been fully supplied by the Blue Books. With respect, however, to the claims of the Chief Jus- tice, the Attorney General, the Colonial Secretary and Registrar of Deeds, the Surveyor General, and the Pro- thonotary and Clerk of the Crown, upon the Crown Revenues, he (the hon. member}—notwithstanding the difficulty experienced by the noble Secretary as to the extent to which the Legislature ought to consider those claims upon the Crown Revenues,—was quite willing, so far as his own voice went, to yield up the whole of them in consideration of those claims; if by such re- linquishment on the part of the Legislature, it should be agreed that those claims were to be considered ae for ever fully satisfied. After the allowance of £1000 cur- rency a year should be made tothe Chief Justice he was, however, afraid that there would be little left for the other claimants on those Revenues.

T’he hon. member next considéred the meaning of the thirteenth paragraph, in which Earl Grey says:

“When these questions are settled, Her Majesty’s Government will be prepared to surrender the Crown Revenues to the Colonial Legislature. Nor does it seem necessary that an arrangement made for this pur- pose should be abandoned because the establishment of what is termed ‘Responsible Government’ does not take place et the same time.”

This paragraph, said the hon. member, was regarded, he believed, as acomplete stopper to any further at- tempts of the Liberal Party for the practical introduc- tion of Responsible principles, until en adjustment shail have been made in the Civil List compact, to the sitisfaction of Her as Government respect- ing the existing claims of certain Government Officers. The interpretation put upon the paragraph by the ob- structive party, he did not admit to be—in ite full ex- tent—the true one. The noble Secretary had not, by any means, said in that paragraph, that the Colony should not have Responsible Government until the ad- justment of those claims to the satisfaction of Her Ma- jesty’s Government; and, whatever was contained ia that paragraph adverse to the immediate introduction of Responsible Government, the noble Secretary had himself completely neautralized by hia sentiments as expressed in the seventh, eighth, and eleventh para- graphs of his Despatch; and if the Liberal Party con- tinued firm in their assertion of the political rights of the people, they could not fail to obtain a are recog- nition of them by the Imperial Government. The hoc. member then read the fourteenth paragraph of the Des- patch as follows :

“I propose for the present to advise Her Majesty t. decline complying with the prayer of the Address o: the Assembly of the 17th of March last, that the sys- tem in question may be brought into immediate opera- tion in Prince Edward fsland: I retain the opinion, the grounds of which were fully ex in my Des-

tch of Ist January last—namely, that the Colony ha- not yet rca hed that stage in ite progress which rende:

na cen cnn ns ch