158 THE EXECUTIVE GOVERNMENT [parr 11
followed. The questions were of some interest in Canada,
for on federation the question was raised who could grant
marriage licences, and was decided in favour of the
Governor-General by Sir J. Macdonald and the law officers of
the Crown! But the latter advised that the power to regu-
late the grant of licences lay in the Provincial Legislatures,
and they all so legislated and removed difficulties. Similarly
the right to appoint to benefices, formerly given to the
Lieutenant-Governors of the Provinces and to the Governor-
General of Canada, was claimed for the Governor-General 2
and exercised by him until disposed of by Provincial Acts,
while the break-up of the old position of the Church generally
terminated the grant of powers in this regard of Governors.
$2. THE VIEWS oF MR. BLAKE
The simplification of letters patent and instructions alike
in the case of Canada, to which reference has been made
above, was due in the main to the action of Mr. Blake, then
Minister of Justice in the Canadian Government. In 1875
Lord Carnarvon addressed to the Governor-General of Canada,
a dispatch explaining the reasons which had evoked a desire
to remodel the practice of issuing letters patent. Hitherto
it had been the custom to do so on the appointment of each
Governor, including in his commission, which passed under
the great seal, all the machinery of the Governor's office. It
book time to secure the passing of an instrument under the
great seal, and in the meantime a temporary commission
used to be given under the sign-manual allowing him to
act under the commission of his predecessor. This was
obviously inconvenient besides being of doubtful legal
validity, and therefore it was decided to issue in all cases
power which in responsible-government Colonies he does not exercise with
regard to marriages. These powers remained in the Australian letters
patent until 1900. But they did not occur in the New Zealand letters
patent, or in those of Newfoundland or the South African Colonies.
' See Provincial Legislation, 1867-95, pp. 407 seq.
! In a New Brunswick case in 1869.
' See Canada Sess. Pap., 1877, No. 13, which gives an account of Mr.
Blake's visit in 1876 to England and his conference with the Secretary of
