152 THE EXECUTIVE GOVERNMENT [PART 11 
Council, but at any rate there is no example of any law 
yet having been passed,! and the position, therefore, is not 
affected by the words in question. In the case of the Federa- 
tions and of the Union the question of the constitution of an 
Executive Council does not appear at all, the matter being 
dealt with in the Constitution Acts, where the Executive 
Council is constituted by the Acts, though the number of 
members is not limited or defined in any way.2 
The relation of the Governor to ministers is more precisely 
indicated, not in the letters patent, but in the royal instruc- 
tions. The oldest form is still illustrated by the case of 
Newfoundland, where the relative portion of the instructions 
of March 28, 1876, runs as follows :—3 
ITI. And We do require Our said Governor to communicate 
forthwith to Our Executive Council for Our said Colony 
these Our Instructions, and likewise all such others from 
time to time as he shall find convenient for Our Service to 
be imparted to them. 
IV. And We do hereby direct and enjoin that Our said 
Executive Council shall not proceed to the despatch of 
business unless duly summoned by authority of Our said 
Governor, and unless three Members at the least (exclusive 
of himself or the Member presiding) be present and assisting 
throughout the whole of the meetings at which any such 
business shall be despatched. 
' In Nova Scotia the number of the Executive Council is limited to nine 
by Revised Statutes, 1900, c. 9,8. 1; and in New Brunswick by the effect of 
the letters patent of November 2, 1861, to the same number; and in British 
Columbia, by an Act (c. 12) of 1908, to seven (now, by an Act of 1911, 
sight). But these are provinces, and there is no parallel now in the case 
of the States and Dominions. But the members need not be in the 
Legislature so far as the law is concerned. 
* 30 Vict. c. 3,8. 11 (Canada); Constitution, s. 62 (Australia); 9 Edw. VIL. 
c. 9, 8. 12 (South Africa). The Executive Councils in Ontario and Quebec 
are constituted by the British North America Act, confirmed by the local 
Acts; by Provincial Acts in Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and British 
Columbia; by the old letters patent in Prince Edward Island; those in 
Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Alberta by the Constitution Acts of 1870 and 
1905 of Canada, and by local Acts. See p- 63. 
* Cf. the instructions of May 4, 1855. The form is much the same in the 
still older instructions, e.g. those to Lord Sydenham of August 30, 1840 
(Canada Sess. Pap., 1906, No. 18, p. 116).