182 THE EXECUTIVE GOVERNMENT [PART II
place, the duration of Colonial Parliaments is brief, and has
never been so long as that of the Parliament of the United
Kingdom, so that he must remember that if he refuses a
dissolution it will not be long at the outside before the people
can ratify his action or not. Then he must remember that
the shortness of Parliament, and the important work which
has to be done, render a dissolution to be avoided if possible,
for the waste of time, expense, and dislocation of a general
election, if less serious in themselves than the same features
in this country, are equally important to a smaller com-
munity. Moreover, there is growing stronger and stronger
the feeling, in’ Australia at least, that a dissolution does wrong
to the members of Parliament, who thus are not merely
put to trouble and expense, though election expenses are not
on the English scale, but are put in jeopardy of losing their
salaries, an important consideration in a place where the
paid member is an institution. Then a second consideration
is the question of supply; it cannot, of course, be made
a sine qua non that a Ministry which desires a dissolution
should obtain supply, for in that case the Lower House
would be able to prevent itself being dissolved against its
will, but it is an important consideration how far there will
be funds legally available for public services. If there are
not funds, of course, the Government simply has to spend
on, trusting on an act of indemnity in the form of an ex post
facto appropriation ; but not only is there the lurking chance
that the appropriation may not be granted, but there is always
the difficulty that no Government without supply can do more
than keep the routine services going, and in a young country
a loss of time i$ more severe than in an older community.
The case of refusal of dissolution and the grant under
circumstances of difficulty are almost innumerable, and
many of them are interesting. One of the most important of
the earlier cases is that of Governor-General Sir E. Head, of
the united Province of Canada in August 1858, on the defeat
of Mr. Macdonald’s Ministry.! He sent on their resignation for
! Canada Legislative Assembly Journals, 1858, pp. 973-6, 1001 ; Pope,
Sir John Macdonald, i, 188, 337-41 ; Goldwin Smith, Canada, pp. 136, 137.
