726 THE FEDERATIONS AND THE UNION [PART Iv
reserved Bill ceases to have any validity if not assented to by
Order in Council within two years from the date when it was
presented for the royal assent to the Governor-General.
These provisions substitute the Governor-General for the
Queen in the disallowance of Acts and in the giving of
instructions for reservation and so forth.
A curious dispute soon developed itself as to the sense of
the provisions regarding the Governor-General. Sir John
Young, in a dispatch of March 11, 1869, asked the Imperial
Government whether he was right in assuming that in the
case of Provincial Acts he should not send them home for the
signification of the royal pleasure, but should deal with them
on the advice of his ministers. In reply, Lord Granville
informed him in a dispatch of May 8, 1869, that he was at
liberty to follow the advice of ministers as a rule, whether
or not he concurred in it as regards Acts which he deemed
objectionable as illegal or unconstitutional, but in the case
of Acts which he thought gravely unconstitutional, or which
would have required reservation under the royal instructions
in force for the Dominion, he should, even against the advice
of ministers, refer home for guidance. This ruling was
accepted by the Canadian Government at the time, and
a copy of the dispatch was sent round with a copy of the
relevant part of the royal instructions to all the Lieutenant-Governors,
as a guide to them in the discharge of their
functions? On the other hand, in a letter from the Privy
Council Office of December 13, 1872, with regard to the
education dispute in Canada, it was observed by the Lord
President that the power of confirming or disallowing Provincial
Acts was vested in the Governor-General of Canada
acting under the advice of his constitutional advisers, and
that Her Majesty in Council had no jurisdiction therein.
This clearly pointed to a different conception of the position
from that laid down in the Imperial dispatches, which was
! Canada Sess. Pap., 1870, No. 85, pp. 3, 4; Provincial Legislation. 1867-15,
pp. 62-4; Lefroy, op. cit., pp. 193 seq.
* Canada Sess. Pap., Lc., pp. 25-1.
* Thid., 1876, No. 116, p. 85.
