PART I. INTRODUCTORY

CHAPTER 1

ORIGIN AND HISTORY OF RESPONSIBLE
GOVERNMENT

§ 1. Tee ORIGIN OF REPRESENTATIVE GOVERNMENT
IN 1840, when responsible government may be said to
commence, there were prevailing two main principles of
law with regard to the position of the British Colonies. In
the first place, it was held by the Crown lawyers that it was
Dot possible to deprive an Englishman of the inestimable
advantages of English law, and that therefore, if he settled
in parts abroad which were not under a legitimate foreign
Sovereignty, he carried with him so much at least of the
English law as was appropriate to the circumstances in
which he found himself. But obviously, the mere carrying
with him of the provisions of such law would not have
been adequate to meet the circumstances of a new Colony.
It was impossible to expect the Parliament of England to
legislate effectively for distant territories concerning which
tt had, and could have, no information, and it was therefore
hecessary that there should be passed by some competent
authority legislation adapted to the needs of the new Colony.
But if an Englishman carried with him English law, it was
® fixed principle of that law in the late sixteenth and the
' 2 P. Will, 75 ; Blankard v. Galdy, 2 Salk, 411; Forbes v. Cochrane;
2B.&C, 463 ; Kielley v. Carson, 4 Moo. P. C. 84; The Falkland Islands Co.
v. The Queen, 2 Moo. P. C. (N.8.) 273; Forsyth, Cases and Opinions on
Constitutional Law, pp. 18 seq. The ground of the distinction between
settled and conquered and ceded colonies as set out in Freeman v. Fairlie
(1 Ba, Ind. App. 324) is certainly inaccurate.