238 THE EXECUTIVE GOVERNMENT [PART II 
it has been noticed that while under section 58 of the Act the 
appointment of a Lieutenant-Governor is to be made ‘ by 
the Governor-General in Council by instrument under the 
Great Seal of Canada’, section 59 provides that ‘a Lieutenant- 
Governor shall hold office during the pleasure of the Governor- 
General ’; and much stress has been laid upon the supposed 
intention of the Legislature in thus varying the language of 
bhese sections. But it must be remembered that. other 
powers vested in a similar way by the Statute in the Governor- 
General, were clearly intended to be, and in practice. are, 
exercised by him by and with the advice of his ministers ; 
and though the position of a Governor-General would entitle 
his views on such a subject as that now under consideration 
to peculiar weight, yet Her Majesty's Government do not find 
anything in the circumstances which would justify him in de- 
parting in this instance from the general rule, and declining 
to follow the decided and sustained opinion of his ministers, 
who are responsible for the peace and good government of 
the whole Dominion to the Parliament to which, according to 
the 59th section of the Statute, the cause assigned for the 
removal of a Lieutenant-Governor must be communicated. 
Her Majesty’s Government therefore can only desire you 
to request your ministers again to consider the action to be 
taken in the case of Mr. Letellier. It will be proper that 
you should, in the first instance, invite them to inform you 
whether their views, as expressed in Sir J. A. Macdonald’s 
memorandum, are in any way modified after perusal of this 
dispatch, and after examination of the circumstances now 
existing, which since the date of that memorandum may have 
so materially changed as to make it in their opinion no longer 
necessary for the advantage, good government, or content- 
ment of the province, that so serious a step should be taken 
as the removal of a Lieutenant-Governor from office. It will, 
[ am confident, be clearly borne in mind that it was the 
spirit and intention of the British North America Act, 1867, 
that the tenure of the high office of Lieutenant-Governor 
should, as a rule, endure for the term of years specifically 
mentioned, and that not only should the power of removal 
never be exercised except for grave cause, but that the fact 
that the political opinions of a Lieutenant-Governor had not 
been, during his former career, in accordance with those held 
by any Dominion Ministry who might happen to succeed to 
power during his term of office, would afford no reason for 
its exercise. 
The political antecedents and present position of nearly