158 THE EXECUTIVE GOVERNMENT [parr 11 
followed. The questions were of some interest in Canada, 
for on federation the question was raised who could grant 
marriage licences, and was decided in favour of the 
Governor-General by Sir J. Macdonald and the law officers of 
the Crown! But the latter advised that the power to regu- 
late the grant of licences lay in the Provincial Legislatures, 
and they all so legislated and removed difficulties. Similarly 
the right to appoint to benefices, formerly given to the 
Lieutenant-Governors of the Provinces and to the Governor- 
General of Canada, was claimed for the Governor-General 2 
and exercised by him until disposed of by Provincial Acts, 
while the break-up of the old position of the Church generally 
terminated the grant of powers in this regard of Governors. 
$2. THE VIEWS oF MR. BLAKE 
The simplification of letters patent and instructions alike 
in the case of Canada, to which reference has been made 
above, was due in the main to the action of Mr. Blake, then 
Minister of Justice in the Canadian Government. In 1875 
Lord Carnarvon addressed to the Governor-General of Canada, 
a dispatch explaining the reasons which had evoked a desire 
to remodel the practice of issuing letters patent. Hitherto 
it had been the custom to do so on the appointment of each 
Governor, including in his commission, which passed under 
the great seal, all the machinery of the Governor's office. It 
book time to secure the passing of an instrument under the 
great seal, and in the meantime a temporary commission 
used to be given under the sign-manual allowing him to 
act under the commission of his predecessor. This was 
obviously inconvenient besides being of doubtful legal 
validity, and therefore it was decided to issue in all cases 
power which in responsible-government Colonies he does not exercise with 
regard to marriages. These powers remained in the Australian letters 
patent until 1900. But they did not occur in the New Zealand letters 
patent, or in those of Newfoundland or the South African Colonies. 
' See Provincial Legislation, 1867-95, pp. 407 seq. 
! In a New Brunswick case in 1869. 
' See Canada Sess. Pap., 1877, No. 13, which gives an account of Mr. 
Blake's visit in 1876 to England and his conference with the Secretary of