126 THE EXECUTIVE GOVERNMENT [PART II 
of the Lieutenant-Governor if they so desired. Nova Scotia, 
however, on receiving the seal, seemed not to admire its 
appearance, for they pressed to be allowed to retain the 
old one, and while readily admitting the right of the Crown 
to issue the warrant appointing the new seal, they requested 
the Federal Government to forward to the Imperial Govern- 
ment a memorial asking to be allowed to keep the old seal, 
and to pass Acts authorizing the use of the old seal and 
smpowering the Lieutenant-Governor in Council to alter the 
seal from time to time. The Federal Government did not 
apparently take any action on this protest or appeal, but 
let the matter drop, a practice not unusual in the Dominion. 
The result was further trouble: the Supreme Court of 
Nova Scotia in the case of Ritchie v. Lenoir, among other 
things, delivered itself of the dictum that the patents of the 
Queen’s Counsel appointed by the Lieutenant-Governor of 
Nova Scotia under the Acts of 1874, cc. 20 and 21, giving him 
power to appoint Queen’s Counsel and regulate their prece- 
dence, were invalid because they were sealed with the old seal, 
and that the new seal after its delivery to the Lieutenant- 
Governor in accordance with the royal warrant of May 7, 
1869, became the only lawful seal in the province. The 
Provincial Government therefore asked the Federal Govern- 
ment to forward to the Queen an address praying for an 
Imperial Act to solve the difficulty. But before this request 
could be acted upon, the Secretary of State sent to the 
Government of the Dominion a dispatch of March 29, 1877, 
which stated that in the opinion of the law officers of the 
Crown the directions contained in the royal warrant of 
May 7, 1869, were directory and not imperative, and that 
though the disobedience of the order was improper, it did not 
invalidate Acts done with the old seal unless and until the 
new seal was formally adopted and the old seal sent for can- 
cellation. But they thought that the best way would be for 
the Dominion Parliament to pass legislation disposing of the 
matter. By an Act, 40 Vict. c. 3, the Dominion Parliament 
proceeded to act on this dispatch, and authorized the 
1 38. C.R. 575.