Responsible government in the Dominions: Responsible government in the Dominions

Responsible government in the Dominions (Vol. 1)

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Multivolume work

Identifikator:: 1896933912

Document type:: Multivolume work

Author:: Keith, Arthur Berriedale http://d-nb.info/gnd/119086794

Title:: Responsible government in the Dominions

Place of publication:: Oxford

Publisher:: Clarendon Press

Year of publication:: 1912-

Collection:: Economics Books

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Volume

Identifikator:: 1896934455

URN:: urn:nbn:de:zbw-retromon-236504

Document type:: Volume

Author:: Keith, Arthur Berriedale http://d-nb.info/gnd/119086794

Title:: Responsible government in the Dominions

Volume count:: Vol. 1

Place of publication:: Oxford

Publisher:: Clarendon Pr.

Year of publication:: 1912

Scope:: LI, 568 Seiten

Digitisation:: 2022

Collection:: Economics Books

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Chapter

Document type:: Multivolume work

Structure type:: Chapter

Title:: Part II. The executive Government

Collection:: Economics Books

182 THE EXECUTIVE GOVERNMENT [PART II place, the duration of Colonial Parliaments is brief, and has never been so long as that of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, so that he must remember that if he refuses a dissolution it will not be long at the outside before the people can ratify his action or not. Then he must remember that the shortness of Parliament, and the important work which has to be done, render a dissolution to be avoided if possible, for the waste of time, expense, and dislocation of a general election, if less serious in themselves than the same features in this country, are equally important to a smaller com- munity. Moreover, there is growing stronger and stronger the feeling, in’ Australia at least, that a dissolution does wrong to the members of Parliament, who thus are not merely put to trouble and expense, though election expenses are not on the English scale, but are put in jeopardy of losing their salaries, an important consideration in a place where the paid member is an institution. Then a second consideration is the question of supply; it cannot, of course, be made a sine qua non that a Ministry which desires a dissolution should obtain supply, for in that case the Lower House would be able to prevent itself being dissolved against its will, but it is an important consideration how far there will be funds legally available for public services. If there are not funds, of course, the Government simply has to spend on, trusting on an act of indemnity in the form of an ex post facto appropriation ; but not only is there the lurking chance that the appropriation may not be granted, but there is always the difficulty that no Government without supply can do more than keep the routine services going, and in a young country a loss of time i$ more severe than in an older community. The case of refusal of dissolution and the grant under circumstances of difficulty are almost innumerable, and many of them are interesting. One of the most important of the earlier cases is that of Governor-General Sir E. Head, of the united Province of Canada in August 1858, on the defeat of Mr. Macdonald’s Ministry.! He sent on their resignation for ! Canada Legislative Assembly Journals, 1858, pp. 973-6, 1001 ; Pope, Sir John Macdonald, i, 188, 337-41 ; Goldwin Smith, Canada, pp. 136, 137.

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