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 gave notice of a motion on the subject. I told the House that when the Government in England found it necessary in some great public crisis to supersede an Act of Parliament, they did so by an Order in Council, and immediately introduced a bill of indemnity, and if Parliament did not grant this indemnity the Government fell. While the House was much agitated on this question, I sat one day on the Select Committee on the Land Department. The new Attorney-General, who was one of the members, lounged into the room and told us, as an interesting piece of political gossip, that the Government had at length appointed a Commissioner of Customs. Who was the chosen man, became the subject of immediate inquiry, for there sat round the table several men who thought themselves entitled to the office. The man, he said, was Mr. Rolfe, who, though he was not in Parliament, had always been an eminently useful and respectable supporter of the Government, and then the learned gentleman lounged out again. The Ministerial party were furious, and some of them broke into immediate revolt. To select a Minister outside the House was a manifest declaration that there was no suitable person inside. There were at least half a dozen votes of want of confidence framed on the instant, some of them quite irregular and impossible. I took aside Robert Byrne, the most calm and sensible of the discontented, and we framed a suitable motion which he consented to move from his ordinary position behind the Ministerial Bench. When the question came on in the House a couple of days later nobody but Mr. Francis defended the Ministry; several of their most habitual supporters voted against them, and they were beaten by a decisive majority. The Governor sent for Mr. Byrne, and authorised him to form an Administration; Mr. Byrne communicated with me. He wished me to aid him in selecting a Cabinet and to take the place of Prime Minister. When we looked into the matter a little it became plain that we could not make a Ministry which would obtain a working majority, except by preponderating concessions to the party of the late Government. It was finally agreed to make an Administration exclusively from the deserters, and the late Opposition agreed to support them at the hustings and in the House till the McCulloch régime