CHAP. v] THE GOVERNOR AND THE LAW 257 
language, the action in cases like that referred to is that 
of the Governor alone, and not the joint action of the 
Governor and his Responsible Advisers.” It is true that the 
personal responsibility of the Governor in no way absolves 
him from attaching great weight to the opinions of his 
ministers in respect to fact, law, or expediency. He must 
almost necessarily accept their statements on matters on 
which he is himself imperfectly informed. But with these 
qualifications he remains in the last resort the judge of his 
own duty, and is not at liberty on the advice of his ministers 
to sign the warrant required by the 55th clause of the 
Constitution Act, if he is clearly convinced that to do so 
would be to commit an act contrary not only to the letter 
but to the spirit of the law. 
I am unable therefore to recall the instructions already 
communicated to you. You are to consider the Legislature 
as the most authoritative exponent of the will of the Colony. 
When the Legislature has enacted a law you are not to 
transgress that law unless on a reasonable ‘conviction that 
the Legislature would itself approve your doing so. Bub 
you are justified in assuming such an approval under the 
pressure of one of those overwhelming emergencies, dangerous 
to anticipate or define, which dispense with all rule, or in 
cases of less moment when there are specific reasons for pre- 
suming that the Legislature will sanction a certain specific 
expenditure, and will desire its sanction to be anticipated. 
I trust there is little chance, as apprehended by Mr. Samuel, 
that adherence to these instructions will bring you into 
collision with your ministers. I should deeply regret it. 
But in so painful a contingency it would be better to be in 
collision with your advisers than with the law. 
A difference, however, with your ministers would render 
it necessary to ascertain the wishes of the Colony. I am 
myself disposed to think that the obstacle which is imposed on 
unauthorised expenditure by requiring for it the personal 
sanction of the Governor, in addition of course to the judg- 
ment of the ministry, is a useful obstacle, and it is not 
improbable that the Colony would pronounce in favour of 
retaining it. But Her Majesty’s Government have no desire 
to dictate one or the other conclusion. Whatever is the 
decision of the Colony you will be bound to defer to it. 
If the question arises how that decisionshould be expressed, 
the first and most satisfactory answer is that it should be 
embodied in an enactment ° repealing or modifying the 
55th section of the Constitution Act.’ 
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