956 THE FEDERATIONS AND THE UNION [PART IV 
effect permanent as compared with that of ministers, who 
are dependent on Parliament for their position. 
It is, however, significant that there is no mention of the 
political conventions of the Constitution in the Act. Strictly 
speaking, there is no need even for the ministers to do more 
if they desire to hold office permanently than to secure for 
themselves seats in Parliament, and they can be up to the 
number of eight nominee members of the Upper House. 
The Governor-General’s instructions make no mention of 
the convention by which he chooses ministers who possess 
the confidence of Parliament, and he will do so merely in 
accordance with the established practice. It might have 
been expected that the Constitution would have gone further 
in this regard, but the old custom is convenient, and it is 
always possible that any attempt to define more closely the 
nature of the Executive Government might have led to 
difficult questions of law. The Constitution does not even 
define the quorum of the Executive Council, and it is not 
provided for in the royal instructions to the Governor-General. 
The control of the military and naval forces within the 
Union is vested in the King or in the Governor-General 
as his representative, by s. 17. This provision is rather 
curious ; the corresponding provision in the case of the 
Commonwealth refers to the naval and military forces of 
the Commonwealth, and while the provision of the British 
North America Act includes the land and naval militia 
and all naval and military forces of and in Canada, the 
command-in-chief in that case is vested only in the Crown,! 
and it is by the letters patent that the Governor-General is 
given the title commander-in-chief.2 This title, which is held 
by practically every Colonial Governor, is merely honorific,3 
! Otherwise in the Quebec Resolutions ; see The Framework of Union, 
p. 27. See 30 Vict. c. 3, 8. 15; 63 & 64 Vict. c. 12, Const. s. 68. 
? By a mere accident this was not done until 1903. when the omission 
was noticed. 
* The title has led to confusion when conferred by local Act; see the 
case of New South Wales in 1869, Clark, Australian Constitutional Law, 
pp. 266 seq.; below, p. 1263.