DOMINION BILLS. 
27 | 
(b). DOMINION BILLS, 
When a bill has passed the Dominion Parliament it is 
presented to the Governor-General for the Queen's assent. 
Instead of assenting to the bill, he may reserve the bill 
for the signification of Her Majesty's pleasure. If he assents 
to the bill, he is required to transmit a copy to one of her 
Majesty's Secretaries of State, and if the Queen in Council 
within two years after the receipt thereof by the Secretary 
of State disallows the Act, it is annulled from the date of 
such signification. The Imperial Government has therefore 
full control over Dominion legislation. 
The power of the Governor-General to assent to bills is, 
by the B. N. A. Act, s. 55, limited by his instructions. 
Previous to 1878 the instructions required him, in the case of 
certain bills, not to assent to the bill except in case of urgent 
necessity, unless there was a clause suspending the operation 
of the bill, until Her Majesty’s pleasure could be signified. In 
accordance with these instructions the Governor-General 
reserved twenty-one bills between the years 1867 and 1878. 
Eleven of these related to divorce and received the royal 
assent. In 1872 a Copyright Bill was not approved, as it 
conflicted with imperial legislation. Two Extradition Bills 
were not allowed in 1873 and 1874. A Merchant Shipping 
Bill was disallowed in 1878, as it contained provisions in 
excess of Dominion powers, whilst a reserved bill that might 
have prejudiced the rights of subjects not resident in Canada 
was dropped in 1874, and a modified bill passed in the fol- 
lowing year’. 
In the revised instructions issued in 1878 the clauses Modern 
relating to the reservation of bills were omitted, “because peenties 
her Majesty’s Government thought it undesirable that they 
should contain anything which could be interpreted as 
1 See Todd, p. 144.