cHAP. 11] THE POWERS OF THE GOVERNOR 125
and directing that the old seals should be returned to be
defaced as usual by the Crown in Council! In reply to this
dispatch the Governor-General, on July 2, sent to the Secre-
tary of State a memorandum from the Canadian Minister
of Justice, who argued that in the case of the provinces the
proper authority to change the seal was, under s. 136 of
the British North America Act, the Lieutenant-Governor in
Council : he pointed out that the Lieutenant-Governors were
no longer appointed by the Crown, but by the Governor-
General, and suggested that the direct action of the Crown
was not strictly correct. In replying on August 23, the
Secretary of State insisted that the right of the Crown to
direct what seals were to be used in the provinces was as
clear as its right in connexion with the seal of the Dominion,
which had not been challenged, and he added that s. 136
merely applied to the cases of Ontario and Quebec. That
section provided that until altered by the Lieutenant-
Governor in Council the great seals of Ontario and Quebec
were to remain the same as those used formerly in the
Provinces of Upper and Lower Canada respectively. The
Secretary of State suggested that this clause merely showed
the method in which the change was to take place, and did
not limit the royal prerogative to appoint and direct the
seals which were to be used in those provinces, while in the
other provinces the right was clear. If, however, the clause
was to be read as giving the sole right to the Lieutenant-
Governors of the provinces to alter the great seals, the same
power should be conferred by legislation on the Lieutenant-
Governors of the other two provinces then forming the
union. This authority could be given either by provincial
or by federal Act. In compliance with this dispatch the
Dominion Government sent, on November 16, 1869, the
great seals to Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, with instruc-
tions to adopt the new seals for use in the provinces. In
the case of Ontario and Quebec the new seals were sent with
the correspondence, so that the provinces could have the
option of adopting the new seals under the statutory power
* See Canada Sess. Pap., 1877, No. 86.
