CHAP. 111] THE GOVERNOR AND MINISTERS 163
should be that of an independent kingdom save only in the
cases, contemplated as very few, where the Imperial Govern-
ment should intervene as a result of the fact that Canada
was not an Imperial power but a dependency. But such
cases must be allowed to be dealt with as and when they
arose, while nothing should be put on formal record to
diminish the constitutional Government of Canada. And
where Imperial interests were not involved there should be
full ministerial responsibility just as in the United Kingdom.
It is interesting to see how far we have travelled from Lord
John Russell’s views in 1839, when this claim for full
responsible government he entirely repudiated even in
internal affairs, thinking that even in these matters the
Governor must retain a certain independence in the Im-
perial interest. It is most interesting to see how clearly
Mr. Blake, like his predecessor, saw that the whole principle
of the Imperial Government was entire and full minis-
terial responsibility : at the Colonial Conference of 1887,
and still later, there were many Colonial statesmen who
took the same wide view as was taken by Todd?! of the
powers of the Sovereign to refuse ministerial advice in
England, regardless of the truth that the precedents they
cited were all signs of the times when true responsible
government had not vet been established in the country.
§ 3. TE Views oF Mr. Hi¢INBOTHAM
The views expressed by Mr. Blake in the case of Canada
were adopted, but in a much more extreme and less
reasonable form by the Chief Justice of Victoria, George
Higinbotham.2
Mr. Higinbotham was convinced that the Colonial Office
was determined to assert an illegal and improper interference
in the affairs of the Colony. The first form in which. as
! Parliamentary Government in the British Colonies, chap. i, Cf. Glad-
stone, Gleanings of Past Years, i. 203-48, Gavan Duffy saw more clearly
in 1873 ; see Parl. Pap., H, C. 346, 1873, pp. 7, 8.
* See Morris, Memoir of George Higinbotham, pp. 209 seq. ; Quick and
Garran, Constitution of Commonwealth, Pp. 394 seq.
Ar 2
