CHAP. 1V] THE GOVERNOR AS HEAD 223
petitions. When these election petitions had unseated, on
the 31st of July, Sir W. Whiteway, Mr. Robert Bond,
Mr. Watson, and others, a Proclamation was issued calling
together the Legislature, and by the 4th of August several
Bills were passed and supply was granted, though it was
only carried with great difficulty in the Upper House, in
which the ex-Ministry held a considerable majority of seats.
The Government, however, only held office on a doubtful
tenure, having no real majority, and the Ministry resigned
not long afterwards on the financial crisis of 1894.
§ 3. Tur DisMISSAL OF MINISTERS
While the power of refusing a dissolution is frequently
exercised, it is different with the power of dismissing minis-
ters. That power is claimed by Todd?! for the Crown on
the strength of the action of William IV in 1834, and while the
precedent is not perfectly in point, it is certainly a precedent
which is not fortunate, and the dicta ® which at the present
day regard it as a possible course of action seem clearly
wrong as tending to the subversion of the constitution and
the ultimate overthrow of monarchical institutions. Nor
in effect is it much different in the Colonies ; the power has
been exercised and may again be exercised, for it is not one
which would be fatal in any sense to a Governor or to the
Imperial Government, but is an extreme measure; it is
wiser to let the constitution work out slowly but surely its
pwn changes and not to attempt to rush matters on.
Such was the view taken by Lord Elgin in the classic case
of the Rebellion Losses Bill in Canada in 1849.4 That
measure evoked almost incredible outbursts of anger on the
part of the loyalists in Canada, and every pressure was
brought to bear on the Governor-General to insist on the
resignation of ministers; he firmly declined to do so, and
his firmness was proved to be correct by the fact that the
! Parliamentary Government in the British Colonees, p. 432.
* See Anson, Law of the Constitution? 11, i, 38, 39, and of. xxx, xxxi.
* e.g. Sir C. Dilke, Journal of Royal Society of Arts, Ivi. 344.
3 Parl. Pap., Mav and June 7. 1849,
