Responsible government in the Dominions: Responsible government in the Dominions

Responsible government in the Dominions (Vol. 3)

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:: 1896935311

URN:: urn:nbn:de:zbw-retromon-237672

Document type:: Volume

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

Title:: Responsible government in the Dominions

Volume count:: Vol. 3

Place of publication:: Oxford

Publisher:: Clarendon Pr.

Year of publication:: 1912

Scope:: XII Seiten, Seiten 1102-1670

Digitisation:: 2022

Collection:: Economics Books

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

Chapter

Document type:: Multivolume work

Structure type:: Chapter

Title:: Part VI. The judiciary

Collection:: Economics Books

cusp. v] THE PREROGATIVE OF MERCY 1409 noticed a growing tendency under certain circumstances to bring under criticism of the popular branch of the Legislature administrative functions performed by the Governor even under the advice of responsible ministers. How much more, then, would such a tendency develop in cases which concern the internal administration of the Colony, but where the Governor does not act with the advice of ministers, and can- not maintain that he is acting with a desire to hold the balance between parties, as in the case of the granting or refusal of a dissolution or the choice of a minister. 11. Were it not that the Governor is directed to consult his Executive Council, it might be held that the Governor alone exercised the prerogative and was alone responsible for its exercise; but, as ministers must give advice, they must also be responsible for that advice to Parliament, and may at any time demand that it be taken as effective advice. The consequence is a responsibility differing from the general responsibility of the Governor to the Crown and the ministers to Parliament, in that it creates a double responsi- bility, with the possibility of deadlock. 12. In a dispatch to the Governor of New South Wales on November 1, 1871, Lord Kimberley says: ‘ A Governor is to pay due regard to the advice of his ministers, who are responsible to the colony for the proper administration of justice and prevention of crime ;’ and your Lordship, in your dispatch of October 30, 1888, to the Administrator of the Government of Queensland, adds to that doctrine that the Governor ‘ will allow greater weight to the opinion of his ministers in cases affecting the internal administration of the Colony than in cases in which matters of Imperial interest or policy, or the interest of other countries or Colonies, are involved ’. Had your Lordships intended these instructions to apply not only to ordinary cases in which the royal prerogative of mercy is involved, but to capital cases also, the duty of the Governor would have been perfectly clear. 13. I am not prepared to follow Mr. Ballance into an inquiry whether the present is a survival of Crown Colony practice, but I am unable to say that it appears to me otherwise than as an anomaly in a community possessed of responsible government ; for it seems incompatible with those principles that the Governor should be instructed to consult his ministers and yet be specifically instructed that he may, and in certain cases ought to, disregard their advice at the risk of finding himself without advisers able to carry measures and votes in Parliament.

Access restriction

Copyright

fullscreen: Responsible government in the Dominions (Vol. 3)

Multivolume work

Volume

Chapter

Table of contents

Download

Volume

Chapter

This page

Image fragment

Citation links

Citation recommendation