No action could be taken in the matter by the Colonial Parliament for that year, as its session closed on June 14; and when it met again next year a ministerial crisis, followed by a dissolution and a change of Ministers, caused a postponement of all legislation. Finally, on October 17, 1854, a Bill for the 'Secularisation of the Clergy Reserves' was introduced into the Assembly. The more moderate and thoughtful men of every party are said to have been at heart opposed to it; but it was impossible for them to stand against the current of popular feeling. The Bill speedily became law; the Clergy Reserves were handed over to the various municipal corporations for secular uses; and though by this means 'a noble provision made for the sustentation of religion was frittered away so as to produce but few beneficial results,'[1] a question which had long been the occasion of much heart-burning was at least settled, and settled for ever. A slender provision for the future was saved out of the wreck by the commutation of the reserved life-interests of incumbents, which laid the foundation of a small permanent endowment; but, with this exception, the equality of destitution among all Protestant communities was complete.[2] The various stages through which this question passed may be traced in the following letters, of which the first was written to Lord Grey on July 5, 1850: Two addresses to the Queen were voted by the Assembly a few days ago and brought up by the House to me for transmission. The one is an address, very loyal in its tone, deprecating all revolutionary changes. [Sidenote: Address to the Queen.] The other address is not so satisfactory. It prays Her Majesty to obtain the repeal of the Imperial Act on the Clergy Reserves passed in 1840, and to hand them over to the Canadian Parliament to deal with them as it may see fit--guaranteeing, however, the life interests of incumbents. The resolutions on which this address was founded were introduced by a member of the Government, which has treated the question as an _open_ one.