Page:George McCall Theal, History of South Africa from 1873 to 1884, Volume 1 (1919).djvu/126

 io6 History of the Cape Colony. [1878 crown lands and public works, Mr. William Ayliff, also member of the house of assembly for Fort Beaufort, secretary for native affairs, and Mr. Thomas Upington, an advocate of the supreme court practising in Capetown, for whom a seat in the house of assembly was found at Colesberg, attorney general. There was no represen- tative of a western constituency in it, and none of the members were Dutch speakers. It was in full accord with the views of the governor, and announced as its first object the organisation of a competent defensive force for the protection of the eastern border. On the 4th of February 1878 Lord Carnarvon retired from the office of secretary of state for the colonies, and was succeeded by Sir Michael Hicks Beach, who on the 21st of March wrote a despatch to Sir Bartle Frere, from which the following paragraphs are extracts : " An important constitutional question is raised by it as to the power of the prime minister of the Cape Colony to appoint an Executive officer to take command of military operations without your consent as Governor and Commander-in-Chief. " I cannot concur with Mr. Molteno if he holds that a minister has a right at any moment to appoint an officer unknown to the constitution without the sanction of Par- liament, and in opposition to the judgment of the Governor, and to assign to him functions which would give him paramount authority above that of the Governor himself in all military matters, more especially after martial law had been proclaimed. " It should be borne in mind that, in consequence of the peculiar conditions of the Colony and the adjacent territories, responsible government, as established at the Cape, has necessarily been made subject to a limitation not elsewhere required. "... in affairs such as those in which you have been recently engaged, your functions have been clearly defined by the terms of your commission.