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CHAPTER 1I 
IMPERIAL CONTROL OVER THE INTERNAL 
AFFAIRS OF THE DOMINIONS 
IN matters really affecting only internal affairs there has 
been a complete change in system since the grant of re- 
sponsible government. As a return presented to the House 
of Commons in 1864! shows, before the coming into effect of 
responsible government there were repeated cases of dis- 
allowance on such grounds as that the legislation suggested 
did not commend itself to the wisdom of the Imperial Govern- 
ment. Thus all efforts by Prince Edward Island to dispose 
of its land question were for years unavailing, and the 
matter only became arranged by a grant from the Dominion 
on federation. In the case of the United Province of Canada 
in 1843 the Governor reserved, despite the protest of ministers 
who resigned in consequence, a Secret Societies Bill, and in 
due course the Imperial Government intimated that it would 
not be allowed? In 1846 the Imperial Government dis- 
allowed a Bill which allowed the attachment of an officers 
salary on the ground that no such measure was in force in the 
United Kingdom and they did not approve the policy of it.3 
In 1849 an Act for the incorporation of the town of Bytown, 
passed in 1847, was disallowed, though another Act passed 
in 1849 was assented to. In 1858 the Governor of New 
South Wales assented to a Bill to impose an assessment on 
runs and to increase the rent of leased lands, one of his law 
officers, the Solicitor-General, thinking that it was legal, 
while the other thought that it was not legal. The Secretary 
* Parl. Pap., H. C. 529, 1864. 
* Canada Legislative Assembly Journals, 1846, p. 43. 
* Ibid., 1850, p. 7. 
? Ihid., n. 27.