of the Colony in the matter, before taking further action in the matter.
I have, therefore, availed myself of the Attorney General Mr. Pannell-Fote's return to the Colony to refer the whole correspondence to that officer, and now enclose opinion by him on the case. Your Lordship will thence perceive that he gives very strong reasons for assuming the Government not to be legally liable to complete the arrangement originally suggested, whilst on the other hand, there can be no doubt that Mr. Duddell's protest against its completion quite absolves the Executive here from any moral obligation to carry out the arrangement originally proposed.
Mr. Pannell-Fote's principal point is, that one of the elements essential to a sale of land, viz:- that the price was not fixed in this case, and therefore the contract between buyer and seller was not complete. He gives very strong reasons for that opinion, and if it be correct, there was no sale such as any Court is competent to enforce.
Mr. Duddell's threat of legal proceedings to compel resumption of the land by Government was