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424 conflict with the Government. Having heard that an important document, bearing on the blockade question, had found its way from the office of the unpopular Registrar General (C. C. Smith) into the hands of the Chinese Customs officers, Mr. Ryrie (September 22, 1871) asked in Council for information on the subject. Mr. C. C. Smith, then sitting as Acting Colonial Treasurer, treated Mr. Ryrie's remarks as involving a charge against himself and retorted with some vehemence. Mr. Keswick supported his colleague by criticizing the plurality of the Registrar General's functions and demanded that the duties of his office should be defined. At the next meeting (October 18, 1871) the discussion was renewed and some days later the Colonial Secretary (J. Gardiner Austin) wrote to Mr. Ryrie, formally calling upon him to substantiate his charge against the Registrar General. In reply, Mr. Ryrie, who had all along contended that he preferred no charge but merely asked for information, now demanded that at next Council meeting a protest should be heard against the invasion of privilege involved in requesting him to explain out of the Council room what he had said in it. At the next meeting Mr. Ryrie gave notice of his protest but no discussion was allowed. Seeing in the whole affair an illustration of the old grievance of defective representation in Council, the public now stigmatized the action of the Lieutenant-Governor (W. Whitfield) in deferring the debate, as an unwarrantable attempt to burke free discussion. On November 15, 1871, Mr. Ryrie's protest, concerning the breach of privilege of which he complained, was read in Council and recorded in the minutes. Mr. Ryrie justly contended that freedom of speech in Council was absolutely necessary.

Sir Richard's financial measures were the source of both the greatest trouble and the greatest triumph of his administration. For some time before his arrival, the Colony had been steadily dropping from a state of comparative affluence into a condition of growing insolvency. At the beginning of the year 1865, the Treasury accounts shewed a surplus of assets (over liabilities) amounting to $298,000. At the commencement