crap. ir] THE GOVERNOR AND MINISTERS 149 
of remaining behind the scenes. If he remains a full term of 
office he can gain more and more the confidence of Govern- 
ments and increase his influence. Moreover, that influence 
will normally be for good, for he stands above lesser party 
feeling, and he is member of a community which has greater 
interests and produces greater men than can be expected 
from a Dominion in the present stage of development. 
Moreover, besides the field of politics he has all the fields of 
arts, science, literature, open to him, and of recent Governors 
it may suffice to name Sir William Macgregor as one who 
at once dealt with great success with a difficult position in 
Newfoundland and earned a reputation for learning of much 
depth and variety! while Sir Thomas Carmichael distin- 
guished himself no less by his tact and political skill than 
by continuing in Victoria his entomological studies. The 
influence of the Governor-Generals of Canada has been varied 
and lasting : in their own ways, men like Lord Dufferin, 
Lord Lansdowne, Lord Aberdeen, Lord Minto, and Lord 
Grey impressed themselves on the national life.2 But these 
considerations are matters in which definite statement is 
impossible : they may be sufficient to show how very far 
from the true view Mr. Goldwin Smith’s statement must be 
deemed to have been. 
It must be noted that the Governor of a self-governing 
Dominion is, like his Crown Colony brother, legally by no 
means in the hands of his ministers. It is true that in the 
case of the Federations and of the Union he is advised in 
his duties by an Executive Council created by statute : the 
same remark applies to the Provinces of Ontario and Quebec, 
where the creation of such councils by statute was rendered 
necessary by the division of the Province of Canada into 
these provinces. On the other hand, the Executive Councils 
* He was appointed Chancellor of the new University of Queensland in 
1910, and has since been unceasing in work for its advancement. 
* Lord Grey's tour to Hudson Bay is an indication of one side of a modern 
Governor's activity in the interests of his Government and the Dominion. 
Similarly Lord Dufferin greatly aided his Government in their dealings 
with British Columbia in connexion with the Pacific Railway by his tour 
to the West.