No. 38

I have had under my consideration your Despatch No. 45 of the 13th
of July, transmitting copies of the communcations which have passed
between yourself and the two branches of the Legislature repecting the
Civil List, and the payment of Salaries to the Public Officers. You
report that, acting upon the assurances which you received from the
Legislature, you have paid the Salaries of the principal Officers out of
the Crown Revenue.

I understand that the Assembly undertakes to replace the money out
of ordinary Revenue, if it shall be necessary for you under your
Instructions from me to require them to do so.

My Instructions must for the present be suspended, inasmuch as they
are contingent upon circumstances upon which I am still in want of
sufficient information. I instructed you to pay the salaries of the
Governor and of the Colonial Secretary, which amounted to £3,600, and
having before me a statement that the fund only amounted in the last
year to £4,500 and would probably not equal that amount in the next
year, I hesitated to burden it with any further charge. I have written
to you for full particulars which I have not yet received: and in the
meantime I have declined to sanction any charge, however just and
reasonable in itself, from fear of exceeding the amount which the Crown
Revenue would be able to meet.

I understand that when you were requested by the Assembly to make
the present payments the only fund immediately available was a balance
of Crown Revenue: and that if you had refused to advance out of that
balance the sums to which the engagement of the Assembly applied, the
greatest public inconvenience must have resulted.

I entirely approve the course which you have taken under these
circumstances.

I learn with great satisfaction that a good understanding is likely
to prevail, and that you expect that the Legislature, when it again
assembles, will proceed to make a suitable provision for all the public
wants of the Colony.

I shall rejoice in the termination of a state of things which has
compelled me, in fulfilment of absolute engagements, to deal with the
Crown Revenue as with as separate fund, and I shall witness with sincere
pleasure the harmonious action of the various branches of the
government. When this shall have been happily accomplished and the
Crown Revenues merged in the General Revenue of the Colony and subject
to the control of the Assembly, the necessity will have been obviated
which otherwise have arisen for me to consider the propriety of giving
you the Instructions which for the present remain in suspense.