cHAP. vI] GOVERNOR AS IMPERIAL OFFICER 289
resolve itself gradually as the growth of power of the
Dominions renders them less liable to the defects of weak-
ness : the fact that Canada respects the obligations of
treaties as religiously as the Imperial Government itself is
indeed of good augury for the future of the Empire.l
In 1859 the Government of Canada in a reasoned memoran-
dum raised and discussed the question whether the Imperial
Government could continue in any way to dictate the
financial policy of Canada without at the same time taking
upon itself the Government of Canada, and the rebuke
which was effective was not unjustified.? Clearly, if a country
is to be governed the Government must have in their hands
the control of fiscal matters, and the Colonial Office itself
claims for itself, in all Crown Colonies in which it can, the
power over the final financial arrangements of the Colony,
however ready and willing it may be to consent to the
Colony exercising full legislative power in other. regards.
In 1872 there was a dispute in Tasmania as to a pardon
given by the Governor on the advice of his ministers to
Louisa Hunt, and the Ministry were defeated on the question
of their advice in both Houses of the Parliament, but they
did not resign because they held that this was not a matter
in which the final responsibility rested with them, so that
they did not regard the votes as really being censures of
them.* In 1878 the case of Sir Bartle Frere in the Cape of
Good Hope raised serious difficulties. In that year the Cape
was in great trouble with two Kaffir wars on hand, and the
Governor wished in his capacity of High Commissioner to
concert operations between the two forces, the Imperial
troops on the one hand and the Colonial forces on the
other. But his Ministry, who were anxious to avoid Imperial
! See a Japanese view in Canadian Annual Review, 1907, pp. 393 seq.
The same tone pervades the Japanese complaints to the Canadian Govern-
ment against British Columbian legislation in 1898-1904,
¢ Parl. Pap., H. C. 400, 1864.
* See the case of Jamaica, Parl. Pap., C. 9147, 9412, 9413 ; Cd. 125.
! Tasmania Legislative Council Journals, 1878, Nos. 35 and 36. But in
1888 Sir T. M°Ilwraith resigned over a question of the prerogative; see
also New Zealand Parl. Pap., 1891, Sess. 2, pp. 4, 5, 19, 20.
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