CHAP, Iv] THE GOVERNOR AS HEAD 231 
that it be resolved that the course adopted by the Lieutenant- 
Governor of the Province of Quebec towards his late Ministry 
was at variance with the constitutional principles upon which 
Responsible Government should be conducted.’ 
Then came on last autumn the general election for the 
Parliament of the Dominion, and among the many questions 
submitted to the people, one of the most prominent was the 
conduct of Mr. Letellier, and the votes of the two Houses of 
Parliament with respect to it. In the Province of Quebec 
it was the question of the day, and the opinion of the electors 
may be known by the return of 48 gentlemen pledged to 
Mr. Letellier’s condemnation against 17 supporters. When 
the present session of Parliament met, Mr. Mousseau, a repre- 
sentative from Quebec, brought forward a motion identical 
in its terms with that moved in the previous session by 
Sir John Macdonald, and it was carried by a vote of 136 to 
51 members. The analysis of this vote sufficiently shows 
that the general condemnation of Mr. Letellier’s conduct was 
not confined to his own Province. 
Under these circumstances the Governor-General’s advisers 
thought it their duty to convey to his Excellency their 
opinion that after the Senate’s resolution of last session, and 
the vote of the House of Commons during the present session, 
Mr. Letellier’s usefulness was gone, and they advised his 
removal ; and now the whole question stands for the con- 
sideration of Her Majesty’s Government on the Governor- 
General’s reference. 
Tt is necessary now to consider the tenure of office 
by Lieutenant-Governors appointed under British North 
America Act, 1867. When the resolutions on which that 
Act was based were being prepared it was thought expedient 
to continue in the Dominion the English practice with 
respect to Colonial Governors. This might have been done 
without legislative enactment, but to prevent the possibility 
of its being supposed that Lieutenant-Governors under the 
new régime were of necessity to be in sympathy with the 
Dominion Ministry of the day, and to be removable with 
every change of party, the provision in the 59th clause was 
introduced which says that no Lieutenant-Governor shall be 
removable within five years of his appointment except for 
cause assigned, which shall be communicated within one 
month after the order for removal is made, and shall be 
communicated by message to the Senate and House of 
Commons. 
This left the tenure to be one of pleasure as before, but