No. 874.

Referring to your letter of the 20th Instant, and of your telegram of yesterday's date, I have the honor to state that a little reflection would have shewn you that a meeting of all the Judges and Assessors would be most expensive and inconvenient (some being at the Chatham Islands). In fact, a strict compliance with the Act is impossible, and was found so, when rules were previously made.

"The cause which you have thought it your duty to take, compels me to abandon all further attempts to make the proposed amendments, the chief object of which was to divest myself of powers which subjected me to constant solicitation and embarrassment. I must now do the best I can with my own powers.