Responsible government in the Dominions: Responsible government in the Dominions

Responsible government in the Dominions (Vol. 1)

Bibliographic data

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

Usage license:: Get license information via the feedback formular.

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

Usage license:: Get license information via the feedback formular.

Chapter

Document type:: Multivolume work

Structure type:: Chapter

Title:: Part II. The executive Government

Collection:: Economics Books

cHAP. Vv] THE GOVERNOR AND THE LAW 255 and I added in effect an instruction that you would not be at liberty hereafter to issue your warrant for any expenditure hot sanctioned by law, except under the conditions above described. He then quoted the protest of the Treasurer and con- binued — So formal a protest from your ministers against the unconstitutional character of the instructions sent out to you renders it my duty to explain fully to them and to the people of New South Wales the position adopted in this matter by Her Majesty’s Government and the considerations by which they are led to it. I begin by admitting unreservedly that the matter now in hand is one of purely local interest, in respect to which Her Majesty's Government only desire that you should conform your conduct to the wishes of the Colony when constitutionally ascertained. Those wishes are constitu- tionally ascertained through two channels, the Legislature and the Executive Government. The general rules by which the conduct of yourself and your ministers are to be regulated are prescribed by the Legislature in all free countries, the most solemn and authoritative organ of the national will. In the application of those rules you are authorised to accept as the interpreter of public will a Council presumed to possess the confidence of the Legislature and constituting the Executive Government. In any ordinary case, if the law required you to do one thing and your advisers recommended you fo do another, there can be no doubt that the deliberate enactments of the Legislature would be more binding on you than the opinion of a Council deriving its authority from that Legislature, and commissioned not to dispense with the law but to administer it. It would be your plain duty to obey the law, and it would be idle to speak of such obedience as unconstitutional. This your ministry would probably admit, but they would argue that emergencies may confessedly arise in which it may become the duty of a public officer, or indeed of a private citizen, to overstep the law, and that in a case like the present it is for the Executive Council and not for the Governor to determine whether such a case has in fact arisen. This present case, so far as it is material to this constitu- tional question, is as follows : The 53rd section of the Constitution Act provides that,

Access restriction

Copyright

fullscreen: Responsible government in the Dominions (Vol. 1)

Multivolume work

Volume

Chapter

Table of contents

Download

Volume

Chapter

This page

Image fragment

Citation links

Citation recommendation