CHAPTER II 
THE LEGAL BASIS OF RESPONSIBLE 
GOVERNMENT 
§ 1. RESPONSIBLE GOVERNMENT IN CANADA 
IT was one of the theses of the distinguished Victorian 
Chief Justice, Mr. Higinbotham,! that responsible govern- 
ment in the Colonies differed from that government in 
England by reason of its being derived from the statute 
law, and not as in England from the common law. The 
Statement was based on a study of the Constitution Act of 
Victoria, and he admitted with desirable candour that the 
Purpose of responsible government was merely rudely 
expressed therein : it is also clear that he had made no 
adequate study—indeed, it is fair to say that it would 
Probably have been difficult for him to do so—of the actual 
fact as to the introduction of responsible government into 
Canada, for if he had done so he might have modified his 
conclusions very materially. As a matter of fact, it is not 
untrue to say that, generally speaking, the introduction of 
responsible government has been due to constitutional 
Practice and usage based on the practices in force in the 
Mother Country, and that therefore the responsible govern- 
ment of the Dominions rests on no fundamentally different 
basis from the responsible government of the United 
Kingdom. It needs only to be added that in some degree 
there is a greater recognition of responsible government in 
Colonial constitutions than in the British constitution, but, 
By will be seen, that recognition goes far short of establish- 
ng the rule of responsible government. 
It was in the case of the Government of Canada that the 
rule was first applied ; in the Act for uniting the Provinces 
of Lower and Upper Canada of 1840 it is impossible to find 
! Morris, Memoir of George Higinbotham, pp. 170 seq. Contrast Jenkyns, 
British Rule and Jurisdiction beyond the Seas, pp. 61 seq.